A Darker Shade Of Magic | Book Review

Title: A Darker Shade Of Magic Author: V E Schwab Series: Shades of Magic #1 Publisher: Tor Books Publishing Date: 24th February 2015 I must begin by saying that the first time I read A Darker Shade of Magic I wasn't that impressed. I thought it to be decent and even good when the story …

Attachments | Book Review

Title: Attachments Author: Rainbow Rowell Series: n/a Publisher: Dutton Adult Publishing Date: 14th April 2011 "Hi, I'm the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you..." Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves …

What I did for the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, 2018

For those of you who don't know Monday 24th September, or the 15th of the 8th month on the lunar calendar, was Mid-Autumn Festival, one of the more major Chinese festivals. The legend of the Mid-Autumn festival is that of Chang E: 'Once upon a time there were 10 suns in the sky, which resulted …

Special Snowflake Convention: Meeting Holly Bourne and Lucy Moon

On Friday 14th September I ventured into central London to go to the Special Snowflake Convention held at the Waterstones on Kensington High Street. I went to the event with one of my friends, who I'd told about it two days prior, as I had forgotten that she liked Holly Bourne's books, despite the one …

Scythe | Book Review

Title: Scythe Author: Neal Shusterman Series: Arc of a Scythe Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers Publishing Date: 22nd November 2016 I decided to read Scythe by Neal Shusterman based on its cover, and whilst this is a very superficial reason, it payed off, and has been one of the best reads I've had …

Edinburgh Fringe: Harry Potter Parodies and Donald Trump Coffee

I've been to Scotland many a time, as I have family up there, but in all that time I've never visited the Edinburgh Fringe, so I thought this time to change that. I went to the Fringe Festival with my family and as we were staying outside of Edinburgh, we had to trek into the …

Optimists Die First | Book Review

Optimists Die First is a YA novel by Susin Nielsen which follows a cynical teenage girl, Petula, who suffers from grief over her dead sister and, as a result, believes death is around every corner. This cynicism, she believes, is a good thing and will prevent an early death for herself. Petula goes to an …

The Girlfriend | Book Review

I've been away recently and with travelling, flight and journey time is ever present. Although I did fill the majority with sleeping and card games, I managed to read one book over this duration: The Girlfriend by Michelle Frances. The Girlfriend is classed as a psychological thriller, a genre that is hot right now but …

Chat-Tea | August 2018 : GCSE Results day

Yesterday was GCSE results day, and whilst I know that in the grand scheme of things GCSEs don't affect much, or make a difference, it didn't make receiving them any easier. I debated over writing about my results, as whilst I'm really happy with them, I didn't want them to discourage anyone about their own, …

5 Female Pop Artists You Need To Listen To Right Now

I love supporting other women, as I'm sure most of you do too, and since having Spotify Premium I've discovered a number of female artists, so I thought to share some of my favourites. 1. Lorde I thought to start off with Lorde as she's definitely the most well-known artist on this list. I remember …