More Than This - Patrick Ness (2013)

2.5 stars

Mac bought this for me for my birthday and I'd heard so many good things about it that I ended up being pretty disappointed.

I really wanted to like this book, but I just found that it made me really uncomfortable for the majority of the book when it's just Seth and his depressing thoughts of the afterlife. The parts of the book that I enjoyed were his flashbacks to his life and the parts where he's with Tomasz and Regine. It gave me a similar creepy feeling to what I had when I read Gone but this one was less due to people and more about the world I guess, I'm not really sure what it was about the book that gave me such a weird feeling, but I think the explanation for Seth's situation was way too late in the plot to give me any solace. My favourite character in this book was Tomasz by a mile, he managed to bring a smile to my face in every bleak situation they faced and I don't know how anyone could dislike him. I would recommend this to someone who likes young adult fiction with lots of introspection and reflection and isn't bothered by a seemingly apocalyptic setting.

A boy drowns. He dies. He then wakes up outside his old childhood home in England wrapped in bandages and thirstier than he's ever been before. The town he is in is deserted with no one in sight and everything covered in dust and overgrown as though it had seen no life for years. The boy soon starts to remember his life, including his name; Seth, and why he drowned; he killed himself. After raiding a grocery store and still finding no people around he goes to kill himself again, this time by jumping off a mountain, however he is stopped by Tomasz and Regine people who are also there and are running from the man in black who then appears and tries to kill them. They learn that they were all killed by a blow to a specific spot on the back of their heads and Regine thinks that they were in an online reality when the real world went to shit, Seth still thinks that they're all in hell. The man in black follows them multiple times after that and they manage to escape him in each one until Seth breaks into the prison, where Tomasz awoke from and said that there were thousands of other coffins just like theirs in it. Seth finds thousands of people in what seems to be comas in their coffin like things and the man in black is some sort of robot that maintains them. They then manage to destroy the man in black and Seth goes back to the virtual reality world to try to bring people back to the real one.

Is It Just Me? - Miranda Hart (2012)

2.5 stars

I love the show Miranda so I bought this because the blurb was funny and I wanted to see how she wrote, after reading this though I think I'm not an autobiography sort of person.

This book was funny, but she did this weird thing where she would have conversations with her eighteen year old self which I didn't really enjoy and every time I started really enjoying the book it would happen again and I would stop reading for a few days. Also I'm pretty sure that if you didn't watch her show you would be a bit confused by her writing style because she writes as if she's talking right to you and when you read it in her voice it can be pretty hilarious, but I'm not sure that it would be as funny if you didn't already know of her. I'd recommend this book if you just want something light and funny to read, especially if you like Miranda.

She writes eighteen chapters about different topics, they are; the introductory one, music, hobbies, office life, technology, beauty, bodies, exercise, diets, health, holidays, christmas, who's top dog?, mothers and children, dating, weddings, culture and dreams.

Landline - Rainbow Rowell (2014)

2.5 stars

After loving all of Rainbow's previous books I was super excited to read this, however I ended up being pretty disappointed with it.

The writing was hilarious and fun, like all of Rainbow's other books, and I enjoyed all the characters with the exception of Neal but I didn't mind because I understood why Georgie loved him. I think my main problem with this book was that the premise was a magic phone, that had no explanation and wasn't mentioned to any other characters or utilised to it's full potential in the story. Also part of the reason I probably didn't like this book as much as I thought I would is that nothing really happened. In the first chapter Georgie makes a tough decision to stay at home while her husband and kids leave for Christmas at his parents and then quickly afterwards anyone who reads this can see that Georgie is unhappy with what she chose and should just go and be with them, but instead we read about her getting more and more miserable over six days and only talking to her husband in the past through the magic phone. It was also very hard to be invested in what Georgie was going to decide (it was basically going to be will she let her marriage slip away or will she fight for it from the first page) when even though their love story was adorable, I didn't really care because I didn't really like Neal that much. My favourite couple of chapters in this book were the chapters at the end where she actually interacted with other people, in one of them helping deliver puppies with her sister, who she just found out was gay, and the chapter where the adorable couple from the airport give her a lift, who I found out after I had already read this were Cath and Levi from Fangirl and who are ENGAGED. My favourite character in this book was Heather, which is really the only option with pessimistic Neal, depressed Georgie and clearly pining Seth, Heather was a ray of beautiful sunshine in a sea of characters who were all at their grumpiest. I would recommend reading this if you're a fan of Rainbow, because after seeing some other reviews it seems I am just an anomaly in the Rainbow fan club.

