REVIEW: Falling Fast by Sophie McKenzie

Name:  Falling Fast

Author:  Sophie McKenzie

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Date published: 1st March 2012

Pages: 247

Source: Gifted

Rating: 4 stars

When River auditions for a part in an inter-school performance of Romeo and Juliet, she finds herself falling for Flynn, the boy playing Romeo. 

River believes in romantic love, and she can’t wait to experience it.  But does Flynn see things the same way?

The path of true love never did run smooth…

  Being a fan of Sophie McKenzie, I was eager to read the first book in her new series.  She writes wonderful books under any genre and I loved her Luke and Eve series so I had high expectations for Falling Fast. 

  The storyline was pretty simple and predictable but I loved the backdrop of the Romeo and Juliet play because it established the love theme of the book.  However I was worried that this would mean the book would be all lovey-dovey and cringey.  As the book went on, thankfully I didn’t need to worry. 

  Falling Fast is narrated by River, a sixteen-year-old girl who is desperate to find a boy who she really loves and loves her in return.  When she auditions for a part in a play at the boy’s school, she falls for Flynn, who plays Romeo.  Desperate to play Juliet, she is distraught when her best friend Emmi gets the role instead.  As she gets to know Flynn, she tries in vain to get through to him but he keeps shutting her out.  Is he the perfect Romeo for her after all?

  I must admit that I didn’t really like River.  She wasn’t an easy character I could warm to, mainly because of her irritating personality.  I was quite incredulous when she obsessed over how she wanted to find ‘true’ love.  Her initial naivety made me curious about her and I really wanted to warm to her but then her innocence turned to a whiny, immature personality that sort of got on my nerves.  She let Flynn walk all over her and every time she confronted him, she ended up in tears, apologising and begging him.  Fortunately by the end, she was braver and stronger which makes me want to read the next book in the series when it does come out to see if she has changed for good.

  Flynn.  What can I say about him?  I thought he would be a sweet character but he turned out to be the opposite.  But I liked his mysteriousness and secretive personality which added an interesting element to the book.  He didn’t open up much to River and was always angry and moody, so I was REALLY frustrated with him.  Once I found out more about him and the frugal life he led, I pitied him and forgave him for his horrid temper.  In ways, he made River more mature and showed her the harsh reality of the world outside of her sheltered life so he wasn’t all that bad.  By the end, like River, he seemed to change in personality and his anger melted away.  This makes me want to read on in the series as well because if they both have new personalities, the book will be much better!

  I’m afraid it didn’t live up to the Luke and Eve series for me but you should still give it a go!  As I’ve already pointed out above (several times!) I am eager to read the next book as the characters get quite interesting by the end of this one…  I think that the idea behind the book was great but it was just presented in too much of a fluffy, light-headed way if that makes sense.  However, I did enjoy it and didn’t give up on it so my only dislikes about it were the characters’ personalities. 

  Overall Falling Fast is a fun, light read and a good start to Sophie McKenzie’s new series.

Book Blogger Month Wrap-Up

  So that's it, today is the last day of March and Book Blogger Month here at A Reading Daydreamer.  I would just like to take this chance to thank all the bloggers who took time to answer my interview questions and write wonderful guest posts.  It was a privilege to have you guys on the blog and I like to think that I have made some new blogging friends.  You all run the most amazing blogs so I hope you all keep blogging for years to come!  In no particular order, thank you to these wonderful people:

[clicking on the blogger's name will take you to their interview/guest post]

Luisa Plaja (author and blogger at Chicklish)
Ria (The Beaucoup Review)
Caitlin (The Cait Files)
Beth (Page-Turner)
Cliona (Bookster Reviews)
Jana (The Book Goddess)
Zoe (Bookhi)
Raimy (Readaraptor)
Rachel (Booktastic Reviews)
Megan (The Book Addicted Girl)
Jean (The Magic Bean Review)

I had so much fun reading all of your guest posts and interviews!  Hopefully I can have another bash at Book Blogger Month next year (although I will definitely need to improve my organisational skills!)

Happy reading and blogging,
Beverley x

Feature and Follow Friday #3

This is a meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. It's where you meet other book bloggers and share the follower love. A question is also asked every week.


To join the fun and make new book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:

1. (Required) Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts {Parajunkee & Alison Can Read}
2. (Required) Follow our Featured Bloggers
3. Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing. You can also grab the code if you would like to insert it into your posts.
4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say "hi" in your comments and that they are now following you.
5. If you are using WordPress or another CMS that doesn't have GFC (Google Friends Connect) state in your posts how you would like to be followed.
6. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don't just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don't say "HI"
7. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers!

Q: Do you read one book at a time or do you switch back and forth between two or more?

