Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets #2 - Squibs and Ginny.

This book is the first time I have ever actually felt sorry for Filch. He has to deal with not being magic surrounded by people who are, including the greatest wizards and witches like Dumbledore and Hermione Granger. I don't know if it's possible for a squid to advance to basic magic, I'm a fan of Harry Potter but I'm not educated on all of it. Part of me hopes that he does find a way to become magic somehow. 

There's also writing on the wall in blood and in the movies, of course, it was easily wiped off but in the books it's half impossible to remove. Of course we know it was Ginny, but did she really do it without magic then if she can't remove it? I don't know, it always amazes me how much the movies left out.

How did you like these parts of the book?

See you next time

- Loz x

Monday Missions #12

I finally am getting kicked back into reading again, and I have recently finished "Horrorstor" by Grady Hendrix, and I am now reading "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" by J.K.Rowling. I will follow this post with my reading update on that discussing what I have read so far and what I thought of it, though this is not the first time I have read it so it won't be first time thoughts or anything. 

I plan to follow this up with "Alice in Zombieland" by Gena Showalter. I haven't heard good things about it (even from the fan club of YA romance) so I'm not looking forward to it, although I really want to get through the trilogy because I have it on my shelf, I don't read many zombie books and Why on Earth not? so I'll let you know how I get on with it in mini updates but an actual review of the book/trilogy won't be up until October, the horror month. 

If I, by whatever miracle, manage to get these finished by the ends of the week then I will be moving on to a book by Rainbow Rowell. This will probably be the book I will be reading on my way home, as I'm due to leave England pretty soon (in about a week, this makes me pretty sad...). I'll let you know how I feel about that, too, it'll either be "Landline" or "Fangirl". 

Thank you ever so much for reading, and I will see you all soon, bye!

What I Read in August 2015!

I believe I missed doing this last month and I think it was because I didn't think I had enough books to tell you about? I'm not entirely sure, my memory doesn't stretch that far, I have a sneaky suspicion it was probably because I'm lazy.

"Alfie: The Doorstep Cat" by Rachel Wells. 

To cut to the chase, I DNF'd this book. It was a cute and interesting idea - an adorable Alfie becomes homeless after his owner dies from old age, he takes to the streets, and then finds a road that needs him maybe even more then he needs them. How it was delivered is what ruined it for me. I just didn't like the writing style, it was slow for me. Too much was given away too quickly, and at the same time, not enough was going on. There wasn't really any sub-plots going on, or character development. -I think this was her first book, so I can understand it probably wouldn't be a very well-rounded novel because of that. It was just disappointing, I wasn't fond of it.

"Eleanor and Park" by Rainbow Rowell. 

I had mixed thoughts on this book but I have a book talk on here for the novel, I will be brief. It made me feel good, I liked it a lot. The romance was kind of forced to me, they fit together but more in a friendly kind of way - when they started to do romantic things, any chances of having a discussion fell out the window and I think friendship in relationships is important, it was lost between the two. Otherwise, I really enjoyed it, I think it was a three or four star rating on Goodreads.

"My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult.  

This book used to be a well-loved read of mine, but I think I grew out of it as the pace of the book is far too slow for my taste and Julia and Campbell ruined the story. I probably will re-read it again in the future, just because I want to keep my love for it. This month was probably just a bad time to get into it.

"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" by J.K.Rowling.

I needn't bother saying what I felt about this, you know I loved it! I read it for my Harry Potter Read-A-Thon (and didn't do so good on the updates...), it left me as satisfied as they usually leave me.

"Am I Normal Yet?" by Holly Bourne. 

A book on feminism, stereotypical OCD and how being yourself is better then trying to fit in. It's a wonderful story, Holly Bourne might be one of my new favourites, we'll see when I read her second two books. She's only been an author since 2013, so I guess that's why she isn't well known yet? I'm hoping more people notice her existence soon, she's a good writer and a good person.

"Star Wars: Darth Bane: Path of Destruction" by Drew Karpyshyn. 

I really enjoyed this. It was like the starter book for the other two books in the trilogy, and it was the perfect example of character development. A flaw I can say about it, though, was that it was slow in parts and I wanted more people-presented women in there, I think there was only one. I have higher hopes for the next two books though, I won't give away any spoilers but that cliffhanger, that cliffhanger. 

"Hens Reunited" by Lucy Diamond.

I enjoyed this read, but I can't say it's something I actually wanted to spend so much time reading. It was okay and everything, but it had a lot of major flaws I mention in my review, like the terrible Instalove and how I jumped from the previous book to this one without much consideration of their differences. I just didn't want to jump onto another hefty book.

"Horrorstor" by Grady Hendrix. 

Again, you can read my review on this book if you want to know my full thoughts but seeing as that post won't be up for another few days, I really enjoyed this. It was filled with the paranormal, torture devices, zombies, people going mad - it was dark, and I really enjoyed it, always with that subtle humour on working in retail. Highly recommended read for anyone into horror and parody, or anyone who has ever worked in retail, you will enjoy it!

"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" by J.K.Rowling. 

Yes, for my Re-Read-A-"Thon" of the summer, I finally moved on to the second book and plan on doing regular updates throughout so you can read my thoughts on it and so you can give your input on what you thought about it. Personally, this one is my favourite tied with "Prisoner of Azkaban", so I'm even more exited to read this then I was about the first one.

Thank you ever so much for reading, let me know what you've been reading this month, and I'll see you all tomorrow, bye!

- Loz x

  

The Hype Train: MGS V: The Phantom Pain

Choooo chooooooooo, chugga chugga chugga chugga, wooooohooo... *ding* *ding* *ding*
Chugga.... chugga... chugga... ... chooo.... *screeeeeeeeessss* SHHHSHSSSSSS,

Whoa, what was that noise that just loudly blared in the start of this post? Oh...

It's a new segment called "The Hype Train"! That's right, readers of the blog that are mostly here for Loz and not me, I have created a new segment on the blog dedicated to, you guessed it, HYPE in it's purest form. What might that be, you may be asking yourself, well, UNSTOPPABLE, sorta like a train. And hence, here we are, the beginning of a hype that cannot be stopped until it's reached it's destination; release day! Today, for our first ever HYPE TRAIN, I am going to talk about something that has been awaiting for years to finally be played by the masses; Metal Gear Solid V.

