Currently I’m. . .

I saw this great currently list Sarah from Desirous of Everything had done and had to borrow. Check out Sarah’s list, and her whole blog, it’s great, then tell me what you’re currently doing.


Current Book(s): What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen – possibly her best book to date. I am seriously loving it. Next up Where She Went by Gayle Forman


Current Playlist: I still haven’t synced my new iphone with my computer so it’s currently Radio 2 or 4. Loving getting to listen to Simon Mayo at 5pm every day.


Current Shame-Inducing Guilty Pleasure: Excessive consumption of all articles on the Royal Wedding. Actually I’m not ashamed at all! It’s a wedding, she’s going to be a Princess ~ how can you not be interested?


Current Color: Blue, always 🙂


Current Drink: Tea (although Pimms for the wedding tomorrow!)


Current Food: Mini Eggs! Oh you mean real food? BBQ’s given this unseasonable nice weather! 


Current Favorite Show: Dr Who – the new series started Saturday and it is SO good, although I still miss David Tennant. Also The Killing, my husband nagged and nagged me to watch it, finally I have, and it is amazing!


Current Wishlist: Oooh this T-shirt, 

So cute!

 Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (have you seen the amazing publicity for it? And it sounds amazing! It’s my current desperate for book, along with Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins, The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater and Crossed by Ally Condie) and a last minute invite to the Royal Wedding (you know you want me there Wills&Kate!), on and a sunny bank holiday (which may be the most impossible of all!)


Current Needs: for the things we shipped from DC in March to arrive before May! 


Current Bane(s) of my Existence: The sunlight waking my son at 5.30 and my son waking me!


Current Celebrity (Girl) Crush: Amy Pond (yes she’s not real, but I love her)


Current Outfit: Jeans and a gap long sleeved T ~ my Mummy uniform 😀


Current Excitement: It’s the Royal Wedding tomorrow!!!!!! 


Current Link: The Secret life of an Avid Reader is having an Elizabeth Scott week (follow the link to sign up). Such a nice idea. I can’t wait to get my hands on Between Here and Forever

A Room with a View

So a few of you were asking for photos of my new rural world, as I am too stuffed with Easter chocolate to even think of writing a review, a photo post it is. Here’s what I wake up to every morning – nice huh?

Book Review – What Alice Forgot by Laine Moriarty

Alice is twenty-nine. She is whimsical, optimistic and adores sleep, chocolate, her ramshackle new house and her wonderful husband Nick. What’s more, she’s looking forward to the birth of the ‘Sultana’ – her first baby.

But now Alice has slipped and hit her head in her step-aerobics class and everyone’s telling her she’s misplaced the last ten years of her life.

In fact, it would seem that Alice is actually thirty-nine and now she loves schedules, expensive lingerie, caffeine and manicures. She has three children and the honeymoon is well and truly over for her and Nick. In fact, he looks at her like she’s his worst enemy. What’s more, her beloved sister Elisabeth isn’t speaking to her either. And who is this ‘Gina’everyone is so carefully trying not to mention?

Alice isn’t sure that she likes life ten years on. Every photo is another memory she doesn’t have and nothing makes sense. Just how much can happen in a decade? Has she really lost her lovely husband for ever? (From Goodreads)

I picked this one up after reading a review by Nomes over at InkCrush. As I read I was thinking it sounded exactly like my kind of book. Then I got to the recommendation – 

“this is one for people who love their chick-lit well written, breezy and fun and also a little bit deeper at heart. Also for fans of Jaclyn Moriarty who are looking for an adult read :D” 

– well, my love of Jaclyn Moriarty has been well documented on this blog. So I had to run straight out and buy her sister’s novel.

Nomes is absolutely spot on, the style is very reminiscent of Jaclyn. They’ve a way of looking at the world, a way of writing and a humour – What Alice Forgot is a funny (shake the bed laughing funny) book – that is very similar. It has me hoping that maybe they write letters to each others that they’re planning to publish one day 🙂 I would buy that book in a heartbeat.

What Alice Forgot isn’t just a light hearted humorous read. It has depth and it deals with serious issues, but with such a deft touch that it doesn’t tip into depressing. You aren’t putting the book down and flipping the TV on to find an old episode of Friends to cheer yourself up.

There’s so much to love about this book – the premise (I can’t imagine waking up and thinking it was ten years ago!), a swoony romance, brilliant kids who I’d like to meet, a Grandma who blogs, a Mom who salsa’s, a fractured sisterly bond, close friendships, and the consequences of choices. It also has a little mystery running through it, that was constantly ticking over in the back of my mind as I read. I just gobbled it up and adored every second I spent inside Alice’s head.

Due to Alice’s memory loss, it does have that YA coming of age vibe – finding out who you are and deciding who you want to be. Which is why I think it will appeal to fans of YA – plus it is just brilliant. So if you love brilliant books, it should appeal 🙂 

What Alice Forgot is available in the UK right now and out in the USA on 2nd June.

UK

USA

I think the UK scored the best cover. I want that dress!

Cover Love – The Right and the Real

My lovely friend and critique partner Joelle Anthony just unveiled the cover for her new book The Right and The Real 


Isn’t it gorgeous?

And having read it, I can tell you the outside matches the inside – it’s a brilliant book. If you want to know what it’s about, hop over to Joelle’s website.

Five Fabulous Things on Friday

1) The sun is shining and it is 23 degrees in ENGLAND in APRIL!!!!!!! Clearly I have brought DC’s weather with me. Just as long as I didn’t bring the mosquitoes.

2) The Daffodils are out.

3) I am sipping an Innocent Smoothie. Ah if you’ve never had one you don’t know what you are missing. I am also munching on a chocolate orange digestive biscuit, which tastes kind of odd but not odd enough for me to stop.

4) When I finish this post I am diving back into the WIP which is finally going okay, hope I didn’t just jinx it.

5) Finally if you love blogs and blogging you should read this post. I seem to keep reading about the death of blogging, so this post made me smile.   Also yay for Nova Ren Suma being so honest on her blog.

Hoo-ray for Blogs, Long Live the blog!

Don’t I Know You From Somewhere?

The strangest thing about walking in to the YA section of a British is bookstore (apart form it’s tiny size, absence of a paranormal section, and the fact it’s called teen), is the number of times an intriguing cover has caught my eye, then I’ve seen the title and realized I know the book. It’s like meeting an old friend whose dyed their hair. It throws you.

So far this has happened with-

Last Chance by Sarah Dessen – it has a different title too, it’s Keeping the Moon in the US, so for a moment I was very excited at the thought of a new Sarah Dessen.

The Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale – loving Shannon Hale’s UK covers.

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead  – I adore these. I never thought Rose looked right on the US ones.

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer – okay I didn’t think this was something else. The apple in the cupped hands is pretty iconic, but the white cover? That made me pause. I’m not sure why they changed it. It looks funny and not half as striking as the black, and the red edged pages remind of those really old romance novels I used to read.

The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan – oh wow I love this cover, but I actually picked it up thinking it was another book that’s getting a lot of buzz – Forbidden.

Looking For Alaska by John Green – I loved the US cover ,but the UK one is definitely intriguing

There are a few old friends in the bookstore. Across the Universe by Beth Revis, Matched by Ally Condie and Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin are all prominently displayed in my local bookstore, with the same covers. The last one I’m especially happy to see, as I loved it and felt it slipped under the radar a bit in the US.

Do any of these US covers grab you? Which would you pick up?