Claire Stevens's Blog, page 56
June 26, 2015
Flukes by Nichole Chase
Flukes is the story of Meena, a mermaid who was rescued and raised by a human couple after a hurricane killed her mother. She and her parents live in an animal sanctuary/reserve where Meena can swim in the ocean unnoticed and where they can all try to keep her secret. And everything seems to be going just fine until a group of community service workers come to help them spruce up their sanctuary. Among them is Blake, a seriously hot bad boy who wants to get to know Meena better.I really enjoyed this. Like, I really enjoyed it. So much that I’ve just downloaded the companion short story A Mermaid For Christmas from Amazon.
Flukes is set on an island in the Bahamas and the setting is written very well. I’ve never been, but you do get a sense of what island life is like. It was a good choice off setting, too, because frankly, if you’re going to be a mermaid then you are going to want to be a mermaid in the Bahamas, aren’t you? I mean you’re not going to pick the North Sea or the English Channel or anything! Am I right?
Meena was kind of a hit for me as an MC; she was very caring and loving of her family and the animals in their sanctuary but she didn’t take any crap from Blake. And Blake - yum! I really liked their romance - it was a little bit instalovey, but not too bad and they seemed to have a lovely rapport.
The author kind of plays it safe with the plot. We know right away that Meena is a mermaid and so does she, so there’s no great big ‘I’m a WHAT?!?’ discovery and period of adjustment. There are no huge threats or peril, although there are some good fight scenes and the lack of tension gets infilled by the romance. This was absolutely fine by me, but it does make the plot almost achingly sweet at times.
Flukes was a strange (good strange) mixture of super-sweet romance and saucy New Adult. There’s a decent amount of sex, which is obviously always a result. It’s fairly graphic, too, so Flukes is probably unsuitable for younger readers. ‘Goodness me,’ I thought, fanning myself and bookmarking those Kindle pages for future perusal.
All in all, this was a really sweet book. Emphasis on the sweet, but nevertheless I’d definitely recommend it for a fluffy beach read this summer. Especially if you’re going to the Bahamas.
4 stars
Feature and Follow Friday #9
Feature and Follow Friday is a weekly book blog meme hosted by Alison Can Read and Parajunkee's View. The idea is to answer the featured question, link back to the hosts and featured bloggers and then hop around the blogs on the Linky thingy making new friends! This week's featured blogger is Hazy Reads.This week's featured questions is: Is there a book that you were required to read in school that you actually loved? - Suggested by Natalie Hearts Books.
Good one. I actually read some okay books in school. I went to a fairly scuzzy comprehensive, so I think the teachers were just desperate to get us reading something, anything! In lower school I remember we read The Phantom Tollbooth, which was good, and a comparison of Anne Frank's Diary and The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. Then for GCSE, we did Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth - not terribly inspired, but probably the more accessible Shakespeare plays - Death of a Salesman, Lord of the Flies, Pride and Prejudice and war poetry by Wilfred Owen and Rupert Brooks. None of it was what I would have ordinarily picked up, but I enjoyed it all nonetheless.
What about you? Did you get off lightly at school, or did your teachers make you study something awful?
Feel free to follow me on Bloglovin', Goodreads or Twitter and leave me a note so I know to follow you back!
June 25, 2015
Suicide Notes From Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten
Suicide Notes From Beautiful Girls opens with June learning of her former best friend’s death. Delia and June hadn’t been in contact for over a year but when June learns of Delia’s suicide she is distraught. And then facts start to come to the surface to suggest that it might not have been suicide after all...This was a really hard book to come up with a rating for. There were aspects that I loved - some parts were so suspenseful that my eyes were almost bugging out of my head while I was reading - but other aspects fell kind of flat.
The plot is interesting and the first half centres around June digging around trying to find out the background to her friend’s death. Then there was a plot point at 50%, where the whole book changed to the extent that it felt like I was reading a whole different story. From here onwards the book just seemed to rocket ahead until it reached its abrupt and startling conclusion.
I also really loved the characterisation - June is perfect as a bit of a fraidy-cat and her and Delia’s families are nice and problematic. The group of people we’re introduced to in the second half of the book are well written too. There’s also a nice toxic eroto-friendship in there.
For me , the first 50% of the book seemed to have a few gnarly bits that needed some ironing out and bits that I didn’t quite understand. The first few chapters after June finds out about Delia’s suicide seemed to have a few instances of people randomly coming up to her and infodumping important information surrounding Delia’s actions prior to her death, which seemed a bit odd as June hadn’t been a part of Delia’s life for over a year.
Another odd thing about the first half of the book was some of June’s actions. I know she was grieving, but I’d say that walking into the local drug lord’s den and demanding to know if he killed her ex-best-friend was a bit reckless to say the least. After this, she oscillates between suspecting her own boyfriend and Delia’s boyfriend as the murderer, choosing to confront them herself rather than go to the police. It was like someone had drawn a Stupid Line in the sand and she just kept wanting to cross it.
There were also some plot points that were never fully resolved. Was Ryan really cheating on June? I never really managed to work that one out. And if Delia was so obsessed with June, why did she just sit back for a year without trying to be friends again? And Ryan and Jeremiah’s storylines seemed to be shut down quite quickly as well.
