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

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

Mara Dyer Trilogy

Here's the reviews for the Mara Dyer trilogy by Michelle Hodkin! They are not that great because I read them last month and it kinda made it difficult to separate the two stories 🙊 

But here they are and I hope I did alright... If not then you will get more information on goodreads or other pages 😉

The Evolution of Mara Dyer

The Retribution of Mara Dyer

On the Other Side - Carrie Hope Fletcher

On the Other Side is Carrie Fletcher's debut novel (apart from her biography called All I Know Now). I found out about her through her brother, Tom (from McFly, my all time favourite band) some years ago and been watching her yt channel and stuff since then. When she announced that she was writing a book, I was excited to see how it would turn out! And here I am, writing my review on her book :)

The Blurb:
Your soul is too heavy to pass through this door: Leave the weight of the world in the world from before.

Evie Snow is eighty-two when she quietly passes away in her sleep, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. It's the way most people wish to leave the world, but when Evie reaches the door of her own private heaven, she finds that she's become her twenty-seven-year-old self and the door won't open.

Evie's soul must be light enough to pass through so she needs to get rid of whatever is making her soul heavy. For Evie, this means unburdening herself of the three secrets which have weighed her down for over fifty years, so she must find a way to reveal them before it's too late. As Evie begins the journey of a lifetime, she learns more about life and love than she ever though possible, and somehow, some way she may also find her way back to the only man she ever truly loved...

Powerful, magical and utterly romantic, On the Other Side will transport you to a world that is impossible to forget. This is a love story like no other which will have you weeping because of the sheer joy and beauty of it all.

My Thoughts:
This was such a lovely novel! I got sad, angry (at her mother in particular and the tradition the family had.. grrr! What a cold mother she was!) and happy reading about Evie and the other characters in this story. I also had tears in my eyes at one point! The story between Evie and this guy called Vincent (you get to know him after few chapters so no spoilers there) was so sweet, and romantic and also sad. The things she had to let go because of reasons I'm not going to say was devastating.

I liked the way the chapters were divided into different sections between the three secrets she had to let go of. The chapters were divided between Evie's "afterlife" (how she ended up there, what she had to do to reach these people to get to the other side), the past (were we find out what happened when she was young and in love) and the present (the people she have to tell her secrets to). It sounds like it could be bit difficult to follow because of the timelines, but it wasn't. She did a great job with that :) There were also chapters were you first read about one person and in the middle of the page, you end up reading from another character's perspective, which also sound confusing, but wasn't :P (this whole explanations of the chapters sounds confusing to understand....oh well)

There were also moments when I had to read the same things over and over again to figure out wether some of the things that happened was a metaphor or if it literally happened. Like, for example:"my face turned into stone", is it just a metaphor or did my face literally got turned into stone?... (weird example, but you know..) So there were few times were I just sat there and didn't know if there was some magic involved or not :P Other than that, I really liked the way this story turned out. It had some disney-ish about it (like the surnames of the characters and some things that happened) and there was also a Once Upon a Time reference in there as well. I liked that :P

After finishing this, I'm pretty sure there was some real magic going on in there because of the things that happened :P

The ending was amazing and I had a huge grin on my face at the end of it (and maybe some happy tears). All in all, this is truly a wonderful "girlie book" were magic things happens and hearts gets broken. All in true disney style (that sounded weird but I wanted to write something like that so there it was). And maybe, just maybe, there's chance of a happy ending for Evie after all..? Who knows?

Guess you have to find out for yourself! ;)

I know this review sounds confusing and stuff, but I have a reason for that (for once)... I've been really tired today and my head has been a derpiederp all day (even at work I felt like I was a "walking dead"...you know.. the zombies, not the main characters) but I wanted to write this review today anyway so here it is :P

And here I am, signing off.

Bye! xxx

4/5
Next book to read: Daughter by Jane Shemilt

The Secret Keeper - Kate Morton

The Secret Keeper is the second book I've ever read by Kate Morton. I read The House At Riverton a while back ago and feel completely in love with that book. I'm glad my grandmother told me that I should read this right away. If she hadn't borrowed it from me few month ago, then it might have taken some time before I would pick it up (got lots of other books to read so..). But here we are and I was not disappointed at all!

