The Overflowing Library

I must admit May has been a weird month for me reading wise. I've been really tired as work has been busy so my reading has really suffered. I also am in a bit of a funny mood where I haven't felt like reviewing anything at all so I've been reading stuff I bought myself and purposely not reviewed it to give myself a break. Read in May 86) The Elite by Kiera Cass 87) The Making of Us by Lisa Jewell (British Books Challenge) 88) Gilt by Katherine Longshore 89) Spy Society by Robin Benway 90) The Summer I became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller 91) The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey 92) The Originals by Cat Patrick 93) The Moon and More by Sara Dessen 94) Dead Silence by Kim Derting 95) Dusk by Eve Edwards (British Books Challenge) 96) Gloss by Marilyn Kaye 97) Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas As anyone who vaguely knows my reading habits can tell you this has been a really slow month for me Book events attended None Book of the month Quite honestly I can't say an...

In 1897 London, something not quite human is about to awaken When mechanical genius Emily is kidnapped by rogue automatons, Finley Jayne and her fellow misfits fear the worst. What's left of their archenemy, The Machinist, hungers to be resurrected, and Emily must transplant his consciousness into one of his automatons—or forfeit her friends' lives. With Griffin being mysteriously tormented by the Aether, the young duke's sanity is close to the breaking point. Seeking help, Finley turns to Jack Dandy, but trusting the master criminal is as dangerous as controlling her dark side. When Jack kisses her, Finley must finally confront her true feelings for him...and for Griffin. Meanwhile, Sam is searching everywhere for Emily, from Whitechapel's desolate alleyways to Mayfair's elegant mansions. He would walk into hell for her, but the choice she must make will test them more than they could imagine. To save those she cares about, Emily must confront The ...

Caleb Becker left Paradise eight months ago, taking with him the secret he promised to take to his grave. If the truth got out, it would ruin everything. Maggie Armstrong tried to be strong after Caleb broke her heart and disappeared. Somehow, she managed to move on. She's determined to make a new life for herself. But then Caleb and Maggie are forced together on a summer trip. They try ignoring their passion for each other, but buried feelings resurface. Caleb must face the truth about the night of Maggie's accident, or the secret that destroyed their relationship will forever stand between them My thoughts Return to paradise is the sequel to Leaving Paradise set a few months after the events of book one. In the intervening time Caleb has left paradise, his family and Maggie. Things haven't been good for him and he soon finds himself in trouble and to avoid a prison sentence he goes a group touring America to share experiences of how being involved in d...

In 1918, the world seems on the verge of apocalypse. Americans roam the streets in gauze masks to ward off the deadly Spanish influenza, and the government ships young men to the front lines of a brutal war, creating an atmosphere of fear and confusion. Sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches as desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort, but she herself has never believed in ghosts. During her bleakest moment, however, she’s forced to rethink her entire way of looking at life and death, for her first love—a boy who died in battle—returns in spirit form. But what does he want from her? Featuring haunting archival early-twentieth-century photographs, this is a tense, romantic story set in a past that is eerily like our own time. My Thoughts Quite honestly I don't have huge amounts to say about this book Me being me I loved the historical setting and foun...

The sensationally good Tanya Byrne returns with her new novel - a dark, compulsive tale of obsession and betrayal. When sixteen-year old Adamma Okonma, a Nigerian diplomat's daughter, arrives at exclusive Croften College in Wiltshire, she is immediately drawn to beautiful, impetuous, unpredictable Scarlett Milton. Adamma and Scarlett become inseperable - until Adamma falls for Scarlett's boyfriend Dominic. Soon the battle lines are drawn and Adamma is shunned by Scarlett and her priviledged peers. But then Scarlett goes missing and everything takes a darker turn. As Adamma begins to uncover a series of ugly scandals at the school, she realises there was more than one person who wanted Scarlett to disappear and indeed that Croften has its own disturbing secrets to hide.. My Thoughts Follow me down is a cracking read which will hook you from the very first page and won't let me go until you're done. If you dare to have audacity to put it down it'll ...

