Tammara Webber, 'Easy'

He watched her, but never knew her. Until thanks to a chance encounter, he became her savior…

The attraction between them was undeniable. Yet the past he’d worked so hard to overcome, and the future she’d put so much faith in, threatened to tear them apart.

Only together could they fight the pain and guilt, face the truth—and find the unexpected power of love.

Easy was a very absorbing read. The ‘New Adult’ genre seems to be creeping through the gaps pretty quickly now but I think Webber is far at the forefront of this new wave of literature; think the angst of Twilight but the heat which comes from incorporating a shade or two of Fifty Shades of Grey. However, Easy is very grounded in the real world. Centred around Jacqueline, who arrives at college expecting to stay loved up with her boyfriend for whom she chose this university. Of course this does not happen, and soon Jacqueline is thrown into the very real world of single life. However this is not your black-and-white portrayal of a heartbroken teenager; Webber in fact deals throughout the book with the challenging subject of sexual assault, but not in an overly heavy way. The story is not a portrayal of a down-trodden abused college student by any means, in fact Webber actually places Jacqueline and a couple of her friends (including Erin, her best friend – a triumph of this book, I think) in very strong, powerful roles; taking matters into their own hands with self-defence classes (which are actually very detailed, perhaps a useful thing to read!) and strong attitudes. There is a great air of might and solidarity to the female roles in this book however, several of the male characters are portrayed as exceptionally sleazy – Jacqueline’s ex, a weak frat-boy that finishes with her essentially in order to sleep with other people, and his frat-brother and the sexual assaulter – Buck. However, Lucas (yum) more than compensates for their weaknesses; on a quiet mission to avenge a personal tragedy, Lucas pops up at the self-defence classes as an instructor and leads Jacqueline down a long road of recovery which ends in true love for her and Lucas. His story is extremely tough and gritty but essential to understanding his character.
This book is motivational, empowering and fortifying in many ways with how Webber deals with such a difficult subject matter. There is a strong sentiment and lesson in these pages; Jacqueline does not give up, she does not let Buck win, she soon fights back and picks up her life.
As a read, I found it a quick one – when I started it, I could hardly put the book down. The characters are instantly easy to identify with and care about and the well-crafted story stayed with me for quite a while after putting it down.

Playlist

Slacking a bit on the playlist front.. but here's one for the next little while!

1. Young Wonder - To you
2. Hudson Taylor - Battles
3. Simon & Garfunkel - Hazy Shade of Winter
4. Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees
5. Jessie Ware - Wildest Moments
6. Greg Laswell - The One I Love
7. Lana Del Ray - Diet Mountain Dew
8. Lissie - Go Your Own Way
9. The Temper Trap - Trembling Hands
10. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Snow (Hey Oh)
- This last one is very appropriate for the weather in my part of the world at the moment!

Abbi Glines, Existence Trilogy

What happens when you're stalked by Death? You fall in love with him, of course.
Pagan Moore doesn't cheat Death, but instead, falls in love with him.
Seventeen year old Pagan Moore has seen souls her entire life. Once she realized the strangers she often saw walking through walls were not visible to anyone else, she started ignoring them. If she didn't let them know she could see them, then they left her alone. Until she stepped out of her car the first day of school and saw an incredibly sexy guy lounging on a picnic table, watching her with an amused smirk on his face. Problem is, she knows he's dead.
Not only does he not go away when she ignores him, but he does something none of the others have ever done. He speaks. Pagan is fascinated by the soul. What she doesn't realize is that her appointed time to die is drawing near and the wickedly beautiful soul she is falling in love with is not a soul at all.
He is Death and he's about to break all the rules.
- EXISTENCE, Book #1

Well first off - the covers aren't exactly hard on the eyes, are they?! 

The Abbi Glines series was recommended to me so I thought I’d give it ago. Initially, with the opening couple of chapters of Existence (Book #1) I was a little dubious, but I quickly warmed to Pagan as a voice and a heroine and got really quite absorbed in her high-school life, her eccentric best friend and the appealing and seemingly puppy-dog-esque Leif. I was dubious which role he could play in the books at first as he seemed just too nice to hurt in any way, but all was soon revealed. Leif’s character is developed further in book #2.5 – a novella which retells aspects of the story we read in #1 from his own point of view; this was an interesting gap between the books and although I thought it was highly illuminating in terms of his role in the books preceding, it seemed a little redundant by the fact he barely features in the close of the trilogy – Ceaseless (Book #3). Ceaseless took off on a bit of a different tangent which I actually ended up really enjoying; the final instalment in the existence trilogy was an emotional rollercoaster but a necessary one, I think, for Pagan and Dank to make a bit more sense as a couple. I was wary at the introduction of a whole new love triangle (particularly following the discarding of the ever-devoted Leif), but Glines wrote Ceaseless in such a way that everything fit and both for us as readers, and for Pagan as a protagonist, we needed to see her fall in love like a normal girl, not the semi-paranormal girl which Leif had moulded.
Of course one of the great lures of the trilogy is Dank Walker.  Dark. Brooding. Devoted. Rockstar. Death. Errrrm – genius, no?! His character is full of light and dark and allowing for intermittent chapters from his perspective makes it a lot easier to understand him and the way he is. I’m not always the greatest fan of split perspectives in books, I think they can complicate things sometimes, but with Ceaseless it worked perfectly – a great credit to Abbi Glines – and made the story far easier to absorb yourself into.

