Tag Archives: romance

Mad Love by Suzanne Selfors

Posted on May 19, 2011 | 1 Comment

Title: Mad Love
Author: Suzanne Selfors
Published: 6th June 2011 (UK)
Format: Finished Paperback
Pages: 336
RRP: £6.99
Rating: 13+

When you’re the daughter of the bestselling Queen of Romance, life should be pretty good. But 16-year-old Alice Amorous has been living a lie ever since her mother was secretly hospitalised for mental illness. After putting on a brave face for months, time is running out. The next book is overdue and the Queen can’t write it. Alice needs a story for her mother – and she needs one fast. That’s when she meets Errol, a strange boy who claims to be Cupid, who insists that Alice write about the greatest love story in history: his tragic relationship with Psyche. As Alice begins to hear Errol’s voice in her head and see things she can’t explain, she must face the truth – that she’s either inherited her mother’s madness, or Errol is for real.

The main character, Alice, is far too busy making sure everything is alright to actually have a social life, as her mother is affected by bipolar disorder, and currently in rehab. However, her mother is the Queen of Romance, has churned out thirty romance novels, and has a huge amount of adoring fans. Alice has to keep up with the charade, and it means that no one except her two close neighbours, Mrs Bobot and Reverend Ruttles (and his lovely roommate Archibald) know. It involves writing letters and calling back the publishers letting them know the next book is on the way (even though her mum’s last book was 3 years ago), answering fan mail and signing books for events!

I really loved Alice as the main character and heroine. She was a great mix of confidence and sweetness, and I could easily relate to her. I particularly liked the character of Tony, who skateboards past her house every morning, 9.30am on the dot. He was such a gentleman!

I thought Alice’s relationship and behaviour in regards to Errol, the strange hooded guy who is pretty determined for Alice to write his story, were very realistically portrayed. For a lot of the book she was very suspicious of him.

There was a lovely message in the story, and that it was important for Alice to realise that she doesn’t have to fix everything, she doesn’t have to do everything for everyone else, and how it’s important to know you don’t have to hide things like that from people, even though Alice thought it would have negative effects.

I really loved the writing style, and overall the quality of the writing was good too. The characters, especially Mrs Bobot, Realm (Mrs Bobot’s granddaughter), Archibald, Tony and the Reverend were all really fantastic characters.

I think that even though the book was based on a classic love story, it felt really unique, it did not feel like it had been done before. I think the developed characters were the soul behind this book, and it made me feel really connected to it!

Rating
Plot: 8/10
There was no really plot, but lot’s of events and things happening that made it really interesting.
Writing Quality: 9/10
The writing quality was brilliant.
Originality: 9/10
It felt really original to me!
Characters: 10/10
I loved the characters, they were divine.
Descriptions: 8/10
I didn’t feel like there was an overdose of descriptions, but I really loved the setting, I could imagine it well.

44/50 = 88%

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Thank you to Bloomsbury for providing the review copy.

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Posted in 80% - <90%, Book Review, Magic Bean Review, Rating, Reviews

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Entangled by Cat Clarke

Posted on January 26, 2011 | 7 Comments

Title: Entangled
Author: Cat Clarke
Published: 6 January 2011
Format: ARC
Pages: 372 (Advanced Reader Copy)
RRP: £6.99
Rating: 13/14+

‘The same questions whirl round and round in my head:
What does he want from me?
How could I have let this happen?
AM I GOING TO DIE?’

17-year-old Grace wakes up in a white room, with table, pens and paper – and no clue how she got there.

As Grace pours her tangled life onto the page, she is forced to remember everything she’s tried to forget. There’s falling hopelessly in love with the gorgeous Nat, and the unravelling of her relationship with her best friend Sal. But there’s something missing. As hard as she’s trying to remember, is there something she just can’t see?

Grace must face the most important question of all. Why is she here?
A story of dangerous secrets, intense friendships and electrifying attraction.

When Grace Carlyle wakes up to find herself in a strange, white room, with a white chair, a white ensuite, a white bed, a white duvet, a white pillow…with a white table, with over 100 pens and a stack of paper, she writes her story. And my, that story is enthralling!

Clarke’s writing style is superb, and draws you in at the right moments to draw either laughter or sadness, and it makes this book an incredibly intriguing and interesting read…. it definitely left an impression on me.

At first, Grace may seem a little selfish and bitchy, and to me it wasn’t like that. Like in Before I Fall, I tried to look past the main characters (Sam in Before I Fall) seemingly obvious flaws, and tried to note how they changed, for better or for worse. Although, in both cases they seemed to go in a new direction which was definitely positive.

