YORK
First Love
February
They say you never forget your first love. Spoiling us for future relationships, the flame burns intensely but is often short-lived. It can be overwhelming, all-consuming and breathtakingly exciting. Surely it’s got to be downhill after that. We may be long past the first flourish of teenage heart-trembling, but this Valentine’s Day, why not rekindle the old flame and fall in love for the first time, all over again. Twilight. Stephenie Meyer I gave this book to my partner to read. He was, understandably, incredibly cynical about the teenage love-story but I can honestly say that from the first page, he was hooked. This masterful tale of forbidden love between a vampire and a human, takes you on a blood-pumping and heart-fluttering journey of yearning and lust. Set deep within the misty and brooding Pacific Northwest coast of America it’s sure to warm the cockles of even a vampire’s ice-cold heart. The Reader. Bernhard Schlink Set against a backdrop of post-war Germany, this love story asks how generations have come to terms with what happened during the Holocaust. The novel opens with a fifteen year old Michael Berg falling for the much older and more experienced Hanna Schmitz. Hanna is illiterate and after a chance meeting with 8 • info@thehandymag.co.uk
Berg, he begins to read novels aloud to her and their relationship begins to blossom. The story is written in three parts, charting Michael’s life. It’s a complex tale of first love, realisations about the world and coming to terms with a history that irrevocably shaped Germany’s present and future. It’s thoughtprovoking and truly heartbreaking. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging. Louise Rennison Louise Rennison’s hugely popular comic novel is the first in the series about lovelorn teenager, Georgia Nicholson. It follows the trials and tribulations of Georgia and her best friend Jas, who form part of the Ace Gang. It’s packed with sleepovers and family life, along with heartstopping and life-altering crushes on the object of her affection, ‘Sex God Robbie’. How do you cope when the boy
of your dreams winds up with one of the ‘wet weeds’ instead of living happily ever after with you? The original Bridget Jones in a training bra, Georgia’s diary charts her path from girl to woman…and every step in-between. One Day. David Nicholls Everybody who went to university in the eighties will both weep uncontrollably and laugh out loud at the nostalgia that One Day exudes. Published in 2009, it follows the twenty year courtship of Emma and Dex, catching up with them on the same day, the 15th of July, St Swithin’s Day. One Day is filled with humour and wonderfully rounded, yet beautifully flawed characters you’re bound to fall in love with. Beginning as the two protagonists leave university and embark on their journey into the great wide world, fate soon overcomes youthful enthusiasm and aspiration. How long do we hold onto first loves, dream careers and a notion of happily-everafter?
‘For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo’.
Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare We know it’s going to end badly from the start, and yet we can’t get enough of the Bard’s starcrossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet. It’s got everything; romance, comedy, drama, feuding families and an apothecary. There have been many adaptations, film versions and takeoffs but why not settle down with Shakespeare’s original play and let the whirlwind romance sweep you off your feet.
Copy deadline for the next edition is Tuesday 7th February