Sorcery of Thorns by Margret Rogerson - A Review

All Sorceres are evil. That is what Elisabeth has known all her life. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, she has grown up among the tools of sorcery - magical greimoires that rattle beneath iron chains. They transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather if provoked. Elisabeth hopes to become a warder, so she can protect the Kingdom from their power.

An act of sabotage releases the libraries most dangerous grimoire, and Elisabeth is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to except her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself tangled in centuries old conspiracies. The Great Libraries could gp up in flames, and the rest of the world too. 

As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth questions everything she has bee taught.

Photo Credit: @Samsaraparchment

I am unsure of where I hear of Sorcery of Thorns before I picked it up to read, but it was included in the yearly library that I get given for Christmas. I picked it up in April as one of my Lockdown Reads, and now I am reviewing it. Hope you enjoy!

Our protagonist Elisabeth grew up within the walls of a Great Library, protecting the magical grimoires in the country. In my opinion, she is a pretty bland protagonist. In the first half of the book, she is used to give us a lot of information from others by overhearing. Some of this took the dynamic away from the story for me, and was even unnecessary in some places. As it was written in third person, I don't understand why we couldn't hear bits of information from Nathaniel's point of view.

I loved the bond between Nathaniel and Silas. Nathaniel went through a lot but his heart is still in the right place, despite how he has been raised. There was a bond between a young boy who needed a caretaker and a person who didn't know how to do that but tried his best anyway.

There are some very good story-building elements shown in this story, and the characters are very well developed. It is a very unique and whimsical novel. This is not just another typical YA story; the romance is slow burn, and the author is very much setting up the foundation of the relationship. It was brilliant to watch Elisabeth and Nathaniel grow to trust each other, become friends and watch as their feelings for each other developed throughout the story.

I did think that there were a few plot conveniences throughout the story, and some of the story is spoon fed to the reader. The plot twist is pretty predictable and not so surprising. Despite this, the story is still very good - it is engaging and suspenseful. This book is a must read, and I am excited to see what Margret Rogerson writes next!

Photo Credit: @ReadByRay

Thank you for reading today's blog post! Have you read Sorcery of Thorns? What did you think? Let me know, and come back next week for another blog post!

May Favourites - 2020

Due to a certain crisis, I haven't really been able to leave the house much, so this months favourites is not the most exciting. It may be that way for the foreseeable future, but if there is one thing that Covid-19 is helping me with, its appreciating the little things in life! I hope that you are all staying safe, we will get through this! If you would like to see some more exciting Favourites posts, click on the links down below:

• January Favourites (2020) - Click Here
• February Favourites (2020) - Click Here
• March Favourites (2020) - Click Here
• April Favourites (2020) - Click Here
• Other Favourites posts - Click Here

Fairest of them All Mouse Ears

My absolute favourite design that I have added to my Etsy Shop so far! I cannot believe how amazing these ears look in comparison to the first pair that I made. I am very proud of these ears, they are inspired by one of my favourite Disney Princesses, Snow White. 

If you are interested, you can check out my Etsy Shop here.

Doughnut Mouse Ears

I also made these mouse ears in the month of May. They are another pair of ears that I am very proud of! I was inspired by the all the amazing food that you are able to get at Disney. I was hoping to find a Disney food printed fabric, but I was unable to find a print that was sold in the UK, and I think especially at the moment it is important to support small local businesses to ensure they will survive the current crisis (and also, postage is expensive!). These ears look fantastic, and they are definitley among my favourite designs.

I also made it so that these ears are available with any colour bow and trimming! Here is a light pink version of the ears that I made for another customer! 

Stitch Photo

I took this photo of Stitch to help promote my business on social media, and I just think that it is the most adorable thing! Stitch is definitley one of the cutest Disney Characters!

Cinderella Ears

One of my customers ordered some custom ears, and I was so happy with how they looked I decided to add them to my shop for other people to purchase. I absolutely love how these turned out, the fabric print is so beautiful! I seem to be building up a Princess Collection!

Logo 

Since lockdown has started, I decided that I was going to start taking my Etsy shop a little bit more seriously and revamp my shop and social media accounts. I started adding nicer backgrounds to my photos when taking pictures of my ears and edited my social media accounts, but I felt like my logo just didn't look right and needed a makeover. I then messaged an artist (@Orange.Glazed.Cupcake on Instagram - give them a follow!) about possibly doing a commission drawing for me and the result is absolutely fantastic!

