After Wimbledon - Jennifer Gilby Roberts

I’m obsessed with chick lit. No matter what I do, no matter how many serious novels I’m reading (right now, I’m working my way through the 900 pages of Vanity Fair), a chick lit book always feels like coming home.

So when I found After Wimbledon by Jennifer Gilby Roberts, I was just dying to read it. And thank God I did.

Lucy Bennett, who is very much like Becky Bloomwood, is a tennis-pro who is prepping for Wimbledon, but really considering retirement. However, her one-night-stand-turned-boyfriend Joe does not want her to retire and most definitely does not want any of her post-retirement plans (house, marriage, babies,…). And then there’s Sam, one of the best tennis players in the world, the rival of Lucy’s boyfriend and the only person who thinks Lucy is not an idiot for wanting to retire.

So who does Lucy trust? And is retirement really a good option when she’s only 28? These are the main themes in the book, though there are a few small curveballs in the plot.

Lucy is funny and endearing and as a reader, you really want her to be happy. Joe is the perfect asshole boyfriend you want her to leave and Sam is a modern day Prince Charming.

It’s a chick lit, so the plot can be expected, but that’s what makes this book so good. There are no really unexpected turns (except maybe one towards the end), no big character developments, everything happens exactly as the reader wants it to happen.

However, unlike the many chick lits that have given me a headache, this book is actually written well. Jennifer clearly knows how to make the reader connect with Lucy and how to portray Lucy’s humor on page (and not just with saying “oh Lucy, you are so funny”). But don’t take my word for it, read a little passage from the beginning of the book – so completely spoiler free: “This isn’t the type of thing we normally talk about. Joe and I have what I think of as an emotionally open relationship. In a traditional open relationship (oxymoron?), you are emotionally intimate only with each other and sleep with anyone you want. In our case, we are sexually exclusive but have your deep and meaningful conversations with other people. That is, assuming Joe has any at all.”

That last sentence? That’s the kind of sentence that makes me laugh out loud in bed.

I was a bit worried that After Wimbledon would be too much about tennis for me, because I hate tennis and can’t stand watching it or hearing about it. But, even though tennis is a huge part of the plot, no knowledge of tennis is required nor are there any long reports about tennis matches. It’s about Lucy and her career and men – not the technicality of tennis.

After Wimbledon is not groundbreaking chick lit, such as a Bridget Jones’ Diary was, but it’s a fun read and I think it’s perfect for the summer that’s coming. Grab a drink, sit outside (preferably on a beach) and this book is your perfect companion.

Firefly - P.M. Pevato

If you have following my reviews for a while, you’ll have discovered that I’m not a fantasy fan. My bookshelves on Goodreads only really have the True Blood books on it (LOVED those btw – maybe a review is in order when the new season starts), and I recently finished Under The Skin (review here) due to my Scarlett obsession – but that’s about it.

However, I hope you also noticed that I like to review each book in its own genre and for its own worth. There is no point looking at a book like The Fault In Our Stars in the same way as Under The Skin. So when I was contacted by P.M. Pevato to review her book Firefly, I jumped at the chance. I love reading books that I normally wouldn’t pick up and I love the passion she had for her own story.

Firefly is about Tessa, or Bugs as her friends call her, and her witch coven. There are weird things happening in their small town and the witches have to figure out what is going on. The reader switches between Tessa’s point of view and that of William – a witch hunter. I don’t want to give any big plot points away, but I think about 80% of you can guess where this is going.

I appreciate fantasy for the creativity of the author and this book is proof of this creativity. I could never think of a whole structure of a witch coven and how they interact. However, besides the creativity, the book didn’t do too much for me.

The characters remained rather flat and I felt like I didn’t get enough insight information about Tessa and William. The book was very action-focused and I would have loved some more inner dialogue from the main characters. I have heard this book is the first in a series, so maybe there will be more character depth in the second book, but for now… It just wasn’t enough to get me really involved with any of the characters. This was further enhanced by the many short sentences in the book. There just wasn’t enough description and when there was, the short sentences made it feel rushed – like the reader doesn’t have the time to really take it in. But I guess this is a very personal preference of mine for medium to long sentences.

The ending left me slightly confused, but I guess that’s fair enough since it will urge people to want the second book of the series.

