Monthly Playlist: November & December

Hello guys; the past couple of months have simply flown by for me! My boyfriend has started a new job and I’ve been working a lot, as well as enjoying some general me time. Part of me feels guilty for neglecting the blog, particularly as it was such a good outlet for me when I wasn’t feeling my best in terms of mental health but unfortunately sometimes life is for living and the extra work of writing and uploading blog posts was an extra something that I simply didn’t have any time for. Over the past couple of months I’ve noticed that I’ve been listening to music a lot less as I’ve been suffering with some painful tension headaches, so I’ve been preferring to read as opposed to listening to a variety of sounds. It feels like it has been years since I’ve not listened to music whilst on bus journeys but I needed a bit of a break. I have, however, been listening to the songs below on speakers which makes for nice background noise. Each of these songs brings to the fore a specific memory for me; do any of you have specific songs that you connect with a memory? I’d love to know that it’s not only me haha! Fingers crossed I’ll have sorted out my life enough to start posting more regularly on here again as I have missed it. Until next time! Xxx

1. Infra-Red - Placebo

2. Black Magic - Little Mix

3. Woman Up - Meghan Trainor

4. Don’t Look Down - Martin Garrix (feat. Usher)

5. For What It’s Worth - Placebo

6. One Thing - One Direction

7. Elastic Heart - Sia

8. With Ur Love - Cher Lloyd (feat. Mike Posner)

9. City of Angels - 30 Seconds to Mars

10. Payphone - Maroon 5

11. The Never-Ending Why - Placebo

12. What Makes You Beautiful - One Direction

13. Same Old Love - Selena Gomez

14. Animals - Maroon 5

15. This Is Me - Joe Jonas & Demi Lovato 

Book Review: Holding Up the Universe

As anyone who has read my blog before will know; I do love Young Adult fiction and so after seeing this one hyped over on bookstagram pages I decided to give it a go .Focussing on two teenagers, Jack and Libby, the story develops as Libby head back into mainstream High School after taking two years out. Once known as America's Fattest Teen, as much as she has lost copious amounts of weight, unfortunately she's still a lot bigger than many of her classmates and so the teasing and name calling doesn't come as a surprise to her, sadly. Thanks to some rather unfortunate peer pressure, Jack gets involved in a nasty fat shaming prank that results in Libby sticking up for herself. In an attempt to not be called a coward by his friends, he ultimately becomes a coward in the eyes of the viewer and of Libby. Both he and Libby find themselves in group counselling together, alongside community service which neither are particularly happy about.

As the novel progresses, you do see their relationship begin to blossom; I liked how there was an initial connection between them that Libby wasn't aware of. It does make you appreciate his character a lot more, as to begin with I wasn't keen on him at all. That being said, there was nothing about this book that massively stood out for me; both Libby and Jack were defined by their conditions, Libby with her weight and Jack with his inability to recognise faces and they never seemed to develop much beyond that, which was a shame as they both had more potential. Of the two, Libby was more relatable due to her insecurities about her weight and looks in general, but at the same time she also seemed a little too confident at times for someone in her situation. Jack came across as a bit of an airhead, a stereotypical popular boy and I didn't feel any warmth for their growing relationship as it seemed quite forced as well as unbelievable at times. It sounds harsh but the whole two broken people falling in love felt a little overdone in this novel, which was disappointing as after reading All The Bright Places by the same author, I was expecting better execution.

Overall, I wasn't enamored with this book. The pace felt very slow, the characters not massively developed and the plot rather ill thought out. It was pretty offensive in terms of content, although the portrayal of Libby was a lot better than I expected, I wanted her to be more than just body image, teenage angst and aggression. This book isn't amazing, it's not the worst book that I've read but it's not the best, either. Niven's writing style is unique and that is what saved this for me; I do genuinely enjoy her style and the way that her text flows from page to page and chapter to chapter. However I do wish that her characters were less one dimensional as having read two of her books now I do feel like there is a formula to her work and that is disappointing. I want to see characters grow and develop, to become more than you expect and that just didn't happen. Jack was particularly uninteresting and selfish, I preferred his little brother which says it all when he's supposed to be a key figure. Based purely on the writing style, I rate this book 3 stars but it isn't one that I'd recommend. As I've said, I'm disappointed.

Monthly Playlist: August

Hello again guys; I’m sorry that I’ve been terrible at uploading blog posts this month but ultimately I wanted to have a bit of time out and basically look after myself a bit. I’ve had a batch of flu that stretched out into a cold for three weeks, which was horrible. However, as always I’ve been listening to my iPod to and from work, but I’ll admit that this months collection of songs is a little more strange (even for me) than usual, oops. As anyone who is familiar with my blog will know, I love listening to a range of artists, genres and songs at any time so my playlists can be fairly random but that’s how I like it. At the moment I’m loving Spanish & Latino songs as well as English songs as a little bit of culture never hurts anyone, haha. I’m hoping that next month will be better and so I’ll be posting more like usual, fingers crossed. In the meantime, I’ll be listening to these songs to get to work and back everyday! What songs are you loving at the moment? Let me know in the comments!

1. Crying for No Reason - Katy B

2. Suerte (Whenever, Wherever) - Shakira

3. Nota de Amor - Wisin & Carlos Vives (feat. Daddy Yankee)

4. One Kiss - Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa

5. Never Be the Same - Camila Cabello

6. Amor, Amor, Amor - Jennifer Lopez (feat. Wisin)

7. Only You - Cheat Codes & Little Mix

8. Rumba y Candela - Daddy Yankee

9. Mi Mala - Muy y Ricky & Karol G

10. Me Enamoré - Shakira

11. She Loves Control - Camila Cabello

12. If You’re Over Me - Years & Years

13. Like I Did - Leadley

14. Chantaje - Shakira

15. Love Lies - Khalid & Normani

Book Review: A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

Translated from Spanish, this is a book of two, very short stories. Both stories have a sense of fantastic realism, which in general isn't to my taste, but for the sake of 50 pages, I decided to give it a chance. The subtitle translates into 'For Children', which explains why at first glance the text is incredibly simple.The first of the two short stories, 'A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings' arguably refers to various religious symbolism, although this is not laid out for the reader to notice or even understand; the reader is told that the man has wings, but without any explanation or additional information. From an obvious point of view, he is angel, although this is not confirmed at any stage; his presence encourages people from the to recognise their hypocrisy, however this leads to a rather tenuous link between the greed of the people and the greed of the Church. In truth, the whole of this short story is left open to interpretation; what I perceived may be completely different to another view of the tale. In all honesty, this story didn't grab me as much as I would've liked, although I wasn't exactly upset that it was short either; there was no feature that made me feel as though I wanted more details or a longer version of the tale.

The second of the two short stories, 'The Sea of Lost Time' somehow managed to be even shorter than the first and just as unremarkable for me. The idea of a spider having a girls head was interesting, but ultimately the open ended style of writing didn't flow well in my opinion; exploring the theme of death, the dear of death and therefore uncertainty the life was lost in the idea that life after death may be more interesting, more inviting than the world of the living. Arguably much of the author's ideas and intentions stem from other works and ideas surrounding religion, love, life and death, the natural and supernatural. In this case there is a clear interest in life and death, mixed in with love. The character of old Jacob, a man who has spent many of his years in love with a woman had the potential to grow, but unfortunately due to the writing style of a short story, was unable to progress into a more interesting role. Of the two stories, this one has more potential as the story has more depth; for example, Tobias and Clotilde have an interesting partnership, one which changes due to the changes in the locality.

