We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

I have just finished We Were Liars about five seconds ago...I feel like I will never be able to forget it. To move on from it. This book is now a part of me that will always be there - unforgettable, wonderful, achingly awful...

Cadence Sinclair Eastman and the story of the beautiful Sinclair family will have you spellbound. A story not only for YA readers, but also adults and fans of such stories as Tigers in Red Weather. This is a book for hot summer days, the sun baking down on you as you step inside a world so unlike and like your own you will not know what to do.

This book is the book everyone should be talking about! It is lyrical, beautiful and unputdownable. Giving up hours of your life to it is not remotely regrettable! You will be captivated and awed by Lockhart's innovative storytelling and her brilliantly captured characters who breathe endless life into the book. It is a story that will change you, if only for one moment - and I urge all of you to immediately download it onto an ereader, rush to the shops and purchase a copy or just give into temptation and visit your library. This truly is a brilliant book - don't miss it!

Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan

Romance books are always so lovely, they have the happy ending, the beautiful heroine and, of course, a gorgeous hero to swoon over. Jenny Colgan is a master at merging the romance genre with the very delectable foodie obsession we are all under. Her Meet Me At The Cupcake Cafe was sugary, her Rosie Hopkins Sweet Shop of Dreams was delightfully sweet and The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris was full of chocolatey goodness. However, if I am going to be honest, I have to say that Rosie Hopkins was my favourite (I am not going to mention the sequel - as it just didn't work for me at all) of her most recent foodie romance. It was sweetness and light with a brilliant hero, relateable heroine and a beautiful historical romance that pulled you straight in.

So, now we have all of that sorted, let me tell you about her newest baking romance...Little Beach Street Bakery. This started out brilliantly: Polly Waterford is recovering from losing her business compounded by a bad breakup, and having to give up her home and social life all in one fell swoop. Now, she is desperate and a little scared, but when she stumbles across an affordable island in Cornwall she is able to get back to her first love...baking bread. And perhaps a little love of her own...

I loved the gorgeous descriptions of the baking process, the kneading, rising, delectable flavours Jenny threw in to make my stomach growl with hunger. My only problem with this light read was the length. It felt a little too long, a little too indulgent and by the time we find out who the hero is (yep, you guessed it, there are some options here in this little sleepy town for Polly) I was struggling to remember if I liked him or not... This is not ideal and by the end I really didn't care one way or the other - it should have ended at least 50 pages earlier! But all in all this is a lovely story for a holiday - a great book to lie on a beach with and forget about your real life - the one with tubes and buses, crowded coffee shops and worrying about money. In Jenny Colgan's delightful Cornish town all of these worries are there, but there is also bread, hot from the oven just waiting for you to spread it thick with butter or perhaps a dollop of honey...

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

I read a quote on the back of this book and knew instantly it was the book for me - 'Brilliant. Guaranteed to join The Secret History and The Virgin Suicides as one of those rare books to become a cult hit and instant classic.' - Sunday Telegraph

Two of my all time (top 10) books and if Marisha Pessl could even come close to writing a story like those two classics I knew I had to try it. Creaking open the spine of this pretty hefty and small of print novel was exhilarating. Helped by it being on a plane about to jet off for a weekend away, this book was highly anticipated. I had very high hopes and I must say they were fulfilled. My only quibble was with the ending, but really when compared to the rest of the story, the ending is almost pointless to mention.

Marisha Pessl definitely knows what she is doing with a pen/computer - she knows how to write! There were so many moments where I wished I was one of those people who highlight books, there were so many sentences, paragraphs, brilliant lines that I wanted to remember forever. I needed them, the way I need air on a daily basis and getting to read this book was as refreshing, mindblowing and terrifying as I expected. I was barely grasping onto normality by a fingernail during the week I devoured this book (work got in the way). This is a brilliant, beyond brilliant book and I urge you all to indulge your senses and give yourself up to the twisted and brilliant tale of Blue van Meer.

Here is a bit about the story - I don't want to ruin it for you, it really is too sensational to not read, so here is a little extract:

'I wrote this account one year after I'd found Hannah Dead.

I thought I'd managed to erase all traces of that night within myself.

But I was wrong.

Every night when I tried to sleep, I'd close my eyes and see her again, exactly as I found her, hanging from a pine tree by an orange electrical cord, her neck twisted like a tulip stem, her eyes seeing nothing.

Or else that was the problem. They'd seen everything.'

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

There are only ever a few books I have started and finished in one night and The Fault in Our Stars is one of them. From the moment I prised open the pages I gave up everything else - sleep, food, cleaning my teeth (Okay, I cleaned my teeth, but one handed so I could still read the book) and it was so worth it. Tears streamed down my face almost constantly, the writing was superb, the characters so realistic their fears/hopes/dreams/pain was so intense I could almost feel it.

This is a book that will break your heart, but if you don't read it you will never understand the true emotional connection one can have with a book, with characters you never knew existed and once you meet them, characters you carry around with you forever.

The Fault in Our Stars is world famous now, everyone has heard of it, everyone has read it, but if you are one of the few who has yet to stumble across this enchanting story don't wait, get your hands on a copy now! For, this story is not just a tearjerker, or a teen romance for young adults to loose themselves in (it is all of those things, of course), but it is so much more. It is a book about stories, about life and by combining these two brilliant themes, this book is about the story our lives tell. Who are we if not the stories we have, the experiences we went through, the lives we touched?

Pure, fresh and unputdownable The Fault in Our Stars is a book I highly recommend to everyone. A masterpiece of writing, character and story. Unforgettable.

The time has come...

So, I haven't abandoned my blog - no not at all - it's just life got in the way. Isn't that always how it happens? You have so many hopes and then suddenly you move house, get a new job, discover Will & Grace on Amazon Prime and suddenly your dream of becoming a dedicated blogger disappears...or maybe that's just me!

But, now I am back and I hope to be able to catch you up on everything I have been reading in the next few weeks. First off here is a highlight of my resent reading list:

• Everything by Rainbow Rowell (and I mean EVERYTHING!) 
• You Don't Have to Say You Love Me and Unsticky by Sarra Manning
• The Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan
• You Had Me At Hello by Mhairi McFarlane 
• Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
• The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas
• The Sea Sisters and A Single Breath by Lucy Clarke
• Austenland by Shannon Hale
• The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
• After the Fall by Charity Norman
• Calling Mrs Christmas by Carole Matthews
• The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

That is just a taste of the reviews to come...and isn't it pretty exciting! Loads of reviews coming soon - watch this space!