South of Sunshine by Dana Elmendorf

What is Kaycee willing to risk for the sake of love?
And what will she risk for acceptance?
In Sunshine, Tennessee, the main event in town is Friday night football, the biggest party of the year is held in a field filled with pickup trucks, and church attendance is mandatory. For Kaycee Jean McCoy, life in Sunshine means dating guys she has no interest in, saying only “yes, ma’am” when the local bigots gossip at her mom’s cosmetics salon, and avoiding certain girls at all costs. Girls like Bren Dawson.

Unlike Kaycee, Bren doesn’t really conceal who she is. But as the cool, worldly new girl, nobody at school seems to give her any trouble. Maybe there’s no harm if Kaycee gets closer to her too, as long as she can keep that part of her life a secret, especially from her family and her best friend. But the more serious things get with Bren, the harder it is to hide from everyone else. Kaycee knows Sunshine has a darker side for people like her, and she’s risking everything for the chance to truly be herself.

First up, I don't read much LGBT books. Not that I avoid them, I just don't seem to pick them up as often. Which maybe says something about their availability rather than my taste but I digress. The point is, I didn't have expectations of this story other than a standard romance: sweet, funny, maybe a bit forbidden or complicated, but ultimately a happy ending. And South of Sunshine was all of that but with added complicated.

Kaycee hasn't even admitted to herself that she's gay; she is understandably scared of the reaction and the fall back in her town and especially her conservative mother. And so far she's been doing a decent job of denying that part of herself until she can escape, until new girl Bren turns up. Gorgeous, sporty and very free-spirited, Bren is exactly who Kaycee should be careful of but she can't help but be drawn to her. I really liked their initial romance, it was sweet and slow and opened up a part of Kaycee that she had been denying, which isn't healthy or fair. 

The other side of it was surprisingly dangerous. The towns people were so very ignorant, or maybe I'm just very open minded; reminded me of a great quote on twitter, from Juno Dawson: 'smoosh who you want to smoosh' and I really do believe it's that simple! But clearly these backwater folks didn't and it was just heartbreaking to see them affect Kaycee and Bren. 

After the dramatic fallout where Kaycee's lies and fear caught up with her, it was a nice surprise to have such a hopeful ending. I mean, obviously things aren't going to change overnight but it was so sweet to see that Kaycee wasn't as along as she thought, nor that our faith in humanity was totally crushed. All in all, a very sweet first love story with a not-so-subtle message of the fear and hatred that fuels what should be a simple debate: love equals love. 

Published 1st April 2016 by Albert Whitman. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

What if everything you set yourself up to be was wrong?

Frances has always been a study machine with one goal, elite university. Nothing will stand in her way; not friends, not a guilty secret – not even the person she is on the inside.

But when Frances meets Aled, the shy genius behind her favourite podcast, she discovers a new freedom. He unlocks the door to Real Frances and for the first time she experiences true friendship, unafraid to be herself. Then the podcast goes viral and the fragile trust between them is broken.

Caught between who she was and who she longs to be, Frances’ dreams come crashing down. Suffocating with guilt, she knows that she has to confront her past…
She has to confess why Carys disappeared…

Meanwhile at uni, Aled is alone, fighting even darker secrets.

It’s only by facing up to your fears that you can overcome them. And it’s only by being your true self that you can find happiness.

Frances is going to need every bit of courage she has.

I had high hopes for Oseman's second novel. I'll admit that I didn't entirely get the hype for Solitaire but I did like it and her writing style, so was looking forward to what she could come up with next. And what she did was incredible!


Radio Silence tells of Fran, a studious and quiet girl at school but mad and bright at home. She was really great, very easy to like, with her crazy patterned leggings and giant jumpers, and her fangirl obsession with a fringe podcast. By a weird twist of fate, Fran meets the genius behind Radio Silence and finds a best friend in Aled. The two of them were so cute, so perfect together but with no romantic feelings; it was one of the great portrayal of male/female friendships I've ever seen. They were perfect together and definitely in love but platonically.


What I especially loved about this story was this incredible diversity without being pushy about it. The mad bunch of characters were all weird or had their quirks or their loves but that's just the way life is, no one is the same and it wasn't shoved down our throat that they were all different, it just... was. And I loved that.


