The Crown, Kiera Cass

Pages: 352

Publisher: Harper Collins

Release Date: 19^th May 2016

Edition: UK e-proof, NetGalley review copy

Other Titles by this Author: The Selection, The Elite, The One, The Heir

35 suitors entered the Selection. Only 1 will win her heart. The fifth and final captivating novel in Kiera Cass’s #1 New York Times Bestselling Selection series!

In The Heir, a new era dawned in the world of The Selection. Twenty years have passed since America Singer and Prince Maxon fell in love, and their daughter is the first person to hold a Selection of her own.

Eadlyn didn’t think she would find a real partner among the Selection’s thirty-five suitors, let alone true love. But sometimes the heart has a way of surprising you…and now Eadlyn must make a choice that feels more difficult – and more important – than she ever expected.

The Crown is the final book in The Selection series and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I know this series it criticised for the fluff, the lack of character growth and the general annoyance of the characters, but I felt like that all changed a lot in The Crown. Everything changed for Eadlyn in this finale. Her future as the Queen of Illea finally dawned on her; she realised who she loved, had to choose and end the Selection; and she learned a lot about herself and what she needs to be for her family and the people. It was the most character development in all five books and she ended up far surpassing America in the first trilogy.

The whole book seemed to reach a little further than ever before, moving beyond the palace and into the wider world, but I still don’t feel like I know anything about Illea or the people outside of the royal family. Even the boys in the Selection didn’t really have the chance to give any insight into their lives. I feel like there’s such a lot of potential in this world and after five books it still hasn’t even been touched on which is such a shame. 

BUT this series is ridiculously fun. Each book is quick, easy and enjoyable to read, especially on a rainy afternoon. I got swept up in Eadlyn’s torment over who to choose and whether to prioritise her heart or her duties and I was eager to get back to it each time I had to put it down.

The Crown was a really satisfying ending to a fun and enjoyable series. I will actually miss having a new Selection novel to read every year.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the review copy.

Sophie 

Letterbox Love #133

Letterbox Love is a way to give all of the books I receive for review some exposure. Summaries are taken from the cover, or Amazon/NetGalley/Goodreads in the case of e-books, unless otherwise stated. All of the books are in exchange for an honest review.

Caramel Hearts, ER Murray (paperback)

Liv Bloom’s life is even more complicated than that of an average fourteen-year-old: her father walked out on the family when she was young, her mother is in a recovery centre for alcoholics and her older sister is struggling to step into Mum’s shoes. The only person she can turn to is her best friend Sarah, who gets out of scrapes at school and is a constant source of advice and companionship. One day Liv discovers a book of recipes written in her mum’s handwriting, which sets her off on a journey towards self-discovery and reconciliation – but a theft, a love rivalry and a school bully are just some of the many obstacles on the way.

Structured around real recipes, Caramel Hearts is a coming-of-age novel about love, disappointment and hope, and discovering the true value of friends and family, no matter how dysfunctional they are.

This sounds lovely! Thanks Alma Books!

The Museum of Heartbreak, Meg Leder (paperback)

Penelope is sixteen and has never been in love. So when handsome, charming Keats sweeps her off her feet, she can't believe her luck.

But then comes the gut-wrenching, soul-destroying realisation that happy endings don’t always last forever. Suffering from a broken heart, Penelope creates the Museum of Heartbreak, a collection of objects documenting the elation and devastation of first love, friendship and growing up.

Sometimes letting go of the past is the only way to find your future…

Yay! I’m so looking forward to this. Thanks Scholastic!

With Malice, Eileen Cook (proof)

Waking in a hospital bed with her leg in a cast, the last six weeks of Jill’s life are a complete blank…

All she knows is what she's been told: while in Italy on a school trip she was involved in a fatal accident and had to be jetted home to receive intensive care. Care that involves a lawyer. And a press team.

Because maybe the accident…wasn’t just an accident.

This is making me think of Dangerous Girls which I love, so yay! Thanks Hot Key Books!

Nothing Tastes as Good, Claire Hennessy (proof)

What happens when you give in to the voices in your head?

Don’t call her a guardian angel.

Annabel is dead – but she hasn’t completely gone away.

Annabel immediately understands why her first assignment as a ghostly helper is to her old classmate: because Julia is fat.

And being fat makes you happy.

Simple, right?

