Review: What Alice Forgot

Alice Love is 29, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with her first child. Imagine Alice’s surprise when she wakes up on the floor of a gym (a gym! She hates the gym!) and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over – she’s getting divorced, she has three kids, and she’s actually 39 years old.

Alice must reconstruct the events of a lost decade, and find out whether it’s possible to reconstruct her life at the same time. She has to figure out why her sister hardly talks to her, and how she’s become one of those skinny mums with really expensive clothes. Ultimately, Alice must discover whether forgetting is a blessing or a curse, and whether it’s possible to start over.

3.5* Read!

Review: The Sky Is Everywhere

A novel about love and forgiveness. 17 year old Lennie Walker spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to centre stage of her own life – and suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two boys. One boy takes Lennie out of her sorrow; the other comforts her in it. But the two can’t collide without Lennie’s world exploding…

3.5* Read!

Review: We All Looked Up

Before the asteroid we let ourselves be defined by labels: the athlete, the outcast, the slacker, the overachiever. But then we all looked up and everything changed.

They said it would be here in two months. That gave us two months to leave our labels behind. Two months to become something bigger than what we’d been, something that would last even after the end. Two months to really live.

2.5* Read!

Review: Breathe, Annie, Breathe

Annie hates running. No matter how far she jogs, she can’t escape the guilt that if she hadn’t broken up with Kyle, he might still be alive. So to honour his memory, she starts preparing for the marathon he intended to race.

But the training is even more gruelling than Annie could have imagined. Despite her coaching, she’s at war with her body, her mind—and her heart. With every mile that athletic Jeremiah cheers her on, she grows more conflicted. She wants to run into his arms…and sprint in the opposite direction. For Annie, opening up to love again may be even more of a challenge than crossing the finish line.

3.5* Read!

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight Book Cover

Babes and Books Review: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

Four minutes changes everything. Hadley Sullivan misses her flight at JFK airport, is late to her father’s second wedding in London with her never-met stepmother. Hadley meets the perfect boy. Oliver is British, sits in her row. A long night on the plane passes in a blink, but the two lose track in arrival chaos. Can fate bring them together again?

3* Read!

Review: The Fever

The Nashes are a close-knit family. Tom, a popular teacher, is father to the handsome, roguish Eli and his younger sister Deenie, serious and sweet. But their seeming stability is thrown into chaos when two of Deenie’s friends become violently ill, and rumours of a dangerous outbreak sweep through the whole community.

As hysteria swells and as more girls succumb, tightly held secrets emerge that threaten to unravel the world Tom has built for his kids, and destroy friendships, families, and the town’s fragile idea of security. The Fever is a chilling story about guilt, family secrets, and the lethal power of desire.

2.5* Read!

Review: Dear Daughter

LA IT girl Janie Jenkins has it all. The looks, the brains, the connections. The criminal record.

Ten years ago, in a trial that transfixed America, Janie was convicted of murdering her mother. Now she’s been released on a technicality she’s determined to unravel the mystery of her mother’s last words, words that send her to a tiny town in the very back of beyond. But with the whole of America’s media on her tail, convinced she’s literally got away with murder, she has to do everything she can to throw her pursuers off the scent. She knows she really didn’t like her mother. Could she have killed her?

3.5* Read!

Review: The Rosie Effect

With the Wife Project complete, Don settles into a new job and married life in New York. But it’s not long before certain events are taken out of his control and it’s time to embark on a new project…

As Don tries to get to grips with the requirements of starting a family, his unusual research style gets him into trouble. To make matters worse, Don has invited his closest friend to stay with them, but Gene is not exactly the best model for marital happiness. As Don’s life with Rosie continues to be unpredictable, he needs to remember that emotional support is just as important as practical expertise.

3* Read!

Review: Who R U Really?

Thea’s overprotective parents are about to drive her nuts. They invade her privacy, ask too many questions, and restrict her on-line time so much that Thea feels she can’t do any of the things her friends do. When she discovers a new role-playing game on-line, Thea breaks the rules by staying up late to play. Soon, she’s living a double life: on one hand, the obedient daughter; on the other, a girl slipping deeper into darkness.

3* Read!

Review: Requiem

It is the rule of the Wilds: You must be bigger, and stronger, and tougher. A coldness radiates through me, a solid wall that is growing, piece by piece, in my chest. He doesn’t love me? He never loved me. It was all a lie.

‘The old Lena is dead’, I say, and then push past him. Each step is more difficult than the last; the heaviness fills me and turns my limbs to stone. You must hurt, or be hurt. Lena can build the walls, but what if there’s no one left to take them down?

3* Read!

Louder Than Words by Iris St Clair Book Cover

Louder Than Words Review and Giveaway!

Disappointment has been on speed dial in Ellen Grayson’s life lately. Her dad died, her mom numbs the grief with drugs and alcohol, and her so-called friends have slowly abandoned her. Enter Rex Jacobi, a cocky boy, recently transplanted from New York City, and fellow summer camp employee. Though his quick wit and confidence draws her in, she can’t let him get too close.

3.5* Read!

Review: If I Stay

In the blink of an eye everything changes. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall what happened afterwards, watching her own damaged body being taken from the wreck. Little by little she struggles to put together the pieces – to figure out what she has lost, what she has left, and the very difficult choice she must make. Heart-wrenchingly beautiful, this will change the way you look at life, love, and family.

3* Read!

Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Charlie is a freshman. And while he’s not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his years yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it.

Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mix tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. But he can’t stay on the sidelines forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.

3* Read!

Life Interrupted by Kristen Kehoe Book Cover

Life Interrupted Review & Giveaway!

Rachel Reynolds is the daughter of a scientist and a poet, so her beliefs on Creation and Karma and all those other mythical things are varied. But when one passionate night with Tripp, the boy she’s loved her entire, life leads to heartache and a poorly chosen moment with another boy, whom she barely knows let alone loves, which then leads to a baby, she’s pretty sure Karma or no, the universe is a real biatch.

3.5* Read!

Beautiful Oblivion by Jamie McGuire Book Cover

Book Review: Beautiful Oblivion

Fiercely independent Camille gladly moved on from her childhood before it was over. Now tending bar at The Red Door, Cami doesn’t have time for much else besides work and classes, until a trip to see her boyfriend is cancelled, leaving her with a first weekend off in almost a year.

Trenton Maddox was the king of Eastern State University, dating co-eds before he even graduated high school. His friends wanted to be him, and women wanted to tame him, but after a tragic accident turned his world upside down, Trenton leaves campus to come to grips with the crushing guilt.

3.5* Read

Book Review: The Shock of the Fall

There are books you can’t stop reading, which keep you up all night. There are books which let us into the hidden parts of life and make them vividly real. There are books which, because of the sheer skill with which every word is chosen, linger in your mind for days. The Shock of the Fall is an extraordinary portrait of one man’s descent into mental illness.

3.5* Read