Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books

Book Review | Something Certain, Maybe by Sara Barnard

Posted August 22, 2022 by Emma in 2022 Books, 5 Stars, Book Review, Bookish Post, Summer Reading, UKYA, University, YA / 0 Comments

Hello my lovely bookworms. Happy Monday and hope you had a lovely weekend. Today I’m bringing you a book review *shock horror*. I know – I mean it’s been a while once again. But I’ve read a lot of books this summer so far which I’m loving and I need to catch up on review desperately.

Today’s review is my most recent finished book, Something Certain, Maybe by Sara Barnard. With under half way to go on the book, I picked it up before bed and I finished it at 2 am. So here is a little more about the book and here’s why I loved it so much. I have a lot to say I think…

Book Review | Something Certain, Maybe by Sara BarnardSomething Certain, Maybe by Sara Barnard
Published by Macmillan Children's Books on July 1, 2022
Genres: Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Love & Romance, UKYA, Young Adult Fiction
Amazon | Book Depository | Waterstones
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A powerful novel about first love, friendships and embracing the uncertainty of an unknowable future, from Sara Barnard, winner of the YA Book Prize.
Rosie is ready for her life to begin, because nothing says new life like going to university. After years of waiting and working hard, she's finally on the road that will secure her future.
Except university turns out to be not what she hoped or imagined, and although she's not exactly unhappy – really! – she might be a little bit worried that she doesn't really like her course much. Or her flatmates. Or really... anything? But it's normal to be homesick (right?) and everything will have settled in a month or two, and it's totally fine that her friends seem so much happier than she is, and that the doctors don’t seem to know what’s wrong with her mother.
But then she meets Jade, and everything starts to look a little brighter. At least, it does if she’s only looking at Jade. But is first love enough when everything else is falling apart?

TW – mentions of suicide, child/family member death, family illness, isolation, relationship issues

Something Certain, Maybe is a sapphic contemporary UKYA set in university. Rosie is one of the original trio of characters from Beautiful Broken Things her first YA that I loved. Which then continued into Fierce Fragile Hearts. This book can be read as a standalone book but I would encourage you to read her other books too. 

Rosie is starting her first year there and she has everything planned out, she always been told to list her certainties. But she soon realises in the first few days that University isn’t always how it seems. New friends, new flat, new chapter of life isn’t how she imagined.

There isn’t very many books that are set in university – the only one I’ve read is Freshers by Lucy Iverson. From my interview with Sara she wanted to write a story where university isn’t the ultimate choice, that planning your life away isn’t the way, plans fall apart and you can’t keep to a plan if you are unhappy in yourself. Sara really captured the struggle of change and especially how that impacted of Rosie’s mental health. But then she meets Jade, a third year in Pharmacy degree. Suddenly the unhappiness and drastic changes in her life disappear. Jade brings the happiness out in Rosie, shining through the book and I was honestly rooting for their relationship all the way. It brings a warmth to the reader knowing that Rosie has something for her to hold on too.

I really loved seeing the development of her best friends Suzanne and Caddy. They certainly have their friendship struggles. University is a massive life choice that can either make you – like Caddy who is embracing it, whilst with Rosie – it can break you. For Suze, she is still very much finding what she wants to do after the struggles she’s endured. In a lot of YA books, you never see a companion novel to see how these characters that you’ve learnt to love is doing. It gives it that natural progression of life in YA books and you feel as a reader way more connected to the characters.

But for me, what really touched me in this book and had me glazy eyed throughout the book is Rosie’s relationship with her mum. Oh my, did that pull at the heart strings. Their relationship very much reminded me of mine with my mum. It’s just Rosie and her mum, their bond is unbreakable. Without spoiling it, they do go through so rough patches. Her mum will do everything to put Rosie’s happiness first and in turn won’t always tell her things. Whilst Rosie wants to know, she worries about her and being so far away. It made the book for me rather special and undeniable it was the reason why I genuinely couldn’t put it down.

Something Certain, Maybe is probably my favourite book of Sara’s without a doubt. I feel it’s one of kind, the storyline, the return of the original trio of characters, the exploration of life choices and decisions, falling in love for the first time, understanding the value of family and friends. Fan’s of Holly Bourne will love Sara’s books.

Thank you to Macmillan Children’s Books for sending me a copy in exchange for a review.

