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where our team of writers love to talk all things books, sharing reviews, features, lists, interviews and more.

Getting lost in a book is escapism at it's finest and it's what everyone who contributes here thrives on.

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Wednesday, 30 May 2018

Features | 5 Books That Surprised Me

books coffee reading
Photo by Aga Putra on Unsplash

Today I wanted to share five titles that all fall under the category of 'books that surprised me'... in a good way! Each of the five titles below are books that I wasn't sure would be my kind of thing or didn't know much about going into, but ended up enjoying much more than I had expected to. I've included a brief synopsis of each book along with the star ratings I gave them at the time - hopefully you'll find something new here to add to your TBR!

Sidekick, Auralee Wallace ★★★★★

This novel introduces us to Bremy, the daughter of a very rich family who has left behind her socialite partying lifestyle for independence in the big city. Living undercover and struggling to make rent, an unusual series of events lead to Bremy becoming the sidekick to local superhero Dark Ryder.

Here We Are Now, Jasmine Warga ★★★½

In this YA novel we meet teenager Taliah, who has been sending letters to rock star Julian Oliver - who just happens to be her father - for several years. Having received no response it's a pretty big surprise when he shows up on her doorstep and asks her to travel back to his hometown with him to meet her grandfather who is sadly nearing the end of his life.

Ketchup Clouds, Annabel Pitcher ★★★★

Ketchup Clouds tells the story of Zoe, a young girl with a big secret; she killed her boyfriend. Bursting with guilt and not knowing who to turn to Zoe starts to tell her story through a series of letters written to Stuart Harris, an inmate on Death Row.

Everything All At Once, Katrina Leno ★★★★

In this 2017 release we meet Lottie who has always struggled with anxiety but is going through a particularly tough time after the recent death of her aunt, a famous author. Before she passed away Aunt Helen created a series of letters for her niece, each designed to push Lottie out of her comfort zone.

Far From The Tree, Robin Benway ★★★★★

This YA Contemporary tells the story of three siblings meeting for the very first time having grown up separately. Whilst Grace and Maya were adopted at birth, their older brother Joaquin grew up in the foster system but may have finally found a real home. The book follows the trio as they get to know each other and decide to search for their birth mother.

Are there any books that really surprised you?
 
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Monday, 28 May 2018

BB BOOK CLUB | JUNE'S BOOK IS...



314 pages of cuteness, 14 different popular YA authors tell stories about couple's first meeting. At times romantic and witty, epic and every day, and heartbreaking and real - every romance has to start somewhere.

Readers will experience Nina LaCour's beautifully written piece about two Bay Area girls meeting via a cranky customer service Tweet, Sara Shepard's glossy tale about a magazine intern and a young rock star, Nicola Yoon's imaginative take on break-ups and make-ups, Katie Cotugno's story of two teens hiding out from the police at a house party, and Huntley Fitzpatrick's charming love story that begins over iced teas at a diner. There’s futuristic flirting from Kass Morgan and Katharine McGee, a riveting transgender heroine from Meredith Russo, a subway missed connection moment from Jocelyn Davies, and a girl determined to get out of her small town from Ibi Zoboi. Jennifer Armentrout writes a sweet story about finding love from a missing library book, Emery Lord has a heartwarming and funny tale of two girls stuck in an airport, Dhonielle Clayton takes a thoughtful, speculate approach to pre-destined love, and Julie Murphy dreams up a fun twist on reality dating show contestants.

If you'd like to join us and read along during the month go and pick yourself up a copy whether from your local bookstore or library. This may not be the shortest book but it doesn't mean you have to read the entire thing, pick a story or two that takes your fancy. Do, however, remember to tell us what you thought about them by using the hashtag #bookshelfbookclub and submitting your feedback to the google form here by the 25th June.


Not into the lovey-dovey YA mushiness? Be sure to check back at the end of the month as Anjali's July pick might be more your style!
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Sunday, 27 May 2018

BB Book Club | May 2018 Roundup | The Skeleton's Holiday

This year we decided to launch our very own online book club, with a new book for you to join us in reading every month. May's title, selected by Ria, was The Skeleton's Holiday a short story collection from the Penguin Modern Classics collection. Here's our May infographic to tell you a little bit more...

Reader's comments and favourite quotes:

"So I smell a bit strong, what? Well I don't eat cakes!" Whereupon it tore off it's face and ate it.


"I'd recommend this book, but only to people who would appreciate the strangeness of it. The surreal genre is incredibly weird, and a bit morbid, but sort of delightful at the same time. I guess fables are like that." - Anjali @ This Splendid Shambles

"I love how surreal and a bit weird all the stories were." -  Ria @ Thoroughly Modern Millenial

The skeleton was as happy as a madman whose straightjacket had been taken off.


"It was a really interesting collection of stories, and also a bit disturbing!" - Cat

"It was a nice quick read!" - Sophie @ Sofilly

It was two cabbages having a terrible fight. They were tearing each other's leaves off with such ferocity that soon there was nothing but torn leaves everywhere and no cabbages.


Thank you to everyone who read along with us this month! If you would like to get involved with next month's BB Book Club check back here tomorrow where Sophie will be introducing her selection for June.

You can also sign up to our mailing list to make sure you don't miss out on any future book club updates!

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Friday, 25 May 2018

From Twinkle, with Love | Sandhya Menon | Review


Twinkle Mehra has stories she wants to tell and universes she wants to explore, if only the world would listen.

