Sunkissed - Jenny McLachlan

Sunkissed by Jenny McLachlan is book number 3 of The Ladybirds book series. I have the other two books in the series, Flirty Dancing and Love Bomb in my to read pile of books but I just haven’t have the chance to read yet. The series follows around a group of friends but focuses mainly on one of them in each book. Sunkissed is the turn of Kat. The minute I read the blurb I just knew that I had to read this book. 

Sunkissed follows the story of Kat. Kat has the tendency to get herself into bad situations for example she ended up hiding in her wardrobe with her sisters ex boyfriend, which sounds so much worse than it actually was. Despite her best efforts, Kat is forced to go to stay with her Aunt in Sweden as punishment. She quickly discovers that this means that she has to leave her friends and worse of all be stuck on an island that has only one shop and no phone signal or electricity. Of course, soon after arriving on the island she ends up falling for Leo who lives in a tent on the island.

I absolutely loved Sunkissed. The relationship between Leo and Kat wasn’t the main part of the book but there were some really adorable scenes with them both in, some of which wouldn’t be too far out of place in a Disney movie. However, my favourite parts of the book came when friend Pearl came to the island to help Kat participate in a sports competition on the island despite her being the least sporty person in the world. Although they seem to be fairly different people personality wise their friendship was wonderful to read about. They are both loyal and very determined to help the other out when they need help the most.  

As someone who spends way too much time attached to their mobile phone, it made me laugh the extremes Kat went to try get signal, such as sticky taping her phone to her head and swimming to an island as I can imagine myself doing something similar if I were ever to be stuck on a Swedish island.  Slowly but surely though she does start to become less bothered about phone signal and not being able to straighten her hair and really grows as a character. Kat was such an enjoyable and relatable character to read about.

Although I decided to pick Sunkissed up first out of the series due to the fact the storyline interested me more I think I will be checking out the other books in the series soon. I absolutely loved reading Sunkissed, it made me laugh, it made me angry and in some places it just made me feel all warm and happy – what more do you want from a book.

Sunkissed by Jenny McLachlan is out August 13th. Click here to buy from Waterstones.

Sun-Kissed Summer - Marta Brown

I'm very excited to be posting this blog post. Sun-Kissed by Marta Brown sounds like just my kind of book and today I get to share a excerpt from the book on my blog and offer the chance to win an ebook copy of the book too!

Synopsis  -

Summer can change everything.


For shy, bookish Katie Quinn, it just might after an accidental mix-up at the airport on the way to visit her grandparents for the summer leaves her stuck with the wrong suitcase. One full of short shorts, high heels, and absolutely nothing she would normally dare to wear. Until she realizes her newfound look has garnered the attention of Key West’s biggest hottie, Brad-freaking-Garrison, and might just give her the one thing she’s always dreamed of—an epic summer romance.
A romance her summertime best friend only wishes he could give her. But for Oliver, getting Katie to see him as more than just some dumb jock isn’t going to be easy after he agrees to compete against Brad in a kite-surfing competition. And if Brad has any say in it, the prize is Katie herself.
With more than just a contest on the line and a friendship at stake, will this be the summer Katie finds her footing, even if it is in someone else’s shoes?  Will Oliver finally get the courage to tell Katie how he really feels and get out of the friend-zone for good? Or, like a kite in a hurricane, will everything they’ve ever hoped for be lost in the storm?

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25706601-sun-kissed-summer

Book trailer: https://youtu.be/sUy0Dq1V95A

Purchase:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sun-Kissed-Summer-Marta-Brown/dp/1514837358/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1438005200&sr=1-1&keywords=+Sun-Kissed+Summer

Excerpt -

With a quick look at the clock on my nightstand, I let out a groan at the ridiculous hour, toss off the covers, and slip out of bed. Thankful for the pair of sleep shorts I found last night that actually manage to cover both cheeks, I stomp down the hall to the top of the stairs.

“So, when you said last night you’d pick me up at six…” I trail off with crossed arms, despite Oliver’s cheery morning smile and what looks to be two cups of coffee. 

“DP, baby.” He lifts the steaming cup in my direction, giving it a small shake back and forth, like a taunt.

