Book Review / Inheritance by Malinda Lo

As this is book 2 in this duology, below is the descripton to book 1, Adaption.  Please check out the Goodreads link below if you would like to read the description to Inheritance.

Reese can’t remember anything from the time between the accident and the day she woke up almost a month later. She only knows one thing: She’s different now.

Across North America, flocks of birds hurl themselves into airplanes, causing at least a dozen to crash. Thousands of people die. Fearing terrorism, the United States government grounds all flights, and millions of travelers are stranded.

Reese and her debate team partner and longtime crush David are in Arizona when it happens. Everyone knows the world will never be the same. On their drive home to San Francisco, along a stretch of empty highway at night in the middle of Nevada, a bird flies into their headlights. The car flips over. When they wake up in a military hospital, the doctor won’t tell them what happened, where they are—or how they’ve been miraculously healed.

Things become even stranger when Reese returns home. San Francisco feels like a different place with police enforcing curfew, hazmat teams collecting dead birds, and a strange presence that seems to be following her. When Reese unexpectedly collides with the beautiful Amber Gray, her search for the truth is forced in an entirely new direction—and threatens to expose a vast global conspiracy that the government has worked for decades to keep secret.

Published:     24th September 2014
Publisher:  Little Brown
Author Website:  Click here
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Book 2, Adaption
Source:  Review Copy from Publisher
Review:   3 out of 5

My Review

What I liked about this book...
I picked up this book immediately after reading the first book in this duology Adaption.  After reading Adaption (and really enjoying it) I was so excited to read the next stage in this story.  There are some really good twists in this story, some of which I was expecting but some of which I was not expecting and was very surprised with how the story went.  I have to say that the twists were my favourite aspect of this book.  We have a lot of the same characters in this book as in book 1 so you can pretty much pick up where you left off.  

I really enjoyed the ending to this story.  It was a really great conclusion and I felt that any questions I had were definitely answered. 

What I was not fond of with this book...
For me, the pace of this story was considerably slower than the first book, Adaption.  There were places in this story where if I had put the book down I probably wouldn't have been that inspired to pick it up but I powered through and I am glad that I did.

About the Author
(from Goodreads)

Malinda Lo is the author of several young adult novels including the sci-fi thriller Adaptation; the sequel, Inheritance, will be published Sept. 24, 2013. Her first novel, Ash, a retelling of Cinderella with a lesbian twist, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Andre Norton Award, and the Lambda Literary Award. Her novel Huntress was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Malinda is co-founder with Cindy Pon of Diversity in YA (diversityinya.tumblr.com), a project that celebrates diversity in young adult books. Malinda lives in Northern California with her partner and their dog.

Stacking the Shelves / 27th September 2014

Author Interview / K T Valentine

Having exhausted all the conventional ways to meet her ‘Mr Right’ (and because now she really is a little bit desperate), single mum Fleur Summers turns to her well-meaning, but eccentric friends and family for help.

From ‘Man Mountain’; an engineer who eats everything in sight and tall dark handsome Tom with big hands but no idea how to use them, to the mysterious and brooding Henry Austin. 

Dispatches from the Dating Zone follows the trials and tribulations of Fleur’s journey as she works her way through a number of eventful blind dates, all in the name of finding true love.

The story focuses on love, friendship, parenthood and dating and is primarily a romantic comedy with a side order of raunchiness thrown in for good measure.

Goodreads Link:  Click here

Release Date:  7th August 2014

INTERVIEW

1. If you could work with any other author, who would it be and why?

What a tough question. The following authors have certainly inspired me; Lisa Jewel, Jane Green and Sophie Kinsella. Reading their books in the early days got me through some very difficult and lonely times. However if I had to pick just one author, there's only one who has made the longest and lasting impression on me and that is Jackie Collins. I can remember being a 17 year old teenager reading one of her books and thinking it was the best thing since sliced bread. Jackie’s books were daring and raunchy, long before 50 Shades of Grey came along, and I found that empowering. I'd like to imagine that working with Jackie would involve drinking lots of cocktails and me listening to the amazing stories I'm sure she's got to tell about her own life.
2. What would be a typical working day for you? When and where do you write?
 
