Cath dreams of opening her own bakery. It’s the only thing she wants in life until she meets the mysterious Jest. Soon Cath begins to imagine the possibility of a life with him. However Cath is a lady while Jest is only a fool. There is no way that Cath’s strict and controlling parents would accept him. In fact, Cath’s parents have already found her a husband- the King of Hearts- and they won’t accept no for an answer. While we all know how this book ends, the path to the end was so surprising and heartbreaking. I was in shock once I finished this book and all I could think of was “HOW???”
What I really enjoyed was how nonsensical this book was, much like the original Lewis Caroll work. I strongly suggest that readers brush up on “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Alice Through The Looking Glass” to get the full effect of the book. There are several characters and quotes from the original that appear in “Heartless” and it’s fun to see them again. This book fits in so perfectly with the world of Wonderland that it is almost as if this is a companion novel to “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.
This book was incredibly well-written and I really enjoyed seeing all of the characters from Wonderland. I also liked how things that made no sense in our world, appeared to be totally normal in this book.
This was an excellent book and I strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoys fairytale retellings.
I love love LOVE retellings. I don’t know why because how often can you read one story rewritten? (If you’re me then the answer is “very often”) Here are a few of my favourite retellings.
1) The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer: The Lunar Chronicles is a series of futuristic retellings of several fairytales. While I had my doubts about this series, I instantly fell in love once I started reading it.
2) A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas: This is a fae retelling of Beauty and The Beast and it’s impossible to put down.
3) The Wrath and The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh: This is a retelling of One Thousand and One Nights. Honestly I’ve never read One Thousand and One Nights but this synopsis was too compelling to resist.
4) And I Darken by Kiersten White: This is a story based on Vlad Dracul…except in this version Vlad is a kickass female named Lada.
5) Alice Takes Back Wonderland by David D. Hammons: This book gave me all the feels. This is mainly about Alice going back to Wonderland but there are several other fairytale characters in this book.
I had really high hopes for this book since I absolutely loved “Everything Everything”. Nicola Yoon has incredible writing and I love that she writes in such a unique manner. In order to allow me to properly fangirl over this book, I’m going to state everything I disliked now and discuss the positives later. Firstly reading on the Kindle app was incredibly difficult as the characters’ viewpoints were all mixed up. Something was wrong with the formatting which made for several very confusing moments. I also don’t understand why the book is called “The Sun is Also a Star” since that’s a line only used once in the novel. Lastly I wished the ending was more complete. Like “Everything Everything”, the ending feels more like a beginning and I WANT TO KNOW MORE!
Now for the positives: I love love love LOVE this cover. It’s so pretty and colourful and honestly it’s the first thing that drew me to this book (the author was second).
“The Sun is Also a Star” tells the story of Natasha and Daniel who meet and fall in love on Natasha’s last day in America. Natasha and her family are being deported, a fact she doesn’t share with Daniel. Daniel is supposed to be on his way to an interview for Yale when he decides that Natasha is his future. Daniel and Natasha are complete opposites. He’s a dreamer while she’s practical and certainly doesn’t believe in love. And if their totally different personalities and Natasha leaving weren’t enough obstacles for their budding relationship, Natasha is Jamaican while Daniel is Korean. While this isn’t a problem for them, this might be a problem for their families.
What I really enjoyed about this book was the many different viewpoints. Usually I struggle to keep track of more than four characters but it was easy to follow everyone in this book. While this is a story primarily about Natasha and Daniel, there are scenes that show the lives that Natasha and Daniel impact on without even trying.
This book had a ending that I felt was really natural and I was like “aww this is beautiful”. The epilogue was what kicked me in the gut and left me speechless. This book was beautiful and really made an impact on me (so much so that when I went to sleep, it was all I could I think of even while asleep). I love Natasha’s character and I really enjoyed seeing everyone’s backstory. I wish the ending was a bit more complete though as I wasn’t ready to let go of these characters.
