You and Me on Vacation by Emily Henry

TWO FRIENDS

TEN SUMMER TRIPS
THEIR LAST CHANCE TO FALL IN LOVE

12 SUMMERS AGO: Poppy and Alex meet. They hate each other, and are pretty confident they'll never speak again.

11 SUMMERS AGO: They're forced to share a ride home from college and by the end of it a friendship is formed. And a pact: every year, one vacation together.

10 SUMMERS AGO: Alex discovers his fear of flying on the way to Vancouver. Poppy holds his hand the whole way.

7 SUMMERS AGO: They get far too drunk and narrowly avoid getting matching tattoos in New Orleans.

2 SUMMERS AGO: It all goes wrong.

THIS SUMMER: Poppy asks Alex to join her on one last trip. A trip that will determine the rest of their lives.

It would be an understatement to say that Poppy is a traveller at heart. She yearns to see the world and for the last 10 summers, she has been able to branch out and explore more and more of it. Mostly with her best friend Alex, who is not a traveller. While Poppy wants the freedom of the open road, Alex wants the white picket fence and the steady job. But somehow, their friendship works and every summer, they travel together and discover somewhere new.

Told across various time periods, all based around that summer holiday, we see Poppy and Alex’s friendship in college blossom and span different jobs, financial situations and romantic partners, all the way to the present where they have some serious soul-searching to do.

It is a total “opposites attract” type of love story, because on paper, Poppy and Alex do not work together at all. But in reality, they just… get each other, in a way no one else in their lives do. It is also an adorable take on the friends to lovers trope, as they circle each other, wary of crossing that invisible line that would potentially ruin things forever.

With the world being what it is right now, I lived vicariously through Poppy’s travelling – imagine being able to travel? Leave the country, just because? Imagine being in a bar?! Anyway, the settings, the tension, the weird tourist traps, just all of it was so good and I fell head over heels for Poppy and Alex.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Trouble Makes A Comeback by Stephanie Tromly

After a fall semester of fiascos: getting arrested, then kidnapped, then blown up in an explosion (all thanks to the weird but brilliant Philip Digby), Zoe Webster is looking forward to a quiet spring. Now that Digby has left town, she's finally built a regular high school life for herself. She's dating Austin, the alternate QB; she knows girls she considers friends; she's learning to enjoy being normal and semi-popular. Which of course is when Digby comes back: He's got a new lead on his missing sister and he needs Zoe's help.

Suddenly Zoe is tussling with a billionaire arch-villain, locking horns with armed goons, and digging into what makes the Digby family tick, even as she tries to navigate the confusing and emotionally fraught world of high school politics and locker-room drama. After all, it's hard to explain Digby to a boy like Austin, especially when Zoe isn't sure how she feels about Digby herself—or how he feels about her.

Now that Digby's back, get ready for another hilarious whodunit filled with razor-sharp dialogue, ridiculously funny action, and the most charismatic, dynamic duo you've ever met. And just try to stay out of trouble.

We dare you.

This is the sequel to Trouble Is A Friend of Mine, which I read a year ago so of course details were foggy but I remember how much I loved it. Luckily, it is just as fresh, funny and fast as book number one. It takes place several months after the events of book one, when Digby comes sauntering into town and interrupts Zoe's new normal life, where she has good friends, a jock boyfriend, and an actual social life. But Digby has new leads on his missing sister and needs help.

In this break, Zoe has left herself have a life without Digby but of course he has to ruin all that. After that surprise kiss at the end of book one, Digby's return brought a lot of awkward but I think their dynamic has changed a little bit, as Zoe knows what to expect from him now and is a little more proactive in their adventures. 

There was a surprising love triangle as Zoe has a boyfriend in the shape of QB, sweet but slightly dim-witted Austin when Digby returns. It dragged a little because of course I knew what was going to happen, or at least I hoped desperately for it to happen! Zoe's new life with Austin may be the stereotypical teenage girl dream but I think Zoe was bored and already looking for an excuse when Digby showed up. But the normal teen drama was very entertaining and really allowed Zoe to develop as a character. And also Henry, Sloane, Felix and Bill are back - although I couldn't remember Bill from book one and I wish I couldn't remember her from book two, because my God she is annoying! 

All in all, a great book with the same snark, wit and laugh out loud moments that were present in book one. The story of Digby's past as grown and is left open for book three, as is Digby and Zoe's relationship but with hope for a good outcome. Now it's just waiting for the finale!

Published 1st December 2016 by Hot Key Books. Thank you to the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Boyfriend List and The Boy Book by E Lockhart

Ruby Oliver is fifteen and has a shrink. But before you make up your mind about her, you should know that she has had a pretty awful (and eventful) past ten days. She has:
* lost her boyfriend
* lost her best friend (Kim)
* lost all her other friends (Nora, Cricket)
* did something suspicious with a boy
* did something advanced with a boy
* had an argument with a boy
* drank her first beer (someone handed it to her)
* got caught by her mom (ag!)
* had a panic attack (scary)
* lost a lacrosse game (she's the goalie)
* failed a math test (she'll make it up)
* hurt Meghan's feelings (even though they aren't really friends)
* became a social outcast (no one to sit with at lunch)
* and had graffiti written about her in the girls' bathroom (who knows what was in the boys'!?!).

