If You Could See Me Now, Cecelia Ahern

If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern, reviewed by Eleanor


Author: uk.cecelia-ahern.com/
Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: 401 pages
Buy this book: Amazon uk/Amazon us

What is this book about?

Elizabeth Egan's life runs on order: Both her home and her emotions are arranged just so, with little room for spontaneity. It's how she counteracts the chaos of her family -an alcoholic mother who left when she was young, an emotionally distant father, and a free-spirited sister, who seems to be following in their mother's footsteps, leaving her own six-year old son, Luke, in Elizabeth's care. When Ivan, Luke's mysterious new grown-up friend, enters the picture, Elizabeth doesn't know quite what to make of him. With his penchant for adventure and colorful take on things large and small, Ivan opens Elizabeth's eyes to a whole new way of living. But is it for real? Is Ivan for real? (Goodreads)

Who should read this book? I think it's mainly for adults although there aren't really any adult themes so really suitable for anyone. Although this book may seem like a fantasy from the blurb, I'd say that the main theme is more real life than anything else.

Star Rating: 2.5 stars

Question 1. What character would you most like to have tea with?

Luke, because he may quite possibly be the only sane character in this book, despite being six years old!

Question 2. What character would you most like to throw tea at?
Ivan, he's supposed to be this grown man of a similar age to Elizabeth but he was just so childish. I guess that this added to the whole 'is he real? is he not real?' theme (as Ivan is actually an 'imaginary friend' and so only Luke and Elizabeth can see him) but it got really annoying.

Question 3. What do you think of the cover?
I was going to write about the cover having no relevance to the book but as I have been writing this I have just realised the connection. So actually I do quite like this cover, you'll have to read to understand it though.

Question 4. Can you read the tea leaves from the beginning or are there twists in the plot?
Except for the obvious 'boy meets girl' this book wasn't too predictable.

Question 5. Favourite quote!

"Don't ever take for granted when people look in your eyes; you have no idea how important it is to be acknowledged."

Overall: This was overall an okay book. The problem was that I found it quite a slow read as the plot wasn't very fast paced and there weren't really any shocking events so it just meandered along and didn't really pull me in. The 2.5 that I have given this book is mainly because of this and also because I found the characters a little hard to like. However, I thought that the story idea was really new as it is definitely not something that has been written about or looked into very much, if at all. Also, once I had got through the first few chapters, the idea of this imaginary friend became a lot easier to accept. This book is definitely different and for this reason I would recommend it to those who want an easy read that you don't need to think about too much but that is completely different from anything you've read before.

What did you think of this book? What would you like us to review next?

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?