It's a bit of an understatement to explain how purely excited I am, and I want to make this a bit more of a short post, as the BIG one will be hitting this page soon enough, I can assure you of that. I want to get my hands on the game first. I am, however, going to give you a rundown on how I feel and what I'm most excited for! First and foremost, I am PUMPED we are finally getting a finale to the series, the final big mystery in the series will be answered... which is why Big Boss is a fucking nutcase. Now, the gameplay itself is very similar to Peace Walker, which, unpopular opinion inbound, happens to be one of my favorites. I cannot WAIT for the ability to build my own Mother Base and watch it grow with new soldiers. A favorite of mine is the side-ops, and how I'll be able to do those ASIDE from the missions.

Metal Gear is a silly series of games that started out very humble. Kojima himself did almost all the coding of the original games, and to top that off, the very first Metal Gear (Titled just "Metal Gear", released in the late 80's) was supposed to be the only one. At the time, he worked for Konami, and they owned his series. They felt the first sold well, so they decided to make a second game, which was a huge failure and flop, and as such, Kojima felt challenged and angry over this failure of this game. This made him come back to create MG2, which, following the success of THIS game, caused him to create MGS1 (Metal Gear Solid 1), which was also supposed to be his final game. Kojima is a man who has always wanted to let his creation go. He felt as though the series was left good enough where it was, but Konami always convinced him in the long run to make another, and if it wasn't Konami, it was his massive fan following that was growing stronger by the day..

Following the many years of making these games, Kojima and Konami seemed to grow more hostile of each other. With each passing game, he seemed to get more aggressive on his stance on how he wished it was his final game, but I assume he kept making them out of fear that Konami would make the next game and ruin it, which he so very clearly hated. This all came to a crescendo, though, once the series reached it's final game, MGS V. Kojima made it clear this WOULD be his final game, and Konami was all the happy to make it so. It seemed Konami had grown sick of the massive support he had, the loyalty of his production crew "Kojima Productions", and his cult following of fans. They decided that this wouldn't just be his final MGS, but his final game at all for that company. He is to be let go this December, following the release of MGS V. As if that was bad enough, they also canceled his second project he was working on with renowned film director, Del Torro, titled "Silent Hills", a revival of the Silent Hill series.

All the drama aside, Kojima seems very confident in his final game, and I believe he did he best to make it his greatest game of all time, and from the looks of it, that holds very true. All the fans are very excited, I myself know many people who are eagerly waiting for it, co-workers of mine included. MGS started as a small game and grew to one of the biggest of all time. It's left the realm of being "just a game", and has, in my opinion, reached true art form. Sure, the game is silly as all hell, but do you think all artists and actors are all constantly serious? Is a comedy movie immediately not allowed to be a work of art? Can a funny painting not be a good one as well? Needless to say, games in general have come far, and this one in particular has surely helped pave the way. My hype is about as strong as it can get.

I've been replaying Ground Zeroes (the prequel) in order to shake off rust and get ready for the game. I'm going to name my base the "Leaping Lynx", name subject to change at any time. Please, give me your life force energy to keep myself from exploding for the next two days, I'll need it. Also, please send me knowledge, since I'm too dumb to remember how to double space, apparently. I'll be writing a much more comprehensive review/hype explosion as soon as the game is released, lemme know if you want more info on this subject, I might come back and write more on it as I think of what to add!

(Snake had a hard life)

So, follow me if you wish, into the wonderful world of tactical espionage! Don't forget your box!

-Austin

August Book Haul 2015!

This is not going to include very many books, and for that I apolagize, I just haven't had much money and haven't really been very "read-y" lately. But, I hope you enjoy what I did pick up! What did you buy this month? 

"The Alchemyst" by Michael Scott. 

"The Magician" by Michael Scott. 

Both books were gifts for my 19th birthday back on August 8th from my mother and my younger sister (she's seventeen). They follow twins, Josh and Sophie, who take up a summer job thinking they can do what they need to do and leave, but things take a turn as they're bundled into a world of adventure! I first heard this from my favourite YouTuber, Stacyplays, in her Attack of the B-Team Minecraft series and was intrigued from the get-go! They're books I brought with me to England to see my nan and granddad, I'm probably going to move on to read them shortly and I'll let you know what I thought about them.

"Am I Normal Yet?"by Holly Bourne. 

Amazingly, I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway and started to read shortly afterwards because of it's interesting premise. It follows a young sixteen-year-old girl who tries hard to be normal and fit in, despite that not being who she is, because she suffers from OCD and doesn't want people to know about it. It also follows some very feminist ideas that I really enjoyed reading about, and I can't wait to get my hands on more books written by Miss Holly Bourne.

"Horrorstor" by Grady Hendrix. 

This was a gift from my boyfriend, co-owner of the blog (Austin), for my 19th birthday. I'm currently reading it but by the time this will be posted on Saturday, I would have already finished it. So far, I can say that I really enjoyed it. It's a great joke on how hard working in retail is, getting lost in Ikea and what would probably happen, but also a really horrifying story involving the 1800's and torture devices. I didn't think I would like it as this man has also written for Playboy, but I found myself pleasantly surprised.

"Darth Bane: Path of Destruction" by Drew Karpyshyn. 

Also a gift from Austin, I read this book and finished it shortly after my arrival here in England. It's a science fiction novel from the world of Star Wars following a Dark Lord of the Sith. It was dark and creepy towards the end, a great book for character development, and a fantastic introduction into the Star Wars world. Even if you don't like Star Wars, I think you'll really enjoy reading this book.

"The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Completely Fantastical Edition" by Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black. 

My granddad kindly bought me this book as he had a WHSmith discount voucher, and it's all five books in one beautiful book (believe me, I will be making a post on that very soon) that I can't wait for. I don't know too much about it, I want to go into it blind, but I do know that it's a kids' book that has also been made into a movie and everyone else has read it or watched it but me! No worries, I'll be getting around to it soon.

"Landline" by Rainbow Rowell.

Again, another book bought for me by my granddad, I'm not entirely sure what it's about? Something to do with how a woman wants to get into contact with her ex-husband through the phone and sort things out and start on a clean slate. I really enjoyed reading "Eleanor and Park", it had some flaws but overall it left me with quite a gooey and happy feeling. I'm wondering if I will get the same, or similar, experience here or in "Fangirl". I will let you all know.

Okay, that's all the books I got for the month of August, thank you so much for reading and I'll see you all tomorrow, bye!

- Loz x

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets #1 - Dobby the House-Elf.

Hi, I'm finally back with another Harry Potter book and update posts! This time, I will really need to update every few chapters to keep my thoughts on the book written down. I kept forgetting to do it what with all the other posts I was trying to get done, but what with my posting-everyday-in-August coming to an end really soon, I think I'll try to be posting one of these every few days! And it's not really much of a marathon, is it? 

