Top Ten All Time Favourite Books in Romance Genre

A Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by BrokeandBookish. So this isn't one of our best blog posts and it's really late (from March 11th) but it was already written, we just never got round to publishing, which seemed a shame. So here you goooo...

Izzy:

1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

2. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

3. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

4. The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider

5. The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp

Eleanor: 

6. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

7. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

8. Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon

9. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

10. The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

(Wow, the number of reviews done for my list (Eleanor) is seriously depleted compared to Izzy's!) We're pretty busy at the moment with revision, as AS levels are looming, so apologies for the super irregular blogging and for the general lack of blogs that we have been publishing!

But we are still reading, even if very slowly, and we love to read your comments and recommendations of books we MUST read so keep talking to us, we are still here. Hidden under mountains of textbooks. Promise.

Lots of love,
The Tea Trio xx

Obsidian, Jennifer L. Armentrout

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout, reviewed by Eleanor

Author: Website

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Pages: 366

Buy this book: Amazon uk/Amazon com

Rating: 2.5 stars

What is this book about? When seventeen-year-old Katy Swartz moved to West Virginia right before her senior year, she’d pretty much resigned herself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring, but then she spotted her hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up…until he opened his mouth. Daemon Black is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. It’s hate at first sight, but when a stranger attacks her and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something…unexpected happens. The hot guy next door? Well, he’s an alien. (Amazon)

Who should read this book? Anyone who loves an addictive young adult romance

Would you have tea with the protagonist? Naaa.

Would you fall for the main love interest? YES. He'd pretend he wan't interested and that would make me chase him even more!

Would you want to 'strain' the main antagonist? Not really, although the Arum are supposed to be the Luxens' worst enemies, they seem to be easily defeated each time they run into eachother.

Were the characters three dimensional? A teeny bit 2D.

Would you like to have tea in a cafe in West Virginia? Yeah sure.

Do you like the authors flavour of writing? I do.

Was the writing strong or weak? Kind of in between

Was the ending to your taste? This book didn't really go out in a bang. Saying that, I did immediately start the next one on finishing Obsidian.

If this cover were tea, would you drink it? No it's quite a boring cover in my opinion.

Favourite Quote? "Swimming was the last thing I wanted to do. Drowning him? Maybe.”

Overview: I started this after finishing The Night Circus as, although The Night Circus was a BRILLIANT book, it was one of those concentrating books (where accidentally scanning over one page is fatal towards your understanding of the story!) and I really needed something paranormal romance-y that I'd finish in a day and wouldn't need a huge amount of effort to do so. Getting really really into the Lux series was never part of the plan. But it happened. While this isn't the most incredible book and the characters can get rather annoying, I'm liking this series and most likely will read them all...but it's a secret!

Do you ever accidentally get caught up in whole series'? Any books you'd like us to review?

Top Ten Popular Authors We've Never Read

Brought to you by Broke and Bookish!

Izzy

1:  Meg Rosoff- I've seen the film for How I Live Now and have pretty much heard consistently good things about her books. Plus she won a Printz Award and usually I think they make pretty sound judgement over at Printz. I don't know why I haven't read Rosoff from the fact I am inherently lazy.

2: Vladmir Navobak: Lolita is sitting on my shelf staring at me in anger. Every time I go read this get creeped out by the idea that Lolita is 12 years old, put it down and re-read Sarah Dessen. What you want to happen in Dessen happens. None of this creepy stuff.

3. Stephen King: Pfft I don't even feel guilty. Who reads horror books? Books are supposed to be COMFORTING you crazy lot. Not terrifying. You read to escape the scary world, not go into a world where pig's guts are tipped on Chloé Mortez's head. (Okay so I watched the trailer to Carrie.)

Eleanor

4. Sophie Kinsella- I have never read Confessions of a Shopaholic or anything else by Kinsella. I've always wanted to but just never have! I've heard loads of great things about her books and there seem to be quite a few to choose from so I'm not sure how I've managed this!

5. Anne Frank -Not sure if this counts, but I am going for it anyway. I haven't read Anne Frank's diary. She's an author, so this is okay, right? It's been something that has been on my to-read list since I was about 10 and I have never crossed it off. I need to change this.

6. JRR Tolkein -I haven't read any of the Lord of the Rings series. I read a few chapters of The Lord of the Rings and then stopped. Not sure why really because I've now had to shamefully write this here. Oops.

7. Charles Dickens - yes, I have never read Oliver, or seen it actually, and I feel it is something I should have done or should do soon.

8. Terry Pratchet - I lie, I have actually attempted to read one of his books and really didn't like it; but I feel it single minded to judge an author by one book so maybe I'll give another ago.

9. Phillip Pullman - perhaps? I have always though I would like his books but have just never got round to reading any.

Agreed on: JK Rowling....hahahaha kidding.

Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, reviewed by Izzy

Author: http://rainbowrowell.com/blog/
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
Pages: 445 pages
Buy this book: Amazon
Rating: 5 Stars
What is this book about? 

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.
Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .

But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.
Who should read this book? Over eleven? No upper age limit because Rowell writes for everyone.

Would you have tea with the protagonist? (Cath) Yes. Clearly Cath and I would be best friends. 

Would you fall for the main love interest? Telling you who the main love interest is kind of ruins the story...but let me just say yes, yes, yes a million times yes. 

Would you want to 'strain' the main antagonist? Again, who is the main antagonist? I'd quite like to strangle Abel, Cath's ex-boyfriend. He's just a massive dick. (Hem. We haven't discussed as a group whether dick is appropriate language. I hope it is because other words are failing me).

Were the characters three dimensional? Seriously? This is Rainbow Rowell. OF COURSE.

Do you like the authors flavour of writing? Yes, yes, yes. 

Was the writing strong or weak? Strong, strong, strong. Rowell defies the idea of "another teenage love story," adding in serious plot lines such as mental illness and the importance of family, yet manages to make these all feel linked and not disjointed. This doesn't make her a good author, it makes her a great one.

Was the ending to your taste? Would saying "yes, yes, yes" annoy you?

If this cover were tea, would you drink it? I preferred the cover to "Eleanor and Park," because I thought that was beautiful. This cover is fine. 

Favourite Quote?
"I feel sorry for you, and I'm going to be your friend."
"I don't want to be your friend," Cath said as sternly as she could. "I like that we're not friends."
"Me, too. I'm sorry you ruined it by being so pathetic." 

Reagan is so badass. I love it. 

Overview: This novel established something in my mind. Rainbow Rowell is my favourite author. I know this sounds like I'm trying to kiss arse, but I feel for a book blogger this is an important moment that should be documented on the internet. Fangirl contains so many pop-culture references that it feels like a hard hitting episode of Gilmore Girls in glorious novel form. Rowell's characters are never what you expect and she is a genius at mixing the sad with the funny and the serious with the playful. This book is wonderful, and I expect to see her career continue to soar.