REVIEW: Solitaire by Alice Oseman

Title: Solitaire
Author: Alice Oseman
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary.
Publication Date: July 31st 2014
Publisher: Harper Collins
Format: Paperback
Pages: 400
Rating: 5/5

In case you’re wondering, this is not a love story.

My name is Tori Spring. I like to sleep and I like to blog. Last year – before all that stuff with Charlie and before I had to face the harsh realities of A-Levels and university applications and the fact that one day I really will have to start talking to people – I had friends. Things were very different, I guess, but that’s all over now.

Now there’s Solitaire. And Michael Holden.

I don’t know what Solitaire are trying to do, and I don’t care about Michael Holden.

I really don’t.

This incredible debut novel by outstanding young author Alice Oseman is perfect for fans of John Green, Rainbow Rowell and all unflinchingly honest writers.

I received this book for review but this does not alter my opinions in any way.

Hello pounding heart and shaky feeling in my hands. How nice to see you again. Yes, this was one of those books. I don’t even know how I’m going to begin to describe this book. I’ve literally just finished reading it and I just feel…wow. Just wow.

So, let me attempt to actually try and talk about this book. I suppose I should mention that I knew absolutely nothing about this book going into it. I very, very briefly read the summary off Goodreads and then I requested an ARC- basically, this was a cover/title buy for me. (Fun nerdy fact about me, I was obsessed with Solitaire as a child.) The little summary also says it’s for fans of John Green and Rainbow Rowell, and while I’m a fan of both of them, I have to disagree with that. I hate the ‘this book is for fans of…’ thing, but I’ll rant about that another day. Alice Oseman isn’t John Green or Rainbow Rowell, her voice is so incredibly different to theirs (in my opinion, anyway). I don’t even know how to really describe how she’s different, she just is. I think it probably goes without saying that I seriously loved this book.

I’m going to admit, it’s an incredibly confusing book. You don’t really know for sure what’s going on at any given time, but in a good way. To put it simply, it’s confusing in this incredibly beautiful and almost haunting way. It seriously messed with my mind and I just adored it. It was so different to what I was expecting though, I thought this was going to be a heartbreaking story (thanks to that John Green comparison), but it was more intense than anything. Also, it was quite depressing in parts but also incredibly relatable. There were times where I was way more like Tori than was probably healthy.

My absolute favourite thing though, so favourite in fact that I tweeted about it a few times…the references. There were so many references in this book that I actually got. The book starts off with a discussion about shipping in Harry Potter, it mentions the two biggest loves of my life- Benedict Cumberbatch and David Tennant, it mentions books, songs, tv, movies, Tumblr, everything! Can we talk about this? I actually feel like Alice Oseman took the last couple of years of my life and stuck it into a book. It’s absolute perfection.

I’m sorry for this review being all over the place but I’m struggling to think logically at the moment. Another thing I wanted to mention, this book isn’t a romance book. I know it says ‘this is not a love story’ in the blurb, but let’s be honest- who trusts blurbs? But no, really, this is not a love story. This is a book about people, about teenagers, about seriously messed up teenagers and school and how it can all get a little bit too much sometimes. It’s about family, and friends, and finding out who you are and not noticing the things in life you should. It’s relatable, it’s truthful and it’s intense.

I just realised that I haven’t really talked about the characters in this book, so let’s do that. Firstly, we have Tori, our main character, she’s sort of quiet, addicted to films and she’s also very strange. She listens to one song on repeat and then she changes to a new one after she’s sick of the first one, she doesn’t like books though she knows the authors to a lot of them. She’s completely bonkers, but she’s also incredibly relatable. Then there’s Michael Holden, who’s amazing and also bonkers. In fact, this entire book is crazy. I want to talk about Charlie, Tori’s brother, I think he’s possibly the best character in this book. I can’t even begin to describe him except to say that I think a lot can be learnt from him and from the relationship between him and Tori. It’s really something.

