angelreads, Author at Angel Reads

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Happy New Year

Jan 2, 2016

Happy New Year. Welcome, Welcome to the year of 2016. I cannot wait to begin this year. I hope it’s as amazing as 2015. Thank you for making 2015 amazing. For commenting on my post, for talking to me on twitter. Thank you for making 2015 a year to remember.

What made 2015 for you? What was your favoruite bookish thing you did in 2015. What do you hope to do in 2016?

I cannot wait to share my love for books with, all of you again this year. 2016 is going to be a year full of books, movies, fangirling and lots of lots of reading. Let it be amazing.

Book Review: Any Other Girl by Rebecca Phillips

Dec 23, 2015

Any Other Girl by Rebecca Phillips

Pages: 272
Publish date: January 26th 2016
Publisher: Kensington
ISBN: 1617738832
Purchase: Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

After a disastrous, reputation-destroying party at the end of junior year, Kat Henley has a new plan. When it comes to boys—especially other people’s boys:

Don’t touch.
Don’t smile.
Don’t charm.

In the past, drawing attention to herself helped distract people from what really makes Kat different—having two gay parents. But it’s also cost her friendships. Kat can’t afford to lose any more of those, especially not her cousin, Harper. They’re spending one last summer together at the lake, where they run into an intriguing newcomer named Emmett Reese. After years of trying to prove she’s just like everybody else, Kat has found someone who wants her because she’s not. A boy who could be everything she wants too—if Harper hadn’t liked him first…

Any Other Girl:

I was received an e-arc of Any Other Girl by Rebecca Phillips by Kensington Books in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feeling about the book.

I didn’t realise that when I asked to review Any Other Girl that I have already read a book by Rebecca Phillips, it wasn’t until I started reading that I noticed that the writing style and characters was similar to something that I have read before – and then it clicked. Rebecca Phillips is the author to Faking Perfect which I read at the start of the year and I enjoyed. You can check out my review for that here.

Once I figured out that I had previously read a book by the author, I was even more excited to read Any Other Girl, but I didn’t like it as much as I like Faking Perfect. However I still did like it.

Our protagonist, Kat Henley has a reputation – one that she doesn’t realise she has but after a disaster of a party at the end of her junior year she has a plan. A plan that when it comes to boys, especially those that aren’t hers:

Don’t touch.

Don’t smile.

Don’t charm.

Kat doesn’t mean to flirt, it’s just in her nature. She likes to draw attention to herself so they don’t pay attention to what makes Kat different – having two gay parents. But this has come at a price and Kat has finally had enough. She cannot lose anyone else.

I truly loved Kat. She was out there, had a pretty amazing style and didn’t care what people thought about her, but then she realised that her over friendly manner of treating boys, was also losing her friends.

Kat is the type of person that loves to touch, but not in a bad way. It’s how she shows her affection, even if it’s just a friend. She holds this presence that has most boys falling on their feet and makes those with girlfriends feel uncomfortable. She doesn’t mean to do this, it just happens and she loses many people because of this.

The reader gets to see Kat grow so much throughout Any Other Girl and that is what I loved most. The character development of Kat was incredible throughout. The readers can see her smile, break down, fall and get back up.

I truly loved most of the characters in Any Other Girl. I loved Kat’s parents. Her Dads were just awesome. Harper her cousin who is also going through some stuff of her own, was sweat – I enjoyed her.

Emmett. I have a love/ hate relationship with him. He is charming and nice but there was parts where I want to hit him across the head. He tires so hard to live Harper but it just doesn’t work and I understand that but when he keeps on pushing Kat, I just wanted to yell.

Any Other Girl is a heart-felt novel that deals with, self-image and what it means it be you. How trying to someone isn’t why people love you. First love and how it doesn’t also run smoothly. And what it’s like to carry burdens for those we love, even if it means being someone else.

Any Other Girl deals also with what it’s like to be a teenage with two gay parents – how it can hurt the child just as much, maybe even more with how awful some people can be in the world.

