C.K. Robertson's Blog, page 10

A Bookish Christmas Gift Guide

Hello Readers & Friends!
Today I'm doing a Christmas gift guide for the bookish friend in your life - whatever the budget.
This post is in collaboration with Typo, who kindly sent me a couple of gifts to test out. As always, I only work with brands I actually like, and I have shopped with Typo before in the past. They basically do great gift-type bits and bobs, but I've included some extra stuff as well to make sure you get tons of ideas!
**Asterix indicates a gifted item.(Sorry, it's pretty Potter-heavy. But who doesn't love Hazza P?)
£50+A category for the truest loves in your life. Or yourself ;)


LOTR - One Ring  Okay, this is seriously boujie. Just look at that stand! Perfect for the LOTR fan in your life as a special collectors piece that would just look amazing on any bookshelf.


Personalised House Hogwarts Trunk
Okay I die. This has been on my wishlist forever. A monogrammed, Hogwarts trunk filled with house clothing and a personalised Hogwarts letter. This is the gift to make dreams come true.



£25-£50The perfect category for treating someone special. Boyfriends, girlfriends, etc.
Harry Potter Funko Advent Calendar Perfect for fans of Harry Potter and Funko pops alike. Filled with 24 adorable mini Funkos from the world of Hogwarts. Including Hermione in her Yule Ball gown which is just too cute.


Harry Potter Lego Set My favourite is the Knight Bus, but Hagrids Hut is great too. Perfect for people who love puzzling things together, and nice to sit down and do together over the holiday break with a glass of wine. Great Bookstagram props for afterwards, too! ;)

Personalised Wooden Puzzle*Wentworth make lazer-cut wooden puzzles with custom designs for a really personal gift. You can choose the amount of pieces for different difficulty levels and they cut their pieces into cute shapes, like tiny little dogs! 
Thorin Map  Another one for the LOTR fans - a Thorin map on a beautiful wooden display stand. Can you just imagine this above a workspace or displayed on a writing desk?! I don't even like LOTR but I'm obsessed. One #MapMonday to rule them all.
Personalised Book Plate  For making their favourite books extra special.
Book Stamp Again, for making their favourite books extra special. Or for making sure their lent books get returned!


£10-£25Show a good friend how much they mean to you with this selection.


Chocolate Frog
Complete with holographic collector card.

Throw* For cuddling up underneath with a great book. It's fleecy and supersoft. The Marauder's Map one pictured in the main post image is currently out of stock, but other cute designs are available. 

Book Scratch Bucket List
For the person who needs to read more, and doesn't know where to start! Give them a challenge. 
Custom Book Earrings It'll be a talking point for sure. They do necklaces and charm bracelets, too!
Bookish T-Shirt Wearing your love loud 'n' proud.


Under £10
Perfect stocking fillers or Secret Santa options!

Nap Candle* For nap lovers everywhere. Plus, everyone knows bookstagrammers love a good candle. This one smells great, too.

Book Box A hidden storage space designed to look like a book. Choose from Alice in Wonderland or an old potions book.


Hogwarts Letter Set For writing love letters and revenge plots. Because nobody keeps in touch with letters anymore.


Handmade Bookmark Nothing is better than a super cute bookmark. These are handmade by Tula, who creates beautiful fan art and decorates her bookmarks with pom poms.


Monogrammed Leather Bookmark For the fancy reader in your life.



Blind Book Date Give a blind date with a vintage book. Because they're vintage, there's a high chance it's not been read by the receiver yet!


 Love, C x

 

Book Review: 100 Days of Sunlight by Abbie Emmons

Hi Readers & Friends,

A strange sort of review today - I just couldn't make my mind up! In the end, I gave this book 3.5 stars. (4 on GoodReads.) It was very kindly signed and sent to me by Abbie herself, and when I saw it on Amazon best-sellers list I realised it was exactly the sort of book I needed as a pick-me-up and pulled it out of my TBR pile sharpish!

