Before I begin, let me tell you that I am an avid fan of Sophie Kinsella, of the Shopaholic fame. I’ve read (and loved) almost all of the titles from that series and I was very excited when I stumbled upon “The Undomestic Goddess”. Similar to her previous writings, Sophie Kinsella has kept a comic undertone throughout the story even when describing some serious dilemmas.
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I am a sucker for romantic stories. I devour them and eat them like candy. And Hart Broken by Annie Arcane was no different. Well, it was, in that it tugged so deeply at your emotions and was absolutely beautiful and phenomenally written. I mean, talk about an emotional rollercoaster.
This girl…
The main character is Mickey, short for Mackensington (I am glad that she has a nickname!). Mickey is a photojournalist who never drinks. Until the night that she does. She does not do one-night-stands either, but here she is the next morning in another man’s luxurious silk bed… in a penthouse. Then there is Cale. Wonderful, god-like, sculpted Cale. Rich Cale. But there is one thing that sets him apart – he is in a wheelchair. Quickly there is a sparkle, yet they are both concealing things that they would prefer not to reveal. Both have pasts that influence how they respond to each other.
Hart Broken by Annie Arcane deals with very serious issues, but at the same time is so playful and full of laughter. At one point I think I was laughing, crying, and yelling at the same time. Yes, that can happen. I have never read a romance with a paraplegic main character, but man does it work. It is refreshing and feels very real and relatable. It is a side of romance I have never seen before and I absolutely adore it. It also shows how life is for a man in a wheelchair and brings a new perspective. It shows how they struggle on a day-to-day basis.
I am dying for the next book of this series (which is called Hart of His… cannot wait!), but I would not risk delving any juicy details by telling you why. You will just have to see for yourself.
Rating: 5 Stars
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The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle is a phenomenal young adult, YA, book. I immensely enjoyed it. In my opinion, The Infinite Moment of Us is a more modern take on Forever by Judy Bloom. While I think Forever is a great book that has become a pillar amongst the YA bookshelf, The Infinite Moment of Us has secondary storylines and more details than Forever included to some degree. Forever is a more direct story while The Infinite Moment of Us has a few additional underlying elements pertaining to the romance such as the family dynamics and past relationships.
Charlie and Wren were a really fun couple to read about. It’s fascinating and enjoyable that two people who went to the same high school, for all four years, could have vastly different experiences and never cross paths until graduation. Wren lived a very sheltered life, working hard to fulfill her parents’ goals and dreams for her. She was accepted to Emory University and has her future all mapped out. Charlie, on the other hand, has had a tough life and no clear career goals or college plans. When Charlie finally finds a family, his adopted younger brother is in a wheelchair and he must assist his foster parents in paying bills. The pair could not be more different. Charlie always thought of Wren as untouchable and developed a crush on her from afar, but never acted on his feelings. It is not until a graduation party that he realizes he will not have another chance. This summary may sound similar to the 1989 classic film Say Anything starring John Cusack and Ione Skye, but the stories progress differently.
I particularly enjoyed the characters were realistic and their emotions were relatable. For instance, Wren met Charlie’s ex-girlfriend, Starla, and she was not comfortable with Starla’s presence in Charlie’s life. As his love interest, why would she be comfortable with his ex-girlfriend? As a reader, Wren’s concerns were valid because it is awkward to see the person you like with someone else or strange to know that there was a previous relationship before yours. By Wren vocalizing this, she becomes a multidimensional character for the reader and a person with whom they could relate to and understand more in-depth.
On a side note, when I was on Goodreads, I came across a negative review of this book and was very upset by the write-up. The user cited Charlie and Wren’s relationship as antifeminist or portraying stereotypical gender roles. As someone who has taken numerous gender studies classes, in addition to studying gender roles in many genres, politics, films, and literature, I did not find that to be the case in the novel. Rather than think of Wren as a stereotypical girl, I found her disposition to be reminiscent of someone who is meek and new to the world, having been sheltered her entire life. I thought it made sense she turned to Charlie or her friend for explanations. Taking into account that Charlie had an unconventional upbringing, he is more worldly to some degree. That personality trait is not him being a stereotypical man but a well-written character. The pair are opposites in many ways, which is why the reader is interested in their relationship.
