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Saturday, 17 May 2014

Group Collaboration | If We Were The Protagonists...

This month we asked our readers to put themselves in the shoes of a protagonist... what kind of story would they like to star in? Which other characters would they want alongside them? From the realistic to the more adventurous the possibilities were endless. Keep reading to find out what they chose!

ria sidekick

Font used for graphics - Jenna Sue
This month's contributors - Ria, Anjali, Cat, Erin

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Our next group post is all about book to film adaptations. We're going to be sharing our favourite recent adaptations and the upcoming releases we can't wait to see - and we want your contributions! Drop us an email - bloggersbookshelf@gmail.com - or tweet us @blog_bookshelf for more information and to have your answer included in the post!

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Wednesday, 14 May 2014

The Bad Boyfriends Bootcamp | Poppy Dolan | Review

*image via GoodReads

Molly's little brother Sam is stuck in a love rut. He's tries so hard with women but falls short. Luckily Molly is willing to lend a helping hand and as she waves her metaphorical dating wand, she lands Sam the girl of his dreams and helps him keep the girl too!

Thanks to Sam's success, Molly's single, male friends are soon lining up for her magical dating makeover and, along with her two friends, her entrepreneurial brain gets to work to create The Bad Boyfriend's Bootcamp. But fixing other people's problematic love lives is only half of the story, Molly also has to deal with her successful entrepreneurial mother, a grim looking overdraft thanks to her past failing businesses, and her own lackluster love life.

So what’s my verdict?

As seen in the title, the plot line for this novel is pretty predictable from the get go. Molly herself is a character I've seen in from this genre of book before, she’s a little hopeless with her life lacking in direction despite being the daughter of an extremely successful businesswoman mother. I often found myself frustrated at how shortsighted and selfish she was being, but luckily this is picked up as a major flaw in her personality by her friends as the book goes on.
Her two friends she ropes into the Bad Boyfriends Bootcamp business plan, Josie and Rachel, make nice additions to the story and I actually found myself wanting to read more about their back stories during the novel.

As I've mentioned plotwise, the novel is pretty formulaic right down to the elements of second hand embarrassment, best friend/close family fights, and happy ending romance.
Despite this, the writing was fun and there was a few pretty recent pop culture references that made me chuckle. If you're after something quick and easy to read, this one's for you.

Reading Soundtrack:

A Change Would Do You Good: Sheryl Crow: Dress You Up: Madonna; Don't Make Me Over: Dionne Warwick; Work B*tch: Britney Spears; I Get It: Kate Voegele; Glitter In The Air: Pink; Open Your Eyes: Snow Patrol

For lovers of

Sophie Kinsella, Jill Mansell and ‘How to lose a guy in 10 days’

This post was written by regular reviewer Ria, get to know her here.

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Monday, 12 May 2014

All Our Yesterdays | Cristin Terrill | Review

YA time travel novel All Our Yesterdays kicks off with Em, trapped in a cell with a mysterious drain that is driving her crazy. In the present Em is locked up in her cell next door to Finn’s and both are tortured by ‘the doctor’. After acquiring a piece of cutlery Em manages to open the drain and finds a note written in her own handwriting which simply says ‘you have to kill him’ over and over again; Em has been here before.

In the other time line we meet teens Marina, James and Finn who are dealing with a tragedy at a crucial point in all of their lives. A tragedy that if prevented could erase the sad futures of Em and Finn. Thanks to a stranger Em and Finn manage to escape their cells, reach time travel machine Cassandra and head off on their mission to put things right.

At first I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about the book or it’s characters and initially I found the jumps between time lines a little jarring. As I read on however, I found that the POVs started to work together smoothly and it became easy to follow the story.

The writing style and action-packed plot both had a very cinematic feel and I can definitely see this story and it’s characters translating well onto the big screen. The three main characters found in All Our Yesterdays are each intriguing in their own ways as we get to know them over the course of the book. Not only are they interesting to read but they also manage to hold up this complicated story without the assistance of too many confusing secondary characters entering the picture.

When the pieces of the puzzle came together I enjoyed the conclusion however I was a little disappointed not to find a big surprising twist, although with a planned sequel for these time travellers the story isn’t over yet…

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Wednesday, 7 May 2014

TransAtlantic | Colum McCann | Review

“A brand-new thought: Transatlantic airmail. She tests the phrase, scratching it out on the paper, over and over, transatlantic, trans atlas, trans antic. The distance finally broken.” - Colum McCann, TransAtlanic

TransAtlantic is a novel with different stories that span over different decades and generations. The stories also take the reader back and forth between Ireland and America. In the end the stories are linked together through different generations and historic events. The first story in the book is the story of Jack Alcock and Teddy Brown, two Irishmen who make the first non-stop flight over the Atlantic in an old warplane.

