REVIEW: Carry On

CARRY ON

by Rainbow Rowell

Pages: 518 (paperback)

Publisher: Macmillan

Publication Date: February 25th 2016

ISBN: 1447266943
  

Summary 

Simon Snow is the worst chosen one who's ever been chosen
That's what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he's probably right. 
Half the time Simon can't even make his wand work, and the other half, he sets something on fire. His mentor's avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there's a magic-eating monster running around wearing Simon's face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here - it's their last year at Watford School of Magicks, and Simon's infuriating nemesis didn't even bother to show up. 

Review

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a massive Rainbow Rowell fan! I can't even pretend I don't fangirl over her and when it came to Carry On I was so excited to sit down and read it. Fangirl is my all time favourite contemporary read and when it was released that Rainbow was writing the book Cath spent so much time swooning over I couldn't help but do my happy dance... yes there really is a dance. I wasn't able to get around to reading Carry On when it first came out due to uni commitments but I FINALLY get to share my thoughts on Rainbow's latest books... there will be gushing, you have been warned.

"Sharing a room with the person you want most is like sharing a room with an open fire."

Carry On follows the narratives of a group of wizards, also know as mages, as they try to complete their last year at Watford. However, Watford isn't any normal school it is a school where magic is taught and magical greatness is made. Over the last six years Simon Snow and his roommate Baz have tried to kill each other countless times and the reason for this is simple. Baz is evil and Simon is the 'chosen one' - even if he is useless at the job! However, in their final year at Watford everything changes and as in any good 'chosen one' tale there is a big bad wolf character out to blow down the world of mages... his name... the humdrum!

Okay, so to start with I wasn't actually that sure about Carry On and being a massive fan of Rainbow that is really hard to say. It felt a little on the babbley side and I struggled to get into it.

HOWEVER, it may have taken me a month to read the first 150 pages, I read the other 368 in less than twenty-four hours. I think the reason for this is that to begin with there is a lot of setting the scene (and rightly so) because as a reader we have to be filled in on the last 6 years of these characters lives before we can really get to the present day. But once I hit book two - it's in four sections - I was hooked and didn't want to put it down. I NEEDED to know what Simon and Baz where up to and that is one of the signs of a great writer.

The story does have a Harry Potter element to it, I mean HP has filled our lives - and hearts - for the last decade and a bit, so any story about witches and wizards at a wizardry school sparks comparisons. You also have the orphaned chosen one and school nemesis from a well known wizarding family. However, saying that there is a lot of originality to Carry On, especially when it comes to the way Rainbow creates magic. Rainbow plays with words, with her magical language built up of cliches and well known phrases. The theory behind the magic being the normals (that's us muggles by the way) give words meaning and the more they say certain saying the more power they give them. Things such as, Carry On, Take a Break Have a KitKat and even old nursery rhymes are spells and I have to say I loved that! Rainbow isn't an english author however, the continuity was perfect and the references were relevant which made me smile... especially the little nod to Ant and Dec!

The parts I really want to swoon over are total spoilers so I'm not going to say too much more. What I do want to talk about though is BAZ. Keeping in mind I'm now 24 it feels a tad strange gushing over an eighteen-year-old vampire but thats just what happened. Baz is one of the funniest and most sarcastic bastards I've ever read. He's a hat tilt to all the misunderstood baddies we've come to love to hate and he's just this bundle of sarcastic yummieness.

Overall though I really did love this book, yes it had a rocky start in my opinion but once I got into it it was perfect. Carry On is a love letter to fan fiction and just reading it you can see how much the author loves books. The references as perfect and the little nods to other well know books are effortless and respectful. I'm so happy Rainbow decided Simon and Baz's story needed to be told after Fangirl because as well as being a great stand alone book I also now understand Cath from Fangirl better. Mostly because I'm now fangirling with her!

"I know Simon and I will always be enemies...
But I thought maybe we'd get to a point where we didn't want to be." 

