Category: Other

My Favourite Small Businesses

by melissay1, posted in Other

Bit of a different post from me this week, but given the scary, crazy world we live in right now it just feels like that right time to post something like this.

I’m in the fortunate position that I’m still required to work so when I’m needing to purchase something for myself (or as a present to someone as you can’t go to shops right now) I’m really trying to support small online businesses who might need my custom more than ever.

Today I thought I would share with you some of my favourite shops to buy from but if you have a shop or love a small business please leave suggestions in the comments and I’ll check them out!

Alce Harfield Artworks

I have been going to Glastonbury Festival for over ten years now and last year I discovered the Alce Harfield stall at the festival and bought a print to get framed.

If you have a love for Glastonbury Festival then you will adore the artwork they sell, I know I found it a tough decision to pick just one! The art is sold is a variety of formats not just prints, including things such as cushions and mugs so something is available for all different budgets – even more so now a 30% off sale is happening site wide!

The prints are of the highest quality and I’ve just ordered myself the cushion I was longingly looking at during last years festival. The prices at the moment are an absolute bargain and are shop wide so if Glastonbury Festival isn’t your thing she sells so many other lovely things on the site too.

Bear Hugs

Bear Hugs is such a wonderful idea of a company. It basically provides ready made gift boxes (or you can make your own up if you don’t see a premade one) so you can send to people and give them a bear hug gift. It’s the idea that you’re sending a hug in the post to someone who may need it the most. I have a friend whose going through a difficult time at the moment and I’ve chosen to send her a bear hug to brighten her day. The box when opened even looks like a bear with its arms open so it looks like it’s giving a hug and the products inside are always of the highest quality.

Given the horrendous world we live in now, a bear hug is exactly the kind of pick me up that you need to send someone. The company also donates boxes to those in need and offers work to people with illnesses who otherwise may struggle to get a job so buy supporting this company as well as sending a lovely gift to someone, you’re also helping other people who need it the most.  

Emma Warren Designs

I own so many Emma Warren jumpers! I think that she has such different designs so the website has so many designs so something on the website will be to your liking. I’ve only ever bought jumpers from the store and they are such good quality and cosy! However if jumpers aren’t your thing, Emma Warren does so many different embroidered products such as tshirts, backpacks, pillows…so many options!

As a bonus your order also arrives so wonderfully wrapped with a sweet surprise too!

Paperandword

Paperandword is a company I discovered last year at London’s Comic Con. Basically they sell book sleeves to protect your books when you throw them in your bag when travelling etc. 

Although I do use my book sleeves when I travel, when I’m at home I use them to display books on my shelf which makes it look super pretty and colourful. They do limited edition patterns so you know you’re going to get something unique and you have the choice between fitting a paperback, hardback or a kindle. It’s a super practical thing to buy – particularly once we’re all allowed to leave the house again!

Phoenix Copper Art

Phoenix Copper Art predominately makes handmade notebooks but also makes really amazing leather bookmarks too. I am obsessed with them! So much love and care goes into every single piece – it is so worth paying the prices. 

What I love the most about the notebooks is that so many of them are refillable. I have an issue with buying expensive notebooks but never daring to use them, however I happily jot away in all the ones I buy from here as I know I can scribble away, refill and keep enjoying the notebook for years to come. Yes, they are expensive for a notebook compared with shop prices but you just can’t mass produce these kind of notebooks, for me they’re things that I constantly use so are completely worth the money.

If you check out the Facebook page, offers for notebooks come up quite frequently so you can even manage to get a real bargain! If you have an idea of a notebook you want, chances are you will be able to get it from Phoenix Copper Art!

Pops On Stage

I own so many keyring’s from Pops On Stage! They’re really reasonably priced, you have a great selection and new ones are constantly going up. If you like musical theatre inevitably you’re going to see a character you love for sale on Pops On Stage at some point and who doesn’t love keyrings.

Commissions are also available if you want to get a specific character made or you even want yourself or a friend! More info on that though is over on Instagram – pops_on_stage

Support Theatre Performers

I’m not quite sure what the situation is with this right now but West End performers aren’t (or at least haven’t been until very recently) getting paid. So far I have three theatre shows that have sadly but understandably been cancelled, some of which have had the money refunded to me already.

I thought I would try and find a way to try and give some money back to the performers of the shows I was supposed to see. Many West End performers have recently joined up to Cameo which is basically a website where you can request a video from a celebrity. It’s a pretty great idea as you can pay for a video from a performer so they get money and you get a personalised video out of it – win win really!

Many of your favourite performers are on the site now, I booked one video request and honestly it’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever done, the video truly made my day and I hope that my contribution has helped the performer even just a little get through this time.

 

 

2020 Goals

by melissay1, posted in Other, Theatre, travel

First of all Happy New Year!

Normally every year I make New Years resolutions but then it gets to this time of year and I feel very deflated that in my head I’ve done absolutely nothing towards achieving them. I’m sure like most people, my resolutions are always the most unrealistic things as the chances of me becoming a millionaire or the likelihood of me ever being able to be fit enough to run a marathon a day is so unlikely.

I was told instead of doing a resolution that I should try writing down a list of things that I’d like to do in a year then this time next year I can look back and see how much I’d actually managed to do in a year rather than being fixated on the one thing I hadn’t achieved.

This is probably just a year bucket list but I thought I would share some of the things on my list for 2020!

Do you have a list of things that you’d like to achieve / do in 2020? I’d love to know some of your goals too!

Blog

My big aim for 2020 is to make sure I blog 52 times – so at least once a week. I’d love to do more but I don’t want to commit to it if I don’t feel like doing multiple posts that week.

I have to admit as much as I love blogging, I quite frequently leave it until Saturday to write up and edit my posts as I tend to feel quite stressed out in a week with work. I want to be able to have posts ready to go and set aside even 15 minutes in a week to write or at least brainstorm blog ideas.

I’d also like to become more involved in the blogging community. I spend a lot of time reading posts from blogs I follow but I very rarely interact with them. I’d like to go out of my comfort zone next year and make a real effort to comment on posts more.

Obviously I do this completely for fun, but from a growth point of view I’d like to aim to get 200 followers by the end of year. I know this is highly unlikely but it would be a nice bonus if I could achieve this.

Books

I always aim low with my book reading goal as although I really enjoy reading I never want to put pressure on how much I read, but as ever I hope to read 20 books in 2020 – a goal which I’ve always easily doubled.

I’d like to try and write up my review for most books that I read. Although I mostly do this now I go through stages were I just binge read and then never bother to write anything up on any of the books I read even if I really enjoyed them.

