Mini-Reviews: All the Rage, More of Me, Fans of the Impossible Life & More

It's time for me to do some mini-reviews! The amount of book reviews that I need to write is slowly but surely reaching a number that is so epic, it is hard to even think about it. The best course of action for me is to write some mini-reviews, rather than trying to find space on the schedule for 1200 book reviews. The following mini-reviews are all for the wonderful books I received for review from lovereading4kids. I have been so impressed by my recent reads by them, I have had none recently that were lower than 4 star reads. I have been having a great start to my 2016 reading year, it makes me a little nervous as I really want this to continue. 

Title: All the Rage

Author: Courtney Summers

Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books

Buy this book: Amazon / Book Depository

Kellan Turner is not the golden boy everyone thinks he is and Romy Grey knows that for a fact. But when she speaks up, she is branded a liar. Telling the truth has cost her everything, because no one wants to believe a girl from the wrong side of town.But when news of Kellan assaulting another girl gets out, the cost of staying silent might be more than Romy can bear.All The Rage examines the shame and silence inflicted upon young women in a culture that refuses to protect them.

I don't believe in forgiveness. I think if you hurt someone, it becomes part of you both. Each of you just has to live with it and the person you hurt gets to decide if they want to give you the chance to do it again. If they do and you're a good person, you won't make the same mistakes. Just whole new ones.

Courtney Summers delivers something truly spectacular with All the Rage, I was so beyond impressed with this novel. This is a novel that really doesn't hold back, it takes an honest and very raw approach to a very serious subject - rape. This is a subject that it's so vital for us to be able to talk about, but it's one that so many find difficult to do. All the Rage was beautiful and moving, the kind of book I am not going to easily forget. I think this is a book that will be held in high regard, one that will hopefully receive as much praise and awards as similar books, like Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.

He only said it to remind me that he's here, he likes me. That he's nice. Leon is nice. That doesn't mean he's safe.

Eva Ibbotson: Queen of YA Historical Romance

Title: The Morning Gift
Author: Eva Ibbotson
Publisher: Macmillan's Children's Books
Buy This Book: Amazon (UK) / Amazon (US) / Book Depository

Twenty-year-old Ruth Berger is desperate. The daughter of a Jewish-Austrian professor, she was supposed to have escaped Vienna before the Nazis marched into the city. Yet the plan went completely wrong, and while her family and fiancé are waiting for her in safety, Ruth is stuck in Vienna with no way to escape. Then she encounters her father’s younger college professor, the dashing British paleontologist Quin Sommerville. Together, they strike a bargain: a marriage of convenience, to be annulled as soon as they return to safety. But dissolving the marriage proves to be more difficult than either of them thought—not the least because of the undeniable attraction Quin and Ruth share. To make matters worse, Ruth is enrolled in Quin’s university, in his very classes. Can their secret survive, or will circumstances destroy their love?

Her books feel almost magical.

I did not know what to expect from Eva Ibbotson's books. I had seen them a lot whilst working in libraries, but had never picked them up and did not know anything about the author herself. I had assumed she was a young writer, not a woman who died in 2010, at the age of eighty-five, with such a rich history behind her. Having now finished five of her books, I can now say that I completely understand why she is an author who is held in such high regard. She weaves history and romance together so effortlessly, and they all have such a magical feel about them. I finish them with a smile on my face, and a warmth in my heart that is so hard to truly explain.

Mini Reviews: Hot Key Books

Title: The Perfectionists
Author: Sara Shepard
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Buy this book: Amazon (UK) / Amazon (US) / Book Depository 

In Beacon Heights High, Nolan Hotchkiss is king. His charm, wealth and good looks are deceptively seductive, and many are the students whose lives and reputations have been ruined by it. All while Nolan continues to reign, unquestioned and undisrupted. Until now, that is.Mackenzie, Ava, Julie, Caitlin and Parker seemingly don't have much in common. Each has their own friends, dramas and goals. But one thing they do share: they all have a deep hatred of Nolan Hotchkiss. And they all think it's about time he paid for what he's done. They come up with the perfect murder - a hypothetical murder, of course. It's all wishful thinking ... until they wake up one morning to find that their wish has come true. Nolan has been killed - in exactly the way they planned. The thing is, they didn't do it. So who did?

The Perfectionists is my first Sara Shepard book, as I'd never been tempted to try the Pretty Little Liars series. I think what probably won me over with this book is the gorgeous, yet simple cover. I'd heard about the book whilst at the Hot Key Blogger Brunch and loved the sound of it too. It's the story of five girls who bond over their mutual hatred of Nolan Hotchkiss, who is king of their high school. They come up with the idea for the perfect way to kill Nolan, whilst never planning to actually use it. The only problem is that Nolan ends up dead, just the way they had discussed. They didn't kill him, but now they have to figure out who did.

Mini Reviews: The Adult Fiction Edition

Title: The Three 
Author: Sarah Lotz
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Buy this book: Amazon (US) / Amazon (UK) / Book Depository

Four simultaneous plane crashes. Three child survivors. A religious fanatic who insists the three are harbingers of the apocalypse. What if he's right?The world is stunned when four commuter planes crash within hours of each other on different continents. Facing global panic, officials are under pressure to find the causes. With terrorist attacks and environmental factors ruled out, there doesn't appear to be a correlation between the crashes, except that in three of the four air disasters a child survivor is found in the wreckage.   Dubbed 'The Three' by the international press, the children all exhibit disturbing behavioural problems, presumably caused by the horror they lived through and the unrelenting press attention. This attention becomes more than just intrusive when a rapture cult led by a charismatic evangelical minister insists that the survivors are three of the four harbingers of the apocalypse. The Three are forced to go into hiding, but as the children's behaviour becomes increasingly disturbing, even their guardians begin to question their miraculous survival...

I really had no idea what to expect from The Three when I started it. There was a small part of me that was a little nervous that it was going to be a really creepy read and that I might wimp out when reading it. It turned out that it wasn't creepy at all, even if it was probably trying to be. It's told completely through interviews, phone conversations, messages and media reports that slowly unravel the story of Black Thursday and what happens to the three children who survive.

Black Thursday took place on the 12th January 2012, four commercial planes crash around the world, killing almost everyone involved. However three children survive, from three separate crashes and these children become known as The Three in the press. Mystery surrounds the children as more information comes out about the crashes, and conspiracy theories start to gain more and more support as time goes on.