C.K. Robertson's Blog, page 11

Sorting 5* Books into Hogwarts Houses

Hello Readers & Friends,

I was looking for inspo on something I could write up for you guys and came across this idea for a post by Miss Maddy Chats.  I love the idea of sorting my favourite books into the four Hogwarts Houses. I'd love to hear your thoughts on my sorting hat takeover...

(FYI: These are all books I gave 5*s to on Goodreads.)


Slytherin  Lolita by Vladimir Nobakov

One of the most beautifully written books, but of course it's about pedophilia and abduction so I have to put it in Slytherin. (Don't come at me for this, I'm a Slytherin myself! And not all Slytherins are bad! But let's be honest, if it had to be in any of the houses it would be this one. It's the Voldemort of the book world. Incredible but horrific.)


Junk by Melvin Burgess
Another iconic read, a new classic which caused a lot of controversy when it came out. A gritty and realistic portrayal set in Bristol of two young teenagers hooked on heroin. If any house was likely to tell it how it is regardless of shocking or upsetting people, it would be Slytherin. (The Candor of the Divergent world.)

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
A story about a girls ambition to fit into a world she doesn't belong in. Sounds pretty Slytherin to me!


Ravenclaw Animal Farm by George Orwell
A black satire about political corruption and communism disguised by farm animals. It had to be Ravenclaw. 
 
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
A book that draws emotions into one of the biggest problems facing America today - police brutality and racism. This book really tackles difficult subjects with an intellectual grace that could only be Ravenclaw. 

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
The twists and turns, the ups and downs, the riddles and edge-of-the-seat fight scenes... I put Six of Crows into Ravenclaw. 

Hufflepuff Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett
An easy, breezy YA romance by Jenn Bennett that sees two former friends lost in the woods together. Obviously, they fall in love. Obviously, this is Hufflepuff.

It Only Happens in the Movies by Holly Bourne
A book about a feminist who hates romance movies, works at the cinema and falls for the cliche bad-boy. I loved all of this, it was so different from most YA romances just because the protagonist was so great. 
 
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
This is an emotional heartbreaker. You will cry for hours after you finish it and think about it for a long time after and it's written for anyone who has a kind heart and has empathy. AKA: Hufflepuffs.

Gryffindor
Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman
A bold book series where race privilidge is reversed and one couple has to fight society to be together. It made such huge strides that it's still continuing now, with recent releases despite being originally released in 2001.


The Book Thief by Markuz Zusak
Brave, brave, brave. The only way to describe the protagonist of The Book Thief, and all those who she surrounds herself with. Every character in this Nazi Germany story would be a Gryffindor, and so would the storyline. 

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline 
A book about boldly investing all you have into winning a competition so you can save the world you love from corruption. Obviously a Gryffindor. 

Photo Diary: The Lake Cabin

Hello Readers & Friends,

Today I'm sharing a diary post because last weekend Steven and I went to a remote lake cabin for a little break. It was a really lovely time. The weather was that really nice crisp but sunny autumnal weather, there was a little boat which we took out onto the lake and the cabin itself was so cute. Betsy had a great time, she actually loved the water and really enjoyed being out on the boat!





There was no wifi and barely any signal which was great because I could really switch off, and the electricity ran via a generator which we only had on in the evenings as it was quite noisy. In the nights we watched films and cooked dinners and lit the log fire, so it was all really nice and cosy. Betsy got a little cold sitting outside all day so I had an excuse to layer her up in her raccoon jumper and flowery coat which was great.






I read three books over the weekend. This Lie Will Kill You by Chelsea Pitcher which I had to give 2 stars to because honestly, it was a bit rubbish and confusing and the plot was just terrible. (It was like the end seasons of Pretty Little Liars by the point nothing made sense and was just ridiculous.)






The Babysitters Coven by Kate Williams which I have 3 stars to. It was an enjoyable read but more to the Y audience of YA, and it was a little too young for my taste. The third was Junk by Melvin Burgess which I gave 5 stars to. It was actually a re-read but the last time I read it I was in school and I don't think I could appreciate it to it's fullest. It's a super gritty, intense and quite depressing read but I really enjoyed it. I may do a full book review sometime for it.