Overall, neither of the two stories particularly struck me; I didn't feel a connection with either story, but I also wasn't a fan of the writing style. At times, it felt like certain sentences didn't make much sense, although in fairness this a translated text; as it was originally written in Spanish, it could be that some of the meaning has been lost in translation to an extent as no two words or sentences can make an exact copy of another in different languages, unfortunately. Without a clear ending it is difficult to deduce not only what happens, but also where the characters stand in terms of life and death, which is one of the key themes throughout both texts. I'm not sure that I was expecting from this book as it isn't the kind of text that I usually like to read(I'm generally not a fan of supernatural realism), but arguably the concise length of the piece is impressive considering there are two stories within and both have their own fascination with death and decay. The redeeming feature of this collection of short stories is that it does require you to think; to apply a backstory and a future to the characters, as well as determine the correlation between reality and false ideas; how easily a idea can become truth. This was a three star read in my opinion, the saving grace was that the ideas surrounding life and death were interesting but ultimately the writing style wasn't to my taste; that said, it is good to read something a little different from time to time.

Book Review: The Bell Jar

Arguably a semi-autobiographical read, 'The Bell Jar' provides an interesting perspective of life in the 1950s; living with mental health is a difficult thing to do, however during that time there was very little tolerance of whatever was deemed not normal. Esther being the main character, transfers from paper to the mind very well; there is a lovely realness surrounding her and her mental illness, her description of surviving everyday life is not only sad but also concerning. The simple but mundane tasks become impossible; on the surface Esther is lucky, having successfully secured an internship with a Fashion magazine, but in reality depression is not something that simply disappears without a fight; each day is a struggle. Esther is an interesting character; an unusual mind and way of depicting the world around her. Esther as a character was very successful. Not only was the portrayal of her mental illness believable, her behaviours felt real; hardly surprising considering the authors own issues with mental health. The idea of mental health transferred well into words and gave an accurate understanding of the feelings of loneliness and helplessness. There was something about Esther that resulted in feelings of concern and sympathy; you just wanted everything to work out for her, yet somehow knew that it couldn’t be so simple.

Sylvia Plath has a beautiful writing style; this book is full of metaphors and similes alongside some wonderful imagery through Esther's inner monologues. The main issue that I had with the storytelling is that although I understood that the story revolves around Esther and her take on the world, the other characters weren’t hugely developed and lacked individual voices. Every other character felt very similar, possibly because they were all described to the reader by an unwell Esther. The beginning and the end of the book were very cohesive, whereas the middle was all a bit strange and misunderstood, although this was the part where Esther’s illness began to overwhelm her everyday life more and more; therefore this is likely to be in correlation to her feelings creating a muddled understanding of the world. The middle part of the novel is a mess simply because Esther is becoming more ill and unable to process everyday life. This novel covers some difficult and often unmentioned topics, such as depression and suicide and so it is a rather painful read; this isn’t a book that I would recommend to someone already struggling with mental health as it does almost encourage suicide as an option in some of the pages, which personally I found uncomfortable. But that being said, this is an important read simply because it teaches the importance of treating mental illness in a humane way, something that the 1950s certainly didn’t, for example the electric shock treatments made me want to cry for Esther. Considering how short this novel is, it took a while to read as it wasn’t the easiest of books in terms of content.

After reading countless reviews referring to this novel as ‘flawless’, and a ‘masterpiece’ I feel as though there must be something wrong with me for not loving this novel that much. Sylvia Plath writes beautifully and I found it a 3 star simply based on that; however, I wasn’t comfortable with the way that this novel reads like a suicide note. As Esther become more ill, I genuinely felt frightened and so it was hard to enjoy this book; in fact, I’d argue that I didn’t enjoy it at all, although that does show how important it is to talk more openly about mental health. As it is semi-autobiographical, it does give the reader a rather intimate understanding of the authors personality and how she must have been feeling when writing this book; as such, that was made me even more uncomfortable reading this as she did indeed commit suicide. The novel is cynical, sarcastic, feminist and yet it is just so difficult to comprehend what you are reading that it is hard going, but the message is loud and clear and one that does need to be heard. I don’t regret reading this book but I doubt I’ll ever be able to face a re-read of it. I feel like if I hadn’t had any mental health issues myself, this book may have affected me less as I could feel what Esther felt. Plath has a unique way of speaking to the reader, through Esther you really feel what you are reading and it wasn’t particularly pleasant so it is disappointing that I didn’t love this as the writing style is compelling.

Monthly Playlist: July

Hello to July and to finally getting organised enough to write a blog post! At the minute I’m not really sure where I’m going with my blog; I love the blogging community and ultimately, I love writing and taking photos so it genuinely is something that I enjoy but at times I’m feeling like I simply am falling out of love with it. I’m a perfectionist and I’m always thinking that my content is shit, regardless of how much or how little effort I put into this blog. However, I work full time and I do enjoy blogging, I think I need to be less hard on myself and not constantly force creativity when it’s not naturally coming along. As always, this is a massive staple blog post and it’s one that I really love; I’m a nosy person and I feel like you can get to know a lot about someone by their musical tastes, so below are a range of songs, artists and genres in no particular order. I love music, it really helps me to relax and get into the zone for work, travel or even just a better mood. Are there any songs that have captured your heart at the moment?

1. Holiday - Green Day

2. One of the Drunks - Panic! At The Disco

3. Boom Clap - Charli XCX

4. Havana - Camila Cabello feat. Young Thug

5. Love Lies - Khalid & Normani

6. Échame La Culpa - Luis Fonsi & Demi Lovato

7. Wake Me Up When September Ends - Green Day

8. Dying In LA - Panic! At The Disco

9. Finders Keepers - Mabel (feat. Kojo Funds)

10. Reggaetón Lento - CNCO & Little Mix

11. The Overpass - Panic! At The Disco

12. It Ain’t Me - Kygo & Selena Gomez

13. Sorry Not Sorry - Demi Lovato

14. Fall For You - Bethan Leadley

15. Hot ‘N Cold - Katy Perry

Book Review: Salt to the Sea

A fictional novel depicting a real event; during 1945, hundreds of thousands of civilians were desperate, destitute and sick of war. Running through East Prussia, attempting to avoid the wrath of soldiers from both sides, this book uses a multi person narrative to describe the event from all sides. Four young people, different nationalities and situations. Joana is a Lithuanian nurse, headstrong, confident and a natural leader. Florian is Prussian, a mysterious man who is clearly attempting to slip through the net and is hiding a lot of secrets. Emilia is Polish, young, pregnant and alone - desperate to find safety and security in another country, outside of Eastern Europe. Alfred is German, a newly recruited sailor and a lover of Hitler’s regime. Each of them are boarding the ships across countries for their own reasons, but ultimately, each of them are determined to see the war end. Freedom from war is the ultimate dream for everyone in this novel. The text was laid out fairly easily, with the narrating characters name as the title of each chapter; to begin with, it was a little confusing as you need to engross yourself in the story to understand who is who. My favourite narrator was Joana; not only because she was incredibly astute and noticed even the littlest of details, but because she was genuinely caring. She was determined to help as many people as possible, regardless of their age, race or gender whilst attempting to stay alive herself.

