Blog Tour Book Review / That Girl by Kate Kerrigan (Includes Trigger Warning Notice)

You can escape a place. But you can't escape yourself.

Hanna flees the scene of a terrible crime in her native Sligo. If she can just vanish, re-invent herself under a new name, perhaps the police won't catch up with her. London seems the perfect place to disappear.

Lara has always loved Matthew and imagined happy married life in Dublin. Then comes the bombshell – Matthew says he wants to join the priesthood. Humiliated and broken-hearted, Lara heads to the most godless place she can find, King's Road, Chelsea.

Matthew's twin sister, Noreen, could not be more different from her brother. She does love fiance John, but she also craves sex, parties and fun. Swinging London has it all, but without John, Noreen is about to get way out of her depth.

All three girls find themselves working for Bobby Chevron – one of London's most feared gangland bosses – and it's not long before their new lives start to unravel.

Published:     1st January 2018
Publisher:   Head of Zeus
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand Alone
Source:  Review Copy from Publisher

MY REVIEW

TRIGGER WARNING -  I am going to start this review by pointing out that this book should come with a trigger warning.  From my reader experience, I came across topics such as rape and paedophilia which are covered in this story, particularly with the character of Hanna. 


What I liked about this story...  This story covers three different characters.  Hanna, Lara and Noreen who all end up in the same place for some circumstances in the past.  My favourite character has to be Noreen.  Her matter of fact and upfront nature made me laugh at times.   I loved the fact that you have three completely different characters who come together and deal with their current situation(s) together.  For me, the best part of this story was the relationship between these three characters as the story goes on and the development of each of the characters, how they grow with each situation they are faced with. 

What I didn't like about this story...   Honestly, I struggled with the start of this story particularly following Hanna's story.  Mainly, my struggles were to do more with the content matter than the actual story itself and the fact that I was not aware that this story covered such topics (mentioned above).  Although I do appreciate that with some story lines and topics, it is best to have the element of surprise at the situation a character finds themselves in, I feel like topics such as this should have a trigger warning at the beginning of the book. 

Twitter: @katekerrigan

Facebook: @KateKerriganAuthor

Website: www.katekerrigan.org

Links to Buy:

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2kJHqN3

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2kg4gwo

iBooks: http://apple.co/2Bvc9FJ

OVERLY AMBITIOUS FEBRUARY TBR!

TBR BOOKS CARRIED OVER FROM JANUARY
(those that are not ticked in the picture below and book 5 onwards of the Babysitter Club Series)
 

REVIEW BOOKS RECEIVED FROM PUBLISHERS

A Darker State by David Young

29 Seconds by TM Logan

How to be Human by Ruby Wax

The Homecoming by Rosie Howard

Dark in Death by JD Robb 

 

LIBRARY BOOKS

Before I Go to Sleep by SJ Watson

Tonight the Streets are Ours by Leila Sales

This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

This Savage Song by VE Schwab

Our Dark Duet by VE Schwab

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

BOOKS FROM MY OWN TBR

The Pelican Brief by John Grisham

Island of Lost Girls by Jennifer McMahon

READING WRAP UP / January 2018

MY PLANNED JANUARY TBR

HOW I GOT ON

I will be posting by TBR for February soon but plan to carry over those that I had not got to in January.  Links to my reviews for all those I have read are below, apart from the Babysitters Books.  I will be doing a series review once I have completed reading all of them. 

WHAT I READ THAT WAS NOT ON MY TBR...

READATHON PARTICIPATION

I also took part in the Winter Biannual Bibliothon this month.  To see the books I chose and read for the challenges, please check out my seperate post (which is the post just before this one).

