Scarlett by Cathy Cassidy

Scarlett by Cathy Cassidy
Release Date: January 1, 2006
Pages: 222
Rating: 💜💜💜💜
Buy it: Amazon | Book Depository
Scarlett spells trouble! 
It's not her fault that she always attracts the wrong kind of attention at school, but no one seems to understand that. And Mum's had enough. Sent off to stay with Dad, the message is behave or else! Can Scarlett mend her ways or will she die of boredom? Perhaps gorgeous and mysterious local boy Kian can supply some answers...

I read this book for the 24 hour reading challenge because of how short and simple it is. However don't let the fact that this book is a middle-grad fool you. This book is more complex than it lets on.

The main character, Scarlett, is a rebellious girl who is the result of an ugly divorce. She obviously hasn't dealt with her emotions successfully, so usually explodes when she gets angry. Cathy Cassidy shows this character type in a successful manner and I felt like Scarlett was really realistic. I also liked that the character development was immediate, and that Scarlett wasn't perfect at the end. She was still the same child as the start of the book and didn't seem to have lost any of her old personality.

The writing in this book was beautiful; you could really tell that Cathy Cassidy loves Ireland. The descriptions of the lakes and the mountains was so beautiful and poetic. After reading this book I had an extreme case of wanderlust and have been dreaming of travelling the world since then.

This book is a beautiful coming of age story which can teach anyone an lesson. It will also give you a case of wanderlust and dreams of travelling the world on a black horse...

June TBR!

Another month rolls around and my TBR has gone through the roof since last month. I'll have more spare time because finals are almost over (only six this month) and then I'm on summer holiday until September.

This month I'm taking part in three reading challenges; the Harry Potter Readathon, Emmie's B-day Readathon and the Emojiathon. I've managed to connect a couple of the challenges together, so I have more spare time for other things (like watching booktube videos!)

Here are all the books that I'll be attempting to read this month:

1. Monkeys on the mountains by Lucy Daniels
2. Cell 7 by Kerry Drewery
3. The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones (emojiathon, ✌)
4. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (emojiathon,💓)
5. Throne of Glass by Sarah J Mass (emojiathon, 👀)
6. The Sirens of Surrentum by Caroline Lawrence (emojiathon, 😊)
7. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
8. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 

I honestly didn't realise how many fantasy books I was going to read this month. When I sat down to write this post I thought there would be a few on my list, but the books kind of just piled up (a problem we all know too well!). Luckily the summer holidays are starting, so I may be able to get through this list... Maybe.

Accurate representation of me this summer:

What books are on your June TBR? What are your opinions on the books I've chosen? Please let me know in the comments down below.

And until next time, keep reading!

Four by Veronica Roth

Four by Veronica Roth

Release Date: July 8, 2014
Pages: 285

Rating:💜💜💜💜

Buy it: Amazon | Book Depository

Two years before Beatrice Prior makes her choice, the 16-year-old son of Abnegation's faction leader does the same. Tobias's transfer to Dauntless is his chance to begin again. Newly renamed 'Four' he discovers that initiation is only the beginning...


When I was reading the Divergent series, especially Allegiant, I thought Four was a little whiny and 2-D. I still loved him (so no hate comments!), but I was really disappointed with how Veronica Roth portrayed him in the final book.

However this book turned things around! Four was no longer a whining child who wasn't getting his way, but a kick-ass character with plenty of potential. We get to see him go behind the scenes in Dauntless to try and figure out what is going on, whilst slowly building his way up the social ladder. Four suddenly has different levels of personality and I am so grateful. Honestly this book is the only thing that has redeemed Four from a terrible fate!

I loved that we get to see Four before he even became Four in The Transfer. We get to have a short sneak peek into his life in Abnegation, even if it is just for his Choosing Ceremony. I also loved that we get to see Tobias interact with his father, and we finally get to learn why he hates his father so much. It was a beautiful backstory to such a messed up character!

In the other three stories we get to see Four climb his way up the social ladder in Dauntless, whilst keeping his identity a secret. The best thing about this collection of novellas is that we get to see how Dauntless works and how they keep control over everything. We get to see the other side of Dauntless, the side that uses computers and coding and cameras, which was absolutely awesome.

Honestly, this book could be 5/5; it was a fun, fast, world-building collection of novellas and was highly enjoyable. The only reason I marked it down is because I don't like Four as a character. If this book had come out earlier, between Insurgent and Allegiant, I may have enjoyed it more. Unfortunately Allegiant spoilt Four for me, and I ended up finding him a whiny little brat. Therefore my enjoyment of this book was massively affected, but I still like it in the end.