But don't worry, Ruby lives to tell the tale. Through a special assignment to list all the boys she's ever had the slightest, little, any-kind-of-anything with, comes an unfortunate series of events that would be enough to send any girl in a panic. 

Told in first person narrative but with Ruby speaking directly to the reader, it was very much in the same vein as Georgia Nicholson's Diaries by Louise Rennison, just as hilarious and awkward in recounting the teenage years. 

The time line kind of jumps all over the place but it works, just about! As Ruby is telling the story to her therapist, we see it play out as she's recounting it, so we do sort of knowing what's about to happen but seeing all the pieces fit together is very satisfying. Through Ruby's boy history, we see how her friendships evolved, her confidence and her understanding (or more likely lack thereof) of the male species grew and how her relationships with friends, family and various boys made her the person she is. 

It isn't told in a very serious manner, which works because some of Ruby's escapades are just so ridiculous that they couldn't happen to anyone else! As well as Ruby's relationships, we see how she deals with her panic attacks. I really liked how this nod towards mental health was handled, in a not so subtle but also not so serious way; not undermining them, just acknowledging they are problem to be dealt with, without blaming Ruby for having them in the first place.

All in all, a fantastic start to what will surely be a great series. I immediately went onto to book two, to follow Ruby in her insane life.

Here is how things stand at the beginning of newly-licensed driver Ruby Oliver's junior year at Tate Prep: 

Kim: Not speaking. But far away in Tokyo.
Cricket: Not speaking.
Nora: Speaking--sort of. Chatted a couple times this summer when they bumped into each other outside of school--once shopping in the U District, and once in the Elliot Bay Bookstore. But she hadn't called Ruby, or anything.
Noel: Didn't care what anyone thinks.
Meghan: Didn't have any other friends.
Dr. Z: Speaking.
And Jackson. The big one. Not speaking. 

But with a new job, an unlikely but satisfying friend combo, additional entries to "The Boy Book" and many difficult decisions help Ruby to see that there is, indeed, life outside the Tate Universe.

In book one, we learn about Ruby's world. In book two, we learn more about her world view and how everything is not as it seems.
Kim has left for Japan, leaving her so-called true love to fend for himself, which he does by leaving mixed messages to Ruby in the form of notes in her cubby. And while Ruby is half convinced they are meant to be together, she resists his charms and gets a job in the zoo, looking after animals. 

Ruby is conflicted throughout most of the book; she is learning to deal with her emotions and what leads to her panic attacks but she's also re-learning how to be a better person through this, like with empathy and not taking things for granted. I really liked this development, as Ruby desperately needed to see things for how they were, not hiding behind a mask, whether this be Jackson supposedly playing hard to get or Meghan surprisingly being smarter than she appears. 

I adored book two, with Ruby learning different approaches to friendship, its excerpts from The Boy Book, and its mad mix of characters that draw out every embarrassing and heartfelt reaction for Ruby. I'm really beginning to fall in love with this series and cannot wait for books three and four in August. 

Both published 14th July 2016 by Hot Key books. Thank you to the publisher for my copies in exchange for an honest review.

London Belongs To Us by Sarra Manning

Twelve hours, two boys, one girl . . . and a whole lot of hairspray.
Seventeen-year-old Sunny's always been a little bit of a pushover. But when she's sent a picture of her boyfriend kissing another girl, she knows she's got to act. What follows is a mad, twelve-hour dash around London - starting at 8pm in Crystal Palace (so far away from civilisation you can't even get the Tube there) then sweeping through Camden, Shoreditch, Soho, Kensington, Notting Hill . . . and ending up at 8am in Alexandra Palace.

Along the way Sunny meets a whole host of characters she never dreamed she'd have anything in common with - least of all the devilishly handsome (and somewhat vain) French 'twins' (they're really cousins) Jean Luc and Vic. But as this love-letter to London shows, a city is only a sum of its parts, and really it's the people living there who make up its life and soul. And, as Sunny discovers, everyone - from friends, apparent-enemies, famous bands and even rickshaw drivers - is willing to help a girl on a mission to get her romantic retribution.

A fast-paced, darkly funny love letter to London, boys with big hair and the joys of staying up all night.


Sarra Manning's new book is the very definition of a wild ride. Set over one day and night, Sunny goes on a quest across London to find her boyfriend and demand an explanation for this photo of him kissing another girl. For various reasons, he is difficult to pin down and Sunny gets more and more irritated. Manning created a brilliant main character in Sunny; she grows ever braver as the night wears on and I loved her voice from the very start. A girl of mixed race and untameable hair, Sunny is used to letting her voice get over-shadowed by friends and her boyfriend, but finally she's had enough.


Joining her on her journey are French boys Jean Luc and Vic, both of whom were absolutely hilarious. A bit stand-offish at first, we get to know them as Sunny does, and even though there is flirting and banter, I loved that there wasn't any major sparks. As Sunny is on the hunt for her soon to be ex-boyfriend's man-parts, I really appreciated that there wasn't any funny business, just moral and vehicular support.


There was also a great exploration of diversity without it being shoved down your throat. Especially in London, literally everyone is different and you will come across or be friends with a random mix of people, as shown by Sunny pleading her case with an Amazonian night-club bouncer, finding kindred spirits with drag queens at a kebab shop, and being her best friend's wing-woman with the roller derby girl she likes.


