I recently won a book party bag from a Pan Macmillan competition which was hosted by The Window Seat and included in the party bag was a book called The Secrets of Happiness by Lucy Diamond, along with a few other goodies (click the link to see what else I won).

I hadn't ever really heard of the author, to be quite honest but one of my elder sister's told me she had been really looking forward to reading this book of hers in particular. Now, I really value my sister's opinion when it comes to books as we're always sharing book recs to each other and discussing them in general, so when she told me that this book was meant to be really good, I thought it should be the first I read out of the three I had won.

It piqued my interest even more so when I read the blurb. At first I thought it would be your typical women's lit or chick lit but as I'm now quite into the book - I think I read about 100 pages within the first few hours which usually indicates that the book has hooked me - I'm thinking differently. It's not at all corny and I'm actually really enjoying how it reads. It's quite easy to get caught up in the plot and forget there is a world outside of this book!

My favourite character so far has to be Becca or Mabel. Mabel's personality is typically rebellious, trying to push the boundaries whilst her mother is gone. Becca, I feel is the quite misunderstood sister out of her and Rachel. She doesn't seem to have much confidence and is always trying her hardest to prove herself to people, to show them that she is worth their time, effort and isn't completely useless at everything she attempts to make a go of. I relate to her really well, especially with the latter part.

I'm excited to see if Becca and Rachel can finally repair their damaged relationship as step-sisters and why Rachel suddenly decided to disappear without telling a single person where she was going... hmm.. Better get back to it!