#IreadYA

This week is #IreadYA week. It's a time to tell everyone why YA fiction is such an amazing genre to read. I spent a lot of time thinking about why it is exactly I love these books so much and I came up with two very different and very important reasons. 1. Because YA novels have the most amazing book boyfriends! & 2. These books, no matter what sub-genre of YA, are full of first. Full of discoveries.

So lovelies, as part of YA Week I'm going to write two posts that show you exactly what I mean, starting with my book boyfriends!
Don't forget, as always, click on the book covers and it will take you straight to my reviews for each swoon worthy book!

ONE reason #IreadYA is because they have the best book boyfriends! Especially @rainbowrowell & @MelissadelaCruz books!
— Emily (@TheYANightstand) May 19, 2014

Fangirl

Cath and Wren are identical twins and until recently they did absolutely everything together. Now they're off to university and Wren's decided she doesn't want to be one half any more - she wants to dance, meet boys, go to parties and let loose. It's not easy for Cath. She would rather bury herself in the fanfiction she writes where there's romance far more intense than anything she's experienced in real life. Now Cath has to decide whether she's ready to open her heart to new people and new experiences, and she's realising that there's more to learn about love than she ever thought possible...

Levi is the swoon worthy boy in Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl! He's the ultimate book boyfriend, he's sweet and cute and just so damn adorable. If you don't fall in love with this one then there is something seriously wrong with you! 

The Ring & The Crown

Princess Marie-Victoria, heir to the Lily Throne, and Aelwyn Myrddn, bastard daughter of the Mage of England, grew up together. But who will rule, and who will serve? 

Quiet and gentle, Marie has never lived up to the ambitions of her mother, Queen Eleanor the Second, Supreme Ruler of the Franco-British Empire. With the help of her Head Merlin, Emrys, Eleanor has maintained her stranglehold on the world's only source of magic. She rules the most powerful empire the world has ever seen. 

But even with the aid of Emrys' magic, Eleanor's extended lifespan is nearing its end. The princess must marry and produce an heir or the Empire will be vulnerable to its greatest enemy, Prussia. The two kingdoms must unite to end the war, and the only solution is a match between Marie and Prince Leopold VII, heir to the Prussian throne. But Marie has always loved Gill, her childhood friend and soldier of the Queen's Guard. 

Together, Marie and Aelwyn, a powerful magician in her own right, come up with a plan. Aelwyn will take on Marie's face, allowing the princess to escape with Gill and live the quiet life she's always wanted. And Aelwyn will get what she's always dreamed of--the chance to rule. But the court intrigue and hunger for power in Lenoran England run deeper than anyone could imagine. In the end, there is only rule that matters in Eleanor's court: trust no one.

There are so many different characters in this one you'd be pushed to pick just one guy to swoon over. However, for me at least, the only guy you should be giving your attention to is Wolf. He's this perfect mix of bad boy and sweetheart. For the time in which The Ring & The Crown is set, he's a refreshing change to the norm. 

Between the Lives

For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives. Every 24 hours she shifts to her 'other' life - a life where she is exactly the same, but absolutely everything else is different: different family, different friends, different social expectations. In one life she has a sister, in the other she does not. In one life she's a straight-A student with the perfect boyfriend, in the other she's considered a reckless delinquent. Nothing about her situation has ever changed, until the day when she discovers a glitch: the arm she breaks in one life is perfectly fine in the other.

With this new knowledge, Sabine begins a series of increasingly risky experiments that bring her dangerously close to the life she's always wanted. But if she can only have one life, which is the one she'll choose?

Ah! This ones a damn heartbreaker!!  Ethan believes in Sabine when no one else does, he's supportive and open minded and just about as selfless as you get. He could very easily have been betrayed as an angry and bitter character but he's not, and it makes me love him even more. 

A Witch in Winter

When love is tangled up in magic, how do you know what's real? When Anna meets Seth, it's magic. But her hidden powers unleash a spell that sparks a war among witches and enslaves Seth's heart.

Seth, oh this poor sod will have your heart melting quicker than ice cream on a summers day! I have to admit, Seth has a couple of moments where his book boyfriend status is questioned. However, those moments are very short and once those pass it lets you get straight to the fangirling. 

Anna and the French Kiss

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris--until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all... including a serious girlfriend.