I got fewer books from the SPCA booksale than I usually do:
So I decided to just check out what Bargain Books had since they had really great books when I visited last month. They didn’t have any of their “3 for R99” books but I did find great bestsellers for R69. It took some time for me to choose (their selection was amazing!) but I finally picked six. I chose “Winter” and “Scarlet” by Marissa Meyer, “Last Sacrifice” by Richelle Mead, “The Duff” by Kody Keplinger, “The Originals: The Resurrection” (this was actually a mistake. I thought I was choosing “The Originals: Rise” but I ended up picking “Resurrection” instead which really hurt my heart) and finally “Let It Snow” which is an anthology I’ve been eyeing for a while. While these books were alot, they were books I really wanted so I was thrilled. I did however have some regret about the books I left behind. Thankfully my mother lent me some money and I was able to buy a few more. This is where things get interesting.
My mother lent me R140, enough for two books. I decided to put some of my own money so I could buy two more. So I chose “Soundless” and “Bloodlines” by Richelle Mead as well as the second and third books in the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. During my previous trip to the bookstore I saw that my card wasn’t working but I hoped that this time would be different. I knew for a fact I had money so I had no idea what could possibly cause my card to fail. Anyway, I made my way to the till where the manager greeted me with “Back again for more books?”and I responded with a bright and bubbly “yes.” The lady paying next to me declared “You can never have too many books”. This is a sentiment I usually agree with but as an unemployed person, my book-buying was getting to be a bit problematic. So I told the woman with a laugh, “There is such a thing as too many books when you’re unemployed.”
I paid for my books and hoped for the best as I handed my card over. It failed. Sighing, I asked the cashier to please take out two of the books. “How much are they?” asked the woman who was paying next to me.
Still cheerful on a book-high, I answered “R69 each.” In the back of my mind, I could picture her buying the books for her kids and how happy they would be to get such great books at such low prices. But then she did something I never would have expected anyone to do- she took out a R100 note and placed it on the counter. “No, you don’t have to” came my automatic response to anyone giving me money. My mind still hadn’t processed what was happening.
“Take it,” she insisted firmly. “From one book-lover to another.” She sounded so certain of herself that all I could do was mentally calculate how much more I needed to pay. I handed the remaining amount to the cashier, my mind still reeling. I tried to find the woman to thank her. Did I thank her? I didn’t know. I didn’t remember. It all happened so fast that it seemed like a blur. I looked around me in confusion, trying to find the woman or a camera crew. Who pays for other people’s books? I’ve heard about “paying it forward” but that’s not a book-thing or a South African thing. Was I on TV? Was someone filming me? But no matter how hard I looked I couldn’t find the kind lady or the camera crew. Eventually I decided I must have been having some really odd dream. I dreamt of buying books all the time. Why shouldn’t this be any different? But once I got my change back and got ready to leave the store, the manager remarked “lucky you”. So maybe it wasn’t a dream. “I can’t believe that just happened,” I replied. I spent the rest of the morning trying to figure out exactly how everything happened because it was so mind-blowing. I’ve heard of stories about “paying it forward” but I never ever thought something like this would happen to me.

My Complete Haul
Have you read any of these books yet? What did you think of them?
The first Saturday of the month is the day that the SPCA hosts their monthly booksale. It is also today! Here are the books I bought:
Lots and lots of Nora Roberts and J.D Robbs (I’m a bit disappointed that the books aren’t in such good condition like last month but I was really ecstatic to have Nora Roberts books. I love her work!)
I also made a quick stop to Bargain Books and got these gems on special:
I read the first 3 books in the series so I’m really excited to see how this ends.
