One in a Million – Lindsey Kelk [BOOK REVIEW]

September 23, 2019 innah96Leave a comment

★★

Contemporary romance in a world of social media. One in a Million is a nice addition to a library, for those of you who enjoy this genre.

Annie is working hard to get her own marketing business moving. She doesn’t have time for anything else, especially love. And now that her ex-boyfriend has proposed to someone else after 6 months, she has to pretend that it doesn’t mean anything to her.

She makes a risky bet to turn a random person internet famous in a month. It seems like an easy thing to do, but when it turns out that this random person is one of those that want nothing to do with social media, this bet turns out to be mission impossible. Not to mention that this person is also brutally honest and savagely rude.

The plot was predictable and flat. I knew what was going to happen and the ending was too obvious and without any major twists.

Knowing the subject of this book, I was expecting at least some character development from both main characters:

The man who never uses social media realizes that online presence is extremely important in today’s world, especially if you are trying to sell a book and promote what you are doing.
The woman who is addicted to social media realizes that aside from the online world, she needs to focus on the real-life experiences and friendships.

The realizations from both sides never really happened. The characters mentioned and discussed this, but the never changed their actions or behavior, which I found very disappointing.

One in a Million is a wonderful chill book, one of those books you can read by the pool or on the beach. It is the perfect book to cheer you up, but it didn’t seem to have any real value to it, and for me it was a predictable and a boring experience.

If this genre is something that you usually read and enjoy – please pick it up, you are probably going to enjoy it! This book just wasn’t for me, that’s all.

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A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier

September 1, 2019September 1, 2019 innah96Leave a comment

★★★★

When the team from LoveReading UK contacted me regarding A Single Thread, all I knew was that I loved Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier and would therefore read any other book she writes.

A Single Thread follows the life of Violet, during the year 1932, a few years after the First World War. Violet has lost her brother and fiance in the war and is still learning to cope. She is labelled as a ”surplus woman” by the society, a woman that in unlikely to marry.

With the grief, the society label and the suffocation of her mother, Violet starts a journey that will change her life.

She is determined to find where she belongs and who she truly is, in a time where being a woman and succeeding on your own was not praised by others.

Her journey starts with a long walk in a few towns, something she used to do with her late father and brother, and it continues with her learning canvas embroidery (today knows as needlepoint), and the beautiful art of bell ringing (which pleasantly reminded me of The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo, a book I read in high school and one I should re-read).

With Tracy’s writing, it is always so easy to lose yourself in the book and teleport to the past and re-live every scene as if you’re there. It is such a pleasurable experience.

I loved Violet, and I loved how she coped with all challenges of that era. Post First World War times were extremely hard, with too many men dying and too many women not being able to ever marry. Violet’s courage and hope kept moving her forward!

This novel yells courage. It yells freedom. It yells independence. And standing along Violet, while she finds courage when you least expect to was a moment I will cherish.

I recommend it to you, if you love novels in the war time period, or novels that talk about courage!

Thank you to the team at LoveReading UK, for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Book Review · Books

Living My Best Li(f)e by Claire Frost

August 27, 2019August 27, 2019 innah96Leave a comment

★★

Fast and chill reads are always the hit for me. I definitely enjoy drinking my hot chocolate and cuddling my blanket while reading a chill book on my sofa. ” Living My Best Li(f)e ” was a modern-day book, that captures today’s problems, and it felt familiar, because I have seen these problems in my surrounding. It focuses mostly on social media, and the differences between what we present online, and who we really are in the real world.

We have one woman – Bell – who is about to turn 40, and her comfort is broken when her man decides to leave her after years of togetherness.

We also have another woman, Millie, in her mid-thirties, and her little son Wolf (who names their child Wolf?). Millie fell in love with a football star Louis and had a child with him. To her disappointment, she realized the man she is in love with is the most unreliable parent in the world. She also happens to be an Instagram star, that only shows the world what she wants them to see.

While the followers see expensive dresses and well-behaved child, the reality shows that Millie takes a picture of the dresses and returns them to the shop, unable to afford them. She is also receiving calls from Wolfie’s school that he has not be behaving in his best manners.

When these two women accidentally meet, they turn out to be besties. In fact, they became besties so fast, that I had to laugh out loud at how bizarre and unrealistic that was. Do you ever go to a coffee shop, say hi to a person, and then THE SAME DAY, THE SAME CONVERSATIONS you both start sharing your deepest secrets? Yes – it was that bizarre.

