The Forget Me Not Flower Shop by Tracy Corbett

A chance meeting happens when Evie calls in a random plumber, Scott to deal with their boiler at her flower shop, she doesn't expect any of what happens next as life takes a lot of twists...

Evie along with Saffy run The Forget Me Not flower shop together and Evie looks into buying it from the overseas owner thanks to a helpful customer. Laura runs a bridal shop where she send customers to get flowers from Evie's shop as they are friends not just in business.

Scott is a plumber who looks after his disabled mum and his nephew Ben as his sister works abroad. He often has to cancel clients from his plumbing jobs due to care needs for his mum.
Ben has a girlfriend called Amy whose plan to get married at their ages of both being eighteen but put up a good fight to both sets of guardians. Patricia, Amy's mum knows Martin, Laura's ex husband to be and so all their lives collide by chance and through each other.

Drama ensues the whole way through this book with chick lit classic drama of divorce, marriage and love taking off and causing a classic case of I can't put this damn book down for one second, it's so good! I really loved Evie and Ben and Amy mostly for their fun yet mature in the teens cases parts of their personalities as it created not just vibrance but memorable characters you will remember for a long time!

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

Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen

Sydney is a young girl in her brother's broken shadow, never in trouble but massively sheltered from life by her parents because of his actions she begins to rebel and just be herself unapologetically.

Peyton, Sydney's brother is sentenced for a drink driving accident after he originally started doing drugs and breaking and entering it spiralled until he was put into jail long term after disabling a young boy when he hit his bike.

Ames, Peyton's best friend from a narcotics anonymous group is left to look out for Sydney for Peyton only he's a very creepy guy and not just Sydney but Layla her new friend from the pizza parlour she goes to notices it as well.

Layla's brother, Mac, becomes close to Sydney and shares with her his past weight issues and his self belief in Saint's with a necklace he wears. He later passes on another one to Sydney to keep her hopeful of change to come for the better after moving from private school to Layla and Mac's school she feels like she fits in better and finds herself having masses of fun until her parents try to stop her going out to concerts.

Her mum is a very Peyton only focused character and misses all the good Sydney does meanwhile when Ames stays and he and Sydney are alone, things get tense as things come to ahead just what will Ames do...

A very good book, not my favourite Sarah Dessen but nevertheless a great read about teenage life and being in the shadow of a sibling.

How To Make A Wish by Ashley Herring Blake

Grace has come back from a holiday to find that her mum has uprooted their home and moved in with her latest guy.
But the craziest thing is that her ex boyfriend is now her kind of step brother for however long the relationship plays out for.
Plus his dad is totally over the top in physical affection of her mother, including in front of the teens.

Grace's friend Luca, lives with his mum and they both run and work in their diner. Through Luca, Grace is told of a girl called Eva, her mum has passed away and is coming to stay for a bit with him and his mum.

When Grace later finds herself on a secluded beach, she meets a girl sobbing, sat on the sand eating peanut butter alone. The girl is Eva. Thus ensues a fast turn of events consisting of Eva sneaking into Grace's room at night and hanging out together at the top of the lighthouse.

Throughout the book, we learnt of Grace's mum and the actions she takes being extremely wrong and dangerous to others around her. She seems very switched off in parts yet Grace and Eva are there to help her as they have to be. The two girls have their passions and hopes to achieve their goals of Grace being a Pianist professionally and Eva a ballet dancer professionally just like her mother was.

The book also had strong relationship lines around friendship, lesbian/bisexual characters and teenage behaviour in general.

In this book, I really didn't like the main character's mum, she came across as being trying and needy over attention and her male relations. Some of the things she came out with were a little on the edge of what you should discuss with your daughter in real life anyway. However, we do discover the issues surrounding her character like consuming too much alcohol and excessive intake of it and raising a young baby on your own after her husband died in war and she does face up to it.

Overall it was a great book about finding the true you in career hopes and in love. Thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

Mr 60% by Clete Barrett Smith

Matt barely scrapes by at school, lives in a trailer park with his uncle who has a lot of medical issues and Matt is also often in trouble at school because of his actions.

His behaviour and grades land him in the Helping Hands group helping out with community tasks as he participates delivering books to the hospital with Amanda a girl who is a member of Helping Hands. With her, he finds a friend and confidant about his uncle's condition and the worse he gets as the cancer slowly drains him and Matt needs support as he faces a big life change.

