Reading Roundup

February has come and gone sooo quickly. I've spent most of it chilling, thinking "It's cool, my deadlines aren't until March," and suddenly March is a weekend away. I guess I better get my head down. Before that though, since I tried out a pretty in-depth TBR for February, I'm going to try a little roundup, summarise my thoughts and linking you all to the reviews if you missed them. Anyway, here's how my February has gone:

Slated

Rating: ★★

It kinda pained me to give a book such a low rating. I get super passionate when I love a book, and super passionate when I really don't, but when it comes to writing the latter kind of passion in a review, I'm constantly thinking about the author whose work I'm being critical of. I've got to be honest though, that's what reviews are for, and I've tried to balance my negatives with the positives. Find it here.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Rating: ★★★

Not my favourite John Green book, but it was good. After having it sit on my bookshelf for months, it was a little bit disappointing. I mean, all I was really expecting was good old John Green, but I guess meaning to read something for so long just builds expectations from nothing. You can find my review here.

The Heir

Rating: ★★★★

I got pretty dresses. I got royalty. I got romance. I had my issues but I got what I wanted. Plus, I read it in 48 hours max. It must have been good. I'm aware that my review might not quite match up to my rating. But I did love it. I just chose to put a lot of focus of the problems I did have. You can read it here.

We All Looked Up

Rating: ★★★

I loved the concept, and the apocalyptic feel. The friendships were slow to get going which, at first, I was disappointed by, but now that I've finished the book, I realise that it made it realistic. People don't normally just instantly become friends, and that stood in this book. You can read my full review here.

All I Know Now

It's this month's LUCKY BOOK!! All that means is that it wasn't on my TBR but I finished all the books that were. It's probably going to carry over and I'm enjoying it so far. Being only a few years younger than Carrie, I'm reading it having finished school, but so much of it is still so relevant. 

Review: We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach

Title: We All Looked Up
Author: Tommy Wallach
Edition: Simon & Schuster UK, 2015

Rating: ★★★

Synopsis

Before Ardor, 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 the asteroid 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. (Taken from Waterstones.com)

Review
I was so excited when I read the blurb of this book. I was looking forward to tension and action and high emotions, everything getting tightened like a wind-up toy before being let go as the asteroid arrived. This concept held so much potential...and I feel like it didn't quite reach it. The anticipation of a collision fell flat for me, maybe because of the way so many chapters started with 'a few days later...' or even 'a week later...' There's such a limited amount of time left, and yet there are empty days, days where nothing of note happens to any of the four characters the book follows. I felt like it reduced the impact the asteroid was supposed to be having on them.

Speaking of which: I liked these characters. The premise of the book required them to be labelled, suggested they were stereotypes but that didn't seem to be the case, even in the first few chapters before they had a chance to explain themselves. The friendship they developed was realistic. It wasn't like 'oh my goodness, two months to live, now we're all best friends'. It took time and had its difficulties which made it all the more rewarding, and sad, at the end when their friendship really blossomed.

We All Looked Up shone a pretty accurate light on what would happen if a meteor really did hurtle itself towards Earth. It's horrible to think that we'd all descend into chaos, but it's probably the only realistic scenario. The book touched on subjects like death, and how we fear it, life, and how short it is, but somehow it wasn't too heavy.

I've given We All Looked Up three stars because the speed of the book felt a bit slow, the missing days kind of hindered the anticipation of it all, and it felt a little strange that their parents were mostly out of the picture, some explained and some not. On the other hand, I did enjoy the concept and the relationships between the characters. Thoughts?

Favourite Quote

"The best books, they don't talk about things you never thought about before. They talk about things you'd always thought about, but that you didn't think anyone else had thought about. You read them, and suddenly you're a little bit less alone in the world."