Overall it was a really nice, much-needed break and opportunity to switch off :)

Love,
C x

Film Review : Crimes of Grindelwald

Img Srced: Pinterest
Hello Readers & Friends,

An unfortunate rant today. I know I'm behind the times but I have to write a reveiw about Crimes of Grindelwald. I started it last night and had to switch it off, it was an atrocity.
I have read up on what happens at the end and it hasn't changed my mind at all, so here are all the things wrong with the film in my opinion. How they dare to drag it out 3 more films is beyond me.

1. J.K Rowling standing behind Depp after the news he beat his wife is not okay. But aside from this, let's delve into the film..

2. The last film ended with a long emotional scene involving heavy rain and an Obliviate spell, which saw fan-favourite Jacob forgetting his whole magical experience and continuing life as a muggle/nomaj. CoG opened with him announcing his return because 'Obliviate only works on bad memories.' Sorry? This wasn't a thing when Hermione erased herselves from her parents lives? Or Lockhart Obliviated everyone whose stories he stole? Didn't the ministry Obliviate the entire city in the last film to cover up the magic? If so, aren't they worried that everyone else will suddenly remember everything? More to the point, if they are going to disregard the rules of magic so vehmently, at least do it for a reason. The hour and a half I watched Jacob brought exactly 0 to the plotline or story, aside from a little bit of comic relief.

3. Nagini. Again, the introduction of Nagini as a woman who is cursed to turn into a snake provided the plotline with absolutely nothing. She added no layers to the story, and just followed Credence around miserably. She was probably put in to offer some diversity to the cast, and to add in some 'shock factor' because nobody knew Nagini used to be a woman. The whole film was littered with these 'shocking reveals' that led nowhere and added nothing to the story, merely blurring the main plotline until it was, in my opinion, barely visible at all.

4. Why the hell is McGonagal given a random, pointless cameo? She wasn't even supposed to be born until 30 years after this film is set! Stupid mistake made, again, for no reason.

5. Character goals are non-existant. Credence goal = find his family tree. Fine, makes sense. Grindelwald goal = get everybody to follow his Hitler-like ideologies. Everyone else? Who knows. I don't.

6. Why is Newt, a random, awkward animal lover approached to be an aura / chosen to go after Credence? I still don't understand what the point of him is or how he ties into anything other than being a quirky character. He is entirely carried by the plot.

7. Albus Dumbledore's mum was dead when Credence was supposedly born, and his dad was in Azkaban. So not sure how the big plot twist fits in with any of the previous potter timelines. Maybe it's a lie to be revealed in film 3, I don't know and at this point I don't care either.

8. The Hogwarts robes were blue. This irked me an unexplicable amount.



9. Newt's brother literally turned up out of nowhere, with no introduction and barely any mention of him before. In fact, a ton of characters did this, and added nothing to anything.

10. Unexplained magic. For example, when Newt turns up in France and does this weird gold circle thing in public without anyone noticing and it's never explained what magic this is or how it works. If this is a thing that can be done to find people, why has it never been used in any of the previous films/books? Would have come in handy on several occasions. Like tracking Voldemort.

11. I'll be damned if I don't see a Dumbledore/Grindelwald kiss at some point to make this the LGBT-friendly franchise it was forced to become from the moment Rowling decided to announce that Dumbledore was gay.

12. None of Queenie's character developement made sense.

13. I thought Credence died in the last film? I mean, obviously not, but I want to know what happened in this 9 month space between him nearly-dying and ending up in a circus. Instead we're thrown in to work it out ourselves with no explanation or flashbacks.

14. Another mention of characters for no reason, but what was the point of Leta Lestrange? What did she bring to the story?

15. Same with Yusuf to be honest.


To conclude, this film was a jumble of red herrings, unecessary family history lessons (that often contradicted previous information), new and pointless characters with unecessary subplots and main characters with no clear goals.

Ultimately, this is a franchise milking a strong fanbase for it's money and disregarding the fact that a fanbase this strong will be able to pick out all these thoughtless inconsistencies. It was terrible from start to halfway, and I will not be investing another hour of my life to finish it. The true crime of Grindelwald was that it was allowed to exist.