This year I would like to make a real effort to participate in a reading challenge. Every year I half think about doing the popsugar reading challenge but then I end up not bothering. So early on in the year I’m going to write out the list and associate a specific book with each option and try and read as many of them as possible. I’m not going to aim to complete it but it would be nice to tick some off the list. I feel like this will help me read books out of genres I normally choose.

I would also like to put myself on a bit of a book buying ban – though not sure how likely that will be! The amount of books on my to be read shelf now is getting slightly out of control so in 2020 I would like to read books quicker than I buy them.

Music

My aim for 2020 is to see 6 concerts which I hope will be achievable enough especially when I already have four booked so far.

I have a separate two goals on my list for seeing McFly and Taylor Swift in concert which I know (assuming they don’t cancel due to illness etc) will happen, I hoped having things on my list that I knew I would do would make me appreciate the year more.

I also have wrote down to go to a festival. I already have a ticket to Glastonbury so I know I can tick this one straight off the list but I added it on as I feel like I take it far too much for granted that attending a festival is actually quite a big thing.

Theatre

I have set a target of seeing 6 theatre shows in 2020. I already have three booked so I felt that even with the expense of tickets that 6 shows in 2020 was still achievable. I’m hoping aiming for six will give the the push I need to go check out the shows that are on tour in my local theatres too rather than sticking to the West End.

Like with concerts I have separately wrote down things I actually have booked to see already – Be More Chill, Only Fools & Horses and Phantom Of The Opera. I’ve started to realise it’s important to recognise that going to go and see things even if I booked them in 2019 its still a privilege that I’m going and I should still acknowledge how lucky I am to be able to tick them off my years list.

Under the theatre category I have a couple of extra options as I would desperately like to see Dear Evan Hansen again and I have another box to tick for seeing Sam Tutty as Evan. His Evan was one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen and I would love to see him in the role again.

I would also like to see Six, a show which I always half attempt to see then end up booking something else I want to see more instead. Six is currently touring so hopefully it will be easier for me to see it now.

Travel

Travelling is abit restricted in 2020 as money is tight after two long haul holidays in 2019, so sadly I can’t have any big long haul destinations planned for 2020 so I thought I’d try and save and visit a European city for a couple of days or even go to a day trip to Paris on the Eurostar!

I recently read a statistic which was a crazy percentage of UK residents that had never visited Stonehenge…I am ashamed to admit that I am one of those people. So next year I would very much like to tick that off the list! Also on that list was Cheddar Gorge and Glastonbury Tor, which although I’ve been very close up I’ve never walked up the hill. So this year I’ve decided to put more UK based things on my list on things to do to tick off these places that I should’ve seen before.

I’ll probably add a few more places to the list but as of now my full travel list this year is –

  • Visit A European City
  • Visit Cheddar Gorge
  • Visit Glastonbury Town
  • Visit Glastonbury Tor
  • Visit Harry Potter Studio Tour
  • Visit London
  • Visit Madame Tussaud’s London
  • Visit A Theme Park

Personal Goals

I have a few goals that I would like to achieve for myself too. Lots of these are too boring to even bother to include in this post or too personal that no one would particularly care about them other than me, but some things on the list include – finish writing a novel, spend time more productively, use social life media more healthily and raise money for charity.

Hopefully as the year progresses I can update the things I’ve done through the year in a blog post but if I don’t do that I think it’ll be nice to revisit this in a years time and see how much I’ve managed to achieve.

Thanks to everyone who reads this post and I hope you all have a wonderful 2020!

 

2019 Favourites

by melissay1, posted in Other

I thought I would do a little wrap up on my favourite books / theatre shows / music of 2019. I think it’ll be nice for myself to look back on next year and see what my favourites are now in comparison to a years time. Plus I’ve really enjoyed reading other peoples 2019 favourite blog posts.

So without further ado, here is my top two favourite books, theatre shows and music of 2019!

Would love to hear what your favourites of the year have been in the comments!

Books

I decided to go off Goodreads for this one and pick out of the books that I’d given a five star rating too. Coincidentally I only rated two books as 5 stars this year and as even more of a coincidence they’re the last two books that I’ve read so typically my blog posts about them aren’t up yet so I don’t want to go into too much detail about them.

  • The Christmasaurus And The Winter Witch – Tom Fletcher

I love The Christmasaurus. I am completely out of the target audience for this series of books but they’re just full of Christmassy magic and has a dinosaur so what more do you want from a Christmas story.

The Christmasarus And The Winter Witch is book number two in the series. It’s sort of difficult to explain what happens without spoilers to parts of book one but all you need to know is that this book takes place a year after book one. William Trundle and his family gets invited to take a tour of the North Pole with Santa himself and discoverers the secret weapon to ensure all the children get their presents on Christmas Eve. But then everything goes wrong and the fate of all future Christmas Days rests in the hands of William!

If you’ve never heard of The Christmasaurus you must check out the first book first. It is even released as a musical edition where the songs are so catchy and fitting to the story. As its a children’s book you can expect the illustrations to be great and this book certainly has a great illustrator.

I purposely waited and read this book on Christmas Day and it provided that little bit of Christmas magic you need at this time of year. I find sequels tend to be not as good as book one, but The Christmasaurus And The Winter Witch is one of the few that is just as good.

  • Marriage On Madison Avenue – Lauren Layne

The irony that this book is in my best of 2019 list when it isn’t even out until 2020! However, I read this book this year so I feel that’s still fine for me to be classing it in this list. A blog post is coming up tomorrow about this book so I’ll edit this post to include the link once its up.

This story is about Audrey who doesn’t have the best luck in relationships. Her best friend Clarke is fed up of his mother trying to meddle in his dating life so tells her that he is engaged to Audrey. The pair are strictly best friends, always have been and always will be. They don’t feel any romantic connection to each other, that is until they start pretending to be engaged and the lines begin to blur.

This book is one of those stories that makes your heart happy and it’s genuinely one of the best romance novels that I’ve read in a long time. Your must read book for 2020!

Theatre

I saw a lot of shows this year. Although I can honestly say that I loved everything I saw this year (normally I see a few things that fell abit flat) but two shows are the real stand outs for me this year.

  • Beetlejuice

Whenever anyone gets me into a conversation about musicals, it doesn’t take me long to start talking about how much of an incredible performer I think Alex Brightman is. When I saw him in School Of Rock I left the theatre in awe of his performance so the minute I heard he was going to be staring in Beetlejuice I knew it would be amazing and I could only hope to get to America to see the show, which luckily I did.

Beetlejuice is an incredible show – end of. It’s hilarious with so many moments making you uncontrollably laugh, Alex Brightman’s lively portrayal of Beetlejuice didn’t disappoint in the slightest, the music is catchy and you’ll have it on repeat, the cast is insanely talented, visually the show is stunning and it even has a few special effects thrown in for good measure.

