Title: Finding Audrey
Series: -
Author: Sophie Kinsella
Genre: Young adult & Contemporary
Publisher: Corgi Childrens
Publish Date: 2016 (First published in 2015)
Pages: 280

Book blurb: An anxiety disorder disrupts fourteen-year-old Audrey’s daily life. She has been making slow but steady progress with Dr. Sarah, but when Audrey meets Linus, her brother’s gaming teammate, she is energized. She connects with him. Audrey can talk through her fears with Linus in a way she’s never been able to do with anyone before. As their friendship deepens and her recovery gains momentum, a sweet romantic connection develops, one that helps not just Audrey but also her entire family.

Overall rate: ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5)

Book cover: 4/5

Story plot: 4/5

Characters: 4/5

Language: 4/5

Favourite excerpt from the book:

(Linus) I'm sorry you have to go through all this.

(Audrey) Me too.

(Linus) It won't be forever. You'll be in the dark for as long as it takes and then you'll come out.

(Audrey) You think?

(Linus) My aunt grows special rhubarb in dark sheds. They keep it dark and warm all winter and harvest it by candlelight, and it's the best stuff. She sells it for a fortune, btw.

(Audrey) So, what, I'm rhubarb?

(Linus) Why not? If rhubarb needs time in the dark, maybe you do too.

(Audrey) I'm RHUBARB?!




I'm not really a fan of Sophie Kinsella- no, I don't dislike her books, I just don't read chic lit books much. I can't even remember if I have read any books from Kinsella's Shopaholic series or not. But something made me really want to read Finding Audrey. It could be that this is Kinsella's first young adult book, and it could also be because this story touched a little bit on psychological matters.

I'd like to thank my friend, Anisah, for buying this book for me, by the way ♡


CHARACTERS: I totally adore the characters in this story, especially little Felix! Audrey Turner comes from a family of five, and she is the only daughter. This explains why her mother is very protective over her matters, and of course, because Audrey was diagnosed to a few psychological problems.

Her family was a very loving one, despite Audrey's older brother, Frank Turner, being a game addict and it was bothering their mother a lot. I had a great time reading about Ann Turner's antics. She reads the Daily Mail and trusts it completely, making her actions a bit over the top. But I like her relationship with the husband, Chris Turner. I just love the Turners. It would be great to have brothers like Frank and Felix. Finding Audrey really showed a strong bond between siblings and family.

As for Audrey, I think she's a really nice character, and her progress to recover made me love her more. She wanted to be better, even though her lizard brain tried its best to pull her back down. For that, I like her strong will to get better. And then there's Linus. Linus is quite a witty person and a really kind boy. He was one of the reasons Audrey managed to fight her fears, and he was always there for her. It's safe to say that the world needs more Linus who can be supportive to the girls that they love.

Oh and I'm fond of Dr. Sarah too. I hope I'll be someone like her too one day, I'd love to help people (like Audrey) to become better.



PLOT: Finding Audrey tells about the daily life of the Turners and Audrey's journey to become a better someone that she currently is. The plot was really good, even from the start. I didn't find a time where I wish I could skip it. I love that the whole family was supportive to Audrey, and even Linus too. I personally think that Finding Audrey is a nicely written story. I wouldn't say this story will be in my list of favourites, but I totally have no problem with it.



RECOMMEND: If you're looking for a light read with a touch of love and family bond, Finding Audrey is perfect for you. I'd recommend this to all book lovers, because I think Sophie Kinsella did a great job in exposing a small part of how people that suffer from psychological problems feel. Everyone has that time where they feel worthless. If you're feeling that way, just remember that there are people who love you just the way you are. Stay close to the people that you love and do the things that makes you happy.



Till next time ♡ Love, Aishah Humaira'
I'm back with a new template! I originally planned to buy a template, but then I found this one, kudos to Erin Azmir for her top 5 minimalist blogger template post on her blog. It looks cleaner and the fonts are more visible (gotta admit that my previous template had really tiny fonts, right?)

Anyway, I just started a new semester in university. It's a short semester (approximately 7 weeks), which means double the schedules and my days are more hectic even though I'm only taking 5 subjects this semester. The only subject I'm looking forward to is Japanese Language class. I hope I'll learn good things in the class. It's just a week, but it already felt like a month. I also just moved into a new dorm house outside of campus, I'll probably do a room tour (my part of the room only) soon.


