Selection series - 5 reasons to read or not read!

There are certain series that seem to be YA must-reads and that everyone in the YA community has read and reviewed. But then a new girl comes in, one who didn't realise that YA was a thing until last September. I'm that girl. I saw all these reviews about all these series that everyone read and I felt the need to read them too. However, I discovered that just because everyone reads something, it doesn't mean it's right for you.

So hence a new kinda post: 5 reasons you should and 5 reasons you shouldn't read some of the most well known YA series. If you're new to the community, then first of all: HIII!! and second of all: I hope this helps you. I know I would have loved a post like this so I could objectively decide if I wanted to read these books. I'm not passing judgment on these series and won't say if I enjoyed them (though you're always free to ask). These series could be a great read if they're your kind of book - I'm just here to help you decide if they are.

Today I'm discussing The Selection by Kiera Cass. (I excluded The Heir, because even though it's officially part of the series, it deals with (mostly) different characters and is kinda a serie on its own in my opinion)

5 reasons to read

1. It's the perfect feel good book

Life sucks. We have work, school, tons of boring forms we have to read. Some days, you just want to crawl into bed and read a book that you will enjoy without it taking any effort to understand. That's The Selection series for you. It's easy, you breeze through them and there's enough fluff to make you feel wonderful whatever kind of day you have.

2. You like The Bachelor - without all the really creepy contestants? Here's a series that's basically one long episode.

Look, I can pretend I'm all high class and only like "important entertainment", but I love The Bachelor. I hate that it's so cliché and fake and brings together some of the worst people in the world, but I love watching it. It's addictive and you can't help but get involved in the romance aspect of it all. Same with The Selection. You'll cringe at points, you'll encounter incredible clichés, but you'll be too invested to stop reading. All you want to know is: will America get the prince?

3. There's not one boring page.

Relating to that previous point - you won't be bored. You might get annoyed or frustrated, but so much happens that there's no way to put the book down. I'm not a night reader but I also did a few all-nighters while reading The Selection. That's how good it is.

4. The prince is a totally hottie and sweetheart

Obviously, it's all about the girls. But when the main goal is to find out if they'll marry the prince, a cute prince is important too. And Maxon doesn't disappoint. He's cute, caring and incredibly nice. He was my favourite character of the book and it was so easy to imagine all these girls falling in love with him.

5. Dystopian + princesses + insane fashion + bachelor = fun

Do I need to explain this note? All those elements together? How can you not love it?

 

5 reasons not to read

1. America is extremely annoying.

Narrators are important; they basically influence your whole reading experience and even though The Selection world is awesome, America is not. At all. She's the most annoying, immature, read-too-much-Cosmopolitan narrator you can imagine. A lot of readers think she's too annoying and naive, while others appreciate her innocence. It's all about what you look for in a narrator, but be prepared that she's a cliché - and not a good one.

2. America's family is the weirdest and their communication is unrealistic.

America's family treats her like she is a toddler. This could be due to the fact that she acts like the baby of the family or that they are just overprotective. I personally skimmed all communication between America and her father, but it is kinda endearing if you're up for a sentimental parent/child relationship.

3. Some things are too dramatic.

I mean, this was bound to happen. The Bachelor is dramatic. Dystopian fiction is dramatic. The dresses are dramatic. Sometimes you just want to shout RELAX! to everyone. The good news is, they do calm down - eventually.

4. Easy ending.

The ending took a note from Game of Thrones. There were so many lose ends and people who were there that would be in the way so... yeah, if you've watched GOT, you'll know what that means.

 

5. You might not root for the main character.

Like I mentioned, I kept reading the books to see how to romance turned out, but I must say I wasn't 100% team America. If you want to absolutely relate to the main character, this is not your book. But if you want to see a very creative world and amazing side characters, you'll love this book. 

So what do you think? Will you pick it up? If you have, do you agree with my points?

TinderPress presents: New Writ

Yesterday I went to an amazing Foyles event with Sarah Leipciger, Sarah Winman and Maggie O'Farrell. In that order they're ranging from debut author to very experienced author. The evening was so interesting and we got an amazing gift bag too! I can't type up everything because too many great things were said, but here are some quotes that will hopefully inspire any wannabe author out there - it sure helped me!

