Don't Stop Me Now - Colleen Coleman

Every so often you discover a book which parts of it overlap with your real life so much that you wonder if the author has been secretly spying on you. Well for me, Don't Stop Me Now is that book.

Don't Stop Me Now focussed on main character Poppy Bloom. She has just finished her PhD but suddenly all her life plans have gone four of the window. Her perfect life she has at university has now shattered, unemployed and homeless she's found herself forced to move back into her mums house. One day when she's feeling sorry for her self her life changes forever as she calls into a radio station to air her opinions. This call changes her life as she's offered a job at the radio station. However, now can Poppy successfully balance her work and friends? 

Not one part of this book wasn't likeable. If I had to pinpoint one thing I really loved it's Poppy. She was such a well written and normal character which is very relatable. Poppy’s friends and family are also just delightful to read about. 

As I’ve said before I can completely and utterly relate to this book. I’m sure most graduates have that smack in the face realisation that the life doesn’t end up the way you planned. This book so wonderfully captures that bubble you’re in at university and then how horrendous it is when that bubble pops. From the high of graduating, to the sheer horror of moving back to your childhood bedroom, it’s all just so incredibly described. I loved everything in about this story. I loved the characters, I loved the storyline, I loved the friendship groups etc etc.....I just looked this book!

For me, I adore a relatable book and Don’t Stop Me Now is certainly that! I would recommend this book to everyone - I just loved it!

Synopsis - 

Poppy Bloom planned to finish her PhD and walk straight into a job at her university. But here she is, unemployed, unceremoniously dumped by her boyfriend, and living back at her mum’s in her vampire-themed childhood bedroom.

Not exactly what she was hoping for.

But when Poppy sets her mind to something, nothing can stand in her way. She scores herself an internship at the hottest radio station in town, joins a netball team, and renews her friendship with her oldest friend Leanne. Spending time with Leanne’s gorgeous twin Tom is just a bonus…

But life has a way of tripping you up when you least expect it, and Poppy soon has to decide where her priorities lie… With new friends, a new career and a new romance, can Poppy keep everyone happy, or is everything about to tumble down around her?

Blogtober - Day 3

As ever when you start a challenge obstacles always get in the way - and it’s only day 3! Arghh! I knew that doing blogtober especially without doing a rough plan was already going to be tough - after all failure to plan is planning to fail. That little saying is pretty much the only thing I can remember about my 3 years at university, one of my lecturers used to say that all of the time! I do realise now that perhaps that saying was right and have started making a rough plan of posts for the upcoming weeks otherwise I am going to fail miserably.

I figured thinking of topics to write about would be the toughest thing I’d have to face and trying to fit in how on Earth I’d write said blog posts after a 45 hour working week. I figured I could just push past this with motivation? What I didn’t account for is the fact that I am deathly ill. Ok I may be the queen of over exaggeration and I’m not actually that ill but I am at that awful I’m sneezing so much I’ve gone through 2 entire boxes of tissues in a day and all I want to do is go to sleep stage. Again, I’m going back to the planning to fail point. Perhaps if I’d started writing potential future blog posts in advance if I was ill it wouldn’t have mattered as I would’ve have had things ready to go. 

My work colleagues have been great all day to be fair, in between my constant stream of sneezes I was passed over Lemsips and various tablets which just about helped me get through a 9 hour shift but when I got home today I’ve just been a bit blurghh. I admit it, I’m that pathetic person tonight who sits on the sofa, watching The Great British Bake Off complaining they feel ill after every cough/sneeze. Then whilst in the midst of drowning in my pathetic ill party it dawned on me that I needed to write day 3s blog post! 

So here I am with yet another pointless blog post. I think ultimately, the lesson I’ve learnt fast is that I should’ve planned. Blogtober isn’t something you can just decide to do on the 30th September in the hopes of winging it everyday. Am I the biggest failure of Blogtober? Probably...but I promise i’ll try write things with more point when I’m feeling tip top again.

If anyone reading this has any suggestions on how to get rid of a cold please let me know as I’d very much like to feel ok again now! 

Lorde - Melodrama World Tour

Today’s Blogtober post is a lot more exciting than the disappointment of yesterdays! Why? Well last night I headed down to the O2 Academy in Birmingham to see New Zealand singer Lorde performing on her Melodrama World Tour.

I’ve been aware of Lorde for pretty much 4 years to the day thanks to attending a Selena Gomez concert and her covering one of Lorde’s songs, Royals, which went on to be one of her biggest hits to date. However this is the first time that I’ve been to see Lorde perform a full headline concert. 

Last nights concert sold out fast and it’s clear to see why. Lorde is simply a delight to watch live. She has unique performing style which is mesmerising to watch, top that with her distinctive voice and it offered a truly enjoying performance. Lorde’s set design was simple but effective and Lorde herself even did a few outfit changes throughout her set.

