Bubble Wrap Boy by Phil Earle

Charlie is a teenage, Chinese boy whom lives his life as his parents only child, but overly protected still by his mum, the way she sneaks off and goes to evening classes all the time arouses suspicion in Charlie over where she really goes.

He wants to skate though despite knowing his mum would disapprove and he is very clumsy as well and when she finds out, the skate park kids and his best friend Sinus end up dubbing him bubble wrap boy after an incident.

Eventually, Charlie's mum's secret is out by accident and Charlie finds out why his mum is so overprotective of him and he can't blame her but he does want to help her as well as perform at the skate park event coming up.

The book deals with the effects of growing up in school and fitting in loosely while focusing on family secrets and parenting a lot. Charlie stands up for himself to prove to his mum mostly but his dad too that he can't always be protected from bad stuff that will happen as it's inevitable really to never expect it to happen.

It's uniqueness sells it to me as I truly enjoyed it and the developing mystery as you read on and untangle it!

Pretty Happy by Kate Hudson

In her book actress Kate discusses all about how being happy is to do with making our bodies and minds work together for not just harmony but optimal power.

Stop being self critical and trusting your body and how it feels, accepting what your body needs is a huge step. Kate tells us how pregnancy changed her body and mindset along with getting the right nutrition and exercise when she wanted or resting when needed anyway as she has such a busy workload and family life to contend with. This will resonate with most adults who will pick up the book I'm sure!

Working on her brand Fabletics, (a favourite of mine), she wanted the core message to be that anyone can be healthy and active and always change up things to keep it fresh and challenging your body. Kate tells us how tracking your feelings and journaling goals and changing negative energy to positive can benefit you so much more than staying unchanging and unchallenged.

The book is extremely detailed and well written even though Kate states many a time she's not trained to give this advice she explains everything thoroughly with quizzes and pictures throughout to aid her points.

The Summer Of Cotton Candy by Debbie Vogue

Candace needs money and finds herself stuck in a summer job she has no desire for, The Zone, a theme park offers her a job as a cotton candy operator which she takes over cleaning ladies toilets.

She works with Martha an old lady whilst the carts can move to wherever whenever and cause injuries when you don't know as Candy finds out!

She runs into guy leaving she calls the lone ranger later named as Kurt and crushes hard on whilst dealing with bitchy employee's too including his ex Lisa.

Subsequently, sabotage at work to get her fired including drugs being planted on her happens.

Tamara best friend rich family struggles to hang out around work with her and feels guilty over it as their friendship becomes strained and they fall apart a bit because of circumstance differences but confrontation forces them to rekindle their bond after crossed wires and seeing sense after all years of friendship lost over a summer job would be a big waste over nothing!

Then a work scavenger hunt with two enemies at work as well as getting trapped with Kurt in The Zone forces all the drama to happen around Candace herself, Kurt, Lisa, and Josh.

A summer of drama ready served for our delight!

I didn't enjoy this book a ton but I did like learning about the environment of a theme park as I personally don't like rides of any kind and so working around them must be a big task in such a crowded area meanwhile without jealous colleagues and such to deal with! It also had some characters I really didn't like for how they acted etc in Lisa and Tamara especially her for being Candace's best friend and not hearing her out easily!

Word Nerd by Susin Nielsen

Ambrose lives with his single mum who's a professor which means they move around a lot for her work. When at his current school, bullies take their game to the extreme and nearly kill him by not believing in his peanut allergy, his mum allows him to be schooled from home through the school so long as she works night classes and Mr and Mrs Economopolus look after him.

However when their criminal son, Cosmo randomly returns after being let out of his six month jail sentence he got for drug use and thus breaking and entering, the two become friends even though his mum doesn't want them hanging around together.

Ambrose and Cosmo join a Word Nerd scrabble group and Cosmo keeps going under the guise of being Ambrose's big brother to try and get somewhere with Amanda, the scrabble group leader until she finds out about his prison time and the two guys have to appeal to her to give Cosmo another chance.

