I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Amber is 24 years old when she arrives home after college to work for the summer before eventually moving to Seattle with her fiance. But everything changes for Amber when she goes out with her best friend Tyler and he rapes her. This is a harrowing but important story about a woman hurt by someone she trusted the most and her conflicting feelings towards the incident and herself, including who is really to blame.

This is a tough but important read and I liked how the story was told. I think it's really important to have stories like this to show that sexual assault and rape can happen closer to home - such as by best friends who you've known for almost half your life. Amber trusted Tyler and she loved him in her own way but he didn't listen to her when she said stop and when she said wait. And I liked the message that came across here - especially when Amber was talking to a therapist who explained to her that if she said stop and he didn't it was rape, if she had been with a boyfriend for years and one day she said no but he had sex with her anyway, it was rape, etc. These messages are very important for women to know that if something similar happened to them, they are not in the wrong.

Amber goes through a lot of conflicting feelings from shock, denial, pain, fear, confusion, guilt. It all goes through her and her reactions may seem strange to readers but I liked how it was all stemmed from her desire to remain in control of herself. Amber had other issues related to a severe teenage eating disorder and she still had to deal with it everyday - so when Tyler took away Amber's self-control in that moment, we see how she spirals back to obsessively being in control of herself from her eating habits to any other sexual experiences she has with other men. I thought Amber's background and how it all related to her career choice and she balanced her adult life with eating and exercise was done really, really well.

Tyler was a bit of a different story. For a while he across as a victim as well -his dad isn't a nice guy and is clearly emotionally abusive and manipulating and this has affected Tyler, more than he actually realises. He deals with anxiety and it's clear a lot of his interactions with women are problematic. He has a 'girlfriend/sex buddy' who he doesn't respect and their first interaction was hugely problematic for me as well as it seemed to me like he coerced her into having sex when she didn't want to too. Tyler suffers from anxiety as well, and doesn't have great ways of dealing with it the way Amber does with the problems she still has related to her eating disorder. Because of all of this, Tyler didn't just become the rapist of the story but he also became human as well, and while it doesn't excuse what he did at all - I think it was a brave choice on the author's part to show that the perpetrators could be dealing with their own issues, confusion and guilt over things as well - particularly when it's a case of sexual assault and/or rape by a close family friend/member.

I liked that at one point in the story, Amber meets with a lawyer her parents contacted who gave her some advice on what she could do to report Tyler. He gave her some information about things she could do that wasn't necessarily a court case and I feel like this information wasn't just for Amber but for any readers who might have had such a thing happen to them but afraid of going through a court case. I liked that the author gave this information in such a way.

I did feel like there was a bit too much build-up to the 'moment' that it happened t was 40% through before the night of the rape and before that we just got a whole load of Tyler and Amber's childhood together. I also wasn't a huge fan of the ending - it was all a bit too easy and I don't feel it was realistic. Most rape victims will have to try and convince a judge of the rapist's guilt and would go through a terrible time getting their name and sexual history dragged through the mud.

Overall, this is an important story and one I think needs to be told more. I do recommend people read it.

3.5 stars

I received a digital arc of this book from NetGalley/publishers in exchange for an honest review.

Dee, Fleur and Rose are three sisters and completely different to one another. After three years of no communication, even their mothers death can't fix the rift but their mother has devised a plan beyond the grave. In order to get their inheritance, the sisters must spend six weekends together for a year completing tasks organised by their mother. Will this help them reconnect?

This was a sweet and fun book and one that was a nice, easy read. I liked that all the characters are so different to each other but I also liked that they were aged 46+ and had already lived full lives but were ready for a whole lot more and still had lessons to learn. There are some great laugh out loud moments such as an embarrassing sex moment for Dee regarding fanny farts which had me snorting with laughter. I did find some of the plot a bit predictable and it had an About Adam feel at one point. I also read The Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney last year and the plot was also quite similar with three sisters not speaking to one another. The ending of this one didn't hit me quite as hard as that one though, but I don't think I had quite an emotional connection with that character anyways.

