Book Hangover Recommendations Part 1

Hello dear book friends! Today I will be writing up a post that I know I would find very helpful, so I hope you guys do too! I will be suggesting books you can read if you are in a book hangover.

For those who do not know, here is the Urban Dictionary (yep, the epitome of all sustainable knowledge) definition of "book hangover"-

"When you've finished a book and you suddenly return to the real world, but the real world feels incomplete or surreal because you're still living in the world of the book."

Basically, a book hangover is when you've read a really, really good book and you cannot move on or concentrate on any other book because they just aren't as good as the last book you read. I find it really difficult to get back into other book when I'm having a book hangover, and since I get them quite frequently, I've had to learn what books to choose to help me get over them.

So here are my top five books to help you get through your book hangover!

1. Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Okay, so as you probably know, I love Stephanie Perkins and her books for me are just a fluffy cushion to fall back on when I'm sad or angry or tired of reading bad contempories. Anna and the French Kiss (review here) is about a girl who lives in America whose parents send her off to Paris for boarding school. The book is all about how she adjusts and is focused around a love story. Lola and the Boy Next Door (review here) is about a girl whose dream is to be a fashion designer. Everything in her life is pretty perfect until the Bell twins return to town- one being her worst enemy, and the other being her first heartbreak. These books are perfectly lovely and always lift my spirits, so they're perfect for book hangovers. 5/5 stars for effectiveness, 5/5 for quality.

2. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
I don't think I talk enough about how much I love this book and series. It's probably one of my favourite books and it was the book that got me into psych thriller. It is about a girl suffering from PTSD and weird things start happening… I don't want to explain too much, as it will ruin it, however I can say that it is so easy to read, even if it sounds heavy, you just get absorbed so fast. It's a bit dark and scary, actually, it's quite dark and scary, so it's probably not for the light-hearted, but it is very effective in eradicating book hangovers. 4.5/5 stars for effectiveness, 5/5 for quality.

3. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Rainbow Rowell's characters are very real and wonderful, which makes them so easy to read and relate to, at least for me. Fangirl is about a girl obsessed with the equivalent of Harry Potter in their world, called Simon Snow. She writes fanfic, draws fanart and is an avid member of the fandom (see why I could relate to her?). But as she goes to college, she must deal with new relationships, as well as her crumbling relationship with her twin, and juggle all that around writing her fanfiction. The book is very, very good and I really liked it. Once you get about two, maybe three chapters in, you start to really, really enjoy it, and you will easily be lifted out of your book hangover.
4.5/5 for effectiveness, 5/5 for quality.

told you it was beautiful.

4. These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner
Not only is this the prettiest book cover I've ever seen (no exaggeration, it's my favourite book cover ever), it actually had a really good story to match! This book is sort of Titanic in Space, and the story starts when two people who probably would never have ended up in the same room get stranded on a foreign planet together. Their mission? To escape the planet without anything killing them- including each other. But whilst stuck on the planet with possibly no hope of getting off, the two find what they do not expect. This book was just so easy to read, I'm pretty sure I smashed through in something like four hours, including breaks. It's easy to get into and easy to read, and should absolutely help with book hangovers. 5/5 for effectiveness, 4.5/5 for quality.

5. Unearthly by Cynthia Hand
This book isn't so great quality wise, but if you've just spent weeks reading an epic-fantasy series (The Mortal Instruments, Vampire Academy, etc) and you're in need of something super easy and even a little cheesy, then this is your book! Yep, this book is about angels. That's all I'm going to say, because otherwise you'll probably guess the whole plot. But it's not a bad read, it's fun and easy, and, much like The Beautiful Dead series, it's great for if you don't know what you want to read in a book hangover.5/5 for effectiveness, 3/5 for quality.

Now that you've got a few books to start you off, it's time I gave you some rules as to how to pick a book for when you're suffering a book hangover. But unfortunately, because this post is already pretty long, I'll put it up next week, as a part 2, instead of a recommendation. If you're interested in seeing the "Rules for Choosing Books to Cure Book Hangovers" post, leave a comment, send a tweet or contact me in some way and I shall make sure you are notified when it is posted. Additionally, I will be letting everyone know when it's posted on my tumblr (sherlockcrumpets.tumblr.com) and via my twitter (@lilypherondale), so you can check there too.

So I'll see you all next week for the continuation of this post!

Have a fabulous day!

Lola And The Boy Next Door Book Review

My goodness, it's been an age! I'm so sorry, I can't believe it's been almost three months since I last
posted. I am very sorry; it's been so hectic lately juggling proper work, editing my manuscript, writing the next manuscript in my series and reading books, and writing up reviews just hasn't found itself a place in between it all, which makes me sad because I love writing things for this blog, and I love interacting with you guys, I'm just hella busy. I am very sorry.

In better news, today I shall be reviewing a book called Lola and the Boy Next Door, by Stephanie Perkins, who I have now deemed the Contemporary Queen.

