Book Review: Falling in Love with English Boys by Melissa Jensen

Title: Falling in Love with English Boys

Author: Melissa Jensen

Release Date: October 28th 2010

Publisher: Speak

Age: Young Adult

Sixteen-year-old Catherine Vernon has been stranded in London for the summer—no friends, no ex-boyfriend Adam the Scum (good riddance!), and absolutely nothing to do but blog about her misery to her friends back home. Desperate for something—anything—to do in London while her (s)mother’s off researching boring historical things, Cat starts reading the 1815 diary of Katherine Percival her mom gives her—and finds the similarities between their lives to be oddly close. But where Katherine has the whirls of the society, the parties and the gossip over who is engaged to who, Cat’s only got some really excellent English chocolate. Then she meets William Percival—the uber-hot descendant of Katherine—and things start looking up . . .

Catherine is a sixteen years old girl whose mother is an expert of antique things. It's because of that reason that her mother decides to go to London for the summer, and to drag Catherine with her.

Catherine was such a fun girl. At first she's angry with her mother and very very bored without her friends, but decides to blog about her boring summer in London. I loved her personality and her thoughts, she had that thing to know what to say and make you laugh at the right moment.

At first it's just about Cat, but it is not to long until Katherine is introduced. She is from the past, 1815. Cat's mother gives Katherine's diary to her, hoping she will find out they aren't so different, even when they obviously have very different lives.

At this moment the book began to alternate between Cat and Kat. At first I wasn't liking this kind of writing, specially because Cat's story was beginning to be more interesting with the addittion of Will, the British hottie. But soon I was caught in Kat's story too.

I liked both stories, and at the end I wished to know more about both of the girls. Both stories are sweet and romantic, and all the secondary characters are great. Specially Cat's friends, which are just so cool!

Overall, Falling in Love with English Boys is a fun young adult book, filled with great characters, sweet romance and a cute ending.

More about this book at www.melissajensen.com, Goodreads, Amazon, The Book Depository.

If the title fits...

Firstly, I am told that Better World Books are celebrating International Literacy Day by having 20% off three-or-more books. Time differences confuse me, but I think, if you spot this soon after I post it, some of that day is left in America.

Secondly, a meme. I love this meme, which I've been stealing from other sources for the past couple of years - this year Jane reminded me of it here. Basically, answer a set of questions from the titles of books you've read so far in 2011. I should probably wait until December to do it, but can never resist once I've spotted that the blogosphere has started on it. Oh, and I've anglicised it here and there.

Do join in - on your own blogs, or in the comments.

One time on holiday: The Caravaners (Elizabeth von Arnim)

Weekends at my house are: The Element of Lavishness (William Maxwell & Sylvia Townsend Warner)

My neighbour is: Not To Disturb (Muriel Spark)

My boss is: At Large and at Small (Anne Fadiman)

My superhero secret identity is: A Kind Man (Susan Hill)

You wouldn't like me when I'm angry because: Bonjour Tristesse (Francoise Sagan)

I'd win a gold medal in: Exercises in Style (Raymond Queneau)

I'd pay good money for: A House in the Country (Jocelyn Playfair)

If I were Prime Minister I would: Live Alone and Like It (Marjorie Hillis)

When I don't have good books, I: am The Perfect Pest (Adrian Porter)

Loud talkers at the cinema should be: People Who Say Goodbye (P.Y. Betts)

Giveaway: 800 followers!

800 followers! o_o wow! Thank you so much for following my blog :)

Giveaway: A Touch Mortal (ARC) by Leah Clifford

International. Ends September 30th, 2011. Just fill out the form below:

Waiting on Wednesday # 63 - Out of Sight, Out of Time

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

My pick:

OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF TIME by Ally Carter

With more than a million Gallagher Girls books sold, a legion of fans have fallen in love with the New York Times best-selling spy-girl series, and the fifth book delivers the most nerve-wracking, high-stakes adventure yet.

The last thing Cammie Morgan remembers is leaving the Gallagher Academy to protect her friends and family. But when Cammie wakes up in an alpine convent and discovers months have passed, her memory is a black hole. The only traces left of Cammie’s summer vacation are the bruises on her body and dirt under her nails. All she wants is to go home. But even the Gallagher Academy now holds more questions than answers as Cammie and her friends face their most difficult challenge yet. With only their training and a few clues to guide them, the girls go in search of answers on the other side of the world. But the Circle is hot on their trail and will stop at nothing to prevent Cammie from remembering what she did last summer.

March 20, 2012 by Hyperion Book

Goodreads - Amazon

I just love the Gallagher Girl series! If you haven't tried it, you should! It's the perfect chick lit YA series.

Still - William

Everytime I revisit Richmal Crompton's William series, I have a nudging fear that they won't be as good as I remembered, that what seemed screamingly funny to me when I was eight will have palled...

