Showing posts with label Jenny Downham. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jenny Downham. Show all posts

Sunday, 28 August 2011

You Against Me by Jenny Downham

MY RATING: 3/5

BLURB: 
If someone hurts your sister and you're any kind of man, you seek revenge, right? 

When Mikey's sister claims a boy assaulted her, his world begins to fall apart. 

If you're brother's accused of a terrible crime but says he didn't do it, you defend him, don't you? 

When Ellie's brother is charged with the offence, her world begins to unravel. 

When Mikey and Ellie meet, two worlds collide. 

This is a brave and unflinching novel from the best selling author of Before I Die. It's a book about loyalty and the choices that come with it. But above all it's a book about love. 

REVIEW: 
When I picked this book up from the library (it was on my TBR list) I didn't actually realise that it was by the same author as Before I Die until I picked it up to read a few days ago. When I realised this I was a little worried. I didn't like Before I Die very much. It just wasn't for me. But I liked You Against Me. You can see my mini review of before I die here.

You Against Me is a story about a the brother of a young girl that was raped, and the sister of the boy who was accused. Mikey meets Ellie at a party and has the intentions of getting her to fall for him. She does. But what Mikey doesn't intend to happen is for him to fall for her. 

I like Mikey and Ellie. I liked that parts that they were together most in the book. They were just so cute. Shy and innocent Ellie and man whore Mikey who had never felt this way about anyone before. They are so opposite yet so perfect together. Mikey is the kind of guy that has a new girl friend every week; Ellie is the kind of girl that has never had a boyfriend before. So the two of them seem the most unlikely couple, but they work so well together. 

I am not personally a big fan of Jenny Downham's style of writing. I don't know how to explain how she writes. In Before I Die Tessa was a very strange and sort of morbid character. Some of the things that she thought disturbed me sometimes. It isn't as bad in this story, but there is one part in the book where Mikey is sitting on the toilet and she writes about how he grabs a wad of toilet paper and wipes himself. I personally don't like that style of writing. 

That aside I did enjoy You Against Me, the love story was sweet and Mikey was amazing. Very fictional crush worthy material :P I am glad that I liked it, I was a little worried as I didn't like Downham's other book very much. Although I know that it is very popular. So I would definitely recommend them both, you may like them more than me :) 

Jammie the Book Nerd 
xxoo

Friday, 5 August 2011

Mini Reviews: Before I Die, Heist Society and Uncommon Criminals

Hey guys! 

I am being a bit lazy at the moment. So I thought that I would just do a couple of quick mini review type things. 

Before I Die by Jenny Downham 

MY RATING: 2/5

REVIEW: 
I didn't really enjoy Before I Die very much. I felt that I couldn't really connect with the characters. Tessa seemed very bitter and all round a little bit mean, I guess I can kind of see where some of it comes from. It wouldn't be easy being in her position, being so young with leukemia, but she just wasn't a very nice person. 
Her best friend was also a little strange. She was very mean to Tessa a lot of the time. I just sort of felt that wouldn't you be nicer, and trying to enjoy every moment that you had with your terminally ill best friend? 
So all in all I really didn't enjoy this book very much. But I liked Adam :) 

Heist Society by Ally Carter 

MY RATING: 4/5

REVIEW: 
I really, really enjoyed this book :) It was a very enjoyable read. I loved reading about teenage thieves, that was really different and fun for me. The characters and all round story were written very well. 
I loved all of the side characters as well. Hamish and Angus were really fun and hilarious, and Gabrielle reminded me a lot of Izzy from The Mortal Instruments series. She is really kick arse crawl-through-a-vent-and-come-out-looking-fantastic-still kind of girl. Hale was a very loveable male lead, he's rich and cocky, but it really suits him. 
I loved this book and I would definitely recommend it :) 


Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter 

MY RATING: 4/5


REVIEW:
Uncommon Criminals is the sequel to Heist Society mentioned above. I enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed the first one. I read them straight after each other and they both flowed together really well. It feels sad to have finished them both and having to be leaving behind Kat's world for the time being. Again this one was a really fun read, for me mystery and teenage thieves was something really fun to read about, this book had lots of suspenseful moments that had me a little worried for the Kat and her crew. The Heist Society books were very entertaining read and I would definitely recommend them, I am hoping that there will be more books in the series. I would love to read them :) 


Jammie the Book Nerd
xxoo