#23

Simon Vs The Homosapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Ive heard so many good things about this book since it came out in April of this year. Also the cover is really cool. Ok so the story centers on Simon and is told in alternate chapters, one chapter being Simon's every day life consisting of school, drama rehearsals, his friends and of course his family and the other is emails shared between Simon and Blue. Blue is a guy that Simon met online on Tumblr that goes to the same school but he has no idea of his real identity. When they begin to fall for each other via email things get more complicated and chaos ensues.

When Simon uses the school library to email Blue he forgets to log out (as you do) and a classmate then logs in to his emails and finds the correspondence between Simon and Blue. He then blackmails Simon in order to get closer to Abby who happens to be one of Simon's closest friends and if he doesnt help he will out him to the entire school.

Without spoiling too much the final third of this book was like an episode of Catfish in which you are guessing every single male character may or may not be Blue and to be honest most of my guesses were WAY off. I was really pleased when his identity was revealed and the way the author went about it. also loved the ending.

This was a cute and fun read. A great stand out YA novel that discusses LGBT issue. This was such a feel good story that i managed to devour in 2 sittings. It completely deerves all the hype surrounding it, This makes me wait and hope for more books by Becky Albertalli as this book really impressed me.

Solid 4.25 out of 5 stars.

#22 The Miniaturist

The Miniaturist By Jessie Burton

This was a cover buy for me, i dont cover buy often but i could resist how beautiful this book was. Upon reading the blurb i was pleasantly surprised as it was set in the 1600's and in Amsterdam, 2 of my goals this year were to read more European literature and to read more historical fiction so i hit the jackpot with this one!

This book centers around Nella a country girl who is married off to a rich businessman and must move to live with him in Amsterdam. Her husband is 39 year old Johannes who is a successful merchant. She arrives in Amsterdam and is greeted by Johannes sister Marin who is a strict and proud woman who is quick to exert her status within the home. She is also greeted by Cornelia and Otto the household servants.

When Johannes presents Nella with a doll house which is an exact replica of their home as a wedding gift, Nella seeks the help of a miniaturist in order to furnish the house. When said miniaturist begins to receive items that she does not order she becomes suspicious that the items are identical to their life size twins that are already present in the home. Nella becomes suspicious that someone may be spying on them. 

This book is so much than a simple story of a miniaturist, the story also sees Nella try to integrate and find her place within this home and society but also her struggle to connect with her new husband. Among a plethora of other issues such as religion and race. I was not expecting the twists that happened, i was expecting a light mystery but there was so many heart wrenching moments with a lot of secrets thrown in.

Nella as a protagonist was wonderful, she was not over exaggerated or head strong, the book clearly depicted how she became independent and learned how to stand up for herself. 

My main critique was how liberal some characters were which for the 17th century i felt was a tad unrealistic. I wanted to keep this as spoiler free as possible as there is a lot of twists packed in those 400 pages! All in all a 3.25 out of 5 stars from me. Beautiful and tragic. Also re read the first chapter when you finish, it makes so much more sense! 

#21 Monument 14, trilogy review

Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

(TRILOGY REVIEW)

I first read Monument 14 last year and loved it, i never picked up the other 2 book until recently i saw them on Ebay for super cheap so i picked all 3 up and recently marathoned them whilst travelling back home to Ireland. I managed to read all 3 in 4 days, would have probably finished them much sooner but i had lots of things planned whilst being at home.

Ok so like i mentioned i read this in April 2014 and immediately fell in love with the story. I was worried about reading it again incase i didnt like it as much but im so glad that i was wrong. I initially picked this up as last year i discovered a deep love for dystopian and devoured everything in sight that fell even closely to that genre.

The story follows Dean and Alex brothers who whilst trying to make their way to school but are interrupted by the apocalypse. When their school bus crashes they are subjected to the compounds in the air which when inhaled affect people differently depending on their blood group. Type O's turn violent and will attack anyone or thing in sight, type B are affected by becoming infertile and type AB receive paranoid delusions.

