The Loss Adjustor - Aifric Campbell

"I was born in a place that presumed departure. A strip of kerbless road that claimed village status but was really only known for its proximity to other larger, more substantial places. When i was six years old our lives were transformed by the opening of a bypass that took all the traffic away and turned us overnight to a dead end. From then on we were access only and would stand astride ou bikes in the new cul-de-sac where we practised our wheelies watching lost drivers make sloppy u-turns, gears screaming  in reverse before they sped off to their true destination two miles further south: a thriving town, a retail park and all the other places where people actually wanted to go."

Caro has a structured life. She goes from day to day working and spending her Sundays visiting the graveyard in which her friend, Estelle, was buried twenty years ago. Her structure is thrown out when Tom, an old man who also frequents the graveyard, starts talking to her a year after they go by not speaking on their visits. Tom, accompanied by his strange dog Jack, opens Caro up to new experiences and she finds herself silently going over parts of her life

Estelle and Cormac were Caros best friends and she lost them both in the same summer. One dead, the other gone, Caro carried on through life alone. That is until Cormac contacts her out of the blue, she expects to talk like old friends, go over everything that happened and has since gone on.

The Loss Adjustor really wasn’t what I expected. I read it and thought that there was perhaps a mystery to be uncovered about the friendship, about Cormac, or about Estelle’s death. What it was actually about came as a very nice surprise, and it was a really good read. Caro really isn’t someone I can relate to, she’s ordered and calculated and a bit of a loner. Her mother is the same, not moving from the kitchen of her house, just reading as many books as she can get a hold of. The family dynamics were unusual to say the least but I’m glad of how they turned out.

I liked that throughout the story you had parts of Caro’s personality come out but without the control that Caro usually held onto. It struck me that Caro didn’t want any emotional attachment and hadn’t since the loss of Estelle. When Caro goes over parts of her childhood with Estelle and Cormac it’s obvious that the relationship wasn’t exactly a normal one. Three isn’t a good number and this is very evident in this story.  It’s obvious that Caro’s personality comes from their friendship and what happened between them, you could see that Caro had had her heart broken, in places by the both of them.

The name of the story is a highly important part of this story. Not only is Caro a loss adjustor, someone who calculates the loss of a person’s insurance claim, but she is also still adjusting to the loss of her friend. I liked this link a lot and although parts of the end of the book is left for the reader to speculate I believe that it is very fitting when you take into account this link.

I loved the character of Tom. He surprised me a lot because I expected the story to be completely focussed on Caro and Cormac. Tom appeared to me to be on a mission and I think he probably fulfilled that mission. I also loved the stories that her told of the war and the way Aifric told these stories really captivated me.

I read a lot of young adult books and it was nice to have a break from young adult. The story line grabbed my attention when I believed it would deal with a death within friends and even though it wasn’t what I expected I still got sucked into it. I thought it a little slow to start off with once I got into it, probably around the point where Tom started talking to Caro, I couldn’t put the book down!

A huge thank you to Jazzmine of Even Butterflies Think for sending me this from her internship with the publishers, Serpents Tail

Wintergirls - Laurie Halse Anderson

"Dead girl walking," the boys say in the halls 
"Tell us your secret," the girls whisper, one toilet to another.
I am that girl.
I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through. 
I am the library aide who hides in Fantasy.
I am the circus freak encases in beeswax.
I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.
When I get close, they step back. The cameras in their eyeholes record the zit on my chin, the rain in my eyes, the blue water under my skin. They pick up every sound on their collar microphones. They want to pull me inside of them, but they're afraid. 
I am contagious. 

Lia counts the calories of everything she eats. She cuts every piece of food in front of her into smaller, equal pieces. She exercises late at night when everyone is in bed. She keeps a handy box of laxatives and tries to stop herself from slicing her skin open with a razor blade because she knows it upsets her dad.

When Lias best friend, Cassie, is found dead and alone in a motel room across town Lia doesn’t know what to do. They haven’t spoken for months, since before Lia came out of hospital for the second time, but Cassie called her 33 times on the night she died, in a motel room, all alone.

Lia spirals further out of control after Cassie’s death and her parents, stepmum and stepsister are terrified she’s going to return to the state she was in before hospital lock up number 2. She tries to hide the fact she’s still not eating, not recovered, from them but they know something’s wrong.

I knew when I heard about this book that I had to read it. Anorexia is an awful topic, people try to refrain from talking about it, so many people suffer with it without letting anyone know and no-one should have to. I’m a firm believer in being who you want to be, don’t focus on what other people want and therefore I’m a curvy size 14 who loves food and couldn’t ever put myself through anorexia or bulimia because I don’t mind the way I look!

Wintergirlshit the spot when it comes to understanding what people go through when suffering from these illnesses. The book shows you exactly what is going through Lia’s mind, what Cassie thought when she started throwing up in the first place, why people do go through these things. I loved this book, it was so sad at times and I felt sorry for so many of the characters, especially Lia’s family because at the end of the day they just really wanted her to get better, even if they went about it the wrong way sometimes!

Emma had to be my favourite character. It was like she was there to remind Lia what it was like to be free spirited and not worried about anything. I really loved Emma and I wished with all my might that she didn’t have to go through some of the stuff she did.

