Monday 2 February 2015

Oh, Pretty Girl..

Title: Pretty Girl Thirteen
Author: Liz Coley
Pages: 344
Publisher: Harper Collins
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 3.5/5
Summary (from Good Reads): 
Angie Chapman is only 13 when she gets lost in the woods in the middle of the night.

The next thing she knows she’s returned home, scars around her wrists and ankles, physically exhausted. Her parents collapse into tears when they see her, but Angie doesn’t understand – until they tell her she has been missing, presumed dead, for three years.

Angie doesn’t remember anything from her missing years. But there are people who do – people who could tell Angie every terrifying detail, if only they weren’t locked inside her mind.

With help, Angie begins to unravel the darkest secrets of her own past.

But does she really want to know the truth?

This book definitely gave me mixed emotions. I really couldn't decide whether to give this book 3 or 4 stars because there are things that made me want to give it 4 stars, but then there were other things that made me question that rating. 

First off, this book had me from the beginning. The book tells the story of a teenage girl that's been held captive for the 3 years but has no recollection of it whatsoever. This book had such an interesting concept to it which I enjoyed. It was really interesting to learn about new concepts, and it actually introduced me to something that I never knew. The book is definitely a chilling and touchy subject. It's not really very graphic, which I think was quite good, as although there are flashbacks, I feel that sometimes too much graphic content in a book can ruin it. This definitely hit the nail on the head with having just the right amount of information so that you felt sympathetic towards Angie, but it wasn't too the point where you felt like the information was a bit overwhelming. I think that Coley did a good job of dealing with such a touchy subject with this book.

Now here are some of the things that got me a bit. I really felt like the author tried to incorporate too much in this book. How much misfortune can you throw at one person! This really got on my nerves as I felt that the author was just forcing things in to the story to make it more interesting, which yes, I suppose it did but at the same time, I just felt like some things were unnecessary. I also thought that there would be much more of a media presence round the case of missing Angie and her return, but strangely there was not, which was surprising too me. Obviously I realise it's not the main focus of the book at all, but it's just surprising that there was little mention of it until perhaps the middle to end of the book.

Other than those few bits, I did enjoy reading Pretty Girl Thirteen, and it still does make it's way into my mind a few times. I think it's one of those books that's got a gritty, intense story line that can really effect you after you finish reading it. That's definitely the effect that it had on me. 

I would definitely recommend this book, but more so to people that don't mind intense, gritty and chilling books. 

Sunday 1 February 2015

2/12

via Elegance and Enchantment
I can't believe we have already had the first month of 2015! It feels like we hardly had January at all! January saw the name change of this blog. For a while now, I've been thinking about changing it but I couldn't think what too. It's not that I didn't like the name, I just wanted something a bit different. You can always trust you bookshelves to inspire you, so apapertown was changed to alittlesomethingbookish which I really love!

January has been a pretty good reading month for me. I've read 6 books which is 1 more than I aimed to read! I'm fairly happy with this and have made a dent in my Good Reads goal of 52! I'm actually ahead of it at the moment, which I'm pretty happy with but let's see how long that lasts for as in March I have quite a few assignments due plus an exam!

In terms of my life, January has been pretty laid back. I finished my first semester of University, I've had 2 weeks off as well to mark the end of the semester which is probably why I've been able to read so much! I'm also hopefully going to be booking a trip soon for May with my boyfriend - one of those short city breaks, but we haven't decided where yet! Oh, I also started an instagram for my blog, you can find me by searching alittlesomethingbookish.

I'm pretty impressed with myself and how many books I've read this month. I read 6 books, all of which I have enjoyed. One of my reading goals was to read The Winner's Curse and Rebel Belle and I read one of these books so I'm happy with that as I usually find it hard to stick to monthly TBR lists!


So what's coming up next month?
Well in terms of books, I'm hoping to be posting more reviews this month. In the second half of 2014, I really slacked on reading and reviews, but this year I really want to get this blog up and running again. I'm already getting reviews from the Summer done and posted, but you should be seeing some more reviews coming your way so watch this blog!

This month, I'm aiming to read 5 books as I'm starting back at University for Semester 2 and the month will be full of preparation for essays to be handed in in March, as well as other assignments and an exam! I'll also be carrying on with the Flights of Fantasy challenge. I'm hoping to read at least one fantasy book a month, as a lot of the books on my shelves are contemporary and at the moment, I'm trying to stop spending money on books as I've got so many to read (pre-orders don't count though)!