Everything, Everything - Nicola Yoon

Everything, Everything is Nicola Yoon's debut novel and also the first book I've read by her. Before I picked it up, I knew I would love it. When I started reading, I had a feeling that I might end up crying but ended up smiling instead.

The Blurb:

Live life in a bubble?

Or risk everything for love?

Maddy is allergic to the world.

She hasn't left her house in seventeen years.

Olly is the boy next door.

He's determined to find a way to reach her.

Everything, Everything is about  the crazy risks we take for love.

My Thoughts:

Like I said in the beginning of this post; I knew I would love it and I did. I was not disappointed at all with this book, even though it surprised me with a big twist in the end that I did not see coming.

I liked Maddy a lot and Olly sounded like a really sweet guy (and funny). Seriously.. He made me laugh and smile from the beginning.

So, what's this book about? It's about a girl who is diagnosed with SCID which means that she can't go outside without getting very sick. Olly is the new neighbor guy with problems of his own. They start talking with each other (thanks to his creative (and funny) way to get her to talk to him even though she won't out of fear of feelings). One thing leads to another and Maddy finds out that she's starting to like Olly more and more and the desire of going outside to see the world is getting stronger...

Will she be able to see the world? Will she die if she goes outside and breathe in the air of a world she have only seen through her window? Or will she be able to leave the house even for a few minutes and still be alive and well without any harm?

I laughed and smiled while reading Everything, Everything and I could barely put it down. I was hooked straight away and didn't want to leave Maddy's world at all. I wanted to stay in this world even when the clock showed 3 am and knew I actually had to get some sleep. 

If you want to know how this ends, I suggest that you should read the book because this is a sweet story about hope and love between two characters you will adore from the beginning.

I'm so gonna to see the movie adaption, that's for sure! Hope they don't ruin this book! Fingers x🙊

Bye! x

4/5

Next book to read: The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey
Currently reading (Kindle): The Ninth Grave by Stefan Ahnhem
Currently listening to: Equal Rites (Discworld #3) by Terry Pratchett

Night School - C. J Daugherty

Night School is the first book I have read by C. J. Daugherty. I've seen it in the shelves at work and one day I decided to buy it because it sounded like a good book. And now that I've finished it, I can write my review. And also try not to spoil too much as usual😉

The Blurb:

Allie's world is falling apart...

She hates her school. Her brother has run away.
She just been arrested. Again. And now her parents are sending her away.

But instead of hating boarding school, Allie is happy.
She's making friends. And there's Carter, a brooding loner with whom she feels an instant connection.

Cimmeria Academy is no ordinary school.
Her Classmates - and maybe som of the teachers - are hiding a secret.
And soon it begins to feel like a very dangerous place...

My Thoughts:

When I read the blurb of Night School the first thing I thought about was something supernatural (not Sam and Dean Winchester Supernatural.. sorry.. had to..) like werewolves or vampire or whatever. And this was one of the reasons why I wanted to read this book. Apart from being disappointed on few locations and cringing on other locations I had to find out what was going on at this school.

So, this is a story about a girl called Allie. She's having a difficult time dealing with her brother's disappearance and get's arrested because of vandalism. Her parents decide to send her to Cimmeria Academy. A place only few knows about. The school is way different from the schools she's used to. There are lots of rules to follow and they are not allowed to use any electricity. No phones, no computers. Nothing. Only books. Surprisingly, Allie managed to adapt to her new life real quick (for someone as troubled and difficult as her). More or less, in only few weeks, she makes some friends (and some enemies) and meets a charming, good looking, French guy called Sylvain. Carter, who is another guy, tries to tell her over and over again that Sylvain is not to be trusted. She dismiss him of course, because, well... Carter thinks he's better than anyone else and she dislike him (typical teenage stuff). In the end, Carter is right and suddenly, Allie starts to like Carter more and more... ah.. the good old love triangle drama.

There were many times I sat there being all, oh god.. this is so cliché... Let's just say that, thanks to this book I now feel like I've gotten too old for these types of clichés (I did just turn 25 last Saturday so maybe that's why I'm getting too old.. I'm halfway to 50! Aaahhh.. time flies soo fast!) Anyway...

When the "big secret" got revealed, I was bit disappointed. Well, at least I did not see that coming at least. Like I wrote earlier, I expected something else entirely. Something like; People turning into wolves, magic, whatever.. not this. Of course, not everything has to contain creatures and magic and that there is a lot of different bad stuff that can happen in stories. And this story involves the latter. Really bad things are happening. But at the same time, why? Why this? Couldn't it be something else? Something more scary/dramatic? It wasn't that bad tho, I just couldn't see why this thing had to happen I guess. Oh well. At least the author managed to surprise me more than once nonetheless.

