REVIEW: The Twice-Lived Summer of Bluebell Jones by Susie Day

On her thirteenth birthday, Blue makes a desperate wish. To be transformed into a cool, confident teenager. Enter Red, appearing from nowhere like a wacky fairy godmother. She's only visible to Blue - in fact, she IS Blue, but a year older. With Red by her side to guide her, Blue can avoid all the gruesome embarrassments! But her future self causes a heap of crazy trouble - and there are dark secrets she's not telling...

The Twice Lived Summer of Bluebell Jones is a short book and it didn't take me long to read it - but it certainly made an impact on me! I loved everything about the book. The characters, the writing, the storyline, and the ENDING! 

Bluebell was a lovely character. She was kind and quite insecure, and very likeable as a main character and narrator. Red was...a strange character. I didn't think she should have kept so many things from Bluebell, but I suppose for the sake of the story it had to be done! There was a brilliant cast of supporting characters - I loved Bluebell's friend Fozzie, Bluebell's fantastic sister Tiger, and of course, the mysterious Merlin!

I liked the idea of Bluebell's 14-year-old self coming back to guide her - I've always loved time-travel in books, and I liked Susie Day's take on it. Although it wasn't actually as it seemed... 

The Twice Lived Summer of Bluebell Jones seems like a light-hearted read, but it's much more than that - there is real depth in it. The themes of family, friendship, and gaining confidence in yourself are important in this book, and Susie Day portrays them skillfully and subtly. I also liked the themes of music and photography - I love when a character is passionate about one or two things in particular in a novel, especially when they are also interests of my own as well.

I finished this book reading late into the night, because honestly, I couldn't stop reading! The book is so enjoyable to read, and also, I dying to see what happened in the end! The ending totally threw me - I was NOT expecting it. At all! After I had finished, I just sat there for about five minutes with my mouth open, thinking about the amazing book I had just read. I wish I could say more about it, but I can't (because it's a massive spoiler obviously!). You'll just have to read it for yourself!

The Twice Lived Summer of Bluebell Jones is much more than it seems from looking at the cover. It is a wonderful novel, and will break your heart!

                                             Rating: 4.5/5

Source: For Review - a massive thanks to the publisher for sending me this in exchange for an honest review.

Format: Paperback
Pages: 177

Age group: 9+

Official Publication Date: 2nd August 2012
Publisher: Marion Llyod books (an imprint of Scholastic)

Letterbox Love # 9

Letterbox Love is a weekly meme, hosted by Narratively Speaking. It's a great way of sharing what books you receive every week, and I'm delighted to be taking part!  

This is my Letterbox for the past I don't know how long! I haven't had a chance to do a LL in ages so this is all the books I've received in (as I said before) I don't know how long! So here they are:

For review:

Double Cross by Malorie Blackman
This is the Fourth book in the fab Noughts and Crosses series - the series has been newly released with new covers, which are fab! I can't wait to read this - thanks Random House!

Falling To Ash by Karen Mahoney
Reading this now and struggling to finish it - I'm not sure about this one to be honest!

A Reckless Magick by Stephanie Burgis
I've only read the first in his series, but I can't wait to read the second one then this one - and look at that fab cover!

The Pendragon Legacy: Lance of Truth by Katherine Roberts
I read the first book in this series last year, and it wasn't my cup of tea - I'm not sure if I'll be reading this one!

Winterling by Sarah Prineas
I hadn't heard about this one before it arrived, but it sounds really brilliant and mystical! Thanks Quercus!

Me, Suzy P by Karen Saunders (proof)
This looks like a fantastic book, I'm really excited to start reading it! Thanks to Templar publishing for this and the above two books :)

Professor Gargoyle: Tales from Lovecraft Middle School by Charles Gilman
This books looks like fun - and it has a really cool cover. You know the way you get some cards and things and when you turn them from side to side they have two different pictures? (sorry, terrible explanation) Well, it''s like that - it's so cool! :D Thanks Quirk Publishing for this.

