Tag: contemporary

Review: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before – Jenny Han

Review: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before – Jenny Han

by Nicole Sweeney ♥ 2 Comments

BOOK REVIEW (51)
Series: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before #1
Release Date: 15th April 2014
Pages: 355
Publisher: Scholastic Books
Find it on: Goodreads. BookDepository. Waterstones.
Source: I bought a copy of this from my local Waterstones.

Synopsis

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister’s ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.

Review

So I’m going to be honest and say that I picked this up after all the buzz around the Netflix movie. I hadn’t seen the film and this book sounded as far out of my comfort zone as it was possible to get, so it was a pleasant surprise when I loved the book and the movie as well.

book cover (26)To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before has really touched my heart – it’s such a sweet and cute story and I think it’s wonderful that it’s getting so much recognition at the moment – recognition it really deserves. Lara Jean is a really fantastic character, she’s so adorable, she lives in her head spending more time imagining things than living them. She’s relatable and shows an immense amount of character depth in this book.

One of the things I really enjoyed about this book is the family dynamic. Lara Jean and her sisters have lost their mother at young age, and so are incredibly close. It was really fascinating to watch their relationship change and grow, especially as Lara Jean has to deal with her sister moving to the other side of the world. Kitty is my far my favourite character, she’s hilarious, wild and the best kind of character.

The book is obviously cheesy and a little over the top but it will honestly give you all kinds of warm feelings. Whilst I normally prefer much darker and more action packed books, it was really nice to read something fluffy and light. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the perfect summer read, and I’m so looking forward to reading the rest of the series to see what happens next to Lara Jean and Peter.
4 stars

Contemporary-athon TBR!

Contemporary-athon TBR!

by Nicole Sweeney ♥ 10 Comments

Book Review (7)
So last month I managed to read thirteen books. This month has been pretty busy and I was ill for a week so I haven’t gotten through that many books yet (current tally is 5 books). I’ve also been really enjoying reading contemporary books recently which is absolutely not my usual genre. I figured the perfect solution then was to join in with the contemporary-athon, which is happening from the 17th to the 23rd of September and is hosted by @BookHangover_ on Twitter and Youtubers Page and Pens, Chelseadolling and MyReadingIsOdd.

There are seven challenges and I doubt I’m going to manage all seven but I will try and see where we end up!

342204801. Read a book with orange on the cover
I toyed with a few different books – my first instinct was to go with I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman but I spied Another Place by Matthew Crow on my shelves and I have been meaning to read it forever. I tried to go with shorter books so I can get through all seven, but this sounds like a really gripping read and it has orange on the cover!

2. Read a book that is dark/taboo/spooky
39018329I found it difficult to pick just one book for this because I have quite a few spooky books I’m dying to read. I decided to go with Easy Prey by Catherine Lo as it’s coming out in October and means I can get a review up when I’m done. Easy Prey is a mystery following three high school students who are suspected or releasing racy pictures of a teacher online. Each of them has a motive, but which one is guilty? This sounds so intriguing and I can’t wait to read it!

352477693. Read a diverse book
I first picked up The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas because I still haven’t read that yet (I know I’m terrible), but I’ve really been loving the To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before books so I thought I could round off the series with Always and Forever Lara Jean. I really enjoyed the first two and I raced through them so hopefully that will help with reading seven books in such a short time period!

4. Read a book in a non-traditional format34613312
I was a bit unsure about what this meant but the description says it can be anything whether that’s a graphic novel, an audiobook or a ebook. I had a look at my audiobooks and I didn’t have anything that fit the bill but I do have a ebook of Sarah Nicole Lemon’s Valley Girls, so I picked this. I loved Done Dirt Cheap so I’m hoping this is just as good! I’m not a big ebook person as they tend to give me headaches, but I do also have a physical copy and can cheat a little!

38185855 (1)5. Read a book with your initials on the cover
For this I’m going with The Con Artist by Fred Van Lente. I was sent this by the lovely folks at Quirk Books a couple of months ago but I haven’t had the chance to pick it up. It looks so cute and fun that I thought it would be the perfect choice. My initials are NLS so they all appeared on the cover too.

6. Read a book by a new to you author36389267
Pretty much every book I picked up for this readathon fitted this category. I’m hopeful that if I don’t get all seven read I can double up with this challenge as well. In case I manage to fly through them all I’ve gone for A Thousand Perfect Notes by C. G. Drews. I got this in an Illumicrate and have been meaning to read it ever since.

359608147. Read a predicted five star read
This was another that I had loads of choice for but I ended up going with The Accidental Bad Girl by Maxine Kaplan. I’ve been meaning to read this for ages and it sounds so good. After getting caught hooking up with her best friend’s ex boyfriend, Kendall just wants to keep her head down and graduate but she is drawn into a web of drug dealing after her online identity is hacked and used to steal from a dealer. It sounds so intense and gripping and I really hope it will be a five star read!

So that’s my Contemporary-AThon TBR. Are you participating in the readathon? If you are what are you reading? And if you’ve read any of these let me know if you enjoyed them or I should swap them for something else!