Genre: LGBT/YA/Graphic Novel
Series/Standalone: Heartstopper #2
How I got this book: Bought

TW: Homophobia.

If you haven't read Heartstopper Volume One yet, you can catch my review here. 

This is going to be one of those short and sweet reviews because, besides saying how much I truly love this graphic novel, I'm not sure how else to convince you all to read it!

I thought that Heartstopper Volume One was good, but this is even better. So many more cute, mushy feelings. As always Alice Oseman's illustrations are beautiful, the story is so sweet and Charlie and Nick are both likeable and compelling. 

Alice also does a fantastic job of making you care about the supporting characters and their stories and we're treated to a fantastic snippet from another story at the end of this book. 

The storytelling and voices are relatable and current, making the whole thing speed by far too quickly! I can't wait until I have every volume and can read through from start to finish!

If you're looking for queer, YA romance with tons of inclusivity and rep that'll make you feel warm and gooey on the inside, you need Heartstopper in your life. 

Genre: LGBT/YA/Graphic Novel
Series/Standalone: Heartstopper #1
How I got this book: Bought

TW: Homophobia, mental health and manipulation. 
​
Confession time:

1. I honestly thought I'd already written the review for this but I guess not because I can't find it anywhere. Not that I'm complaining too hard as it gave me the perfect excuse to re-read this again for pride month. 
2. This is the only graphic novel I've read that I actually loved and couldn't put down. I read this in around an hour. 

So, onto the review. 

Heartstopper started life as a web comic and I did attempt to read it on the website but I found the format a little too distracting so, when I found out that a book was coming I couldn't get hold of it fast enough. 

Nick and Charlie attend an all-boys British Grammar School which sort of reminds me of my own high-school except that mine was co-ed and nowhere near as posh! 

Charlie is 14 and Nick is 16 and their story is most definitely a super-cute YA.

What's amazing about this graphic novel, aside from the gorgeous art and realistic British dialogue is that it's so inclusive. It has gay, lesbian and bisexual (whoop whoop!) rep. It's racially diverse and has mental health rep. 

I'm not sure that I've ever read anything quite so instantly adorable as the story of Charlie and Nick and in volume one it's lovely to see their friendship begin blossom and effect how they each deal with their own demons.

Pictures really are worth a thousand words, and Alice's are worth even more. After just a few scenes, I wanted to wrap Charlie and Nick in a giant hug, punch Ben in his stupid face and be best friends with Tori and Tara. 

I've pre-ordered Volume Two which comes out next month and I can't wait to get it because the ending of Volume One is too sad and I need the infectious happiness that bursts from the earlier pages.

Charlie and Nick are precious and if you want a reason to smile today, go grab this book and fall in love. 

What about you? Have you read Heartstopper by Alice Oseman? 

Welcome to my stop on the Hush blog tour!!

As always, big thanks to Xpresso Book Tours for allowing me to join in with the tour, I love doing review tours as it's a great way to discover new books and authors! This week's book is Hush by A.M. Salinger, which is book 8 of the authors' Nights series, although it can be read as a standalone. 

Rating: 3 STARS

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Standalone/Series: Nights Series #8 - (Can be read as a standalone)
How I got this book: ARC from Xpresso Book Tours

Tom Sutherland is an arrogant prick. There, I said it. Okay, so he’s also my assistant and I couldn’t survive without him, but that doesn’t make him less of an irritating bastard — Lana 

Lana Keele is a witch. A beautiful, frustrating witch placed on this earth to torment me. Yeah, she’s my boss, but she’s still the most maddening creature I’ve ever had the misfortune to cross paths with — Tom 

When Lana Keele, president of Keele Industries and only surviving heir to business tycoon Oliver Keele, wakes up in her devil-of-an-assistant’s bed after a drunken night out, she fears the worst. That is, until prissy Mr. Perfect Tom Sutherland declares that she’s the last woman he’d ever want to sleep with.

After surviving four years in the company of the infuriating woman he’d lusted after since his teens, Tom has had just about enough of the unholy siren that is Lana, especially when she turns up inebriated on his doorstep one night and demands sex. Convinced that Lana will never return his affections, Tom decides that it’s high time to get over his unrequited love.

Except Lana doesn’t quite seem to agree with this plan. Not after she sees him with another woman. Not after she confronts him about it. And most definitely not after he succumbs to temptation and kisses her.

As they finally ignite the fire that has burned so long between them, Tom cannot help but be certain that for Lana, this is just about sex. Will he be satisfied with only having the body of the woman he loves and not possess her heart? Or will Lana convince Tom that she truly means to give him her everything?

Hush is the first book that I've read by this author and since I'm always looking to discover new romance authors I jumped at the chance to review it. The synopsis struck me as an enemies to lovers style trope (which I love) and I read the book in just a couple of hours. 

It's also the first novella I've read in quite a while and I found myself flying through it.

As it's a novella, the story kicks off straight away with Lana waking up in her assistant's bed with a blazing hangover and no idea what happened the night before. 

Tom and Lana's relationship quickly heats up, with the tension between them building rapidly. The chemistry between the two characters sizzles off the page and the love scenes are SUPER descriptive, if a little cringe-worthy at times, but that's just my opinion.

Some of the characters in this book are clearly from the other books in the series but I never really felt as though there was something I'd missed because the author gives a quick overview to introduce each character. 

Although this book is categorised as a contemporary romance on Goodreads, I'd personally class it as erotic romance as it seems that the sex is at the forefront of the novella with the plot taking a bit of a backseat. 

I did like that the secondary characters in the book were diverse in terms of their sexuality but I was massively confused by the fact that this book is supposed to be set in Shanghai but I think every single character is white. It would have been nice to have some cultural representation going on here, otherwise why choose Shanghai as a setting at all? Unless I'm missing something here....

The writing style was fun and fast-paced and after looking at the synopsis and reviews of some of the other books in this series, I'm definitely interested in finding out what more A.M. Salinger has to offer. 

Overall, this was a fast paced, hot read with a simple, fairly drama-free plot and a guaranteed HEA. 

Click the cover photo above to add the book to your Goodreads TBR and enter below for your chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card + 2 signed paperback copies of Hush (Open Internationally - giveaway hosted by Xpresso Book Tours). 

Finally, you can click the banner at the top to follow the rest of the tour and feel free to leave your comments below :)