Book Recommendations

Its time for the underrated book awards, where I reward the books that are amazing but don't get enough recognition!

Let's start with the longest series...

Please give it up for Murder Most Unladylike!

This mystery series is set in 1930s Britain. Meet the Honourable Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong, two schoolgirls who form a society dedicated to solving the mysteries in Deepdean School For Girls. At first, its all missing ties and harmless pranks but then Hazel finds Miss Bell, the science teacher, dead in the gym. This starts a massive adventure for the girls that continues throughout the series. The finale comes out in August this year. PLEASE read this series, I love it so much and the two protagonists are amazing and Robin Stevens tackles a lot of real-world problems.

Next, we have the award for biggest cliffhanger...

This award goes to Buttercup Sunshine and the Zombies of DOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

This book is aimed at younger readers, but its good for an easy read if you've just finished a hardcore series finale or something. It was written by an old primary school teacher I had, so I was lucky enough to get a signed copy. This book is about a girl called buttercup who accidentally witnesses the zombie apocalypse and tries to defeat them with Granny Fondant to save Briar's Cove, where nothing bad ever happened... Until now. Its sequel is now out, and its called Buttercup Sunshine and the house on Hangman's Hill.

Next is the book that made me cry the most. But I couldn't get it down to one, so here's three.

The Star Outside My Window is about Aniya, a ten-year-old girl. When she's taken into foster care, she sees a news report about a star moving through the solar system that is going to pass close to Earth, and she knows it's her mum. So she decides to take the journey from Oxford to London to stop it from being named after someone else. It's a beautiful book about a found family and kids dealing with the aftereffects of domestic abuse, and I was sobbing nearly the whole time.

Instructions For A Second-Hand Heart is the tale of two people: Jonny and Niamh, who are each overcoming different types of broken hearts. To quote the back cover: "This is a story about facing the future, no matter how frightening. This is a story about healing your heart, no matter how much it hurts." It's a heartbreaking romance that everyone ought to read.

Being Miss Nobody centres around Rosalind, a girl with a condition called Selective Mutism or SM. When she starts secondary school, she's sure that she'll hate it. Eventually, she gets sick of being silent and starts a blog called Miss Nobody, a place to speak out. The blog is Rosalind's voice, but it quickly spirals out of control. I loved this book because it touched my heart in so many ways, and it touches on how lives can change very quickly, for better or worse.

The next award is for most character development and it goes to... Well, if I told you the name, I'd have to kill you. Not really, its the Secret Series by Pseudonymous Bosch which took me about three attempts to spell.

This series follows Cassandra, who seems like your regular middle school student, but there's a lot you have to discover about her. When a boy from her school is kidnapped by a mysterious organisation called the Midnight Sun, she sets out to find him alongside her unlikely companion Max-Ernest. Over the course of the series, Cass discovers a lot of things that affect her character but Max-Ernest has the most development. I love this series and I would definitely recommend it.

The next one was a very difficult decision to make, and its the award for best worldbuilding. And it has to go to an amazing book, A Girl Called Owl.

Owl thinks she's a normal girl until one day, everything changes when she starts crying tears of frost. Owl has never met her father, and she can't help but wonder if her strange new powers could lead her to him. It's an amazing coming of age that I would advise you all to read.

And the final award: Couple I Shipped Hardest.

And it goes to Sol and Manny from The Land Of Forgotten Girls!

The Land OF Forgotten Girls is a story about Sol, a girl who immigrated from the Philippines who lives in a bad neighbourhood with an abusive stepmother and her little sister Ming. They escape from their harsh reality by telling stories to each other. Manny is Sol's best friend and I ship them VERY hard.