Won:

One Mum's Enough - Book 1 (Families in a Step-Chain)

Little Miss Perfect - Book 4 (Families in a Step-Chain) both by Ann Bryant

I won these two of the Girl Heart Books website and there was a mix-up in which book I was meant to be sent, so I ended up with two - not that I'm complaining! Hehe :)

What did you get in your letterbox?

REVIEW: Dear Dylan by Siobhan Curham

A first crush.
An unexpected friendship.
A dream come true.
Dear Dylan! 
Thanks so much for your email and I'm sorry about my last one when I said I love you. I hope you don't think I'm a weirdo mentalist?!!! It's just that I was watching Oprah yesterday and she said we should all say we love each other a whole lot more. Not to everyone of course. There's no way I'd tell my scummy step-dad that I love him because that would be lying. But the thing is, sometimes when I watch you on TV, I feel as if you're talking just to me and it makes me feel less alone. I know you probably get loads and loads of fan mail but I wanted to ask you - could we be e-mates? 
Yours hopefully, Georgie xxx.

I've been dying to read Dear Dylan for ages - all I had read were glowing reviews of the book. And, well, this is going to be another glowing review! 


I loved everything about this book. The characters, the format, the storyline, the writing - this author can do no wrong in my eyes! I loved Georgie  - she was such a brilliant main character  She was kind and brave, and I thought Curham portrayed her as a teenager perfectly. I think I'm quite like her - I felt I could relate to her and some of the issues she had - that's probably one of the main reasons I loved her character so much!

There was another character who was my joint favourite with Georgie - I just couldn't pick between them, they were both too fantastic! I'm not going to say who the character was, because it's actually a a spoiler - but if you've read the book you'll know who I'm talking about. This character was so wonderful. They were kind, thoughtful, helpful and caring. 

Dear Dylan also had a very realistic and well thought-out set of secondary characters; I didn't like Jamie at first, but once we got to know him he really grew on me!  He was great for Georgie and was just all-round lovely. I hated Tone-Deaf (Georgie's step-dad), with a passion - he is definitely one of my top 5 most hated characters of all time! I also really disliked Jessica, Georgie's 'best friend' she was so horrible and mean and a really bad friend to Georgie, especially when Georgie  need her most. I wasn't sure about Georgie's mum - she was quite selfish, and didn't appear to care about Georgie's feelings  but she showed she was brave in the end, and I began to - sort of - like her better.

I really liked the e-mail format. I thought it was a fun and different way to read a book. I liked the way some things could be included that wouldn't really be included in first person narrative, because Georgie and the other character were talking to each other - it's difficult to pinpoint what exactly, but it was just things that would seem strange if they were included in a first person book - but they fitted in this book, since the two characters were talking to each other. It was a really clever way of writing a book too - the (mostly) short enough e-mails made it very difficult to put the book down, and I flew through it!

The dual narrative was fantastic - it was interesting to get to see things from both characters point of view, I loved that element. And I just LOVE Siobhan Curham! She's such a fab writer - she makes the reader not want to stop reading, she makes the characters come alive on the page and feel so real - and she writes beautifully! 

Dear Dylan is heartbreaking, heartwarming, funny, and original. It deals with real life issues such as domestic abuse and bullying, and it will move you!  It is one of the best books I've read this year, and one of my favourite books of all time! Siobhan Curham is an amazing author and I can't wait to see what she comes out with next.  If you're looking for a good book to read - don't hesitate to read Dear Dylan. Trust me - you won't regret it!

 Rating 5/5

Source: For Review - a massive thanks to the publisher for sending me this in exchange for an honest review.

Format: Paperback
Pages: 288 

Age group: 11+

Official Publication Date: 2nd April 2012
Publisher: Electric Monkey

A Reckless Magick by Stephanie Burgis release day!