I was really intrigued by the first chapter… I was wondering what on earth was happening, so many original and strange things had happened! There was a really good element of mystery as well, it really kept me glued to the page.

What I really loved about this book was the characters, and how well developed they were, and how realistic it was. I loved the characters for what they were, and of course there were moments where the characters did something I felt was morally wrong, but it made it more realistic. It was also realistic in the fact of how the characters interacted as teenagers, and their actions and behaviour. It was so true to life I was shocked at how close it was to some people I knew..

Nevertheless, it didn’t stop my enjoyment of this book. There was maybe no set plot, but there was always something interesting happening, a cliff hanger like end to a chapter that kept me reading the book.

I really felt for Grace, and at times she may have been over reacting, and at times it may have seemed a little unrealistic, but really, people do experience things like that on a day to day basis (maybe not what Ethan did to Grace though), and that made it all the more good to me.

I really recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a little bit of thriller, romance and comedy. You will find all sorts of wonderful in this book, and it really has stayed communicating to me, even though I have finished the book…

Rating
Plot: 9/10
Mystery, surprise, all marvellously done!
Writing Quality: 10/10
Absolutely magical :D
Originality: 9/10
I think it was a very original idea in the events that happened, and it felt so gritty and down to earth, which I felt no other British teen book had done before.
Characters: 9/10
There was so much mystery and depth to each of the characters, and a lot of their development was hidden in the pages, waiting to be read, and that was really fun to read.
Descriptions: 8/10
It sometimes felt that there wasn’t many, but the descriptions were integrated so well you could easily imagine what was happening, but not notice you were reading a description, and I think that is great story telling!

45/50 = 90%

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Thank you to UK Book Tours for this copy!

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Matched by Ally Condie

Posted on January 16, 2011 | 2 Comments

Title: Matched
Author: Ally Condie
Published: 2 Dec 2010
Format: Uncorrected bound proof (ARC)
Pages: 366 (ARC)
RRP: £9.99
Rating: 12/13+

On her seventeenth birthday, Cassia meets her Match. Society dictates he is her perfect partner for life.

Except he’s not.

In Cassia’s society, Officials decide who people love.

How many children they have.

Where they work.

When they die.

But, as Cassia finds herself falling in love with another boy, she is determined to make some choices of her own. And that’s when her whole world begins to unravel . . .

I personally adore dystopian novels, because I love to imagine a world that is ours, but feels so unlike it. Condie has managed to create and describe a seemingly perfect world, where the governing body is the Officials. In this world, they decide who you love and [then] marry, where you work and even what you eat. If anyone rebels they become an Anomaly, and shipped out to the Outer Provinces. Because no one wants this, this controlled world continues.

Cassia is seventeen, and at the start of the book she is set to be matched to her life partner. At this point I could see a normal seventeen year old girl, but she does not see the bad things in society, and conforms to all the rules. She is set to be getting a good work placement/job, and she is very excited for her match.

However, once she is matched, she notices a glitch. This small, yet important, moment sets the wheel in motion for the rest of the book. It raises her doubts about this perfect society, and it ignites her feelings to rebel..

I really enjoyed this book, and not just because I am generally a fan of these sorts of novels. I liked the character of Cassia, she was well developed and likeable to me.

Sometimes I felt like there was no specific plot, but there was always something interesting happening, so I didn’t really mind that much.

The writing quality is absolutely wonderful, and I think that really cemented my enjoyment of the book. The choice of words and the descriptions really made me feel like I was there, and really made me become lost in that world.

I recommend this book to all dystopian lovers, but also to romance lovers too. The romance is subtle at first, but it becomes obvious in a nice way. The book is very cleverly written, with a lot of thought gone into it.

Rating
Plot: 8/10
Not too much of a plot until nearer the end. Still, I really liked all the events and things that happen.
Writing Quality: 10/10
Very very good writing quality! It really made me enjoy the book.
Originality: 10/10
Dystopian, as I pointed out, is not original, but I do feel that this book took a different grasp – it was very refreshing.
Characters: 9/10
I loved all the characters, Bram, her mother and father, and especially her grandfather. Sometimes Xander and Ky annoyed me, but that made it all the more realistic.
Descriptions: 10/10
If a dystopian doesn’t have descriptions then it shouldn’t be a dystopian. It was not the case for Matched – I really believed I was there, it was so easy to imagine the world they were in. All the reasons for this world were given, as well, which made it all the more believable and realistic.

47/50 = 94%

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Thanks again to UK Book Tours for providing me this copy to read :)

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