Five Things That Make Me Happy by Tanya Byrne #WeLoveYA

I really love Tanya Byrne. Her debut book, Heart-Shaped Bruise was my favourite book that I read in all of 2012 and I absolutely adored her new book, being published this month, Follow Me Down, too!  So when I heard about the #LoveYA event that Headline are doing for the month of May, I jumped at the chance to take part too.  So, here is the lovely Tanya talking about the books, films and songs that make her happy... aren't they some unusual choices?! 

To find out more about Tanya Byrne or the #WeLoveYA event, please do visit the following websites:

Tanya Byrne on Twitter ... Which Book Next? on Facebook ... Which Book Next on Pinterest

Five Things That Make Me Happy

by Tanya Byrne

Book: On the Road – Jack Kerouac. If you were making a list of happy books this probably wouldn’t be at the top of it, but happiness is subjective, and happiness to me is reading a book that takes me away from the things that make me unhappy. What better way to escape your troubles than in a battered car with your best friend by your side?


Song: Proud Mary – Tina and Ike Turner. I defy you to sit still when this song is on.


Film: Before Sunrise. I think the word perfect is thrown around far too much, but this film is perfect. It’s charming and funny and honest and infused with so much hope that it’s enough to melt even my cold, dead heart.

Book: The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky. Okay. If you’ve read this book then I can just imagine the face you’re making right now, but I love Charlie so much. And yes, this book made me cry, but it also made me laugh and want to call each of my friends and tell them that I love them, so I guess that’s why it makes me happy, because it makes me realise how lucky I am.


Song: Rebel Rebel – David Bowie. If this song ever comes on and I don’t grin, dial 999.

Can you name five things that are making YOU happy lately? Please share in comments!

REVIEW: Follow Me Down by Tanya Byrne

I love Tanya Byrne. Her debut book Heart-Shaped Bruise was my number one favourite book of last year. So when I heard that Headline were publishing a new book by Tanya this year, I squealed in excitement. And Follow Me Down is a very worthy second book by the lovely Tanya Byrne.  It was very addictive reading and it really kept me guessing all the way to those tense final pages.

Certain things about the book jumped out at me right away as exciting. I love the boarding school setting.  Don't you just love boarding school settings?! And around this boarding school is this lovely, creepy forest where things happen. Second really exciting thing in Follow Me Down is that the main character is a Nigerian teenager, Adamma, who is pretty and popular and has no trouble fitting in, making friends of falling in love. I think there definitely needs to be more non-white characters in YA fiction like Adamma.

I think the thing that will follow me around after reading this book is the feeling of deep unease and uncertainty as I finished this book. I love the way in which Tanya Byrne chose to tell this story in two parts, before and after and also in giving us plenty of mysteries that need uncovering.  There's a lot within Follow Me Down that we as readers don't know and those secrets ate away at me.  I really needed to know and it really isn't until those last few pages that we know for sure.  That really ramped up the tension and unease for me not knowing how to feel about certain characters and situations. 

I did like Adamma as a main character.  She comes to this new school a bit unhappy leaving New York and her friends behind, but fairly quickly she makes friends with Scarlett and settles into Croften College. Scarlett is a bit dramatic and attention-seeking and is someone who wields secrets and knowledge like weapons but is also the first person to really reach out to Adamma and make her feel like she belongs. She's a tricky character, Scarlett, as is the relationship between Adamma and Scarlett. I love how Adamma is able to remember both the good and the bad of their friendship.  Because it turns out that a boy will come between these two girls. And another one of the mysteries that Tanya Byrne throws at us is the identity of this boy, mostly referred to as him or he so that while you might have an inkling to who it could be ... you're never quite sure! And for me, it really changed my perspective on the story depending on who I thought 'he' might be.

Follow Me Down is a really tense and addictive read. I couldn't put it down once I'd started and by the end I was absolutely desperate to know what had happened and who was involved as well as being fully creeped out by this story. I thought it was amazing and I can highly recommend that you read this book!