Review: The Heir by Kiera Cass

Title: The Heir
Author: Kiera Cass
Edition: Harper Collins UK, 2015

Rating: ★★★★

Synopsis

Kiera Cass's Number 1 New York Times bestselling Selection series has enchanted readers from the very first page. In this fourth romantic novel, follow Illea's royal family into a whole new Selection - and find out what happens after happily ever after. Kiera Cass's #1 New York Times bestselling Selection series has enchanted readers from the very first page. In this fourth romantic novel, follow Illea's royal family into a whole new Selection-and find out what happens after happily ever after. Eighteen years ago, America Singer entered the Selection and won Prince Maxon's heart. Now the time has come for Princess Eadlyn to hold a Selection of her own. Eadlyn doesn't expect her Selection to be anything like her parents' fairy-tale love story...but as the competition begins, she may discover that finding her own happily ever after isn't as impossible as she's always thought. A new generation of swoonworthy characters and captivating romance awaits in the fourth book of the Selection series!
(Taken from Waterstones.com)

Review

Considering I've read the rest of the series, it's a little bit backwards for my first review of it to be The Heir. It's pretty simple though; I read the first three last summer, before this blog was a thing, and although I'd love to review them all together, I'll need to re-read them in order to give a proper review. So, until then, here's my review of The Heir.

I'm going to start with my biggest question: why is The Heir a part of The Selection series? This question makes me think so many things at once I don't know where to start. Plus, I have a lot of feelings about this series in general.

Review: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Title: Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Authors: John Green and David Levithan
Edition: Penguin Books Ltd, 2013

Rating: ★★★

Review

I've been thinking about what to write about this book for a day or two now and haven't been sure how to go about it. For me, three stars is 'yeah, it was good. There was nothing wrong with it. I didn't love it. It was fine.' How do I expand on that? I'm writing this review right now and I'm still not sure so I'm just going to plough on, and hope something comes out. 

I'm going to start with Tiny Cooper because, let's face it, he's pretty hard to ignore. I had no problems with his character, no problems with his extravagance until it started to encroach on the story. There were times it felt like the story was Tiny's and with a title like Will Grayson, Will Grayson, it upset me a little. I needed Tiny to remain a supporting role and let the Wills come centre stage. 

Review: Slated by Teri Terry

Title: Slated
Author: Teri Terry
Edition: Orchard Books, 2012

Rating: ★★

Review

First things first, this review is going to be hard to write. One of my favourite things about reading is the fact that I can share all my favourite books with my friends. And get recommendations in return. It's great when you love their books as much as they do (commence communal fan-girling). But when you don't...it's awkward and hard to admit. On that note: I'm SO SORRY AMY.

Let me start with how big this book is. It's 440 pages, a good 100 pages more than what I normally pick up, but I really think it could have been cut down by at least a third. So many of the scenes felt either super dragged out or unnecessary all together. 

February TBR

January has seen my Goodreads challenge off to a great start. I've read all four of my January TBR books plus an extra one which means I'm already 10% done and currently two books ahead of schedule, yay!

But...there's no rest for me...I gotta keep it up. So, say hello to my February TBR 2016. 

Slated by Teri Terry.

This one has been recommended (and conveniently left on the side for me to pick up) by my lovely housemate Amy.

Looking at the cover, I'm expecting some dark dystopia.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

I have had this on my shelf for ages. And I'm pretty sure it's the only John Green book I haven't read yet. By the end of February, that will no longer be true.

Having read, and loved, all three of David Levithan's collaborations with Rachel Cohn, I have pretty high expectations. Please don't let me down!

The Heir by Kiera Cass

I sped through the three previous Selection series books in about the same number of days, practically stealing my friend's Kindle to do so. I got The Heir for my birthday and am so excited to read it this month. *grins*

I want lots more pretty dresses, royalty and romance, please-and-thank-you.

We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach

What I love reading more than anything is a good romance, but a close second is unexpected friendships. And I have a feeling (I'm really hoping) that We All Looked Up has got a bit of that going on. 

It sounds contemporary YA with a tiny bit of apocalypse thrown in.