UKYABA | Which UKYA character are you?

With YALC and the UKYA Blogging Awards just around the corner, I teamed up with fellow UKYA bloggers to create a buzzfeed-style quiz so that you can find out which UKYA character you are!

EASTER READATHON | My TBR

My wonderful friend Kate started the Easter Readathon last year, which is quite simply four days of pure reading bliss. This year she’s added some extra challenges and reading sprints on twitter. For the full announcement post, click here!

ARC REVIEW | The Weight of the Stars by K. Ancrum

Name: The Weight of the Stars
Author: K. Ancrum
Genres: YA, Contemporary
Publisher: Imprint, Macmillan
Format: eARC
Source: Author
Rating: ★★★★★
GOODREADS | BUY

Ryann Bird dreams of travelling across the stars. But a career in space isn’t an option for a girl who lives in a trailer park on the wrong side of town. So Ryann becomes her circumstances and settles for acting out and skipping school to hang out with her delinquent friends. 

One day she meets Alexandria: a furious loner who spurns Ryann’s offer of friendship. After a horrific accident leaves Alexandria with a broken arm, the two misfits are brought together despite themselves—and Ryann learns her secret: Alexandria’s mother is an astronaut who volunteered for a one-way trip to the edge of the solar system. 

Every night without fail, Alexandria waits to catch radio signals from her mother. And its up to Ryann to lift her onto the roof day after day until the silence between them grows into friendship, and eventually something more . . . 

REVIEW | A Girl Called Shameless by Laura Steven

This is a review of a sequel, so there will be spoilers for the first book, The Exact Opposite of Okay, in the below review. To find my review of the first book, please click here. Otherwise, this review will be spoiler-free.

Name: A Girl Called Shameless (The Exact Opposite of Okay #2)
Author: Laura Steven
Genres: YA, Contemporary
Publisher: Electric Monkey, Egmont
Format: UK Paperback
Source: Publisher
Rating: ★★★★★
GOODREADS | BUY

Izzy O’Neill: Writer, Activist, World’s Worst Waitress.

It’s been two months since eighteen-year-old Izzy O’Neill was slut-shamed in a national scandal. As well as coming to terms with the fact that thousands of people have seen her foofer – Izzy is juggling high school, writing a screenplay and figuring out what to do next with her life.

When another girl’s nude photos are leaked, Izzy and the Bitches Bite Back team decide to take action. They’re taking the fight all the way to the top … and won’t let anyone bring them down.

It’s time for the shaming to stop.

A book about friendship, feminism and fighting back.

ARC REVIEW | On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

Name: On the Come Up
Author: Angie Thomas
Genres: YA, Contemporary
Publisher: Walker
Format: Uncorrected Proof
Source: Walker Books YA
Rating: ★★★★★
GOODREADS | BUY

Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least make it out of her neighbourhood one day. As the daughter of an underground rap legend who died before he hit big, Bri’s got big shoes to fill. But now that her mom has unexpectedly lost her job, food banks and shutoff notices are as much a part of Bri’s life as beats and rhymes. With bills piling up and homelessness staring her family down, Bri no longer just wants to make it—she has to make it.

On the Come Up is Angie Thomas’s homage to hip-hop, the art that sparked her passion for storytelling and continues to inspire her to this day. It is the story of fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you; of the struggle to become who you are and not who everyone expects you to be; and of the desperate realities of poor and working-class black families.

ARC REVIEW | Fierce Fragile Hearts (Beautiful Broken Things #2) by Sara Barnard

Name: Fierce Fragile Hearts
Author: Sara Barnard
Genres: YA, Contemporary
Publisher: Macmillan
Format: Uncorrected Proof
Source: My Kinda Book @ Macmillan
Rating: ★★★★★
GOODREADS | BUY

Fierce Fragile Hearts is the stunning companion novel to Sara Barnard’s YA bestseller Beautiful Broken Things. It is about leaving the past behind, the friends who form your future, and learning to find love, in all its forms.

Two years after a downward spiral took her as low as you can possibly go, Suzanne is starting again. Again. She’s back in Brighton, the only place she felt she belonged, back with her best friends Caddy and Rosie. But they’re about to leave for university. When your friends have been your light in the darkness, what happens when you’re the one left behind?

REVIEW | Beautiful Broken Things (Beautiful Broken Things #1) by Sara Barnard

Name: Beautiful Broken Things (Beautiful Broken Things #1)
Author: Sara Barnard
Genres: YA, Contemporary
Publisher: Macmillan
Format: Paperback
Source: Gift
Rating: ★★★★☆
GOODREADS | BUY

I was brave
She was reckless
We were trouble

Best friends Caddy and Rosie are inseparable. Their differences have brought them closer, but as she turns sixteen Caddy begins to wish she could be a bit more like Rosie – confident, funny and interesting. Then Suzanne comes into their lives: beautiful, damaged, exciting and mysterious, and things get a whole lot more complicated. As Suzanne’s past is revealed and her present begins to unravel, Caddy begins to see how much fun a little trouble can be. But the course of both friendship and recovery is rougher than either girl realises, and Caddy is about to learn that downward spirals have a momentum of their own.

REVIEW | The Wicked King (Folk of the Air #2) by Holly Black

Name: The Wicked King (Folk of the Air #2)
Author: Holly Black
Genres: YA, Fantasy
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Format: Hardback
Source: Waterstones Pre-Order
Rating: ★★★★★
GOODREADS | BUY

You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring.
The first lesson is to make yourself strong.

After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her younger brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her, even as his fascination with her remains undiminished.

When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world.

2018 WRAP UP | Top reads and top releases of the year

Wrap up time! If you follow me on instagram, you’ll have seen my top 2018 books already but here’s your not-very-concise summary of my favourite books of the year, plus a statistical round up of what I’ve read (because who doesn’t love some stats and charts)!

2018 QUARTERLY WRAP UP | JAN-MAR

Due to my distinct lack of ability to do wrap-ups regularly, I’ve decided this year that quarterly wrap-ups might be a little better for me. I can do four bulk posts to keep you all informed on how I’ve done. Plus, it means I’ll keep posting!