Review // Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist - Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Nick's just seen the girl who dumped him walk in...with a new guy. What else can he do but ask the strange girl next to him to be his new girlfriend for the next five minutes?
     Norah would do anything to avoid conversation with the not not-friend girl who dumped Nick...and to get over the Evil Ex whom Norah never really totally dumped. What else can she do but answer Nick's question by making out with him?
     With one electric, unexpected kiss, the five-minute couple of Nick and Norah set off on an un-charted adventure called the "first date" that will turn into an infinite night of falling in and out (and in and out, and maybe in and maybe out) of love. Theirs is a first date of music, laughter, heartache, confusion, passion, taxi driver wisdom, and a jacket named Salvatore. And of course a killer soundtrack.
     As Nick and Norah wander through the middle-of-the-night mystic maze of Manhattan, they share the kind of night you want to never end, where every minute counts and every moment flickers between love and disaster.

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist was given to me as a Christmas gift. I have been a fan of the film since its release in 2008 and until recently I had no idea that it was based on a book. It is my second time reading a co-written book starring David Levithan (unfortunately I didn't get chance to review it!) but my first time reading something by Rachel Cohn.

I loved the dynamics between Nick and Norah! Sometimes, when you read a book about teenagers in love, it can get a bit too much. Too much gushing and fawning over each other and making you want to vomit but this is different. We hear the inner thoughts of both Nick and Norah and of course they talk about the things they like about each other but more importantly we learn about THEM.
From the meeting of the characters to the inevitable end, we are taken on an adventure in which they discover love and arguably the main thing; they discover themselves. Both Nick and Norah are striving to get over a bad breakup and let's be honest - who hasn't been there? ;)

I particularly liked the music references throughout the book. The blurb mentions a killer soundtrack and it's not lying! I found myself looking up songs on YouTube to set the mood and it was refreshing. I thought that the idea of 'Salvatore' was really cute too. Many times i've worn boyfriends clothes or whatever and it's just felt nice, and makes you feel close to them when they're not around. It's something simple but it really works.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves YA books, and music lovers. Of course, it's a book for anyone, but I think music lovers in particular will enjoy Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist.


Books Read in 2012 - 3.
Currently Reading - Twelfth Night - William Shakespeare / A Study In Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

Book Haul!

As part of my promise to keep this blog regularly updated, here is the tale of my most recent book haul!

I went shopping last week with a friend and we went into The Works just to have a look around. We went upstairs to the arts & crafts, and book section to see if there were any gems waiting to be had - and I was lucky! At the back of a dusty shelf, hidden by Arthur Conan Doyle, was The Hunger Games Trilogy for £5!
I think the RRP for these books is over £5 each, so to get all three books for that price pleased me a lot!!

I also received another book a few days ago as a late Christmas present, Wizard's First Rule, which takes my total of new books to 4 :) I'm especially happy with this as i've recently started watching 'Legend of the Seeker' which is the TV adaptation of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series

Book Haul:

1. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
2. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
3. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
4. Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind

I have 2 book reviews coming this week, so watch out for them :)

Books Read in 2012 - 3.
Currently Reading - Nothing yet.

Review // The Worst Witch - Jill Murphy

Mildred Hubble is a trainee witch at Miss Cackle's Academy, and she is making an awful mess of it. She can't even ride a broomstick without crashing it and she is always getting her spells wrong. But she manages to get by until she turns Ethel, the teacher's pet, into her deadly enemy...

As a child, I loved these books and the TV series. I borrowed them recently from my cousin for nostalgia's sake and as they're so short, i'm kind of cheating on the 50 Book Challenge but i'm already behind due to revision and exams..

The Worst Witch, follows Mildred Hubble's misfortunes as a young witch in Miss Cackle's Academy. Mildred is clunsy and unlucky but always pulls through in the end.
After the Hallowe'en celebrations at the school, Mildred finds herself in trouble after her enemy, Ethel, casts a spell on her broom.
Without giving too much away, Mildred saves the day and as Children's books tend to - it ends happy and positively.

Honestly, I don't remember the stories well but this book took me no longer than 5 minutes to read and from experience, I recommend it to any young child who enjoys reading but prefers short, easy books.

Books Read in 2012 - 1.
Currently Reading - Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - David Levitham

Love a challenge? Need an incentive? This blog is for you!

Hey Readers!

We're a couple of days in to the new year and I came across some amazing challenges on my internet travels that I thought I would share with you!

Sometimes, no matter how much you love reading, you have a lot of trouble mustering up the motivation to actually pick up a book and read. Well whilst having a good search of Goodreads I came across some other challenges that you may be interested in!

The Young Adult Book Club have some fabulous challenges that you can take part in! :D

I have joined:

The Debut Author Challenge
Chick-Lit Challenge
Dystopian Challenge
Paranormal and Fantasy Challenge

The reason I decided to take part in these challenges is because other than books I read for my literature degree, I find myself reading the same type of books. There's nothing wrong with that obviously but for 2012 I want more variety to make my reading experiences interesting!