Anyway, I'm up to chapter four, I believe, and we have just been introduced to Dobby. I want to say what my first impressions of him are, and I would love to know what you thought about him. I actually didn't really like him. I felt pity for him, what with the description of him being ugly and in dirty clothes and having a horrible family to keep him, but I mostly just felt mad at him for doing that to Harry. On the assumption that he is an eavesdropping type of Elf (otherwise how would he have known Harry would be in danger that year?), he must have known all about Harry's situation, too? At least once he did find out, he should have put a stop to it. I mean, he seems to really care about Harry's safety so what he did with the cake and the making noise seemed a dumb thing to do on his part in terms of keeping Harry safe. 

He also seemed very invasive of Harry's life, like he had a right to keep hold of Harry's letters and make him stay away from Hogwarts.

Of course, my fondness for him grew over time but I can't remember if that happened in this book or the later books. We'll soon find out!

What was your first impression of Dobby?

- Loz x

Science-Fiction || "Darth Bane: Path of Destruction" by Drew Karpyshyn.

Date Published: June 6th 2007.
Publishers: Del Rey Books.

Book #1 in the "Star Wars: Darth Bane" trilogy. 

"Path of Destruction" is the first novel in the Darth Bane trilogy, from the perspective of the Dark Side. It follows a man named Dessel ('Del') who brings trouble in the small mining planet he is stuck on, paying off the debt his father left him. One day, that trouble causes him to flee...and he joins the Sith. Although warned that the Dark Side will influence him, and he mustn't get caught up in it, the warning is somewhere lost in battle.

Please keep in mind that this is my very first introduction to Star Wars, I have not seen any of the Star Wars movies, so my review on this book will not have any background information and will just be based purely on how I enjoyed this book.

It was written, same as most trilogies, like the introduction to the upcoming two books. It was basically about Darth Bane's rise to power and an opening to the world of the Sith, their rules and their ways of life. Which, by the way, was pretty useful for someone like me who knows next to nothing about the Star Wars world. The most important about this was how it left me dying to read the next book. Seriously, I've been pestering my boyfriend to lend me the next two books for a while now!

The characters were amazing. Even the characters I didn't like, like Sex-Object-Githany, ended up being likeable (as she managed to manipulate and trick multiple Lord's minds), If you want a good example of what I mean when I say good character development, this book is right up there. It ended on a cliffhanger, which is so annoying if you know how much I don't like cliffhangers. But, I think this is a good thing, as I rarely leave the first book of a series on the cusp of my seat waiting until I can get my next fix. That cliffhanger introduced a new character, a female in a high-power position (for once!). I'm dying to read it.

It was really slow in parts, but the fast-paced parts and their brutality really made up for that. One of the reasons I love science-fiction so much is their ability to make brutal scenes really brutal. 

There isn't much I can say about it without giving too much away, so if you enjoyed these, I will see you next time!

- Loz x

Page 195 of "Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix || Rough Translation.

This is just a rough translation of page 195 of "Horrorstor" by Grady Hendrix in the paperback US edition published by "Quirk". If I have got anything wrong here, feel free to comment and I will fix the mistakes.
(it's not a different language, it's just written in very hard to read handwriting, pictured below)

Penitents of the Cuyahoga Panopticon.
Under the care and treatment of: Warden Josiah Worth.
September
1831.

Number: 00314.
Name: Harold Ashes.
Offense: Vagabonding and barratry.
Sentence: 3 years  4 years.
Treatment: His degenerate aspect and sallow features caused me to assign to him seven hours on the Tread Wheel each day. His sickly aspect increases but I suspect him of malingering. Nothing is so certain as that the evils of illness can be shaken off by hard work.

Number: 00315.
Name: Leon Bultg (?).
Offense: Consorting with low women and public inebriation.
Sentence: 2 years  3 years 4 years.
Treatment: A daily dose of Mercury has calmed him greatly. Those who sow no seeds reap (possibly seek) no reward.

Number: 00316
Name: Osborne Goldberg.
Offense: Threatening behaviour.
Sentence: 3 years.
Treatment: This sallow fellow seems to be quite ill, suffering from the lunacy and bearing all the physical signs of degeneracy. We have prescribed to him the Iron Cap to be worn at all times, and when he becomes agitated, a few hours on the rotational board  encourages him to swoon and purge himself of vile fluids. Amid an eternal heritage of sorrow and suffering and work begins (?).

Number: 00317.
Name: Matthew Sweagen (?).
Offense: Petty larceny with partial verdict.
Sentence: 4 years  5 years.
Treatment: Sentenced to workhouse where his abusive temperament required (?) him to be remanded into my case. Prescribed ten thousand turns of the crank each day. Notice that flesh of his hands has begun to slough off and become full of pus. For his health, we have removed his thumbs. He has now returned to the crank.

I hope you find this helpful. The original copy of this page is pictured below: 

Top Five Wednesday: Top Five Worlds!

Welcome to my second Top Five Wednesday post! Today, I thought an interesting topic would be to talk about what my top five favourite worlds to visit so far are. I think one of them is going to be yoghurt-thrown-in-your-face obvious, but the others might not be (I haven't even thought of them yet, it's as much a surprise to me as it will be to you!). Must stop rambling and actually get on with the post, shall we? Yes, we shall, let's get started: 

One.

World one is, you guessed it, the world in the Harry Potter series written by the Queen. The whole school in a castle thing is what really interests me, as I live in Wales and we have a lot of castle hot spots and even before Harry Potter, I would always wonder what it would be like to go to school in one of those castles. Especially an abandoned one. The fact that it includes so many more amazing things, like magic and dragons, is a huge added bonus to one of my childhood dreams. I don't understand why anyone would not want to be in the world of Harry Potter. 

Two. 

I wouldn't want to live in these worlds, but I want access to them as a vacation spot, and that is the worlds in the Dr. Seuss books. I really loved "Cat in the Hat", I thought it was colourful and wacky and unique and what they did with that in the Universal Studios from what I have seen online is what I want the worlds to look like if they came to live. Just a lot more lively and not looking like buildings, you know what I mean? 

Three. 

It has escaped my memory what this place is actually called, but I don't like the world in Lord of the Rings as a whole, I just like the place where the Hobbits lived. And the fact they smoke weed and eat all day is a pleasurable thought, they don't have to do anything, it seems a fun life. I would probably have miniature adventures in the surrounding area, but really small ones - I don't want to get caught up in any crap, especially far away from the Hobbit holes! I (shamefully) haven't yet read the books, so I'm just going from the movies. Sorry, okay, I will get to them! 

Four. 

