I actually read quite a lot in April, considering I was meant to be revising for my GCSE's- meant to be revising...
The first two books I read were 'World After' and 'End of Days' by Susan Ee. These are the last books in the 'Penryn and the End of Days' trilogy- and they were amazing! One problem I had in 'World After' was the fact that you didn't really see much of Rafe. I feel like because of this it was quite slow, as throughout the whole book I was wondering when the two characters would be reunited. I'm not saying I didn't like it, I just think it was a bit of a letdown in comparison to the first book.Because of this, I was a bit hesitant to start the final book, 'End of Days'. It also didn't help that a lot of other people were also worried about starting the book, as the series was originally meant to be 5 books, but it was shortened to 3. Fortunately, I did decide to pick it up- and I am so glad I did! Because they shortened the series, it meant that 'End of Days' was super fast paced, and there was constantly something going on in the book. I don't think there was a single point while reading this that I was bored. After finishing the series, I can definitely say that my favourite was book three, then book one, and my least favourite would be book 2.
The next book I read was 'The Elites' by Natasha Ngan. This book was a complete shot in the dark, as I had heard absolutely nothing about it prior to buying it at a charity shop. I was really excited about this book, as the summary sounded really interesting, however after finishing it, I was disappointed. This book had such potential to be amazing, but whilst reading it, I found myself to be bored. I felt like a lot of what happened was incredibly convenient, and I didn't particularly like the characters. Originally, I thought the idea of the main protagonist's best friend having butterfly wings was a really interesting concept, however now I feel like it was a bit irrelevant, and wasn't really necessary to the story.
After this, I read 'All the Bright Places' by Jennifer Niven. For some reason, I was a bit hesitant to read this book- maybe it was something to do with the heavy topic of suicide, however I was completely wrong in thinking that it was all going to be doom and gloom. This book was a huge rollercoaster of emotions- I felt everything from sadness to pure joy. I have to say I have never personally experienced anything similar to this, and so I can't really say how true it is to the topic of suicide, however what I do know is that I really, really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to anyone.
The next book was completely spontaneous- meaning I picked it up expecting to read a couple pages, and ended up reading the whole thing. 'The Art of being Normal' by Lisa Williamson is a touching story about a boy who, for his whole life knew he was meant to be a girl. It follows him trying to fit in, whilst knowing that he is not being his true self. There were so many plot twists in this book that completely took me by surprise- I just couldn't put this book down!
The sixth and final book I read in may, was 'The Geography of you and me' by Jennifer E. Smith. Again, for some reason I was hesitant to read this book, but I am so glad I did. It was the perfect contemporary book to stop my incoming reading slump. There were so many times throughout this book, where I just had to look up for a second, and smile like a crazy person. I loved the idea of communication through postcards, and how it was set in places all over the world. I also liked that the author didn't make it super easy for the characters, and that it wasn't predictable at all, unlike a lot of other contemporaries. I feel like this is a book I will reread hundreds of times!
I knew that I wouldn't be reading much in the next few months, due to exams, but here are the books I aimed to read:
-The Red Queen- by Victoria Aveyard
-Sundays at Tiffany's- by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet.
My TBR jar challenge is to read a fantasy book, so I decided to reread 'The Finisher' by David Baldacci (I really need to reread this, so I can read the second book!)
I also decided that because April's challenge was to choose a random book, (and I ended up writing down all of my unread books and putting them in a jar) that I will choose a random book each month, just to lower my TBR's. This month, I got 'Out of Sight, out of Mind' by Marilyn Kaye.
I know this was super late, but GCSE's... need I say more?
~ Chey xxx