REVIEW: Dead Silence by Kimberly Derting

I'm such a fan of the Body Finder series! I really enjoyed reading the fourth book in the series, Dead Silence by Kimberly Derting.  I've been going through a bit of a reading slump lately but I can always count on this series to be exciting and deliciously tense and addictive and it quite successfully pulled me out of my reading funk. 

This is the fourth book in the series so while I have not included spoilers for this particular book, my review will contain spoilers for the previous books. Please don't read any further if you haven't already read the rest of the series!

I do love Violet's story.  At the end of the previous book my heart went out to her completely. Her ability to see and hear the imprints of murderers and the echoes of the dead has led her to do good things. But after Violet kills her abductor in self-defense, she acquires an imprint of her own and cannot escape this constant reminder that she has taken another's life. It weighs heavily on Violet.  She's unable to sleep and is forced into taking sleeping pills by her creepy and more-than-slightly threatening therapist, Dr. Lee.

I think what I love about this series so much is how much Kimberly Derting mixes things up.  There's always a murder that happens, this crime that Violet is in some way connected to or is trying to help solve. And there are always those tantalising chapters told from the point of view of the murderer.  It could be a series that always ends up feeling samey or formulaic.  But with each Body Finder book I've read, the tension levels are always really high, the action is pacey and exciting and my heart is in my throat because I really care about these characters and especially about Violet. 

In Dead Silence not only is Violet dealing with her new imprint, she's also pretty understandably upset at being threatened and forced into remaining a member of a team that she wants no involvement with. I'm glad that within Dead Silence this thing between Violet and Dr. Lee is explored a bit more. With some new information, Vi is able to piece together a bit of background on her somewhat shady therapist. I liked it.

And besides these forced weekly appointments with Dr Lee, to further involve Violet in things both Rafe and Gemma enroll at Violet's school. This causes Violet's two different lives - one as a normal high school teenager with normal friends who don't know about her special ability and Violet, the body finder who is a member of this weird psychic team - to collide.  That was fun and a bit awkward to witness. I wasn't the biggest fan of Rafe in the previous book, but the boy is growing on me. And I do like that there is a bit of tension between Violet and Jay in this book because of Rafe. Violet and Jay's relationship needs to be shaken up a little bit.

This series is definitely one of my favourites. In Dead Silence Violet really pushes herself into revealing some of her closely-guarded secrets, she dives head-first into some seriously dangerous conditions in search of the truth and to protect her friends and she digs up some juicy bits of information that could explain some of those niggling thoughts she's had about this organisation that has put together her team.  Dead Silence is exciting and interesting and I look forward to more.

If you haven't already picked up the Body Finder series I ask you now, what are you waiting for?

REVIEW: This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

Aww, what a lovely story This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith is!  I went through an entire range of emotions reading this book - from ridiculously happy at the beginning to pain and heartbreak.  I was laughing as well as crying reading this book and was an absolute emotional wreck once I'd finished and I really loved that about this book. 

Right from those very first pages as we read through the email banter between our two main characters, Graham and Ellie, and we learn that Graham has a pig called Wilbur inspired by Charlotte's Web, I knew that I would absolutely fall in love with this story.  Or at least with Graham, because how sweet is that? 

But it certainly doesn't stop there.  Ellie and Graham continue to email each other anonymously, You've Got Mail style for months, slowly forming this emotional connection with each other. So much so that Graham decides to pitch Ellie's hometown in Maine as the new location for the film he's starring in so that the two can finally meet.

I kind of love that this book is more than just the love story though.  There's also the isolation that Graham feels as a film actor, living away from his parents on film sets and far removed from his mostly normal childhood that he misses.  And Ellie is burdened with this family secret of who her father really is and starting up a relationship with a heartthrob film actor will definitely out that secret. 

This Is What Happy Looks Like was a really wonderful story, one that I fell into easily.  I loved the inclusion of the film set and paparazzi but also the small-town coastal setting.  I love that these two people met over the Internet and have trouble separating their online selves from the true selves and have that added complication of one of them being a Hollywood actor.  Everything about this book just made me happy to read it, even when my heart was hurting when everything doesn't quite work out.

