Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor.. #bookreview.

Hello World,


If anyone is like me and loves a good fantasy book, then please read on:

Strange the Dreamer is by Laini Taylor, she previously written another trilogy called Daughter of Smoke and Bone. It also turns out to be one of my favourite trilogy. When I heard Laini released another story, I was excited, but also held back. I wanted to get the book in paperback and I was scared that it would be better than Daughter of Smoke and Bone, which I love so dearly.

Taylor writing is truly majestic and has you leaving reality and into her little world. She write with such story telling and provides beauty into every character. This woman literally has pink hair and writes so well, that I can only wish I could be her.

Strange the Dreamer is about an orphan called Lazlo Strange, a man who didn't have a name and had an obsession with the unseen city 'Weep'. Lazlo spent his years growing up in a library and becoming the nicknamed 'Strange the Dreamer' through his readings of fairy tales around 'Weep'. Until one day the Godslayer Eril-Fane comes for people to come back with him to 'Weep'. Strange begs his way to come along and is granted that wish. Upon reaching 'Weep', Lazlo understands why Eril-Fane wanted these people to come with him to 'Weep' and then he is met with a beautiful girl in his dreams, who is real and who also has skin the colour of blue. Begins the adventure of Lazlo unraveling the mystery of 'Weep' and who this girl could be.

My Verdict?
I loved it! Laini Taylor once again did not disappoint me and I am so glad I did just go and buy the book instead of waiting for it come out in paperback. It is different from her previous trilogy, but still relates to what she likes to write about. Gods and Demons. Again Taylor is still able to capture you and drift you away in her beautiful story telling writing. I generally am looking forward to the next book and see how this story comes to an end.


 Claire

Little Country Break...

Hello World,

It has been a few months, mainly because of my broken laptop! Which has finally been replaced, with a new and better one. I have spent so many months not being on a laptop and on my Smartphone, that I have taken even longer to get back in the swing of things, of what I should call life with a laptop. I am still struggling with writing on the keyboard, letters seem to still jiggle about no matter what keyboard you are writing on. I've also learnt, I have very little patience to things loading... Smartphones just seem to be there on, BOOM, your on Facebook, I need work ideas, BOOM, Pinterest. 


Here I am, a new post and new sense of motivation. See how long this one will last. 

I had a week off, like most weeks off I get, I never really plan anything or give myself time to plan an escape. Which turns into week off of boredom or day trips to cities I've been to, too many times. This week off, I decided I wanted to go somewhere away from cities and just to get away, do some thing different. Some place with a gym and swimming pool, a place that had nice little walks in forest and perfect for me to feel creative again.
This ended up with me going on to Secret Escapes and finding a nice little hotel in Hampshire called De Vere Venues New Place, which looked ideal and just what I wanted for my  'country escape'.

Claire

The Woman in Black.

Hello World,


On Saturday, I went down to Torquay for a nice little seaside theatre experience. A lovely chilled out afternoon watching a play by a book I enjoyed a while back.

If any of seen the Daniel Radcliffe film of this play, you'll know what the story is about. The play suited more of the book version to the film version. 


The Woman in Black by Susan Hill is not the first horror books I have read. It was however the first horror book that scared the living shit out of me. To this day I still remember reading it at home all by myself with headphones in and getting so freaked out by what I was reading that I had to turn on every single light on in the house and turn on the TV, for background noise. 
Then the film came out and I had to get my friend to come along and watch it with me. I will admit, the only reason why I wanted to watch this film is become of Daniel Radcliffe, back in the day where I thought I was in love with him.. Heart eyed emoji would have been inserted then.

It was then my friends found the show being shown in Torquay and this how the post came a long..

Now, the film I remember being scary and my friend still laughs at me to this day about the jumping at some scenes. The play however sends shivers down my spine. I loved it, I was terrified. Only a three person show and they did amazing. They added things to add to the imagination such as, making the room cold, adding smoke fog and then recorded sounds. It spooked me out and don't get me started on the Woman in Black herself.
The first moment she entered the stage, I had shivers and she made me jumped quite a bit.

Claire.

#BookReview. Allegiant.

Hello World,


So, recently I have finally finished the Divergent trilogy. You can read the first book Divergent review here. Divergent.
I actually didn't realise that I never wrote a review for Insurgent the second book.
I might actually behind on the times in reading this trilogy. But it is only recently that I have shown a little interest in reading these type of adventure sci-fy young adult reads. I mean, I cannot wait to get hands on the final book of the Red Queen. 

Allegiant, is the final book from the Divergent series. It is about a young girl call Tris who is goes about to save the world. She has a gene that is 'pure', from many years of wars and genetic modification. 

To cut to the chase, I have been in two minds about writing this blog. Which is why it has taken me a week to actually write it. 
I didn't enjoy this book. It started off well and it was nice to go into an escapism mood. But as the book progressed I grew bored and distance. The more I read, the less interested I grew. I had an eight hour drive and even sitting down to read during that drive I couldn't get involved. I grew to think as to why that was. 