During university I studied stylistics, and within that we discussed what it meant when things were written in a different way across the pages in books. If only I’d had this book when I wrote my essay because it’s a perfect example of what we were talking about. The strikethrough use when Lia wanted to say something, or do something, but couldn’t because she knew it wasn’t “right” was awesome, it kept you inside Lia’s mind, understanding the fight about food she was having inside. I really loved that you understood what Lia was going through, that I could relate to her feelings even though I’ve never really been through anything as drastic as that. I loved as well the way that you got the whole story; the mess that bulimia makes to your insides, the fatigued state that anorexia does to your body. It was incredible the way that the story was written so that I could see everything happening and relate it to the way Lia was feeling in that moment. I don’t want to go into details but towards the end of the book I was convinced that I could see everything that was going to happen because I knew Lia so well, but this wasn't a bad thing because I needed to know what was going to happen to her for definite and if she was going to be ok. I think Lia is such a strong character, she goes through so much and even her persistence with anorexia shows how strong she can be. I wished Cassie would leave her in peace but Lia found strength and I loved that

Also I rarely mention covers, obviously you’re not meant to judge a book by its cover but I have to mention this one. I love it, the graffitish style its go going, the snippets of Lia it has, it shows you more of Lia than if it was her face and I must say that in my opinion the UK cover kicks the US covers ass!

I want everyone to read this book, seriously Laurie Halse Anderson did a fecking amazing job in delving into the mind of an anorexic as far as I can tell and you get such a hold on to Lia, you feel like she’s a friend falling apart at the seams but all you can do is watch. Thank you so much for writing such an amazing book Laurie! 

Another non-bookish post - What really bugs me

I'm not an angry person. I'm calm, relaxed and pretty damn laid back. To be honest I usually don't let things bug me but today I had some pretty crap news that I wont go into here. Basically I'll just say that it's made me think about the future and where I'm gunna end up and stuff.
What has really miffed me though is looking at stuff online and realised that pretty much everything I ever wanna do is in London. When I started looking for jobs after uni, they were all either in London or down south. When I want to go to book festivals and stuff like that, London. Exhibitions that would be so much fun to go to; London.
It really annoys me that London, and the south, seem to get the good stuff (with the exception of higher costs of living, I guess that does suck!) I looked into going to some shows, conventions and stuff and they're either in London or Birmingham. I'm going to try and go to the Eurogamer expo in London in September, at the minute I reckon train tickets, if bought in advance should be around 50 quid... however looking for a place to stay.... thats looking to be expensive!! If only people would put these things on up here, or somewhere in the middle, it might be a bit cheaper to stay somewhere!
My career is in magazine journalism, I feel at home in magazine journalism, and although I get so bored of writing about street lights and ready mix concrete right now, I do want a future in this field. I have things tying me to the north, and to be honest I like the north, but it would seem that the north and magazine journalism don't go well together. Nearly every job I've come across over the past year or so, has been in London or down south, or writing for medical journals (which I ain't qualified for!) I'm so sick of seeing jobs then realising that they are hundreds of miles away so there's no point in looking... Hopefully in a few years I'll say feck it and just move... but I know my heart will always be up north

Sorry for the rant, and by the way... this is in no way a dig at Londoners or people from the south.... I know you guys are lovely, it's not your fault everything down there, I hope you don't see it like that!

Extras - Scott Westerfeld

"Aya Fuse was an expert at being invisible. Her face rank was proof of that. It sat unmoving in the corner of her vision, 451,396.

She let out a sigh, In a city of a million that was total extra-hand.she;d had her own feed for almost two years now, had kicked a great story just a week ago, and was still anonymous."

*Contains Spoilers for the whole Uglies series, beware!*

Ever since the mind-rain three years ago Aya’s city has become obsessed with fame. The way to get merits? The way to find yourself in the nice part of town? The way to get the best guys? All by becoming as famous as possible and making yourself pretty as soon as you hit 16.

At least that’s what Aya thinks. Her brother is one of the most famous “kickers” who has become snobbish and big headed since he found fame but Aya wants to get there too. She wants to have a huge face rank, she wants the best in town.

Aya finds her big story, the kick that’s going to make her even more famous than her big brother. But with that kick she finds herself in serious danger, and in the company of the most famous person in the world – Tally Youngblood. In Tally’s company she finds herself in even more danger, hiding from inhumans and realising that the huge story she’s uncovering may not be the right sequel to her first big one. She needs to find out the truth, and fast.

I love the Uglies series. I love the world, the ideas behind the story, the characters, the feeling that reading the books gives me. However Extras was a little different from the first 3 and not particularly in a good way. Everything I loved about the previous books was still there, the way the world and society had made people behave a certain way. Only in this new world no-one was forcing anyone to do anything, you could get a pretty face, you could leave your own, if didn’t matter so much. However Aya’s character bugged me; she was childish and selfish and determined to get her own way. At the beginning of this book I really didn’t like her. She grew on me though, kinda like a small cousin who just won’t leave you alone, and by the end of the book I didn’t hate her anymore.