It has a wonderful, beautiful storyline. Tessa is a teenage girl who, after a terrible car crash, finds herself blind. Doctors tell her she will heal in a minimum of 12 weeks, but for a quarter of a year she is totally blind. She's a poet and blogger, and a boy called Weston answers a newspaper ad to help her continue to write while she can't see. Tessa doesn't know that Weston is handicapped, an amputee from an accident when he was 12. He loves that she doesn't know, and that she essentially treats him like garbage at the start. And then... well... you can see where this is going, can't you?

This was the main problem for me, and the only reason I couldn't give it a 5-star rating. Obviously this is a personal choice, because this wouldn't bother some people at all, but there was no huge conflict/resolution part of the storyline, it was a very even, consistent plot and you always knew what was going to happen. You knew from the start she was going to get her vision back eventually, because they tell you. So there's no big reveal about that.
And you know they're going to fall in love because, well, it's YA so of course they will. Plus, the blurb tells you they do. And you know that Tessa isn't going to care that Weston has no legs, because who on earth would write an entire book about two people falling in love only for one to end up being so shallow she leaves when she realises the other one is disabled? You see what I'm saying?

The book is very predictable and without twists and turns, so there wasn't much hook or grip for me. ALL THAT SAID, it was a really lovely story, and I ate through it pretty quickly. Both characters were extremely strong, 3-dimensional and interesting. Weston's story in particular was super inspiring and his personality the entire way through was something I think I'll always remember and look back on - I think everyone could do with being a little bit more like Weston in their everyday lives. He reminds us to always be the best we can be and to work hard and look on the bright side. His best friend Rudy was also really well-written and I had a definite soft spot in my heart from him, and their friendship.

It was very heart-string-pulling, emotional and inspiring. I actually think Weston may be one of my favourite characters I've ever read in my life. He was so funny and just his outlook and optimism was such a joy to read. I've never read anything like him before, I could have had a whole book on just his thoughts and opinions!

For me, I think the only thing that would have pulled this book up another star would have been a dramatic or climactic moment. Perhaps  Tessa thinking she would never get her sight back and then suddenly getting it back would have been better than always knowing that after 3 months it would return. This would have made her depressive outlook a little more easy to swallow as well, a couple of times I wanted to shake her and say 'buck up, it's only three months!'

All in all it was a memorable read, I'd recommend everyone give it a go if they want a quick and easy pick-me-up.
(Ps. I hope they make it into a movie, that would be amazing!)

Love, C x

Book Review: The QB Bad Boy & Me by Tay Marley

Hello Readers & Friends,

Hope you're all well today. I have a funny sort of review to write today.

A little while ago, I watched After on Netflix. It was one of those things that was so bad, but so good. You know what I'm talking about. Totally cliche and predictable, but also it just makes you happy. Then I found out it was based on a Wattpad fan-fic of Harry Styles and everything made a little more sense. I have Wattpad, and am trying to invest more time into it, but I struggle finding good books to read on there when there's so much choice, so I use it mostly to write. It's basically a hub for writers, and a lot of them are teenagers writing YA, so a lot of the time you have to trawl through some questionable stuff to find a gem.

This is why I was super excited when Penguin got in touch and said they were publishing (with Wattpad) a handful of the most popular books this year, and kindly sent me some to read. I wanted the "trashiest" feel-good romance read possible, so I chose one called The QB Bad Boy & Me. Everything about the title is cringe, so I knew I was in for a good time. This was not going to be a book that changed my life, or that left me with wide eyes and disbelief. But I knew it was going to be a book I loved reading, that would give me warm fuzzies, and that I'd probably, definitely, fancy the main character. Plus, I'm super into American Football, so that swayed me.

I'll be honest, it's terrible. Terrible, but so, so good. The front cover is 'classic airport chicklit' if you're a cover snob, and as for the storyline... nothing really happens. It's mostly long descriptions of Drayton's chest every other page and a lot of descriptive steamy scenes. But honestly? I couldn't stop reading it. I could not put it down. It was easy, quick, and pure entertainment. Just like a Netflix-own Christmas film, it's so bad that it's so good. It required no thinking, so I could just tuck into it before bed and let my brain switch off.

