The struggle of women arouses our empathy because they are fighting against violence common today. Even after opening their eyes, even after saying no, we know that nothing is settled. There will always be problems. There will always be someone to say "But? But yet, you would not think he was like that! He was so nice!"A part of us is frustrated because we are outraged that the burden of proof is on the victim's charge.

But the story does not focus on it. It chooses to be optimistic. To show us that the simple fact of not accepting things and simply oppose to it is already a huge step in itself. It shows us that the result, even if it is hard, is a struggle to be waged surrounded by a comprehensive environment. Finally, the hard part is really the intellectual progression that should be in the victims' mind.

The sky is mine is an invitation to reflect. It is a tribute to all those women who have taken or will take the floor one day and reject violence. It is an invitation to come forward and report when you witness an unspeakable act.

Silence is a killer. Silence can be death. Telling your truth is what sets you free. This book about 17 year old Izzy is all about how keeping quiet hurts more than telling the truth.

The Sky Is Mine by Amy Beashel was a difficult book to go through from the very start. I admire Amy's courage to dig deep through this tough subject.

A lot of parts of this book were heartwrenching. I wanted to save Izzy so many times that I had to sit up and remind myself that she's a fictional character.  It got me into a whirlwind, thinking of anyone going through these difficult and heartbreaking issues on their own. And when nobody can save them at first that they have to stand up and save themselves at last which is the ultimate power move to take back control of life again.

This book was incredibly discomforting to read but completely offers a raw description of the character's struggles in a transparent feel, that put every single behavior to anyone going through a similar thing into perspective.

Izzy finding her voice was my favorite part, I loved the way the author ended it. It was a healthy hope for me to finish this book as a reader and a great reminder that no matter what we go through in this life that it never lasts, that we can heal despite how deep the downfalls.

The Sky is Mine covers some difficult subjects and does it very well. The story is beautiful and heartbreaking, and told almost perfectly with writing that flows really well. The characters are well-developed and well-described.
It's a really good book and it covers important subjects. The only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars is because it didn't grip me as much as I wanted. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's the book's fault, it could just be me.

Izzy Chambers life looks like a perfect picture. Happy family, gorgeous house, but it doesn’t as perfect as it seems. Most of it is just for show. She lives with her mother and controlling stepfather. However, he is not controlling in a way: at what time you need to come home, or that you need to have the best grades. He wants them to be perfect. He wants them to look and behave perfectly. He controls what they eat, wears and how their life needs to look like. 

Besides her life at home, her school life isn’t better. Everything started during the house party when she accidentally drunk too much and one of the guys from the class used it. The consequence of this was the humiliating pictures. They were like shadows that followed her every day. The threats started soon after and crashed her in a way there was no coming back from. 

She lost herself, she didn’t see a way out of all her problems. Her mom couldn’t let them live like this anymore. She didn’t want them to be scared and threatened their whole lives. She packed all the important things they will need and run away where no one will find them. 

My thoughts:

It’s hard to share all my fresh thoughts about the book as I read it three months ago. It’s the second time I write this review. The first one, unfortunately, got lost and cannot be found. I checked every possible thing on my laptop to find it but the only thing I found was the first sentence of the review. Well, I need to share what I remember. 

Firstly, I would like to talk about the main character; Izzy. Izzy Chambers has many things to worry about and people around that who don’t see it, just add more to the list. She’s an easy target to break and manipulate and people use it against her. If not her mom, she would be completely devastated at the end. Their escape helped her to recover and made her brave. She met people that showed her that what was happening to her was wrong and she didn’t deserve that. She finally could relax and take a breath and that’s what she needed the most. 

Let’s talk about Daniel and Jacob. I don’t know which one of them is worse. Both can be assigned as the worst version of a man nowadays. I was disgusted by them and no villain made me so angry as these two. The worst thing is that this kind of man exists, and they are around us. They act like they will give you the world but later they destroy it. No woman deserves being treated like this. 

The book touches the subject people don’t talk a lot about. There are still fights about how much a woman is worth and a lot of men still things that we don’t have as many rights as they have. They still think that we are here to be their toys. It’s still there but as the characters of The Sky is Mine, we need to fight and show them that we are stronger than they think. 

I would like to thank NetGalley, Oneworld Publications and Amy Beashel for providing me this amazing book. I’m so disappointed that I lost the review I wrote right after I finished reading the book because it had more details than this one, but I am happy to share this with you and recommend it to everyone. It was an amazing journey.

This heartbreaking story explores Izzy's journey to find the strength to stand up against her various problems.

We start the story in the middle, so it's immediately clear to us how awful Daniel, Izzy's stepfather, actually is. Flashbacks show how he worked his way into their lives, how slimy he was. Iliked Izzy's actual father much more...and yes, I went and looked up DanandCharlie95 singing You are my Sunshine. Who wouldn't?