I have only read one book from this world, but that one book was enough to get me interested, and that is the realm of Star Wars. This might change in the future, as one book doesn't even make a dent in all the information you can learn about it and especially now that Disney owns them, but from what I know about it so far, it can't not make my top five list - even if it is a super predictable option!

Five. 

This one not so much now, as I don't really like the last few books in the series - and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in that - but to make fifteen year old me happy, the House of Night series by P.C and Kristen Cast because I loved the idea of being a beautiful vampire with artwork on my face and wearing beautiful clothes and having a loyal cat. The whole world just appealed to me, and it still does in my memory. 

So, what are your favourite worlds, can you pick one that's not Harry Potter?!
See you tomorrow!

- Loz x

Monday Missions #11

I'm on eleven already? Doesn't feel like it's been more then eleven weeks since I first found out about this , but there you go. Time does fly!

(I was meant to publish this yesterday and then publish my Alfie review today but typical me completely got the days of the week mixed up...)

Because I have more freetime during this week then I have been having in a while, I plan to get through a lot - which, knowing me, won't happen. 

I'm writing this at 11pm on Sunday evening, as I usually do, but right now I'm about a hundred and fifty pages away from the end of "Hens Reunited" by Lucy Diamond which I'm kind of enjoying, but not so much as I hoped I would. I already have a few notes planned for the review I'm going to be doing on this book (named Romantic-Comedy) if you're interested in a full play-by-play of what I thought about it, which is...kind of complicated right now. 

Next, my old (not literally, we just used to be friends and then we stopped and now we're friends again...it's not as high school drama as that sounds...) friend Sydnie Beaupre sent me and a few other people her book, "Dark One", in return of an honest review. Don't quote me on this, but I think it's about fallen angels, and it's kind of a YA fantasy novel? I hope she doesn't kill me if I have gotten that wrong. 

I also want to get "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" read for this week, too, because I have really fallen behind in blog posts for my Harry Potter re-read a thon and reading it in general. The next two books, this one and "Azkaban", are also my favourites in the entire series!

If I manage to get all that done, then I have "Fangirl" by Rainbow Rowell that I want to read next because I kind of liked but kind of didn't like "Eleanor and Park" but it also gave me a really, really good feeling that I would not mind re-visiting and I hope "Fangirl" can give me that. 

Don't be shy to tell me what you're planning on reading this week!

See you tomorrow, Loz x 

Review || "Alfie: The Doorstep Cat" by Rachel Wells.

(this one is kind of an old review, I'm currently in the process of writing and editing a Star Wars novel review but it's kind of hard to write about as it could offend a lot of people if I write it wrong and it also seems dumb that I, a person with no knowledge of Star Wars before that book or even science-fiction novels, would be writing a review/book talk on something like that...anyway, irrelevant, sorry if you hate the late upload posts but at least it's getting uploaded at all, right?!)

This book is basically about a little cat named Alfie who's owner dies from old age. Her daughter comes around and says that she wants to put Alfie in a shelter because they can't stay with her, and Alfie decides to take his life into his own hands and runs away. He lives in a harsh homeless cat world for a short while, before he comes across a street that needs him as much as he needs them. Alfie doesn't want to dedicate his time to one owner because that's going to be hard if he has to go through it all again, so he decides to have multiple owners. 

Lets just cut right to the chase. I DNF'd this book. It wasn't even bad, I actually found it very interesting from the start but Wells gives away so much information that the curiosity that kept me captivated throughout it was lost and I had no drive to finish it. I barely even passed halfway, and I wasn't going to write this review because I was still sure I was going to finish it...but I just can't. Sorry, Rachel, I think you can do better.

The writing was dull. It was dull from the very first page. Usually, this isn't a make-or-break for me. Sometimes, the plot line or the characters or something can be strong enough to keep me reading. After taking English Literature for three years, at this point, I'm just used to reading boring books that I ended up being pretty happy about reading. This book had an interesting premise, and that was enough for me to think this book would be worth it.

So, you get some interesting characters here. A girl who is heartbroken because of a divorce, a man who is lonely after moving away from his life in Singapore, a woman with a husband and a newborn with depression, and a small, sweet little family from Poland. Problem? Their stories were told practically instantly. This book should have been half the size it was. I'm kind of curious about the ending, but I can just look it up. The story had seemed to be told by halfway through the book. The characters also had no personality. I'm aware that this was written from the perspective of a cat, but it was written by a human - the development could have been better. They were also the kind of people I had seen before, I was expecting more of an in-depth explanation to them, but it just didn't happen. Characters really are a make or break for me.

There was also no plot line whatsoever! 
The plotline really was as simple as Alfie becoming homeless, finding a street, and they all warm up to him and that's that.

The premise of this book could have been something a lot better then what it was. Instead, you have something mediocre that I guess would be okay to read if you were into these types of things, but I'm not. I expected more.

Sorry this wasn't up to my usual standards, in the topic of cats I received a two month old kitten for my birthday as my aunts' cat, Sybil, has some kittens and they couldn't keep them. She needs a lot of attention, I barely had time to sleep and write this (is this like a taster of how parents' feel?!). But, thank you for reading, I'll see you all next time.

- Loz x

Books I Brought With Me To England!

Hey!

If you didn't know, I'm currently in England to visit my grandparents' and my father (hopefully not his girlfriend, too) and I packed very last minute so I'm sort of regretting the books I brought with me. Not too much, though, because they are books I really want to get read. I might only be here for a week, or a week and a half, I just wanted a wide variety of choice rather then being like "You're going to get all these read!". I'm rambling, let me just show you what books I got: 

"Horrorstor" by Grady Hendrix. 

A parody on the famous furniture store, Ikea, that is basically about strange happenings at night when the store has been shut down. Employees have been sent to stay overnight to investigate what has been going on, and they're met with a nasty surprise. 

One of my birthday presents from Austin that I once saw on a YouTube video and thought it looked kind of interesting, so I thought "hey, why not give it a shot!". I can't say I'm really that exited to read it, purely because I've heard a lot of things behind said on it that the writing just isn't that great, but still. I did bring it with me just because I wanted to get through it more then actual want to read it. It seems more like a decoration book then anything,  but it might pleasantly surprise me, who knows. 

"The Alchemyst" by Michael Scott. 

I think everyone and their dog knows what this is about, but I don't. I think it's about twins in a fantasy realm? I don't really know...I got this as a birthday present from my mother and sister, which is weird because they never get me books! Especially books that have been on my Amazon wishlist for quite some time. 

"Alice in Zombieland" by Gene Showalter. 

I've heard so many negatives thinks about this, so this on top of it being a YA dystopia romance makes me hesitant to read it, but the trilogy is based from one of my favourite books and even if it has little resemblance, I can at least try to like it because of that. This book is also a useful contribution towards something I am working on for later this year, stick around for that!