Despite the sticking points, I’d say this book is worth a read, especially if you like your YA a bit dark and twisty.
3 stars
UK publication date: 2nd July 2015
I received a copy of Suicide Notes From Beautiful Girls in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to Egmont Publishing and Netgalley.
June 24, 2015
June 23, 2015
Top Ten Tuesday
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by those fine people over at The Broke And The Bookish
June 22, 2015
Lying Out Loud by Kody Keplinger
Sonny Ardmore is a liar. She lies about her homework, why she’s late for work, about her dad being an international businessman (he’s in prison) and why her mum really kicked her out.Ryder is the new boy in school. A prep-school, snobbish, hipster complete with obscure band t-shirts and fake glasses, he earns the instant wrath of Sonny and her best friend, Amy Rush (little sister of Wesley).
To Sonny’s amusement, Ryder has a crush on Amy. But when Sonny ends up accidentally talking to Ryder all night online, she decides he might not be so bad after all and starts crushing on him herself. Trouble is, Ryder thinks he’s been talking to Amy.
Kody Keplinger has pulled one out of the bag with this modern mash-up of Cyrano de Bergerac and The Shop Around The Corner to create a really funny screwball comedy, complete with cases of mistaken identity and plenty of awkward scenes where Sonny’s lies come to light.
Sonny didn’t seem like THAT much of a liar (I’m fairly sure I told more lies than she did when I was seventeen) but the lies she told were very funny and potentially explosive, which always makes for a nicely tense plot.
I haven’t read any of Keplingers intervening books since I read The Duff and it’s really clear how much she’s developed as a writer in this time. The dialogue is as witty as ever, but her plotting and characterisation are a lot tighter. Lying Out Loud is by no means haute literature, but it never ever pretends to be. It’s a fun read and I whipped through it, enjoying it immensely.
Wesley and Bianca make cameos in this book (along with characters from other books apparently, but I’ve only read The Duff, so I don’t know who they were!), but actually, the fact that Wesley and Bianca are in this book wasn’t as much of a draw for me as I think it’s going to be for everyone else. I thought Wesley was kind of a dick in The Duff and Bianca made some poor kissing choices, but they seem like much more settled characters in LOL and they still have their trademark snarkiness going on.
All in all I enjoyed Lying Out Loud and I was glad Sonny managed to get some resolution on some of the many, many issues she had! Recommended if you’re looking for a fun summer read.
I received a copy of Lying Out Loud in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to Hachette and Netgalley.
Publication date: 2nd July 2015
4 stars
June 20, 2015
Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine
I received a copy of Fire Colour One in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins.When I finished Fire Colour One, I was all set to give it a 4.5 star review. But since finishing it yesterday evening I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Like, not at all. I'm still all feels-y, even now, sitting at work, writing this review. So for that reason I've bumped it up to a five.
The title, Fire Colour One, actually refers to the Yves Klein painting FC1, which is an amazing piece, but the book is actually about a girl, Iris. Iris lives with her disinterested mother, Hannah, and stepfather in America until Hannah announces one day that they are returning to England to see Iris's father, Ernest, who is dying. Hannah is desperate to get her hands on Ernest's art collection and to her Ernest is still alive when they get to England. Gradually, Iris and Ernest start to bond and Iris hears Ernest's side of the story.
This book was just beautiful. Ugh, I'm going to get all gushy now, but bear with me.
Fire Colour One doesn't have a whole lot of plot going on, and for a car-chases-and-casinos kind of girl like me, this would usually be a turn-off. Also, a lot of the plot is told as back story. Again, not something that generally works. Except here it does. It really, really does. It's a beautifully written story about relationships and how and why they go wrong and how we can mend them. The scenes with Iris and Ernest almost had me in tears, they were so touching and poignant.
Considering it's a fairly short book, the author builds the characters really well. Iris is a pyromaniac. Like, an actual pyromaniac who loves setting fires and watching stuff burn. She's also troubled and neglected and insecure. Ernest is a very sweet character and I felt so sorry for him by the end, and Iris's mum and stepdad come across as a pound-shop Brangelina.
As well as Iris's relationship with Ernest, the book also explores her relationship with her best friend, Thurston, who she's recently fallen out with on a fairly epic scale. The relationship between Iris and Thurston is kind of ambiguous. They'd been friends for years and I spent a while trying to work out whether they were just friends or if there was anything more going on. The L-word gets mentioned, but was it a platonic L-word, or a romantic L-word? I couldn't tell and actually it was quite nice to be kept wondering and I was glad we didn't have loads of corset-heaving, tortured glances because I think it would have overshadowed the main point of the book, which was Iris and Ernest's relationship.
As for the denouement...it is superb. Absolutely superb. I won't say anything specific about it because I don't do spoilers, but it was good enough to keep me up reading way past my bedtime.
