Forever Geek - Holly Smale

Title - Forever Geek
Series - Geek Girl #6
Author - Holly Smale 
ISBN - 9780007574698
My Copy - E-ARC
Format - Kindle 
Release Date - March 9th 2017
Genre - YA > Contemporary 
Where You Can Find It - Goodreads - Waterstones - Book Depository - Amazon UK 

My name is Harriet Manners and I’ll be a geek forever…

Harriet Manners knows almost every fact there is.

Modelling isn’t a sure-fire route to popularity. Neither is making endless lists. The people you love don’t expect you to transform into someone else. Statistically, you are more likely to not meet your Australian ex-boyfriend in Australia than bump into him there.

So on the trip of a lifetime Down Under Harriet’s to-do lists are gone and it’s Nat’s time to shine! Yet with nearly-not-quite-boyfriend Jasper back home, Harriet’s completely unprepared to see supermodel ex Nick. Is the fashion world about to turn ugly for GEEK GIRL?

It’s time for Harriet to face the future. Time to work out where her heart lies. To learn how to let go…

OK, let me start by saying this book isn't being released for a while yet so this review will have no spoilers in it, but there will be a spoiler review going up a week after publication. The reason why is because there is so much to discuss and although there will be no spoilers for this book i cannot say the same for the other books because i may have to spoil them a little bit so if you haven't caught up be prepared for a few spoilers. 

So going into this book, i posted a picture on instagram and the author Holly Smale commented saying she 'hoped it ended in a way that made it OK' and that made me worry a little bit. But i will get more into that at a later date. 

Before i started reading this book, i thought about what i wanted to happen and what i wanted to see and how i wanted this book to end and it didn't disappoint. Like every other book in this series, i laughed, i cried and i smiled so much my cheeks hurt. 

Harriet was just as geeky and fun and just Harriet as before, we also meet some old characters and we meet some new characters as well, but for some of the old characters it was like meeting old friends and seeing these characters that all helped Harriet along the way either in a good way or a bad way. It had me smiling. 

I can honestly say that Holly Smale is one of the best UKYA authors we have, and that the Geek Girl series is a series all teenage girls should read because it shows you that it is OK to be different, its OK that you aren't the most popular, and that you may not be the most social but if you have a good group of people around you be it, friends or family you will be OK. 

It send out a beautiful message that even if you are not socially accepted, there are people who will accept you for who you are, so you don't need to change for anyone. This series will forever be one of my favourite and along with Harry Potter it is one of the best children YA series to come out of the UK.

Until Next Time

Happy Reading

Sunny Side Up - Holly Smale

Title - Sunny Side Up
Author - Holly Smale
Series - Geek Girl #4.5
ISBN - 7980008163457
Genre - YA > Contemporary
My Copy - Purchased
Format - Hardback
Where You Can Find It - Goodreads - WH Smiths - Barnes & Noble - Book Depository - Amazon UK - Amazon US

“My name is Harriet Manners, and I am a geek.”
A brand new summer story from the no. 1 bestselling and award-winning GEEK GIRL series!
Harriet Manners knows many facts.
And she knows everything there is to know about Paris… except what to do when you’re the hottest new model at Fashion Week.
Can Harriet find her je ne sais quoi or will it be sacré bleu! on the runway?

Like every single Geek Girl book that has been published, i loved it. They are such fun, quick reads and  they never fail to put a smile on my face. I read this book in one sitting, and now i cannot wait for book 6 in this series.

Sunny side up is set at Paris Fashion Week and she runs into characters we have met all throughout the series and it was just brilliant the way Harriet written and she is such a relatable character, and you can see how hard she tries but it never works out. 

The ending to this made me fangirl and almost scream because we haven't seen this character since book 3 and i am missing them so much. At the back of this book you have a short story from Nick's POV and it is from the first time he saw Harriet at the Fashion Event and what he thought of her it was so sweet and Toby being Toby it made my bad mood turn good and that is all i ask of a really good book.

Until Next Time

Happy Reading

Head Over Heels - Holly Smale Review

Title - Head Over Heels
Author - Holly Smale
Series - Geek Girl #5
ISBN - 9780007574629
Release Date - 7th April 2016
Genre - YA > Humour
My Copy - ARC
Format - Kindle
Where You Can Find It - Goodreads - Waterstones - Book Depository - Amazon UK 

The Geek is Back in the hilarious series and Book 5 is no different, new friends new boys and new jobs Harriet must wade back through the world of modelling to help out an old friend, but Harriet needs to control, every aspect of her life at the moment and that will either make people like her or make people hate her but it is never who you think because the person who you may think is your friend could become so much more....

