Blogmas Day 1: November 2017 Wrap Up!

Hi, and thanks for stopping by.

Welcome to my November 2017 Wrap Up - this is a post detailing all of the books I read this month, complete with my Goodreads star rating and a short review. If you want to see what I'm reading as I go, you can follow my Goodreads reviews/add me as a friend here. Let's get started!!

Becky albertalli’s simon vs. the homo sapiens agenda

4.5 stars

I read this book as part of my Try A Chapter Tag, which you can check out here. This book probably has some of the best reviews I've ever read for a YA novel, so I had some seriously high expectations and I wasn't disappointed. I loved Simon as a protagonist - he was funny and self-deprecating and just so much fun to read. The reveal of Blue's true identity was PERFECT and I had the hugest grin on my face whilst reading about the start of their journey together. I'd highly recommend this book to everybody!!!

Sara barnard’s goodbye perfect

3 stars

Firstly, I should mention that I received a copy of this book through the publishers on NetGalley, so thank you to them for their generosity!! I've read both of Sara's previous YA novels and enjoyed them both (I think I gave them both 4 stars) but they've never quite reached a 5-star review for me, for one reason or another. This one was my least favourite of the three, for sure. It felt really repetitive and had much less emotional impact, for me. The last 10% or so was pretty powerful stuff, though, so that  saved the overall thing a little.

Christina lauren’s autoboyography

 5 stars

This was one of the best books I've read in 2017 - I am SO beyond happy that I decided to pick it up randomly in Waterstones, at the end of October. Tanner is one of my most-loved protagonists ever, and it was so wonderful to read a male, bisexual perspective. His love story with Sebastian honestly broke and mended my heart several times throughout the reading process. I cannot recommend this book enough. I absolutely adored every single page of it. I'll hopefully have a full review up on here soon.

David leviathan & Rachel cohn’s the twelve days of dash and lily

2.5 stars

This felt like a bit of a hot mess to me, whilst reading. I just think this was written in the hopes of returning to a popular, vivid novel-world, and that made it necessary to create lots of drama in the process. I understand that Lily as a character was having a really rough time, but having her be so miserable totally took away from I loved about her the first time, so I couldn't even feel nostalgic whilst reading this. I did love the festive vibes, though.

ally carter's the heist society

 3 stars

I was pretty pleasantly surprised by this book. The whole plot/concept of this book is NOT my usual thing at all, but I really enjoyed Ally Carter's writing. The reading experience felt fun and adventurous. I really liked how the story was structured into places and a countdown of days. I also felt like the romance with Hale was really well written.

rosie rushton's summer of secrets

 2 stars

This book felt a little juvenile to me whilst reading, if I'm honest. I remember reading Rosie Rushton's Austen retellings when I was a few years younger and just discovering YA and really enjoying them, so I think it's an age thing, more than anything. I also felt like it was a tiny bit dated in places, as well as seriously lacking some of my buzzword themes (mental health, feminism, sexuality etc.). Loved the Italy setting though - even that could have been made better use of ideally.

Maggie harcout’s unconventional

3 stars

I so wanted this to be better than it was. For me, the main issue was that the book was set up to me a pretty great romance at its core when in reality, the romance seemed insignificant for large amounts of the book. I don't think the month-by-month structure helped. It made things feel a bit rushed and vague, in places. I did really the convention setting and learning about Lexi's friends within that community. I just really wish Aidan had been more present in the book.

jodi picoult's the tenth circle

3 stars

Unfortunately, this is my least favourite of the Jodi Picoult books that I've read so far. I was expecting to be really enthralled by it, because the other book of hers I've read about rape (Salem Falls) was spectacularly done and the best thus far. Unfortunately, this felt messy in places, for me. I did think the twist with Jason's character's fate was really clever and unexpected, but overall I felt super unsatisfied with this story and its conclusion.

Ashley poston’s geekerella

4 stars

I really enjoyed this book, overall. If you're looking for something similar to Unconventional, in terms of the conventions and geekiness, you'd probably enjoy this. The main thing that was great about this was the unashamedness of all the nerdy stuff - I loved that!! The romance was really well done - the plot kind of reminded me of Jenn Bennett's Alex, Approximately, which can only be a good thing! 

Ali dean’s doubles love

3 stars

I've been trying to become a better book blogger by getting on top of my NetGalley TBR - I'm so fortunate that publishers have sent me quite a few books that I just haven't gotten around to yet, so I'm really keen to clear most of them by 2017. This is one of those! So thank you, belatedly, to the publishers for sending it to me! It was a very short, very sweet love story - a little too perfectly polished off, like a fairytale, for me. Cute, though.