Maggie said to be an author, you have to be a reader first. She personally loved Secret Garden and believes re-reading is important to find out how a story works. Sarah WInman said she wasn't an avid reader (can you believe that? She's great!) but loved comics because she liked seeing things. All authors agreed they have a stationary fetish - don't we all?

Sarah Leipciger talked about book she tried to write but couldn't finish. She said that she made her main character too much like herself and that prevented her from writing the story. However, all authors agreed that they need to write the autobiographical stuff to get it out of their system and to be able to write real fiction.

As all writers know, you need a good environment to write in. Sarah Leipciger called it "the writing bubble" and I'm absolutely in love with that expression. The best writing bubble is a place where it can be completely quiet and you can write for hours without distractions - the ladies all liked candles in their bubbles! Even with those bubbles, all writing is different and Sarah Winman said that no book she's written has ever had a similar writing process. 

The advice they had for new writers? Always finish your story. There's no way to get published if you haven't finished your story. Sarah Winman said that often when your story is finished, the rest will often just happen. Don't get discouraged by rejection and don't read reviews! It's clear why you shouldn't read bad reviews, but good reviews, according to Maggie, make you too self-conscious as well and that will take you completely out of the writing space.

So new writers, anything useful for you?

I'd like to thank Tinder Press for this amazing evening! It motivated me so much to keep on with my story and I loved hearing these wonderful ladies speak. And of course just to show off my tote.

#TBRTakeDown summary

As I mentioned in my last double review, I've joined the #TBRTakeDown read-a-thon set up by Shannon. There were five challenges to fulfil and I set out to do three since I knew I had to read two ARC's this week.

So the 5 books I wanted to read were:

Conversion by Katherine Howe

Mindwalker by A.J. Steiger

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas (challenge: a sequel of a series you've already started)

The Luxe by Anna Godbersen(challenge: start a new series)

Fair Stood the Wind for France by H.E. Bates (challenge: a book from my latest bookhaul)

How did I do? Not as all as planned. 

I finished Conversion & Mindwalker by Wednesday, which tallies up to 700 pages, and then it all kinda went downhill from there. I started Crown of Midnight and read 40 pages of it so far. It's not that I don't like it, I just wasn't in the mood for it. Then I read 20 more pages of Fair Stood the Wind for France but again, I just didn't really get into it even though this is one of the most well written books I've read so far.

Then I got home on Saturday evening and decided to spend the whole evening reading The Son of Neptune from The Heroes of Olympus series. Technically a book I didn't pick out, but it is a sequel of a series I started so it still kinda counts.

In total, I was having a slow reading week and did too much other stuff (hello Gone with the Wind movie) to really focus on this read-a-thon, but surprisingly I still read about a 1010 pages and I can't wait to do it again!

Did you enter? How did you do? 

Conversion & Mindwalker Review

Well was yesterday the biggest day of new releases in YA or not? It seems like everyone published a book and lucky me already read two of them thanks to the lovely people at Oneworld Publishing; Conversion by Katherine Howe and Mindwalker by A.J. Steiger. As always, I'm very grateful for the free arc's, but that doesn't influence my review. I've read these books as my first reads for the  #TBRTakedown read-a-thon, which means that they will also be included in my main wrap up post on Monday, but I couldn't wait to share the reviews until then!

Conversion 

Conversion was the first book I've read for the read-a-thon and I must say that it wasn't an easy book for me. I was so excited to read it: it's about a strange illness taking hold in a modern high school while at the same time also telling the story of Salem and the witches there. This combination sounded amazing, but somehow it didn't really do it for me. The modern story wasn't too bad, but the narrator was AWFUL. Colleen is annoying, cocky, thinks she's really smart but isn't at all, and even though all her friends get sick, she only cares about getting the highest grades. I liked the other characters in the modern setting, but Colleen made me want to punch something. She's honestly the most annoying narrator I've read - I know you're a teen, but I've never seen such a bratty teen.