This book made me laugh in spots, it made me cry, it made me very angry. I seesawed back and forth between agreeing with the way Izzy was treating her mother and being mad at her for it. Basically I was just as confused and emotional as Izzy was, and I think that's the best way to feel about this book.

I found this so hard to rate this book. It brings up some really important issues like rape, domestic abuse, jealousy, bullying, blackmail, abortion but I felt like it was too much crammed in one book.
The book dives right in to what happens to college girl Izzy at a party and the aftermath that follows. She's also dealing with a sleazy stepdad and feels like her best friend is drifting away from her now she's in a relationship. She's struggling big time and struggling to find her voice and speak up about what's going on.
I think I could have rated this higher if it maybe didn't have quite so many topics in and stuck with a few and delved in deeper with those.

Such a captivating read! 

Definitely a lot of trigger warnings for this story as it touches on some very heavy and real topics, including rape. 

The sky is mine is an incredibly important read that sucks you in from the beginning pages. 
I would recommend this story as it showcases a tough female protagonist who endures and perseveres through some beyond terrible events.

Everyone seems to think Izzy is fine, but she’s not. Izzy and her mother’s life with Daniel had a fairytale beginning. The fairytale fractured a long time ago but Izzy’s mother can’t/won’t protect them.

“And I get that she’s scared, cos me too. But I’ve been here before, watching her literally throw away some problem she can’t handle.”

Then there’s Jacob from college, who’s blackmailing her by threatening to send photos from that night to everyone. 

Izzy used to rely heavily on her best friend, Grace, for support but now that Grace is in love she’s not as available as she used to be. Even when they are spending time together Grace is preoccupied by being in love with being in love. There’s so much pressure building up inside Izzy and she feels alone.

“If I thought it would make any difference, I would scream.”

It’s been weeks since I finished reading this book but this is the first time I’ve actually been able to attempt anything approximating a review. This book was really well written and relatable. Some of its content hit very close to home for me, as if someone told it my address, so alongside my yeah, me too’s came emotions. So many emotions. I thought time and some emotional distance would help me write a well thought out, intellectual review, but it didn’t work that way so I’m afraid we’re all stuck with my feelings.

Not that you can love anything about the impacts of trauma but I did love the way I felt validated as I read. Whenever Izzy described the shame she felt or her self doubt or flashbacks or any other number of experiences that I’ve felt in the core of my being I wanted to somehow surgically remove those things from her. I knew what she was feeling and I knew her thoughts, often before she explained them to me.

“But it doesn’t leave you. Even when your head tries to silence it, it’s still there.”

I loved the concept of the Jar of Sunshine, even though its beauty was marred by its origin story. Unfortunately, even it was realistic; the ways we cope with trauma are inextricably linked with painful memories. Even if we find something that gives us strength, courage or a glimmer of hope in the midst of unbearable circumstances, that wonderful thing still reminds us of what it’s helping us to overcome.

I quite liked Rower Boy but I desperately wanted Izzy and Rower Boy to simply be friends. I always have trouble with narratives that includes a girl/woman who’s dealing with trauma being saved in any way by a boy/man, even if it’s only a little. That probably says more about me than it does about the book. However, I wanted Izzy to learn to stand on her own, without leaning on a man for support. I would have been happy for her to have gotten into a relationship once she’d had some counselling but I didn’t want any part of her self worth to be tangled up in Rower Boy, regardless of how nice he was.

This is a difficult read but an important one. If you have experienced abuse please be safe while reading this book. 

“What he did is not who you are, Izzy. It doesn’t define you.”

Content warnings include abortion, domestic violence, emotional abuse, fat shaming, grooming, mention of abuse of an animal, physical abuse, sexual assault, slut shaming and verbal abuse.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Rock the Boat, an imprint of Oneworld Publications, for the opportunity to read this book.

There are some books that stay with you long after you've read them and this one of those. highly sensitive subject matter dealt with tactfully and sensitively with strong characters who are given loud and clear voices to tell their story. Well worth a read. It's one that lingers with you once you've finished it.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. I enjoyed this story very much and felt like I knew each character personally due to the description of them. I enjoyed the storyline. This is not my usual genre but in this instance I am extremely pleased and grateful for opening up my mind to something totally different. Thanks again.

Trigger warning: Rape, domestic violence

While I feel like the themes of this book are important for teenagers to read about, this story didn't do much for me. I felt for the main character, but there were so many references to things from the UK that I was constantly looking up words and slang. For instance the word slag is used in reference to a girl. I had to look up what it actually meant because in the US it means something totally different. After a while I just got to the point where I was skimming over the UK references which seemed frequent. I'm glad I read the book, but I'm not sure US teens and young adults will understand the references which will detract from the story itself.