Cosmo's ex con buddy who he used to steal with Silvero however keeps making threats and while Ambrose fakes his mum's signature to carry on attending his scrabble group, enter a tournament there and win a prize while his mum goes on a date with his teacher, just what is Silvero  planning?

Susin's books are always so fresh and fun, Ambrose was a great literally colourful character in nature as well as his choices of clothing. Being twelve, he made me empathise with him as if he was my younger brother, I'm twenty and don't have any siblings but Ambrose would be ideal as he's so different and doesn't stop being himself despite the bullying he endures!

Earth Hates Me by Ruby Karp

From a young teenage girl, comes and insane amount of wisdom about life growing up as a girl in modern day society with all the social media around us and pressure to be 'perfect'.

In the book, Ruby discusses a range of topics;
Appreciating every experience
Finding the humour
Being you and learn yourself
Throw yourself into trying things
Social media can have multiple side effects
Sexism in sports
Girl hate
Pressure at school
Teachers aren't always right
Crushes and unrequited love

Plus much more!

Ruby enlightens us to her experiences, how they effected her and how she moved on from the experiences she's faced. With many stories told throughout, relatable and not, one thing is constant and that for me is Ruby is an incredibly in tune teenage girl with how such situations can effect you but only if you let them.

Earth Hates Me is such a true title of how teenagers are made to feel in today's society which is really bad. We need more realistic things out there and more role models like Ruby for other teens to listen to and realise, it's okay to just be you, however you are so long as you are happy with yourself!

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

Summer At Coastguard Cottages by Jennifer Bohnet

Eights weeks together for Karen, Bruce and Carrie in their respectful summer cottages in Devon, means their lives change and for the better...

Karen's parent's bought the holiday house years ago and despite her bully husband Derek, she declines parting with it as she and her son Wills like it there.

Bruce lost his wife, Gabby and is a left with no children either after they suffered three miscarriages together. He throws himself into working on his renovation business for distraction and fulfilment until later a huge secret about his late wife comes to light.

Guy loved but had to lose Melissa as she became a shell of herself when they were together. At first he numbs his pain with drinking whisky until he meets Karen...

Carrie found out she was adopted and also inherited a fortune from said dead biological father, she takes leave from working as a vet before venturing to discover the cottage she's inherited and works to solve the mystery of her real father Robert Trumble by asking other locals who knew him, about him.

This was a good book, I would have liked more about Bruce's back story without all being focused solely on Gabby but I understand why it was that way. Over all it really worked and I loved Carrie's journey the most.

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

Has Anyone Seen Jessica Jenkins? By Liz Kessler

When Jessica suddenly starts to disappear, Izzy her best friend tells her and together they work to uncover what's happening whilst also having fun with the situation at hand.

A few weeks previous, her mum's friend Nancy gave her a necklace for her birthday, only when she first removes it does the invisibility stop!

They take it upon themselves to a start investigating into what's happening and bring their friend Tom, a geeky boy from their school year along as the usage of crystals causing the powers comes into play as they discover who's behind it and what caused the effects in the few it has given powers to.

Soon a large research history comes to light as well as a kidnapping twist in the plot comes into the book, the secrets revealed to Jess make her realize she may have been quick to judge some of the people involved...

I enjoyed this one and was super happy to have crystals leading to powers happening and changing people. The kids in this were great characters as the plot flowed on super well.

Lies My Girlfriend Told Me by Julie Ann Peters

When Swanee passes away suddenly of a heart attack, Alix her girlfriend finds it a huge thing to deal with. Reliving memories, like how they met on a school ski trip, Swanees's sister, Jewell sticks around Alix to share memories with her and support her.

When she finds messages left on her girlfriend's phone from an LT, she doesn't know what to do. Half written in English and Spanish, she perseveres and finds herself uncovering a whole other relationship Swanee was having with Liana, a girl whom even believed herself to be in an engagement with her!