The Blurb:
1961: On a sweltering summer's day, while her family picnics by the stream on their Suffolk farm, sixteen-year-old Laurel hides out in her childhood tree house dreaming of the bright future she can't wait to seize. But before the idyllic afternoon is over, Laurel will have witnessed a shocking crime that changes everything.

2011: Now a much-loved actress, Laurel finds herself overwhelmed by shades of the past. Haunted by memories, and the mystery of what she saw that day, she returns to her family home and begins to piece together a secret history: a tale of three strangers from vastly different world - Dorothy, Vivien and Jimmy - who are brought together by chance in wartime London and whose lives become fiercely and fatefully entwined.

Shifting between the 1930s, the 1960s and the present, The Secret Keeper is a spellbinding story of mysteries and secrets, murder and enduring love.

My Thoughts:
One thing..: How am I going to review this without any spoilers?! This is not going to be easy, mind you but I will try my very best to not spoil anything important!

Ok, first of all, what a book! After finishing the first chapter, I was hooked! Unfortunately my eyes thought otherwise.. which was frustrating. The reason why it took me so, so long to finish this book was because my eyes got tired pretty much in the middle of every single chapters. No matter how thrilling that chapter was, my eyes could barely keep themselves up. Argh! Maybe because the text was small or something.. I don't know.

Despite my tired eyes, I loved this book as much as I loved The House at Riverton. It was suspenseful, thrilling and all in all a great book to curl up with on a rainy day (or weeks in my case).

The characters had their own personalities and you felt like you got to know them well. The shifting from past and present, and between the characters was well written and didn't feel "messy". I liked the way the stories from the past kind of blended with the things Laurel found in present time. I didn't have to wait long for the meaning behind those findings and it still made me wanting to find out more about the life of her mother and also the other people that was part of her life one way or another.

And that ending. That was a huge twist right there! I literally had tears in my eyes reading the last page. I really, really want to spoil it all but I won't do it. You just have to read it yourself!

That's all I'm going to say. If you want to know more then.. well.. read it! (You can also ask me or look up more reviews online :P )

Bye! xx

5/5

Next book to read: On the Other Side by Carrie Hope Fletcher

Review Always With Love - Giovanna Fletcher

New review is up! You find it under 'pages' on the side (if your on the computer) ->

Always with love is the sequel to Giovanna Fletcher's debut novel Billy and me. Hence the reason why it's got its own page!

I don't have time to write anymore since I'm soon leaving for work. I'm sorry :P

Bye! x

And don't forget to like my Facebook page where I post blog entry updates!

Edit:
Forgot to add the page before leaving, but it's there now!

Wake - Lisa McMann

Wake by Lisa McMann is the first book in the Wake/Dream Catcher Trilogy. This is also the first book I've ever read from her. Before I read this, I thought that this was going to be a bit creepy and stuff. Some dangerous dreams or something. I don't know :P But this was something completely else! And in a good way too! Well, at least I think it was good tho..

The Blurb
Not all dreams are sweet.

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.

She can't tell anybody about what she does - they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can't control.

Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant...

My Thoughts:
Like I said in the beginning, I did not expect this. Anyway. This is one of the books you read, but at the same time it doesn't feel like it at all. (If that made any sense? )I started reading this before I went to bed and suddenly it was time for me to put it down and sleep. You know those kind of movies/episodes/youtube vids that is so great that, when it's over, you feel like no time has passed and you look at the time and it's suddenly much later than you'd thought? That's the feeling I got from this book. Probably a bad example but you get the idea.. I hope? It's difficult to describe.

The way this story has been written is so different and peculiar from the others that I've read (apart from a few) with a date and time. There are chapters, but it's split up by day to day and time of day "entries" in Janie's life. I think that this was also one of the reason why it felt like I read it the way I did because the chapters was split up the way they had and the "entries" were short so it wasn't so "heavy" to read.

