Those are my goals for the coming year currently. If I can make it to the 12 month mark in March I will be ecstatic, but we shall see. I know everyone else posted about their goals in TTT, but do you tend to make goals for yourself at the beginning of each year ad do you ever manage to stick to them?

The Year I Met You – Cecilia Ahern

Genre: Contemporary, Chick-Lit

My Rating:

Jasmine loves two things: her sister and her work. And when her work is taken away she has no idea who she is.

Matt loves two things: his family and the booze. Without them, he hits rock bottom.

One New Year’s Eve, two people’s paths collide. Both have time on their hands; both are at a crossroads. But as the year unfolds, through moonlit nights and suburban days, an unlikely friendship slowly starts to blossom.

Sometimes you have to stop still in order to move on…

Original and poignant, The Year I Met You will make you laugh, cry and celebrate life.

I don’t know if I have ever written about my love for the author Cecilia Ahern on this blog, I probably haven’t because she is an author I have accepted as a must read and own author who I quietly love but don’t often talk about. It’s just an accepted fact in my mind that I love everything Ahern writes.  Well, this review will essentially be me raving about Cecilia Ahern and her wonderful writing.

I bought The Year I Met You last weekend, I saw it was out and just knew I had to own it because Ahern has never failed me in a book. There are books of hers I like better than others, but never have I been disappointed with her writing. This book was more of the same from her. It has excellent writing, lovable characters with a variety of flaws, the lovely setting of Ireland, and thought provoking themes and ideas. I cannot claim this has been one of my favourite books of hers, but it was certainly enjoyable. I began the book Sunday and finished it Monday night. I have allowed my self a couple of days to formulate my thoughts and here they are below.

I loved the characters, sure Jasmine may not always come across as the most likable of characters from her being so career and work driven and her frequent disregard for other characters feelings, but somehow that made me like her more, because she is a very believable person. I loved her obsession with Matt, her neighbour, her watching his life unfold and how she just referred to him as ‘you’ so often, like her life revolves around the goings on in his, which in many ways it does since she lost her job. Whilst she had previously been driven by her job and developing a business she now has nothing to focus upon so I got why she began obsessing over the ins and outs of Matt’s life. Not to a stalkerish level, but it was definitely an obsession. I enjoyed watching Matt’s life unfold from Jasmine's perspective as well, it was just so interesting.

Ahern always writes such wonderful characters, I loved Jasmine and her slight insanity and ridiculous ideas. With her passion for gardening which only occurred because sometimes you cannot rely upon others to get it right for you. Matt was such an excellent character, he was flawed and needed to sort himself out, but you understand how he got there, because sometimes we all lose our way and end up getting ourselves in a mess because we lose perspective. The relationship which develops throughout the book between Matt and Jasmine was one of my favourite relationships in the book because it is unexpected. The interactions between the pair were so fun, they were funny, the banter was excellent and it was just so prefect. It was scathing without being ridiculous, the back and forth was awesome and really their relationship was the kind that everyone needs. That outsider to keep handing perspective to you in your life, because often you don’t know the mess your in until someone helps point it out to you.

I don’t know what it is about Ahern’s books, but there is something about them that makes them wonderful. I don’t know if I can even fully explain it properly to you, which is awful, because I feel like I need you to understand what I love about her books. This book is of the very real variety, that may seem like a strange thing to state about a book, but often she writes magical realism, I think that’s the term anyway. I really love those books as well, because sometimes you do feel like you need a bit of magic of the everyday variety because things are getting you down, so some of the ideas she has really brighten your day when you contemplate them being real. They’re lovely really, I sometimes think I prefer those books over her normal contemporary books, but then I read one and remember no matter what she does she writes lovely stories with real characters and with real issues within.

I would recommend this book to anyone that is feeling a bit lost in life and feeling a bit down. It’s just such a lovely uplifting read that can give you that kick up the arse to remember it’s not all doom and gloom, but only if you can be bothered to put the effort in to sort yourself out. I think it would be the perfect read for the New Year, because it is all about starting afresh, but it’s perfect for anytime really.