“DP? As in, date practice?” I ask, arching a brow as I trudge down the stairs and snatch the hot coffee from his grip. “You know, six pm would probably be a more fitting time to practice for say, a date. Don’t you think?”

Oliver takes a long sip of his drink while holding back a laugh. “Under normal circumstances, I would say yes, but we have nearly seventeen years to make up for in just one day.”

My cheeks catch fire at the reminder of how inexperienced I am, leaving me to wonder how in the world some silly, fake date is going to help when I’m so obviously beyond help at this point anyway. 

“You know what? I change my mind. I’m going back to bed.” Turning, I manage to take a single step before Oliver’s large, muscular arms wrap around my waist and pull me back against his chest. 

“Oh no, you don’t,” he says, humor lacing every word as he loosens his hold just enough so I’m able to twist around and face him—the small cups of coffee providing the only space between our two bodies. “I have big plans for us today. But, first things first. We have dawn patrol.”

Oh. DP stands for dawn patrol. Wait. What the heck is that?

The look on my face must tip him off to the fact I have no idea what he’s talking about because before I can ask, he shakes his head and laughs. “Dawn patrol is what we call an early morning kite-surfing session. And if we want a chance at winning the contest next week, we need practice. And you know what they say, don’t you?” Oliver grins as he lets the arm that is wrapped around my waist fall to his side before taking a small step back.

“Uh…no. What do they say?” I ask, slightly out of breath and strangely disappointed by the sudden amount of space between us. 

“Easy.” He winks. “Practice makes perfect.” 

Biting my lip, I don’t know if he’s talking about dating, kite surfing, or both. But by the way my heart is beating double time,I’m starting to think Oliver might just be the perfect guy to practice with either way.

Competition -

If like me you are desperate to read the book after reading that snippet I'm offering the opportunity to win an ebook copy of Sun-Kissed Summer! All you had to do is fill in the contact form on my blog with your details stating if you'd like to win ePub (Nook/Kobo), Mobi (Kindle) or PDF version of the book. The competition is open internationally and closes the 26th August with the prize being sent out shortly after. 

New York For Beginners - Susann Remke

New York City is my favourite place in the world. I love the buildings, I love the people and I love the atmosphere it has which I think is different to other big cities like London. Safe to say the idea of book where a European girl moves to New York sounded just like the kind of book that would be right up my alley. 

Zoe lives in Germany but thanks to her boyfriend dumping her she decides to take up her works offer for her to spend a year working abroad in New York City. With everything going on now just seems the right time to leave her home country. However, before she leaves Zoe vows to not get to get involved with another male again for a while, they're just not worth the hassle. Arriving in New York she is terribly jet lagged and within the space of a few hours she almost sets her flat's kitchen on fire and ends up sleeping with her neighbour. Of course her neighbour wasn't ever just going to be a fling that she could forget about as he turns out to be her new boss, Thomas Fiorino. 

I actually really enjoyed reading New York For Beginners. Overall the book is nothing special but it made me laugh quite abit at certain points but then it also has some pretty heartbreaking moments too. Being someone who has been to New York City I could easily relate to some of the place references but I really enjoyed reading about the life of the rich of famous in this book. Tom is extremely rich to the extent his parents own a house in the Hamptons. Tom takes Zoe to all sorts of luxurious events which I found fascinating to read about.

I've had a quick Google search and I can't see nothing about this book being a sequel but with the cliff hanger ending I can't see it not having one. I just couldn't believe how it ended. Another book is definitely needed, I just have to know what happens between Tom and Zoe. Although New York For Beginners isn't my favourite book, I did enjoy reading it. It only took me a couple of days to read so if you're looking for a quick read I think you'll enjoy this book.

Click here to download the kindle edition from Amazon

Book Tour. Confessions Of A Queen B* - Crista McHugh

Alexis Wyndham aka Queen B runs an online blog that exposes fellow students at her schools secrets. People know to steer far away from Lexi, to the extent no one dares to sit next to her in class, as they're scared of being her next victim. That is until Brett comes along. Brett is the schools star quarterback and one of the popular guys. For some reason he isn't afraid of her like everyone else in the school and purposely sets out to switch partners with someone just so he can work with Lexi during a class project. He’s sure that there is more to Alexis then what first meets the eye. Before you know it Alexis and Brett start becoming closer and closer thanks to the school project where they have to become parents to a fake baby.