One thing I didn't like in the book was at one point Rose called Dee and Fleur "retarded" when they were laughing about a joke she wasn't happy about. While this might not end up in the completed, physical version of the book l do feel like we're at a point where these kind of slurs don't need to be used any more. Dee also compares the sisters' Zumba class to a "special needs outing" at one point as well.

I received a digital arc of this book from NetGalley/publishers in exchange for an honest review.

The River of Kings is a story telling three different perspectives. In modern day, two brother - Hunter and Lawton - are going on an adventure down the Altamaha river to say a final goodbye to their father and spread his ashes. In 1564, French artist Le Moyne is sharing his life at Fort Caroline - an early French settlement in what would become the United States. And through it all, we also see chapters told from Hunter and Lawton's fathers point of view. Through it all, the reader is told of a strange monster believed to inhabit the river - the Altamaha-ha.

This is one of those kind of books where I did enjoy it but I don't have a whole load to say about it. I thought Taylor Brown's writing was very beautiful and descriptive and the way he wrote really brought the sights, sounds and smells of the river alive.

I really enjoyed the historical aspect of this book. I don't know a whole lot about the early days of the United States and thought it all rather fascinated. I was interested to see the intense rivalry between the French and Spanish, as well as the explorers need for the natives and the terrible way they often treated them even though they needed them to survive.

Lawton and Hunter were both interesting character and quite different to one another. I liked the bond they clearly had and the easy camaraderie they shared. I also loved the conversation they had at one point where Hunter expresses his concerns over his weight and tells Lawton about the guys in college who are extremely bulked up. It was brief but honest and refreshing and it was nice to see two 'manly' men talk about weight and looks like this.

There was a brief moment in this book that contained a scene of child sexual abuse. It was a bit graphic for me and really repulsed me - I hadn't really seen it coming and felt it very random. While I understood it was there to reinforce a bond two characters had, I just feel it could have been something different

and not a strange man forcing a kid at gunpoint to give him a blowjob.

Elyon above and Asroth below, THIS WAS AMAZING. I'll write more when i stop crying!

I would also like to request another book just about Craf the crow because he's my favourite.

This was the final book in The Faithful and the Fallen series and it was everything I wanted and more. This entire series focuses on a legend around the 'Black Sun' and the 'Bright Star' - the human avatars of the gods Asroth and Elyon (devil and god) - and the people living in The Banished Lands. The series follows a whole cast of characters from heroes to villains with the prime focus on Corban, a young boy who ends up on a huge journey of growing up and transformation.

There was just so much character development in this book, particularly for Corban, and I feel like we finally get to see the wonderful man he became in the journey of these books. This book is intense, entertaining, thrilling, heartbreaking and infuriating all at once and it brought me on such a huge journey of emotion. I never knew who would survive and who would perish and it left me on the edge of my seat, unable to put the book down, and crying out when some of my favourite characters got injured or killed.

The battle at the end of Wrath is probably one of the best battles I've ever read in a book. It was everything I wanted for the final battle and i loved that it didn't just last a couple of chapters but really spanned the last quarter of the book. I 100% recommend this series to anyone looking for a fantastic fantasy series to read, and I need more more more books from John Gwynne.

I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Perfect is the second and last book in the Flawed duology and follows 18-year-old Celestine North who lives in a country where The Guild can ruin your life. If people make immoral decisions or decisions frowned upon by society, they can be branded with an F mark. Celestine was branded in six places, one illegally, when she helped an old man who was Flawed and refused to repent for her actions. Now Celestine is on the run from The Guild and its leader Bosco Crevan and trying to figure out she can bring the system down.

I don't think I enjoyed this book quite as much as Flawed but overall, I do think it finished up the story quite nicely. One of the things I like about The Guild is that it's still very weak and Crevan and the other judges reply on public support and government support. It's not an all-over power and it can still topple easily - obviously one of Crevan's main fears. Celestine is on the run and doesn't know who to trust but she does have ways that she can bring Crevan and The Guild down and she knows this. I liked that we knew how she could do, we just needed to wait for her to figure out how to bring it all together.

