March Favourites - 2019

A new month means a new favourites list! If you have missed my previous favourites posts, you can find my January Favourites here and my February Favourites here.  March has been an incredibly busy, but exciting month for me, so here are my favourites for this month!

TV Shows

Young Justice: Outsiders

I have been waiting for so long for Young Justice Season three to be released and I was so glad when it finally was released this year! I watched the first half of this season in March and I really enjoyed where the series is going. I really like the new characters that have been included, and the older characters are still as fabulous as they have ever been! The animation in this series also looks so much better than it has in the previous two seasons and it has really helped keeping Young Justice relevant. I am looking forward to the second half of this season which is set to be released in June, so I am sure you will see it making a reappearance on a future favourites list!

Books

On The Other Side by Carrie Hope Fletcher 

This may be a little late to the party, but I finally read Carrie Hope Fletcher's first book! I really enjoyed this story, I thought that the concept was an original idea. Something I think that lets this book down is the names of some of the characters, like "Evie Snow" and "Vincent Winters". Not that there is anything particularly wrong with the names, I just feel like they sound like Carrie couldn't think of any other surname to give to her two main characters, and they took me out of the story sometimes by thinking "These names sound a bit silly". Nonetheless, the book is written very nicely, and it is a lovely feel good book. 

Shopping

Aldi Chocolate Unicorn 

This may be something really silly to include on this list, but I was really happy when I found this unicorn in Aldi whilst out shopping. It looks so cute and the chocolate itself was actually really nice (yes, Sparkle the Unicorn is no more! RIP). It was a lovely little buy this month and I felt like it needed to be included in this list.

Revolution Make-up (Various)

So I needed a new eyeliner and I walked down to my local Superdrug, and I ended coming home with ten lipsticks, a concealer, a brow-kit and a primer as well as the eyeliner that I originally needed. My Bank Account was not best pleased with these purchases but it was definitely worth it in the long run. Just to clarify, these are the products that I bought that weekend (plus the links to them online in case you wanted to buy them yourself!):

• Revolution Pro Full Coverage Camouflage Concealer: C2 - Click Here
• Revolution Pro Lipstick Collection: Reds - Click Here
• Revolution Pro Lipstick Collection: Bare - Click Here
• Revolution Ultra Brow: Fair to Medium - Click Here

Firstly, lets talk about the concealer! The coverage on this concealer is very good, it is easy to blend and stays on until I take off my make-up. It doesn't look cakey underneath my foundation either which is a plus! The only thing I would say is that you shouldn't use a lot at a time, since it is a thick consistency, so a little goes a long way!

Next are the lipstick collections that I bought. I think I was going slightly mad when I decided to buy ten lipsticks, but it happened. The lipsticks them selves are really nice. I wouldn't really say there is a shade that I dislike in the packs that I bought, all of them are really nice shades that compliment my skin tone. They are also quite long lasting. You do need to do a re-application after eating, but other than that the colour stays.

Lastly, the Brow kit. I was not someone who really cared about my eyebrows before buying this kit, but it has changed my whole perspective since buying it! It comes with two waxes and a selection of powders which look really great; they also allow you to change up your look a lot - if you want a more bold brow or a more subtle brow. 

Shows

Bare: A Pop Opera 

I was obliged to watch this show since I had been cast in it, and I had no idea what it was about. I think it's fair to say that Bare: A Pop Opera is now up there with my all time favourite musicals! I absolutely love the music in this show, there are some amazing songs, not to mention the harmonies in this show! (I love a good harmony! Don't Judge!) The show brings up the topics that nobody wants to talk about in a normal conversation - religion, coming out, teen pregnancy, drug use ect - and I am really surprised that it is not more popular than it already is. The way the characters are written also make them seem realistic, and they actually behave like teenagers probably would put in that situation - take away the speaking to music but it wouldn't be a musical without that part!

Blood Brothers 

I went to see this show for the second time after being given tickets for Christmas, and it did not disappoint. I have always loved Blood Brothers, ever since looking at it in my GCSE classes, but seeing the musical live has made me find a new found love for it. For my school assessment, we acted out the script and cut out all of the songs; after seeing the show live this decision  baffles me. The music is something that makes Blood Brothers so great, it just wouldn't be the same without it! The performances of each of the actors were amazing, some still being the same actors that were on the 2018 tour, some being new cast members, but over all it was such an emotional piece. 

Music

Heathers (2018) Cast Recording 

So the 2018 Heathers cast recording was released at the beginning of this month, and I am so happy that it was! This is not to say that there is anything wrong with the original cast recording, it is absolutely fantastic, but there is something so refreshing about hearing the same songs sung buy these new talented actors.

There were three new songs added to this album, You're Welcome, Never Shut Up and I Say No. I would like to address these songs individually since they are the major differences to the original soundtrack (other than the new cast).

