Blog – Page 64 – Lyndsey Hall

Review: Perfect by Cecelia Ahern

Review Perfect Cecelia Ahern Lyndsey's Book Blog

Hi guys! I have news 🙂 On Wednesday 11th April my beautiful baby boy finally arrived! He’s officially eight weeks old today. I can’t believe I’m the mum of a two month old baby… While I bury my head in the sand and try to ignore the fact I’m now frighteningly grown up and completely responsible for another human life, here’s a little book review for your reading pleasure.

The first book in this duology, Flawed, was the first book I ever reviewed on this blog! You can check out my review here, if you haven’t read book one and don’t want any spoilers then I wouldn’t recommend reading on…

TL;DR Celestine is in hiding after escaping the clutches of Judge Crevan and his Whistleblowers. Holed up in a Flawed safe-house with a group of fellow branded outcasts, she’s a sitting duck when the Whistleblowers eventually turn up to raid the facility. Forced to go on the run again, she decides to hunt down the one person who may be able to help her overturn her Flawed sentence, but will she find the elusive footage and expose Judge Crevan for the monster he really is?

So, we left Celestine at the end of Flawed leaving her parents’ home and going on the run from Judge Crevan and his Whistleblowers, and we meet her again at the beginning of Perfect hiding out on her granddad’s farm. If you remember, Granddad is a Flawed sympathiser who speaks out against Crevan and his court, and helps Celestine when she first goes into hiding in book one. He’s an absolute legend with zero filter, like many granddads, which unfortunately means he’s already on the court’s radar, so it’s not long before the Whistleblowers turn up to raid his property in search of Celestine.

Barely escaping a pretty horrifying and fiery death, our girl Celestine is forced to run again, and with the help of some old friends, winds up at a facility where Flawed are hidden and employed in secret. She’s reunited with Carrick, but the peace doesn’t last long as Whistleblowers soon arrive, having been tipped off to Celestine’s location by someone she considered a friend. Worse, a familiar face is among the soldiers sent to escort her to Highland Castle.

With nowhere left to run, Celestine is forced to seek out the one person who might be able to help her overturn her Flawed sentence, if only she can find the lost footage of her sixth brand. If she discovers the tape in time, she’ll have a decision to make that could impact on the entire country – use the footage to blackmail Judge Crevan and have her sentence overturned, or release the tape and expose Crevan for the monster he is, in the hopes this revelation brings about the demise of the Guild itself. Will she save herself, or sacrifice her only leverage in order to free her fellow Flawed from their own sentences?

You’ll have to read it to find out! 😉

Perfect is a gripping novel that provides a satisfying conclusion to the Flawed series, answering some of the questions we’re left with after book one and posing several more about ethics, morality and humanity. There are parallels with the Nazi regime in this book that highlight the ease with which people can be turned against a subgroup of society, given enough indoctrination.

The Flawed are stripped of all life’s luxuries, forced to eat a bland diet, given a strict curfew, banned from gathering in groups of three or more, and forbidden from enjoying many of what we would consider basic human rights.

The rest of society are threatened with being labelled Flawed themselves if they so much as help a Flawed person, suggesting that being Flawed is practically contagious. Sympathising with the Flawed’s plight is tantamount to openly criticising the Guild, another surefire way to wind up branded Flawed yourself, so people avoid their Flawed neighbours, treat them as lesser, something to be pitied and feared, which makes the Guild’s job of alienating the Flawed and controlling the general public even easier.

It’s a terrifyingly credible series of events.

I gave Perfect 3.5 stars, the same star rating I gave Flawed, it’s a well written sequel and a satisfying conclusion, I enjoyed reading it, but it wasn’t completely unputdownable, and I would have loved to feel more gripped. A little more tension and threat would have made this a four star read.

If you love dystopian stories, you’ll definitely enjoy Flawed and Perfect, the premise is equally fascinating and quietly disturbing, and Ahern’s execution is perfectly tuned to the Young Adult genre, after dozens of incredibly successful adult novels.

Have you read the Flawed series? What were your thoughts, did you find the concept believable? Let me know in the comments.