The way that Aya’s city worked, the kicks and things made me pose similarities between the world that we live in now and the world that Aya’s city was creating. Specials saw Tally wanting to keep an eye on things, making sure everyone didn’t go back to the way Rusties were and I could really see this in action in Aya’s city. Nana Love was just like our equivalent of Paris Hilton, or along similar lines, she was famous for nothing really and everyone cared about what she did and what she wore. I don’t really do the whole celebrity thing now, I had to try hard to even think of someone Nana Love would be the equivalent of, so I really didn’t like that, but I guess it makes you relate more to the fact that Aya’s city really was “brain-missing!” I was so connected to the similarities of Aya’s city to our world now that I didn’t even realise that it was Japan for a while, I just assumed it was the same kinda place that Tally lived! I can be a bit slow sometimes!! 

The idea at the end of Specials excited me and I had no idea where Scott Westerfeld was going to take the story. I could understand that leaving people to do what they wanted meant that they were offering a one-way ticket back to rusty times though so I was excited to see what kinda things Tally and David were going to be fighting against. I loved where the story went though, the way that people were using too many resources and expanding too much for the planet to handle. Also I loved the “inhumans” the descriptions of these things were so clear in my mind, and I like the way their surges have meaning, unlike the various ones taken on by the people in Diego (in Specials) and in Aya’s city.

I also loved the ending. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone so I won’t say any more! As I was getting to the end of Specials I thought that it was pretty much the end of the story. I couldn’t think of any more that could go on, but then when Tally and David did what they did I knew that there was a need for the story of the world’s future. Extras ending bring a future, a way for everything to carry on, but in a better way than Specials did, in a way that I’m happy knowing that that is the end, I’m fine with the story stopping there.  

I wish I owned these books. I love them so much but I only actually have the first. If I had them I would be thrusting them onto every person I know, instead I’m just bugging the hell out of everyone that will listen, telling them they must read the series as soon as possible!  I know I’m happy with where this story ends but I’m really not happy too because it’s over. However I know that I will go on to read more of Scott Westerfeld’s stuff, I love, and I am in awe of, his imagination and I know that anything I read of his will have that effect on me! 

children's names - literary influence

I have recently been thinking about babies names.... don't get me wrong I ain't pregnant, or really that broody. I have just been thinking about what people think about naming their kids after characters from books and other places such as that.
I've always said that if I have kids I will want to name them after characters in books. This kinda got thrown out when I fell in love with the name Natalia - Tali for short - I'd never read about a Natalia in a book, just knew one for a short while during college. However I then came across two of my favourite books. The Story Sisters and The Uglies series both have characters with similar names to what I want to call my girl if I have one... However if either Natalia from The Story Sisters or Tally from Uglies was an awful character I think I'd throw that name out the window with so many others I've thought about over the years (I'm a girl, I've been thinking about what to call imaginary children all my life, its one of the only girly things I do!)

Recently I've also fallen in love with the name Cloud because of my boyfriends love of Final Fantasy... I'm not that cruel though so Tali's middle name will be Cloud ;) I don't know why, if makes me think of white fluffy summer days in England, cos lets face it we rarely have cloudless days but they are still pretty! The mother in law wasn't too happy when I mentioned this though!

I'm yet to think of other names (I have my heart set on a girl first :P) but I was wondering what other people thought of it. To be honest, I wouldn't make it obvious - I bet there were plenty of Bella's and Edwards the years twilight movies/books came out - I don't even know whether I'd tell the kids where their names came from until they were old enough to read about the characters themselves and see what they thought. However I was intrigued to know if anyone else out there had called their children or plan to call their children names from books that they've loved, and if they have/will told/tell their children from a young age where their name comes from?

Sunday Confessions

Sunday Confessions is a weekly meme started by Marcie at to read or not to read  as a way to get to share a bit about herself and also learn more about her followers. Sometimes its about books and book related topics and sometimes it's not. Its open to everyone so please head over to Marice's blog and post the link to your Sunday Confession! 


This weeks question was: If you could be transported into any book, what book would it be?


This is a really interesting question. Its something I haven't thought about until I saw Marcie's post today. To be honest I would probably pick the same as Marcie, Harry Potter! The world that JK Rowling created was incredible but I don't know, there are many different atmospheres created in too many different books! 


Harry potter would be my first choice. However I also believe that after reading the Uglies series (up to book 3) I would love to be transported into that world, but only as a member of the smoke! Then of course there is the classic worlds you could be transported into, such as Narnia (although I haven't read the series so maybe that might be a bad one to suggest) or  the world that Orwell creates in 1984, that would be an amazing place to visit (note visit, I wouldn't want to stay!) Then I mean, there's also the place where The Jumblies live, in Edward Lear's poem of the same name, what I wouldn't give to visit the jumblies.... That is my all time favourite poem and I want to shake hands with those guys!! 


All in all I think my Sunday confession is this: Id want to do and around the worlds trip to all the worlds created in my favourite books. I'd want to witness the places that my favourite character's did for myself. I'm too picky to just pick one... but if you forced me... it would have to be Hogwarts any day! 

Kissing Kate - Lauren Myracle

It was just a kiss.

Kate and Lissa were best friends. Then one night last summer at a drunken, Kate leaned in to kiss Lissa, and Liss kissed her back. Now Kate is pretending Lissa doesn't exist. confused and alone, Lissa's left questioning everything she thought she knew about herself, and about life. But with the help of a new friend, Lissa is beginning to realize that sometimes falling in love with the wrong person is the only way to find your footing. 