A: No, I generally don't read more than one book at a time as it's so much easier for me to get through one book before starting another.  If I read more than one I tend to get the plots and characters mixed up and I would have to go back to the start, wasting valuable time which I could be spending on another. 

What about you?  Feel free to leave comments and I would really appreciate it if you follow me by GFC :)

Book Blogger Month: Guest Post by Jean!

 Today we have Jean from Magic Bean Review writing about the books that she would like to see adapted into films!  Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did :)

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Hi! I'm Jean and I have been blogging over at Magic Bean Review for a few years now. I'm a widely-read 17 year old, as I like to dabble in tween and YA as well as adult books. I find when I am reading that I always imagine a film version of the book going on. It happened for The Hunger Games which went out in cinemas yesterday (and I  recommend seeing it!), but if the descriptions in a book are just so, I find it very, very easy to imagine what a film version of a book is like. If there isn't enough description it makes it a lot harder for me!

 When I first heard about Undead by Kirsty McKay, I was very intrigued. I had never read a zombie book for teens before. It was a roller coaster thrill ride of humour, scares and romance and to be honest, I do not think there is a film out there quite like this. For the Hollywood rich men it ends in a nail-biting cliffhanger, which is perfect to milk a sequel out...
 

Moving on to something at the exact same level of thrilling, is Princess by Courtney Cole. This book blew me away with how different it was to everything 

else out there. The original cover was pink and had a 'princess' lounging about in jewels, as you do, and it did not represent the drama and shockers in the book. I initially picked it up after it appeared on Amazon as a free teen Kindle book, so naturally I didn't really check out what the book was about. At first I thought it was another coming of age book but, wow... it sure isn't! I can easily see this as being one of those films that give off a much deeper message than what was previously thought. OK, so a lot of it is pretty far-fetched - but a lot of films are like that, too!

To be perfectly honest, before reading Swim the Fly by Don Calame I was so sceptical about whether I would enjoy it as it was mainly written for teenage boys - I had thought the idea and premise behind it was so original (a prime reason why I enjoy some books more than others...! If they are original and unique BOOM I love 'em). Have you heard of many dude-lit books?! Anyway, I could imagine this as one of those teen films that start off being a quiet indie classic but then receive a cult following online.... Don Calame has been a screen writer before so it really makes sense why it was so easy for me to translate words into pictures    
 

Jenna & Jonah’s Fauxmance by Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin was, like Princess, another book that did not prepare you for what was going to happen. Much less dramatic but just as enjoyable to read, I imagined this as being one of the first films that delved into the lives of child 

actors... A coming of age tale with a twist it was really fun to read and it was so easy to picture as a film! It even had the ending where you just wanted it to keep going, so you could find out how the characters end up a few years along the line, which happens to me a lot after watching some films!

What book(s) have you read that you just knew could so easily translate onto screen? 

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Thank you to Jean for writing a wonderful guest post!  It was really interesting to see what books she wanted to see adapted into films. I must admit that I haven't read any of those books but I must remember to check them out, they all look brilliant!  

Feel free to leave your thoughts and comments below and remember to let me know what books you would like to see as films!

Happy reading,

Beverley x

Book Blogger Month: Top 5 Addictive Series by Megan!

Hi!  My name’s Megan, and I come from The Book Addicted Girl.  As the name suggests, I am a total book addict, and have been for as long as I can remember.  I set up my blog at the end of 2010, and since then have gone on to triple my pile of books to read and quadrupled the list of books I want to read.  The Book Addicted Girl is a YA book blog, and is where I get to ramble about books for as long as I like! 

But that’s enough of me rambling!  I’m here because the lovely Beverley asked me to do a post on my Top 5 Addictive Series.  After much thought, here they are…

Number One:

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

This is one we’ve all heard of, and I assume most of us have read.  The boy wizard, marked as special as the scar on his face, his destiny locked up with the evil wizard who Shall Not Be Named... Lots of people I know have put their book addiction down to this series.  Full of magic and action and mythical creatures, it is one of the coolest worlds out there – one I bet most of us would give an arm or a leg to get into.  And with the films being some of the biggest earners ever, the characters and story have reached a huge audience – hopefully getting even more people into reading!  But back to why it’s addictive…  Well.  It’s Harry Potter!  Need I say any more?

Number Two:

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

When I first started reading this, I’d only read a couple of vampire series – one being, obviously, Twilight.  So I must admit, going into this I wasn’t sure what to expect.  What I got was a kick-butt lead girl, a totally swoonsworthy guy, the most amazing vampire mythology ever and a world I was fully prepared to leap into now.  Full of action, humour and witty remarks, it was just so amazingly awesome!  I read the whole series in a flash: laughing, crying and totally in love with all of the characters.  To this day, VA remains one of the few paranormal novels that have truly made me properly cry.  And then the spin off series, Bloodlines… Just as amazing!  If you haven’t read these series, I really, really recommend them!

