*** Review*** From Notting Hill With Love... Actually by Ali McNamara

On the Back of the Book

Scarlett loves movies.

But does she love sensible fiancé David just as much?

With a big white wedding on the horizon,

Scarlett really should have decided by now...

When she has the chance to house-sit in Notting Hill – the setting of one of her favourite movies – Scarlett jumps at the chance. But living life like a movie is trickier than it seems, especially when her new neighbour Sean is so irritating. And so irritatingly handsome, too.

Scarlett soon finds herself starring in a romantic comedy of her very own: but who will end up as the leading man?

Pre Read Thoughts

I picked this up in The Works as part of a 3 for £5 deal. I’m not sure what attracted me to this book as it’s not a genre I normally read. It may have been the title but it’s more likely to have been the shiny snowflakes on the cover. What can I say? I’m like a magpie when it comes to shiny things.  Once I’d picked up the book the synopsis really caught my attention. I decided to buy it and take it home for when I was having a bad day. Well the bad day has arrived and the book has been picked up.  I hope it puts a smile on my face.

Post Read Thoughts

***This may contain spoilers. Sorry, I just want to get my point across.***

I really, really liked this book. It had me smiling and laughing out loud as I read about Scarlett’s adventures in Notting Hill and a few other places but to find out where you’ll just have to read the book. The only thing that I wasn’t a fan of was the film references. I think this is because they got repetitive. Scarlett’s meant to be a film buff but so few films were used in the book. However we all have something we obsess over (well I know I do) so I forgave Scarlett quickly. The writing was pretty darn good and drew me into the story speedily. I read the book in less than a day and considering it’s 428 pages that’s not bad at all.

Aside from her obsession with about three films, I liked Scarlett. A lot. She was sweet and funny and I love how she grew as a character throughout the book. I can get why she had issues choosing between David and Sean as they are complete opposites but for me, as the reader, there wasn’t any competition. Sean seemed to care more about Scarlett and more willing to accept her as she was. David wanted her to change and be someone that she wasn’t and that’s not acceptable. I also liked how Sean helped to track down Scarlett’s long lost mum when all David could say was leave it. I wanted David to prove that he deserved Scarlett and he never did. I just quickly want to say that I loved the quirky side characters. Maddie was hilarious, Ursula was pretty awesome but my favourite was definitely Oscar. What a guy! The outfits really had my brain working overtime.

Overall this is a very enjoyable book that makes you feel good. There are some hilarious moments and my personal favourite happens at Disneyland Paris. I’m saying nothing else about it aside from it had me in stitches. The ending is so funny and heart meltingly romantic at the same time. Actually I think that funny and heart meltingly romantic sum up this book nicely. I definitely recommend this to fans of chick-lit or even just for women who want to read something different. I don’t think it would do a guy’s street cred any good to be seen with it though, so if you’re a dude and you want to read this, I have one word for you: Kindle.

My Rating

4 stars – it doesn’t matter how much I loved this I never considered five stars, this isn’t an insult to the book, it’s very high on the scale of four. I think the reason I can only give this four is because a few of the movie references went over my head. Other than that this book is almost perfect. In fact it’s good enough to make me want to go pick up Breakfast At Darcy’s... except I’m not allowed to buy any more books until I have my Kindle (Hurry up Christmas)!

A Final Note

There was one swear word that I can remember and also this is an adult book. Saying that, I’ve read worse in YA so I don’t see why a teen shouldn’t read it.

***Series Review*** His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

Series Summary

There are three books in this series, Northern Lights aka The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife & The Amber Spyglass. The main characters are Will Parry and Lyra Silvertongue. The series is set in parallel universes and is for young adults and children.

Pros

·         Well written

·         Interesting ideas

·         Relatable characters

·         Touching character development

Cons

·         The ending was weak

·         The slow burning plot makes it difficult to get into the series.

·         There’s a spot of violence

·         It’s anti church so religious people may find this offensive.

Best Book: Northern Lights

Worst Book: The Amber Spyglass

Overall Rating


3 stars – it’s a good series but I think that it’s better suited for younger readers after completing the series.  The beautiful descriptions make this worth a read but then that’s negated by the slowness of the plot. The characters are likable and easy to relate to.

***Review*** The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials #3 by Philip Pullman

On the Back of the Book

The terrible war foretold by the witches is coming. Will is the bearer of the subtle knife, the most powerful weapon in all the worlds, and must deliver it to Lord Asriel. But he faces his dangerous journey alone, for Lyra has disappeared...

