Someone Else's Life by Katie Dale

From Goodreads: When seventeen-year-old Rosie’s mother, Trudie, dies from Huntington’s Disease, her pain is intensified by the knowledge that she has a fifty-per-cent chance of inheriting the crippling disease herself. Only when she tells her mum’s best friend, ‘Aunt Sarah’ that she is going to test for the disease does Sarah, a midwife, reveal that Trudie was not her biological mother after all... Devastated, Rosie decides to trace her real mother, hitching along on her ex-boyfriend’s GAP year to follow her to Los Angeles. But all does not go to plan, and as Rosie discovers yet more of her family's deeply-buried secrets and lies, she is left with an agonising decision of her own - one which will be the most heart-breaking and far-reaching of all...

I had not heard of this book until the author contacted me and I saw that she was doing a blog tour with other bloggers, that I thought I would read the book. It looked really interesting from the blurb and I hadn't read anything which had Huntington's Disease as the main factor in the book. I really enjoyed the book as it was something different, but it did have essences of Sophie McKenzie and Anne Cassidy. I liked the characters within the book especially Rosie as she was a young girl finding out that everything she ever knew was a lie.

I really like how the book was split into two parts, the first part being all about Rosie and how she finds out all the secrets that the midwife kept from her and her mother for all these 17 years. At the end of every chapter there is another voice and you don't get to find out until part two. I thought that the voice was Rosie's real mum and I was surprised to find out it wasn't. 

There was a great journey for both the main characters within the book, I liked how they were the opposite of each other and how it was hard for both of them to come to terms with what had happened. The other character in the second part had a lot to deal with as well as finding out the lie she had been living for her 17 years. 

If you want a book that it is different, you should definitely read this one. I loved how the book just dragged me under the pages and wouldn't let me go. It is one of my favourite books that I have read this year so far. One for everyone to put on their TBR pile if they haven't already.

 

You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sarra Manning

From Goodreads: Sweet, bookish Neve Slater always plays by the rules. And the number one rule is that good-natured fat girls like her don’t get guys like gorgeous, handsome William, heir to Neve's heart since university. But William’s been in LA for three years, and Neve’s been slimming down and re-inventing herself so that when he returns, he’ll fall head over heels in love with the new, improved her.

So she’s not that interested in other men. Until her sister Celia points out that if Neve wants William to think she's an experienced love-goddess and not the fumbling, awkward girl he left behind, then she’d better get some, well, experience.

What Neve needs is someone to show her the ropes, someone like Celia’s colleague Max. Wicked, shallow, sexy Max. And since he’s such a man-slut, and so not Neve’s type, she certainly won’t fall for him. Because William is the man for her… right?

Somewhere between losing weight and losing her inhibitions, Neve’s lost her heart – but to who?

I have previously read Sarra teen novels including the Diary of a Crush series which I really enjoyed, so I couldn't wait to read some of her adult fiction novels. From reading the back of the book it looked like something that was going to be a great read. I loved the character of Neve who always thought that she was a completely different person than others saw her as. Neve's character had been 32 stone and in love with William, until William travels to America for 3 years that Neve decides to change and lose lots of weight. She is now a size 14 and looks amazing, but she still thinks of herself as the 32 stone girl back at university.

Neve meets Max who is her sister's work colleague and he seems like a total douche bag who is only after one thing and that is sex. Neve is waiting for William to come back to the UK so all she wants is a pancake relationship. Throughout the book, Max and Neve embark on the pancake relationship and all I kept wanting throughout was for them to become boyfriend and girlfriend as they were becoming such a cute couple. There were some points in the book were I was laughing out loud and I was always wanting more. 

This is definitely an amazing book and I couldn't help smiling and laughing all the way through. I just wanted Neve to be happy with her body and with men. Since reading this one Manning has published another book which I am currently reading as I love the writing style and the way that she can capture the reader. 

