Update on the Reading Challenge Thing

Right, so I haven't finished a book in a while. I finished Summer fling while on holiday, and I haven't finished a book since. *Ashamed face.* Anyway, I've read 15 books in total, over 33 weeks.. There are 19 weeks left in the year, and I have to read 35 books, meaning I'll have to read about 3 books per week just to make sure I don't fail.

Books I've read this year so far:

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group by Catherine Jinks
The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson
Let it Snow by Maureen Johnson, John Green and Lauren Myracle
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
Looking For Alaska by John Green**
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green**
Paper Towns by John Green**
13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson
Summer Fling by Sarah Morgan
** - Books read around Christmas and New Year that I can't remember if I read this year or the very end of last year but I'm counting anyway just in case.

Books I've bought and intend to read soon:
(In order of priority)


Fallen by Lauren Kate***
Torment by Lauren Kate

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Birth of a Killer by Darren Shan
Click by Bill Tancer***
Moab is my Washpot by Stephen Fry***
Nudge by Thaler and Sunstien***
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Once in a House on Fire by Andrea Ashworth
Jane Slayre by Charlotte Bronte and Sherri Browning Erwin
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
Thud by Terry Pratchett
Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Star Trek: Vanguard by David Mack
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine by Una McCormack
Rupture by Simon Lelic
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
*** - Books I've started but not yet finished due to the distraction of other books.

Summer Fling by Sarah Morgan

One of the key things about Summer Fling is that it is split into two shorter books. Except its not, because the second one sort of leads on from the other, in the sense that it's the same characters, but another character takes the lead role.

Both parts of the novel take part on Glenmore island, a remote Scottish island with a tight-knit community where everybody knows everybody and everybody's business. The four main focus characters are Logan, a doctor and widowed single father to his year old daughter Kirsty, his sister/nurse Kyla, her best friend and also a nurse, Evanna, and Ethan, a doctor who moves to the island at the beginning of the first book.

The first book starts from the point of view of Ethan as he steps off the ferry onto Glemore island for the first time. We know nothing about him, other than that he is a doctor, there to help out for the summer at the local practice. He and Kyla quickly begin a relationship, which isn't easy because it is painfully obvious that he had a superior motive for moving to the island, which until the end of that part of the book, we only hear about "the letter" and nothing more about it or its contents. The lack of information about the letter is certainly intriguing, if a little irritating to the point where the temptation to skip ahead and see if a copy of the letter is ever shown is very hard to resist. Unfortunately the letter is never shown, only quoted.

Ethan and Kyla's relationship is an odd one, which really only picks up near the end of the section of the novel, where the two enjoy a hasty physical relationship for one night, ignore one another for a few days to allow emotions to mix, and then the section ends with an overflow of love that has developed over the few weeks the books takes place over, and ends with a very clichéd marriage proposal in a doctors exam room, where Ethan decides that he will stay on the island forever.

The second 'book' starts from the point of view of Evanna, apparently a month after the end of the last book, after she arrives back after a month of working on the mainland. She immediately states how she has loved Logan since they were children, has never looked at another man the way she sees him, but how he will only ever see her as a friend. She appears to be right about this, and as a classic insensitive man, Logan not once refers to her even as his friend, merely good with his daughter, and a fantastic nurse, which also she appreciates these compliments, isn't quite what she wanted to hear. He hadn't missed her in the month she's been away, merely her services. She tries in vain to get him to notice her, and finally gives up. She considers leaving the island permanently, but decides to continue living her life as Logan's friend. Personally I spent a lot of time empathising with her for obvious reasons if you know anything about my recent love life.

Of course, when Logan accidentally runs into Evanna as she comes out the shower, stark naked and without her towel, he starts to see her in a different light. This struck me as a little odd. I mean I know it's realistic and everything, guys can be swayed on their views of someone simply by seeing them naked, but it just seemed a little strange to me. And then, get this, it picks up near the end when the two enjoy a hasty physical relationship for one night, ignore one another for a few days to allow emotions to mix, and then the book ends with an overflow of love that has developed over the past few days, and ends with a very clichéd marriage proposal on a cliff where Evanna decides to stay on the island forever. ... Do you spot the similarities too? It doesn't take a genius.

And that kids, is how you write a novel that sounds bad but is actually surprisingly good. 6 out of 10.