Basically, it’s perfect and wonderful and all the other good things. It was the perfect book to get me out of my Every Breath book hangover, and the perfect one to put me right back into one. Again, it’s going to be one of those books that I probably won’t ever shut up about. Can I just quickly mention that Alice Oseman is only a year older than me? That’s crazy (and very cool). So, prepare yourselves for me freaking out about this book constantly and forcing as many of you to read it as is humanly possible. Sorry, not sorry.

Thank you to the lovely people at Harper Teen Australia for sending this to me!

UPDATE: Top 14 Books That Must Be Read in 2014

This post is an update of this post which I did back in January, outlining the books I decided I definitely had to read this year. Let's see how that's been going for me...

1. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
I'm most of the way through this- I think I've only got the final two books left. I own a big bind-up edition of this which is horrible to read from, but I will make my way through the last two as soon as possible.

2. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy 
I think I've read the first 200 or so pages of this but that was all last year, so I haven't actually read a single page so far this year. I've read a few more 'big' classics since then so I think I'm ready for this. (Okay, I'm probably not)


3. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
I finally read Wintergirls earlier this year which I enjoyed, but I don't know whether I'm quite in the right place for a book like this at the moment. I know it's supposed to be amazing and the subject matter is very important, but I know it's going to be an intense read. 
 

4. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness 
Here we go...a book I've actually read this year! I seriously loved this, and I also read the sequel this year but I haven't gotten around to the third book. Unfortunately, I had to return it to the library before I got the chance to finish it. ONE DAY!


5. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Woo, two in a row! I read North and South very recently and I absolutely adored it. It was amazing and the mini-series is just brilliant and I like to re-watch it whenever I'm feeling a little bit down because FEELS.

6. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath 
This is going very well for me considering I don't even own this book nor have I borrowed it from the library. I haven't actually seen it anywhere otherwise I think I would have picked it up by now. I still want to read this really badly.


7. The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray 
Okay, this one is a slightly difficult one to explain. I've read about 300 or so pages of this 800 page book this year. I was really determined to finish it a few months back and then I just put it down to pick something else up and I just haven't picked it back up again. 
 

8. Legend by Marie Lu 
Another one done! I think this was actually one of the first books I read this year. I really, really enjoyed it. On top of that, I finished Prodigy a few weeks again and I'm currently reading Champion (very slowly).


9. Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley
Considering that I list Aldous Huxley as one of my favourite authors, I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that not only have I not read Crome Yellow yet, I also haven't read any of his other works. This one is such a tiny little book too, I really should get to it!

10. The Parasites by Daphne Du Maurier
Again, I haven't gotten to this one yet. I have actually read another Daphne Du Maurier book this year- Jamaica Inn (which is amazing) but not this one. I have a sudden urge to read this book now!
 

11. The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Ahh, okay, so. Basically, I've started reading this book two separate times and I have yet to make it past chapter four. I've heard a lot of mixed reviews about this one but I really, really want to read it before the movie comes out. I guess I should pick it up soon?

12. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein 
Val, if you're reading this, I'm sorry- I know this is one of your favourite books. For everyone else, I've already read Rose Under Fire and loved it but I just haven't gotten to this one yet. I don't even know why, but I'm fixing that asap.
 
13. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Like The Bell Jar, this one is going really well in the sense that I don't even have a copy of this one. I saw this beautiful edition once and I hate myself for not buying it- I NEED it in my life.

14. Paper Towns by John Green
*hides from things that might be thrown at me* I have started this one too, again- two different times, and I think I've read like 80 pages but I know this is probably going to break my heart because that's what John Green does. I'm not ready for that.

So basically, I've read three and three halves, maybe another two quarters, of these fourteen books. I'm really not going very well with these as you can probably guess. I kept staring at this scheduled post, telling myself I read more of these before it would go up but alas, that just hasn't happened. I've been really into the 'read whatever I feel like' thing lately and I just haven't felt like this. Luckily, I've still got a bit of time to make it through at least a few more of these...Wish me luck!

DISCUSSION: Most read authors

Today is the first part in a little three part discussion series that I’m starting up. This post is going to be about my most read authors, the second part will talk about my most owned authors and part three will be my auto-buy/favourite authors. So, let’s get started.

Firstly, I want to mention that this includes books for my childhood and early teenage years so some of them are a little embarrassing. 