This is a story that really inspired me.  I read this book and I wanted to grab my whoopie pie cookbook (yes, I have one of those!) and whip up a dozen whoopie pies immediately.  I wanted to look up my favourite poetry and frame beautiful poems and put them up around my house.  And most importantly, I wanted to create my ultimate list of what my happy would look like.  And on that list would definitely be reading such a sweet, romantic and emotion-filled story like This Is What Happy Looks Like.  I really recommend that you read this one!

Yet more paranormal mini-reviews (Everneath, Immortal Rules, Seeking Crystal and The Last Echo)

This post will include mini-reviews for the following books: Everneath by Brodi Ashton, Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa, Seeking Crystal by Joss Stirling and The Last Echo by Kimberly Derting.

Whenever I go through a prologed book slump, it is usually the fault of a decline in my mental health.  I sink into a depression and I don't feel like reading.  It's pretty simple.  And I've found that when I'm in a depression, the books I really like to read are those that are very emotional or dramatic.  And what's more emotional and over-the-top in its dramatics than a good paranormal romance, right?  I find myself drawn to the overly passionate paranormal romances in order to stir some emotion in myself.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, as the following reviews will prove.

 Everneath by Brodi Ashton

Everneath is a book that really pulled me out of a bad reading slump, and it appeared to pull me out effortlessly.  It was the absolute perfect timing for me to have picked up Everneath, and I'm so glad that I gave this book a chance.  I wanted something really romantic and emotional, a book that I could be absorbed in entirely for as long as I was reading it and forget about everything else - and Everneath was exactly that for me!

I'll admit that I didn't fully understand Nikki's choice to go underground and have her emotions fed on by some creepy immortals, but I chose to suspend my disbelief and just go with it.  Especially as it made for some wonderfully angsty reading material.  And while I've seen other reviewers say they'd fallen for Cole, the immortal who has targeted Nikki and to whom she'll go back to in 6 months time, I have to say - I found him creepy.  Jack, Nikki's ex-boyfriend is more my thing.  I loved the tension between Nikki and Jack.  They both obviously still care about each other, but just couldn't admit it to each other for ages.  I love them together.  And I can't wait to get back to this story in the sequel, Everbound.


Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Initially I wasn't going to read Immortal Rules.  I thought to myself, 'I'm bored of vampires, I can't take anymore' but a chance to read this book came up, and I figured that it's Julie Kagawa, why not?  She completely changed my opinion of fairies with her Iron Fey series, I thought maybe I should give her a chance to make me see vampires in a new, refreshing light.  And, really, how could I have doubted her?  I thought she did an incredible job with this book and I cannot wait to read absolutely anything else by Julie.

I loved in Immortal Rules how the story feels almost as if there are three distinct parts, each part as intriguing and fascinating as the others.  When one ended, I was at once sad to see the story go in a different direction and also excited by what is to come.  As this is the first book in the series, I'm really looking forward to seeing how things work out in this world and with the array of characters we meet.  The beginning, which introduces us to our main character, Allison, and also to this dark and dangerous world in which vampires are in control, was exciting and gory and perfect.  And each and every page had me desperate to know what would come next, what would happen?  It's been a long time since I've been so enthralled by a book!

 Seeking Crystal by Joss Stirling

Oh lordy, do I absolutely LOVE the Benedict brothers.  Really and truly, I love them.  And I loved this latest installment, which pairs up two of the Benedict brothers with sisters Diamond and Crystal.

I really felt for Crystal, the main character of this story.  She's always been treated a bit badly by her family for being a dud savant.  She has no powers, she's not great with schooling.  She really figures herself to have no real future, and that of course, is a feeling that is one that many including myself has felt before.  But things begin to change for Crystal, when her older sister, Diamond meets her soul-finder amongst the famous Benedict family of crime-fighters.  While happy for her sister, Crystal finds herself hugely annoyed by Diamond's new family, especially Xav.  But in the process of planning Diamond's wedding, things go very, very wrong and Crystal and Xav will have to get over their issues to help each other out. 