The book starts with Georgie telling her husband Neal that she can't go to Omaha with him and their kids for Christmas because the show she has been working on her whole life might be getting picked up but they need four episodes written in a little over a week so she has to stay at home and write them. Neal tells her it's fine, that they'll all go without her and even though Georgie knows he's upset with her she lets him. That night she uses the landline in her mum's house to call Neal's house and realizes that she's talking to past Neal from fourteen years ago, the only other time they spent apart, at the end of which Neal showed up on her door and proposed to her. The more she realizes about this "magic fucking phone" the more she can't focus on her writing and the more she delves into a depression about her relationship. Eventually she realizes that everything she is saying to Neal in the past has already happened, and these conversations are what drives him to go and propose to her. She also eventually realizes that she has to go be with Neal and she goes straight to the airport to go to Omaha. With a little help from Levi and Cath she makes it to Neal's parents house and tells him that she'll try harder from this point onwards.

The Scorch Trials - James Dashner (2010)

2.5 stars

I read The Maze Runner last year and although I didn't really enjoy it that much, the end left a lot of cliffhangers and after seeing the trailer for the upcoming movie I was reinvested in the storyline and decided to read this, but I was once again disappointed.

This book was really similar to the first book, plot-wise because they had to go through insanely dangerous situations they knew nothing about, but also the way it was written because although I was interested there was nothing driving me to read it for the majority of the book, until the last fifty or so pages when it got really intense and then ended on another cliffhanger. Although I like some mystery in a story, this series is a bit ridiculous with it, I hate not knowing what all the patterns are for, I hate not knowing if WICKED is actually good and if the next book (the last one in the series) doesn't answer all the questions that this book and the previous one posed I will really regret reading this series because at the moment that's all that's keeping me involved. I don't really like any of the characters so I'm not invested in what happens to any of them, especially in this book because I don't really like Thomas or Teresa and all the other Gladers aren't really mentioned or important in this book so it's hard to even distinguish between them like I could in the last book. I think if you read the first one and just wanted to know why everything was happening you could probably jst skip this book and go to the last one, but if you enjoyed the first book you'll definitely enjoy this one.

This book picks up right after the end of the last book and during the night when they are sleeping Teresa is taken away and replaced with a boy, Aris, and they learn that he was part of the other group which had a different glade and maze and was full of girls and one boy. The next day a man shows up and tells them that the next day they will have to walk through a flat trans and they will then have to travel 100 miles north in two weeks and they will reach a safe haven where they will be given a cure to the flare, the disease which they all have (along with the rest of the world). Once they travel through the falt trans they are in some underground tunnels that contain killing metal blobs that kill two of them before they get out into the Scorch. It is a giant desert where the sun is so blinding and hot they need to be covered at all times in daylight. After a day or two they reach a town that is probably the halfway point, it is full of Cranks, people who have th flare, and two of them help the Gladers get through the town if they can have the cure as well. Thomas gets shot as they're moving through the town and that day a hovercraft from WICKED comes in and doctors perform surgery on him and give him antibiotics to make sure he does not die from an unplanned variable. Once they are almost at the safe haven point, the group of girls ambush them and take Thomas because Teresa wants to kill him. Once he is tied up by the girls, Thomas talks to them and they all decide that Teresa is hell bent on killing him for no reason at all so they let him free and they travel to the safe haven together. Teresa then takes Thomas away from the other girls and tells him that her and Aris are in love and Thomas was going to be their sacrifice. Thomas fights them off but they trap him in a small hole for a night. The next day Teresa lets him out and says that WICKED told them they had to do that to make him feel betrayed, if she didn't do it they would kill him and she accepted that she would rather lose what they could've had than lose him altogether. They eventually reach the safe haven point where both groups have arrived with a few hours to go. About an hour before the allocated time, a group of new creepy creatures erupts out of the ground and they have to fight them off during a massive lightning storm before another hovercraft comes to collect them. Once on the ship all of them fall asleep and Thomas awakes in a separate room to the others and Teresa tells him that they said he had already succumbed to the flare and he had to be taken away. The epilogue is another letter from the director of WICKED saying that the second trials went well and they'll see what happens when they all get their memories back.

