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Book Review: This is What Goodbye Looks Like by Olivia Rivers

Jul 4, 2016

This is What Goodbye Looks Like by Olivia Rivers

Pages: 338
Publish date: June 17th 2016
Publisher: Red Sparrow Press
ISBN: 9781533075635
Purchase: Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Lea Holder watched a boy die in the same DUI accident that ruined Lea’s legs and threw her little sister into a coma. As the only eye-witness to the accident, if she tells the truth in court, the drunk driver will go to prison and the dead boy’s family will have justice.

But Lea lies.

If she had told the truth, Lea would have put her own mom in prison for causing the accident. With the trial over and her mom set free, Lea attempts to rebuild her shattered life as she waits for her little sister to wake from her coma.

When Lea transfers schools, she finds herself in the same senior class as Seth Ashbury, the brother of the boy her mom killed. As Lea gets to know the person buried underneath Seth’s grief, she quickly falls for his quick wit and passionate soul. But Seth remains completely oblivious that Lea is the same girl who robbed his family of justice.

As their relationship deepens, Lea finally gets a taste of the love that’s been missing from her life since the accident. But soon she’s faced with a choice: she can continue her lies and accept the comfort it gives them both. Or she can tell Seth the truth about everything, and risk destroying both her family and her newfound love.

This is What Goodbye Looks Like:

I received a copy of This is What Goodbye Looks Like by Oliva Rivers from Red Sparrow Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, this has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

I picked this book up on a whim – I hadn’t heard about it until I saw in on Netgalley, but something about the synopsis caught my eye, and I am glad that I did. Because I really enjoyed it.

This is What Goodbye Looks Like follows Lea Holder as she tries to figure out how a family that lost a member could stand together so well, while hers in falling apart. Lea just doesn’t feel guilty for the accident, but for lying.

Her mother was the cause of the accident that killed the other drive, left her sister in a coma and caused her to walk with a cane. But, when it came to telling the truth, she couldn’t do it, she lied. Her mother walked free and a family was left without answers.

Lea transfers schools to figure just how this family stood together, where hers broke them. Turns out that she is in the same class as Seth, the brother of the boy that her mum killed. From friendship, to something a little more; they go on one hell of our journey.

I really enjoyed Lea as a protagonist. She has so much going on in her life that she doesn’t even know where to start. She just wants her life to go back to how it was, but it never will.

I adored her love for her sister; she would do literally everything for her and it was beautiful. Her relationship with her parents and older brother are a different. Lea has yet to forgive her mother for the accident and her father for making her lie. It was hard to read about how Lea was feeling about the accident, she wanted to tell the truth; but she also loved her mother. Add to the mix her brother not bothering to call her or return her calls.

Then there is Seth, brother of the victim and someone that Lea befriends. There relationship is slow and steady. It was really nice to see that it didn’t turn into a romantic relationship as soon as it meet, like it took quite a lot of the book before it was really hinted at – and I loved that. However, the whole time all I could think about was how things are going to turn out when the truth is revealed.

Seth has a lot of anger towards Lea’s family. He wants to see her mother in jail so he can finally get his peace, but it also hunted by his brother’s passing and makes it his mission that he finish his last project so that he graduates college.

I also liked the friendships that Lea made throughout the novel, it was really nice for her to see her lean on people.

But it all had to come to an end and the truth did have to come out, it hurt me a little. Lea finally started to let herself go and then everything she built comes crashing down on her. Lea has to make some tough decisions that no-one should ever make, but they make her strong.

I wasn’t overly satisfied with the ending, but it wasn’t horrible as well – I just wanted more.

This is What Goodbye Looks Like also deals with disabilities, Lea has a limp and has to use a walking cane; so she doesn’t fall and Seth is blind. It was wonderful to see two characters these two diverse characters come together.

Overall, This is What Goodbye Looks Like is a beautiful story about grief, family, love, forgiveness and doing what is right.

Book Review: Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil

Jun 27, 2016

Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil

Pages: 305
Publish date: February 1st 2013
Publisher: Hardie Grant Egmont
ISBN: 9781742973951
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK– Amazon US – Amazon AU – Dymocks

Sam Kinnison is a geek, and he’s totally fine with that. He has his horror movies, his nerdy friends, World of Warcraft – and until Princess Leia turns up in his bedroom, he doesn’t have to worry about girls.

Then Sam meets Camilla. She’s beautiful, friendly and completely irrelevant to his life. Sam is determined to ignore her, except that Camilla has a life of her own – and she’s decided that he’s going to be part of it.

Sam believes that everything he needs to know he can learn from the movies … but now it looks like he’s been watching the wrong ones.

Life in Outer Space:

This is possibly one of the most adorable books that I have ever read. When I closed the book I couldn’t keep the smile off my face, I am pretty sure I looked pretty stupid.

Life in Outer Space follows protagonist Sam Kinnison and his geeky ways. He loves horror movies, writes movie scripts and doesn’t care much for girls, but then Camilla comes into his life – and well, things start to change.

Sam was an interesting protagonist – he is geeky and doesn’t stand up for himself, and although I hate horror movies and don’t play video games, it was easy to see why he loved these things. Sam also has some self-doubt and it was difficult to read without trying to tell him that everything is going to be okay. But it was beautiful to see him grow throughout the novel and his character arc was spot on.

Camilla was a refreshing character to read about. She had this strong presence about her and she knew what she wanted in life. Even though she has this fame surrounding her, she doesn’t let it take over and she also doesn’t let people walk all over her.