 

One to Watch

The Fame Game by Lauren Conrad

From Goodreads: In Hollywood, fame can be found on every corner and behind any door. You just have to know where to look for it. Nineteen-year-old Madison Parker made a name for herself as best frenemy of nice-girl-next-door Jane Roberts on the hot reality show L.A. Candy. Now Madison's ready for her turn in the spotlight and she'll stop at nothing to get it. Sure, she's the star of a new show, but with backstabbing friends and suspicious family members trying to bring her down, Madison has her work cut out for her. Plus, there's a new nice girl in "reality" town—aspiring actress Carmen Price, the daughter of Hollywood royalty—and she's a lot more experienced at playing the fame game... When the camera's start rolling, whose star will shine brighter?

Filled with characters both familiar and new, Lauren Conrad's series about the highs and lows of being famous delivers Hollywood gossip and drama at every turn.

I am really looking forward to reading this one as I want to find out all about Madison and how the bad girl plays. I have read all the other books with Jane as the main character and I can't wait for this one. It is published by Harpercollins on 29th March 2012.  

In My Mailbox (51)

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren

I only brought a few books this week and got 1 for review.

Brought 

Nine Uses for an Ex Boyfriend by Sarra Manning

From Goodreads: Hope Delafield hasn’t always had an easy life.

She has red hair and a temper to match, as her mother is constantly reminding her. She can’t wear heels, is terrified of heights and being a primary school teacher isn’t exactly the job she dreamt of doing, especially when her class are stuck on the two times table.

At least Hope has Jack, and Jack is the God of boyfriends. He’s sweet, kind, funny, has a killer smile, a cool job on a fashion magazine and he’s pretty (but in a manly way). Hope knew that Jack was The One ever since their first kiss after the Youth Club Disco and thirteen years later, they’re still totally in love. Totally. They’re even officially pre-engaged. And then Hope catches Jack kissing her best friend Susie…

Does true love forgive and forget? Or does it get mad… and get even?  

Forever Summer by Alyson Noel

From Goodreads: Summer. A break from the burdens of school. Deep tans, deeper thoughts. Far away from the everyday. Closer to making dreams come true . . . What does summer mean to you? For the two teenage girls in these two unforgettable novels, summer means being torn away from the familiar and finding new friends. A new place in the world. A new sense of self. And maybe even new love along the way . . .

When you’re having the time of your life, you never want it to end.

Reality Check by Jen Calonita
From Goodreads: Sixteen-year-olds Charlie, Keiran, Brooke, and Hallie have just been signed up for their own reality television show. They can't even believe it. "You'll be "The Hills" meets "The Secret Life of the American Teenager,"" the Armani-suited executive tells them, "and the hottest thing on our network." How could they say no?
But soon enough, cameras following them everywhere and interfering producers surreptitiously scripting their lives start to affect the four best friends' relationship. Brooke seems to want all the screen time. Keiran is abruptly written out of the show-and consequently the group's friendship-when she doesn't rate well. As soon as Charlie realises what's going on, she figures out the perfect way to give the studio and her home audience a much-needed reality check.
Because friends don't let friends do reality shows. 

Review

Heart-Shaped Bruise by Tanya Byrne

From Amazon: I think of all the things I could have been... a music student, in love, happy.

But then Juliet stabbed my father and shattered everything I thought I knew about myself.

She turned me into someone else, into this hard, angry, miserable girl who did the most terrible things. Things that make people take a step back when I walk into a room.

That's what hurts... that you all think you know who I am. But the one thing Google will never tell you is who I used to be... who I might have become.

But I can tell you. So here we go - I'll be me and you be the stranger on the bus. 

What did everyone else get this week? 

Tempest by Julie Cross

From Goodreads: The year is 2009.  Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.

That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future.

Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities.

But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time-traveller.  Recruit… or kill him.

Piecing together the clues about his father, the Enemies of Time, and himself, Jackson must decide how far he’s willing to go to save Holly… and possibly the entire world.

I don't know what to write about this book, I thought it was going to be something that I could enjoy as it was a little bit different with time travel being the main theme in the book. I really enjoyed the book up until they started to go back quite far in time, back to 2007 and even further back. After the incident with Holly where she gets shot is where I started to get a bit bored with the book. I did continue to read to see what happens with Jackson and Holly at the end. 

