Book Review: New Beginnings

New Beginnings by Rebecca Emin

Format: Paperback, ARC
Publisher: Grimoire Books
Publishes: 23rd January 2012
Pages: 168
Main Characters: Sam, Chloe
Date Started: 28th November 2011
Date Finished: 29th November 2011
Rating Given: ****

Goodreads:
Sam Hendry is not looking forward to starting at her new school. Things go from bad to worse as the day of truth arrives and all of her fears come true... and then some.

With her new friends and interests, will Sam finally feel able to face the bully who taunts her, and to summon up the courage to perform on stage?

Rebecca Emin was kind enough to ask if I would like to read her book as a RAK and I agreed straight away. When I went to read what it was about I got a little bit nervous as this a completely different kind of genre that I have read before and I had said I would do a review so I was nervous it would not be my cup of tea, however I needn't have worried as I really enjoyed it.

This book is about a young girl at the age of 11/12 going to a new school where she encounter's a bully, but Sam doesn't know what to do or who to turn to.

I found that I connected with Sam straight away as from the front cover it reminded me of one of my cousin's who is around the same age, so I always pictured her as Sam. I didn't like that I pictured my cousin in this role as me and my family would be devistated if she was to go through what Sam had to go through. So I found myself crying at all the bullying parts and smiling and laughing with her happy moment, which there was quite a few moments being happy it was only the school days when she was upset at least she had Chloe there to give her the support she needed.

There was a few questions in the story that I would have liked to have been answered.

I liked both Sam and Chloe but I didn't really get Anna as she actually witnessed quite a lot of things that happened but never said anything to anyone, I know Sam said not to say anything but wouldn't the right thing be to tell their teacher, and how the teacher never saw anything I will never know but I guess that is very true to life as bullies don't want to be found out.

What I really enjoyed about this book was that it was set in England to all the culture refrances I understood and actually knew who they was talking about.

I really enjoyed this book especially after reading a book that was nearly 900 pages long I needed a short book to read which this was. It was a bit of a heavy subject matter but one that needs to be talked about more and I definitely commend Rebecca Emin on the sensative way in which she wrote her book and I would definitly recommend other people to give it a try and they might be pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable the book was even if it is about bullying.