Wildest Dreams Book Subscription Box

I never really post reviews of products and things like that on my blog. I may mention things that I love every so often but never a full blog post about a certain thing. Today is going to be the exception of that rule because I feel like if you read my blog you’ll love books too and if you love books you need to know about this.

Currently very few book subscription boxes (with books I’d actually want to read) exist in the UK and the ones you can import from the US, just end up costing a lot of money sadly making them not really worth the money. Now, a few months ago I heard about a brand-new UK based book subscription box called Wildest Dreams and box number one arrived the other day. I’m that excited about it, I’m having to write this post! You can’t buy this box anymore but if you have subscribed and are waiting for your box to arrive please be aware that I am going to post spoilers as to what the first box contains from here on in. 

Wildest Dreams box 1’s theme was Best Of YA 2017. I love young adult books so the theme of this book couldn’t have been better for me. I was a little concerned that I may have already read the book but thankfully this isn’t the case. The book in the box is, The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed. To be honest I haven’t actually heard of this book before but I have had a look at reviews on Goodreads and after reading the list of endless good reviews, its safe to say I’m excited to read this book. I’ve added the book to my Christmas reading pile so expect my review of this book on my blog in the very near future. The box also came with a little note from The Nowhere Girls author, Amy Reed, which was exclusive to this box. I felt this was a nice added touch to go with the book.

When I subscribed to the box I knew very little about it other than every month I would get a book and a couple of other little treats. I had very little idea about what these other things would be so I got a very pleasant surprise when opening up this box. The first product that I have to mention and is my favourite was a Sorting Hat Bath Bomb from company, Geeky Clean. I have a slight obsession with bath bombs and I absolutely adore Harry Potter so I have actually been meaning to buy a Sorting Hat Bath Bomb for a long time now. So, I couldn’t have been happier to have opened the box and found one inside. A Sorting Hat Bath Bomb is basically a plain white bath bomb on the outside and then when you put it in your bath it dissolves and turns your bath the colour of your house. After standing at the side of my bath and repeatedly muttering not Slytherin, not Slytherin…I am very happy to reveal that my bath water turned blue and I was sorted into Ravenclaw! The bath bomb itself was great fun, smelt nice and left my skin feeling lovely which is basically everything you want from a bath bomb. I just loved this product!    

The box also contained a loose tea from Rosie Lea Tea. The tea itself was chocolate orange flavour and I have to say it was absolutely delicious. I may be a little bias as I am probably the biggest chocolate orange fanatic but oh my goodness this tea was the best tea I’ve ever had. I’m not normally a fan of flavoured teas but I can highly recommend this one so for me it was the perfect addition to the box. After all, who doesn’t love sitting down with a freshly made cup of tea and start reading a new book. Sadly, the minute I saw this in the box I instantly made the tea so I didn't take a photograph of it. 

The final addition to the box was a signed bookmark from author Michelle Kenney, whose wrote the book, Book of Fire. To be honest I’ve not heard of the book but it is being advertised as Percy Jackson meets The Bone Season, two books that I absolutely adore so I’m very interested in reading this now. It’s certainly been added to my books to purchase list.

As I said at the beginning I never do posts like this but I thought this box was great. I’ve just renewed by subscription and I am already excited for next months box which is themed, Into The Jungle. I’ll put the link for further information below but for £18.00 a box I personally am very impressed with box number one and I can only imagine its just going to get better and better the more boxes are made.

Wildest Dreams Subscription Box Link – 

http://www.wildestdreamsbookbox.com/

Some of the contents in the Wildest Dreams Box!

It Started With A Tweet - Anna Bell

Daisy is obsessed with being online. Daisy spends all of her spare time tweeting or uploading photos of her life onto Instagram and of course trying to sort out her love life on Tinder. However, on the way to one of her many Tinder dates she tweets something meant for her personal account onto her works account by mistake. Of course this tweet is way too inappropriate for a work Twitter account and instantly goes viral causing her to get fired from her job. Top this off with her best friend wants to kick her out of the flat she lives at, its safe to say Daisy's life isn't going so well. Daisy's sister, Rosie thinks she has the perfect plan to help Daisy - a digital detox, and drags her to a remote village with no phone signal to help her renovate her new house.

