Jenni from the book

Here we are again, in what is now a regular blog series (because once is a happening, twice is a coincidence and three times is a pattern). I've managed to get through another 5 books (not bad considering my goodreads target for the whole year is 12) and so I thought I'd give my take on each of them. Be warned, a few spoilers are to follow.

I was literally so excited to read this book and right from the first page I was completely hooked. This book endorses the theory of reincarnation and suggests that we all live numerous lives, some more than others. However, Daniel is the only one who remembers all of his and he has spent centuries falling in love with the same soul over and over again. Lucy, in her present day life, feels an unexplainable pull towards Daniel that she can't quite put her finger on but why does he keep calling her Sophia? And why does she recognise places she's never been, and dream about people she's never met and remember things she's never experienced? As you know, I love books that swap between two character perspectives but this one also spans over hundreds of years, with really interesting references throughout history. Something I was surprised by though, is that the 'present day' chapters, actually span over 5 or 6 years as well, so you get a real depth to this story. And as you meet Daniel and Sophia, in different lives and different times and different circumstances, you get to see the various ways in which they've touched eachother's lives. It really is a beautiful love story about fate, destiny and bad timing. That was until, the last few chapters when the author ended it horrendously. Not tragically, that would've at least been a poetic ending. No, this ending just felt strange, incomplete and totally plucked out of thin air. I can only guess that the author did it this way with the aim of writing a sequel, however I've read that she's been sued for plagiarism for her similarities to the Fallen series and so I think a sequel is off the table. To say the rest of the book seemed so well researched and planned, the ending was frankly disappointing. However, despite the dodgy ending, I did love that this book championed the idea of living your life to the full, of taking chances and of letting go of the past and that even if you lived a thousand life times, all you really have is right now.

I was a little unsure about this book from reading the blurb. It sounded really good, don't get me wrong, but I thought it could potentially end up being too juvenile for me. But I was really impressed by the adult topics it covered such as loss, love, sex and mental health. In a small seaside town in California, Vivi turns up as some kind of tornado and turns Jonah's world upside down. He's recently lost his dad, his mum seems to have had a mental breakdown and so him and his two older siblings are left trying to play parent to their 3 younger brothers and sisters. He's just focused on getting through each day as it comes, while Vivi, wild, fun-loving and free, is determined to live her life to the max. But Vivi has demons of her own and is not only secretly struggling with her own lack of a father, but is also a survivor of depression and is struggling to learn to live with her bipolar disorder. As the book switches view point on a chapter by chapter basis, you see how the two struggle to come to terms with their new version of reality, while simultaneously falling in love with eachother. While you get to see Vivi adding an explosion of colour to Jonah's life, as she takes him and the rest of his family on adventures, you also experience how Vivi's thoughts and behaviour get more and more erratic, due to her secretly stopping her medication. Not only is this book beautifully written with a lot of lovely metaphors and philosophical ideas, but this is the first book I've read that does a really amazing job of effectively showing mental health. Bipolar, depression and other matters of the mind are not simply about being sad, it's about so much more than that and I think this book does a really good job with it. And although the two main characters are young (both 17), the issues tackled in this book are anything but immature. Maybe it's because I'm cynical and share the same views on love as a famous Oscar Wilde quote, but I saw the ending of this book a mile off. But not in a predictable and boring way; I guess I'm glad that the author went for the ending that is more realistic and holds more meaning, as oppose to the more fluffy, romantic one. Clearly, she shares my views on fate; everything happens for a reason but not everything lasts forever.

Well this book was not at all what I expected. From the blurb, I thought it'd be a classic chick-flick, a tale as old as time; Lily's boyfriend Ryle is perfect and they should live happily ever after but for some reason she just can't let go of her first love Atlas, cue the love triangle. And to an extent, yes it was about that. But this book was about so much more than that - it was actually a pretty dark story about love and abuse. Firstly, I expected the book to begin with Lily already being with Ryle, but it actually started with the night they met. Ryle is essentially the perfect man; he's good looking, good in bed, a successful surgeon, wealthy and he falls totally in love with Lily. However, over the 2 or 3 years that the book spans (by skipping a few months every so often), it shows that things aren't always as they seem and that every relationship has its own unique problems. Alongside that, the story of Lily's past is told through her 15-year-old-self's journals - a past that focuses on seeing her father beat and abuse her mother time and time again, at the same time as she befriends (and inevitably falls in love with) a homeless 18 year old, Atlas, who's also suffered an abusive life. The story basically tries to show how women actually end up in abusive relationships and how it's not always as easy as 'just leave him'. I have to admit, I was guilty of thinking how could women be so weak and stupid as to stay with someone who hurts them, but having read this book it's hard not to look at things differently. I loved the book right from the start as Lily and Ryle had a bit of a chase going on and fate seemed to keep bringing them back to eachother. I thought this might remain the tone for the book so when they got together very quickly after that, and married eachother even faster after that, I thought the author may have totally ruined things (I was also starting to think she was adding too many sex scenes to the point where they were losing effect). But as I read on, I saw that it was important to show how deeply the two loved eachother and how great their relationship had been (and could be), so that readers weren't so quick to dismiss it. The first time he hurt her was an accident and so you could see why she didn't leave him straight away, but once Atlas reappears 8 or 9 years after he and Lily have last seen eachother, it only makes matter more and more complicated. This is a dark and beautiful story about seeing abuse both from the outside (through Lily's comments about her parents) and from the inside (through Lily's relationship with Ryle), how your past will always have a place in your present, how there's no such thing as a perfect life and about how you're usually stronger than you ever realised. It's very poignant as well because as a reader, you feel as though you're experiencing everything with Lily; you spend times wanting her to take him back and you feel so disappointed in him when he does something bad again. It's very rare in a book that you literally have no idea how it will end, but this book had so many clever twists, turns and surprises that it kept me guessing (and sobbing my heart out) until the very last page.