"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" by J.K.Rowling. 

"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" by J.K.Rowling. 

I should hope I don't need to say what these are, but these are for my Harry Potter Read-A-Thon books, that's more of a re-read at this point seeing as I finished the first one like a week ago and haven't even made a move yet on starting the second one. Oops?

"Fangirl" by Rainbow Rowell. 

A twin called Cathy (have to say, not a fan of Rowell's choice of names) decides she doesn't want to be tied up to her sister anymore when she joins university and wants to be a free bird, and meets someone called Levi. Everyone else loves him, but they're also the same people who love Will Herondale, so we'll see if I like him too. 

"Hens Reunited" by Lucy Diamond. 

A book I am currently reading about three women whos lives have fallen apart, and they reunite in their unique 'failures' as they try to rebuild what they have left. It's quite different from Lucy's (AKA, Sue's) usually writing structure, as are all her books I'm noticing so far - I love this book more then the others, but at the same time I'm disappointed in it. Probably for a lot of reasons - it might not have been the right time to read a book like this, or it was something I have been anticipating for so long that I made it into something more then it would ever live up to, I don't know. I may have to re-read in the future to really make my mind up about it. 

So, I might be buying some more books in the future while I am here as I realize I did not bring the most varied of choices as I would like, but it'll do, thank you ever so much for reading and I'll see you all next time! 

- Loz x

Birthday Haul Part Two || Shopping Trip (LUSH and Tsum's!)

I think I mentioned this a couple times before, but on Tuesday 18th August, I went on a shopping trip to Carmarthen by train. We left kind of late, around 11pm, and it was boiling hot, it felt like the waiting room to Hell and I imagine we were also the laughing stock of everyone in America...yeah, yeah, I get it, you'd be wearing jackets in our summer times!

Anyway, I thought I would show you the things I bought while I was there - which really wasn't that much, but I tried okay, I tried. I'm not good at spending money because I'm such an indecisive person!

The first place I went to was kind of a weird place to go, but it's Clintons, a card store. Reason why? Because of these beauties: 

Yes, this is the ass of the Queen of Hearts with her fancy underpants. 

Disney's Tsum Tsum's! I already have a couple, Winnie the Pooh and Stitch, that Austin my boyfriend got me a little while ago because Winnie the Pooh was my favourite TV program has a kid (and one of the movies I am obsessed with, still), Stitch is just adorable. I think everyone loves Stitch, you're crazy if you don't! 

It was really hard to pick the ones I wanted, I eventually settled for a Mini Queen of Hearts (from Alice in Wonderland/Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) and Mini Alien (from the Toy Story series). I wanted all of them! They had Minnie Mouse, a badger, Bambi, Dumbo, Jessie, Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Peas in a Pod...I'm going to have to go back there! They were £3.50 each. 

I was running out of pens and I also have a fountain pen at home, so the next things I got were these from Ryman's: 

The ink cartridges were their own brand, I think, and cost £1.99. I already have blue cartridges, but...this may sound weird, I just hate writing in blue ink and much prefer blue. Where I live, black ones seem to be non-existent so I just had to get some. It's a nice big bag for cheap, too. The pens are one of my favourites because of how smooth and easy to write with, the Bic Biro Original Crystal pens in black.Hopefully, I don't lose these, why do pens love to go missing?

These gems were from Waterstones, a fairly expensive but popular bookstore in the UK (and if it's in anywhere else in the world, I don't know about it). I think it was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland's anniversary, as it has a whole two bookshelves dedicated to it. Different editions of the books and merchandise, mostly. I'm a huge Alice fan, and if I had the money, I would have bought it all. Instead, I got some small things that I knew I would use often and would mean more to me then adding yet another Alice book edition to my shelves for £25. I couldn't find any of these online, so sorry I cannot provide any links! The small Cheshire Cat badge was 99p, the bookmarks were £1.50 each. I think it's good that it has a little information of the artist on the back, it's pretty interesting if you ask me. They're also really hard, but still plastic/paper bookmarks, so I think that means they'll have a stronger durability (RIP past bookmarks, you're missed).

You can get your own VooDoo doll from the website, WatchoverVooDoo but I got her from TheCardFactory!

Anyway, these are cute little VooDoo dolls found at a card shop (which was also shared with a chocolate store, pretty cute?) and there was so many but this witch stood out to be the most. They're £3.99, she claims to give me confidence and etc, but I don't believe in magic like that even though I obviously really like Harry Potter. I just thought she would look cute hanging from my bag.

I then went to a charity store for a bit because my mother had wandered off somewhere and I couldn't find her. I had bought the movie editions of New Moon and Breaking Dawn (which I actually really like) and have been looking around for the other two for a while. The Twilight series is commonly found in charity stores, so it shouldn't be hard, it's just finding the first book that I'm having difficulty with. I can't remember if I liked the series or not, seeing as the first time I read it I was pretty young and under a stronger influence from a friend of mine who really loved Twilight. Actually, a couple of friends of mine. We'll see...when I find the first book! I don't think I ever finished Eclipse!

I also got some earphones with strawberries decorated on the earbud but they broke and I therefore don't have a photo of them - they were pretty cheap, I was expecting them to break, from a shop called Tiger in Carmarthen, Pembrokeshire. 

And (my personal favourite from this haul), my first experience with buying from LUSH (even if you have money, visit that website...the animation of different bath bombs being thrown into water is amazing). I've tried their Blackberry Bath Bomb before, and I liked it but I didn't love it. It smells more like blueberries, which is good, because I actually hate blackberries and till I looked it up just now I thought it was blueberries. It was slimy, and doesn't do anything to the bath, it's a pretty simple and boring bath bomb. But, the bath stuff I bought for myself for my first time buying experience was *drum roll please*:

If you can read the labels, you can see I got the Sex Bomb Bath Bomb (oh, the pun) and if you click on the link, it'll show you what happens to it when you put it into a bath - if you can't be bothered to click it, it basically just turns pink. And, for my vegan readers, it's 100% vegan! I had a bath with it tonight, it was so relaxing and I still smell so good. Usually, the scent wears out after I have a shower because well I guess shower gels weren't meant to be strong scented! The second one, I haven't used yet, but it's called a bubble bar, I think? It's Rose Jam I think, but it doesn't look like that, it's more like a rose shape...I think? Anyway, I'm heading to England tomorrow and I'm bringing it with me so I'll let you know how I like it! Probably a lot more because it creates bubbles!!

