Books I've Read Recently

I haven't done a literature post in a while! I've been really enjoying getting back into reading for pleasure (English degrees teach you how not to do that) and I thought I'd give you a little run down of the books I've read recently.

Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pierce

This was...an interesting read. I'm not going to say I totally enjoyed it, but also not that I didn't at all, I'm really on the fence about it. Set in 1941, it details the story of Emmeline Lake, who inadvertently takes a job as a typist on a women's advice magazine, and starts answering some of the letters herself, which her boss doesn't want to know about. It took me a while to get through, I have to say, and the plot felt a little fuzzy in some areas and to be honest, the ending was a bit of a let down for me. But, that being said, I enjoyed the character development a lot and I definitely got an excellent sense of being lost in the book and feeling really engrossed in their world. I do love historical fiction and I liked how funny it was but I do think the plot got very lost here and there.

Don't You Forget About Me by Mhairi MacFarlane

This is a book I can categorically say I didn't enjoy. It's the story of chaotic Georgina Horspool who gets fired from her job and finds her boyfriend cheating on her all in the same night, and the fallout from these incidences as she finds another job where her boss is her high school "love of her life". I'm going to be completely honest - I like a book where I either adamantly like or dislike the main character, and I just felt totally indifferent towards Georgina. I didn't care what happened to her, she annoyed me at times and the entire plot was just...too much. There was way too much going on in all the characters' lives and I just felt the actual story fell totally flat between them. A 2/10 for me really.

Wilde About The Girl by Louise Pentland

Okay, finally we're getting a bit more uplifting. I read the first in Louise's Wilde series, Wilde Like Me over a year ago and just never got round to reading the second when it was released, but I was looking for something new and this caught my eye as I remember really enjoying Wilde Like Me. The third and final in the trilogy has just been released, actually, so in preparation for it to come out in paperback I decided to pick up the second. And boy did it NOT disappoint - every bit as charming and funny and lighthearted as the first, except this time dealing with the hard-hitting topic of miscarriages. When I tell you I cried, I really mean it - I was sobbing while reading on one of our NCS fundraising days and my team were actually concerned for me. It's really rare that a book makes me cry - films are a different story, but books don't tend to make me cry that much but this had me.  I loved every second of it.

Still Me by Jojo Moyes

GAH. I picked this up yonks ago in Waterstones because I didn't know it was out in paperback and pretty much screamed when I saw it was. Anyway, I finally got around to sitting down and reading it and when I say I read it over three days, I seriously mean it. It's had me hooked on my work lunch breaks, before bed, in the mornings, when I get home from work. You name a time, I've been reading it. Now listen - I LOVE Jojo Moyes. I have most of her books and adored every single one, save for the second in this series. It just fell flat. But this?? Oh, this lifted the entire series and ended it on the best note possible. It details Louisa's life after she's left for New York (spoilers for the second - sorry!) and the trials and tribulations she goes through while in a completely new part of her life. Jojo Moyes' books aren't your typical romance-y chick lit - I always finish them feeling like I've had some epiphany and gained some new perspective and inner peace in my life and this was no different. Big, big recommendation if you were also disappointed by the second book.

Two good and two not so good ones this time round!! Have you read any of these books and if so, what did you think? Or, what have you been reading recently?

Em xx