I loved seeing a different side to London; as I'm usually the tourist in this city, I don't know the areas and their people like Sunny does but her little history background lessons were equal parts helpful and hilarious. And as she and the boys literally zoom through all the neighbourhoods of central London, the city itself became character in her story and I fell in love with the city like Sunny does.


All in all, another major hit for Manning and definitely a new favourite of mine.


Published 2nd June 2016 by Hot Key Books. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Think Twice by Sarah Mlynowski

What's worse than having telepathy in high school? Having telepathy in high school, and then losing it. When class 10B got their flu shots and developed the unexpected side effect of telepathy, it seemed like the worse thing ever. But two years later, they've got used to their powers. They've even come to like them. And as they prepare to leave school, they're all making exciting plans - plans that involve them being Espies. So when one by one they suddenly begin to lose their powers, they know they can't let it happen. Can they save their telepathy before it's too late? Or will they have to learn how to survive without them once again?

This is the sequel to Don't Even Think About It, which I have read and loved, although it's been a while. I could remember odd details but not everything - luckily, there was a very clever summary done as a report for checking the suitability of the Espies to join a military think tank. Of course all but one was even a likely candidate, because they are teenagers and obviously care more about their friends than the government.


So it's been a couple of years since book one and the Espies have had their powers a while now but that doesn't mean there aren't still problems. The main one now being that some of their powers seem to be going. And with reputations, job and college offers at stake, the Espies can't let that happen. Thus a series of supplement-taking experiments.


I really liked this, it was just as funny and clever as I remember the first book being, plus with the added bonus that it doesn't take much concentration, which is what I wanted about now. Although it deals with some complicated issues, namely superpowers but also relationships, gambling, going off to college and all sorts of other little niggling teenage problems, it's really easy to read and has a great flow to the story, which can't be easy with all the different voices in their heads!

Published 7th April 2016 by Orchard Books.

Lying Out Loud by Kody Keplinger

Sonny Ardmore is an excellent liar. She lies about her dad being in prison. She lies about her mom kicking her out. And she lies about sneaking into her best friend's house every night because she has nowhere else to go.

Amy Rush might be the only person Sonny shares everything with— secrets, clothes, even a nemesis named Ryder Cross.

Ryder's the new kid at Hamilton High and everything Sonny and Amy can't stand—a prep-school snob. But Ryder has a weakness: Amy. So when Ryder emails Amy asking her out, the friends see it as a prank opportunity not to be missed.

But without meaning to, Sonny ends up talking to Ryder all night online. And to her horror, she realizes that she might actually like him. Only there's one small catch: he thinks he's been talking to Amy. So Sonny comes up with an elaborate scheme to help Ryder realize that she's the girl he's really wanted all along. Can Sonny lie her way to the truth, or will all her lies end up costing her both Ryder and Amy?

I love Kody Keplinger's books! Seriously, I devour them - the characters, the humour, the development, the romance, it all adds up to an amazing skill in story telling that I am incredibly jealous of!

This instalment tells of Sonny, her best friend Amy and the annoyance turned crush Ryder. Lying comes naturally to Sonny. It's a way of protecting herself against the world, so no one knows the real her expect her best friend and she can keep some self-preservation when things go wrong. And lately things have gone massively wrong. She's not living at home, sneaking into Amy's room to sleep every night, and not telling anyone why she's broke. 

Sonny is living on the fringes of rich society; her best friend may appear to have it all but Sonny struggles with daily life from her car regularly breaking down to not being able to afford college. Although very sad and a little depressing, a much more realistic outlook on life.

I loved hearing from Sonny's perspective. Everything seemed so dire and she doesn't want to deal with it, so she lies. It's very easy to understand how things got so out of control and why she'd want to lie in the first place. As for the boy in her life, it was incredibly funny how Sonny and Ryder started talking. An honest mistake turns into an outlet, for both of them, to tell the truth of their crappy lives.

Another great story about the truths of being a teen, with some extra drama thrown in for good measure. Along with Sonny, Amy and Ryder, we also had guest spots from Wesley and Bianca, as Amy is Wesley's little sister. Remember her from The DUFF? It was really nice to see how things had turned out from the original story. Anyway, a fun and thoughtful read, great for the summer, full of incredibly diverse and complex characters, even when you wouldn't expect it. 

Published 2nd July 2015 by Hodder. Thank you to the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.

This book is one of my new favourites, not just because the importance and diversity of the story, but also the hilarious characters. It was so very funny and awkward and romantic; literally I spent half the time crying, the other half laughing. 

So, Simon is gay and no one except a stranger on the internet knows. The whole arc of the story was about Simon coming out and accepting who is he; it also had a really in depth look at what it means and who it affects to come out, in terms of family and friends, and the person's self-esteem. The narrative is split between the main story, told from Simon's perspective, and Simon and Blue's emails, as they get closer - very sweet and personal way of getting to know them both. 

Along with the whole 'being who you truly are', the book also deals with emotional blackmail, a little bullying and the heartless nature of outing. Simon wasn't a great hero, just a normal guy and I think that was very important in how he handled things, i.e. not great. He was absolutely adorable and funny and nice but also protective and daft and fairly secretive. I think the big difference with this book was that Simon was ok with being gay, it was the reaction from his friends and family that worried him. Luckily, they know him so well, they practically already knew but it was nice that he had that support system. 