The show is shockingly being evicted from the Winter Garden Theatre next year so sadly as of the time of writing this it will be shutting very shortly so if you live near New York or have a holiday planned to go there, please get tickets to see Beetlejuice. I had never seen the film so knew very little about the plot but I absolutely loved the musical – it will not disappoint if you get tickets.

  • Dear Evan Hansen

If you’ve spent any time on this blog at all you’ll know Dear Evan Hansen was always going to be in my favourites list. I was lucky enough to see this show twice this year (Broadway and West End production) and words cannot describe how much I adore this show.

Dear Evan Hansen makes me uncontrollably cry more than anything I have ever seen but in a good way! This show really connects to so many people, myself included and I had to wait along time to see the show as it’s been a while since I was last in America and it wasn’t in London at the time but it was completely worthwhile. If you’ve not seen the show before I can only urge you to go and see it because its fantastic.

This show is a game changer in musicals for me. It’s such a simple story, the stage design is even simpler but it offers so much. The story is the real driving point, top that off with songs that you will listen to on loop for the foreseeable future and characters that everyone can relate to, it really cements itself as a musical that will stand the test of time.

I just can’t fully put into words how much I love this musical but if you get the chance to see it you really should take the opportunity to go!

Music

Like with the books I have got this from my Spotify wrap up and it looks like 2019 was truly the year of musicals.

  • Ben Platt

Number one on my list this year is Ben Platt. It’s not a surprise that Ben Platt ended up as number one as not only have I listened to his own album (Sing To Me Instead) on repeat, my listening of Dear Evan Hansen and The Politician is also classed as Ben Platt.

Ben Platt has quite a unique voice. I feel like you’ll absolutely love him or won’t like him at all. His voice for me truly gives you chills during some of his song – he is crazily talented. My favourite from his album is If I Dont Live Forever but I feel if you’ve not heard his music before a good place to start would be with the singles Bad Habit and Rain.

I was lucky enough to catch Ben Platt’s Radio City show which is going to be on Netflix in the new year and I can confirm he is vocally as incredible in real life as on CD. If you like Ben Platt in the slightest I can’t recommend seeing him live enough.

If you’ve never heard of him, check out his album or wait for the Netflix concert!

  • Will Roland

Will Roland being second in my top artists of the year really surprised me. This has obviously come from my obsessive listening of the Be More Chill cast recording (with probably abit if Dear Evan Hansen thrown in for good measure) as I was so excited to see the show on Broadway…then it shut early!

Will Roland is someone who I am desperate to see perform live. He has such an expressive voice and I can only imagine how fantastic he must be actually in a show.

The Be More Chill Broadway Cast Recording is one of my favourites. I’ve mentioned this before on my blog but I actually prefer the Broadway cast to the original recording. For me, Will Roland has the perfect voice for Jeremy and I think the songs sound even better when he sings them.

The whole album is good from start to finish and you can see how the whole thing went viral and brought the show back to Broadway.

I’m sure Will Roland will feature highly in my Spotify list in 2020 too as Be More Chill comes to London so you already know the obsessive listening is going to return!

  • Taylor Swift

I know I said I was only going to be doing two options for each but I feel like Taylor Swift needs a special mention. I know based on last.fm that I’ve listened to Taylor a lot this year but a lot of the ways that I listen to her won’t have been counted online. I play her music so much on vinyl and on my iPod which is so old it isn’t Spotify compatible.

Taylor Swift is one of those go to artists that you can chose any of her albums, play from start to finish and love every single song that’s on it.

I already know she’ll feature very highly next year as I get to see her headline Glastonbury which I already know is going to be one of the highlights of my year.

Confessions of a Sex Kitten Blitz & Giveaway!

by melissay1, posted in Other

Confessions Of A Sex Kitten by Mila Rossi was released on the 30th August and today, thanks to Xpresso Book Tours I’m going to be bringing you a sneak peak into this book! Click here to be taken to the novels Goodreads page!

If you’ve read my blog before you’ll know that my (not so) guilty pleasure is a good romance novel so it’s safe to say I was excited to read this book.

First things first is the synopsis of the book. I know the minute I read the synopsis I knew it would be the kind of book that I would’ve instantly bought. Hopefully if you’re reading this you may follow my blog and have seen my previous reviews what may mean you like the same kind of books that I do so I’m thinking this will be added straight to peoples to read list!

Synopsis –

Striving to be the sex kitten Avery Taylor portrays on her blog is a lot harder than she imagined, but having a hot, new neighbor move in next door sure gets her imagination going. His green eyes alone would give a girl the vapors. And yet, getting involved with someone so close just isn’t in the cards for Avery, even if her inner kitten is telling her that all rules are meant to be broken once. Or twice. Or as many times as it takes to get familiar with James’s one billion abs.

James Mardin moves to NYC to focus on family and work. Quirky Avery just plops into his life out of nowhere. She’s the last thing he needs, and yet, he can’t seem to stay away from the damsel down the hall, especially after he stumbles upon her secret blog. A sexy goofball lusting after him? It just wouldn’t be proper if he didn’t make her fantasies come true.

With views to die for, neighborly favors to return, and secrets to uncover, James and Avery are in for a treat. The attraction is evident, but is it enough to get them through snarky family remarks, burning buildings, and the heat of a typical New York summer?I have been gifted a copy of this book to read and although I’ve only recently started to read it I’m thoroughly enjoying it so far. I’ll be posting my review of this book next week but if you’re still unsure about whether this book is going to be for you I have an excerpt from the novel below –

Excerpt – 

There was a large bed against the wall, overlooking the skyscrapers. Crisp white linens were accentuated by brown pillows, and a long bench by the window gave him a place to change his shoes or throw on his clothes.

She walked over to the bed and ran her hands over the cool sheets, imagining James stretched out after a long day. I wonder if he sleeps naked.

“Hey,” he said behind her, making her flinch as if burned.

She snatched her hand from the bed and faced him with rosy cheeks. “What are you doing here?”

He walked toward her with a smile. “I live here, remember?”

“I mean, I thought you were working. You got here so fast.”

“I thought my place was burning down, Avery. Did you want me to take my time?”

She shook her head. Of course not. He’d rushed home to make sure his place was still in one piece. The man did have excellent response time.

“I checked every room.” She tried to keep her face a normal color. “I didn’t smell any gas or smoke or anything.”

“Coolio,” he replied, mimicking her earlier text message response.

She was so mesmerized by his green eyes watching her, that she didn’t realize how quickly he was approaching until he stopped mere inches from her. Her racing heart would have alarmed a medical professional.

“I think you’re the only person left on this planet who still uses that word,” he said, grinning.

