Category Archives: Reviews

Divergent – Book Review

My review of Divergent

Cover pic taken from Veronica Roth’s website – click here for link.

Right I’m not going to give you a run down of the plot – you can get that directly from the lady herself on the link I’ve just given you above (you can even find a link to the first 100 pages on her blog – be warned you will want to buy it immediately so read it only if you have a kindle or other e-reader and can download the rest immediately or if you are near a good bookstore which is open).

My Goodreads review was (deliberately short because I don’t want to give away spoilers):

I loved this book. I was hooked from the sample and whizzed through it on my kindle. An excellent example of world-building. A building romance and tingling chemistry. A strong female lead, too strong at times and not perfect, which is perfect.

Four….what more can I say!
Dystopian and scary because many aspects could be. I’ve seen the comments criticising the violence and there is a good amount but it has a purpose. Negatives: it ended, next please.

Can you pick a faction? I can’t. Guess I’m divergent too (though according to the Facebook challenge I’m Dauntless! – I have Bungy jumped I suppose).

I have selected the quotes below as my favourites and expanded on why below.

“Peter would probably throw a party if I stopped breathing.

”Well,’ he says, ‘I would only go if there was cake.”

Peter is not a particularly likeable character so it would be unlikely for Tris’ little gang to attend any sort of party he would throw, except, of course, as Veronica truthfully shows us here, the power of cake can be overwhelming, ;o)

“We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another.”

Oh for a world that actually believed in this. There are so many things that seem to stop us doing this but it really is so important.

“A brave man acknowledges the strength of others.”

I love this sentiment that recognises that it is OK to back down from a ‘fight’ graciously.There is something akin to being ‘the better man’ here.

“For a few minutes we kiss, deep in the chasm, with the roar of water all around us. And we rise, hand in hand, I realize that if we had both chosen differently, we might have ended up doing the same thing, in a safer place, in gray clothes instead of black ones.”

If you’ve not read the book you probably won’t quite get this quote but I think this is a beautiful and concrete way to describe the fact that they are soulmates (perfect show not tell here Miss VR).

“Sometimes crying or laughing are the only options left, and laughing feels better right now.”

As a pretty good cryer I do feel sometimes a good blub is necessary but there really is nothing better than a good rib aching belly laugh. This also acknowledges that when times are tough we sometimes laugh when society tells us we should be sad and crying (think very close to the bone, too soon jokes about disasters etc). But this is a coping mechanism otherwise we may just fall into a big chasm of despair.

“Why do people want to pretend that death is sleep? It isn’t. It isn’t.”

Death is one of my personal big phobias and this just resonated with me (and I probably cried whilst reading this). There is death in this book and it is brutal but then death often is.

I have already read this twice and bought and part listened to the audiobook. I think I need to treat myself to another read soon.

On to Insurgent

Now I can’t wait – and I mean this; I am so excited to read the second book in the Trilogy – Insurgent. Especially as a summary synopsis has just appeared linked to on Twitter whilst I have been writing this post – read it here.

I love that it talks about embracing Divergence – this is most certainly a clear parallel with the idea that we should embrace differences to truly move forward. We don’t have to agree on everything – I can see respect coming through as a theme in the next book.

I honestly don’t know if I can wait until May so I may cross my fingers, turn around three times on the spot, blow an eyelash and pray that I get an ARC before then.

Isn’t this cover scrumptious. Again click here for Veronica’s blog post where this pic originated.

On the Facebook page there was a post where people were guessing what the final book in the trilogy would be called. My friend (the new Mrs Woods over here who incidentally was the one who introduced me to Divergent) joked that it would be called Detergent (there’s a funny tumblr post here that parodies this on a mock up cover). I tweeted this to Miss Roth who replied that this was the joke name that her and her agent etc were calling it. Thankfully because Mrs Woods was none too impressed that I’d posted that (sorry Stacey).

My money is on Convergent (not had any comments back on that one) as it fits the Gent theme and would symbolise a coming back together. Now this time I’m sure Stacey won’t mind that together (mostly her) we reckoned that the tagline might be One Choice might Save you. What do you think?

Please share your comments about Divergent with me, I love talking about the book (it’s my new Harry Potter – though I will never say goodbye to ‘him’).

Look forward to the Divergent film Trilogy too.

Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

Aug 10

Posted by kirstyes

(Also posted on Goodreads here) 5/5 stars

This review contains some spoilers

I am fortunate enough to have a signed copy of Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma as a result of winning an Authors for Japan auction bid. I chose to bid for a set of Tabitha’s books to discover a new YA author. I was also impressed that in her books she was tackling challenging issues including mental health.

Forbidden is her most recent book but the first I have read. The warning ‘Not suitable for younger readers’ indicates that this is not your typical YA book. In fact it is not a typical book at all, dealing with the most forbidden of loves, that of consensual love between a brother and a sister.