The Elite - Kiera Cass (2013)

2.5 stars

I bought this book as soon as I'd finished The Selection because it was so fun and enjoyable, this book definitely did not bring the same level of fun.

At the end of the first book America basically said she wasn't going to bother thinking about whether she preferred Aspen or Maxon and try to work out who she was by herself which I thought was pretty smart considering the last three years of her life had been shaped around them, but five pages into this book and it seems she's just forgotten that decision entirely. As much as I want her to start a revolution with her maids and her father and be Queen by herself, it's so obvious that America will end up with Maxon that the majority of this book in which he does something she doesn't like and then she is too afraid to ask him about it and runs to Aspen, who it becomes very clear that she has gotten over and thinks of as a close friend, is so unnecessary. Also if you hadn't picked up on the fact that you were supposed to dislike Aspen in the first book it becomes very clear that's the author's intention when he tells America she wouldn't be a good princess and trying to force her to love him. If it weren't for the Marlee plot, America and Kriss' reception, and the last thirty or so pages when she finally sets both boys straight on her feelings and stands up to the King I would've given up on this book. I had hoped the love triangle wouldn't be prominent like in the first book and we could see America using her position to make some badass changes to society but that is not the case and the one time America manages to stand up for her beliefs on television it is only because she thinks she's leaving anyway. My favourite character in this book is America's father, he's so lovely and obviously is aware of the problems with the government and is trying to learn what he can while still wanting only the best for America, his letters and scenes in this novel really lighten it and make it so much more enjoyable to read. I'll read the last book because I'm a sucker for happy endings and it looks like this triangle has finally been demolished, also if there's hope of more Marlee then I'm in. Only read this book if you enjoyed the first one and want to know what happens next.

Although America is conflicted about Aspen and Maxon, she continues spending the majority of Maxon's free time with him and when they learn about halloween, which was abolished years ago, he decides to resurrect it and throw a halloween ball with all the elite and their families. Before the ball America basically tells Maxon that she chooses him and he then asks her father for permission to propose to her. The morning after the halloween party however, they are brought to a public stage where Marlee and a guard who were caught having sex (which is illegal before marriage in this society) are being sentenced to a life as eights and have to be caned 15 times each. America goes crazy and tries to get Maxon to stop it while trying to charge the stage. She is taken away and restrained in her room and when Maxon comes to see her and to tell her he got her as light a punishment as he could she still doesn't understand how he could do that and if she ever married him how she could do the same thing. There's a number of raids and galas and Maxon starts to have feelings for Kriss so America's really crushed and leans on Aspen. The girls then have to make a presentation for a philanthropy project they would install if they became Queen and a few days before the broadcast on which they will present their ideas, America is going to find Maxon to see if he had read Gregory Ilea's diaries because he was basically an evil tyrant who stole the country. She finds Maxon making out with Celeste and then they have a giant fight where she basically asks to leave and he says he won't let her. She then decides to do her broadcast on abolishing the caste system and after they are off the air the King basically wants to kill her and tells Maxon he has to send her home. Later she is heading to the gardens when she runs into a clearly pained Maxon and before they can say much there is another rebel attack and because of his injuries a guard puts him and America in one of the small sealed safe rooms that are all over the castle and usually used by servants. Once in the closet, for lack of a better word, Maxon gets America to dress his wounds, which were obviously inflicted by his father, and that weren't the first of this kind he'd experienced. He and America finally talk over their problems and explain everything and then spend most of the night kissing and talking until she falls asleep. Just before she is about to leave the next day Maxon tells her that he convinced his father to let her stay as long as she keeps her behaviour in check, he also says that although he loves her, he cannot trust her and she has to earn that back. She decides she is going to fight for Maxon now, and then runs into the King who tells her everything he hates about her and that he's going to stop her from winning.