It was a decent read and I think that if you are into fantasy, this might be your quick-to-read beach book that leaves satisfied, but not completely blown away.

Under The Skin - Michel Faber

I’m absolutely obsessed with Scarlett Johansson. I think she’s the most gorgeous and talented woman to walk this earth right now (sorry, but Audrey Hepburn will always be my all-time favorite) and I adore every project she does.

So why am I writing this on a book blog, I hear you ask? Because my love (cough obsession) goes so deep that I even read the books that have been turned into films that have her in it. It has nothing to do with Scarlett anymore, but it’s a thing I do.

Usually I watch the film, absolutely love it and then grab the book. However, when I saw the trailer of Under The Skin, I decided to not even try to watch it. It looks too scary, too gorey, too not me. But I can’t give up on Scarlett completely, so I decided to read the book instead.

Under The Skin is written by Michel Faber and tells the story of Isserley, a woman slash outer world creature. She is send to this earth to collect humans for her home planet/world.

Of course, nothing goes to plan and Isserley has to figure out what it means to be human and what it means to be an animal, which is what they call what we would consider humans.

The book is a clear critical look at modern society and the way we treat not only animals, but people we consider less than us. How cruel we can be to each other and how we deal with that cruelty.

I’m very conflicted about this book. On the one hand, I enjoyed it. There is great characterization and you really grow with the narrator. The whole story is from Isserley’s point of view and, even though she has the most unusual job, her thoughts are just like ours. But still not the same, because she’s from a different world. This sounds contradictory, and I guess it is, but the author walks this fine line perfectly and really allows the reader to understand Isserley and thus understand the shocking things she does.

On the other hand, this whole “critical look at society” genre is not my thing. I understand the purpose and I think the critique is completely justified – however, it is not what I enjoy most about reading. When I read a book, I want to escape to a different world. With this book, I felt too connected to “the real world” through all the critique.

Is that a bad thing? No, not at all. I’m sure plenty of readers will really enjoy that. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.

But why would I tell my friends to definitely read it? The ending of the story. I reached the last 20 pages and didn’t get any sense of an ending. It got me curious and anxious (“please tell me this isn’t going to be another lame open ending for a story that so obviously needs a clear ending?!”). But the author gave a satisfying, shocking and amazingly written ending that suited the characters perfectly in just twenty pages. That’s some serious skill.

How They Met And Other Stories - David Levithan

Short stories are the quickest way to turn me off from reading. They lack depth, characterization and a proper ending – it’s always some vague “we’ll see” that leaves me completely unsatisfied.

So as expected, David Levithan’s How They Met and Other Stories was an uneducated buy. As a professional reader, I should really learn how to at least read the back covers of books, but as Emma… Well that will never happen.

The book is a collection of short stories about couples meeting, with a twist. All the couples are either homosexual or lesbians. I didn’t know about this twist either and that is probably the reason I loved the book so much.

When you start reading the first story, and you have not read anything about the book, it reads as a guy with a crush. There is no obvious “omg I’m gay” element in the story – it is just like every other kind of story about a crush and that is amazing. I feel so many books that portray homosexual relationships focus the whole book about how the characters are not straight and how they struggle with that.

Not Levithan – he describes the characters exactly like they should be – normal teens in love with someone.

However, that does not mean there was love story between me and the book. The stories definitely got my interest, but I wish I would know more about the characters. Where do they come from? What happened to Miles? Thom? The Starbucks guy?

If I had my way, the whole book would have been the story of Miles. He is a professional dancer near New York City who falls in love with his dance teacher Graham. He comes out to his family by saying that Graham is his boyfriend, which is a lie. Through a twist of events, Graham is invited to a family gather and Miles have to figure out how to either get Graham to go with him or find someone else. I adored this story – I thought Miles was the sweetest guy (and watch out for the aaww cameo by his brother) and I really felt like I knew him. Except that I still have all these questions about Miles’ future and Graham and the whole family and the dance rehearsals and and and and… You get the picture.

This book is amazing for anyone who loves short stories (amazing as in, buy it right now please), and it’s even a good read for someone who doesn’t like them – if you can live with the frustration of not getting a conclusive answer to most of your questions.