The kids from the school bus ranging from age 5-17 seek shelter in a Greenway in their hometown of Monument, Colorado. There are 14 in total, hence the title of the book (which took me a long time to see the connection, duh Rachel!) A Greenway (for the non Americans) is a large supermarket, kind of like Macro or a really big Tesco. Anyway, the kids seek shelter there away from the compounds whilst their teacher goes to find help, thus leaving them with no adult supervision, every kids dream...

Lets go through some of the main characters with a few slightly spoilerish details...Dean who is 16 and type O, he results in being the main cook for the group and is by and large the main protagonist, Alex, who is Deans 13 yr old brother, definitely the smartest kid in the bunch which results in him building and fixing things, Astrid who is 17 and the apple of Dean's eye, Sahalia who is 13 and majorly annoying, Niko a boy scout who becomes the group leader, Henry and Caroline who are the youngest and most dependent they are 5 yr old twins, Ulysses who speaks next to no english and is around 8, Batiste who is about 9 and is majorly religious, Jake who is 17 and his best friend Brayden who see this end of the world as an opportunity to have a good time and Josie who is around 16 she mainly looks after the kids and Chloe another type O who is super annoying and is around 11 i think.

Basically after they get settled in the Greenway they form a little routine of cooking, cleaning and activities after a while the group realise they cannot stay there forever after a few outsiders inform that if they make it to the Denver airport that people are being evacuated, half the group decide to leave whilst Astrid, Dean and the twins and annoying Chloe stay behind mainly due to the Astrid, Dean and Chloe being type O. The other half take the school bus and attempt to make it to safety. Through a lot of effort and determination and sub plots in between they finally make it! Book 3 follows the group as they try to go back for Josie who went AWOL during book 2, she is being kept at a refugee camp which is more like some military concentration camp for type O's and Niko who has fallen madly in love with her has decided to rescue her.

One of the main themes of book 3 is race, this is something not many people think about when reading but when you are told the race of a certain character (i wont mention who) it changes the way you see that character within the story, it was refreshing as most YA dystopians have this kind of theme running through it.

The ending was... rather plain... im not sure what i was expecting dont get me wrong it was satisfying but it left me wanting more, i needed to know what happened a few months later, it left a gaping hole and i feel rather unsatisfied. The trilogy as a whole was a solid 4 stars for me, each book was action packed and i really enjoyed it, definitely rivals Divergent and The Hunger Games in my eyes!

#20 The Carrie Diaries

The Carrie Diaries By Candace Bushnell

Ok so i picked this up for the cover as lets face it... it.is.gorgeous! I also really liked the show and thought heck why not.

This follows Carrie Bradshaw, a character we all know and love (i cant even begin to tell you how many times ive re-watched SATC and both movies) so i jumped at the chance to read about Carrie before she made it to the big apple!

Im not going to lie i was hoping this would be fantastic but it massively let me down, maybe because there was no Miranda, Charlotte or Samantha so Lali, Maggie and Walt didnt really cut it. As i was reading it it just felt massively YA which i guess i should of expected as they are teenagers but it was a shock to my system. Sebastian was no Mr Big ill tell you that much! 

The plot was semi interesting, i found myself being really hooked in for 2 or 3 capters and then skimming the next few chapters. I eventually gave up about 270 pages which according to goodreads is about 60% or so. 

When i googled the book i found two interested tibits that i was not aware of 1) this is a series? god forbid what she has to write about next as this was so dull i dont see why anyone would want to read on... and 2) this has been made into a series! upon further research it actually looks really good and the guy who plays Sebastian is HOT and the girl who plays Carrie looks legit, might be worth checking out!

All in all, not my best book of the year so far! i ended up giving it a 2 star rating.

#19 dream a little dream

Dream A Little Dream by Giovanna Fletcher

I will start off by saying that im obsessed with Giovanna's writing, ive devoured everything she has written. I was so excited that i pre-ordered this and had very very high hopes for it! 

