The Overflowing Library

It has been a funny reading month for me. For the first two weeks of July I didn't read a thing because I was exam marking but as soon as that finished I have read loads. Read in July X Files Season 10 Volumes 1 - 4 (4 stars) Buffy Season 9 Volumes 1 - 5 and Faith and Angel Volumes 1 - 5 plus Spike and Willow spin offs (4 stars) I knew you were trouble by Paige Toon (4 stars) For Holly by Tanya Byrne (4 stars) First Class Murder by Robin Stevens (4 stars) The Secrets and Sam and Sam by Susie Day (4 stars) The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot (4 stars) Darkmere by Helen Maslin (3 stars) When I am happiest by Rose Lagercrantz (3 stars) This Raging Light by Estelle Laure (3 stars) Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine (3 stars) The Girls by Lisa Jewell (3 stars) Things we have in common by Tasha Kavangh (3 stars) The Readers of Broken Wheel recommend by Katarina Bivald (3 stars) Darkest Night by Will Hill (5 stars) Breathe Annie Breathe by Miranda Kenneally (4 stars) Sunk...

I have been a fan of colouring books as a way to zone out long before the whole adult colouring book thing hit a few months back. When I was broken legged anything to pass the time was gratefully received. Therefore when I was offered a selection of the Colour me Mindful colouring book series for review I jumped at the chance to crack out my colouring pens again. These colouring books are brilliant for a variety of reasons. Firstly they are a brilliant size because they are smaller than an average paperback which which they are perfect for carrying around in your handbag. The images in them are really pretty and details and leave loads of options for you to do your own thing with them. I also love the fact that when I colour in them I can really zone out and not have to think too much. I have a busy job and lifestyle and it is really nice to have something that really takes me mind off everything else if even for 20 minutes or so.

The brave men and women of Department 19 have fought Dracula at every turn, but now Zero Hour has passed and the ancient vampire is at full strength. Inside Department 19, the Operators are exhausted and fractured. Jamie, Larissa, Matt and Kate are each struggling with their own demons. When the friends need each other most, they are further apart than ever. Outside the Department, the world reels from the revelation that vampires are real. Violence and paranoia spread around the globe and, when it finally comes, Dracula’s opening move is more vicious than anyone could have imagined. A final battle looms between the forces of darkness and the last, massed ranks of those who stand against it. A battle that will define the future of humanity. A battle that simply cannot be lost...   I am so pleased to have finally finished the Department 19 series. It has bee an awesome series which I have consistently enjoyed from beginning to end. I love that this ser...

Another month, another pile of books I am dying to get my hands on. Such is life Asking for it by Louise O'Neill It's the beginning of the summer in a small town in Ireland. Emma O'Donovan is eighteen years old, beautiful, happy, confident. One night, there's a party. Everyone is there. All eyes are on Emma. The next morning, she wakes on the front porch of her house. She can't remember what happened, she doesn't know how she got there. She doesn't know why she's in pain. But everyone else does. Photographs taken at the party show, in explicit detail, what happened to Emma that night. But sometimes people don't want to believe what is right in front of them, especially when the truth concerns the town's heroes... I liked Louise's first book and I definitely saw why it got the attention it did. I am very much looking forward to this one as I think it'll be very good indeed.  These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly ...

What if you aren’t the Chosen One? The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death? What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again. Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life. Even if your best friend is worshiped by mountain lions. Award-winning writer Patrick Ness’s bold and irreverent novel powerfully reminds us that there are many different types of remarkable My thoughts I enjoyed the take this book took on the end of the world scenario focusing on the ordinary people whose priority wasn't saving the world but just trying to live their lives as normally as possible. Think Buffy the Vampire Slayer if the story wasn't ...

A darkly compulsive tale of friendship and obsession. Frances Bird has been a loner for as long as she can remember. But when she is asked to look after the new girl at school, the sparky Alberta Black, they soon become inseparable, doing everything together, and even creating their own sign of togetherness - a blackbird. After a while though, Bert wants to do things without Frances, and see other people without her there. And that won't do...No that won't do at all... My thoughts I picked up Birdy after hearing about it at Hot Key's Blogger Brunch and because it sounded brilliant I found myself unable to leave it on the TBR pile more than couple of days. Oooh this is good is book. It is dark and creepy with an unreliable narrator who you know you can't trust from the outset. From the start you just know it isn't going to end well and find yourself unable to put it down because you need to know what is going to happen next. I don't want to go...

