Hellloooo everybody! Happy 2021, I guess. How are you all? I hope youre doing well wherever you are in the world right now.
As some of you may know, here in the UK, we have been put into another national lockdown. I have been busy with online schooling etc. and so I haven’t had much chance to write anything for the blog.
I have, however, been reading quite a bit in my spare time to relax. I thought, rather than doing full book review posts, I could just upload one post at the end of each month about the books I’ve been reading and what I thought about them. Would you prefer this? Please let me know down in the comments.
This blog post includes spoilers!
1) ‘When We Collided’ by Emery Lord.
Seventeen-year-old Jonah Daniels has lived in Verona Cove, California, his whole life and only one thing has changed: his father used to be alive and now he’s not. Reeling from the tragedy, Jonah must take care of his family. Enter Vivi Alexander, new girl in town. Vivi is in love with life. A gorgeous, unfiltered hurricane of thoughts and feelings, she transforms Jonah’s family and changes his life. But there are always consequences when worlds collide…
As you will know, if you’ve read some of my past book reviews, I’m quite the fan of Emery Lord’s books. I love them. I think she combats some really tough themes in them and they are centered around teenagers. Though I don’t necessarily relate to the characters, I still enjoy learning their stories and seeing them progress.
I liked how this book showed the struggle of mental health issues. Mental health is such an important concept in today’s world and I liked how Emery Lord presented an aspect of it through Vivi. At first I didn’t even realise she had bipolar until towards the end of the book, but that’s probably down to my inexperience of mental health. This book nudged me to try to understand the consequences of mental health issues and how hard they can be to deal with, not only for the person with the issue but for the people around them too.
I thorougly enjoyed reading this book and seeing Vivi and Jonah’s relationship blossom into a cute but intense summer romance.
Rating: 4/5
2) ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’ by J.K. Rowling.
Harry Potter’s summer has included the worst birthday ever, doomy warnings from a house elf called Dobby, and rescue from the Dursley’s by his friend Ron Weasley in a magical flying car! Back at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for his second year, Harry hears strange whispers echo through empty corridors – and then the attacks start. Students are found as though turned to stone… Dobby’s sinister predictions seem to be coming true.
I got the Harry Potter books for Christmas and read ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ within around 2-3 days. I had never been a huge fan of the Harry Potter franchise when I was younger. I only really started to like it when I was about 11 or 12. I don’t think I understood it properly before then. To be honest, I think it kind of scared me. All that talk of goblins and basilisks and you-know-who!I loved ’The Chamber of Secrets’. Particularly towards the end of the book. I like it when a book is rather fast paced and that’s what I found in this book. Sure, there were the moments when it dragged a bit, but every book has those moments. I enjoyed following Harry in his adventure of finding out about the Chamber of Secrets and who opened it. I have seen the films, of course, so I already knew who did it but I enjoyed reading the book and figuring out which parts were in the films and what was different. It was quite funny at time too. As was the first book.The book made me angry at times, though. Especially when everybody turned on Harry as they believed it was him who opened the Chamber, especially when they found out he could speak Parsel-toungue.Rating: 5/5
3) ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ by J.K. Rowling.
When the Night Bus crashes through the darkness and screeches to a halt in front of him, it’s the start of another far from ordinary year at Hogwarts for Harry Potter. Sirius Black, escaped mass-murderer and follower of Lord Voldemort, is on the run – and they say he is coming after Harry. In his first ever Divination class, Professor Trelawney sees an omen of death in Harry’s tea leaves… But perhaps most terrifying of all are the Dementors patrolling the school grounds, with their soul-sucking kiss.
Absolutely loved it! Especially towards the end, as with every book it seems. There were some rather funny parts in there usually instigated by Ron. I really liked seeing the character development and the development of relationships in this book too. I think my favourite part was either Lupin helping Harry with his patronus charm or Crookshanks pressing the knot on the Whomping Willow to allow Harry and Hermione through. Such a clever cat!Rating: 4/5
What books did you read in January? Which was your favourite? Let me know down in the comments, I would love to hear.
I hope you have a great February!
Please follow me on Instagram @paiges_blogstagram and @paiges_bookstagram.
DISCLAIMER: I am not trying to claim these books or the ideas behind them. The rights belong to the authors included.
Thank you for reading,Paige.
Paige’s Blog 