Jenni from the book

Here we are again, another 5 books down and time to share my thoughts on what I've been reading. As always, proceed with caution; spoilers up ahead.

This book was quite a predictable and cliche chick-flick read. It's about Percy James, who is in a safe job and a safe relationship (with a man who is clearly wrong for her) and is reluctant to ever push herself outside of her comfort zone. Until she is contacted by a revolutionary new dating company who claim to have found her soulmate - but will she meet them? This book was incredibly slow starting and I think I was about halfway through before she even goes to meet her "soul mate". Then things finally take an interesting turn when her soul mate turns out to be a woman (despite her being straight) but things resume to predictability soon enough. Percy ended up with who I thought but not how I thought so that was written pretty well, but apart from that the book was predictable and slow from start to finish and I found Percy to be a very unlikable character who never says what she actually thinks, never challenges herself and generally just lets life happen to her. Also, she has been bored as a personal assistant for years and then suddenly out of nowhere, she is promoted to marketing and events manager after successfully arranging one conference. As someone who works in that industry, I found it totally unrealistic (and somewhat insulting) that the author thought that was all it would take and the whole thing seemed too tied-up-with-a-ribbon-on-it for me.

Now this injected some much-needed intrigue back in to my reading! I had wanted to read this book for absolutely ages; The Gilded Years is about Anita Hemmings, the first African-American woman to ever attend Vassar College in 1897, but no one knew, as she successfully pretended to be white. The book begins in her fourth and final year at Vassar when she is placed with a new room mate, Lottie Taylor, daughter of a rich family and determined to always live life in full colour. While Anita has always tried hard to stay under the radar and only spend what little money she needs to (given that her parents are the children of slaves, it's unsurprising that all their money goes on feeding their four children and paying for their two eldest to go to college), being best friends with Lottie suddenly catapults her in to the world of high society where she is being really noticed for the first time ever. But things get complicated as she begins a romance with a high-class Harvard man, and Lottie suddenly takes a shine to Anita's brother (who's skin is almost as light as hers but who is attending college openly as a Negro). Anita has worked hard for years to keep her true identity a secret but will she graduate without anyone uncovering the truth? I absolutely loved this book because of all the historical references (which seemed very well researched) and the adventures that the girls went on together as seniors. The fact that it's based on a true story made it even better, although I did spoil the ending for myself slightly because it follows what actually happened in real-life and I couldn't resist googling the real Anita Hemmings. Overall though, this book does an excellent job of encapsulating the emotions and questions that must've been going through Anita's head at the time; how much of who you are is made up by your race, is race more about what you look like or where you come from, and what's ultimately more important; where you come from or where you're headed? I wasn't massively keen on the ending; the author stayed true to the way that Anita's life went and so it all seemed to suddenly go in a random different direction from the rest of the book, but I do respect her for staying true to history. This book touches on so many important issues from the turn of the century such as feminism and suffrage, racism, education and family.  Although some saw it at the time as cowardly to pretend to be white, I think that risking everything for the chance at a better education was very brave and the book ultimately poses the question; how far would you be willing to go for the chance at a better life?

So this was another that I was really excited for because again, it's based on a true story. You may have seen the story in the news a while ago of a woman who fancied a guy who caught her train so she plucked up the courage to write him a note and ask him for a drink. He then emailed to say thanks but he had a girlfriend. 10 months later and she received an email from him, seeing if she still wanted to go for that drink. They are now married with two children! So after the real-life story hit the headlines and people all over the world fell in love with their journey, the woman (Zoe) decided to write a novel based on it. And it was as heart-warming and authentic as I hoped. Although she'd managed to weave a lot more serendipitous aspects in to the story (something that I'm sure you know that I love). So Maya and James (the book version of Zoe and her Train Man) were at the same gigs without realising, they were in the same place for new years without noticing and he almost ended up taking her spanish-for-beginners class. The story was really well written, and followed the characters from a year or two before they ever crossed paths, up until about 6 months after the note trades hands. The ending was as happy as I'd hoped it would be, without being too cliché or rushed (a trap that a lot of rom-coms fall in to). And I really liked that the story wasn't solely about their love story; it was also about each of their life stories. It touched on family, career, death, friendship, marriage; everything that might pop up in your late twenties/early thirties. The book felt very honest and genuine and ultimately, it was a story about courage, about fate, about chasing your dreams and about how your destiny can find you in the funniest of places.