Despite the lack of depth and literature value, I can't in good conscious give this any less than 4 stars, purely because of how much I enjoyed it. It delivers exactly what you would want from a good Wattpad YA romance, and that's why I chose it.
If you want a deep, complex romance story with depth and twists, this isn't for you. But if that's what you're after, you probably wouldn't find it on Wattpad anyway.
If you want pure, cheesy, cliche entertainment - pick this up. I guarantee it will get any mushy romance lovers out of any reading slump.

I do have to warn you, the characters are literally obsessed with sex. All they do is make puns and innuendos and talk about sex constantly, but I figure that just adds to the charm because if I think back to being seventeen, I guess that kind of is all that kids talk about. I also really loved the two main characters, they were both strong and distinct and really likeable. Drayton's protective trait began to border on a Edward-from-Twilight-warning-red-zone, but I think the author juuuust about got away with it in the end. I found myself wishing I lived in America so I could get a wholesome QB boyfriend like him, so the book definitely accomplished what it set out to do.
Is it too late to get Steven into American Football? Probably. Maybe I'll just buy him a jersey instead.

It's a happy 4.5 stars from me. If Marlin writes anything else, I'll be first in line to buy it (I've already followed her on Wattpad, obvs).
You can support her work and buy the book for yourself here.

Love,
C x


***This book was  gifted to me for this review by Penguin, but all opinions are 100% my own. I make no money from any sales made through this blog. ***

Book Review: The QB Bad Boy & Me by Tay Marlin

Hello Readers & Friends,

Hope you're all well today. I have a funny sort of review to write today.

A little while ago, I watched After on Netflix. It was one of those things that was so bad, but so good. You know what I'm talking about. Totally cliche and predictable, but also it just makes you happy. Then I found out it was based on a Wattpad fan-fic of Harry Styles and everything made a little more sense. I have Wattpad, and am trying to invest more time into it, but I struggle finding good books to read on there when there's so much choice, so I use it mostly to write. It's basically a hub for writers, and a lot of them are teenagers writing YA, so a lot of the time you have to trawl through some questionable stuff to find a gem.

This is why I was super excited when Penguin got in touch and said they were publishing (with Wattpad) a handful of the most popular books this year, and kindly sent me some to read. I wanted the "trashiest" feel-good romance read possible, so I chose one called The QB Bad Boy & Me. Everything about the title is cringe, so I knew I was in for a good time. This was not going to be a book that changed my life, or that left me with wide eyes and disbelief. But I knew it was going to be a book I loved reading, that would give me warm fuzzies, and that I'd probably, definitely, fancy the main character. Plus, I'm super into American Football, so that swayed me.

I'll be honest, it's terrible. Terrible, but so, so good. The front cover is 'classic airport chicklit' if you're a cover snob, and as for the storyline... nothing really happens. It's mostly long descriptions of Drayton's chest every other page and a lot of descriptive steamy scenes. But honestly? I couldn't stop reading it. I could not put it down. It was easy, quick, and pure entertainment. Just like a Netflix-own Christmas film, it's so bad that it's so good. It required no thinking, so I could just tuck into it before bed and let my brain switch off.

Despite the lack of depth and literature value, I can't in good conscious give this any less than 4 stars, purely because of how much I enjoyed it. It delivers exactly what you would want from a good Wattpad YA romance, and that's why I chose it.
If you want a deep, complex romance story with depth and twists, this isn't for you. But if that's what you're after, you probably wouldn't find it on Wattpad anyway.
If you want pure, cheesy, cliche entertainment - pick this up. I guarantee it will get any mushy romance lovers out of any reading slump.

I do have to warn you, the characters are literally obsessed with sex. All they do is make puns and innuendos and talk about sex constantly, but I figure that just adds to the charm because if I think back to being seventeen, I guess that kind of is all that kids talk about. I also really loved the two main characters, they were both strong and distinct and really likeable. Drayton's protective trait began to border on a Edward-from-Twilight-warning-red-zone, but I think the author juuuust about got away with it in the end. I found myself wishing I lived in America so I could get a wholesome QB boyfriend like him, so the book definitely accomplished what it set out to do.
Is it too late to get Steven into American Football? Probably. Maybe I'll just buy him a jersey instead.