“Yeah well, someone’s gotta be the last man standing. Or woman.”

“And what were you doing just now, last woman standing?”

She swallowed and tried to think of something to say, but her mind went blank. Completely, utterly blank. Crap!

“I, uh, was checking this room last. No fire or leaks here. All good.” She tried to sidestep him, but he blocked her path.

“You were checking to see if my bed was on fire?”

She lowered her gaze, but he tilted her chin up, forcing her to look at him. The green of his eyes was replaced by an almost dark brown as he cupped her cheek and his thumb stroked her bottom lip. She tried to hold her ground, but with every pleasurable jolt shooting through her at his caress, panic set in. The room continued to get warmer by the second and she was ready to fling her clothes out the window just to cool off. Which was a terrible idea, considering that the look he gave her dared her to do just that—strip down to her birthday suit so he could show her a good time.

“Well, no,” she mumbled, hearing her own heartbeat pounding loudly in her ears.

“Sounds to me like you didn’t check good enough then. Maybe you should check once more, just to make sure.”

She had no idea what he was talking about, but her panic clock was ticking louder and faster. “I should go.”

He grabbed her waist and pulled her against him so swiftly, her eyes widened in surprise. “You’re not going anywhere.”

She couldn’t for the life of her move away. Move away? She suppressed a hysterical laugh. James was looking at her as though he was about to make her forget every thought in her head and she should pull away? Yeah right. 

His fingers weaved through her hair in a slow and deliberate caress before he grazed her scalp, causing sparks to shoot all the way down to her toes. Her eyes fluttered closed and a sigh escaped her. She was melting into him, her eyes starting to glaze over when he cupped the back of her head and dug his fingers into her locks, pulling hard. She gasped as her head tilted back. His mouth was so close, she could practically taste him.

“Still want to run away?”

She shook her head, unwilling to stand the anticipation much longer. If he wasn’t going to put her out of her misery soon, she’d attack him herself.

His teeth caught her bottom lip in a bite. “What do you want?”

“You. Everywhere. Now.”

Judging by the darkening of his pupils, she must have said that out loud.

Competition Time!

Lastly if the book doesn’t sound exciting enough, if you click the below link you’ll be taken to a Rafflecopter page where you have the opportunity to win a $25 Amazon giftcard!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Many thanks again to Xpresso Book Tours for allowing me to be apart of this book blitz tour!

London Film & Comic Con / YALC 2019 Book Haul

by melissay1, posted in Other, travel

You may have noticed that my weekly Sunday blog post last weekend didn’t happen – why? Well, last Sunday I was Olympia in London attending London Film & Comic Con! Prepare yourself as long post ahead…

I’ve attended London Film & Comic Con for a number of years now, in fact I think my first one must’ve been around ten years ago now. I think anyone who likes any television show or is super passionate about one of the more ‘nerdy’ movies, then you will love attending London Film & Comic Con. This year I met Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter), Emilie de Ravin (Belle in Once Upon A Time) and Ian Somerhalder (Damon in Vampire Diaries) but if you look at the line up, if you had the money I could list so many guests who I would’ve loved to have met.

I don’t think anything is more exciting that meeting some of your favourite actors / actresses. Huge credit particularly goes to Ian Somerhalder, not only did he make an effort to talk with every person in the photo session and hugged every person in the photo, but he also stayed until long after the convention shut to sign all the diamond pass (a type of ticket that you can buy that guarantees you a photo opportunity and autograph with some of the bigger named guests) autographs and he didn’t rush it in the slightest, he made sure that he spoke and made eye contact with every single person. I also really loved meeting Emilie de Ravin, I had met her before at a Once Upon A Time convention but I met her quite late in the day I think she was quite rushed on time, however this time was incredible as I was able to have a small conversation with her and tell her how much I love her portrayal of Belle. She genuinely is the most lovely person. I only had a photo with Tom Felton and although it was very rushed as he had to get through a lot of people, he again made an effort to at least say hello to everyone and to be honest I was fangirling inside so much that I was meeting the actual Draco Malfoy to have been able to manage anything more than a hi anyway!

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A more recent addition to London Film & Comic Con is the Young Adult Literature Convention – YALC.

You don’t have to look far on my blog to realise how much I love reading, I mean most of my blog consists of book reviews, plus I’m a complete sucker for a young adult novel! I went with a friend who wasn’t as into books so I had an hour or so exploring YALC myself. I went on Sunday and sadly didn’t get up to the YALC until after long into the afternoon so I’d missed out on all the ARC raffles and pretty much all the talks, signings etc. However, the perk of going late in the day was that I managed to get some absolutely amazing deals on books! I’m sure I’m not alone in the book lovers community where no matter how many books I have in my to be read pile, I can’t resist buying more. YALC also gave people the opportunity to meet some of your favourite authors, the book guest lineup was incredible and I’d wished I’d had more time to have been able to get some of my books signed.

As I usually do my Sunday book blog post, I thought I would share with you in book name alphabetical order, my YALC book haul, the blurb and a little bit about why I chose to buy the book!

Finale – Stephanie Garber

Blurb –

A love worth fighting for. A dream worth dying for. An ending worth waiting for.

It’s been two months since the Fates were freed from a deck of cards, two months since Legend claimed the throne for his own, and two months since Tella discovered the boy she fell in love with doesn’t really exist.

With lives, empires, and hearts hanging in the balance, Tella must decide if she’s going to trust Legend or a former enemy. After uncovering a secret that upends her life, Scarlett will need to do the impossible. And Legend has a choice to make that will forever change and define him.

Caraval is over, but perhaps the greatest game of all has begun. There are no spectators this time—only those who will win, and those who will lose everything.

Welcome, welcome to Finale. All games must come to an end…

Why I Bought This Book – You know a book has an amazing blurb when you take one read of it and instantly buy it even though its book number 3 in a series. Now I don’t know whether to take the risk and instantly dive into this book or download the first two books onto my Kindle to read first! I love a young adult fantasy novel that has a little bit of romance in it too and oh my goodness this book sounds incredible. I genuinely can’t believe I’ve never even heard of this series of books, let alone the fact that I’ve never picked any of them up to read before. The amazing reviews on Goodreads only hightens my excited of reading this book! This book is the most excited I’ve been to read a series of books in a very long time and I genuinely can’t wait to start reading the series!

Freshers – Tom Ellen & Lucy Ivison

Blurb – Uni beckons. Phoebe can’t wait to be a fresher – especially since her crush from school will be there too. She’ll be totally different at Uni: cooler, prettier, smarter … the perfect potential girlfriend. She’ll reinvent herself completely. But Luke’s oblivious, still reeling from the fallout of the break-up with his ex. Thrown head first into a world of new friends, parties and social media disasters – can Phoebe and Luke survive the year, let alone find each other?