This book was a work which tested me at times as I hate the idea of drug abuse or misuse, but we see the side of that which is never fully discussed in real life as it may be extremely necessary to people unable to get proper healthcare. Thus, we see Matt in a better light of getting by to help a dying relative which anyone would try to help ease their pain. A moving book that proves friendship can help in the worst of times.

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

Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley

Solomon is a unique sixteen year old who suffers with agoraphobia and severe panic attacks. He can't leave his house and fears dying yet water makes him calm. He hasn't left his house in three years until events unfold in the book.

Lisa takes an interest in Solomon after her dentist is actually his mum and she asks after him as well as writing him a letter as feels she could help him get better, she too has suffered with her mental health, she also wants to study to be a therapist in college and so uses real technique's she's looked up to try and help Solomon fear the outside less.

Lisa gets her boyfriend on side to her helping him as he shares Solomon's love of Star Trek Next Generation and he finds out that Solomon is actually an ok guy.

Solomon and Lisa grow a friendship after she visits his house and he even comes out as gay to her before anyone else.
However, I saw what was coming ahead despite never having read any blurb online about the book and I took a guess that Lisa's boyfriend would start hanging round Solomon more and more until suddenly the trio end up threatened from their own closeness.

I did enjoy the book but unfortunately, being predictable to me left it just short of what I would call stellar, that being said, it is still worth a read!

Tone Deaf by Olivia Rivers

Ali may be deaf, but at a Tone Deaf concert due to her friend Avery wanting to win the backstage pass to meet the singer of the band, Jace Beckett she soon fingers herself thrown into the experience as an ex performer and hopeful musician previously herself.

However, he gives her the middle finger and Ali is shocked at what a horrible guy he is just because she's deaf. We later fins out it is the date of his mother's death six years ago it happened now and so he's struggling but it's no excuse for treating anyone the way he did.

Ali's dad is an abusive drunk despite being a retired police chief and so when Jace agrees to meet her and make it up to her for his reaction before, he also promises to give her a sum of money which would allow her to escape the abusive life she's trapped in ever since her mum passed away.

Yet Have knows her pain and agrees that she can't go back, she stays with the band hoping to get to New York and start a new life for herself away from it all. Yet she ends up on the news as missing while she grows closer to Jace and their relationship blooms. Also whilst travelling with the guys she handles his social media on the tour as they perform and let's Avery know she's fine.

Just what will happen to her as her father can't let her go...

I was a bit bored with this one, purely because a lot of the story happens solely on the tour bus. I did expect her to make it to New York and then be found by her dad. That wasn't the case and instead was pleasantly surprised by the ending and seeing hope alight for the girls.

Sunshine Is Forever by Kyle T Cowan

Hunter is depressed and so he goes off to a camp where they help through therapy to work on the teens and their history.

Whilst at camp, he meets Corrine a very out there, confident girl who he finds himself in a form of relationship with despite relationships being banned at camp. Although she wants to break them free, just as maybe he feels the camp could possibly benefit him...

We learn during the book of the turmoil he feels of guilt by his parents and everyone else he thinks, blaming him for not being able to prevent a harrowing incident occurring to his sister.

This book was a really good read for how complex depression can be due to trauma and the therapy mixed with camp is obviously used to show a case of one method of escapism and treatment combined to try and prevent suicide. The language was raw and honest but could trigger people if effected by depression and suicide themselves.

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

Say Her Name by James Dawson

A boarding school holds a deep secret, a group of girls known as The Elites along with Naya and Bobbie, two other students at the school and two boys all start messing with Bloody Mary one night after telling ghost stories.

What immediately follows over the next five days is a series of odd events leading Bobbie to solve the mystery as Mary keeps appearing around in reflective surfaces trying to pass through and tell her story.

As Sadie disappears first from the school eventually more of them disappear to solve just what Mary wants after they summoned her.

There is involvement of the boarding school rooted into the story with past pupil's and teachers making it an engrossing story which is just the right amount of scary to read before bed still as I did! It was a great creepy tale with the Scooby doo style investigative fun to keep you reading on.

By The Time You Read This I'll Be Dead by Julie Ann Peters

Set over twenty three days, we learn of how suicidal Daelyn signs up to Through The Light, a website where people discuss their trauma's leading them to their suicide attempts. She also gets graphic into a list of ways to suicide she creates during the count down till her next attempt at the end of the twenty three days.