The older tale woven into the story didn't capture me at all. I didn't understand it for the longest time and I just didn't relate to any of the characters. I must admit that I skimmed it halfway through the story and just focused on the modern story. There's so much potential with the Salem Witches story and this book left them all untouched. Such a shame. So I can't give this more than two out of five. It wasn't written badly, but I just wasn't a fan of the characters.

Mindwalker

Now Mindwalker is the opposite story. This is a dystopian tale about Lain, who is a mind walker. This means that she can access people's memories, live them and then remove them so traumatised people can be "normal" again. It's way more complicated than that, but eventually Lain gets caught up with a boy who wants help, but she has to do this illegally. This sets the whole plot into motion and basically we find out that everything in Lain's life is not what it seems.

I wasn't super excited for this book based on the summary, but I wanted to give it a go. And I absolutely fell in love with this story. The mindwalker aspect was really cool, Lain is such a relatable and likeable character and there were so many twists and turns that you never knew how this book was going to end. Honestly, this book is SO SO SO good!! It's five out of five stars for me and I highly encourage everyone to read. And even better news - it's clearly part of a series, so we don't have to say goodbye to these amazing characters after just one book! I personally can't wait for part two!

Wilfred and Eileen - Jonathan Smith

1. Have I heard of the author? Who is she and what is her life story?

Surprise! This book was written by a man! Non-surprisingly, it is someone that I don't know. 

Jonathan Smith was born in 1942 and is still alive. From what I could find, he's most famous for all his writing and radio plays. An interesting fun fact from the afterword of the book is that the story of Eileen and Wilfred really happened and was brought to Jonathan by a student of his. He based his story on real life letters and information from family members.

2. What did this book teach me? (This could be about the time period, womanhood, daily struggles,...)

This book taught me that war is hard. Really hard. Most movies I see focus on the toll World War I took on soldiers and most books that I've read focused on the toll the war took on the women. However Jonathan Smith combines these two elements to make it all the more clear why the war was so difficult and how everyone involved suffers.

It also taught me a lot about medicine, something I didn't expect. Before the war, Wilfried is a doctor in training and there are a lot of scenes in which he is in a hospital in the 1910s. Even though I was always aware of how different hospitals were in that era, it was really enlightening to read about and see how, for example, one doctor firmly believes in never wearing gloves. And he is one of the best in the hospital. 

3. Is there a more famous book I could compare this book to?

This question is hard, but I think useful for future readers out there. I'm currently reading H.E. Bates Fair Stood the Wind For France and I must say it reminds me of Wilfred and Eileen. But then again, it's so different in that Bates starts in the middle of war and Jonathan Smith lets us see the characters before the war and really contrasts how much their lives change. 

So if anyone has read the book and has better suggestion as to what book it resembles, please let me know in the comments!

I will say this: if you love season 2 of Mr. Selfridge, you'll love this book too. It's the same time period and shows the same devastation caused by war. 

4. Why does this book matter?

This book is so important in that it tackles the influence of war in a very modern way. This book is not hard to read at all, it's easy and intriguing and once you start, the writing just sweeps you away. From my experience, a lot of young people consider the war, especially the first world war, boring and dated. I know that I always felt like I had nothing in common with "those people" anymore. However, books like these show us that we have everything in common with people from that era. They loved just like us, they cried just like us and they searched for happiness just like us. If more young people read Wilfred and Eileen, the war would become more alive again and there would be more motivation to prevent it from ever happening again. Wilfred and Eileen are just like any boy and girl in London these days and their heartache hits remarkably close to home.

5. Are there men in the book and what is their role? 

As the title suggest, yes there are men. The story alternates between Wilfred and Eileen, but especially in the beginning, Wilfred is the most important character and we really see the world through his point of view. We experience his years at Cambridge, his medical residency and then the letters he writers to Eileen while he's in the war. I personally related most to Wilfred, though there's plenty of Eileen in the story to relate to. 

Conclusion

I absolutely loved this book. When I picked it up, I wondered why it was a Persephone book; it's not written by a woman nor is the narrator always a woman. However, after finishing it, I have no doubt why it belongs firmly in the Persephone catalogue; this book shows the daily life and struggles of families left behind in the war. We see what Eileen does when she's left alone in England with her husband fighting in the war. We see her remarkable strength when stuff goes wrong and she has to step in to help everyone. She's strong, powerful and yet completely relatable and realistic. I've never read a book about the war that felt so real and educational, yet was at the same time such an absolute joy to read. I'll pick this book up any day. 