The relationship between Camilla and Sam was completely adorable in Life in Outer Space. I was smiling ear to ear, I loved that it was slow burning and it started off as a friendship – which is fantastic because of the age of the protagonist. The way that both Sam and Camilla were there for each other was refreshing and even without knowing they helped each other out.

I adored that they were awkward with each other, the little smiles, that they both had feelings, yet kept it all hidden – it was a great representation of a first love between two young teens.

I loved seeing Sam’s relationship with his friends and how they are different from each other, but together they all work. I liked that they don’t take over from Sam character wise, but they are all fleshed out on their own.

There isn’t a good family vibe as such in, Life in Outer Space and I do wish there was more. Sam’s relationship with his mother was nice to see as his relationship with his father is strained. I liked seeing a mother and son relationship that was decent as I don’t see it in YA that often.

However, Sam’s family relationship isn’t that crash hot and I would have been okay with that if Camilla’s relationship with her parents was good. Camilla and her family are all over the place, they have no real bond and they all live apart. I just want to see something nice in the family section in Life in Outer Space.

Although I truly enjoyed Life in Outer Space, I found it hard to get into. I took me about 50 pages or so to be stuck in the story. It had a lot to do with the writing style and the voice of the protagonist. Sam is a 15 year old male – I am a 19 year old female; there is quite a lot of difference there. However, after the 50 pages the voice didn’t feel as foreign and I wanted to know what was going to happen.

Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil ventures friendship, first love, family and what it is like to keep everything bottled in. It shows that sometimes love needs to start off as a friendship and that the bonds of friends are not always broken – even if there is some turbulence on the way.

Have you read any Melissa Keil? If you have did you like it as much as I did. I am going to pick up her other book quite soon. If you haven’t read her books are you going to? Let’s Chat!

Book Review: Ruined by Amy Tintera

Jun 19, 2016

Ruined by Amy Tintera

Pages: 355
Publish date: May 1st 2016
Publisher: Allen and Unwin
ISBN: 9781760290641
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU – Dymocks – Publisher

Emelina Flores has nothing. Her home in Ruina has been ravaged by war; her parents were killed and her sister was kidnapped. Even though Em is only a useless Ruined – completely lacking any magic – she is determined to get revenge.

Her plan is simple: She will infiltrate the enemy’s kingdom, posing as the crown prince’s betrothed. She will lead an ambush. She will kill the king and everyone he holds dear, including his son.

The closer Em gets to the prince, though, the more she questions her mission. Her rage-filled heart begins to soften. But with her life – and her family – on the line, love could be Em’s deadliest mistake.

Ruined:

I received a review copy of Ruined by Amy Tintera from Allen and Unwin in exchange for an honest review, this has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

A couple of years ago I read Reboot by Amy Tintera and enjoyed it, I was fascinated by the world that she builds and how unique the characters were so when I heard she was writing a high fantasy, I knew I had to read it, and I was not disappointed. Actually I was quite surprised with how much I liked it. It’s been hit or miss for many people so I was nervous going into it, but like I said I was so surprised by how much I did like it.

Ruined follows protagonist Emelina Flores as she begins her revenge on the kingdom that murdered her parents and kidnapped her younger sister. She infiltrates the royal family, impersonates a royal and marries Prince Casimir, the next in line for the throne.

Ruined is told in a dual point of view, one being Emelina who is thirsty for blood, ready to deceive and kill anyone that stands in her way. And then Casimir, who is sweet and sometimes naive, but as the story goes on he sees that everything isn’t always what it seems and maybe things that you were taught aren’t always true.

I adored the world of Ruined, it was captivating and I wanted to know more and more as the story went on. The magic was fascinating, but also terrifying. There is no real ‘good’ and ‘evil’ in Ruined. The Lera Kingdom kills a ruined they see on site or hold and torture them, they have basically persecuted them. However the Ruined have such strong powers that they have tortured the humans of the world.

Emelina is a ruined, but without powers and even she does some pretty horrible things throughout the novel, and even thinks about doing some more, yet you sympathised for her as the story goes on and you understand what happened.

And even though Emelina is full of revenge, I loved being in her point of view. She was intriguing and I wanted to know more and more about her. She cares for all the ruined and wants to be able to make them proud, and nothing will get in the way. When she was dancing with Casimir at their wedding, she thinks of ways to kill him and I could not help, buy laugh – because of the contrast.

I also enjoyed Casimir as a point of view – he is the total opposite of Emelina, but they click with each other in a way. Casimir has been brought up to think that the ruined were horrible people, but with the help of Emelina and a few others he sees that might not be the case.

There was many twists and turns in Ruined and I was kept on the edge of my seat, you didn’t know what was going to happen next and I managed to read it in a couple of hours.

I disliked Casimir’s family with a passion all of them. They are controlling, annoying and I wanted to hit them all across the head. They never took anything Casimir said into account and anything that he said or did was automatically wrong.

The romance in Ruined was slow burning and sweet and even then they didn’t truly get together. They both are so strong and as the novel goes on we get to see them care for each other even when secrets were revealed.

The ending – holy moly. It was so intense, I was turning page after page. I cannot believe the way it ended and I am in so need of the next book – like now. I need to know what on earth is going to happen.

Overall, I loved Ruined. The world was fascinating, the characters, both intriguing and entertaining. Ruined explores what people would do for revenge, how our thoughts are created by our surroundings and how our feelings can change for people they you think that you hate. It was a brilliant, high fantasy and I am ecstatic to read more.