Why I Bought This Book –I have been dying to read this book for a good year or so now. It’s been on the top of my to buy list for the longest time now but somehow my to be read pile keeps getting bigger and I don’t really know why but I just never end up buying this book. The Chicken House stall had an amazing offer on buying three books so I instantly picked this book up. The book is exactly my kind of book and I cannot wait to start reading it, I hope the wait is worth it!

Lily’s Just Fine – Gill Stewart

Blurb – Lily couldn’t have planned life better herself. She lives in the best house in town and she’s dating the most popular boy in school. Everything else she can fix. Mum’s apathy? On it! The stuffy gala committee? Watch this space!

Tom has enough on his plate without trying to drag Newton St Cuthbert into the 21st Century. His sister is sick and there’s nothing anyone can do. Not doctors, not his parents, and certainly not Lily Hildebrand.

Sail away this summer with the unexpected romance of Scotland’s most determined teenager.

Why I Bought This Book – I bought this book very late in the day, and by that point my friend had joined me and we were offered 2 copies of this book for £5 and the author would sign it for me! Dangle a book in front of my nose for £2.50 and I will absolutely snatch your hand off. The blurb sounded just my cup of tea. Definitely a whim purchase but I’m very excited to read it.

The Apprentice Witch – James Nicol

Blurb – Arianwyn has flunked her witch’s assessment: She’s doomed. Declared an apprentice and sent to the town of Lull in disgrace, she may never become a real witch– much to the glee of her arch-rival, Gimma.

But remote Lull is not as boring as it seems. Strange things are sighted in the woods, a dangerous infestation of hex creeps throughout the town, and a mysterious magical visitor arrives with his eye on her.

With every spirit banished, creature helped, and spell cast, Arianwyn starts to get the hang of being a witch–even if she’s only an apprentice. But the worst still lies ahead. For a sinister darkness has begun to haunt her spells, and there may be much more at stake than just her pride . . . for Arianwyn and the entire land.

Why I Bought This Book – This book was number two that I bought in order to complete the three books offer from the Chicken House stall. You know those books that you pick up and think wow, younger me would’ve loved this book? This was completely one of those books and even though I rarely read much of the lower age of young adult novels, but for pure nostalgia reasons I knew I had to buy this book. I’m already half expecting to read this book and not be as engaged with it as I could’ve been as I’m so much older than the target age but I do like the sound of the story so i’m happy to give it a go. Regardless, I have a neighbour who is the perfect age to enjoy this book so if I don’t enjoy it I know that I can pass it onto her and she’ll get maximum enjoyment from it.

The Lost Princess – Connie Glynn

Blurb – In the third book in the Rosewood Chronicles return to a world that effortlessly combines the charm of The Princess Diaries and the immersive magic of Harry Potter.

Ellie is a rebellious princess hiding her real identity.

Lottie is her Portman, acting as the princess for the public to shield Ellie from scrutiny.

Jamie is Ellie’s Partizan, a lifelong bodyguard sworn to protect the princess at any cost.

Together they are attempting to stay safe from Leviathan, a group determined to take the princess for unknown reasons.

When Leviathan force them to travel to their beloved Rosewood Hall’s sister school in Japan, the threesome find that nowhere is beyond Leviathan’s long reach. The only solace they find is a secret group called Banshee who are fighting against the organisation’s hold. But when long-buried secrets are uncovered, the lives of Lottie, Ellie and Jamie will never be the same again…

Why I Bought This Book – Truthfully when I bought this book I assumed this was book number two in the series and I’ve only found out its actually book number three whilst writing this blog post! Whilst visiting the Waterstones stand I saw signed copies of this book and it was being sold at YALC before it was even officially released, so safe to say it was in my hands and I was walking to the till to pay so quickly whilst being extremely happy with my purchase! I had no idea author Connie Glynn was a YouTuber when I initially bought book one, The Rosewood Chronicles, I just downloaded it as it sounded like the kind of book I would love and I did. I had been desperate to read the next instalment in the series so can’t believe book two somehow passed me by and I now have two whole new instalments in the series to read Now I just need to buy the second book in the series so I can hurry and start this one…

The Return – Rachel Harrison

Blurb – An edgy and haunting debut novel about a group of friends who reunite after one of them has returned from a mysterious two-year disappearance.

Julie is missing, and the missing don’t often return. But Elise knows Julie better than anyone, and she feels in her bones that her best friend is out there, and that one day she’ll come back. She’s right. Two years to the day that Julie went missing, she reappears with no memory of where she’s been or what happened to her.

Why I Bought This Book – The short answer – it was free! I bought Finale by Stephanie Garber and when I paid the man who served me said I could take an ARC of this book for free! I’m sure I can’t have been the only person who bought this book and did a completely shocked, ” What?! You mean I get to take a book for completely free?!” This book isn’t out until March 2020 but I’m intrigued to start reading it. I’ve been looking forward to watching the tv show, Manifest which tells the story of a plane that goes missing for 5 years and the passengers on the flight thought they’d just been on the normal length flight and had no idea it was so many years later when they landed. This book reminds me of that and although I don’t think I would’ve bought it ahead of a lot of books if I saw it in the shop, I am extremely excited to read it. I think my interest in watching Manifest, makes me quite eager to read a story that’s on the similar kind of line. Despite it not the usual kind of book I’d read I am extremely eager to start reading this story.

Under Rose-Tainted Skies – Louise Gornall

Blurb – At seventeen, Norah has accepted that the four walls of her house delineate her life. She knows that fearing everything from inland tsunamis to odd numbers is irrational, but her mind insists the world outside is too big, too dangerous. So she stays safe inside, watching others’ lives through her windows and social media feed.

But when Luke arrives on her doorstep, he doesn’t see a girl defined by medical terms and mental health. Instead, he sees a girl who is funny, smart, and brave. And Norah likes what he sees.

Their friendship turns deeper, but Norah knows Luke deserves a normal girl. One who can walk beneath the open sky. One who is unafraid of kissing. One who isn’t so screwed up. Can she let him go for his own good—or can Norah learn to see herself through Luke’s eyes?

Why I Bought This Book – This is the final book I bought in the offer of three books that I bought from the Chicken House stall. I think books that feature mental health issues are something that needs to be documented more but I sadly don’t really read many books that feature them. I needed a book to complete the three books for the offer, this sounded like a romance novel (and we all know I love a good romance novel!) and recently I’ve been thinking that I’d like to read more novels containing mental health issues so figured I would take a shot with this book.

