Book Review: Finding Audrey - Sophie Kinsella

I am a massive fan of any and all books by Sophie Kinsella so when I heard she was writing a book for young adults I was hoping it was going to be ordered into our library. It was and as soon as it arrived I took it before it was even catalogued and have finished it within a day.

The story focuses on the main character Audrey she suffers with generalised anxiety disorder she can't leave the house and wears dark sunglasses all the time to avoid eye contact. She then meets her brothers friend Linus who sends her funny notes and slowly draws her out of her comfort zone to leave the house to go to Starbucks.
Linus is charming, funny and sweet and makes getting better seem achievable.

I feel that Kinsella perfectly captures the feelings that are attributed with anxiety and while I found the main character to be slightly irritating at times with the constant stating of being ill it is very true to the disorder- that it causes a person to focus solely on themselves and how they're feeling opposed to others so the characterisation was spot on.

The relationship between Audrey and Linus is ever so sweet and it keeps you routing for her to recover. As part of her recovery Audrey is told to keep a video diary of her family and of herself interviewing them. For this parts of the book were written in script form which I felt was a clever idea that showed things from an unbiased perspective.

I found the majority of the other characters to be hilarious especially the conversations between Audrey's mother Anne and her brother Frank. Anne being a daily mail addict constantly trying to do what she thinks is best for her children with some rather hilarious results including throwing her sons computer out of a window.
While Frank is the gaming addict who manages to have a clever response to practically every question.
I found the conversations between these two add some much needed humour to balance out the serious side of the book.

Overall I found this book to be a good read (I read it in a day after all) and i think that this will definitely be a good read for teenagers who may be suffering with anxiety. It's a subject that isn't fully understood or talked about often and this book characterises the feelings relating to it perfectly! A definite must read!

Book Review - Her by Harriet Lane

I've had a lot of spare time on my hands recently and have been using it to catch up on the books I 've had sat on the side waiting to be read.

In this pile was Her by Harriet Lane:

I have to say I am a massive fan of thriller/mystery type books so this one was just up my street.
The book centres on two characters Emma and Nina.
Emma is a young mother of two children and her life revolves around them she gave up her career for the children and her husband goes out to work leaving her to do most things.

Nina is the same age as Emma she has a 17 year old daughter who is independent and seems to be the perfect child, she's dating a much older man and is a very successful artist.

From the beginning of the book it becomes clear that Nina remembers Emma from long ago and that something happened that Nina can not forgive.

The book is shown from both of the women's different perspectives and shows how Nina slowly works her way back into Emma's life and befriends her.

This leaves you in suspense till the very end What did Emma do that was so bad? How did they know each other? What is Nina going to do once she is back in Emma's life?

So many questions I simply couldn't put it down. The book was well laid out you got a real sense of the characters and I felt there was almost a role reversal between the two where one was confident and pretty while young the other was awkward and didn't have many friends. It was interesting to see the roles switch as the two got older.

The ending was almost a cliffhanger leaving what happens open to observation from the reader. You think you know but it isn't confirmed.

If you are interested in Thrillers this is definitely a book to add to your too read list. Interesting characters, quick paced and so many questions that you want answers to that once you start it you won't stop until you have finished.