Review: Flirty Dancing by Jenny McLachlan

Title: Flirty Dancing
Author: Jenny McLachlan
Genre: Middle Grade, Contemporary
Release Date: 3 July, 2014
Source: Bloomsbury Australia. Thank you!
Goodreads

Bea Hogg is shy but fiery inside. When national dance competition Starwars comes to her school looking for talent, she wants to sign up. It's just a shame her best friend agreed to enter with school super-cow Pearl Harris. Bea will fight back! But when school hottie, Ollie Matthews, who also happens to be Pearl’s boyfriend, decides to enter the competition with Bea, she will have more than a fight on her hands.

This warm, nuanced, hilarious story about friendship, fortitude . . . and dancing is impossible not to fall in love with. Jenny’s voice is fresh and convincing, and she handles both darker and lighter elements of the story with equal panache.

Review by Nara

Read ALL THE BOOKS! (That are unread on my shelf)

So, being in Australia, and also being an undergrad uni student, I have almost the entire month of July off for holidays! Woo! And because I have so much (reading) time, I thought I'd set myself a goal of attempting to read every unread book on my shelf.

There are two types of unread books on my shelf
1. Completely unread
2. Books I have read before, but of which I haven't actually read my copy. As in, I first read it from an eARC or the library or something.

I was thinking to myself that there wouldn't be that many books that I haven't read on my shelves, and so I started up a Google Doc listing what I thought would just be like 10 or 20 books and then DISASTER. I hadn't read SO MANY OF THEM. What da heck?! I hadn't realised it was so out of control D:

Since I have a lot of eARCs and stuff to read, I thought I'd maybe make some priority books that I must read this holidays (bolded on the Google doc), and then any others I read are bonuses. So here are those books:

Review: The Minnow by Diana Sweeney

Title: The Minnow
Author: Diana Sweeney
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Source: Bookworld. Thank you!
Goodreads

Tom survived a devastating flood that claimed the lives of her sister and parents. Now she lives with Bill in his old shed by the lake. But it’s time to move out—Tom is pregnant with Bill’s baby.

Jonah lets her move in with him. Mrs Peck gives her the Fishmaster Super Series tackle box. Nana is full of gentle good advice and useful sayings.

And in her longing for what is lost, Tom talks to fish: Oscar the carp in the pet shop, little Sarah catfish who might be her sister, an unhelpful turtle in a tank at the maternity ward. And the minnow.

The Minnow is a moving and powerful coming of age story with a whimsical element that belies the heartbreaking truth of grief and loss. Tom is a character you will never forget.

Review by Nara

Never Give Your Lunch to a Talking Squirrel: Marcus Valencio from The Partials Sequence

Okay, so this is the first in a series of posts (don't know how often I'm going to post these though haha) spotlighting my favourite minor(ish) characters from some of my favourites series. In today's post I'm going to be flailing about Marcus from The Partials Sequence.

Review: In the End by Demitria Lunetta

Title: In the End (In the After #2)
Author: Demitria Lunetta
Genre: Young Adult, Post-Apocalyptic
Release Date: 24 June, 2014
Source: HarperTeen via Edelweiss
Goodreads

The thrilling conclusion to In the After, the survival story of Amy and Baby, set in a near future where Earth has been overrun by vicious, predatory creatures.

It’s been three months since Amy escaped New Hope, and she’s been surviving on her own, like she did in the After. Until one day, her former fellow Guardian’s voice rings out in her earpiece. And in a desperate tone, Kay utters the four words Amy had hoped she would never hear: Dr. Reynolds has Baby.

Now it’s a race against time, for Baby is in imminent danger, her life threatened by the malevolent doctor who had helped start the end of the world. In order to save Baby, Amy must make her way to Fort Black, a prison-turned-survivor-colony, where she will need to find Ken, Kay’s brother. He alone holds the key to Baby’s survival.

One small slip-up on this quest could spark a downward spiral that would not only cost Baby and Amy their lives, but threaten the very survival of the people in the After.

Review by Nara

Review: The Year of the Rat by Clare Furniss

Title: The Year of the Rat
Author: Clare Furniss
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Source: Simon & Schuster Australia. Thank you!
Goodreads

Grappling with grief is hard enough without repeat visits from the deceased. Pearl deals with death, life, and family in this haunting, humorous, and poignant debut.

The world can tip at any moment…a fact that fifteen-year-old Pearl is all too aware of when her mom dies after giving birth to her baby sister, Rose.

Rose, who looks exactly like a baby rat, all pink, wrinkled, and writhing. This little Rat has destroyed everything, even ruined the wonderful relationship that Pearl had with her stepfather, the Rat’s biological father.

Mom, though…Mom’s dead but she can’t seem to leave. She keeps visiting Pearl. Smoking, cursing, guiding.

Told across the year following her mother’s death, Pearl’s story is full of bittersweet humor and heartbreaking honesty about how you deal with grief that cuts you to the bone, as she tries not only to come to terms with losing her mother, but also the fact that her sister—The Rat—is a constant reminder of why her mom is no longer around.

Review by Nara

Discussion: A Weird Confession About Diversity

This may be weird to hear, but I honestly don't care that much about seeing ethnic diversity in books. Well, if it's there, it's there, but I also don't actually mind if it's not there. There is a good reason for this, and it's not that I love reading about white characters lol. The reason why I don't mind about not having diversity in books is because I'm not a very visual reader.