Someday, Someday, Maybe - Lauren Graham (2013)

2.5 stars

I was really excited to read this because I really love Lauren Graham and after hearing multiple interviews with her about this book I knew I was going to read it, I have to admit I knid of expected more though.

I know this is the first book by an actress who hasn't written a book before, but for some reason I just thought this book would have more excitement. It took me weeks to finish this book because I found it predictable so I didn't have any motivation to finish it quickly and I found the main character so annoyingly ignorant at times that I couldn't handle reading more of her stupid choices too soon after I'd just read some. Don't get me wrong, I like flawed characters, just the combination of Franny's character and the predictability of the storyline made this book surprisingly hard to get through. I did like the premise though, a struggling actress who doesn't realise the potential she's got, and there were some really light and funny moments that I started to look forward to while reading it. My favourite character was Penelope Shlotsky, or Penny De Palma as she prefers, because I thought she defied the shallow celebrity stereotype and I genuinely enjoyed her relationship with Franny. I'm really interested to know if Lauren will write another book after this one and if she does I'll definitely read it to see what she does differently. I would recommend this book to people who want a light comedic novel and don't mind some romance thrown in.

Franny Banks moved to New York two and a half years ago to become an actress and she gave herself a deadline that ends in six months to have accomplished something in the business. During the six months she gets a call from two different agents, books a small one line part on a long running sitcom and a couple commercials, and starts dating a guy from her acting class who is in a big name movie oppposite a big name actor. At the end of the six months, the episode she filmed still hasn't aired, the guy she's dating offered to pay for her boob job, and she got fired by the agent that she picked. She then dumps the guy she's dating for her roommate Dan, calls back the other agent whom she actually liked and decides to stay in New York for another six months.

Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn (2012)

2.5 stars

I ordered this book because I kept hearing things about it, and after I saw that it was one of the highest selling books of last year I decided to buy it. I have learned my lesson that although a book may be popular it may be because it's crazy.

The only word I can think of to describe this book is crazy. For the first part it seemed like a simple missing person's case but as soon as the second part started it turned into a novel about two psychopaths. It is told from two different perspectives, Nick's and Amy's, although in the first part of the novel Amy's perspective is told through diary entries. It is a well written book, I just really did not enjoy reading from two such crazy and sickening perspectives for so long - because it's a considerably long novel - and just going to bed with that in my head did not do well for my dreams. I didn't really have a favourite character in this novel considering all the main characters were pretty crazy, I wanted to like Desi or Nick because Neil Patrick Harris and Ben Affleck are playing them in the movie adaptation that is going to come out this year, but I really couldn't. I would recommend this book to any people who like crime/thriller novels with a good twist.

Nick returns home on the day of his fifth wedding anniversary to find his wife missing, the police soon start to expect him when evidence that he swears is all circumstantial or not actually his starts to pile against him. It is soon found out that he has been having an affair with one of his students for over a year and the public turns against him, it is then that he starts to suspect his wife may have been pulling the strings. We learn that Amy is in fact still alive and has some serious psychological issues, she has been planning her husband's demise for over a year before she disappeared and had planted all the evidence and worked out how to lure him to incriminating locations without her being there. Nick then works out that all the people who Amy had said had stalked her or wronged her in the past had fallen prey to Amy's crazy personality and system of cruel justice. Amy is then robbed of all the cash she had to live on and she goes to one of her ex boyfriends, Desi (who is also crazy), and although she only wanted money she ended up living in one of his houses without being able to leave. She decides to go back to Nick so she drugs Desi and kills him and then returns home and tells them that he was the one who kidnapped her and raped her, although Nick and one officer still know that it was Amy all along and she should be in prison they don't have any evidence to prove it. Amy decides to write a book so the entire public knows her version of things, so Nick does the same but before he can publish it Amy gets pregnant with Nick's baby and he drops all his plans so he can look after the child.