While in the first book, I enjoyed the chemistry between Celestine and Carrick while they were in the cells, Celestine's obsession with him was a bit annoying for me. I understood the connection but I do feel like Carrick became something big and great in her mind, and we never really got the real him. As soon as she finally sees him again, she sleeps with him and it was her first time. I felt like this was one, uncharacteristic of Celestine who always seemed like she would have planned this kind of thing out and wouldn't do it rashly, two, there was no mention of protection and I couldn't figure out why Carrick would have condoms in his room in the factory when he'd only been there a very short time (if we can just presume he used a condom that is), three they had only been together a day and a half, had very little actual conversation between them, and it just made me feel a bit whatever about the whole thing. I didn't care about their romance in this book at all. And as for Art and the attempt at a love triangle? He was just a massive wet mop.

I did eventually end up liking where this went, I definitely didn't enjoy it as much as Flawed though. Still a good YA duology - but i prefer Cecelia Ahern's adult books.

I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

I’m not even sure where to start with this book because I just feel so disappointed in it and I’m still working through my feelings and trying to accept how flat and downright depressed I was after finishing this book.

The Other Half of Happiness is the second book in the Sofia Khan series and starts off with Sofia in Karachi, Pakistan, and dealing with a whole load of new changes in her life.

This book started to feel off to me from the very start when we find out that Sofia is staying around a dingy apartment all day while Conall is off doing humanitarian work. At the end of the first book, Sofia left to get involved in this and I couldn’t figure out why she no longer helped out, or had she ever helped out with this or when she reconnected with Conall, all those plans fell to the wayside.

Then immediately, things start becoming really tense and frustrating. I was frustrated with multiple characters in this book for about 98% of it, mostly Sofia for just NOT USING HER WORDS. She lets people make decisions for her all the time, and then she will let others let her make the wrong decisions for herself and dictate her life at times and I hate it. She was guilty of this in the first book but I felt by the end she had grown but she went five steps backwards in this book.

The tension between Conall and Sofia from the start was just forced and annoying. There seemed to be a lot of problems for them made up in thin air. Conall not taking time off to attend his own damn wedding was just insane, and I couldn’t figure out his logical reasons for being so obstinate and infuriating. I also hated the Hamida thing thrown in, and there was obvious tension between her and Conall and then of course she ends up being gay?! But she still follows him around, butts into his business with his wife and acts like she’s in love with him and wants Sofia out of the picture. AND then she has the tenacity to blackmail Sofia into divorcing Conall? This is not a nice person people.

In book one, there was a few mentions of Muslim radicals and ‘fundos’ but they were often brought up in a humorous way and in a way that made it clear that this is something an average, normal Muslim family worry about and discuss. I liked the honesty about this but i liked that Ayisha Malik was also able to include it in a comedic way. However, in this book there was so much emphasis on the possibility of Conall becoming a “fundo”and while part of this was used to show how people can misunderstand what it is to be openly religious and talk about your faith and still be a normal person, I just felt like it was brought up way too much and it just became irritating. As was the times Sofia was told that Conall only converted for her - because she never asked him to do that, and she shouldn’t have to deal with guilt of ‘changing’ someone when all he did was find a faith he could connect with and something that could help heal him.

Conall’s character was just completely off for me. He was not the Conall I fell in love with in the first book. Nothing in the first book about him made the fact he had a secret family make sense. And come on, the kid having cancer? Total overload.

When Sakib entered the story in literally the first chapter, I knew what was coming down the road. It was so predictable and annoying. While he wasn’t necessarily a bad character and perhaps in the long run he would be good for Sofia, he’s not Conall. And he’s so serious too. I also didn’t like the way he was so quick to tell Sofia she had to give up the business if she was thinking of finding Conall.