That's not all I got, though, worry not:

My mother bought me the shower jelly by them quite often when I was younger, I forgot to mention, it reminds me of the ocean even though it's lime-scented (and the label makes me chuckle!). It's called Woosh, another reason why it reminds of the ocean, and it smells so good even if it is a bit hard to use in the shower. It's just fun to use, I suppose!

The second is something new, not just for me but for LUSH itself. It's a Yuzu and Cocoa Shower Cream that smells just like chocolate oranges! (also, the women in the image is just WAY TOO MUCH...such a pet peeve of mine!). It's a small 100ml bottle, to test it out, but also it's because it's kind of expensive. The prices of which are listed below: 

Sex Bomb Bath Bomb - £3.35
Woosh Shower Jelly - 3.50
Rose Jam Bubbleroon - £3.75
Yuzu and Cocoa Shower Cream - £4.75

I really hoped you enjoyed reading, I'll see you in my next post - goodbye for now!

Disney's Inside Out Book Tag!

(darn it, I missed my time by thirty minutes but I guess not many people live in the UK time zone so whatever I suppose...enjoy!)

I haven't actually seen Inside Out yet, although I'm really interested to, because as you guys know I have social anxiety and a cinema is the last place I want to be, alone or not. I'm just waiting for it to be super cheap on DVD or something, but I do have some basic idea on what the movie is about thanks to my Facebook friends and introductions to this tag in videos I have watched (which I really enjoyed!). 

It's basically about this one person, with five other characters' who live inside their mind. Which are their emotions. These emotions are joy, fear, disgust, sadness and anger (isn't it odd how only one of those is a positive emotion to have?). 

So, you guessed it, these emotions are what the questions are going to be based from. 

Joy! : What book gives you the most joy?

This one is actually kind of hard to answer, because well all books give me joy, that's why I read. An obvious answer to this question would be the first three books from the Harry Potter series, but I don't want to say that just because it's such a cliche answer, especially for me at this point. From a book picked from my 2015 reading challenge list, I'm going to go with "Eleanor and Park" by Rainbow Rowell. You guys know that I had mixed feelings about that book, it was more a three star for me personally (I have a full book talk on this up on here!), but I felt so happy when I was reading it. The relationship gave me the fuzzies, even though I thought they were best as friends - that book just made me feel good (and also bad), I can't deny that. Even if it wasn't as good as it had been hyped up to be. 

Disgust! : What book grossed you out the most? 

A lot of books, but the one that is really standing out to me right now is one I read back in February of 2014, "It's Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned whatever-is-name-is. The over-sexualisation of the characters in this book - all female - made me want to throw up. Even of a rape victim and his own mother. I hate that book with a passion, even though I am mentally ill with depression/social anxiety. It just didn't do anything for me, and I'm sorry to everyone who loved it, but it was disgusting from my feminist point of view. But, a lot of books pop to mind when I think of disgust. Like the domestic abuse theme in "IT" by Stephen King that was wrote to graphically, I was left shivering days after I had read it. I'm just sensitive. 

Fear! : What book scared you the most? 

I have two options for this one. Firstly, the "Gone" series by Michael Grant. I've only got up to book three in the six-part series, but it mostly scared me due to the fact that it was something that might actually happen. Maybe not to the extent it happened to in the series, I don't think people could be gaining powers because of Darkness, but more along the lines of anarchy and having dumb people like Sam be in charge of things and not letting women still into places of power. Second book that I'm going to mention here is an author I'm really not fond of but I just liked this book, and that is "The Secret of Crickley Hall" by James Herbert. I don't know why, but the whole dark paranormal child abuse aspect of the story really scared me not while I was reading it but when I was alone and it was dark. 

Sadness! : The book that made you cry the hardest?

This one is easy - "A Monster Calls" by Patrick Ness. I won't talk too much about it here as I do have a book talk published, but I don't cry very often at books, hardly ever. This one, though...I started to read it late in the evening, before bed, just because I like to that sometimes but I never put it down till 4am and tears were falling from my face. My heart felt like it had been ripped out - it was just absolutely crushing to me. I was a mess after reading that book. But, don't let that put you off please. If you're one of the few people who hasn't read that book, I urge you go do so now. 

Anger! : What book made you the most angry?

I don't really get very angry in books (apart from the ones I mentioned in disgust) unless they're very anti-feminist, such as slut-shaming or viewing a woman as a sexual object or a woman treating a man like crap when he has done nothing wrong just because she can, things like that. However, I rarely read a book without doing background research on it first and coming across books like this is pretty rare for me, it usually never happens. But, a book I was pretty mad about was "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy" by Helen Fielding. Right, let me tell you a story. I found this book for pretty cheap at my supermarket. but I briefly saw something at the back about Bridget having kids. I disregarded the fact that this book was written in the future, and I went out and got the first two books, £20 in total. At the same supermarket a couple of weeks later, I found these books for £2 each...£4 altogether. To make matters worse, they were the exact editions I wanted which is why I spent so much money on them at the bookstore. Then I found two other versions of these books in a discount book store for even less. It made me so mad, but that's not why I got mad when reading this book. It was cheap, a complete rip-off, a cheat. I believe I also have a review on this book up here somewhere, and I might have deleted it, I hope not. But, Mark's dead, firstly. Secondly, Cleaver hadn't changed at all and you think he would have seeing as he's now a middle-aged man. Thirdly, she never looked after her kids and never did her work but still complained that living a life like she had was hard, and she stayed thin even after eating cheese out the packet almost everyday. She had lost her larger-then-life Bridget Jones quality, it was a huge let down!

Thank you for reading this very long post!
If you could take a second to follow me on whatever is your preference, I would be so grateful, I would really appreciate the motivation right now, I know I usually don't ask for this! 

- Loz x

COQ: Anne Frank: First Glance at Loneliness/the Black Sheep

Puffin Books 2002. 

Page 29. 

"I don't fit in with them, and I've felt that clearly in the last few weeks. They're so sentimental together, but I'd rather be sentimental on my own. They're always saying how nice it is with the four of us, and that we get along so well, without giving a moment's thought to the fact that I don't feel that way...Another thing I can't stand is having them talk about me in front of outsiders, telling them how I cried or how sensibly I'm behaving. It's horrible" 

My comment: 

"Do all of us feel that way, Anne? I wonder if she survived how differently she would have felt about her family. Or, how differently they'd felt about her"  

I think about things like this quite a lot. How everyone seems to be isolated from everyone else and think that everyone else doesn't know it. Well, they might not know it, you might be a really good actor/actress like Anne Frank was - most of the people who lived with her in the annexe believed the fake cheeriness she would put on. And yet, for some reason, even when we are aware of the troubles everybody faces, we believe we are entirely unique in our own problems and that nobody close to us has ever faced the same fate - which is entirely incorrect, in my opinion. 