Number 1, with a total of 14 books is Lemony Snicket. If you’ve seen a few of my Top Ten Tuesday posts, this probably doesn’t surprise you at all. I absolutely ADORED The Series of Unfortunate Events as a child. Since I talk about these a lot, I’m just going to move on.

Drawn for second place, with totals of 11 books are J.K Rowling and Richelle Mead. These two are pretty self-explanatory too.

In third place is Jacqueline Wilson. Along with Lemony Snicket, Jacqueline Wilson was one of my favourite childhood authors- I read a total of 10 of her books from the ages of about 8 to 12 or 13.

Next, we have Cassandra Clare and James Patterson. I’ve read 9 Clare books and 8 Patterson, but I’m grouping these two together because they are authors that I never really plan to read again. (That’s a discussion for another day)

At 7 books, we have Agatha Christie who is another unsurprising author for me. At 6, we have Melissa J. Morgan (slightly embarrassing childhood author), Ian McEwan (2013 was my year of McEwan) and Maggie Stiefvater. At 5 books, we have Eva Pohler, Jessica Shirvington and Maureen Johnson who are all amazing.

From 4 down, we start to get a ridiculous number of authors. We have Julie Kagawa, Libba Bray, Tahereh Mafi, Patrick Ness, Rose Impey (another childhood author), Becca Fitzpatrick, QuinRose, Rachel Caine, Ann Brashares, C.S. Lewis and Sarah Dessen. I’ve realised that apart from Tahereh and Patrick, I don’t really mention a lot of these. 

Onto 3 books. We’ve got William Shakespeare, Seamus Heaney, Rick Riordan (I know!), Scott Westerfeld, Laurie Faria Stolarz, Enid Blyton (possibly more, but I don’t remember), Kiera Cass, Beth Revis, Jackson Pearce, Veronica Roth, Kimberley Derting, Cate Tiernan, Charles Dickens, Daphne Du Maurier, Carrie Jones, George Orwell, Nansi Kunze, Maria V. Snyder, Alexandra Adornetto, John Green, Elizabeth Miles, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jessica Verday and Joy Preble. I admit to being embarrassed by a few of those only being at three books.

Okay, finally onto 2 books. We’ve got Charlotte Bronte, Rachel Vincent, Gayle Forman, Suzanne Collins, Sally Gardner, Scot Gardner, Georgette Heyer, Cecily von Ziegesar, Alexandra Bracken, Edward Albee, Cecelia Ahern, Stephanie Perkins, Victoria Schwab, Sarah J. Maas, Art Spiegelman, Roald Dahl, Emily Rodda, Rainbow Rowell, Marie Lu, Anne Frank, L. Frank Baum, Tracy Chevailer, Amy Tintera and Joshua Silverman.

So those are my most read authors. I know this is quite a big list and I don’t know how interesting it’ll be for you guys but I enjoyed it. Anyway, that was part one! In the next two parts I’ll be going into more detail about the authors since it’ll be a much smaller list!

Tell me about your most read authors below :)

Blogaversary Month!

Hey Everyone!

So it has been a while since I’ve posted on the blog. I’m not sure if I have fully explained my situation but i’ll aim to do a post on that very soon! So, as you all probably or hopefully know, this month is Ely and I’s blogaversary! 

I am pretty sure that both Ely and I had no idea that this blog would turn into what it has. We started the blog with absolutely no idea about the whole world. In that way, I am glad. Sometimes you just have to throw yourself into something before you realise what it all means.  And then, you have to just trudge on. You kind of have to block everyone out and just make the content. We barely had any views in the beginning and although some people might think we don’t have many now, we both believe that every single little view and comment is basically the whole entire world. We did that and It turned into something wonderful! With the help of you all and the existence of books I don’t know where we would be. But most of all, I would like to thank Ely. Like, for everything. 

To have not only an amazing blog partner but a  best friend like Ely is everything.

I don’t know how I could’ve done anything without her. I don’t even have words to describe who she is and what she has done to change me and even all of you. She is just the epitome of amazing. She is someone you can always rely on and will instantly make you feel ten times better. She’s the one you can invest all your secrets in and whine and cry and ball your eyes out about everything between books and all those personal irritable problems. She can also be the person who makes you cry, for example, with the amazing blogaversary post she posted earlier this month. My gosh, I was just gone two seconds into reading that. 

