Literary Lane

  RATING: 3.5 out of 5 stars This was a really gripping and compelling read I must say, and the portrayal of the adverse experiences and trauma that those in the care system can go through for instance due to abusive parents, in Victoria's case her own blood father sexually abusing her, was very intense and heavy. This along with the serious impacts it can have on their mental health, which is depicted very heavily and intensely through Jamie, Victoria's foster sister. Honestly it was all very intense and heavy and not at all an easy theme to write about and depict, so I very much command that. You can't help but feel so strongly for poor Victoria as well, with the endless trauma she's had to experience, having her own father sexually abuse her, being thrown out of the house by him after that at 3am on a winters morning, then being accused of being the one at fault, then taken away by the CPS who are very brusque and cold with her, being made to sleep in the CPS office,...

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Whew! That was a very difficult, heart-wrenching and intense read, to the point that while books are usually meant as an escape, I found myself needing an escape from this book and kind of wish I'd never read it now! It was so hard and painful to read, with just how dark and distressing it was, but nevertheless very compelling and most of all heartwarming! Seeing the way Jane and Alice had both endured similar adversities, namely abuse from their fathers, and how they were brought together and connected the way they did was very fascinating and beautifully done. It was amazing seeing both their character developments, which was largely a result of the bond they formed with each other. I really liked seeing the way Jane developed as a character and how she came to love Alice, and it was incredibly heartwarming seeing that after having suffered severe emotional abuse from her father and never having had a loving home, with her father having abandoned her, and...

  RATING: 4 out of 5 stars WARNING: REVIEW CONTAINS POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD. TRIGGER WARNING: STORY INCLUDES SCENES OF RAPE AND HARASSMENT Yet another very compelling, heartwarming and gripping read of historical fiction from Rosie Goodwin that I could simply not put down and finished within a matter of days. I think out of all the Flower Girls books , this has probably got to be my favourite out of the series. I get the feeling that the author had received feedback about her first flower girl book ( Our Fair Lily ) about the protagonist being too one-dimensional and too much of a Mary Sue and used that feedback to redeem herself with this book, as I can safely say that Violet was very far from the Mary Sue, perfect protagonist of Our Fair Lily. Instead, she was a very interesting, three-dimensional character, as while she is still lovely and kind, she still has her flaws such as making wrong and unfair judgements of people and being unfairly stand-offish with them, as well as ac...

RATING: 4.5 out of 5 stars TRIGGER WARNING: Detailed rape scene and physical abuse Wow. What an intense read, and certainly a most gripping and engrossing one, having finished this one in a matter of days. I definitely preferred it to "Our Fair Lily" with Daisy having been a far more relatable protagonist in that she wasn't a major Mary Sue, so I was really glad to see that, and was also not quite as unrealistic. You honestly feel like you are living this story with her as you feel you experience the unbearable adversity and trauma she suffers, as I felt so terrified and distressed for her when she'd gotten raped by her evil stepbrother and then shortly after gets tricked into going to an Irish mother and daughter home by said evil stepbrother where she has to endure the nuns cruel treatment while also witnessing their cruel treatment of other girls at the home. It was so dark and distressing and it was a really dark, sudden turn after seeing how happy life had been f...

  Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars I really appreciate how this addressed the unnecessary stigma that introverts receive, particularly in american culture but also to a slightly lesser extent in the UK (which essentially copies america's culture), with introverts always being seen as a "problem" by society and told to be "more extroverted". I know how sick to death I am and how much it infuriates me when seeing articles and books that say "How introverts can become more extroverted/a people person", essentially telling us that our introversion is something that needs fixing and that we can't be ourselves, undermining the very concept of self-acceptance. It really did touch upon some interesting points that I know resonated with me quite a lot. However, it did just annoy me a bit when it said in one chapter that she can understand why introverts can come across as being "a bit of a bitch" to some people (female ones at least). I do not like this...

  Rating: Four out of Five Stars Such a nice and heartwarming little story. Lily has a bad stutter, and this story, although only really aimed at a middle-grade audience, does a good job at diving deep into the challenges and problems that children with disabilities like speech impediments , especially stutters , can face. This includes stigma from even their own parents, with Lily's mother getting impatient with Lily's stutter and wanting to hide it from the world by not telling anyone about it, and her dad who also avoids addressing the problem with Lily, only talking about how awful it is behind her back. Fortunately though they both redeem themselves and have an increased understanding by the end of the book, which is good as I hated Lily's mum at first stigmatising Lily's stutter the way she did and getting impatient with her, but she does genuinely redeem herself. To be honest I felt more annoyed at the dad and the way he was portrayed as being a good parent an...

 WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD RATING: 4.5 out of 5 stars Oh my god. Wow, what a read. The ever-increasing suspense, bombshells, twists and turns and dark, thrilling fear is what kept me so incredibly gripped by this book. Much like its predecessor, "You Can Trust Me", this was a very intense, thrilling, dark, tense, enthralling and suspenseful story, with a looming mystery being that of the identity of a ruthless criminal who has harmed or is harming one of the main characters. This was perhaps even more spine-tingling and unsettling than that book though I'd have said, as you have to watch the poor protagonist getting relentlessly and seriously stalked for pretty much the entire book, and that was really scary to read and follow. Obviously the identity reveal of the stalker doesn't come until towards the very end, just before the climax, but since it was the part that of course left me the most shocked (and probably did a lot of people) I will get it off my chest now: WOW...

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD Wow. There was not a moment when I was not completely gripped and absorbed in this book, having ended up spending nearly all of yesterday reading it, for about 6-7 hours (though with the odd breaks) because I was just that determined to keep reading on, as with all the suspense and drama and 'wham' moments that were unfolding I could not simply leave it for tomorrow, I needed closure and that is only a sign of an amazing book, when you are able to get hooked like this. My brain hurt a bit as a result but god it was so worth it. YA thrillers are one of my very favourite book genres-not all of them I love, as of course they have to be done really well and strongly, that keep me really hooked with their unfolding suspense and drama, twists and turns while also highlighting issues that are very real such as toxic friendships , relationships and sexual abuse. This book did all that and was perhaps the best I have read out of all thes...

Such a lovely, sweet, heartwarming and also bittersweet little read! I love JW Victorian novels and it was good to see another one come out. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Honestly, my only real problem was the ending, with there having been such a lack of closure I just felt pretty frustrated and mad. I mean I was actually ready to read more only to found the book came to an end. I mean there was so much unresolved, like what had happened with the situation with Cedric and his family wanting to adopt Ada, with it seeming like they had fallen out, which was a pity due to the friendship Tess had developed with Cedric, like was she never going to be friends with them again?! Also it's true that nothing was really resolved in terms of Tess and her siblings in the long-term, like Cedric's dad pointed out, like where they just going to live like that forever in financial instability?! Honestly it just annoyed me so much, there were so many loose ends that were not tied, so I am really hop...

2 out of 5 stars I was really interested when I heard JW was writing sequel to the Girls books taking place 22 years after the last book was released and 27 years after the release of the first Girls book. Having read the original Girls books when I was 12, I was particularly interested and excited to see what the girls were up to now all these years later, looking forward to a trip down memory lane. However, I definitely have to agree with a lot of reviewers here who have critiqued the book for its lack of development, depth and closure, among other things. My main problem to be honest was that there was far too much of Ellie's relationship and sex with Gary (Mr Windsor from the previous books), which just got really repetitive, as I felt myself getting more and more frustrated with their sex scenes which just kept getting more and more repetitive which was insanely annoying, like how many frigging times did they have to be shown having sex, like okay we get it they have a great s...