 

I loved this book i finished it in one sitting as with all of the other books, it is such a cute lovely read and one i enjoyed immensely. Whenever i read from Harriet's perspective she is so relateable and normal compared to a lot of YA heroines and that is refreshing and one of the best in this genre by miles. 
The character development from the first book, is amazing it really feels like these characters have grown in the short time we have known them Harriet for one has grown the most, and even Wilbur has grown as well. the entire supporting cast from Nat to a model on one of the shoots brings its all together and that is very rare in a book let alone an entire series.

Even though this book is over 400 pages long it doesn't feel it and there were two different stories going on the one at home with her friends and the one with Wilbur and both were fabulous they complimented each other and also it shows that it isn't easy balancing your work and social life as Harriet shows in true Harriet style. 

New relationships formed in this book that i am not too sure about but the last line gave me hope for my OTP and the next book, But in this book we see Harriet struggling with her decision regarding Nick and how no one can say his name around her and to me i felt so bad for her as i have has personal experience in that department (breaking up with someone for their own good) it is written so perfectly that you don't do what a lot of fandoms do and choose side you understand why she does what she does and accept it, as soon as i finished this book i put on instagram that i needed the next book Pronto and Holly Smale wrote back saying she hasn't written the next one yet :'( 

Over all it was another Laugh out loud, hilariously funny and also an emotional roller coaster of a book and i highly recommend it to any one the entire series will lift you up if you feel down and it will make you feel better with an amazing message inside a wonderful UKYA book.

Until Next Time

Happy Reading

December 2015 TBR

Hi all so this month is a very short TBR because i am really busy, I'm going to Cardiff for the weekend (12-14th) then obviously its Christmas then I'm going to my Grandparents on Boxing day (26th) then Hampton Court Palace on the 27th for Elizabethan Christmas Celebrations then finally I'm going to Cornwall on the 28th to the 2nd of January so i wont have much time to read this month so have a very merry Christmas, happy holidays, and have a wonderful New Year. 

I am planning to read 10 books this month. One is a pre order the rest are historical fiction and Christmas fiction. 

Lets start with the Pre Order

The Best Goodbye - Abbi Glines (Book #13 in The Rosemary Beach Series)

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Abbi Glines comes the next sizzling novel in the Rosemary Beach series, featuring well-known playboy and Blaire’s half brother, Captain.
The look on Rose’s face had screamed that she was hiding something. Hell, she’d practically run away from me. There was something to that. I knew there was...
After ten years in the employ of a mysterious crime boss, River “Captain” Kipling is ready to leave his sordid past—and his cover occupation as an upscale restaurateur—behind him. The only thing standing in the way of his “retirement” is his commitment to launch a new restaurant in the resort town of Rosemary Beach. With his sister, Blaire, nearby, Captain can delay his dream of running a humble bar on the waterfront, but the unwanted attentions of his head server, Elle, have him itching to get out.
Until he notices Rose Henderson, the new server at the restaurant. All he knows about the pretty redhead with the cute glasses is that she’s a hardworking single mom from Oklahoma. But there’s something overly familiar about her laugh...something strange about the way she looks at Captain...


now onto the rest ....


The Kings Sister - Anne O'Brien 

1382. Daughter of John of Gaunt, sister to the future King Henry IV, Elizabeth of Lancaster has learned the shrewd tricks of the court from England’s most powerful men. In a time of political turmoil, allegiance to family is everything. A Plantagenet princess should never defy her father’s wishes. Yet headstrong Elizabeth refuses to bow to the fate of a strategic marriage. Rejecting her duty, Elizabeth weds the charming and ruthlessly ambitious Sir John Holland: Duke of Exeter, half-brother to King Richard II and the one man she has always wanted. But defiance can come at a price. 1399. Elizabeth’s brother Henry has seized the throne. Her husband, confident to the usurped Richard, masterminds a secret plot against the new King. Trapped in a dangerous web, Elizabeth must make a choice. Defy the King and betray her family. Or condemn her husband and send him to his death. Sister. Wife. Traitor. She holds the fate of England in her hands.


The Devils Consort - Anne O'Brien 

A riveting novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine’s early adult years from the author of The Virgin Widow.
Orphaned at a young age, Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, seeks a strong husband to keep her hold on the vast lands that have made her the most powerful heiress in Europe. But her arranged marriage to Louis VII, King of France, is made disastrous by Louis’s weakness of will and fanatical devotion to the church. Eleanor defies her husband by risking her life on an adventurous Crusade, and even challenges the Pope himself. And in young, brilliant, mercurial Henry d’Anjou, she finds her soul mate—the one man who is audacious enough to claim her for his own and make her Queen of England.