...and everytime I realise I needn't have worried. (Photo credit, btw.) If you've never read one of the books, you're in for a treat. Think how PG Wodehouse might have written about an eleven year old boy, if PGW tempered his exaggeration a little and developed an intimate knowledge with the minutiae of village life. Here's one of the passing characters, for instance: 'He was extraordinarily conceited and not overburdened by any superfluity of intellect.'

This isn't a fully-fledged review or anything, it's just a little overflow of joyfulness at revisiting William - in this case, Still William. Richmal Crompton wrote over thirty William books between 1922 and 1970, this being the fifth - each is a collection of stories about the well-intentioned mishaps of William Brown, who is eternally eleven. They're hilarious, and warming. Although everything almost always goes lamentably wrong, and William ends up being hounded by his relatives and neighborus, there isn't a malicious bone in his body. If anything, most of his misfortune comes from an irrepressible desire to help. In Still William he proposes on behalf of his brother, and later on behalf of his sister. He determines to be truthful on Christmas Day, with disastrous results. He determines to live a life of 'self-denial and service' with (you guessed it) disastrous results. He has only marginally more success when attempting to put on a show of 'natives', or teaching a visiting French boy idiomatic English.

I suspect most of us have read some William books at some point - but perhaps you've neglected them for a while, or somehow have never read one. Get one now. And get one with Thomas Henry's excellent illustrations, not the more modern, awful ones. Richmal Crompton also wrote lots of wonderful novels (and some less wonderful ones) but, although she deserves wider fame for those, equally she deserves the immortality she has secured through William Brown.

In case you're still not convinced, here is an excerpt between William and his uncaring older sister:

William's mother was out to lunch and Ethel was her most objectionable and objecting. She objected to William's hair and to William's hands and to William's face.

"Well, I've washed 'em and I've brushed it," said William firmly. "I don' see what you can do more with faces an' hair than wash 'em an' brush it. 'F you don' like the colour they wash an' brush to I can't help that. It's the colour they was born with. It's their nat'ral colour. I can't do more than wash 'em an' brush it."

"Yes, you can," said Ethel unfeelingly. "You can go and wash them and brush it again."

Under the stern eye of his father who had lowered his paper for the express purpose of displaying his stern eye William had no alternative but to obey.

"Some people," he remarked bitterly to the stair carpet as he went upstairs, "don' care how often they make other people go up an' downstairs, tirin' themselves out. I shun't be suprised 'f I die a good lot sooner than I would have done with all this walkin' up an' downstairs tirin' myself out - an' all because my face an' hands an' hair's nat'rally a colour she doesn't like!"

Ethel was one of William's permanent grievances against Life.

Book Review: Vanish by Sophie Jordan

Title: Vanish

Author: Sophie Jordan

Series: Firelight #2

Release Date: September 6th, 2011

Publisher: HarperTeen

Age: Young Adult

To save the life of the boy she loves, Jacinda did the unthinkable: She betrayed the most closely-guarded secret of her kind. Now she must return to the protection of her pride knowing she might never see Will again—and worse, that because his mind has been shaded, Will’s memories of that fateful night and why she had to flee are gone.

Back home, Jacinda is greeted with hostility and must work to prove her loyalty for both her sake and her family’s. Among the few who will even talk to her are Cassian, the pride’s heir apparent who has always wanted her, and her sister, Tamra, who has been forever changed by a twist of fate. Jacinda knows that she should forget Will and move on—that if he managed to remember and keep his promise to find her, it would only endanger them both. Yet she clings to the hope that someday they will be together again. When the chance arrives to follow her heart, will she risk everything for love?

In bestselling author Sophie Jordan’s dramatic follow-up to Firelight, forbidden love burns brighter than ever.

I loved Firelight, so it wasn't really a surprise for me to read Vanish in only a couple of hours!

Vanish follows Firelight from the exact point where Jacinda, Cassian, Tamra and their mother are in the car, escaping from hunters. It's almost impossible, but Tamra gives everybody a surprise and saves them.

It's obvious Jacinda isn't welcome in the pride, and her mother either. But Tamra is more welcome now, and everyone wants her.

Vanish is full of action. I thought it was going to be a dramatic book, thinking that Jacinda was going to probably be crying all the time. She cries, but she's such a strong character. That's why I like her so much.

In this book Cassian has the opportunity to shine. In Firelight he was always under the shadow of doubt, but he's actually very sweet, mature, and I can see he is one of those characters who always get hurt in love triangles.

Will is also in the story, but I, as Jacinda, kind of feel in between Cassian and Will. Obviously Jacinda loves Will, but Cassian is also very sweet to her...so yes, love triangle.

I was glad Tamra had her moment to shine, but still as with the first book, I'm not a fan of her or Jacinda's mother.