I was sent a line drawing, a coloured version and the final version. Here are the different designs.

Line Drawing

First Colouring 

Final Drawing

They all look so beautiful! I thought that the first version of the drawing was it finished and I wasn't expecting anything else, but the final version is just so fantastic. I feel like this new logo has completely transformed how my accounts look and I am very proud of how far my shop has come!

Baking - Cookies and bread

Baking has been a thing everyone has been doing during lockdown, and I decided to join the party. I had never made bread or cookies before and I decided that I wanted to make an attempt this month. Two of the most random choices - yes - but don't judge me okay!

I made a plated loaf of bread and it looks absolutely amazing! I thought that I went really wrong when I first started making it but it really turned out great!

I had a few attempts at making cookies this month, the first few were more like mini cakes, but hey they still tasted nice! My final attempt was quite possibly the best batch of cookies I have ever made! They were double chocolate chip and were a different recipe to the first batch that I made, and I will definitely be making some more. But as of now...well I have used all of our baking supplies now...

New Stationary

I finished my second year at university, so what did I do? Buy more stationary so I can get a head start on my third year of course!
I ordered some pens and a fancy new notebook to get a head start on my dissertation. The book isn't too fancy, but it does have dividers in it and I really struggled to find a notebook like this so it made me happy enough!
If you know me, I always love getting new stationary!

The Sims 4 Realm of Magic

I haven't really been able to live my life while we have been in lockdown, so I have been living vicariously through my Sims. I decided I really wanted to add some witches and wizards to my game, so I caved and bought the Realm of Magic Game Pack. I have really enjoyed having this in my game, I absolutely love the new world and I really like how the magic system works.

Disney Calendar

I have had this Disney Calendar since the start of the year, but I really wanted to point out how nice the painting was for the month of May. I love Tangled, and I wasn't expecting to see the appearance of one of the newer Disney Movies in here, I thought it would only be the classic Disney Movies, so it was a nice little surprise!


And that is it for my favourites for the month of May! I hope you have all been staying safe whilst being in lockdown, wherever you may be! What have you been getting up to during lockdown? And what are your favourites for the month of may? Let me know! 

The Book Blogger Confession Tag

More book content! Exactly what you all were wanting! As you can see from the title, today's post will be The Book Blogger Confession tag. Although this blog is not exclusively for books, I do make my fair share of reading posts, so I believe that is justifiable enough to do this tag! I found this tag over on Booklovingnut.com, so be sure to check out their post! Without further ado, let's get into it!

1) Which book, most recently, did you not finish?

Photo Credit: @WeeReaderBlog

For me, the book that I haven't finished most recently is A Gentleman's guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee. I was reading this book in October/November of 2019, but I had a lot going on at that time. I was working on a show for university, with show rehearsals going from 9am til 6pm atleast, I was also attending interviews for the Disney Cultural Exchange Program, so there was just a lot going on and it was not the right time to read that book. I didn't get too far into it and I am looking forward to being able to pick it up once again!

2) Which book is you guilty pleasure?

Photo Credit: @LostInPages

I would have to say my guilty pleasure book is A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J Maas. Although it was exciting that the ACOTAR Universe was getting an additional story, not much really happens in this book. I refer to it as the Christmas special of the series - not impacting the cannon story too much but letting you know what happened to the characters after the main book series. Still, I found this to be a very enjoyable read when I first read it and I would probably say it is one of my favourite books in the franchise. 

3) Which book do you love to hate?

Photo Credit: @Gramho

Hate is a very strong word, and I wouldn't necessarily like to say I love to hate a particular story as whether I like the book or not, the author has put serious work into it and many other readers have managed to enjoy something that I couldn't. However, I will say that I am just not a huge fan of the Divergent Series. I feel like the whole system they have in place doesn't work and that there are many flaws and plot holes within the story. If you like it, fair enough, but it is just not my cup of tea!

4) Which book would you throw into the sea?

Photo Credit: @LairOfBooksBlog

They Both Die in the End by Adam Silvera. This book as ridiculously sad and I never want to read it again! (In a good way, it is a very good read, but was unexpectedly sad! I recommend it if you need a good cry!)

5) Which book have you read the most?