Seriously... especially this book! Ahh..

From trying to describe the feeling of reading this to how I thought about this book. I really enjoyed reading this and it was surprisingly great. Like I said earlier: I thought this was another creepy book that I would read this week (thanks to the blurb) but nooo. This was a lovely book and with a complete different plot than I thought. Instead of creepy psycho killers with horrible dreams, there was a guy with bad dreams and Janie and him becomes close. The only "creepy"dreams was his and her friend's. Other than that there was some weird dreams and a few sweet dreams. And that was it. No scary stuff at all :P And I'm looking forward to begin on the next book in this trilogy tonight! :)

This must be one of the worst reviews I made, but hey! At least I'm trying to describe my thoughts the best way a Norwegian can to describe things in English!
(Yes...that's my best excuse for writing bad! Ha!)



4/5

Finding Audrey - Sophie Kinsella

Finding Audrey is one of many books by Sophie Kinsella. I have read some of her books (not the Shopaholic series..yet) and I'm in love with her stories. When I found this book, I knew I had to read this because of reasons (that you can read about under My Thoughts :) ).

The Blurb:
Audrey can't leave the house. She can't even take off her dark glasses inside the house.

Then her brother's friend Linus stumbles in to her life. With his friendly, orange-slice smile, and his funny notes, he starts to entice Audrey out again - well, Starbucks is a start. And with Linus at her side, Audrey feels like she can do things she'd thought were too scary.

Suddenly, finding her way back to the real world seems achievable.

Be prepared to laugh, dream and hope with Audrey as she learns that even when you think you have lost yourself, love can still find you...

My Thoughts:
I loved this novel and for the first time (I guess) I could actually relate to a character. I know I say that about pretty much most of the books I've been reading. I guess I'm good at picking books that I actually enjoy! Anyway...so this book is about Audrey (obviously) and she got few types of anxiety disorders. And this is the reason why I wanted to read this because I got anxiety too. And weirdly enough, we both got generalized anxiety disorder and social anxiety disorder. When I read about the things she felt when she was faced with something, I knew what she meant. Of course, I got a 'lighter' version of it than her, but at the same time there was things I could relate to. The way the body tense up, the heart beating faster, the feeling that  your whole body is shaking and all don't forget all the things that goes through your head. The only difference was how it all started. She, because of some girls in her class and me, because I felt like a failure at school (if I was lucky I got a 2 + (E+) on most things, maybe a 3(D) on few) and had to take 5 exams after finishing high school because I had failed them. I just isolated myself from everything and everyone, including my bf (we broke up, but are now together again after 2 years :* ).

Ok..so that was a little story about me. I'm not gonna bore you with more of that. If you want to know more or want to talk about things, then we can do that :). Back to the book!

Most of the story is about her brother (the story's from Audreys p.o.v), Frank, who's a gamer and her mother is all over the place and things that games destroys his brain and stuff.. poor woman. And especially poor Frank! Even I got annoyed at their mother! But it was fun though and the ending was priceless. Seriously, I had no idea that would happen at all! I'm going to try and not spoil so much, but there's one thing that I thought was really sweet and that was Frank's friend, Linus. The way he treated Audrey and how he tried to help her. Like I said in an earlier post, I'm a softy when it comes to people helping and caring about others even though they don't have to. And that's what Linus did. Of course, there was a tiny part where he says something and I couldn't help but to think, Oh no, do NOT say that! It's not that easy!! If it was that easy, don't you think she would have done that already??? Trust me, I know... It's not that easy when your whole body tell you to run, and you try and try and try to calm down but your head won't listen... It just get too much. I was really proud of her too when she tried to do things that she thought she would never do again. Even though it was just small steps. But that's all it takes.

I enjoyed reading this novel, and the explanations around the way she felt was pretty accurate. Apart from the anxiety, I laughed, and cheered, and got annoyed (the mother and that little sentence that came from Linus), and laughed some more.

Yes, this might be about anxiety, but trust me. It's funny, with her mother all over the place getting comically angry at Frank because of a game and just...the whole story. It's great, it's lovely, charming...you name it. If you've read any of Sophia Kinsella's book you know you're in for a great treat!


