The Brown Review

Author: Emily Houghton Rating: 4.5/5 Recommend:  This is the kind of book that you finish in a single read. When you're feeling at your worst, like nothing in life is going according to plan, it's the kind of book that will show you how little your problems are compared to others. Emily Houghton's novel will then teach you how to stand up again. A beautiful read. Alice has had an accident. Due to a mishap at work, she is now the recovering survivor of a raging fire - but, at a steep cost. Alfie was in an accident too - but, after months spent recovering, he is finally close to being released from the hospital's rehabilitation ward. When Alice is shifted to the bed next to Alfie, the pair strike a bizarre friendship... but, can you be friends with someone you have never even seen? How much does appearance matter really? I loved the dynamic between Alice and Alfie! As the interactions between them grew, and they each slowly began to open up about the grief and loss in th...

Author: Holly Bourne Rating: 3.8/5 Recommend: The most deliciously cheesy, purposefully cliched, and surprisingly realistic love story I've read in a while. Recommended for both romance lovers and romance cynics (a weird combination, I know). The kind of movie that Audrey is highly cynical about in the book It Only Happens In The Movies is a novel that you can read time and time again: during the gooey early days of a relationship, the phase of depression after a horrible breakup, and right after you've finished reading that amazing series and seem to have lost all purpose in life. The story revolves around Audrey Winters, a depressed senior, who is still suffering from the trauma of her last relationship.  I knew I had made the right choice in buying this novel after reading the very first line: Combined with the devastating state of her divorced mother, and quitting Drama - the one course she loves - our heartbroken heroine has pretty much set h...

Letters to the Lost Author: Brigid Kemmerer Rating: 5. 100. 1000. Infinity. I can’t rate this. I can only ask you, request you, implore you to read it. Recommend: If I can reach even one person and convince them to read this – this mind-blowing, addictive, insanely compelling gem of a book – then, I will go to my grave knowing that I did at least one good thing in this life. Highly, highly recommended. After finishing Letters to the Lost, I was overcome by an overwhelming, consuming need to write. I needed an outlet, somewhere I could express the intensely powerful emotions the book had caused in me, someone to express my thoughts to. Unfortunately, I don’t have a Declan, or The Dark in my life to whom I can talk to; for now, this blog is my outlet. The Dark and The Cemetery Girl ;) This is a novel about a girl who has lost her mother, and a boy who has lost his sister. Juliet leaves letters on her mother’s grave and one day Declan stumbles across one – ...

  Author: Krystal Sutherland Rating: 4.1/5 Recommend: An easy to read novel perfect for someone looking for a different, suspenseful take on a classic high-school love story. Our Chemical Hearts is a very strange book. The plot is well thought out and you’ll be hooked to the story till the very end. While reading the initial few chapters of this book, my first thought was this: Grace and Henry strongly remind me of Clay and Hannah in Thirteen Reasons Why. But, how could that be possible? Hannah was dead and Grace is very much alive… unless Henry is somehow talking to a ghost. By the end of the book, believe me I was stunned at how accurate my premonition was. Grace was actually a ghost; one whose heart still beat, but a part of whom had died during the accident. Our Chemical Hearts revolves around the story of Grace and Henry. Unlike other books, Henry did not fall for Grace at first sight. In her man clothes, dirty hair, and sallow skin, she looked more ...

The Hate U Give Author: Angie Thomas Rating: 4/5 Recommend: This is the first book I have read in the black-protest-racism genre. It deserves a place on every teacher’s classroom bookshelf, right beside the John Green’s and Rainbow Rowell’s. The Hate U Give portrays messages which need to be heard by the upcoming generations: I strongly recommend it for youth.   By the age of sixteen Starr Carter had already seen two of her best friends die. She was with them when it happened, held them as they gave out their last breaths. And why did they die you ask? Because, these two defenseless, unarmed, innocent children just happened to be black. And it’s okay to kill people for their color, right? WRONG. The Hate U Give revolves around this very thing – how it is wrong to kill someone just because you assumed things for their skin color, that it doesn’t make it any different or in any way right if the person you hurt has done nothing wrong. Starr Carter was te...

Love and Gelato Author: Jenna Evans Welch Rating: 4.8/5 Recommend: Most definitely. If you’re a fan of glorious pizza, a mesmerizing story, and descriptions of places so vivid that they almost feel real, Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch comes highly recommended for you.  This book has topped my favorite list for exactly three reasons: 1. The immersive, flowing writing which made me feel as if I am the main character 2. Thoroughly original and suspenseful story lined that had hooked for two days and a night straight 3. IT IS SET IN ITALY!!!  I’ll give you some time to let the last one sink in.  Love and Gelato follows the story of sixteen year old Carolina Emerson after her mother’s death. Soon after the event, our young protagonist finds herself spending the summer in Italy – and living in a house in a cemetery with a very tall man who claims to be her father. Seriously.  As if all of the above wasn’t enough, L...