Number Three:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Another one I’m sure most of us have heard of/read.  The film it inspired is coming out this month – YES! – and I could not be more excited about it!  The Hunger Games is set in a future world, where every year two children from each District gets taken into a barbaric game known as the Hunger Games, from which only one gets out alive…  I mean, c’mon!  I was hooked just from the synopsis.  In my review of the first book on my blog, I put: “although it’s very dark, scary, and atrocious, it was funny at times, as well as having me choke up with tears. Literally an emotional roller coaster that was so vivid it left me dizzy, overwhelmed with all I had felt.”  And the characters were all so real as well, the action just non-stop and the world so amazingly padded out.  Though, I wouldn’t actually want to be part of this world.  If I were in the Hunger Games… Yep.  I’d die!

Number Four:

The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

Why this one?  A single word: Jace.  Ok, that isn’t the only reason why TMI is one of the most addictive series out there.  Again, for me it’s all down to the world.  With super humans called Shadowhunters, who fight monsters, demons and various other beings, the world is magical, unique and just plain awesome!  I love the action, the snark, the witty comments, all the main characters...  And, as I said before, there’s Jace.  The most sarcastic, hilarious and hot guy out there, it’s no wonder so many of us bookish types have crushes on him!  Of course, all the other characters are wonderful too.  Jace just kind of steals the show!

Number Five:

Cherub by Robert Muchamore

This one might not be as well-known as the others, but I absolutely adore it.  Teenage spies, going on missions, with awesome gadgets?  Surely that’s everyone’s dream?!  Ok, maybe not, but I think it would be awesome!  And with so many loveable characters and awesome missions, this series never gets old for me.  The only one I have to say I wasn’t so keen on was Man Vs Beast, which is responsible for me going vegetarian...  Other than that, utterly addictive, full of action and purely awesome!  The series has finished now [ :( ] but it also has a brand new spin off series!  Yay!  As well as a prequel series: The Henderson Boys.  I just love all fo Muchamore's books!

There are my Top 5 Addictive Series.  But I feel bad not mentioning some of my other favourites, so here’s my Next 5 Addictive Series:

The Iron Fey by Julie Kagawa: Faeries, other worlds, hot Princes… I’m there!

Drake Chronicles by Alyxandra Harvey: Seven hot brothers, vamps and an ace world!  Yay!

Benedict Series by Joss Stirling: Yet more hot brothers, super powers and a whole new ‘species’ of paranormal I’d love to be!

Spirit Guide Series by E.J. Stevens: Probably not as well known, but I love this series to pieces!  It’s so cute and fun and awesome! 

Alex Rider by Anthony Horowitz: Yes, more spies.  What can I say?  I loved this series!

Thank you so much Beverley for having me – even though I ramble a lot!  I can’t wait to see what comes up next with Book Blogger Month!

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Thank you Megan for writing such a brilliant guest post!  Have you read the books in these series and what did you think of them?  Do you prefer books in series to stand-alone ones?  Feel free to leave your thoughts below :)

Book Blogger Month: Interview with Rachel!

I'm pleased to welcome Rachel from Booktastic Reviews to A Reading Daydreamer for the last Book Blogger Month interview!  She is a great blogger who returned to blogging in February after a short break and I am so glad she's come back because her reviews are just fabulous!  Remember to hop along to her blog after reading the interview...

Hi Rachel and welcome to A Reading Daydreamer!

Hey, Beverley! Thanks for having me! :)

What inspired you to start your own book blog?

A couple of years ago I started coming across quite a handful of book blogs. I had been a blogger long before that - just a daily blogger, really - and also, an avid reader so it got me thinking about starting one up for myself. A good friend of mine also had a book blog and she inspired and gave me the final push to making one. I started Booktastic Reviews in late 2010 and have loved it ever since!

What do you think makes Booktastic Reviews unique?
Hm. This is a hard one. I feel that all book blogs are unique because all the readers behind the blogs have different tastes and perspectives. If any of you read my blog then you'll probably be able to guess what genres I enjoy reading more and how I put my opinions across of the books I review. Does that sort-of count?

Do you participate in any memes and which one is your favourite?

I only participate in the one meme at the moment, In My Mailbox. This probably is my favourite one anyway because I love knowing what other people are reading and reviewing and I also get to meet new bloggers!

What are the best things about book blogging?

Everything! Absolutely everything about book blogging is spectacular! I love reviewing books, interviewing authors, hosting giveaways for my lovely followers and also meeting new readers - I have made loads of new friends due to my book blog!