I’m just not sure this book was for me. I want to say that this was a VERY IMPORTANT book, with a very important message,  it I was angered when reading it. I will say that it was a personal opinion of mine and to no fault of the author.

What I liked about this book: Even with as mad as I got at our main character, Izzy in the beginning, I really loved her ultimately. She grew so much throughout this book. 

What I didn’t like: The author seems to have tried to take every possible kind of abuse (emotional, physical, sexual) and cram it all into this book. I understand that those are poignant and incredibly important topics to discuss and shed light on, but it felt like just a huge onslaught of what can possibly go wrong will go wrong. I didn’t like any of the characters in the first half of the book. None of them seemed like great people (I am so so glad that it changed throughout the book!!!)

This was in NO WAY a bad book. This was quite brilliant in so many aspects. I think it is a very important piece of written work for people looking for books about abuse against women.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book. This great book is out in two weeks. 
I really enjoyed this book, though I will give a content warning that it does deal with domestic violence, rape and body image as I know that these are hard topics for some people. 
The book follows Izzy, a young girl trying to find her feet at College with the opposite sex. Izzy is not confident when it comes to boys and hasn’t had a boyfriend before. Izzy is also trying to deal with her home situation, as her mother is basically mute and their relationship is crumbling just when they need each other the most. They must find their voices if anything is going to change in their lives. 
This is a really powerful book and the topics it explores are ones that yes we find hard to deal with but we need to talk about them and we need books like this to help us do that. 
I enjoyed uncovering the lies, the betrayals and the secrets in this book. It is well written and you want to find out what’s happened from the first page. I hope you enjoy it too.

The Sky Is Mine by Any Beashel is thought provoking, full of emotion and leave you raw to the core. This story  explores the themes of abuse and control in a realistic and at times hard to read way. I couldn't put it down. Be prepared to go thru a roller coaster of emotions with this book.

This was a tough read for me. There were very tough themes such as rape, violence, toxic relationships to name a few.  Its not an ugly look at it though but more of a hopeful look at it.  This whole book radiates with HOPE and over coming challenges. 

I don't want to say too much for those that haven't read, but Izzy's story will touch you! 

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

I hated the way this book started and loved the way it ended and my opinion is based solely on the story itself! This book covers a multitude of social issues: insecurity, rape, friendship, domestic violence, and abortion but it does so in a way where they are all wrapped up in the story so regardless of any opinion you may have, you get to see a lot of different sides to the issues. The characters are well developed and for the most part likeable. There is sadness, joy and love in this story and all in all it was a pretty quick read as I got into it and didn’t want to put it down. I loved the idea of a “jar of sunshine” and it really gave the book an added dimension.

I am not rating this book because I could not read it. I DNF'd at 17%. The book begins with sexual assault while she is too drunk to protest, and desperate to stop it. This is what creates the pictures that are then used to blackmail her into rape. All of this while her stepfather is making creepy passes at her, controlling her food intake, and controlling everything about her mother (and slapping her when she dares to try to take a second piece of toast). Everyone is completely aligned with rape culture, and it feels like there is no hope. I would like to believe that the book improves from there, but unfortunately, I could not read another page. This could be highly triggering, so I would add a lot of warnings. Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher through netgalley. All opinions are my own.

The Sky is Mine is an exceptionally powerful and emotional read, exploring the themes of abuse and control in a realistic and thought-provoking way. Izzy’s story is a call to young girls everywhere to stand up and make themselves heard That this book is essential reading for every teenager is without doubt, but more than that, the themes and messages will resonate with people of all ages [This book contains material which some readers may find distressing, including discussions of rape, coercive behavior, domestic violence and abuse.]  Her mum Steph and best friend Grace have always been there to save her. But with one under the control of her stepfather and the other caught in the throes of new love, Izzy is falling between the cracks.

I enjoyed this book, it’s such an import book, this needed to have been written and should be widely read and available in libraries and schools easily. It’s emotional, heartbreaking at points, it has several areas of trigger (see below) but worth reading so, so much if you won’t be triggered.  Watching Izzys relationship with her mother grow along the book is so beautiful, so well written, this is such amazing writing from Amy. Amy deals with all the issues in this book so well and sensitively, I really cant undersell what an amazing book and how she is an absolutely fantastic author (and I’ve never read her work previously). Izzy is an amazing character and you experience the story with her, feeling every raw emotion as she has her journey, it is heartbreaking at times, but you know what it is so full of hope too. I won’t say too much more as I don’t do plot summary (as it’s on the book) or spoilers ! I will just simply say you really need to read this book. I feel this will be a book of 2020 and should be up for many awards.

Note trigger warnings for rape, control, domestic violence, abortion etc 

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion