I received this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly, this book is just a big emotional sucker punch to the gut and I'm still reeling.

TW: Sexual assault + PTSD, homophobia, gay slurs (multiple uses of the f-word).

Beartown is still struggling to deal with the fallout of the town's rising hockey star being accused of sexual assault by the daughter of the club's general manager. Now Kevin has left town for good, but for Maya she is still struggling to survive in a town that's been torn apart from either believing her, or accusing her of lying. Peter Anderson doesn't know how to stop his family from falling apart while at the same time, his club is also crumbling to dust - and Benji, the town's delinquent son/purest heart is helping others while keeping the biggest secret in his life close to his chest. By the end of the hockey season, someone will be dead and the sporting violence between Beartown and neighbouring Hed will have come to a terrible conclusion.

I love Fredrik Backman's writing - his characters are so full of life in a way I find it hard to see other authors really achieving, and he has a truly unique style to his writing that comes across perfectly even when translated which I think is a feat in itself. Like all his stories, Us Against You is full of self-deprecating humour and wonderful moments between people, while also highlighting the true ugliness in the world against the moments of beauty and hope. While Beartown deals with a heavy topic, I actually as a reader found Us Against You a heavier, harder book to read. I'm not sure I 100% enjoyed myself while reading this and I wonder if "enjoyed" is even the right word for the consumption of a book like this.

In a way I almost felt emotionally manipulated in this book as my feelings were on strings about to snap at any moment throughout the novel. I was so scared for every character even though for some we knew what lay ahead but with others we weren't so sure. I never knew if Leo, Benji or Ana was about to be hurt or something terrible happen. I was afraid for Sune and Peter and even Teemu (who if you're not picturing as Wentworth Miller, what's wrong with you?). The book is written really cleverly because you know enough to be really invested but never enough to feel like you won't be surprised by the next chapter. We might know that a character achieves his dream of becoming an NHL professional, but that doesn't mean we know the struggles of how he got there and the bumps in the road that made him stronger.

Once again, Fredrik Backman proves he can play my emotional strings like an expert fiddler and I'm happy to hand my reader's heart over to him any time!

I received a free digital copy of this book from the author/publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest view.

Sallot Leon is a street rat and has had to fight and thieve for survival since their entire nation was killed in war less than a decade ago. When Sal robs a highborn lady, they finds out that the Queen is looking for a new Opal - an assassin - and so Sal sets off for auditions. Now Sal has to learn to fight with swords as well as knives, and aim arrows as well as punches. But the stakes are high and Sal might not have what it takes to be Opal.

I knew very little about this book going into it other than it was a YA fantasy with a gender fluid protagonist so I'm so happy it ended up being a great high stakes adventure that had me gripped throughout, I did initially have a little trouble getting into it but I think it's just more my mood that day because once I settled down an gave it a chance I was hooked.

This does have a bit of Hunger Games feel to it due to the high stakes and death at any moment feeling while the fantasy world/being based around a castle felt slightly like Throne of Glass but I think because of Sal's own personal goals and voice, it felt original.

I loved how accepting everyone was of Sal's gender fluidity. There were no arguments about it or raised eyebrows. Once Sal explained what it was like for them, and the pronounce for specific clothing choices everyone understood and got on with it and it was genuinely just lovely to see. I do think Sal and Elise felt a little bit insta-love but again I liked Elise's acceptance of Sal and her feelings towards them.

Sal did annoy me in some parts with their decisions - like choosing to murder Seve before they became Opal. I just thought that was a bit of an idiotic decision. I do think some things came easier to Sal than I was expecting considering they had no formal training and really only knew how to street fight.

The end as well felt slightly drawn out. I kept waiting for something big to happen, and waiting, and waiting, and then it eventually did but at that stage I was more than ready for the book to wrap up.

I will definitely be reading the next one though as I really enjoyed this and can't wait to more of Sal's adventures.

I also wonder if tehy will make Two the new Ruby?I quite liked Two from the few glimpses we had of her.