The Virgin Widow - Anne O'Brien 

Anne O'Brien has joined the exclusive club of excellent historical novelists.' - Sunday Express I was a penniless, landless petitioner, my Neville blood a curse, my future dependent on the charity of those who despised me… Anne Neville is the heiress and daughter of the greatest powerbroker in the land, Warwick the Kingmaker. Trapped in a deadly tangle of political intrigue, she is a pawn in an uncertain game, used by the houses of Neville, York and Lancaster alike. In England's glittering, treacherous court, not all wish to see the Nevilles raised high. The Earl of Warwick's ambition and pride lead him into an attempt to depose the Yorkist King; his treason forces his family into exile. Humiliated and powerless in a foreign land, Anne must find the courage and the wit to survive in such a dangerous man's world. Compulsively readable, Anne O'Brien vividly evokes the story of Richard III's queen with a passion and vibrancy reminiscent of Phillipa Gregory and Alison Weir. 


Elizabeth of York: The First Tudor Queen - Alison Weir

Many are familiar with the story of the much-married King Henry VIII of England and the celebrated reign of his daughter, Elizabeth I. But it is often forgotten that the life of the first Tudor queen, Elizabeth of York, Henry’s mother and Elizabeth’s grandmother, spanned one of England’s most dramatic and perilous periods. Now New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed historian Alison Weir presents the first modern biography of this extraordinary woman, whose very existence united the realm and ensured the survival of the Plantagenet bloodline.
Her birth was greeted with as much pomp and ceremony as that of a male heir. The first child of King Edward IV, Elizabeth enjoyed all the glittering trappings of royalty. But after the death of her father; the disappearance and probable murder of her brothers—the Princes in the Tower; and the usurpation of the throne by her calculating uncle Richard III, Elizabeth found her world turned upside-down: She and her siblings were declared bastards.
As Richard’s wife, Anne Neville, was dying, there were murmurs that the king sought to marry his niece Elizabeth, knowing that most people believed her to be England’s rightful queen. Weir addresses Elizabeth’s possible role in this and her covert support for Henry Tudor, the exiled pretender who defeated Richard at the Battle of Bosworth and was crowned Henry VII, first sovereign of the House of Tudor. Elizabeth’s subsequent marriage to Henry united the houses of York and Lancaster and signalled the end of the Wars of the Roses. For centuries historians have asserted that, as queen, she was kept under Henry’s firm grasp, but Weir shows that Elizabeth proved to be a model consort—pious and generous—who enjoyed the confidence of her husband, exerted a tangible and beneficial influence, and was revered by her son, the future King Henry VIII.
Drawing from a rich trove of historical records, Weir gives a long overdue and much-deserved look at this unforgettable princess whose line descends to today’s British monarch—a woman who overcame tragedy and danger to become one of England’s most beloved consorts.


The Black Moon - Winston Graham (Book #5 in The Poldark Saga)

SPOILERS 
 
Fifth in the series

Cornwall 1794. The birth of a son to Elizabeth and George Warleggan serves only to accentuate the rift between the Poldark and Warleggan families. And when Morwenna Chynoweth, now governess to Elizabeth's eldest son, grows to love Drake Carne, Demelza's brother, the enduring rivalry between George and Ross finds a new focus for bitter enmity and conflict.


The Christmas Cookie Club - Ann Pearlman

Mark your calendar. It's the Christmas Cookie Club!
Every year on the first Monday of December, Marnie and her twelve closest girlfriends gather in the evening with batches of beautifully wrapped homemade cookies. Everyone has to bring a dish, a bottle of wine, and their stories. This year, the stories are especially important. Marnie's oldest daughter has a risky pregnancy. Will she find out tonight how that story might end? Jeannie's father is having an affair with her best friend. Who else knew about the betrayal, and how can that be forgiven or forgotten, even among old friends such as these? Rosie's husband doesn't want children, and she has to decide, very soon, whether or not that's a deal breaker for the marriage. Taylor's life is in financial freefall. Each woman, each friend has a story to tell, and they are all interwoven, just as their lives are.
On this evening, at least, they can feel as a group the impulses of sisterly love and conflict, the passion and hopefulness of a new romance, the betrayal and disillusionment some relationships bring, the joys and fears of motherhood, the agony of losing a child, and above all, the love they have for one another. As Marnie says, the Christmas Cookie Club, if it's anything, is a reminder of delight.