First of all, You're Welcome. This song replaced Blue from the Off-Broadway cast recording, and I am so glad it did. As much as I love Blue, it always felt a little out of place for me and kind of took away from the rest of the album. To me, the song always sounded like it was trying to be funny for the sake of being funny. You're Welcome is s a much better fit for the album in my opinion. I have not see this in the context of the show, but seeing two different productions of Heathers the Musical with Blue being performed at my college confirmed my feelings about the song. You're Welcome is so much darker than Blue, one line in particular that stands out to me is, "Hey, you wanted to be popular", implying that when becoming one of the Heathers Veronica automatically consented for the boys to make sexual advances on her (which is obviously not the case, but it really comes across in Kurt and Ram's character and makes them seem to be much more of a threat to Veronica rather than being there for a moment of comic relief). This song fits the dark comedy tone of the musical much better and sounds brilliant on the new album. 

In the original script for Heathers, there is a reprise to the song Blue, but on this album, Never Shut Up is in the place where this should be. I do not think this is necessarily a direct replacement for the Blue reprise, but since Blue had been cut, they would naturally have to replace this reprise with something else. Personally, this song is one of m favourite songs on this album. I had always felt like the original version of Heathers the Musical was missing a song for Heather Duke, Heather Chandler and Heather McNamara both had featured parts in Candy Store and then solos later on in the show, but Heather Duke never really had a moment to shine, which didn't really make much sense to me. This song really enforces that Heather Duke is now the person running the show at Westerburg High, and again like with You're Welcome, this song really fits with the tone of show and I feel like it really shows the darker side of what High School life can be like.

Finally, I Say No. This is a completely new song that was put into the musical, it hasn't replaced a previous song unlike the other two songs I have looked into. I absolutely love this song, it really gives Veronica a strong moment to stand up to JD and shows that she is finally done with him. My issue with this song is that Seventeen just a little bit before it and is pretty much the same character moment for Veronica. It's not that I think that this song should full on replace Seventeen or that this song should not have been added into the show, it's just that it feels like a bit of a repeat moment that isn't necessary and is put in to make Act 2 longer. All in all though, this is a brilliant song. 

The new cast sound really good on the recording, and this is just a very good cast album that you should give a listen!

All Grown Up from Bare: A Pop Opera 

Further up on this list, I talked about Bare: A Pop Opera, and one song that really stood out to me was All Grown Up, a song that comes in Act 2 of the musical. I love a good belt song in a musical, and this song is no exception. Again, like the whole musical, it talks about a taboo subject - teen pregnancy. When you usually hear about this subject, it usually blames the young mothers for being irresponsible and says that they got themselves into this situation, when in reality this is not always the case. This song seems to show the other side, and although this song may not speak for everyone going through a teen pregnancy, it certainly shows you a different perspective of the subject. I really love this song and it is definitely one I have added to my rep book!

So there you go, that was my favourites for March. I hope that you enjoyed reading this post and I will see you in the next one!

On the Other Side by Carrie Hope Fletcher - A Review

This may be a little late to the party, but I finally read Carrie Hope Fletcher's first book! I really enjoyed this story, I thought that the concept was an original idea.

Evie Snow has lived a long and relatively happy life but now she is dead, she's suddenly faced with a door that won't open. Evie realised that her three biggest secrets are holding her back from entering her own heaven and she now has to face them and share her biggest, and secret, love story with the people in her life.

This was a really lovely idea for a story, and I love the idea that people face doors when they enter the afterlife. There is a hint of magical realism portrayed in some of the phrases of the book that gave it the feeling of a fairy tale. The story was enjoyable as a sweet romance, but there was not really much more to it than that.

Evie Snow felt very much like a self insert character for Carrie Hope Fletcher, which isn't really an issue but she felt very much like a Mary Sue character. She was constantly being told how great she was by the other characters in the book. We were told a lot of things about Evie from other characters, but we on't actually see much from Evie herself.  It was a story about an adult woman being told what she should do with her life by her adult mother.

Considering these characters are supposed to be 27 years old, they came across as rather childish. Not that a 27 year old cannot come across as a bit immature, but when reading the book I did feel as though I was reading about a group of children, this coupled with the was Evie is treated by her mother emphasized the fact that I believed these characters were much younger than they actually were. I do believe that this may have something to do with the fact that this is Carrie's debut novel, so I do hope that there is some improvements in the writing of the character's in her other books.

Another thing that bothered me a little with this book was the surnames of some of the characters we meet, like "Evie Snow" and "Vincent Winters". Not that there is anything particularly wrong with the names, I just feel like they sound like Carrie couldn't think of any other surname to give to her two main characters, and they took me out of the story sometimes by thinking "These names sound a bit silly". Nonetheless, the book is written very nicely, and it is a lovely feel good book.

All in all,. this was a very lovely feel good book that is a nice quick read for someone looking for something to make them feel happy, but it is not a complex novel. Not that it is trying to be a very complex story, but if that is the type of book you are looking for then I would suggest looking elsewhere for a different book.