Monday, 21 November 2016

and a Happy New Year?


By Holly Bourne
3.5/5
I have been highly anticipating this little novella since I finished reading What’s A Girl Gotta Do? I love Holly Bourne’s writing and I was very exciting to see Evie, Amber and Lottie again.
The story is written in hourly sections as the countdown to midnight begins and in each section there are three chapters, one for each of the girls, which I enjoyed because the story is about how they’ve all drifted apart from another so it was interesting to see each girls reasons for this and how they individually felt about things. I especially liked Amber’s chapters as I feel she really matured as a character in the time between the books. However, I found that I really did not get along with Lottie’s character anymore, which is a shame because I really liked how outspoken and confident she was but in this book she just seemed too confident and a little cocky. I loved the chapters from Evie’s perspective, they tugged on the heartstrings as we watched her internal struggle with how she feels about Oli’s relapse.

This is a really fun, but emotional, book about friendship and relationships set at one of the most magical times of the year. I highly recommend if you are a fan of Holly Bourne and The Spinster Club, or if you just want something quick and easy to read.

Thursday, 10 November 2016

I’ll Be Home for Christmas


Various authors
3/5
This is a collection of short stories about Christmas written by various YA authors to support the charity Crisis. The stories are all completely separate so it is a really good book to read if you have a spare 20 minutes or so every day as you can read one story and not have to worry about forgetting the plot as they are all individual. To be truthful, I hadn’t heard of most of the authors who have stories in this book and I only purchased it because there is a story by Holly Bourne and she is one of my favourite authors. However, I will definitely be looking into some of the authors as I really enjoyed most of the other stories.
This is quite a difficult book to review because it would take me a long time to review every single story so I’m just going to list a few of my favourites. Of course, The Afterschool Club by Holly Bourne was one of my favourites, but I also really enjoyed Ghosts of Christmas Past by Non Pratt, Family You Choose by Cat Clarke and Homo for Christmas by Juno Dawson.

I would definitely recommend this book if you are looking for something to get you into the festive spirit and if you just want a quick and easy read. This book also supports a really great cause so you know your money is being used well.