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac - Gabrielle Zevin (2007)

2.5 stars

I bought this book because I read an article about young adult novels that are just as touching as John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. The list had Eleanor & Park indcluded in it so I thought they must be pretty good suggestions, however I was very underwhelmed with this book.

The premise of this book, that a teenage girl loses her memory and must continue to live her life even though she doesn't know anyone in it, was such a good idea for a book and was really interesting to read. However after the first hundred or so pages she wasn't really discovering anything new and she was so fixated on James that it made me kind of lose interest. I enjoyed the story about her family, but I found the rest of the plot, "the love story" as she refers to it, a bit weird and definitely not as interesting as even her photography project. I don't know if I had a favourite character in this book, there wasn't one particularly interesting character or one who brought a certain quality to the novel. I would recommend this book to young teenagers because I think they would get more enjoyment out of it.

Naomi loses a coin toss and has to go back inside the school to get a camera, on the way back she slips in some coffee and falls down a flight of stairs landing on her head. She rides in an ambulance with the boy who was there when she fell who tells the paramedics he's her boyfriend, later she finds out his name is James and he isn't really her boyfriend, he just didn't want her to be alone. She also finds out that she can't remember anything from the past four years, including her mother cheating on her father then getting remarried and having another child, her father getting engaged, her actual boyfriend Ace, and her best friend Will who she co-runs the yearbook comittee with. She soon breaks up with Ace and starts dating James, who has severe depression (and I would also think he has bipolar disorder) but soon he voluntarily checks himself into rehab and tells Naomi to forget him. After a few months Naomi realizes she loves Will and after her father's wedding they end up together.

The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns - Chris Colfer (2013)

2.5 stars

I bought this book when it came out because I wanted to support Chris Colfer and also see what he would do in a sequel to The Wishing Spell.

I'm sure as a child I would have loved these books, they remind me of Enid Blyton's books, however reading them as an eighteen year old is not really the target audience. I love the creativity of the whole world though and this book manages to weave so many different fairy tales together in different ways that I can't help but wonder how long Chris has been planning these books and all the characters. My favourite character in this book was Rumpelstiltskin, he was a really lovely person to read about and a nice occasional break from the main storyline chapters. I would recommend this series to any children that like adventures and fairy tales.

Alex and Conner haven't been back to the land of stories in a year and they have accepted it until their mother is kidnapped by the evil enchantress. They then make their way back to the world and meet up with Froggy who is dating Queen Red Riding Hood now. The enchantress plans to take over the entire land of stories and the human world and kidnaps the fairy godmother in front of everyone to prove it. Alex and Conner then go on a quest with Jack, Goldilocks, Red and Froggy to retrieve all the items needed to create the wand of wonderment. Alex finishes making the wand with the Enchantress' pride by insulting her in front of all the kings, queens and fairies that she's kidnapped and then defeats her without the wand, by forgiving her and removing the hate that fuels her magic. The fairies then decide that the threat that the enchantress posed was too great and they must separate the two worlds forever, however Alex decides to stay in the land of stories, while Conner and her mum return to the human world.

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

2.5 stars

I bought this book a couple months ago so I could read it before I saw the movie, I obviously ended up not reading it before I saw it and I think if I knew how similar they were I wouldn't have bothered doing both.