I really wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this book when I first started reading; the blurb really appealed to me but the ratings on goodreads absolutely tear it apart so I worried it might succumb to the usual mistakes of a cliché plot, characters with no chemistry or a rushed ending. However, having read it, I've come to the conclusion that those giving it bad reviews just can't appreciate the poeticness of it (is that a word?). The title comes from the Navajo's, who believe that to say 'I love you' has connotations of possession (which they don't agree with). So instead, their version of the 3 word phrase, translates to 'I'm glad about you' and that is basically the entire essence of the book. Allison and Kyle fall in love in high school but thanks to her big dreams of being an actress, and his strong faith in Catholicism and his desire to be a doctor in a third-world country, the two of them spend 6 on-and-off years of trying (and failing) to make it work before finally going their separate ways. And while she really does hit the big time in New York City, Kyle ends up married to the wrong woman and works as a pediatrician in their home town of Cincinnati. The first way in which this book really grabbed me was with the language; it's just so beautifully written with strong observations and poetic metaphors that I enjoyed reading it instantly. I was also impressed with how the author managed to convey such chemistry and history between the two characters, without delving too much in to their past. You know that they spent 6 years together, but it's not actually referenced all that often and you can count on one hand how many times the two characters actually have chapters together in the book, and yet somehow you get a real sense of connection between the two and can tell how deeply they loved each other. I think the people on goodreads accusing the book of having no story line fail to see it for what it is; it's not supposed to be a love story, with a beginning, a middle and an end. It's meant to be an honest account of two people's lives, shown from one chosen point to another. So the ending doesn't feel so much like an ending, it just feels like the author stops writing, and that the lives of the characters will go on in a way that's down to the reader to decide. It's also a very honest tale about how life can turn out, compared to how you thought it would. On one hand, Kyle never chased the dreams he once had and has ended up in the wrong marriage with the perfect wife, all thanks to his strong belief in the catholic church. And when he did everything he grew up believing he should, why has it not made him happier? On the other hand, Allison achieved everything she ever hoped to (and more) and yet her opinions are overlooked, her intelligence discounted and her looks are scrutinized - is it all it's cracked up to be? While also giving an exciting peak in to the film and TV industry, this story shows that life doesn't always turn out how you thought - whether or not you get the storyline that you wanted. Now, I don't usually do this in my reviews, but massive spoiler alert coming; Kyle and Allison don't end up together. Which is why I think some readers didn't enjoy it - it goes against the genre norms. But it's an ending that I saw coming a mile off, and actually there was someone that I wanted Allison to end up with more (which it hints that she might without forcing it). There was something very truthful in the way it showed that sometimes, no matter how much we love someone, and no matter how hard we try, some things just aren't meant to be. They loved eachother, but like the Navajo-inspired title suggests; they never belonged to eachother. Ultimately, it wasn't a story about love, it was a story about life.

I don't know if I've mentioned before but Sarra Manning is my favourite author (with my favourite book being Unsticky) ant though she now writes mainly adult novels, she had a successful career as a teenage/young adult writer before that. So my mum bought me this book when it came out, given the author, but it turns out that she's dipped her toes back in to the teenage genre so I wasn't sure if this book would be too young for me. Well, it turns out that it was. The book is about 17 year old Sunny, who gets sent a photo of her boyfriend kissing another girl. What follows is a 12 hour, all night adventure across London to hunt him down with the help of her oldest friends, some new friends, some perfect strangers and two handsome french boys. I'm going to try and review this objectively, because to mention that the themes in the book were fairly lost on me (such as losing your virginity, the struggles of school/college and being left home alone for the first time) would be pointless, given that the book isn't aimed at me in the first place. So firstly I liked how the book was set all in one day (well, one night) and each chapter was a new time and a new part of London. Something I really loved was that as they arrived in each different area of London, there was a little history on the place and how it came to be what it is now. I especially enjoyed it because I go to London fairly often, so I could just picture the story as it unfolded, as the author described various places. Even though it was written for a younger audience, I could definitely tell it was Sarra Manning; her tone of voice was exactly the same and I'm pretty impressed that she can write so well for both audiences (with very accurate references to twitter followers, music taste, phrases and expressions, and being sent dick pics on snapchat). I did think it would be more of a love story than it ended up being; I was waiting the whole book to see which french boy Sunny ended up with but it was written well because there was a hint of something in the future but nothing too concrete. What it actually ended up being was the perfect coming of age story about how your disappointments or heartbreaks shape the person that you become, about how you should always have faith and confidence in yourself and never let anyone push you around, and about how much fun you can have when you throw caution to the wind and stop caring what people think. The book also covered some important issues that exist in adult life as well as in your teens; racism, sexuality, the desire to fit in, and of course, the ability to navigate London.