I’ve listened to Lorde’s latest album, Melodrama, pretty much non stop since it was released due to a family member being obsessed with it so I was extremely familiar with the songs on her set list. She performed some of her popular songs from Melodrama such as The Louvre, Liability and Supercut. The album translates so wonderfully live, and Lorde’s vocals are incredible. As well as showcasing her latest album her set of course featured her biggest hits, Tennis Court, Royals and Green Light. 

Fans of varying ages and gender were singing (loudly!) along to every single word that Lorde sung proving the success of her UK shows. Sometimes, particularly during her popular songs you could hear the crowd singing almost as Lorde herself! Lorde seems to love every single moment of being on stage, energetically dancing to every song and she even got into the crowd towards the end of her set.

I like Lorde but I am a long way from being her biggest but their is no doubting her talent. She knows exactly how to command a stage and get the audiences loving every single moment. I actually feel quite lucky to have seen her in such a small venue as I can safety say it won’t be long before she’s headlining the biggest UK festivals. Sadly Lorde only has a couple of dates left of the UK leg of her world tour but if you like her music I can guarantee you’ll absolutely love seeing her in concert!

Blogtober - Day 1

It’s day one of blogtober and I decided a couple of days ago that I would try and take part this year. Basically for anyone who doesn’t know, blogtober is where you post a blog post every single day for the whole of October. Honestly, do I think I’ll be able to do it? I work insanely long hours so probably not, but I’m going to give it a go. I’ve not done any writing for a while so it’ll be nice to have a challenge. I know people spend weeks planning what they’re going to write for these things but I’m planning on pretty much winging it for the whole 31 days. I’ve saved a few ideas on Pinterest but other than that I’m completely just writing whatever I feel like that day. So if anyone has any suggestions on what they’d like to read about please let me know, suggestions are very much welcome!

So here we are starting the month with this post. Truthfully, i’m ill at the moment - yes I’m starting with the excuses on day one...but at least it’s only a cold so all being well that urghhh I’m dying feeling should be gone in a couple of days. Is this blog post a little bit of a cop out? Absolutely! But hey it’s my introduction to doing blogtober and I’ll try to make at least some of the other 30 days more interesting than this one! I am actually doing some pretty fun stuff in October so I’m hoping to be able to write some more interesting things at least. 

Good luck everyone else whose trying to attempt blogtober and hopefully we all manage the whole 31 days...

Undercover Princess (The Rosewood Chronicles #1) - Connie Glynn

Lottie Pumpkin (yes this is her real name!) is obsessed with the world of fairy tales. She loves the idea of being a princess, meeting Prince Charming etc etc. So when she starts her new school, Rosewood Hall, the last thing she expected was to be thrown completely into the world she fantasises about thanks to her new roommate Ellie Wolf.

It’s worth mentioning that I’m writing this completely impartial. Truthfully, I had no idea that author Connie Glynn was a YouTuber prior to writing this blog post so I didn't want to read the book based on the author. However, I've been seeing this book a lot lately, whether it’s been through a sampler at events or people posting about it on twitter so naturally after loving the sampler I read I knew this book would be exactly my cup of tea. 

I read this book insanely quickly because it just captured my attention. It was so full of twists and turns! Ok, yes some things were very predictable but then in the next breath some things happened which I certainly didn’t expect. I love the idea that the story is based in a boarding school. I actually thought the descriptions Rosewood Hall were wonderful and it was quite easy to imagine the setting. 

I really loved the characters too. Lots were introduced but it wasn’t hard to keep up with who was who and the 3 main characters were so instantly likeable which made them easy to read about. I had a few issues with certain characters, such as the villain for example whose motives I felt were a little nonexistent. Despite a few little things I thought many of the characters added something to the story. I am however hoping that some of the more minor characters will be discussed more in future novels.   

Although I really enjoyed reading this book I feel that this would’ve been one of those books I would’ve obsessed about when I was around 15 so I would highly recommend this for people around that age. However, if like me you read the blurb and like the sound of the story I think you’ll still love it as I certainly did.

I know I for one am very ready for the sequel of this book already! Ok yes I’ve read books that are better written but I enjoyed the story and its interesting characters that captured my attention from start to finish. Honestly, for a debut novel I thought it was great. What more do you want from a book really?

Synopsis - 

When fairy tale obsessed Lottie Pumpkin starts at the infamous Rosewood Hall, she is not expecting to share a room with the Crown Princess of Maradova, Ellie Wolf. Due to a series of lies and coincidences, 14-year-old Lottie finds herself pretending to be the princess so that Ellie can live a more normal teenage life. Lottie is thrust into the real world of royalty - a world filled with secrets, intrigue and betrayal. She must do everything she can to help Ellie keep her secret, but with school, the looming Maradovian ball and the mysterious new boy Jamie, she'll soon discover that reality doesn't always have the happily ever after you'd expect... A thrilling world of parties, politics and bad ass princesses, this is the first book in the brand new series THE ROSEWOOD CHRONICLES.

