Book Review | 100 Days of Sunlight by Abbie Emmons

Title: 100 Days of Sunlight
Author: Abbie Emmons
Publication Date: 7th August 2019
Format: Ebook via Netgalley
Target Audience: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary

Goodreads | Amazon.co.uk | Waterstones

Synopsis  

When 16-year-old poetry blogger Tessa Dickinson is involved in a car accident and loses her eyesight for 100 days, she feels like her whole world has been turned upside-down.

Terrified that her vision might never return, Tessa feels like she has nothing left to be happy about. But when her grandparents place an ad in the local newspaper looking for a typist to help Tessa continue writing and blogging, an unlikely answer knocks at their door: Weston Ludovico, a boy her age with bright eyes, an optimistic smile…and no legs.

Knowing how angry and afraid Tessa is feeling, Weston thinks he can help her. But he has one condition — no one can tell Tessa about his disability. And because she can’t see him, she treats him with contempt: screaming at him to get out of her house and never come back. But for Weston, it’s the most amazing feeling: to be treated like a normal person, not just a sob story. So he comes back. Again and again and again.

Tessa spurns Weston’s “obnoxious optimism”, convinced that he has no idea what she’s going through. But Weston knows exactly how she feels and reaches into her darkness to show her that there is more than one way to experience the world. As Tessa grows closer to Weston, she finds it harder and harder to imagine life without him — and Weston can’t imagine life without her. But he still hasn’t told her the truth, and when Tessa’s sight returns he’ll have to make the hardest decision of his life: vanish from Tessa’s world…or overcome his fear of being seen.

Rating

 

Down the TBR Hole #1

Welcome to a new weekly meme! I've been reading plenty of these type of posts on blogs for a while now and it struck me the other day when I was looking on Goodreads that I have a ridiculous amount of books on my TBR shelf. Ever since I joined Goodreads in 2009 I've just been constantly adding any books that sound even mildly interesting to me and now I have 3915 books on there *hides*. Nobody needs that amount of books on their TBR shelf so i'm gonna do a little bit of spring cleaning (or fall cleaning...) and get rid of the books that, let's face it, i'm not gonna get around to reading anytime soon.

The rules   

1. Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
2. Order on ascending date added.
3. Take the first 5 (or 10 (or even more!) if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
4. Read the synopses of the books
5. Decide: keep it or should it go?

Book Review | No Exit by Taylor Adams

Title: No Exit
Author: Taylor Adams
Publication Date: 17th June 2017 by Joffe Books
Format: Ebook via Kindle Unlimited
Target Audience: Adult
Genre: Thriller
Goodreads | Amazon.co.uk | Barnes & Noble (US)

Synopsis 

On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado. With the roads impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop. Inside are some vending machines, a coffee maker, and four complete strangers.

Desperate to find a signal to call home, Darby goes back out into the storm . . . and makes a horrifying discovery. In the back of the van parked next to her car, a little girl is locked in an animal crate.

Who is the child? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her?

There is no cell phone reception, no telephone, and no way out. One of her fellow travelers is a kidnapper. But which one?

Trapped in an increasingly dangerous situation, with a child’s life and her own on the line, Darby must find a way to break the girl out of the van and escape.

But who can she trust?

Trigger and content warnings: Child abuse, graphic violence, torture, on page death, references to sex trafficking and pedophilia.

                  Rating

My Thoughts

 

"The difference between a hero and a victim? Timing."

Taylor Adams has created a really intense, action packed thriller. I'm actually quite picky when it comes to my thrillers, I nearly always find something that lessens my rating. And whilst this book wasn't perfect it's still one of my favourite thrillers that i've read in recent years because of how intrigued I was by how the plot played out.

This book follows Darby, a college student on her way home for christmas and racing back to see her dying mother. The story kicks off as she's stranded at a rest stop in the middle of a snowstorm with four complete strangers and whilst in the parking lot she discovers a kidnapped child in the back of a van. She has to survive for the next nine hours with no outside help, not only is she trying to help the child escape but she has to ensure she stays one step ahead of the kidnapper at all times. 

The synopsis of this book is what drew me in. I love books that take place in isolated settings and books that take place over the course of 24 hours or less and these two factors really helped to create that tense atmosphere and raise the stakes to a 100. The intensity builds and builds the further on you read and I could feel myself getting more and more anxious which is probably why I raced through the last third of this book. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep unless I knew how these events would culminate. The story unfolded perfectly for me, Adams gets the pacing just right. Every reveal is carefully planned out but the building suspense keeps you flicking the page until you've practically read the entire book.

The twists and turns are executed really well, some I was able to predict but then there were others that I didn't see coming at all. There were times where I had to stop reading just to pause and say Holy Shit! There was a reveal towards the end (I won't spoil!) that whilst it made sense in terms of plot and everything I couldn't help feel that it was too conveniant and I just wanted a little more explanation behind it. 

The characters are all really well written. I connected with Darby almost immediately, she's a reluctant leader of the ragtag group but she has so much fight and grit within her that I was rooting for her every step of the way. 'A kidnapped little girl locked in a stranger’s van. No help for miles. What would you do?'. Personally I have no idea how I would approach this situation but Darby doesn't even hesitate to do what she knows is right and fights to the bitter end to protect that child. The secondary characters are all well thought out and all play a significant role in this game of cat and mouse although some did become a little cliche occasionally.

"Don't fear the pros. The pros know what they're doing, and do it cleanly. Fear the amateurs."  

I think what bumped this down to a four stars is probably the logic behind some of the actions the characters take. Without revealing any major spoilers, there were times when Darby left important objects in places she definitely shoudn't have when in the middle of a kidnap plot. It's easy to say that she got distracted by everything going on but I just felt that she would have been on high alert and wouldn't have made such silly mistakes especially when a kid's life is on the line. There's also a small subplot involving the kidnapped girl that I just felt didn't make sense at all and was merely there to add extra drama to the whole thing and increase the stakes. They're only minor things but it did mean I took off a star from my rating as it did lessen my enjoyment ever so slightly.

Overall, this is an author I definitely want to read more from in the future. This was such a quick read and I did really enjoy my time reading it. It's a clever premise with great execution and plot twists that you won't see coming. I will say that if you're not a fan of really gory scenes then maybe take some caution going into this one as some parts did tend to get a bit gruesome!       

WWW Wednesday | 09/09/2020

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Taking on a World of Words that highlights three questions:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

What did you recently finish reading?

I finished 100 Days of Sunlight by Abbie Emmons over the weekend but unfortunately this wasn't a book for me. I found the main characters annoying and the writing/dialogue could've done with some more editing. It's a cute romance with two disabled MC's and I think someone else could enjoy this a lot more than I did. My full review will be up on Monday so look out for that!

What are you currently reading?

I've just started Gone Girl and I'm only about 50 pages in but I'm already loving Gillian Flynn's style of writing. It's also a lot more fast paced than I was expecting it to be, I thought it was one that I was going to have to take my time with. I don't actually know too much about the plot other than the basics and I think I've done a pretty good job of avoiding spoilers for both the book and the film!

 

I'm also currently reading The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold and I'm actually really enjoying this. If you're looking for a book that details the murders then this is definitely not it, as this explores the lives of the women leading up to the murders instead. Whilst this may not sound as interesting as the true crime aspect, Rubenhold has a flair for the narrative and I'm struggling to put this book down.

 
Lastly, I'm about halfway through the audiobook of Tris's Book (Circle of Magic #2) which I'm still finding engaging. I'm hoping to be able to finish this one by the end of this weekend.

What do you think you'll read next?

I'm going to be picking up Sister Noon by Karen Joy Fowler after Gone Girl. I haven't read some historical fiction for a while so I'm hoping this will be a fun read.

San Francisco in the 1890s is a town of contradictions, home to a respectable middle class, but with the Wild West lingering in the imagination, and even the behaviour, of some residents. Lizzie Hayes, a seemingly docile, middle-aged spinster, is praised for her volunteer work with the Ladies' Relief and Protection Society Home, or the Brown Ark. She doesn't know it, but she's waiting for the spark that will liberate her from convention.

When the wealthy and well-connected but ill-reputed Mary Ellen Pleasant shows up at the Brown Ark with an orphan in tow, Lizzie is drawn to them both. It is the beautiful Mrs Pleasant, object of suspicion because of her mysterious past and rumoured voodoo practise, who holds the key to freeing Lizzie's rebellious nature.

Have you read any of these? What were your thoughts? What are you currently reading and hoping to pick up next? Leave a comment or link your own WWW Wednesdays below for me to check out!

Top Ten Tuesday | Books I Wish I'd Read When I Was Younger

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature that highlights ten books that all relate to a certain topic and is  hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

This Weeks Topic Is... 

Books I Wish I'd Read When I Was Younger and compiling this list made me realise how many 'popular' book series I actually missed out on reading. These are mostly books that I probably would have read when I was between 10-14 but for some reason they just weren't on my radar back then. I don't remember many of my friends being as big of readers as I was and there was no Goodreads to be able to see what everyone else was reading. There may have been some cultural differences as well, I know a lot of these books were popular with kids in the US but I'm not sure if the same could be said in the UK. If I could go back in time then I think these ten series would be the ones I'd actively be seeking out to read.

Book Tag | Dreamy Book Covers Tag 2020 Edition

I love doing book tags but I often feel like I'm limited on what books I can use for different prompts as I definitely haven't read as many books as some people and therefore I sometimes end up repeating books in different tags. But a quick google search found me a masterlist of different book tags and this one caught my eye as it's an opportunity to highlight some of my favourite book covers. I also decided to do this tag as a 2020 edition so all of the books I've featured are 2020 releases. So, this is the Dreamy Book Covers tag created by Tiana @ The Book Raven!

 "No Ideas But In Things"

a book cover that perfectly expresses the novel inside it 

 

Ok, so I haven't actually read Sisters of Sword and Song by Rebecca Ross yet but for me this book cover just screams YA fantasy. I love the mirrored images and the subtle differences between them which really reflects that this book is about sisters and from the illustrations, I think we can expect plenty of action and intrigue.

 After eight long years, Evadne will finally be reunited with her older sister, Halcyon, who has been proudly serving in the queen’s army. But when Halcyon appears earlier than expected, Eva knows something has gone terribly wrong. Halcyon is on the run, hunted by her commander and charged with murder.

Though Halcyon’s life is spared during her trial, the punishment is heavy. And when Eva volunteers to serve part of Halcyon’s sentence, she’s determined to find out exactly what happened. But as Eva begins her sentence, she quickly learns that there are fates much worse than death.

"Dark and Lovely"  

a book cover that is so creepily delicious

I can't tell you how excited I am for this book. Horrid by Katrina Leno is one of my most anticipated books of the year and the cover is just giving me all the spine chilling vibes. There's something quite disturbing about the image and I knew straight away just from looking at the cover that this was going straight on my October TBR. I'm actually looking into buying the September OwlCrate box which is going to feature this book so fingers crossed I can nab myself one.

Following her father's death, Jane North-Robinson and her mom move from sunny California to the dreary, dilapidated old house in Maine where her mother grew up. All they want is a fresh start, but behind North Manor's doors lurks a history that leaves them feeling more alone...and more tormented.

As the cold New England autumn arrives, and Jane settles in to her new home, she finds solace in old books and memories of her dad. She steadily begins making new friends, but also faces bullying from the resident "bad seed," struggling to tamp down her own worst nature in response. Jane's mom also seems to be spiraling with the return of her childhood home, but she won't reveal why. Then Jane discovers that the "storage room" her mom has kept locked isn't for storage at all--it's a little girl's bedroom, left untouched for years and not quite as empty of inhabitants as it appears....  

"Sugary Sweet"

 a cute cover that is so fluffy you want to give it a hug

The Falling In Love Montage by Ciara Smyth sounds like it would've been the perfect summery rom-com read but alas I might have to save it for next year instead. From the synopsis it sounds absolutely adorable and the front cover is giving me major summer romance vibes with the carnival background and the pink and orange hues.

