Friday 25 March 2022

Book Review: "Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl" by Joya Goffney


⭐⭐⭐ out of 5

If you've read any of my other recent book reviews, you'll already know that I start off each one the same way - by saying that each book starts off with the full 5 stars and I'm always hopeful that they will all still firmly in place too when I finish reading the book.

I got an ARC of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley in exchange for this, totally honest review.

Lets get down to the actual review shall we?

It seems, from the very first sentence of this book, that it's written in first person and that the main character calls her father "Daddy" which I'm not sure a teen would actually do IRL... other than when they wanted to sweet talk him into getting something for her of course  ;-)

There have been a few mis-placed full stops and spaces after the first letter of some words which is annoying, but it seems to be set in America and those errors might have been sorted out by the time it hits the shelves, so the five stars are still all in place at the end of the first chapter.

OMG... I'm up to chapter 7 now and writing this review has totally gone by the wayside!

Judging by the age of Monique (the main character) and the theme running through the last several chapters, the age of Monique says that this book is aimed at younger teens but the theme is for much older teens so that they aren't tempted to break the law.  The voice running through is kinda middly teen, so I would recommend a parent or carer reads the book before letting their teen read it, unless they are over the age of consent but then they may not want to read it 'cos of Monique's age (17)... it's a good book, but the author hasn't thought about how old the reader will be and if it's legal for them to read it.  It's not erotica or anything but it *does* talk about s*x openly, so the first star is coming off unfortunately.

Thankfully chapter 9 was more supportive and less s*xual... not sure I'd be wanting a 14-15 year old reading books like this though.

So proud of you in chapter 10, Monique... the first few steps are always the hardest!

Chapter 11 reads that Monique is starting to rebel... such a huge difference to the first few chapters and it's building up to a huuuuge climax - I can feel it already lol

Another awesome chapter... I'm enjoying the freedom that Monique is quickly gaining and I'm only 32% of the way through lol

Unfortunately another star is coming off 'cos of my sense of fair play - I've removed stars from other books for using brand names, potentially without permission, and that's what this author is doing, so this awesome book is unfortunately down to 3 stars now  :-(

And now it's talking about watching p*rn... not sure I'd want a 14-15 year old to know about that while they are still a child, so unfortunately there's only one more star left to lose before I give up on it, which is a huge shame 'cos it's a great book... just written for more mature readers is all.

Wow.  Chapter 23 was incredible.  My hubby has just asked if it reclaims a star if it has enough of a wow factor, but unfortunately not... once a star's gone, it's gone unfortunately.  Chapter 23 has been the best chapter so far though.

Just finished reading and while didn't go downhill so much, after reading chapter 23, it was a touch disappointing.  If it had finished at the end of chapter 23 then it would have been an awesome end to the book, but I'm left feeling disappointed unfortunately.

Wednesday 23 March 2022

No news today and potentially...

...none tomorrow either 'cos I've spent the whole day today fighting to get the backups to go, only for them to stop working at 90% and I didn't realise until 4pm by which time it was too late to restart them, so it's gonna be the first thing I do tomorrow.  I won't be able to save or upload anything until that's done and dusted by which time it'll be lunchtime then too late to start on the news for you all after that.  I remain cautiously hopeful that things will be back to normal on Friday though.  

 

While the backups are under way, I'll carry on with planning out my JanNo novel again, instead of ligging around aimlessly online all day, like I have today.


Tuesday 22 March 2022

Half way through

I realised last night that I hadn't planned out my JanNo novel yet and my muse was snoring their head off and refusing to wake up.  I went trawling through all my writing files for ideas of the age range, what the novel would be about, character names and chapter ideas.


I ended up deciding that it'd be a younger MG fantasy novel so that I had an extra few thousand words to play with, I decided on a temporary title and overall theme running through the book and I managed to plan out the first ⅓ of the MS.


I had a delivery at lunchtime and a yummy and surprisingly filling bowl of soup for lunch and have now got it planned up to half way, so I'm happy with that for now and I'll plan out another few chapters after I've had me tea (a take-away that'll see me through tonight and into tomorrow).  I'm still struggling for ideas, but at least I'm getting the basics down right now.


My MC is a 14 year old who is currently going through the start of puberty during the Summer holiday with their parents to give their aunt (who they live with) a break for a while.  I just need to find a list of things that 14 year-old's wish for now lol