I'm not a huge reader... until the sun shines! When I'm on holiday I love lying back on a sun bed reading book after book. There's been holidays I've read a book a day. I might not have been on holiday recently (Portugal doesn't count, it wasn't that sort of holiday) but with the sun shining I've been getting back into books and have a few recent reads from the comfort of my own back garden. My typical book is either a true story, autobiography or Young Adult genre. I want something that's got me gripped, gets me intrigued or is an easy read that doesn't take up too much brain space. Quite a variety so perhaps I'm easily pleased...
The first Sophie Kinsella book I read was Confessions of a Shopaholic, after watching the film, and I went on to read a few more from the Shopaholic collection. I haven't read anything her her since, not because I don't enjoy her Chick Lit style, more because nothing has jumped out at me. That was until I saw Finding Audrey in the local library when I was visiting with my pupils at school. Finding Audrey is a Young Adult novel rather than an adult Chick Lit novel, but her sense of humour translates well and I was quickly hooked. This story of a teenage girl suffering from severe anxieties is well written, and the cause of her mental state is kept hidden, though hinted upon, which keeps it engaging throughout. Like most YA books there's a teenage love story element which is sweet, whilst the family focus was funny. I feel like this book is quite topical and not just for teenagers.
Silence is definitely a Young Adult/Teen fiction and I stumbled across it on Amazon because it was free. The fact that I went on to buy the next book in the series, Broken Silence, and am 80% finished it says a lot. The book is mostly from the point of view of the main character Oakley, a teenager who is mute. The story was intriguing from the first few pages and turned out to be quite an endearing book. Other than the teenage relationship of Oakley and her neighbour Cole, which was sweet, the story deals with the sensitive subject of child abuse and the effect on the victim. The author approaches mutism from the beginning but the cause was hinted at but not strictly revealed until much later in the book which for me made it a page turner. I felt like I needed answers and an explanation. You know it's a good book if it can make you smile and cry. It's not often a free book on Amazon comes up trumps but I was a fan of Silence.
I've been a fan of Scarlett Moffatt since she was on Gogglebox chatting away about all sorts of stuff on the TV. She's hilarious but down to earth and relatable. Her first book, Scarlett Says, came out in 2016 so just before she left Gogglebox for I'm a Celeb, her fitness DVD and everything thats come after it. Rather than this being an autobiography it's a chatty style book packed full of one-liners and random facts. It follows the process of getting ready for a night out along with Scarlett's views on all sorts of topics. It's not a very big book, I got through it in just a couple of days picking it up here and there. It's also a bit all over the place. She's chatting away about one thing (with humour, mind you) and then she's talking about something else. It's a bit like reading some magazine articles or a whole load of tweets. Not quite what I was expecting. She's since released Me Life Story-The Funniest Book of the Year. If the first one is anything to go by I won't be rushing to read it but Scarlett Says is an easy read and one for lying by the pool I suppose.
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