All I Know Now by Carrie Hope FletcherPublished On: April 23, 2015
Published By: Little Brown
Genre: YA, Non-Fiction
Pages: 352
Format: Audiobook
Source: Audible
Narrated By: Carrie Hope Fletcher
Rating: ★★
Amazon | Goodreads
- I love Carrie a lot so I really wanted to love this book. Sadly, I didn't love it.
- I'm not the target audience but, to be completely honest, I don't think I would have liked this much if I had read it as a teenager.
- I found it to be a bit preachy and she came across as thinking she was better than everyone else, despite saying she wasn't trying to do that, which isn't very true to the Carrie we see in her videos.
- I liked the fact that it was narrated by Carrie herself. However, I got the same preachy, better than everyone sense through the narration as well as the text.
- I really enjoyed the audiobook extras, like the Sibling Tag with her brother Tom. They were fun and seemed much more like the Carrie in her videos.
Before I Fall by Lauren OliverPublished On: March 2, 2010
Published By: Harper Collins
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Pages: 470
Format: Audiobook
Source: Audible
Narrated By: Sarah Drew
Rating: ★★★
Amazon | Goodreads
- I didn't expect great things from this book but actually found it to be an OK read, better than I expected it to be.
- The characters were not very likeable, and they weren't really meant to be for much of the book, but I didn't feel they redeemed themselves much, if at all, in the end.
- I really loved the moments between Sam and her little sister. To me, those were the only moments in which Sam was at all likeable.
- As I expected considering the plot, things got a bit repetitive. Obviously as the main character is living the same day over again multiple times there is going to be some repetition but I feel this could have been avoided if the book was a bit shorter. I didn't feel it needed to be as long as it was.
- I thought it was a very interesting take on bullying to tell the story from the point of view of one of the bullies and witness her discovering that she is bullying others. I think some aspects of this, and some of the mental health points, could have been discussed in more detail and handled a little better.
The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants by Ann BrasharesSeries: Sisterhood #1
Published On: September 11, 2001
Published By: Delacorte Press
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Pages: 294
Format: Audiobook
Source: Audible
Narrated By: Angela Goethals
Rating: ★★★★
Amazon | Goodreads
- The movie adaptation of this book was one of my favourites when I was younger so I picked this up as a bit of a nostalgic read and to see how similar the film was to the book.
- The characters felt like old friends and I loved getting to know them all over again in a different way.
- Bailey is still one of my favourite fictional characters and I loved getting to meet her all over again in the book.
- I loved all of the friends' different stories and enjoyed experiencing their summer adventures. I lived my summer vicariously through these characters while spending my own working.
- There were a few parts that felt a little immature to me but they were easy to overlook and didn't ruin my enjoyment.
- The narration was great but I did struggle occasionally to know which of the characters was talking.
Published On: July 28, 2015
Published By: Scholastic
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Pages: 272
Format: Audiobook
Source: Audible
Narrated By: Julia Whelan
Rating: ★½
Amazon | Goodreads
- How can a book with such a beautiful cover be so bad? I really did not enjoy this book, it was a huge disappointment.
- I apparently love the idea of these 'the world ends tomorrow' books but have yet to find one I actually enjoyed.
- I found the characters incredibly annoying and not at all likeable.
- One thing that really frustrated me throughout the book was the fact that all but one time Vince introduced Emerson rather than letting her introduce herself. I know this might not seem like much but it really annoyed me.
- I really liked the idea of spending your last day helping others but I think it could have been executed much better. It ended up being quite boring and I didn't feel it added much to the story.
- To me, the family aspect was annoying. Emerson was extremely immature in regards to her family situation and it made her even less likeable to me.
- The ending was a complete cop-out and actually made me wish I hadn't bothered finishing it.
- I wasn't a huge fan of the narration. She kept mixing up her voices and using the wrong one for different characters, which was very confusing. She also said some sentences in a very strange way and I found that a bit distracting.
Published On: October 3, 2011
Published By: Thomas Nelson
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Christian Fiction
Pages: 320
Format: Audiobook
Source: Audible
Narrated By: Jeannie Stith
Rating: ★★
Amazon | Goodreads
- Whoever told this narrator she could do an Irish accent was most definitely lying. The terrible accent was very distracting throughout and took away from the book.
- The story itself wasn't all that great either. I found it predictable, a little repetitive and somehow boring despite way too much going on.
- This book was trying too hard to be too many things. There were far too many different storylines that none were executed particularly well. We had mental health, grief, touring Ireland, a famous love interest, a big audition, an out-of-the-blue eating disorder and helping a dying old lady. It was too much and would have been better with just one main focus.
- The main character wasn't very likeable. She was very self-absorbed, rude to almost everyone and mentioned the ever annoying 'i'm not like other girls' on more than one occasion.
- In addition to all the other storylines going on, we also had so much unnecessary bitchiness and girl hate. Not only was this annoying but the way it was dealt with, in a Christian Fiction book of all things, didn't set a great example to young girls.
Published On: April 21, 2015
Published By: Harper Teen
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Pages: 304
Format: Audiobook
Source: Audible
Narrated By: Amanda Wallace
Rating: ★★★★
Amazon | Goodreads
- I was a bit wary going into this as I was worried I would find it uncomfortable to have the main characters boyfriends heart transplant recipient as the love interest. I was unsure about how well the situation would be handled but I shouldn't have worried as I ended up really loving this book.
- This was a completely unique story unlike anything I have read before. It dealt with grief in a very different way and I loved that organ transplantation was being talked about in this way.
- I loved every single character in this book. Quinn and Colton were so relatable that despite never having gone through what either of them had I felt a real connection with them. Quinn's family were also great and I loved how present they were throughout the story.
- The transplant aspect of the story was written well. I liked that there were a lot of facts about heart transplants included, but not in a way that was boring or heavy, and we were shown more of the reality of being a transplant recipient. It was obviously well researched, which I appreciated.
- I expected the romance to be the aspect of the story I didn't like but I was wrong. It was written in a way that even though you knew it was a bad situation, I didn't feel wrong. They were perfect for each other and I found myself on the edge of my seat waiting for the truth to come out, dreading what the outcome would be.
- The narration was great and I had no issues with it at all, in fact I enjoyed it.
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them?
Sophie :)
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