It's a happy 4.5 stars from me. If Marlin writes anything else, I'll be first in line to buy it (I've already followed her on Wattpad, obvs).
You can support her work and buy the book for yourself here.

Love,
C x


***This book was  gifted to me for this review by Penguin, but all opinions are 100% my own. I make no money from any sales made through this blog. ***

How Instagram Removing Likes is Hurting Bookstagram

Hello Readers & Friends,

I have a post on social media marketing today, and I'm hoping it can be used as some sort of rallying cry to anyone who uses Instagram and follows book accounts.(Here is my account!)

Recently, Instagrams made the decision to remove public Likes in an attempt to keep things authentic. In turn, this has changed the way users are utilising the platform.

What seems to be happening is that as Instagram rolls this update out across more users, people have responded by refusing to Like photos. I guess the reasoning behind this is, 'what's the point?'
But the point is huge, and that's what this blog post will talk about today.

I read somewhere that not liking a photo is akin to not applauding at the end of a performance - keep this in mind.

For  full transparancy, my account has dropped engagement by 80% this last week alone, with reach following suit. Basically, Instagram has f*cked us.



So, here's what happens when a photo doesn't get many likes:

Step 1. User thinks, 'no point in double-tapping this if I can't see the Likes,' and continues to scroll past your content.

Step 2. That piece of content is registered by Instagram as being scrolled past X amount of times. Instagram works out how many people have scrolled past your picture in a ratio against how many people have Liked your image. Your ratio is looking pretty bad now, as suddenly nobody is Liking your content.

Step 3. Instagram decides the content must be of bad quality due to the low engagement, and it's algorithm shifts your content to the bottom of the feed. This means your reach drops, which is a fancy way of saying that Instagram is preventing your image from being seen.

Step 4. The content creator feels like their time is wasted, because they are creating content that is not being seen or appreciated.

Step 5. The content creator gives up posting as often.

So it's a vicious circle, and this will only change if either Instagram shift their algorithm to match the new way users are working, OR if people continue to like posts.

If you want to support your community and encourage your favourite accounts to continue posting, please, please Like their content. There is still a point to Likes, which is why they haven't been removed entirely.

Share this post and let's get the community thriving again!

Love, C x

Life Update: New Job

Hello Readers & Friends,

I'm writing today to share some super exciting news with you all.
I got a new job!
I've officially handed in my notice and accepted a new offer, where I'll be managing digital marketing for Hodder & Stoughton books. (Home of my inspiration, Stephen King! I'll be walking down halls he's walked down!)

I can't explain how excited I am to join the world of publishing. I've worked in fashion for six years and always thought I would have to start at the bottom and work my way up to get into publishing, which would probably involve taking a pay-cut I couldn't afford. I feel so thankful that the Hodder team offered me the chance to interview despite being an industry outsider, and even luckier that I managed to impress them enough to get the offer.

I'm sad to be leaving my workplace as I've had a great couple of years and worked with the best, lovliest teams ever, but I can't begin to explain how excited I am for this fresh start. I'll miss the free clothes, but I'll get to be around books all day which is just dreamy.
2020 will really be new year, new job, new me!

Love,
C x


(Glasses in picture kindly gifted by TIJN Eyewear)

Shop A Girl Called Whisper

"Looking For Alaska meets Perks of Being a Wallflower" A story about mental health, abuse and first loves.

SHOP E-BOOK (If you don't have a Kindle, don't worry. You can download the Kindle app on any tablet or phone device)

SHOP PAPERBACK

Available exclusively on Amazon

Book Review: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Hello Readers & Friends,

I'm so excited about this book review! I know I'm way behind the times but I started the Chaos Walking trilogy, and just finished the Knife of Never Letting Go - which is coming out in film next year. I didn't realise the book was 20 years old, so I really am way behind the times with this.
I read More Than This by Patrick Ness and hated it and found it full of plotholes and lazy worldbuilding, so I had left this one aside for ages. I wish I hadn't. I haven't enjoyed a book like this since I read Ready Player One. I gave it 5*.