Alexis started writing her blog after her once best friend Summer, betrayed her and exposed her diary for everyone to laugh at. Although I don’t necessarily agree with Alexis finding out the dirt on her classmates and posting it online, I do see why she does it and why she has built up such a tough exterior now. My main worry at the beginning of the book is that I wouldn’t like Alexis at all because of this but once Brett starts to get to know her more you and see her hard cookie outside starts to crumble. She’s also such a funny character, a little quirky and sarcastic, I found her such an enjoyable main character to read about. Interesting I also really enjoyed how Brett wasn’t just the stereotypical sports person. I'm sure that a lot of people will start slowly falling in love with him whilst reading the book. Although Brett's trying to find more to Lexi, Lexi ends up discovering that there is a lot more to him too. Some of my favourite chapters in the book were when we get to read about Brett interacting with his family where his caring side really comes into play.

At first I thought Confessions Of A Queen B* would be a complete stereotypical young adult romance book. Yes, the book has elements where you see a relationship blooming between Lexi and Brett, after all Brett is the best looking person in school and of course Lexi would be hard pushed not to like him. The book is so well written and if the story sounds like something you’d enjoy, you’ll definitely enjoy the writing style. It also had moments that made me actually laugh out loud when reading which is only a good thing.  I also found that a nice touch was at the beginning of chapters when one of Lexi’s blog posts would always start.

I pleasantly discovered when checking out Goodreads that this book is going to be a series - thank goodness! Confessions Of A Queen B* is just screaming for a sequel. I think that it is impossible to read this book without desperately wanting another book there as soon as you reach the end page. I absolutely loved reading this book and I just can’t wait to read the next one. I personally think this is going to be the next book that everyone will be talking about. Confessions Of A Queen B* should certainly be added to your must read pile of books.

Synopsis -

Alexis Wyndham is the other type of Queen B—the Queen Bitch.


After years of being the subject of ridicule, she revels in her ability to make the in-crowd cower via the exposés on her blog, The Eastline Spy. Now that she’s carved out her place in the high school hierarchy, she uses her position to help the unpopular kids walking the hallways.


Saving a freshman from bullies? Check.
Swapping insults with the head cheerleader? Check.
Falling for the star quarterback? So not a part of her plan.


But when Brett offers to help her solve the mystery of who’s posting X-rated videos from the girls’ locker room, she’ll have to swallow her pride and learn to see past the high school stereotypes she’s never questioned—until now.


Purchase Links -
Amazon
B&N


Win -

If you like what you've read about the book and would love to own a copy then enter the competition below to win a signed copy of Confessions Of A Queen B* and $25 Gift Card to the vendor of the winner’s choice. Its open internationally too so everyone is in with a chance of winning.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Book Tour -


This blog post is part of Xpresso Book Tours. Click the link below to see other blog posts that are a part of the Confessions Of A Queen B* - Crista McHugh book tour

http://xpressobooktours.com/2015/05/07/tour-sign-up-confessions-of-a-queen-b-by-crista-mchugh/

All I've Never Wanted - Ana Huang

The Scions are extremely rich and powerful. At Valesca school no one dares to cross them, instead everyone just dreams about one day getting to be a member of their inner circle. Maya however was different. She purposely tries to avoid the Scions, even going to the extremes of arriving at school very early in order to avoid seeing them when they arrived. Then one day, thanks to Maya’s ability to not be able to keep her mouth shut, she suddenly finds her life gets entwined with the lives of the Scions. Before she knows it she’s fake dating one and somehow falling slowly in love with another. 

The storyline is something that normally would be completely my kind of book. However, All I’ve Never Wanted by Ana Huang just didn’t capture my attention. I just found the story boring. I read a lot of young adult romance novels meaning this story should’ve been for me, but I just felt like All I’ve Never Wanted just didn’t seem to go anywhere. I’m certainly not shy of reading a long book but I wonder if the book was a few chapters shorter and got to the point a bit quicker maybe I would’ve been more interested. I also didn’t like the way in which this book is wrote. At times I just felt like I was reading fanfiction rather than a novel which after reading about the book to write this review, I discovered that interestingly this was how the book started out. 