As I said, a new favourite of mine. It was romantic, heart-felt, hilarious and so very important to show a different sort of love story. 

Published 7th April 2015 by Penguin. 

It's The End of the World As We Know It by Saci Lloyd

Welcome to a world controlled by a megalomaniac Lolcat. A world where data pirates, zombies and infobots on surfboards roam free. A world at war over cheese ... When teenager Mikey Malone gets sucked through a wormhole into this parallel world, he discovers a power-crazed corporation is planning to use Earth as a dumping ground for an uncontrollable poisonous algae. It's a race against time for Mikey and his rebel friends to stop the ruthless tyrants from getting their way.

Named as a mix of Hitchhikers Guide and Terry Pratchett, this was very funny and an entertaining read but not one for me. Overall, it was just a little too strange for me to wrap my head around and that took something from the enjoyment of losing myself in the story.

It told of Mikey as he tries to sweet-talk a cute girl into his lair and getting sucked through a portal to an alternate universe. All very well but this was where the sci-fi ended, as the alternate universe was full of nonsense characters, hilarious mishaps and running for their lives from a giant, mind-reading cat. We got to know Kix and her tiny robot BitZer, and their struggles in this strange world as they help Mikey get home. 

I found it often difficult to read, sometimes because of the pig latin-type language that the little robots spoke in, sometimes because it was just so ridiculous that I wasn't sure what was happening! Even after I finished the book, I'm still not entirely sure what the plotline was supposed to be for this, apart from general confusion as the oddball gang try to find and fix the wormhole. Saying that, I believe this is the first in a series so not all questions were answered and set things up very nicely for the next book, especially in terms of complex story and extra complex world building.

A great book for fans of the ridiculous and the weird and wonderful type of sci-fi, but it was not for me.

Published 1st January 2015 by Hodder Children's. Thank you to the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Lobsters by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison

Sam and Hannah only have the holidays to find 'The One'. Their lobster. But instead of being epic, their summer is looking awkward. They must navigate social misunderstandings, the plotting of well-meaning friends, and their own fears of being virgins for ever to find happiness. But fate is at work to bring them together. And in the end, it all boils down to love.

This was an absolutely adorable and hilarious rom-com of a book. It perfectly described teenage life and the pressure of university alongside the normal stuff of friends and love life. It was written split between Sam and Hannah as they meet, drift apart and are thrown back together again. I loved seeing their lives intersect and how they each handled their encounters.

Now speaking of teen life, I couldn't quite believe how much the guys only cared about hooking up - boys can't really be like that or have I just been lucky to avoid it? As for the girls, Hannah and her gang were much as my friends and I were in sixth form; absolutely mental, tight-knit and talked/worried about everything from the next night out to adulthood. However I did have a slight issue with Stella. I knew girls like her, used to getting what they wanted, not knowing how to handle rejection or indeed proper boy trouble, and it's always difficult to read about because on the one hand, you want the heroine to ditch the bad friend but you can see that she's not always a bad friend. In the end, I'm glad they made peace with each other, Hannah and Stella, because fighting over boys is never a good enough reason to lose a great friend.

The whole thing of finding a great guy/girl to lose your virginity to was equal parts sweet and funny; for many people it is a big deal, to give yourself over to someone else completely and to hunt that down, for whatever reason - to get it over with or to enjoy it - will always be an adventure in love and find out more about yourself and your limits, as it were. It was a joy to read, made me laugh out loud - which is awkward on a busy train - and made my heart clench. A perfect summer contemporary with adorable characters and a heart warming story. 

Published 5th June 2014 by Chicken House.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E Lockhart

Fifteen-year-old Frankie Landau-Banks has grown up a lot over the summer. She's no longer daddy's little girl - and almost immediately after starting the new semester at her highly prestigious school, she bags goofy-but-gorgeous Matthew Livingston as her boyfriend. They get along great but then Frankie discovers that Matthew is a member of a boys-only secret society that specialise in 'hilarious' pranks. Which hardly seems fair... especially when Frankie knows she's smarter than any of its members. And to prove this, she's going to teach them a lesson.

Impersonating lead member Alpha by using a fake email account is surprisingly easy, and soon Frankie is setting the boys up with all sorts of ridiculous schemes and sending them on wild goose chase after wild goose chase. Alpha's not prepared to lose face and admit it's not him sending the emails - but the fun can't last forever, and soon Frankie will have to choose between what she think she wants, and the reputation she deserves. 

This is not like Lockhart's other book I've read, it had a completely different feel and tone to it but I loved it just as much. It told of Frankie as she attended her father's old school, trying to navigate relationships and the social, usually old-fashioned, implications of her being a girl. It was very feminist and you really did have to concentrate when Frankie went off on a debate, but it was thought-provoking and very funny.
 
Like I said, the whole feel of it was all about young feminism, and Frankie was definitely trying to push the boundaries of who is worthwhile, which is difficult at an old-fashioned, used-to-be-boys-only boarding school. As a character, I get the impression that we weren't always supposed to like her, but I really did. Maybe it was her tough attitudes towards the injustice of social conventions and the similarities between our feminist thinking but I completely rooted for her. Frankie is feisty and stubborn, determined to prove herself even though she doesn't really know who against or to what end. She just knows it's not fair to only be seen as "Bunny Rabbit", a cute, pretty girl with no thoughts in her head worth mentioning. As she goes on with secretly taking over the boys' club, she is caught between being who everything expected her to be and who she knows she can be. 