I quite liked Rebecca Phillips writing, it’s easy to read and understand but is also beautiful and tell a strong story. Phillips is excellent at capturing the life of a teenage, and how they thing and feel.

I really enjoyed Any Other Girl. It’s a beautiful novel that takes us on a journey through thick and thin, what it’s like to be family and teaches us to be ourselves.

Book Review: These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

Dec 14, 2015

These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

Pages: 320
Publish date: November 2015
Publisher: Five Mile Press (Hot Key Books)
ISBN: 9781471405150
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Josephine Montfort is from one of New York’s oldest, most respected, and wealthiest families. Like most well-off girls of the era her future looks set—after a finishing school education, she will be favourably married off to a handsome wealthy gentleman. But Jo wants a more meaningful and exciting life: she wants to be an investigative journalist like her heroine Nellie Bly.

But when Jo’s father dies after an alleged accident, she begins to investigate his death with the help of a young reporter, Eddie Gallagher. It quickly becomes clear he was murdered, and in their race against time to discover the culprit and his motive, Jo and Eddie find themselves not only battling dark characters of the violent and gritty streets of New York, but also their growing feelings for each other.

These Shallow Graves:

Five Mile Press (Hot Key Books) sent me a copy of These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly, in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.
I don’t read a lot of historical fiction, I just find it hard to connect with character, how they live, what they believe and so on but when I read the synopsis of These Shallow Graves, I thought it was going to something that I liked and I wasn’t wrong.
These Shallow Graves is a lot of mystery and a lot of historical fiction so I wouldn’t recommend it to the younger side of young adult unless they are familiar with terms used but overall I thoroughly enjoyed the read.
These Shallow Graves follows protagonist, Josephine Montfort, a girl from high class. Jo comes from one of the wealthiest, respected and oldest families of New York and like all girls in her class her life is set out for her. She is set to graduate and then be married off to a wealthy bachelor – but that isn’t what she wants. She wants to become a writer – a news reporter. Then her father shorts himself. Jo knows better than anyone that her father would be more careful. So she sets out to find the truth, even if they are not what she wants to know. With the help of handsome Eddie; a reporter at her father’s newspaper, they uncover things that are buried beyond sight.

As a child, she’d thought all the noise and commotion was the most wild, wonderful game, but as she’d grown older, she understood why everyone rushed around so: they were chasing a story.

These Shallow Graves overarching plot is pretty predictable. Wealthy girl meets not to well of handsome man, they start to fall and all shit breaks loose. But then everything else with the plot is all over the place and you could not truly guess what was coming next.
I love books that keep me on my toes. I like that I don’t know what is going to happen, but I also like that I can put pieces together slowly and start a puzzle. I love crime TV shows and These Shallow Graves is quite similar expect that it’s historical fiction.
Jo is a little naïve and I want to hit her across the head a couple of times, but I like her fire. I like that she passionate and keeps to what she wants to do. She doesn’t let anyone stop her (even though it got her into trouble a couple of times) it was nice to see.
Eddie – oh how I loved Eddie. He was this, awesome reporter who couldn’t help but always be by Jo’s side. I loved that he didn’t stop Jo from doing things like most male protagonist do these days in YA. He told her maybe she shouldn’t do the things she did but hey she did them anyway.

“You, on the other hand, wish to know things. And no one can forgive a girl for that.”

All the characters were quite interesting and it’s wonderful seeing character that are there as people are not as props. Everyone played a part in the novel. If they didn’t have an impact on the story line they had an impact on a character.
I liked the writing style of Jennifer Donnelly. For a historical fiction it was quite easy to read and understand what was happening without getting over my head in words and sayings that I don’t know what they mean. It was engaging and kept on pulling me and pulling me.
Although, I was a little disappointed in the ending, I was expecting more. All the hype from solving the crimes that happened and then the ending just deflated it all.
Overall all I really enjoyed These Shallow Graves, it was an interesting read and something that I would recommend to historical fiction or crime lovers. These Shallow Graves is a fantastic historical fiction packed with crime solving, romance, heartbreak and tears.