What ambitions do you have for your blog in 2012?
More book reviews, more author interviews... more everything really, and certainly more giveaways (one coming soon)! I would also really like my blog to get some more followers and comments! :D

If you could spend the day with one author, who would you choose and why?
Ohhh... Uhmm! Really hard question, I would love to know so many authors! Right now I probably have to go with Cassandra Clare! I absolutely adore her books (all two I've read anyway, hehe) and writing style so I would just love to see what she's really like! I've actually just got the next book in her Mortal Instruments series, so I'll be reading it shortly!

What are some of your favourite books?

Ah, so many! I love the Dark Touch Novels by Amy Meredith, Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare, The Lost Island of Tamarind by Nadia Aguiar, Divergent by Veronica Roth, Wither by Lauren DeStefano, Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi... oh it could go on forever!

Do you think you are like any fictional characters?
Hmmm... I'm not sure! I suppose I'm quite goofy and jokey like Ron Weasley (but that's where the similarities end, haha)! Also, a little like Bex from the Gallagher Girls novels! Quite intuitive when it comes to people... but it's not like I can kill someone with a strand of uncooked spaghetti!

If you ever wrote a book someday, what do you think it would be about?
I would love to be an author someday so I would. I think it would be the best job to just disappear into a world of your own creation! I would probably write a fantasy-slash-dystopian novel, or maybe just plain fantasy. I'm quite into faeries and characters with magical powers... that sort of thing!

And finally, do you like to daydream?
Of course! That's all I ever do! :D

QUICK-FIRE QUESTIONS

Mac or PC:  Mac
Book or e-book:  Book
Cats or dogs:  Dogs
Early bird or night owl:  Night owl
Reading or writing:  Reading
Summer or winter: ...Both!

Thank you, Rachel!
You're welcome! Thanks again for having me, this was fun! xD

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Isn't Rachel just lovely?  Now go along and visit her blog and don't miss out on her fab reviews and posts!

REVIEW: The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

Name:  The Future of Us

Author(s):  Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Date published: 5th January 2012

Number of pages: 356

Source: Gifted

Rating: 5 stars

It’s 1996 and less than half of all high school students have ever used the internet. Facebook will not be invented for another eight years.


Josh and Emma have been neighbours their whole lives. They've been best friends almost as long - at least they were up until last November, when everything changed. Things have been awkward ever since, but when Josh's family gets a free AOL CD in the mail, his mom makes him bring it over so that Emma can install it on her new computer. When the two friends log on, they discover their profiles on Facebook.

And they're looking at themselves fifteen years in the future.

Everyone wonders what their destiny will be.
Josh and Emma are about to find out.

The Future of Us revolves around two best friends Josh and Emma who have been really close for most of their lives. However their friendship suffers after Josh misreads their closeness. Six months later, they still maintain a casual friendship and Josh gives her an AOL CD to install on her new computer. And that is when everything begins… they discover their Facebook profiles which show themselves 15 years in the future. Emma is puzzled to begin with while Josh thinks it is a prank. As the book continues, both Emma and Josh try to play around with their futures, will everything end up as they wish or will they stir up a disaster?

As The Future of Us is set in the year that I was born, I was eager to read it especially after reading glowing reviews of it. I really enjoyed this book although there is nothing really climatic in the plot. The story-line is very unique and I was intrigued to see what teenagers back in the 90’s would think of Facebook. The whole concept of Facebook was strange but thrilling for Emma and Josh. It actually made me realise how much of our lives we reveal on it; Facebook has become so normal to me that I never even thought about that! (Please note that I am certainly not the type of person who posts up a status about everything that I am doing!) The layout was fabulous! I loved how the alternating chapters were written by two different authors: Jay Asher wrote Josh’s and Carolyn Mackler wrote Emma’s. What a genius idea! I had initial doubts that their writing style would be different and I’d end up liking one character’s perspective over another. However, there was nothing to worry about! I even forgot that two authors were writing it :)

The personalities of Emma and Josh really shone through and the reader is enabled to get to know each of them and see things from their point of view. The short chapters meant that there was an easy transition between Emma and Josh, allowing the reader to see what they are thinking in the same situation. I thought Emma was quite selfish as she kept trying to tweak her future and she was never happy while Josh was content with what he would have (although to be fair, his future did seem much brighter than Emma’s). The ending was quite predictable but I really enjoyed it nevertheless.

Overall, a very unique, worthwhile book which you should all read! It is certainly thought-provoking and made me realise that something little that we do now can really change and shape our future in a BIG way! And it was really intriguing to find out how teenagers ‘back then’ lived without computers, Facebook and mobile phones etc. Please read it, I’m sure you will love it! It’s perfect for teenagers, young adults and even adults who want to take a walk down memory lane!