We hadn't actually planned anything, but six out of eight of us (me and my friends a.k.a dorm housemates) end up getting in the car and travelled to Kemaman, Terengganu, which took around a 2 hours journey. It started with one of us finally remembering that she hadn't used up her book vouchers yet, so me and the others that are bibliophiles immediately stepped forward eagerly to use the vouchers for her so it wouldn't be a waste. I'll never say no to free books

And we wanted so badly to watch a movie too.


The journey started at 7.30 AM, and we got there at around 9.30 AM, which of course meant that we had to go somewhere else since the mall weren't opened yet. Thanks to my friends' keen eyes, they saw the way to go to a nearby beach, and here we are!


The beach is really beautiful. There were these pretty purple flowers everywhere, and I can't help but praise God by the scene in front of us. We spent quite a while there, just staring at the wide ocean. It was calming, even the sky was beautiful that time.


When the mall finally opens, we entered the bookstore to buy books first. Originally, I was able to take two books, All The Light We Cannot See and Evil Librarian. But the cashier refrained us from spending a RM200 book voucher on novels only. We have to mix between educational books too. Which pretty much pissed me off, because that had never even happened before, even in bigger bookstores in KL. It was annoying, and after quite some time we end up spending only RM100 voucher. I am definitely not going to that bookstore ever again, sorry not sorry.

But hey, thanks a lot Dinie for buying me this book! Not sure if I would like All The Light We Cannot See or not, because the story is taken place in the World War II era (I normally enjoy watching movies for this setting, I rarely read books with the setting), but I heard many good reviews for it, so I'm not worried much. Even the synopsis sounds promising. We'll see.


After the irritating event at the bookstore, we all head to the cinema. I actually wanted to watch Finding Dory (because Finding Nemo is a beautiful childhood memory that I'm still fond of), but seeing that all my friends wanted to watch The Conjuring 2, I decided to follow them. Plus,watching a movie alone would be sad.

The Conjuring 2 met my expectation, but I admit that I prefer The Conjuring more. But yes, Valak is definitely more hideous than Bathsheeba (is this how its spelled? I don't want to search it up on Google). Unlike when I watched The Conjuring, I didn't scream at all while watching The Conjuring 2. Though I did mutter some incoherent words accidentally and make angry comments to calm myself down, because damn it was scary! Definitely recommending this to horror lovers, you're gonna love it.

I'll be back with a full review for it later at the end of this month, with all the other movies that I have watched.


Half of the important people in my uni life ♡ One person is missing in this picture (Nick), and three people are absent from this short getaway (Mehi, Mira & Yayas). I'm hoping our next trip anywhere will consist of all of us, so I can check off my bucket list to have a road trip with my girlfriends. Can't wait for more fun moments with these girls!



Till next time ♡ Love, Aera


Title: Temptation (contains Goodnight Kiss, Goodnight Kiss 2 & The Vampire Club)
Series: -
Author: R. L. Stine
Genre: Fantasy & paranormal
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publish Date: July 2012 (Goodnight Kiss - 1992) (Goodnight Kiss 2 - 1996) (The Vampire Club - 1997)
Pages: 407
Author linkhttp://rlstine.com/

Book blurb: In this collection of three fan-favorite stories, the vampires of Sandy Hollow crave the summer months. Summer means plenty of beach tourists…and plenty of fresh blood after months of deprivation. But this year the Eternal Ones have decided to spice things up with a little bet: The first to seduce a hot date of the human variety, and then turn him into a fellow creature of the night, wins.

The catch? In order to successfully turn their prey, they must take only three small sips of blood on three different nights. If they take too much blood on any night, the human will die and the bet will be lost.

The setup sounds simple enough, but things quickly get complicated—especially since each vampire is just dying to quench their thirst...

Overall rate: ★★☆☆☆ (2.9 out of 5)

Book cover: 4/5

Story plot: 3/5

Characters: 2.5/5

Language: 3/5

Book's world: 2/5

Favourite excerpt from the book:

Jessica laughed. "I am sweet," she insisted. And then she added coyly, "But it's too late for you to find that out."

Gabri uttered a cry of disgust. "But I need the nectar!" he cried, turning to her. "Without the nectar, I'll perish."

"Where'd you get that line? Out of an old horror movie?"Jessica joked, shaking her head. She repeated it in a high-pitched, desperate voice, imitating him meanly. "Without the nectar, I'll perish."




This book just gave me another reason to hate vampires. I bought the book because I'm fond of the cover, and I was expecting something great from R. L. Stine, but I am left with a disappointment. I should have known that vampires will no longer be something that I would look forward to.