As the novel developed, so did each of the narrators and their acquaintances; for example, Joana was with a group attempting to hide from soldiers in the forest and escape to the ports. Alongside her were a variety of others, an elderly man, a young blind girl, an orphaned little boy and a German lady who was convinced that everyone is a spy. Emilia was saved from a soldier by Florian, who instantly becomes her saviour, so she in turn shoots a solider in defence of Florian; the pair meet the other group on their travels and reluctantly tag along. Florian in particular is not at all comfortable in being within a group, although there are benefits to travelling in numbers. Alfred’s narrative differs a lot compared to the other three, mostly due to his being in letter form to a girl from home. Judging by the way that he describes his duties, he thinks a lot more of himself than anyone else does, including the girl he writes to; even in his letters to her, they’re always in his head. Arguably, this is a sign of mental illness. Not only talking to himself, about himself, but also convincing himself that the girl he is obsessed with returns his affections. Regardless of what each of them are internally suffering, the four young people are brought together entirely by the circumstance of war. Each of them has a secret, each of which is revealed after the plot begins to shape. From the first few pages, this book gripped me. The descriptions of their hunger, fear and determination made each situation that was thrust upon them so incredibly real and heartbreaking made this book an absolute page turner for me.

Each of the characters made their own sacrifices, for their own reasons, but Emilia was the biggest surprise of all. Three of them had good arguments for why they were fighting for freedom and their narrative wasn’t only interesting but allowed for information about ordinary people, how their lives had been devastated by war. The fourth narrative voice was so difficult to read at times, it was impossible to argue with their point of view, as it was just so wrong but understandably, it was an important part of why the war was ongoing and it also added another layer to the overall plot line. One of the reasons that this book was such a pleasurable read was that although it is historical fiction, it wasn’t overrun with facts or pushing history onto the reader. Yes, history had a massive part of the telling of this story and although it is ultimately fiction, this novel genuinely read as though it was truly real life although that is because of Sepetys’ beautiful variation of true events from a fictional standpoint. She mixed truth and fiction so seamlessly, if I didn’t know better when reading this book I could’ve easily believed that all of this novel was entirely factually accurate. Which is fantastic, really. That is exactly what you want when reading a historical novel, to feel as though you are there with the character, living, breathing and seeing everything that they are. As much as this novel was brutal, vicious and cruel at times, that is what made it so perfect as that is exactly what epitomises war.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how much this book caught my attention. I’d been meaning to read it for months and kept getting distracted by other titles, which I don’t regret, but I do wish I’d given this more of a chance at an earlier point. I cannot fault the writing style of Ruta Sepetys in this novel at any point; the use of four young narrators worked beautifully as each of them had their own issues, their own past and future to fight for as well as the way that she used fact and fiction to depict a harsh reality of war using only words. I loved the short, sharp chapters and often change of narrator, it kept each situation fresh, alongside the excellently executed ending. One of the reasons why I loved this novel so much was the additional explanation of the real life event that this book represented by the author; the fact that she had researched and contacted various museums, relatives and survivors of such a horrific event truly made me understand how hard that time frame must have been. For a Young Adult novel, this is a very intense version of events, although it is also realistic which isn’t a bad thing. It’s important to remember the past and this kind of book does history justice. I read this book in around a day, I cried, I forgot to breathe but as I’ve said many times before, I love a book that makes me think. This was easily a 5 star read for me and I’d recommend it for mature young adults and above. It doesn’t read like a YA novel, so if that genre is not usually your thing, give this book a try as I promise it will be worth it.

My Favourite Perfumes for Spring & Summer

Hello again guys; if you’re a long time reader of this blog then you will know that I’m an absolute perfume addict. I do buy perfume far less than I used to, although I’m still convinced that a bad day can be fixed by a simple spritz of perfume, particularly when a perfume holds good memories for you. Some of my favourite perfumes are fruity and floral scents, I’m definitely a feminine perfume wearer; I’m not a fan of musky scents on myself, but I love the smell of any perfume on others. I love smelling beautiful scents on people and I often try and hunt down scents that I’ve smelt on other people in passing.

This blog post focuses on the 5 perfumes that I swear by throughout the Spring and Summer months; sadly a couple of them are limited editions and I’m not looking forward to using them up completely as I won’t be able to repurchase, although there is always a new scent coming out, which means a potential for new favourites. Over the Spring and Summer months I wear perfume more or less everyday; it gives me a little boost, I feel better and more confident in general, particularly when the perfume is one that I’ve saved up for and really wanted. I’m also terrible for picking a perfume based on a beautiful bottle, as I love displaying the bottles in my room, much to my boyfriends annoyance, haha.

What are your favourite perfumes? Let me know in the comments! :)

Princess of Hearts - Vera Wang

I adore floral and fruity perfumes and this one is exactly that, mixing notes of both. The contained notes are jasmine, bergamot, strawberries, lily of the valley and watermelon with base notes of cedar wood, musk and vanilla. This perfume has the potential to be a little sickly, however I’ve found that the strongest notes are the watermelon and jasmine and so it creates the perfect scent for Spring and Summer as watermelons are a typically Summer based fruit. Reasonably priced at under £20 for a 50ml bottle of perfume, this perfume makes for a lovely gift. The bottle itself is very feminine, which matches the scent nicely. A pink heart shaped bottle, with Vera Wang’s signature crown lid on top of the spritzer accented by red drawn heart and white typography of the scent name Princess of Hearts across the centre, it looks cute without looking like a child’s perfume. This was actually gifted to me for a birthday from my boyfriend, so it has sentimental value for me, as well as the fact that I fell in love with the smell as soon as it was sprayed onto my skin; this perfume is one that I tend to use for special occasions, such as days/nights out, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. 

Pink Honey - Marc Jacobs

A variation of the original Honey, with a similarly rounded spotty bottle. Pink Honey was released as a Limited Edition fragrance during the Summer of 2014 and is a beautiful mix of both floral and fruity aromas. Notes of orange blossom, honeysuckle, honey, pear, mandarin, peach nectar, vanilla, wood and fruit punch create the distinctive flavour and overall its a fairly heady scent; it’s very noticeable when on the skin. The bottle is as beautiful as the scent for me; the original is a lovely honey coloured shade, whereas this version is a pale pink with black and gold detailing with white pearls. Compared to my other perfumes by Marc Jacobs, this bottle is very different in style as the Daisy range is floral and this bottle is more like a honey pot, which is cute. It’s a perfume that looks beautiful and feels great whenever I wear it, there’s something about the design of the bottle that makes it feel high end, not only because it’s a little on the pricey side; it’s a scent that adds a smile to my face whenever I use it for any occasion.