Let me know if you decide to sign up for any challenges.

Books Read in 2012 - 0!
Currently Reading - Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - David Levitham

The Books of 2011

Happy new year!

As promised, here's the full list of everything I read in 2011.

1. The Playboy of the Western World - JM Synge
2. New Moan - Stephfordy Mayo
3. The Awakening - LJ Smith
4. The Struggle - LJ Smith
5. Scott Pilgrim Vol 1 - Bryan Lee O'Malley
6. Scott Pilgrim Vol 2 - Bryan Lee O'Malley
7. Booky Wook 2 - Russell Brand
8. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
9. The Fury - LJ Smith
10. North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell
11. The Reunion - LJ Smith
12. Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
13. Good Morning, Midnight - Jean Rhys
14. The Return: Nightfall - LJ Smith
15. The Doomspell - Cliff McNish
16. The Return: Shadow Souls - LJ Smith
17. Plain Truth - Jodi Picoult
18. The Return: Midnight - LJ Smith
19. Glass Houses - Rachel Caine
20. The Dead Girls' Dance - Rachel Caine
21. Midnight Alley - Rachel Caine
22. Feast of Fools - Rachel Caine
23. Lord of Misrule - Rachel Caine
24. Carpe Corpus - Rachel Caine
25. Fade Out - Rachel Caine
26. Kiss of Death - Rachel Caine
27. Ghost Town - Rachel Caine
28. Bite Club - Rachel Caine
29. Harvesting the Heart - Jodi Picoult
30. Birth of a Killer - Darren Shan
31. Wintercraft - Jenna Burtenshaw
32. Stefan's Diaries: Origins
33. Dating Hamlet - Lisa Fielder
34. Marshmallow Magic and Wild Rose Rouge - Karen McCombie
35. Evermore - Alyson Noel
36. Paper Towns - John Green
37. Blue Moon - Alyson Noel
38. Shadowland - Alyson Noel
39. The Scent of Magic - Cliff McNish
40. Those Left Behind - Joss Whedon
41. Beastly - Alex Flinn
42. Radiance - Alyson Noel
43. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
44. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
45. An Abundance of Katherines - John Green
46. W.B.Yeats Poetry - W.B.Yeats
47. Dark Flame - Alyson Noel
48. Batman: Year One - Miller
49. Songs of Innocence and Experience - William Blake
50. Night Star - Alyson Noel
51. Everlasting - Alyson Noel
52. The Wasteland - TS Eliot
53. The Franklin's Prologue and Tale - Geoffrey Chaucer
54. A Passage to India - EM Forster
55. Last Breath - Rachel Caine
56. The Saga of Darren Shan Vol. 1 - Darren Shan
57. Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Jeff Kinney
58. The Magic of Christmas - Trisha Ashley
59. Let It Snow - John Green, Maureen Johnson & Lauren Myracle
60. Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green & David Levitham

New Tallies!!

Books Read in 2012 - 0!
Currently Reading - Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - David Levitham

Book Haul: The Christmas Edition

Merry Christmas!

As always, Santa did well this year and brought me some shiny new books for Christmas.
I have already reviewed one but i'll still add it here, just for fun.

1. Let It Snow - John Green, Maureen Johnson, Lauren Myracle
2. Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green
3. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
4. The Shadow Wife - Diane Chamberlain


Very happy with my haul! I look forward to reading and reviewing these as soon as possible a long with a ton of other books that I have planned. As mentioned in a previous blog post, there will be more activity on this blog in 2012 (and hopefully someone will actually READ this blog :P).
Until then, keep reading!

Let It Snow - Green, Johnson & Myracle

Beautiful presents wrapped in ribbons, and multicoloured lights glittering in the night through the falling snow. A Christmas Eve snowstorm transforms one small town into a romantic haven, the kind you only see in movies. Well, kinda. After all, a cold and wet hike from a stranded train through the middle of nowhere would not normally end with a delicious kiss with a charming stranger. And no one would think that a trip to the Waffle House through four feet of snow would lead to love with an old friend. Or that the way back to true love begins with a painfully early morning shift at Starbucks.
Thanks to three of today's best-selling teen authors - John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle - the magic of the holidays shines on these hilarious and charming interconnected tales of love, romance and breathtaking kisses.

Followers of my blog will know that I am a big fan of John Green and his books so it probably comes as no surprise that this book was no exception and I 100% love it, and recommend it.

Aside from that little note, this is not just a John Green book. A collaborative effort between Green, Johnson and Myracle turned into something magnificent and will now forever be my favourite Christmas book, and top 5 all year books.

Let It Snow is three completely different stories that occur at the same time, same town and has mentions and appearances from characters in each of the stories, so you can always get a little fix from the previous one. I know that was a good thing for me anyway as I really didn't want to leave the characters from any of the stories once i'd grown to love them.