I believed most of it was because of the lack of characters development. Roth created so many characters that hung around in the books, with so little description that I just grew confused as to who was who in the books. 
Then afterwards I sat and watch the films. The final film made no sense. It was really confusing because the first two films was created away slightly from the books and then the final film was made slightly more to book. Maybe one day, I'll give it all a go again. 

Claire.

Scotland..

Hello World,

The past week, I've literally toured the country. I came back from London on the Sunday, then on the Monday I was in the car driving up to Scotland. 
This is going to be more of a photo post, as there not really a lot to say about Scotland. All I can say though is thank you to the school kids squeezing my butt and potentially getting me sick. Nice one.

Claire.

London Bound.

Hello World.

The past few weekends have been crazy for me. The first part was participating in one of my friends weddings. It was the first wedding of the year and the first 'grown up', I ever went to. When I say 'grown up'? It was the first wedding I went to where it wasn't a family or some friends through the parents. No it was a wedding with an actual friend of mine. Surprisingly that kind of hits you, that your not as young as you once was. 


Another thing I did was visit London. Although I have done that many times throughout my 'adult life', it has grown into something where a friend and I stay the night down there. It's becoming a bit of a novelty now. Fancy seeing a play? An overnight stay in London here we come. 
We went to see Wicked. Not so much grown up now, but I still can't get over how incredible it was. 

It sounds pretty lame, but one of the things I've never done in my life was visit Buckingham Palace. It's creepily strange to see tourist squeezing themselves up to the fence of the Palace and I'll never get over how uneasy I felt seeing them. But it just another thing to tick of my list of places seen.

 Yes. Even my friend, Christina couldn't get over why I wanted to see the Piccadilly Circus advertisement board all closed off and boarded up like this, but it was something I wanted to see because it will undoubtedly be in history books.

There you have my London trip. 

Claire.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle #BookReview

Hello World,

Another book review. Two this year. I am actually on a roll with reading books. ^Holds a momentary dancing to self^

After reading Holding Up The Universe, I immediately went to read Jackson's book, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, because it was Niven character's favourite book.
What is We Have Always Lived in the Castle? 
It starts with a girl called Mary Katherine. She lives in a house; Blackwood manor with her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian. The story start six years after the death of her family, who was all murdered by poison and all that was left was Constance and Uncle Julian. Due to the situation of the murder the village in which they live in all believed that Constance was held responsible of the poison. 
The village hated the Blackwood family and Mary Katherine seem to share the same feelings towards them. Confined in the house and never leaving except for Mary Katherine occasional trips to the village. 

This story is targeted at teenage audience and it is quite a haunting story. Mary Katherine holds a childish view upon the world, being eighteen, she is quite incapable of looking after herself.

I don't know. Shirley Jackson has left a lot for me to think about, but the one thing I can't comprehend is that Niven character; Libby felt connected to Mary Katherine. I personally do not see it. The connection I made between the two, is there reluctance to leave their house and connect with people outside of their box. Mary Katherine was perfectly happy to live inside of her 'Castle' and would do anything to stop entering her little world. Why the spoiler for this book is that Mary Katherine was the one who poison her family and set fire to the house because someone tried entering her house. 
One thing though and I realise is that because Libby was so involved with relating to Mary Katherine she never allowed herself to learn from the character. Which she does learn through her relationship with Jack. 
Have I just learned something? 

I actually enjoyed reading something so different to what I normally read. It made me think differently and although I am still learning from the book, I know one thing. I couldn't be confined to living in one castle. I would want to live in many castles. 


Claire.

Holding Up The Universe. #BookReview

Hello World,

I type and delete sentences because it confirms my trail of thought.


Today I am writing a book review, on Holding Up The Universe by Jennifer Niven. I'll let you in on a secret. I have a guilty pleasure for Young Adult novels. Well more of a guilty pleasure for teen romances. Like High School Musicals, books around teen romances and falling in love. Yes, I was a Twilight fan.

Jennifer Niven previously wrote a book called All The Bright Places and I was totally in love reading this book. You can read the post of my review other here.Blog Post.

Hearing Niven was releasing a new book, I grew excited and I couldn't wait for the release and grab my hands on a copy. What did I think of the book?
It is a romance story between two high schoolers. Libby and Jack. Libby is a young woman who has spent most her life in bed for being severely overweight, where she has imaginary friends that involves quite a bit of Supernatural references. Not going to lie, I laughed to much at these references. Jack is someone who cannot remember you face a prosopagonsia. It's kind of like you mind never register the features on the face, so you never really know who you are talking to. 
Libby is new at high school facing all the old faces again and having to deal with it all. After a brief encounter that involves mild bullying they develop a unlikely romance. 

