Where do I even start with raving about this book because genuinely, I don’t think I’ve ever had a non-fiction book speak to me so much as this one did! For those that don’t know who she is (how dare you), Melanie Murphy is an Irish YouTuber and regularly posts videos about health, beauty, food, sex, LGTBQ+ issues etc.

I have been following Melanie for I think a little over half a year and I quickly became sucked into her channel, her content and just her general loveliness so I knew I was going to break out of my general non-reading of YouTuber memoirs (the only other one was Carrie’s All I Know Now) to pick up her book. And I’m so glad I did.

Melanie is only a little over two years older than me and I think this is why I maybe related to her, and a lot of stuff she talked about, so much. She grew up in the same type of Ireland I did, with the same kind of introduction to social media ad the internet. we went through the same terrible fashion and dating stages as teenagers. I just got a lot of what she went through and reminisced about.

Melanie has some pretty strong points in this book, particularly about relationships with food and body, and learning how to self-love. You can tell she planned out this book really well, as each part of the book has specific chapters relating to different things under that topic and it all fits together really nicely to create a well-rounded discussion on food, sex, body, confidence, dating, you name it.

I think this book is generally aimed at people in their late teens onwards which I think is perfection. She talks open and honestly about sex, masturbation and modern dating in a way that people still tend to find it hard to talk and accept today (especially in Ireland). Melanie is so wonderful and hard-working and at times she seems so far above us normal people as a successful YouTuber but many of her experiences are completely average meaning it’s easy to relate to her and say, ‘Hey, if this happened to Melanie too, it’s not that bad,’ or ‘If Melanie could confront this and get over it with help, I can too.’

I genuinely think this book could end up helping a lot of people, even if it’s just finding that friend talking to you straight from the pages. This is a book I think I will find myself cracking open again and again just to reread certain passages to feel less alone or I need some sharp-witted advice.

Wildflower Girl is a follow-on sequel to Under the Hawthorn Tree and is set seven years after the Great Famine of Ireland which saw the O'Driscoll children travelling across the country to reach he safety of their great aunts. In Wildflower Girl, another part of Irish history is explore with Peggy travelling alone to America to find work and a better life than one she would lead in Ireland and the small town of Castlehaggart.

I listened to this on audiobook and can highly recommend the version narrated by Caroline Lennon. She does a fantastic job telling Peggy's story.

This book is set in the 1840/50s and shows some of the earlier emigration completed by Irish people to America and this book shows the horror and stress of the journey but again in a way that children can read it and understand. It's what I love about these books is that the story is told in a way that's accessible to children but at the same time the importance of the story and its place in Irish history can be understood by young readers.

I got oddly emotional with this book when Peggy was on the ship to America, surrounded by other people. She was 13 years old and knowing so many young girls and boys like her made this trip with some succeeding in America and others being exploited tugged at my heartstrings. It's such a poignant part of Irish history, and it's still something that's effecting the Irish economy today with the young generation uprooting to the US, Australia and Canada on the regular.

I do love stories with the upstairs/downstairs relations in a house such as we saw with Peggy's job as a housemaid. I think this one was done really well and didn't hide some of the hardships Peggy had to go through but the simple joys as well.

3.5 stars

This book was so boring and painful to read. I really hated it.

This is about Gabe and Lea who basically fancy the pants off each other but are too chicken to do anything about it. The story is told through the eyes of the people around them including friends, the bus driver, the teacher and even a squirrel and a bench.

I really thought I would love this book because I kept hearing about how cute it was but I was so bored all the way through. There was so much repetition such as seeing something happen through the eyes of the barista and then having the whole thing retold by Gabe or Lea to a friend. I don't need to hear the whole thing again!

I also felt there was a real sense of inappropriate behaviour by the teacher from talking about her students and what they said to her in private to her wife and then hating on a student because she looked like a Valley girl and more or less labelling her as a whore. I really didn't like it.

I couldn't connect to Lea or Gabe at all. I suffer from shyness now and again like every normal person but the way they were was borderline pathetic and frustrating. I was just rolling my eyes at them the whole time and I couldn't understand why their friends couldn't just tell the other 'Hey Gabe likes you!' Ugh.

This book was just one big fat nope. Do not recommend.

2.5 stars

Empress follows a young girl named Hekat when at is sold as a slave by her father to traders. Hekat is beautiful and treated well by the traders as she travels across the land to Et-Raklion. She learns to talk properly and to read and write but is soon unhappy with her future plans. Hekat is godtouched, precious and beautiful and she will be more than what people say she is.

The concept of this sounded great. A young girl fighting against the expectations put upon her by men because of her beauty. A woman who becomes a warrior and breaks her chains and rises up to power. And yes, that all sounds great except that Hekat is absolutely insufferable. She is arrogant, vain and cruel and I really hated her story. I enjoyed the world building we got in Et-Raklion and how much we learned about the religion and a God who is very much present in its people's lives. But Hekat ruined everything, I really hated her and she's the main character! There were times I wanted bad things to happen to her just so she'd get off her high horse.

I didn't plan on reading the next book because I can't deal with Hekat but I've realised the sequel follows a completely new character in another part of the world so I think I will give that one a shot.

Joel goes to a school that also caters to students studying to become rithamists - a type of magical warrior that can fight against 'wild chalklings' with their own drawings and measurements (yeah, it sounds weird but it's surprisingly easy enough to get the gist of). When rithmatist students start disappearing in strange circumstances, Joel becomes part of the investigation.

I surprisingly enjoyed this. I was expecting a good story cause I had heard great things about Brandon Sanderson's writing, but I wasn't expecting to be quite so sucked in. The build-up of the world was pretty good, though I thought it was a dystopia type world at first, I think it was actually more of an alternate reality to our world today. The explanations of the different types of circles and lines and defences used by the rithmatists did go a bit over my head. I just saw shapes and my math-hating brain shut off, basically.

Joel was a good protagonist and I really liked his growing relationship with Melody. They never deviated from what I expected of them so their personalities really held firm. I also liked the professors Fitch and Nalizar. I couldn't help but think of Professor Slughorn from Harry Potter when it came to Fitch, that bumbling type of teacher and Nalizar's story arc reminded me a lot of how Harry treated and suspected Snape in the Philosopher's Stone.

I'm really hope another book will come out soon as I really feel there's so much more to come with this story and Joel's story.