Wonder by R.J. Palacio, Raquel Jaramillo

“It's like people you see sometimes, and you can't imagine what it would be like to be that person, whether it's somebody in a wheelchair or somebody who can't talk. Only, I know that I'm that person to other people, maybe to every single person in that whole auditorium. To me, though, I'm just me. An ordinary kid.” 

“Here’s what I think: the only reason I’m not ordinary is that no one else sees me that way.” - August

You can't blend in when you were born to stand out.
My name is August. I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.

August Pullman wants to be an ordinary ten-year-old. He does ordinary things. He eats ice cream. He plays on his Xbox. He feels ordinary - inside.

But Auggie is far from ordinary. Ordinary kids don't make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. Ordinary kids don't get stared at wherever they go.

Born with a terrible facial abnormality, Auggie has been home-schooled by his parents his whole life, in an attempt to protect him from the cruelty of the outside world. Now, for the first time, he's being sent to a real school - and he's dreading it. All he wants is to be accepted - but can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, underneath it all?

Narrated by Auggie and the people around him whose lives he touches forever, Wonder is a funny, frank, astonishingly moving debut to read in one sitting, pass on to others, and remember long after the final page.

This was a really touching story. I loved that August was so positive (mostly) and that he had a great personality. I think an important great message in this book is that with the right attitude, you can overcome many obstacles. 

Don't get me wrong, there were parts of this book that really broke my heart (*sniff sniff, the Halloween incident) but by the end of it, I was feeling optimistic with my belief that in general the majority of people are good, still in tact.

This is a book I would recommend every YA should read, and hopefully it will help them feel a bit more empathy and show a bit more kindness for those who are different to themselves. Being a teenager is hard enough as it is, there is so much pressure to be 'cool', and that can often mean that even the nicer kids can be not so nice at times (eg Jack's brother in this particular story). 

A short, but sweet story. I loved it.

The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty

“Sometimes a girl has to stop waiting around and come up with her own fairytale ending.” 

Sophie Honeywell always wondered if Thomas Gordon was the one she let get away. He was the perfect boyfriend, but on the day he was to propose, she broke his heart. A year later he married his travel agent, while Sophie has been mortifyingly single ever since. Now Thomas is back in her life because Sophie has unexpectedly inherited his aunt Connie's house on Scribbly Gum Island -- home of the famously unsolved Munro Baby mystery. 

Sophie moves onto the island and begins a new life as part of an unconventional family where it seems everyone has a secret. Grace, a beautiful young mother, is feverishly planning a shocking escape from her perfect life. Margie, a frumpy housewife, has made a pact with a stranger, while dreamy Aunt Rose wonders if maybe it's about time she started making her own decisions. 

As Sophie's life becomes increasingly complicated, she discovers that sometimes you have to stop waiting around -- and come up with your own fairy-tale ending. 

As she so adroitly did in her smashing debut novel, Three Wishes, the incomparable Liane Moriarty once again combines sharp wit, lovable and eccentric characters, and a page-turning story for an unforgettable Last Anniversary.

It was refreshing to read a 'love' story that seemed a bit more realistic of our modern times (for a fiction of course). Ok, so I don't actually know anyone that has inherited a house on a remote island, but other than that I could relate - people have their heart broken; make poor judgement mistakes; get depressed; get drunk; keep secrets; have crazy family members; want things they can't have. Life is messy and very rarely does your path go in a straight line where you think it should, and it was nice to read a book that made me laugh for those very reasons. 

It was easy to get engrossed in the story and I wish I could be real-life friends with Sophie, she sounds hilarious! 

Liane Moriarty can do no wrong in my opinion. I've loved every book of hers that I've read and if/when she releases a new one, I'll read it straight away and probably love that too. 

The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike #2) by Robert Galbraith (Pseudonym), J.K. Rowling

Private investigator Cormoran Strike returns in a new mystery from Robert Galbraith, author of the #1 international bestseller The Cuckoo's Calling.

