I used to say I wasn’t much of a contemporary reader, but my taste in books has really changed lately. I find myself reaching for romance and contemporaries a lot more now and I’m having a great time.
All This Time by Rachael Lippincott & Mikki Daughtry
It is becoming clear now that I love Rachael Lippincott and Mikki Daughtry as I put Five Feet Apart in a recent standalones post.
This book is a rollercoaster of emotion and the plot twist is genuinely not very guessable. Believe me, I tried. I did get close, but I never would have gotten it exactly right.
At times this can be quite a hard read as it deals with depression, grief and survivor’s guilt, but don’t worry this doesn’t last forever. There’s a real feel-good vibe to the second half of the book and it honestly such a joy to read.
You will find yourself rooting for the characters of this book and you really just want it to have a happy ending. I found that I was genuinely emotional whilst reading this, so buckle up.
Synopsis: Kyle and Kimberly have been the perfect couple all through high school, but when Kimberly breaks up with him on the night of their graduation party, Kyle’s entire world upends—literally. Their car crashes and when he awakes, he has a brain injury. Kimberly is dead. And no one in his life could possibly understand.
Until Marley. Marley is suffering from her own loss, a loss she thinks was her fault. And when their paths cross, Kyle sees in her all the unspoken things he’s feeling.
As Kyle and Marley work to heal each other’s wounds, their feelings for each other grow stronger. But Kyle can’t shake the sense that he’s headed for another crashing moment that will blow up his life as soon as he’s started to put it back together.
And he’s right.
Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young
I think this was the first Viking themed book I ever read and honestly, I loved it. The best part of this being how brutal and fierce main character Eelyn was and also how she develops and matures over time.
I really enjoyed learning about the culture and traditions of the two different clans and how even though the end was quite predictable it was good all the same. With a minimal romance subplot, this is a great read for anyone who is looking for an action-packed plotline.
I actually thought that this was going to be a series, so I was really surprised when it ended. However, it was a really fun and exciting read and surprisingly fleshed out for a standalone which felt like it could be a part of a series.
Synopsis: Raised to be a warrior, seventeen-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient, rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: fight and survive. Until the day she sees the impossible on the battlefield―her brother, fighting with the enemy―the brother she watched die five years ago.
Faced with her brother’s betrayal, Eelyn is captured and must survive the winter in the mountains with the Riki, in a village where every neighbour is an enemy, every battle scar possibly one she delivered. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan thought to be a legend, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved family.
She is given no choice but to trust Fiske, her brother’s friend, who sees her as a threat. They must do the impossible: unite the clans to fight together, or risk being slaughtered one by one. Driven by a love for her clan and her growing love for Fiske, Eelyn must confront her own definition of loyalty and family while daring to put her faith in the people she’s spent her life hating.
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