All I Know Now || Carrie Hope Fletcher || Book Review

Book: All I Know Now

Author: Carrie Hope Fletcher 

Pages:

Publisher: Little, Brown,

Genre: Biography 

Published: 2015

Started: 19th October 2017

Finished: 23rd October 2017

Goodreads: 4*

The book is one that I wish someone older then me had written when I was a teenager. Yes it's what a lot of people have said but it's one of those books that makes you feel as if your not alone in anything. That someone you look 'up' to has also gone through bullying, and other things that you haven't but someone else may have. 

I like how it has different Help line numbers and services for across the world not just where Carrie is from. 

If I am being honest I was scared that it wasn't going to be as good as it could have been when I first read it a year or two ago, and again this time I was scared because of it being a YouTuber's book. But I think it covers great topics that most people don't want to talk about. 

What I also liked about this book is that while reading it I could hear Carrie's voice throughout as if she was reading it to me rather then me reading it 

Safe Haven Book Review

Book: Safe Haven 

Author: Nicholas Sparks

Pages: 432

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Genre: Realism, Romance

Published: July 2011

Started: 19th October 2017

Finished: 24th October 2017

Goodreads:  5*

About Safe Haven

Safe Haven is about Katie (Erin) who moved to a small town in North Carolinia after leaving her abusive husband. Where she meets Alex, a local store owner and his two children. Her husband is looking for her and when he finds her is drunk and a series of events happen. 

Review

I love the book, and that's coming form someone who has a hard time with books that flip back and forth. 

It's romantic and heartbreaking. It's feel good and gut wrenching. It's one of those books that you just want to pick Katie out of the book and give her a massive hug. 

I like that Katie got the chance to get away, even if it was under false pretences, and that even though she changed her name and identity that she isn't jumping into marriage. 

I also like how she fooled her husband who is supposed to be this great detective.  

Even though I love the book, I think the last few chapters are the best. The ones after Kevin is suspended from work and he had the time to actually look for Erin/Katie, the way he dies etc. 

At the back of the book that I own that have discussion questions. If you know me then you'll know I love ❤️ discussion questions and have done some in the past, so that post will be up shortly. 

Differences with the movie, 

With any book to movie adaptations there will always be changes. These are some of the one that I caught. 

1. Katie's hair is brown dyed blonde in the movie, where as in the book it's blonde dyed brown 
2. In the book Alex's daughter is called Kristen where as in the movie she is called Lexie 
3. Kevin is right on the trail of Katie and takes it to work with him. in the movie where as in the book he doesn't really look for her right away and lies to his colleagues. 
4. In the book Katie has a lot of odd jobs that she quits after a few weeks. In the movie it shows her going to Atlanta by stays in southport 
5. Instead of Alex telling her what happened to his wife like in the book, Maddie tells her
6. In the movie Katie is a murder suspect because of her husband 
7. Katie's escape was the biggest difference between the movie and the book. In the book she would save money when she could, she planed for the fact she knew her husband would be calling her so had the home phone diverted to a cell that she had picked up. She stole her neighbours child's identification. Where as in the movie she was helped to get away from the situation by her neighbour. 
8. I think the biggest character to change between the book and the movie is Kevin, how is is suspended from work all the way to when he finds and tried to kill his wife all the way to when he dies himself. 
9. Maddie wasn't a charter in the book but was in the movie. Joyce, or her daughter and the trip to collect her wasn't included in the movie. 

While there are quite a few changes that are noticeable within the movie it's not a bad movie. 

Books 📚 That Went Downhill

Welcome to a post all about books that made series go down hill for me. There really aren't to many. But still there is enough. It's kind of sad that these books had so much potential to be great in my eyes as I am easily pleased. 

• Twilight Saga
• Stephanie Meyer
• Twilight Review HERE
• New Moon Review HERE
• Eclipse Review HERE
• Breaking Dawn Review HERE

For me Twilight was the best out of the four books, it's not great but still the best out of the four. It went down hill so quickly the whole saga thing. The whole thing was far to long, and the last two books so could have been cut down. 

• Just One Year 
• Gayle Forman
• Review HERE

I love the concept that Gayle Forman has done for four of her books, where they are duologys and the first is the female perspective and the second is the males, but I think that Just One Year let down Just One Day massively. 