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Blog Tour – Interview | Something Certain, Maybe by Sara Barnard

Blog Tour – Interview | Something Certain, Maybe by Sara Barnard

Happy Friday my lovely bookworms. I am currently travelling home from holiday. But today I’m really excited to be ending the blog tour for Something Certain, Maybe by Sara Barnard. This is also my current read for the train ride. It’s been so long since I read a book by Sara and I’d forgotten how much I loved her writing. I would say if you are a fan of Holly Bourne, like I am, as you all know then I would definitely recommend Sara’s books. My favourite of hers is A Quiet Kind of Thunder. Something Certain, Maybe is a […]

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Twenty Twenty One – My Top 10 Books of the year

Twenty Twenty One – My Top 10 Books of the year

Hello it’s me again, I am on a roll at the moment with blogging and I am loving it. I’m starting as I mean to go on. So today is all about the books I loved during 2021. I have to say the it’s quite varied and I love seeing how my tastes have changed. I can’t wait to see what my reading is like year! So let’s get to the nitty gritty part of the post with my top 10 books of the year! As my reading is drastically lower than normal with life and I haven’t reviewed every […]

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Reading Update: 5 Books I’m looking forward to reading next

Posted April 13, 2021 by Emma in 2021 Books, Book List, Bookish Post, TBR / 3 Comments
Reading Update: 5 Books I’m looking forward to reading next

Hello fellow bookworms, hope we are doing well. Bookshops are open this week and I can’t wait to go into one, hopefully today! I’m trying to get back into blogging and I’ve written loads of ideas down. So to start back my comeback and getting back into a blogging routine I thought I would share with you a reading update and the 5 books I’m going to be reading next. These books are a mixture of blog tours, arcs and books I’m excited to read that have been long awaited. But first I thought I would share my thoughts on […]

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Blog Tour Book Review | Forever Ends on Friday by Justin A. Reynolds

Posted January 28, 2021 by Emma in 2021 Books, Blog Tour, Book Review, YA / 0 Comments
Blog Tour Book Review | Forever Ends on Friday by Justin A. Reynolds

Happy Thursday my lovely readers. First post of the week as I’ve pretty much escaped in books which I’ve loved. Today I’m reviewing a book I finished last night, Forever Ends on Friday by Justin A. Reynolds. I was on blog tour on Monday but I hadn’t quite finished and I wanted to do the review justice. This is an amazing, surprising YA contemporary. So before my review, here is a little more about the book. My Review He blames his former best friend Quinn for causing the crash that took away his parents. Two years later, Jamal is pulling […]

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Blog Tour Review & Guest Post | Boy Queen by George Lester

Posted August 8, 2020 by Emma in 2020 books, Blog Tour, Book Review, Guest Post, LGBTQ+, UKYA, YA / 4 Comments
Blog Tour Review & Guest Post | Boy Queen by George Lester

Happy Weekend my lovely readers. I hope you are staying as cool as possible. It’s mighty hot here in the UK isn’t it. Anyways, today I’m really excited to be part of the blog tour for Boy Queen by George Lester – his debut LGBTQ+ YA and I loved it! I am sharing my review of this wonderful book as well as George sharing his tips for writing about inclusivity and diversity. But before that here is a little bit more info of this A-M-A-Z-I-N-G book! My Review I feel like I’m bringing out John Barrowman in this review. This […]

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Top 5 Pride books I can’t wait to read

Posted June 8, 2020 by Emma in 2020 books, Book List, Bookish Post, LGBTQ+, TBR, UKYA, YA / 0 Comments
Top 5 Pride books I can’t wait to read

Happy Monday my lovely bookworms, hope you had a wonderful weekend. I finally got my reading mojo back and thoroughly enjoying Aurora Rising. I have another top 5 book list for you, I know everyone seems to enjoy them and I love creating new topics. As its Pride month I wanted to show you the top 5 books I’m going to be reading (hopefully) all this month. These are mostly recent releases and a lot of these have had amazing reviews especially from my friend Steph (bookslovereaders). Top 5 Pride books I can’t wait to read       I […]

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Blog Tour | Review – Rules for Being a Girl by Candace Bushnell & Katie Cotugno

Blog Tour | Review – Rules for Being a Girl by Candace Bushnell & Katie Cotugno

Happy Easter Monday my bookish friends. Hope your all well and had a lovely weekend in the sunshine. I read so much including the book for this blog tour. Today I’m so excited to be part of the blog tour for Rules for Being a Girl by Candace Bushnell and Katie Cotugno. I will be sharing my review as well as championing one of my favourite feminist reads. Catch that after my review, you probably won’t be surprised. Before that, here is a little bit more about this book… MY REVIEW This book took me just over a day and […]

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Top 5 Fantasy Books I’m looking forward to Reading

Top 5 Fantasy Books I’m looking forward to Reading

Hello my bookish friends, I’m on half term! Yay! I’m so looking forward to catching up on my reading – especially a book that I’ve been reading for 2 weeks. I know, it’s crazy how work has been that I’ve just been too tired too read. So I want to read a few books off my TBR that I’ve received over the last couple of weeks. It’s just nice having a break and not worrying about work. Reading and Relaxing is what I need right now and I can’t wait! So today I thought I would showcase some of the […]

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