Then I have her on here. I’ve been extremely busy with Year 12 and she has been so considerate to help me through out it. She hasn’t blown her fuse once with my extreme business making me unable to post a lot. Truthfully, I don’t think this blog would be running as well as it is if she wasn’t my co blogger! She keeps this alive guys! I feel awfully guilty about that, but once this year is done, I will be back on the roll! *fingers crossed* . So, give her heaps of hugs and kisses!!

So Ely, I love you so so so ridiculously much! I really can’t imagine a world without you present. What’s a world without you, honestly? You mean everything to me and gosh, this is also getting really sappy! I am so thankful to have you as a best friend and I don’t think i could ever repay you for being my best friend. You. Are. Just. Amazing.

Last of all, I just wanted to thank you all again and again for taking time out of your day just to view our blog or pop down a comment below. Nothing ever goes unnoticed and you put the hugest smile on both of our faces.

Love you all 

xoxo

Chami

UPDATE: Studying sucks

Hey guys, we just want to write this quick update to apologise for the lack of posts recently. As you may know, Chami is currently in her final year of high school and as she's only a few months away from her final exams, she's really focusing (and freaking out) on her studies. (I, for one, am incredibly proud of her even if it means we don't get to talk much at the moment). I've just started my second semester of Uni and while I'm only there two days a week (master timetable arranger right here!), I haven't really settled into my new routine yet.

Once everything calms down a bit, we'll be back to posting. Thanks!

x Ely and Chami

HAPPY 2ND BLOGOVERSARY!

As you may have guessed by the title of the post, today is our two year blogoversary! (Welllll, actually it was yesterday)

We've had a couple of exciting posts go up already this month, including our Mid-year Book Freakout (which is kinda like a survey) and a post about our friendship, also known as The Story of Chely. We've got a few more exciting Chely friendship related posts to go up yet so we hope you enjoy those!

Today is our actual two year blogoversary so we though it would be nice to write this little post to celebrate.

We're not the biggest or most popular book blog, in fact we're quite small but we love it this way. We started this blog because we love books and we love talking about books, but even more than that, we love talking about books together- it's our absolute favourite thing to do (followed very closely by food, Kdramas and sleep). We're still incredibly shocked that we made it this way. We never expected to get any readers or meet such wonderful people, whether they be other bloggers or authors. We definitely never thought we'd receive books for review and we consider ourselves very, very lucky to get the chance at all. We want to thank you all for supporting us- you are all wonderful!

We are warning you now...it could get real sappy real quick from now on.

I'm going to add my part now and I expect Chami will probably add her own part in later. As lovely as you all are, I could have never possibly have done this thing without Chami. Chami's been my best friend for like three years now and she's been there for me through some of the suckiest parts of my life. She's listened to me rant about the bitches I had to deal with at school for hours on end and she's listened to me scream in excitement about all sorts of things. She's honestly the craziest person I've ever met in my life, but she is also the very best. There's no one on Earth who could ever be a better friend than Chami has been to me. Oh God, I'm already crying here. Chami, I love you so so much and I'm so proud of you for getting through Year 12 (you're almost at the end!). You are honestly the most brilliant, most lovely, most intelligent, most grammatically incorrect person I've ever had the pleasure of knowing and I consider myself very lucky every day to have you in my life. I love you forever and ever Cham-dawg <3 xx Ely

Mid-year Book Freakout

Welcome to the first ever 'Mid-year Book Freakout' here at A Book So Fathomless! We've noticed a lot of people do posts and surveys at the end of the year and we thought it would be fun to do one in the middle of the year to have something to compare answers to at the end of year. Without further ado, here is the survey...

1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2014.
C - Ignite me by Tahereh Mafi. Do I have to explain?
E - This is so hard. I absolutely hate myself for coming up with this question. It's a tie between Every Breath, These Broken Stars and Jane Eyre...I think.