For Daelyn, we learn of the bullying from school for her size as she was classed as obese and so the girls made fun of and excluded her. She was also physically assaulted by a gang of boys at her last school. She also remains mute and tells the woes of going away to fat camp.

Now, at a new school, very quiet and withdrawn she hangs around or is followed a lot of the time by Santana a goth/alternative guy who has a pet rat who is persistent in getting to talk with her. He also confides in her about his own battle - cancer. He's also preparing a memoir video which he asks her to watch.

I thought this book was very intriguing and keeps you guessing obviously as to if she's going to commit suicide or not, get with the guy, or not as well as just what led her to this point in time. Sometimes it did seem a big dragging but it is a short read over all.

Not If I See You First by Eric Lindstrom

Parker is a blind girl who's navigating her life after her dad's death, this caused her aunt and her family to move in with her to help out after her mum caused the car crash which blinded her and she's now also gone.

So when her friends and especially Sarah her very best friend find out that Scott is hanging around their school again Parker finds herself on edge after what she felt for him before he caused an incident.

Meanwhile she's happy with Jason, another guy at school that she also likes and she met recently when shopping and he helped her. He also supports her for her running passion which he also has a share of.

I did enjoy this book but lost interest as Scott came into it more and it wasn't clear what the heck was happening with him and Parker. It is worth a read as Parker is a great strong character with being blind and loving to run not letting her passions get lost.

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

Maddie is allergic to the world, confined to her house with her mum and nurse, Carla. Until the boy next door moves in and catches her eye and he becomes a huge focus of her attention.

As they talk on IM and see each other through their room windows, eventually she sways Carla to allow him into the house so long as they stay on separate sides of the room, the day room filled with fake trees and makes their lives seem more normalized than they are.

It's there that they touch, kiss and practice handstands together happily.

Yet nothing good lasts forever, heartbroken by her mum finding out and sacking Carla, Maddie finds herself lost a lot more as she watches Oli's life carry on from her window as his father's alcohol abuse gets a lot, lot worse.

As she copes with losing Oli and having a horrible new nurse she makes a drastic plan which leads to her being admitted to hospital where she finds out the truth about herself...

Wow, the hype is totally worth it for this one, I was hooked and read it in one go unable to put it down. The condition Maddie suffers from made me want to read on as she and I believed her in grave danger, just don't take the situations at face value...

Under My Skin by Laura Diamond

Adam has heart failure and needs a transplant, a British boy in America, he has travelled a long way for a second chance at life.
He hides his pains and comes across as depressed to his parents.

Darby and Daniel are twins until an argument sees Daniel pass away and his organs harvested and given to donor of which I'm sure you can guess.

Through their shared therapist, slowly Darby and Adam come to realise that as they grow closer, Dr Shaw has made each of them realise just who's heart has saved Daniel despite his apparent suicide wish after an accident occurs.

Daniel's medication also starts to fault and his heart reacts meanwhile Darby's home life is tense and emotionally draining for her to cope with, so maybe Adam is worth dreaming of still?

It was such a good read about two people who meet partially by chance in the hospital and find they're impacted by events which evolved there and through sharing doctors, therapist etc.
I do think the apparent psychosis that Adam suffers at a time in the book could've been better explained as I felt it suddenly shifted away from his believing Dr Shaw was deliberately trying to harm him too fast.

By Your Side by Kasie West

Trapped in the library over night believing her friends Jeff, Lisa or Dallin will remember and come back for her, they don't. That's until Dax finds her also in there, Autumn ends up locked in with him for three days until she has a bad anxiety attack after she hears the local news of her friends being in a car accident. She would also have been in the car had she not been trapped and frets over her parents panicking that she's presumably dead when she wasn't even there.

She really likes Jeff who was driving the car in the accident but after he's in a coma, his best friend Dallin warns her not to mess him around as he can see she's also battling with feelings for Dax after she gets him to trust her about his drug addicted mum and him being taken into care.

The book was a sweet read and I have to say very interesting at being trapped in the library with complete opposite character types which makes a lovely match as they truly brought out the best in each other.

You and Me, Always by Jill Mansell

Since Alice's mum passed away of cancer when she was little, Coral her mum's best friend brought her up alongside her now sadly dead husband, Nick.

