Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson.

So this is a bit of a personal reason as to why I wanted to read this, but first let me explain what it's about a little bit and then I will delve into the reasons why I wanted to read this and what I thought of it.

So it's a book about a girl names Lia who is suffering with anorexia, along with her friend names Cassie who was dealing with bulimia until the illness took her life when she couldn't handle it any more and she didn't eat so much. Lia feels like her life is being haunted by the memory of Cassie when she starts to get herself deeper into the disorder, she starts to eat less and less and wants to be the skinniest she can be. She lives with her father and step mother and her step sister who she adores, her mother is still in her life but she's extremely strict ordering her to eat and not understanding some of the other issues that are affecting her life. So yeah let's get into why I wanted to read this and what I thought.

Basically I myself have suffered with an eating disorder when I was growing up, I dealt with this for almost 2 years of my life and it's a horrible thing to deal with - but it's been 4 years since my eating has been an issue for me, I have days like everyone else who has overcome it but not to the extent that I was at, so I basically wanted to read this to see how the author dealt with such a taboo subject as it is something that doesn't come up in usual conversations. So I want to start off by saying that this is a beautifully wrote book, she really does hit nerves with this book and it is such a heart wrenching story that you can't help but fall in love with the story and the character of Lia, that you get hooked onto it and you are constantly hoping that she will overcome this horrible disorder. She deals with depression and self harm and body images and it's something that every teenager should read whether you're suffering with something like this or not as it really opens your eyes to some of the problems that people go through, and it helps you realise that some people don't always have it easy.

Lia throughout this book feels guilty about her friends death, because the night she died she called Lia 33 times and not once did she offer, the two girls had grown apart at this time, but the guilt that she feels all the way through the book is something that doesn't help her eating at all, she goes back to the motel where she died and wanted to see the room where she died. It's a deeply saddening book but it also wrenches you in and I found it very hard to put down, I literally read it in two sittings because I couldn't find myself putting it down. I know most of my book reviews have tons of spoilers in but this is one of them that I feel would be better if you read it yourself, so you can understand the true beauty of this book and why I love it so much. This is definitely a must have book on your shelf.

"There is no magic cure, no making it all go away forever. There are only small steps upward; an easier day, an unexpected laugh, a mirror that doesn't matter anymore."

I rate this 5 out of 5 stars!

UK Front Cover (I think it's only the UK one.)

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

I'd been interested in reading this series for a while, since I saw that it was a movie. I wasn't too sure what I expected when I decided to read this and I'm still not sure what I think of it. I liked how Ethan was the main character instead of it being Lena because I've never really read a book like this where the main character was male. But I don't know what to say about it - like it was a different type of book that I would usually read - yes it's a YA novel but it was something a bit different than that.. he was dreaming of this girl for months, feeling that he was going to keep losing her, and it was a girl he'd never even met and he didn't understand why he was dreaming of her himself. But it turns out she was dreaming of him too, having the exact same dreams that he was and she didn't know who he was. They finally meet when she joins the school and he is instantly drawn to her - but she's not your typical girly girl and the girls of the school take an instant dislike to her. So it's basically about something that is going to happen on Lena's 16th birthday, she will be chosen whether she will be good or evil, she doesn't get a choice in the matter.. and Ethan is convinced they can find a way to change it and that she won't have to go evil or what not. A lot of the story is surrounded around a locket that the pair of them find and when they touch it, it sends them back into the past at two of their relatives who are drawn to each other like they are - and the girl is destined for the same future as Lena is also.