Pre Read Thoughts

The final instalment of the ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy and I’m not sure how I feel about reading it. The depth of series opener, ‘Northern Lights’ excited me but the slowness of follow up ‘The Subtle Knife’ has made me slightly wary of reading this. Read it I will though. I’m reading this for the ‘Banned Books’ challenge that I’m taking part in on GoodReads. I bought my copy from WHSmith for £7.99 which is the RRP of my edition. If you want to get it cheaper I know that The Works are selling the whole trilogy as a boxset for a nice price. The cover is of Lyra and Iorek Byrnison and is taken from the film ‘The Golden Compass’. I quite like it but I think a beautiful illustration would work better. There isn’t much to the synopsis but I hope this is a good book.

Post Read Thoughts

*** As this is the final book in a trilogy there may be some spoilers in this review***

I don’t know what to say about this and it’s not often that happens. I’m going to try anyway so bear with me. The synopsis made this book sound like everything it isn’t. That “terrible war” didn’t happen, Lyra wasn’t missing for long and they had no intention of going to Lord Asriel. The answers that were being sought were just given to the characters, they didn’t really discover anything themselves. Add on to that the fact that this book is 522 pages long I wasn’t impressed. There was ample amount of space for Lyra and Will to discover what they needed to do. I’ll admit it, this is another slow burner and I wasn’t that interested until around page 300. I’m not at all happy with that. The writing was good though. I can’t fault the author on his skills, the end tugged at my heartstrings because I just wanted a different outcome.

The characters weren’t particularly stand out ish in any way. Will and Lyra’s emotional journey was touching and well portrayed and their decisions made them become wise beyond their years. I was pleased to see the return of some of the characters that had such a huge part in book one such as: Iorek Byrnison, Lord Faa and Serafina Pekkala although the latter played a big part in The Subtle Knife as well. There were also some new characters that really added to the story.

Overall I’m pretty disappointed as the end felt like such a cop out to me. I would’ve liked to see Lyra and Will figure out the issues with their worlds instead of just being told by Pantalaimon and Kirjava. The slow pace made it harder to read and the synopsis took my train of thought in the complete opposite direction to the actual book. However I won’t deny that this book, like the previous two, is well written and is a must for people who like descriptive fantasy and don’t mind a weedy ending.

My Rating

2 stars – my initial thought was to give it three but after writing this review I simply don’t feel that it deserves it. There wasn’t enough action for me and that ending... I know I keep going on about it but I’m sorry, it really annoyed me.

***Review*** The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials #2) by Philip Pullman

On the Back of the Book

Will is twelve years old and he’s just killed a man. Now he’s on his own, on the run, determined to discover the truth about his father’s disappearance.

Then Will steps through a window in the air into another world, and finds himself with a companion – a strange, savage little girl called Lyra. Like Will, she has a mission which she intends to carry out at all costs.

But the world of Cittagazze is a strange and unsettling place. Deadly soul-eating Spectres stalk its streets, while high above, the wingbeats of distant angels sound high against the sky. And in the mysterious Torre degli Angeli lurks Cittagazze’s most important secret – an object which people from many world’s would kill to possess...

Pre Read Thoughts

After reading ‘Northern Lights’ I knew that I wanted to read this, well that and I always try to read series together. This is once again for the ‘Banned Books’ challenge on GR although it’s a book I’ve been meaning to read for a while. Once again I bought this at my local BHF (British Heart Foundation) charity shop. I cost me £1 and is in alright condition. My cover depicts the subtle knife and there’s an illustration of a town which is quite possibly Cittagazze. It’s nice but not eye catching. What a synopsis though! The first sentence has me wanting to open this book so fast you wouldn’t believe it. Definitely can’t wait for this.

Post Read Thoughts

I feel disappointed that the story wasn’t cranked up a notch in this instalment. The plot could have been blown wide open but it wasn’t and I was waiting for it. It took ages for the pace to pick up and the fact that this is part 2 of a trilogy meant that I wanted huge story developments. Instead all I got was a couple of pretty average plot twists that I saw coming from a mile off and that took some of my enjoyment of the book away. On the plus side the writing itself was just as amazing as it was in Northern Lights and I could fully picture the events of the book in my head. It’s one of my favourite things about this trilogy so far, along with the awesome theories that author keeps coming up with.

Will is the main character in this book and I’m not sure that I like him as I do Lyra. Don’t get me wrong, he’s well written and easy to connect with but I just preferred Lyra. She’s in this book though and it was great to see her grow as a character. She’s going to be a teenager soon and she’s beginning to mature and be able to deal with adult situations in a sensible manner. I can’t wait to see what happens with a new character called Dr Mary Malone and there was a scene with Lee Scoresby that brought tears to my eyes.