When The Curtain Falls – Carrie Hope Fletcher

Blurb – In 1952 two young lovers meet, in secret, at the beautiful Southern C ross theatre in the very heart of London’s West End. Their relationship is made up of clandestine meetings and stolen moments because there is someone who will make them suffer if he discovers she is no longer ‘his’. But life in the theatre doesn’t always go according to plan and tragedy and heartache are waiting in the wings for all the players . . .

Almost seventy years later, a new production of When the Curtain Falls arrives at the theatre, bringing with it Oscar Bright and Olive Green and their budding romance. Very soon, though, strange things begin to happen and they learn about the ghost that’s haunted the theatre since 1952, a ghost who can only be seen on one night of the year. Except the ghost is appearing more often and seems hell bent on sabotaging Oscar and Olive. The young couple realise they need to right that wrong from years gone by, but can they save themselves before history repeats itself and tragedy strikes once more?

Why I Bought This Book – To be perfectly honest, I’ve read this book before (and loved it!) in hardback and this copy is in paperback and Carrie Hope Fletcher was at YALC so I had hoped to get it signed. I’m sure I’ve mentioned on here how much I love Carrie, I think she’s fantastic and pretty much anything she does I’d buy, so far everything she’s written or performed in I’ve loved. Sadly, it turned out YALC did Virtual Tickets that you had to collect within the first hour of the event opening in the morning which gave you a virtual spot in a queue at the time of the signing later in the day. I drove down so arrived quite late in the day so YALC was well and truly past that point, so no virtual ticket for me! I was told that more would be given out for her signing when she started the session but it was likely that Carrie wouldn’t reach my number. Someone at YALC overheard me asking this and as I sat down to wait to hopefully try and get a ticket to meet Carrie she came over and said she had to leave early so couldn’t meet Carrie and if I would like her virtual ticket. If you’re reading this, you have no idea how much you made my day and I truly can’t thank you enough. Getting to meet Carrie was one of the highlights of my day and I’m so insanely thankful that I was given a ticket. Carrie was absolutely lovely to meet and I was thrilled to get a photo with her too – I didn’t think I would get the chance to meet her so thank you so much again to the person who gave me your ticket, I’ll never get over your generosity.

Other Purchases

Normally I wouldn’t post such a, look at all the things I bought kind of post as sometimes I read some I feel like they don’t come across so well. However, aside from books I bought one other thing from YALC and I need to write about it as frankly its the best thing I’ve ever purchased!

Above is the book sleeve that I bought to hold your book in! I have to admit I don’t carry physical books around so much anymore since I bought my Kindle but I do still take an actual book when I go on a long distance train journey or if I’m going on an airplane. I think a lot of people can relate to that feeling of throwing a book in your bag or stuffing it in the little holder in the seat ahead of you on a plane and then retrieving your book and suddenly its become all tatty. Well now I’ll be able to put my book into this book sleeve and keep my book all nice and protected. The genuine excitement I have about owning this is unreal and I can’t believe I’ve never heard of them before or was even aware such thing existed!

The company is called Paperandword and if you click here it’ll link to the website where you can buy your own! It super padded, so soft and they have a variety of designs just to make it a little difficult to chose which one you want. They’re also available in paperback and hardback sizes – personally I only ever travel with a paperback so I opted for the smaller version.

Conclusion

If you’re still with me after reading this insanely long post…thank you for sticking with it!

If you’ve never been to London Film & Comic Con / YALC before I can’t recommend it enough. London Film & Comic Con offers you the chance to meet some of your favourite celebrities and every year that I go the organisation gets better and better. It’s also full of stalls selling a variety of different things, opportunities to do fun things for example this year I took part in a stand which put me into the Fast & Furious trailer and even got a free movie poster for my effort. Then if that wasn’t good enough a whole floor is dedicated to YALC. If you’re a book lover you will love YALC. You get the opportunity to meet your favourite authors and get your books signed by them, you get the chance to get ARCs and they have some amazing deals on books! Plus I found the whole YALC a lot calmer than the London Film & Comic Con area so it was nice to escape up there and chill out with fellow book lovers for a little while. However I would highly recommend trying to get for more than one day! I found trying to fit everything that I wanted to do in both London Film & Comic Con and YALC quite exhausting and if you intended on extensively doing both, going multiple days would’ve been so much less tiring!

Did you got to London Film & Comic Con / YALC this year? What did you think? If you’ve read any of the books that I bought I’d love to know your thoughts!

Enchanted Starfury Convention

by melissay1, posted in Other, travel

Diverting from my usual Sunday book blogging because to be perfectly honest, this week I’ve not read a single book. I’ve been stressed out to the max and to top off a bad few weeks Be More Chill has shortened its Broadway run which I had tickets to see in September, so now I’m super sad that I won’t see that show. So instead of not writing anything at all this week I’m going to write about something pretty exciting I did recently!

Last weekend I attended Starfury’s Once Upon A Time convention called Enchanted at Birmingham’s Hilton Metropole Hotel. For those who have never been, a convention is a gathering of fans of say a television show, in this case Once Upon A Time, and some of the cast attend the event and they do talks and q&a’s about the show as well as offering autograph and photograph opportunities with them. The convention then goes on into the evening with themed parties which include (optional) fancy dress theming

I’ve attended many a convention, from the big London Comic Con to the smaller events at my local venues. I have even been to a Once Upon A Time convention before and although it was fantastic to be able to meet some of the cast, the company who ran the event basically did some shady things so doesn’t exist anymore. It’s for that reason alone I’ve always been a little reluctant to go to another Once Upon A Time convention even if it was by a different company. However, when Josh Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin, who play Snow White and Prince Charming on the show, were announced for the Enchanted convention it was a no brainer for me – I had to go.

I don’t usually write blogs raving about a certain company but as this convention was the best organised one I have ever attended I needed to write up about how wonderful Starfury’s conventions are. From the smooth registration process, to the ease of collecting preordered photos / buying more to the well organised photo and autograph lines – everything about the weekend was fantastic.

The weekend can be quite jam packed if you buy multiple photos. However, staff members (many of whom were volunteers) were super friendly and eager to help direct you to which photo to do first / fast track you to the front if time was running short. They were even asking you as you went in which photos you had to ensure you were in the correct location first. As far as finding where / when you needed to be at certain places for autographs / talks / photo opportunities, the staff again where more than happy to direct you to where you needed to be but the hotel was well signposted to each room anyway. However, the whole event was live tweeted so you knew when your badge number had been called up to go into autograph sessions. If you didn’t have Twitter that wasn’t an issue either, the Twitter feed was on multiple screens in the talk hall and various whiteboards were dotted around with the same information on it.