First of all I have to give a very big thank you to Michelle over at Fluttering Butterflies for sending me this book. I wouldn't have gotten chance to read it for ages if she hadn't! Thanks Michelle, you are awesome! :D

Lissa’s got a lot going on. Her best friend, Kate, kissed her at a party and she didn’t pull away. They were both a part of it, they kissed each other, Lissa isn’t to blame. So why had they been avoiding each other for the past couple of weeks?

Kate was drunk when it happened, Lissa wasn’t. She wanted it to happen and was gutted when they were distracted by the guys. Does this mean she’s gay? Does this mean she and Kate can’t be friends anymore? Does this mean she’s a freak?

There a lot going around Lissa’s head throughout Kissing Kate. She was always a bit of a loner until she met Kate in seventh grade. Once she and Kate became friends they were inseparable, that is until the incident. Lissa finds herself with no-one to talk to, stuck with her own thoughts, until she reluctantly becomes friends with the “weird” girl of their year, Ariel, although of course her real name is Kimberley, that’s not weird at all!

I love this story. Lissa is obviously going through so much, there are questions she just can’t answer and she’s been stuck for too long thinking about things depending on what other people will think. Kissing Kate meant that she’d pulled herself away from “normality” but what is normal anyway!? I liked that you noticed the chance in Lissa so well, she was stuck in a mindset that so many teenagers are. Worrying too much about what other people would think and not doing what they want to do. The book called out to me and I totally related because I went through so many of the same thoughts and feelings when I was a teen!

When I read about this book I thought that Kate would be a more major character than she was. I thought that it would be all about Lissa and Kate and them skirting around what happened, purposely not talking about it. I was wrong, it was about Lissa and what happened to her when she kissed Kate, and what she had turned into by being friends with Kate. I loved that Lissa’s sister, Beth, was there to mirror the person that Lissa had become. Beth is turning into the girl who sees the material in everything; she says she wants a gold necklace because that’s what everyone else has but of course she actually wants a completely different necklace, which is the one she chooses in the end. I love that Beth overcame the pressure to care, but of course it’s easier at ten when all these things are new.

The characters really did make this book, they were so alive and you could picture them so well. It wasn’t just Lissa who was trying to figure her own stuff out, a lot of the characters were facing questions about who what they wanted, and it made them feel so real. Even though lesbianism is a major theme within the story, it wasn’t all about that to me. It was about questions and finding out who you are, whether those questions are about sexuality, careers, college choices, everything you face every day in your life. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, especially teens who oh so often finding themselves over thinking things! 

Mieradome - Kate O'Hegarty

Goodreads description: Mieradome pulls the reader into a unique fantasy world of faeries and technology, a different take on the Alice in Wonderland concept. The story revolves around a young girl named Amavia who believes she is a human girl, but slowly comes to find she is a faery in the world of Mieradome. Slowly who Amavia was began to unravel to show the truth; the truth that she just may be the evil they need to destroy. This is the first novel in a series, and gives a glimpse of what is to come for the main character Amavia.

Amavia is a 15 year old girl, living with her mother and step father in a very grand house. She finds herself drawn to the Grandmother Oak Tree in the garden. The tree turns out to be an opening into a new world, a faery world, where Amavia soon discovers she is actually a faery. The discovery leads to Amavia having to go back home and take The Light from her mother, who has died knowing that her daughter has ventured into such dangerous realms within the faery world.

 Amavia isn’t just any faery; she is the daughter of the Emperor and is the true heir to his kingdom. The news that she is alive causes problems for some people within the world of Mieradome especially those who would have been next in line to the throne as it were. Amavia finds herself in a situation that could be life threatening and needs to prove herself within Mieradome.

Mieradome was a bit of a slow read for me. As a 336 page book it wasn’t terribly long but it was an e-book which caused more problems than I expected and it was also a bit longwinded in places. I found myself having to go over bits that I had previously read just to ensure I had understood fully what was being said. It is definitely not a quick, easy read.

The storyline to Mieradome was amazing; the world was beautifully described and very well laid out. The descriptions of the world and its ‘people’ were exactly what you would expect for a book about a faery world. While it did remind me of Alice in Wonderland and Pan’s labyrinth as some reviews I’d checked out told me it would it also stood alone as a very special world. The characters were, in some cases, hard to relate to but in others they were great to get along with. The Captain for example was brilliantly funny, especially when you discover that his ship is called his “baby,” he’s the type of character that every book should have.

While the world created and the storyline of the book were fantastic, the characters proved a little more difficult for me. I was often thrown out by the author’s habit of telling the reader exactly what everyone was called, having been told the names of some leprechauns on one page towards the beginning and never seeing them again for example. I also thought that perhaps the story of Amavia herself wasn’t developed enough, I didn’t understand why she went into the world in the first place, this may have been my own fault if I missed something but I don’t think I would have been hanging around trees and following faeries into them at 15 unless I had good reason to. The beginning was very rocky for me, however once Amavia got into Mieradome for good, so did I.

 I think Mieradome was a brilliant story but undeveloped in places, and not brilliantly edited in others. I didn’t love it, it was hard to get into and the number of characters proved very confusing, however I wouldn’t say I hated it, it was a good read and I think it finished as a very good beginning to a series.  As a debut I believe that Kate O’Hegarty could build on this so well and with some tweaking she could have a fantastic series here.