Along with the amazing diversity was the realistic portrayal of school; I thought it really captured the need to succeed in school and exams, but of course there is more to life than that. Fran, as a studious bookworm who flies through exams, has always used this to mark her success but its her art that she really feels passionate about. And then there's Raine, a school friend who completely tanks exams but can't do better and the school is no help for her deciding her next step.


I absolutely adored this, I cannot sing its praises enough. With great characters, extra content with the podcast transcripts, and a realistic and relatable subject, I think Radio Silence had just flown to the top of my all time favourites.

Published 25th February 2016 by Harper Collins. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Midnight Bites by Rachel Caine

MIDNIGHT BITES, the new Morganville Vampires short story anthology! It will bring together almost everything that I've written in short form about Morganville ... though I did leave out some of the original "diary" entries that appeared on an earlier version of the Morganville website, simply because they were just scenes and not stories, and were generally really short snippets. This is all short fiction, and it's been carefully organized into the timeline, so you can read from the earliest adventures (some of which belong to vampires) all the way through some post-Daylighters goodies.
MIDNIGHT BITES includes a total of more than 50,000 words of brand new content, which makes me very happy indeed (and I hope will also make you happy, too). From stories featuring our favorite bunny-slipper-wearing mad scientist to a mystery solved by police chief Hannah Moses, I think you'll find this is a diverse group of stories that will shine a little more light in the murkiest corners of Morganville.


More stories from one of my favourite series? Yes please! A mix of origin stories and in-between extracts, Midnight Bites offers more to Morganville. Here we see something from all our favourites: stories from Myrnin's and Amelie's enigmatic point of view, a glimpse into the police department with Hannah Mosses and Richard Morrell, and some Michael and Shane complicated bromance.


I loved all of this, it was funny and dangerous and everything I would expect from Morganville. Just about anything extra from this town I would love to hear about, but I especially liked the perspective from other side characters, like Amelie, Hannah and Eve. Yeah, definitely Eve, she's just a little bit crazy but it's so much fun inside her head!


As well as before and during the main series, we also had a few stories set post-Daylighters, which just goes to show how durable and insane this town is. Hilarious, sweet and heart-pounding dangerous, this is a must for any fan.


Published 1st March 2016 by Alison and Busby.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

'To look almost pretty, is an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been looking plain the first fifteen years of her life, than a beauty from her cradle can ever receive'

During an eventful season at Bath, young, naïve Catherine Morland experiences the joys of fashionable society for the first time. She is delighted with her new acquaintances: flirtatious Isabella, who shares Catherine's love of Gothic romance and horror, and sophisticated Henry and Eleanor Tilney, who invite her to their father's mysterious house, Northanger Abbey. There, her imagination influenced by novels of sensation and intrigue, Catherine imagines terrible crimes committed by General Tilney. With its broad comedy and irrepressible heroine, this is the most youthful and optimistic of Jane Austen's works.

This is still the only Austen book I've read all the way through - even though it's mocking the Gothic, still love the naïve heroine, the dark castles, the foreboding father and all that come with the genre.


Catherine Morland is new to society and goes to Bath with friends of the family to be introduced. There she encounters a variety of people she's never had to face before; new friends, male attention, money-grabbing so and so's! She is very naïve, it's just insane. She cannot believe that new friend Isabella would ever say or do anything to hurt her or her family; her imagination goes wild when she learns of Mr Tilney's mother; and she desperately wants to believe the best in everyone she meets, even when they give her reason to think otherwise. But she's young and silly and so caught up Gothic novels that she can't see what's in front of her.


Reading it for what is probably the third time, I still love this book. It's definitely witty and clever, even if that's just Mr Tilney, and it satirizes the Gothic genre and pulls some reality back into our heroine. It is, of course, a romance, and Mr Tilney's wooing of Catherine is so sweet and so very typical Austen, you can't help but love it. I'm glad I re-read this, I think reading post-university has helped me see it with fresh eyes, and next up for the Classic's Challenge is the very-Austen Pride and Prejudice.


Published 29th November 2012 by Penguin. First published December 1817.

