 Ever felt anxious or alone? Like you don't belong anywhere? Like you're almost... invisible? Find your kindred spirits at The Sad Ghost Club. This is the story of one of those days - a day so bad you can barely get out of bed, when it's a struggle to leave the house, and when you do, you wish you hadn't. But even the worst of days can surprise you. When one sad ghost, lost and alone at a crowded party, spies another sad ghost across the room, they decide to leave together. What happens next changes everything. Because that night they start the The Sad Ghost Club - a secret society for the anxious and alone, a club for people who think they don't belong. For fans of Heartstopper and Jennifer Niven, and for anyone who's ever felt invisible. You are not alone. Shhh. Pass it on. The Sad Ghost Club by Lize Meddings was my first 5 star read of 2021! This is a beautiful, monochromatic graphic novel that spans just one day. Our main character is anxious, depressed and just generally struggling. They don't feel "normal". They overthink and can't understand how everyone else just goes and lives life. They get invited to a party - which causes even more overthinking and anxiety - but decide to go and there they stumble upon someone just like them. They leave the party to go for a walk and talk. They open up about their struggles and this is truly just a hug in book form. The tagline is "find your kindred spirits" and I felt like I'd found mine. I completely understood the way they felt and I just wanted to wrap them up and tell them it's okay. The only complaint I could find is there's not enough of this book. I want multiple volumes. I want to see The Sad Ghost Club in action. The synopsis lead my to believe we'd see this secret society happen but the book is purely just about that club forming and that's fine, I just really want to see more. Maybe it's because I just connected so much and felt seen. I don't want it to be over. This isn't something I usually do but if I were to pick a song to go with this book it would be "You Are Not Alone" from Dear Evan Hansen, because that's what it taught me. We're not alone. We just have to find our people.  This was my stop on The Sad Ghost Club Blog Tour! Make sure to check out the previous stops and the final post tomorrow and grab a copy of the book for yourself and a friend if you can!
Waterstones (SIGNED) The Portobello Bookshop (This is my local independent bookstore but you can find many more, near you here!)
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*ARC received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review* THIS BOOK YOU GUYS Sophie Cameron's debut novel was STUNNING. Seriously. I never thought I could love a book about angels falling from the sky so much but I REALLY REALLY DO. As usual, I never do synopsis' justice so I'll copy the goodreads one for you all! Sometimes, I imagine alternate endings to the story: last-minute miracles, touches of magic. I picture how things might have gone, if I wasn’t there. If I’d left just a few minutes later. If I hadn’t been alone. It doesn’t make any difference. One way or another, the crash always comes.
Ten days after Jaya Mackenzie’s mum dies, angels start falling from the sky. Smashing down to earth at extraordinary speeds, wings bent, faces contorted, not a single one has survived. Hysteria mounting with every Being that drops, Jaya’s father uproots the family to Edinburgh intent on catching one alive. But Jaya can’t stand this obsession and, struggling to make sense of her mother’s sudden death and her own role on that fateful day, she’s determined to stay out of it. When her best friend disappears and her father’s mania spirals, things hit rock bottom and it’s at that moment something extraordinary happens: An angel lands right at Jaya’s feet, and it’s alive. Finally she is forced to acknowledge just how significant these celestial beings are. I don't have words to talk about my love for Jerry Spinelli. He's not a hugely talked about YA author and most people only know him as the author of Stargirl - which is definitely one of my favourite books. When I was in Paris, I spotted his name in the YA section of Shakespeare and Co and as it was a nice floppy paperback in a slightly larger size for only €11 I knew I had to buy it. Cammie O'Reilly lives at the Hancock County Prison--not as a prisoner, she's the warden's daughter. She spends the mornings hanging out with shoplifters and reformed arsonists in the women's exercise yard, which gives Cammie a certain cache with her school friends.
But even though Cammie's free to leave the prison, she's still stuck. And sad, and really mad. Her mother died saving her from harm when she was just a baby. You wouldn't think you could miss something you never had, but on the eve of her thirteenth birthday, the thing Cammie most wants is a mom. A prison might not be the best place to search for a mother, but Cammie is determined and she's willing to work with what she's got. GUARD YOUR MORTAL HEART. Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him—and face the consequences. As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black was my one hope of salvaging what little desire I had to read fairy books that ACOTAR destroyed. Turns out it was beyond saving. Don't get me wrong, the books was bearable but I do wish I hadn't bothered.
*ARC RECEIVED FROM NETGALLEY IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW*
When Sasha’s best friend Xavier gets back together with his cheating ex, Ivy, Sasha knows she needs to protect him. So she poses as a guy online to lure Ivy away.
But Sasha’s plan goes sickeningly wrong. And she soon learns to be careful of who you pretend to be because you might be surprised by who you become… Told in multiple points of view, Bad Girls with Perfect Faces is sexy and twisted with shocks at every turn.
