The Strawberry Picker-Monika Feth

  I had seen this book in the bookshop and cinsidered buying it a few times, but eventually my friend told me it was fantastic, so I bought it. It looks like my sort of book, quite dark and disturbing.
  There has been a murder in Jenna's town, and it looks like it has links with murders elsewhere in the country. Then her friend Caro is found murdered, exactly like the other girls. Jenna swears revenge in front of everyone at her funeral, including the murderer. Then she meets handsome strawberry picker, Nate, and is sidetracked on her hunt.
  Ok, that is an awful description that does the book no justice. This book was unlike any other I had ever read. It was not a murder mystery, because you know who the murderer is from the start. It is more a psychological book, focusing on the thoughts of a serial killer and how a murder effects everyone involved. I found it fascinating, and gripping. I got completely absorbed in the worlds of the various characters. It is told from different point of views, really providing an insight into everything in the story. It was very disturbing, and very dark, as i expected, so not for the faint-hearted. But I still found it amazing.
  I found everything from the murderer's point of view very interesting, because you could UNDERSTAND it, which isn't something you expect. You knwo why he does everything he does, you may not agree with it, but you understand it. You know he hates himself for what he does, but he can't help it. He is, in essence, insane.
  Unfortunately, Jenna's character wasn't particularly strong, but maybe that was part of her character. She was just an ordinary girl. I also feel the back cover gives away too much, I was over halfway through the book without getting to everything the blurb mentions. One of the best books I have ever read and strongly recommended to anyone who likes that sort of thing.

PS I Love You-Cecelia Ahern

Well, I found this book in a holiday house I was staying in, and swapped one of my old books for it. Lots of people had told me to read it and it sounded quite good, so I read it, or tried to read it.
  Holly and Gerry are completely in love, and can;t live without eachother, until Gerry is taken by illness. Holly's world falls apart and she falls into depression. Then she discovers letters Gerry has written for her, to help guide her through life without him. Each month, she opens a new letter and follows the instruction from her dead husband to a new life...
  I got about halfway through this book, then stopped. I couldn't be bothered reading anymore. The story really didn't grip me, followed a routine with no change. She opened a letter, marvelled at it, followed the instructions, had a good time, then waited for the next one. It was too repetitive. And a lot of it was just her moping about, depressed. I tried, but I didn't have the strength. There was a lot of hype about this book, and the film. I haven;t seen the film, I wanted to read the book first, maybe it will put a new spin on things. Maybe I will try and re-read this as I do with most books. Maybe I just gave up because of the call of a more tempting book. Don't see what all the fuss was about, the characters have no depth, they just are. The storyline is repetitive. It is a good IDEA, perhaps just not written brilliantly.

Junk-Melvin Burgess

This book has got such a good reputation, and i really wanted to read it. It sounded pretty harsh though, but everybody said that adds to it. I finally ordered a second-hand book off ebay and read it.
  The book is about Tar and Gemma, two runaway teens that fall in with the wrong people and end up addicted to heroin. Tar's dad used to beat him up and Gemma's parents 'ruined her life' Life on the streets is going okay for the pair together, until they meet Lily and Rob at a party. Lily is the strangest girl anyone has ever seen, and when she takes a liking to Gemma, she is thrilled. They move out of the squat they are living in and move in with them, little do they know they are entering a dangerous world of addiction.
   Tar and Gemma fall into the habit of it so easily, and they truly think there's nothing wrong with it, just fun. It changes them as people so much from the characters you knew at the start. It is sort of difficult to identify with becuase they change so rapidly and their situations are so far off from reality sitting in a warm, cosy room. This doesn't stop the enjoyment of the book though, it almost helps it, you just watch these people from far back, falling into drugs and struggling to get back out again.
  The very end of the book was what completed it for me, when yiu finally hear Tar's dad's point of view, all he has to say on everything he has done. And he tells you what drugs has done to Tar (he doesn't die) They change him so much, much more than you know, and the one thing that meant the world to him becomes insignificant, even if only for a while.
  This is a love story, set so far away from where most love stories are set. It's difficult to step away from the characters at the end of the book, whne they're journey has ended. It was DIFFERENT but I enjoyed it. Not for the faint-hearted though, quite harsh and blunt. It wouldn't be the same without it though.