Overall I think that I prefer book 1 as it had more to it that I enjoyed. The slow pace and the difficulty to get into this are major down sides for me as I like to be sucked into a story.  As I said before the writing and the world building are amazing, it’s just that I feel the author would benefit from opening a story in a gripping way. Although the slow burners that he does write draw you in without you realising it.

My Rating

3 stars – it’s not bad, it’s just that it’s not amazing either. It’s good and when there are so many stories that are more than just ‘good’ out there who wants to settle for it? The addition of Will may make boys enjoy this as I feel they’ll relate to him better than Lyra. These are turning into good books if you want your kids to develop their imaginations.

***Review*** Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

On the Back of the Book

My copy doesn’t say anything... so for one review only we’re going to visit Goodreads.

(Goodreads Description)

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

So begins Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's witty comedy of manners--one of the most popular novels of all time--that features splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of eighteenth-century drawing-room intrigues. Renowned literary critic and historian George Saintsbury in 1894 declared it the "most perfect, the most characteristic, the most eminently quintessential of its author's works," and Eudora Welty in the twentieth century described it as "irresistible and as nearly flawless as any fiction could be."

Pre Read Thoughts

This is one of those books that I’ve been meaning to read for ages and never found the time to sit down and do so. So with a half finished blanket (see Wuthering Heights review) and winter fast approaching I thought I’d get an audiobook and get down to work. I’m also reading this for a favourites challenge on GR. I bought a physical copy of the book at my local RSPCA charity shop for £1.25 as I like knowing what page I’m on and the money went to help some poor, unfortunate animals. My cover is rather dull, with just a small picture of Mr Darcy on the cover. There isn’t a synopsis either which is more than a tad annoying.

Post Read Thoughts

I celebrated finishing this. I wasn’t a fan of it at all. In my opinion nothing actually happened I personally believe that I could’ve written the whole book in a sentence. Actually that sounds like a challenge, a challenge I simply must take up. So here we go, Pride and Prejudice in a sentence.

“One day Elizabeth Bennet met Mr Darcy, they hated each other for a while but eventually fell in love with one another and got married.”

Job done. I don’t get why Jane wasted so much time on it. Since she did though I should probably review it. The writing style didn’t capture my attention and even listening to it didn’t help. My attention kept wandering to the good looking chaps on my bedroom wall. I did get sick of hearing of ‘politeness’ though and if I ever hear the word ‘civility’ again I may have to hunt you down.

The characters. I have no idea what to say about them except I didn’t really like any of them. I wanted to drown them in a vat of something especially Mrs Bennet. Oh Lord! Does that woman know when to shut up? I couldn’t bear her and I was sick of hearing about her nerves. She was so two-faced and she had no idea of what her kids were feeling. Mr Bennet wasn’t much better. He spent his life in a different room because he was foolish and chose his wife because of her pretty face. They both have favourite children and that isn’t right. Surely it affected them all.

The narrator of my audiobook was okay. I liked her although her voice started to grate on me occasionally. If it wasn’t for her though, I’d still be stuck on page 88. The other major plus is that I can do other stuff at the same time. I personally like to crochet. I did mention the blanket. It’s still not finished. I’m going to need another book.

Overall I’m not fond of this book, though I know plenty of people that love it. If you want a classic love story like this then I’m actually going to suggest Wuthering Heights which has a better story. I’m not sure what would improve the story for me... maybe some zombies... now there’s an idea! I actually think that if you’re a fan of classic love stories you’ll have already read this but maybe you could revisit it and tell me what I’m missing.

My Rating

2 stars – Not my cup of tea I’m afraid. It didn’t grab me and the only reason that I managed to finish it is my audiobook. I won’t try to talk you out of reading this if you really want to but if you like some action in stories, you’ve took a wrong turning somewhere because there isn’t any here.

***Review*** Northern Lights (His Dark Materials #1) – Philip Pullman

On the Back of the Book

When Lyra’s friend Roger disappears, she and her daemon, Pantalaimon, determine to find him. The ensuing quest leads them to the bleak splendour of the North, where armoured bears rule the ice and witch-queens fly through the frozen skies – and where a team of scientists is conducting experiments too horrible to be spoken about.

Lyra overcomes these strange terrors, only to find something yet more perilous waiting for her – something with consequences which may even reach beyond the Northern Lights...

Pre Read Thoughts

I have so many book that I’ve been meaning to read for years and this is one of them. I finally decided to read this when I realised that the whole trilogy had been challenged and I’m taking part in a “Banned Books” challenge on GR. I bought the book ages ago at my local British Heart Foundation charity shop for the princely sum of £1.50. The cover I have is quite dull and is possibly part of the reason why it’s been sat on my shelf for so long. The synopsis makes the book sound amazing and I can’t wait to read it.