For me, the lineup at this convention was one of the best I’ve ever been to. Josh Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin were my top people from the show that I wanted to meet but prior to this, they just didn’t do conventions. Honestly, they didn’t disappoint in the slightest! They are both the most loveliest people and even though they had some of the biggest queues of the weekend they both spent time speaking to every single person. I couldn’t afford photos with both sadly so I only met Ginnifer Goodwin in her autograph session and she spent time saying hi to everyone and making a small conversation which really made my weekend. I had a photo with Josh Dallas and normally with photos at conventions you’re in and you’re out within seconds, but he shook hands with every single person and introduced himself and even asked what my name was and if I was enjoying the weekend. I’ve never had a photo at a convention where the guest made so much conversation with every single person who was waiting in line. I really hope they’re both invited to a UK convention again because they are absolutely some of my favourite people I’ve ever been lucky enough to meet and if you’re a fan of Once Upon A Time I couldn’t recommend meeting the pair more.

Every ticket to the convention came with free autographs with many of the guests. The guests all had pretty big roles at certain points in the show too so it was fantastic to get these included in my ticket price and get my DVD cover signed by them. I could write quite a long post how my experiences were each guest but I feel no one want’s a too fangirly post! However, every single guest was absolutely lovely and spent time chatting with everyone, although this did leave to having to queue a little while, I feel like everyone would agree that it was worth it to get the chance to have a conversation with the guests once it was your turn. My personal favourite from the free autographs was getting the chance to meet David Anders as he is a pretty main character in one of my recent favourite shows, iZombie.

I sat through panels with every guest over the weekend. Panels are where the actors of the show are on stage and the audience are able to ask questions for them to answer. My personal favourite panel of the weekend was the one with Ginnifer Goodwin (Snow White), Josh Dallas (Prince Charming) and Colin O’Donoghue (Captain Hook) as they all were clearly friends in real life and they provided an entertaining hour long chat which revealed some facts that had never been told before – like what prop Ginnifer Goodwin stole from the set without anyone ever knowing. What’s great about all the panels are that although you may not know the guest that well, they all provided interesting stories and were happy to talk about other projects they’ve been in.

Starfury do other conventions as well as Once Upon A Time so if that show isn’t to your liking its worth checking out what else they do as I’m sure the rest of the events that they run are just as well organised and an all round fantastic weekend. The ticket prices are fairly expensive but you do get the entire weekend of panel talks included as well as the autograph sessions with many of the guests. I only had a regular ticket for Enchanted as it was all I could afford, and I didn’t feel like I really missed out on anything so don’t let not being able to purchase a gold ticket put you off going!

My one bit of advice? Stay in the convention hotel! For money reasons we stayed at a hotel about a mile away and although it wasn’t far, I feel like the luxury of not having to carry your coat all day and to have five minutes chilling in your room between photos and panels starting would’ve been worth it if you can afford the hotel price.

Click here for more information on upcoming Starfury events – including Enchanted 2020!

Taylor Swift 26/04

by melissay1, posted in Other

It makes sense that this weeks post is going to be Taylor Swift related because I’m so insanely excited! Taylor has had her website revamped and now all that is on it is a countdown to Friday! It’s going to be a strange, short kind of blog post because I genuinely don’t know what is happening!

All that can be assumed is that it’s a countdown to Taylor’s seventh album. Maybe on Friday she’ll just announce the album, maybe it will be new music to listen to, maybe it’ll be completely unconnected and will be her releasing a pastel coloured clothes line?! Taylor has been posting up cryptic clues all week and basically all that we know is that it’s kind of pastel related – interpret that how you want!

When Taylor announced her reputation album, I think pretty much everyone knew within a matter of days that it was snakes and that could potentially connect to the whole snake incident. However, this era doesn’t seem to have any connection to anything at all. The only thing that links Taylor’s Instagram photos is the pastel colours and god knows how that connects to anything. We have photos of jewellery, of chickens with glasses – it’s all very odd stuff! Taylor has been previously quite notorious for everything she posts having significance but I’m yet to read any theory that even somehow fits with everything she has posted. I’m sure come Friday when it’s all revealed I’ll be sat going ‘ahh so that’s how it all fits’.

I have loved Taylor for years now and every single era is so different to the previous one but in a good way. She plans every single aspect of each era to such detail. If this announcement is the new album (and hopefully it could be?) I already can’t wait about seeing the cover, the music videos, hearing the songs, what she wears…and how all this will relate on stage for a future tour!

This post is a little pointless but I’m just that excited about the potential of a new Taylor Swift album I had to write something about it this week. I’ll probably edit this post on Friday with my thoughts on whatever the announcement is too.

If you love Taylor too and are interested in finding out what she’s counting down to, be sure to sign up to the page or just watch the countdown by clicking here

CoppaFeel Trek 2019

by melissay1, posted in Other, Uncategorised

For those who don’t know, last year I participated in the biggest challenge I’ve ever undertaken – and lets be honest its probably the biggest challenge I’ll ever do in my lifetime. Last year, I was one of sixty lucky participants who was selected to take part in CoppaFeel’s annual trek and honestly it was one of the best experiences of my life. CoppaFeel (with the help of Fabulous magazine) have announced details of this years trek, they’re only going to be going to the Himalayas! Applications to go onto the trek close next week so I thought I would use this weeks post to write abit about my experience of doing the trek in case you were sitting on the fence about applying.

The trek I participated in saw me flying to Romania for a week long trek in Transylvania with sixty complete strangers. Its the strangest thing but if you’re worried about not knowing anyone don’t be! By the time we’d even landed in Romania friendships were already being made and by the flight home we all left with a bunch of new lifelong friends of who we’ll always have completing this crazy adventure in common with. You’re even paired with a complete stranger (I do believe they paired you up by age) who you spend the entirety of the week cooped up in the tiniest of tents with – I’m not even kidding, we couldn’t even stand up in our tent or put our tshirts on without almost hitting your tent mate! My tent buddy was the most lovely person in the world and I left the week feeling like I’d known her my entire life, we laughed through the week together and experienced the highs and lows of trek life.

My year was headed up by two celebrity captains, the very lovely Lisa Snowdon and Tom Fletcher. I liked being split up into two smaller teams as it meant you could speak to everyone on your team but you do see the other team plenty during the week. You knew everyone on your team and it was great to get to know every single person. Both of the team captains we had we fantastic and it was just like speaking to a friend and not a celebrity – which is exactly what you want on a trek like this! This years trek is captained by Giovanna Fletcher, Brooke Vincent and two unannounced team captains and I’m sure they’ll all be just as wonderful and supportive as our captains.