REVIEW LINKS

The Firm by John Grisham

Origin by Dan Brown

The Song is Rising by Samantha Shannon

$10,000,000 Marriage Proposal

Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray

Turtles All The Way Down by John Green

The Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a F***

The Magic Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris

My Readathon Experience / Winter Biannual Bibliothan 2018

As one of my goals this year is to read 150 books (50 more than what I usually do) I thought a good idea to read more would be to take part in readathons (for those who do not know, a readathon is a specific period of time set by a host who either sets tasks or themes of which books to read in that specific time period).  I have only taken part in one readathon in my entire life, which I did enjoy, but because I work a 9-5 Monday to Friday job taking part in a readathon is challenging for me to take part in but I thought I would give it a go.  Here's how I got on:

The Biannual Bibliothon is hosted in the YouTube Link below:

Biannual Bibliothon You Tube Channel Homepage 

READING CHALLENGES

1. Read the Group Book - Otherworld by Jason Segal and Kirsten Miller.
2. Read a Sequel.
3. Read a book you have not heard of before.
4. Read a Mental Illness Book.
5. Read a book found in other media. 
6. Read a book under 200 pages. 
7. Read a backlist title.

WHAT I CHOSE

HOW I GOT ON

I decided to double up on some of the questions, as I knew I would not have a great deal of time during the week to have a separate book for each question. 

1. Otherworlds was the group book, pre-selected.  I loved this book and CANNOT wait until I get my hands on the next one in this trilogy/series.  You can find my review here - Click here.
2. I am currently in the middle of re-reading one of my childhood favourite book series, The Babysitters Club, so why not pick up the next one to continue on?!  I have not yet posted a review of this but am planning to do this once I had read all the books in this special series.  I am really enjoying diving back into this series again.
3. I had not heard of Otherworlds before so chose this one for this task.  
4. For this one I chose Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon.  I am not going to go into why I chose this book because of spoilers but you can find my review here - Click here.
5. This was an interesting challenge.  For this one, I had to actually go and look and try and find something.  One thing I did know for sure was that I wanted to read a classic.  I found Catcher in the Rye which is featured in probably more than the reason I picked it but it was featured in the movie Conspiracy Theory featuring Mel Gibson (love that movie).  I am glad I chose this, I found the story to be intriguing.  You can find my review here - Click here. 
6. I really wanted to carry on with reading the Babysitters Club series and the next one in the series was 209 pages long, so I counted that for this one.   Again, no review up yet but will be once I have finished reading the specials series.  
7. This was another doubling up situation.  For this I choice to include Everything Everything simply because it was a backlist title (published in 2015)  

I really enjoyed this readathon and will most definitely be planning to take part in more throughout the year. 

Book Review / Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon

My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.

But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly.

Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.






Published:     1st September 2015
Publisher:  Delacorte
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:  Library

MY REVIEW

 What I liked about this story...  This is a re-read for me.  The first time I read this book I really didn't like it a great deal, particularly because of the twist in the story, which I won't go into here because I don't want to spoil the story for you.  This time, however, since I already knew what the story was all about, there were things that I noticed this time that I hadn't before.  For me, the best part of this story was the romance and friendship.  Although at the beginning it was a a bit 'insta-love' like, when you got past that I enjoyed following their story. 


What I didn't like about this story...  Basically, there is a certain character in this story that I really don't like very much at all and won't go into too much detail because of spoilers. 

Book Review / The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger

The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it. There are many voices in this novel: children's voices, adult voices, underground voices-but Holden's voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep.

J.D. Salinger's classic novel of teenage angst and rebellion was first published in 1951. The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923. It was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. It has been frequently challenged in the court for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and in the 1950's and 60's it was the novel that every teenage boy wants to read.

Published:     First Published 1951
Publisher:  Piatkus Books
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:  Library
 

MY REVIEW

What I loved about this story...   A very interesting read indeed.  We follow Holden at the beginning of the story being kicked out of school, looking unenthused about anything and everything apart from reading and literature.  He leaves school of his own accord and we follow him as he 'wanders' around the city getting drunk and getting into a lot of trouble.  This character intrigued me.  He just didn't seem that interested in much at all and I wondered when was he going to find something that kept his interest long enough.  It seemed as though he has not been given direction in his life or had any help from any teacher or anyone else throughout his life.  It seems such a shame as Holden seems, to me, to be a highly intelligent person. 



What I didn't like about this story...  The ending.  It just, well, ended.  There was no conclusion, we are just left to assume that maybe he cleaned up his act but maybe not.    On reflection, maybe that is not such a bad thing as it leaves the story open to the reader's interpretation...