What I've Been Reading: November 2018.

November was a very mish-mashed month in terms of reading. Some novels I loved, some I was very disappointed by and there was a fair few I gave up on completely. As always, I'm only going to be mentioning the ones I actually managed to finish which brings us to a total of six, about my usual average for a month.

Dangerous Boys

Abigail Haas

Current Kindle Price: £2.99

"It all comes down to this.

Oliver, Ethan, and I.

Three teens venture into an abandoned lake house one night. Hours later, only two emerge from the burning wreckage.

Chloe drags one Reznick brother to safety, unconscious and bleeding.

The other is left to burn, dead in the fire. But which brother survives?

And is his death a tragic accident?

Desperate self-defense?

Or murder...?

Chloe is the only one with the answers. As the fire rages, and police and parents demand the truth, she struggles to piece the story together- a story of jealousy, twisted passion and the darkness that lurks behind even the most beautiful faces..."

Lets start with one of my favourites for the month. This is a great novel but I had high expectations for it before I even started reading it. Dangerous Girls by the same author is another of my favourites and while Dangerous Boys doesn't quite pack the same amount of punch, it's still a book I'd want to reread in the future. If you haven't read any of these before, start with Dangerous Boys and read Dangerous Girls after. Trust me, you won't regret it!

Challenge Accepted

Amanda Abram

Current Kindle price: £2.16 or free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers

"Emma Dawson and Logan Reynolds have been neighbors and enemies for as long as either one can remember. Despite the fact their BFF fathers have been encouraging them their whole lives to be friends, they've managed to avoid each other at all costs. Emma thinks Logan is a callous jerk who cares about nobody but himself. Logan thinks Emma is a stuck-up good-two-shoes with no life. The two couldn't be any more different... which is why Emma is so confused when the Emerson High Computer Club's 'summer fling compatibility test' concludes they're a perfect match.

But Logan's not confused. He lied on the test to make his 'sometimes girlfriend' think they're not meant to be and now Emma is furious that he made her lose out on the chance of having a swoony summer romance with the perfect guy. Forced by his stepmother to make it up to her, Logan decides to help her win the heart of her lifelong crush: his best friend, Matt.

He knows how much of a challenge this will be. Matt is good-looking, popular and outgoing. Emma is quiet, bookwormish, and scared of everything. However, Logan is convinced that with some major tweaking, he can transform Emma into someone Matt could fall for. But as Summer heats up, so does their budding friendship... and soon, they may be faced with the biggest challenge of all: falling for each other."

I'd read The Importance of Getting Revenge by the same author, so I kind of knew what to expect going into this. A quick, fun read that's slightly predictable but still enjoyable.

Left Behind

Vi Keeland & Dylan Scott

Current kindle price: £2.98

"Two stories so deeply intertwined, you'll think you know how they intersect... but you'll be wrong...

Zack Martin

The day I met Emily Bennett my whole life changed. Sure, we were just kids, but I was old enough to know my life would never be the same. She was my best friend. My destiny. My fate. I wasn't wrong... I just didn't know how twisted fate could be.

Nikki Fallon

After the death of my mother, moving from my dark and dreary trailer park to sunny California, I was focused on one thing- finding a sister I'd only just learned existed. Falling in love with him wasn't part of the plan. But he filled a void I never knew was possible to fill. He had to be my fate. My destiny. Until the day I finally found out who my sister was... and how twisted fate could be."

Okay, so I finished this but it was a long, hard struggle to do so! That whole first line of the blurb, you think you'll know how they intersect but you'll be wrong? I wasn't wrong, I had it figured out within one chapter and I was hoping throughout the whole thing that I was going to be thrown a massive curveball that made reading this worth it. It just didn't happen. Predictability in it's worst form. Give this a miss.

The Darkest Lie

Pintip Dunn

Current kindle price: £7.59

"Clothes, jokes, coded messages... Cecelia Brooks and her mom shared everything. At least, Cecelia thought they did. Six months ago, her mom killed herself after accusations of having sex with a student, and CeCe's been the subject of whispers and taunts ever since. Now, at the start of her high school senior year, between dealing with her grieving, distracted father, and the social nightmare that has become her life, CeCe just wants to fly under the radar. Instead, she's volunteering at the school's crisis hotline- the same place her mother worked.

As she counsels troubled strangers, CeCe's lingering suspicions about her mom's death resurface. With the help of Sam, a new student and newspaper intern, she starts to piece together fragmented clues that point to a twisted secret at the heart of her community. Soon, finding the truth isn't just a matter of restoring her mother's reputation, it's about saving lives- including CeCe's own..."

My favourite novel in November. A great YA thriller with a bit of romance thrown into the mix, I can't recommend this highly enough. This is the opposite of Left Behind, whose predictability the reason I disliked it so much. There are so many red herrings in The Darkest Lie, that when the big reveal finally happens, you'll be in shock.

Beautiful Malice

Rebecca James

Current Kindle price: £2.99

"Following a horrific tragedy that leaves her once perfect family devastated, Katherine Patterson moves to a new city, starts at a new school, and looks forward to a life of quiet anonymity. But when Katherine meets the gregarious and beautiful Alice Parrie her resolution to live a solitary life becomes difficult. Katherine is unable to resist the flattering attention that Alice pays her and is so charmed by Alice's contagious enthusiasm that the two girls become firm friends. Alice's joie de vivre is transformative; it helps Katherine forget her painful past and slowly, tentatively, Katherine allows herself to start enjoying life again.

But being friends with Alice is complicated- and as Katherine gets to know her better she discovers that although alice can be charming and generous she can also be selfish and egocentric. Sometimes, even, Alice is cruel. And when Katherine starts to wonder if Alice is really the kind of person she wants as a friend, she discovers something else about Alice- she doesn't like being cast off."

I didn't like this. I thought about giving up on this so many times but I persevered and ended up disappointed. It was well written but the story just wasn't for me. It was a hard read, especially the flashbacks and I didn't really like a single character. Hard pass.

Charlie and Pearl

Tammy Robinson

Current Kindle price: 99p or free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers

"It was supposed to be simple...

Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl. Girl, slightly more cynical, takes a little longer. And they lived happily ever after, right? It definitely wasn't supposed to end the way it did."

I didn't love this, I didn't hate this, this just fell into the like column. I finished it in a day and I did get slightly teary eyed in parts but I was disappointed with the ending. A good contemporary romance that is worth a read, especially for 99p!

What were you reading in November? Let me know in the comments below.

You can read previous What I've Been Reading posts here.

Danni

X