Post Read Thoughts

I liked this book but it took a while for me to get into it and that really held it back for me. Some of the ideas were really intriguing and I love the idea of having an animal form of yourself (the daemons). The theories about Dust as they arose really caught my attention. The author is really good at his craft as I had no problem picturing scenes and I found myself being flooded with the emotions of Lyra. I’ll tell you more about her in a few moments. The whole journey is well depicted except for one scene but even that manages to work itself into the book’s favour.

Lyra is the main character and I really connected with her. She had some qualities that are hard to come by in an MC now. She also had a childlike innocence that really endeared her to me. The faith she put in the adults who saved her without questioning them was sweet, though a bit stupid. The bond she shares with her daemon, Pantelaimon (Pan for short) was interesting but I’d love to know more about  how the daemon thing works in future books. My personal favourite character was Iorek Byrnison the armoured bear. I can’t explain why he was my favourite, he just was. I will say that when he entered the story started to find its stride.

Overall I can’t find anything too negative to say about this. The only major downside for me is the fact that it took so long for me to start enjoying the story. Everything else was good, I loved the author’s writing style and the story that he’s starting to weave. Another big thing that I would’ve liked is more detail and a way of looking deeper into the ideas of Lyra’s world. I understand that this is a YA book though and not all teens want detail.

My Rating

3 stars – An enjoyable read that should appeal to boys and girls. Although I feel that girls will relate to Lyra better, there are plenty of elements that young boys should love. This is a solid start to the trilogy and I can only hope that book two is just as good if not even better.

***Review*** The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time by Mark Haddon

On the Back of the Book

Fifteen-year-old Christopher has a photographic memory. He understands maths. He understands science. What he can’t understand are other human beings. When he finds his neighbour’s dog lying dead on the lawn, he decides to track down the killer and write a murder mystery about it. But what other mysteries will he end up uncovering?

Pre Read Thoughts

This is one of November’s group reads for my Goodreads group and that’s pretty much the only reason I’m reading this. I had heard of it before, it’s just not a book that I’ve ever been interested in. I found this in my local Scope charity shop for £1.50. It’s not in the best condition but since the money goes to charity I think I can live with that. The cover I have is very eye-catching and I really like it. The synopsis is interesting and I can’t wait to see if this book lives up to the hype that it seems to have gotten.

Post Read Thoughts

I wasn’t a massive fan of this boo to be honest. The POV that draws you in pushes you away with constant onslaughts of information. My brain is exhausted from all the mathematical and scientific stuff that my brain just didn’t understand. Things that other people loved about this (the graphs and the chapters being prime numbers) I detested. The graphs broke up the story and the prime numbers took away the sense of order that normal chapter numbers bring. Something which I don’t normally complain about but feel compelled to do so with this is the language. Now, I’m all for swearing, I do it all the time but there’s a lot in this book and it’s billed on the cover as “children’s”. I was absolutely horrified to see the C-word at one point! That’s a word I haven’t seen in adult books. It’s just not written in books, it’s disrespectful. That by itself really affected my view of the book.

I didn’t really feel anything for the characters, but then again neither did Christopher. I get that he finds emotions difficult to understand because he only thinks in a logical way with science and numbers but the lack of emotional depth held back the book in the sense of character development. I didn’t like Christopher’s father. His actions weren’t right but the consequences were well portrayed by the author.

Overall I didn’t find this book to be anything special. It’s a contradiction for me, it’s everything I love about a book but it reads like everything I hate. I liked some parts of the story but just as I was starting to get into the flow of the story there’s be another page of either maths or science that I didn’t understand. The book made me feel stupid and I don’t appreciate that. I know I’m probably in the minority when it comes to not enjoying this (I normally am when it comes to these things) but there was something lacking for me.

My Rating

2 stars – I should be giving this three but some of the language used was extreme and I’m making a point of my objection by taking away a star. Other than that this is one of those books that people rave about reading. I won’t be raving though as it failed to entertain me. I recommend this if you’re a fan of books with an interesting lead character. That fact that Christopher is autistic intrigued me and I thought that looking inside the head of an autistic was interesting, though slightly confusing.

A Final Note

The language isn’t good. So I wouldn’t give this to a kid or a young adult. I’m sorry but I’d hate for a kid to read this and then go to school saying that word.

On a lighter note, this contains spoilers for Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles. So if you want to read that then you should give this a miss until afterwards.