Love,
C x

Book Review: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Hello Readers & Friends,

I don't know where to start with todays review.
The Book Thief is one of those books that I have been recommended time and time and time again. Even people who don't like reading swear by it. It's everybodies favourite. It took me a while to pick it up because I knew it was set during 1940s Germany and I don't really like books about war etc, but I knew I had to give it a go considering all the recommendations.
I wish I had read it sooner.
I gave it a heaping 5 star review. I would not change a single thing.

“It’s a small story really, about, among other things:

* A girl
* Some words
* An accordionist
* Some fanatical Germans
* A Jewish fist fighter
* And quite a lot of thievery”

It took me a while to get into it and a long time to read it - unlike most YA books it's not got a storyline that makes me want to keep turning the page again and again to find out what's going to happen. I mean, it's set during the war, so you know what's going to happen. It reads more like a collection of short stories rather than a tension-building single plot, so at times it felt slow but then when you get to the end you realise why Zusak had to go at a slow pace. Everything had to be built up the way it was, because it was what made the ending so beautiful.


The story is narrated by Death, which is genius. It follows the story of Liesel, an adopted little girl growing up in Nazi Germany. You get deep glimpses into not only her life, but her best friend Rudy Steiner (one of my favourite characters of all time) and also all the people who live on Himmel Street with her. As you can guess by the title, she loves to steal books. As she falls in love with the written word, her life is turned upside down when her family decide to harbour a jew in their basement. The friendship between her and Max blossoms when she discovers that he too, loves stories. What follows is a heartbreaking and amazing story about human life.

I have cried reading only three books before. The first was Noughts and Crosses. The second was Forbidden, and the third was A Little Life. But this was the only one where whilst I was crying I was appreciating about how amazingly well-written it was as much as the storyline. I really do think it's a book everybody should read, even if only once.

 
Here are some of my most favourite quotes, because the book is filled with memorable quotes, like poetry:

"I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right." - Liesel

"I am haunted by humans." - Death

"I've seen so many young men over the years who think they're running at other young men. They are not. They are running at me.” - Death, about war.

"One was a book thief. The other stole the sky." - Death

"When death captures me,' the boy vowed, 'he will feel my fist on his face.' Personally, I quite like that. Such stupid gallantry." - Death

To conclude, there are very few writers I would be excited to meet. I never understand at Lit Cons why people deign to spend hours and hours queuing just to meet an author. Until today there have only been two authors that I would be excited to meet; J.K Rowling and Stephen King.
Today I have to add Markus Zusak to that list.

Love,
C x

Don't Be This Person : The DON'Ts of Bookstagram

Hello Readers & Friends!

I always like to keep my blog a positive place to be, but I have a slightly more complain-y post today. Whilst I LOVE Bookstagram, there are a couple of account-types that drive me insane! And I can't be the only one, so if you're thinking of starting a bookstagram account, don't be one of these people...

- Don't DM people telling them to follow you. It makes me want to follow you even less. I spend time every day looking at the Explore page and reading comments and finding accounts who really engage and interact with the community to follow. I don't just follow people who tell me to. (Without any introduction, may I add.)
 NO -  Please follow my new book account!

YES -   Hey, I just started my own bookstagram account. I'd love for you to check it out and give me any advice / opinions? I've followed you a while and am keen to grow my channel.

- Don't ask how people edit their photos. It's obvious you're doing this to copy their image style :( People spend a long time coming up with their own unique editing process, and it's only fair you do the same. It's okay to ask what app they have used for a certain thing, but don't copy an entire editing process. If they are happy to share it, they probably already have, either in a blog post or IG highlight. (I have my old summer theme available here as I no longer use it.) This is also why people sell presets.
If you find yourself recreating someone else's look, style or imagery and don't credit them, this is essentially stealing and plagiarism :( Even if you DO credit, it makes you look like you're not creative yourself, so it's always better to take dribs and drabs of inspiration from here and there and try to make it your own. Bookstagram is always going to be difficult to be original in - after all, there's only so many ways to take a photo of a book! But shamelessly copying someone else and using all the same editing techniques is wrong.
 NO -  How do you edit your photos? / What apps did you use to edit this?
YES -   How did you add the orange saturation?

