Review: All I Know Now by Carrie Hope Fletcher

I'll admit that I got this book as I watch, and love, Carrie's videos. I'm not usually a reader of non-fiction, so this book was a completely new experience for me. I have to say that I was surprised at first with how much I liked this book. I had been expecting a few anecdotes and some advice that wouldn't really apply to me, yet I found myself with a key to a window into Carrie's past and a book that I feel I will turn back to again and again whenever I'm in need of advice on what is the right decision to make or how to deal with certain situations. I think this book has been a real eye-opener into how I should be living my life.

Personally, I really liked the set-up of this book. It being split into acts, having the curtain call and the props section; all these things made the book come alive and that combined with the style of writing made me feel as if I were talking to Carrie over a cup of coffee rather than reading words she had typed up.

On her channel Carrie often describes herself as a 'big sister' and while I don't have any of those, if I did, I imagine that the advice she would give to me would be much the same as what is contained within these pages. Obviously, everyone has different life experiences that they draw from so the chances are that I won't experience some of the things that Carrie describes in her book, but everyone has more in common than they might think. While some of the chapters may not apply to me, it is still good to learn about experiences that others have had because that way we learn to not treat everyone the same and be respectful of other people as we don't always know what has shaped their opinions or what they have gone through in the past.

This book also dealt with some quite dark topics that at the moment people are only just starting to open up about. People are no longer expected to button up when certain topics are raised and it feels good to know that in a book that is aimed at teenagers who may be experiencing some of these darker areas, someone is willing to open up and offer help in the ways that they can.

As well as that, 'All I Know Now' is an important reminder that nobody's life is perfect. Often when people present themselves to a group of people they will only show certain aspects of their personality to make it seem to others that they are living an amazing life. For most people though, that's not the truth. Carrie demonstrates this not only through retelling her past experiences, but also by exploring how other people's lives aren't perfect and by doing that she is telling the readers of her book that they  don't have to pretend to be perfect as nobody truly is. To me, that is really important as in today's world when people feel that they need to be, it's nice to have someone who you look up to tell you that you are great just the way you are.

Already, this book has helped improve me as a person, at least, I believe it has. The other day I was interrupted by my grandparents as I was doing a past question in preparation for an exam and it is fair to say that I got a bit annoyed. Sometimes the pressure builds and one final spark can set me off. Normally I would have acted like what I did was totally in proportion, but then I thought back to the chapter on apologising and I came to the realisation that I needed to say sorry to them for lashing out. So, I did. It was difficult to admit that I was in the wrong as I'm someone who always likes to be right, but the situation ended better for it.

The only thing I could nit-pick at with this book would be the use of the word 'gotten' and that really is just me being very picky about the English language. Apart from that, there is nothing that I dislike about this book. Carrie never oversteps her boundaries and by looking in the back of this book at the Props section, I can really tell that while Carrie is offering advice, she also understands that sometimes more help is needed than she can offer. Reading a book by such a grounded and insightful person really was a pleasure.

This book will definitely be going somewhere where I can easily reach it for those moments when I feel like I need help or advice and if you're a teenager, just turned adult or anyone for that matter, well, maybe over the age of eleven or twelve, then I would really recommend this book for you. At this moment in time you may feel like you don't need to read it, but once you have you'll wonder how you lived without it's teachings before. As a bonus, the illustrations are gorgeous.

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Review: Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

I wish I had got this book earlier. I read 'Shadow and Bone' back in February and praised it as one of the best books I had ever read, so I don't know why I didn't get my hands on the second book in the trilogy sooner and definitely regret holding out for so long now. This book is not as good as its predecessor, or maybe I have just been reading better books since, but it is still stunning in the characters that are created and world that is formed. The story of Alina has continued beautifully and I'm glad I can share in that experience.

'Nothing good can last forever' is a phrase that comes to mind with the start of this novel. Mal and Alina were just about ready to start a secluded life together, but of course two more books can't be made of them buying a cottage and beginning a new life together; something was bound to go wrong. (I still find it amusing how even there every girl seemed to be throwing themselves at Mal. If he really is that irresistible then I would like to meet him in real life.) Anyway, I knew from the opening pages that it was only a matter of time before the Darkling caught up to them and I'm sort of glad he did. To me, the idea of Mal and Alina spending the rest of their lives together is not wholly satisfying. Personally, I see their relationship as a first crush relationship; it's a nice first experience, but it won't last for long. So, the Darkling's arrival was a great way to get the ball rolling in terms of the end of their relationship.