The story follows a recent dumpee Sarah who is living life awaiting eevrything to fall in place, she is still friends with her ex which is slowing rippng her apart, she has a lot of pressure from her mother to get her life together and she hates her job. When she begins dreaming about a mysterious hunk from her past she soon decides that she'd rather be asleep, when said hunk turns up in real life chaos ensues.

I enjoyed the writing as ever, its witty, quirky and fun. The main thing i didnt enjoy about this book was the characters, i couldnt gel with them at all. In every other Giovanna masterpiece ive fallen in love with the characters right away but not in this book :( i thought Nat, Lexie and Carly? (i might be getting that last name wrong, i just cant remember) the boys were equally as dull. I enjoyed reading about Sarah's experiences at work, those were very life-like and believable. Sarah's family life was also very relateable and really added to the context of the story.

I found the ending a bit lifeless, in every other book ive not wanted it to end but i had high hopes that they ending would be phenomenal and would completely change my mind on the whole thing but it didnt. 

A few plot twists i predicted but didnt happen:

• Dan would re-form feelings for Sarah and would leave Lexie for her which would ultimately form the last half of the story in which the group of friends are jilted and taking sides. That would have been good.
• Sarah would get really drunk and destroy Dan and Lexies wedding.
• Sarah would throw herself at Dan and beg that he take her back
• All in all, i did enjoy this due to the writing but i was left a little deflated as i hyped it so much in my mind! 

#18 Annie on my mind

Annie On My Mind By Nancy Garden

I cannot believe this book was published in 1992, i was 2 years old then and to be quite honest not much LGBT YA books have emerged since then, dont get me wrong there are many and ive read most but none are as intricate, beautifully written and as heart wrenching as this one is. 

The story follows Liza and Annie to young 17 yr olds who fall in love. They are not only believable as characters but they are real and you are with them all the way. The setting is New York, one girl goes to a rough public school whilst the other goes to a conservative private school but this isnt a story about class in the usual sense that we focus on the rougher school and how this has its affects on a teen lesbian and her relationship, rather its the other way round how a conservative public school can cast judgement and inflict pain and judgement onto this relationship.

Throughout you get to see snippets from a letter Liza is writing to Annie but you never know the full story around the letter until later in the story. i enjoyed the way things unfolded and thought it was very gripping, i didnt want to put it down and i was very sad to finish it. That ending was also perfect.

This book keeps my faith in YA alive, ive constantly worried that im growing out of the genre but this little gem reminded me that there are still a few undiscovered treasures. I highly recommend this one. 

#17 Heist Society

Heist Society By Ally Carter

This isnt my usual taste in books but its been on my TBR on goodreads from the firth few months of having an account which was about 5 or 6 years ago now! Ive been slowly trying to work my way through that TBR list but i was a teenager when i added most of those books and my tastes have changed dramatically since then.

This book was a remarkably fast read for me, almost all in one sitting and i havent achieved that in a while. The story follows Kat, a young teen whose family are involved in worldwide heists, mainly of famous paintings. Kat tries to start a new life at boarding school but that all comes to a halt when she is framed by an old friend and fellow crook Hale and shortly there after she is kicked out and she goes back to rejoin her criminal family. 

When a powerful mafia type guy has a painting stolen Kat's dad a notorious thief is the first in the firing line of suspects. Kat vows to help him by finding out who stole the painting and getting it back. 

This story is insanely fast paced but not as action packed as you would suspect, the character development is lacking but maybe im expecting too much from a teen novel? I remeber read Ally Carter's other series 'The Gallagher Girls' i believe and it was much of the same, i was a lot younger then and remember enjoying them quite a lot. 

I did enjoy this but wont be continuing on with the next book as the story isnt what im normally into and it lacked in plot and development.

I gave this 3 star as it was so fast paced and i read it in almost one sitting, that was the main thing i liked about it.