4/5

Winter - Marissa Meyer

So that was fast! Been reading one book for 2 month and now I finished this one in only a few days! Anyways... Here's my thoughts about this wonderful book!

Winter by Marissa Meyer is the last book in this amazing saga called The Lunar Chronicles. I was lucky I didn't have to wait as long as the others to read this book since I found out about this last year. I know I might have said this with the other books (and maybe continue to say it in the future), but if you haven't read any of these books then you might miss out on an amazing (and awesome) story about disney princesses and characters in a whole different setting and universe!

The Blurb:

Winter is admired for her grace, kindness and beauty, despite the scars on her face. She's said to be even more breath taking than her stepmother, Queen Levana...

When Winter develops feelings for the handsome palace guard Jacin, she fears the evil Queen will crush their romance before it has a chance to begin.

But there are stirrings against the Queen across the land. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies. Winter might even find the power to launch a revolution and win a war that's been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress and Winter claim their happily-ever-afters by defeating Levana once and for all?

My Thoughts:

I just love this saga and am so happy to find out about these books! It's like reading about the good old disney characters you've grown up with but with a twist.

In this book you get to find out about Winter and the things she's been through and Cinder, Scarlet and Cress are obviously a part of this book as well. The same way as in the other books. 

In the previous book, it ended with them planning on taking over Luna and take the Queen (if I remember correctly). In this last book, they go to war and tries to get as many people of Luna over on their side to defeat the Queen and her army. The planning, the war and everything had me so hooked I could barely put the book down! Especially when I came to the part when they went to war against the evil Queen and her people! I was raging at the Queen and felt sorry about Winter and just..just..all these emotion reading about the characters and what they were doing and all the trouble they went through just to do the right things. And even had tears in my eyes at some point when the Lunars agreed to help the lost princess to get her crown back. I always get tears in my eyes when it comes to people trusting someone and wants to help..(happened on Arrow too, when Diggle said he wanted to help Queen..). I just can't help it...

So anyway. The story is amazing and I have no idea what more to say other than that I just love the whole setting and wasn't disappointed about the ending (although it would have been nice to read about the things that happened next).. It's a reason why I say that I'm writing my thoughts and not a review :P

One thing for sure and that is that this is not the last time I'll be reading these books! It was such an amazing story from the first book to the last one.

5/5

Cinder - Marissa Meyer

This is the first book in The Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer. It's a whole different world with old disney characters brought back to life in whole new ways (if that made any sense). This book is about Cinder (don't have to tell you who she's based of)  and in the other books we meet Scarlett (Little Red Riding Hood), Cress (Rapunzel) and Winter (Snow White). The last book, Winter, was released few weeks ago.

The Blurb:

Cinder,  a gifted mechanic in New Beijing, is also a cyborg. She's reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister's sudden illness. But when her life becomes entwined with the handsome Prince Kai's she finds herself at the centre of a violent struggle between the desires of an evil queen - and a dangerous temptation.

Cinder is caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal. Now she must uncover secrets about her mysterious past in order to protect Earth's future.

A forbidden romance.

A deadly plague.

Earth's fate hinges on one girl...

This is not the fairy tale you remember. But it's one you wont forget.

My Thoughts:

I saw this book in a youtube video earlier this year and wanted to check it out. I grew up with the good old disney so I was excited about this one. It's a whole different world with good old disney princesses in an alternative universe. Cinderella is a cyborg who works as a mechanic. The prince is there (and still handsome) and her stepmother is the same. Aaaand there's also the Evil Queen of course. Sooo..what's not to love?  Let's just say that I loved it so much that I had to buy the next two books. (had to wait for the last book since it got released few weeks ago.. :(  I finally got it noow!:D ) The whole story is great and I can easily connect the names in these books with the old characters.

 It would have been awesome if someone made The Lunar Chronicles series into movies.

Anyway.. I fell in love with this series and can't wait to read the last one! And I will most likely read them again some day!

5/5