I loved this book! I think the reason that I enjoyed it so much because I saw a lot of Daisy in myself. I'm quite ashamed to admit this but I am that person whose surgically attached to their mobile phone. I tweet way too much, spend too many hours browsing Instagram, I google things quicker than you can suggest doing it, I'd never use a real map I'd just go straight to my phone to do it...you get the idea. I was absolutely laughing my head of at certain points in this book, for example when Daisy (the most unsporty person in the world) goes hiking up a mountain just to try and get phone signal...well I have definitely done similar things before so I found it so funny to read about. Honestly, if you're even slightly obsessed with your phone you'll be able to relate with this book and find yourself in absolute hysterics at many moments of the story.

The characters are so easy to read about and are just instantly likable from the start. I was somewhat worried that the story would just be about Daisy moaning that she hasn't got her phone but it isn't like that in the slightest. Daisy is funny and likable which makes her a great lead character. I also like the fact that she does go on a journey as a character, she ends the book as a completely different person than she starts in the novel. Her sister, Rosie is equally as enjoyable to read about. I really enjoyed reading about the attempts they make at renovating the house and how they try to fit into the local community. I absolutely loved reading about how they both cope on a digital detox. The potential love interests in the form of French exchange help, Alexis and Jack, a local who lives next door. They're both so different but both really add to the story. To top it all off the resisdents of the village are brilliant. I live in a rural village and some of the characters (particularly the lady’s gossiping in the post office!) are so similar to people in my village which only added to my enjoyment.

I've read other novels of Anna Bell's and loved them so its no surprise that I enjoyed this book too. Its been along time since a book made me completely laugh out loud so much and this book certainly did. Its been one of the best books I've read of the year and I can highly recommend you buy this book as your next one to read.

Synopsis -

Can Daisy Hobson log off for love...?

Could you survive a digital detox? This hilarious new romantic comedy from the author of The Bucket List to Mend a Broken Heart is perfect for fans of Lucy Diamond and Sophie Kinsella.

Daisy Hobson lives her whole life online. A marketing manager by day, she tweets her friends, instagrams every meal and arranges (frankly, appalling) dates on Tinder. But when her social media obsession causes her to make a catastrophic mistake at work, Daisy finds her life going into free-fall ...

Her sister Rosie thinks she has the answer to all of Daisy's problems - a digital detox in a remote cottage in Cumbria, that she just happens to need help doing up. Soon, too, Daisy finds herself with two welcome distractions: sexy French exchange-help Alexis, and Jack, the brusque and rugged man-next-door, who keeps accidentally rescuing her.

But can Daisy, a London girl, ever really settle into life in a tiny, isolated village? And, more importantly, can she survive without her phone?

Trashy Romance Novel - Jacqueline E. Smith

Whenever I get into a conversation with anyone about books they always ask me what genre of books I enjoy reading. Queue my awkward mumble of 'oh I read a lot of young adult books and um...trashy romance novels...'. I love author Jacqueline E. Smith's Boy Band novels so when I heard she was releasing a novel called Trashy Romance Novel its safe to say I got excited about reading it. It sounded exactly like a book that was going to be my cup of tea!

Trashy Romance Novel tells the story of Delaney. Delaney is quite sweet and innocent so from an outsiders point of view she is pretty much the last person on the planet you'd expect to write a trashy romance novel. Yet she has and now her novel is so popular its being turned into a movie starring some very famous actors. Delaney flies to Scotland with her best friend Gemma to go visit the movie set and watch the all star cast, which includes the rebellious Colin Ward, playboy Benjamin Wyndham and Delaney's celebrity crush Matthew Kent, film the movie. Of course in true trashy romance style, when the normal girl meets the irresistible actor - you know her summer is going to be an interesting one!

As I had such big expectations of this book I was worried that I just wouldn't enjoy it, but I'm very happy to say that I absolutely loved this book. I love the idea of writing a book and then suddenly you find yourself watching your celebrity crush who you pictured when writing it actually playing the character you wrote so for me the storyline truly gripped my attention. If you're like me and read a lot of romance novels and I can guarantee that Trashy Romance Novel won't disappoint. 