Lockhart did a great job in portraying the differences in gender equality and subconscious attitudes towards them. Seeing things through Frankie's eyes, I saw inequality everywhere, from her boyfriend and his friends, to her mother who only wants to protect her. But the point is that Frankie doesn't need protecting because she is smart and incredibly resourceful but all her family and friends see is a young girl in need of coddling. 

I would happily recommend this for anyone in need for a thought-provoking, yet surprisingly light-hearted read about a bull-headed girl taking on a secret society. There is a kick-ass heroine, cool guys, great friendships and hidden meanings to solve. All in all, a great read.

Published 6th November 2014 by Hot Key Books. Thank you to the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

The DUFF by Kody Keplinger

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn't think she's the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She's also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her "the Duff," she throws her Coke in his face. 
But things aren't so great at home right now, and Bianca is desperate for a distraction. She ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it. Eager for escape, Bianca throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with him. 
Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out Wesley isn't such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she's falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone. And eventually, through this realization, Bianca begins to see how harmful her unhealthy way of dealing with her problems has been, and finds a way to confront them head on.

Why it took me so long to read this, I have no idea because I loved everything about it! I fell in love with Keplinger's writing with Shut Out and knew I had to read her back catalogue as well. The Duff is a funny and cynical story about teenage relationships and what they can lead to. Bianca was absolutely perfect; she was not a romantic by any means and was very tough-skinned. So when Wesley calls her the Duff of her friend group, she throws coke at him. 

Bianca's home life was quite pitiful; her mum was always travelling and her dad always working, so Bianca pretty much looked after herself. Which is how she liked it, but when her world came crumbling down with divorce papers, she does the first thing she thinks of to distract herself: kiss Wesley. Not what I would call a healthy coping mechanism but Bianca uses Wesley to keep the bad thoughts at bay. And through this ever-increasing means of distraction, she learns a couple of things. The main one being that Wesley isn't all that bad. He was left to his own devices too and it sucked to be all along in a big house, plus his sister was pulling away from him encouraged by the poisonous words of their grandmother. 

Despite being a pretty weird relationship, I liked Bianca and Wesley together. They sort of balanced each other out and neither took any bullshit from the other! But Bianca had to go an ruin it as she realised she was falling for him and she just couldn't do that to herself again. I think Keplinger did an amazing job keeping this down to earth and completely honest; Bianca's voice was brash and harsh yet hiding vulnerability and that made her so damn relatable. Keplinger also dealt with tougher issues than teen sexuality, from divorce to alcoholism which many kids go through and I think Keplinger handled brilliantly. Nothing is perfect and Bianca and Wesley were definitely affected by all this but came out stronger together for it. 

Hilarious and touching, covering everything from parents to self-esteem, Keplinger has written an amazing debut and an absolutely adorable and realistic love story.

Published 5th April 2012 by Hodder.

Geekhood: Mission Improbable by Andy Robb

Archie is a Geek to his core - and despite having a Close Encounter with Sarah at the beginning of term, he's still completely clueless about girls. Enter Clare - an older woman (she's sixteen) who Archie meets on his weekend trip to see his dad and his nightmare step-mum, Jane. Clare and Archie hit it off - and she's got a brilliant, foolproof way to get their crushes to notice them: pretend to be going out with one another! What can possibly go wrong? In the midst of school, getting Sarah to forgive him and dealing with his insane family, Archie and his mates step-up the nerdiness and go Live Action Role-play gaming. Ladies and gentlemen, we are entering a new era...

The sequel to Close Encounters of the Girl Kind, Archie is no more the wiser to girls and their strange ways. After admitting his feelings to Sarah and getting turned down, Archie is feeling particularly awkward and is even avoiding her. His friends have forgiven him but wants him to apologise to Sarah so they can get on with their lives. Especially as on the horizon is a LARP event! I already know about LARP, even though I haven't been to one. As soon as it was mentioned, I knew what we were in for: a huge geek-gasm of magic, costumes and role playing. And did we get it!

This was just as funny, if not more so, than the first book, with Archie's Inner Monologue and his complete lack of understanding of the real world, and their extreme geeky excitement at LARP. Then there was Archie's relationship with his dad and his new family. That was a whole other level of awkward, as Archie's dad tries to treat both his and his wife's kids equally but just acts like a moron. The parallels between him and Tony from the first book are evident even to Archie, which makes him feel awful for putting his father's new family in that situation. But also surprisingly adult as he helps his father get past that. Having failed spectacularly with Sarah, I was proud that Archie could make another kid's life a bit better. 

I loved how many different aspects of this book interweaved, like Archie's relationship with Sarah and his friends, his mum and Tony, and his dad, everything coming together to help make Archie grow up and understand his friends and family better. Nothing was perfect, all the characters were flawed and ridiculous and the situations they got themselves into were hilarious! This book was light hearted and funny but also showed the reality of teenage relationships and the dangers of navigating them; Archie's world of geekiness is one that I will always love and always make me laugh. 

Published 4th March 2013 by Stripes Publishing. 

