Always and Forever - Sian O'Gorman

Title - Always and Forever

Author - Sian O'Gorman

Genre - Adult > Romance

Format - Kindle

My Copy - E-Arc Netgalley

Where You Can Find It - Goodreads - Barnes & Noble - Indigo - Amazon UK - Amazon US

How can you find yourself again, when you can’t face what you’ve lost?

Joanna Woulfe is looking to get her life back on track after her husband John leaves their family home. Once a high-flying PR Director, Jo now looks after her son Harry and seeks support only from her mother Marietta and her best friend Nicole. But Nicole’s own marriage is facing its greatest ever crisis, and Marietta, too, is distracted by the reappearance of an old flame, ex-Showband-singer and lothario Patrick Realta.

Soon Jo enrols with a colourful local amateur dramatics group and begins a flirtation with the handsome young Ronan Forest. But is she really ready to move on from her old life – and from her years of marriage to John? And what was it that happened three years ago that sent the couple into free-fall?

Before long Jo will realise that is only by looking back that she will ever truly be able to move forward...

The first thing that drew me in was the cover, i was scrolling through Netgalley and found this then i read the synopsis and it drew me in even further. I have been in a reading slump for well over a year now and i am very late getting this review up. 

Always and Forever was a wonderful feel good, bittersweet novel and one i fell very deeply in love with. It reminded me of Cecilia Ahern's novels and so i will say if you love her books you will most certainly love this one as well. 

The main character Jo went on such a journey throughout this book and you feel yourself rooting for her because she is one of those underdog characters, one that every reader seems to love. 

I don't want to say too much about the love interest or interest's what ever way you want to put it because i feel that that would spoil a lot of the novel. and i don't want that because it was wonderful to read it without knowing what was going to happen, but i will say it is wonderfully written and dealt with in a excellent way. 

If you love chick lit, and romance i really suggest this book it is charming and a wonderful book to curl up with on a rainy Sunday afternoon, and i really want to read more from this author and i suspect you will too.

Until Next Time

Happy Reading

Lord of Shadows - Cassandra Clare - Spoiler Free Review

Title - Lord of Shadows
Author - Cassandra Clare
Series - The Dark Artifices #2
ISBN - 9781471116650
Genre - YA > Fantasy
My Copy - Purchased
Format - Trade Paperback
Where You Can Find It - Goodreads - Waterstones - Barnes & Noble - Indigo - Book Depository - Amazon UK - Amazon US

Would you trade your soul mate for your soul?

A Shadowhunter’s life is bound by duty. Constrained by honour. The word of a Shadowhunter is a solemn pledge, and no vow is more sacred than the vow that binds parabatai, warrior partners—sworn to fight together, die together, but never to fall in love.

Emma Carstairs has learned that the love she shares with her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, isn’t just forbidden—it could destroy them both. She knows she should run from Julian. But how can she when the Blackthorns are threatened by enemies on all sides?

Their only hope is the Black Volume of the Dead, a spell book of terrible power. Everyone wants it. Only the Blackthorns can find it. Spurred on by a dark bargain with the Seelie Queen, Emma; her best friend, Cristina; and Mark and Julian Blackthorn journey into the Courts of Faerie, where glittering revels hide bloody danger and no promise can be trusted. Meanwhile, rising tension between Shadowhunters and Downworlders has produced the Cohort, an extremist group of Shadowhunters dedicated to registering Downworlders and “unsuitable” Nephilim. They’ll do anything in their power to expose Julian’s secrets and take the Los Angeles Institute for their own.

When Downworlders turn against the Clave, a new threat rises in the form of the Lord of Shadows—the Unseelie King, who sends his greatest warriors to slaughter those with Blackthorn blood and seize the Black Volume. As dangers close in, Julian devises a risky scheme that depends on the cooperation of an unpredictable enemy. But success may come with a price he and Emma cannot even imagine, one that will bring with it a reckoning of blood that could have repercussions for everyone and everything they hold dear.

I finished this book about an hour ago, and i am still trying to put my thoughts straight and actually regretting reading the book so quickly purely because we will not be getting another for quite some time.

I have been in a reading slump since reading Lady Midnight last year and i didn't even know if i was going to be able to read this book but once i started i couldn't stop and i read far into the night. 

Going to the start of this book, i was worried i wouldn't remember what had happened previously but it all came flooding back when i opened the book. 

I may mention spoilers from Lady Midnight or any of the other previous books in the shadow hunter world. So if you haven't read them i don't suggest you should read this.

Now onto the review, I am still not sure what to think of this book, my initial reaction is to give it 5 stars but i am so confused about things and all of those things cannot be discussed here but it will be in my spoiler review. 