My writing routine is daily and tends to start in the early evening and ends at the point I need my bed. Thankfully, I'm a night owl so I'm at my best at night. I can write literally anywhere and will always have a notepad and pen in my handbag as you never know when inspiration will hit you. When I was going through the process of writing 'Dispatches from the Dating Zone' I'd always drift off to sleep planning the chapter I would write the next evening. 
3. What is the hardest part of the writing for you?

The experience of writing my first novel is one that I will never forget for a number of reasons. It’s my debut novel, so the experience of writing it will always be special to me. However, it was also very hard work at times. As a single mum, working full time and raising my 12-year old (who’s going through a phase of thinking he’s 16) whilst trying to write a full length novel took every ounce of self motivation and energy I had. It also involved countless late nights and zero social life for the majority of the time it took to complete and I'm about to go through it all over again as I've just started work on the sequel!

4. When and why did you first start writing?

Just like most writers, writing has been my passion for as long as I can remember. From short stories as a child to songs performed in school plays. One way or another I’ve always written.

I was 25 years old and in the very early stages of pregnancy when I finally decided to work on my first novel.  However, a third of the way through writing it my life took an unexpected turn. Very much out of the blue and barely a few weeks after giving birth, I found myself facing the road ahead as a single mum and in the process of getting divorced. Needless to say, I didn’t write again for years.

5. How did you come up with the idea for your book?

Along time ago someone told me that some of the best writers are the ones that write about what they know. Whether that was the case or not, it got me thinking about everything I’d been through over the years and how I could draw on it for inspiration.  After turning my life around and spurred on by my family and young son, I finally put pen to paper again and ‘Dispatches from the Dating Zone’ was born. 

6. Are you a big reader? If so, what are you reading now?
I don't read nearly as often as I like and no where near as much as I used to read before I had my son. I've just started JoJo Moyes' The One plus One. I've never read any of her books before and this seemed like a good one to start with.

7. Do you have any advice for other aspiring writers?

Just go for it. Self confidence isn’t one of my strong points and putting my writing out there for people to read and ultimately judge is scary, but the thought of looking back on my life as an old woman wondering ‘what if?’ was the motivation I needed to get myself into gear. At the end of the day, if you have a passion for writing and work hard at it, anything is possible. Look at me.

 

Book Review / Adaption by Malinda Lo

Reese can’t remember anything from the time between the accident and the day she woke up almost a month later. She only knows one thing: She’s different now.

Across North America, flocks of birds hurl themselves into airplanes, causing at least a dozen to crash. Thousands of people die. Fearing terrorism, the United States government grounds all flights, and millions of travelers are stranded.

Reese and her debate team partner and longtime crush David are in Arizona when it happens. Everyone knows the world will never be the same. On their drive home to San Francisco, along a stretch of empty highway at night in the middle of Nevada, a bird flies into their headlights. The car flips over. When they wake up in a military hospital, the doctor won’t tell them what happened, where they are—or how they’ve been miraculously healed.

Things become even stranger when Reese returns home. San Francisco feels like a different place with police enforcing curfew, hazmat teams collecting dead birds, and a strange presence that seems to be following her. When Reese unexpectedly collides with the beautiful Amber Gray, her search for the truth is forced in an entirely new direction—and threatens to expose a vast global conspiracy that the government has worked for decades to keep secret.

Published:     18th September 2012
Publisher:  Little Brown
Author Website:  Click here
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Book 1,  Adaption
Source:  Review Copy from Publisher
Review:   5 out of 5

My Review

What I loved about this story...
This book was soooooooo good!!!  This is one of those books that has been on my TBR pile for absolutely ages.   I have to be completely honest and say that it was mainly because of the cover that I didn't pick it up earlier than this, its not a very inviting cover.  I am so glad I decided to finally picked this up because I loved this first book so much it actually got a 5 out of 5.....  What I loved the most in this book is guess what....  the romance part of this story (that seems to be a common theme with me at the moment!).  What was new for me (and I had not realised it at the time) was that the main character in this book Reese is torn between her long time crush David and a new girl she meets in this story.  I hadn't realised that the romance for the main character in this book was between a guy and a girl.  This is the first book I have read that has that as a part of the story and I really enjoyed following Reese's journey of discovery and how she dealt with different scenarios.

What I also loved in this story was the X-Files feel to the story that this has.  I have watched the entire TV show X-Files at least twice all the way through so I am definitely a fan and with this story it has the same feel to it as you would get if you were watching an X-Files episode.  Loved that!  There are so many secrets in this story waiting to be discovered and as it is book 1 there is so much more I can't wait to find out!