Also, the introduction of the Darkling in such a violent way meant that we could understand the new powers he had gained and what sort of threat he posed as compared to in the last novel. The introduction of new creatures that are more powerful and can cause lasting harm is something that stays with a reader and Alina's wound was a constant reminder throughout the novel of the threat that the Darkling is as without it, I feel like I would have stopped thinking of him as a danger. The visions that seemed to stem from that wound are something that I would like to explore more in terms of what they actually were and whether it means that the Darkling has any control over the people who have been attacked by his creatures. I hope for Alina's sake that he doesn't.

As soon as Sturmhond was introduced, I suspected that he might become a love interest, and really I was looking at every man in the novel to consider him as Alina's eventual realisation. However, I have to admit that I didn't expect him to be Prince Nikolai and that revelation really left me on the edge of my seat! I instantly wanted to continue reading and find out any sort of back-story and learn the implications of that discovery. From that moment in the novel, the story changed its course and it was a journey I was very happy to go on.

Power is definitely one of the major themes of this novel. From when Alina got the second amplifier we started to see small, subtle changes in her that grew over time. It was interesting and slightly scary to see how she changed. With power comes responsibility and using the power you possess in a way that does not only benefit yourself is important. Alina continued to state that her intentions were only wanting the best for her country and the people within it, but as each week past, we got to see that the craving inside of her for more power was also driving it. I hope that when they obtain the third amplifier it won't be a disaster for her as a person.

The end of this book came very suddenly and left me with a lot of questions. I won't voice them all here, but I'm sure if you've read this book you'll know exactly the type of questions I'm thinking of. I can only hope that the next book will tie everything off in a way that is fitting and deserving for the characters. I'll be holding out my own hopes as to what will happen, but I can't dwell on something that may not come true.

Overall, this book was beautiful and heart rendering. I would recommend the Grisha Trilogy to everyone who takes their time to read this as, to me, it is one of the best YA series out there.

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Review: Cress by Marissa Meyer

There is a lot of hype surrounding this book, more than the two before it in 'The Lunar Chronicles', and after having read this book, I can see why. 'Cinder' and 'Scarlet' are works of art and are simply amazing, but 'Cress' brings together the different storylines in such an exquisite and beautiful way that I do not know how it can be bettered. It puts the characters through trouble and turmoil, there is heartbreak and loss, but even with all of that, I still felt happy at the end of the book. I felt happy for the direction that this series is going in and, of course, for the starting to blossom relationships between Cinder and Kai and Throne and Cress.

With each new book in this series Meyer manages to introduce to us a new female heroine who we can fall in love with and side with. We get to know their inner workings and feel like we are sure about what we know about them, then we get to see them from another character's perspective and realise that they were not who they perceived themselves to be, but someone ever better because of their differences and their imperfections.

I would love to go into detail with everything that happened in this book, but it is simply far too long for me to do so. I'm not saying that its length is a downside, in fact it was something that I really liked about this book as I felt that with the ones before I would have liked to spend a lot more time in that world and with this book I finally got the opportunity to.

One of the key points of this book was to introduce Cress to us, I mean, just look at the title of the book. Something that is definitely one of my favourite things about this series is the fact that each story is loosely based on a fairytale and it took me a while to pick up certain points that related to the fairytale of Rapunzel, but I was overcome by Meyer's brilliantness when I realised how the story fitted with the age old classic. Thorne's blindness was something that I didn't realise was part of the fairytale at first, as over the years I have read many versions of the story, some with the Prince's blindness in some not. Looking back, I guess that Thorne's name could be linked to the story as well as originally the Prince became blind when his eyes were stabbed with thorns. Little links like that really boost my love for this series.

This book started to deal with Cinder's growing power more and even though she was practicing throughout the whole book, it wasn't until the final few chapters that we realised what she was capable of and the discovery of that really gives me confidence that in the future books they will be able to overthrow Levana and take control. In a way though, Cinder's growing power is a scary thing and I can see why she is worrying about becoming like Levana as power is a thing that can be hard to control once you get too much of a taste for it.

