Emma's Bookish Lifestyle

I would like to thank the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this debut YA novel. This book is set at a residential school based on an island off the coast of america.  Raxter School is for girls and has been put under quarantine due to the outbreak of an unusual condition.  Since the arrival of the Tox, Hetty's life has been turbulent to say the least, as she see's her fellow classmates, suffer and vanish! The disease takes it time to spread, first with the death of the teachers then the students begin to fall one by one, the Tox affecting them all differently turning their bodies into unusual and foreign objects. Now cut off from access to the rest of the world and nobody knowing who is fully aware of what is going on at the island, the girls are left to survive for themselves on the island they now call home!  They dare not go beyond the boundary fence as the contents of the woods themselves are infected, wild and dangerous.  But when Hetty's frien...

This is the 3rd book in the Hidden Iceland series and returns us back to the life of Detective Hulda prior to the death of her husband and daughter. This case starts in 1987 on an isolated farm house in the east of Iceland.  A severe ice storm at the start of the Christmas celebrations should have prevented anyone from getting to them however, it didn't. The couple should never have let him in. But they did.  Their unexpected guest is telling them a story that doesn't ring true, why is he there and is he the cause of their death. So far I have found this series fast paced and beautifully written.  Starting with The Darkness we are introduced to the characteristic but far from effervescent Detective Hulda Hermannsdóttir, she is a Detective Inspector forced into early retirement at 64 but who fights her cause and manages to convince her boss to review an old case on the murder of a russian women that washed up on the shore,  The amazing and unexpected ending meant I wa...

Kat wants to do GOOD FEMINISM, although she's not always sure what that means. She also wants to be a writer, get together with Hot Josh (is this a feminist ambition?), win at her coursework and not make a TOTAL EMBARRASSMENT of herself at all times.  But the path to true feminism is filled with mortifying incidents and when everything at school starts to get a bit too much, Kat knows she's lost her way, and the only way forward is to ask for help . . . Join Kat AKA the Confused Feminist as she navigates EVERYTHING from menstrual cups and mental health to Instagram likes and #TimesUp in her HILARIOUS, OUTRAGEOUS and VERY EMBARRASSING diary. Firstly I would like to thank Hodder Children's Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to give a true and honest review on this YA title. This book was not aimed at my age group however, I had hopes that the feminist message implied by it's title and blurb would offer an interesting insight for teenage girls who want to know more ab...

Eileen is sick of being 79. Leena's tired of life in her twenties. Maybe it's time they swapped places... After a life changing event happens within her family Leena Cotton finds herself reeling from the aftermath, life and work all seem to collide in an emotional turmoil that finds Leena placed on a two-month sabbatical from the job she loves.  She decides to visit her grandmother Eileen in her home in a tiny Yorkshire village. Eileen divorced from a loveless and finding herself about to turn eighty and wishing for companionship, takes her second chance at a new way of life and love as she cannot see herself finding an eligible gentlemen from the slim pickings in her local village. Leena proposes that they switch lives during the two-months of her sabbatical, Eileen can go and find the answer to her what-if's and enjoy the dating pool of London and Leena can take a step back from all things work as her boyfriend can visit and she can use the time to focus on her new busine...

Young Adult - Trigger Warning for Child Grooming on the Internet   Holly is 14 and feels alone, her best friend has moved away to Canada and her parents are dealing the normal stresses of both work and home life as well as caring for an elderly member of the family. This has caused Holly to feel both isolated and alone, spending increasingly longer amounts of time fending for herself and in the house alone, where she is terrified of every noise that she hears. Her mum does try to get her to befriend Noah, a boy in her year who is experiencing bullying from another class mate and member of his synagogue. Although Holly does not realise it this friendship may not only save Noah, but also herself. Then Holly meets Jay, someone she believes is friends with her bestie Amy and other people in school as he was posted about on an online forum, quickly this situation gets out of hand and she begins to isolate herself from those she cares about and her personality notably changes. Is Jay wha...