Saoirse doesn’t believe in love at first sight or happy endings. If they were real, her mother would still be able to remember her name and not in a care home with early onset dementia. A condition that Saoirse may one day turn out to have inherited. So she’s not looking for a relationship. She doesn’t see the point in igniting any romantic sparks if she’s bound to burn out.

But after a chance encounter at an end-of-term house party, Saoirse is about to break her own rules. For a girl with one blue freckle, an irresistible sense of mischief, and a passion for rom-coms.

Unbothered by Saoirse’s no-relationships rulebook, Ruby proposes a loophole: They don’t need true love to have one summer of fun, complete with every cliché, rom-com montage-worthy date they can dream up—and a binding agreement to end their romance come fall. It would be the perfect plan, if they weren’t forgetting one thing about the Falling in Love Montage: when it’s over, the characters actually fall in love… for real.

"The Simple Aesthetic"

a book cover that stuns with the most minimalistic of design

 

Apparently minimilism is not a big trend when it comes to 2020 book covers cause I can tell ya, I struggled with finding a book cover that fit this prompt. In the end I settled on The Circus Rose by Betsy Cornwell although I'm still not 100% sure that this counts as minimilism but it's the closest we're gonna get! I hadn't heard of this book but apparently it's a retelling of Snow White and Rose Red and you know I can't resist a fairytale retelling. I'm especially intrigued by the circus and bear images on the front cover with the bonus points of it being queer as well!

Twins Rosie and Ivory have grown up at their ringmaster mother’s knee, and after years on the road, they’re returning to Port End, the closest place to home they know. Yet something has changed in the bustling city: fundamentalist flyers paper the walls and preachers fill the squares, warning of shadows falling over the land. The circus prepares a triumphant homecoming show, full of lights and spectacle that could chase away even the darkest shadow. But during Rosie’s tightrope act, disaster strikes.

In this lush, sensuous novel interwoven with themes of social justice and found family, it’s up to Ivory and her magician love—with the help of a dancing bear—to track down an evil priest and save their circus family before it’s too late. 

"Cover Envy"

a book cover that you wish you had on your shelves but don't yet

 

Apart from all the rave reviews this book has been getting, I've also been coveting it because of how much I love the cover. I adore the colour scheme and even though it's simplistic, it's still really eye-catching. I'm also completely obsessed with that dress. This is one i'll hopefully be adding to my shelves sooner rather than later.

After receiving a frantic letter from her newlywed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find - her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.

Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.    

"Traveling Abroad"

a beautiful book cover featuring a country outside of your own

 

This is another one that I can't wait to pick up and read. The plot sounds so unique and interesting in The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin, and it's something I've never discovered in a book before. The basic premise is that the city of New York is alive and the five boroughs are embodied in five different people. These five people must come together to defeat an evil entity before it's too late. Tell me that doesn't sound amazing? I'm also thrilled that this sounds like it'll be a series that focuses on a different city for each book as well.

Every city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She's got five.

But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs beneath the earth, threatening to destroy the city and her five protectors unless they can come together and stop it once and for all.

"The Colour Wheel"

A cover that showcases one of your favourite colours

 

I couldn't decide what colour I wanted to highlight for this prompt so I decided to go with one of the most beautiful and brightest covers I could find. I love the design style for The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune, it's so fun and creative and quirky all at the same time. That perfectly describes the book as well by the sounds of it as there's everything from gnomes to the Antichrist in this one.

Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.

When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.

But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.  

 

"Switching Gears"

a cover change that you hate

 

Originally this prompt was to highlight a book cover change that you love but I couldn't find any 2020 redesigns that I loved so instead I chose A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas as I really don't like what they've done with the new covers. They're not completely terrible but I just feel like they've regressed rather than improved on these covers. If I had to make the choice I'd much rather own the original editions than the newer ones.   

Feyre's survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price ...

Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever. 

"Oldie but Goodie"  

A favourite cover of a favourite classic

 

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll has always been one of my favourite classics and there have been so many wonderful covers over the years. I'm lucky enough to own the MinaLima cover but I'd also love to own this gorgeous version as well (we'll ignore the fact that it might possibly be a children's simplified version!).