Photo Credit: @Picuki

It would probably be Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. It is my favourite book in The Hunger Games Series, and I was OBSESSED with this series when I was a teenager. I was thirteen when the first movie came out, and I am one of those people who likes to read the book before watching the film, so I did just that. Eight years later and I still have the three books I originally bought, but there are pages falling out and sellotaped into the book. None of my other books are in this condition, and Catching Fire is the worst condition wise out of the three so that's how I can tell! (Also yes I was one of those people who went back to a series but just read my favourite book don't judge!)

6) Which book would you hate to receive as a present?

Photo Credit: @WeHeartIt

I am going to change this up to which book did I hate receiving as a present and I am going to say Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas. I know that may sound crazy, especially as I have praised this series so much on my blog in the past but hear me out! Usually the people gifting me books are my parents and my mum hates hardback books. I love the hardback editions of the Throne of Glass series and am not so much a fan of the UK paper back editions, but when I got this book for Christmas I got the paperback version. Super grateful for the present, but I just prefer the art on the Hardback version, and it meant I had to get the rest of the series in paperback....although I imagine Kingdom of Ash would be awkward to read as a hardback just because of how big it is!

7) Which book could you not live without?

Photo Credit: @rachael_emma_89

The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven. I think that this story is so relevant to girls today and that everyone should read it at some point in their life. Go, read it! It will change you! 

8) Which book made you the angriest?

Photo Credit: @ToBorrowOrBuy

The whole book didn't necessarily make me angry. On the contrary, I think that this book is amazing and more people should read it, but I was really angry when reading Simon versus the Homo-sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. In particular was the scenes where Martin was blackmailing Simon and when Simon's friend discovered what was going on. It was all true to what could happen today with friends and coming out during high school ect, but they still made me mad. (Another great book, go read it!) 

9) Which book made you cry the most?

Photo Credit: @Gramho

I'm not really the type of person that cries when I am reading a book, but I have to say, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K Rowling hit me. I grew up with the Harry Potter movies, and I was really angry with the ending of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. My mum told me the book had a much better ending, so I read through the entire series and when I got to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows I was shook. So many characters I grew up loving killed, characters I shipped not ending up together, and whatever the 19 years later scene is....I will never forget the first time I finished the Harry Potter Book Series.  

10) Which book cover do you hate the most?

Photo Credit: @Gramho

I have to say I am not the biggest fan of the cover of Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah J Maas.

And there we go, The Book Blogger Confession Tag! Thank you so much for reading today's post! If you would like to read any more book related content, check out my Book Blog Posts page, which has all of the book related posts I have made linked! Be sure to check back next week for another post! 

Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst - A Book Review

Photo Credit: @ThrityOfDarkClockwork

Betrothed since her childhood to the prince of Mynaria, Princess Dennaleia has always known what her future holds. This marriage will seal the alliance between Mynaria and her homeland, protecting people from other hostile lands. But Denna has a secret - she possesses and Affinity for fire, a dangerous gift for the future queen to have in a Kingdom where magic is forbidden. 

Denna must now learn the ways of her new home whilst hiding her magic, which grows stronger every day. To make matters worse, Princess Amaranthine - called Mare - is assigned to teaching her how to ride Mynaria's formidable warhorses; she is intimidating, prickly and unconventional. Worst of all, she is the sister of her betrothed.

Reluctantly, Mare and Denna join forces when a shocking assassination leaves the kingdom reeling. The two surprise each other as they become closer and soon their friendship is threatening to blossom into something more. Acting on their feelings could be deadly, and they are forced to choose between duty and their hearts. 

Of Fire and Stars treads over very familiar ground - a fantasy kingdom where magic is feared, a princess who mush hide her true powers the princess falling in love with a forbidden person. All of this would be an enjoyable read, but Coulthurst surprises us with a refreshing twist - the princess doesn't fall in love with a stable boy or the captain of the guard, she falls in love with another princess.

Here's the thing: their love is forbidden and could potentially tear the kingdom apart, but not because they are both women. Other same sex couples are casually mentioned in the book. It's Denna's sense of duty and self-doubt that stands between her and Mare. There are too many fantasy books out there in which the author falls back on existing prejudices rather than creating ones unique to their story. This book is bold enough to create a world that moves beyond the prejudices we are all fighting in our real world.

One thing that lets this book down is that most of the story is spent in a castle. It makes sense in terms of the subtext of the story, but I wanted to see Denna and Mare out on the road, free to explore more of this world. Hopefully we get to see this in the sequel! I definitley recommended this book if you are looking for a fantasy novel with LGBT+ Representation. The world's view of sexuality is extremely balances. The problem is never that there are two princesses in love, the issue is that one of these girls is betrothed to the other one's brother.