Alice's mum Jo had written her a series of letters to reach her on set birthday's only this year in the final one for her twenty fifth, the love of her mum's life's surname is finally mentioned as the bracelet he gave her mum is now left to Alice.

Alice and her friend Patsy along with her younger brother, Dan care for Alice and don't want her to get hurt but are so happy for her when he does respond to Alice's letter and comes to meet her, Declan is as thrilled to meet them all as he was to meet her mum years ago. He also catches the eye of Coral who can't believe it's a real crush she's feeling and goes into denial but she can't fight those feelings...

There's also the factor that by chance, Alice is dating Eddie Tessler a film star. Yet when media get hold of her story and her father sells his lies they end up involved in a whole new load of drama.

It was so so so much better than I anticipated, having struggled to get into this book I really struggled on and loved it by the end. The characters are so quirky, the places chaotic or quaint in description as well as the storylines in the book being so explosive with drama, lies and betrayal.

The One We Fell In Love With by Paige Toon

When Angus moved in next door to identical blonde haired, green eyed triplets, he finds himself involved in varying ways with all of them over the years that follow.

Phoebe is adventurous and loves France, the promise of Remy being there still keeps her going back despite her impending marriage to Angus...

Rose is a nurse who lives away in London whom always had a crush on Angus whilst he went out with Phoebe, now she wants a life change and returning home to live with Angus as friends whilst working at a bakery with Toby, a younger guy whom she catches the eye of...

Eliza is a musician and waitress whom met Angus a year before he moved in next door at a skate park and fancied him, they have an ongoing attraction over the years...

This book was good and I really liked the book involving triplets with one guy liking them all in varying ways even though it did seem a bit odd that he could like or love them all! Their story had highs and lows just like real life even though I had predicted that Phoebe would end up how she did because of her chosen lifestyle.

Curves, Kisses and Chocolate Ice Cream by Sue Watson

Dani is an hilarious approaching forty year old who works with Marco a great cake maker unfortunately for her as she battles to lose weight throughout this book.

Dani returned to Appledore in Devon after fleeing to London years before as her nineteen year old self was broken hearted by the cad, Jude she was in love with.

The cafe she works in is alive with characters of all ages and Karla her beat friend is also staying with her right now which is great as she spurs her on in now deteriorating from her diet plans to be slim and trim by her birthday as she dreams of being!

As Dani battles the gym environment quite literally head on, am array of catastrophes in there result in Chris, a member of staff getting to know her rather well. He offers her personal training on the deal she doesn't quit and works with him for twelve weeks, she agrees and her life starts to change.

Through the book, we learn of Dani's insecurities being spurred on by her alcoholic mum who existed solely on a gin diet, calling Dani fat and not feeding her properly either. Her dad had left her mum and so she was heartbroken as a young child growing up in a tough situation all round as she was bullied at school too.

As her birthday approaches, a disastrous newspaper article printed,,she finds Jude reappearing in her life as well as Alex, a regular gym bunny appearing too close to Chris leaving her a little heartbroken until her birthday wish which may come true...

I devoured this book quicker than Dani could all her ice creams for sure I was hooked, hilarious and Miranda style Dani was a joy to read about and her story is so funny but probably relatable to some girls out there who read this book. Light hearted and beach perfect this is a summer read you definitely need!

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

Amelia Fang and The Barbaric Ball by Laura Ellen Anderson

Set in Nocturnia, Amelia and the rest of the Fang family are preparing to host the latest Barbaric ball the only annual event in Nocturnal only this time, the king and prince are attending too.

Ahead of time Amelia has to show the prince around her school where he acts very stuffily towards them all and when he has dinner with the whole family pre barbaric ball, he acts entitled and ends up taking Amelia's Squashy, her friend!

Amelia sets off determined to retrieve Squashy away from the awful prince but can she and will she succeeded and what is wrong with the prince to make him so awful?

The book was wonderful, I hated the prince as you should and loved Amelia and her spooky friend. May I say the language and phrases in the book were genius for example a diephone and Great British Carve off for example made me laugh. The drawings were great too with a lot of detail for each character with elaborate costumes for the cast of the book. The deep issue in the book a round friends and parents worked nicely in the last half of the book when Amelia figures things out as the plot develops on and was actually a great twist as well as truthful in how we act to people as we develop relationships.

