Review: Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill

Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill

Publisher: Quercus
Publication date: 2nd July 2015
Buy Links: Amazon UK
Source: I have received this book via The Ninja Book Swap

Synopsis

frieda and isabel have been best friends their whole lives.

Now, aged sixteen and in their final year at the School, they expect to be selected as companions – wives to wealthy and powerful men. The alternative – life as a concubine – is too horrible to contemplate.

But as the intensity of the final year takes hold, the pressure to remain perfect becomes almost unbearable. isabel starts to self-destruct, putting her beauty – her only asset – in peril.

And then, the boy arrive, eager to choose a bride.

frieda must fight for her future – even if it means betraying the only friend, the only love, she has ever known…

My thoughts

Wow – I don’t know where to start with writing my review on this… I found this a heavy book to read and finish, it took me longer than normal as I needed breaks in between to let the story sink in. It is a Dystopian, but most of it fits in the society we have right now when it comes to ‘beauty’.

The girls are bred to serve men in three different purposes, to be either a Companion, a Concubine or a Chastity. From the age of 4 they are put in a school, although sounds more like a prison, and they are being bred and have to follow rules to get them ready for their ceremony day when they turn 17. There are daily fights and struggles with food, calories, beauty and of course weight. They rank each other and always picks out each other flaws on a day to day basis and there are even special classes for it.
They don’t see any boys till a couple of months before their ceremony – these boys will choose an eve (the girls) for their liking and those women who are companions will bear as many sons as their womb can take them and then they get cast away when they are 40. When the boys are here you will have the weird ranking but then also done by the boys and you will have the ‘Heavenly Seventy’ where the girl is put in a closet with a boy who has chosen her.

It took me a little while to get into the story, because I wasn’t prepared for the shock of how it started. The situation for the girls starts of bad and gradually gets worse. And when you think it can’t get worse…. it will!

I loved reading about Isabel and Freida – note that all women names are written in lower case and not in capital because they don’t mean anything in life – they are worthless.
Such a shockingly honest book – one that will stay with me for a long time. I can definitely recommend this book to people, but there is a lot of worrying stuff in it about weight, food and vomiting…

Definitely go read this book and I can’t wait for Louise O’Neill’s next book which is coming out in September called: ‘Asking for it’. Another quite controversial read I think.

Cover reveal: The Haunted Heart of Rory O’Dannon by Delia Colvin

THE HAUNTED HEART OF RORY O’DANNON

 BY DELIA COLVIN

 

Is the love of Megara’s life a hallucination — or a ghost? 

The Irish poet Rory O’Dannon came to Megara during a high fever, but she never forgot. Twenty years later she still mourns him. Her marriage to charismatic Ken Benedict was a pragmatic decision as she no longer believes in true love.

Until a car accident catapults her back to 19th century Ireland–and into Rory’s arms.

Finally united with the love of her dreams, and believing she has died, Megara commits her heart to him. But when she wakes from a coma, she is forced to accept that Rory was fictional–until she finds the wedding band he gave her.

Will she choose life with her husband, or death and a mere chance for love with Rory?

 

About Delia Colvin

Delia is the international bestselling author of The Oracle Series. She is both a screenwriter and a novelist and has been a featured author on several popular blogs, books and magazines including Southern Writers Magazine and others.

She has worked as an entrepreneur, in sales and advertising, in Air Traffic Control, and as a Russian interpreter. Delia lives in Granada Hills, California.

For more information about Delia J. Colvin and her upcoming releases, contact her at DeliaJColvin@gmail.com

www.DeliaColvin.com

My July’s bookhaul

I want to get back into showing you a monthly post in what I have received, this could mean received for review or bought myself, in books; these could be paperbacks, hardbacks and ebooks… However, it has been a while I have treated myself to books I am to excited to wait till the end of the month….! BUT, it is almost August so I can count this as my July Bookhaul I guess?? haha ^_^

First up is my haul from Waterstones, I had a £25 giftcard to spend…. so I went online bought the ones I had on my wishlist for ages and eagerly awaited the parcel and I was most excited when it arrives…. Look at the pretties!!

The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare – I have been wanting to get this for AGES! I just love Magnus Bane and I am considering re-reading The Infernal Devices series as I just love that one so much….

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard – I have heard many good things about this and I have a sampler at home… So I just had to get it.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown – Another one I have heard good things about and am curious to start reading.

Half Bad by Sally Green – Again something I have heard good things about, it was on my wishlist for ages…. so now I have it!

Geek girl by Holly Smale – I know, a bit out of my normal reading genre – but it sounds quite amusing and it would be a lovely quick read and the title sums me up really.!