I’ve heard amazing things about this already! Thanks Hot Key!

Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann (paperback)

Dolls: red or black; uppers or downers; washed down with vodka or swallowed straight – for Anne, Neely and Jennifer, it doesn’t matter, as long as the pill bottle is within easy reach. These three young starlets climb to the top of the entertainment industry – only to find that there is no place left to go but down, into the Valley of the Dolls.

I’m SO looking forward to this! Look out for the blog tour at the end of June! Thanks Virago!

The War Against the Assholes, Sam Munson (proof)

Mike Wood is a teenager with more brawn than brains. But one day he finds The Calendar of Sleights, a mysterious old book of unknown authorship – and discovers that he is, in face, possessed of certain magical powers.

Suddenly his world becomes very weird.

For there is a war being waged deep beneath New York City.

A war between rivalling factions of magicians.

A war that has spanned the ages.

A clandestine war against the establishment:

A war against The Assholes.

Along with his new comrades, Mike might just be the one to end the conflict once and for all.

This has an AMAZING title! Thanks Atom!

Sophie 

Blog Tour: The Crime Club's Favourite Childhood Mystery Reads, Part 3

To celebrate the release of the magnificent Mystery & Mayhem, I have a guest post from 4 members of The Crime Club – Elen Caldecott, Helen Moss, Harriet Whitehorn and Katherine Woodfine - telling me all about their favourite childhood mystery reads. Enjoy!

Elen Caldecott

I was a huge fan of the Five Find Outers by Enid Blyton. Hardly anyone knows about them - they get shoved aside by the more flash Famous Five - but they are worth checking out. As far as I remember the Famous Five often just haplessly stumbled into the baddies in a cave, or a bay. The Find Outers actually did the leg-work and graft to run a proper investigation. And one of them did amazing disguises using fake noses and eyebrows. Sleuthing AND dressing-up? I was in.

Helen Moss

My two greatest childhood inspirations were The Famous Five and Scooby Doo. I devoured every single Enid Blyton mystery series and sat with my nose glued to the TV whenever the Mystery Machine pulled into view. The fact that both are still loved by children just as much today suggests that there’s just something primordially compelling about a gang of kids and a dog putting the world to rights.

By eleven or twelve I’d graduated to Agatha Christie. My grandma had shelves and shelves of them. The glamorous covers and dog-eared yellowing pages were so enticing; comforting and dangerous in equal measure. I loved the casts of characters, all so briskly drawn, the puzzles and plots, the clues, the sheer cleverness of it all.

Because I binge-read the books so long ago, the individual stories have now faded in my mind, but I remember particularly enjoying The ABC Murders. I remember being sceptical of the idea that a killer would go to all the trouble of devising an intricate pattern to his crimes, but then deliberately tell the police about it. It all seemed too staged, too arbitrary (a problem I still have with many plots involving serial killers, who have elaborate rituals, or only kill between 3 and 4 on the third Tuesday of the month because, well, that’s just the thing they do). I remember being cross with Agatha Christie as the murders unfolded; all that stuff with railway timetables and silly names; and then – yes! - the sheer delight when it turned out that that was the whole, entire point; all the murders but one really were staged; they were just a disguise for the one ‘real’ crime. There was no serial killer with an alphabet fixation, just some good old-fashioned greed.  

That skilful manipulation of the reader’s beliefs and expectations was truly inspirational; I suppose it’s an odd thing to admit to, but getting the chance to be blatantly manipulative (without making enemies and alienating people!) is one of my favourite things about being a mystery writer!

Harriet Whitehorn

When I was nine or ten, I loved a series of American mystery novels entitled Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators, that I inherited from my older brother.  Alfred Hitchock’s involvement was presumably an early example of celebrity endorsement, and didn’t interest me in the slightest, but the characters did; the chief investigator was a fiendishly clever, ‘sturdy’ boy, marvellously named Jupiter Jones, who, being ‘sturdy’ and studious myself, I strongly identified with. His sidekicks were Pete and Bob and the mysteries were all of a slightly creepy, supernatural nature, similar to Scooby Doo. The lucky boys had an old mobile home for their office and best of all, they had business cards.   

Katherine Woodfine

It's so hard to pick a favourite mystery, but one that I especially loved was The Mystery at Witchend by Malcolm Saville. Malcolm Saville's books aren't that well known today, but he was a very popular writer in the 1940s and 1950s. I first came across him by reading my mum's old childhood copies of some of his books, and then spent a lot of time searching down more in libraries and second-hand bookshops. 