Q&A with Cat Patrick Tell us a little about your new book, The Originals. The Originals is the story of the first human clones. They are three identical sixteen-year-old girls, and because human cloning is illegal, they hide their existence by living as one person named Elizabeth Best. The way they do that is to split their days in thirds, with one clone attending school in the morning; the second handling classes in the afternoon; and the third being in charge of afterschool commitments like their part time job, college course, and cheerleading. The system works well until two of the clones fall for two different boys, which is an issue if you’re supposed to be just one person. Like my previous two books, in addition to the teen romance aspects, The Originals offers a bit of a mystery to round out the story. Where and when do you write? I’m most functional in the morning, so I get up early and write until I need to pick up my twins from preschool. I also gen...

Things haven't been going so well for fifteen-year-old Esther Armstrong. With her brother Max - her closest ally - absent, she's forced to face everything alone, not least her parents' heated arguments. As the summer holidays stretch endlessly ahead, she's desperate for something, anything, to divert her attention. Then she finds some letters hidden in the walls of her family home, sent by a soldier to his sweetheart from the trenches of WWI. Esther is consumed by the mystery of these lovers - not very much older than herself - and what became of them. Perhaps in piecing together the jigsaw of someone else's life, Esther can work out how to reassemble her own, and how to make everything fine again... This is a novel about growing up, moving on and the strength of a family. My Thoughts I've heard nothing but good things about Cathy Brett's books and while they are aimed at a slightly younger audience than the books I usually read I was ke...

Boy Nobody is the perennial new kid in school, the one few notice and nobody thinks much about. He shows up in a new high school, in a new town, under a new name, makes few friends and doesn't stay long. Just long enough for someone in his new friend's family to die -- of "natural causes." Mission accomplished, Boy Nobody disappears, and moves on to the next target. When his own parents died of not-so-natural causes at the age of eleven, Boy Nobody found himself under the control of The Program, a shadowy government organization that uses brainwashed kids as counter-espionage operatives. But somewhere, deep inside Boy Nobody, is somebody: the boy he once was, the boy who wants normal things (like a real home, his parents back), a boy who wants out. And he just might want those things badly enough to sabotage The Program's next mission. My Thoughts What an action packed and interesting read. Really edgy with some really gripping ideas to ...

What happens if you've done something terrible? But you can't remember what. And you don't know how to put it right ...When Carl opens his eyes on the banks of a lake, his brother is being zipped into a body bag. What happened in the water? He can't remember And when he glimpses a beautiful girl he thinks he recognizes, she runs away. Suddenly he knows he must find her - because together they must face the truth before it drowns them. My Thoughts A really quick little review for this fab little book which I enjoyed thoroughly. The drowning is a really creepy thriller which starts dramatically with the main character being dragged out of a lake and waking up with no memory about what happened to the dead boy and traumatised girl found with him. What I really liked about this book was that because the main character doesn't often remember everything about what has gone on you find yourself uncovering things along with him. I really liked this as an ...

It's been eight years since Gen Loxley lost her daughter, Beth: eight years of grief in which nothing's really moved forward, for all that her husband, Art, wills it to. Gen, once a writer of novels, has settled in to a life of half-hearted teaching, while Art makes his name and their fortune - and pressures her into trying IVF once again. For Gen, it seems a cruel act of replacement; life without Beth is unthinkable, unbearable - but still it goes on. And then a woman arrives on Gen's doorstep, saying the very thing she longs to hear: that her daughter was not stillborn, but was spirited away as a healthy child, and is out there, waiting to be found...So why is Art reluctant to get involved? To save his wife from further hurt? Or something much more sinister? What is the truth about Beth Loxley? My Thoughts   I will admit upfront I don't read a lot of books written for ...

It was all so good. Sasha and Rose. Best friends in a band, singing together. Right up to the finals of Killer Act when the judges tell them one of them must go Suddenly their friendship is put to the ultimate test. On TV in front of millions. Two girls. One huge mistake. Can they ever forgive each other? My Thoughts After enjoying The Look by Sophia Bennett last year I was desperately excited to get my hands on a copy of this book and when I finally did I wasn't disappointed. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. You don't know me is a book about friendship and betrayal set within an XFactor esque style contest. I must admit the very fact it had this link did make me pause and wonder if it was the book for me but actually it was awesome. You start the book by meeting four ordinary friends. They spend the majority of their free time messing around together doing daft things and one afternoon the daft thing they do is write and perform a song whic...