Paper Towns by John Green

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

Living next door to this gorgeous but mysterious girl, Quentin had no chance against falling in love with her. So when she tumbles through his window and calls for a driver in a revenge mission against her cheating boyfriend, he has no choice but to follow her around the city after dark. From the very off-set, this story was so very funny while being clever and insightful. It also managed to be slightly terrifying at times when Margo's clues looked hopeless.

As with all John Green's novels, he gave us such great characters, from thoughtful Q to loud Ben, from sweet Lacey to adventurous Margo. I adored the relationship the boys had; typical boys didn't talk feelings much but obviously cared for each other, and each bought something unique to their search, even if it was just to be comic relief or being disgusting. As for Margo, my God she was an evil genius! I wish I was that clever! I laughed out loud at her pulling her revenge pranks with Q. She was a complete mystery and while I loved watching the gang piece together the clues to where she could have gone, I couldn't help but think she was being incredibly selfish leaving everything behind with no goodbye.

Masquerading as a normal YA contemporary, this book was a whirlwind of emotions that I have come to expect from Green's stories. From its characters to its nicely complex plot, I loved it from start to finish. It raised moral issues that everyone deals with, like the need to leave and start over, as well as seemingly normal things like road trips, random brushes with death and figuring out the enigma that is another person. It was beautifully constructed and cleverly written; I can never get tired of John Green's novels.

Published 3rd May 2010 by Bloomsbury. 

The End Of The World As We Know It by Iva-Marie Palmer

They wanted to party like it was their last night on earth. They just might get their wish….

Meet the four most unlikely heroes ever:
Teena McAuley: Queen Bee, first-class problem solver, resident heartbreaker.
Leo Starnick: UFO conspirator, pizza delivery boy, all-around slacker.
Evan Brighton: Baseball all-star, extreme virgin, Teena-worshipper.
Sarabeth Lewis: Straight-A student, weekend hermit, enemy of the color pink.

When Teena locks Leo, Evan, and Sarabeth in the basement during her biggest party of the year, she doesn’t plan on getting trapped in the Loser Dungeon herself. She can barely imagine a night with these dweebs—let alone a lifetime. But when an alien invasion destroys their entire Midwestern suburb, it looks like these unlikely friends are the last people on earth. Now, it’s up to them to save the world….

Aliens invade a classic American suburbia, and four stereotypical Breakfast Club are left alive in the aftermath; I was all over this! It promised humour, fighting intergalactic beings and dealing with old grudges and boy did it deliver! There was a good balance between the gross sci-fi alien stuff and the comic relief, however inappropriate it may be, but I loved it. 

The story was told with alternate perspectives between all four characters, which allowed for different thoughts, and as they split up, different places across town and in the spaceship. Each character is a high school stereotype but I never felt annoyed with that fact, maybe because we were each of their heads, or because Palmer proved to show that they were each more than their labels. Either way, I adored each of them, even as they annoyed me or did the wrong thing. I especially loved Sarabeth, with her smarts, logical thinking and shy nature. There was continuous banter and pop references, which was very entertaining and gently broke up the near-death experiences and alien goop. The story was also occasionally interrupted by a omniscient narrator, which was interesting and very funny, especially when it is revealed who it is.

I adored this book and practically ate it up, with its odd mix of characters and scary encounters with giant aliens. Teena, Even, Leo and Sarabeth proved they were worth their moxie in an end of the world scenario, got past their fear and managed to work past their differences and past cliques to find out what has happened to their town. From the sweet budding romance and rekindling old friendships, to gunning down aliens and discovering the dead bodies of neighbours, I highly recommend this funny, cool and scary book. 

Published 6th March 2014 by Hot Key Books. Thank you to the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Geekhood: Close Encounters of the Girl Kind by Andy Robb

If you haven't worked it out yet, girls don't do this. They don't come to the Hovel. They don't like goblins and dragons. They don't paint miniatures. They don't play role playing games or re-enact fictional battles. And they don't talk to Geeks like me especially if they're pretty. And this girl is pretty. What do you do if you're a fourteen-year-old Geek, and a Beautiful Girl has appeared in the midst of your geeky world? And she seems to like you... For Archie, the natural reaction would be to duck and cover ... run for the hills ... buy a new model elf... Anything but risk stepping into the Real World. But even Geeks have to put their heads above the parapet at some point. With his mum barely able to contain her excitement that her son is about to join the human race, and his step-father, Tony the Tosser, offering crass advice, it's time for Archie to embark on a daring Quest to win the Beautiful Girl's heart and shake off his Geekhood for good...

I knew I had to love this, and even though it was quite boy-ish, I really did! It told of Archie, fourteen year old boy who likes to play role playing board games. (You know, the Games Workshop? Oh God, I can't believe I knew that!) Archie was quite sweet but what I liked was how Robb described him as a normal boy who just happened to be a bit geeky. I liked the balance between normal life and his fantasy of role play. And even though I've never been that sort of geek, I completely understood Archie's need for escapism. 

The main point of this book is that a girl turns up. Despite being fourteen year old boys, Archie and his group of friends don't really have much contact with the female kind, and it shows! It was hilarious and endearing the way Archie wanted to show off for Sarah, introduce her to the world of miniature witches and goblins. Speaking of witches, I really liked Sarah. She was basically a Wiccan, with a New-Age mother and Goth wardrobe, incense and aura's, how could I not love her? She was very sweet and patient with Archie, and I especially liked how she genuinely wanted to help him be a better person when all he wanted was to cop a feel! 