I think the sooner people started to realize how similar and yet how different we all are, the world will be a better place and people will stop comparing one to another like life itself is a competition in who has it better or worse. 

And as for the second part where Anne speaks of how they talk about her to other people, I believe, is an example of how often parents forget that their kids are people, too. Even though people in general are aware of this, it's like the second they have kids it all goes out the window. It turns into sneaking up on them, reading their diaries, discussing them with other people like they are objects of your own personal success and failures, and embarrassing them online. Everyone has their own methods to parenting, but personally, I would vote putting their rights as humans pretty high up on the list. 

Anyway, thank you for reading! I'll touch more on this subject in later COQ posts. Until next time

- Loz x 

TFW: Books I Love That Everyone Else Hates

Welcome to another Top Five Wednesday! Fun fact, I was having difficulty thinking up things to write about for top five and turns out, Goodreads has a whole group dedicated to this. I knew it was quite a popular thing in the booktube community, but I didn't know it was by that much. 

Anyway, the one that stood out to be the most (mostly because there's so many options to choose from) was the top five books I really liked or loved that everyone else didn't like so much or straight up hated. Let's get started!

(in no particular order)

One. 

It's not a book but a 'series'/trilogy that a lot lot LOT of people really didn't like, and even though I read this when I was about sixteen years old, my memory can't pick up anything I would dislike if I had read it freshly today and that is "The Maze Runner"/"The Scorch Trials"/"The Death Cure" and of course "Kill Order" (even though that is the prequel and technically not part of the trilogy, but I count it because it includes important information on how the Flare virus had come about). It was fast paced, action-packed, little romance, great characters - and the women were portrayed as strong people, even if they didn't show Lana (I think was her name) very much. It was a great series/trilogy from what I can remember, and I wish everyone felt the same way about it as I did. 

Two. 

This wasn't really a hated or strongly disliked book, but the mutual rating among most people for this novel was three stars, and I think I gave it four (the highest rating I could give it, five is reserved for books that really did something for me) , and that is "The Twins" by Saskia Sarginson. This book is about two twins, obviously, one who has anorexia and the other is a successful business woman.  They grew up in the woods with their mother who didn't believe in discipline, but one day something awful happens that they still can't shake of and they want to go back to the past to try and make peace within themselves and to help one of the twins with anorexia. It's kind of slow in parts, but please don't let that put you off!

Three. 

Another series I'm going to go with here. I'm finding more and more people who are a fan of this series by the day who were ashamed of it because of the 'controlling boyfriend' aspect throughout it but I think well, he's a vampire, so the rules are going to be different for him although I can completely see why a teenager would read it and think that was acceptable behaviour for a human boyfriend (it isn't). You've probably already guessed what that series is, and that is indeed the "Twilight" series by Stephanie Meyer. I read them as a kid, loved them. Watched the movies, loved them. They have great memories in them with some old friends I don't talk to anymore. It was just a really good series. 

Four. 

This one only counts for the first book, as the other two books in the series I did not enjoy very well - actually, I didn't even bother trying to get through the last book, I got halfway and DNF'd, but the first book was entertaining and I liked it, I liked it a lot, and that is "Divergent" by Veronica Roth. I found Tris to be the kind of person who would make the decisions I would make in her situation (apart from her acknowledging the people who bully her are in the next room but she walked in their in a towel anyway, now that was stupid, she should have just waited). A lot of teenagers don't make smart decisions. Not a huge fan of Roth's writing style, but I did really enjoy this book at least - I think Veronica Roth is more suited to standalones then she is to series and trilogys, if I'm being honest here.

Five. 

I guess I'm going to pick "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult for this, even though I didn't really love it, I just like it a lot more then most people seem to do (and I can completely understand why, honestly). I don't know, I just really like Anna, I think she's a really cool character.

Thank you ever so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed. what are your top five books? See you tomorrow, Loz x 

Review || "Am I Normal Yet?" by Holly Bourne (spoiler free)

(first of, because I think Holly Bourne is really deserving of her support, you can find her help site here and her blog here)

I got this book for free from a Goodreads giveaway, but if you have entered one before and you have already looked up the information on how it works, then you'd know already but if you don't, they don't request anything from you. No honest review, no good review, nothing, you just enter and if you win, they send the book to your chosen address and that's all there is to it. If I had not entered that giveaway, I think I would never have purchased this book, simply because of the reasons I am about to explain. 

This book is about a sixteen-year-old girl, in high school, with OCD. Lord only knows I avoid these books like lung cancer, and that wasn't even the worst part. She has the most stereotypical version of OCD there is - she likes to keep clean. On top of OCD, she also has Generalised Anxiety Disorder, but that wasn't the focus on the book so don't expect to be able to relate much on that area. It also has areas of sexual assault, numerous parties, drunken antics, drugs, you name it, it's in here. It even briefly touches the topic of bullying. 

But it was still brilliant.

This is a feminist book. Not only that, but one of my biggest role models Emma Blackery loved this book too. Which, yes, did manipulate my overall view of this book a little bit but a majority of these opinions are my own, I swear. Evie and her two new close friends join a group called The Spinster Club, where they have topics and do feminist rants (such as why women are not crazy, and that sexism affects both women and men and needs to be stopped). It was pretty insightful. Even though I have been a feminist for months now, I still don't know all there is to know and tumble across new ideas that I didn't know were a thing. This book is aimed towards the younger generation, too, which gets me all giddy inside. Hopefully, this book will give them a boost to joining us and will educate a large amount of people on what feminism really is and not "Women power, men can drown!". These people are NOT FEMINISTS.

It also represented mental illness fantastically. How most people will support you, but when this support does not make you any better and you still relapse, they get fed up and float away. Or, how when you tell people, they will tell you to snap out of it and that it's easy to just not freak out. For them, maybe. The best part is that boys do not make you better. No amount of sex, or love, or crushes, or kisses, will make you any better - something YA romance/mental-illness novel authors haven't seemed to grasp...until my dear Holly Bourne showed up.

I highly, highly recommend this book to all ages, and all genders. It's education, insightful, supportive, funny...it was a charming read, I read it in just a few hours, go read it! (four stars on Goodreads!).

- Loz x 

Monday Missions #10

Hey guys! So, I know I haven't made one of these in a while, I've been in a bit of a reading slump. I'm still not entirely sure what I'm going to be reading next, but I can give you an idea of the kind of things I want to try to read next (well, I mean, as much as I can!). 