Blog Tour: Crush by Eve Ainsworth

Love hurts ... but should it hurt this much? Reeling from her mum's sudden departure, Anna finds the comfort she needs in her blossoming relationship with Will. He's handsome and loving, everything Anna has always dreamt of. He's also moody and unpredictable, pushing her away from her friends, her music. He wants her to be his and his alone. He wants her to be perfect. Anna's world is closing in. But threatening everything is a dark secret that not even Will can control... Eve Ainsworth's gripping second novel is a pitch-perfect exploration of love at its most powerful, addictive and destructive.

I have heard great things about Ainsworth's writing, how powerful it is, and honest. And while I really wanted to try it, I was a little nervous. I get probably way too invested in characters so when there's a story specifically on domestic abuse, it's going to hurt. And it did but it was so good, so very insightful and brutally honest, that I did really like it.

This was a toxic relationship, right from the start. It started off quite subtle, like the way he wanted her to style her hair, then got progressively worse, telling her what to eat, how to do her make-up, then grabbing her arm and her hair. As Will can't quite control his anger, it shows how abuse can start and snowball into something unrecognizable. Anna was twisted to Will's way of thinking, she didn't want to make him angry because he loved her, right?

With Will's little journal entries, we saw inside his head and sort of understood his reasoning; he had been abused by his older brother, and his mother was a wreck, his father absent, and he just wanted something he could control. It was still awful, of course, but somehow by trying to understand it, it made it a bit more bearable, as Will was a victim too. Not that that excuses his behavior, it just makes it more understandable. At least from my perspective.

All in all, a very tough story that dealt with abuse the best way it could, be laying it all out as something to be identified and talking about it openly.

Published 3rd March 2016 by Scholastic. Thank you to the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Island by Olivia Levez

Frances is alone on a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. She has to find water and food. She has to survive. And when she is there she also thinks about the past. The things that she did before. The things that made her a monster. Nothing is easy. Survival is hard and so is being honest about the past. Frances is a survivor however, and with the help of the only other crash survivor, she sees that the future is worth fighting for.

Fran is a teenage delinquent, on her way to a team building course with other trouble makers when their plane goes down in the Indian ocean. Told in alternate min chapters, past and present mixed together as all Fran can do is dwell on the past and what got her here.


Fran was sometimes difficult to like but she has struggled through and lashes out when she's angry and shrinks back into herself when she's scared. Plus she has had a load of crap happen to her, especially in her home life with a rubbish mother, an awful mum's-boyfriend but a great little brother. On the island, Fran has literally no survival skills but, come on, who does? But she is pretty smart and learns to build a shelter and crack coconuts and fish. And then a dog turns up, and the dog leads her to another survivor.


This took me by surprise. I was worried I wouldn't be able to comfortably read it as the prose and mini chapters were so disjointed but it worked, really well. We saw what made Fran tick and what, exactly, bought her here and how much horrible stuff she's had to put up with. Fran had a tough exterior but seeing her past and inside her head, it was hard not to feel for her. All in all, a rather surprising read with interesting characters and character studies.

Published 3rd march 2016 by OneWorld Publications. Thank you to the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Weekly Highlights: the 'March TBR' edition

Weekly Highlights is a feature borrowed from Faye of A Daydreamer's Thoughts, where I get to highlight my posts of the week, show you my new books and talk about bookish things!

Jeez, it's March already? I've been at the new job a month now and I am really loving it! But with all the extra hours, my reading has suffered quite a bit, as well as the attention my blog is getting, so I apologise for that but I'm trying my hardest to find a new balance. But you know me, I still carry a book around everywhere anyway!

On The Blog

Review of Rudy Red trilogy by Kirstin Gier (4 stars)

Review of Fallout by Gwenda Bond (4 stars)

Currently Reading

Crush by Eve Ainsworth - it's a bit difficult to read but it's very interesting to see how she has portrayed such a horrible relationship. I'm hoping to finish it today and go on to Midnight Bites, details below.

On My Bookshelf

Midnight Bites by Rachel Caine

MIDNIGHT BITES includes a total of more than 50,000 words of brand new content, which makes me very happy indeed (and I hope will also make you happy, too). From stories featuring our favorite bunny-slipper-wearing mad scientist to a mystery solved by police chief Hannah Moses, I think you'll find this is a diverse group of stories that will shine a little more light in the murkiest corners of Morganville. 