CHARACTERS: Man, I just gotta say that I dislike most of the characters in this book. There's Jessica, Gabri, April, Matt and Todd in Goodnight Kiss; Diana, Billy, Jay, Nate, Kylie and Irene in Goodnight Kiss 2; and Pete, Nan and Lee in The Vampire Club. I think the only character that I was rooting for will be Diana, because she was there to seek revenge for her cousin that died because of vampires. I just like bad ass girls.

The other characters were simply too childish, too immature or they act too impulsively all the time. The vampires irked me a lot whenever they started speaking how thirsty they were. I am aware that they are vampires, but it still annoyed the hell out of me.


PLOT: Basically, the plot for both Goodnight Kiss and Goodnight Kiss 2 were the same: vampires playing bets on who will change a human into a vampire first will win. I can accept it at first, but two stories with the same plot going on, it started to get boring. In order to win the bet, the vampires could only take three sips on three different days, which of course, didn't manage to get rid of their huge thirst for blood.

What was the point changing humans into vampires when they won't be able to quench their thirst? It would only make the population of vampires increase, thus resulting in fighting for their own source of food. It was plainly a nonsensical thing to do. 

The plot twist for Goodnight Kiss was expected, but I didn't really see the twist coming in Goodnight Kiss 2. Not that I appreciate it the littlest bit though. I think that the plot twists were too much, and it simply explains that vampires will never be defeated by humans. Which adds to another reason for me to hate vampires. 

The Vampire Club was a rather short story, and even though I didn't like the way how Pete was too eager on pleasing Nan (they just met each other for what, a day? and he was already so hyped to have her as his girlfriend and would do anything to please her. Oh please, give me a break), I think I did like how the story turned out at the end. It reminded me of the horror endings of R. L. Stine's Goosebumps series that I used to enjoy reading.


LANGUAGE: I have no problem with the language, except for a few usage of words. For instance, using nectar instead of blood. Nectar? We're not talking about insects here. I know that R. L. Stine probably wanted to do something original, but god, when the vampires talked too much about "nectar", I just lost it. It was plainly cheesy and annoying. 

There were a little bit too much of word and sentence repetitions too. I could handle it, but I would have appreciated if it was toned down a little. At one point, it did make one lose interest in the story.


RECOMMEND: I don't think I would recommend this story to anyone... I don't see the need to share it since I myself didn't enjoy reading it much. But if you're a definite fan of R. L Stine and vampires, it wouldn't be a harm for you to pick this up since there are many who rated this book with 5 stars.

I am just so, so glad that we live in a world without vampires.



Till next time ♡ Love, Aishah Humaira'


Title: Me Before You
Series: Me Before You #1
Author: Jojo Moyes
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Penguin Books
Publish Date: 2012
Pages: 481

Book blurb: Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.

What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.

Overall rate: ★★★☆☆ (3.68 out of 5)

Book cover: 4/5

Story plot: 3.7/5

Characters: 3.5/5

Language: 3.7/5

Book's world: 3.5/5

Favourite excerpt from the book:

'Then I'll tell you something good,' he said, and then he waited, as if he wanted to be sure he had my attention. 'Some mistakes... just have greater consequences than others. But you don't have to let that night be the thing that defines you.'

I felt his head tilt against mine.

'You, Clark, have the choice not to let that happen.'

The sigh that left me then was long, and shuddering. We sat there in silence, letting his words sink in. I could have stayed there all night, above the rest of the world, the warmth of Will's hand in mine, feeling the worst of myself slowly begin to ebb away.


After procrastinating my reads for almost eight months, I'm back to reading again! I have decided to pick up Me Before You since it was already adapted as a movie, and I definitely do not like to watch a movie without reading the book first. I gotta say that Me Before You is really my cup of tea, even though I did not rate it 4 or 5 stars. I did rate it 5 stars at first, but after contemplating for a few moments, there are parts that I wish were written better.

CHARACTERS: I personally enjoyed the development of the characters throughout the story. We have Louisa Clark, a rather sensible (is it?) woman with a quirky taste in fashion, Will Traynor, a quadriplegic who had lost his interest to live and other characters that were related to these two. I think rarely read stories related to people with disabilities, not because I dislike them, but it was more because I couldn't find any good ones. I'm glad I read Me Before You, because it opened my eyes a little more to the life of a people with a disability and psychological matters. 

