Review: Wake For Me by Isobel Irons

Title: Wake For Me
Author: Isobel Irons

Release Date:  15th December 2013

My Rating: 4/5 stars

Blurb on Goodreads: When Viola Bellerose breaks up with her “up and coming” Irish rock star boyfriend, the feisty winery heiress takes it in stride—by making out with a hot stranger and accidentally crashing her Mercedes into the East River. Whoops.

Somewhat unfairly, in her opinion, Viola now spends her days in a coma, trapped inside the prison of her own body. With each passing day, she finds herself becoming more lost in a world of vivid and terrifying dreams, in which a tall and tortured doctor often appears in a romantic role.

First year intern Sam Philips is barely surviving his complicated life, dealing with his older brother’s death, avoiding scary charge nurses and working endless hours--all while competing against his fellow interns. His solace is the time he spends with his favorite patient, the girl he’s nicknamed Sleeping Beauty. Convinced that her coma can’t last forever, Sam spends hours at her bedside, spilling his secrets to the unconscious girl.

But what the outwardly shy Sam could never guess, is that his Sleeping Beauty is actually aware. That she's secretly hanging on his every word, and falling head over heels in love with him. That even as Sam tries to save her, someone else might be trying to kill her.
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When I received this, I just knew I was in for a great read. After reading Isobel Irons' Promiscuous and now Wake For Me, she is undecidedly one of my new favourite contemporary authors. Irons is just so good at writing not only attention grabbing plot lines that aren’t all fluffy and overly lovey-dovey, but also wonderful characters that pull on the heart strings with their compelling back stories and the way they act and think and develop. You can’t help but grow attached to them all! And the plot, well let’s just say I felt like I was watching a hit drama on the telly! I just couldn’t put it down.

Speaking of the plot, let me just explain that to you a little. The story revolves around our two main characters, Viola and Sam, with the chapters alternating between their POVs. Viola is a rich heiress of her father’s very successful wine company. Sam is just your average guy facing his troubles and trying to survive his first year of internship. As fate would have it, they meet one night, just for a moment, and the next day Viola winds up a patient at the place Sam is working, trapped in a coma. Unbeknown to everyone, Viola is actually rather aware during her coma, and can hear everything Sam says as he tells his Sleeping Beauty all about his childhood, his fears, and his life in general. They are surely falling for each other without really realising it and without even having spoken to one another (I don’t count the couple of sentences from the bar haha!). That just a brief summary of what happens in life the first half of the book. Thereafter things become 50 kinds of crazy and…well, you’ll have to read it to find out!

In terms of writing style, Irons has not disappointed me. Whilst reading from the POV of Viola whilst she is in her comma, I genuinely felt like I was struggling to differentiate between reality and dream (or nightmare). The images her writing conjured up in my mind were equally glorious and terrifying. I felt Viola’s frustration and battle with the horrific images her mind managed to conjure up, which just shows how brilliant Irons’ writing is! The pace was pretty good, and I loved how the events flowed well, without the feeling of being pulled from one scene and thrown into the next. The only issue I had was the ending, as I felt it was a bit abrupt, like it was cut short. I felt it could have been written in a little more detail as a couple of things weren’t too clear and could have been concluded a little better.

Character wise, Sam had to be my favourite. He was so sweet and innocent, and his constant timidity and need to apologise was adorable (in that annoying kind of way). He was just so kind and caring that you couldn’t help but love him. Viola was a great character, and was definitely one I alternated between loving and hating. I loved her strength and perseverance, her unwillingness to let her coma affect her future and her decided determination to get better, find out what was happening to her and who (if anyone) was after her. Equally, I hated her prissy stuck up attitude which is a result of her rich background, her rudeness towards Sam at times and her using him to her benefit. She became a bit childish at times which bugged me but is kind of to be expected after everything she goes through. Either way she was just written so well. The secondary characters are all extremely likable but aren’t so central to the plot. Sam’s best friend and fellow intern is probably my favourite of the secondary characters and I cannot wait to hear his story!

All in all, this book was a definitely brilliant contemporary read with enough drama and suspense to take it to the next level.  Brilliant addition to the NA genre and I’m just so pleased I got to read this! I would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys a good contemporary with more to the plot than just the romance. A well-deserved 4 stars!

