chick lit

It’s not you, Book, it’s me: The Dreaded Reading Slump and How To Get Over It

~ fionareads ~ Leave a comment

I think that all of us readers have been there. When you are used to reading over 4 books a month, and suddenly, you can hardly bear to read a news article, never mind a novel.

It feels like it is all down to the book. First, you pick up a terrible book, and you don’t finish it. Then, you try another. That’s awful too! And another. They are all boring – nothing grabs you. It could be fantasy, romance, historical, non-fiction, anything. It doesn’t matter. Nothing will grab you. Because it isn’t the book, it’s you.

There are many, many reasons why one might have a reading slump. Lack of motivation, time, stress, anxiety, depression… So, what do we do? We do things that do not require the same level of attention – things we can finish quickly and not think about too deeply.

YouTube, TV shows, scrolling through Facebook, binge-watching Netflix. It’s terrible, isn’t it? And for some, sure, it might be totally normal. But for readers who read (and I mean, read read read) it becomes this depressing, odd, stagnant hole in your life and makes you feel weirdly guilty and not-quite-yourself. Having just come out of the longest reading slump of my life (Not an exaggeration – it was four months long, and torturous!) I created a list of things that finally helped me to get my reading mojo back…

Start Light

I often find that reading something very easy, funny and lighthearted is sometimes the best way to get yourself back into reading. Chick-lit is a great example – it’s fun, summery, and full of simple story lines that do not require too much thinking power. I can be a bit of a snob and don’t usually enjoy chick-lit, but it works wonders for a reading slump. Just getting yourself reading again – whatever it is – is a massive achievement, and it helps if you can have a giggle along the way! Chick-lit offers a form of escapism that is rooted in reality and full of funny anecdotes, beautiful settings and swoon-worthy guys.

Paige Toon is a brilliant one to start with (The Longest Holiday is simply divine, and Lucy in the Sky and Jonny Be Good are also excellent – they are escapism at it’s best – letting you get swept up in holiday romances, gorgeous rock stars, sandy beaches and surfer dudes)

Keep It Short

Don’t feel like you are ready to plunge in to a full-length novel, just yet? That’s totally fine! Sometimes, it might hinder you rather than help you, so I would suggest starting with some shorter stories first. They pull you back into the swing of reading, but don’t keep you for too long. Short, and sweet.

A recent page-turner that comes to mind is Sarah Winman’s Tin Man. It’s a heart-warming, lovely little book that will warm you from your head to your toes – and you can read it in a day!

Try a Different Angle…

Perhaps it is the act of reading that is stopping you from breaking your slump? If you are depressed, it can become almost impossible to focus on anything for too long – you become so demotivated, you can’t even bring yourself to open the book and read the words. Listening to an audiobook, however, is a very different experience to physically reading. You can listen on the tube, on the bus, at your desk, whilst you are driving. It’s the perfect solution!

If this still isn’t helping, another great invention is the Podcast. They have honestly been my saviour the past few months – stopping me from going stir crazy when I feel like I am numbing my brain with YouTube and Netflix. There are some interesting, intelligent, fascinating Podcasts out there – everything from Literature to Science to discussions on authors, fandoms (There are some brill Harry Potter & Game of Thrones casts – Game of Thrones The Podcast is one of my favourites) and the BBC also have some great documentary style discussions on different authors and time periods. I listened to an engrossing one about one of my favourite authors, Oscar Wilde, that inspired me to re-read The Picture of Dorian Gray, hence pulling me out of my slump! Most of them are only 30 minutes upwards, so it’s entirely possible to feed your brain without committing too much time!

Switch It Up

Before your slump, were you (let’s be honest) a bit too obsessed with YA Fantasy? (It’s an easy hole to fall in to…) or did you pretty much only read Thrillers? I find one of the best ways to break a non-reading period is to get stuck into a book of an entirely different genre. It will pull you out of your comfort zone, and make you read something completely unexpected and different to anything you have read before.

Goodreads is fantastic for discovering new books from genres you are unsure about. Or, even better, just step into Waterstones, and spend a couple of hours browsing. You might find something you would never have even thought of reading before! The Booksellers there are so informed they can offer some excellent recommendations.

Get Physical

Perhaps you only usually read on an ereader or iPad, or maybe you are just bored of seeing the same books on your shelves every single day?

A great way to reinstate your passion for reading is to rearrange your bookshelves, or start visiting libraries and bookshops, physically taking books off the shelves, reading the blurbs, perhaps reading a little of the inside. It can be extremely inspiring to realise how many different stories there are out there, and to physically hold them in your hands. Rearranging your bookshelves can be a big job if (like me) you have a lot of books, but it reacquaints you with books you had forgotten about, or books that were on your TBR that you never got round to reading…

What methods would you use to get yourself out of a reading slump? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Book Review – Always With Love by Giovanna Fletcher

~ fionareads ~ Leave a comment


ALways with love

four stars

Sophie’s got used to being the girlfriend of Billy Buskin, the biggest movie star in the world. Sort of.

But when she and Billy take a trip to visit his family in Los Angeles, she quickly discovers she’s totally unprepared for the chaos of Hollywood, the paparazzi and Billy’s controlling mother. And when Billy extends his stay in LA, leaving Sophie to fly home to Rosefont Hill alone, it seems there’s more than just miles between them.

Now Sophie must decide if they can overcome their differences for good. Because not every love story lasts the distance . . .

I received this book for free from the publisher via Netgalley. Thanks to Penguin and Michael Joseph for allowing me to review this title!

Always With Love is Giovanna Fletcher’s fourth novel, and like all her others, it was heartwarming, light and lovely. It was delightful to hear more about Sophie and Billy, but I believe it would have been just as good a read even if I hadn’t read her first book, Billy and Me.

Sophie is a great protagonist, with real life vulnerabilities and worries, and this really helps the reader to relate to her. I love the fact that she is so down to earth, and that she helps Billy to stay grounded. The contrasts between his life in LA and her life in the picturesque and homely Rosefont Hill, was a wonderful addition to the story, and I was never quite sure whether he would choose to lose himself to that lifestyle, or return home to Sophie. The conflict and questions that this created was what kept me reading to the end. I found myself really rooting for their relationship from the very beginning! At one point, I wasn’t sure if they would make it, and Giovanna cleverly keeps up this guessing game until the last chapter.

My favourite aspect of the story was Rosefont Hill. The imagery was idyllic and the setting just perfect – I would love to live in a village like this. Reading about Sophie’s life in Rosefont Hill, and her contentment to settle for a humble and un-glamourous living was so relatable for me; I really warmed to her, much more so than in the first book. I feel like her characterisation was well thought out and she developed into a more independent woman as the story progressed. Her situation of struggling in a long-distance relationship struck a chord with me and I feel that Giovanna was extremely successful in portraying the realistic ups and downs of this kind of relationship.

The only thing that brought this book down to four stars, for me, was the awful cliché that men and woman can’t be just friends. I didn’t understand what this added to the story. It was unneeded and the book would have been so much better without it. I felt that it was added in superficially to make it more interesting, but it didn’t really work. Luckily, it didn’t really take up too much of the plot and I was still able to really appreciate the novel as a whole.

Giovanna injects pure warmth and love into her writing, you can literally feel it pouring out of the pages as you read. Her stories make you warm and fuzzy inside – especially the descriptions of Rosefont Hill with it’s gorgeous little tea shop and small-town lifestyle. Sophie’s romance with Billy is also super sweet and spine-tingling. He has definitely become one of my favourite fictional heart throbs!

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Always With Love. It was heartwarming, funny and sweet. It was a charming story about real life relationships, the struggles of love, and the very important fact that home really is where the heart is.

Book Review – The One We Fell in Love With

~ fionareads ~ 2 Comments

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Phoebe is caught between a rock and a hard place. Settle down and get married, or return to the French Alps to pursue her passion?

Eliza is in love with someone who is no longer hers. In fact, he probably never was… And her dream of becoming a musician seems to be spiralling down the drain.

Rose is out of a job and out of a boyfriend. To make matters worse, she’s been forced to move back in with her mother…

But these very different girls have one thing in common. Angus. The one they fell in love with…

I am a huge Paige Toon fan, and have been ever since reading her first release, Lucy in the Sky, back in 2007. Her books are often heart-warming, tear-jerking and poignant, and full of lovable and relatable characters. The One We Fell in Love With is no different – it might just be her best book yet.

Gosh, this book was just lovely, lovely, lovely. The story was addictive and easy to read, and I devoured it in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down for anything – I stayed in the same armchair all day, my eyes glued to the pages!

The story arc was perfectly choreographed. In my eyes, it was the most original novel Paige has written so far. It was so intriguing to read about triplets, and I was fascinated from the very first page. It was the first time that Paige has written from multiple viewpoints, and it worked amazingly. Each triplet had very unique personalities and their individual characterisation was extremely well distinguished.

I felt fully invested in the characters – especially Rose. I related to her so much. She is smart, sensible and wary and so much like me, I loved reading about her! Eliza and Phoebe were great too and the way their relationship dynamics were portrayed was clever and thought-provoking.

As usual, some of our favourite Paige Toon characters made an appearance, and it was lovely to have the inclusion of Lucy and Nathan in the end scene! Lucy in the Sky has always been my favourite – and Paige’s scene setting of Australia is always spot-on. She makes you long for the beautiful beaches and balmy weather. I also loved the descriptions of the French Alps and especially Jennifer’s Bakery that Rose works in – Paige never fails in her ability to vividly depict a scene!

This book had me thinking long after I’d turned the last page. I felt it was more emotionally mature than her previous novels, and I loved the family values that are built up and become prominent in the end chapter. The events throughout were emotional, and provoked many tears! I feel that Rose, Eliza and Phoebe’s lives were illustrated perfectly through Paige’s genius writing lens.

The One We Fell in Love With was heart-warming, uplifting, bittersweet, but charmingly happy too. I finished the book, and closed my eyes, just savouring that precious feeling you get after spending several hours lost in the midst of a story. Warmth spread through me as I read it – it was a beautiful story about subtle tragedy, love, and the strength of family.