lucythereader

    9 Books I’m Excited to Read

    April 8, 2020

    There are so many books that I’m excited to read at the moment that will be released in the next few months — so I thought I would share some of them with you today, so that hopefully you will be just as excited as I am!

    One of the best ways you can support your favourite authors is by pre-ordering their books, so if you are able, please do consider it when reading this post! I’m sure I can speak on their behalf when I say it would very much be appreciated. Plus, you’ll get a fantastic read on publication!

    1. The Vanishing Trick by Jenni Spangler

    This one is cheating a little bit … because I’ve already started reading it! The Vanishing Trick is a Victorian fantasy for children, and begins with an orphan, Leander, falling into the hands of the indomitable Madame Augustina Pinchbeck, and subsequently thrown into a world of magic, folklore and illusions.

    I believe that Jenni Spangler is the next big voice in children’s magical history fiction, and is set to take the middle grade world by storm. If you’re looking for vivid settings, fantastic writing, and characters to root for, you need to read this.

    Published on 30th April 2020 by Simon and Schuster Children’s UK.

    2. Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson

    One of my favourite YA books of last year was A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson — and I know I’m not the only one! It was a runaway success, and for very good reason. Good Girl, Bad Blood is the sequel and follows main character Pip as she deals with the aftermath of the first book, as well as a new murder to solve.

    If you haven’t read A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder yet, now is the perfect time! You’ll love it if you enjoy fast-paced murder mysteries with innovative formatting and enough twists to give you whiplash. I found it impossible to put down!

    Published 30th April 2020 by Electric Monkey

    3. Asking for a Friend by Kate Mallinder

    Kate Mallinder writes the perfect feel-good books that I think are brilliant for young teens. Her debut, published last year, was Summer of No Regrets, and I’m hoping that Asking for a Friend will be another book that will make you feel as if you’re lying under the sun on the beach.

    In Asking for a Friend, three teenagers are thrown together on the school bus and plan a pre-exam “study break” trip to Weston, but they’re not all being truthful about their reasons for heading there. It’s described as being about “valuing the friends who value you” — one of my favourite YA themes! How good does it sound?! I can’t wait!

    Published 21st May 2020 by Firefly Press

    4. Heartbreak Boys by Simon James Green

    Simon James Green is one of my favourite YA writers, although I do read his books very slowly — because I’m always laughing too much to read them any quicker! The concept of Heartbreak Boys is AMAZING: two boys, Jack and Nate, find themselves dumped by their boyfriends, who are now going out. So they decide to show that they’re having a great time without them and embark on a road trip.

    I am in love already!! I can tell I am going to adore this — it sounds like just my thing!

    Published in August 2020 by Scholastic

    5. The Strangeworlds Travel Agency by L.D Lapinski

    Another magical middle grade! The Strangeworlds Travel Agency has been compared to Jessica Townsend’s Nevermoor, which is one of my favourite children’s books, so I’m sure this will be right up my street. I’ve already heard very good things from early reviewers!

    Imagine stepping into a suitcase and being transported to a different world. Well, that’s the premise of the book: 12-year-old Flick is invited to join the Strangeworlds Travel Agency, visiting other worlds through the suitcases, but soon learns that the city of Five Lights, at the centre of the world, is in trouble — and she has to race against time to fix it before it disappears, taking our world with it.

    Published 30th April 2020 by Hachette Children’s Group

    6. Destination Anywhere by Sara Barnard

    There’s nothing better than a new Sara Barnard novel. One of my favourite books of all time is A Quiet Kind of Thunder, and I’ve also read and loved all of her other books. So I was very happy to hear that there’ll be a new one this year: Destination Anywhere!

    The book centres on 17-year-old Peyton, who has had a very tough time at school but is hoping things will improve once she gets to sixth form. The story takes her to Canada, where she hopes to find her place in the world, and I love the idea of a UKYA book set in Canada — which, I think, will be a first for me!

    Very exciting!

    Published 25th June 2020 by Macmillan Children’s Books

    7. Afterlove by Tanya Byrne

    I am SO excited for a new Tanya Byrne book! As a young teen, I devoured Heartshaped Bruise and Follow Me Down, so you can imagine how extreme my excitement was when I first heard about Afterlove. Tanya is one of the best voices in UKYA, and I can’t wait for even more people to discover just how wonderful she is.

    When Ash is hit by a car, she exists in the afterlife, where she becomes a fierce girl-reaper and collect the souls of the city’s dead. However, Ash also can’t forget her first love, Poppy, and is determined to see her again, either dead or alive. I would very much like to be able to close my eyes and wish upon a star to be reading this immediately!

    Published in August 2020 by Hodder Children’s Books

    8. Moonchild: Voyage of the Lost and Found by Aisha Bushby (illustrated by Rachael Dean)

    When Amira and her sea-witch mothers are shipwrecked, they reach the Sahar Peninsula, a land that is recorded by no map and can only be reached by crossing the horizon. Amira has a jinn — an animal companion, Namur, who takes the form of a cat, and when she gets the chance to explore on land, she meets a boy who is just like her. But when Namur goes missing, Amira will learn what it really means to be a Moonchild.