 

*This book was kindly offered to me in exchange for an honest review*

Review:Promiscuous by Isobel Irons

 

Title: Promiscuous

Author: Isobel Irons

Release Date: 10th January 2014

My Rating: 4/5 stars


*I was given this book in exchange for an honest review*

"It’s like a fucking Cinderella story up in here. Only, it’s high school. So there aren’t any happy endings."

^ That line right there sold it for me. I read that, and new it was something I had to check out. And boy let me tell you, there was no false packaging with this one. What you see is what you get, and then some.

This is the story of 18 year old Natasha “Tash” Bohner. And I know, her last name was made for taking the piss out of but honestly, that’s the least of her fricking problems. This is a story of shitty life situations, labels of society, and real life problems that don’t get swept under the rug or even given a directed spotlight (you know, the kind where the author shows you just enough about said life problem to make you all happy and crap when they 'resolve' it in their story). No. None of that BS here. Being dealt possibly the worst hand life could have given her; this is about Tasha's journey of self-discovery and how real people deal with things in every day real life. Realistic fiction in its rawest yet finest form. Have I mentioned how real it is? (Okay okay I'll stop). So, that being said, if stories with traumatic experiences such as bullying, sexual abuse, suicide and eating disorders as well as no particularly happy endings aren't your thing, then this definitely isn't for you. Go pick up the original Cinderella or something.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Isobel Irons' writing style is pretty damn captivating. The whole time I felt like I was actually listening to Tash as she told me her story, and not like I was reading a novel. The writing feels very personal, which makes sense as Isobel mentions that this is her story for the most part too. That raw edge made this book all the more powerful and unforgiving. The moment you open this book and start the first page you're thrown into the deep end. There is no warm up, no shallow easy beginning to dip your toes in to grow accustomed to its feel. Nope. Hold your breath and swim biatch or prepare to drown. Straight away it feels like Natasha is attacking, almost willing you to put the book down and walk away. For me that was practically a sign that she had something to hide, and made me push on all the more harder. Her dry wit and cynicism were actually right up my alley and made her all the more relatable to me as I could just feel how she was using them as well as her 'slut' label as a front, to throw people off what she was really like inside. The story itself was the perfect length. It didn’t take forever to build up or get to the point, and it didn’t drag on forever after.

There were a variety of characters present in this story, each adding their own dimension to the plot and giving this story far more depth than the dreadful cover allows us to believe (I'm sorry, I hate it). Tash's best friend Margot was the sweet to her sour. She was strong in ways that Tash was lacking and vulnerable in ways Tash wouldn't dream of being. They balanced each other perfectly and through their own little perfect pact kept each other (and me) sane through the shit storm that is their life. I loved how the issue of bullying as well as anorexia was tackled in this relationship. I like how Tash (and by default Isobel Irons) was honest enough to admit that actually, the fact that Margot's bones stand out so badly is kind of gross. That doesn't make Tash a horrible person, it makes her honest. Anorexia is terrible and gross and real, and should be faced, not cowered from or tip-toed around. I like how she knew when to leave Margot be, but supported her when she needed it and helped her get better. I adored Margot's family and their easy going nature, their big hearts and funny as hell personalities. They brought out the better side of Tash. I found it particularly sad that Tasha found it so hard to believe that her teacher as well as The Perfect Boy aka Grant Blue could actually think she deserved better. It just went to show that people that have confidence issues, particularly those traumatically induced such as Tasha's, don't even realise just how badly they have been affected. It was beautiful when she realised actually, what had happened to her was terrible, but was in no way her fault and she didn't deserved the shit she was dealing with. She is better than that, better than all those who sought to destroy her and had just as much right to want better for herself as everyone else. Grant Blue's character was key in Tasha's story. I loved how he was perceived as some perfect kid when in reality, he was just as flawed as the next person. It was great to see him open up to Tash in the way that he did, as it was essential to making her realise not everyone is what society labels them as and that flaws don't make imperfection. As cheesy as it sounds, they are both imperfectly perfect in their own way.

In short, this is a powerful, moving book of realistic fiction that cuts the crap and exposes just how bad high school can be, but how the simple things like friends and self believe can make all the difference, and that change starts with your own perception of yourself. I would most definitely recommend this book if you're looking for something moving and honest to read and aren't so easily offended. And even if you are, you should still read this book because I'm sure Tash would be more than happy to knock you off that high horse of yours and give you a much needed reality check.