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days—as he has done before—and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives—meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced.

When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before…

I found this book just as hard to put down as The Cuckoo's Calling. The subject was quite gory at times but it was so cleverly written that it didn't phase me or seem out of place at all. It so easy to get immersed in what was happening that I felt like I was travelling around London.  

The only thing that I found negative was that the references back to the first book were slightly irritating. I understand why they were there, but it still got annoying. I did like the book quotes at the top of each new chapter though.

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler, Maira Kalman (Illustrator)

“There are so many movies like this, where you thought you were smarter than the screen but the director was smarter than you, of course he's the one, of course it was a dream, of course she's dead, of course, it's hidden right there, of course it's the truth and you in your seat have failed to notice in the dark.” 

Min Green and Ed Slaterton are breaking up, so Min is writing Ed a letter and giving him a box. Inside the box is why they broke up. Two bottle caps, a movie ticket, a folded note, a box of matches, a protractor, books, a toy truck, a pair of ugly earrings, a comb from a motel room, and every other item collected over the course of a giddy, intimate, heartbreaking relationship. Item after item is illustrated and accounted for, and then the box, like a girlfriend, will be dumped. 

At the beginning  I thought Ed was a jerk, then as the story unravelled, I became completely enamoured with their blossoming love.  Even though they are so different, their love was so sweet. 

I honestly didn't see the ending coming. I mean, I know the title kind of gives away the ending anyway, but I was so engrossed with the love that I forgot to try and figure out the real reason they broke up. And I was surprised! That so rarely happens to me, I'm usually really good at picking what's going to happen before I finish the first paragraph.

The whole jock-falls-for-nerdy-girl has been done so so many times before (I'm thinking fondly of Freddie Prince Jnr in 'She's all that')  but I've never read it from this perspective. Usually they both are able to overcome their massive differences and have a happy ending walking off into the sunset, but this is a detailed look into why it couldn't work, item by item. We all have a few relationship relics lurking around the house somewhere, things you just can't bring yourself to throw away, that have strong memories of a failed relationship tied to it.  

The writing is really very clever. The banter between the characters is very witty and intelligent for teenagers, but it just works. There were even a few one-liners that made me chuckle out aloud. I wanted to check out a few of the musicians and films that Min referenced throughout the book, and they were all made up! They were written so well that it was so believable - another reason why Handler is a talented writer.

It's not a very long book - I finished it in a single weekend - but I would read it again, and would recommend it to most people.

The Letter by Kathryn Hughes

Kathryn Hughes’ new ebook The Letter offers readers a chance to absorb themselves in the lives of two women, born decades apart but whose lives share a number of parallels. The novel explores two historical strands, bringing together an abused housewife from the 1970s and a young girl from the early 1940s in a story of love, loss and unexpected consequences.

The Letter follows the life of Tina in the 1970s who seeks respite from her abusive marriage by volunteering at a charity shop. One day, while sorting through the pockets of a second-hand suit, she comes across an old letter. It is still firmly sealed and un-franked. Unable to resist the pull of curiosity, Tina opens the letter. It was written on 4th September 1939. She is so moved by the contents and bemused as to why the letter was never delivered, she embarks on a quest to find out what became of the writer and his intended recipient.

The mystery of how this love letter ended up in Tina’s hands is also uncovered through Billy’s story from the early 1940s. He writes a letter that will change his life forever, unaware that it will not be read for another 34 years, and then by a complete stranger.

With a swift pace, memorable characters and a wonderful conceptual depth, Hughes’ novel is one that simply can’t be put down. 

This was a really sweet story, and an interesting concept that had a lot of potential to be an awesome story. There were just a few things that stopped me rating it highly... 

Firstly, the writing style was very basic conversational, and didn't have any 'deep' or profound moments in it. I had to make a conscious decision to keep reading through it, even though it was a bit annoying at first, but I guess that is a compliment to the story line being intriguing enough to hold me.