I feel like I cannot talk about this book without talking about the relationships within it and by that I do not just mean the romantic ones. The bond between a father and his daughter is something that I always find special and to have that bond severed before it could fully be formed has a detrimental effect on both parties. Of course it is more than harsh for the mother as well, but this book dealt with the idea of hope of recovering what Dr Erland had had pulled from his grasp and the short-lived joy when Cress was finally returned to him. It was a bittersweet reunion, but I'm so glad that it was included.

With romantic relationships, I do like the idea of Cress and Thorne as a couple, but I have to say that Cinder and Kai are the couple that I'm rooting for most. In the first book the feelings that both shared were expressed on the page, but they never were truthful to each other about them and I so wanted them to be. Finally, two books later, their feelings have been admitted and I am over the moon. I can see a good future for them, well, after they've dealt with saving the world.

In conclusion, this book is so good I can't find an appropriate adjective to describe it; I don't know of any that will do it justice. In the next book I'm excited to find out more about Lunar, as the book will be told from Princess Winter's perspective, and know the risks from this new strand of letumosis and whether it will threaten any of my beloved characters. I don't know how I will be able to wait much longer for it even though I've only just finished 'Cress'!

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Review: Half Wild by Sally Green

Half Bad was an amazing book, no doubt about it, and I was thinking that this series had the possibility to be one of my favourites after reading it. Having just finished Half Wild, that statement has been blown out of the water because this series is now so much more than that. I am desperate for it to be 2016 already so I can read the final book because after all the ups and downs, twists and turns in this book, I feel more than a need for the conclusion to this trilogy.

I have said this in my previous review I believe, yet the concept of black witches, white witches, half bloods and half codes is something that still really astounds me because of what a different and great idea it is. In this book we got to explore their interrelations a little more as they were all in one place and had to work together. The concept that not all white witches are good and not all black witches are bad could be seen as an almost mushy idea, but I think it is important as it can be applied to our own society. We judge people before we know them based on their family or their religion or their race and we shouldn't do that. In the context of this novel, yes, the black witches do have a tendency to be more violent, but then you have to compare it to people like Jessica and Soul in the white witch group who are doing much worse things than some black witches will ever do.

Death was also a major theme in this book that really stood out to me. When this book started, Nathan had killed, but he had not killed many people and I could tell from the way the start of this book was written that he was remorseful as a result of doing that. 'War changes people.' I am not sure where I have heard that quote before, but I can see from this book that it is very much true. Killing has become almost a second nature to Nathan, which I do not think is a good thing, but it is vital for what we will see him do in the future. I will be interested and scared to see is some of Marcus' more violent nature has passed onto Nathan in the next book.

Nathan's Gift was starting to be explored in this book and it was very intriguing to see the inner battle within Nathan for the control over the animal part of himself and the eventual realisation that he could not control that part of him just as a lion tamer never truly controls a lion. He had to accept that the only way for him to accept this new part of him was to accept the animal within him rather than fight it. I think that the time he spent with his father really helped Nathan to get a grasp on what he should do with his Gift rather than push it to one side and only let it out when he needed to do something for himself.  I wonder if the Gifts that he now has can be combined - that would be good to see in the final book!

I feel like I cannot write a review on this book without talking about the romantic interests within it. When reading the last book I did think that Nathan and Annalise could work as a couple when we saw the time that they would meet every week, however as soon as Gabriel was introduced, I started to drift away from that idea. This book confirmed to me even more that I did not want Nathan and Annalise to be together, but instead I would prefer Nathan and Gabriel to be together, just as I'm sure Gabriel would. I won't make any comment about Nathan's feelings apart from that he seemed to be trying to convince himself that Gabriel was his friend, rather than telling Gabriel what he actually felt.

I am very thankful to Sally Green for introducing the idea to us that Nathan is bisexual (there are also other sexualities I'm aware he could be, but to me this seems like the most simple explanation at the moment so I'm going to roll with it) without the internal drama of 'oh I like a guy, is there something wrong with me?' part. Nathan accepts it as something that is natural rather than something he should shy away from and no one seems to be in any way homophobic about it. I think that more books should accept it as a natural thing, instead of something that needs a long and thoughtful thinking process over it.

The end of this book left me craving more as I am excited and nervous to see what will happen to my beloved characters, of which Annalise is not one. I also hope that we can see more of Nathan and Arran being brothers again because that was something that I really liked reading about from Nathan's childhood in the first book.

Overall, this series is planning out to be one of my absolute favourites and if you haven't started Half Bad or Half Wild yet, I would really encourage you to do so!

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