I read four books this week. I feel that is pretty good. Two of them fit the sex part of the readathon and embody the whole #letsgetiton hashtag, the other two were fun reads which touched on sex but were basically light easy YA reads which were quite refreshing after the NA binge I’ve had in the past few weeks. I enjoyed all the books which I’ve read, it’s been an enjoyable week, although I did start to get worried by the middle of the week that I just wasn’t reading book which fit into the #sexmeupreadathon theme, and I also wasn’t reading many of the books on my reading list. Then I remembered that this is meant to be for fun and that I’ve never been able to stick to set schedule on reading, so why stress?

It’s been a fun week with some great posts over on the Sex Me Up Readathon page. I’ve discovered bloggers whom I might never have heard of without this and it’s been refreshing to say the least. It was so nice to read posts from people I don’t read all the time, and to find bloggers who don’t stick to the same YA books that I often see on blogs (not that I’m complaining, but variety is the spice of life) so it has been refreshing.

This week has also made me think about myself as a reader. I know what kind of reader I am. I am a binge reader that gets completely absorbed in a book, a world, a series, or a genre. I am all or nothing with my reading. I binge and I read quickly. I f a book lasts more than a couple of days I feel my attention waning. I am not a planner, but an impulsive reader, I get a book in my mind and I have to read it. These are not the things I’ve realised, it’s more my views on readers and reading that have changed. I know I can be quite a judgmental person when it comes to reading and books, I try not to be, I am making a conscious effort to remember not to judge a person by the books they read. I’d dread to think of the conclusions people might reach about me if they did that to me. It’s certainly something I have gotten over now, but when I first began reading again a couple of years ago, when I’d finished uni, I was quite judgemental, even of myself.

This week I’ve read some fabulous posts by numerous people and they have all reminded me of one simple thing. I should not be embarrassed about what I’m reading, and I shouldn’t care or judge what others are reading. We all have genres and books which we enjoy to read, even if others don’t like them. We should not have to hide books we read for fear of being judged by others. I happen to enjoy new adult books, despite the clichés, the oft predictable storylines, and the sometimes poor characterisations and relationships which appear in them. I don’t mind people knowing that. I am also a sucker for romance novels, like the ones which would not be bodice rippers, but they are definitely of the steamier variety. I’m okay with people knowing that. I often tried to hide it, but I don’t know why anymore.

I have also realised that these books which I am reading, there are plenty of other people reading the same things, I am not alone. Since I have spent such a long time being a bit embarrassed by what I read, as it is not serious and highbrow, I forgot that others read the books that I do. Probably because I did not talk about these books to others, so they could not mention their thoughts or if they had read them too. Anyway, it has been nice to see others reading the books I have not previously mentioned to others. To remember I am not alone in the books I read and get to discuss them with others.

Anyway, I hope you have all enjoyed the readathon and that you have remembered that sex is not a thing to be embarrassed by, and that a healthy attitude to sex is needed, something I think is often forgotten.

Something Like Normal – Trish Doller
Rating:
When Travis returns home from a stint in Afghanistan, his parents are splitting up, his brother’s stolen his girlfriend and his car, and he’s haunted by nightmares of his best friend’s death. It’s not until Travis runs into Harper, a girl he’s had a rocky relationship with since middle school, that life actually starts looking up. And as he and Harper see more of each other, he begins to pick his way through the minefield of family problems and post-traumatic stress to the possibility of a life that might resemble normal again. Travis’s dry sense of humor, and incredible sense of honor, make him an irresistible and eminently lovable hero.

Full Measures – Rebecca Yarros

Rating:
Three knocks can change everything…

"She knew. That’s why Mom hadn’t opened the door. She knew he was dead."

Twenty years as an army brat and Ember Howard knew, too. The soldiers at the door meant her dad was never coming home. What she didn’t know was how she would find the strength to singlehandedly care for her crumbling family when her mom falls apart.

Then Josh Walker enters her life. Hockey star, her new next-door neighbor, and not to mention the most delicious hands that insist on saving her over and over again. He has a way of erasing the pain with a single look, a single touch. As much as she wants to turn off her feelings and endure the heartache on her own, she can’t deny their intense attraction.

Until Josh’s secret shatters their world. And Ember must decide if he’s worth the risk that comes with loving a man who could strip her bare.