I really wanted to love ” Living My Best Li(f)e ” , as it captured a lot of problems. But it only captured the surface of these problems, then solved them instantly and moved on. And I wasn’t satisfied. There were so many little plot problems that the author kept adding to the book randomly to keep the story going, and kept resolving them one by one – no anticipation, no hunger for one more chapter. Disappointing.

First of all, all the characters were not realistic. We have this woman that keeps saying she can be on her own, but she also keeps complaining every second of the day.

Then, we have this other woman, who seems like such a person that everyone is looking up to, but in fact, she is too scared to say no to her ex-love and father of her child, and she keeps up with all his nonsense on a daily bases.

Last, but not least, we have the 5-year-old Wolf boy, who talks like a 20-year-old boy, but behaves like a toddler, and I don’t know how to react to that.

And finally, we have ”the rest of the characters”, who were mentioned and had their own roles in the book, but didn’t have enough of a back story or air-time in order to be remembered by the audience.

The author also introduced us to a plot twist, that came out unexpectedly – but suddenly the government were about to destroy their community center and it was up to them to collect money and save this place in a record time. How convenient for the story, right? With no building up to it, the problem just raised from the ground… And you can all imagine the happy endings and soppy stories that followed with their success.

So yeah – that got me, and I didn’t believe it for a second, and therefore this review. I really wanted to love Living My Best Li(f)e, but nothing worked out. Disappointing characters, plots and lack of thrill. Not a great experience for me. I wouldn’t recommend it, but if you choose to read it, I would love to know what you think! <3

Thank you to the team at Netgalley and Simon & Schuster UK, for providing me with an E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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Books

Coming Home – Fern Britton [BOOK REVIEW]

April 27, 2018 innah96Leave a comment

I had the pleasure to receive a copy of this book from GoodReads and HarperCollins. This was the first book I have read from Fern Britton, and I know it won’t be my last for sure!

Coming Home is based in Cornwall, England, a beautiful seaside area with loads of fisherman around. The author describes the place so well, that it made me want to go there, just to see it and be close to the characters. It reminds me of South Shields very much as well.

This is a story of one family, three generations and their difficult lives entwined with love, pain, leaving and coming back home.

Sennen is a woman that leaves her hometown, her parents and her two little children (Ella and Henry) at 17-years-old because life gets too hard to handle.

Ella and Henry are raised by their grandparents and live their whole life without their mother in their lives – until one day, Sennen comes back and wants to be a part of their lives. But are they ready for it?

We see the story through the eyes of Sennen, Ella and Henry and the grandparents. We travel from one generation to the other through the years, and we learn a lot for each of the characters. It is so well-written, that I wasn’t confused at all. Usually I get confused when authors try to do this in other books, but this one was definitely not the case.

This is one of those books that will hook you from the very first pages! The characters are so warm and close to the heart, that I felt like I have known them forever. I felt close to them and their feelings and thoughts, that I could have easily gone out and have a conversation with them. It is one of those books that fills you with anticipation, then gives you a back-story, and just when you thought things will happen as you thought, you will discover a surprise.

Wonderful plot and beautifully written – this is a book of love, family, broken and fixed hearts. This is a book that will make you cry while waiting for a train, and laugh out loud while drinking a hot chocolate in a coffee shop.

Books

Watermelon – Marian Keyes [BOOK REVIEW]

April 25, 2018April 25, 2018 innah96Leave a comment

A lovely read! Marian Keyes is one of my favourite authors of all time. The story of how I discovered Marian is quite funny, actually.

It was back in the days when I was a teenager and I was in love with the Gifted Series from Marilyn Kaye. I have read only the first two books and I have asked my mum to bring me the rest of them (there were six in total). She came back with a book with an author that had a similar name, and here we are today 🙂

I have read Watermelon a long time ago, but I have decided to share my thoughts with you now.

This is a chick lit book about a woman left on her own right after she gives birth to her first child and then goes back to her parent’s house to start her life over.

This is a story about bravely, love, family and all little things that will melt your heart.
Prepare to cry – Actually, prepare to cry a lot, and don’t say I haven’t warned you.

A story that will stick with you for years after you’ve read it. The characters that will make you wish you met them and were their friends over and over again!