I liked this book but I thought it was a bit boringly written. I often find with older books that although the plot is interesting me I get bored reading the book because of the annoying way it's written. I know that Jay Gatsby is supposed to be one of the best characters in fiction because of all his hope, but I just found him to be a bit of a pushover and very stubborn at times near the end. My favourite character was Nick Carraway, I like that the book was told from neither of the main characters perspectives and I just liked his personality and his commentary on some aspects of the story. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes romance novels, historical fiction or classic novels.

Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanan's cousin, moves to West Egg to get into the bond business and by coincidence ends up neighbours with Jay Gatsby. Once Gatsby learns that Nick knows Daisy he gets him to invite her to his house for lunch so Gatsby can just drop by as he and Daisy were in love before he went off to war and she married Tom Buchanan. Once they reunite and realize they still love each other Gatsby tries to get Daisy to tell Tom that she never loved him however when she tries to do that he insists they all go to town together. Because of a series of really unlucky events, when they are driving back from town Daisy accidently hits Tom's mistress, Myrtle, with Gatsby's car and keeps driving. Gatsby tells only Nick that Daisy was the one driving, of course he'll take the blame for her. The next day Daisy and Tom leave town and Myrtle's husband goes to Gatsby's house and shoots him before shooting himself. Nick and a few others are the only ones who attend the funeral.

Queen of Babble Gets Hitched - Meg Cabot (2008)

2.5 stars

I read this book because I didn't really feel like reading anything too heavy and Meg Cabot's books are always well written and entertaining.

I can't remember the second book in this series very well, but I definitely liked the first book better than this one as this was too predictable for me, I like a bit of a twist in novels. It was well written and was very entertaining to read so I don't mind how predictable it was. My favourite characters were Gran and Chaz, both were hilarious and had excellent advice to give when Lizzie needed it. I would recommend this book to anyone who just wants an easy read for some laughs.

The book starts new years day, after Lizzie's accepted Luke's proposal and spent the night with Chaz. She tells Chaz to leave but he tells her he's in love with her and Luke is only marrying her so he won't have to find someone else. Monsieur Henri has a heart attack and has six months off so Lizzie must run the shop by herself while trying to decide whether she loves Luke or not. On the fourth of July, Lizzie is at a party with Chaz when she gets a phone call from her mother telling her that her Gran has died. After a few days back at home Chaz comes to look after Lizzie and she sleeps with him. When she returns to work, the Henri's tell her that they're selling the building, so Lizzie works out a business plan with Ava Geck, her rich heiress client. She then breaks up with Luke and the novel ends six months later with Lizzie and Chaz going to have a sneaky wedding without telling anyone.

Warm Bodies - Isaac Marion (2010)

2.5 stars

This book sounded really interesting when recommended to me on shelfari so I ordered it, however I was pretty disappointed.

This book is told from the perspective of R, a zombie, who is purposeless and very believable as a zombie with no passion in life. His perspective is written so wonderfully, the only problem I had with it was how he had such complex thoughts. However I thought the plot was predictable and not gripping enough for me to read it too often. My favourite character was probably Nora, asides from R and Julie, she was really the only other character who showed some depth and I thought she was definitely needed for when R and Julie were in the stadium, otherwise it would've been very dull and weird. I would recommend this to anyone who likes zombie novels and doesn't mind romance, but otherwise, even though I haven't seen it yet, I would probably recommend the movie as I think it would work better as a movie.

R is a normal zombie with no passion until he eats the brain of Perry Kelvin, a teenage boy who the threat of dying by zombies slowly drove him insane. However Kelvin was in love with Julie, and once R has experienced a significant amount of his memories when eating his brain, he saves Julie from the other zombies and pretends he's converted her and takes her back to his hideout with him. Julie and R become friends after he plays her his favourite music and she teaches him to drive, as this happens he starts to become more animated and falls in love with Julie. After other zombies attack her, Julie must return to the stadium where her overbearing dad controls everyone. R follows her and other zombies want to help as they also become more focused and "alive". Julie, R, and her friends Nora spend some time together until her dad finds out and an army of boneys (skeleton zombies) come after all the other zombies who are reanimating and R and Julie. A boney kills Julie's father and when she and R kiss, his blood starts to flow and he's turned human again.