Valentina Acqua Floreale - Valentino

One of my overall favourite perfumes of all time; this fragrance has notes of bergamot, mimosa, orange blossom, heart of neroli, tuberose, amber and patchouli to create an oriental feeling scent. This is was another gifted perfume from my boyfriend, but this perfume was one that I had dreamed for owned for years; it’s not the cheapest perfume available and so for years I had been using sampled sized bottles of this perfume. The 50ml has not been a disappointment at all. I use it often and it lasts really well on the skin; once applied to the skin I’ve found it lasts for several hours, which is a blessing for a perfume. Whenever I wear this perfume I feel so classy and ready for anything, this is a perfume that I’ll definitely be using and repurchasing throughout my life (yes that is a big statement to make, but I mean it) as it truly is my go to perfume for any event, night or day. This one of the most expensive perfumes that I own and it’s easily my absolute favourite. The bottle and scent are simply a dream.

Daisy Eau So Fresh Sunshine - Marc Jacobs

Another Limited Edition Summer release, issued in 2012 and created to be a fruitier version of the original. The notes included to make up the perfume are rose and violet leaves, jasmine, strawberry, apple blossom, pink grapefruit and ending with oak, moss and amber wood. In all honesty, I love all of the Daisy range of scents, but this one is my absolute favourite. The combination of fruits and florals adds a little extra to the original version, alongside the bottle having pink perfume with orange, green and fuchsia daisies on the lid. The daisy bouquet lid is super eye catching, particularly as the colours of the Sunshine version are brights, they’re intended to stand out. I’m almost afraid to use this perfume as it’s limited status means that I’ll be unlikely to find it again, which is a shame, but I do love it and I always wear this for special occasions rather than every day throughout the spring and summer months.

Island Fantasy - Britney Spears

A new addition to Spears’ perfume line during 2013, it is intended to emulate an Island getaway using the notes mandarin, clementine, red berries, watermelon, jasmine, violet, freesia, sugar cane and musk. I’m a massive fan of Britney’s perfumes, they’re both affordable and long lasting; the reason that this one is my favourite is it has a different vibe to the others, it feels almost exotic. The bottle is the classic round Fantasy style, but in this edition the colours lime green and aqua make up the bottle with silver diamantés and a silver neck and spritzer. Even amongst the other Fantasy perfumes it stands out due to its vibrant colour, but on the skin is why I adore this perfume. It’s so long lasting on the skin and has this fantastic way of making me feel so upbeat and positive, so ready for anything and simply cute and fresh. It is limited, which is a shame as I do love it but it’s a large bottle and doesn’t need a lot of sprays to hold well as a scent, so fingers crossed this bottle will last for a good amount of time.

Book Review: Still Me

The third and final instalment in a series that I have loved. Both Me Before You and After You easily make it onto a list of my favourite books, although for very different reasons. Louisa Clark is an incredibly lovable character as she’s so imperfect, yet always manages to stay true to herself, with her wacky outfits and clumsy ways. There’s a part of me that is so, so sad that this is the last time I’ll read about her with fresh eyes. The first thing that made me love the beginning of the book, where she embarks on a new life, a new start in New York of all places, was that she references her commitment to Will by saying yes to new opportunities. The series has always been haunted by Will’s decision to end his life, so it was a nice ode to him that Lou has kept her word, living her own life to the fullest. That being said, it’s hardly a surprise that Lou struggles to adjust to life in New York as the family that she works for is so incredibly rich that to go anywhere includes a limo or taxi ride - a very different world to what a down to earth suburban girl is accustomed to. It’s important to remember that although she was living in London, the city is very different to New York; for a start, those in the USA tend to take everyday fitness incredibly seriously, something that Lou definitely struggles with.

One of things that I absolutely love about Lou is her bravery and commitment to everything that she does; even though she struggles to keep up with New York life and manage her long distance relationship, in a world of secrets and lies. She loves Sam, but she also begins to love her new life, her job and all of the experiences she is having. She’s a modest person, believing that by being brave she’s doing exactly what Will would’ve wanted her to do, but in reality, yes he would be proud of her, but the experiences she’s having are a result of her own doing. She is shaping her world for herself, by herself. As much as she’s taking more chances and saying yes to more things, she’s still the same clumsy girl and that is what makes her so lovable and definitely relatable. Her personality literally shines through the page, she’s the kind of character that manages to feel like a friend; each book that I’ve read about her has been different in terms of place, relationships and even country yet she never changes, always staying true to herself. There’s so much to enjoy reading about as her adventures are always both believable and hilarious as well as sad, however I prefer seeing her plough through life without a care in the world, with her quirky fashion sense and understanding of what she does and doesn’t like. As much as it was lovely to see her thrive in New York, strike up a good relationship with her employer, get physically fit and embrace her new way of life, I actually love her best when she’s dealing with difficult situations and finding her own two feet on her own. Louisa is so strong, yet lacks so much self confidence and that it what makes her stories so lovely to read; she’s so normal yet so beautifully quirky!

I loved how this book started at one point, then developed further, with Louisa starting off in one job then slowly changing various elements of her life, from her relationship, to her friendships and even her confidence begins to change. Her friendship with Margot is a beautiful one; it showcases how age is simply a number and how an older woman can be the best influence on a young, broken woman. It was a pleasure to see them help each even though they’re from entirely different backgrounds, countries and ages there is always some common ground, something that places people together for a reason. Both of the ladies love fashion, which added another level to their friendship. Age is just a number may be a cliché, but in the case of Lou and Margot it definitely is true; like only true friends can, they argue, they sulk but ultimately they’re always honest with one another and it was great to see an older female character shown as good influence. Margot was just as influential for Lou as Will was, way back in Me Before You. She injected a dose of reality, a reminder that life can be hard but you can always find a kind, loving and supportive person wherever life happens to lead you. Relationships are at the heart of this series and something that Jojo Moyes depicts incredibly well; whether it is platonic or romantic, there is a healthy dose of realism relayed through description and conversation in this book - just as in reality, relationships don’t always work and life isn’t always easy. Louisa Clark is an easy character to love because her personality just shines through pages and words to the extent that she literally feels like reading about an old friend rather than simply a character. Even reading about her family felt familiar, how they love each other whilst constantly bickering. 

Overall I’m torn about this book; on one hand, I loved it. It felt like the perfect ending to Louisa’s adventures, but ambiguous enough that her life would be easily revisited, which is also exciting. However, the question on my lips even as I bought this book was ‘is it necessary?’ due to After You being so different from Me Before You and so I expected (rightly) that Still Me would be difficult once again. Although as a reader, I didn’t feel like I needed to find out what has happened to Louisa and some of the other characters, but at the same time I wasn’t disappointed as this novel did live up to my expectations. As I’ve already mentioned, I love this series because it feels real; there’s nothing extraordinary about Lou, yet she has a beautifully written character that makes you wish she was your friend. She’s clumsy, funny and never seems to know what to do, yet she manages to work her way through life doing the things that she loves, surrounded by the people that she loves. Each book in this series has been different; although the characters are familiar, the situations are always different and it’s also nice to see realistically how life continues regardless of tragic or difficult events. However, personally I liked that each book felt like a standalone novel, rather than simply the same storyline. One of reasons why I’ve loved this series so much is how realistic it reads; Lou genuinely feels like an old friend at this point. This book was a solid 4 stars; it wasn’t my favourite of the series but regardless I devoured it and so I’d recommend it if like me, you’ve fully committed to the series and it’s characters. It was a pleasure, as always.