It felt like the book was centred around Jackson and finding out about his father and finding out about what he does as a living, rather then about Jackson trying to help bring Holly back. There were some parts in the book that I thought that Cross had forgotten she was writing a teen novel with some of the scenes that were in the book. 


There were some parts of the book that I really enjoyed, like when Jackson and Holly first met each other and then their friendship started to build up and when Jackson went back in time and saw his twin sister before she died. Overall, this book didn't really do it for me and I wanted something more when I was reading it. 

 

In My Mailbox (50)

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi@ The Story Siren

This week I got a few books from Netgalley:

A Tale of Two Proms by Cara Lockwood

From Goodreads: It was the best of prom, it was the worst of prom.

Miranda Tate returns for her senior year at Bard Academy and she is counting on two things: Prom with her boyfriend, Heathcliff, and then graduation from the haunted boarding school where fictional characters come to life. Fate, however, has other plans.

When Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff's long-lost love, appears on campus, suddenly everything she thought she knew about Heathcliff is changed forever. Catherine seems determined to win Heathcliff back, even if that means destroying Bard Academy and banishing its ghostly teachers - for good.
Miranda and her friends face their most daunting challenge, yet, which will take them for the first time inside the classics that have powered their mysterious boarding school. It's up to them to save Bard Academy - and prom. Can Miranda change her destiny and Heathcliff's? Or is this one story that was written in the stars? 

Someone Else's Life by Katie Dale 

From Goodreads: When seventeen-year-old Rosie’s mother, Trudie, dies from Huntington’s Disease, her pain is intensified by the knowledge that she has a fifty-per-cent chance of inheriting the crippling disease herself. Only when she tells her mum’s best friend, ‘Aunt Sarah’ that she is going to test for the disease does Sarah, a midwife, reveal that Trudie was not her biological mother after all... Devastated, Rosie decides to trace her real mother, hitching along on her ex-boyfriend’s GAP year to follow her to Los Angeles. But all does not go to plan, and as Rosie discovers yet more of her family's deeply-buried secrets and lies, she is left with an agonising decision of her own - one which will be the most heart-breaking and far-reaching of all...  

Jersey Angel by Beth Ann Bauman

From Goodreads: It's the summer before senior year and the alluring Angel is ready to have fun. She's not like her best friend, Inggy, who has a steady boyfriend, good grades, and college plans. Angel isn't sure what she wants to do yet, but she has confidence and experience beyond her years. Still, her summer doesn't start out as planned. Her good friend Joey doesn't want to fool around anymore, he wants to be her boyfriend, while Angel doesn't want to be tied down. As Joey pulls away, and Inggy tours colleges, Angel finds herself  spending more time with Inggy's boyfriend, Cork. With its cast of vivid and memorable characters, this tale from the Jersey shore is sure to make some waves.  

Brought 

I only brought one book this week. 

Fracture by Megan Miranda

From Goodreads: Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine

—despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?

Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?

For fans of best-sellers like Before I Fall and If I Stay, this is a fascinating and heart-rending story about love and friendship and the fine line between life and death.  

What did everyone else get this week? 

One to Watch

A Midsummer Tights Dream by Louise Rennison

From Goodreads: It’s the hotly anticipated sequel to the winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, WITHERING TIGHTS – laugh your tights off as Tallulah Casey and her bonkers mates return for a new term at Dother Hall performing arts college. Boys, snogging and bad acting guaranteed!

Yaroooo! Tallulah’s triumphant Heathcliff in ‘Wuthering Heights’ the comedy musical was enough to secure her place at Dother Hall performing arts college for another term. She can’t wait to see her pals again, Charlie and the boys from Woolf Academy and maybe even bad boy Cain…

When an international visitor comes to stay could the bright lights of Broadway be calling? And for who? Find out in the next Misadventures of Tallulah Casey.

I can't wait for this one to be published as I really enjoyed the first one in the series. This one is published by Harpercollins Children's Books on February 2nd.