The characters were great to read about. Delaney is so down to earth and likable which makes the book that much better to read about. Her best friend Gemma is also one of the greatest things about this book. Delaney is reserved whereas Gemma is outgoing and much more forward of situations. The fact that they're both so different really added to my enjoyment of the book as some moments really made me laugh reading about how they both responded to situations. The love interests in this book are the perfect romance novel characters too. Without spoiling the book, if I had to criticise the book, my only slight issue with it, is that I would've liked to read a little more about Matthew Kent particularly as Delaney liked him so much. However, it really didn't spoil my enjoyment of the book at all so it really isn't an issue.

The book itself is wrote quite unusually. Not only does it tell the story of Delaney's Scottish adventures but it also weaves in chapters of Delaney's book in between. To be honest I'm not usually a fan of novels which switch chapters up like this as I find I get engrossed in one story and it then annoys me when it switches to another but in this particular case I felt it worked well. Delaney watches a lot of her book be filmed so its interesting to actually read segments of the story which she's there watching being filmed. I've certainly worded this in the most confusing of ways but I can assure you it works very well in the novel. 

As you can tell I thought Trashy Romance Novel was fantastic. In my opinion if you love your romance novels you have to make Trashy Romance Novel by Jacqueline E Smith the next novel you buy!

Synopsis -

It all started with a crush. 
How cliché is that? I mean, of all the things to motivate a person to do something, how often does it go back to a silly infatuation? More often than most of us would probably care to admit. 
Of course, this wasn’t an ordinary crush on a cute coworker or a charming friend of a friend I hooked up with at a party. No, I’ve never met the guy who inspired my books. 
But I’m about to. 

Delaney Brooks is the author of The Queen’s Surrogate, the “sinfully satisfactory” romance novel that swept readers around the world off their feet and into the fictional embrace of His Majesty, King Malcolm. 

When her book is adapted into an eight-part miniseries, Delaney and her best friend Gemma fly to Scotland for what promises to be two months of lush green mountains, historic castles, and hot celebrity co-workers, including the gorgeous Matthew Kent, British playboy Benjamin Wyndham, and Hollywood’s hottest reformed rebel, Colin Ward.

Blogtober - Day 31

Happy Halloween!!!!! Or more importantly...happy end of Blogtober 2017!!!!! I can now breathe a deep sigh of relief, it’s all over!

It’s been 31 long days but we’ve made it! I actually achieved Blogtober! I know quite a lot of days I copped out and wrote the biggest pile of rubbish but hey I still posted something and I’ve actually blogged something for an entire 31 days! It’s been nice in a way to do more let’s write what I feel like kind of blogs rather than just doing book reviews. I definitely won’t be stopped my little reviews on books but I didn’t think I’d ever had the confidence to write more personal things so Blogtober has help me achieve that. I now know I can post anything I want on here.

It’s been exhausting, an effort at times but on the other days some days I’ve absolutely loved writing. Honestly I knew from day 1 that deciding to do Blogtober very last minute with no planning at all, would be difficult and boy was I not wrong. I wish I’d planned ahead and had a lot of posts planned in advance so when I was ill / out and forgot to blog / generally not in a writing mood I had something ready to post without feeling pressured to write something. I completely and utterly winged the entire 31 days and somehow I’ve made it to the end - hurrah!

Would I do Blogtober again....? If you asked me a week ago it would’ve been a 100% no, however maybe with a bit of planing I maybe would do it again. I’m definitely having a break off daily blogging for a little while at least!!! 

Blogtober - Day 30

Well somehow I’ve made it to the penultimate day of Blogtober! It is also the day before Halloween! 

I’ve been to Salem in October, pretty much the home of Halloween, and sadly since then Halloween seems a little disappointing. America celebrated Halloween like you see in movies! Massive pumpkin fayres, with racks and racks and racks of pumpkins towered high, houses decorated as much as we decorate for Christmas, people in costumes etc etc. Halloween just seems just more fun over in America, it’s literally like a scene from Hocus Pocus! 