As for his friends, they were all typical teenagers. I loved them all, how annoyingly boyish they were, how completely useless with girls and emotions, how they all stuck together against bullies. Their banter was really funny and it gave me real insight into the minds of teen boys! But the real banter came from Archie's internal monologue and his growing psychic self. As weird as it was, I'm fairly certain that most of us talk to ourselves and I loved the emphasis Robb put on Archie's IM being his voice of doubt and his strength to overcome it.

But the more important aspect of this book was the development for Archie. As he wanted to impress Sarah, he also realised that being a geek was just the coward's way out of life and had to change that. I'm not sure I agreed with how he went about changing, but it got the desired effect and Archie finally grew up and started living his life the way he wanted. In the end, it wasn't about being a Geek but just being true to yourself. And even if Archie didn't get the happy ending he wanted, I liked how it came back full circle and he realised it was just who he was that mattered. 

Published 4th June 2012 by Stripes Publishing.

Model Misfit by Holly Smale

“My name is Harriet Manners, and I am still a geek.”

Harriet knows that modelling won’t transform you. She knows that being as uniquely odd as a polar bear isn’t necessarily a bad thing (even in a rainforest). And that the average person eats a ton of food a year, though her pregnant stepmother is doing her best to beat this.

What Harriet doesn’t know is where she’s going to fit in once the new baby arrives.

With summer plans ruined, modelling in Japan seems the perfect chance to get as far away from home as possible. But nothing can prepare Harriet for the craziness of Tokyo, her competitive model flatmates and her errant grandmother’s ‘chaperoning’. Or seeing gorgeous Nick everywhere she goes.

Because, this time, Harriet knows what a broken heart feels like.

Can geek girl find her place on the other side of the world or is Harriet lost for good?

About six months after we last saw her, Harriet is taking her last GCSE exam, painted gold. Yep, she hasn't changed much! It's her summer holiday and she has a amazing plan for her and her best friend Nat but then horror: Nat is disappearing to France! Just as she thinks her summer is ruined, Wilbur, the agent from fluffy, stylish hell, says she's going to Japan! I loved everything about this book: Harriet, her relationship with Nat, and her parents, Wilbur with his insane quips, and Japan!

It was just as addictive and amusing as the first book. If not more so! Harriet hasn't really changed much, she is still spouting random facts, still unbelievably clumsy, still doesn't quite understand people. This is especially demonstrated in her relationship with Nick. Yes, Lion Boy returns! But it isn't all peachy in Love Land; he broke up with her just before her exams and she is heartbroken. Not to mention confused. I couldn't believe that the sweet boy from the first book could be so horrible to poor little Harriet. Not to worry, fellow romantics, it is not as it seems!

It's not just her love life that's not running smoothly. She is messing things up worse than usual in her modelling life and it seems that she is being sabotaged! It was a little scary to have someone dislike Harriet that much because as annoying as she is, she is such a sweetheart that I cannot comprehend someone deliberately trying to ruin her career. Luckily, or not depending on how you look at it, this was all happening in Tokyo. I couldn't not tell you all how much I loved the descriptions of city life the other side of the world. Just like Harriet, I loved how Tokyo was so alive, how it was this insane and beautifully different culture. Smale did a great job bringing the city to life, even in Harriet's apartment and her modelling job at a fish market! 

It's a good thing she has such great friends and family because as much as I love her, I'm fairly certain she could not cope without them! As usual, Harriet gets so bogged down in the little things and I just wanted to give her a hug. I desperately wanted everything to work out and, with a little help from Wilbur and her slightly-crazy grandmother Bunty, Harriet manages a perfect photo shoot and a happy ending. I know I've said Harriet hasn't changed much, and that is true but there is some evidence of slight maturity there. She stands up for herself a little better in this book and understands things a little better. Although, saying that, she is still naive and silly but I loved how she toughened up. 

I know I've just gushed through this review but I really did love everything about Harriet's story. She is annoying and can't shut up, but she has a good heart and does deserve the good things coming her way. And with a little sibling ready to burst out of Annabel, Harriet will be busy teaching her geeky ways! Oh, and speaking of her family, I have to say: her dad and Bunty rocks! Smale can really write great characters. If you don't read this book for the story, read it for all the laughs you'll get from those two!

Published 26th September 2013 by Harper Collins. Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review. 

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

"Hi, I'm the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you . . . "

Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.

Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now- reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to be "internet security officer," he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.

When Lincoln comes across Beth's and Jennifer's messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can't help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories. By the time Lincoln realizes he's falling for Beth, it's way too late to introduce himself.

What would he say . . . ?

I'm not entirely sure what I can say about this book without gushing. I knew I needed to read a Rainbow Rowell book and I'm glad I started with this one because it was just fantastic! 