I'm currently reading a book my boyfriend Austin got me for my birthday (because he wants me to get into Stars Wars - and it's working) called "Darth Bane; Path of Destruction" by Drew Karpyshyn, the first book in a trilogy. I don't really know what it's about, still, so here's what's on the blurb: 

On the run from vengeful Republic forces, Dessel, a cortosis miner, vanishes into the ranks of the Sith army and ships out to join the bloody war against the Republic and its Jedi companions. There, Dessel's brutality, cunning and exceptional command of the Force swiftly win him renown as a warrior. But in the eyes of his watchful masters, a far greater destiny awaits him. 

As an acolyte in the Sith academy, studying the secrets and the skills of the dark side. Dessel embraces his new identity: Bane. But the true test is yet to come. In order to gain acceptance into the Brotherhood of Darkness, he must defy the most sacred traditions and reject all he has been taught. It is a trial by fire in which he must surrender fully to the dark side - and forge from the ashes a new era of absolute power. 

It's the story from the perspective of Darth Bane, a 'bad guy' who joins the Dark Side. This is my first little peak into the Star Wars realm and so far, I'm really really enjoying it and I'm kind of sad I never experienced the awesome that is Star Wars throughout my childhood, although I did at least get to experience Star Trek.

Other books I am thinking of trying to get through this week include "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" for my Harry Potter Read-A-Thon (which I haven't been dedicating a large amount of time to, I should work on that) and a random book from my TBR pile. My reading-slump may be over, but only just, and I feel like I can topple back into it at any moment  so I'm taking slow (also, my recent addiction to Pretty Little Liars doesn't help - okay, sorry, I tried to resist, I really did!).

what are you reading this week? I heard it was the month of Stephen King, are you wanting to get through that? Let me know!

See you next time, Loz x 

My 100th Post!

*blows those things that make a lot of noise and sprinkle out confetti*

Hey! So, I made it to 100 posts and didn't delete anything, yeah! I guess blogging everyday for August has really helped speed that along, huh? I'm actually doing a pretty good job of it, if I do say so myself, just two weeks left! 

Anyway, I thought I would give you a small, brief background to the birth of AGiantLeapForLozKind, as a sort of celebration for this minor achievement for me. 

Austin, the co-owner of the blog and also my bae, has been a big fan of Star Wars since he was a little-un. I've never really been a Star Wars fan (though, soon, I'm about to read my first Star Wars book) simply because I've never watched the movies and I know little about it apart from all the basic stuff. However, I really love space. Like, really love space. I love learning about it and watching the sky and I'm very into star signs (even if I don't very much believe in it). As you might have noticed from the tabs above, the theme is space but also spaceships, Each tab is named after, with the help of Austin, areas on a spaceship that suit the topic of that tab.

But, I can't really remember the day I started blogging. I do remember that the idea had never really occured to me. I wish I didn't delete, swap and change my blogs so often so I could go back and see what my first ever post was. I've always loved to write from a very young age, even if I lost the drive somewhere in my high school years and went a long time without writing so now the talent I had has drifted away and I'm keen to get it back - it greatly upset me when I failed all three years of my English Literature A Levels and AS Levels. It was like I swallowed pins. I was clearly not meant to be a writer if I was bad at basic English Literature studies? But, I can't let grades stop me. I can't give up without never trying - so AGreatLeapforLozKind was born, and shall live on, even if I ever achieve that dream to publish a book!

And for Austin, he joined because he enjoys to write too. Being a part of a blog or making his own has never really occurred to him before. He will probably never make his own, as if you've noticed, he doesn't post very often at all. I'm going to get him there, though.

I hope this blog can grow into something bigger and better in the future, I look foward to when the blog turns into exactly what I wanted it to be and I've achieved most of my goals.

Thank you for reading, until next time, Loz x 

My Birthday Haul 2015! || Part one: Gifts

Hey! 

So, if you didn't know, my birthday was on the 8th August, where I went to the Milford Perk American Diner and it was so much fun! I think some of you might be interested in what I got for my birthday, right?! Well...I hope so!

Anyway

The first thing I received for my birthday was probably one of the best things, my mother got me a second-hand laptop from her friend and I got it a couple of weeks before my birthday. I remember doing a very exited, short post on here about that and I'm still very exited! It's been great to write to my hearts content and watch videos on the 'big' screen!

Next best thing I got for my birthday was a kitten from my aunt and uncle!

I named her Boo! (although everyone in this house calls her Baby Boo or Boo-Boo). 

I'm not going to talk about her much here because I'm planning to write full posts on her later! 

They also got me these!:

I've wanted that bracelet forever, I've been eying it up on Amazon for quite a while (although, for whatever reason, I never bought it). It's a Harry Potter bracelet, for those unaware, with the Snitch and the Deathly Hallows symptoms. The second one is a RSPCA pet guide on how to care for my kitten, which so far, has come in use! I didn't know kittens needed worm medicine, nor did I know they are lactose intolerant.

My mother also surprised me by getting me some new books! She never usually gets me books because she never knows what to get, I assumed she asked my boyfriend or my sister. It's the first two books in the Nicholas Flamel series by Michael Scott, "The Alchemyst" and "The Magician". I'm not sure what they're about, I like to go into books blind, but I have been hearing so many wonderful things about these, I rarely hear a bad word! Pretty exited to read them (although I don't know whether to get all the books first?!). 

My sisters' good friend came to my evening dinner to Milford Perk and even came with gifts! The bag is beautiful, pink with birds on and little blossums, my mother said that my sisters' good friends' mother makes these kinds of things...yep, it was made! Awesome, huh?! I also got some toiletries from Sanctuary Spa, and some really pretty earrings! :3 Shame my ears aren't pierced anymore, but I'm thinking of going to a tattoo place to get them done soon!

These actually came today!! These are from my boyfriend. The top if the Ultimate Edition of the Harry Potter movie, "Chamber of Secrets", it has cards and a picture book and four disks, I'm pretty exited to watch them! (and because it's so expensive and it's not something you would buy without thought, or at least it's my version of expensive, I might do a little 'review' type of post!). "Horrorstor" by Grady Hendrix is a horror parody of Ikea, essentially, I hope it's as goofy as it sounds. The next book is a Star Wars book because I watched the movies with my boyfriend once, but I couldn't really get into it as much as I wanted to just because I didn't understand it, so he thought to buy me one of the books, "Darth Bane: Path of Destruction" by Drew Karpyshyn. Again, I have no idea what it's about. 

Lastly, I got a little bit of money from my Grandad, my dad and his girlfriend and my mums' family friend! We're going out shopping on Tuesday of next week (18th!), I'll tell you what we got! 

Thank you for reading, I'll see you next post!