• The Lunar Chronicles 
• Cinder Review HERE
• Scarlet Review HERE
• Cress Review HERE

I loved Cinder it was brilliant, but found that Scarlet and especially Cress just to drawn out. I can only imagine what Winter will be like. 

Cress || Marissa Meyer || Book Review

Book: Cress

Author: Marissa Meyer

Pages: Over 500

Genre: Si-Fi, Dystopian 

Released: February 4 2014

Started: August 2017

Finished: October 2017

Goodreads: 2*

At first I really liked the book, but as time went on I couldn't get into it. It felt so drawn out that I was actually picking up and finishing other books rather then finishing Cress. 

I liked the beginning parts where they were rescuing Cress from the ship but after a while of her and Captain being in the forest lost I started to get bored with it. I carried on and still bored by it. 

I couldn't carry on with it because I was so bored. I know that she is adding more things to the book, but like with Scarlet I think she didn't do Cress any justice and that it's mainly about Cinder. 

It was also getting to confusing. I would get to curtain parts about curtain characters and completely forget how they got there. 

Lauren

xoxo

My Book Trends I Want To See More/Less From

Welcome to a post on things I would love to see more from in books. This was a hard post to write 

More

Women of Colour As Lead 

Maybe I'm not looking hard enough but I've read very few books where women are the main lead, let alone women of colour and ones that I have read are some of my favourite books

Romance That Could Happen… But Doesn't

One of my favourite books that I've read this year is Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen, in the book Ruby has an obvious love for her neighbour, and he dose for her, but I like the fact that they didn't get together. Also Marshmallows for Breakfast is another with a strong sense of romance that doesn't materialize. I think it's such a different concept 

Multi Cultural… Everything. Friendships, Relationships, Characters 

I want to see more multi cultural characters in books. That's part of the reason why o love ❤️ Dorothy Koomson books because she had relationship, friendships, struggles between people who are from different race, religion, etc

English Beach Towns… Especially Along The South Coast

I am such a southerner.  I like my beer with no foam on the top of it, pebble beach,  Piers that go out miles at sea with fun food, ice cream 🍦 stands,  fish and chip shops, cute little stores that sell sticks of rock, knick nacks, beach huts and all the fun things that go along with small seaside towns. 

Less

Vampires

I don't have a problem with vampires unless they are done right, Twilight Saga did a bad job on it that I can read any vampire related book at the moment

Obvious Romance

I am the worst at spotting things in people but in books I hate it when you can tell there is an obvious romance blossoming. 

Short Chapters 

Short Chapters are literally the worst thing through out a whole Book. One or two are fine but when it's every single chapter. No thanks. 

He/She Can't Have The Person They Are Crushing On

I know this could be in the obvious romance part but seriously I think it annoys me just as much as anything in books. I'm not saying cut it out completely,  but tone it down. It's different then the Romances that could happen but doesn't. It's the fact that they have the crush on the opposite sex and do nothing about it that annoys me. 

Super Long Books

I don't mind the odd long book, but it seems that more and more now especially in series books are getting longer and longer as the series progresses. I mean yes there are long Harry Potter books, but there are also short books as well. I had to DNF Cress because it got so long and the story line just got boring. It has 2 hundred pages more then the first book. And then Winter, the next book in the Lunar Chronicles series is over 800 pages. I mean seriously. Why dose a book need to be that long. That's the equivalent of two books at around 400 pages. I know it's because they're adding additional characters, expanding the plot, and so on but sometimes it gets way to much 

Fan Fiction 

I mean look at the trend… 50 Shades of Gray bad fan fiction off Twilight… which in turn is more then likely bad fan fiction to Harry Potter which in my eyes Good old HP should have some amazing fan fiction.  I hated the fact that because Twilight movies were coming out at the same time as some of the HP movies that there were massive clash between the two. (Fun Fact: the least popular HP movie at the movie theatre Prisnor of Azkaban raked in more then the most popular Twilight movie)

Hate List Book Review

Book: Hate List

Author: Jennifer Brown 

Pages: 405

Publisher: Little Brown

Released: September 1st 2009

Started: September 18th 2017

Finished: September 30th 2017

Goodreads: 5

About The Book

The book follows Valerie. A high school student whose boyfriend opened fire on the school canteen, killing students, a teacher and himself while injuring other. It follows Valerie during her senior year at high school, while also dipping back to the day in early May   

Review

This book dose have a hint of what happened at Colimbine High school.