    I may sneakily be reading Moonchild at the moment and I can confirm that it is AMAZING. Exquisitely written and vividly drawn, it feels like you’re reading a Studio Ghibli film. I always read Aisha’s writing with wonder, and her stories make me feel as if I’m a child again. Moonchild is no different!

    Published 6th August 2020 by Egmont

    9. Dangerous Remedy by Kat Dunn

    It’s been a long time since I’ve read a really good fantasy YA, mainly because my tastes tend to go towards contemporary (as you can probably tell from this list!), but I have a feeling that Dangerous Remedy is going to become a new fantasy favourite, especially as it’s drawn comparisons to the Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo.

    It’s set during the French Revolution where Camille, the daughter of a revolutionary, leads a group of rebellions called the Battalion des Mortes, who save the lives of those destined for the guillotine. I’m always very keen to support UKYA fantasy, which never fails to impress — and deserves lots of attention!

    Published 5th May 2020 by Zephyr

    What books are you looking forward to reading soon? 

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    12 Bookish Facts About Me | An Introduction

    February 24, 2020

    Hello and welcome to lucythereader.com! My name is Lucy Powrie and you may know me as the author of The Paper & Hearts Society, as a booktuber or from my previous blog, Queen of Contemporary, which I started in 2012 when I was 12 years old.

    Here’s the thing about starting a blog when you’re 12: you change a lot in the subsequent years. There are many things I’d do the same if I had the chance, but there’s also a lot I’d do very differently.

    So I’ve decided to say (a sad, tentative) goodbye to Queen of Contemporary, while still keeping it as an archive of the blogging work I’ve done in the years to date, and wave hello to lucythereader, my brand new blog where I’m looking forward to sharing more of my bookish personality, life, and thoughts.

    To introduce you to me, I thought I’d share 12 bookish facts about myself!

    12 Bookish Facts About Me

    1. I’ve ALWAYS loved reading, and can’t remember a time when I haven’t loved it. I would get a bedtime story every night and would beg my mum for more and more and more, except I’d turn around and she’d already be asleep. Books never made me want to go to bed — I craved more!

    2. When I was younger, I gravitated towards animal stories — I devoured all of Beatrix Potter’s books, wanted to live in Jill Barklem’s Brambly Hedge, and used to think I was Katharine Holabird and Helen Craig’s Angelina Ballerina. They’re still the books that make me feel the most warm and cosy because I have such fond memories of reading them.

    3 . My favourite book is Shirley by Charlotte Brontë! I’m almost constantly re-reading it, diving in to my favourite passages and learning more about myself along the way. The main characters, Shirley Keeldar and Caroline Helstone, have the most wonderful friendship, and even though it isn’t as polished as Jane Eyre, I think it’s the more charming of the two.

    4. My favourite book may have been written by Charlotte, but my favourite author (and poet) is Emily Brontë. Wuthering Heights had a life-changing effect on me: it was a friend to me when I was going through one of my darkest times; it opened so many doors, such as being able to work with the Brontë Society. I’d never read anything so brutally dark yet hopeful before, where the landscape was a character just as much as any of the characters were. I love it with all my heart.

    5. My favourite Brontë story is from Emily’s time in Brussels. She didn’t exactly fit in, wearing odd clothes and not interacting with other people in the ways  they expected to be interacted with, but when questioned she said: “I wish to be as God made me.” They are words I always remind myself of when I worry what other people may think of me. If Emily Brontë was true to herself, I can be too!

    6. The first YA book I remember reading was The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot and I read all of the other books in the series, and then the rest of Meg Cabot’s novels, in quick succession. I fell in love with Mia and rooted for her and Michael, couldn’t get enough of Lilly and Tina and all her other friends. I was very happy when the adult sequel was published! I felt like I’d come full circle with Mia.

    7. The first time I remember wanting to be a writer was aged 8. I was tasked in a literacy lesson with writing a story based on a picture of a small stream. I wrote about a duck called Genius and a water vole, and when the lesson had finished I rushed home to write the ending. Maybe I should dig that one out of the archives?!

    8. The Paper & Hearts Society was the first novel I’d ever written and began with the idea for a literary road trip, inspired by the literary locations I’d visited myself the summer I began writing it: Bath, Stratford-Upon-Avon, and the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire.

    9. I write all of my books for my past self. The Paper & Hearts Society for my 16 year old self, who was in desperate need of friends who would stick by her no matter what; Read with Pride is written for my 17 year old self, who wanted to know there were people like her out there; and the third book in The Paper & Hearts Society is going to be written for my 18 year old self.

    10. I find audiobooks very hard to listen to. Instead, I love listening to radio adaptations of my favourite classics, which I find I can become far more absorbed in. Particular favourites include Rachel Joyce’s adaptations of all of the Brontës’ novels!

    11. I can’t read one book at a time. I have to be reading multiple or I get impatient! It does become quite difficult to keep track of what I’m reading, so I now have a notebook where I can write all the titles down.

    12. I am TERRIFIED of horror novels or anything remotely scary and always have been. Horror is one of the few genres I would ever refuse to read!

    I hope you enjoyed the first lucythereader post! I’d love to know an interesting bookish fact about you in the comments!

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