The book eating girl

1. Solitaire by Alice Oseman Solitaire follows sad, introverted Tori Spring (sister of Charlie Spring - from the Heartstopper series) who is going through a mental health crisis (please read the trigger warnings of this book before you pick it up:  https://aliceoseman.com/extras/content-warnings/ ), while simultaneously dealing with an anonymous online group targeting her school, with pranks that get more extreme by the day. This book was everything. It broke me and somehow managed to put all the pieces back together. I felt understood and seen (and I think it's a really powerful thing when books can make you feel that way). Definitely hard to read sometimes (it is much darker than the Heartstopper series) - but Alice Oseman has managed to craft a world filled with real, hurt, and healing people, and I will forever love reading about it.  I was absolutely fascinated with Tori and the way her character is so carefully crafted - you feel like you know her from the very first cha...

Happy 2024! As we come to the start of a new year - you know what that means, it's time to wrap up our reading for 2023 and look back on our favourites!  I read 88 books this year, which I'm quite happy with (even if reaching 100 is incredibly satisfying haha). My goodreads goal for this year is 75 books, which I might very well surpass - but if 2023 has taught me anything it's that quality over quantity is incredibly important when it comes to reading, so I'm excited to start picking up books that seem genuinely interesting and do not just end up being middle of the road average 3 or 4 stars. Anyway, that said - without further ado let get into some of my favourites and most memorable reads (because I think that's a sign that you truly enjoyed a book) of 2023! Quick Disclaimer: I'm sure it goes without saying, but this list is entirely subjective to me and my reading tastes. However, I do hope that you find inspiration to maybe pick up one of these books. I als...

The Naturals is an incredibly gripping, fast-paced young adult thriller mystery which revolves around the lives of five teenagers: Cassie, Sloane, Dean, Lia and Michael - who are all part of a program created by the FBI called the 'naturals'.  Each 'natural' possesses a specific gift - some can detect deception, analyse stats, easily read facial expressions and emotions, and get into criminals minds to fill in the missing pieces and are also able to mirror a persons thought patterns, personality, behaviour and environment. It was really interesting to see them interact with one and other (their individual gifts making it all the more intriguing) - and I cannot even imagine living in a house with all of them haha!  The Naturals Program is a classified endeavour which utilises these exceptionally skilled teenagers to crack infamous cold cases.   This being the first book in the series, follows Cassie as she joins the program and has to grapple with being surrounded by ...

Violet Sorrengail has been preparing her entire life to join the Scribe Quadrant, and to live out her dream documenting history and being surrounded by books. However, the commanding general (who is also her mother) forces Violet to follow in her siblings footsteps and join the Riders Quadrant - which consists of hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of the kingdom of Navarre: dragon riders (and they may or may not be willing to kill each other to get there).  Violet is in no way prepared for what awaits her, and when she gets to Basgiath War College its very quickly established that she is the smallest and weakest out of all the cadets. This only makes her more of a target as with fewer dragons willing to bond to cadets, most would be willing to kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would would kill her just for being her mother's daughter - including Xaden Riorson, an incredibly respected and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant. With ev...

Do not be fooled by the title and cover of this book! While, yes, a part of it's plot does follow ex-best-friends Bradley and Celine as they rekindle their friendship (and possibly a romance..?), there is so much more to this book on top of the (incredibly well done) relationship development. Both characters are incredibly headstrong in their own right, and facing their own struggles which throughout the course of the story they realise they can overcome with a little help from each other. I think just the fact that I would read this book minus the romance speaks volumes about Talia Hibbert's writing (the sarcastic humour is on point by the way), and the characters are so well fleshed out - they truly feel like real people and teenagers with honest struggles, and made reading this book a genuine delight from start to finish :) Also, gumpy and sunshine is also not usually one of my favourite relationship dynamics to read about but Brad and Celine definitely made it work (for me ...

Daisy Jones & The Six is an incredibly emotional and captivating story that explores the rise and fall of a 1970's band of the same name. It's written in a truly unconventional format - which somehow works perfectly in this case - as a transcript of interviews with the band members, their families and friends as well as other people who were involved in their journey at the time.  This book was so realistically and hauntingly beautiful and completely unique in that it was unlike anything I've ever read.  The first time I read it, I was in a massive reading slump and devoured this almost 400 page novel in 2 days - it had me in a literal chokehold. I also re-read it a mere two months after and if that isn't a testament to how much I love this book I don't know what is (and for the record it was just as incredible the second time around). I was completely gripped and I honestly cannot believe that everyone in this book is not a real person - they are so well fleshe...