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


Daniel Tozer has a secret. She wants to be Danielle Tozer but is finding it hard to come out to her family about being transgender. When Danny is in the vicinity of a superhero fight and tries to help top superhero Dreadnought as he lies dying, Dreadnought passes on his powers to Danny. The powers make Danny who she wanted to be and is suddenly a girl in body and mind. Now Danny has to deal with revealing her new self to friends and family, as well as having some really cool but deadly superhero powers.

I had heard really good things about this book so was a bit nervous going in to it that I wouldn’t like it. But oh my god, this was amazing! I feel like there was so much in this story to appeal to everyone from really great LGBT issues, women’s issues and on top of all of that, a superhero story. I found Danny’s transformation from girl with a boy’s body to girl with a girl’s body really, really interesting from how she looked slightly unrealistically beautiful because Danny had always looked at the photoshopped images of girls in advertisements and TV to how she was suddenly a lot more self conscious of her body from the way she held her books to her chest to cover her breasts, to suddenly not feeling like she should eat the second piece of pizza because that’s not what a girl would do (except me, I would totally eat that second slice plus a third and fourth).

Danny has to deal with a lot of homophobia after coming out but also a lot of sexism such as how her friend David suddenly feels he has the right to look at her and date her because she’s physically female and throws back a lot of terrible abuse after being rejected. I thought this was all told in a really, really great way and so many issues were brought to light i a really subtly but powerful way,

Asides from the LGBT aspect of the story, the story itself is just a really great superhero story that really made me want to see it in TV or movie form. We have a team of supercool heroes, as well as a cool lair and laboratory and all sorts of gadgets and suits. I enjoyed how the superhero story played out, almost Kickass style with Calamity and Danny and the fight scenes were so great, I was on the edge of my seat reading them.

i also let out an audible cheer when Danny finally took on Dreadnought’s colours!

I 100% recommend this book and I’m so glad this was my first 5-star read for 2017 because it was so good. I’m just sad i have to wait ages now for the next instalment. I think this is a book I will be buying in physical form so I can make all my friends and sibling read it!

I received a free digital copy of this book from the publishers/author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Trans girl Danni is now a bonafide superhero after being granted the mantle of Dreadnought but even though she defeated an ultra-villian, Danni still has to struggle for acceptance and fight for everything she’s earned, while proving to others she’s more than what they think.

Sovereign was good, but not as good as the first book Dreadnought for me. I’m not sure if it was the particular mood I was in the first couple of days I read this, but Danni really, really annoyed me. She just became extremely arrogant in this book about her abilities (which yes are amazing, but she’s still only starting out and I didn’t like how she talked to others around her, not to mention the policemen and stuff just doing their job. She basically seemed to treat everyone but Calamity as an idiot).

The first half of this book was a three-star read for me but the second half was a four-star. Things really heated up - I also felt like everything moved way faster in this book, there was no time to breathe but I liked it - and Danni was really challenges as Dreadnought and really made her realise she’s not the best things since sliced bread just because she can fly.

The villain bit near the very end of this book was so terrifying but I also loved how it all worked out. I also like that Danni is going to be seeing a therapist and needs time to process what she’s done, and what she saw. I feel like this isn’t something that’s every touched upon in superhero stories - at the end go the day, they’re mostly human and need to take care of mental health just as much as their physical health!

The trans rep and LGTBQIA, diverse rep in this book was great as always (as far as I could tell anyways as a straight, cis, white woman) and I’m not sure if there’s another book coming but if there is, I will definitely be reading it!

Imagine a plane load of superficial, not exactly super smart teenage beauty queens crash landing on a deserted island and trying to survive long enough to win Miss Teen Dream when they finally get rescued. You're probably right when you imagine girly bitch fits, a lot of cheer and a whole load of belly laughs.

While this book seemed right up my alley, I was definitely disappointed in it. The concept was really funny but I felt like the book was about 100-150 pages too long considering the type of satirical humor that this book was basically stuffed with. I liked all the girls and their back stories. I always loved the LGBT theme that was in the book as well.

The story took a bit of a downturn when the 'pirates' arrived and it just dragged out after that. I get what Libba Bray was trying to do, but it just didn't quite appeal to me.