2113. In Jenna Strong’s world, ACID – the most brutal, controlling police force in history – rule supreme. No throwaway comment or muttered dissent goes unnoticed – or unpunished. And it was ACID agents who locked Jenna away for life, for a bloody crime she struggles to remember. The only female inmate in a violent high-security prison, Jenna has learned to survive by any means necessary. And when a mysterious rebel group breaks her out, she must use her strength, speed and skill to stay one step ahead of ACID – and to uncover the truth about what really happened on that dark night two years ago My thoughts I loved acid! What a cracking story and kick-ass heroine. I couldn't read it quickly enough and was hooked from page one. Acid is set in a future Britain and is the story of Jenna Strong. Jenna is 17 and has just broken out of a high security prison that she was put into for murdering her parents. Throughout the course of the book you get an insight into a cor...

It was supposed to be the summer of her life. Instead, 17-year-old Lucy finds her best friend Harper shot dead in an LA swimming pool. How did it come to this? Lucy Gosling is the drummer in Crush, a rock band formed by five London schoolgirls that has just won the UK semi-final of an international talent contest. But when the band lands in Hollywood for the big final, things are not quite as they seem. The band's lead singer, Harper, has just one thing on her mind - using sex, drugs and rock and roll, not to mention Crush itself, to win back her bad-news ex-boyfriend. Lucy must decide whether she's playing to Harper's tune, or setting the rhythm for the rest of the band  My Thoughts I really enjoyed drummer girl and I found I quite literally couldn't put it down. Drummer girl is about a British girl group who have just won a huge international talent contest and starts quite dramatically with Lucy finding her best friend Harper dead in the swimming ...

I NAME THIS CHARACTER … by Sophia Bennett   It’s hard work, this character naming thing. You’re racing along, really into the story, and your narrator bumps into a kooky old friend/nemesis/ghost, and suddenly you have to stop and wonder what they’re called. And it matters, it really does, because as readers we all bring big associations to the names of our favourite characters. If Bella Swan had been called Trisha McMillan, it wouldn’t have been quite the same. If Holly Golightly had been Mavis Dingle … would Audrey Hepburn ever have played the part? My two favourite authors for character naming are JK Rowling (natch) and Derek Landy. They’ve both written long series, crammed with thrilling, death-defying creatures and kick-ass heroes and heroines, and they’ve come up with something amazing and perfect every time. Harry, Hermione, Dumbledore, Voldemort, Dobby … Skulduggery, Valkyrie, Tanith Low, China Sorrows, Ghastly Bespoke. Derek even gave himself the task if th...

High school is hard when you're invisible. Fiona McClean hates her family, has had to move to a new school and seems to be completely invisible to the boy she likes. So far so normal, right? But Fiona really is invisible. She doesn't even know what colour her own hair is. Born into a world where Cold War anti-radiation pills have caused genetic mutations, Fiona is forced to work for her mind-controlling mobster father as the world's most effective thief. When her father announces she must become a murdering assassin, Fiona and her telekinetic mother make a break for freedom. Running to a small Arizonian town, Fiona finds that playing at 'normal life' with a mother on the edge, a brother she can't trust, and a boy who drives her crazy is as impossible as escaping her father. My Thoughts I really enjoyed transparent. It was a really original and interesting read which kept me thoroughly entertained from the first page until the last. Transparen...

THERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND ... A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home fifteen-year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey's younger sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival. All they have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother disappears for good, and the girls are found by their father, a stranger, and taken to re-enter the "normal" life of school, clothes and boys. Now, Carey must come to terms with the truth of why their mother spirited them away ten years ago, while haunted by a past that won't let her go ... a dark past that hides many a secret, including the reason Jenessa hasn't spoken a word in over a year. Carey knows she must keep her sister close, and her secrets even closer, or risk watching her new life c...

Thank you for inviting me onto your blog today!   So here we are, hanging out between two of my bookshelves, talking – what else? – BOOKS. The bookshelf above contains books I donated to a high school student here in the United States, whose senior project involves distributing books to children who can’t afford books of their own. I’m a bibliophile, no different than many of you who love books. Some of these books are my all-time favorites, and I’ll admit my heart crumpled at the thought of bidding any of them farewell. They deserve a good home where they’re loved and treasured, I told myself with a sniffle, as the plain brown box deposited in the mail became their wings out into the world.     Because who can imagine being a child (or adult!) and not reading The Diary of Anne Frank , or Esperanza Rising , or insert your favorite book here ? I can’t. Nor can I imagine a childhood without books.   As for my real shelves … Even more so as ...