From a bad situation however, the two girls bond and enjoy a relationship together combined grief and love from the betrayal they've both suffered.

Both Alix and Swanee's parents are supportive of their relationship and that's such a good thing to include in a YA. The plot was very simple but effective as we see cause and after effects of one person's actions on lives of others. I found Joss to be a bit too dramatic a character in this book as a grieving sister I felt she would mellow a little whilst still harbouring some anger but that didn't happen.

My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella

Demeter may be the boss at her work but no one likes her and they all moan about her behind her back. When she makes Cat dye her hair and doesn't have the courtesy to listen to her ideas for company projects.

Then Alex turns up, a client for adult toys like drones and enlists Cat's help as Demeter is stuck with hair dye all over her. As Cat find's out what a big deal his family is in business, she can't believe he's interested in meeting up with her.

However, she uncovers Demeter and Alex previously were together whilst she gets sacked by her as well resulting in her reluctantly going home to help her dad and step mum run their glamping business as it begins to flourish.

Then Demeter turns up there on holiday... let the revenge commence!

She comes to realize Demeter's life isn't perfect and her image on Instagram changes to the title in honor of Cat's life now with that new perspective.

I really like Sophie's books and own all of them but this one isn't my favourite unfortunately as I found myself waning in concentration throughout reading it as it wasn't as gripping as her previous novel's. I think it is just me not really able to immerse myself into the story enough and still did enjoy the more dramatic parts of the book.

It won't make me not read her future books in any way and I still love her work!

Summer With My Sister by Lucy Diamond

Polly loses her job despite success and is forced to return home from her lavish London life and moves back in with their mum and dad but memories haunt her of her brother suffering in her care...

Clara is Polly's sister with her son and daughter, Alex who's eight and Leila as well as their dog, Fred. She works one day in the reception of the medical center and can't afford much but cares so much for her little family even when bad things happen or the kids dad arrives out of the blue and things get a bit stressy.

Clara is about to see her sister isn't as perfect as she thought and maybe they are more alike when hard times come, family is always there.

Debbie's Claire's best friend who is very rich and also despite her husband being Leila's dad her life isn't all roses...

This was a fun book with so much drama in each woman's life it kept me hooked and reading on. The writing was fun and witty and drew me in to read it all in a day, many of the women are in relatable situations too.

Mad Girl by Bryony Gordon

Bryony recalls her life with her mental health and how it caused so many other issues to coincide and keep her condition a persistent problem to be solved though nothing can completely fix a mental health problem, you can improve your condition.

In the book we learn of how when she was growing up her OCD became a known condition to her by chance as her symptoms and rituals got worser over time until she and her mum first went to the doctors who tried to down play the help she needed immediately not in the future.

Over the years, we see how her parents divorce, finding love and accepting her body all created more problems piling up with bulimia, alcohol, drugs and not just the prescription kind she needed were all a factor in Bryony's health.

This book is useful if you are interested in mental health, if you too suffer with any of the conditions or want a real life read packed with truly humorous or saddening times. This is a gripping read by a brave woman.

My Sister's Wedding by Vicky Pattison

Becky is settled in a relationship with Daniel and has been since university but knows now their amazingly weird but wonderful engagement has occurred it's a time bomb until their families meet. Daniel is set to inherit a lot and has a rich upbringing whilst her family are of a less well of nature...

Her sister Lizzie however, is twenty three and out getting drunk most nights whilst being poor and struggling to get by as well as waking up in random bars.

When their families finally meet, a supposed incident occurs making Lizzie become seen as wilder and more dangerous under the influence of alcohol which is only the start of issues to come as newspaper stories and scheming Nicole Becky's future sister in law all play their part and have their say and judgement on the impending wedding.

Becky and Lizzie also can't believe it when their long vanished mum suddenly reappears and isn't to be taken at face value after she walked out on them she has heard how well off Daniel's family is and thinks all can be forgiven for the future, only Becky's not having it one bit but as Daniel hides a secret Lizzie overhears a little about things begin to sour, until Becky finds something on his phone that creates a whole new load of mess for them to deal with...