Which leads me on nicely to my own Halloween traditions. I’m British so sadly we don’t really care about Halloween. Ok, the supermarkets may sell pumpkins and various buckets of sweets to give out to potential trick or treaters but generally we don’t make that much of a big deal out of it. As I’ve got older I literally do nothing for Halloween. I just don’t care for it. Plus after being in America for Halloween, ours just isn’t the same anymore. All I do for Halloween now is hope that Hocus Pocus, The Addams Family and Casper is on tv and I’m very happy! Sadly it’s now the night before Halloween and I’ve currently only seen Hocus Pocus this year.

Sadly I don’t have much to say today. I’ve had a long day and I’m feeling exhausted. However, inevitably I won’t be blogging until late tomorrow too so I’m going to take this opportunity to wish anyone who reads this a happy Halloween!!!

dodie - You Tour

Last night I was at Stylus in Leeds seeing dodie on her You tour. You may know dodie better as her YouTube username doddleoddle. I’ve been a fan of dodie for a number of years now but both of her headlining tours sold out incredibly fast so you have to be very lucky to bag yourself a ticket to see her - thankfully this tour I did just that!

I arrived early at the venue but it was quickly apparent that dodies fans are extremely dedicated with the queue going right around the building. Many of the queue looked like they’d been there for a good part of the day too! Definitely need to mention the crowd at this point, as despite the insanely hot temperatures in the venue I don’t think I’ve been in such a nice audience. Instead of pushing straight into your space, people were leaving it free for you whilst you went to grab water and when people went to the bar they were bringing back extra water for people stood near them etc. 

dodie came on stage to the biggest cheers / screams / applaud / chant I think I’ve ever heard at a concert ever. That noise did not falter once throughout the set with the crowd singing a lot louder than you could hear dodie a lot of the time! 

I found her set to be brilliant and she certainly didn’t disappoint. dodie preformed songs from both of her EP’s as well as a couple of songs she hadn’t physically released including fan favourite, She. dodie has a real innocent charm whilst on stage which I think comes across so well. She also manages to connect with the crowd like very few artists do. Many people stood around me were sobbing throughout many of dodie’s songs. Her realism and openness about sexuality and mental health clearly strikes a chord with so much of her audience. 

I had a great time and would see dodie live again tomorrow if I could. My personal favourites from the set were When, 6 / 10, Absolutely Smitten and In The Middle which even saw dodie playing drums! She has such a wonderful stage presence and her songs live (complete with her talented band) come across so beautifully live and I truly don’t think I’ll see dodie in such a small venue again. She’ll be for sure headlining much bigger things in the future. 

Blogtober - Day 28

And the award to worst Blogtober writer goes to....drum roll please....me!!! Yes I know it’s only 5pm but I’ve forgotten to blog and I’m currently waiting to go into concert so once again I’m doing a pathetic arghhh I’ve forgotten to blog post.

Tonight I’m seeing dodie in concert. Her concert tickets sell out in minutes so I’m so thrilled to finally be able to see her live. She’s known on YouTube as doddleoddle and she frequent posts ukulele covers and original songs. I’ve bumped into her randomly in a train station many years ago and I’ve been watching her YouTube videos for the last five or so years but tonight is the first time I’ve actually been able to see her live which I’m very looking forward to. Dodie is actually part of the reason I started learning to play the ukulele as she’s one of the only person that I’ve heard so songs on the ukulele and they sound like actual songs! Except I swiftly realised she makes playing it look insanely easy and when I try it sounds more like plinkerty plink plink. 

Now I’m in the queue waiting to go in and I’m feeling old. I appreciate I’m getting far too old to be watching YouTube videos, it’s definitely one of those things my niece is more into than someone in their mid twenties! That is certainly reflected in the crowd waiting to go in tonight! Despite that I’m very much looking forward to seeing dodie. I love her albums and from what I’ve seen of her performances I’m certainly in for a good evening.

So tomorrow’s blog is likely to be a little write up on tonight’s concert but sadly for today this is all I’ve got. Definitely should’ve planned Blogtober so much better than this!