All That She Can See - Carrie Hope Fletcher

I've always made it obvious on this blog how much I like Carrie Hope Fletcher. I think she's one unbelievably talented performer. She’s written numerous books in the past but although I've enjoyed reading them none of them have really made me blabber on to people uncontrollably about this amazing book I've read, that is until now. 

 

Carrie Hope Fletcher's new novel All That She Can See tells the story of Cherry. Cherry has somewhat magical powers in the respect she has the ability to physically see people's worst feelings floating around them. Cherry decides to take it upon herself to try improving people's lives and bakes cakes in order to reduce people's bad feelings. She’ll see that a person is feeling stressed for example and will bake them a specially baked cake to help them reduce that feeling. Once Cherry feels as though her job is done she’ll move to a new place in order to help improve as many people’s lives as she possibly can. Little does she know that other people are born with the same gift (although some in different ways to her own) and this knowledge will change her life forever.

 

For me, this book makes me think of Northern Lights by Philip Pullman except daemons are in the form of feelings. I don't think this is a bad thing as I think the concept of seeing feelings is absolutely wonderful and the story is completely different I could just draw similarities at certain points whilst reading. If like me, you grew up reading books like Northern Lights, you will absolutely love All That She Can See.

It’s worth mentioning that this story is a little different to Fletcher’s previous fiction novel in the sense that it is less romance orientated and provides a lot more action in the second half. Yes, romance does feature throughout but the second half of the book is very action packed with a couple of quite violent scenes. However, what still remains is the author’s ability to write such unique, likable characters proven in this case through the main character Cherry. I also really love the way in which the author writes an element of magic into real life which comes across as something you can completely imagine happening in real life which only adds to the likability of this story.

I did find the story to be somewhat paced too face at times. At points when reading I felt that things escalated quickly, particularly in the second half of the book, but ultimately it is a relatively long book already so I can completely understand the quick movement of the story. However, I personally would’ve been happy with a few more chapters.
 

In my opinion this is the author’s best novel so far and I for one am very excited to see what story she comes up with next. The idea of seeing feelings and the fact the main character so actively wants to make use of that gift is such a great idea for a story. Carrie Hope Fletcher’s imagination is fantastic and portrayed so wonderfully in this novel. I highly recommend picking up All That She Can See as the next book you read.

Synopsis – 

Feelings are part of life - feelings are life. If you take away what people feel, you take away anything meaningful. Wanting to diminish the evil in this world is a good cause, one I have fought for the majority of my life, but not like this . . .

Cherry has a hidden talent. She can see things other people can't and she decided a long time ago to use this skill to help others. As far as the rest of the town is concerned she's simply the kind-hearted young woman who runs the local bakery, but in private she uses her gift to add something special to her cakes so that after just one mouthful the townspeople start to feel better about their lives. They don't know why they're drawn to Cherry's bakery - they just know that they're safe there and that's how Cherry likes it. She can help them in secret and no one will ever need to know the truth behind her gift.

And then Chase arrives in town and threatens to undo all the good Cherry has done. Because it turns out she's not the only one who can see what she sees . . .

A story of love, food and a little bit of magic, All That She Can See is an enchanting and beautiful novel that's guaranteed to be the most magical story you'll read all year.

I'm Back!

Hello! Bonjour! Hola! Remember me...? Yes I know, my blog has been extremely neglected (massive understatement...) this year. I had a bad start to the year and since then motivation to read and write has been non existent. I haven't even picked my kindle up for months because I just couldn't being myself to read which is the most bizarre thing coming from Miss I can read 5 books in a week. The blogger app had been discontinued on my phone too, which I think I was using as some what of an excuse not to write which didn't help either. But that's it, enough with the excuses!

However last week I attended Summer In The City in London. Summer In The City is the UKs largest YouTube event and to be honest it completely inspired me. I met a number of YouTubers including two of my favourites, travel vlogger Evan Edinger and amazingly talented artist Jamie Jo who is also known as bananajamana. I just walked round the day that I attended thinking that I could do this. I have a pretty swish camera, why couldn't I do this? And in reality although lots of people on YouTube are incredible artists or musicians etc lots of them are people just like me who just want a creative outlet and enjoy producing videos. It really made me stop and think that yes, maybe I could do this.

So here I am, back on my blog feeling very inspired to start writing again. If there's one thing that hit me whilst attending Summer In The City is that I could do these things and the only reason that I'm not is myself. Opportunities aren't going to come knocking at my door and I need to start making more for myself. Here's to a new start on my blog - hopefully I'll be back for a long time now!