The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury

Ever since her brother Lief disappeared, Errin's life has gone from bad to worse. Not only must she care for her sick mother, she has to scrape together rent money by selling illegal herbal cures. But none of that compares to the threat of the vengeful Sleeping Prince whom the Queen just awoke from his enchanted sleep.

When her village is evacuated as part of the war against the Sleeping Prince, Errin is left desperate and homeless. The only person she can turn to is the mysterious Silas, a young man who buys deadly poisons from Errin, but won't reveal why he needs them. Silas promises to help her, but when he vanishes, Errin must journey across a kingdom on the brink of war to seek another way to save her mother and herself. But what she finds shatters everything she believed about her world, and with the Sleeping Prince drawing nearer, Errin must make a heartbreaking choice that could affect the whole kingdom. 

This and Midnight Bites I spotted in Waterstones and couldn't resist! I also picked up The Sin Eater's Daughter as I don't own a copy. Midnight Bites I have been waiting for ages for so yeah, reading asap! 

The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Forbidden to leave her island, Isabella Riosse dreams of the faraway lands her father once mapped.

When her closest friend disappears into the island’s Forgotten Territories, she volunteers to guide the search. As a cartographer’s daughter, she’s equipped with elaborate ink maps and knowledge of the stars, and is eager to navigate the island’s forgotten heart.

But the world beyond the walls is a monster-filled wasteland – and beneath the dry rivers and smoking mountains, a legendary fire demon is stirring from its sleep. Soon, following her map, her heart and an ancient myth, Isabella discovers the true end of her journey: to save the island itself.

Gorgeously wrapped and presented, this might sneak to the top of my TBR. Thank you Chicken House!

A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab

Kell is one of the last Travelers—rare magicians who choose a parallel universe to visit.

Grey London is dirty, boring, lacks magic, ruled by mad King George. Red London is where life and magic are revered, and the Maresh Dynasty presides over a flourishing empire. White London is ruled by whoever has murdered their way to the throne. People fight to control magic, and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. Once there was Black London - but no one speaks of that now.

Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, personal ambassador and adopted Prince of Red London, carrying the monthly correspondences between royals of each London. Unofficially, Kell smuggles for those willing to pay for even a glimpse of a world they’ll never see. This dangerous hobby sets him up for accidental treason. Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs afoul of Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She robs him, saves him from a dangerous enemy, then forces him to another world for her 'proper adventure'.

But perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, Kell and Lila will first need to stay alive — trickier than they hoped. 

This was 99p on Kindle and I couldn't resist.

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman
What if everything you set yourself up to be was wrong?

Frances has always been a study machine with one goal, elite university. Nothing will stand in her way; not friends, not a guilty secret – not even the person she is on the inside.

But when Frances meets Aled, the shy genius behind her favourite podcast, she discovers a new freedom. He unlocks the door to Real Frances and for the first time she experiences true friendship, unafraid to be herself. Then the podcast goes viral and the fragile trust between them is broken.

Caught between who she was and who she longs to be, Frances’ dreams come crashing down. Suffocating with guilt, she knows that she has to confront her past…
She has to confess why Carys disappeared…

Meanwhile at uni, Aled is alone, fighting even darker secrets.

It’s only by facing up to your fears that you can overcome them. And it’s only by being your true self that you can find happiness.

Frances is going to need every bit of courage she has.

Ahh, I am so excited about this, I loved Solitaire and I can't wait to see how Oseman's writing as progressed. Thank you Harper Collins and Netgalley!

March TBR

Apart from the above, which I'm hoping to get to, I also have the Classics Challenge, which this month will be Pride and Prejudice. Plus a few review books: Love Song, South of Sunshine and The Appearance of Annie Van Sinderen. I'm honestly not sure how this is going to go, as with the new job reading hasn't happened much, so review books are being put at the top of the list. 

Fallout by Gwenda Bond

Lois Lane is starting a new life in Metropolis. An Army brat, Lois has lived all over—and seen all kinds of things. (Some of them defy explanation, like the near-disaster she witnessed in Kansas in the middle of one night.) But now her family is putting down roots in the big city, and Lois is determined to fit in. Stay quiet. Fly straight. As soon as she steps into her new high school, though, she can see it won’t be that easy. A group known as the Warheads is making life miserable for another girl at school. They’re messing with her mind, somehow, via the high-tech immersive videogame they all play. Not cool. Armed with her wit and her new snazzy job as a reporter, Lois has her sights set on solving this mystery. But sometimes it’s all a bit much. Thank goodness for her maybe-more-than-a friend, a guy she knows only by his screenname, SmallvilleGuy. 