In the end, I highly recommend this novel for readers interested in young adult romance. Five out of five stars. While The Infinite Moment of Us focuses on a love story, there are many other details to entertain the reader such as fun secondary characters, witty dialogue, emotional elements, and some suspense.
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Glass Sword was an amazing sequel to an equally amazing book called Red Queen. I found Red Queen at a local bookstore and decided to give it a try. I don’t have a copy of Glass Sword, but my fellow book-lover and friend lent me her (signed) copy to read. Needless to say, It was superb. Not only fast-paced from the first chapter, Glass Sword also introduced more character development (yay!) and the end was a plot twist that made me ready for the next book! All of the characters were uniquely written, and the author had me cringing, gasping, laughing, sighing, blushing, and grabbing for the next few words all throughout the book.
Though Mare was definitely not my favorite character for the vast majority of the book because she was cruel and ruthless, I do appreciate flawed characters (Dumbledore and Snape, anyone?) and think that characters without flaws are flat and rather stock. Cal was, as usual, amazing (kind, intelligent, and, well, attractive) and definitely a new fictional boyfriend for me. Farley was amazing; a truly brave, strong young girl that today’s normalized society lacks in. I think all of the characters have matured greatly from Red Queen, especially Mare, who went from a little girl afraid and angry at the world to a mature young woman who understands the world (but is still afraid and angry).
The only aspect of Glass Sword that I feel could be improved is rather small, but still worth mentioning. I personally think that some of the action in the opening chapter could have been held back until a little later in the book. There should be a balance between the first few chapters of a book filled with rather boring plot and jumping straight into the action, and I feel like Mare, Cal, and the Red Guard should have been given more time to adjust from the events concluding Red Queen before running into battle. Â However, the rest of the book was brilliantly written, and I give kudos to Victoria Aveyard. Looking forward to the next book!
Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars.
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Rating: 3.5 stars.
Age Recommendation: Middle grade, maybe Lower Young Adult.
Warnings: Contains material that followers of certain religions might find offensive.
Genre: High Fantasy, Science-Fiction.
Urgent sounding chatter could be heard from outside the room. Something barely audible, about a State of the Union address. Alex held his ear near the door to listen. He heard talk of calming the citizens of the world, and readying the troops for battle.
The Secret of Christopher Topher, by Gee Williams, tells the story of a twelve-year-old boy named Alex Smiley, and how he and his friend Karen spend four years of their lives working to save the human race. The reader is taken along with them on their journey, learning about the truth of the human race’s history. As it turns out, the Roman Catholic Church is perhaps not what it seems. Equally, aliens ought to be taken very seriously if you’ve learned their true nature and history.
The story isn’t at all what I expected when I was sent a copy of the novel for review. Alex is a rather peculiar boy for being only twelve; he’s in love with his best friend, knows extinct languages, and has an impressive vocabulary. In truth, he isn’t what most people would expect when they think of a young boy. And that really is part of what makes him fit for the job of saving the world, rescuing the President and so on. When he finds a series of secret scrolls, written in a language that his father taught him how to read, he learns more about his dad than he ever imagined could be true. From there, everything is quite hectic and action-packed.
In truth, the plot of the story was well-thought out, and the twists – even early on – were surprising. I didn’t have any trouble accepting the new rules that Williams presented, given the genre in which the book was set (fantasy and science-fiction). However, I did have trouble with the writing style throughout.
Essentially, when I’m reading a novel, I like to find things out about the world, or the characters, by being shown things. For example, if a character is blonde and funny, I’d like to learn about that through circumstances rather than having the narrator or the novel simply tell me so. That’s why, when I first started and the initial paragraphs were about looks and personalities of multiple characters I had yet to meet, I was thrown off. Much of the story is presented in this way, with paragraphs of information that the main character shouldn’t have known, or information that could have been presented in a different way. Perhaps, if it had been spread out into a couple of novels, the information could have been given differently.
I do want to qualify what I’ve just said with this fact, though: My reading tastes are not necessarily the same as yours. I prefer to guess the ending of a book early on, to learn little things about characters that others may not have noticed. I think it comes from reading many series set in fantasy or dystopian worlds (such as Harry Potter or Divergent). But that does not mean that you, as a reader, won’t like this book.