All in all. I do think this book was great. Don't get me wrong, I was hooked from the first page and wanted to find out what was going on at Cimmeria Academy. Yes, there were lots of clichés and some disappointment here and there but I was still hooked nonetheless and could barely put it away. I ended up reading till almost 4 am these past few days so...it is pretty good and I will continue to read the rest of this series. I also read a review where it said that the second book was much better than the first so I'm looking forward to read it😊

Bye x

3/5

Next book to read: Everything everything by Nicola Yoon
Currently reading (Kindle): The Ninth Grave by Stefan Ahnhem
Currently listening to: The Light Fantastic (Discworld #2) by Terry Pratchett

Can You Keep a Secret? - Sophie Kinsella

This book has been standing on my shelf for a while but now I finally got around to sit down and read it. And here I am, writing my review😊  I adore her books so I knew I would love Can You Keep a Secret? as much as the others I've read from her😊

The Blurb:
Emma is like every girl in the world. She has a few little secrets.

Secrets from her mother:
1. I lost my virginity in the spare bedroom to Danny Nussbaum while Mum and Dad were downstairs watching Ben Hur.

...From her boyfriend:
2. Im a size twelve. Not a size eight, like Connor thinks.
3. I've always thought Connor looks a bit like Ken. As in Barbie and Ken.

...From her colleagues:
4. When Artemis really annoys me, I feed her plant orange juice. (Which is pretty much every day)
5. It was me who jammed the copier that time. In fact, all the times.

...Secrets she wouldn't share with anyone in the world:
6. My G string is hurting med.
7. I faked my Maths GCSE grade on my CV.
8. I have no idea what NATO stands for. Or even what it is...

...until she spills them all to a stranger on a plane. At least, she thought he was a stranger...

My Thoughts:
Ah! I love Sophie Kinsella. As with the other books, this was a light and sweet novel with awkward, funny moments and romance (as usual).

Can You Keep a Secret? is about a girl called Emma, and, while on the plane thinking they were all about to die, she spills out all of her secrets to a stranger. No harm in that, is it? Think again.

Turns out this stranger is not really a complete stranger after all and now she have to deal with it as best as she can. Because he remembers everything that she told him. And not only that, he's also there, at her job and is not going to leave any time soon. So you can see now that things might get awkward here. And also understand where this is all going...

And with that I must stop before I start spoiling... And also because I read this book i February (?). I started on this review after I finished this book so pretty much all of this was written that day. And now I have no idea what else to write so I'm just gonna leave this here😛

Bye x

4/5

It's been a while...

Hello there!
Sorry for not being here these past few month. I just haven't been in the mood to write reviews I guess and I've also gone through so many books lately. Some of them have also been in Norwegian (as research so I can finally suggest more crime novels to customers than just one or two authors). So there's like 3-4 books at the same time atm that I'm currently reading/listening to.

If I'm going to continue to write reviews then first of all, I have to keep my head together so that I don't end up writing something that actually happened in another book! 🙈  And second, there might be some reviews - if I really like the book - in Norwegian. And other Scandinavian authors might have their books end up on this blog whether I listen to them on Storytel (Audio-book) or read them on kindle (I got meself a kindle! But only for research! I still prefer pockets and hardcovers, but I have to admit that it is bit nice reading on a kindle now and then🙊)

So we'll see what happens! I might be back and I might disappear now and then, but I'm not planning on quitting. Not yet anyway. I have decided that this year is going to be my "book year" which means: READ ALL THE BOOKS! (and try to write as many reviews I can...I guess?!)

Also, in February (?) I left an unfinished review that is still waiting for me to be published. And I'm not sure if I'm going to finish it as I've been reading so many books after Can you keep a secret? and can't remember much about it. But at the same time, I really want to finish it so we'll see.. maybe I publish it today? Who knows?

So until then, I'll see you soon!
Bye x

PS: I'm still hoarding books so there's lots of new books in my shelves, but I don't think I'm going to show them/write about them since there's like, A LOT. I will, however write entries on the next bunch of books I'm going to buy in the future 😋

Insomnia - Stephen King

I have always thought that Stephen King's books have been all about horror stories and that's the reason why I have never read any of his books. I'm not a fan of the horror genre and never have been. I know that he also writes other non-horror novels such as Insomnia (hence the reason why I decided to read it.) And here I am, just finished my first Stephen King novel (though an old one), and I'm sad to say goodbye to Ralph and Lois.

The Blurb:
You loose a lot of sleep.

Ralph does. At first he starts waking up earlier. And earlier. Then the hallucinations start - the colours, shapes and strange auras. Not to mention the bald doctors who always turn up at the scene of a death.

That's when Ralph begins to lose a lot more sleep. When he begins to understand why his hitherto mild-mannered friend, Ed, is getting out of control - dangerously so. And why his home town is about to become the new Armageddon...

My Thoughts:
Although it took me a while to finish it, I quite enjoyed it. I'm glad I started with Insomnia when I decided to check out Stephen King's books once and for all and I'm looking forward to continue to read them (not the horror ones though... I won't be able to sleep if I did).

