How Hard Can Love Be? (The Spinster Club Series #2)

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Holly Bourne has got the type of writing style where it's chatty like you already know the characters before you read about them yet her way of describing characters, settings and emotions are mesmerising. I was also really impressed by how Evie’s story (Am I Normal Yet?) ties in with this new novel; Evie’s presence is clearly baked into this story but not so much that it’s just a byproduct of the first novel. At the end of the day, feminism, gender equality, and all these other concepts exist because we aim for usually these three important things in life: happiness, love and doing the right thing even if achieving them would mean getting hurt and risking ourselves in the process . All Amber wants is a bit of love from her estranged mum. And she's hoping that a summer together at Mum's Californian kids' camp will help patch up her shattered heart. But then she meets Prom King Kyle - and offers her heart up for breaking all over again. Even with BFFs Evie and Lottie's advice, Amber's finding love hard. Is it worth the fight? About This Edition ISBN: Unfourtantly, there were also comments and parts that I felt contradicted the whole message of the book.

I charged Amber with the crime of not being Evie at the beginning of this review. She’s guilty of it—but that’s a good thing, right? Nothing is worse than an author who can’t write characters with unique voices. So it’s good that Bourne can write more than one UK teenager. Obviously, since Amber doesn’t share Evie’s anxiety and compulsiveness, she is more whimsical in how she behaves. She drinks and generally gets up into mischief … yet, paradoxically, there is steel beneath this carefree exterior. Amber is afraid of losing control as a result of her experiences with her mother. It was always going to be very hard to top Am I Normal Yet?, because I loved that book so much. It had such a great main character, and pretty damn accurate portrayal of anxiety and OCD, that I couldn't help but enjoy it.The way that Holly Bourne worked feminism into her story was really well done. Rather than telling the reader about feminism she showed how feminism was relevant to the numerous situations the characters found themselves in making it accessible and relatable to young girls. I loved how Evie and her friends were just getting started on their journey into feminism and so they were each at different stages and continued to learn as they went along. PDF / EPUB File Name: How_Hard_Can_Love_Be_-_Holly_Bourne.pdf, How_Hard_Can_Love_Be_-_Holly_Bourne.epub Wow! Am I Normal Yet by Holly Bourne slammed me to the ground with all the feels. It broke my heart, made me roar with laughter, made me determined to fight more about feminist issues and most of all enlightened me about OCD. You’ve probably heard a lot of people saying stuff like “I’m feeling OCD.” Or in the cases of bookworms, when we own a book series that are not in the same height or format, we get anxious. I am guilty of that! I sometimes use that expression, or rather, I sometimes misuse the term.

The characters were so fun and realistic. Evie's best friends, Amber and Lottie are great characters and I loved the interactions between these three. They have a great friendship. They discuss everything together, from gossip to actual deep things. That is the girl friendship I want to see more of! Bourne is a former news journalist, and was nominated for Best Print Journalist of the Year in 2010 [18] while working as a news reporter at the Surrey Mirror. [4] She graduated from the University of Sheffield [19] with a first-class degree in Journalism. [20] Bibliography [ edit ] Standalone novels [ edit ] Am I Normal Yet? is a very good book and I loved it. I loved seeing myself represented and it will definitely help me when it comes to my anxiety and OCDs. However, I wish the feminism talked about in this book was intersectional and didn’t exclude anyone, nor made anyone feel bad for talking about men. Yes, women are more than just lovers, mothers or wives, but it doesn’t give anyone the right to shade someone else for liking another person or even dating. Judging is never the key, and your feminism should always include everyone in it.Amber's relationship with her mum was one of the big points of this book. It's strained throughout the entirety of the book and is kinda resolved by the end of the book. However, I like how things were left off. A relationship like that isn't solved in one heart-to-heart. I liked how deep the talk on alcoholism and selfishness was and it made me think of things a little differently. I started this book for two reasons, one being that Holly Bourne will be attending YALC 2018 in London, where I am going in a few weeks, and the other being my friend Roxanne who told me to do so. And so I did. The girls are amazing! Evie, Amber and Lottie form a gang called the The Spinster Club to help figure out how to be a feminist. They aim to stay true to themselves, and not lose their personality or their friends while trying to impress guys, and at the same time not being ball breakers! It was such a fun theme but also very powerful and inspiring.

Mein Lieblingscharakter war Kyle und ich bin unendlich traurig, dass wir seinen Charakter nicht detaillierter kennenlernen durften, weil er so komplex und extrem interessant ist. Das fand ich echt mega schade! Ich hoffe sehr, das Holly auf so einen Charakter in einem anderen Buch nochmals näher eingeht. So rages Lottie, one of three members of the Spinster Club, on a transatlantic Skype chat with Amber, narrator of the second volume in Holly Bourne’s ‘Normal’ trilogy. Lottie will get her own story in the third volume, and we’ve already heard from Evie, whose struggles with boys and OCD formed the basis for Am I Normal Yet? But this is very much Amber’s story – Amber who is tall, redheaded and just a little bit scary. Amber who drinks maybe just a little too much despite – or sometimes to spite – her mother’s alcoholism, a situation leading to her parents’ divorce and her mother’s absence from her life for the past two years. Amber who just wants to spend the summer with her mum – even if that means putting up with her new partner, ‘Bumface Kevin’, and helping out at the camp he runs in the Californian mountains. Amber who just needs so many hugs and to be loved – because while she has two best friends that are like family, she can’t help feeling haunted by her mum’s abandoning of her. We see Evie's recovery diary. She describes good thoughts and bad thoughts as they burst into her day. We get to nosy at test messages and watch Evie compile lots of lists. All things I ADORE in books, so these were another huge highlight for me. Maybe there in a set amount of crying your body needs to deal with any trauma. There’s a certain water-level of tears you need to shed until you can find acceptance or move on or whatever. And, if you don’t cry them out, they just catch up with you.” Amber and Lottie both CONSTANTLY hate on other women throughout this book, but especially amber. There’s this big thing in this book with Amber hating this girl Melody for legitimately no other reason other than the fact that Melody likes a boy that amber likes, a boy amber has known for a day. Great feminism.Book Genre: Contemporary, Family, Feminism, Fiction, Health, Love, Mental Health, Romance, Young Adult, Young Adult Contemporary, Young Adult Romance The second book in The Spinster Club series focuses on Amber, the long-legged ginger who has never kissed a boy. Year ago her father left her mum for another woman and her mother got with her counsellor from the rehab centre, not exactly a picture perfect family. Clearly, Amber has some issues. This summer is the first time in two years that she will see her mum, who has moved to America with "bumface Kevin" to run a kids summer camp, where Amber will be working. Amber's relationship with Kyle is absolutely adorable! Kyle is a great male MC, and I'm glad because he's GOOD. He's not a bad guy turned good, he's not a jerk. He's genuinely nice. He's a walking cliche though, but he's aware of that. Kyle has depth. He does things he's expected to do and he doesn't know who he really is. I liked how he and Amber had discussed that over the course of the book. In addition to that, they discussed feminism. They discussed deep issues. It wasn't a shallow relationship. I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for their next book to read. Holly’s an amazing writer, and she’s only gone and done it again with How Hard Can Love Be?