The shocking reality behind a GBP10 million inheritance turns Evie Brown's world on its head. Unable to find out the truth from her parents, Evie ends up on the mysterious island of Lightsea, where her desire for answers leads her towards a series of revelations that threaten everything she holds dear ...including her life. My thoughts It's ok. As expected it is tightly plotted and fast paced meaning I read it very fast as I needed to know what happened next. I disliked how the main character treated her parents as soon as she found out a "shocking" truth. The reaction was pantomime OTT. I also disliked the insta love triangle. Ffs this girl has found out massive things about herself and just needs to get her own shit together but of course she has time to forge a new relationship with a boy she has just met (0 to snogging in 10 seconds flat) and then discover a second boy who she has the 'chemistry' with 2 mins later. The story wouldn't...

LOST. When six-year-old Laurel Logan was abducted, the only witness was her younger sister. Faith’s childhood was dominated by Laurel’s disappearance – from her parents’ broken marriage and the constant media attention to dealing with so-called friends who only ever wanted to talk about her sister. FOUND. Thirteen years later, a young woman is found in the garden of the Logans’ old house, disorientated and clutching the teddy bear Laurel was last seen with. Laurel is home at last, safe and sound. Faith always dreamed of getting her sister back, without ever truly believing it would happen. But a disturbing series of events leaves Faith increasingly isolated and paranoid, and before long she begins to wonder if everything that’s lost can be found again… My thoughts This is one of those books I do not want to say all that much about purely because I don't want to say too much and spoil it. I have come to expect awesome things from a Cat Clarke Novel and this book w...

Colourful, raw, brave, rich and fantastical - this mermaid tale is not for the faint-hearted. Looking after a naked girl he found washed up under Hastings pier isn't exactly how Rory had imagined spending his sixteenth birthday. But more surprising than finding her in the first place is discovering where she has come from. Lorali is running not just from the sea, not just from her position as princess, but her entire destiny. Lorali has rejected life as a mermaid, and become human. But along with Lorali's arrival, and the freak weather suddenly battering the coast, more strange visitors begin appearing in Rory's bemused Sussex town. With beautifully coiffed hair, sharp-collared shirts and a pirate ship shaped like a Tudor house, the Abelgare boys are a mystery all of their own. What are they really up to? Can Rory protect Lorali? And who from? And where does she really belong, anyway? My thoughts I knew this book would be special because it is written by ...

Sonny Ardmore is an excellent liar. She lies about her dad being in prison. She lies about her mom kicking her out. And she lies about sneaking into her best friend's house every night because she has nowhere else to go. Amy Rush might be the only person Sonny shares everything with— secrets, clothes, even a nemesis named Ryder Cross. Ryder's the new kid at Hamilton High and everything Sonny and Amy can't stand—a prep-school snob. But Ryder has a weakness: Amy. So when Ryder emails Amy asking her out, the friends see it as a prank opportunity not to be missed. But without meaning to, Sonny ends up talking to Ryder all night online. And to her horror, she realizes that she might actually like him. Only there's one small catch: he thinks he's been talking to Amy. So Sonny comes up with an elaborate scheme to help Ryder realize that she's the girl he's really wanted all along. Can Sonny lie her way to the truth, or will all her lies end up costing...

'This boy has bought me. This white boy who don't even look as old as I am. He owns me body and soul and my worth has been set at six hundred dollars.' Samuel's an educated boy. Been taught by a priest. He was never supposed to be a slave. He's a good boy too, thoughtful and kind. The type of boy who'd take the blame for something he didn't do if it meant he saved his brother. So now they don't call him Samuel. Not anymore. And the sound of guns is getting ever closer... An extraordinary tale of endurance and hope, Jon Walter's second novel is a beautiful and moving story about the power of belief and the strength of the human spirit, set against the terrifying backdrop of the American Civil War. My thoughts Another book which I picked up not knowing much and found myself completely hooked by the end Now this book is historical fiction and not my sort of history which means it took me a while to get into it. I teach history and somet...