Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

“Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.” - Rebecca

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is a classic gothic novel. It follows a young woman (not named) who marries a wealthy man widow, Maxim de Winter. She moves to his house in Manderley and finds it very hard to fit in. She thinks everyone is judging and comparing her to Rebecca. All the things in the house are Rebecca's and everywhere she goes she knows Rebecca would have done it. Worst of all Maxim is getting more and more distant and she believes that he was never really in love with her but he still loves Rebecca. It seems that even the dead can win.

I will go straight to the point; I didn't like this book. I really don't get why this has become such a famous literature. It may be that I am still too young to fully comprehend the whole story of Rebecca, but I just found it wasn't as mysterious or as captivating as a gothic book should be. 

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

“Sometimes, Edie, a person's feelings aren't rational. At least, they don't seem that way on the surface. You have to dig a little deeper to understand what lies at the base” 

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton is a Gothic novel. Edie Burchill is curious about the reaction from her mother when she received a long lost letter. It was set between 1939 and 1992. Edie knows nearly nothing from her mother's mysterious past. It all leads to the Milderhurst Castle, Edie feels a strange pull towards this place. When she takes a tour around the house she realises that there are many more secrets hidden by the stone walls of the castle. Secrets that fascinate her about the sister that live there and their family!

The novel by Kate Morton made me realise how much I adore the Gothic genre!

Eve (the Eve Trilogy) by Anna Carey

“A relationship between two people can be judged by the list of things unspoken between them.”  - Eve

Eve by Anna Carey is the first in the Eve Trilogy. The story is set in 2032, in the New America after a plague (and its vaccine that was meant to help) killed most of the world's population. The U.S.A is now ruled by a King. Girls and boys are completely separated into schools. Eve, the protagonist, is graduating from school and hopes to become a great painter. One day before graduation one of her colleagues shares her plans and knowledge with Eve. It seems that the King nor the teachers are telling the truth. Everything she believed in is a lie. Eve escapes all of this and meets Caleb. They fall in love but with them being fugitives she must choose between safety and love. 

This book is AMAZING!! I don't really know exactly where this books achieves this success or how Anna Carey did it but I just found I was completely absorbed by the book and the characters. I read non stop and finished it in less than a day. I would burst out at random moments screaming for Eve or Caleb, I was nearly crying at the end when Caleb was leaving. This is seriously such a cute, sweet book for all the dreamers and thinkers out there.

Mac Slater, Cool Hunter by Tristan Bancks

" Sometimes you've got to do the wrong thing to do the right thing, and I'd convinced Paul that this was the right thing. I just wasn't so sure I'd convinced myself." - Mac Slater, Cool Hunter

Mac Slater, Cool Hunter (I Heart NY) by Tristan Bancks. It is the story of Mac and Paul. Previously they had won a competition to become a cool hunter, someone who finds cool stuff and vlogs on the Coolhunters website. In winning the competition he gets to fly to New York for a week, all expenses paid; as long as they find cool stuff to upload. The first day everything goes wrong, the next day their luck seems to be changing. Mac finds a whole group of people inventing the coolest things ever but this time he must keep it a secret. 

I actually only read the second book in the series. I didn't even think it was a series; the title on the cover basically says mac slater, cool hunter there is a tiny writing saying "2 I <3 NY", i just thought this was part of the graphics. Other than that there was no mention of it being a series. 

I found this book really, really weak. I kept on reading and waiting for it to reach a climax but I didn't really think it go to it.

Cross My Heart by Sasha Gould

"In Venice, a secret is indeed more powerful than a sword. " - Cross My Heart

Cross my Heart by Sasha Gould is set during the Italian Renaissance. Laura della Scala, the protagonist, is sent to the convent at the age of 10. When her sister dies her father calls her back home to marry her sister's fiancée. Laura despises whom she is to marry, he is completely disgusting. However, all her father cares about is wealth and power. Laura finds out about someone who can help her; they call themselves the Segreta, a secret society of women all they ask is a secret. At the start they seem to help but soon she realises that it may not have been all good. She thinks they link up to the murder of her sister. 

This book will have a similar review to a recent book review I wrote about Ever . It is a very quick read with a short plot. There was quite a lot of mystery but I wouldn't say it was a complex novel. At the end things got quite gruesome but overall I found the story very cute and romantic. 

Ever by Gail Carson Levine

"Fate...may...be...thwarted. [...] I long...for..a happy outcome" - Ever.

Ever by Gail Carson Levine is the intertwining story of Olus, God of the wind, and Kezi, a normal village girl. Olus is much younger than the rest of the gods and longs to live with the mortal humans. One day, when living in Hyte he falls in love with Kezi. Kezi's love for him is reciprocal. Her days, however, are numbered because of an unbreakable oath. This is the story of their love and race to change fate. 

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

"A birth is not really a beginning. Our lives at the start are not really our own but only the continuation of someone else's story.” - The Thirteenth Tale.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. This is quite a suspenseful plot where I cannot dwell much into the plot without giving away the experience. Basically it is the story of Vida Winter, a storyteller with a mysterious past. She finally decides that it is time to come clean. Her story might be even bigger and better then all the fictional stories she has told. 

I was told to read this for school. My teacher told me that this was a really good book and a very quick read I had my doubts since I don't really share the same taste in books with my teacher. However, this book I found really interesting. The part about the quick read didn't really apply for me though. The words itself were pretty easy but the way they were arranged made it a bit hard for me, I had to re-read some paragraphs quite a bit of times. I do have a friend who read it in one day and I was really surprised about that and mind you, I'm quite a quick reader. 

The plot was amazingly good!

Battle of Britain - Harry Woods, England 1939-1941 by Chris Priestley

Battle of Britain by Chris Priestley is part of the My Story series. This book is set in England during mid 20th Century. It is the life of a young man during World War II whose love for flying gets him to enlist for the RAF. 

This book really let me down. This review had a very short plot summary and will probably be a short review because really the plot felt short. The books in the My Story series are usually a short read, however this time the plot was so short that it just skipped on the details.

Bloody Tower - The Diary of Tilly Middleton, London 1553-1559 by Valerie Wilding

Bloody Tower; The Diary of Tilly Middleton by Valerie Winding is about the short lived reigns of Lady Jane Grey and Queen Mary as well as how Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne. The story is told through the eyes of the young Tilly Middleton who lives in the castle as her father is the physician.

This novel is part of the My Story series and like I said in my last blog, I really like that series. There are many things that are found in all of the books in the series that I really like and find useful, such as the timeline and historical background notes at the end. (More on that can be found on my last blog on the ' Anne Boleyn and Me.') I was lucky that by chance I read this one straight after the story of Anne Boleyn and Me, because it gave the story more flow and I had a bit of background reading going into this book. 

Now, about this specific book; I found that it was good but it wasn't the best of the series. The book's plot left a bit to wish