angelreads, Author at Angel Reads

About angelreads

This author hasn't written their bio yet.
angelreads has contributed 1344 entries to our website, so far.

Six Books That Will Make You Laugh

Apr 19, 2016

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week they post a new Top Ten list that members at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. All bloggers are then welcomed to join. This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is: Ten Books That Will Make You Laugh.

So I find this weeks topic quite hard, I don’t read a lot of ‘funny’ books per say. I read books with funny characters, but not many that are funny all round. So for this weeks topic it’s a bit of mash of funny books or books with funny characters.

Demon Road by Derek Landy: Okay this book had me laugh quite a lot. From situations the characters got themselves into, to the banter between others. If you want something supernatural that is funny – then read this.

Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan: This book had me laughing on the floor. The chapter titles will make you laugh from the get go and that is just the chapter titles. Just read it.

The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare: Jace enough said. Then you add Simon to the mix and you have banter that makes you want to cry.

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead: There are some quite heartbreaking moments through this series, however there are so many times that made me laugh, a lot. The banter between the characters, Rose’s sarcastic remarks. It was a good combination of laughs and cries.

Cress by Marissa Meyer: All I need to say in Captain Thorne. He just cracked me up through the whole book, he released tension and always put a smile on my face.

Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover: Pranks! Enough said

So that is all I could think of. I think I need to find some more books that are going to make me laugh. What are some of your favourites? Let’s Chat.

Book Review: The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

Apr 18, 2016

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

Pages: 496
Publish date: May 5th 2016
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1471146146
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Andie has a plan. And she always sticks to her plan.

Future? A top-tier medical school.
Dad? Avoid him as much as possible (which isn’t that hard considering he’s a Congressman and he’s never around).
Friends? Palmer, Bri, and Toby—pretty much the most awesome people on the planet, who needs anyone else?
Relationships? No one’s worth more than three weeks.

So it’s no surprise that Andie’s got her summer all planned out too.

Until a political scandal costs Andie her summer pre-med internship, and lands both she and Dad back in the same house together for the first time in years. Suddenly she’s doing things that aren’t Andie at all—working as a dog walker, doing an epic scavenger hunt with her dad, and maybe, just maybe, letting the super cute Clark get closer than she expected. Palmer, Bri, and Toby tell her to embrace all the chaos, but can she really let go of her control?

The Unexpected Everything:

I received an arc of The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson from Simon and Schuster in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

This was the first book that I read this year and silly me forgot to; 1. Take notes and 2. Write the review when I finished reading the book. So I had to re-read the book, so I don’t miss-lead anyone that is going to read the book.

The Unexpected Everything is the third Morgan Matson book that I’ve read and I am still surprised how she can interview so many different topics flawlessly. The Unexpected Everything deals with family, friendship, love and finding yourself.

The Unexpected Everything follows protagonist Andie Walker as her life turns into something that she cannot control. Andie likes to be in control and that has a lot to do with her father.

Andie is the daughter of a politician so her life has been filled with, do’s and don’ts, living by a timetable and being in the public eye and when this all nearly disappears; she is kind of left with nothing. She also likes to be in control of her relationships, she has never been a relationship for over 3 weeks. When he starts to want more from her, she runs.

She likes the idea of being free however, she is so used to having all these things that it is hard.

I like books about politicians’ children, I find them interesting. It gives something to the storyline that you don’t see often. Andie doesn’t have the best relationship with her father and that is mainly because of his job. We see at the start of the novel that their relationship is quite rocky, and the way that she speaks to him is quite…different and some people may not like it. However, I didn’t mind it given the circumstances.

I quite liked Andie as a protagonist. She has this innocence about her because of the way she grew up and now that a lot of that is gone, she needs to find herself and it was nice to see. At times I wanted to hit her on the head because of how closed off she was at times, but in true Morgan Matson style, it all worked out.

Even though she was hard headed at times, my heart did break for her.

Friendship was one of the major themes of The Unexpected Everything and it shone. The banter between Andie and her friends; Toby, Palmer and Bri was nice to see. They were a fun group and I giggled a lot when they were together. But, something The Unexpected Everything shows us that all friendships don’t work out and when you grow older, sometimes the person that you thought was your friend you don’t click with anymore.

The Unexpected Everything is full of fun moments, heartbreaking ones and overall very real, the problems that aroused in this book felt like they could very well happen and the way that Matson dealt with them felt real.

The romance was adorable and slow burning. It was enjoyable to see how they move forward in their relationship, from someone they bumped into, to friends and then into something more.

