Out of the Blue: A heartwarming picture book about celebrating difference

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First off, let it be known that this book perfectly fulfills my personal aesthetic. gorgeous angels with multi-colored feathers in a rose-gold palette and perfect singing voices?? sapphic girls??? a festival in edinburgh?? old buildings and beautiful art?? and that cover tho?? sign me tf up. That’s some god-tier beauty right there. This review sounds harsh and more like a 2 star rating than 3 stars, but I want to point out that it isn't a bad book, especially for a debut novel. I just think my expectations were too high and that I'm not the right target audience. Jaya is our narrator, and the guilt over her mother’s death and the disgust she has for all of the cults and wingdings fuels a lot of her decisions. She sees the angels (or, “beings”) as people, and she doesn’t like that no one else does. All of the friendship, relationship, and family dynamics involving Jaya were so well-written, but I think the most interesting relationship she has is with her dad, who’s one of the wingdings and is the one that forced his daughters to come to Edinburgh with him to try and catch a live Being. One of the things that really made this book for me was the setting. Growing up and living not too far from Edinburgh made this book a must read for me. I loved seeing the familiar setting and the portrayal of the crazy festival season. I thought Sophie Cameron did a wonderful job of bringing Edinburgh to life, as well as making it believable that angels could crash land in the city. When I read the synopsis I wasn’t sure that falling angels would be believable but Cameron’s world-building is superb and powerful.

I also thought the fake dating was solid, there was good communication, a well paced shifting from fake to real, and there was definitely chemistry between the characters. Were we meant to meet? I believe so, one hundred percent. But I need to live for myself, build my life, follow my dreams, before I can be somebody's partner. I want to find the love of my life, and I think there's a world where Crest could have been that, but I need to love myself -- *live* for myself -- first." You don't know me and probably will not be able to comprehend what that means but I was being late for a music festival in the middle of the summer in one of the sunniest cities in Europe so I can finish reading this bloody book (for the first time). And there are very few books capable of making me almost miss Foo Fighters' live a good 1000 km away from my home. A lot of the issues I had with this book, I also had with June's first book, Jay's Gay Agenda, so it might just be that Jason June is not the author for me.Five days after Truss announced her resignation, HarperCollins announced a second change in subtitle, this time to The Inside Story of the Unexpected Rise and Rapid Fall of Liz Truss, and moved the publication date forward, to 1 November for the ebook edition and 24 November for the print and audio editions. In a press release, HarperCollins quoted Cole and Heale as saying, "The irony is not lost on us that our biography of a politician whose rise and fall was built upon her ability to shapeshift with startling speed, has itself now needed a lightning retool to keep up with her." [5] Contents [ edit ] One of the strongest elements in this book are the family and specifically sibling relationships. I don't think that any of the character stood out much individually but there's so many complex relationships and so many important aspects that get talked about and I really loved that. I adore when you read a book and can very clearly see where everyone is coming from in a conflict and it very much felt like that reading this book. Jaya is a wonderful MC. She's mourning her mother, dealing with her distant father and little sister, and the sudden disappearance of her on-again, off-again sort-of girlfriend all while mysterious, angelic Beings are falling from the sky. Jaya is comfortable with her sexuality--which is wonderful, really, and far too uncommon to read about. As a questioning teen I would have LOVED to read about Jaya, about how her sexuality isn't at the center of her problems, how, really, it's the LEAST of her problems. She struggles with guilt, and anger, and confusion and her world has changed in so many irrevocable ways. Her relationship with her father and younger sister are both poignant and frustrating and difficult and I loved how her family was written. I loved how lived-in the characters felt, how they seemed real and not just constructed. While Allie and Jaya take care of the Being they find, Jaya also finds herself coming to terms with her mother’s death and the relationship dynamics of her family. Allie struggles between the fun-filled life she wants to live and the limitations set upon by her worrisome mother and brother, for fear of her health. There’s a lot explored in this story, but rest assured that the resolution is quite beautiful and well worth the read. If you're looking for a summer read - "Out of the Blue" is a great choice, it's got a beautiful ocean setting, a cute romance (fake dating!), messy teens and will hit you with all the nostalgic feels if you loved watching H2O too.

Announced by HarperCollins as Out of the Blue: The Inside Story of Liz Truss and Her Astonishing Rise to Power shortly after Truss took office in September 2022, with a planned publication date of 8 December, it was re-titled Out of the Blue: The Inside Story of Liz Truss and Her Explosive Rise to Power amidst the October 2022 United Kingdom government crisis. Truss's announcement on 20 October that she would resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom prompted Cole and Heale to rewrite parts of the book and add a chapter at the end, and led to a second change to the book's title and the moving-up of its publication date. But my body, this one, the one I have on land, also craves one other thing. One other person. I need Sean. I need to kiss him again. I need to share myself with him one more time before I go. I really enjoyed the relationship that built between Ross and Sean, and I really appreciated the non-binary rep from Ross. In the world of Mer, gender identities don't exist, making all merpeople nonbinary with they/them pronouns, as well as Mer neopronouns which Ross does not employ on land because they're trying to keep their Mer identity a secret.Spoiler: it's because even though this book spends a lot of time talking about how Angels Are People Too, it spends very little time developing its one speaking (speaking? more on that later) angel character beyond being a plot point. Or a mascot. If I wanted to be really mean: a pet.

What I did like mostly does revolve around representation. It's really nice to see not only a whole society of people without a gender binary, but also a love interest happily using they/them pronouns and no one flinching. It's also nice to see a larger main character and love interest, and never have body image become a barrier. Crest/Ross is the former mer who hates human and views them as "self-centered, narcissistic blowholes" and spends the first half of the book whining about being on land. This gentle, positive story is a gorgeous celebration of being true to yourself. The beautiful illustrations show brilliantly, despite their beauty, how dull it is when everything and everyone is forced to be the same. The loving relationship between the single dad and his son is particularly nicely done in a matter-of-fact way, and the rhythm of the rhyming text pulls the reader through the story at the perfect pace. I watched them walk away, and with each step they took it was solidified in my heart that all this is real. That magic is real. You just have to know where to look for it.”Crest was pretty cool mermaid. I liked how he ended up having an open mind. He was a perfect balance to Sean. I think they worked really well together. The romance between Jaya and Allie was so incredibly sweet. I wish there had been more chemistry between the two of them, but there was no instalove and it was cute, so I don’t even really care that much?? Honestly my standards are so much lower for f/f romances than they are for m/f, like, tbh,,, as long as it’s not problematic there’s about a 90% chance that I would die for the ship. And I would D I E for this ship. They’re so cute. I love them. I just kind of wish a book about angels falling out of the sky was a bit more exciting!!!! But you can’t always get what you want. I know people criticize Disney's Little Mermaid because they say that Ariel gives up everything for Eric, but at least it was more than just a physical relationship. And that's where this relationship fell apart for me -- I saw very little romance, just physicality-presented-as-love.