Book Review: Remember Me by D.E.White

Ava Cole, wanting to stay in Wales like a adult and not a seventeen year old.

Fifteen years ago Ellen Smith vanished from the woods near her small Welsh village. Never to be seen again.

Eight people were in the woods that night: eight splintered lives, eight people hiding a terrible secret. But who can remember the truth?

Now, Ellen’s best friend, Detective Ava Cole is all grown up back in the village where it all began, and everyone is asking the same question.

What really happened to Ellen?

Filled with shocking discoveries and traumatic memories this fast paced thriller is perfect for fans of Friend Request and Close to Home.

A woman originally from the states, moved to Wales as a kid, had a baby and left him there, went back to the states, the kid's dad is dying so she goes back and deals with the terrible thing they did in the woods. Then plot happens.

Everyone has this shared secret, this secret is also used to threaten Ava Cole by a person who has this secret also, so Ava Cole justifying her shitty behaviour with this was kinda dumb. Maybe if this character was introduced as being more spiteful than sense. The thing is the more you know about this whole situation, the more you're like: "hur, well you really were all the place at 17, Cole". Her actions are explained by having postpartum depression and not having a support group. A much of bad parenting happens in this book.

This book has two narrators, one the antagonist in first person and close follow third person of Ava Cole wandering around Wales, I know it was a specific area of Wales but I have terrible memory, and this was library book I no longer have. This works well, it wasn't frustrating obvious who the unknown narrator was but also you're able figured it out.

The audio book has single voice actor, she does a decent job, especially when she has to do Welsh, American and Southern English because Southern English is obvious the standard narrator voice we all must adopt (okay, I get the choice of using newsreader voice over fun accents for the narrating parts but I will still make unhelpful digs about it).

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for Reality TV. This feels like a set up for a series with Ava Cole investigating, but decided to start with the middle book of the series, where MC goes back to their roots after their first big mystery. This does appear to be D.E.White debut, but it's just the debut of the pen name, she writes as Daisy White. Not sure what I think of this if it is a series, maybe I would read the next one if it is the start of a series.

Book Review: Bad Girls with Perfect Faces by Lynn Weingarten

I didn't buy any nail polish off this book.

No one is good enough for Xavier. Not according to Sasha, his best friend. There's nothing Sasha wouldn't do to protect Xavier from getting hurt, especially by his cheating ex Ivy, who's suddenly slithered back into the picture. Worried that Xavier is ready to forgive and forget, Sasha decides to do a little catfishing. She poses as a hot guy online, to prove cheaters never change.

But Sasha's plan goes wrong fast, and soon the lies lead down a path from which there's no return . . .

This is my second encounter with Weingarten. I really liked Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls and was excited to immurge myself into her writing. This does have similar to that book, but I didn't like this one as much. I mean I did really like Suicide Notes.

The plot is okay, there were some twists attempts, but I wasn't the right type of invested to care. Half way point kinda lost me. It works well in theory, but also seem like quite a standard affair. The plot is bit reliant on the characters being idiots.

This is another friendship bordering on romance. It works well and funly tragic. The characters do a lot of dancing around each other. This is more relationship based than plot, as everything that happens due the character's relationships have with each other.

Overall, I give this book 3/5 stars for locked accounts. I had high hopes for this book and sadly it didn't meet them. It was still a decent read, and if you're looking for a YA thriller, give it ago.

I recieved this book for review off NetGalley and Electric Monkey, it came out on the 11th January 2018.

Book Review: Sleepless by Lou Morgan

Don't take pills you brought off the internet...that ain't googable victims.

The real nightmare begins when you’re awake…
 
Young, rich and good-looking, Izzy and her friends lead seemingly perfect lives. But exams are looming – and at a school like Clerkenwell, failure is not an option. Luckily, Tigs has a solution. A small pill that will make revision a breeze and help them get the results they need. Desperate to succeed, the friends begin taking the study drug.