From the blurb, this book is a love story about two people who meet as children in a hospital and think they'll never meet again. Which, it is. But it's mostly two people's life stories, and the story of how their worlds collide. Andy is a mixed-race guy who has never met his father and who lives with his struggling single mother. He grows up on charity, hand-me-down clothes and struggles with feeling like he doesn't belong; not black enough to be black and not white enough to be white. However, he has a natural gift for running and so he's aiming for the stars - for an athletic scholarship to college and for an olympic gold medal. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Rachel has grown up as part of a rich white family and has never wanted for anything - except her health. Rachel was born with congenital heart disease and has spent her life in and out of hospital, wishing for nothing but to be normal and to fit in. The two meet one night in hospital and share a story and a teddy, thinking they'll never meet again. I thought it might be a will-they-won't-they story of near-misses and not-quite-meets but they actually meet again when they're 16 and that's where their love story begins, going through a 2 year long distance relationship of letter writing, then to trying to make it work while they both go to their separate colleges, then to making a real go of things as young adults. They break up and get back together a few times over the years, and then have a big period of separation where you wonder if maybe they've gone too far this time to find their way back to eachother. However, it ended how I wanted it to (and how I thought it would) and I love the way that the story is told through each characters eyes from various points within the 30 year period that the book spans, since the night that they met. It did remind me of One Tree Hill a little bit actually (with the themes of sports and of young love), and it did cover some important other issues including death, poverty, race, 9/11 and how we all make mistakes and lose our way sometimes. It's also interesting how two seemingly totally incompatible people, can fall in to a love like no other, proving it's not always about compatibility but about chemistry. Ultimately, the message of this book is about who you want standing next to you when all your dreams come true, and who you need standing next to you when everything is falling apart.

The book took me by surprise and was not what I was expecting at all. The book is about Ben and Alice who meet one day in a London park and about the 31 days that follow after that and how it changes their lives. So from that blurb, I was expecting a Serendipity style of tale about how fate keeps bringing two people back together. It was not about that whatsoever. Spoiler alert: the first time they meet is in fact the only time they meet. So this book is not so much about fate and destiny as it is a snapshot in to two perfect strangers' lives and the way in which things go for each of them after their paths cross. Alice is a sweet, fat girl whose innocence and evergreen optimism makes her easy prey for the vultures at her PR firm (where she's an underpaid intern), for her ever-criticising mother, for her overbearing best friend, for her viscious and unfriendly flat mate and for seemingly anyone else who comes her way. Following on from some compliments from Ben, you see her slowly start to gain confidence and stand up for herself, his words acting as a much needed boost. Ben, meanwhile, is struggling with demons of his own. His parents died in a car accident when he was 5 years old and so he grew up with his grandparents, always feeling like a stranger in his own home, while also struggling with some kind of mental disorder that he takes medication for (the book never specifies what but I suspect some form of autism or aspergers, as he often takes things very literally and speaks without a filter). Following on from his chance meeting with Alice, he goes on a journey of his own (although more of a literal one as he attempts to cycle to Glasgow, where he believes Alice lives). Ben has always struggled with his place in the world and after a tragedy, he starts to see things more clearly. This book reminded me of a quote about graphs, about how sometimes people are like two lines going in opposite directions, crossing for the briefest of moments before getting further and further away from eachother for ever more. The author did a good job of creating two really lovable main characters, with some hilarious moments, but he didn't do a great job of creating something that felt complete. There's a lot left unsaid (such as what condition Ben has, what Alice's parents have decided to do with their lives, why Ben's parents never spoke to his grandparents while they were alive etc) but I think maybe that was done on purpose. That you are only getting a 31 day preview in to two people's lives as oppose to a full picture, the way you might do if you knew the people in real life for that long. Although this book wasn't about what I was expecting, it was a really nice story and it served as a reminder to always be kind because you never know what kind of effect you could have on a stranger, and equally what effect they could have on you, even if a single meeting is all it will ever be.