The walk itself…well where do I start! It is tiring and that is an understatement! I went into this walk having already pushed myself to try and get fitter (prior to this I did minimal exercise, the dog walk was about as far as it went…) and boy was that nowhere near enough. Day one came and I wondered what on earth I was doing and how on earth I was supposed to get through the rest of the week – especially as day one had been advertised as the ‘easy’ day. However, your team are the most supportive people and you’re not judged for being slower and struggling going uphill – yes just the uphill’s, I loved even the steepest downhills! They were quick to believe you can do it even when you’re convinced that you can’t and someone was always around to help you get up the hills, one step at a time. You’re never left to struggle on alone and I think that’s the best part of the CoppaFeel trek, everyone wants to cross that line as a team and no one see’s it as a race. Everyone just helped each other where they could. A slightly easier route was even factored into the plans on the big mountain day too which was greatly appreciated, so the week really is achievable by everyone. This years trek isn’t until November so hopefully those extra few months will be crucial to help get your fitness up ready for the trek. If I could complete the trek, anyone can!

The major downside to the CoppaFeel trek which was the main thing that put me off applying is the fundraising. You have to raise a lot of money to go as well as pay a deposit to secure your place. However, last year I managed to somehow raise over £3000 with relatively little effort! I’d planned fundraising concerts, car boots – anything really to try hit the target I needed to raise but I didn’t actually do any of it! You’ll be surprised at how generous people are when they hear you’re raising money for CoppaFeel and people will tell you so many stories about how breast cancer has affected them or a close family member, which when you’re struggling getting up mountains you find yourself thinking of these stories and it really helps you find the energy to carry on as you know what you’re doing is for such a good cause. However, I did have fantastic support, I had workmates asking departments I’d never even step foot in to sponsor me and I even had a friend do a 24 hour bikeathon with all monies going to my fundraising page. Help to fundraise comes in surprising ways and peoples generosity will never fail to astound you.

Really I can’t explain how much I would recommend doing the CoppaFeel trek. I’m not going to lie, it will be the hardest week of your life but it’s so completely worthwhile at the end. I’ve never felt such emotion as I have crossing the finish line on the final day! If you’re looking for a challenge and want to help raise money for a fantastic charity then I couldn’t recommend applying to take part in this trek enough – plus this years celebrates the 10th anniversary of CoppaFeel!

If anyone has any questions about the trek I’m more than happy to answer anything – believe me since I’ve come back I still find it hard to resist talking to people about ‘this one time in Transylvania’ or ‘that time I went on a trek’ so I really am happy to answer anything. Also, whilst your reading my blog post, remember to check your boobs! This is CoppaFeel’s main message and I know my eyes were opened on the trek how important early detection is and how breast cancer can affect any age or gender.

For more information on the trek and how to apply click hereFor more information on the trek and how to apply click here

 

 

January

by melissay1, posted in Other, Uncategorised

Despite the month seeming like it lasted forever, it seems that without even realising it the first month of the year is over. I’ve seen quite a lot of blog posts these last couple of days doing a recap of what they read / watched etc in a month and I think this is a great idea. I’m not sure I’ll do this every month but lets see how this goes…

Books

I found myself reading seven books in January. I started the month off obsessively reading then found it difficult to pick up a book the last couple of weeks but to be honest I’m happy with the amount that I managed to read as previously I’ve definitely found the life/reading balance hard to juggle! As usual, I’ve set my reading goal at twenty books this year so currently I’m well on track with this.

I’ve discovered Amazon’s unlimited kindle books service so currently I’m rapidly working my way through all the books that I like the sound of on that. I’ve been slightly less choosy as I know that if I don’t even half like a book within the first couple of chapters I can just move onto the next one. Any book recommendations are always appreciated especially if I can download on the kindle unlimited service as the amount of time I spend picking a book to read now I have lots of choice is crazy.

This month I read the following –

I write blog posts as I’ve finish reading a book so I have a few posts ready to go for future weeks but I sadly didn’t write a review up of much that I read this month. I think in future months this is something that I’d like to improve on. Writing a review of a book takes a fair amount of time and sometimes I find it restrictive as I can’t move onto a new book if I want to write a review so perhaps its ambitious for me to say I’m going to do everything I read but I’m definitely going to try improve the amount that I write.

Music

January was well and truly the month of musicals. I’m not entirely sure why but I’ve pretty much exclusively listened to musical soundtracks this month.

It comes as no surprise that the Dear Evan Hansen cast recording has been the top of that list, I don’t think I’ve ever been as invested in a show before, I relate so much to Evan and the songs could literally be wrote about my life, and the excitement that the tickets for the West End show could be released any day now is probably helping my constant replaying of the songs. Plus the Broadway version has been exciting this month too, as they have very recently got a new Evan, in the form of sixteen year old Andrew Barth Feldman. I just can’t explain how much he looks how I imagined Evan in my head, I know its unlikely I’ll personally get to New York this year but if anyone reading this does please go and see Dear Evan Hansen and tell me how amazing the new Evan is and warn me how many packets of tissues I’ll need to take with me when I eventually go and see the show…

I’ve also had Zanna Don’t playing quite a lot this month too. I stumbled across a video on YouTube of Heathers star, Jamie Muscato singing Fast from this musical (if you wanted to watch this video click here!) and it reminded me how I was once obsessed with this song! Its such a fun soundtrack and well worth a listen – Fast in particular provides the perfect break I’ve needed from the serious, pulling my heart strings-ness of Dear Evan Hansen!

School Of Rock on Broadway has shut this month and that has been all over my twitter feed so its not a surprise that I’ve revisited this soundtrack this month too. I love School Of Rock and I was lucky enough to see the original Broadway cast when I was in New York a few years back. Alex Brightman is one of the best theatre performers I’ve ever seen and I loved his performance and the show so much that I saw the show one night, walked out and booked a ticket for the night after. Alex Brightman is just the perfect Dewey Finn and his enthusiasm just shines even through the cast recording. I’m seeing a trend of me being desperate for a New York trip but Alex Brightman is in Beetlejuice on Broadway at the minute and its insane how much I would love to see him in a different role to Dewey.

Films

My Netflix subscription has been used in overload this month. Except just to watch Taylor Swift’s reputation tour on loop. I genuinely don’t think a day has passed that I haven’t watched at least part of this tour. You know those crazy statistics that Netflix post every so often saying that twenty users have watched Taylor Swift’s tour everyday this month? Yeah…I’m that person. If you like Taylor and you haven’t watched this yet what are you waiting for?! I did write a post on this tour if anyone wants a listen – click here!

I think that just about sums up my January favourites! I’m not overly sure how often my favourite things change, will I still be obsessively listening to musicals in February? I am so far so if that doesn’t change, I think I’ll probably concentrate on writing up a more in depth book roundup in future months, but we’ll cross that bridge at the end of the month.

If you’ve read this and can recommend me something to read/watch/listen to that you think that I’d love, I’m very happy for recommendations!