It is not difficult to understand what’s going on, and is probably pretty good for young readers as far as vocabulary building goes. Some of the names of the alien species will be unpronounceable to those who have not taken a course in linguistics or phonetics, but there are several appendixes, giving extra information. It is not lost on anyone, I’m sure, that the author has done her research and is passionate about the story and the topic she has chosen.
If you’re looking for an easy read, or are hoping to find something fantastical for your kids to try out, consider giving this book a shot! It may not have been my cup of tea, per se, but it might surprise you, and might give a child the kickstart they need to grow into loving fiction.
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Having watched one friend after another succumb to the lure of Prozac, and the irresistible argument that it’s a chemical imbalance that’s responsible for all their problems (and not their difficult marriage, family circumstances or financial straits) – I’ve been searching for a book to finally put the whole ‘chemical imbalance’ debate to bed, once and for all.
If it exists, it must be provable, scientifically, and that information must be out in the public domain somewhere.
Sadly, the more I’ve been trying to find this proof, the clearer it’s becoming that the Loch Ness Monster is actually more of a fact than the ‘chemical imbalance’ theory of mental illnesses.
The latest nail in the coffin has been Robert Whitaker’s investigative masterpiece: Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America.
Whitaker is a seasoned journalist of many years’ standing, who went looking for an answer to the question: Do people taking psychotropic medications have a better quality of life over the long term?
He reasoned that if drugs like Prozac, Xanax, Abilify, Zyprexa, Adderal – and all the rest of them – really were ‘solving’ the problems causing mental illnesses, as claimed by groups like the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and of course, the pharmaceutical companies themselves, that should be showing up in much better long-term outcomes for patients who are taking their pills.
Whitaker spent a couple of years trawling through thousands of medical records, research studies and clinical trials to come to the stunning conclusion that not only are psychiatric drugs failing to provide any long term benefit to users, in many instances they are actually leading to even worse outcomes.
To quote just a couple of the more eye-opening findings from the book: Before the advent of psychopharmacology, around 76% of schizophrenic patients recovered by themselves, and went on to live productive lives, with around 50% never experiencing another psychotic break. By contrast in more modern times, only 5% of the schizophrenia patients who stayed on the drugs they were prescribed by their psychiatrists recovered enough to hold down a job and re-integrate into the communities.
In another chapter, Whitaker explained how the infamous ‘chemical imbalance’ theory has never been proved for any mental illness – despite 30 years’ of research – and told the story of a group of 6 ‘survivors of psychiatric drugs’ who went on a hunger strike in 2003, to try to force the APA into releasing the evidence they claimed to have proving the chemical imbalance existed.
The APA never responded.
And yet, this hasn’t stopped psychiatry building ever taller castles in the sky about how they can ‘diagnose’ increasing numbers of mental illnesses (around 350, by the last count) and ‘cure’ them by prescribing the right little pill.
One more piece of information: regular use of psychotropic medication has been proven to shorten patients’ lives by between 15-25 years on average – thanks to all the side effects that no-one really talks about, but that plenty people are still suffering very badly from.
Whitaker remains clinical and detached throughout, throwing in one additional fact, one extra scientific study, one more personal story after another, to carefully build his solid edifice of proof that the drugs don’t work.
By the end of Anatomy of an Epidemic, I literally felt sick to my stomach about the amount of deception, bogus science, greed and personal suffering woven into the whole sordid tale of psychiatric medicine.
I couldn’t help wondering about the dubious mental state of all the doctors and shrinks who are busy herding their trusting patients on to more and more meds, without telling them about all the side-effects, drawbacks and long-term suffering they are potentially letting themselves in for. Not for the first time, it struck me that in 2016, the lunatics really have taken over the asylum.
Anatomy of an Epidemic is beautifully written, but is not easy reading – particularly for those who still want to believe that their ‘chemical imbalance’ is the true source of their misery. But for anyone who wants to know the truth about psychotropic medications, and who wants to be reassured that drugs are NOT the route to happiness and wellbeing, and who wants to have the facts they need to debunk the many myths being told about what’s causing mental and emotional issues and how best to resolve them, Anatomy of an Epidemic is one of the very best out there.
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