Non pratt’s unboxed

3 stars

Whilst this is one of the most physically gorgeous books I own, I felt a little disappointed by its contents, to be honest. It's the first Non Pratt book I've read, and I do definitely want to read more from this author, but this just wasn't as good as I expected it to be. I loved the (pretty much exclusive) focus on friendship, but the first half of the book felt a bit pointless to me as they were just running around trying to find the time capsule - and as this book is so short, half of it being taken up by such a thing is too much for sure.

Danielle paige’s Dorothy must die

3.5 stars

As a budding author myself, I found this book really inspiring in terms of just how intelligent, unique and brave the plot was. To take something as famous and loved as The Wizard of Oz and COMPLETELY turn everything about it upside down is so incredibly brave and I actually think Danielle pulled it off really well! It's definitely a series I'd like to continue reading.

Becky albertalli’s the upside of unrequited

4 stars

This book really confirmed for me how much I adore Becky's writing style. I love the diversity and humour, especially. It wasn't quite as special as Simon for me because I struggled a little with Cassie as a character, in particular. I realise that sometimes she was, I assume, intentionally problematic in terms of how she spoke to/treated Molly, but at times I still couldn't get past that. I hated that she pressured her into being more of a "normal" teenager. 

Katherine webber’s wing jones

5 stars

I completely fell in love with this story. I wasn't really sure what the plot would be like, because the blurb it quite purposefully vague, but I thought it was beautifully written throughout. I loved Wing as a protagonist - she felt so real and braveand I enjoyed reading her story so much. I also thought the romance was perfectly pitched - somewhere between subtle and all-consuming. The non-fairytale ending was really brave and I really loved that element, too.

amy reed's the nowhere girls

5 stars

This book was really stunning. The perfect way I can find to describe it is a mixture between MOXIE and Asking For It, because it has all the feel-good, justice-hungry girl power of MOXIE and all the incredibly dark, harrowing details of rape/rape culture of Asking For It. I actually had to put this down for a day or two because I felt rather overwhelmed by it (and because I was having a rubbish week, in fairness). It's one of the best feminist YA books I've read and it really tackles rape culture and misogyny head-on. Be warned, it isn't sugar-coated at all, but it's really important to read it regardless.

Sandhya menon’s when dimple met rishi

3.5 stars

I really enjoyed learning more about Indian culture whilst reading this book, and I liked that Rishi was unapologetically mature and traditional and sweet. Dimple was a really fiery character, and the determination she had was inspiring; she was NOT willing to give up any of her dreams for anybody or anything. I liked the university setting, but not enough was made of it for me. I don't think either of their true dreams for their careers were explored anywhere enough. 

Tom ellen & lucy ivison’s freshers

4.5 stars

This was definitely one of the funniest books I've ever read, and Frankie as a character was probably the funniest I've ever come across in all of the books I've read - the bathroom scene, where she's on the phone to her mother during Phoebe's "mishap" shall we say, made me laugh out loud throughout. I also liked the unexpected feminist vibes that came with the disgusting "Wall of Shame" concept. The ending, particularly romance-wise, was super brave, I thought.

victoria aveyard's king's cage

4 stars

This is the third book in the Red Queen series and I enjoyed it just as much as those that came before it, for the most part. I wasn’t very keen on Cameron’s chapters, just because I didn’t connect with her at all as a character – I understand it had to be done as Mare wasn’t present but I feel like maybe Cal’s perspective could’ve been cool to keep in touch with what was happening to that group of characters. The scenes written particularly between Mare and Maven were SO incredibly tense and well written – the truth regarding why Maven is the way he is was surprisingly moving. I’m really interested to see how his storyline is concluded in the next book.

Alice oseman’s radio silence

5 stars

This is definitely one of my favourite books I've read in a while, and it made me really tempted to change up my Top 2017 authors to include Alice Oseman (I've read and adored two of her books this year). This story was really realistic and moving; I absolutely loved Frances and Aled hating all of the "normal" teenager stuff, and they just wanted to hang out and chat and record Radio Silence. I found them both really relatable. Aled's relationship with his mother was chilling. I just loved it.

Katie cotugno’s how to love

2 stars

I really struggled with how to rate this book, because clearly giving it only two stars makes it seem like I think it's a bad book but I DON'T!! It just has a very bad character within it. And even Sawyer isn't badly written, in fact he's very well written to be an accurate portrayal of a young, selfish, arrogant teenager (and then young man). The way he treated Serena in both sections of this book, but particularly the "before", was absolutely unacceptable and I really worry that if this wasn't the author's intention, romanticising this kind of relationship is potentially damaging. I do believe that the way she ended this story, however, suggests she too wanted better for Serena. I will definitely read more of her work, because her writing style was really great.

So those are the books I got to this month. The best by far was Autoboyography, closely followed by Radio Silence. So exciting to have discovered two glorious favourites within one month. Please do follow if you enjoyed your visit - you can do so via Blogger, email subscription, Bloglovin' or Google+. Thanks for reading!! Get ready for 11 more days of Blogmas!!!

Till next time

Katie