Told as a series of diary entry letters to her favourite female filmmakers, From Twinkle, With Love follows Twinkle Mehra, a high school student with big plans for her future. Twinkle wants to be a film director and make films that will change the world. She also wants to change herself. Twinkle wants to be the shiny new future Twinkle and she wants to be that person right now, someone who her old best friend, Maddie, will want to spend time with again, and who the other students in her year won't ignore any more. Twinkle wants to be seen and the first person she wants to see her is her long time crush, Neil Roy. If she could get Neil to go out with her then she would definitely be one of the in crowd and get to spend time with Maddie again.

So when Neil's twin brother, Sahil, asks Twinkle to make a movie with him that the whole school will see, she jumps at the chance. A chance to direct her first ever feature film, to get closer to Neil through Sahil, and for everyone else to see what she can do. It all seems to fit together so perfectly, until Twinkle begins to realise that getting back her friendship with Maddie might not be as easy as she hoped, and that there is a little more than sibling rivalry between Neil and Sahil, and she might be falling for the wrong brother. 

Twinkle is a girl who knows exactly what she wants for her future, it's her present that is a little more confusing. In many ways, the relationship at the heart of this book is not between Twinkle and any boy, but between her and her best friend, Maddie. Twinkle's despair at her best friend finding a new group of friends who don't really get Twinkle is something that I'm sure a lot of teenagers will relate to, and it's great to see a teen story in which friendship is the driving force behind much of the action. Even Twinkle's crush on Neil, and her reluctance to fall for his brother, Sahil, are largely down to the fact that she thinks Maddie's new friends will accept her if she's Neil's girlfriend. It's not a great reason to date someone, but that's something Twinkle has to learn herself.

Twinkle makes a lot of mistakes, in fact, not just thinking that Neil is her ticket to being Maddie's best friend again, but she learns from every one of them, and that's a great thing to see in a story like this. Twinkle becomes so focused on what this film could mean for her that she forgets about the friends she's making along the way, and when Twinkle lets her pride in her film go to her head and she starts to treat her actors a little less than kindly, she soon learns that being good at something is no excuse to treat other people badly, and that there are right and wrong ways for a film to make an impact. Given that the film is such a crucial part of the story's plot, it's a shame that the reader doesn't experience more of the scenes actually being shot, but the real story here is in Twinkle's relationships, not least the strained ones she has with her parents, who never seem to be around for her in the way that she wants them to be.

Twinkle is a girl with a lot of ambition, and this is truly a story of her making mistakes and learning how to fix them, and that's a plot I can get behind. The fact that she makes some excellent friends and gets to have a heartwarming romance, while she gets a head start on making her dreams come true, is just icing on an already delicious cake. 
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Thursday, 24 May 2018

Features | How I track my reading - Bullet Journalling


As a kid I used to be a part of a reading challenge with my local library, the challenge was to read 6 books over the 6 week summer holidays. We had little booklets to track them with and each week we'd have a librarian check them over and give us a sticker if we were on track. At the end of the 6 weeks if we managed to reach our target we got a reading challenge medal!

Nowadays the targets are a little higher with my reading challenges, this year I'm planning on 45 books. For the past 4 years, I've been increasing it by five books a year and I've been hitting it each time so fingers crossed I make it! Not only do I track my reading on Goodreads but I also use my bullet journal.

Above is the tracker I have for this year, although I will say this photo was taken in March so quite a few books have been added to it since then. Why I do this as well as tracking on Goodreads I hear you ask?

It's cuz it looks damn pretty that's why. Plus it's easier to look back on. Last years page I can easily flip back on whenever I like and see all the books I read instead of figuring out dates and months on Goodreads. As well as the problems when it comes to rereading! I've lost track how many times I've read Harry Potter and it's hard to keep track of that on Goodreads.

Of all the trackers in my bullet journal, which is a lot as I do like to track, this is probably my second favourite page behind my mood tracker!

Do you just use Goodreads to track your reading, or do you use something else? 

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Tuesday, 22 May 2018

Features | Bookish Confessions


I fancied doing something a little different today so I thought I would share some of my deepest, darkest secrets with you all today. Yep, today I'm talking about my bookish confessions.

Being a book blogger, there is a certain pressure to meet expectations. You should have endless shelves of pristine books. Those shelves will be beautifully organised, perhaps by colour or genre. They will be filled with all of the newer releases, which you have managed to read all of. Don't forget the classics though - you should have read them too!

That is not how my life looks. For starters, I work a full time job around blogging so I don't have that much time for reading (especially if I want to keep on top of things here and at This Northern Gal). I also don't have the money or shelf space to keep on top of all of the newest books. Things look decidedly less polished outside of the internet!

Here are my confessions. Try not to judge me too hard.


  1. I don't like Austen (though I didn't mind Northanger Abbey).
  2. I'm not really a fan of Shakespeare either.
  3. I don't like romance. I avoid A LOT of popular books because of this.
  4. I write in my books. I know, I know but I just can't help it. In my defence, I don't do this to all of my books.
  5. I fold corners.
  6. I would never, ever fold a corner in someone else's book.
  7. My shelves are a mess. There are books crammed into every available space and no real system.
  8. I have series where the covers don't match.

What are your bookish confessions? Comment below or tweet me to join in!

Kelly x
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