 - Don't DM or comment telling people to check your account out. This is called spamming, and I will usually report it. Instead, try commenting something about the image and THEN say, 'I'd love if you'd check out my account as we like similar things,' or something along those lines. Comments that are copy and paste jobs without any  content get removed and flagged as annoying and spammy otherwise.
 NO -  Hey! Check out my account, it's new! I post about books :)
YES -   I love this book, too. I just started my own account, I'd love if you'd check it out as we have similar reading tastes!
- Don't add people into giant groups and send them random messages.  I get added into groups with like, 30 people in them for no reason. And I don't even know any of them. I'm guessing it's because they want people to notice their account but it's SO annoying!

- Don't tag random accounts. My account is a personal account, not a feature account, and I get tagged in so much random crap that's nothing to do with me. I think people do it so I see their pictures but it makes me want to block them, it's so annoying. Don't tag me unless I'm in the photo, something I've done is in the photo, it's a regram or you're tagged me in a challenge. It's just filling my Tagged album with rubbish :(

- Don't DM me to tell me to buy your book / review your book. I'm a normal person with a job and life, and you telling me I should drop everything to spend some money on your book with no introduction is rude. Instead, drop a message introducing yourself and your book and why I might be interested in it. If it catches my attention and sounds like something I would like, I'll probably to on to check it out. Messaging me saying 'My new book is out, please buy it and review' is going to get a big fat nothing from me. 
 NO -  Please buy my new book and leave a review.
YES -   Hey, my names Emily! I've followed you a while and I just thought I'd let you know that I've written a book! It's a thriller about a girl whod oes blabla and meets blabla and realises blabla. If this sounds up your street I'd love for you to check it out - the link's in my bio :)

Phew! Rant over. What do you guys think? Am I being OTT and getting annoyed too easily or do these things annoy you, too?

Love,
C x

My favourite independent sellers & writers

 (My image, wand stand from Olivers)
Hey Readers & Friends,


Today is a slightly different type of post. I'm always harping on about how important it is to support independent creatives and sellers and yapping on about supporting the little people so I realised I hadn't ever done a big list of all my favourites! Abysmal.
These are my most favourite people to spend my money on, I really recommend checking them out.


WRITERS Jacqueline SilvesterIf you love: Fantasy x contemporary YA books.
What to expect: Gossip Girl meets Get Out? The world of Wildwood Academy is a whole new route and I was hooked from the first few pages. It's creepy, enigmatic, mysterious and deliciously juicy.
Instagram: Cute selfies, cute doggos and bookish updates @JacquelineSilvester
Shop & support
 

Orion CarlotoIf you love: Romance and poetry
What to expect: A stunning and bookstagrammable debut poetry book, Flux, filled with touching narrative and stirring romance.
Instagram: Selfies that make me want to get a face transplant and beautiful minimalist style with lashings of gold. @OrionVanessa
Shop & support

 
Harmony NiceIf you love: Wiccan culture and nature
What to expect: A very clear and easy-to-follow guide to Wicca. Perfect for beginners filled with informative chapters relating to everything from solstice to covens and starting your own Book of Shadows. Expect cute illustrations.
Instagram: Flowers, landscapes and bohemian selfies. @PeachyCinnamon
Shop & support



Ben AldersonIf you love: LGBT and fantasy
What to expect: Honestly, I haven't read one of Alderson's books yet but I have bought them! Ben is a lovely, kind and friendly human and has always been lovely to speak with. He started his own publishing company and champions LGBT fantasy which can only be a good thing. His book is hiding somewhere in my TBR jar so as soon as I pull it out you can all expect a review.
Instagram: Cute selfies and fantasy books @beninjamalderson
Shop & support


ARTISTS   Mori RaitoIf you love: Stunning fairytail-esque illustration
What to expect: Mori's art is just breathtaking. Her art style is completely unique and magical, using all my favourite autumn tones. I've bought some of her prints - my favourite are the Harry Potter ones.
Instagram: Stunning autumnal illustrations. @Mori_Raito
Shop & support

 MiaIf you love: Colourful, celestial portraits.
What to expect: An LGBT friendly space ran by the lovely Mia who I discovered at Comic Con. I commissioned 4 portrait postcards from her and am SO happy with how they came out, I can't wait for them to arrive! They're just so cute and happy.
Instagram: WIPs and lots of OCs. @Sushiroll_cat
Shop & support