I’ve yet to read a Colleen Hoover novel that doesn’t leave an impact and this one is no different. In fact I was having a pretty great time with this book and was sucked in until I realised “Wait! This is a Colleen Hoover book. Something has to go wrong and it’s going to hurt when it does.”So I read. And I read. And then the bad thing happened and I cried. I cried because it was nothing that I had expected. Nothing on the internet, the book’s synopsis or even Colleen Hoover’s social media alerted at precisely what the conflict in this book would be. Believe me, the conflict is MAJOR! I understand the importance of not revealing spoilers so I’ll try my best not to (it’s so damn hard not to!). I will however say that this is a book that every woman needs to read. The significance of the words “It Ends With Us” is beautiful.Lily and Ryle have an instant connection when they meet. Despite Ryle’s aversion to relationships the two of them are blissfully happy. Then they’re not. Lily’s first love returns to town and her relationship with Ryle is threatened. Except Lily’s ex isn’t the only risk to both her relationship and happiness.I couldn’t put this book down (except for when Colleen Hoover’s words moved me and then I needed to share them on social media). I cried throughout the last few chapters but I enjoyed them nonetheless. Lastly (and this might be considered a SPOILER SO PROCEED WITH CAUTION), I especially loved that I was able to fall for the villain in this novel. He was flawed but he was an amazing person. I loved that I was able to hate him and love him at the same time. I pitied him but I desperately wanted him gone. I’ve never felt such complex emotions for a fictional character before. I’ve always enjoyed Colleen Hoover’s work but this is a work of art.
I was so eager to read this book that I bought it as soon as I saw it without even bothering to look at the price. I am a huge fan of Melissa Delport’s writing but “Rainfall” had me sobbing like a baby so I never reviewed it. Reading “My Name is Simon” however is such a comfort after “Rainfall”. This isn’t a full novel but Simon’s character and his motivations are shown so well. As much as I hated him it was impossible not to feel for this guy who has had most of his life ripped from him. I desperately wanted to hate this book (to match my initial hatred of Simon) but I couldn’t. “My Name is Simon” is incredibly well-written and the book finishes beautifully.
“Refuse” picks up instantly after the thrilling cliffhanger in “Recoil”. Jinxy is captured and taken in for questioning. The great thing about this book is that it does eventually provide a recap of the previous book. This is really helpful since I couldn’t really remember precisely what the government’s real agenda was.
Jinxy finds out that her ex-boyfriend’s brother is being held in the same facility that she is and she’s desperate to get him out (she was the one who put him in there in the first place).
To do this she has to get back into the organisation that captured and tortured her. Cam Jinxy stand to go back to the people who think nothing of torturing a child? Will she even be accepted back into an organisation that thinks of her as a traitor to their cause?
This book was such a rollercoaster ride of emotions. I hated some characters with such intensity and I loved other characters with the same intensity. My favourite part of Joanne Macgregor’s writing is that she always creates characters that are well-fleshed out and real. (Honestly I started this series to see more of Macgregor’s great characterisation but stayed for the intriguing plot). The characters in “Refuse” certainly do not disappoint. I especially enjoyed seeing how characters have developed since the first book.
I loved that this book had the same fast-paced action as the first one. Jinxy has so many unique skills that help her throughout the novel. At several points I literally had to put the book down to absorb all the clever things she found or did.
“Refuse” was a wonderful read but again, I strongly believe this is a series that should be binge-read. The book was 50 chapters which I found intimidating at first but at the end I really wanted more.
I think this series is one of the most unique and believable dystopian books around. The issues with the government in this series is something we see everyday.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys YA fiction or dystopian novels. Hell, read it even if you don’t like dystopian novels. This is just that great of a read. I found this book impossible to step away from.
This month was really great for me since I purchased signed copies of Lady Midnight and the Creepy Hollow series (which was on sale for R20 EACH!!!). I also found the last Vampire Diaries book and my father bought me the remaining three books pictured above for my birthday.
I also won a Me Before You hamper from Penguin Books South Africa. I don’t have the book though so that’s a mistake that needs to be fixed immediately.
Heartless by Marissa Meyer