The relationships in this book were everywhere and we finally know why Clary refused to marry Jase but then it was never mentioned again, that is one of the things that confused me, why didn't Emma question it when Clary told her. The Relationships going on, well you need a map to remember them all. I don't remember any other Shadow hunter series being like that. 

The story flowed to an extent but i felt like it could have been shorter, there were so many parts that were really unnecessary. It felt like the book wrapped up about halfway through then there was something else that they had to deal with. 

I could see the set up for the Last Hours series with the picture of Lucie, Tessa, Cordelia and James. Then we have all of the Herondale brilliance with Kit even calling Will and Idiot. I really wanted a bit more though but that is just because the Infernal Devices is my favourite in the chronicles, and i have a feeling the Last Hours will be just as loved. 

I don't believe this is as good as Lady Midnight or any of their predecessors so for that reason my rating changed from 5 to 4 as i still loved it and it made me smile, laugh and cry. I think that is the problem when you love a series that has so many books, every new book has a very high standard and sometimes it cannot live up to it. 

Until Next Time

Happy Reading

Like A Memory - Abbi Glines SPOILER REVIEW

If You Haven't Read This book Check out my Spoiler Free Review HERE

Going into this book i had quite a few ideas of what was going to happen and i was wrong on so many counts and i love when that happens so first lets go through my theories....

So lets start with what i called the biggest theory ....

My biggest theory is that Nate either isn't really engaged and its just a publicity thing for the opening of Octavia's shop or he is being forced into it, but i cannot think of anyone doing that so i am going with the first one and my biggest reasoning is a quote from one of the excerpts above and that is...
" It was before I realised that women weren’t as soft and pretty on the inside as they were on the outside. My mother was perfect, inside and out, but my little sister Ophelia had a definite evil streak."
If he was so in love, wouldn't Octavia be on that list..... 

I was right on one account, he wasn't really in love with her but he was engaged. So i am going to count that as wrong

Secondly i think that we are going to either love or hate Octavia, like she will either be the nicest person on  the planet or she will be the Nan of this series. 

This was certainly true, she will not be the Nan of the series but she was a definite bitch and i definitely hated her by the end but then i also felt sorry for her when her past came out. 

    Bliss is going to end up telling Nate about the illness in an argument or he will find out from a third party. 

This is true, Nate found out from his grandfather, i personally thought it was going to be Eli. But i loved the way this was done.

 After Bliss' illness i have a feeling that Cage and the men are going to be even more protective than before and this will lead to a heated confrontation between Nate and Cage

This again was partly true, the men in her life are particularly protective of her, especially her brothers the Song Cleaning This Gun came into my head when Cruz walked out meeting Nate for the first time. I am actually glad i was wrong about Nate and Cage having a confrontation and i was so happy with the way Cage handled it.

There needs to be a father/son moment in this book between Nate and Rush and we can also add some Dean into that, i am almost a 100% convinced that Dean owns Live Bay, we only really know of one bar in Sea Breeze and what Rocker wouldn't want to own Live Bay where they have live rock acts. 

There were quite a few father/son moments and a few with Abe as well but i was completely off about what grandfather was in sea-breeze. Considering the last time we saw Abe he was on a boat loving life in Florida Keys the fact that he would move to Alabama away from his family seemed odd to me where as Dean really has no ties and he opened a restaurant and Dean is the one who loved to cook. But i am glad i was wrong about who owned Live Bay, Krit definitely deserves that bar.

This needs to be a Bliss/Nate HEA because it has promised so much and for people like myself who have been waiting since 2014 for this book and these characters i am more than a little terrified that they wont get a HEA.

We did get a HEA, and it was honestly the best, i loved the way it was handled with her telling him she was infertile and Nate meeting the York's. It was done tastefully and it gave them the ending they deserved. Even if the heartbreak was a bit much and i didn't see what happened with Octavia coming. But i should have because it is kind of normal for books like this to throw a spanner in the works. 

This is probably going to be the most emotionally charged book in the entire series because of the topic and the fact that we have literally read them as they were born and then they grew up and it is going to be one hell of an emotional roller coaster and one i am really hoping lives up to the high expectations i have for it.

I was right about the emotionally charged, and it killed me at times seeing a family who i love in so much pain and then you have the fun moments i literally cannot wait to read the rest of this series. i have high expectations for all of them now and that worries me a little but they will be OK. 


So that is it for my theories, but there are some things i want to mention. 

Normally the next book is set up, and i don't know if its because Glines hasn't decided yet but we have absolutely no idea who the next book is going to be about, i have a feeling it will either be Eli or Lila Kate but i am not sure. It could even be Cruz York. 