I received a free digital copy of this book from the publishers/author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lexi Voltov has everything a girl can dream of thanks to her dad being the owner of a luxury empire of hotels. But Lexi is a heroin addict and soon finds herself in a treatment centre for well-off young adults with addiction problems.

I loved this book! From the very first few sentences, this is genuinely a story that I could not put down and I absolutely flew through it. The story not only has excellent characters with all sorts of diversity rep and stories but also has a really intersting location and tone to it.

Lexi is a really great character. She is utterly despicable when we first meet her and says and thinks terrible things. Really terrible things. But like Dr Goldstein said in the book, we soon find out that the Lexi we first meet is her addiction wearing her, and we start discovering the wonderful person she is and who she has been hiding away from some kind of reasons.

I loved the friendships that Lexi has in Clarity. The group of people were wonderfully diverse - there’s fat rep, characters of colour, trans rep, people suffering from drug addiction, alcoholism, self harm etc.

I want to also add that there was period representation in this book which I love and is so important. The therapy Lexi goes through while in Clarity is also portrayed in a really good light - she only resists the therapy at first but then she and her doctor start having really frank conversations and end up having a really lovely relationship. Also a bonus point for having horses in it.

Loved this, and loved the emphasis at the end that sometimes the first time doesn’t always work out so well. Try, and try again until you succeed and live the way you want to.

Tiger Lily is a retelling of Peter Pan, told through the eyes of Tinkerbell but focusing on the life of Tiger Lily, the girl who knew Peter before Wendy. Tiger Lily is a strong, independent spirit and her tale is one that really strikes you in the heart.

"I am only a faerie. I don't have grand ideas, or grand dreams, or long for grand freedoms like people do. But I wanted to be part of their dreams too, even if I was only a flea riding on their tails."

I loved this. The imaginings of the different tribes on Neverland, Tick Tok and his beautiful hair and dress, Pine Sap and his bird calls, Tiger Lily and her spirit and Peter Pan and his Lost Boys. This was a great reimagining of Neverland as an unexplored island somewhere in the Atlantic, somewhere where everyone stops ageing at some point on their lives. I really loved Tinkerbell's voice throughout and how she was more tiger Lily's fairy that Peter's but that she loved Peter in her own special way.

"How can I describe Peter's face, the pieces of him that stick to my heart? Peter sometimes looked aloof and distant; sometimes his face was open and soft as a bruise."

There were some cute and lovely fairy moments from Tink, like the way she was stuck if she dropped in water, fairy bites being more painful than wasp stings and of course just general fairy thoughts.

"I was carrying a raindrop to keep in a little hole in the wood, so I could drink from it at my leisure. But each raindrop I lifted kept falling apart. Water is so delicate."

There was some beautiful moments in this book and at times the language and the style of writing blew me away, There were some mature moments in the book that oen wouldn't normally associate with Peter Pan, such as Smee's obsessions, Peter's kisses and Giant's stalking of Moon Eyes.

There were times that Peter was explained so Pan like, it was just magical and wonderful and so the Peter Pan we all love.

"Maybe the way he seemed to vibrate made her stillness seem less glaring, and Peter seemed calmer."

I always love the Lost Boys in stories. Boys who secretly want to be taken care of yet at the same time they're independent and wild, almost feral in their ferociousness to be themselves. Throughout Tiger Lily, there was a tinge of loneliness from every character. Peter, the Lost Boys, Tick Tok, even Captain Hook.

"Finally, Nibs took Tootles's hand and they slow-danced, each leaning against the other, like rag dolls. The twins soon did the same. It was proof of their loneliness for other people that they were willing to lean on each other so much."

There are some powerful moments in this book about Tick Tok in particular and, what I can only call, his gender fluidity and how it was so accepted at first but was then whispered about and shunned when a stranger came and began to make it bad thing. There was something about Tick Tok that really touched me and I think his story in particular is one of the strongest points in this book.

This just a beautiful book, filled with beautiful words. I highly recommend to anyone who loves a Peter Pan retelling, or anything to do with magic, belonging and finding someone to fit in with.