Saville's Lone Pine series, of which The Mystery at Witchend is the first, are similar to Enid Blyton in that they follow an intrepid group of young people who solve mysteries together. They have the same nostalgic, old-fashioned feel, but with slightly older characters, and even more adventure and excitement. I especially liked that the books were always set in real-life locations that you could actually visit - The Mystery at Witchend is set in the Shropshire countryside - and that each book came complete with a map. I was also a particular fan of the Lone Piners' canine companion Macbeth - a dauntless Scottie dog, with a special talent for identifying villains!

Well, I’ve now got a few more books on my wishlist! Thanks guys!

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the stops on the tour!

Sophie

A Court of Mist and Fury, Sarah J Maas

Pages: 624

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Release Date: 3^rd May 2016

Edition: UK paperback, purchased

Other Titles by this Author: The Assassins Blade, Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight, Heir of Fire, Queen of Shadows, A Court of Thorns and Roses

Feyre is immortal

After rescuing her lover Tamlin from a wicked Faerie Queen, she returns to the Spring Court possessing the powers of the High Fae. But Feyre cannot forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin’s people – nor the bargain she made with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court.

As Feyre is drawn ever deeper into Rhysand’s dark web of politics and passion, war is looming and an evil far greater than any queen threatens to destroy everything Feyre has fought for. She must confront her past, embrace her gifts and decide her fate.

She must surrender her heart to heal a world torn in two.

SPOILER WARNING: There will be spoilers for both A Court of Thorns and Roses and A Court of Mist and Fury in this review.

I know a lot of people had problems with A Court of Mist and Fury, but I bloody loved it!

It felt like a really long time since ACOTAR came out and I was a little hesitant about diving back into this world. I adored book one and angry reviews had started coming in about ACOMAF buut thankfully I fell immediately in love. Sarah J Maas’s books are effortless to read. Her world building is so intricate and consuming and her characters so engaging that I read 180 pages without even realising it.

I was thoroughly swept up in the building angst and tension between Feyre and Tamlin. Saving Prythian and suffering at Amarantha’s hands damaged Feyre, and changed her, but it changed Tamlin too and it put them in different places to each other. The discordance between them was really well done, I think. I know a lot of readers felt betrayed or even manipulated by Maas (their words, not mine!) for the switching of the love interests, but it felt natural and so right to me! Maybe having not read ACOTAR since before its release gave me enough distance to just go with it.

Tamlin suffocated Feyre and restricted her, but Rhysand encouraged her new abilities, tested her strength and believed in her before she was able to believe in herself again. I loved everything about it. The banter, then tension, the STEAM. My goodness, I do NOT remember ACOTAR being quite that hot! *fans self* I also loved the relationships that began to build between Feyre and the rest of Rhys’s inner circle. I especially love Mor and Amren. I’m really hoping that we’ll get to hear from them in their own novellas or something of the sort soon. It was really nice to see Feyre finally become part of a family, even if it's a rather unconventional one! She really grew in ACOMAF – we saw her come into her fae self.

I have to admit that just before the end of ACOMAF, I was ready to rage when the splitting of the mating bond was “broken”, then thankfully all saved. There was still a stinking cliffhanger though! I want book three so damn bad…

A Court of Mist and Fury is another sweeping, heart-pounding and staggeringly romantic fantasy from Sarah J Maas. I can’t get enough of her books.

Sophie 

Mini-Reviews: The Thing Around Your Neck, Treats & Sweet Home

The Thing Around Your Neck, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

218|Fourth Estate|1^st October 2009

Synopsis

From the Orange Prize-winning author of ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ come twelve dazzling stories that turn a penetrating eye on the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, Nigeria and the West.

In ‘A Private Experience’, a medical student hides from a violent riot with a poor Muslim woman whose dignity and faith force her to confront the realities and fears she's been pushing away.

In ‘Tomorrow Is Too Far’, a woman unlocks the devastating secret that surrounds her brother’s death.

The young mother at the centre of ‘Imitation’ finds her comfortable life threatened when she learns that her husband back in Lagos has moved his mistress into their home.