Book Review: Red Queen

In a world surrounded by War and poverty how do you survive? Mare is an ordinary girl, a Red. A Red girl in a world where Silvers rule. Reds aren’t special; whereas Silvers are special due to their unusual range of abilities. Essentially the world is dominated by which blood group you belong to as blood status equals power or poverty. Mare somehow gets by through thieving, although her younger sister is incredibly talented at needlework, earning Gisa a job in the Silver courts, embroidering silks and gown for ladies and between them they manage to help their family in terms of food and water. However, for each day as Mare ages, she’s getting closer to the age where she will be sent away from her family, to fight for her Kingdom: for the Silver gods. Her closest friend, Kilorn has a job as a fisherman’s Apprentice, however that also goes pear shaped, leading Mare to desperate measures and agreeing to become a part of the Rebel group ‘The Scarlet Guard’ for a price; an escape for Kilorn and herself. There are many hidden depths to this book; it's not particularly pleasant with the use of slaves, forced soldiers and near-constant battle, bloodshed and power struggles, but that is also what makes this novel such a fantastic read.

In an attempt to make enough money for her own survival, Mare continues thieving and fairly successfully, stealing a range of coins and items from various merchants and drunks walking the streets. However, in a matter of days Mare finds herself in more danger than ever before; engaged to a Prince but secretly in love with his brother. She needs to use her head, not her heart to survive in her new life. Although there are many stereotypically ‘fantasy’ themes running through this novel such as war, death and love, the details about the different Silver powers, Houses and court life made it interesting. From early on in the novel, it was clear that Mare was destined to be some form of heroine later on although she isn’t without her faults; she’s selfish, hot-headed and to an extent, ungrateful. One of the things that makes Mare an interesting character is her devotion to her family; she often bargains using her own life to look out for her family and constantly puts herself into dangerous situations without considering the consequences. Anyone and everyone in this novel has the potential to be a killer; Red or Silver, everyone is capable of causing damage to another person, inflicting pain and double-crossing one another, regardless of blood status.

Aside from Mare, there wasn’t much character development, which was a shame as there are so many characters that pique interest throughout the novel. Generally first person narrative isn’t a bad thing; in fact, I often like seeing how a characters mind works through situations or conversations as it allows the reader to fully understand their motives and reasoning behind decisions. However, in the case of this book I would’ve loved an opportunity to see inside the mind of other characters too. At times it felt like a multi-narrative aspect was needed to provide some clarification about some situations, thought and intentions, although in hindsight that could've potentially ruined the plot in some ways. I loved the two Princes, Cal and Maven, both of them had something about them to make them lovable; their manners, behaviour and struggle with their heritage, their destiny to rule society made it easy to sympathise with them, even if they are Princes. In many ways it was unsurprising that they were untrustworthy; Mare was so frustrating because of her constant trust in the wrong people. She's a strong lead, as are the two Princes although I would say that she does have the edge as she is the underdog, a Red to their Silver. The love triangle was a nice touch as it wasn't pushed to the forefront of the plot; it was more of a sideline that has the potential to be used later on. It was so easy to be pulled into wishing the relationships between them could work, but ultimately Silver rules and Red suffers.


Overall, I demolished this book in only a few sittings; I'll admit that at first, I was skeptical to due the start being slow. However, once you start to read more, deeper into the novel you begin to realise that nobody is who they say they are, it's impossible to trust anyone as everyone is capable of murder. Slow, painful murder. This novel is completely addictive; once you begin to understand the dangerous relationship between ruling Silvers versus the servant Reds. I liked the idea of rebellion, of creating equality, although I'm not convinced that the Red rebels will be successful, but that remains to be seen. The plot has the start of an excellent villain, heroine and martyr; it'll be interesting to see how the rest of the series lives up to this book as it managed to capture my attention after only a few chapter. Mare is a fantastic but frustrating protagonist, often not thinking before doing, creating chaos in her wake and usually finding herself in unnecessary danger by putting her family and friends first. This book was 5 stars for me because I love it when a book surpasses my expectations; I'm excited to read the second installment, hopefully many of my questions will be answered but I'm sure I'll end up with many more as it's a four part series. I would recommend having the series to hand before reading the first, as I really wish I had Glass Sword to be able to continue the series immediately, rather than wait a while. 

Book Review: Beautiful Broken Things

First of all, the cover art of this novel is not only quite unusual, it’s so simple yet eye-catching that it literally made me want to read it straight away. (Yes I’m one of those people who judges a book by its cover and I know that is a terrible habit, ha). I liked the fact that this is a Young Adult novel that isn’t about love and instead is about friendship; how opposites can attract. Caddy and Rosie have been the best of friends for over ten years, staying close even though they attend different schools. Caddy attends a private girls’ school and Rosie the local comprehensive. As a result, Caddy is extremely shy, most likely because she is always with Rosie and doesn’t make much of an effort with her schoolfriends (and she doesn’t really know any boys… at all). She dreams of being more confident and outgoing, like Rosie, but it doesn’t come naturally to Caddy; she’s genuinely does prefer fading into the background a little although she doesn’t seem to struggle with making friends, as Rosie isn’t her sole friend, but she seems to prioritise her to all of her school friends, often rebuffing their invitations for social events, choosing to see Rosie instead. In fairness, Rosie does seem like a good friend, but on the surface they don’t seem to have much in common, if anything. For a sixteen year old girl, Caddy seems to have a lot of freedom as she goes to a lot of parties and gets drunk fairly regularly, too.

So, Caddy makes a plan. She wants to become more interesting, have ‘significant’ things happen to her, such as losing her virginity and getting a boyfriend. In short, she’s a typically selfish and spoiled teenage girl. She compares herself to her sister Tarin, who is diagnosed with Bipolar disorder and Rosie, who lost a sibling. Caddy thinks that this makes them interesting – the issue that I had is that mental illness and tragic events aren’t interesting, they’re not something to be trivialised or misunderstood. Neither of those things are easy to live with, but Caddy doesn’t seem to be able to realise that. When Suzanne, a new girl at Rosie’s school joins in their friendship group, Caddy is immediately jealous, certain that she is going to lose her best friend. At this point, I found Caddy to be infuriating; she is the definition of me, me, me and that’s always irritating but she does start caring for others more over the course of the novel. The novel is told purely from Caddy’s point of view, so all of the character development is described through Caddy; to start with, we see the three girls in a group of friends, at the cinema and various tourist spots in Brighton before seeing more of an intimate, three way friendship. Caddy and Suzanne bond surprisingly well, although Caddy’s intentions are good, I wasn’t convinced that she liked her that much to being with; she found her ‘interesting’ as Suzanne has suffered a difficult upbringing. That said, it was great to read a YA book that covers drug and alcohol abuse, relationships, mental health and domestic violence without sugarcoating the issues; it showed the high and lows of teenage life.