I really loved the setting of Venice.  It just seems a very romantic and magical place to fight against evil and to fall in love.  I also loved the transformation of Crystal from kicked-puppy at the beginning of the book to getting used to the very different turns her life has taken.  It was fun to see some familiar faces from the previous books and also to witness some different abilities and means of attack. 

I really hope this series continues!  I know all we have left are some of the older brothers which could possibly stray out of the YA market, but I still want to know what will happen, especially after the brief sneak peek we get at the end of this book!

 The Last Echo by Kimberly Derting

The Body Finder series by Kimberly Derting is one of my favourite YA series of recent years.  I really just love the mixture of crime solving and romance, especially as we are usually given brief insights into the mind of the killer which are interspersed into the narrative.  I really do love Violet and her relationship with her family and especially her newly formed relationship with best friend, Jay.

I thought this move towards working with the FBI would add an interesting twist into the series, and it has.  The series has introduced us to some very interesting new characters with different abilities, though I felt like this book focused a bit more than I'd like on Rafe, who clearly has feelings for Violet.  Together with Jay being significantly less of a presence in The Last Echo, I found myself enjoying the book just a teensy bit less.

Even so, The Last Echo is a wonderful read.  Violet is trying her best to solve this latest crime involving a serial killer in the area, and Violet must just be his latest target.  I thought this book was deliciously creepy with a great mystery to solve.  I still Violet as a character, the weight of her ability is a fair bit heavier in this book, and my heart went out to her. 

Guest Review: Crypt: The Gallows Curse by Andrew Hammond (Paranormal Month)

Guest review by Kulsuma at Sunshine and Stardust

CRYPT: The Gallow’s Curse by Andrew Hammond was an exciting paranormal novel. It was full of action, horror and mystery. The main character, Jud Lester, is the star member of the organisation the Covert Response Youth Paranormal Team. CRYPT investigates incidents where the police cannot find answers because the paranormal is at work.

When a series of shocking attacks across London leaves victims dead or injured, the CRYPT must find out who the ghosts are, why they have returned and how to stop them before it’s too late, all whilst avoiding the media spotlight. This is because CRYPT is a secret organisation and if the general public were to know that it investigated instances of the paranormal, they would be both terrified and in uproar.

The idea behind CRYPT: The Gallow’s Curse was very interesting as I loved the idea of teenage ghost- busters solving crime that adults couldn’t due to their lack of Extra-Sensory Perception. I was happy with the scientific explanation given for how ghosts can appear as it wasn’t farfetched.

The chapters were short and fast paced and the constant shift between various characters allowed me to visualise the story in stark detail as well as understand the vast multitude of people affected by the ghosts. The filmic quality of CRYPT is one of the highlights of the book. The vivid and grotesque descriptions interspersed throughout have stayed with me as they had me flinching in terror and disgust.

Jud was an interesting character with a lot of potential that was not fully realised. He was a conflicted character with a sad history; his mother had been killed by a ghost and he’d been convicted of the crime and now must live with a new, secret identity. This secret weighs him down throughout the book. I was not as emotionally invested in Jud as I had hoped to be. I did not feel a strong connection to him.

Bex De Verre, his partner, was feisty, smart and sarcastic. Together they try to find out who the ghosts are and why they are wreaking death and destruction across London. This was simple for me as I only had to read the title to know who the culprits were.

There was some repetition in the first half of the book which slowed the pace of the novel; however this was resolved as the book continued. I liked the surprising twists and turns and the build up of tension that lead to the dramatic climax.

On the whole, I enjoyed reading CRYPT: The Gallow’s Curse and would recommend it to fans of the paranormal, horror and action genres. I look forward to reading the sequel, CRYPT: The Traitor’s Revenge which comes out in March 2012.

Guest review by Kulsuma, thank you!