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

The Cotswold's Cookery Club Italy by Alice Ross

Connie sets up a cookery club which joins three women, Melody, Kate and Eleanor to her whilst looking after her best friends house and greyhound for her as she travels to Australia to holiday with her husband.

Connie is relishing her success with her cookery club after breaking up with her ex Charles after finding him cheating on her and finding out it had been going on for months!

Yet in the Cotswold's, two men catch her eye, Max Templeton who nearly runs her over! As well as decorator Liam who is working on the house whilst Connie looks after it. Yet after a few dates and something more with one the other's home life comes to light and suddenly Connie finds herself feeling very wanted indeed!

The cookery club's theme throughout the book is Italian as they all take turns in hosting a night each with the same theme to keep it fair before they will eventually switch.

This was a really nice summer read which I found myself really enjoying as the story developed at a nice flowing pace where as a lot of chick lit can get straight into the main story hardly with any dearly on context which this does give us. The story was lovely too and great to see Connie can move on from flipping Charles the cheat! Her parents were fun too and her mum reminded me of TV show character of Miranda's mum as she can't wait to marry her daughter off to a successful man!

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

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

Five years since her mum passed away from ovarian cancer, Andie is in the shadow's to her dad's congressman life despite being under investigation and not currently in the running.

When a chance meeting with a dog crosses her path with Clark, she finds her life shifting as she chances taking on a job advert with no description and becomes a dog walker for the summer, finding herself falling into it with a growing passion and growing love as Clark is one of her clients!

As relationships in her friend's lives fall apart it hits her hard and after an argument with her father he realises family must come first despite him distracting himself for so long, he can't run away from being a father yet he embraces Clark and Andie's relationship as he finds out Clark is a very successful author and a genuine nice guy maybe he can help heal the father daughter relationship too.

A great summer read, I found hard to get into but after a few chapters and perseverance, it paid off as I became immersed into Andie's life and how strong she is facing all she does with her parents, broken set life plans and trying something completely out of her comfort zone for once by chance. The dog's and the friends she makes from them show how crutial pets are in lives and how they can unknowingly help someone so much!

Maybe Not by Colleen Hoover

In this book set around the time before and during Sydney's arrival in their life and from Warren's perspective. Warren has just met Bridgette his fellow roommate who is very standoffish and infuriating for him to be around as he not only finds her incredibly hot, they're battling each other in a brutal prank war which results in their bad attitudes between themselves.

Bridgette is a strong female and has life experience that made her that way and she doesn't give in easy to Warren's pursuit of her yet pretty soon their attraction becomes heated and sexual and they can't turn away from it no more, the heart wants what it wants after all.

I really enjoyed knowing more about the two characters that were a big part of Maybe Someday and from Warren's perspective seeing he wasn't just playing with Bridgette after all but really deeply cared for her.

Losing Hope: A novel by Colleen Hoover

This is the same story as in Hopeless only from Holder's point of view on his sister's suicide and finding Hope.

As he writes letters to his sister in an old notebook of hers he documents life and his feelings day to day pretty much as he tries to understand what happened to his sister to cause her to commit suicide.

He also learns from a letter she left behind to him about the cause of her deep pain and how his family and his friend Hope fell apart for the one simple reason of a broken and selfish man.

This book is more around his sister's story and obviously his feelings as he meets Sky and understands Karen's role in her life over the years since she was taken. It was pain to see how much all the children and both families were broken by the events that took place but Sky and Holder in a way restore some Hope into their lives as a couple together, strong.

Once again it was a great and dramatic read with a fantastic plot full of twists! I loved Losing Hope and Hopeless and suggest you read them!

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

Starting public school brings joy to sheltered homeschooled Sky, as she meets Breckin a gay wannabe Broadway star who's also adopted and she copes without best friend Six being around.

She doesn't bank on meeting Holder, a bad boy know for getting into fights who's lost his sister recently to suicide linked to her past, yet the two find a chance meeting changes both their lives for the worst and better.

Karen adopted Sky but all is not as it seems, as Sky and Holder get closer, Sky can't cope with her flashbacks and realises her life may just have been based on lies...

Yet again outstanding plot twists from Colleen with a dramatically heart breaking and mending detailed read about a tragedy with a partial resolution.