Next up are the books I bought from my local charity shops – I did went out with a purpose of buying books, but of course it will always be a surprise on what is actually out there. But again look at these lovelies! Most are bought to also complete my series ^_^
Just a side note – I have to peel stickers of books…. Why do people leave those stickers on the books… why… why…why??

Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia – Well I have the first 2 books in this series and I want them complete …. Although I haven’t really read the first one, Beautiful Creatures yet…

Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia – because… well it is there and it is book 4 and it is part of the series… enough said?

The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion – I have The Rosie Project on my TBR and I just had to have this ready for when I finally read and finish book 1.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday – now…. this may shock you… I honestly didn’t realise this was a book! I do quite enjoy the film so I thought why not try the book.

So that is it for my bookhaul! What books have you bought this month? And which ones have you read? Let me know!

Doei,

Charlie

Promo Post: Cradled Dreams by Beverly Hoffman

Cradled Dreams

By Beverly Hoffman

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Release Date: April 2013

Publisher: Abbott Press

As her family gathers for Thanksgiving, Georgie’s heartbreak is hard to conceal. After years of pursuing her dreams of motherhood, she has recently learned that her last option to conceive has failed. Grim amid the festive holiday celebrations, Georgie feels that she has little reason to give thanks.

Her sister-in-law, Robin, desperate to ease Georgie’s suffering, struggles for a way to help. On loving impulse, she offers a solution-surrogacy.

Flush with excitement, neither woman can predict how her life will change. But each is comforted by the knowledge that her love for the other will guide the way. Soon, after in vitro using a relative’s sperm and her own egg, Robin shares the joyous news that she is pregnant. Every conversation sparkles with her private joy at the gift she could give her sister-in-law. But she encounters unexpected criticism when discussing the plan with others. She must now deal with judgment and questions about ethics. Relationships are strained. Both must pay emotional costs they never anticipated. Soon, questions they never asked begin to haunt them both.

Where do boundaries of possibility meet long-term responsibility? Under what circumstances does science need to pause to consider moral outcomes? When organs and tiny bones grow in spite of circumstances never seen in nature, where does motherhood begin and end?

And most haunting of all is the question Robin couldn’t ask herself on that first day: Will she really be able to give up the child for the sake of Georgie’s dream?

Buy links

Amazon.com

Amazon UK

About the Author

Beverly Hoffman spent her childhood in Texas eating barbeque and drinking Big Reds. After college, she and her husband, Marty, moved to Panama, where she taught English for twenty-six years. Beverly loved to push her students to realize their full potential. She was able to help her students by taking huge assignments apart and helping them accomplish discrete pieces and then put all of them together into a finished project.

While in Panama, Beverly explored the country. She rode her bike 57 miles in one day from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, paddled the Panama Canal twice, and participated in Green Hell, an obstacle course, which included rappelling out of a 30 foot building.
Beverly and her husband later retired to Sequim, Washington, where they enjoy the bounty of fresh Dungeness crab, Washington wines, and family.
Beverly has a Masters degree in English and has been in a writing group for over six years. Beverly loves writing and hopes that through her books, she can get people to explore new concepts. Join Beverly on Facebook for giveaways, scenic photos, and more information about her books at https://www.facebook.com/AuthorBeverlyHoffman.

Giveaway

Copy of the book!

A paperback copy of the book (U.S only)

Ecopy of the book (outside U.S)

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/4be0301791/

Cover Reveal: Fluence by Stephen Oram

FLUENCE 

Ten thousand minutes and counting 

By Stephen Oram 

 

Genre: Dystopian  

Published by Silverwood Books 

Amber is young and ambitious. Martin is burnt out by years of struggling. She cheats to get what she wants while he barely clings on to what he has. It’s the week before the annual Pay Day when strata positions are decided by the controlling corporations. The social media feed is frenetic with people trying to boost their influence rating while those above the strata and those who’ve opted out pursue their own manipulative goals.

Fluence is a story of aspiration and desperation and of power seen and unseen. It’s a story of control and consequence. It’s the story of the extremes to which Amber and Martin are prepared to go in these last ten thousand minutes before Pay Day.

BUY LINK

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fluence-Stephen-Oram/dp/1781323631

ABOUT STEPHEN ORAM

Like each and every one of us, my perspective of the world has been affected by many people and experiences: as a teenager I was heavily influenced by the ethos of punk; in my early twenties I embraced the squatter scene and then joined a religious cult, briefly; I did some computer stuff in what became London’s silicon roundabout; and I’m now a civil servant with a gentle attraction to anarchism. I really enjoy taking a sideways look at our world and thinking, “what if,” and then writing about it through speculative fiction.

https://www.facebook.com/StephenOramAuthor

https://twitter.com/OramStephen

www.stephenoram.net

http://stephenoram.net/fluence/

http://stephenoram.net/fluence/#alerts