oh myy, one my favourite books I've read so far!!! im just going to copy and paste random notes I wrote as I read -
I love how it makes u think about the stuff u write/feel - even though its not in songwriting, even just ranting to urself, writing in your notes, writing little descriptive pieces all comes from some inspiration in your life but even then sometimes it doesn’t have to be that deep. Like Reid says - “art doesn’t owe anything to anyone” hmm interesting about the whole Billie, Camila and Gary Egan situation - she was gone for lunch with him for 4 hours yet Billie and Camila didn’t have an open discussion about it bc “all of that wasn’t my business”, “when you really love someone, sometimes the things they need may hurt you, and some people are worth hurting for” - this is why they didn’t discuss daisy either. “i trust you so much i can tolerate you having secrets” - I wonder - is this trust or blindness? buttt love how Billie brings it back and basically says “you remind yourself how lucky you are to have been given that trust” and when there are moments where you are tempted to break that trust, you go to Disneyland Really, really enjoyed the dynamic between Daisy and Billie - they hate each other but work so well with each other, they have this connection and undeniable chemistry that is unmatched to anyone else, yet so obvious to everyone around them. It's funny how Camila says “i know that he loves you [Daisy]” yet talks to Daisy openly about the situation and explains her point of view. Love the Camila and Daisy confrontation paralleled with Billie’s situation at the bar and his drink of tequila. “Passion is...it's fire. And fire is great, man. But we're made of water. Water is how we keep living. Water is what we need to survive.” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ coming out of bookland, alice xx Looking for "Daisy Jones and The Six" ? Find it here! https://www.dymocks.com.au/book/daisy-jones-and-the-six-by-taylor-jenkins-reid-9781787462144 https://www.bigw.com.au/product/daisy-jones-and-the-six-by-taylor-jenkins-reid/p/95307
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WOW, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was another booktok/booktube recommend for me but def lived up to the hype.
First, I absolutely loved the writing style of Reid - how realistic these characters are and the switching between the first person perspective of Evelyn Hugo's story and the interview between Evelyn and Monique Grant. It was so seamlessly done, it made for such a smooth read (I was able to finish the book in one day!). Her writing was so succinct and clear, I am definitely keen to read more of her other works. On the other hand however, I did find the character of Monique to be a bit stuffy at times - even to the point of whinging but hey, I'm not complaining. With no idea what the book was about before reading it, I was pleasantly surprised with plot and how character-driven it was. I especially loved how Reid explores the different types of love through the relationships within the novel - I think the relationship that touched me the most was Harry and Evelyn just because of the raw and genuine love between them, even if it wasn't romantic at all. This allowed me to reflect on my own personal relationships, both platonic and romantic, which I found very enriching and eye-opening. Also not to mention Monique's father and mother - I loved how Reid sheds such a different light on romantic relationships, how the mutual respect and love was enough to sustain it. As the audience, we gain such an intimate insight into the life of the stunning beautiful and mysterious Evelyn Hugo and watch as she uses her sexuality and manipulation to make a name for herself in a tumultuous and power-driven society. I felt as though Evelyn was my personal friend because of the way Reid writes, as she reveals the flaws of individuals and how we mature and grow old, we discover our core values and what truly matters to us. I definitely want to give this a second read some time later in the year, just because I think there's so many small details I missed when reading it this time round. I've never read a book written in the format and style such as this so I was pleasantly surprised and can't wait to read more of Reid's work!! “Never let anyone make you feel ordinary.” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ coming out of bookland, alice xx Looking for "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" ? Find it here! https://www.dymocks.com.au/book/the-seven-husbands-of-evelyn-hugo-by-taylor-jenkins-reid-9781761102943 TW domestic abuse, assault
It Ends With Us. I'm sure a lot of you guys have heard about this book - just from all the attention its been gaining from social media and my curiosity got the better of me so I decided to get myself the book too. This officially marks the end to my 5 year "book break"! Before we dive into the nitty gritties of the book - I must say - what a great way to start off my book endeavours. Colleen Hoover writes in such a convincing and believable way, you can't help but to fall deep into the characters you are reading about. This is what makes this book so heartbreaking - I think. You fall in love with the character so when they mess up, real bad, you start to question yourself and make excuses for the person. This appears to be the bigger narrative that Hoover is aiming to write about, also evident in the author's note at the end of the book, as she commentates on the state of society and attitudes/prejudices against women (or men) who decide to stay in abusive relationships. To be honest, I often found myself in the third person perspective, wondering why the victim couldn't just leave the situation. From this book, I realised how in most cases you are so tangled in the other person - in the case of Lily and Ryle, I felt as though Lily couldn't leave because she loved the parts of him that didn't hurt her and wanted to hold on to this person even though his abusive nature was so shattering. This reminds me of the part of the book where Hoover talks about how everyone has a limit and when someone breaks it, we naturally start to create exceptions to this limit until it becomes a blurred line with no real meaning. ALSO, a little side note but why did he have to be a neurosurgeon of all the possible jobs man... CoHo really knows how to add these certain details for Ryle to appear more... respected? I guess. But this could go into a whole other tangent about societal views about certain jobs and what not but lets not go there right now !! From pretty early on in the book, we get flashbacks to Lily's first love, Atlas, through the form of diary entries and I will say, it makes up quite a substantial portion of the novel. Through these entries we get a glimpse of Lily's past, the abusive household she grew up in, what kind of person Atlas is and their interactions from a young age. But I have to point out because the chemistry between Lily and Ryle was so tangible even from their first interactions and continuous throughout the book, I did feel Lily's relationship with Atlas a bit unrealistic but hey - that's what books are for right?? Overall, I am really really happy with how the ending turned out, in regards to Lily's relationship with Ryle. I felt Hoover did a fantastic job in portraying the struggles of the victim of abuse and finishing the novel in an uplifting and hopeful way - a message of hope and strength to anyone going through similar situations. “It stops here. With me and you. It ends with us.” - recommended for 16 years and up - 4/5 !! coming out of bookland, alice xx Looking for "It Ends With Us" ? Find it here! - https://www.dymocks.com.au/book/it-ends-with-us-by-colleen-hoover-9781471156267 So in my other post "Thank You Harper Collins", I talked about how I requested "The Siren" by Kiera Cass and "Not if i See You First" by Eric Lindstorm and (surprisingly) got them! Well today I will be viewing "The Siren".
"The Siren" was a sweet, quick yet not rushed book that leaves you with the kind of feeling you have after drinking hot chocolate or warm soup. The book follows a girl named Kahlen (trust, Kiera Cass with her fancy names) who is a siren, luring people to their death from the orders of The Ocean "her mother". Kahlen currently lives with other sirens but their voices to each other does not effect them. Each siren lives as a siren for a century before they are free to do whatever they want without having to be under the wing of The Ocean. But being a teenage girl she falls in love with a human boy named Akinli (again what a name) and because she is a siren their voices are deadly to humans. She goes on without speaking and this part of the book was so irritating because you just want to speak for her and you just really want them to speak normally like how a normal relationship would. Btw, their cake date was soooo cute!! I loved Kahlen from the beginning and how can anyone dislike Akinli. He was so caring and nice. I couldn't really see their relationship growing in an obvious way but it wasn't rushed. Oh and about the ending, well I thought Kiera Cass could branch out a bit more relating to how the siren's voices work and for me I thought the ending was a tiniest bit dodgy. But it was still nice to see the story tied off nicely together. Overall this was a fantastic sweet bubbly book that I think everyone who loves Kiera Cass's style should read. Oh and isn't the cover just so pretty!! "There's aways room for love even if its as small as a crack in a door," ~recommended for 11 and up ~ hmmm... I'll give it a 3.5 out of five! coming out of bookend, alice xx Looking for "The Siren" ? Find it here! - http://www.bookdepository.com/The-Siren-Kier-Cass/9780008157937 A few days ago, my friend and I decided to just give it a go and email Harper Collins for a reviews copy book request. If you are a book blogger and is interested in further detail please leave me a comment so I can make a post on that. So.. we emailed and after waiting a few days we got an reply!! I just want to thank Harper Collins once again for deciding to send me these two books. As shown above, I asked for a copy of "The Siren" by Kiera Cass (post on her other book, "The Selection") and "Not If I See You First" by Eric Linstorm. I was so excited to read these books and a post will be up as soon as possible. As far as I know "The Siren" and "Not if i See You First" is a stand alone (sadly) but I'm sure it will be great!
