Hurt

Hurt by Tabitha Suzuma

Hardback, 416 pages

Published 5th September by Bodley Head
Shelves: arc-or-review, books-i-own, young-adult, realistic-fiction, read-in-2013, rape, mental-health, if-i-were-a-boy, abuse 

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

At seventeen, Matheo Walsh is Britain's most promising diving champion. He is wealthy, popular - and there's Lola, the girlfriend of his dreams.

But then there was that weekend. A weekend he cannot bring himself to remember. All he knows is that what happened has changed him.

Matheo is faced with the most devastating choice of his life. Keep his secret, and put those closest to him in terrible danger. Or confess, and lose Lola for ever...

Having heard about the creation of Hurt, I was so eager to get my hands on a copy as soon as it was released. I have only read one of Suzuma's previous books (A Voice In the Distance), but I really enjoyed it and I admired the way she tackled a difficult subject. It seems like that is this author's speciality - tackling those real-life, gritty subjects that really do need to be addressed. I'm certainly not one to shy away from these issues and so I couldn't wait to pick it up.

Our main character is Matheo, a diving champion, who we first meet in his bedroom, in a confused mess the night after his attack. Mattheo doesn't remember much about what happened to him the night before and it's slowly revealed to us as he himself begins to recall the events and starts opening up to his girlfriend, Lola. Personally, I didn't really connect to the characters in this book. At first, they're simply displayed as your cliché private school kids, then we later (sort of) get to see how they handle Matheo's secret. The other significant other than Matheo was his girlfriend, Lola, who I didn't not like, but who I didn't really warm or connect to - she didn't really seem to have much of a personality and I didn't know who she was, apart from being Matheo's partner. Saying that, we don't really get to know much about any of the characters, just how they react to a certain situation. 

Hurt is a book that tackles an emotional subject - one that I won't name as it is clouded in mystery until it's revealed quite late in the book. I predicted what had happened to Matheo very quickly - whilst I didn't know exactly how he came to be in the situation he was in, or who the other party was, I thought it was blindingly obvious what had happened to him. I think that this was a major flaw of the book for me.  I spent a lot of this book just waiting, and waiting, and waiting some more just to read what I already thought. A lot of the book relied on tension and build up to the revelation of the event, but to me it was just so obvious and so any tension just fell flat  for me - I sort of just wanted the author to get on with it, get to the point, and to face up to the issue, to do something about it, something that packed a real punch. I won't deny that I didn't guess everything, there was a twist that I wasn't expecting, but unfortunately it came a little too late for me.

The book was well written for the most part, I liked Suzuma's descriptive style and it was initially enjoyable to read, but after a while, it did begin to feel repetitive and the amount of description was on the line of becoming tedious. There was not enough substance to the first part of this book in order to make it exciting or easy to connect to. I admire Suzuma for writing about an emotional subject, but unfortunately, for me, there was not enough personal depth to the characters in order to make it work. I am definitely not  saying that this is a bad book, but rather that it was a predictable one and that's why, for me, it wasn't an entire success.

The Inn at Rose Harbour

The Inn at Rose Harbor by Debbie Macomber

Paperback, 416 pages

Published 16th August 2012 by Arrow Publishing

My shelves: arc-or-review, books-i-own, chick-lit, death, mum-has, mums-books, read-in-2012, realistic-fiction, series-or-companions

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

The Rose Harbour Inn welcomes you to Cedar Cove…
From the minute she sees the Rose Harbour Inn, Jo Marie Barlow knows that this is the place that will help her find the peace she craves. And if the inn can comfort her, surely it can offer the same refuge to her first two guests.

Joshua Weaver has come home to care for his ailing stepfather. The two have never seen eye to eye, but a long-lost acquaintance proves to him that forgiveness is not out of reach and love can bloom in the unlikeliest places. 

Abby Kinkaid left Cedar Cover twenty years ago after a devastating accident. But as she reconnects with family and old friends, she realizes that she needs to let the past go if she is to embrace her future.

Buy this book:

The Book Depository / Amazon (US/INT) / Amazon UK

My thanks go to Arrow for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

Debbie Macomber is a very popular, well known author and she's even one of my mum's favourites. Due to her popularity, I knew that I had to give her writing a go. Upon a little bit of internet searching, I discovered that she was starting off a new series, so I thought that'd be the perfect place for me to start. I picked up The Inn at Rose Harbour and before long, I'd finished it.

From reading only this one book, I can understand why many people enjoy Debbie Macomber's writing. This was a very pleasant, easy to read book. Though the book was effortless to read, there were still a plentitude of characters and some rather serious issues addressed. It is clear that Cedar Cove is a place that is set firmly in the author's mind - it feels very real and as though everyone living there really does have a history. 

The Inn at Rose Harbour is a series set in Macomber's famous Cedar Cove and so it features a lot of characters from her previous Cedar Cove series. I thought that I may have a little problem as I haven't actually read any of her other books, but it wasn't any problem at all. I think that it would have been even better if I had read her other books - I think it'd be great to be able to revisit old, loved characters, but as a new reader of her stories, it was still a nice introduction. I think Macomber had a fantastic idea when she decided to write this new series. I love the idea of a book set in a B&B - it allows so much room for exploration of ideas, for exciting plots and for so many new characters, whilst still having some constants.