Suzanne is everything that Caddy would love to be; beautiful, funny and sexually active. Caddy is sensitive, kind and well meaning, but she also encourages Suzanne too much, which is why the two girls become closer than Rosie and Caddy ever were, often sneaking out their houses late at night to see each other. Together, the two girls are pretty dangerous and seem to have no sense of safety; not a good combination. However, as the plot developed so did their friendship and I liked how they connected regardless of class or privilege. Caddy’s parents weren’t supportive enough of the friendship at all, which really irritated me as Caddy truly did try to be a good friend to Suzanne, although sometimes she definitely judged situations wrongly. Suzanne wasn’t the best influence on Caddy, but in fairness she seemed to really want to impress Caddy and keep her as her best friend; the three way friendship seems quite strained at times, particularly as Rosie started to feel deliberately excluded from the others, although Caddy wasn’t impressed to know that they both talked about her behind her back, too. I loved the fact that the novel was more about relationships in terms of friendship than the romantic kind; it makes a nice change. The introduction of Suzanne into Caddy and Rosie’s very stable friendship was a nice touch and definitely took the novel along a different path. In all honesty, Suzanne makes the plot what it is; she adds a level of excitement and fun that wouldn’t be there otherwise.

Overall, this book was a pleasant surprise; I can see why the author has described it as a ‘love story without a romance’ because that summarises the book completely in its entirety. It is a funny, cute and heartbreaking tale of teenage friendship, one that explores emotions, situations and the difficulty of starting to grow up. The three girls learn a lot about themselves, each other and the consequences of their actions. I loved the friendship between Rosie and Caddy as it wasn’t only solid, it felt real; even as some cracks started to show, ultimately they had each other’s backs and it was lovely to see their closeness develop further. The relationship between Rosie and Suzanne was nice to see too; as much as Rosie could be dismissive of Suzanne’s struggles, she was always honest about her misgivings about Caddy getting into trouble, and ultimately Rosie was a lifesaver. Caddy and Suzanne’s friendship was incredibly close, but also a bit of a surprise as on the surface, they had absolutely nothing in common, but a Caddy was a great listener and offered up her time whenever it mattered. Between the three girls, they were daring, reckless and realistic and that’s what made the novel enjoyable. I read this on a long journey and it was perfect; easy to read but full with interesting moments, both good and bad. The ending had me pretty emotional, too. I give it a good 4 stars because I liked the characters and the writing style, but it’s a little too young for me to give it 5; not trying to sound harsh, haha. Definitely give it a go!

Christmas Wish List

Hello again guys; I actually cannot believe that it’s day 18 of Blogmas already! I’m also amazed that this far I’m not doing abysmally in terms of managing to blog each day. Yes, I missed one day but 17 days out of 18 isn’t bad, particularly as I’ve never attempted to blog so much before. I like it, I’ve been feeling really inspired this month although I admit that it has been incredibly difficult at times to keep up with the demands and pressure that I’ve been putting upon myself to deliver posts that contain good content, rather than simply posting just any old shit every day (I admit, there have been many days where I’ve been so tempted to simply post one photograph and barely write anything). However, I’ve tried really hard to keep creating good content (at least I hope it’s good) particularly in terms of the written content. Today’s post is a bit of a random, yet personal one. I wanted to create a list of things that I would like for Christmas after writing some Christmas Gift Guides recently; I feel like I want (need) to add a bit of myself into these blogmas posts and so here is a reasonably short and affordable list of things I’d like for Christmas. As I get older, I’m starting to realise that I prefer memories and the little things, not massive gestures. Let me know in the comments if you’ve been enjoying my attempts at blogmas :)

Christmas Dinner

Ok, so I am fully aware that this is a bit of a basic Christmas requirement, but I love a good Christmas dinner. I’ve definitely piled on the pounds over the course of 2017 so I want to have a fully fattening Christmas and New Year before I attempt to start a health kick in 2018. I love a Christmas dinner with the full trimmings; I’m an absolute sucker for pigs in blankets and Yorkshire puddings more than anything else, but I also love cabbage, sprouts, roasted asparagus and carrots amongst so many other things. This year I’m really looking forward to a traditional Christmas dinner with my mum, nana and boyfriend with crackers and all of our family animals around us. There’s something about Christmas Day that really needs and a,aging spread for it to really feel festive.

Harry Potter Book Set

If you’re someone who regularly reads my blog posts, then you’ll know that I’m a collector of the Harry Potter series, I’m attempting to collect all of the covers but by bit from various places. The 2014 set of UK covers are absolutely lovely, particularly the Prisoner of Azkaban, with its illustration of the stag Patronus dominating the cover. They’re not particularly cheap, priced at £40 in paperback and around £80 in hardback but then it does include the full seven books so that’s not an unreasonable amount. I would love to own these in hardback at some point, but realistically due to price I’ll be more likely to eventually own the paperback set as they’re more affordable overall. Either way, I really want this set to add to my collection of four other sets.

Simple Skincare Set

Over the past year I’ve started actively taking more care of my skin as I have incredibly dry skin so moisturising, cleansing and toning is extremely important for my skin. Since making use of the Simple Gift Set that I received for Christmas last year, I’ve noticed such a difference in my skin; yes, I still have bad dark circles under my eyes but that’s obviously something to expected for my pale skin tone. However, I’ve noticed that overall my skin is much clearer and feels a lot softer with no dry patches, even in these harsh winter months. For £12, you get three full sized products so these kinds of sets are really good value for money. 

Harry Potter 20th Anniversary Edition

As soon as I saw these official Hogwarts House editions of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone I was determined to eventually own all four of them; at the minute I actually own the Slytherin version, which I snapped up from eBay. Pottermore sorted me into Gryffindor, so I’m expecting that one of my relatives will have purchased that version for me for Christmas. Priced at £9, I really like the added information about the House founders at the start of the books, as well as the beautiful illustrations throughout. Over the next year I’m definitely going to be owning each version of these, I’m in love.

Perfume

I’m a massive lover of perfume; my all time favourite brand is Marc Jacobs, particularly the Daisy range. They’re fairly expensive, at £50+ but they’re worth the money that they smell insanely lovely and the bottles make fantastic displays in my room. At the minute I’d love to get the Daisy Dream Kiss, or the Daisy Dream Forever, but in all honesty I’d love any new perfume, I wear perfume all the time and I love much more confident I feel once I’ve sprayed some on. Anything fruity and/or floral is completely to my taste and I’ve worn perfumes for £12 and £60, price isn’t important, the smell is always what’s important. 

Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban - Illustrated Version

Having received the first two illustrated books for the past two years at Christmas from my mama, I’m expecting that I’ll be receiving the third illustrated book for this Christmas. I have really high hopes for this illustrated book as it’s my favourite of the seven part series and it has been since I first read it as a child. The cover is stunning, it definitely doesn’t disappoint and I love the darker shading as it reflects the storylines getting slowly darker and more dangerous too. Priced at £20, it’s not too expensive to spend on a present but it’s definitely worth every penny for someone like me who absolutely loves Harry Potter and all of the merchandise that keeps coming out.

Harry Potter Cauldron Mug

Ever since I saw that Primark were expanding their Harry Potter range, I was desperate to hunt down this mug and so far I’ve been unsuccessful in my search, which is so disappointing. In fairness, being priced at £6 it was never going to hang around for long but I refuse to give up on ever finding it. I’ve found it online through eBay, but it goes for higher than the RRP which irritates me, so I’m hoping that someone who knows me will have been able to find it, if not then I’ll just have to get something similar at some point. It’s one of the cheapest items on the list, so fingers crossed I might be lucky!