But in the City of Lights, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss?

So St. Claire may be a little on the short side, and have a girlfriend for the majority of the book but he is most definitely worth adding to this swoon worthy book boyfriends list! Him and Anna have some ridiculously cute scenes together and this is also one of my favourite YA's of all time so make sure you pick this one up! 

Anna and the French Kiss by @naturallysteph is FREE this week on itunes!! Go. Buy. NOW! It's phenomenal!! <3 https://t.co/LYUBFioe1m
— Emily (@TheYANightstand) May 20, 2014

So those were my top book boyfriends and just one of the MANY reasons I love YA novels. Second #IreadYA post will be posted on Friday!

But until then tell me, do you agree with my picks? & who are your book boyfriends? 

Fangirl

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary (From Back Cover)

Cath and Wren are identical twins and until recently they did absolutely everything together. Now they're off to university and Wren's decided she doesn't want to be one half any more - she wants to dance, meet boys, go to parties and let loose. It's not easy for Cath. She would rather bury herself in the fanfiction she writes where there's romance far more intense than anything she's experienced in real life. 

Now Cath has to decide whether she's ready to open her heart to new people and new experiences, and she's realising that there's more to learn about love than she ever thought possible...

Review

I think that pretty much sums up how I'm feeling right now! Holey Moley that was a good book - yes I said Holey Moley! In fact I think it was one of my favourite contemporary reads ever. Fangirling for Fangirl, seems to be the common tag line for this book, although I think I'm fangirling for Levi! Yes that's what's happening... I'm fangirling for Levi. I'm also going to stop saying fangirling now as it's starting to sound really weird.

The story is about Cather, and it's a true coming of age story, where she has to figure out who she is and how she fits into college life, away from all the comforts of home. And she has to do all this without her other half, her twin, Wren. She has to find a place where she can be happy, but with so many tangled ties to her past can she really move forward into the adult world alone?

"Underneath this veneer of slightly crazy and mildly socially retarded, I'm a complete disaster."

I adore Cather! Full stop, end of story. She has her moments where you kind of want to shake her into doing something, but at the same time you always understand where she's coming from. Why she makes the decisions she does. I'm not a huge lover of fanfic but throughout this story you start - if you didn't already - to develop an admiration for these writers. I also found the way in which Rowell uses Cath's Simon and Baz tales to emphasise the struggles that parallel in the twins lives a really nice touch. Especially the idea that the end of a story doesn't actually mean the end. There's never an end if you keep believing in something, or maybe, someone.

I think that one of the biggest story plots of this book is the twins mother - or lack of one as the case may be. They both deal with the whole 'mum' situation in different ways which pulls them apart, leading them down two very different paths. I found that even when they weren't specifically referring to her, the fact that she abandoned Cath and Wren seemed to seep into every inch of this book. I couldn't say what I would do in that situation, but I think I would be team Cather.

SWOON ALERT! Levi... he's our obvious fictional crush, he has a couple of layers to him but in the end he is what he is. Which in my opinion? Makes a refreshing change from all the male leads where you spend half the book figuring out if they're a decent human being or not. And apart from a dodgy middle section, I really like the way he treats Cath! But to be fair was that really his fault?

Character to look out for... I think it has to be Reagan! She's blunt and honest and real and I love her. Simple as.

Overall this is a really interesting read. It had my attention from the first chapter. It's real and gritty at times, not shying away from reality or sugar coating it. But at the same time it doesn't ever take it too far, it's still a sweet and enjoyable story that will have you pestering all you friends to read it just so you can talk about it! Or maybe that's just me... Either way, if you haven't read this then you need to! It's the perfect YA Contemporary Romance.

So, before you lovely people rush out to buy a copy of Fangirl I wanted to leave you with one of my favourite quotes of the book, and a little something that I think this story deserves!

"To really be a nerd, she's decided, you had to prefer fictional worlds to the real one."

& 

These are a few notes I made while reading Fangirl. All comments were made on my GoodReads page.

My Fangirl Dream Cast

Jane Levy as Cather & Bradley James as Levi