May Classic: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

The 2015 Classics Challenge set up by Stacey over at The Pretty Books. The goal is to read one classic a month and to blog about the experience. I've always wanted to read more classics and since I'm in a monthly classics book group, I thought this would be a great way to combine the two! This month, I've read Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier.

WHEN I DISCOVERED THIS CLASSIC + WHY I CHOSE TO READ IT

I discovered this classic through the movie. Rebecca is one of those classic films that every has watched and I've always wanted to read the book first before I saw the movie. Hence, I never saw the film until a few days ago. My father loves Daphne du Maurier and her books have always been all over our house, so since I read my mother's favourite classic last month (Little Women), I thought it was only fair to give one of my father's favourites a go. From all of Daphne's book, this one always appealed the most to me because it's the most famous one and I like reading books a lot of people have read. 

WHAT MAKES IT A CLASSIC

Again, I hate this questions because it's so hard. This book is probably a classic, because the writing is flawless. Daphne du Maurier knows how to weave in tension into the story without the reading really noticing. For the longest time, nothing is wrong in the story, yet as a reader you feel like everything is wrong. It's enticing and makes it nearly impossible for you to put the book down.

Probably also a major element for this book is the Hitchcock adaptation. I think that people who don't know the book will have seen or heard about the movie. It must have given a nice boast to the sales!

WHAT I THOUGHT OF THIS CLASSIC

I LOVED this classic! If you've been following my challenge, you'll know that I'm not overly fond of classics that really read like classics. I think Jane Austen and Robinson Crusoe are exhausting and hurt my brain. I want to enjoy reading, even when it's a classic and Rebecca was perfect for that. Though clearly not a children's book (which could be argued for both Little Women and Lord of The Flies; books that I both loved), it reads easier than any YA book I've read. The writing, as mentioned, is flawless and the plot is so good that it's impossible to put this book down. And after I did finish it, I couldn't read anything else for days. It was just too good to really let go.

Another major factor for me was the fact that I loved the main narrator so much. She was so nice and endearing and I really just wanted her to live happily ever after. This got me invested in the story and made the reading experience even more enjoyable.

WILL IT STAY A CLASSIC

Yes. I think it's impossible for a book with such amazing writing to ever not be a classic. I've read other classics, but I think the writing of Daphne du Maurier is the best I've ever read and as a fellow writer, I'm just in awe of her talent and how safe I felt in her hands. Add to that the amazingly successful Hitchcock film, which is a film classic in its own right, and there's no way any future generation will forget about this book.

WHO I’D RECOMMEND IT TO

ANYONE! But if I had to pick one group it would be future writers. I can't even explain how much Daphne du Maurier's writing has helped me and the story that I'm writing. It's exceptional and any writer can enjoy the beauty of her language. 

W Cafe at Piccadilly

Hi booklovers! As you might know, it was my birthday last week and as a birthday present, Waterstone's said I could pick up some free cake at their W cafe! Well, I'm not one to say no to free food OR to pass the opportunity to share this beautiful place with you.

This post might not be completely book-ish, but it's a cafe in a bookstore (the most beautiful bookstore in London), so I think it counts!

So this was the view from the cafe from where I was sitting. As you can see (kinda hopefully) it's an in-between level in Waterstone's. It's right at the back entrance of the store, so you have a view of Jermyn Street. Not only does that mean you can see beautiful old buildings, it also means that you can people-watch while no one can see it, which is perfect.

Even more perfect, is the amazing walls of books and magazines. In my left pic, you can see the wall of art books that are displayed in the cafe. It really reminds you that you are in a bookstore! See all those colours in the distance in the right pic? THOSE ARE ALL MAGAZINES. Gorgeous, glossy magazines that are all there for you to touch and buy. I don't even really like magazines, but this wall just made we want to buy all of them.

So that's my small review of the W cafe that you can visit after stocking up on classics at Waterstone's. It might not be books, but I think this is a damn good place to read all the books you've bought!