Summer Reading: All the Bright Places review

One of my absolute favourite parts of summertime is spending copious amounts of time reading; and I mean everything, books, magazines, journals, blogs and articals. Absolutely anything. Despite rationally knowing its good to take a break from studying, I find it so hard during the term time to sit down and focus on reading for pleasure. There's always a tiny little part of me that thinks I should be doing something more 'productive' - whatever that is!

Anyway, I tend to resolve to read more during the summer (as you'll know if you've been with me for a while) but I had exams to sit last summer due to illness during the official examination period. This year, however, I have been delivered the prospect of a fabulous almost care-free summer with plenty of free time and endeavor to spend a lot more time reading so I'm keen to share the highs and the lows of it with you.

The first of my big summer reads was All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven and, having seen a handful of reviews, I had great expectations built up about this book. The novel tells the story of two contrasting characters Violet and Finch, who meet unexpectedly meet on top of their school bell tower with both characters contemplating suicide. We travel with these characters on a journey involving several small road trips as well as their own individual more abstract journeys: Violet and her journey through grief, and Finch's journey through mental illness.

All The Bright Places is gripping from the get-go and I was unable to put the novel down from start to end. I was constantly curious to know what would happen next and shell-shocked to find myself shed a few tears (quite a sight on a sunbed I believe) in the final chapters.


I found that the novel portrayed some important and thought-provoking messages including the idea that you can love someone unconditionally, but you still can't always save them. It also addressed the issue of mental health in a way that is (in my experience) understandable and realistic.

On top of this, I read All the Bright Places whilst on a family holiday and immediately after finishing it, I recommended it to my younger sister who really doesn't enjoy reading. She managed to get through the book in a record-breaking 6 hour time period and was absolutely hooked, then decided she really enjoys reading after all. So thank you Jennifer Niven.

I'll be back soon with some more reviews and some general chat, but in the meantime, keep smiling :)

Kathryn x

Booktober: week 4

So you may or may not have noticed but these haven't quite been going up on time. I've been extremely busy with lots of things but mostly working on blog posts for the future so don't think I've been slacking; just been working on things that I'm not ready for you to read yet!

Book four of my Booktober is An Abundance of Katherines which is another of John Green's novels. And you should be pleased to know that I was a lot more impressed by this one! 

I was thoroughly gripped by this novel from the word go! It shows the story of a young man's journey to find love in the most perfect form. But he just doesn't seem to be having any luck at all. What makes it even funnier is that all thirteen of his attempts at a relationship involve a girl called Katherine. In fact, maybe that's what drew me to the novel. It gets to the point at which he's naming his past girlfriends as if they're members of the royal monarchy (Katherine the Second and Katherine VII). We are taken on a romantic (but a little bit cheesy) whirlwind adventure to meet all of the Katherines and learn where they all went wrong. And I guess I felt sorry for the protagonist on more than one occasion; I was practically begging the pages to let him have some success! 

I really enjoyed the humour in the novel as it made the novel a lot moreover a  lighthearted and enjoyable read. 

In fact, the only criticism I have is about the spelling of 'Katherine'. For all 13 of them! 

Keep smiling,

Kathryn x