What I was not fond of with this story...
Absolutely nothing!  Loved this book...

About the Author
(from Goodreads)

Malinda Lo is the author of several young adult novels including the sci-fi thriller Adaptation; the sequel, Inheritance, will be published Sept. 24, 2013. Her first novel, Ash, a retelling of Cinderella with a lesbian twist, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Andre Norton Award, and the Lambda Literary Award. Her novel Huntress was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Malinda is co-founder with Cindy Pon of Diversity in YA (diversityinya.tumblr.com),...more 

Waiting on Wednesday / Dead Herat by Patricia Briggs

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly memo that is hosted by Breaking the Spine Blog.

Expected Release Date: 3rd March 2015
(Release date obtained from Goodreads)

Goodreads link is here.

As the above is book 4 in the series, below is a description of book 1, Cry Wolf

Anna never knew werewolves existed, until the night she survived a violent attack... and became one herself. After three years at the bottom of the pack, she'd learned to keep her head down and never, ever trust dominant males. Then Charles Cornick, the enforcer—and son—of the leader of the North American werewolves, came into her life.

Charles insists that not only is Anna his mate, but she is also a rare and valued Omega wolf. And it is Anna's inner strength and calming presence that will prove invaluable as she and Charles go on the hunt in search of a rogue werewolf—a creature bound in magic so dark that it could threaten all of the pack.

Book Review / Dangerous by Shannon Hale

Maisie ‘Danger’ Brown needs excitement. 

When she wins a harmless-sounding competition to go to astronaut boot camp, that’s exactly what she gets . . . 

But she never imagined it would feature stumbling into a terrifying plot that kills her friends and might just kill her too. 

Now there’s no going back. Maisie has to live by her middle name if she wants to survive – and she’ll need to be equally courageous to untangle the romance in her life too. 

A clever, suspenseful thriller-adventure by New York Times bestselling author and master storyteller Shannon Hale.




Published:     1st March 2014
Publisher:  Bloomsbury
Author Website:  Click here
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:   Stand Alone
Source:  Review Copy from Publisher
Review:   3 out of 5

My Review

What I loved about this book...
I hadn't heard a lot about this story before receiving it and reading it and it was really good that I went into this not knowing a lot about it.  What I loved the most in this story is the main character Maisie 'Danger' Brown and how she interacts with different characters throughout the story.  I found that she was a very strong character with a good sense of what is right.  There is a romance part to this story which turned out to be a bigger part of the story than I had expected and I loved it.  I know that you can get some romance in books and it just doesn't seem natural but in this story I liked how natural that aspect was. 

I really did enjoy Shannon Hale's writing style and I will definitely be looking into her other books. 

What I was not fond of with this story...
I did have a little bit of trouble getting into this story.  When reading the blurb, I expected a lot more of the 'top secret intergalactic conspiracy' than what I found at the beginning of the story. You do find out a lot more as the story goes on but I did find the beginning of the story a bit slow for me.

About the Author
(from Goodreads)

Shannon Hale is the New York Times best-selling author of six young adult novels: the Newbery Honor book Princess Academy, multiple award winner Book of a Thousand Days, and the highly acclaimed Books of Bayern series. She has written three books for adults, including the upcoming Midnight in Austenland (Jan. 2012), companion book to Austenland. She co-wrote the hit graphic novel Rapunzel's Revenge and its sequel Calamity Jack with husband Dean Hale. They live near Salt Lake City, Utah with their four small children, and their pet, a small, plastic pig.

Stacking the Shelves / 21st September 2014

Book Review / Between the Lives by Jessica Shirvington

Above all else, though I try not to think about it, I know which life I prefer. And every night when I Cinderella myself from one life to the next a very small, but definite, piece of me dies. The hardest part is that nothing about my situation has ever changed. There is no loophole.

Until now, that is...

For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives. Every 24 hours she Shifts to her ′other′ life - a life where she is exactly the same, but absolutely everything else is different: different family, different friends, different social expectations. In one life she has a sister, in the other she does not. In one life she′s a straight-A student with the perfect boyfriend, in the other she′s considered a reckless delinquent. Nothing about her situation has ever changed, until the day when she discovers a glitch: the arm she breaks in one life is perfectly fine in the other.