Then you have the fact that we don't really see much of the Adults, the Rosemary Adults were around more that the Sea Breeze but that is because Nate needed them. And WOW Nan and Grant in the same room without killing each other i'm shocked.

Poor Eli, he was never going to stand a chance and it was kind of sad because that situation is very common and most people have felt it from either side of the coin. 

Bliss being infertile was a shock, i actually didn't know chemotherapy could cause infertility and it was kind of a learning curve and it was bittersweet because yes it saved your life but in return it takes a piece of you, It was sad to watch her war with her decision to tell Nate but the way he reacted was perfect and shows how he was raised. 

So that is all i wanted to say on the subject of this book that really couldn't be put in a review for people who haven't read it. 

Until Next Time

Happy Reading 

I AM BACK!!!!!

Hi so as you can see from the title i am back, i said i would be back at the beginning of May and it is the 6th today so a little bit behind. I honestly haven't read that much a few review books and i am thinking of revamping this blog a little but i am sticking to the schedule that i started with at the beginning of the year posting on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays but if there is a release i am exited about i will differ from these days. 

So Until Next Time

Happy Reading

Update

Hello, so this is just a short post to say i will not be posting on here till May because April is Camp Nanowrimo, and the rest of this month is me trying to plan and deal with character maps, and plots so i will be back in May and back to a regular schedule. 

Until Next Time

Happy Reading

February 2017 Haul

Hello, once more i am saving up this time for some extra money when i go to Harry Potter Studio Tours, so i once more didn't buy many books this month... 

Like A Memory - Abbi Glines

i had this book pre ordered on my Kindle but on the Sunday before it was released i saw that the Paperback had been released and i could get it the next day so i did so i now have it in Paperback. 

Riveted - Jay Crownover

I love this series and cannot believe it is almost over, I will be buying it in paperback once it is released. But the Kindle edition will have to do for now.

The Cosy Tea Shop in The Castle - Caroline Roberts

It was 99p in the Valentines Day romance sale, and i have yet to read it, but i will because it is the sort of book i read on a rainy day and i want a fluffy romance to perk up my mood.

Blind Tiger - Rachel Vincent 

This is the second book in the Wildcats series, i loved the first so i cannot wait to dive on into this one. 

That is all the books i brought this month, 

Until Next Time

Happy Reading

Victoria - Daisy Goodwin

Title - Victoria
Author - Daisy Goodwin
ISBN - 9781250045461
My Copy - Purchased
Format - Paperback
Genre - Historical Fiction
Where You Can Find It - Goodreads - Waterstones - Barnes & Noble - Indigo - Book Depository - Amazon UK - Amazon US

In 1837, less than a month after her eighteenth birthday, Alexandrina Victoria – sheltered, small in stature, and female – became Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. Many thought it was preposterous: Alexandrina — Drina to her family — had always been tightly controlled by her mother and her household, and was surely too unprepossessing to hold the throne. Yet from the moment William IV died, the young Queen startled everyone: abandoning her hated first name in favor of Victoria; insisting, for the first time in her life, on sleeping in a room apart from her mother; resolute about meeting with her ministers alone.

One of those ministers, Lord Melbourne, became Victoria’s private secretary. Perhaps he might have become more than that, except everyone argued she was destined to marry her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. But Victoria had met Albert as a child and found him stiff and critical: surely the last man she would want for a husband….

So even if this review is technically spoiler free it is a book based off of a TV show and so i am going to try to talk about the actual storyline as little as possible. 

I loved the TV show and pre ordered this book but then i didn't read it right away, i read it about three months later, i did that for a specific reason and that was to actually distance myself from the TV show and read it as a book alone, but that was pretty much impossible even after the three months so i would say if you have seen the show then you are going to feel like you have deja vu a lot. I do however recommend reading the book before watching the show just because then you are not anticipating everything that is going to happen. 

Historically, there isn't much stock in most of the 'love' storyline and that was brought up vehemently among Historical fanatic's and that puts me on the back foot because i personally didn't like that 'Love' story when i saw it played out on screen because for me Albert and Victoria's marriage and happiness and he was not a second choice.  

There is a lot more detail in the book, but it ends before the series does, so that annoyed me and it was the main reason i gave it 4 instead of 5, i feel like it ends so prematurely. It just needed some more to finish it off properly.   

On the other hand Goodwin's writing was truly brilliant, and i do want to read more from her in the future just nothing based off of a real person.

** This should have gone up on Wednesday, but i was ill so it is going up now along with another post. 

Until Next Time

Happy Reading