Again for someone who reads alot of books with stereotypical characters I just didn’t like any of them in the book. The Scions, in particular Roman, seem so self obsessed and arrogant. I hated the scene where Roman turned the whole school against Maya just because she stood up to him. There was just no need for that and it demonstrated the power the Scions had but for me, it only made me hate them more which only made it increasingly more difficult to like them as the book progressed. However, even when this happened to Maya, I didn’t really feel sorry for her. I thought her character was a little two dimensional and not relatable in the slightest which made me really not care what happened to her. Also, the ways in which Maya and the Scions interacted with each other just didn’t seem believable which again made it hard for me to read.  

Usually when I’m not so fond of a book I try to keep reading until the end, however I’m over 50% of the way through and I just can’t read any more of this book. Perhaps my review would’ve been different if I had persevered to the end. My problem was that I just didn’t care about the characters or particularly the story to read anymore. I usually desperately require closure to a book but I don’t have an interest in finding out what happens to these characters. It has got to the stage where it’s become a real chore to pick up my kindle to read this book so unfortunately I’ve just given up and decided not to read anymore of All I’ve Never Wanted.  

Personally, I wouldn’t recommend reading All I’ve Never Wanted. Complete credit to the author for getting this book published after writing on Wattpad but it just wasn’t for me. In my opinion, the story was long winded and the characters were boring. However, from reading others people’s reviews it seems that the story is very similar to that of Japanese show, Hana Yori Dango so perhaps you’d enjoy All I’ve Never Wanted a lot more than I did if you like that.  

Click here to buy the kindle edition from Amazon

London Film And Comic Con 2015

This is a little different from my usual blog post but I thought that for this weeks post I would write about my experience at this weekends London Film & Comic Con at Kensington Olympia which I am currently sat on the train home from. 

Having attended various conventions since 2010, I am by no means a newbie to the organisers, Showmasters conventions so by now I know exactly how things work and what to expect. This year however, was my first time at the UK's largest convention of its kind, London Film & Comic Con (LFCC). I've never really fancied attending before as it is much bigger than the other conventions that I have attended in the past. This year however, LFCC was focussed on the 30th anniversary of one of my favourite films, Back To The Future so like many others I couldn't resist attending this year. 

This year was especially different to other years due to the fact that entry tickets and many of the photoshoots were sold out plus it added into the equation the addition of diamond passes for some of the bigger named guests. Not unsurprising when you look at some of the incredible guests that were on this lineup. Unfortunately gold/diamond passes were out of my price range so this blog comes from somebody who did the weekend entirely with a standard ticket. Despite the entry queue snaking almost the entire way around Olympia, Showmasters staff quickly got the crowds inside and although it may have taken me almost an hour to get inside the queue never stopped moving once so it didn't feel like much time at all. Considering the large amounts of attendees I think it was extremely well managed, particularly compared with some experiences I've had at not Showmasters run conventions.

I had photoshoot sessions booked in advance of the day, with the stars of Back To The Future, Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd and from Harry Potter, David Bradley and Michael Gambon. Michael J Fox is someone who I never thought I would get the opportunity to meet so I consider myself extremely lucky to have managed to get a photoshoot ticket to meet him. Of course, many other attendees were there to meet Michael J Fox too and the photoshoot area was by far the busiest I attended all day. It was extremely warm waiting and I seemed to be surrounded by people complaining that it was poorly organised but truthfully I think it wasn't too bad. Yes a better system could probably be thought of now Showmasters are getting extremely high profile guests attending but photo batches were clearly shouted by the staff member and held up on whiteboard so everyone should see. Everyone waiting got what they paid for in the end, the opportunity to get a photo and spend a few seconds speaking to someone they've watched on television for years. My biggest surprise came with Michael J Fox as I found him surprisingly chatty in comparison to Michael Gambon towards the end of the day, whose photo session seemed extremely rushed. A nice addition now is that you get your photo almost instantly after it is taken, much improvement to a few years back when you had to wait hours for your photo to be printed. Credit goes completely to the gentleman who was manning the big guest photoshoot area as I really think he kept all the photoshoots running as smoothly as they possibly could. 

