I read this for the first time when I was in secondary school. It was on a summer reading list and while I wasn’t a fan of being told what I had to read at the time, I actually really enjoyed this book.

So I decided to read it again.

I didn’t really remember what happened in the book, I just remember at the time I read it and I enjoyed it and I had a fanfiction idea for it. I don’t remember what that idea is now but the ending definitely made me think there was more to the story and I wanted to continue it. I never wrote that story but part of me wishes I did, just to know what I was thinking at the time.

Anyway, reading it the second time was the same as when I read it the first time.

It took me a while to get into it because the language is different from other books I’ve read. It’s more poetic in a way and more descriptive.

But I loved the story when I got into it. I fell in love with the idea of Manderly and Rebecca. It just seemed magical.

Also, I had totally forgotten about the plot twist about what actually happened to Rebecca so I was shocked all over again. Which I think is good, the past couple of books I have read have been based on movies and TV shows so I knew what happened but this time not knowing what would happen was exciting.

I would have loved to know what happened next like I said at the beginning of this post I did want to continue the story in my own way before but now I can’t even imagine what would have happened. With Manderly burning down and Mrs Danvers gone, what happened to all the staff? Did they get out? Would anyone find out the truth about what Maxim really did?

I mean I think the beginning of the book does have reference to what happens to Maxim and his wife, though I can’t remember what that is right now. It’s one of those things that is a small detail before it goes into the real story. So I didn’t pay much attention.

Still, it makes me wonder.

The book also made me curious about Rebecca – naturally, that’s what the whole book is about lol – but I wanted to know more. When something always talks about a person like they are a myth or that they are perfect I wanna know more about the real person. Her point of view and everything. But I suppose I settle for what I know – or go online and see if people have written fanfiction maybe…

But anyway, definitely a great read and I would highly recommend! I guess I can’t say anything too bad about the school reading list if it brought me to a book I actually liked and would have never found otherwise…but I still think if you are reading at all then it’s better than having to specifically read from a setlist. But I finished school long ago so I don’t need to worry about that anymore.

I’m not sure what I’m going to read next but I will probably get something in the next few days. I’m trying really hard to keep up the reading momentum so I don’t lose it. 🙂 So if you want to keep up to date on what I’m reading follow me on Goodreads, I will always post reviews here too but sometimes I don’t write them and just give the book a rating. So if you want to know everything, even the page I’m on then Goodreads is where to go 😛

~ Courtney x

I picked this up after watching the TV show and also because I’m on a reading kick and wanted to read something new.

Right off the bat I will say I prefer the TV show just because I really enjoy the actresses that play the main characters, they are amazing and I also think the drama plays out really well on the show. I also like the changes they made in the TV show in terms of Renata’s character and other little things.

One thing though I was surprised about was that in the book, Madeline and Ed have a good relationship. In the TV show, the relationship is very strained. I was also super surprised that Madeline actually had three children and not two lol, but I guess that’s a minor thing.

Anyway, time to talk about the book.

I liked the book, it started off easy enough to read, kind of like To All The Boys I Loved Before the sentences were mostly kept short and chapters were tiny. Though I feel like as it went on I was taking more frequent breaks from reading. I think just because I already knew what happened so the build-up was kind of nothing to me.

The little snippets where parents are being interviewed was a bit confusing for me because I always ignored the names and just read what was being said. Which is really on me because I should have kept up with the names but there were a few and I just didn’t bother.

I did like being able to understand more about the thoughts and actions of Celeste and Jane though. I mean Celeste does talk a lot about her feelings on the TV show because she sees a therapist but for Jane, we never know fully what she is thinking so I liked knowing things from her perspective like why she moved to town and everything.

Overall I think it was a good read, personally, I think it’s the kind of thing that if you have watched the TV show you don’t really need to read the book because it’s not vastly different. I think the TV show just adds extra bits to fill out the story so they could get the second season. Other than that I mean it’s not necessary to read the book.

Sometimes when books are adapted to TV and film you do need to read the book still because the adaptation leaves things out but I’d say the TV version is pretty great. And if you have read the book but haven’t seen the TV show I recommend it, it’s really well done and like I said the actresses are amazing.

Anyway, now that this book is done, the next one on my list is Gone Girl – yes I know I’m years behind but I am finally going to get around to reading the book. I’ll try not to make a lot of comparisons to the movie but I guess we see.

~ Courtney x

I found this in the library and the title caught my eye. I wasn’t really sure if I was going to check it out but after looking around I decided to give it a chance because honestly, nothing in the library that day was really standing out.

This book took a while to adjust to, the writing style is drastically different from the previous two books I had read which were casual and written in the first person POV. This book is more of a formal style and also written in the third person POV. Not to mention the fact that we get introduced to a lot of characters very quickly and it took me ages to figure out who these people were lol.

Anyway, the story follows Ursula Flowerbutton as she investigates the murder of India Brattenbury, set in Oxford in the 1980s.

I enjoyed the story a lot, once I got the hang of the characters and the mystery began I was fully engrossed. I wanted to know what happened and how all of these characters suddenly intertwined in India’s life and if they were connected to the murder.

When they started talking about societies and black-tie affairs, not to mention everyone sleeping with each other it definitely gave me Gossip Girl vibes. You know if Gossip Girl was British and in the 80s.

So it’s safe to say this is definitely my kind of book.

When I first started reading and looked up the author I saw that this was An Oxford Girl Mystery, which made me think it was part of a series, I thought maybe I wasn’t going to understand what was going on but luckily for me this was the first book in the series and there haven’t been any new ones released so I am on top of this series.

Of course, I want to know what things Ursula and her friend Nancy get up to next, I enjoyed this book a lot and I want to see what else they get up to, especially since Ursula is only a Fresher, there are plenty of university scandals still to be uncovered.

It will also be interesting for me to follow a book series as it’s being released because I’ve never had that before, the closest I had was when I was reading the ‘I Heart’ series just because I was reading it and caught up just as the final book was being released – not that I knew about that until it came time for me to get the last one.

I don’t know if I can take the waiting though…but luckily for me I have a lot more books to read until then. 😛

~ Courtney x