Overall, Vanish is the perfect continuation for Firelight. I got the feeling Firelight is actually one book split in three parts. Of course, the ending is another cliffhanger, even worse than the one at the first book....so I can't wait to read the next book!

More about this book at www.sophiejordan.net, Goodreads, Amazon, The Book Depository.

The Earth Hums in B Flat

A long time ago (17th July 2009, to be precise) I got a copy of Mari Strachan's The Earth Hums in B Flat through the Amazon Vine reviewers programme. Subsequently I sat next to Strachan's editor somewhere, I believe, and was able to say "Oh, I already have a copy, thanks" - but it has taken me over two years to actually read the novel, having persuaded my book group to read it along with me after my housemate Mel loved it. I finished the book approximately five minutes before book group started, and I've just come home from the discussion.



It's times like this that I wonder how many hidden gems are lurking on my bookshelves already - because The Earth Hums in B Flat is really, really good.



Strachan's novel is set in a small town in 1950s North Wales, where 12 year old Gwenni Morgan and her family live. The typical atmosphere of a close-knit community pervades - everybody knows everybody else, and there is no chance of keeping secrets for long, yet there is far greater intimacy and neighbourly care than would be possible in a city. If the reader isn't always immediately 'in on' the whispered secrets, it's because we see the world through the naive, slightly unworldly eyes of Gwenni herself. Here's how she opens the novel:

I fly in my sleep every night. When I was little I could fly without being asleep; now I can't, even though I practise and practise. And after what I saw last night I want more than ever to fly wide-awake. Mam always says: I want never gets. Is that true?

Mari Strachan has said that her starting point for the novel was the image of a girl sitting in hair, struggling to fly. Gwenni's flying isn't the start of a fantasy novel, nor does it play a huge role - other than setting the tone. The reader doesn't know whether to believe her or not - or how seriously she believes what she says. While she's up there, flying, she sees the whole earth and can hear it humming - in, you guessed it, B flat. I like the title. The earth's humming isn't integral to the novel, but it gives the reader the right sense - of an ethereal girl, with a big imagination.



The events of the novel, through less hazy eyes, could border on gritty. Running like a thread through The Earth Hums in B Flat is a murder investigation - but this is nothing like Christie or Sayers or - Heaven forbid - Rankin, Brown, Larsson etc. The investigation lends momentum and a puzzle to the novel, but the more significant focus is upon the Morgan family - Gwenni, her irritable older sister Bethan, her tempestuous mother 'Mam' and incredibly patient father 'Tada' - not to mention an assortment of relatives and neighbours. This is definitely a novel about a community.



Gwenni's mother is almost an ogress, but not quite - because she is believable. She openly favours Bethan over Gwenni, constantly treating the latter to sharp words and angry looks. She accepts her husband's endlessly patient adoration without even seeming to notice it - and then shouting at him for some imagined misdemeanour. Her behaviour is gradually explained... but to understand is not always to forgive, and I found her a very difficult character to love. Which is presumably what I was intended to feel.



Gwenni, on the other hand, is easy to feel affection towards. She accepts everything at face value, even while believing herself to be a competent detective figure. She is somehow both dreamy and determined, unable to make sense of the people and events around her: the reader peers over her shoulder, detecting answers before Gwenni does, and wondering anxiously when she'll catch up. Here's a quick snippet of her thoughts, which constantly frame the narrative:

Alwenna says that Mr. Williams winds his wife up every morning; she says you can tell by the way Mrs. Williams talks more slowly in the afternoons and has nothing at all to say by evening. When I told Mam she said: Don't be silly, Gwenni.

I'm a big believer that style is the most important part of a work of fiction, ahead of character and a long way ahead of plot. For a first novel, The Earth Hums in B Flat is remarkable on this front. Gwenni's voice is utterly credible, and never irritating. It doesn't feel as though an adult writer has 'written down' to a child's perspective - it simply feels like a child's perspective. Strachan doesn't overwrite anything, but is subtle and consistent. There are plenty of plot twists along the way, but they are never jerky - things slowly dawn on Gwenni, or are even never quite vocalised. Strachan's prose is deceptively simple - for this is actually a very complex novel, as we all gradually realised as the book group discussion unfolded. Just the sort of thing I love.



Oh, and I love the cover on my edition (pictured) with Bruno Ehrs' photograph - much more than the more recent edition, which most people had at book group.





Dozens of other bloggers have already read The Earth Hums in B Flat, so there are reviews to read everywhere. Do make sure you head over to Lizzy Siddal's blog, though, and read a wonderful live chat with Strachan - I just have, and it's incredibly interesting. If you've already read The Earth Hums in B Flat, do tell me what you thought - and let me recommend that you immediately go onto Angela Young's Speaking of Love. These wonderful novels are from the same stable, both with subtly excellent prose writers at their helm.