Harry Potter - A History of Magic British Library Exhibition

There are so many new Harry Potter related books that have been released this year and this one is definitely high on my must have list; I love that it’s about all of the things that inspired J. K. Rowling’s magical literary world. It adds a bit more information about the background of the novels, her influences and interpretation of what she included within the novels, however big or s,all a part it played in the series. Priced at £25, it is still fairly affordable in terms of gifting, I’d love to add this to my already huge collection of Harry Potter related books, so fingers crossed I’ll have a nice surprise this Christmas. 

Lindt Teddy

As a small child, I used love lugging my favourite toy around all day, every day. Her name was (is) Teddy, and she was a teddy bear. I was literally obsessed with teddies, I was never into cars or dolls. I think that’s why I adore the Lindt teddies so, so much; the shape of the teddy really reminds of my teddy, as she also wore clothes (way before Build-A-Bear was a thing, haha) so the Lindt Teddy with the little Christmas jumper is always my chocolate of choice over Christmas. Priced at £4, it’s super affordable and something that never fails to bring a smile onto my face; as I said earlier, the little things are often the most important. Plus, the chocolate is amazing.

Festive Playlist!

Hello again guys; it’s the fifteenth day of Blogmas and I’m definitely struggling a little with the whole blogging every day idea. I’m one of those bloggers that’s genuinely so bloody disorganised, I never schedule posts and I rarely plan posts in advance so I’m literally writing a post a day and posting it on the same day, oops. This month I posted a stereotypical version of my monthly playlists, but I decided to wait until I had started to feel the Christmas spirit before posting a more festive version. Today, is the day for the festive version of a monthly playlist at last, as over the past week I’ve started listening to Christmas songs. I like a mixture of the older Christmas songs and the newer ones, for example the covers of traditional songs from Christmas adverts over the past few years and  Disney’s Frozen alongside the legendary Band Aid and The Pogues. I’m one of those people that enjoys Christmas but I have to feel it getting slowly closer before joining in with any festivities, haha. Are there any songs on this list that you love? Or have I missed off your favourite? Let me know in the comments! :)

1. The First Noel - Annie Lennox

2. Last Christmas - Wham!

3. Stay Another Day - East 17

4. All I Want for Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey

5. Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End) - The Darkness

6. Your Song - Ellie Goulding

7. Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant - Annie Lennox

8. Fairytale of New York - The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl

9. Let It Go - Idina Menzel

10. Somewhere Only We Know - Lily Allen

11. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday - Wizzard

12. Stop The Calvary - Jona Lewie 

13. The Power of Love - Gabrielle Aplin

14. Let It Go - Demi Lovato

15. Merry Christmas Everyone - Shakin’ Stevens

December Playlist!

1. Échame La Culpa - Luis Fonsi & Demi Lovato

2. I’m Yours - Alessia Cara

3. Cying in the Club - Camila Cabello

4. Dusk Till Dawn - Zayn feat. Sia

5. We Can’t Stop - Miley Cyrus

6. Bad Boys - Alexandra Burke

7. Secret Love Song, Pt. II - Little Mix

8. What About Us - P!nk

9. Learn To Love Again - Lawson

10. Where Do Broken Hearts Go - One Direction

11. Shape of You - Ed Sheeran 

12. Stitches - Shawn Mendes

13. Let Me Love You - DJ Snake feat. Justin Bieber

14. River of Tears - Alessia Cara

15. Sorry Not Sorry - Demi Lovato

Hello again guys! It’s day 6 of Blogmas, which is insane! This month is disappearing so quickly! These are the songs that I’m loving at the minute, although I’m sure I’ll do another Playlist post later on this month which will be more festive. I love listening to my iPod on journeys long or short, as I do find that the battery lasts much longer on an iPod then my iPhone battery would. Plus, I don’t need a headphone adapter for my iPod which is a bonus. Generally I listen to a variety of different artists, genres and songs each day, but these are the songs that I make sure that I listen to at least once a day at the moment, I love putting a playlist on and sitting back to relax and think. I’m constantly making new playlists, to the point that I have so many to choose from, for different moods and different times of the year, etc. I’m starting to think that I need to invest in an iPod with more memory space, as 8gb isn’t really enough for the amount of music that I listen to, but we’ll see. What music are you listening to? Let me know in the comments! :)

Book Review: Girl, Missing

Recently I’ve been rediscovering my love for Young Adult fiction and ‘Girl, Missing’ is a novel that caught my attention immediately after reading the blurb. It has an interesting take on the idea of missing persons; instead of focussing on how the family feel when a child goes missing, instead the focus shifts to what it must feel like to discover that you may be a missing person. This novel is completely addictive; it draws the reader in from the very start right until the very end with its multiple twists and turns in every chapter. The main character, Lauren Matthews is very strong willed but understands the difference between right and wrong. When a School project encourages her to find out and describe who she is and where she is from she begins to wonder about her early life, her biological family and why she was adopted at the age of three. Curiousity is only natural, considering her background but her adoptive parents are reluctant to provide her with any details until she’s older, which is understandable.

Lauren has always known that she was adopted, but her parents have always refused to supply her with any details, something which at fourteen, is something that makes Lauren take matters into her own hands. Through the use of a computer and an online search engine, Lauren finds what she believes is herself on a missing persons website as ‘Martha Lauren Purditt’ and shows her best friend, Jam, who is slightly sceptical but also supportive of her theory. ‘Martha Lauren’ has a similar birthday and the similar features, except she is American. Her adoptive mother is the kind of person who writes everything down and keeps everything, so Lauren looks through her mothers diaries from the year that she was adopted to find out the truth for herself, as no one wants to tell her. In all honesty, Lauren is a typical teenager; she’s self centred and definitely thinks that she is in the right, 100% of the time, but in many ways her determination is what makes this novel such a pageturner. Once she discovers that there is indeed a link between herself and the missing girl, she somehow persuades her parents to take a family trip to America, where upon arriving, she deliberately distances herself from her family and takes Jam along with her in an attempt to seek out her past.

Throughout the novel, Lauren never seems to have a sense of danger, often plunging into situations that could easily be avoided and usually involving others in her mistakes. The two teens are incredibly lucky to find themselves eventually out of danger, due to a friendly stranger (however, he could just as easily been cruel too) after having a run in with a vicious criminal at the adoption agency and getting swindled out of money by a dodgy taxi driver. Even after finding her biological family, Lauren isn’t happy; for someone so determined to discover the truth, it seemed bizarre that she hadn’t considered what to do with the information that she found out. Once again, that seems typical of a teenager. Although, she does have some kind of compassion as she fought hard to keep her adoptive family from being arrested but she struggled to gel with her biological family. For some reason, it was impossible for Lauren to understand why her sister had an issue with her, or why her mother was always around her, wanting to be with her. After waiting twelve years and never knowing if she’d ever see her again, it’s not surprising that she liked having her close by her as much as possible. That being said, that make Lauren somewhat more relatable, as many people make mistakes and poor decisions as they begin to grow up.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel far more than I thought that I would; it’s a decent thriller that would be an excellent dip into crime for young adults as the plot is really well devised and written. I loved how McKenzie explored how the dark side of adoption affects many people, for example the adopted parents, biological parents, siblings and of course the adopted child both legally and emotionally; nothing is ever as simple as it appears on the surface. This is definitely a coming of age novel, but not in the traditional sense. It’s about separating the truth from lies, learning how to face whatever you discover, however unpleasant it may be. Considering the mature subject matter, the writing is easy to follow and I read the entire thing in a day, which isn’t bad. I’d suggest picking up this novel if you want a fast paced, reasonably short novel that’s packed with action. Lauren’s past and future were so unknown and so unexpected that although there were some cliché moments, you still found yourself longing to know how her story ended, although there were some loose ends that weren’t tied fully enough for me, I enjoyed this novel enough that I can overlook that.