This book is perfect for readers who are missing the Divergent universe, and need to get immersed in it again. Like most novellas you don't need to have read the Divergent series to understand this book, but there is one major spoiler that you may want to avoid. No matter what, it is the perfect book for Divergent lovers and I enjoyed it!

Top Five Most Anticipated Books For 2017

I can't believe almost half of 2017 has just...vanished. It feels like just yesterday that I was standing in my garden yelling Happy New Year and making all sorts of crazy resolutions! One of the good things about the year going so fast is that we are closer to all the  awesome new releases that are happening at the end of the year. So here are my most anticipated books for June to December 2017.

The D.B. List by Rebekah L. Purdy. 

Release Date: June 13

Seventeen-year-old Ellie Gebhardt has spent the last three years of high school in psychotherapy, trying to fix a very broken her. And her shrink (or therapist as she likes to be called) seems to think that in order to totally heal, she needs to recognise all the good and bad things that have led her to this point. As if a trip down memory lane will suddenly make her better.  So begins Ellie’s Douche Bag list (or D.B. List for short). And once she gets started, it’s hard to stop remembering all the jerks, the petty crap, the times she’d been bullied or the main focus of the rumour mill. 

The Grave Keepers by Elizabeth Byrne
Release Date: September 12

Lately, Athena Windham has been spending all her spare time in her grave.
Her parents—owners of a cemetery in Upstate New York—are proud of her devoutness, but her younger sister, Laurel, would rather spend her time exploring the forest that surrounds the Windham’s’ property than in her own grave.  As the new school year begins, the outside world comes creeping in through encounters with mean girls, a new friend, and a runaway boy hiding out in the cemetery. Meanwhile, a ghost hangs around the Windham property—the only grave keeper never to cross over—plotting how to keep the sisters close to home and close to her . . . forever.

Speak Easy, Speak Love by McKelle George
Release Date: September 17

Six teenagers’ lives intertwine during one thrilling summer full of romantic misunderstandings and dangerous deals in this sparkling retelling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. 
(That's all you need to know really. If you do want to know more, you can look for it on Goodreads.)


It Only Happens in the Movies by Holly Bourne. 

Release Date: October 1

Audrey is over romance. Since her parents' relationship imploded her mother's been catatonic, so she takes a cinema job to get out of the house. But there she meets wannabe film-maker Harry. Nobody expects Audrey and Harry to fall in love as hard and fast as they do. But that doesn't mean things are easy. Because real love isn't like the movies...


Sparrow by Sarah Moon
Release Date: October 10

Sparrow has always had a difficult time making friends. She would always rather have stayed home on the weekends with her mother, an affluent IT Executive at a Brooklyn bank, reading, or watching the birds, than playing with other kids. And that's made school a lonely experience for her. It's made LIFE a lonely experience. But when Mrs. Wexler, the school librarian, a woman who let her eat her lunch in the library office rather than hide in a bathroom stall, who shared her passion for novels and knew just the ones she'd love -- is killed in a freak car accident, Sparrow's world unravels and she's found on the roof of her school in an apparent suicide attempt.
With the help of an insightful therapist, Sparrow finally reveals the truth of her inner life. And it's here that she discovers an outlet in Rock & Roll music..


As you can see my list is full of young adult books, but there is no specific genre. At the moment all my excitement for new releases is spread across a multitude of genres, although I am more interested in shrinking my TBR, not growing it! Are any of your most anticipated books on this list? Are there any other books you think I should know about? Please let me know in the comments!

And until next time, keep reading!

Buying Books

I buy a lot of books. When I say this I don't mean 5 or 6 a month, I mean 10-20 books a month. Obviously buying all these books full price would lead to me being broke very quickly, so I have come up with strategies to buy all the books I want for a cheap price. Of course living in Belgium, but only reading English books, comes with added difficulties but I think I manage pretty well. So here is the list of places where I buy books!