Really, really enjoyable series and I am sad to have finished it. I am definitely going to read more of Glines’ work in the future. I think she managed to take the relatively formulaic template of high-school girl/paranormal boyfriend but do something really quite original and different with it; death, the creator, fate and voodoo all feature prominently in Pagan and Dank’s tale and it was really refreshing to see someone take a completely different idea and run – if not sprint – with it.

Veronica Roth - 'Divergent'

 

She turns to the future in a world that's falling apart.
For sixteen-year-old Tris, the world changes in a heartbeat when she is forced to make a terrible choice. Turning her back on her family, Tris ventures out, alone, determined to find out where she truly belongs.
Shocked by the brutality of her new life, Tris can trust no one. And yet she is drawn to a boy who seems to both threaten and protect. The hardest choices may yet lie ahead...

 

WOW.
Wowwowwow.
I’m not sure what I was expecting from Divergent, but I LOVED this book. Initially I feared it was straying a little close to a certain feisty-fighter-teenage-heroine-dystopian-trilogy which we all know and love, but I could not have been more wrong. Veronica Roth has an extremely distinct voice and vision; Tris is brave and strong and independent and is willing and able to prove that to anyone who wants to see. With the clear narrative from the naturally suspicious Tris’ perspective, it keeps us readers second-guessing everyone she meets, unsure whether they will prove to have an agenda or a motive. Advice to you, readers – if you are just starting this book, don’t even try and guess where it’s going. You won’t succeed. The twists and turns in this book made it an extremely exciting read and displayed Roth’s natural ability and imagination. Roth’s characters don’t claim to be anything they’re not; no exceptionally irresistible teenagers, or an individually super-talented protagonist, on the contrary I found the characters easy enough to empathise and identify with, but they still remained difficult to predict and fully understand, just like in the real world. What’s more, Veronica Roth makes a far bigger statement than just the plot of this remarkable story. I found there to be a subtle and relevant warning in Tris’ story of a war-torn society which threw blame to various aspects of human error for their ancestors’ demise and subsequently formed five separate ‘factions’ based on how they felt they could remedy these problems. The factions, in turn, form concise communities and identities around their aptitudes and beliefs, leaving a cliquey and somewhat tribal division across them all.
Although the consequent abundance of characters and of Tris’ fellow initiates did make for a slightly confusing introduction to Divergent, you quickly realise which names you need to remember and, of course, the one you can’t forget: Four. I am just too excited to start Insurgent!

Which faction do you think you would be in?

Weekly Playlist

A little snippet of this week’s reading anthems and soundtracks. I find it much easier to read listening to music for some reason and, although the tone of songs can influence how you feel when reading something, I find that whatever I’m reading actually influences my feelings about a song by changing it’s association. Weird.
Either way, give a few of these a listen if you fancy giving your ears a little treat:

1. Jack Penate – My Yvonne
2. Slash feat. Adam Levine – Gotten
3. Ellie Goulding – Figure 8
4. Alex Winston – Velvet Elvis
5. Bastille – Flaws
6. Mumford & Sons – I will wait
7. Muse – Megalomania
8. Bruno Mars – Locked out of heaven
9. Jake Bugg – Lightening Bolt
10. The Lumineers – Ho Hey

Jojo Moyes, 'Me Before You'

Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.
What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.
Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.
What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.

Show More

Show Less

 

Me Before You was a book that stuck with me long after I finished it. The subject matter was challenging but I found Moyes’ approach to be thoroughly refreshing.  The characters are flawed and real and it is easy to identify and empathise – sometimes heart-wrenchingly so – with both Lou and Will. Dealing with the aftermath of an accident which has left Will mostly paralysed from the neck down, it is the type of situation very few people would experience or truly comprehend, but Moyes forces you to stop and really think about the impact that people have on a life and how you would cope. There is a delicate balance maintained between not sugar-coating the difficult realities, but equally keeping the general tone of the book as one of romance and optimism, to an extent. Perhaps some aspects of the story could be considered a little far-fetched or clichéd in places, but that contributed to the overall charm and pleasure of the book, both of which were greatly supported by the comfortable and eloquent writing style of Jojo Moyes.

Jennifer L. Armentrout's Lux Series

Starting over sucks.
When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I'd pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring.... until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.
And then he opened his mouth.
Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something...unexpected happens.
The hot alien living next door marks me.
You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon's touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I'm getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades.
If I don't kill him first, that is.

Whilst I was away travelling, a fellow YA literature enthusiast spent most of the trip with her nose tucked into Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Lux series. I had to see what all the fuss was about and I was soon joining her in ignoring the passing-by Vietnamese rice fields in order to get just an extra few minutes of my daily Daemon fix.
It has been a long time since I have enjoyed a series quite this much, and it was my immense enjoyment of Armentrout’s work that prompted me to enter the blogosphere so I could vent my excitement and share it with others.
Katy and Daemon are extremely engaging characters. Within pages, you are already thinking like Katy and in love with the infuriating but utterly swoon-worthy Daemon. What’s more, is that this is all complemented by a fast-paced and unpredictable plot line to boot. It’s unusual to find such an engaging and believable extra-terrestrial YA storyline, and I haven’t been as convinced by one since the show Roswell was on TV which, in my opinion, has a similar feel to the Lux series. The world Armentrout creates is so familiar but with that extra touch of extraordinary – the one that, deep down, we all long for so desperately! The characters develop in complexity as the series goes on and whilst I loved the first novel, Obsidian, I felt that by book #2 – Onyx – Armentrout had truly gotten into her stride and I quite honestly could not put them down. Not afraid to shy away from surprising twists and relatively graphic fight - and romance - scenes, the Lux series do not break in continuity or believability.These books deserve far more recognition and I’m counting down the days until Origin comes out!