The magic system is incredibly developed for what was (at the time I read it) a stand alone fantasy novel. It was unique and well explained and I am looking forward to seeing how it expands in an extended series.

In conclusion, this is a very good book that I highly recommend. I am looking forward to reading the sequel (eventually), but if you are looking for a fantasy with a W/W romance, this is the book for you!

April Favourites - 2020

The month of April was very interesting for me. I spent the entire month in lockdown like the rest of the UK to stay safe from Covid-19, so I was worried when it came to writing a favourites post this month. However, I am really proud with what I have came up with, and I believe that this is one of the best favourites lists I have come up with in a long time! I hope you enjoy it too. In case you have missed out, here are the previous favourites posts that I have made in the past:

• January Favourites (2020) - Click Here
• February Favourites (2020) - Click Here 
• March Favourites (2020) - Click Here
• Other Favourites Posts - Click Here

My Happy Place Mouse Ears

Unfortunately, due to the world situation, I decided to close my Etsy shop during the month of April so I would not be putting myself or anyone else at risk. I still continued to make mouse ears, however, and I decided I really wanted to experiment with new ideas now that I had the time. I have so many ideas, but I do try and stick to ideas I can make happen whilst working with materials I already have, since I don't want to order new stock online. I wanted to try and make some fancier ears, and this happened. Sparkling black mouse ears featuring Cinderella's Castle! I had so much fun making these, and there are so many more designs I want to try. 

If you are interested in purchasing any mouse ears, or just want to follow up on how my business is doing, you can find me here:

• Etsy Shop - Click Here
• Instagram - Click Here
• Facebook - Click Here
• Twitter - Click Here

Under the Sea inspired Mouse Ears

A design I was planning before the UK lockdown came into place, I am very pleased with how these mouse ears turned out! Inspired by The Little Mermaid, I love how they look and I am excited to make more designs in the future! I am in love with the mermaid patterned fabric!

Homemade Birthday Card

My brother was one of the many people who had a Birthday during the April Lockdown. Usually I am very organised and know who's Birthday I will be home for and whose card I need to send off in advance. If all was well, I would have bought my Brothers card to give it to him the day after his Birthday - when I would be home from university. But there have been a couple of issues, and I was in a 5 week intensive process to create a show, 1 week of performing and then came home before the lockdown so I never found the time to go and buy him a card. 

So basically what I am trying to say is I made my brother a birthday card by hand, and I am so in love with the final card! I used stuff I already had lying around in the house, and he is a fan of the Pixar movie Up. I was originally planning to use these materials to make a Disney CEP page in my scrap book, but since that was cancelled, I decided to do this instead. It is so pretty and he loved it - which was the important part - so I am very happy with it. Who knows, maybe this is something I will start doing more often!

Fire Emblem Three Houses - Crimson Flower Path

Fire Emblem Three Houses making an appearance on my favourites list yet again. 200 hours in and I have almost competed the game! The only path I have left is the Church of Seiros path. Since that path is one of the two options that you can take when choosing the Black Eagles house, I have saved my game to another file at chapter 11 of the game so I don't have to go through the first half of the game again; hopefully it should not take me as long to complete that route!

That brings me to the other option, which is the route I took - the Crimson Flower Path, where you follow Edelgard in her attempt to take down the Church of Seiros. I was very excited to play this path since completing the Blue Lions path, and getting to see the other point of view, and I have to say that I was not disappointed. In the other paths, Edelgard is presented to the played as an evil dictator who killed anyone who stood in her way, but I always thought there was another side to her, and it wasn't as black and white as it seems. Although I do not agree with Edelgard 100% and I did start to find her obsession with Byleth annoying and creepy at points, I was satisfied to find out answers to questions I was left with from the other two routes. 

I will say, I was a little disappointed that this route was only 18 chapters long, and that there were not as many cut-scenes in this route as there was in the other two routes that I have played, meaning that out of the three routes I have played, this one was my least favourite so far. That in no way means that I did not enjoy this route though, and I have to say that Hubert (a character exclusive to this route) has become one of my favourite characters in the game; it is such a shame that you only have 18 chapters to get to know him in the game. 

As stated previously, I am well over 200 hours with this game now, and in my opinion it is well worth the money. It is definitely a game you should think of buying if you own a Nintendo Switch, and a fantastic introduction to the Fire Emblem Series if you have not played any of the previous routes. Now if you excuse me, I have another 30 hours of game play to complete!

Laptop

So the worst thing happened during the UK lockdown - my laptop broke. Of course, this may sound like the most first world issue in the world, but my laptop was my lifeline when it came to running my business and working from home for university. So I really needed to replace my old laptop and quickly. Here is where this new laptop comes into play.

My old laptop was one that I was given for Christmas seven years ago, so I had never bought a new laptop before. I had no idea what I was looking for and what was a good or a bad laptop. I ended up picking this one since it was in my price range and I was very intrigued by the speakers.

Although I loved my old laptop, it definitely had it's issues and it was about time I replaced it. Since I had money saved up for Disney (And was no longer going, thanks Covid-19) I had the funds available to buy a replacement luckily. I am still figuring out all the fancy features of this new laptop, but things seem to be going well so far! 

Sorcery of Thorns by Margret Rogerson

Photo Credit: @DamnMysterious

I actually found the time to sit down and read a book this month! I know, it is a miracle! Sorcery of Thorns was a fantasy book that I was given for Christmas in 2019. I absolutely love the front cover design, it looks absolutely stunning! I don't want to go too much into discussing the story or my opinions here since I am working on writing a review for the book, so you can look out for that in the near future. However, I will say that it was a very enjoyable read and it was quite refreshing to be able to read a fantasy book that was standalone and was not related to any other stories. Of course I do love a series, but I did like not having to commit to reading seven books for once. 

The Sims 4: University Life Expansion Pack

Photo Credit: @Gamivo

The Sims 4: University Life was actually an expansion pack that I bought in December, but I never really played it too much then. I have been playing it quite a bit in the last month and I feel like I can really appreciate what the Sims Developers have done with the pack. The Student Halls are questionable decorated, but then again, so are student halls in real life! Other than that, this pack seems to be pretty authentic to how university life is really like - may be a little more Americanised but still - and I have been really enjoying including it in my game play. It is easily one of my favourite expansion packs, and I would say it fits perfectly with The Sims 4: Get Together and The Sims 4: City Living. 

And that is is for my April Favourites this year. What have you been doing to stay sane during the UK lockdown? Be sure to let me know and stick around for more exciting blog posts coming soon! 

The Nintendo Tag

Photo Credit: @NintendoOfEurope

I was looking for something new to talk about this week, when I came across something I didn't know was a thing - The Nintendo Tag. I have posted a bout a few Nintendo games on my blog in the past, so I though, why not dedicate a whole post to Nintendo. Get your consoles ready everyone, and I hope you enjoy!

Which classic game do you still want to play?

Photo Credit: @DigitalTrends

I would be interested in playing the original Metroid game. It was one of the most influential titles to appear on the NES, and is still one of Nintendo's biggest franchises today!

A sequel you liked more than the first 

Photo Credit: @InstantGaming

There are so many Nintendo games and so many sequels that I have played, but I have to say that the one I liked much more than the first game was The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - a sequel to one of the most influential games of all time (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time). This game should have been terrible - the creative team had less than a year to create it and used the same system and character models from the first game, but luckily it was a massive success. I love how darker the story is and how they somehow raised the stakes from the first game. Not only is it one of my favourite sequels, I will go as far as saying that this is one of my favourite games of all time.

Which Game revolutionised your gaming world?

Photo Credit: @EspeonianPosters

I have spoken about the Fire Emblem franchise many times on my blog, and who'd have thought that the game that changed gaming for me would be a game from that franchise. I don't know why I picked up Fire Emblem: Awakening when it first came out - I hadn't played any of the previous Fire Emblem Games and was not really too interested in Anime at all. I think the main thing was I knew Marth and Roy from Super Smash Brothers and - since they were two of my favourite characters in Smash - wanted to play a game from their franchise. I fell in love with Fire Emblem:Awakening and haven't really looked back since. 

Which popular game do you not like?

Hate to break it to you all, but I am not a huge fan of the Pokemon games. Sorry. We love a bit of controversy!

A new favourite game you can't wait to play

Photo Credit: @Nintendo

Although this game is technically not a Nintendo game, I am really excited to play Bayonetta 3. I have been dying to see more of this game ever since the teaser trailer came out, but I guess I am just gonna have to wait a little longer! 

Favourite Game series you want to start

Photo Credit: @Collider

I would love to be able to go back and play all the Mario games from the start. I have played a couple of Mario games and a few levels here and there, but I would love to be able to find the time to start from scratch with each one and not have to mess around with my brother's save file...

Which Nintendo Character(s) do you love?

Photo Credit: @VentureBeat

I absolutely love the nintendogs and I miss them so much. I put so much time and effort into looking after them, and as a person who could never have a dog as a child it brought me true happiness. I am sorry for neglecting you for (tries to think how many years it has been since I have even loaded the game in my DS....). The nintendogs level in Smash Bros is definitley one of my favourite levels!

The best original Nintendo Characters

Photo Credit: @WallpaperFlare

Dimitri from Fire Emblem Three Houses. He is one of the best characters in the Fire Emblem Franchise, starting off as your stereotypical Fire Emblem Lord and ending up being so much more. He has one of the best character arcs in any game that I have played - never mind any Nintendo Game - and not to mention he is the leader of my favourite Fire Emblem House. 

And there you have it, the Nintendo Tag! Hope you enjoyed reading this week's post, I really enjoyed writing something a little bit different. I have wrote a couple of posts about gaming, so if you are interested in reading those click here. If not, thank you for reading today's post and check back next week to see whats in stall!

Hot Dog Girl by Jennifer Dugan - A Review

A book that took me way too long to finish! Wasn't because it was a bad book necessarily, but because I had so much to do at the start of 2020 that I did not really have time to sit down and read. Hot Dog Girl was a book I was given from Christmas in 2019 and I began reading it in January 2020, and when the whole country was locked down in March I found time to actually sit down and read the rest of this book (which I started in January...), and here I am now. Writing a Review. Hope you enjoy!

Photo Credit: @GoodReads

Elouise (Lou) Parker is determined to have the absolute best, most impossibly epic summer of her life. There are just a few things standing in her way: She's landed a job at Magic Castle Playland . . . as a giant dancing hot dog. Her crush, the dreamy Diving Pirate Nick, already has a girlfriend, who is literally the Princess of the park. But Lou's never liked anyone, guy or otherwise, this much before, and now she wants a chance at her own happily ever after. Her best friend, Seeley, the carousel operator, who's always been up for anything, suddenly isn't when it comes to Lou's quest to set her up with the perfect girl or Lou's scheme to get close to Nick. And it turns out that this will be their last summer at Magic Castle Playland--ever--unless she can find a way to stop it from closing.

Jennifer Dugan's sparkling debut coming-of-age queer romance stars a princess, a pirate, a hot dog, and a carousel operator who find love--and themselves--in unexpected people and unforgettable places.

Hot Dog Girl is a funny, feel good novel that took me way to long to read! There were so many moments that made me laugh, gasp, cry and even cringe. Lou is such an awkward character, and it is very clear to see how much she loves the place she works.

Lou was definitley one of the main reasons why I loved Hot Dog Girl. She had so much personality from the moment I opened the book. She has all these expectations about how the summer will go and the rug is completely pulled from underneath her feel. Ultimately, Hot Dog Girl is a story about letting go, and that it is incredibly hard. 

Looking at her situation from an external perspective, you can see what mistakes she is making and even if it is right in front of her eyes, you are able to understand why she cannot recognize it. And that is something that makes Lou such a relatable character, because don't we all have those moments where we are set that something has to go a certain way, only to see how wrong we were? 

It is clear in the story that Lou is afraid of the future. She is scared of people leaving her, and that she will not see them again when the park has closed for good at the end of the summer. We watch her make mistakes, and choices we all know are wrong and questionable, but these make Lou a strong, relatable character. When you feel like things are spinning wildly out of control and you're in free fall, pulling things down, you can't help but try to save yourself.

The publisher's summary does say that this is a queer romance, so you can probably guess where the story is going. In the end, Lou's fake relationship ends up getting in the way of her real relationship.  Whether you are oblivious to where the plot is going or not, this is still a very good read, and it is great to watch the plot unfold. The setting is unique, there is workplace drama and many changes in relationship. These all make a cute story that is perfect to read over the summer months! 

My Mysterious Flatmate - Storytime

I don't believe I have done a story time before, so there is a first time for everything! As many of you may be aware, I am currently in my second year of university. I have lived through the horrors of student halls in my first year and am now loving life in my second year student house! I actually didn't find student halls really bad, I quite enjoyed living there. But I did have one flat mate who was a little bit on the strange side lets just say, and not in the good way. So here is the story of my mysterious flat mate!

I moved into student halls in September 2018 and had 7 new flatmates. I will not be using real names in this post, but if you happen to be reading this, hello! So six of us gathered in the kitchen after our parents left to meet each other - there was me, Jason, Emily, Caitlin, Mia and Charlie. I thought there was only six of us at first and didn't realise that there was a seventh flat mate until a week into university. This flat mate we'll call Katie.

I was having a conversation with Jason one day in the kitchen, and he informed me that on moving in day Katie locked herself in her bathroom and couldn't get out, but as I said earlier, we were all in the kitchen meeting each other. Katie's room was right next to the kitchen, so she could have very easily shouted and we would have heard and been able to help her get out. Security came at some point to help her get out, but I was too busy unpacking my room to notice that.

Katie would never talk to us, or even acknowledge us when we were around her. She would run into the kitchen, make her food and run back to her room with her food and lock the door straight away.

Now I am a really nice person, I wouldn't go out of my way to make somebody to feel unwelcome or uncomfortable, and every time Katie came into the kitchen I would always say hi or would ask her how her day was going. I never received an answer. She never said anything to us. You would thing I was threatening her. Most of the time she came into the room she would be wearing earphones anyway, so I'm not sure if she even heard anything I said.

Our flatmate Mia was on the same course as her at university, and she said she would hardly turn up to their classes. There was one time their teacher was taking the register and he said "Katie - oh, shes probably not going to bother turning up" and she was sat at the back of the room and said "actually, I'm here". Not that it made much of a difference - that day they were looking at physical theatre and she was just sat in the corner of the room on her phone (this may sound typical of a student, but for a performance course this is particularly bad).

There were so many weird things that she did. There was one time I came back late from a rehearsal and she was in the kitchen making pasta in the dark. She never cleaned up, she always left her dishes on the side. And while she was not the only flatmate to do this, at least the others came and washed their dishes up the same day or in the morning so they weren't lying around for too long. Eventually, we were getting fed up of her leaving stuff for us to wash up, so we started putting her dishes back in her cupboard. We did ask before doing this, but were ignored. We also asked her to take out the bins once, since we all did one thing to keep the kitchen clean and tidy. Bare in mind, this girl was 22, and she was living with 20-18 year olds at this point, and she asked us how she could take out the bin and where she needed to take the rubbish. We were well into 6 months of living together at this point!

But there is something more interesting about Katie, she didn't just do all of that stuff, she was also a You-tuber! Yes, you heard right. I am not going to leave her YouTube channel just for her privacy, but she made animations and did a lot of live streams. There's nothing wrong with that, I have a YouTube Channel, a lot of university students do, but she did live streams at 4 in the morning and screamed. She woke us all up several times doing this. There was one live stream where she complained about us, and said we all got drunk and screamed about which boy she liked - clearly she hadn't met me properly.  She also talked about going into the kitchen to make food while we were all sleeping and admitted to stealing people's food off their shelf - which is something that isn't allowed or okay! Who in their right mind would do that?

That leads me to the next thing that she did - one time she took all the food off Jason's shelf in the fridge, and put her own food on there. She didn't even put Jason's food back, she just left it lying out on the counter. There were six fridge shelves and two drawers in our flat - there was totally enough space for her food somewhere other than Jason's shelf. Worst thing is, she did this while me and Jason were in the Kitchen.  We witnessed it. She claimed that she did this since there was not enough space for her food, but we all had the same amount of space - one shelf each. The only person without a shelf was Charlie - who was catered so she didn't really need to use the fridge. But continuing, Jason eventually got his shelf back; Katie spilt milk allover her shelf in the fridge, but didn't want to clean it up, so she moved all her stuff into one of the drawers in the fridge. She left the milk on her fridge shelf. And Jason had to clean it up. I really what to know what was going through this girls head!

Ayway, there was one day when I woke up and I heard a lot of rustling and noise coming from the kitchen. I figued that I would go and check it out when it was quiet. So I went into the kitchen about an hour later and saw rubbish everywhere. This girl had moved out and trashed out kitchen. What's worse is she left 4 month out of date milk on the kitchen counter. We complained to the housing people, but they said we needed to clean it up ourselves.

And that was the last we heard of her. I am sure she is still making YouTube videos now, but being honest I am not really keeping up to date with her channel. That was the story of my mysterious flatmate! Do you have any weird house mate or flat mate stories? Let me know, I would love to hear them! Thank you so much for reading, and I will see you in next weeks post!