IcandrawthingzIf you love: Fairyloot and Fanart
What to expect: I discovered this account as one of the main artists for subscription box, Fairyloot. ICanDrawThingz (no real name found anywhere!) creates beautiful, expressive fan art and was actually the first artist I comissioned to illustrate Whisper from my new book!
Instagram: All her beautiful drawings and YA fandom work. @Icandrawthingz
Shop & support


Jordan ClarkeIf you love: Cozy, minimalist Bujo art
What to expect: I found Jordan through her Youtube chanel where she art journals and bullet journals. She's very relaxing, cozy and everything is very pretty and minimalist. Her stickers and printables are so cute.
Instagram: Journals, wildflower doodles and cozy selfies.   @Jordan.e.clark
Shop & support


Ulla ThynellIf you love: Old fairytale books
What to expect: Whimsical illustrations of landscapes and fantasy scenes. And Lord of the Rings fan art!
Instagram: Nature in Finland and artwork.  @ullathynell
Shop & support


Alexandra Dikaia If you love: Autumnal digital art
What to expect: Similar colour palettes to Mori Raito but a more cutesy characturised style, with little sculptures added into the mix for even more cuteness.
Instagram: Animals dressed in cute clothes and beautiful sketchbook pages. @Alexandradikaia
Shop & support
 Tula PosyIf you love: Really parred-back cartoons
What to expect: If 'hygge' was an art style this would be it. I particularly love the bookmarks she sells on her Etsy - I bought the Stranger Things one and a little reading doe and just love them.
Instagram: Doodles, bookish fan art and her adorable bookmarks. @TulaMakes
Shop & support


Fabio Di DodoIf you love: Badass digital drawings of girls
What to expect: Tattooed girls and portraits with soft blending. He designed the beautiful book cover art for A Girl Called Whisper.
Instagram: An online portfolio of his artwork. @_dodoism_
Shop & support

SHOPS Oliver's BrightonIf you love: Harry Potter
What to expect: An amazing independent wizarding store filled with magical replicas and products different to the classic Warner Brother studio licensed merch. It goes the extra mile with products from Mina Lima and beyond. I was stoked to get a griffin wand stand for £15 when I last went! Plus Oliver's really nice :)
Instagram: Potter merchandise, fun wizardry and product previews. @Oliversbrighton


 Dreamy MoonsIf you love: Gratuity, spirituality, art
What to expect: Beautiful illustrated growth journals, affirmation cards, books, home decor and crystals. All run by Annie, from the creation through to packing and sending.
Instagram: Beautiful illustrations by Annie and product peeks. @Dreamymoons
Shop & support


Witch's Way CraftIf you love: Wicca and crystals
What to expect: Handmade artisan soy candles, beautiful hand-cut crystals, runes, and magickal items. I discovered them when I found a beautiful agate ring holder I wanted for my wedding, but they are based in America and I don't think they can ship abroad yet :(
Instagram: Crystals, more crystals, more crystals, and some magick. @witchswaycraft
Shop & support


Let me know some of your favourite indies!
Love,
C x 

Best TV & Film Watches for Autumn

Hello Readers & Friends,

OKay, it's September. I'm allowed to get excited for my favourite time of year - Autumn.
I thought I'd do a post of all my favourite films & series to watch this time of year so you can choose which to add to your watch list :)

TVGilmore Girls

I know that for a lot of people Gilmore Girls is a winter show because of the emphasis on snow (why do they never do a Gilmore Christmas episode? I would love that!) But for me I always think of the Stars Hollow Autumn Festival. The colour palette in this show is very warm and autumnal and I just love it. Forever one of my favourites.


 

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

A remake of Sabrina the Teenage Witch with all the horror and gore we wanted the first time round. Very Halloween-y, it's based on Sabrina, a half-witch, navigating her magical life and her normal life. It's dark and creepy and at parts, scary, and draws a lot on wiccan culture and the autumn equinox which I just love. I'm almost finished on the first season and really, really enjoying it.