In terms of don't mess with drugs messages that have appeared in Red Eye books this is the better one. So this was one of the first Red Eye books that were published and I have owned a physical copy since then. It's one of the better ones, so it shame I left it for so long. I have read all the Red Eye books now but Fir by Sharon Jones (working on it).

The Red Eye books are quite happy to have terrible ending which is one of the reasons I appreciated it. The characters stop sleeping and therefore go insane. There are some background stuff hinted at and I feel like we don't get a straight answer about. It doesn't matter.

The Horror starts after Lizzy and her pals take terrible smelling pills (the first major red flag) and after the horror of exams, the shadowy images start appearing from the group and they turn against each other.

The book is in first person, in Lizzy pov, which works well, especially when they start betaying each other. 

Overall, I give it 4/5 stars for Exam freak outs .I think I rank it under Frozen Charlotte but higher than the other four stars books in the series ( Flesh & Bones, The Haunting and Charlotte Says). Actually, I don't know. The Red Eye Series started badly for me, but overall the series on avange the series sits at 3.6. Yeah, one star can really tank an avenge when you do the maths. It could be rounded to 4 stars which is what the series actually sits at for me.

I technically got this book for Review off of NetGalley from the Publisher Stripes. But I was gonna do this anyway and this is my own mission now.

Book Review: Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten

 I totally didn't buy yellow nail varnish because of this book.

When June met Delia, she was a lifeline. Their intense friendship gave her a sense of belonging, of security, that she’d never had before. She felt braver, smarter, funnier, more attractive when Delia was around. But then something went wrong, and Delia and June haven’t spoken for a year when an announcement is made at their school that Delia is dead. 

June barely has time to mourn before Delia’s ex-boyfriend convinces her that Delia didn’t kill herself but was in fact murdered, and June is fast swept into a tangle of lies and deceit – and a conspiracy she can barely conceive of, never mind believe.

"Wow" was reaction to the the end of this novel and the book in general.

The book's main narrator and protagonist is June who is trying to figure out what really happened to her ex-best friend. June feels like a real person and the emotions are done really well.

This book is mostly in first-person with a dash of third-person during flashbacks which were used to give us glimpses of important moments in June & Delia's relationships which I think was the best way to show us them when they were still friends. 

This story does revolve around June and Delia's friendship so the characterization  is of course important and it is thankfully done well. Both girls feel like real people and I found myself questioning both of their actions. I just love how complex their relationship is with each other.

The plot of this book was good and kept you guessing. I went down a few wrong thought paths and for a rare change I never saw the solution coming but it worked and was almost perfect. The ending is ambiguous but it works well with the rest of the story.

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for maraschino cherries. This book was awesome book about friendship and how much you can really know someone.

I got this book for Review off NetGalley and it was published by Electric Monkey this month.

Book Review: The Memory Hit by Carla Spradbery

You can take the red pill or you can take the red pill? Or how about no pills.

On New Year's Eve, Jess's life is unrecognizable: her best friend is in the hospital, her boyfriend is a cheater. A drug-dealing cheater it would seem, after finding a stash of Nostalgex in his bag. 

Nostalgex: a drug that stimulates memory. In small doses, a person can remember the order of a deck of cards, or an entire revision guide read the day before an exam. In larger doses it allows the user detailed access to their past, almost like watching a DVD with the ability to pause a moment in time, to focus on previously unnoticed details and to see everything they've ever experienced with fresh eyes. As Leon, the local dealer, says 'it's like life, only better.' What he fails to mention is that most memories are clouded by emotions. Even the most vivid memories can look very different when revisited. 

Across town Sam Cooper is in trouble. Again. This time, gagged and bound in the boot of a car. Getting on the wrong side of a drug dealer is never a good idea, but if he doesn't make enough money to feed and clothe his sister, who will?

On New Year's Day, Jess and Cooper's worlds collide. They must put behind their differences and work together to look into their pasts to uncover a series of events that will lead them to know what really happened on that fateful New Year's Eve. But what they find is that everything they had once believed to be true, turns out to be a lie ...