So, Lincoln has the weirdest job: reading other people's emails to make sure they're not being rude or slacking off at work. When he comes across the exchanges between best friends Beth and Jennifer, he cannot bring himself to turn them in. For whatever reason, he looks forward to finding their emails in the flagged file, even as he realises that what he is doing is wrong on so many levels. I loved how awkward Lincoln was. Not just at work with the whole snooping thing, but also at home with his mum and older sister. And I especially loved that we saw this side of him, his home life and his past, not just his new work persona. Speaking of his home life, it made mine not seem so bad! He was in his mid-twenties and only just stopped going to school. His sister thinks this is because he had a thing for lecture halls, but I understood that it was that he felt comfortable and didn't want to leave academia. Heck, I know exactly how that feels! 

As for Beth and Jennifer, God they cracked me up! It's like they were trying to get caught on purpose at first, which made it incredibly hilarious. Then when they didn't, the personal confessions started and we were privy to some pretty private and touching things. No wonder Lincoln felt horrible for reading their emails! I loved how much we learned about them from just their emails, it was incredible how Lincoln had no idea what they looked like but just knew them. 

The development with Lincoln's work and Beth and Jennifer's lives was fascinating, and I especially loved how the story flowed considering it was spilt between prose and email. Even with the moral implications, I could completely understand why Lincoln looked forward to hearing from Beth and Jennifer. They were funny and sweet and cared for each other, and with Lincoln so lost in his life, I knew why he needed the distraction. But when he recognised that he was falling for Beth, and they kept almost bumping into each other, it was like a rom-com movie but still felt so real. I commend Rowell on writing such a odd but realistic novel and I highly recommend reading it!

Published February 2012 by Orion. Thank you to the library for stocking this so I could read some of Rainbow Rowell's amazing writing!

Never Bite a Boy on the First Date by Tamara Summers

I've got a few issues: I'm a vampire now. One of my classmates was found dead, with telltale fang marks. I didn't do it! (really!) Nobody believes me, so . . . I'm going to have to find the real killer. I've already got three suspects. (three very cute suspects.) One more problem: I am seriously falling for one of them . . . but what if he's the killer?

The synopsis might give you a bit of a clue that this is not a proper scary vampire story. Not that that's a bad thing, it was very funny and fresh, a less serious take on the vampire legend. 

So the protagonist was Kira, vampire for only two years and already made enough mistakes that when a jock is found with holes in his neck, her family blames her. So she goes about proving her innocence by catching the real killer. Kira made me giggle, she had this hilarious and sort of typical-but-not approach to being a vampire, like she loved having the power but didn't flaunt it. It made her feel real because she was so sarcastic and defensive. 

Not only does her weird approach to vampiredom make her funny but also her family. Her adopted family are a collection of oddballs with the older parents being very old-fashioned and her siblings just... weird. Plus there's the whole 'my adopted/pretend brother is actually my ex-boyfriend and he still fancies me and it's my fault he's a vampire' thing. Kira's life is beyond weird, add in the vampire stuff and her dating three possible murderers and you have a recipe for disaster! Luckily, Kira can look after herself and does so well, thus making up for my guilt on her behalf thing for dating three guys. 

There were some pretty serious and very impressive plot-twists and secrets to guess - and unfortunately I did not guess the right killer before he or she was revealed. I know, I was disappointed in myself but it was a good twist. As for the three guys, Kira picked her lover-boy and I was happy for them both. 

Publishing 1st February 2010 by Harper Collins. This was a library book. 

Adorkable by Sarra Manning

Jeane Smith's a blogger, a dreamer, a jumble sale queen, CEO of her own lifestyle brand, and has half a million followers on Twitter. Michael Lee's a star of school, stage, and playing field. A golden boy in a Jack Wills hoodie. They have nothing in common but a pair of cheating exes. So why can't they stop making out? This novel is about an unlikely relationship, but it's also about roller derby, dogs on skateboards, dogs on surfboards, dogs doing any form of extreme sport, old skool hip hop, riding your bike downhill really fast, riot grrrl, those boys you want to kiss but punch in the face at the same time, dyeing your hair ridiculous colors just because you can, stitch 'n' bitch, the songs that make you dance, the songs that make you cry, being a bad ass, cake, love, death, and everything in between.

Jeane is the queen of her own fashion statement: she loves to look however she wants and doesn't care who she annoys while she speaks her mind. I instantly fell in love with her then got annoyed with her, then loved her again. Sounds confusing but I understood her, which is saying something about my social life, and liked her when we were inside her head but did get a little peeved when we saw her from another perspective. Maybe that was just because Michael didn't understand her for quite a while. Either way, Jeane was an amazing fresh protagonist in YA, a nerdy girl that doesn't care about her social status, her body shape, keeping up with fashions - just plain awesome.

I loved the alternating chapters, allowing us to see both sides of the story and understand both Jeane and Michael, which meant I didn't automatically dislike Michael just because Jeane did. It was refreshing to see a double perspective that didn't confuse me! And with this double narrative, we saw the development of both characters, saw how they mended bridges and morphed behaviour a little without even realising, just to not cause more arguments or because they actually liked each other and didn't want to admit it.

Michael was pretty sweet, kind of annoying in his "everyone likes me, I dress to be popular" thing, but he had individual thought, which I think attracted Jeane. And while their relationship was not typical, it was surprising in a good way, for both the characters and the reader. But I think the most important thing about this story was that it turned out to be so much more poignant, more expressive than I thought it would be. It shows the importance of being who you are, not conforming and learning to be comfortable with yourself when no-one is in the age of teens.

Published 24th May 2012 by Atom.