Clark is adorable, can he just be mine? What I loved about him is that he is an author and a pretty big one. It was truly nice to see an author writing a book, in a young adult novel. We do sometimes see it with protagonists, but I loved seeing it in a secondary character.

The only bad thing I would say about the book, is that I felt that it may have been too long for a contemporary. Some things did drag on and I felt that it could have been cut at parts.

Overall, I loved The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson. It is a tale of friendship, family, love and unexpected adventures that all feels real. The Unexpected Everything is for every author, book lover and reader alike. It’s a beautiful story of friendship, heartbreak and family. Morgan Matson brings together a beautiful contemporary novel that makes you smile, laugh and cry.

Have you read The Unexpected Everything? Are you excited for The Unexpected Everything? Have you enjoyed Matson’s other books? Let’s Chat!

#LoveOZYA Author Interview: Will Kostakis

Apr 15, 2016

I love Aussie YA. I love reading books from authors that live in the same country as me, that know things that people out of Australia might be so confused about. I love how sometimes they can incorporate this into their book and it is fabulous.

So in saying that, I have decided to start a new feature on Angel Reads spotlighting Australian YA Authors. Each Friday for the next couple of months, I am going to interview an OZYA Author. I thought it would be a fun way to share my love for Australian Young Adult authors with not only fellow Aussies, but everyone around the world. I want more Australian YA books to be read, because they are amazing.

First week I interview Sarah Ayoub, then Fleur Ferris, and this week it’s the ever so amazigng Will Kostakis. Will Kostakis is the author of YA novels Loathing Lola (Pan MacMillian, 2008), The First Third (Penguin Australia, 2013) and Sidekicks (Penguin Australia, 2016)

Hi Will, and welcome to Angel Reads. First can you introduce yourself to everyone? Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I’m Will Kostakis, a 26-year-old author from Sydney. I’ve written four books – three are young adult novels. I’m also a freelance journalist.

What has your writing journey been like? Where did you start? Why?

It started in primary school. I just always enjoyed creative writing, and was encouraged by teachers to keep at it. One urged me to try writing a novel. I did, in Year Seven. It was mostly terrible, and when a publisher got back to me, they confirmed it. But I kept at it, writing and rewriting, and rejigging the book as I accumulated more life experiences. Then, in Year Twelve, I pitched it to a few publishers, and one loved the idea. It was released two years later.

What was the process of getting your first book published?

There was a lot of rejection, but the more I wrote, the more my confidence improved, and the better the story became. While at the beginning of the process, all I wanted was to get published first-go, by the end of the process, I was thankful it took a while. I wasn’t ready as an 11-year-old. And who is? I don’t even think I was ready at 17 when it happened.

Was it different when getting your proceeding books published?

Loathing Lola was a modest seller, but not a runaway hit, so I took some time off, finished uni, and came back with a story I really believed in. And it was tough – figuring out what my second book would be and making sure it was good. I changed publishers, and they made me work for that book deal. While I earnt the Loathing Lola deal off a synopsis, for The First Third, half of it had to be written, and it had to be good. Again, I wish it happened instantly, but I’m glad they took their time and pushed me. It was a similar process with The Sidekicks. I’m not at that stage where my work will be accepted sight unseen, but that’s a good thing. It forces me to consistently up my game.

You are an OZYA author, what are some of your favourite Aussie YA books?

Oh there are too many to say. I am a huge Barry Jonsberg fan (his whole body of work is stellar). I love Ellie Marney’s Every series, and Amie Kaufman is on a roll at the moment, if Sci-Fi is more your thing. Gabrielle Tozer and Melissa Keil are also definite-reads.

You can find Will at @willkostakis on twitter,willkostakis.com and add his books to your goodreads.

The Sidekicks by Will Kostakis

Pages: 256
Publish date: February 29th 2016 by Penguin Australia
Publisher: Penguin Australia
ISBN: 9780143309031
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon US – Amazon AU – Dymocks

The Swimmer. The Rebel. The Nerd.

All Ryan, Harley and Miles had in common was Isaac. They lived different lives, had different interests and kept different secrets. But they shared the same best friend. They were sidekicks. And now that Isaac’s gone, what does that make them?

Will Kostakis, award-winning author of The First Third, perfectly depicts the pain and pleasure of this teenage world, piecing together three points of view with intricate splendour.

***

Thank you Will for joining me at Angel Reads. That is it for this week’s #LoveOZYA Interview. What did you think of Will and his books? I hope you enjoyed it. Let’s Chat!

Come back next week for some more Aussie fun. If you want to know more about the #LoveOZYA movement check out the website for all the details.