2. Best sequel you've read so far in 2014.
C - IGNITE ME BY TAHEREH MAFI. JUST DON'T EVEN.
E - Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas. Words cannot even begin to describe my feels for that book.

3. New release you haven't read yet, but want to.
C - Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken/Braken/Brakken?
E - The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings. I've been excited about this one for months, but I just haven't bought it yet!

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year.
C - The Retribution of Mara Dyer - Michelle Hodkins (DYING DYING DYING)
E - Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas. I NEED THIS, I NEED THIS RIGHT NOW.

5. Biggest disappointment.
C - City of Heavenly Fire by Cassie Clare just because I haven't even read it. It is a disappointment that the series was published. Was that too harsh? I just really don't like that series anymore haha. No hard feelings Cassie Clare!
E - City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare. I say this was a disappointment, but really, I had no hopes for this or Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge- I really, really disliked this book.

6. Biggest surprise.
C - Now if i told you that wouldn't be a surprise, wouldn't it?
E - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. You may know that I adore this book, but going into it I really wasn't sure I'd like it.

7. Favourite new author. (Debut or new to you)
C - Umm? Rick Yancey? Not anyone really.
E - Uh...I don't know! Maybe Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner because THESE BROKEN STARS.

8. Newest fictional crush.
C - Evan from the Fifth Wave. I actually am not that connected to him but he has grown on me.
E - James Mycroft from Every Breath by Ellie Marney. I love him waaaaaaaay more than I should.

9. Newest favourite character.
C - Cassie from the Fifth Wave! She is probably one of my favourite YA female leads. Right next to Rose Hathaway.
E - Celaena Sardothien from Throne of Glass. Do I even need to explain this?

10. Book that made you cry.
C - No book has made me cry this year but the award for the waterfall book goes to Allegiant by Veronica Roth
E - I've been avoiding sob-worthy books so far this year, but I suppose I teared up in The Book Thief a bit. (I cried way more in the movie)

11. Book that made you happy.
C - The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey (DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LAUGHED?)
E - Empower by Jessica Shirvington. It was just such a brilliant ending to an amazing series!

12. Favourite book to film adaptation you saw this year. 
C - Divergent- I've grown to hate the sequels of this series but that movie wasn't bad at all!
E - This is a hard one for me. It's a tie between The Book Thief and The Fault in Our Stars. I adored both of them so, so much.

13. Favourite review you've written this year.
C - Rebel and Reboot Joint review!
E - Every Breath, I think.

14. Most beautiful book you've bought so far this year (or received)
C - Rebel and Reboot by Amy Tintera (They actually look so fabulous i might cry.)
E - Another tie! This time between Ignite Me and Prisoner of Night and Fog. I bought both of these books in hardback, which is something I never do so I adore them very much.

15. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?
C - The Retribution of Mara Dyer Again. I need this book. I need it.
E - SO MANY. I definitely want to get to the Lord of the Rings, some more classics, some Neil Gaiman and many, many others.

Now's your chance to answer the questions and add your post to the linky below. We hope you all liked this post and we'll see you next time!

Ely's Recommedations #4

Do you know what time it is? That's right...IT'S RECOMMENDATION TIME! You can see my other recommendation posts here: #1, #2 and #3. I've read so so much since my last recommendation post that I had a seriously hard time cutting this down to just five, but without further ado, here they are:

1. Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier
You might not know this, but Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier is one of my all-time favourite books but I think Jamaica Inn is making it's way up that list. Both of these are mystery novels, but this one has a little bit more romance than Rebecca. That's not why I love it. I love it because there are some many twists and turns and the love interest, Jem Merlyn, is to die for. Also, the brand new BBC miniseries is glorious.

2. The Purgatorium by Eva Pohler
If you want a proper review for this, you can check out the one I did earlier this month here. In short, this book gets into your head and you don't know which characters you can trust and which you should dislike. It's absolutely brilliant.

3. Finnkin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta
I've been meaning to read Melina Marchetta for ages, but this just happened to be the first one I got to. It's amazing. It's fantasy with some romance with a little bit of mystery and magic thrown in too. It's incredibly fun to read, and the character Evanjalin is seriously amazing.