The writing styles of Green, Johnson and Myracle all seem quite similar to me. This is a GOOD thing as they are continuously easy to read, follow and love. I'm not sure if this is intentional or a happy chance as I haven't yet read any more of Johnson or Myracle's works.

The stories contain a heavy amount of snow which is WONDERFUL. I live in a very rainy place where snow is practically a myth, so to get the feeling of a real white Christmas filled with adventure was perfect and made me want to snuggle up in pjs whilst reading. The adventures are exciting and unpredictable too!

As the blurb suggests, there is a lot of teens and a lot of romance - but not in the tacky way that some books have. The characters are genuine, real and identifiable and as I keep repeating - so very LOVEABLE!

I'm sad to have reached the end of the book in such a short time (literally just a couple of hours) as I couldn't put it down, but I loved every word on every page and I wish more great authors would do collabs like this. In fact, Let It Snow is probably the only reason I have any Christmas spirit at all this year :)

The Magic of Christmas - Trisha Ashley

In the pretty Lancashire village of Middlemoss, Lizzy is on the verge of leaving her cheating husband when tragedy strikes and she finds herself widowed. Her Christmas Pudding Circle - a group of friends swapping seasonal receipes - offers her a welcome distraction, whilst a simmering rivalry with local cookery writer Nick erupts over who will win Best Mince Pie at the village show...


Meanwhile, the whole village is gearing up for the annual Boxing Day Mystery Play. But who will play Adam to Lizzy's Eve? Could it be the handsome and charismatic soap actor Ritch, or will someone closer to home win her heart? Whatever happens, it promises to be a Christmas to remember!

Last year, I read one of Ashley's books and absolutely loved it, so when I was given this as a pre-Christmas gift I was very happy :)

The Magic of Christmas was a slow starter and it took me until about half way through to really  get in to it.
The stories/relationships between the characters was lovely and homely and I did feel attached to Lizzy and enjoyed hearing about her son Jasper and the start of his university life.

One of the main things I enjoyed about this book was the references to other literary works such as classic Shakespeare plays and Synge's 'Playboy of the Western World'. It always makes me feel good when I understand the intertextuality in a book! It makes me feel like my lectures are paying off ;)

The biggest downside to the book for me, is that there wasn't enough Christmas. The title of the book and the blurb on the back promises lots of Christmassy fun when in fact, there isn't. More than half of the book is the lead up to Christmas when there is occasionally mention of Christmas Cake and mince pies and the rest is post Christmas with a few short pages regarding the day itself! I figured the book itself is more about the relationships between characters but I do feel a little cheated out of Christmas reading.

That said, it was a good, quick read and didn't take too much thinking about which is perfect for the season as it's been so busy around here with Christmas and exams coming up! I probably won't read it again but it'll sit happily on my bookshelves just waiting to be discovered again.

Last Breath - Rachel Caine (Morganville #11)

No blurb for this book as it has been loaned out!

It's been a while since I read this book now and I have a ton of catching up to do but here goes.

In my opinion, the Morganville series is going stronger, perhaps even stronger than ever. Despite Last Breath being book 11 in a what seems to be never-ending series - i'm still wishing for more.
The adventures of Claire, Shane, Eve and Michael are better than ever in this book and for the first time, I genuinely worried for their safety. Last Breath is also the first Morganville book I have honestly sobbed over! At every point in the book, I wasn't sure what was going to happen to the foursome and whether they could overcome the trouble that Morganville and it's vampires had in store for them.

Myrnin, as usual, was as ambiguous as ever and one of my favourite things about the series is that I absolutely adore him, and still don't know whether to trust him! Though I think my opinion on Myrnin has now been set for good (spoiler free blog, remember! - unless stated otherwise anyway).

It's not my favourite book of the series (not that I could decide anyway!) but I enjoyed it so much. I don't think i'll ever be ready to leave Morganville but thankfully there is still at least ONE more book on the way...

The Saga of Darren Shan Vol.1

Art by Takahiro Arai

Darren Shan was just an ordinary schoolboy until his visit to the Cirque Du Freak. There he meets Madam Octa and her master, and after that nothing is ever the same again.

Last year, I worked my way through all of the books in the Saga of Darren Shan and loved them despite hearing that they were children’s books. So when I recently saw this copy in a local bookstore for £1.99 I just HAD to have it. This is the first section of Cirque Du Freak, but in manga. I don’t own many manga’s so that was another reason to have this book in my collection, and it’s also the first “real” one I own. Meaning that the book is flipped so you read it backwards and from right to left. I’m sure you know the deal…

Despite the obvious need to condense the story in order to fit in the spectacular art work by Takahiro Arai, the story was pretty complete. As I said, the artwork itself (which is equally, if not more important, than the text) was truly amazing. I recommend this book to any Darren Shan fan and anyone who appreciates fine drawing. The RRP for this book is £5.99 which is reasonable but if anyone plans on buying it then definitely look around as it’s MUCH cheaper than that. My copy was bought from a shop called The Works.