Lyndsey

Review: The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

I listened to the audio book of The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee back in September, and it was one of my absolute favourite reads of 2017! (Check out My top five books of 2017)

TL;DR Monty and Percy are best friends and high-born gentlemen living their best lives in 1800s London. Drink, gambling and general debauchery are the order of the day, until their Grand Tour of Europe becomes a mad dash across the continent, pursued by dangerous men who will kill to take back what Monty stole from them…

Henry “Monty” Montague is the son of an English aristocrat, attends one of the poshest boarding schools in the country, and is being groomed to take control of the family estate and affairs when he grows up. If he ever does. Unfortunately, he’s not interested in taking over from his father, or growing up. He’s also madly in love with his best friend Percy, who is blissfully unaware, and he’s being kicked out of school for his roguish behaviour. Surely a few months travelling around Europe will solve all his problems?

Joined by Percy and his sister Felicity, Monty sets off for France – first stop, the palace of Versailles. Unfortunately, one rash decision and a stolen trinket lead to our gang fleeing for their lives, pursued by some very angry French men. They eventually wind up in Barcelona and take refuge in a house with the strange siblings whose father invented the fascinating stolen trinket, looking for an explanation. When the French catch up to them, they’re forced to make another run for it, this time heading for Venice by pirate ship. Their quest for the truth becomes a race against time as the answer to all their questions is in danger of becoming submerged when the islet housing it crumbles into the sea.

Will Monty ever confess his love to Percy? What is the mysterious affliction that affects Percy and why did he really agree to join his best friend on his European Tour? And will Felicity be able to convince her parents and society that women are just as capable as men, and study medicine at university like she wants? You’ll have to read it to find out…

I absolutely adored this book, it was funny, touching, gripping and filled with diverse, complex and deeply flawed characters who charmed the socks off me with every page. I’m giving it 5 stars and am absolutely gutted that it’s technically a standalone, however Mackenzi Lee has written a companion book from the perspective of Felicity called The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy, and I’ll be damned if I’m not going to get my hands on it the instant it comes out in October. Lee is a huge advocate for amazing women throughout history, you can often find her tweeting about a fabulous lady from the past, proving that girls have always been badass and brilliant. Her Twitter threads have even been turned into a book, Bygone Badass Broads: 52 Forgotten Women Who Changed the World – go buy it immediately and celebrate International Women’s Day 2018 like a proper lady, with an awesome book and a cup of tea (or something stronger if that’s your style, no judgement here! Only four more weeks of pregnancy to go and I’ll be joining you!).

Until next time,

Lyndsey

Replenishing the creative stores

Happy February folks! I think February might be my favourite month (except maybe August, because it’s my birthday). Both my brothers’ and my Dad’s birthdays are in Feb, and of course we have Pancake Day and Valentine’s Day, so plenty of excuses to celebrate and eat lots of yummy treats. It’s short, which means payday is right around the corner, and if we’re lucky there are a few mild days and the snowdrops and crocuses come out, reminding us that Spring isn’t far off.

In today’s post, I wanted to focus on one of the most important non-writing elements of being a writer – consuming content to replenish the creative stores.

Replenishing the creative stores Author Toolbox Blog Hop Lyndsey's Book Blog

As you’ll know if you’ve been around here a while, I’m currently trying my hand at a slightly more contemporary YA story, rather than my usual fantasy, and I’m finding it kind of hard going. Something I’ve realised recently is that, whilst I’ve read hundreds of YA fantasy novels in my life, I haven’t read anywhere near as many contemporaries, and I now see why my first novel, The Fair Queen, came to me so easily, and my current WIP is eluding me at every comma and full stop. I need to build up my contemporary creative stores – or completely rework my WIP to make it a full on fantasy, instead of the wishy-washy contemporary-with-fantastical-elements I’m currently churning out like a particularly stubborn batch of butter.

While I decide how to proceed with that, here are a few tips and ideas for replenishing your own creative stores in between writing projects, or when you’re struggling to connect with your muse.