  


Freaks & Geeks

I think it's just the plaid shirts and the fact they're always outside in this show that gets me. It's one of my all-time favourite shows, I'm so gutted that they stopped after only one season! Greatest thing to grace 90s television. And it's set in the 80s, which I love.




Stranger Things

Speaking of the 80s, obviously Stranger Things has to be mentioned as it has that creepy Halloween monster vibe that I love, and the characters are always dressed for Autumn. Plus, they have the amazing Halloween scenes where the boys all dress up as Ghostbusters, which is just perfection.


Buffy the Vampire SlayerI just discovered Buffy is available on Prime, so that's where you'll find me for the next two months. Catching up on my favourite 90s fantasy show. The OG vampires are back! Hello, Sunndyale.


 FILMSHarry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone

The first HP is obviously set in September when Harry goes off to school. Again, there's a lovely rich colour palette and Harry wears plaid shirts and there are scarves and everything just seems so autumnal when he's walking through Hogwarts with the fallen leaves. I love it.




Coraline

I hated this the first time I watched it because I thought it would be a fun, happy Pixar-style film. Actually it's a terrifyingly creepy Tim Burton film about a girl called Coraline who gets trapped in this alternative reality. It just makes me think of Halloween because of the cat and all the horror-style scenes. I only watch it once a year, and it's in October always.

Fantastic 

Mr Fox

I just love Wes Anderson, and Fantastic Mr Fox is almost the only autumnal film he has directed contrasting his usual pastel summer palettes. A quirky retelling of the Roald Dahl classic.


 

Isle of Dogs

Yeah, I said almost becasue he released Isle of Dogs last year and it was amazing. Again, a warmer colour palette and I just loved how funny it was with it's classic dark humour and cinematic photography. Following a young boy looking for his lost dog.

  
Where the Wild Things Are

I think the only reason I think of this as an autumnal film is because it's set in the forest. It could also be a Christmas film for some people, I'm not sure. But I thought I'd include it just in case you guys haven't seen it yet and wanted to check out the trailer :)






Bridge to Terabithia

Yeah, this film broke my heart and everyone else's too. I cried so hard the first time I watched it because who was ready for the twist?!  Not me. But again, the way they dress and forest setting just gives me all the autumn vibes.


Let me know you what your favourite watches are.
Love,
C x

Book Review: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Hello Readers & Friends,

I'm very happy to be writing a 4* review today for Carry On by Rainbow Rowell.
I had no clue what to make of this book at the start, and I really wasn't sure about picking it up. If I'm honest I did that annoying thing where I bought it because I really loved the cover.

So if anyone read FanGirl you may know about Carry On. FanGirl is basically by Rainbow Rowell and about a girl who writes fanfiction about a wizard called Simon Snow. And then Rowell went on to take the idea of Simon Snow and make him into a full-blown book called Carry On and here we all are today.

The blurb is as follows:

Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who's ever been chosen.

That's what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he's probably right.
Half the time, Simon can't even make his wand work, and the other half, he starts something on fire. His mentor's avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there's a magic-eating monster running around, wearing Simon's face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here — it's their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon's infuriating nemesis didn't even bother to show up.

Reasons I wasn't sure about it before starting:
- I read FanGirl and skipped all the excerpts about Simon Snow because I found them boring. I never like 'stories inside stories' - it's just a personal thing.
- I also skipped them because I hated the fact it was a parody of Harry Potter. HP is sacred and not something to twist for fan-fiction.

When I started it I really wasn't keen. The issue Rowell had was that she started the book in the middle of the action, meaning she had to spoon-feed us all as much information and backstory about the characters and world-building at the very start. The first few chapters are quite a jangled wordvomit of 'this person is this person and they've never gotten on with this person because of this and this happened one time and this happened two years ago as well' and I thought, God this is rubbish.

BUT, it was all worth it.

  Img Src

If you ever found yourself wondering, 'why didn't Harry Potter just magic himself clean?'
'Did Harry Potter eat curry?'
'Why don't they just magic themselves to London?'
'Why don't wizards drive or text it's just convenient?'
'What happens when spells go wrong?'
Then this is the book for you.