So, Superman is not my favourite hero but I am all about the superheroes at the moment and I am especially interested in Superman's not-so-secret partner Lois Lane's past. I don't know much about Superman's backstory apart from what I can vaguely remember from watching Smallville and I know even less about Lois's so seeing her as a high school student and a budding reporter was really cool.

This is just the latest in a long list of high school Lois has been to so she's not expecting anything amazing to make Metropolis seem any more special. Until she has a run-in with the Warheads, a creepy group of uniformed teens who finish each other's sentences and play way too much video games. Lois and her father saw something unexplainable years ago so she's aware of the strange possibilities, so when mind-melding and mild telepathy was apparently used, she didn't shrug it off as impossible. Which is lucky because some students are getting terrorised by the group, having their heads messed with, both literally and metaphorically. And if there's one thing Lois doesn't like, its bullies.

I really enjoyed this, I was excited to learn more about Lois Lane and her growing up; it was her first reporter job, she's making her mark and getting the hang of fighting bad guys in all their shapes and forms. Plus the online-only friendship she has with SmallvilleGuy was adorable and teasing and, of course, full of little in-jokes about who he really is but he can't tell Lois. All in all, a funny and clever modernisation of the Superman story with Lois Lane in centre stage, quite rightly.

Published 10th March 2016 by Curious Fox. Thank you to the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ruby Red trilogy by Kirstin Gier

Sixteen-year-old Gwen lives with her extended - and rather eccentric - family in an exclusive London neighborhood. In spite of her ancestors' peculiar history, she's had a relatively normal life so far. The time-traveling gene that runs like a secret thread through the female half of the family is supposed to have skipped over Gwen, so she hasn't been introduced to "the mysteries," and can spend her time hanging out with her best friend, Lesley. It comes as an unwelcome surprise when she starts taking sudden, uncontrolled leaps into the past.

She's totally unprepared for time travel, not to mention all that comes with it: fancy clothes, archaic manners, a mysterious secret society, and Gideon, her time-traveling counterpart. He's obnoxious, a know-it-all, and possibly the best-looking guy she's seen in any century . . . .

Spread over three books, this tells of Gwen and her sudden ability to travel through time. There was a lot of interweaving time travel throughout the three books, for instance, a glimpse into the future in book 1 didn’t happen in the present until hallway through book 3! Also because there was so much happening, I often forgot it was set over a few days – well, I think the course of the trilogy was over about 2 weeks. It felt so long mostly because of the time travel, flitting back and forth in just a few hours, but also particularly when Gwen started travelling uncontrolled and got to grips with her new gift; there was lots of talking it over with best friend Lesley and mulling/stressing it over in her head.

Gwen felt quite young; considering she’s supposed to be 16, she was naïve, especially with boys and the “real world”, but she had her moments of strength and bravery. For the most part, she managed to hold her own in the clutches of the secret society, although when she got yelled at for not knowing things, I wanted to coddle her and yell back “it’s not her fault she got a normal education!” But she was pretty normal for a heroine in a science fiction book; she worried about her homework and kissing boys and annoying her younger siblings. Plus she had a very cool gift of speaking to ghosts, that was kind of random but in the end, it did make sense. I think.

As for her love interest, Gideon was all kinds of incredible. His estimation of Gwen changed depending on his mood so he was quite snarky but he knew his stuff and was very protective over her. Plus he could sword fight, who doesn’t love that quality in a man?

Prophecies, time travel, secret societies, first love, ghostly gargoyles – what didn’t this series have? This whole business with “the secret is the secret” malarkey and the impact Gwen had on the prophecy was really confusing and as we were seeing it from Gwen’s perspective, we didn’t figure it out for a long while but it was quite clever. It wasn’t rushed at the end, Gwen and the gang debated over and weighed up how to deal with the bad guy, the creepy Count before taking action. I liked that maturity and almost level-headed-ness because as Gwen’s life was at stake, there was a lot to consider. All in all, parts seemed juvenile but it was clever and funny and had great mix of action and romance.