On a drowsy afternoon by a riverbank, a young and distracted Alice follows a rabbit into a fantastical underground world that grows curiouser and curiouser. Dared, insulted, amused, and threatened by a succession of anthropomorphic creatures, the indomitable Alice falls deeper into a swirl of the imagination where logic has no place.

I love all of these covers but I think my favourite of the bunch has to be Horrid by Katrina Leno!

Are any of these covers in your favourites? Which covers have been your favourites of 2020? Let me know in the comments and happy reading!

Book Review | The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf

Title: The Weight of Our Sky  
Author: Hanna Alkaf
Publication Date: 5th February 2019 by Salaam Reads
Format: Ebook via Scribd
Target Audience: Young Adult
Genre: Historical
Goodreads | Amazon | Waterstones (Pre-Order)

Synopsis

Melati Ahmad looks like your typical moviegoing, Beatles-obsessed sixteen-year-old. Unlike most other sixteen-year-olds though, Mel also believes that she harbors a djinn inside her, one who threatens her with horrific images of her mother’s death unless she adheres to an elaborate ritual of counting and tapping to keep him satisfied.

But there are things that Melati can't protect her mother from. On the evening of May 13th, 1969, racial tensions in her home city of Kuala Lumpur boil over. The Chinese and Malays are at war, and Mel and her mother become separated by a city in flames.

With a 24-hour curfew in place and all lines of communication down, it will take the help of a Chinese boy named Vincent and all of the courage and grit in Melati’s arsenal to overcome the violence on the streets, her own prejudices, and her djinn’s surging power to make it back to the one person she can’t risk losing.

Trigger and content warnings: OCD, anxiety, graphic violence, on page death, and strong racism. 

Rating

WWW Wednesday | 02/09/2020

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Taking on a World of Words that highlights three questions:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

What did you recently finish reading?

I finished Pet Semetary by Stephen King on Monday and wow, what a read! I didn't have a solid grasp on what this book was about other than what the title suggests and it's definitely better to go into this one blind. I really like how Stephen King builds up his stories, he includes a lot of backstory for the first half and then really builds up the tension for the last 100 or so pages. It was a really tense read and I'm looking forward to reading more of his books as this was only my third to date.

What are you currently reading?

I'm about 23% into No Exit by Taylor Adams and I think i'm already hooked. This is one that a lot of people really enjoyed and I was really in the mood for a thriller as we enter the autumn months. This is about a college student who gets stranded at a rest stop in the middle of a snowstorm and finds a kidnapped child in the back of a car in the parking lot. I'm expecting plenty of twists and growing tension with this one!

I've also just started listening to Tris's Book (Circle of Magic #2) on Scribd and so far I'm really enjoying this fantasy middle grade series. Tris was my favourite character in the first book so I'm excited to learn more about her and her backstory. I will say that it threw me off slightly that they've changed some of the voice actors but I'll probably get used to it after a while.

What do you think you'll read next?

I'm picking up Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini as my next physical read. I've had this book for 5+ years and although my reading tastes have changed slightly as I've moved into my twenties, I'm still willing to give this a go. This a YA romance with greek mythology mixed into it so I am intrigued.

Helen Hamilton has spent her entire sixteen years trying to hide how different she is - no easy task on an island as small and sheltered as Nantucket. And it's getting harder. Nightmares of a desperate desert journey have Helen waking parched, only to find her sheets damaged by dirt and dust. At school she's haunted by hallucinations of three women weeping tears of blood... and when Helen first crosses paths with Lucas Delos, she has no way of knowing they're destined to play the leading roles in a tragedy the Fates insist on repeating throughout history.

As Helen unlocks the secrets of her ancestry, she realizes that some myths are more than just legend. But even demigod powers might not be enough to defy the forces that are both drawing her and Lucas together - and trying to tear them apart.

Have you read any of these? What were your thoughts? What are you currently reading and hoping to pick up next? Leave a comment or link your own WWW Wednesdays below for me to check out!