This book involves a fake drug that allows that gives you super memory. It was interesting and featured in the plot well. Though, I would have liked to have more scenes with the the effects of the drug, especially on a minor dose.

The characters are likable enough and have complex relationships with each other. Though, I feel character's action/thoughts were unrealistic.

The ending is unusual but it feels a bit of unnatural conclusion. It's still satisfying because it did make the sense.

Overall, I gave this novel four out of five stars for dreamories. It was good and is worth checking out.

I got this off NetGalley for review and it was published by Hodder Children's Books on 4 June 2015.

Book Review: Killing the Dead by Marcus Sedgwick

I brought this on 5th of March, but online so it only came the day I wrote this.

Follow the dark, dark path
Into the dark, dark woods
To the dark, dark bridge
By the dark, dark water.

Linger.
Let the ghosts of heaven
tell their story.

This book is 2015 World Book Day and I thought I would review it while you can still buy it. Also somewhat in a reading stump and busy so having a short thing to review is a good thing for me. It's annoying but expected as there is stuff I'm meant to be doing. Ar...If I could ignore everything in my life and make YouTube videos.

This is set in a girl's Bordering school in Stockbridge, Massachusetts; name Foxglove which sounds like the name of a fantasy character that looks like a fox and slaps people with gloves. 

 The story revolves around the school a year after a girl has killed herself and there's not much else I can say without spoiling anything.

This book is told in third-person with changing euphansis on character about every chapter. It works well for the story. 

My only problem with this story is that motive for a small thing a teacher does, isn't explained. It minor, but still it's problem and we should judge it harshly for having one single issue. Of course, that last sentences is not true.

Overall, I gave this little book 4/5 stars for chewing gum. It's interesting story and definitely worth a read for £1.

Book Review: Smart by Kim Slater

 Jamie Oliver should read this book because it would tell him quite clearly what my generation thinks of him.

'I found Jean's friend dead in the river. His name was Colin Kirk. He was a homeless man, but he still wanted to live.' There's been a murder, but the police don't care. It was only a homeless old man after all. Kieran cares. He's made a promise, and when you say something out loud, that means you're going to do it, for real. He's going to find out what really happened. To Colin. And to his grandma, who just stopped coming round one day. It's a good job Kieran's a master of observation, and knows all the detective tricks of the trade. But being a detective is difficult when you're Kieran Woods. When you're amazing at drawing but terrible at fitting in. And when there are dangerous secrets everywhere, not just outside, but under your own roof.

When I first started reading this book I thought we had another Curious Incident in the Nighttime. Thank God, we don't. Let me start by saying I'm on the Autistic spectrum (Aspergers side of things), I'm also dyslexic and my little brother autisic so I know about kids with special needs. It's never actually said what Kieran has in the book but I did read a blurb that said it was Autism. Most of the books written in the point of view of  kids with learning disabilities (such as Curious Incident in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon) have this weird dumbed sort of tone, which I hate. Because it all about the disability and not the person with the disability. Smart's not like that.

Kieran becomes his own person. At first I thought it was going be one of those books, but it so not. Sure, his disorder does feature in the book, but in the capacity it does in the life of someone with that sort of disorder. It develops into this a really good story.

The plot is interesting. This is more of a character book, but there is a mystery of course. Everything goes in a nice circle, if that makes sense. It does deals with abuse, homelessness, drugs and other stuff. There is a few a sadish moments.

I really like the cover, especially since it so linked with the book and is interesting enough.

The characters are well developed. Even the minor characters are strangely memorable. Kieran get his information wrong sometimes, he says that the invisible coat from Harry Potter was made from the hair of a magical creature but that's not even how things become invisible in the world of Harry Potter, there was something else as well. He does a lot of drawing and wandering the streets. I think Kieran was quite likable, sort of humourist and does what he thinks is best. The characters are realistic is my main point.

Overall, I gave this 4.5 stars out 5 for missing sharpers. I enjoyed reading this book and have already started to bug people I know to read it.

 I got this off Netgalley for a review. It’s being published by Macmillan Children's Books on 5th June 2014 (Tomorrow).