The Casual Vacancy - J.K Rowling (2012)

2.5 stars

I bought this book because I think J.K Rowling is an amazing woman and I was super excited to see how she would write a book that wasn't Harry Potter.

Although the writing is excellent, I found this story to be a little boring and it didn't really resolve some of the storylines. I think that may have been what Rowling was trying to do as some problems don't just disappear in life, but I still thought some of the stories could have had more depth and explanation in the end. I did not have a favourite character in this novel because I didn't really like any of the characters in the novel consistently, they all did something to annoy me at some point in the story which once again I think was the point J.K was trying to make, that hardly anyone is consistently good their whole lives. I would recommend this book to older readers who like drama.

Barry Fairbrother, a parish councillor, dies of an aneurism. He was one of the few people on the Pagford council that was fighting for The Fields, a housing development next to Pagford which homed many drug addicts and children of drug addicts, to keep them as part of Pagford and allowed to attend their school. His death causes an election, where Simon Price, abusive father to Andrew, Colin "Cubby" Wall, the school vice principal with OCD and father to Fats, and Miles Mollison, son of Howard and Shirley Mollison, both already on the council and the leaders of the anti-field party, all wish to run for his spot. Andrew learns how to hack in computer class and hacks into Barry's old account on the Parish Council website where he changes the username to The_Ghost_of_Barry_Fairbrother and posts about his father's backdoor deals. Simon then withdraws from the election, after giving his sons and wife a severe beating and losing his job. Sukhvinder then hacks into the website and posts about how her mother, Parminder another supporter of Barry and pro-fields councilmember, was in love with Barry and only voted how he told her. Fats then hacks the website and posts about how his father constantly worries about touching students innapropriatley which causes him to have a psycological breakdown. Miles then wins the election and Andrew teaaches his dad how to hack the website so he posts about how Maureen and Howard were having an affair. Shirley then steals an EpiPen and plans to stab and kill Howard with it, however once she gets home he is having a heart attack, at the same time Krystal and Fats were having sex while Robbie was nearby, however Robbie wandered off and fell into the river. Sukhvinder dived into the river to save him but Robbie drowned anyway. Krystal then felt she had nothing to live for without her brother and kills herself, everyone continuing to hate her in her death, especially Shirley who thought that Howard, who survived, may have gotten to the hospital sooner had two ambulances not needed to come, getting the operator confused.

The Princess Diaries: Sixsational - Meg Cabot (2004)

I used to think that this was the worst book in the series, but after rereading it now, I have changed my mind and made it second last. The student election plot keeps me pretty interested to keep reading.

This book incorporates school notes and letters in the book that help make it feel more like you actually go to the school. This book and the next are filled with Mia's insecurities about having sex, which get more and more annoying as she reapeats them again and again through the book, the student council election however is very intriguing as it really could go either way which is why this book is still worth a read. My favourite character in this book was probably Lilly, she is very supportive in this book and we also get to see her vulnerability, a rarity for her character, which I quite enjoy.


Lana tells Mia that all college boys expect their girlfriends to "do it" and Mia freaks out without even talking to Michael for the entirety of the book, minus the last ten pages. Lilly also gets Mia to run for student council president because she knows Mia is liked by people even if she doesn't know it, Lana runs against her but Mia's speech about equality wins it for her in the end.

Before I Die - Jenny Downham (2007)

Mac lent this book to me saying that I would cry like a baby, I did not, but I found this book very depressing.

This book is very sad, as it folllows Tessa Scott as she is dying from Leukemia and tries to complete her bucket list. I didn't sob like a baby for thirty pages, like some people, however there were one or two glistening tears on my cheek. I found this book very refreshing as it wasn't all emotional and touchy feely like most books about someone dying are. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a bit of a tear-jerker.

For plot summary see Mac's previous blog.