Remember Me?

Title: Remember Me?
Author: Sophie Kinsella
Publisher: Bantam Press
Publication date: Feb. 11th 2008
Age group: Adult
Genre: Romance, Humour
Cover rating: 3/5
Content rating: 5/5

Description via Goodreads: 

When twenty-eight-year-old Lexi Smart wakes up in a London hospital, she’s in for a big surprise. Her teeth are perfect. Her body is toned. Her handbag is Vuitton. Having survived a car accident—in a Mercedes no less—Lexi has lost a big chunk of her memory, three years to be exact, and she’s about to find out just how much things have changed.
Somehow Lexi went from a twenty-five-year-old working girl to a corporate big shot with a sleek new loft, a personal assistant, a carb-free diet, and a set of glamorous new friends. And who is this gorgeous husband—who also happens to be a multimillionaire? With her mind still stuck three years in reverse, Lexi greets this brave new world determined to be the person she…well, seems to be. That is, until an adorably disheveled architect drops the biggest bombshell of all.

My thoughts:

Sophie Kinsella is quite the genius. Remember Me? has succeeded at making me even a bigger fan of hers. I think it would be hard to ever top the brilliance of the Shopaholic books, which I adore, but Remember Me?  takes a good stab at it. I'm only sorry I didn't manage to get my hands on this book sooner but I'm also sorry that it's finished because I did not want it to end.

Remember Me? contains all the ridiculous, cute and expected humour that I'm used to from Sophie Kinsella yet manages to be a completely unique story. I really grew to like Lexi Smart as a character and felt well connected to her by the end of the book. Her characterization is very realistic and I really felt like I knew her as a person. I wasn't too sold on her for the first 20 pages or so but then it really picked up pace and I literally could not put the book down. I was so drawn into Lexi's world and I just had to know what on earth was going to happen next!


I felt so impatient throughout this whole book but not in a bad way. I was just excited and captivated. I was completely intrigued and dying to know how everything would work out for Lexi. Every interaction with the minor characters held my interest and I seriously enjoyed getting to know Jon- and Eric, actually! I loved how we were given just enough detail to keep us guessing but we weren't told everything right up front. I found my mind working very fast to figure out who was good and who was bad. Just as I'd have it figured out, Kinsella would hit me with another shock!

Remember Me? was just plain fun. I love Kinsella's books because she creates a whole world that I can get lost in. I could not handle setting this book down for one minute and was so sad when it was all over. I loved this book and can't wait to see what else Kinsella can give us.

Goodreads Choice Awards 2011: WINNERS!

Today Goodreads announced the winners of their Goodreads Choice Awards. The books were voted for by Goodreads members over the past few weeks. The winners are as follows!

Young Adult Fiction winner is Where She Went by Gayle Forman:

Favourite book of 2011 is Divergent by Veronica Roth : 

The winner of the Fiction category is  1Q84 by Haruki Murakami :

Mystery and Thriller winner is Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich:

Historical Fiction winner is The Paris Wife by Paula McLain:

Fantasy Winner is A Dance With Dragons by George R.R Martin:

Paranormal Fantasy winner is Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning

Science Fiction winner is 11/22/63 by Stephen King 

Horror winner is Graveminder by Melissa Marr

Other categories:

Romance Winner is Lover Unleashed by J.R. Ward

Humour Winner is Bossypants by Tina Fey

Nonfiction Winner is The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth by Alexandra Robbins

History and Biography winner is Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Memoir and Autobiography winner is Two Kisses for Maddy by Matthew Logelin 

Food and Cooking Winner is My Father's Daughter by Gwenyth Paltrow 

Travel and Outdoors winner is Little Princes by Conor Grennan

Young Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction winner is Divergent by Veronica Roth

Middlegrade and Children's winner is The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

Picture Books winner is When I Grow Up by Al Yankovic

Graphic Novels and Comics winner is Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead 

Poetry Winner is Horoscopes for the Dead by Billy Collins

And the Goodreads Author of the year is...

Cassandra Clare 

Unfortunately the only book I've read from the list is Divergent and Cassandra Clare's books! I was really hoping A Monster Calls would win in the Middle Grace category and I'm quite disappointed that it didn't! How about you?  

Jessie Hearts NYC

Jessie Hearts NYC by Keris Stainton 
Published July 7th 2011
255 pages
Genre: Young Adult Realistic Fiction
Stars: 5/5

Description via Goodreads: 

Jessie's just arrived in New York, hoping to forget about her awful ex.  

New Yorker Finn is in love with his best friend's girlfriend.  

They might be perfect together, but in a city of eight million people, will they ever find each other?

My thoughts:

 This was pretty good. A really light, mindless, quick and entertaining read. The story is told from the point of view of two people- English girl Jessie and New Yorker, Finn. They keep turning up everywhere together and eventually end up talking to each other properly. The writing was nice and easy and the characters pretty believable. I especially enjoyed the interactions between Jessie and Natalie as they felt quite real and a lot of it was really funny. I did think the coincidence thing was a bit overdone and far too convenient at times but it wasn't unbearably so. Overall, it was an enjoyable read and I would definitely read something else by Keris Stainton.

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella 
Published February 12th 2009 
319 pages
Genre: Women's fiction
Stars: 5/5

Description:

On the face of it, Rebecca Bloomwood has it all. Confident, single and happily living in des-res Fulham with her best friend Suze, she's a financial journalist who spends her days writing articles advising other people on the importance of budgeting and prudent investing. Her private life is a different story though; Rebecca manages her own finances in a way that would make most of her readers' hair curl--for Rebecca is a woman on a mission--she just can't stop spending.

My thoughts: 


I really didn't expect to like this as much as I did. I thought it might be a bit silly and boring. I loved it, though. The first half was especially good. It was really refreshing and light, and I found myself laughing out loud several times. I loved how Becky's mind worked- everything was so dramatic and blown out of proportion. It's not my usual kind of book, but I'm really glad I picked it up. I'd recommend it to anyone wishing for a fun, distracting read.