Kat's back for her third adventure, and as per usual, social disaster is following in her wake - When the Stephenson family travel to a grand country house on the Devon coast for Kat's sister Angeline's wedding, Kat is stalked by a dangerous magical enemy and finds everything she thought she knew about her late mother called into question. With smugglers, sabotage, tangled romance and plenty of magic activity at work, it's the job of Regency England's feistiest twelve year old to protect herself and her family from impending ruin.

Happy book birthday to A Reckless Magick! This is a brilliant series - make sure you get your hands on this soon!

Check out Stephanie Burgis's website: http://www.stephanieburgis.com/books/a-reckless-magick-stolen-magic/

REVIEW: Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs

Watch out, all you mythological beasties roaming the streets of San Francisco - There's a new kick-ass team of demon-fighters coming your way - Meet Grace, who just moved to San Francisco. It's a tiny bit scary, starting over, but it gets scarier when a minotaur walks in the door. And even more shocking when a girl who looks exactly like her turns up to fight the monster. Then, there's Gretchen, who is fed up of monsters pulling her out into the small hours, especially on a school night. Getting rid of a minotaur is just another notch on Gretchen's combat belt, but she never expected to run into this girl who could be her double in the process. And Greer, who has her life pretty well put together, thank you very much. But everything tilts sideways when two girls who look eerily like her appear on her doorstep and claim they're all sisters. These three teenage descendants of Medusa must reunite and embrace their fates in this unique paranormal world where monsters lurk in plain sight.

I  absolutely loved Tera Lynn Childs' 'Fins' series, and had pretty high expectations for Sweet Venom. And while I liked it, it did disappoint me. There were good and bad points to this book - I'll outline them all for you in this review.

I'll start with the negatives - I may as well save the best for last!

the characters: Grace, Greer and Gretchen were all likeable, (yes I liked Greer even though she was a snob!) but they were really typical characters. The plain, clumsy girl, the tough girl, the snob girl with the fragile inside layer - it's all been done before! I found them to be boring and predictable. I also didn't like Nick at all - he wasn't even cute, he was just annoying. I did like Milo though, and Thane seemed like an interesting enough character, but all round the characters didn't impress me. They felt very one dimensional - not real at all!

the plot: I honestly had no idea, even towards the end of the book, where the story was supposed to be going. We basically just heard about Gretchen and Graces' (quite boring) lives. Greer didn't come into the book till near the end, and I can't help wishing that she wasn't mentioned in the blurb - discovering that the three girls were triplets could have been a great twist, but it wasn't because we knew that it was coming. That's another thing - there were hardly any plot twists. There was the one about Una at the end, but I didn't really feel shocked - maybe it's because to be honest, I didn't care about the characters!

Now I'll move onto the positives:
 the writing: I love Tera Lynn Child's writing, and this book, despite all of it's flaws, was pretty fun to read! It was humorous and just all round quite enjoyable to read.

the Greek mythology: as some of you probably know, I'm a a huge fan of Greek mythology! The author took the myth of the monster Medusa, and portrayed her to be a guardian instead - not evil. It was a really interesting take on the story, which the author wrote cleverly. I also loved reading about the fights between the girls and the beasties, and learning about the monsters they fought - I would have loved if more information was included in the book, but that probably would have bored some people!

Conclusion: While Sweet Venom had a lot of flaws, I still liked it, and enjoyed it. The ending is a good one, and makes me want to read the next book soon! I think this is a series I will be continuing with - hopefully I'll enjoy the next book more!

                                                                Rating: 3/5

Source: For Review - a massive thanks to the publisher for sending me this in exchange for an honest review.

Format: Proof
Pages: 320

Age group: 12+

Official Publication Date: 1st September 2012 
Publisher: Templar Publishing

Letterbox Love #8

Letterbox Love is a weekly meme, hosted by Narratively Speaking. It's a great way of sharing what books you receive every week, and I'm delighted to be taking part! 

Hi everyone! I'm really sorry about now posting much this week, I though I would have more time :/ And I've just found out that my computer will be out of order for the next week (my dad is fixing something or other :L) so I won't be able to post this week either! And I also won't be able to read or comment on posts - sorry guys, I'll miss you all! 