March Favourites 2020

March has been a very eventful month, and I can't quite believe that the first two weeks were spent performing in one of the most challenging shows I have ever done and the second half I was told that I was not allowed to leave my home. The world is a very weird place, but that hasn't stopped me from coming up with a favourites list for the month of March! If you have missed any of my other favourites posts, you can find them here:

January Favourites 2020 - Click Here
February Favourites 2020 - Click Here
Other Favourites Posts - Click Here

Girlfriends

As part of my training at university, I had to take part in a musical - the musical I auditioned for was Girlfriends by Howard Goodall. I was cast as the part of Pam and I have really loved taking part in this process. The music in this show is beautiful, and I am sure it will be one that I will listen to over and over again. Not to mention that our composer sent us his best wishes before we performed the show. It is always hard to say goodbye to a show after closing, but I will be thankful for the memories that Girlfriends has given me.

Show Photos

On the back of that, we asked a photographer to come into our dress rehearsals to take photos of both casts. This is the first time that I have had photos taken of me in a show, so it was a big deal! I am so happy with how they look! Here are just a few that were taken:

Hair

Related to Girlfriends, I needed to figure out a practical way to keep my hair out of the way during the musical but that would fit in with the time period of the show, A little bit of messing around left me with this style, which I have really grown to love. Lots of people have said I should wear this style as an everyday look, but it does take some time, so maybe I will consider it for a special occasion.

Villains Ears

I am very excited to be attending the Villains After Hours Event in the summer whilst I am working at Walt Disney World, and I wanted to have some ears to be able to go in style, cue the creation of these babies! I absolutely love how these ears look and I cannot wait to wear them around Disney's Magic Kingdom!

Fire Emblem Three Houses - Cindered Shadows DLC

Photo Credit: @KeenGamer

As you may or may not know, the UK went into lockdown during the month of March (may still be in lockdown, who knows! Future Natalie will that's for sure!) This meant that there was plenty of time for me to play the DLC for Fire Emblem Three Houses. I feel like the story line it followed was a little predictable, but the new characters are super cool and I am very excited to see how they will impact the main game play! I would say that it is worth buying purely for these four characters - especially since you will also get the unique classes that they come with! I finished this in 7 hours, so I am now getting round to finally playing the Black Eagles storyline. So just wait and see, you might be able to see what I think of that story line in my April 2020 favourites post!

Bernarda Alba

Photo Credit: @StanwixTheatre

Our class was split into two, half of us performed in the musical Girlfriends and the other half performed in Bernarda Alba by Michael John Lachusa. I went to see this show after we performed our first show (because we somehow managed to share a set in the same theatre, we're still not sure how it worked but we somehow did it!) and I am so proud of my friends for putting on such an incredible performance. It was a really hard hitting musical, and was definitley not for everyone, but many people came out of this show saying it was the best student performance that they had ever seen! I am obsessed with the music in this show and I have been listening to the soundtrack quite a lot in my spare time. There has been talks of this version of the show going to Edinburgh Fringe in a few years time, so you heard about it here first! Keep an eye out! 

Hot Dog Girl by Jennifer Dugan 

Photo Credit: @GoodReads

Elouise (Lou) Parker is determined to have the absolute best, most impossibly epic summer of her life. There are just a few things standing in her way: She's landed a job at Magic Castle Playland . . . as a giant dancing hot dog. Her crush, the dreamy Diving Pirate Nick, already has a girlfriend, who is literally the Princess of the park. But Lou's never liked anyone, guy or otherwise, this much before, and now she wants a chance at her own happily ever after. Her best friend, Seeley, the carousel operator, who's always been up for anything, suddenly isn't when it comes to Lou's quest to set her up with the perfect girl or Lou's scheme to get close to Nick. And it turns out that this will be their last summer at Magic Castle Playland--ever--unless she can find a way to stop it from closing. 

Jennifer Dugan's sparkling debut coming-of-age queer romance stars a princess, a pirate, a hot dog, and a carousel operator who find love--and themselves--in unexpected people and unforgettable places. 

A book that took me way too long to read but I really enjoyed it! You can look forward to hearing my full thoughts on it in the next couple of weeks, keep your eyes out for a review! 

And there are my favourites for the month of March! Thank you so much for reading, and I will see you next week for another post!