Check out my reviews for each one of The Mortal Instruments series!
4.5/5* Series
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
Book Review: The Silver Linings Playbook
Imagine your life is a film directed by God. A rom-com, obviously, complete with happy-ever-after ending… Welcome to Pat’s world. It’s a world of silver-linings and true love, but also a world where God makes movies and Kenny G lurks in your attic. It maybe isn’t a surprise to learn that Pat has spent some time in a mental health facility. The problem is, Pat’s now home, and everything feels off. No one will talk to him about Nikki, his estranged wife; his beloved Philadelphia Eagles keep losing; he’s being pursued by the deeply odd Tiffany and his new therapist seems to recommend adultery as a form of therapy. In this enchanting novel, Matthew Quick takes us inside Pat’s mind, showing us the world from his distorted yet endearing perspective.
3.5* Read
True North: Finding Us Review and Giveaway!
Nathaniel Morrisey thought he had a handle on his affections for the one woman he ever cared about, Julia North, who happened to be his boss’s daughter and best friend’s little sister. But Jules is about to blow that calm self-control he’s had a tight grip on all to hell.
The North brothers are wild, adrenaline-junky thrill-seekers who thrive on challenge, speed and danger. Their little sister, Jules, is a sweet, quiet, bookworm who’s been overprotected all her life by her hulking big brothers… but she is a North after all, so she has her own wild streak—a secret that none of them expected, especially not Nate!
2.5* Read
Book Review: Beautiful Disaster
Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand… Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby wants—and needs—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.
4.5* Read
Book Review: Maybe Someday
Sydney is living in an idyllic bubble – she’s a dedicated student with a steady job on the side. She lives with her best friend, has a great boyfriend, and the music coming from the balcony opposite hers is fast becoming the soundtrack to her life. But when Sydney finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her, the bubble bursts. The mysterious and attractive man behind the music, Ridge, gives Sydney hope that she can move on and they begin to write songs together. But moving on is harder than she expects, Sydney can only hope…maybe someday.
4.5* Read
Book Review: Minutes Before Sunset
She was undoubtedly a shade, but I didn’t know her… Eric Welborn isn’t completely human, but he isn’t the only shade in the small Midwest town of Hayworth. With one year left before his eighteenth birthday, Eric is destined to fight a long-raging war for his kind. But then she happens. In the middle of the night, Eric meets a nameless shade, and she’s powerful—too powerful—and his beliefs are altered. The Dark has lied to him, and he’s determined to figure out exactly what lies were told, even if the secrets protect his survival…
4* Read
Book Review: Boys Like You
If I hadn’t fallen asleep. If I hadn’t gotten behind the wheel. If I hadn’t made a mistake.
For Monroe Blackwell, one small mistake has torn her family apart leaving her empty and broken. There’s a hole in her heart that nothing can fill. That no one can fill. And a summer in Louisiana with her grandma isn’t going to change that…
Nathan Everets knows heartache firsthand when a car accident leaves his best friend in a coma. And it’s all his fault. He should be the one lying in the hospital. The one who will never play guitar again. He doesn’t deserve forgiveness, and a court-appointed job at the Blackwell B&B isn’t going to change that…
5* Read
Book Review: A Girl Called Fearless
Avie has the normal life of a privileged teen growing up in L.A., at least as normal as any girl’s life is these days. After a synthetic hormone in beef killed 50 million American women ten years ago, only young girls, old women, men, and boys are left to pick up the pieces. Fathers still fear for their daughters’ safety, and the Paternalist Movement, begun to “protect” young women, is taking over the choices they make. This is a story about fighting for the most important things in life—freedom and love.
4* Read
Book Review: Noughts and Crosses (Series)
Callum is a Nought – an inferior white citizen in a society controlled by the black Crosses. Sephy is a Cross – and the daughter of one of the most powerful, ruthless men in the country. In their hostile, violent world, Noughts and Crosses simply don’t mix. But when Sephy and Callum’s childhood friendship grows into passionate love, they’re determined to find a way to be together.
4.5* Read
Book Review: Paper Towns
Who is the real Margo?
Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs into his life – dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge – he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues – and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew…
2.5* Read!
Book Review: Don’t Even Think About It
This is the story of how we became freaks. It’s how a group of I’s became a we. When Class 10B got their flu shots, they expected some side effects. Maybe a sore arm. Maybe a headache. They definitely didn’t expect to get telepathy. But suddenly they could hear what everyone was thinking. Their friends. Their teachers. Their parents. Now they all know that Tess has a crush on her best friend, Teddy. That Mackenzie cheated on Cooper. That Nurse Carmichael used to be a stripper. Some of them will thrive. Some of them will break. None of them will ever be the same…
2.5* Read
Book Review: Tease
Emma Putnam is dead, and it’s all Sara Wharton’s fault. At least, that’s what everyone seems to think when Sara, along with her best friend and three other classmates, are criminally charged for the bullying and harassment that led to Emma’s shocking suicide. But Sara is sure she hasn’t done anything wrong, because Emma brought it on herself. Sara is adamant that she was the victim – not Emma. Inspired by a true story, TEASE is a thought-provoking must-read that will haunt you long after the last page.
3.5* Read
Book Review: The Geography of You and Me
The Geography of You and Me is a story for anyone who’s ever longed to meet someone special, for anyone who’s searched for home and found it where they least expected it. Owen and Lucy meet in a stalled elevator in New York City during both a power cut and a heat wave, and the brief time they spend together leaves a mark. As their lives take them to Edinburgh and San Francisco, to Prague and to Portland, they can’t shake the memory of the time they shared. Postcards cross the globe when they themselves can’t, as Owen and Lucy experience the joy – and pain – of first love. As they make their separate journeys in search of home, they discover that sometimes it is a person rather than a place that anchors you most in the world.
3* Read
Book Review: Adaptation
Flocks of birds are hurling themselves at aeroplanes across America. Thousands of people die. Millions are stranded. Everyone knows the world will never be the same…Reese can’t remember anything from between her accident and the day she woke up almost a month later. She only knows one thing: she’s different now; the real question is: who can she trust?
4* Read
Book Review: The Rosie Project
Meet Don Tillman. Don is getting married. He just doesn’t know who to yet. But he has designed a very detailed questionnaire to help him find the perfect woman. One thing he already knows, though, is that it’s not Rosie. Absolutely, completely, definitely not.
4* Read!
Confessions of a Book Geek 