Anyways, for those who do not know, LATBND is the sequel to Anna and the French Kiss, which I read and wrote up a review for. You can find this review here. I really liked Anna and the French Kiss, so when I came across LATBND in my library, I just had to pick it up.

This book is about Lola Nolan, an aspiring fashion designer. She has the perfect life- a great best friend, loving parents, a passion for all things fashionable and a rock-band boyfriend. Well, it seems like the perfect life, until the Bell twins return to the house next door.

Twins Calliope and Cricket were two people Lola hoped to never she again, and on the return, her whole world is turned around and she has to deal with years of heartbreak and confusion caused by one of the Bell twins in particular- Cricket.

And yet again, Stephanie Perkins made me feel like, a), I do not have a very exciting life, and b), totally jealous because I can't for the life of me write cute, fluffy contemporaries like she can. I loved this book, it was in some ways, better than AATFK. However, I love both of them, so I highly suggest you read them and then you can come back here and discuss with us about the book! Okay, bye!

***SPOILERS***
Well, this book left me awestruck and amazed and enlightened and just good, and I would even go as far to say that maybe, just maybe, I liked it better than AATFK. Maybe.

As soon as we were introduced to Lola, I was hoping and praying for Anna and Étienne to make an appearance, because I started seeing similarities in Étienne and Lola. I knew they'd make great friends. And when they did show up, I was ecstatic, mainly because not only did I get a glimpse into their life after the end of AATFK, they were also rather important in the actual story of this book, especially Étienne.

It was easy to see the parallels between Étienne and Ellie and Lola and Max. And towards the end of the book, when Lola started to wonder what her relationship with Max was going towards, I imagined Étienne thinking exactly the same things.

And that's one of the things I love about Stephanie Perkins. I've said this before, I'll say it again. Her characters and their situations are so real. Of course a pretty, talented and outgoing girl like Lola would have a boyfriend. And I find that in a lot of YA romances, the gorgeous, wonderful female protagonist doesn't have her eye on anyone, let alone an actual boyfriend. It's just so much more complex and realistic and it makes for a better all-round story, which makes me as a reader very happy.

Another thing that I can now confirm about Stephanie Perkins is that she doesn't just have one story and one set of characters that she uses over and over again. One of my main fears when reading a sequel to a book that has a different set of characters to the first one is that these new characters are just going to be based off the original characters, and just thrown into a vaguely different situation. That isn't what happened in this book. Lola was so, so different to Anna. Where Anna is very worried and highly-strung, Lola is free-spirited and strong-willed. Again I bring up the point that she was more like Étienne than Anna. She had this flair and freeness about her which I seriously loved reading. Even though I am much more like Anna, reading Anna is like reading a gust of wind- calming, peaceful and easy. Reading Lola was like reading a firework- unpredictable and different. I like reading about both girls, but I was just so impressed at how different they really were.

Then there's Étienne and Cricket. Cricket is more quiet, and he was such a sweetheart. Everything he did was genuinely in the best interest of others, and he was just a good person. It's not that common to read a boy like Cricket in YA; most love interests have a very sassy, cocky feel to them, but Cricket was very sweet and quiet and he cared. Étienne was very much more the sassy, charming French Prince, and even though he was a great, fun character, I felt myself "awwww"-ing more whilst reading about Cricket. Honestly, though, if you asked me to choose one, I couldn't, because I love them both.

Just a sidenote, one of my favourite things in this book were the parallels in Cricket and Étienne's heights- Étienne is constantly picked on for being short, whereas Cricket is constantly picked on for being tall. It was really quite gorgeous to see.

Let's talk about Max. I knew he wasn't going to be as perfect as Lola narrated him as, especially once she explained that not only was he twenty-two, he also had a rock band, tattoos and was a bit of a jerk. Even she could admit that. He was just generally not very nice, especially when he kept saying stuff like having brunch with her parents was a burden. He was also super possessive, which I never like in a male character. He wasn't so much controlling as he was jealous, but the way he made her feel guilty for even just talking to Cricket bordered on the controlling side. I was glad when she finally broke up with him, and he finally let everyone know what he thought about Lola. I was even more suspicious, because I only recently read Breaking Beautiful, where there is a major plot twist in the love interest's character… Although I highly recommend it, so if you like crime and mystery stories, try Breaking Beautiful!

Back onto LATBND. This was a delightful book filled with cutesy romance, cutesy characters, cutesy scenes and just all round Stephanie Perkins perfectness. It was a joy to read and I am anxiously awaiting to get my hands on a copy of Isla and the Happily Ever After, and wondering whether Lola, Anna and co. will make cameos! (also pet hate of mine I've seen a few people calling Isla "is-la". It's pronounced "eye-la", as confirmed by SP herself. I just want to clear this up for people before they read the book so their entire world doesn't come crashing down when they realise they've been saying Isla wrong.)

Anyways have a wonderful day and I shall see you all soon!