1. Charity shops: All the charity shops that I've been to sell books for a ridiculously cheap price. At least half of the books on my bookshelf are charity shop books, and all of them are sold for below £2 ( €2.32 | $2.60). Of course prices vary depending on the charity that is selling the books, but you will never have to buy a book full price.
2. Second Hand Bookshop: These shops are basically exactly the same as charity shops, but they make a living off of selling books. I rarely go into second-hand bookshops and when I do it tends to be looking for old annuals. They can sometimes charge more than the original price, especially if the book is a collectable, but the prices are very reasonable for a normal book.
3. Supermarkets: Okay, this may sound strange but supermarkets are great places to go and get cheap, hardback, new-releases. Living in England my go to shop for this was Tesco because they always seemed to have hard-covers for £5 (€5.80 |$6.50), even new-releases! I am yet to find a similar shop in Belgium, but I know that Target or Walmart is a good place to head to in America.
4. Online Websites: The most obvious website, and the one everyone knows, is Amazon. However most of their books are full price and you have to pay the cost of shipping, which can end up costing much more than you're willing to pay. Two great alternatives are Wordery and Book Depository as they ship worldwide for free, and they usually have discounts on a large selection of books. I used both websites multiple times, and have literally nothing bad to say about them.
5. And of course, Bookshops: Some of my fondest memories are sitting in bookshops, stroking the spines, and picking out a brand new book. Of all the places I go this is the most expensive (obviously!), but they usually have great deals going on where you can get several books for a cheaper price. In England my favourite places to go were Waterstones and WHSmith and in Belgium I tend to go to Fnac (because they have quite a big English section!). I'm not sure where to go in America, but from what I've heard Barnes & Nobles is a good place to pick up books. 

So there you are; all the places I go and shop for books. Of course I am always looking for new and exciting places to buy books, so if you have any suggestions please leave them down below! Also I would love to know where you buy the majority of your books! For me I think it is a tie between Wordery and various charity shops.

And until next time, keep reading!

Day 21 by Kass Morgan

Day 21 by Kass Morgan
Release Date: September 16, 2014
Pages: 311
Rating: 💜💜💜💜
Buy it: Amazon | Book Depository

It's been 21 days since The 100 landed on Earth. They're the only humans to set foot on the planet in centuries... or so they thought. Facing an unknown enemy, Wells attempts to keep the group together. Clarke strikes out for Mount Weather, in search of other Colonists, while Bellamy is determined to rescue his sister, no matter the cost. And back on the ship, Glass faces an unthinkable choice between the love of her life and life itself.


I really loved this book, much more than the first book! It was also better than the TV series in some aspects, and had lots of adorable scenes between certain characters. *Bellamy and Clarke*

This book felt more like a book than the first one, rather than a companion novel to a TV series. It may have been because the world was already built, and I could see the change in characters from the first book to this book. It was faster paced than the other book, and held my attention much better. There were also less flash backs, which I enjoyed because it made the book more plot based than character based.

My only problem with this book is that Kass Morgan kept on recapping the previous book. It felt like you didn't actually have to read the first  book to be able to understand this book because if something big happened Morgan would mention the events leading up to it in the previous book. It broke up the story and made me a little annoyed because I already knew what had happened. 

This book, as heavy as it sounds, is a light and easy read. There is very little depth to the story, it is literally what you read on the page. On reflection I don't think I would continue reading this series if I hadn't watched the TV show. However that plot twist at the end blew everything up for me, so I kind of have to find out what happens next!

To all the boys I've loved before by Jenny Han

To all the boys I've loved before by Jenny Han
Release Date: April 15, 2014
Pages: 355
Rating: 💜💜💜💜
Buy it: Amazon | Book Depository

Lara Jean keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. One for every boy she's ever loved. When she writes, she can pour out her heart and soul and say all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly Lara Jean's love life goes from imaginary to out of control.

I adored this book; I can't believe I put off reading it for so long! It was funny and heartwarming, with super adorable characters. It is a sweet, action-packed contemporary, with good vibes all the way through it.

The narrator, Lara Jean, is sweet and quirky in the usual contemporary way. She is awkward and funny and a Potterhead and I adore her. I also love that her family is Korean as it is a nationality that doesn't get a large representation in YA literature  and added a little extra to the story. The only thing that annoyed me about Lara Jean, and the whole book, was how young her tone sounded. It really confused me at times as it felt like she was 10 instead of 16. This took away from the story at times because what could have been a beautiful and interesting section ended up sounding childish.

Even though there was a major love triangle in this story, which was basically the premise of the story, it wasn't frustrating or cliche like most love triangles are. Both boys were interesting and complex characters that were easy to like, and weren't there for the sole purpose of being a love interest. Another difference was that Lara Jean wasn't in love with both boys at the same time, so it was clear who she wanted to end up with. This love triangle was more complex than any other love triangle I've read, and it was kind of adorable.

I can't get enough of Jenny Han's writing and I am so excited for the next book. The ending of this book was so sudden and open-ended that I just want to start reading the next book now!