Just Listen-Sarah Dessen

I was quite eager to read this book for a while before I bought it, because it sounded similar to Speak, which I really enjoyed. It wasn't though, the basic idea may be simialr, but the way the sotry is told and the sotry itself is completely different. Perhaps better, as more happens, and there is more going on.
  Annabell Greene is the girl who has everything, one of the most popular girls in school, and a model with a beautiful body. One night, though, her best friends sees her with her boyfriend, and everything goes down the drain. Annabell's family is rather dysfunctional, one of her sister's has been drvien to anorexia by the competition of modelling, and her mother lives through her daughters. Annabell has two sisters, one lives with them following a spell in easting disorder clinic, the other lives in New York. Annabell is caught between them, they both have shining personalities and she is caught in the middle. She is completely alone following the traumatic night of the party and her secret. Then she meets Owen, he has a reputation for being a bit of an angry-type after he attacked somebody in a fought, but, of course, he isn't!
  This book really pulled me in, and I found it impossible to put down! You follow Annabell on her journey to speaking up, and you reach every problem with her, and slowly watch her being coaxed out of her shell by Owen. He teaches her a new way to look at life, through music, any music. She refuses to let on anything about what has happened to her, and he doesn't understand any of what she does as a result of that. He gets disappointed and dropped without knowing what is really wrong with her, but Annabell doesn't want to lose him, and slowly she opens up to him. Through all this, her relationship with her sister, Whitney, develops as she sees that she isn't what she has always seemed.
  The character that I really sympathised with was Whitney. Modelling had driven her to refusing to eat, and she had this reputation for being sour and miserable, something she wasn't. She had a lot of unknown love inside her, was really a whole different person to what anyone thought.
  This is one of the most amazing books I have ever read, but it could be an acquired taste. I loved it, and Sarah Dessen is a very popular author, for her strong characters. You fall slowly in love with every character in it and it shows you how to face up to that thing that is killing you.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner- Stephenie Meyer

This book has had a massive build up becuase of the popularity of the Twilight Saga. I have read the other books, and enjoyed them, so I thought I should read this one. My expectations were quite low becuase I thought the author might have just been publishing this one for the money, without really adding anything to the storyline, but I was pleasantly surprised. I don't think this book was really necessary to enhance the series, but it did add a bit of information and a new insight.
  Bree is part of the newborn vampire army that Victoria has been creating through a vampire called Riley to avoid detection from the Cullens. The army has always been given a set of rules to follow- be back by sunrise or you will be burnt to ashes, be discreet with disposal of prey, don't fight- and they have never questioned them. Bree is out hunting when she meets Diego, and older vampire who is quite close to Riley. Bree has always tried to avoid being noticed by the other vampires and doesn't know much about them. Diego is different to them, and doesn't seem menacing and is willing to share his prey with her. He makes her question what Riley has always told them and a friendship starts to form as the vampire army is being prepared for battle.
  The start of the book was rather dull and difficult to get into, too many insignificant characters involved, but I pressesd on and managed to get into it. It was interesting how Diego brought up so many seemingly obvious questions that Bree had ignored. He gave her a whole new insight into Riley's intentions and had discovered so many things he had managed to keep secret. The book is very short and the story moves quickly, but if it had been any longer, it would have got tiresome and unenjoyable.
 If you persevere past the start of the book (which i suppose is only a couple of pages) you can get into the story. I grew to really like Bree and her loathing of the other vampires she lives with, and their childish behaviour. Despite knowing she was going to die, I sort of managed to convince myself that she wasn't. She does though. The book gave you a chance to see what life is like for proper newborn vampires, as Bella sort of skips that bit SOMEHOW, in Breaking Dawn. You get to know their thirst for humans and how little we mean to them. Bree just seems to accept this even though she can still vaguely being a human herself. In fact she says she's glad she has been 'enlightened'. The book, on a whole was enjoyable, but not brilliant, it did not dissapoint as my expectations were quite low. Don't read before you have read Eclipse though, it won't really make sense. It adds some little twists to the whole story, makes it a bit more interesting, I recommend it to you if you have read and enjoyed the others, just for the new point of view.  Enjoy!

New Blog

Ok, this is my new blog where I will review books I have read. They are mostly teenage books and I am interested in sad books with storylines that draw you in, but I read pretty much anything!!! Right now I am reading Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson and really enjoying it. I will post some reviews of books I have recentley finished. Hope you enjoy!