Book Review: This is Now

The cover artwork of this novel is beautiful; the landscape against the silouhette of two figures holding hands is so classic but still eye-catching and so I saw it on a shelf and put it on my 'to be read' list. I have no regrets about this, because this book was quite literally, action packed. From the get go we as readers are introduced to a range of characters through a crime; more specifically, a bank robbery. Martha is an ex-alcoholic who struggles wit her overly whilst been dry for over a year; Roman is a young and impressionable teenage Polish immigrant who is desperate to protect his mother, Rosa after his Uncle's death. To complicate matters, Cillian is the detective on the case and coincidentally Martha was once the love of his life and Tobias (Mr Hartmann) is another immigrant who came from Germany after WWII and helps Rosa to improve her English. There are so many characters in this book, all with different stories that somehow intertwine, but these are the characters who provide the main sources of information throughout and give honest perspectives on a variety of situations. This is the first novel I've read by Ciara Geraghty and it wasn't a disappointment; the way that she writes is beautiful.

One of the many reasons that I enjoyed this book was that the main event shaped the whole novel fairly early on; the bank robbery was so detailed and cleverly written, with the introduction of Martha and her best friend Tara going to the bank to meet Tara's sister Katherine. Mr Hartmann and Rosa are there too and all of their lives change forever after the robbery and ultimately, the shooting that takes place. Roman also makes an appearance by paying for past troubles, he arrives with the robbers but is unmasked so naturally is the person who takes the blame and ends up in a prison cell after managing to escape from the robbers outside of the bank. Martha is undoubtedly the best character in my opinion as although she has her own flaws, she's honest and incredibly astute, more than able to describe the whole robbery in perfect detail, making the police investigation a lot easier. She struggles with staying dry, as although she has already managed over a year sober it feels like a trial, not an achievement for her which is made even more difficult when Cillian comes back into her life via the police investigation. The cover artwork is fairly deceiving as you could assume it'd be chic lit but this novel is anything but; it's a very multi-faceted and layered plot with some interesting characters who all have flaws but overall they do mean well.

Roman and Rosa are the two characters who you really do feel unbelievably sorry for; they came to Ireland with the promise of a better life, but unfortunately some things don't go to plan and they end up in a series of difficult situations due to their brother (uncle) being involved with some dishonest and dodgy groups of men And one of the difficult situations is the bank robbery, which results in the majority of the characters having issues with Roman and he ends up with a stint in prison. This novel certainly unpredictable with some excellent snippets of Tobias' wartime past thrown in amongst his thoughts on the present day; arguably Rosa and Tobias are some of the strongest characters due to unfortunate cards that life dealt them. Due to the majority of the characters being insanely unlikeable, it is easy to find favourites among them but I also liked the fact that this novel was realistic in the sense that you saw all walks of life, it was much more intense than I expected. It was a very modern novel with a range of themes running through it including love, relationships, sexuality, crime, death and alcoholism, all of which were discussed in length at various points throughout.

Overall, I wasn't expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. The linguistic technique suited the variety of backstories that surrounded each character, although I must admit my favourite character was definitely Martha. It's always nice to read a novel that describes a character so throughly they begin to feel like someone you know and Geraghty's book is a case in point of this. Rosa and Roman were beautifully portrayed and it was lovely to see immigrants shown as nice people that want to succeed, I definitely had a soft spot for their mother and son relationship, the way that they continuously looked out for one another even in the hardest of times. Similarly, I loved the friendship between Rosa and Mr Hartmann, the way that he encouraged her to improve her English and create the beginnings of a better life, something which is long overdue for Rosa. The only issue I had with the storyline is that the unlikeable characters were too easy to dislike, it was a case of polar opposites which although that is understandable in a sense, in another it was fairly irritating as sometimes it's good to have more of a grey area to work with. However, I did love how the individual stories shaped themselves and it is always lovely to witness multiple happy endings and the loose ends neatly tied up; I'm still unsure of what I expected from this novel but my expectations were well and truly exceeded. 

August Playlist!

Hello again guys; I've mentioned before how much I love listening to music when travelling, whether that's on the bus, the train or walking. I'm one of those strange people that still walks around with an old iPod, rather than using my iPhone. I don't know why, I just prefer to have the space that the music would take up on my phone on another device and I always loved iPods growing up. I've used one since I was thirteen years old and that's looking unlikely to change. I'm thinking that I should probably keep an iPod because I will eventually make time to go to a gym or a dance class and so music will make any form of excerise seem much less stressful; music can definitely change a mood. On my iPod I have so many playlists made up for different occasions; a positivity playlist, a cheesy playlist, a journeys playlist and many more. This month I've been loving a range of genres (like always) but I've refound my love of the band Placebo.

1. No More Sad Songs - Little Mix

2. Meds - Placebo

3. Speakerphone - Rixton

4. Black Magic - Little Mix

5. Skyscraper - Demi Lovato

6. Hips Don't Lie - Shakira (feat. Wyclef Jean)

7. Hard Times - Paramore

8. Infra-Red - Placebo

9. Sorry Not Sorry - Demi Lovato

10. Still Into You - Paramore

11. Learn To Love Again - Lawson

12. Elastic Heart - Sia

13. Wild Things - Alessia Cara

14. Treat You Better - Shawn Mendes

15. The Never-Ending Why - Placebo

August Moodboard

Hello again guys! Before we start this post I want to make it clear that none of the images below are owned by me and I am definitely not passing them off as my work or anything like that; I know it's a bit dodgy to name Pinterest as a source, but that is truly where each and every one of them are from. Literally, though searching for 'ear piercings', 'floral tattoos' and 'perfume bottles' was how I found such a diverse set of images. At the moment I'm absolutely loving cute and dainty ear piercings; I myself have a lot of ear piercings but I wouldn't call any of them cute or dainty, but after looking at these images I'm definitely lusting after some new earrings to redecorate my ears with. Similarly, I do have a tattoo but I'm thinking about another and it's likely to be floral but I have no clue of the placement or design so I'm enjoying browsing through scores and scores of images for inspiration. Finally, I've rekindled my love for beautiful perfume bottles; visually my favourite will always be the Daisy range by Marc Jacobs or the stunning female bodies by Jean Paul Gaultier. I'm on a budget for the next few months so I'm enjoying lusting after things and thinking about the kinds of things that I could have if I chose to spend my money in a few months time - fingers crossed! What kinds of things are you loving this month? Let me know in the comments :)