A Girl Is A Half-formed Thing - Eimear McBride

I have an obsession with novels that explore the relationship between siblings. In my opinion, it is one of the most interesting and most unexplored relationships as most authors focus on romantic relationships or the famous “Daddy-daughter issues”.

However, Eimear McBride threw herself right into the complexity of family bounds with her debut novel A Girl Is A Half-formed Thing.

The plot is fairly straightforward – it’s the inner narrative of a young girl who has a brother with a brain tumor and a complicated relationship with the rest of her family. The girl, who is never named in the novel due to the use of the “I”-voice, struggles with seeing her brother suffer from a brain tumor. He is slower than the other boys and gets teased quite a lot. She is torn between trying to help him and trying to help herself. This inner conflict leads her into some pretty unhealthy situations that she tries to use to lose herself.

The main thing that needs to be discussed about this book is the writing style, since it has been the most remarkable style I’ve ever read. There is no real way to describe it, so I think some excerpts (spoiler-free!) are the best way to show it.

For you. You’ll soon. You’ll give her name. In the stitches of her skin she’ll wear your say. Mammy me? Yes you. Bounce the bed, I’d say. I’d say that’s what you did. Then lay you down. They cut you round. Wait and hour and day.

_I met a man. I met a man. I let him throw me round the bed. And smoked, me, spliffs and chocked my neck until I said I was dead. _

It is not an easy writing style to read and it took me about fifty pages to get used to it, but once I was, the book became one of the most emotionally grabbing books I’ve ever read. There are certain scenes that portray very serious situations and by being inside the girl’s head, by really hearing her voice instead of a generic authorial voice, the scenes became even more emotional. I don’t want to spoil it too much, but halfway through the book, there was a moment I almost cried on the tube. (Can you imagine? The coldhearted, don’t show any emotion tube – the horror!)

However, every pro has its con and I felt like I missed out on a lot of the story by this narrative. There were too many questions unanswered for me – like what exactly was wrong with her brother? Who is her mother and what is her story? The one sided storytelling allowed for amazing connection with the girl, but I still have so many questions left.

However, the originality of the style and the plot twists (seriously, I know I can’t spoil it so just trust me on this one and read it) make up for it. And maybe leaving this unanswered was exactly the point of the story, because that is life. We only know our own story and we are left guessing about what other people feel and think. A reader walks away from this book with the normal sense of fulfillment, but an even stronger sense of loss. Loss for this girl. Loss for the family. And loss for the questions that will never be answered. And to create that, someone has to be a really talented writer.

The Time Keeper - Mitch Alborn

Certain books touch a something inside you that makes you love them. This is probably the most cliché opening to any review I have ever written, but I have no other way to describe The Time Keeper by Mitch Alborn.

The book follows the story of the first man to count time. For this counting of time, he was punished. God made him listen to everyone complaining about time for thousands of years. Until now.

God has sent him back to earth so that the timekeeper can save himself by saving two other people. A young teenager, who has her heart broken by an asshole and now wants less time. And an old man, who is dying from cancer and wants more time.

Both of them don’t realize that you can’t control time – which is the problem the timekeeper also had.

Every single person over 18 has to read this book – men have to read it to realize what they did to at least one girl when they were teenagers and girls have to read it to realize that you are and were not alone. The frustration, the pain and misunderstanding of rejection when being a teenager has never been so accurately portrayed than in this book. Granted, we won’t all go to the limits this girl goes to at the end of the story, but the feelings have always been there.

The story is broken up in small chapters that alternate between the timekeeper, teenager and old man. This works well for people with a short attention spam, but annoyed me.

I liked getting the point of view of all characters, but I think chapters could be longer than five pages.

However, this is just moaning about a small issue in a wonderful book. Alborn knows how to convincingly write a man from the Babylonian area, a spoiled, insecure teenager in 2000-something and a rich, ungrateful old man from the same area. This is no small feat for an author and the fact that Alborn gives all of these characters a distinct voice in just 200 pages is amazing. From the beginning of each chapter, we know exactly in whose mind we are.

I found all the characters slightly annoying – yes even the teenage girl, because lets be real: teenage girls are slightly annoying– but Alborn still makes them relatable enough that it doesn’t matter if you don’t obsess over time.

You live with them, you feel their pain and the ending is unlike what you expected. This is what a great book should do.