Summary
It's the New World, and everyone's thoughts are out in the open for everyone to hear, all the time. They call it Noise. Todd is about to become a man, until he uncovers a patch in the woods where the Noise can't reach him. What he has actually uncovered is a dark secret about the New World, and he and his loyal dog, Manchee, end up on the run.

What I loved
 - Manchee. He is exactly how I imagine dogs to be if they could speak. Simple, loving and loyal to the very end. I loved him. The way he speaks isn't ridiculous either, more realistic with just random words here and there but Ness manages to build so much character and emotion into the single words Manchee uses that you quickly fall in love with him.

 - Dark themes surrounding colonization, murder and religion which I adored.
- Viola, who I feel was quite ahead-of-her-time if this book is 20 years old.  She was a good, feminist character.
- Realistic love between characters.


Img Src


What I didn't love
 - It took me a while to get into the writing style, but by chapter 5 I was well into it. You need to get past the way that Todd spells things (stayshun > station) because he's illiterate.
- The title. I don't get it?
- Aaron. Is he bionic or something? It all got a little bit Scooby Doo meets American Horror Story at some points.
- The death I don't think should have happened. It makes me sad just thinking about it. If you know, you know.
- Not knowing how old Todd is?!?!?!

I'll be honest, the whole storyline of the book is basically,
- run
- bump into someone trying to kill them
- escape
- run
- repeat

BUT, it's written in such a way that it kept me turning the page and the cliffhanger at the end means I'm dying to get my hands on book two.
I really enjoyed it and can't wait to finish the series and watch the film when it's out!

Love,
C x

Book Review: Heartless by Marissa Meyer

Hello Friends & Readers,


Today I'm reviewing Heartless, by Marissa Meyer. I picked it up at YALC -  I'm actually not a fan of fairytail retellings, I think they're like glorified fanfic, and I didn't enjoy her Cinder series. However, Heartless blew me away and I give it a happy 4/4.5 stars.

Summary:
The story follows Cath in Wonderland, the Queen of Hearts before she was the Queen of Hearts. It follows a homely girl in a prestigious family who longs to open a bakery with her friend, and just loves to bake. She starts to fall for the court joker, but everything changes when the King decides he wants to court her for his hand in marriage. She has to choose between her dreams and making everyone else happy, but whatever you think is going to happen, it doesn't. Lovely twists keep it unpredictable whilst the world that Lewis Caroll created keeps us magically entertained.


What was lacking:

- World building was horrendously lazy - a problem I had with the Cinder series as well. I think Meyer's penchant for retelling fairytales makes her worldbuilding extremely lazy, with nothing explained and things just described at the bare minimum. If you had never seen Alice in Wonderland or read the original, you would be totally lost for what the world was like in this book. Luckily, it's one of my favourite films, so I could imagine it okay for myself. From what I've read so far, Meyer is generally just pretty lazy when it comes to creating her own unique settings.

- Cath's annoying AF, and has no backbone for 90% of the storyline until the final 10% when she does a complete 180 and becomes the psycho queen we all know from the film. (Not a spoiler becuase we all know the original story so we all knew shew as going to end up this way.) Still, it was frustrating listening to her ramble on about wanting to be with the joker but insisting on pleasing her family who, if I'm being honest, aren't really very supportive or likable. This was a minor frustration throughout the storyline. But also how she acted at the end and how her pig-headedness and inability to follow instructions caused her ultimate demise. Of course, she blames everyone but herself. She's just not likable throughout the story.

- The whole pumpkin charade. What??!


  Src: Pinterest
What I loved: 

- I loved Jest's character, his unpredictableness, his twists and turns and secrets. He was very charismatic and 3-dimensional and I liked his story arc throughout.

- Likewise, I really enjoyed Hatta, AKA The Mad Hatter. I loved his storyline and how he came to be mad. His history and everything about him was divine - his secret that he reveals at the end which made his entire personality make sense and his treatment of Cath.

- The ending prophecy. Monarch, Martyr, Murderer, Mad. I just liked the alliteration and how it wove into everything.

- I enjoyed her clever integration of literary works, poetry and nursery rhymes. It all came together nicely in an imaginative storyline.