Procrastination and e-books

I'm pretty familiar with procrastination. After 3 years at uni I am practically a master at it. Doing anything other than what I'm meant to be doing. I thought that after uni my procrastination would get better. I'd stop putting things off and just do them. I was so so wrong about that!
I now find myself putting off the most silly of things, the clothes washing, the washing up, the tea, visiting family, reading. Yeah I never thought I'd say that last one either! Procrastination has seriously hit me this week. I have a book from the author, its an e-book and it's well... you'll see my review when I finally finish it. I'm putting off reading it for two reasons, one its not thrilling me as much as I thought and I think its also because its an e-book. I seriously hate the feeling it's giving me because I love reading so much but I've done everything today other than read this book!
I have tried to read e-books before and always always put them down without finishing them. I don't know why but I just find them really hard to get into. I only have my iPhone, no kindle or Sony e-reader, and well its not the best for reading to be honest. Its frustrating to turn the pages and stuff because i usually read the last couple of words on a page while I'm turning it and I just cant do that now.
I think this is the reason this book seems to be taking forever to get through, I am not enjoying the format one bit, I was thinking about getting a e-reader next Christmas but now this is seriously putting me off! Has anyone else experienced this, or have any of you got e-readers which you love, if so why?

I'm going to go and force myself to get this book read and stop procrastinating. I will do it, and if you see me on twitter over the next couple of hours please feel free to shout at me! heh

Update: I finished the book, and the story and writing and stuff got so much better towards the end. When it got better I also started to not notice that it was an ebook... so maybe its the books I'm reading on my iphone rather than the actual Iphone itself. I think I'm gunna have to try a few more to make sure

A non-bookish post! Good Charlotte on the Kerrang Tour 2011 - Manchester Academy

So last night I went to Manchester Academy. I've been loads of times before but this was more special than ever because I was going to see my favourite band EVER!
I have seen Good Charlotte a couple of times before - once in 2007, Newcastle academy, and in 2008 in Sheffield. I got to meet the guys after the Sheffield gig and that has to be one of the best moments of my life!
I'll give you some background into my love for Good Charlotte. I was 12 and my favourite band was 5ive, yeah that's right, 5ive... *shudders*. One day I came across Kerrang TV, Avril Lavigne was on I believe so I kept it on, she wasn't too bad, a bit weird but OK. Then a band I'd never heard of came on- they looked pop-punky and were singing a song called Little Things. I fell in love right there and then but as their album wasn't in my local HMV I couldn't have it (the Internet was used for MSN Messenger only!) I took to watching Kerrang at ever opportunity in the hope of it coming on again. It rarely did.
That was the start of my musical education. Kerrang, teamed with a new friend at school who liked more alternative music than me, all the pop crap I used to listen to was forgotten.
Not long after this Good Charlotte released Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, their hit that everyone knows and remembers. The second album, The Young and the Hopeless came out and because everyone was talking about them my local HMV got the first album in too! I was so happy I had to buy them both.
This really did enforce my love of Good Charlotte, the albums were incredible! They have been my favourite band since then and no matter what anyone says Good Charlotte are the best band ever, to me. The do get slagged off a lot, there are a lot of haters out there, but try slagging them off to me and you will get a mouth full!

Anyway. Last night. The Kerrang tour 2011! There were four bands on the line up; The wonder years, Framing Hanley, Four Year Strong and obviously Good Charlotte. I knew of The Wonder Years before last night, one of my friends being a huge fan, but I'd never listened to them. Unfortunately we arrived as they were playing their penultimate song so I didn't get to hear that much. They sounded pretty decent though!
As for Framing Hanley, wow! I don't know how id never heard of this band, let alone heard their music before! They were awesome! The singer pulled at heart strings telling us that it was his sons first birthday but obviously he was on tour so we had to make the show awesome just to make up for him missing out! Bless him! I will be getting their albums as soon as I can because they were totally my kinda of thing, and yet again I found them through Kerrang!
Four Year Strong are kinda a band that I've heard of, and I've heard but never really listened to. I only knew one or two songs they played last night but seeing them live made me wanna actually listen to them more because they were really cool. They got the crowd going and built up the atmosphere for Good Charlotte.
However to be perfectly honest. Having 3 pretty cool bands on first was a plus point but they could have had Bieber on the line up and I still would have gone just so I could see Good Charlotte!
They came on stage to the intro from Cardiology. I;d tried not to see the set list from previous shows cos I didn't want anything ruining and when I heard the intro I thought that maybe they were just going to play the new stuff from that album. I love it but I always prefer to have a mix, especially as they have 5 other albums to take songs from! I didn't have to worry for too long though, the intro started, the huge GC banner was revealed, the crowd went crazy and they started up with The Anthem, from the second album.
It was amazing. They did well to mix the songs up, playing three songs from the new album mixed with "old shit" as Joel put it! (the full set list can be seen here.)
I was kinda annoyed that a lot of people didn't really appear to know the really old stuff. For example when Little Things was played only a few people shouted the "55!" after "we had to ride the bus." It appears on the album but Joel didn't sing it (or the other "shouts" that appear) instead he pointed the mic at the crowd and not many people shouted! I guess it could be because Little Things is from the first album and not everyone goes out for the back catalogue of a band they like! 
This annoyance cant get in the way of letting you know that Little Things obviously tops my favourite songs of all time list so I wasn't that bothered about people not joining in, I just loved that they played it! Also on that list is Riot Girl from the second album and I couldn't believe it when they kicked into that! I was in heaven! come on, with the lyrics "Christina, wouldn't wanna meet her, she hates you Britney so you better run for cover!" who couldn't love that song. I used to say when I was too young to have my tattoos that I;d be a riot girl one day and damn I'm pretty sure I got there for a while! 
haha) and they were as bloody amazing as I knew they'd be. They aren't my favourite band for nothing, so I urge you if you haven't before; GO LISTEN TO THEM! 

