Becky's Book Reviews

It’s never too late to start (or restart) living the rest of your life. Disclaimer: This review also appears on Women24.com , a South African women's lifestyle website where I manage, amongst other things, an online books section. How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr (Usborne) I’ve always held the opinion that some of the best books are the novels that seem to have little to offer, but which result in you taking an unexpected journey into a story full of heart, introspection and battle-weary protagonists who discover that no matter how life treats you, glimmers of stars can still be seen in the dark. For me, Sara Zarr’s How to Save a Life ended up being one such book. I have of course, heard wonderful things about her novels, but having never read any of her work before I was understandably unsure of how I’d react to How to Save a Life. As a result, this book’s been sitting in my one of my shelves for months. I finally decided to pick the book up, and am very relieved to say that this b...

On the blog today, I’m spotlighting South African romance novelist, Rae Rivers. Rae, who is published by HarperImpulse , has written two books in a paranormal fantasy series called The Keepers so far. In this series we’re introduced to all manner of witchy, magical things where the book world focuses on powerful women who are witches and keepers, the men who are bound by blood to protect them. Aside from that, she’s also written a contemporary romance novel,  Cat Got Your Tongue ? , which you can read more about over here. HarperImpulse have also published Sienna,  a prequel to the Keepers series, which you can download free from Amazon. To add Sienna and the first book, Archer to your TBR list, head on over to Goodreads. In the meantime, you can find information about Declan , book 2 in the series, along with an excerpt from the book.   About Declan:   “You lied to me, misled me, attacked me,” Declan murmured, dipping his head toward hers, “but what we had three ...

You’ll fall in love with this movie the same way Hazel fell in love with Gus: slowly, and then all at once.   Disclaimer: This review first appeared on Channel24 , one of Women24’s sister sites. Cast: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Laura Dern, Nat Wolff Director: Josh Boone What it’s about: Hazel and Gus are two extraordinary teenagers who share an acerbic wit, a disdain for the conventional, and a love that sweeps them on an unforgettable journey. Their relationship is all the more miraculous, given that they met and fell in love at a cancer support group. The movie explores the funny, thrilling and tragic business of being alive and in love. What I thought: Let me start off with a quote in a feature article I recently wrote about why you should read The Fault in Our Stars before you see the movie: “...there are books...which you can't tell people about, books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like a betrayal.”  There’s been a lot of hype ...

Today I’d like to welcome Jodi Lamm, author of YA novels, Titan Magic series to my blog today. In her guest post today, Jodi tells us about her love of YA – a subject that all lovers of this genre can so very well relate to. There never seems to be a week that goes by without a negative article about young adult fiction appearing in every corner of the web, which is why I always love writing and featuring guest posts about how awesome the YA genre is and just how much there is to love about it. And really, we all know that most people who have something bad to say about Teen fiction have limited to absolutely no experience with the genre.  In today’s post, Jodi not only responds to the question about why she writes YA, but also what she loves most about the genre. Check out her post below, followed by info about her books. 3 Reasons I love YA fiction The question people usually ask after they find out I write is, "What do you write?" And my answer is something like, "Wel...