It takes every fantasy cliche and rips the piss out of it. It's nothing like Harry Potter. It's a hilarious almost-fantasy-parody with quick, witty and clever storytelling and world building. It does everything you don't expect it to, and everything that goes against traditional fantasy stories.
My particular favourite is the way that the spells aren't magic spells as such, but more famous idioms that are re-used. I really like how they study the evolvolution of language and create new spells from this.
(For example, U Can't Touch This is a spell to protect you, but only if the person you cast the spell on knows the MC Hammer song.  Sorry, but how funny and ingenious is that?!

So we have the main characters as follows:

Simon Snow, the hero and I guess to some extent, built off Harry Potter. The Chosen One who is essentially rubbish and can't get anything right. He's okay. He does his best but his best isn't good enough.

Baz, who is a Draco Malfoy. Simon's vampire roommate and arch nemesis. Baz is, quite frankly, great. I love him. He's miserable as sin, just like me.

Penny, the Hermione mirror. Simon's super smart sidekick. Also, she's Indian. So love that.

Agatha, the pathetic Simon Snow love interest who is beautiful but totally useless and annoying. (There had to be one classic YA cliche in there, after all.)

The Insidious Humdrum, who is the evil they must defeat. Have you ever heard of such a great name for an antagonist as The Insidous Humdrum? If this doesn't reflect what to expect from this book, I don't know what will. Also, the twist at the end with this was great. Just GREAT. 

It was all about self-acceptance and basically I just really, really enjoyed it. Oh, did I forget to mention? It's LGBT. Yep, you heard that right. And the romance was great. It was the first LGBT book I had read and I loved it. Wayward Son is out soon so I can't wait to continue this story :)

My only qualm is that Penny should have made the cover too. She was integral to everything and a total GirlBoss and I loved her.

Love,
C x
'

Moodboard: A Girl Called Whisper

Hello Readers & Friends,

My new book is out! And you can support my writing buy purchasing it here. 
I have shared the blurb and information on it before, but I wanted to do something a little different and more fun today and share a moodboard I created.
I think it captures the essence of the story and the characters quite well, and all images were sourced from Pinterest so if you know who to credit for any of them, please let me know! I know a couple are films but for any personal ones :)



Hopefully this will give you an idea of how my book looks in my head.
I'm so excited it's finally out and I hope you all enjoy it.

Love,
C x

Book Review: It Only Happens In The Movies

Hello Readers & Friends,

Today I'm reviewing It Only Happens In The Movies by Holly Bourne.
I thought I recognised her name and had read something of hers before, but on inspection, I hadn't. So this is my first Bourne book.

I picked it up judging it from the title and imaging a kind of crappy airport-chicklit read that I could read to pass time and forget about straight after. Oh no. No, no, no. It got 5 stars from me.

I can't remember the last time I gave this sort of book 5 stars, because let's be honest - YA romcoms are never really 5 star worthy works of literature masterpiece. But I just loved this book. I made a moodboard for the main character, Audrey, who was GREAT.



Okay, let's explain a little bit about why I loved it so much.

1. The heroine is fucking great. She works at a cinema (hence the title, which instantly becomes a clever pun and not the cheesy slosh I thought when I picked it up) and is a feminist romance film critique. How awesome is that?

2. She has a rant when a boy tells her 'she's not like other girls' which I loved. She is exactly the type of teenage girl we can all relate with, when you know a boy is bullshitting you and you're angry with yourself for entertaining it and liking it but you also hate them for doing it. Her inner monologue is just so accurate, I could relate with her so much.

3. Strong girl-power group of friends.

4. Real-life family problems that add the depth and darkness you need. (Her dad is an ASShole.)

5. A fun setting! I loved the cinema idea.

6. The fact she has such a fun passion (acting) and although she's a little bit broken at the start you really see her pick herself back up and develop slowly back into the strong woman she really is. It was really well paced, I loved it.

7. All the call-outs of the daily mysogyny women deal with and the way it disses all the slushy romance cliches.

8. THE ENDING. It was everything this book needed to stay true to itself and had me giving the main character a standing ovation. It was 100% the bold rom com ending we all needed.

In short, I bloody loved this. I recommend to anyone looking for a fun and quick read. Also, it was the book that inspired my post on best film kisses.

Love,
C x