And the title story depicts the choking loneliness of a Nigerian girl who moves to America that turns out to be nothing like the country she expected; though falling in love brings her desires nearly in reach, a death in her homeland forces her to re-imagine them.

Searing and profound, suffused with beauty, sorrow and longing, this collection is a resounding confirmation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s prodigious storytelling powers.

Mini-Review

I'm a bit intimidated by the list of awards and oceans of praise that follows Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie so I wanted to start with her short story collection. And now I’ve bought all three of her novels to devour!

Adichie grew up in Nigeria and now splits her time between there and America, and so are the 12 stories in this collection. I was quickly embarrassed by how little I know about Nigeria, its history, politics, culture and religions. I knew nothing, and I’m ashamed of how that part of the world is completely ignored in Western education. I learnt a lot about the structure of families, education and the history of violence in Nigeria, particularly Lagos where a lot of these stories are set.

The Thing Around Your Neck deals a lot with the clashing of culture between Nigeria and America. I found it really interesting how alien the US is to Adichie’s heroines as that was how I viewed the cultural discussions about Nigeria. There are both extraordinary and ordinary women in both ordinary and extraordinary situations and I just couldn’t wrap my head around how in depth I got to know Adichie’s heroines in only 20-40 pages. I was blown away by her skill at drawing characters and they feel how Virginia Woolf describes her approach to writing characters: “I dig out beautiful caves beneath my characters”.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a masterful storyteller and considering what she can do in a short story, I’m incredibly excited to dive into her novels.

Treats, Lara Williams

144|Freight Books|3^rd March 2016

Synopsis

“Dance like nobody gives a crap. Drink like you don’t have a family to go home to. Love because what else is the point.”

So says one of the characters in Lara Williams’ extraordinary debut short story collection. Treats is a break-up album of tales covering relationships, the tyranny of choice, and self-navigation. This fresh, beguiling new voice paints a portrait of contemporary adulthood, balancing wry humour with a pervading sense of alienation in the digital era.

Williams’ characters struggle with how to negotiate intimacy within relationships and isolation when single, the pitfalls and indignities when dating, dragged down by dissatisfaction. Meanwhile the dilemmas of life play out, including abortion, depression, extra-marital affairs, infatuation, new baby anxiety, bereavement, hair loss, sexual ethics, cats, and taxidermy.

Mini-Review

I picked up Treats purely because of the glowing reviews it has received on booktube and I was completely blown away. Lara Williams’ debut is possibly my favourite short story collections and one of my favourite books of the year so far.

Lara Williams’ debut collection is comprised of 23 short fictions about the trials and tribulations of being a mid-twenty-something/early-thirty-something in 21^st Century England. Lots of the stories are quite dark and gritty, but they remain fresh and funny. Practically each story is a punch in the throat in its own right and I had to take a small break in between each story to digest what I had just read.

Though most of the stories deal with the same overarching themes: the disillusionment of adulthood, the disappointment with life and leaving behind the idealism of university, but Williams’ also tackles some really serious topics with honesty and frankness, featuring people from across the board so it's impossible to get bored. Or even to guess what is coming in the next story – it kept me on my toes and I didn’t want to stop reading.

Treats is fresh, sharp, funny and brutally honest and I’ll be reading everything Lara Williams writes. If you’re stumbling through adulthood wondering how on earth that happened, this is the collection for you.

Sweet Home, Carys Bray

192|Windmill Books|25^th February 2016

Synopsis

They say there’s no place like home. It’s where the heart is…

Meet the little boy who believes in miracle.

Meet the mother who loves to bring babies home from the newborn aisle of the supermarket.

Meet the husband who carves a longed-for baby out of ice as a gift for his wife.

Meet the widow who is reminded of romance whilst standing at the kitchen sink.

In this prize-winning short story collection, Carys Bray weaves together moments of joy, heartache, sadness and unwavering love as told through seventeen very different notions of home.

Mini-Review

Carys Bray’s short story collection is one I've wanted to read since hearing about it across booktube and I really enjoyed it.

The collection covers all facets of home and family: the sadness, the struggles, the joy, the frustration, the everyday and the magical. I loved the mixture of realism and magical realism in Sweet Home. Some of the stories were achingly sad and packed a real punch and others were really quite unsettling. The variety kept me on my toes and each story was nice and short.

I really like the themes of the collection and the writing in Sweet Home so I’m definitely interested in reading Bray’s novels.

Sophie