The 13 Treasures - Michelle Harrison

"An unpleasant laugh sounded from somewhere near the bed. Tanya felt herself being propelled forwards and before she knew what was happening she had turned a full somersault in the air, followed by another... and another. 
'Just stop it!' 
She heard the desperation in her voice and hated it. 
The somersaulting stopped and, finally, she landed on her feet - upside down on the ceiling. The curtains billowed weirdly in the breeze. She averted her eyes, trying to steady herself. It was like gravity had reversed for her only. The blood was not rushing to her head, her pyjamas were not falling upwards, and her hair was now tumbling down her back." 

Tanya often finds herself in sticky situations that she can’t explain. Being on the floor of her bedroom with the light fitting having come off the ceiling  and plaster all over the bedroom  is one example of these situations. Her mother finally snaps and sends her packing to live with her grandmother for a few weeks. Tanya has never felt wanted in her grandmothers house and the presence of the many fairies who live there too doesn’t help Tanya much either. Tanya can see the fairies, she has the second sight, and they are all too aware of this.

Tanya finds herself in the woods with Fabian, the son of the resident groundskeeper, one day and the come across someone unexpected. This meeting raises so many questions, especially after Tanya finds out about a girl who went missing 50 years ago who looks scarily familiar. The questions soon become theories and Tanya finds herself in a situation more alarmingly dangerous than ever before.

I cant remember the last time I read a  book where fairies adorn the pages. I often find myself watching movies with fairies, witches, mythical creatures but this facinastion rarely moves with me into my books. I more often than not choose books which are more realistic, even if they are future based sometimes, I don’t know why as I have never read a fantasy that I didn’t like!

The 13 Treasures falls into the list of fantasy books that I liked, in fact I loved it. The story keeps you on the edge, keeps you asking questions and making up theories. Tanya is such a likeable character, you feel sorry for her as the sticky situations are not really her fault. If they fey just left her alone then all would be fine. However if they did that then there wouldn't be a story to read at all and that wouldn’t be any fun! I think the passage that I took, above, from the book is exactly the point that I knew I wouldn't be able to put this book down. I could just see it, right there in my mind, whilst I was reading it

I loved the descriptions of the fairies within this book. I could vividly picture the shy hearthfay in the kitchen and the Mizhog that visits Tanya. In fact the description of everything within the book fascinated me, I could picture the woods, the house, the town nearby. However sometimes I had to keep reminding myself that it wasn't set in olden times and in the kitchen there was a microwave and washing machine!! That through me quite often but I still think I have a good picture of what things looked like.

Tanya as a character seemed to grow up very quickly within the pages of this book. At the beginning I could clearly see that she was just a 13 year old girl but by the end I had to remind myself that she was only 13. But I guess certain experiences would probably make you grow up pretty quickly!

I really loved The 13 Treasures, I hope like hell that the library have the next instalment in when I next go because I really want to know what happens next, however I like that this book can kind of stand alone. You’re not left with that many unanswered questions, there’s no cliff-hanger. For me there is just the knowledge that there is another book in the series and my love for this one will get me to scour it out as soon as possible! 

Unique - Alison Allen-Gray

"I know the big secret now.
The thing nobody wanted me to find out.
I'm not an only child. There was someone before me. My Brother. He was everything I'm not. Clever. Funny. Loved. But he's gone.


Now I cant believe a word they say.
Got to get away. 
They're after me.
They want me to be like him. 
Before they find me, I have to find the truth.... 
The whole truth." 

In Unique we are introduced to Dominic as he finds out he has, or had, a brother. He is confused because his parents never told him about this bother and he goes off on a journey to try and find out more about him and the reasoning for their parents keeping 21 years of their lives so quiet.

His journey takes him to places and ideas that he never thought were possible, people who know who he is just by looking at him although he was certain that he’d never seen them in his life. What he finds is confusing and complex but also, he realises, reasoning for why his father seemed to hate him and wanted him to be completely different and for why his mother seemed to drink her way through life.

I didn’t know what to expect when I picked up Unique. The cover intrigued me and when I read the back I thought it sounded pretty cool. However I wasn’t expecting what happened, the story gripped me and I was so keen to know who Dominic's brother was and how come no one had told him anything about his brother that I couldn't really put the book down!