Anyway, here are my books: (sorry for no pictures - didn't have enough time!)

For review:

Saving June by Hannah Harrington
I've been wanting to read this for so so long and now I have it and I'm so so happy! This sounds amazing, I was delighted when this and Pushing The Limits arrived in the post!

Pushing The Limits by Katie McGarry
I can't wait to read this one! It's gotten amazing reviews, and it sounds fab :) Thanks Mira Ink for this and Saving June!

For The Record
Billy Templar's War by Ellie Irving
I'd never heard of either of these before they turned up in the post, but I though For The Record sounded so good that I read it practically straight away when I got it! I liked it and will review it soon :) I'm also looking forward to reading Billie Templar War - I especially love that cover! Thanks Random House for these!

Sammy Feral's Diaries of Weird by Eleanor Hawken
This looks like a a fun read, maybe a bit young for me, but we'll see :) Thanks Quercus!

Icespell by C.J. Busby
I loved the other two books in this series, and I can't wait to read this one, it looks like so much fun! Thanks to Templar! 

What did you get in your letterbox this week?

REVIEW: Debutantes by Cora Harrison

It’s 1923 and London is a whirl of jazz, dancing and parties. Violet, Daisy, Poppy and Rose Derrington are desperate to be part of it, but stuck in an enormous crumbling house in the country, with no money and no fashionable dresses, the excitement seems a lifetime away. Luckily the girls each have a plan for escaping their humdrum country life: Rose wants to be a novelist, Poppy a jazz musician and Daisy a famous film director. Violet, however, has only one ambition: to become the perfect Debutante, so that she can go to London and catch the eye of Prince George, the most eligible bachelor in the country. But a house as big and old as Beech Grove Manor hides many secrets, and Daisy is about to uncover one so huge it could ruin all their plans - ruin everything - forever.

I really liked Debutantes by Cora Harrison. The characters are colourful and life-like, and it's a really fun book to read. During a lot of the book, there actually isn't much going on, but honestly, that didn't bother me, because it was written so beautifully that I just loved reading the book, even if there wasn't much happening in the story.

I loved the time period the book is set in, as well as the backdrop of Beech Grover Manor and London. The descriptions were wonderful, and I could picture clearly the big house and it's many rooms, as well as the city of London and the scenes of the dances the girls attended. The descriptions were precise but not boring, and the writing was one of my favourite features of the book!

Th characters were fab! I can't pick a favourite of the four girls, but I really loved Rose and Daisy. Rose was really funny, coming out with her newspaper headlines all the time, and I could relate to her (I want to be a journalist too!).  Daisy was so lovely! It was fascinating, hearing about her film-making - I knew nothing about film making before reading this book, and now I feel very clued in ;D. She was a good main character, and I felt for her when she was going through tough times!  Poppy and Violet were nice too, but Poppy didn't really stand out to me, and Violet could be a moan sometimes!

I didn't really know where the story was going for around three-quarters of the book, and that didn't really bother me, but luckily the story started to pick up just as I was getting a little restless. Something that bothered me about the book was the fact that there was this really big plot twist (I actually saw it coming, but that's ok :) ) and the characters didn't seem fazed at all! It was something that would be really shocking if it happened to you, and Daisy was semi-upset about it for like five minutes, and then just acted as if nothing had happened afterwards! That annoyed me :/

And of course I can't review this book without mentioning the stunning cover! It's GORGEOUS! It seems so perfect, and is probably one of my favourite ever book covers :D Is it just me or does that girl remind you of Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood)?! 

Debutantes has great characters, is brilliantly written, and is so fun to read. It's a really enjoyable read, and I'm delighted it's going to be a series!

                                                       Rating: 4/5

Source: For Review - a massive thanks to the publisher for sending me this in exchange for an honest review.

Format: Paperback
Pages: 320

Age group: 11+

Official Publication Date: 2 August 2012 
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books