Sorry if this was a short post but as soon as I finish these books I will have a post up! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! (Btw holding those books were pretty tiring hehe) coming out of bookland, alice xx For those of you that have not read "The Selection" by Kiera Cass, this story takes place in the future (after World War 4). Because of the war, the country had to re start and now it is called Illea, run by a King, Queen and a prince. When the prince comes of age, the tradition is that women from ages 16-24 applies to enter a competition (the selection) to be selected to become the prince's wife and have the honour of becoming the next Queen of Illea. Women who were willing to apply sent in their pictures and information to the palace and thirty-five girls are chosen ranging from the eight different castes. Royals being number one and the homeless as eights.
The protagonist, America Singer is a number five meaning her job is singing and playing her violin. She has not intended to enter but because of some situations, she decided to only fill out the form telling herself that she wasn't going to be picked. BUT GUESS WHAT!! She was picked. This meant saying goodbye to her family, turning away from her secret love Aspen and accepting a life she never wanted. As she spent her life everyday living the life of a princess while rebels threatened her safety as they attacked form outside and inside the palace. Talking about rebels it was a bit strange seeing how easily they could enter the palace grounds. Surely there were alert guards?? The relationship between the prince, Maxon and America was nicely paced with America only willing to stay for the money and the food but soon realising that Maxon wasn't as stuck up as she thought he was, slowly discovering his generous, kind and caring side. But not mentioning his strange feelings towards crying women. We all know from the start Maxon wanted America to love him back and towards the middle we begin to see a peek at their relationship. I felt embarrassed for America in some points in the book but thank you Kiera Cass for making this book so loveable though a few of my friends will already know how I had a phrase where I was so obsessed with this series! Haha! Do not be worried about this book being too girly, I promise its not. If you enjoyed the first book I suggest you go and read the rest. The order of the series go as.. The Selection, The Elite, The One, The Heir and coming in February The Crown. The last two books in the series are from Eadlyn's point of view (sorry, no spoilers) and I am so excited to see how the whole series is going to tie off. Thank you for reading this review I hope you enjoyed! "It's always the fear of looking stupid to stop you from being awesome" ~ suggested for 12 and up ~ 4.5/ 5 yayyy Hey internet, it's aliceinbookland back with not a book review but something that most readers will probably be able to relate to. So to do something different for a change, I decided to do a "How To Break Out Of A Reading Slump" post. I know I've said this before but I hate...let me repeat HATE READING SLUMPS!!!!!!!!Because of my absolute hatred for reading slumps.. I put together a few ways to help you get rid of them. These are what I do when I have a reading slump. ENJOY!!! 1. Give it some time. For me this is personally really hard because you just really want to continue reading a fantastic book but you just can't! No matter how quiet it is or how perfect the conditions are, it never seems to work. But trust me, forcing yourself won't help and it will just ruin a perfectly good book. It will make the book confusing and when you come back to it after forcing yourself through it.. you'll get that sort of feeling that the book wasn't good (because of the book slump) and it will give you a bad first impression. So go on youtube, hang out with you friends and when your ready the craving of wanting to read books will come back soon enough. 2. Read one of your all time favourite books Pick out one of your most tattered and loved books from your bookshelf, whether its a story book or a classic Roald Dahl, go ahead and read it! Reading easy/fast books alway helps me break out of reading slumps. And it also brings back the old memories and I guarantee you will laugh at yourself for adoring these simple and basic books. Rainbow Magic, Go Girl, Enid Blyton and not forgetting Geronimo Stilton were always a winner for me. Comment if you recognise or liked any of these books. :) 3. Go on to the internet Browse the internet and reach out to your fellow book lovers and reading slump survivors. Connect through social media to talk about your favourite books and just have a great discussion. One thing I like to do is go on Youtube and look through book tuber's book reviews, TBR lists and wrap-ups. Also I suggest (if you are having a book slump or just want to have a bit of a laugh) heading over to "Epic Reads" on Youtube and looking through their "Book Nerd Problems" which I absolutely love and can relate to so easily. That is it! I hope this gave you some ideas as to what to do when the reading slump kicks in and helps you tackle them as easily as how Celaena can kill someone... (raise your hand if you know who I'm talking about.. hehe)Also if you have any tips for breaking out of a book slump, please let me know as I definitely need more tips! Just a pointer as well please keep in mind that I did not intentionally try to copy someone else's ideas. Thank you for reading this post and I hope to see you soon! coming out of bookland, alice xx Places I go to when in a reading slump:
- https://www.youtube.com/user/abookutopia -https://www.youtube.com/user/polandbananasBOOKS -https://www.youtube.com/user/readbyzoe -https://www.youtube.com/user/EpicReads Wow.. This book is so good! From the way it is written and the storyline. Lucy Christopher did an excellent job on writing this book. First of all, how this is written is such an interesting and clever way to read. It is written in a letter form from a 16 year old girl, Gemma to her kidnapper. This letter basically retells the journey Gemma has been in after she is kidnapped. Gemma was at the Bangkok airport when she was kidnapped, drugged and taken away by a strange man. When she finally wakes up, Gemma finds herself in the middle of an Australian desert. The kidnapper, Ty, wants Gemma to open her eyes to the beauty of the Australian desert and wants to "save" her from the unsafe city. Ty
keeps her in a small house and Gemma realises his intentions are for her to fall in love with him and live happily ever after. As the story progresses on, Ty's sudden mood swings and his aggression shows but somewhere in between trying to survive in the wild desert, Gemma realises she's in love with Ty. This was so hard to believe because seriously, who falls in love with their kidnapper? But as the story goes on, you begin to realise Ty is just another shattered boy and begin to see Gemma opening up and accepting him. This book actually made me cry a few times (for a stupid reason; the camel bit..)and I think that is another quality that makes this book so amazing. At some times I hated Ty for being so selfish and inconsiderate but all in all this book was so good it made me drop it after reading the last words to conclude her letter. I really didn't want this book to finish but I am glad i read it. "It's hard to hate someone once you understand them," ~best for teenagers and up ~woohoo!! 5/5 stars!! coming out of bookend, alice xx Like I said to my friend, this book is like a teen/ more "YA" version of any novel by Cathy Cassidy. Reading as a child, I remember reading lots of Cathy Cassidy's books. Because 'Eleanor And Park' took on the same kind of story line, it was great to read the similar genre after not for such a long time.
I think one of the reasons I liked this book so much was because it took on Eleanor and Parks's point of view. When in the same scenario, switching between them and showing their different thoughts was so interesting to read. On the other hand, it was actually so awful to have to read about Eleanor's stepdad when he did so many horrible things I hope only ever come out in books. Ok, so onto the story. Eleanor is a new girl in school. When she arrives on the bus she is judged for being fat and wearing "ugly clothing". When Park sees she has nowhere to sit, he reluctantly moves over to make space for her. Together they continue to ride the bus to school and back without saying a word but soon their similarity of loving comics draw them together and they become friends. As the story goes along they begin to see they have feelings for each other which is a problem for Eleanor because of her drunk stepdad and a uncaring mother. As the story begins to tie in to an end, you think a happily ever's coming but no. After realising her stepdad has figured out all her secrets, Eleanor frantically runs to places trying to hide from him. Park decides to help her and together they seek out to find safety for Eleanor. The ending took me by surprise but in a good way. :) "If you can't save your own life, is it even worth saving?' ~recommended for teens up ~4 stars OK, guys after wanting to get this book for a long time.. I finally got it on my kindle!! Yay!! This book was amazing! I was literally gasping and for those who read it, omg that last bit when we (well I) thought he was actually a bad/fake person!! Such a fun book! It was really easy to read, its amazing.. ok guys, you should just read it. First I thought that because it was written by a youtuber, Zoella, I was like what if.. you know.. but it was actually a great book. Don't let the thought of that scare you from reading it.
Ok so.. this story follows a girl named Penny who is a bit isolated and lonely I guess. Her panic attacks hinder her from going to places with crowds and hanging out with her friends. As you continue to read, you discover Noah.Ah.. Noah. Such a confusing character!! Sometimes I feel like I know and understand him but at certain times.. well.. he didn't seem as genuine as Penny thought. You will experience hatred for someone you thought you loved and love someone even more as you go along. As a person who never experienced panic attacks, it was a bit harder to put in place of Penny but then again so interesting to read about how someone will feel. Because I love Zoella so much i think I loved Penny even before I met her. The story was perfectly paced, not slow nor fast. Woohoo!! Great book!!I hope you guys will read it and let's talk about it for those who have already. Love you Zoe, so proud of you <3 "My life can be anything i want it to be- as long as I remember it's not theirs" ~suitable for teens up ~not afraid to give it 5 stars coming out of bookland, alice xx |