Read widely

When you’re deep in drafting or editing mode, you might want to avoid reading other books in your genre for fear of seeing similarities everywhere you look. However, when you’re trying to formulate an idea for your next WIP, you’ll definitely want to get your hands on as many new novels in your chosen genre as possible, so you can see what’s currently popular, what the publishing houses are buying and your potential readers are loving. In addition, you should throw in a few bestselling books from other genres and age ranges – if you write YA, pick up a couple of MG and adult novels; if you write fantasy, grab a few contemporaries and historical novels.

Reading widely will give you a much bigger pool of plot devices to draw from, inspiration for new characters and settings, and maybe even sentence structure and word choice ideas. Plus, borrowing from novels outside your own genre means any similarities in the end result of your novel will be almost completely unrecognisable – and, honestly, there’s nothing unique in this world, so it won’t matter to agents or readers (as long as you don’t plagiarise, of course).

Watch more TV

There you go, I’m giving you a legitimate excuse to binge watch that new series on Netflix! Seriously though, you don’t have to take all your inspiration from books just because you’re an author, the writing on some of the best shows and movies is just as good, if not better than many books (sacrilege, I know). I don’t mean literary adaptations, which are almost universally inferior to the original, I think we can agree, but when a screenwriter has crafted a beautiful story that works perfectly with their chosen media, it’s definitely a valuable source of inspiration.

One thing TV and film do well is dialogue, with a tight word limit to work with, keeping conversations short, to the point, but still gripping and effective is a real challenge. If one of your writing struggles is crafting credible dialogue, keep a notepad next to you when you watch TV and scribble down any snippets that could come in handy when you next sit down to write. It’s less about the specific words and phrases, and more about the overall flow of conversation, where the natural pauses fall and how you could convey tone by describing body language and actions in between lines.

People watch

Is this anyone else’s favourite pastime? You’re out and about, surrounded by strangers with lives just as full and fascinating as your own, listening to their conversations and imagining what they do for work, who they love, where they live. It’s basically a free character creation prompt.

Real life people aren’t as good for dialogue inspiration as you’d think, we pause too often, stumble over our words, repeat ourselves and change subject mid-sentence. Written dialogue needs to be cleaner, more concise and always have a purpose, you can’t afford to waste your word count on pointless pleasantries and nonsensical ramblings.

However, people watching is absolutely perfect for picking up mannerisms and reactions, for spotting the things we do when we think no one’s looking, and understanding the behaviour of people different to ourselves. If you’re an adult trying to write a YA novel, watch the teenagers you pass on your next day out, see how they behave around each other and how it differs when they’re with their parents. If you’re single and writing about a character who’s married with kids, keep an eye out for the mum in the supermarket trying to wrangle her toddler whilst stocking up on groceries for the family, what’s she buying? Is she patient with the kid, or visibly stressed out? Eavesdrop on the couple at the next table when you’re out for dinner, try and guess how long they’ve been together, how they met and what they’d do if an armed robber burst into the restaurant right at that moment. Would he protect her? Would she hand over her purse, or refuse?

Make it a game and you’ll never struggle for character ideas.

Get back to nature

One of the main things that inspired me when I was plotting and writing The Fair Queen was my local area (I lived near Sherwood Forest at the time), and I never failed to come back from a walk with my dog filled with inspiration for the setting of my next scene. I always have my phone with me, so I often took photos of interesting looking trees, or local wildflowers so I could Google them later and use them to inform my descriptions.

Even when I didn’t need any more direct inspiration for my novel’s setting, just going for a walk and getting some fresh air always helped me craft the next scene in my mind before heading home to write it. Whenever I struggled over a particular plot point I’d go over and over the idea in my mind whilst out for a walk, until I’d worked it out completely and unstuck myself. I can’t recommend it enough, even if you live in a city centre, just changing your environment for a while and possibly discovering a part of your home town you’d never seen before could provide you with the solution to your writing problem.

Writing requires a huge investment of creativity and conscious thought, so it makes sense that we need to refill the cup every now and then before we can pour from it again. These are just a few tips that have helped me when I’ve needed to replenish the creative stores and get inspired, hopefully they’ll work for you too. If you’ve got any other ways of making sure you’re not running on empty next time you sit down to write, leave them in the comments, I’d love to try some new ones!

Lyndsey