I was really excited for this title having read the author's previous mystery novel Suicide Notes From Beautiful Girls. Where SNFBG was exciting and mysterious, Bad Girls With Perfect Faces was bland and not thrilling at all.
*ARC RECEIVED FROM NETGALLEY*  Whether or not you believe in fate, or luck, or love at first sight, every romance has to start somewhere. MEET CUTE is an anthology of original short stories featuring tales of “how they first met” from some of today’s most popular YA authors. 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. This incredibly talented group of authors brings us a collection of stories that are at turns romantic and witty, epic and everyday, heartbreaking and real.
'Meet Cute' is an adorable YA anthology full of stories about people when they first fall in love. I've slowly been creeping back into my usual contemporary loving self and this was such a good way to spark my interest back up! I'll admit right now that I was lazy and didn't take notes during the reading process so I can't guarantee my mini-reviews for each story will be anything more than 'yeah, I liked this one' but is it really an emmanovella review if there's any detail? *ARC RECEIVED FROM NETGALLEY*  He makes the rules. She breaks them all. A new start. It's the only thing keeping Allie Harper going, when she packs up her life and moves across the country to Woodshill, Oregon. She's about to start college, desperate to leave the ghosts of her past behind her. Even if that means never talking to her parents again. Now the hard part - finding an apartment before classes start. Just when it seems she'll have to live out of her car, Allie visits one more place. It's beautiful. With one exception: can she stand being roommates with campus bad boy Kaden White? Sure, Kaden is sexy with his tattoos and careless attitude, but he's also an arrogant jerk. With nowhere else to go, Allie moves in. The first thing Kaden does is make a set of rules. Either Allie obeys, or she's out: 1. Don't talk about your girl problems. 2. Keep your mouth shut if I bring someone home. 3. We will NEVER hook up. Easy enough, thinks Allie. Who would want to get involved with a brute like Kaden? But the more she gets to know him, the more she sees beyond his gruff facade. He, too, is harboring some painful secrets. For Kaden and Allie, it gets harder and harder to ignore the sparks between them. And the lines between the rules start to blur- Begin Again is a beautiful romance that shows us just how possible it is to start over. To find freedom in heartbreak and love in the most unlikely places.
Begin Again is an incredibly addicting New Adult romance that left me craving more of Kaden and Allie. Leaving her life in Lincoln, Nebraska behind Allie reclaims her life and her independence by going to college at the other side of the country. What she doesn’t expect is having to room with Kaden White - and he doesn’t want her there any more than she wants to be.
*ARC PROVIDED BY NETGALLEY*
 "My name is Alex. I am fifteen years old, and I don't know where my sister is. Or if she will ever come back." On New Year's Eve 5,000 blackbirds dropped dead. The same day Olivia McCarthy went missing from a small coastal village in Orkney. Now Her younger sister Alex is on a mission to find out just what happened to Olivia. But does she really want to know all the answers?
Blackbird is a YA mystery set in the small Scottish island of Orkney. We follow Alex, whose older sister Olivia has gone missing and the duration of the criminal investigation. Though it focuses less on the investigation itself and more on Alex and how she is coping etc, this was still an enjoyable read and one I would recommend to those just diving into mystery novels.
*ARC RECEIVED FROM NETGALLEY IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW*
 "They have lightning in their souls, thunder in their hearts, chaos in their bones." Nikita Gill's poetry has captured hearts and minds all over the world; her inspirational words have been shared hundreds of thousands of times online, been plastered across placards on international women's marches and even transformed into tattoos. This collection will showcase mostly unseen poetry and prose, delving into ideas about passion, identity, empowerment and femininity. Poetry is not something I like to give star ratings to as it is so subjective and individual to each person that reads it. I felt many of these poems on a deep level, even though it was clear the author and I had gone through very different situations.
Wild Embers is a feminist collection. It is empowering and inspirational. It is heartbreaking, emotional, beautiful, and uplifting all at once. It is an assemblage of words that will stick with me for a long time and that already helped fix some wounds in my heart. *COPY PROVIDED BY BLACK AND WHITE PUBLISHING*
 No recreated cover from me today; this one is too gorgeous for me to ruin! The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Continues... Seven years after the death of Edward Hyde, a stylish gentleman shows up in foggy London claiming to be Dr Henry Jekyll. Only Mr Utterson, Jekyll’s faithful lawyer and confidant, knows that he must be an impostor – because Jekyll was Hyde. But as the man goes about charming Jekyll's friends and reclaiming his estate, and as the bodies of potential challengers start piling up, Utterson is left fearing for his life ... and questioning his own sanity. This brilliantly imagined and beautifully written sequel to one of literature's greatest masterpieces perfectly complements the original work. And where the original was concerned with the duality of man, this sequel deals with the possibility of identity theft of the most audacious kind. Can it really be that this man who looks and acts so precisely like Dr Henry Jekyll is an imposter?
O'Neill brilliantly captures the essence of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic in this long-awaited sequel to Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde that none of us knew we needed until we were given it
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