The story is complex and brilliant, however I didn’t like the writing style in some places, I thought it kind of made Dominic sound like a little boy rather than a 15 year old guy, but you can’t have everything. I guess I got over this pretty quickly though because the story isn’t so much about Dominic but about how he came to be. I picked this book up in the library knowing it was going to be a quick read and it was but that didn’t mean it didn’t excite me. The book was first published in 2004 and, with it being set in 2017, you can kind of tell its age but it was still really good and I’ll be looking out for more by Alison Allen-Gray as I think, from just this book, she creates a brilliant plot line. 

Specials - Scott Westerfeld

"As she moved, Tally found it was easier to dance, going with the crowd's motion rather than forcing a path through it. she allowed herself to be pushed randomly through the throng, like when she let high wind current guide her hoverboard, imagining herself a bird of prey.
Closing her eyes, Tally drank the bash in through her other sense. Maybe this was what being special was really about; dancing along with the rest of them, while feeling like the only real person in the crowd..."

**This review may contain spoilers of the previous books in the series, Uglies & Pretties, Sorry about this but its virtually impossible to prevent!**

Tally Youngblood has been through a lot. Wanting to become a pretty led her to the wild and that changed her mind. Until she had no choice but to become a pretty. Then escaping the pretty world led her to a dangerous place, a capture and a force into becoming something scarier; a Special. Specials picks up the Uglies series here. Tally has just become a “cutter,” a special special, a dangerous weapon for special circumstance.

Specials finds Tally making difficult decisions, wanting everything but realising its so hard to get what you want, and sometimes its just not possible. Tally faces more danger than ever before, more life changing decisions to be made, more gut feelings that just don’t make much sense to her.

I love this series, I'm not gunna deny that. I am obsessed with this series. I think its amazing and the characters are just so real. Tally is a normal confused sixteen year old, not helped by the fact she's had alterations to her brain! Specials brought Tally even closer as a character. I really felt what she was going through and I couldn't believe that crying just wasn’t in her. This book also featured the first actual hate of the series. I wont go into much detail but there is one character I cannot stand at all. I think that they are awful, even when they become cured. I think the cutters were meant for you not to like them, I really didn't feel that connected to the cutters, feeling more connected to Tally when she was fighting against the thoughts that came with being a cutter and feeling sorry for her when she was stuck inside the feelings.

I loved the ending to this book too, it came as a shock a bit. I liked it though, I like how it shows how strong Tally is. Specials also tells us what the time frame is, kind of. I liked that its in the future and you can see how “our world” failed and how things changed but I didn’t want it to be too far into the future. I was happy when I read the time period.

I recommend this series to everyone I talk to. I love the characters, the world, the technology (even if its not used for good sometimes!) and the way its written. I was going to start Extras straight away but I don’t want to finish the series yet! I'll have to read it soon though! I'll definitely be picking up more from Scott Westerfeld once I've finished the series too! 

So it's Friday...

Friday for me means two things; one its the end of the working week (wahoo!!!) and two it's time for #Fridayreads on twitter..
Friday reads is a weekly meme which was started by Bethanne Patrick (or @thebookmaven) in which everyone posts what they're reading with the Friday reads hashtag. I've been doing this for about 5 months now and since new year the number of participants hit 5000. That's 5000 people sharing their love for books! That's awesome!
I encourage EVERYONE to join in, it's fun and you get to nosey at what other people are reading throughout the world. There is a top ten reads lists published every week too so you can see what's really popular. However this week you have an even better reason to join in than usual, everyone who joins in is going to receive a free copy of The Friday Reads Modern Love Anthology for Book Lovers. Its a pretty little anthology which some really great sounding stories in it (I haven't had chance to read my copy yet!) So please... go join in! its fun and only takes a couple of minutes! :D

Matched - Ally Condie

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, he is determined to make some choices of her own. 

And that's when her whole world begins to unravel. 

*This review may contain some slight spoilers*

Cassia gets her match on the day of her seventeenth birthday. She panics when the screen goes dark and stays dark; it means her match is in the same banquet as she is. It means she might know him. The panic quickly fades when the boy who is announced as her match is her best friend, Xander. No one could be happier than their families, the relief that they know who their children are matched with and how happy they should be. Cassia herself is excited and happy that she is paired with someone she already loves, her match is perfect.

Then, when Cassia goes to view Xanders microcard, telling her all there is to know about the matching process and Xander himself, something happens. Xanders face is there looking out at her from the portscreen, then all of a sudden it goes and is replaced by another boys face; another boy she’s not allowed to have. 

As the days go by Cassia finds herself around the forbidden boy more and more, finding out too much about his life, getting to know him too well, growing more and more interested in him.

Matched is a story of forbidden love. In a society that tells you your job, your partner, how many children to have, where to live and even when to die, it’s not difficult to find yourself in situations that are forbidden if you’re not careful.

The world is set in our future, you can see pieces of our present day world within this one – it’s closer to our world than many of the other dystopian novels I’ve read recently but I think this is one reason why I wasn’t keen. I couldn't pinpoint what had happened for the world to change to how it is in Cassia’s time. I guess the world also really annoyed me because they had the stuff from the past; books, poems, paintings, music, things that make us human, but they weren’t allowed and as far as I could tell this was just so that everyone was uniform, it was like people were just robots.