With this new knowledge, Sabine begins a series of increasingly risky experiments which bring her dangerously close to the life she′s always wanted... But just what - and who - is she really risking?

Published:     7th August 2014
Publisher:  Orchard Books
Author Website:  Click here
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:  Review Copy from Publisher
Review:   5 out of 5
 
My Review

What I loved about this story...

I am definitely in a happy reading place at the moment with the past couple of books read were pretty fantastic and this one definitely continued the run of excellent books I read so far!  What I liked the most was watching the main character Sabine deal with her 'double life' both in how she physically  changes from one to the other, how she deals with her different personalities in each life and how she deals with each of the different family and friends in each life.  It was definitely very interesting to see when she discovers the loophole and seeing what she will do...

What I was not fond of with this story... 
Absolutely nothing!  I can't wait to check out any more books from this author.  

About the Author
(from Goodreads)

Jessica Shirvington is the author of THE VIOLET EDEN CHAPTERS also known as THE EMBRACE SERIES, stand alone novel, BETWEEN THE LIVES and has an exciting new duology called DISRUPTION on the way in 2014.

An entrepreneur, author, and mother living in Sydney, Australia, Jessica is also a 2011 & 2012 finalist for Cosmopolitan’s annual Fun, Fearless Female Award. She’s also one of the lucky few who met the love of her life at age seventeen: Matt Shirvington, a former Olympian and current sports broadcaster for Foxtel and Fox Sports. Married for twleve years with two beautiful daughters, Sienna and Winter, Jessica knows her early age romance and its longevity has definitely contributed to how she tackles relationships in her YA novels.

Waiting on Wednesday / Forged by Erin Bowman

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly memo that is hosted by Breaking the Spine Blog.

Expected Release Date: 14th April 2015
(Release date obtained from Goodreads)

Goodreads link is here.

As the above is book 3 in the series, the description below is from book 1, Taken

There are no men in Claysoot. There are boys—but every one of them vanishes at midnight on his eighteenth birthday. The ground shakes, the wind howls, a blinding light descends…and he’s gone.

They call it the Heist.

Gray Weathersby’s eighteenth birthday is mere months away, and he’s prepared to meet his fate–until he finds a strange note from his mother and starts to question everything he’s been raised to accept: the Council leaders and their obvious secrets. The Heist itself. And what lies beyond the Wall that surrounds Claysoot–a structure that no one can cross and survive.

Climbing the Wall is suicide, but what comes after the Heist could be worse. Should he sit back and wait to be taken–or risk everything on the hope of the other side?

Book Review / The A-List Family by Christina Hopkinson

Imagine a world where your bikini body has to last all year.

Where the paparazzi turn up for the school run.

Where EVERYBODY knows your name, though you're only eight years old.

Welcome to everyday life in an A-List Family.

Newly employed to look after the daughter of a super-rich and famous power couple, Anna is about to find out what life is really like behind the closed doors of celebrity. 

And she soon starts to wonder: once you're in, can you get out?




Published:     8th May 2014
Publisher:  Hodder and Stoughton
Author Website:  Click here
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:  Review Copy from Publisher
Review:  5 out of 5
 
My Review

What I loved about this story...
This book really surprised me.  I have to say just looking at the cover I wasn't expecting the story that I read.  I LOVED this so much that I read it in one sitting (which happened to in the early hours of the morning before the sun came up lol!).  What I loved the most about this story is actually the thriller type aspect.  You have the 'A-List' family and how perfect they seem to be.  Then you see Anna enter the house, start work and all the fun begins.  Things are not all as they seem with both the A-List family and the staff that already work there.


What I was not fond of with this story... 
Absolutely nothing!

About the Author
(From Author Website)

I was born in August 1969 in London, but my parents moved to Cambridgeshire soon afterwards. There I attended four schools, all convents and all called St Mary’s, before reading Modern History at Hertford College, Oxford. My first job on graduating was at Usborne Publishing. I’m rediscovering their books now that I have children and recommend them highly.

I then moved to Spain for three years where I worked as an au pair and at a publishing house, before ending up at Hello! magazine for a couple of years, which for labyrinthine historical reasons is partly edited in Madrid. When a royal death or engagement is announced, I still break into a cold sweat at the thought that I might have to sub-edit the list of names of attending foreign dignitaries.