Secondly, the characters were a bit too nice for my liking. Maybe thats just how respectful people were in 1939 and 1973 and I'm just too jaded by the rude and abrupt ways of 2015, but even the story antagonisers were a bit too easy to hand over information and were a bit too soft to add any strong mystery to the plot. 

It's not a very long story, and moves quite steadily, so I didn't feel like I had to wait forever to get to the point, and given the cheaper price point than most kindle books ($3.99 AUD) at the end I didn't feel too cheated. I would recommend this book to people who are after something light and super easy to read without having to think too much,  but there are plenty of other books on my 'To Read' shelf that I would rate higher than this.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

A compulsively readable, emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller that draws comparisons to Gone Girl, The Silent Wife, or Before I Go to Sleep, this is an electrifying debut embraced by readers across markets and categories. 

Its interesting what sort of assumptions we make about other peoples lives, just based on little pieces of information we see or overhear. This book is a perfect example of that, and how those assumptions can protects us, or get us in to trouble.

This story had a great pace, was easy to read and suspenseful, although I wasn't completely shocked by the ending. 

The characters were well written and they evolved really well once more of the detail came out.

A great read and one that wasn't easy to put down. 

Lone Star by Paullina Simons

From the bestselling, acclaimed author of Tully and The Bronze Horseman comes the unforgettable love story between a college-bound young woman and a traveling troubadour on his way to war—a moving, compelling novel of love lost and found set against the stunning backdrop of Eastern Europe.

Chloe is just weeks away from heading off to college and starting a new life far from her home in Maine when she embarks on a great European adventure with her boyfriend and two best friends. Their destination is Barcelona, but first they must detour through the historic cities of Eastern Europe to keep an old family promise.

Here, in this fledgling post-Communist world, Chloe meets a charming American vagabond named Johnny, who carries a guitar, an easy smile—and a lifetime of secrets. From Treblinka to Trieste, from Karnikava to Krakow, from Vilnius to Venice, the unlikely band of friends and lovers traverse the old world on a train trip that becomes a treacherous journey into Europe’s and Johnny’s darkest past—a journey that jeopardizes Chloe’s plans for the future and all she ever thought she wanted.

But the lifelong bonds Chloe and her friends share are about to be put to the ultimate test—and whether or not they reach Barcelona, they can only be certain that their lives will never be the same again.

A sweeping, beautiful tale that mesmerizes and enchants, Lone Star will linger long in the memory once the final page is turned.

Nothing gets to me quite like an unrequited love story! As I am writing this, I am just wiping the last tear away. I wasn't expecting to have this reaction at all when I first started reading it - yes, it seemed like an interesting YA story that involved travel with a few mishaps and twists...and of course someone had to fall passionately, eloquently, head-over-heels in love, in a Paulina Simons story! (just thinking about The Bronze Horseman still gives me goosebumps!!) but I definitely wasn't expecting to feel my heart break along with the lead female characters, and so strongly! 

I've tried, but I can't write about this book without including spoilers…

About halfway through the book I had my suspicious as to how it would generally turn out (although there were still bits I didn't see coming), so I had a feeling that Johnny still had his 'demons'  and that he might probably end up dying before he made it back to Chloe - but how Chloe's grief was written was what made my reaction so strong. It was almost like I was in the car with her, witnessing her pain and confusion. Simons really does have a gift for making you feel something.

At the beginning, it look me a little while to get over how annoying the main characters were - especially their moaning about how their FREE trip to Europe was inconvenienced but a few other destinations. But I guess just because I wouldn't never think that way, doesn't mean other teenagers would I guess? I also think how the story changed voices to read like their individual journals also helped to better understand them and where they were each coming from. And as shallow and one-dimensional as some of the characters were, the others were so intelligent with their deep observations and prophetic quotes, that it balanced it out. There were too many quotes sprinkled throughout the story for me to pick a favourite. 

Apart from making me weep with love and loss, I also felt like I received a bit of a History and Geography lesson as well. If Johnny was a real life tour guide, I would join his group in a heartbeat.