I am quite fond of Lou's character, but there were moments where I just felt like screaming at her because of her actions. The way she dressed would have definitely made me stare if I actually see a Lou in real life, but Lou herself was a really nice person. She managed to make Will laugh and smile again, which was a really heart-warming thing. I read some reviews saying they think Lou thought too much about Will and how they think it was ridiculous how she changed just because of a man. Well, I gotta say that I disagree with them. Because 1) it is possible, humans do change because of the opinions coming from the opposite sex, 2) she spent many hours taking care of Will, and of course something was bound to change. And yes, I also don't think that it was ridiculous for her to fall for Will and to simply forget her seven years of relationship with Patrick. That is reality.

Then we have Will Traynor. Will, oh Will. Just as Lou had put it, Will really was an arse at first, but as we delve deeper into the story, we could see the sweet and charming man underneath all the wealth and cockiness. He could be bitter at times, especially when it was about things related to his life, but at some point, one can't help but fall for his charms. The only thing that saddened me was his view on his life. It was heart breaking, because he did not want to live, despite given the chance to.

The other characters were great too, and it did make the story more interesting. I think my favourite character would be Mary Rawlinson, even though she was only mentioned less than five times and it was only from one scene in one chapter. She was a very nice lady, and the way she treated Will just like a normal person seemed amazing to me. I do think the world needs more people like Mary.



PLOT: I think I did find the story quite interesting since the start. This is possibly due to the fact that I've seen the movie trailer, and I got so excited that I dashed through the book in a happy manner. The story started with Louisa Clark losing her job at a cafe and going through multiple job interviews, finally acquiring a job at the Traynor's. It was a bit questioning how she ended up getting the job to take care of Will Traynor when she had no experience at all with quadriplegics. But maybe it was just as Camilla Traynor had said, Lou was hired because she seemed like a cheerful person and she could possibly cheer up Will.

The twists and turns for the whole story were rather praiseworthy; I like the originality of the story. I didn't find the flow of it to be too slow or too fast, it was just nice. I absolutely liked the sarcasm and witty retorts that we exchanged between Lou and Will. They added the spice to the story, and it did made me laugh from time to time. The settings in the story were good too, and I couldn't help but wonder how the castle or Will's expensive house, or Lou's bizarre house must have looked like.

The story was told from Lou's point of view, and I really appreciated the occasional chapters of point of views from other characters like Camilla, Steven, Nathan and Katrina. These little chapters managed to grab my attention and even though it did confuse me a little bit when I was unfocused, but it did help to explain the story deeper. I just wish we were given at least a chapter from Will's point of view. I really would like to know what he thought about his life, his family and especially how he thought about Lou.

My favourite part of the story would be when Will made Lou enter the maze that she was so scared of again. It showed us the insight of what had happened to Lou when she was younger, and the reason why she changed into someone who wanted to only stay in her comfort zone. I also do like the part when will allowed Lou to shave him and trim his hair, although the moment did not last too long for some reasons.

The ending was... quite startling. I admit I did expect for it to happen, but somehow I had a belief that it would different. I had hoped for a nicer closure, but Jojo Moyes's had given the ending that I had dreaded. I wanted a different ending, but somehow deep inside me, I felt like this ending was better.



LANGUAGE: The language and how the words were put were really nice, to be honest. I am not an expert in English at all, so I don't think it was my place to judge an author's choice of words, but I can't help but feel slightly irritated by some words in Me Before You.

I found that there were around four to five wrong usage of the word "was" and "were" in the story. I know it seemed like a small matter, but it still irked me. It surprised me a little by how these small mistakes were missed by other people.



RECOMMEND: I would definitely recommend this to everyone. It was quite a bittersweet read for me. For people that have family members or friends that were suffering because of a disability may think that this story would be too much, and I wouldn't disagree with them. But somehow, it is the reality of the world. 

There are people that still side-eyes people with disabilities, not realising that these people are normal human beings too. They have feelings too, and they did not asked to be born or to be destined that way. We all have to change. Treat everyone nicely, no matter how scarred that person is. I will keep saying this: everyone deserves to be loved and treated with respect. 



Will I be reading the sequel? Of course. But not anytime soon, I'm afraid. Mostly because I am sort of in a book-buying ban, so I can't read the sequel yet. I'll probably purchase the book next month, depending on how I save my money. I hope you enjoyed my review, and please do share your thoughts if you have read this book too!


Till next time ♡ Love, Aishah Humaira'