Dash and Lily's Book of Dares - Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

“I’ve left some clues for you.
If you want them, turn the page.
If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.”

So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the bestselling authors of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favourite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?

Rachel Cohn and David Levithan have written a love story that will have readers perusing bookstore shelves, looking and longing for a love (and a red notebook) of their own.


My True Love Gave to Me - Stephanie Perkins

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me ...This beautiful collection features twelve gorgeously romantic stories set during the festive period, by some of the most talented and exciting YA authors writing today. The stories are filled with the magic of first love and the magic of the holidays. 







All Wrapped Up - Holly Smale 

All I want for Christmas is… a new GEEK GIRL story!
Harriet Manners knows a lot about Christmas.
She knows that every year Santa climbs down 91.8 million chimneys.
She knows that Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer was almost definitely a girl.
She knows that the first artificial Christmas trees were made out of goose feathers.
But this Christmas is extra special for Harriet, because four days ago she had her First Ever Kiss.
Now she just needs to work out what's supposed to happen next…
A romantic festive treat from the internationally bestselling award-winning author of the GEEK GIRL series. Also includes a BONUS previously unpublished GEEK GIRL short story TEAM GEEK!

So that is all the books I'm reading this month

Until Next Time

Happy Reading

All That Glitters - Holly Smale Book Review

Title - All That Glitters 
Author - Holly Smale 
Series - Geek Girl
My Copy - E-ARC from NetGalley 
ISBN - 0007574584 (ISBN13: 9780007574582)
My Rating - 4.5/5 stars
Goodreads - All That Glitters

Synopsis 

"My name is Harriet Manners, and I am still a geek." The fourth book in the award-winning GEEK GIRL series. Harriet Manners has high hopes for the new school year: she's a Sixth Former now, and things are going to be different. But with Nat busy falling in love at college and Toby preoccupied with a Top Secret project, Harriet soon discovers that's not necessarily a good thing...

OK so for the non- spoiler section there isn't much i can say but to give you a quick over view, Harriet and her family have just got back from New York and Harriet is trying to make some good first impressions on her first day of Sixth-Form (16-18 yr olds) and trying to get over her break up with gorgeous boyfriend Nick who has gone back to Australia to spend more time with his Family. But after a disastrous first day when every one thinks shes a show off know it all, her modelling career gets exposed when a campaign she did goes up every where, this book was full of laughs and tears. Holly Smale knows how to write characters that are real and relatable and i suggest you read this book and this series because it is a brilliant YA Contemporary book. 

  

OK so if you haven't read this book stop reading NOW SPOILERS AHEAD 

So we come back and we are back in England, and we start of like in the previous books with Harriet stating what she believes to be fact for example Geek girls first line was "My name is Harriet Manners, and i am a Geek" and in all that glitters its "My name is Harriet Manners, and i am a genius" i love these first lines i don't know why they are just very quirky and British.

So lets talk about Harriet's friendships in this book, so since Nat and Toby were avoiding Harriet and then her Modelling Career was exposed a lot of people started pretending to be her friends and i will admit as soon as it happened i knew it wasn't going to end well, and it was all revealed at the party that they were only there because they thought people she modelled with would be there, but i was shocked that India was actually nice and that she wasn't part of the bad crowd and i was annoyed with Nat & Toby at first but when there motivations were revealed i was really happy that they were only doing that so that Harriet could make some new friends. 

Next topic has to be Nick, this book was full of surprises when she was writing the letters saying she missed him and it had me in tears i really felt her pain it was extremely real, and when nick was doing his interview and he says that she broke his heart it didn't register till it was revealed that he had written to her and said that he would come and stay in London and go back to modelling that broke my heart i was sobbing at that. On the other hand completely understand why she didn't reply was because if she said yes and he went back to modelling after some time, he would probably end up resenting her and if they did a long distance relationship it probably wouldn't have worked and she did the only real option and that was to let him go no matter how much she loved him and that is true love. 

There was not a lot of modelling in this book it was mainly about her personal relationships, so there isn't much to say about that but the past picture from book 2 make an appearances everywhere from bus stops to shop windows and i loved the title of this book and the way it went with the story 

Overall this book made me laugh out loud, and sob tears of sadness but i wouldn't change a thing 

I cannot wait for the next book in this series because its a brilliant series that should be so much more popular 

Happy Reading