The few things I did like in this book: Her mom’s storyline was great and I loved how she shrugged off people’s opinions and finally focused on her own happiness. Sofia’s interactions with Conall’s dad, particularly when he walked in on her ablutions and was very concerned that she dry her feet properly. I also like that Sofia helped create a publishing company that was focused on publishing Muslim authors.

Side note: Would have liked to have had some kind of detail about how Sofia’s first book did in sales? It was published and then we literally heard nothing about it.

The end of this book just felt like a bit of a kick in the teeth to be honest.

I received a free copy of this book from Paper Lantern Lit/Harlequin Teen in exchange for an honest review.

This book follows on with the adventures of a 16-year-old Alexander the Great as he struggles to become the great leader we know he will become. His friend Hephaestion is sent on a mission with Katherine, who has a special bond with Alex and a growing affection or Heph but their life may be in danger. Persian princess Zofia is struggling to return to her soldier love while Kat’s sweetheart Jacob is dealing with his decision to join an army that fights magic which means he should kill Kat.

I’m really glad I finally picked this one up as I ended up really enjoying it and I absolutely flew through it. It;s been a couple of months since I read Legacy of Kings but I had no problem falling straight back into the story and connecting with all the characters i loved the last time around. I was able to deal with the character changes and shorter chapters this time around, probably because I expected them this time so I wasn’t feeling a bit disoriented when something would happen but then the next chapter switch. I actually liked being able to see a broad view of every thing that was going on this time.

One of my favourite characters after this book is definitely Cynane. I think she is terrific and I hope she has some chapters in the next book as i can’t wait to see what she does (or indeed her own spin off series). I believe she is based on Cleopatra which I love, and I just love how fierce, independent and unapologetic Cynane is, especially considering the time era she is living in as a woman. I would probably choose Cynane over Kat many a time as Kat comes across a little bit Mary Sue sometimes - she’s just too perfect! I do think it’s funny though seeing Heph, who is a very macho, warrior guy, become very soppy and romantic when he thinks about her. He’s so angsty though.

I was also 100% shipping Alex and Kadmus. There’s always been a feeling of a gay romance between Alex and Heph but then Kadmus came along, and just so much chemistry. However, I’m not sure I’m correct but I think Alex came out as asexual in this book (unless i read that wrong). If so, I do love it and I do hope there might be some romance between him and Kadmus even if it can;t become anything more.

Overall. thoroughly enjoyed this book and I can’t wait for the next one!

This book is set in India in the late 1850s before and during the Indian rebellion against the British. The two main characters, Prince Salim and English woman Rachel meet through a joint love of music and eventually fall in love in the midst of their warring people.

To start off with I will say that I enjoyed the audio narration of this. The narrator was of Indian descent and obviously knew how to pronounce all the places and names correctly which made for an enjoyable read. Her English accents were also excellent.

However the story fell really flat for me. My library app actually made a mistake and I thought I was going to be listening to the authors other book. So I was waiting for that story to start happening and was confused until I realised the mistake. While Salim and Rachel were cute, there was so much back and forth it got irritating. It also took so long for anything to properly happen between them.

This book did serve to make me very angry though at the way the Brits treated the Indian native. My blood was boiling for so much of the rebellion scenes. While I did learn a lot more about how Indian people had to leave under British rule at the time (and I do think it hit close to home due to my own county's relationship with Britain), I did find some of the names and what was happening within the rebellion confusing. The timeline for me was a bit messy, I could never figure out how much time had actually passed.

There were a few moments where Rachel was just a massive drip and irritated me immensely. When she got annoyed at Salim for being a part of the rebellion, I almost ripped out my earphones. How dare she 'hate him' for wanted to take his country back and make his people safe. I would have left her then and there. At points she talked about some of the English had to live during the time but I had absolutely no sympathy whatsoever for them with how some other characters were treated during the course of the book.

So overall, I wasn't mad about this book and I'm just glad it's over.