5 stars
June 19, 2015
Feature and Follow Friday #8 - Tattoos
Feature and Follow Friday is a weekly book blog meme hosted by Alison Can Read and Parajunkee's View. The idea is to answer the featured question, link back to the hosts and featured bloggers and then hop around the blogs on the Linky thingy making new friends! This week's featured blogger is The Readdicts.This week's featured questions is: If you were to get a tattoo, what would it say or what would the graphic be? Or if you have a tattoo, share a picture and its meaning. - Suggested by Second Run Reviews
Huh. Well, because I do my level best to stay classy at all times, I had a tattoo done while I was drunk on holiday in Amsterdam with some friends a few years back. Actually, I really love it and I've never regretted it. It's a little heart about the size of a £2 coin and it's on my hip, so when I'm an old wrinkly granny and don't want anyone to see it any more I'll be able to cover it up with my massive granny-knickers.
I'm also in the market for another tattoo, probably on my shoulder this time. I'm currently considering the Louisa May Alcott quote, 'She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain'. I like that.
What about you? Do you have any tattoos? Any plans for bookish ones? Feel free to follow me on Bloglovin' or Twitter or friend me on Goodreads and leave a note so I know to follow back!
Happy Friday!
Feature and Follow Friday - Tattoos
Feature and Follow Friday is a weekly book blog meme hosted by Alison Can Read and Parajunkee's View. The idea is to answer the featured question, link back to the hosts and featured bloggers and then hop around the blogs on the Linky thingy making new friends! This week's featured blogger is The Readdicts.This week's featured questions is: If you were to get a tattoo, what would it say or what would the graphic be? Or if you have a tattoo, share a picture and its meaning. - Suggested by Second Run Reviews
Huh. Well, because I do my level best to stay classy at all times, I had a tattoo done while I was drunk on holiday in Amsterdam with some friends a few years back. Actually, I really love it and I've never regretted it. It's a little heart about the size of a £2 coin and it's on my hip, so when I'm an old wrinkly granny and don't want anyone to see it any more I'll be able to cover it up with my massive granny-knickers.
I'm also in the market for another tattoo, probably on my shoulder this time. I'm currently considering the Louisa May Alcott quote, 'She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain'. I like that.
What about you? Do you have any tattoos? Any plans for bookish ones? Feel free to follow me on Bloglovin' or Twitter or friend me on Goodreads and leave a note so I know to follow back!
Happy Friday!
June 18, 2015
Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley
This is a hard book to rate. On the one hand it was an interesting insight into a terrifying and violent part of America’s history, but as a novel I think it was lacking slightly.The story opens in early 1959, where the governor of Virginia has kept schools closed for months to avoid the desegregation of the school system in his state. On the first day school opens, ten black students register at a previously whites-only high school and we are shown the horrifying abuse they are subjected to. Over the course of the story, we are shown the bullying and violence through the eyes of Sarah, a black girl who is joining the school and Linda, a white girl from a staunchly segregationist background.
I felt incredibly sorry for Sarah and the predicament she found herself in. On the one hand, she had her parents and the NAACP pushing her like anything to join Jefferson High School, controlling her life and trying to make her the poster girl for desegregation, and on the other hand she was being bullied and abused on a daily basis by her racist classmates. Would I have been brave enough to do the same thing in her situation? I think I can answer, with absolute certainty, no!
I was glad the author pointed out Sarah’s doubts about joining Jefferson High School and didn’t just portray her as a crusading martyr, as she was a lot more relatable this way. I also found it interesting that while she believed in equality for everyone regardless of skin colour, the same beliefs didn’t apply to other minority groups. When she realises she has feelings for Linda, she considers it to be unnatural and disgusting and a sin. Similarly, she doesn’t seem to think that women should be afforded equal rights to men or that they are as intelligent as them. It’s weird - you just always assume that because someone believes in equal rights in one area, they’ll believe in equal rights for everyone but this wasn’t the case here.
I felt probably less sorry for Linda. She had obviously spent her life swallowing the segregationist propaganda she had been fed and I wished that she’d used her brain a bit more and formulated her own opinions. I was glad she changed her attitude somewhat as the book progressed, but I did wonder if her attitude would have changed so much if she hadn’t had feelings for Sarah.
Before I went into this book, I actually knew a little bit about desegregation as we covered the American civil rights movement in GCSE history, but it was interesting (in a horrifying way) to get more detail, so in this respect I really admire what the author was doing.
I think the main issue I had with this story was that I felt the plot felt a little flat and because this is such an issues-driven book, it didn’t allow me to connect with the characters as much as I’d have liked. The atmosphere in the school and also in the town is obviously very violent, but because the violence and abuse is constant, it eventually loses its tension and the plot falls down slightly in the face of the issues the author is highlighting.
I also didn’t feel that the romance between Linda and Sarah was very romantic. They obviously had feelings for each other and I was glad they didn’t just fall in instalove, but mostly the romance seemed to consist of them avoiding each other and having long internal monologues about how twisted and sinful they were. I get that this was a product of the times they were living in, but it did leave the romance feeling a bit overshadowed.
Overall, this was a thumbs-up. I really appreciate what the author was doing and while the plot wasn’t all I’d hoped it would I think it’s still a very important book.
3.5 stars
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