The main characters we were introduced to were all very strong and each were interesting in their own way. We were introduced to Jo Marie, the woman who impulsively bought the Inn after her husband died in Afghanistan, Josh Weaver who stays at the Inn whilst he visits his hostile stepfather who is dying and Abby who is still trying to gain forgiveness for the death of her best-friend in a car accident. As you can tell, these are all deep, emotive issues. Though we are following three different stories, it doesn't get confusing at all and all three storylines were well developed. At the start, I felt myself favouring Jo Marie's story but by the end, Josh's story was by far my favourite as I felt it was the most intense, effective part of the book. This is a romance book and the romance was decent, but it wasn't anything that I got excited over. The most interesting romance, for me, seems like it's still to come and will be further explored in the next books as we get to know more about Jo Marie.

I did have a couple of issues with this book and the main one was that it was so predictable. After reading around only 50 pages, it was quite obvious who was going to pair up with who and what was going to happen. There wasn't one point in this book where I was shocked or even slightly surprised. Of course, this isn't always a bad thing. Sometimes knowing where a book is going and waiting for a happy ending is nice. Personally, I prefer some twists and turns but as I've said, this was a lovely, easy read. I will look forward to reading more of Macomber's books in the future.

A Little Wanting Song

A Little Wanting Song by Cath Crowley

Paperback, 288 pages

Published October 11th 2011 by Random House

(First published April 28th 2005)

My shelves: books-i-own, contemporary, read-in-2011, realistic-fiction, young-adult
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads

A summer of friendship, romance, and songs in major chords. . . .
CHARLIE DUSKIN loves music, and she knows she's good at it. But she only sings when she's alone, on the moonlit porch or in the back room at Old Gus's Secondhand Record and CD Store. Charlie's mom and grandmother have both died, and this summer she's visiting her grandpa in the country, surrounded by ghosts and grieving family, and serving burgers to the local kids at the milk bar. She's got her iPod, her guitar, and all her recording equipment, but she wants more: A friend. A dad who notices her. The chance to show Dave Robbie that she's not entirely unspectacular.
ROSE BUTLER lives next door to Charlie's grandfather and spends her days watching cars pass on the freeway and hanging out with her troublemaker boyfriend. She loves Luke but can't wait to leave their small country town. And she's figured out a way: she's won a scholarship to a science school in the city, and now she has to convince her parents to let her go. This is where Charlie comes in. Charlie, who lives in the city, and whom Rose has ignored for years. Charlie, who just might be Rose's ticket out.
Told in alternating voices and filled with music, friendship, and romance, Charlie and Rose's "little wanting song" is about the kind of longing that begins as a heavy ache but ultimately makes us feel hopeful and wonderfully alive.

My Review

I had been quite excited to read this book, but unfortunately it wasn't as good as I thought it could be. I am a massive fan of contemporary/coming of age young adult literature and had high hopes for this book. I did enjoy this book, it was a quick and easy read, but it wasn't as good as  had expected it to be. I wasn't truly absorbed until about half way through the book, where I began to feel more knowledgable about the characters. Music isn't particularly my favourite subject either, and this is one main aspect of the book - this did tire me slightly at points. 

A Little Wanting Song follows two protagonists, Charlie and Rose. They are both characters that are reasonably easy to connect with (though I took a little time adjusting to Rose) but there isn't really anything about either of them that I really loved, although they did feel like very real characters. There were quite strong differences between the two in their thoughts and personalities, but their voices were very similar and at points it was a little difficult to differentiate between them. Unfortunately, because of this, the novel was not as brilliant as it could have been. Dave, Charlie's romantic interest and Rose's best friend, is likeable and had potential to be a strong character, but I thought that the romance was a bit too sudden. I simply just did not like Luke, Rose's boyfriend, but it would've been interesting to see why he acted the way he did. I did appreciate how everyone introduced to us did have a particular purpose or impact upon our protagonists lives, and that they also felt very realistic.

The relationships that are developed in this book are the main basis of this book and they are explored well. It was really interesting to see how Charlie and Rose interacted and how their friendship progressed. I enjoyed seeing them both overcome their internal struggles with their families, their past and their present troubles. Charlie, especially, had a lot of issues with her familial relationships, particularly her father, after the death of her mother several years ago. Crowley is talented in getting deep into the emotional states of her characters, it's clear to see, and this is why the book is enjoyable. It did take me a little while to adjust to Crowley's writing style but her writing is simple, yet good. I was surprised with how she made me feel quite strong emotion through certain phrases or paragraphs, rather than through specific events.

This book wasn't particularly remarkable or memorable, but it was enjoyable. It's a simple and quick enough read, but the characters and relationships were surprisingly complex. I will look forward to reading more of Cath Crowley's books in the future, but this one just didn't strike me as great.