Nic Dempsey

Act Like It – Lucy Parker (borrowed)

Smart Bitches have been raving about this and on NYE, a friend threw it at me and said that I had to read it. So I did, in a day. Clearly, the setting and use of English English didn’t thrill me as it did the Bitchery but I really enjoyed it. It was funny, the couple were believable and not magic, I have read it again since.

The Vincent Boys – Abbi Glines (borrowed)

The Vincent Brothers – Abbi Glines (borrowed)

This is new adult lite, it came via H (as did the two below and provoked some very interesting conversions and a recommended reading list from me) and it was very readable but I had some issues. I had some issues with the relationships, especially in the second book, I just couldn’t work out what it was about the heroine that the hero loved and when he told her it wasn’t about her it was about him and her looks.  Instalove and extreme possessiveness as signs of true love, which was touched on a bit but not properly addressed. Extreme slut shaming. Also the parents, it was frustrating, really frustrating.

Until Friday Night – Abbi Glines (library e-book)

Loads going on this one, again with the instalove and possession and jealousy from the boy as a sign that he’s really in love, which was addressed better here. This I think will be the beginning of a series and I’m sort of interested in reading the next one, in fact when I was reading them they were hard to put down but after I read them I worried about the messages they were sending to H.

Landline – Rainbow Rowell (bought)

I am the only person on the planet that didn’t like Eleanor and Park. Having said that I like Attachments and loved Fangirl, so I finally caved and bought Laneline at the bargain Kindle price of £1.99. You can see that the higher book buying limit has gone to my head already! I really enjoyed this, I loved that by the end of the book the problems aren’t all gone but that they’ve made a commitment to try because pretty much that’s all relationships are, people loving each other enough to try and try again..

Hand to Mouth: The Truth About Being Poor in a Wealthy World – Linda Tirado (library book)

There is another edition of this book subtitled ‘Living in Bootstrap America’. I’ve had this book reserved at the library since last year, I eventually had to cancel the it and re-reserve it and then it came in two weeks, library logic is sometimes not like normal logic. Recently, because of the work of some friends of mine and the volunteering Ma does I’ve become more aware of the thin line line between making it or not, I’ve been so close to that line and it really wouldn’t take much to send me below it. I aware of how lucky I am not to be. Tirado is clear that she is talking from her lived experience, it’s clear that she’s not stupid or feckless or lazy or any of the other character flaws that we like to throw at poor people. She’s talking about the US system which is different from ours but seems like the one that the current political class here would like to send us to. It’s horrific and honest and funny too. Every politician should read it, in fact on the radio today someone suggested that all politicians should have to spend a year on minimum wage before they can be MP’s, I think that is a fine idea!

Winter – Marissa Meyer (library book)

I read Cinder ages ago and didn’t read the next two Scarlet and Cress. Set in a future world, each book is based on a fairy tale but is also part of the over-arching story. I’m basically unable to walk into the library without having a quick look at the new books shelves and picked this one up. Because I’d read Cinder, I didn’t need too much information on the world and while I was maybe missing stuff because I hadn’t read the middle two books, I didn’t feel I was missing out. So this story is Snow White, except Snow is suffering from mental illness and the Wicked Queen can control minds. I enjoyed it, it moved quickly without sacrificing story, the romances of the previous stories show that ‘happily ever after’ doesn’t come quite as easily as you’d think. I also liked that at the end the book, there is hope but it’s not all solved. Winter might find a cure for her condition but she might not. What I really enjoyed was the parity of concern. The boys were protective of the group and the girls but so were the girls of the group and the boys. Everyone of the group got to be heroic and brave in their own way. The evil queen was defeated and although there was some interesting stuff about how she got there, she ultimately died because she couldn’t take responsibility for the wrongness of what she’d done. I do like a complex fairy tale and this was fun as well.

Sorcerer to the Crown – Zen Cho (library book)

Another book picked straight up from the new books shelf. I really enjoyed this it reminded me of Georgette Heyer in the best possible way. I realised halfway through that Prunella reminded me of Sophy from The Grand Sophy, it was funny and kept me reading, I loved the world building and it’s was nice to see a book (a book set in the Regency no less) that had two non-white leads. This could have been tricky but it was dealt with properly, which is to say that it was relevant and irrelevant to the story, no black person or mixed race person could go through life in Regency England unaware of racism but it was not the only thing they were dealing with so it didn’t dominate every thought or scene. I would recommend it to everyone and will be on the look out for the next two (of course it’s a trilogy!)

The Score – Elle Kennedy (bought)

I was having a bad week and I read this in a day, mostly while waiting for my phone to be fixed. This was easy to read, escapist nonsense and it made me happy so I make no apology for it. Also an NA that doesn’t have significantly terrible parents or parental angst ok one dead parent, one sick parent but that’s within the actual realm of possibility (both of my parents were missing one by the time they were 21 – but no evil abusive parents for a change.). Yes of course I will read the next one when it comes out.

Terra – Mitch Benn (library book)

I loved this and have put the next one on hold at the library. It’s a very human story about aliens and very funny.

Exit Kingdom – Alden Bell (library book)

I loved The Reapers are the Angels. This is a prequel featuring one of the characters from Reapers and I loved this almost as much. The language is grandiose but not pretentious, this my friends is how literary novels should be written.