I returned to London in 1997 (thereby missing being at Hello! for the death of Princess Diana) and worked on the launch of thisislondon.com (the Evening Standard online), which I edited from 1998 to 2000. I then worked on a series of lifestyle websites for Express Newspapers and websites to support television programmes for Carlton Productions.

I left Carlton to produce children, books and features for a variety of newspapers including The Daily Telegraph, The Times and the Guardian, and magazines such as Grazia and Red. Please go to the Press section of this site if you’d like to read some examples of my work.

I live in North London with my three children and husband. He is not the basis for Joel in The Pile of Stuff.

Stacking the Shelves / 13th September 2014

Book Review / Take Back the Skies by Lucy Saxon

Catherine Hunter is the daughter of a senior government official on the island of Anglya. 

She’s one of the privileged – she has luxurious clothes, plenty to eat, and is protected from the Collections which have ravaged families throughout the land. But Catherine longs to escape the confines of her life, before her dad can marry her off to a government brat and trap her forever.

So Catherine becomes Cat, pretends to be a kid escaping the Collections, and stows away on the skyship Stormdancer. 

As they leave Anglya behind and brave the storms that fill the skies around the islands of Tellus, Cat’s world becomes more turbulent than she could ever have imagined, and dangerous secrets unravel her old life once and for all . . .


Published:     5th June 2014
Publisher:  Bloomsbury
Author Website:  Click here
Goodreads :  Click here
Series:  Book 1, Take Back the Skies
Source:  Review Copy from Publisher
Review:   3 out of 5
 
My Review

What I loved about this story...
First off let's just take a moment to appreciate the 'prettyness' of the cover.  It just screams action in the skies doesn't it!

I went into this story blind, didn't really read the blurb in great detail and absolutely loved it!  There were a few characters in the story but I had no problem at all keeping fully up to date with each of the characters.  The best part of this story for me is the story of the main character Cat (or Catherine using her full name) (the reason for both names will become clear when you read the book).  She starts off as one of the privileged and then runs away from home but she does not seem to act like a 'snob' at any point throughout the story and came across as a character who is very grounded and knows who she is and what she is after.   She makes a few friends when she gets on board Stormdancer and watching her interact with each of the characters was very interesting.  I really also enjoyed the plot twists nearer the end of the story.

Very excited to see what happens next....

What I was not fond of with this story... 
I really enjoyed this story and there was nothing that really stuck out to me as being annoying or not believable.  As this was book 1 in a series/trilogy, this was more of a 'starter' story, introducing characterand circumstances so with me all will tell in book 2......

About the Author
(from Goodreads)

Lucy Saxon is 19 and lives in Hertfordshire with her parents. 

She describes herself as a cosplayer, con-goer, book-lover and all-round nerdgirl.

Lucy wrote her first novel, Take Back the Skies, at the age of sixteen, finding a home for it with Bloomsbury at seventeen, and is now working on the rest of the series.

When not writing, Lucy spends most of her time on the internet, reading books and slaving over her sewing machine. 

Waiting on Wednesday / Dark Debt by Chloe Neill

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly memo that is hosted by Breaking the Spine Blog.

Expected Release Date: 3rd March 2015

(Release date obtained from Goodreads)

Goodreads link is here.

As this is book 11 in a series, below is a description of book 1 Some Girls Bite.

They killed me. They healed me. They changed me.

Sure, the life of a graduate student wasn’t exactly glamorous, but I was doing fine until Chicago’s vampires announced their existence to the world. When a rogue vampire attacked me, I was lucky he only got a sip. Another bloodsucker scared him off and decided the best way to save my life was to make me the walking undead.

Now I’ve traded sweating over my thesis for learning to fit in at a Hyde Park mansion full of vamps loyal to Ethan “Lord o’ the Manor” Sullivan. Of course, as a tall, green-eyed,
four-hundred-year-old vampire, he has centuries’ worth of charm, but unfortunately he expects my gratitude—and servitude. Right…

But someone’s out to get me. Is it the rogue vampire who bit me? A vamp from a rival House? An angry mob bearing torches?

My initiation into Chicago’s nightlife may be the first skirmish in a war—and there will be blood.

Stacking the Shelves / 6th September 2014

Book Review / The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkowski

As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions.

One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin.

But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined.

Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.