4. Razorhurst by Justine Larbalestier
I warned in my review of this that I was probably going to talk about this one for the next couple of years until everyone is completely bored of me. To sum it up, this is brilliant and so very different to everything else that's out there at the moment. It's definitely become a new favourite of mine and I'm determined to get everyone else on this planet to read it too. Also, you should my review and enter the giveaway (AUS only).

5. The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan
This one is also a fantasy, but it's more Middle Grade than Finnikin of the Rock. I can't even begin to describe how fun this book is, I laughed so many times while reading. I also fell completely in love with the protagonist, a fifteen year old boy named Will. And yeah, I might be older than him but true love knows no age. But really guys, you should read this!

Some notable mentions are: Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, North and South, Reboot and Rebel, The Raven Boys, My Life Next Door and Finale. See what I mean when I said I had trouble deciding?

Now, what are your recommendations? Have you read any of these? Have I influenced you to pick any of this up?

As we all know, Chami has taken to an event called, "Let's destroy Ely's post by adding some Chami stuff into it as well". So, Hi everyone. It's me here again. 

Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead
If you are put off just by the title having "Vampire", then you don't deserve to read this series becomes your one dimensional and just damn judgemental. This is one of my favourite series EVER and if you are seriously worried about the fact that there are vampires in it, think of it as a culture. Because in this series, it is. Give this series a good two books to fall in love. Because when you fall. You fall hard.

I can't even mention anything else because everyone needs to read this series. Have you read it? Did you love it? Comment down below and tell us what you think?

ON WRITING #2

I know in my last post I said I talk a bit more about my other writing things at some point. That point isn't today. I promise I will actually get to it someday soon, maybe next time? We'll have to see what's going on.

So, I'm talking more about the script today. We've slowly been building on it. Last time, we only had one episode written and now we have episode two written as well as a few odd scenes from other episodes. In case you don't remember, or you didn't read the first post, I'm writing this script with a few friends, it's seven episodes long and we're hoping to make it into a webseries.

Episode two was a lot harder to write than the first one. We have five main characters and each episode focuses on one of them (kind of like Skins, if you've seen that). The first episode was just an introduction to everyone, but this one was focused on the first character- Skyla. Skyla is a fun character to write, she's a badass and has multiple rants within this episode alone, but she is not my character. It's one thing to write the dialogue of someone's else character, but it's hard to get into their heads especially when you've already got someone for the character. I was lucky in the sense that because this is a group writing project, 'Skyla' got to write her own parts and I didn't have to struggle with trying to get into my friend's mind. She's very much Skyla, and I'm really not.

I think I'm going to have to explain a bit more about the structure of our script before I can go on. The script is split into two parts, a before and after, if you will. The before parts are really just about the one character, and the after parts are about everyone. That might not make sense without you knowing the plot, but just bare with. To put it basically, it's a survival/apocalypse sort of story. I know that probably sounds like a lot of work to you all, and it is but it's also a lot of fun.

At the moment, a lot of the writing has mostly done by the three girls- which is me and my two friends, Sarah and Mel. We realised that we've kind of made the script a bit more...girly. Okay, so 'girly' isn't the right word, it's more pro-female than anything. The two guys in our script are the weak ones, at least in the first few episodes but even after the guys 'man up', the girls are still more kickass. You might know, I really, really, really love strong female characters and I don't mean physically strong. All three female characters in this script are strong, mainly mentally though Skyla is a bit more actually kickass than the other two (so far!). I can't even begin to describe how much I love that, and so do my Sarah and Mel. There's something so awesome about writing these characters like this.

I think we probably had far too much fun writing episode 2 and planning for the rest of the season. I decided to take some screencaps of the lovely things we said along the way. I said most of them, mainly because a lot of the awesome things Sarah said happened during the 53 minute phone call we had and I so wish I could have shared that with you because we were having a major freakout. It was beautiful. Anyway, THINGS!

Sarah and I decided episode 2 would end on a cliffhanger, in the literal sense. Yes, someone is hanging off a cliff. But then, we had to decide who!

This was an actual message I had to send out to our group. (I blurred people's names for privacy, so ignore that).