It turns out that Lena's mother is trying to kill her, or so she has been told and it goes to a graveyard where she meets her mother for the first time - as she is told that she was killed when she was younger in order to protect her. But then all of a sudden she doesn't have to have her future chosen for her now until she is seventeen.
It starts off too slow for my liking, like it just dwindles and doesn't really get to the point of the main story until quite far into the story and it feels like it's just going to keep dragging on forever. I mean its a gripping story when it finally gets into it but it just took too long for me, it just felt like it wasn't going anywhere for ages and that it just kept building it up into something that was going to be so good but turned out that it wasn't as impressing as what you would think it would be, it just ends and it isn't as impressing of an ending as I thought it would be. It's the first book in the series, so I'm not too sure whether I am going to read the rest of the series as I wasn't overly impressed with this book, and I have heard rumours that the 2nd book isn't too good either so it's kind of putting me off reading it. But I don't know, I will see. I can understand why this is such a good series in other people's eyes - but in mine, eh, not impressed.
I've got the film off a friend that I need to watch but once I'd seen the trailer I'm not too sure if the film will be any better, I will keep you all updated in case you want to know.

So I rate this a 2.5 stars out of 5.

UK Book Cover.

Champion by Marie Lu.

So I realise that I haven't updated this in a while and in fact the last book update that I did was Allegiant, and I have read 5 books since then but I kept forgetting to update this as I had a lot of college work piling up and then I had Christmas (as did everyone else who celebrates it, ha), but yeah I just kept forgetting because I haven't had chance to get on to the laptop and I'd do it on my phone but I can never be bothered writing a long ass review. Anyway lets get to the review of this book.

So this is a book from The Legend series, which is a trilogy and the other two books are called, Legend (as you may of guessed) and the other one is Prodigy. It's a dystopian world that see's a girl called June Iparis and Day, two of the least likely people to find one another and fall in love. June is a girl who follows all the rules and Day, well he isn't so much. There is an outbreak of an illness and his family gets his, he didn't pass his test - or so he was told and he went on the run afterwards, he found out his brother was ill and went to break into the hospital to get the cure for his brother, there he was chased by a bunch of soldiers, in that crowd of soldiers was June's older brother Metias who was murdered and Day is the one who is being accused of murdering him, so June wants to capture him and take him in to custody for killing her brother, Day goes on the run with his best friend Tess, hes also in disguise as he so often is in the series. So cutting a story short of the whole story, it turns out he never killed him and June falls for him, but a ton of complications follow.

So coming onto Champion, this was a very anticipated book for me as in the last book he found out he had something wrong with his brain, and was most likely going to die - so I wanted to read this desperately to find out whether or not he was going to die and what not. He goes through the series not speaking to June because he thought it best to part ways as he didn't want her to go through the turmoil and the upset of him dying when and if he eventually did die - he was doing everything in his power to make sure that his little brother was protected and not kidnapped again to be experimented on so he'd hired help who would help them out, ad his little brother was also blind due to the  experiments that they had done on him. Eventually June gets in touch with him asking him to come to some party because Anden needs his brother to experiment on because they think that the cure for the illness which has broke out again is in his blood and they need to test it on people. So he goes, finds out why they wanted him there and refuses to allow them to test on him until his brother allowed them to. The capitol gets attacked and Day gets shot twice but survives, but his memory gets wiped and he doesn't remember anyone such as June, or Tess, just his brother.

So I was slightly disappointed that he lost his memory and didn't remember June because they're my OTP and I really ship them because they're just adorable, but June decides not to remind him of who she is and just says she's there to tell him to get better. It skips to 10 years in the future and June had dated Anden for a few years and then she bumps into Day again and then they start to get to know one another. Then it pretty much ends, so you basically have to picture for yourself what you expect to happen in their relationship - do they get back together or not. I quite liked the ending but I wish he never lost his memory and he still remembered June because they were just adorable! I know I said that before but they are haha. So basically I'm gutted that it ended and that there won't be anymore books in this series but I'm excited to read more of her work.

So I rate this 5 out of 5 stars.

Cover of Champion.

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Also just a quick side note, I am currently rereading the Harry Potter series, so I may not do reviews of them, as I have already read them, I don't know whether I should or not but yeah... for now I will review the books I haven't already reviewed on here.