I loved this book, Vicky has some great ideas in her as every book by her has made me feel like I get her more as in how she speaks and others like her as she's so fun and out there bubbly. This book is a heartfelt one with high as lows as you can see from before, I did like it but nothing can beat All That Glitters in my mind!

It's also alike to Jill Mansell's, You and Me, Always if you enjoyed that pick this one up!

The Big Dreams Beach Hotel by Lilly Bartlett

Rosie works in a hotel where she has just celebrated three years at, however her boss has shocked them all by selling the hotel and so in transition, Rory is sent in as the hotel company from the US makes staff, restaurant and building changes.

Rosie left the USA after an experience with Chuck as she began an intense relationship with him whilst she had just planned his companies work Christmas Party. But then it effects her relationship with Digby as she would sacrifice anything for love and Chuck despite what a user he turns out to be, a Tiffany necklace broke their relationship, along with lies and Rosie was heartbroken but better off without him!

But now in Scarborough, Rory and her are getting close while she fights off the feelings reminding her of her failed relationship, can she make this work between them as he will be leaving in the coming months?

I enjoyed reading this book, even if I did think it was longer and more drawn out but I did enjoy the split past/present split narrative as we died find out all about Chuck and their past not just her life now with the odd sentence thrown in. Lilly is a new author to me and she's definitely one to watch out for new books from in the future!

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

I Found You by Lisa Jewell

Alice is in her forties, living up north after moving from her home in Brixton with her children, leaving her parents suffering Alzheimer's in full time care. She is able to run her unique map crafting business in peace by day to keep her family afloat.
Derry is her best friend she met through taking her children to school day in day out and worries for Alice when she takes in the possibly forty year old strange man she has watched sitting on the beach getting soaked by the pouring rain.

Carl is missing and Lily his new Ukranian wife is clueless how to find him when he doesn't exist on police database as reporting him missing.

Carl has no memory of who he is but goes with Alice and so becomes 'Frank', the mystery man.

Rabbit cottage has been Kirsty, Gray, Pam and Tony their mum and dad's holiday home full of happy memories year after year.
That is until stranger Mark starts hanging around Kirsty and Gray becomes suspicious of him.

Throughout the book, the story is unravelled around twenty years apart in actions to consequences to date.

Highly intoxicating reading, mysteries and questioning ahead when you pick this book up, you have to!

Lola Offline by Nicola Doherty

After Delilah makes a mistake online for all to see, she wants a fresh start somewhere new and away from all she knows so she decides to move, alone!

Now under the new name Lola, leaving all she knows behind and moving to Paris alone she meets Vee and Fletcher whilst still thinking about Jules, Nisha and Ellie, her old friends back home.

However, when students at this school find out just what was tweeted by her they react in many ways. Her new friends still like her whilst Tariq, her could become boyfriend needs space to go over things as culture and racial issues are bought into the mix...

A pleasant short read for teens, raising issues around social media backlash and how words can really hurt not just you.

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

Vlad The World's Worst Vampire by Anna Wilson

Growing up as the only young vampire in his a house, Vlad is a lonely nine year old who dreams of human life as in his favourite book series he reads secretly so his parents won't find out as they being vampire's dislike humans. Vlad also struggles to learn to fly as a bat which is an important lesson his family wants him to achieve.

After Vlad dares go out in sunlight, he ventures to a school like in his favorite books and meets Mixzie a girl who accepts him as her new best friend. He finds he fits in well at the school with everyone except bully Boz who doesn't believe anything about Vlad and growing up on Transylvania.

Yet when Lizzie ends up at his house he better hope no one see's her as she's a dreaded human his parents won't want to meet!

This is a really fun and imaginative book for kids. I GRE up watching Young Dracula and to me this would be super alike that series being humorous to read. Anna is a beloved author and her other animal works are also the same style of writing so if you check any of her books out you for sure won't be disappointed!

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!