I like the dipping in and out of what happened and present day. I like how even in the hardest of times new friendships are made, and old relationships end. Valerie to me is so brave to go back to a school where nobody likes her because of what had happened. 

Hate List has a lot of underlying messages that what happened at the school on that day brought out to the forefront. 

One of my favourite things in this book is the fact that Valerie could move on with her life and realize that people are helping her. It's hard to get over a loss of someone you loved, but sometimes finding friendship and Help in places you ever thought you would helps. 

In one of the chapters during the student council meeting where they are discussing what they'll do at graduation 🎓 a conversation comes up about if Nick is a victim. And I think it's a good question to ask because it's a double edged sword one one hand 🤚 he is while the other he's not. For me it's hard to say because I've been bullied but I would have never taken it as far as Nick had. 

The last few chapters always get me no matter how many times I read the book. I very rarely can read a book that I can see the charters as if they are standing in front of me like I can in this book and the graduation 🎓 part of the book is one that I can totally see on a big screen at the movies 🎥 

Doctor Foster Season One Netflix Review

Doctor Foster 

Season One

Ok so season two is on Netflix (which I'm not complaining about but when the hell is the third season of BroadChurch going to be on… Just saying Netflix Canada.). Ok so I've already watched the first season of Doctor Foster forever ago and if I'm honest I didn't like it at first and got through the first episode and just left it. Then I started it again and watched them all and loved it. 

I remember Suranne Jones in Coronation Street and didn't like her as an actress. But then I watched Scott and Bailey and Unforgiven, and actually liked her. 

Series One Review 

Like I said I wasn't to sure about the first series but I ended up loving it. I like how Suranne Jones played her character. 

Gemma is a doctor who finds out that her husband is cheating on her and she drives herself crazy trying to find out who it is. Her colleague at the surgery where she works knows. While at her husbands birthday party she goes looking for evidence in his car. She soon discovered who her husbands lover is and the fact that his mistress is pregnant. Her husbands mum dies and she decides to stay with him while thinking he's finished the affair and she is no longer pregnant. She ends up telling the woman's parents who she is friends with, and realizes that she is still pregnant. 

A lot more happens within the series that kept me interested in the whole series that I had no idea why it took me so long to watch it. 

I rewatched the last episode to refresh my memory before watching the second series on Netflix. I watched series one forever ago, and didn't blog about it for some reason. 

Lauren

xoxo

Books I Picked Up On A Wim

Welcome back. Today's post is books that I picked up on a wim. 

• Since You've Been Gone 

I think it was either a 3 for $10 or two for $15, but it was near the front of the bookstore I used to go to, I picked it up as it was on sale and actually enjoyed it. 

• My Best Friends Girl 

It was at the end of the aisle right near the cash register in a Sainbury's and I just picked it up because it looked good. I didn't even know it's was a part of the Richard and Judy Summer thing that it was a part of. 

• Hate List

I just kept looking at it in the store and picked it up. It looked interesting enough that I kept going to it. 

• Lock and Key 

I was actually looking at another Sarah Dessen book and thought it was the book I was looking at,  but it turned out to be a completely different book. 

• My Life Next Door 

It was a 2 for 1 kinda wim why I picked up My Life Next Door. The price and just because. I hadn't heard anyone talk about it for a while and I picked it up

Lauren

xoxo

Book Talk: September Wrap Up

Welcome to September's book wrap up. It's a short one. 

• Cress
• Marissa Meyer

✖️nope. I'm having a hard time reading it. I'm enjoying it don't get me wrong it's just taking me a while to read it. I haven't read any in a while because I've been sick and don't wanna use to much brain power. 

• Marshmallows for Breakfast 
• Dorothy Koomson 

✔️.  Finished it. Loved it of course I did. 

• Will Grayson, Will Grayson
• John Green

I haven't even picked it up mainly for the reason that I haven't finished Cress yet to actually pick it up and read it.