I also didn't like the way Cassia falls for Ky, her forbidden love, it seemed kind of forced. She had just found out that she was matched with Xander and already loved him but then as soon as she saw Ky’s face she was in love with him. I guess it probably caught her off guard as she didn’t really expect to be matched with Xander but I think there is more to the fact Ky’s face appeared than the story lets on, maybe something we’ll find out about in the next book…

I’m not going to focus on the negatives too much. There was a lot I liked about Matched; I liked the characters, the way they were flowed so well together. Cassia’s family especially, I liked her grandfather especially, and the way her parents do just seem so perfect for each other.

I also liked the way that people seemed to be aware of what was going on around them, and how its not right, things are wrong with the way the officials run the world but its better than what could be happening so people let the officials do what they ‘need to’.

Matched is really well written and you do get a feel for the characters. The love that Cassia’s father and mother have for each other really comes through even though there’s nothing from their perspective. The families too appear to be so well put together even though the people are practically forced to be together. They are, usually, matched correctly. However Matched didn’t excite me as much as I hoped, towards the end things got a lot better for me but then the very last chapter kind of disappointed me. I preferred the ending of the one before! I often think a good book is one where you lose time just because you’re reading and you can lose yourself within the pages and unfortunately Matched didn’t really do that for me. I will probably keep an eye out for Crossed, the second book, later this year but I doubt I’ll be running out for it on release day, Matched didn’t excite me enough for that! 

Entangled - Cat Clarke

"I met Ethan the night I was planning to kill myself. Pretty Inconvenient, when you think about it.
 The same questions whirl round and round in my head:

What does he want from me? 

How could I let this happen? 

AM I GOING TO DIE? (thats my particular favourite.)

This isn't quite how I planned it. And I do like things to go to plan.


These are the first few lines which had me mesmerised with Entangled

Grace is a mess. She doesn't know where she is or how she got there. She only knows that Ethan is there too and keeps bringing food to her in the white room with boarded windows and a writing desk that she's stuck in.
I love the idea of this book - the way you are completely engrossed inside Graces head; you feel what she feels, you want to know what she wants to know: how did she get there, who is Ethan? and also you want to know the things she's keeping back at first: What happened between her and Sal and why oh why did she want to kill herself in the first place?!
The book was so frustrating for me, I wanted, no needed, to know what was had happened. There was so many questions and theories buzzing round my head and I couldn't read fast enough! I wanted to just sit there and read through the whole thing but Id get interrupted or I would have to do something else and I'd get annoyed with myself cos I just wanted to get back to the book!
I love how Grace's character seems so real. As I say you feel what she feels and you get to see exactly who she is. As you're stuck with her while she's going through all of her experiences and she's being completely true to herself she can't lie to you. You know she's played around with a lot of guys, she is definitely no angel, and she says VERY stupid things at inappropriate times but you cant help wanting her to get out of the room, to escape from her torment.
I love it when books really make you think and Entangled does this so well. I'd be sat there with some theory and all of a sudden something would happen to scupper it completely and I'd be so annoyed trying to come up with another theory that matches what had just happened.
My theory about the ending came at what I think was exactly the right time but it wasn't fully formed until the very last chapter. Even with that theory intact, and correct, Entangled really kept my focus right until the very last word just as any good book should.

British Book Challenge

I heard about the Bookette's British Book Challenge (BBC hehe) on Monday, having only seen her blog recently and not noticing the icon at the side of it! I was gutted when I realised, on Tuesday, that the challenge sign up was meant to be over.
However, earlier today on twitter she asked if she should keep the challenge open for a few more days. Naturally I said yes as I stupidly didn't read the post until Tuesday and I believe a few more people said the same as she has kept the challenge open until Sunday. For this I am grateful to you, Becky, thank you!!

So as I am obviously a UK girl, I will be trying to complete the Home grown category. This means I will be reading 12 books by British authors right now I'm not sure which books I will read. I am currently reading Entangled by Cat Clarke so that will count as my first one. I have read Neil Gaiman's Preludes and Nocturnes and Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch this year but I am going to run my challenge from the day I sign up; Today.

I am hoping to read the CS Lewis Narnia collection this year (which I may treat as one huge book rather than a collection) so that will contribute and Sarra Manning's new book You Don't Have to Say You Love Me as soon as I can afford it. Other than these I am not sure what else I will be reading but I will be sure to update this post as soon as I do know!


1. Entangled - Cat Clarke. Review here
2. Unique - Alison Allen-Gray, review here
3. The 13 Treasures - Michelle Harrison, review here

Dear Mr Potter

I wont be posting or reading much this week. I am working on an amazing project that I found through tumblr called Dear Mr Potter.
Dear Mr Potter is a project that a girl named Lily started, she asked people to send letters addressed to Mr Potter explaining how he changed their lives. There's some amazing stories and the best, most heartfelt, ones will be posted together in a book which will be coming out in the summer. The book will be 100% non-profit and all money will go to the Harry Potter Alliance, which is a great human rights charity that you should all check out!
I am proud to be a part of this project but there are A LOT of posts to go through and I need to get my part of the job done by Saturday, it's taking longer than I thought what with work and stuff! Anyway I still love that I get to be a part of something that will benefit a charity and mix it with Harry Potter which is something I love!
If you want more info on the project check out dearmrpotter.org and if you want more info on the HPA please visit http://thehpalliance.org/