TransAtlantlic by Colum McCann is a well-written and a well-researched historical novel. I really found myself enjoying McCann’s writing style, it was easy to follow but still colorful and descriptive. The characters and the places in the story were very vividly and nicely portrayed.But the problem with reading novels with different overlapping stories is that you as might not enjoyed the stories equally as much. For example, I wasn’t that impressed with the story of Alcock’s and Brown’s flight over the Atlantic or the story of George Mitchell, former senator who played a big part in the Irish peace process. I didn’t quite feel like George Mitchell was a natural part of the story in the same way as the other characters. But on the other hand I really enjoyed the story of Fredrick Douglass, former slave, now activist and writer who visits Ireland during the days of the Great Famine. I also really liked the story about Lily Duggan, an Irish maid that Fredrick Douglass encounters during his time in Ireland and who moves to America to start a new life.

Even if I had mixed feelings about the different stories in this book I still found it to be a really enjoyable reading experience. If I had enjoyed the different stories equally as much TransAtlantic would easily be a 4-star book for me, but because I struggled with getting through a few chapters I’ll leave my rating at 3,5/5 stars. But if you like historical fiction or are interested in Irish history I definitely think you should give this book a go! I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy it.

This post was written by regular reviewer Niina, get to know her here.

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Monday, 5 May 2014

Confessions of Georgia Nicolson #6-10 | Louise Rennison | Review

This series of books retells Georgia's teenage years in the form of journal entries, not long and boring entries, but usually quite short, witty and entertaining entries which mostly detail what is going on in her head. Readers come to experience everyday events in her life but also how her brain is processing the information or rather how it's having a meltdown.

Carrying on from my previous review I thought I would review the final 5 books in this series. They continue on much in the same way as the first 5 books, they continue with their humour, entertaining antidotes, love issues and beauty mishaps.

Georgia continues her quest to get through high school whilst having to deal with her ever embarrassing parents and surviving thanks to the support of the ace gang. she is still struggling with love and forever chasing the boy of her dreams whether that is Masimo, Robbie or Dave the laugh that is something you won't find out until the very end of the very last book.

What I love about this series of books is that for me it didn't dip, everyone books was as good as the previous ones and I didn't get bored. When I first looked at this set of 10 books I thought by around book 6 it would get a bit samey and I'd end up giving up. Although there are bits (mostly when her and Jas are arguing) that you think this has been done before, it usually turns into another obscure situation that you wouldn't dream would happen.

Highly entertaining set of YA fiction, I would definitely recommend even if you just want to relieve the 'stress' of those teenage years.

This post was written by regular reviewer Laura, get to know her here.
Image from Goodreads

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Sunday, 4 May 2014

Dragon Dreams | Dusty Lynn Holloway | Review

Dragon Dreams, by Dusty Lynn Holloway, is set in a world where dragons, elves and dwarves roam the landscape. It tells the story of Nachal, a man who has continuous dreams of an elf he has never met, but one whom he has grown to love. He dreams that the elf, Auri, is killed by Obsidian, the leader of rebel dragons, and Nachal sets out to find Auri the elf, to warn and protect her. While he runs from Obisian's army, he picks up his dwarf friend, Dhurmic, and they continue on in search of Auri together.

Meanwhile, Auri herself is met by a Watcher called Liran, who tells her of her true past and who she is, and that she must go with him from her home, as she is the only one who can stop the poison that decays the land. Auri sets out with Liran, only to meet Nachal half way. The group - man, Watcher, dwarf, elven Auri...and a wolf - travel by sea, talk to dragons, get thrown about in storms and finally reach the other end, where fathers are discovered, identities changed and battles occur.

I really loved the idea that dragons are shape shifters in this story. I think it's brilliant, and the characters were great too. I did find Nachal a bit needy at times, Liran a bit broody and Auri a tad annoying, but I guess that's just a part of their character traits. I really liked Dhurmic, though, and even though his dialogue was written in such a way that in my mind he sounded like a Scottish pirate, he a fun minor character/side kick/best friend sort of flare to him. Dragon Dreams is written in third person, but from both Nachal and Auri's point of view. I found there were a few mistakes in the book, and while that was a little annoying at times, it didn't take anything away from the story.

If you're looking for a fantasy novel with dragons, dwarves, elves, evil family members, love triangles and storms, give this one a go.

Thank you to Dusty Lynn Holloway for providing me with a copy of this book for an honest review.

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Saturday, 17 May 2014

Group Collaboration | If We Were The Protagonists...

Wednesday, 14 May 2014