Then while we were decided who was going off the cliff, Sarah decided to surprise me with her epicness and serious badass-ness. I felt like I had to document the moment on Twitter. If you aren't already, you should follow me (and Sarah) on Twitter cause we're incredibly entertaining.

I had another picture I wanted to include but it's got a massive spoiler in it, so I'll have to save that one for a little later. I mean, even the person playing the character doesn't know about this spoiler yet!

There you go! A little update into more of writing. Okay, so it's not little at all but you get what I mean. I'm going to try and make my next writing post about something other than this script, and then hopefully I can put a couple of episodes into the one post for the time after that! I hope you enjoyed this, as always, let me know what you're writing in the comments whether it be a novel, a review or a blog post! See you next time.

REVIEW: Every Breath by Ellie Marney

Title: Every Breath (Every #1)

Author: Ellie Marney

Genre: Young Adult, Crime/Mystery.

Publication Date: September 2013

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Format: Paperback

Pages: 335

Rating: 5/5

Rachel Watts is an unwilling new arrival to Melbourne from the country. James Mycroft is her neighbour, an intriguingly troubled seventeen-year-old genius with a passion for forensics. Despite her misgivings, Rachel finds herself unable to resist Mycroft when he wants her help investigating a murder. And when Watts and Mycroft follow a trail to the cold-blooded killer, they find themselves in the lion's den - literally.

A night at the zoo will never have quite the same meaning again...

You know that shaking feeling you get right after you finish a really amazing book? THIS. This right here. Not only did I shake uncontrollably after finishing this book, because I finished it at about 11pm, I lay awake for half the night thinking about it. It’s been months since a book has made me feel this way.

Every Breath first caught my attention when my favourite author, Nansi Kunze, reviewed it. Nansi said ‘If you want to see how YA crime should be written, look no further than Ellie Marney’s debut novel’ and from then I decided I had to pick up the book for myself. Admittedly, it took me a little while to buy the book for myself but (unlike every other thing I own) it didn’t sit on my bookshelf for more than two weeks before I picked it up.

It started off very differently than I imagined it would, but I found that I really liked the direction that it was going. Unfortunately, I was a little bit busy on the night I started it so I didn’t get to get very far into it at all. I managed to pick it up the next night and I read the last two hundred and something pages in the space of two hours, with a little break in between for a cup of tea. I think that probably explains my feelings about this book.

In case you don’t know, Every Breath is sort of a modern day Sherlock but we have Mycroft and Watts instead of Sherlock and Watson. Rachel Watts is our main character, she’s recently moved from the country into the city. Personally, I’ve always lived on the outer suburbs of the city so I’m sort of more used to it than Rachel is but I understood how she found it difficult to settle in. James Mycroft is insane, in a good way, he’s an ‘eccentric genius’ and he is, ultimately, just like Sherlock. I love both of them so much, so much that it’s probably not healthy or normal. I found I could relate to Rachel, she’s smart and she’s not completely boy-obsessed. Mycroft, on the other hand, well...basically, I want my own James Mycroft to love forever and ever. He’s my new literary boyfriend, and I think he’s going up there with Sirius and Augustus. That’s a big deal considering I only fell in love with him a few days ago.

Moving on from Mycroft (only briefly), my absolute favourite thing about Every Breath is that I feel like it was written for me. It’s a YA crime/mystery with a hot, intelligent boy set in Melbourne. Chami/other people who know me well, does that not sound like my perfect book? Well, it is, and I loved it more than I could have ever imagined. I don’t think I can even put into proper words or quantify how much I love this book – it’s just not possible to explain.

Even writing this review now, I still feel a bit shaky and it’s been over 12 hours since I finished the book. Wow, 12 hours, does that mean I can re-read this yet? Every Breath has definitely become a new favourite, in fact, I’m thinking it’s going to be one of my all-time favourite books for the rest of my life now. If you haven’t already, you should read Every Breath and then we can all obsess over Mycroft forever (though, he’s all mine really). In advance, I’d like to apologise for all the fangirling I’m going to do about this on the blog from now until the end of time. Also, I need recommendations, because what the hell am I going to read after something this amazing?