Its kind of cute their romance story. Compared to Niven All The Bright Places story, I felt it wasn't that great. But I still enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone looking for an easy read and little cute romance story. The writing is styled to suit a slightly more younger reader, but still holds the young adult references. 
Libby the character referred to herself as someone from another book, We Have Always Lived in the Caster by Shirley Jackson. After making a few searches I found that it and brought to read and compare. You'll be able to read the review HERE. 

Claire.

Books I want to read this year..

Hello World,

I've seen a lot of people doing posts on the books they want to read during the coming year and they have been so interesting to watch or read because, it is a great way to share books. So naturally I want to jump onto the bandwagon and share with you some books that I would like read this year..
Here is four books I really want to read this year

1. Magician- Raymond E. Feist: A fantasy novel. I believe Raymond E. Feist is quite the famous fantasy novelist and I quite surprised I have never come across his works before. The Magician is about an orphaned boy named Pug, who is destined to become a Magician, a master one at that. I really am looking forward to reading this book and delve into the writing of fantasy fiction. 
2. Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki- Murakami: It's not a year if I don't read a Murakami book. So being able to read one of newest novels will be quite exciting. It's about a man called Tsukuru Tazaki, he had four friends at school, all of which had been named after colours. One day they announced that they didn't want to see him anymore. Tsukuru goes through it all to find out why.
3. The Miniaturist-Jessie Burton: This book was picked up because all my reader friends raved about it. I am still unsure, but I am determined to give it ago and see what happens. It kind of about this young woman receiving a wedding gift of a miniature house exactly the same as her own and each dolls inside are a replica of her family. It seems the miniature house holds the fate over her own house. It does sound quite interesting.
4. The Colour Purple- Alice Walker: I have been picking this book for ages. When I say ages, I do actually mean years but just never had the courage to buy it and read it. Until one day, during a weekend in Bath I was having some alone time in a bookshop. I gave into the desire and brought it. It is about a young woman named Celie, she had quite a difficult upbringing to life, where she has been abused and many other things. She meets another woman and discovers her own powers and joy. 

There you have it. I will be sure to do book reviews once I have finished reading them. Just stay tune, it could take me all year.

Claire.

Top Books of Last Year.

Hello World,

The numbers on my keyboard has finally seen better days and until I can buy a new computer or something to get the number buttons working, we are just not going to use numbers for now. 

Did you all know I am apart of GoodReads? 
You can follow me online there and keep up to on what I am reading. You can see so here.. 
GoodReads

Last Year was a big year of reading and in this post today I wanted to share with you the final books I have enjoyed last year..

1. Into The Wild- This book is still possibly one of my favourite reads of all times. A story about man leaving the world behind and living in the wild. Away from society and democracy. This person shows courage and the story about the man living in the wild is still one that is inspiring for me.
2. A Wild Sheep Chase- Anything I read of Murakami is amazing and generally inspiring. If it wasn't for a Murakami book, I would've never touch a Kafka book or anything. Like all of Murakami stories, it a tale about a person leaving his ordinary life for one of adventure and life changing events.
3. Red Queen and Glass Sword- This is a perfect fantasy young adult story and I am really looking forward to read the next instalment. This is a tale about a woman changing the ways of the world she is living in. It's just my type of story, female changing the world.. Falling in love and also fantasy.
4. On The Other Side- A romantic fairy tale about falling in love and finding each other again. I simply fell in love with Carrie Hope Fletcher and the way she decided to take this story. It was something I have never read before. 
5. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child- A huge Harry Potter fan here. Last year was a good year for Harry Potter fans, the release of this screenplay and show. The release of Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them. I was slightly in my element that I even re-read the first four Harry Potter books. 

There you have it..

Claire.

New Year..

Hello World,

So, I have been wanting to come back after my good two month break.  But when I come to this page my mind goes blank. I had no idea what I wanted to write or what I am going to continue writing about. 
It was then I realised I had grown to comfortable in my comfort zone. People are OK with comfort zones. They even enjoy being there. I for one am someone who grows bored easily. Here I am, attempting to step outside my comfort zone and reopen my Little Corner to share books, ideas and general lifetime adventures. 

Last year my mind kind of goes into a mental shut down with constant screaming, a lot has happened to the world we live in during that year. Although these changes are something I would never wish upon someone, we still have to stick our heads up high and ensure our voices remain loud. 
I have spent a lot of time in fantasy worlds, in friends and with family. But I can easily say that last year, I just grew lazy. I wasn't challenging my mind enough. I wasn't sticking or voicing my beliefs as I should have been doing. 

This year I haven't set myself any New Years Resolutions. I have only set myself one goal. That goal is to actually move out into home I can call mine. I also want to work hard with writing on here more regularly. Working hard in losing the weight I have gained. Working hard to be more creative, to be artistic and seeing more places. 
I want to work to become a better person for myself and for others out there. I would like to encourage myself to become a voice on this page and develop a little corner for a dream that one day this world will be more equal in any form.
You'll be expecting more from here, as well as book reviews, book buys, mini adventures. I am hoping to use it as a place to write my mind. 



Claire.