The story is narrated in alternating chapters by 16 year old Maya and her 17 year old brother Lochan. Their mother is mostly absent, loving both the bottle and her new boyfriend Dave more than her 5 children. Consequently the two older siblings are left to look after wayward teen Kit and youngsters Tiffin and Willa. They cover for their mother with their teachers for fear of social services stepping in and splitting the family up.

Maya and Lochan both have distinct voices and their first person, present tense accounts carry the reader with them as they discover their love for each other. We can see it before them, can understand it (they are having to act as mother/father figures), can feel their fear at being found out but sense their unhappiness when they try not to act on this love.

They both seem to be stronger with each other, shy Lochan finally confronts his fear of speaking out in class, his relationship with his sister boosts his confidence. Maya grows more mature, realising when their secret relationship means she is neglecting her duty to Willa as her big sister and rectifying this. In fact even Lochan’s relationship with Kit is resolved and they all to be one big happy family.

This book will not be everyone’s cup of tea, there are some sexually explicit scenes which, in my opinion, are well handled.

At the end of the book the pair, believing they have the house to themselves finally consummate their love, but they have not been as secret or as careful as they’d thought.

As a reader we know that this forbidden love can’t be realised with a happily ever after but although I’d been warned by other reviews I certainly didn’t expect my heart to break as much as theirs. Kit’s reaction started the tears rolling. Believe me the ending could have been much worse, the point when I thought it was going to be had me sobbing and I had to put the book down before I could read the last few pages.

My dedication from Tabitha says Happy Reading! I can’t call it that but I can call it memorable and brave, with enchanting prose. I look forward to reading her other four books.

Amazon Affiliates Link.

Posted in Book Reviews, Reviews

Taming the Lion's Mane

Jul 25

Posted by kirstyes

Taming the Lion’s Mane

I am a Leo and, when your star sign is a Lion, having lustrous locks is surely meant to come with the territory.

Here is the story of my hair:

My hair is auburn, I like the colour of my hair.

I always used to cry after I had my hair cut but not since I started going to a salon.

I was jealous of girls at school who could easily scrape back their hair into a ponytail, mine was always bumpy because there is so much of it (I am better at it now).

I remember it taking my mum hours to dry my hair.

When I was 12 my hair reached my bum, I had 12 inches cut off it. I think my Dad was distraught. My mum kept the cut piece for ages and we did look into selling it for wigs. Just as real hair seemed to be coming back in she chucked it.

I had a disastrous experience with styling wax on my 18th birthday (even after a few washes I felt my hair looked really greasy) – the playing of Nellie the Elephant by the DJ was far more embarrassing though!

My hair is thick, there is tons of it. This has led to some really bad hair styles (see below for ‘The mushroom’) especially when I had it cut shorter. It has also made it really hard to find hair bands that fit.

So how have I worked on taming this mane of mine?

I love my GHD ceramic straighteners and without these I would have grown my hair long again so I could always tie it back out of the way.

http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=kirstyes-21&o=2&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B000CSLJDW

I don’t tend to over style and often leave my hair wet (this is probably more to do with the fact I’m not a morning person).

I have finally found hairbands that work for me – Goody StayputTM (with slide proof hold) (I bought my set of 10 black ones from Asda, they also have a website http://www.goody.com). They are excellent, long lasting and retain their shape and hold.

The Body Shop’s Brazil Nut Define & No Frizz smells gorg and helps smooth down frizz, working like a serum.

An ex neighbour (still good friend) introduced me to the John Frieda Collection Brilliant Brunette range. So I now use the shampoo, conditioner, hairspray and on/off the intensive conditioner and Shine Shock perfecting glosser lovely summery coconutty smell.

Love the fresh cucumbery smell (I’m sensing a theme with my hair products) and shininess of SebastianTM Trilliant thermal protection and shimmer-complex spray which I use with those fantastic GHDs.

As I said earlier I love my hair colour but as the years have been added so have the amount of grey/white hairs but I have continued to put off dying my hair (only once using a wash in wash out colour shampoo and once talcing my hair to become the Statue of Liberty for a costume party!). After my car accident I did seem to have a few grey hairs linked to an area where I cut my head but I have to now accept that the grey salt and pepper is part of aging not shock.

Finally I was persuaded by my fab hairdresser (Claire Fromage at Scissors, Poole) to try highlights/lowlights, so I’ve had a gentle introduction to the world of colour by still keeping it quite natural. Now this hasn’t fully covered the grey as I only had the T section done and up close they still appear quite obvious to me but from a distance when my hair is back I think it has blended more so I’m happy, except with the fact that mid process I looked like this! ;o)

Here’s the end product!

My next hair appointment, cut only, is on the day before I am due to be bridesmaid for my friend Stacey. I think that she will be very glad I’ve finally got my mane under control and have some smaller glasses so that there is no fringe, glasses, chin situation going on (sorry to my Auntie and Uncle for this get up on their wedding day).

What are your hair nightmares (not including the pics of my bad hair days above) and styling tips?

(Just so that you know this is not a sponsored post at all – I just love all of these products. I’ve linked to them just in case you fancy trying them – If you did buy the GHDs from Amazon that link gives me a small reward but I just like having images when I can).