The Year After You - Nina de Pass

N.B. This review is spoiler-free! 

Pub date (UK paperback): 14/02/19

The moment I read the blurb for The Year After You by Nina de Pass I knew I had to read this book. So of course you can imagine my excitement when I was given and ARC of this book for free in exchange for an honest review! It's been a long time since a YA contemporary has hit me in the emotions quite as hard as The Year After You Did, and I loved every second of it. 

Nine months ago, New Year's Eve, there's a car accident in San Francisco. Cara survives, her best friend Georgina doesn't. 

Consumed by grief, Cara cuts herself off from the world and is struggling to stay afloat, so her mother decides to send her off to "exile" in Switzerland. Hope Hall is supposed to be the fresh start Cara needs to put the accident and Georgina's death behind her; no one here knows her story and she'd very much like to keep it that way. Her new friends, however, have a different idea. 

As Cara gets ever-closer to the enigmatic Hector, the one person who might truly understand her grief, and her roommate Ren, things start to chance. But can Cara embrace life at Hope Hall when she doesn't believe she deserves a second chance? 

Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) - L.C. Rosen

N.B: this review is spoiler - free! 

Pub date (UK paperback): 07/02/2019 

"My first time getting it in the butt was kind of weird. I think it's going to be weird for everyone's first time, though."

I love a queer contemporary, so when I heard about Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) I was HYPED. I was very lucky to be gifted an early copy for free and honestly I don't think I could have been given a more appropriate ARC. Jack is witty, confident and he's the talk of his high school. I fell in love with characters  story so fast I just couldn't put it down.

Jack is a seventeen year old high school student just trying to live his best queer life. He loves make-up, partying and boys and his sex life makes him the talk of his high school. Who cares, though, right? At least that was what Jack thought until the love letters started.

When his best friend asks him to write a sex and relationships advice column for her website, the anonymous love letters Jack has been receiving take a dark turn. This secret admirer does not appreciate Jack's out and proud queer lifestyle and wants him to curb it. They know everything about him; where he hangs out, who he sleeps with and even who his mum is dating, and they're willing to use it against him. 

As the letters get more sinister Jack must unmask the author before the threats become a reality. 

Dumplin' - Julie Murphy

N.B. This review is spoiler-free

“Perfection is nothing more than a phantom shadow we’re all chasing”

I've seen people talking about Dumplin' by Julie Murphy here and there but I wasn't really hugely in the book community when the book itself peaked in popularity. Then Netflix adapted it into a film and everyone was talking about it again so of course I had to read it. I didn't know a lot about it going in and Dumplin was a real pleasant surprise. It was funny and sweet and so relatable. I got so much more from this book than I expected!

Willowdean Dickson is perfectly happy in her life in small town Texas. She's comfortable in her own skin, she has an amazing best friend and Dolly Parton music will be always be there for every emotion and occasion. Everything is going great until she starts working at fast food restaurant Harpy's and meets private school Bo. 

Will has always been proud to call herself a fat girl, but when she starts to fall for Bo and he seems to be falling too, she starts to doubt herself. In an effort to regain her self-confidence, Will, along with some other unlikely suspects, signs up to the Miss Clover City Beauty Pageant. The very pageant her mother won as a teenager, and continues to spend half her time running every year. She's determined to show everyone that she deserves to be up on that stage just as much as any skinny girl. 

Magical Feast 2018 Roundup

I've always wanted to take part in a readathon but they've always come along at the wrong times. The first time I tried to complete one I failed miserably because I just didn't have enough time. When I saw the Magical Feast Readathon I knew it was one I might have been able to tackle; there was plenty of choice to choose my own path and plenty of time to complete it! If you didn't know, the Magic Feast was a part of the Magical Readathon world created by Book Roast on YouTube. If you want a fun, flexible readathon I'd definitely keep an eye on her account! This one ran from 17th-26th December and I had a lot of fun taking part!

My Top Ten Books of 2018

It's the end of the year again so it's time for my top 10(ish) books of 2018. Just like in 2017, I'm choosing my favourites out of the books I've read this year. Some are from 2018, some are older and one might even be a an arc of an early 2019 release... I read more books this year than ever and so many of them were good enough to end up on this list so it's safe to say it was a hard task choosing 10(ish) and then ranking them!

Festive Christmas Book Tag

I may not be participating in Blogmas but I'm still trying to get into the Christmas spirit on my blog! I saw this tag, created by the booktuber GirlReading, on Jenny's blog and I just knew I had to have a go myself. I wasn't specifically tagged by anyone to do this and I'm not going to tag anyone else specifically either. In my opinion, you should do a tag whenever you like and feel no need to wait to someday maybe be tagged! So, here we go!

7 Wintry Reads For the Festive Season

N.B. this post is spoiler-free

I've officially been home from university for a week and a half now, which means I am well and truly in the Christmas spirit, even if not everyone else is. The thing is, as much as I love watching the same Christmas films and listening to the same Christmas music every year, I never give much thought to festive books. So with that thought in mind, here are seven books that I think really get me into that wintry spirit. They're not all Christmas books, in fact they're mostly just books with that snowy, wintry feeling!