My only real gripe about the convention is accessibility and the lack of air con, though this is more a fault of the venue rather than Showmasters themselves. Access to the comic book and young adult book sections as well as a few of the signing areas on levels 2 and 3 was poor. The only way up was by lift or a very small staircase which was very time consuming whichever option you chose to use. Despite me wanting to go and meet some authors, the accessibility really put me off making multiple trips up to those zones.

I need to mention the young adult literacy convention (YALC) which was part of LFCC this year. Featuring signings and talks from popular authors such as Samantha Shannon (author of The Bone Season series), Malory Blackman (author of the Noughts and Crosses series) and author of Take Back The Skies, Lucy Saxon, who even came in cosplay! As someone who is very interested in reading books of the young adult genre it was great that it had its own dedicated section of the convention. I just wish it had easier access so I could've spent more time browsing the book stalls and getting more of my books signed.

All in all I thought LFCC was brilliant and would certainly consider going again in the future. Although I've read quite negative opinions on this year's convention, I found the organisation to be pretty good overall. The guests this year were real one in a lifetime opportunity guests and I am very thankful for Showmasters for giving me the opportunity to meet everyone I did. If you want to attend LFCC I would highly recommend attending one of Showmasters other conversations first to get the feel of how they work with ticketing (particularly if you want autographs) as I think that LFCC may be a little overwhelming if it's your first conversation. 

My Secret Rockstar Boyfriend - Eleanor Wood

I’ve seen My Secret Rockstar Boyfriend by Eleanor Wood be mentioned rather a lot on Twitter the past week or so. The title sounded just like the type of book that I’d love so I couldn’t resist giving it a read. Unfortunately the book isn’t quite like the title suggests its going to be and the love interest between the main character, Tuesday and rockstar Jackson Griffith, barely even crosses the more than friends line. 

The book focuses on blogger Tuesday. She loves to write and that is what she wants to do more than everything. However, other than her mum, boyfriend and best friend no one ever reads her blog so when one day she unexpectedly gets a comment from a poster calling themselves Jackson Griffith, a rockstar she had a massive crush on when she was younger, it’s safe to say she was a little bit excited. Her friends and boyfriend, understandably, don’t believe that the comments are being left by the real Jackson Griffith and are very quick to burst Tuesday’s bubble. However, Tuesday completely believes that it is him so ends up emailing Jackson who sends her a photo of himself reading her blog which is undeniable proof that he is the real deal. Tuesday is currently in the middle of her final year of A Levels so can’t afford a distraction right now but Jackson does just that. 

What’s refreshing about this book is that Tuesday isn’t the stereotypical main character. She is completely quirky and is very much aware of her future and the dangers of meeting a stranger from the internet which makes the book a much more enjoyable read. However, I didn’t enjoy the other characters in the book. Tuesday’s best friend, Nishi, is the worst friend to her and her boyfriend Seymour isn’t much better. Seymour comes from a different background to Tuesday and his parents just think that Tuesday isn’t good enough for their son to be dating. Seymour doesn’t have any sweet, caring moments with Tuesday and I really don’t know how they got together in the first place so it’s no wonder she ditches them both for a guy who writes nice comments on her blog. However, Jackson was known for being an alcoholic and drug addict and his influence threatens to ruin Tuesday’s future which makes me dislike him.

However, despite this I found the book to be an easy read, with it effortlessly blending the realms of reality and the fantasy world that normally only lives in daydreams. Having a blog myself makes it much more realistic to imagine how I’d react if my favourite musician commented on my blog. I’ve also attended Glastonbury Festival a few times myself and of course I remember doing my A Levels so those settings too made it so much more relatable. 

This book wasn’t completely my cup of tea but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy reading. I completely judged this book by its title to begin with so perhaps my mistake was expecting to read a story completely different to what it turned out to be about. Even when I got to grips with what the story was about I was just expecting something more, though I’m not entirely sure what. Personally I think this book is perhaps for a more teenage audience. I hated Tuesday’s friends but if you can get past that, the settings, music references and some of the meetings with Jackson is what makes My Secret Rockstar Boyfriend great. 

Click here to buy My Secret Rockstar Boyfriend - Eleanor Wood from Waterstones.