Five Feet Apart by Rachel Lippincott with Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis

Rating: 4/5
Age recommendation: YA/15+

Hello, for my second post today (wowzers, considering I haven't done anything in a while) I'm going to review Five Feet Apart, which is now a major motion picture!

First, we meet Stella, who suffers from cystic fibrosis. She's been in hospital most of her life because of CF, and she always needs to be in control of everything else. Her biggest rule is never be within six feet of another CFer. 6 feet, if she ever wants the chance to get a lung transplant. No less. Then there's Will, another CFer, only he also has B Cepacia. He hates the endless trips to hospitals and wants to be in control of his life, which'll happen when he turns 18. If Stella wants to stay safe and be able to get her new lungs, she shouldn't hang around Will. One touch could be enough to jeopardize everything she's been working towards. But as they get to know each other, Stella starts to wonder, is everything, all the rules and restrictions, really worth it? What if they changed six feet to five, would it really ruin everything?

This book hit me hard. It's made me so grateful for everything I have, including my family, friends, freedom and perfectly good set of functioning lungs. It was a good book, which filled me full of emotions as I read. I had a good laugh, cringe and a bit of a cry, and suspense for the next chapter. If you enjoy contemporary YA romances with a roller coaster of emotions and friendships, this is for you! I read the whole thing in two days! It's defiantly a shorter book than I normally read, but was still well written and structured all the way through, and didn't seem to fast paced or like things were happening to quickly. I'm so looking forward to watching the movie!

This book really helped me to understand something like what it must be like for people who are stuck in hospital, and do have less freedom as most of us do. Most of us can be friends with whoever we want to be friends with, and we can hug them and do things with them without worrying about all the troubles which Stella and Will faced in Five Feet Apart. A wonderful, insightful love story which is short and sweet, this book is bound to make you unable to do anything else other than read and wonder about it! This book will teach you to be grateful for even the littlest things in life. I don't normally read a lot of contemporary, but Five Feet Apart was defiantly a good one, which should be added to your TBR pile as soon as possible!

I hope that science is able to find a cure for cystic fibrosis, and I can't believe the amount people who have to live with it, and anyone else with a life threatening disease. Best wishes to anyone who is stuck in hospital like Stella and Will, I hope you get well! Have any thoughts on Five Feet Apart? Post in the comments below!

Happy Reading, and don't forget to wash your hands!
Maddie xoxo

Undercover Princess (the Rosewood Chronicles bk1) by Connie Glynn

Rating: 5/5
Age recommendation: 13+

Hey, it's been a while!
So today, I'm going to introduce you guys to the amazingness (I know that's not a word) that is Undercover Princess, first book in the Rosewood Chronicles by Connie Glynn.

Undercover Princess follows Lottie Pumpkin and Ellie Wolf, as they begin the start of the school year at Rosewood Hall, a prestigious boarding school which is incredibly hard to get into. All her life, Lottie, a sweet, fairy tale loving girl,  has always dreamed about being a princess, and Ellie is a rebellious, free spirited princes who has always wished that she wasn't one. Hardly a few days into the school year, a rumor spreads around the school that Lottie is the undercover princess of Maradova. Unable to stop the rumors, Lottie and Ellie decide to switch identities after Ellie tells Lottie that she is the real undercover princess. Everything is perfect, and with a growing friendship between the two girls, everything is just as they dreamed it would be. Only, someone seems to know Ellie and Lottie's deception, and with growing threats, they realize that their life at Rosewood is not as wonderful as it may seem. The girls need to find out what is happening, or else their lives could be in danger. Undercover Princess is a fun, mystery filled, cute and mysterious read for anyone who likes princesses and adventures. 

I really enjoyed this book, and was constantly surprised with new twists and never found the book dull. If you enjoy Harry Potter and Disney, you should like this book because it is inspired from those franchises, but was in no way a rip-off version of either. I really enjoy books which are set at a school and have lots of fun characters each with their own traits. And while Rosewood isn't a magical school, with wizards or powers and other magical, fantasy stuff, it has a bit of a whimsical feel. As Connie Glynn says herself, "It is not the magic of fantasy books and wizards - it's the magic you feel when you find a person or place with which you feel an explainable affinity." It makes the story interesting and fun to read.

As an aspiring writer myself, I love the way that Connie writes and picked up a couple of good techniques she used, and she makes each and every sentence interesting and meaningful. The whole story is whimsical and colorful. There are a lot of lessons to learn in the Rosewood Chronicles, and the characters are relatable and funny and filled with their own quirks and traits. The story is inspiring and full of mysteries I couldn't wait to solve, and had me guessing and waiting in anticipation for the next chapter. I read this book last year, and decided to re-read it when I got the third book for my birthday, and it was just as exciting and mysterious as the first time I read it. I finished the third book yesterday, and am eagerly awaiting the fourth!

So that's Undercover Princess, book one in the Rosewood Chronicles by Connie Glynn. Definitely a five stars out of five read, and great for anyone who likes Disney or Harry Potter! All in all, it's a cute and fun, mysterious story. If you want to find out what house you're in, I found a quiz on the Penguin website: https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/children/2018/the-rosewood-chronicles-sorting-quiz/ . I'm in Ivy!!

Just before I go, I also thought I'd say that Connie Glynn is also the voice of Moxie Dewdrop in the Dreamworks animation Trolls. That's kind of completely off topic, but a fun fact anyways! Also, Connie has her own YouTube channel, which I enjoy watching. She also has a vlog where she was writing the book. So yeah. I thought it was cool.

Also! While reading is heaps of fun and the thing that I do every singly day without fail because I love it so much, with the Corona Virus going on and quarantine, it might be fun to do other things to! My friend Jasmine has her own blog, where she posts drawings, recipes, short stories, poems and more! It's lots of fun, and right now she's been blogging about what she's been doing stuck in quarantine, so check it out! Here's the link:   http://jasminesnotsosecretjournal.blogspot.com/ 

If you've read Undercover Princess, I hope you enjoyed it, and if you haven't add it to your TBR pile right now! Have any thoughts on Undercover Princess or your own recommendations? Post in the comments below! We're in a trying time right now, so remember to keep positive, wash your hands and read books!

Happy Reading,

Maddie xoxo