Published:     4th March 2014
Publisher:  Bloomsbury
Author Website:  Click here
Goodreads :  Click here
Series:  Book 1, The Winner's Trilogy
Source:  Review Copy from Publisher
Review:   4 out of 5

My Review

What I loved about this story...
This is one of those books that I hadn't really heard a lot of or seen any reviews of until it landed on my doormat.  I really enjoyed the story and getting into the world.  What I loved the most about this story is the characters Kestrel and Arin.  You have Kestrel comes from a upper class family lifestyle and you follow her as she discovers more and more about the world she lives in.  Then there is Arin who is the slave that Kestel buys and brings home to work at her home.  There is certainly more to his character than meets the eye, some of which were very surprising. 


What I was not fond of with this story... 
I really enjoyed this story but I didn't have that 'wow' factor at the end hence that is why I have given this review a 4/5 rating.  That said, this is the first book in a trilogy so this is more of a 'introducing' story which will lead on to the next book.  It is always the second book in the series/trilogy that really tells me how I will get on with this story and I am really excited to find out what happens next.

About the Author

Marie Rutkoski is the author of the YA novel The Shadow Society and the children's fantasy series The Kronos Chronicles, including The Cabinet of Wonders, The Celestial Globe and The Jewel of the Kalderash. Her next project is a YA trilogy that begins with The Winner's Curse, which is scheduled to be published in March 2014.

Marie grew up in Bolingbrook, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago), as the oldest of four children. She holds a BA from the University of Iowa and a PhD from Harvard University. Marie is currently a professor at Brooklyn College, where she teaches Renaissance Drama, children's literature and fiction writing. She lives in New York City with her husband and two sons. 

Waiting on Wednesday / Half Wild by Sally Green

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly memo that is hosted by Breaking the Spine Blog.

Expected Release Date: 25th March 2014
(Release date obtained from Goodreads)

Goodreads link is here.

As this is book 2 in a series, below is a description of book 1, Half Bad.

Half Bad by Sally Green is a breathtaking debut novel about one boy's struggle for survival in a hidden society of witches.

You can't read, can't write, but you heal fast, even for a witch.

You get sick if you stay indoors after dark.

You hate White Witches but love Annalise, who is one.

You've been kept in a cage since you were fourteen.

All you've got to do is escape and find Mercury, the Black Witch who eats boys. And do that before your seventeenth birthday.

Book Review / Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand

A summer wedding stirs up trouble on both sides of the family in this new novel from bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand.

The Carmichaels and Grahams have gathered on Nantucket for a wedding. Plans are being made according to the wishes of the bride's late mother, who left behind The Notebook: specific instructions for every detail of her youngest daughter's future nuptials. Everything should be falling into place for the beautiful event--but in reality, things are far from perfect.

While the couple-to-be are quite happy, their loved ones find their own lives crumbling. In the days leading up to the wedding, love will be questioned, scandals will arise, and hearts will be broken and healed. Elin Hilderbrand takes readers on a touching journey in BEAUTIFUL DAY--into the heart of marriage, what it means to be faithful, and how we choose to honor our commitments.

Published:     31st July 2014
Publisher:  Hodder & Stoughton
Author Website:  Click here
Goodreads :  Click here
Series:  Not part of a series
Source:  Review Copy from Publisher
Review:    4 out of 5

My Review

What I loved about this story...
What a great story.  Elin Hilderbrand is a newish author to me and I am really enjoying her writing style.  I loved the fact that this story had quite a few characters in it but I had no problem keeping up with each of them once I learned who they were and and their own stories.   You have characters who are happy but hit a bump in the road and then you have characters who are a bit down in luck and things get better.  The story really centres around the wedding of Jenna and Stuart and the notebook that was created by Jenna's mother who died a while ago. 

What I was not fond of with this story... 
I have to admit that it did take a while for me to get into this story.  There were quite a number of different characters being introduced in this story that it did take me a bit to get used to each one and follow but it was definitely worth sticking with it.  Once I got to grips with who each person was and their story, I really enjoyed seeing what happened next with each of them.      



About the Author

Elin Hilderbrand lives on Nantucket with her husband and their three young children. 

She grew up in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and traveled extensively before settling on Nantucket, which has been the setting for her five previous novels. 

Hilderbrand is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the graduate fiction workshop at the University of Iowa.