I won't go into to much detail, although this is an old book and most people have probably read it 100 times by now, I don't want to spoil the whole book so I will say this:

The story is about a 70 year old man called Ralph who, after his wife dies, starts to loose more and more sleep. When the insomnia really kicks in, he starts to hallucinate. First colours or, auras, more like and then the bald doctors appears outside his neighbor's door. Which sounds bit creepy, but it's not when you get to know about them more 😛  After seeing those bald doctors, things starts to happen. Ed is turning from a lovely person to a crazy person. Ralph (and also we) start to understand why he's able to see the colours and the bald doctors and why he must stop Ed from doing something that will ruin so many lives.

I laughed (lots of funny dialogue between the characters) and I cried (or had tears in my eyes more like when sad things happened). I picked up the book night after night and read till I almost fell asleep.

I don't know why but.. I think it's funny that the book was about an old man with insomnia. When I started reading it, I did not see that coming from the 'King of horror'. In my head it's was all about carrie, the shining and other horror novels, so reading about a 70 year old man called Ralph was quite a surprise.

All in all, I really enjoyed Insomnia and I'm looking forward to read more of his books😊

(Oh, and also, I now see why he's one of the bestselling author of all times😉 )

Bye x

4/5

Next book to read: Can You Keep a Secret - Sophie Kinsella 
(completely different genre...oh well..😂)

December/January Book-haul.. so many books!

Hello! As you have noticed, I have been on a writing spree today. Sorry about the spam of reviews, but I wanted to put them out there once and for all after some time away from this blog. Worked pretty much every day in December which resulted in just reading and no reviewing because my head barely functioned.. Even drawing things every day in December was tough as my imagination was more or less non-existent most of the days. (Challenged myself to draw every day from 1. January - 31. December which I completed!! Yey!!) Anyways. So, in the meantime, while running low on energy and creativity, I might have gotten few more books since last time I was here... ahem...*cough*12 more books *cough*

Perlmann's Silence by Pascal Mercier
The Silk Merchant's Daughter by Dinah Jefferies
The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
The Loving Husband by Christobel Kent
The Woods by Harlan Coben
The Passenger by Lisa Lutz
1Q84 (The Complete Trilogy) by Haruki Murakami
Insomnia by Stephen King
Cell by Stephen King
Seconds Away (#2 Myron Bolitar) by Harlan Coben
The Farm (#1 The Farm) by Emily McKay
Fellside by M.R. Carey

I ordered Seconds Away without knowing that it was the second book in Harlan Coben's series... Guess I have to buy the first book before I start on that one.. Both Harlan Coben books are actually "research books" which is why I bought them btw😉

The three first books in the list were a christmas present from my grandmother, The Passenger was a christmas present from my boss (I got to choose a book from the shelf and chose that one😊) So technically I only bought 8/12 of these books😋

And that was all the books for now! My reviews are up-to-date and the same with this book-haul. What an effective few hours this has been😝

Hope to see you again soon!

Bye xx

Oh and Happy (belated) New Year! Here's to another year filled with more books!

An Ember in the Ashes - Sabaa Tahir

An Ember in the Ashes is the first book in the An Ember in the Ashes series and also the first book I have ever read by Sabaa Tahir. I can safely say that I'M SO GONNA READ THE REST OF THIS SERIES!!

The Blurb:

Under the martial empire.

Defiance is met with death.

When Laia's grandparents are brutally murdered and her brother arrested for treason by the empire, the only people she has left to turn to are the rebels.

But in exchange for their help in saving her brother, they demand that Laia spy on the ruthless Commandant of Blackcliff, the Empire's greatest military academy. Should she fail it's more than her brother's freedom at risk... Laia's very life is at stake.

There, she meets Elias, the academy's finest soldier. But Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he's being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined - and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

My Thoughts:

One of my co-workers has been talking highly of this book for a while and, in the end, I decided to finally buy it and do a little research. And here I am, writing this review. 

Where to begin? This was something completely different from what I expected. I fell in love with this book and now I understand why my co-worker's been talking so much about how great An Ember in the Ashes was.

The story begins with Laia and the dreadful night when her grandparents gets killed and her brother arrested. When she comes to Blackcliff, things starts to happen. And the Commandant.. oooh the Commandant... let's just say that Voldemort is like a puppy in comparison. Yeah. If someone is just one second late, they get punished or killed. Depends on her mood. So you can imagine how Laia must feel when she pretends to be a slave and spy on this ruthless human being. 

Poor Elias.. just wanting to be free. And I completely understand him! The reasons I can't say because then I will spoil things and I really don't want to do that. Not with this book. But there are things, bad things he has to go through if he wants to be free.

I like that the author gives us both Elias' and Laia's point of view. And you also get to know them very well. The stories behind these two that builds up their personalities are great. You get to understand why they act like they do. There where times that I ended up wanting to tell Laia over and over again that Elias is not a bad person!!! Trust him!! He's not like the others!! But of course.. I really understand why she's scared of him. One of his people did murder her grandparents so.. yeah.

All in all, I enjoyed this book and I highly recommend reading An Ember in the Ashes! If you like dystopia novels then this is waaay up your alley. Seriously..

So looking forward to read the next in this series! (Patiently waiting for the paperback to get re-published again 😢)

Bye! xx

5/5

Currently reading: Stephen King - Insomnia