LIFE | Books I've Loved in January

I LOVE BOOKS.

You may or may not know this depending on if you know me personally or not. If you do, you’ll know that I eat, sleep and talk books. Ask anyone, especially my friend Anya whom I recently went on holiday with and between us actually managed to read approximately 15 books, AS WELL AS doing all the normal holiday-y things us young adults do. I promise we didn't lounge infront of the pool/sea for 6 hours tanning. Honest!

So, in January alone I’ve managed to sink my teeth into 8 books, 4 of which I’m going to do a little write up. These aren’t reviews and probably won’t be as witty as some book blog posts out there, but I basically just want to share with you why I loved these and why you should definitely go right now and buy them or download them to your reading device. NOW…or after you’ve read this post, depends how much you trust my judgement I guess!

The Giver

‘Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community. When Jonas turns twelve, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver’

This book was published in 2003, long before the whole ‘dystopian future’ frenzy everyone started getting on after The Hunger Games and Divergent. Because of the sheer amount of ‘future-style’ books I’ve been reading lately I almost skimmed past this one. I was so reluctant to start reading this book because of all the hype about it, then comes the film-adaption which lowered my need to read it further. I seem to have a bit of a problem with books made into film adaptions, EXCEPT Harry Potter which I will forever congratulate each director for their utter fabulousness in bringing the books to the big screen.

The second after turning the last page, iPad was turned on, Google search completed to find the film, I was hooked. There are themes of society, humanity, conformity and a sprinkle of romance in this book, but I cannot compare it with anything I’ve read, so it kept me reading. Not to mention the ending leaves you flabberghasted and wondering if she’s ACTUALLY just bloody done that and ended it there *shakes fist*

Branded

‘Fifty years ago The Commander came into power and murdered all who opposed him. In his warped mind, the seven deadly sins were the downfall of society.’

This was a recommendation after I’d finished reading Insurgent, based on the genre and style of books I’ve recently read I guess, thankyou Mr Kindle. The blurb had me curious and once I’ve read the first few pages of any book, some little Amiee voice in my head forces me to read the full book whether I like it or not. In this case, I liked!

The story is fast paced, action packed and again has some luurve thrown about in there. The story is told from the view of a girl named Lexi Hamilton who is living under the evil rule of the new guy in charge aka The Commander. This is all set after World War V – a time alas none of us will get to see, booo. Abi Ketner and Missy Kalicicki have moulded the seven deadly sins into crimes, and those who commit those crimes are branded with a tattoo to shame them, then exiled to The Hole where all hell breaks loose on a daily basis. I won’t go on to tell you what hell that is, because you should read the boooooook. The next book in the Sinners series is Hunted, which is set for publication in March 31^st 2015. HURRY UP!

Please Remain Calm

‘In this gripping sequel to THIS IS NOT A TEST…****SPOILER*****

As you can see, I left the blurb out as it gives too much away if you haven’t read the first in this duo. I cannot stress enough how much love I have for this novella. After reading the first installment 'This Is Not A Test' and almost flying myself over to Courtney Summers' house and demanding she give me the unfinished manuscript to the sequel, I was mind-blown. I’ve never managed to find a zombie book that ticks all the boxes (gore, blood, anxiety, death, loss, humor)  and doesn’t wind up being some romantic-survival piece of work.

I’m not going to say much about this though as it’s a follow on and if you haven’t read the first, I don’t want to spoil this devilishly good book for you. But as far as zombie-esque novels go, this is one of the best. I finished this without even a glimmer of knowing it was going to come to an end, leaving me with a slight hole in my heart as the ‘Acknowledgements’ page stared me in the face. The worst bit about all of this love is the final (oh I hope not) book isn’t out until……………..I DON’T KNOW  because she hasn’t written it yet….if anyone knows otherwise, tell me pleeeeeease.

Lovely Vicious

‘Seventeen-year-old Isis Blake hasn’t fallen in love in three years, nine weeks, and five days, and after what happened last time, she intends to keep it that way.’

I’ve got to admit, this blurb doesn’t do the book justice at all. I was expecting a soppy, girls rule kinda read, what I got instead was punchy, witty dialogue I could relate to and some hilarious action scenes. I love the way Isis talks, it’s riddled with sarcasm and dry humor, right up my street thankyou very much. Although the story line didn’t completely reveal itself in this book (more books, woo!), I found myself enjoying the teen angst, the awkwardness and the humour.

I love love love finding a trilogy that’s all published and ready for me. There’s nothing worse than having to wait for the cliffhanger to be resolved, your favourite character is on the brink of death and you have no idea if they meet a gruesome, depressing end or live happily ever after. THE WORST. I found a GIF from a fellow book-lover on Good Reads that perfectly described my feelings after the ending…

But I didn’t panic for long, because the next instalment Savage Delight was one swipe of my kindle screen away. Thank god for fast download speed. So there we have it, my top four books for January. I'm currently reading the second book of Lovely Vicious, 36% of the way through to be overly-precise. Are there any good books out there i should add to my never-ending list?!

Thanks for reading!