All in all, it was a great page-turner for me and I looked forward to it every day until I was finished. A quick and easy read that entertained me from start to end. Probably closer to 4* than 4.5 but I have thought about it several times since finishing and would probably re-read despite it's issues, which is why I'm stuck on the rating.

Love,
C x

Top Aesthetic Editing Apps for Bookstagram

 
Hello Readers, Friends & Swipers!

I'm asked time and time again what apps I use for my editing, so today I'm going to share my most-used and recommended apps.
As always, I advise you find your own routine and editing style rather than imitating others and trying to copy accounts. You'll always go further in life if you do your own thang. That said, these will make getting those aesthetic vibes way easier!

PHOTOSFacetuneI rarely use Facetune, but it's a good one to have for quick fixes. Good for clearing spots in the background and highlighting smaller details with the Detail brush, like jewellery. Not a neccesity, but good if you shoot a lot in public places or with small details in your images.



Kuji CamThe same as Huji Cam but for Android, Kuji offers a bunch of oldschool filters, lightleaks and point-n-shoot camera effects. Again, I rarely use this on my bookstagram account but it's my go-to for quick editing on my personal account. Cute vintage frames as well.


LightroomLightroom is the big-boy app for editing. Although VSCO is getting more and more features to rival Lightroom, just because it's owned by Adobe means it'll always be superior. Lots of bloggers sell presets for Lightroom use, so you can get the exact same filters they use. It's great for adjusting certain colourtones, which was my main usage for it. Recently VSCO released this feature for premium users though, so I now mostly use VSCO. I recommend Lightroom for anyone editing on Desktop or any terrible editors who just want to buy a ready-made preset and do one-click edits. (I recommend Acacia's
for this, they're lovely.)


Picsart Picsart is great, I use it daily. It's great for collages, moodboards and finding cute stickers to add to your photos. This is my main editing programme, alongside VSCO, for still feed images.

VSCO VSCO is my baby. I use this to filter all my imagery, and have paid the one-off yearly subscription for the full programme to access all the editing tools so that I don't have to use any other app or jump between VSCO and Lightroom anymore, which in my opinion is worth it. I save all my filter recipes down as Presets on here so I can easily see what a photo would look like in a different theme. My favourite filters are M5, A6 and G3.


SnapseedAnother rarely-used app, but good to have. Snapseed's got an extensive list of free tools available for things like brightening select areas, changing image persepective, blurring and adjusting white balance. For people who are really finnicky with their edits, in a similar vain to Facetune. 

GIFS & VIDEOS Pixaloop Pixaloop is a great little app for turning your images into moving videos/gifs. You can animate select areas of your image (like water to make it look like it's running), change the sky and animate the clouds, add steam to your coffee and a host of other, sweet images. I love this for animating my images for stories.


YouCutYoucut is the app I use for editing IGTV and Youtube videos. In all honesty, there are probably better apps out there for this, but I find it easy enough to manage and quick to work. It adds text and lets you adjust image ratio very easily as well, which I like for creating story posts.

SnowSnow is one of those crazy asian apps with hundreds of thousands of different filters that you really have to trawl through to find the hidden gems. I love all the oldschool, retro VHS style filters for film clips. 


 STORIESMojoMojo is a great little app for animating still images and text, making your stories more eye-grabbing. 


UnfoldUnfold is what I use for my still stories. It lets you build  really aesthetically pleasing montages and collages and post direct to your story feed.

MaintananceApphiI haven't found a scheduling tool I really like (I've heard Instagram hates Planoli) so I've been using Apphi as and when I need it. I don't schedule usually (which is why on weekends I sometimes forget to post!)  but if there's something I don't want to forget to post, I use Apphi.


PostVu I use PostVu to double check images will look nice in my feed and that the colouring isn't off. It just lets you put a post in and shows you how it will look in your feed without actually having to upload it. I use this just if I'm posting something slightly different, like a selfie or a moodboard, to check the colouring works and doesn't stand out strangely.

Well, there you have it! These are all the apps I use!

Hope it helps you :)
Love,
C x