What I’m Reading: All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

  

Anyone who knows me is sure to know that one of my main passions in life is reading. Reading is so many things, it keeps me calm, keeps me happy and helps me escape into a new world.
I’m a huge fan of Young Adult novels, so of course I had to pick up a copy of what I believe to be the debut novel, released earlier this year by Jennifer Niven, All the Bright Places. 

I have to admit, I’ve had this book for a while but have put off reading it on several occasions. This is because several reviews have referred to it as a cross between John Greens The Fault in Our Stars and Rainbow Rowells Eleanor & Park- both of which are fantastic novels, so this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, both these novels made me feel like locking myself in my room with a box of tissues to wipe away my tears and not interacting with anyone for days; so I sort of figured this novel will make me feel the same way, which made me slightly put off reading it. 

Although, I am now currently reading this book.

I decided to finally pick it up as I’ve heard so much praise for this book, and I felt as though I was missing out on something. After having started it- I now realize that as a Young Adult Novel fan, I definitely was missing out. 

I’m only 138 pages in out of the total 378 but I am already loving it. 

I don’t really want to give much detail into the story, as I do believe you should go into this book not really knowing what to expect- I wish I’d known a little bit less about the book before having started it. 

But I will say that the structure, plot and characters of this book are already fantastic. What I particularly loved about the structure is that there is no messing about at the beginning, the story starts as it means to go on. No tedious introductions to our characters etc. I suppose this straight forward start could also be rather representative of the personality of our main male protagonist, Theodore Finch- straight to the point with no time to spare. 

I have already fallen in love with our male protagonist- he’s certainly an individual, funny, spontaneous, straight talking and up for anything, which is definitely what our shy, trapped in her own shell female protagonist needs in her life. 

This story is written from the point of view of both characters, which is always nice as it gives us the opportunity to get to know each of them better and learn more about how each of their minds work. This is done by one chapter being from Finch’s point of view, the next being from Violets etc.

 
The two meet at the top of their schools bell tower, and the story of their friendship and romance begins from that moment. 

Like I’ve said, I’m not far in and I’m already enjoying this book, so if you haven’t read it I would certainly recommend this if you are a YA fan like myself- plus, all the Virginia Woolf quotes are a nice touch. 

I’m always looking for new things to read- so please reccomend some books in the comments and let me know your thoughts on this book if you have already read it! 

Bye for now! 

Oops I did it again…

So recently I’ve mentioned that I’ve become a little obsessed with Urban Decays eye makeup products and had purchased a few, these included their: 

• Perversion Mascara 
• Brow box in Brown Sugar
• Naked Basics 2 Eyeshadow Palette
• Naked 3 Eyeshadow Palette

Well, I did it again… I went into my local Debenhams and couldn’t resist purchasing yet another product. 

So everybody welcome Urban Decays Naked 2 Eyeshadow Palette to my little makeup collection! 

 

This palette is full of glittery golds, bronzes and silvers creating lovely night time and daytime looks as well as a black colour for smoking the looks out. I haven’t used this palette much yet as I’ve not had it long but I look forward to experimenting with it! 

  
I’ll add this palette to the list of reviews I plan to write, and perhaps even write a comparison post between this palette and the Naked 3 Palette. 

Bye for now! 

June Favourites!

Where is this year going at all? How can it already be the beginning of July?! Well I guess it’s time for June favourites!

Favourite Book: My favorite book of the month is actually a series of books and this series is the Anna, Lola,Isla series by the wonderful Stephanie Perkins. These books are a series of Young Adult Romance novels. They’re about 3 separate couples and the story of how each fall in love and they’re just cute, happy light reads. Two of the stories are set in a boarding school in Paris (which just makes it even better) and the other is set in America. In the last of the books, travelling is mentioned quite a lot-perfect for getting you in the summery mood! I love each of these books so much, as each made me smile so much whilst reading them! If I had to pick a favorite of the 3 it would be Anna and the French Kiss.

Favourite Makeup: For any of you who’ve been reading my most recent posts, will know that I’m currently very pleased by the Urban Decay products I have recently purchased, out of all of them I am most pleased with my Naked 3 Eyeshadow Palette (a review of this will be up soon). I used to be absolutely awful with my eye makeup, but this palette has helped me learn so much. It includes pinks,browns,golds,purples, in a mixture of light to dark tones and glitters and mattes-which all suit my skin tone. With it it is easy to create a whole range of looks, no matter the occasion! I’ve had so much fun experimenting with this palette this month.

Favourite Song: My favourite song of this month is This Must be the Place (Naive Melody) by the Talking Heads. I have loved this song for a long time, but listened to it a lot this month! Although it’s a catchy love song, it completely avoids all clichés.

Favourite Film: Anyone who knows me knows I can’t resist a Disney Princess film, so for this months favorite I chose Tangled as this is my all time favorite. The songs are perfect, the characters are perfect, the story is perfect. I just can’t help how much I love this film.

Favourite Place: My favorite place that I have been too this June is Bakewell Village in England (I live in England, in case you hadn’t guessed). I visited here only a couple of months ago with my family to celebrated my parents 25th Wedding Anniversary. This is a lovely quaint little village that is rather pretty. There are several shops, but mainly there are lots of bakeries that sell the most beautiful Bakewell Tarts I have had in my entire life! My favorite thing about this town is the bridge over the river that people place engraved locks upon to represent themselves as a couple, or in the memory of a loved one etc. My parents had one engraved and put on for their anniversary, and I thought it was such a cute idea!

Favourite TV series: I think everyone must have chosen this series this month, but it’s got to be Orange is the New Black. How could I not pick this series when the release of series 3 has been the television highlight of June?! The continuation of this series was just as good as the last two series, if not better in my opinion. If you have not watched this, you need to watch it right now! For anyone who has seen it, is it just me who thinks they should release a copy of Susan’s  (Crazy Eyes) Romantic Erotic Novel, I mean it sounds much more interesting than 50 Shades of Grey!

If anyone would like me to elaborate on any of these choices, let me know in the comments and I’ll write a post on them!

Bye for now!

Happy 25th Wedding Anniversary Mum&Dad

Well today is my Parents 25th Wedding Anniversary. They married when my mum was just 18 years old (the age I am now) and my dad was 20 years old.

For the past 25 years they have stayed by each others side through thick and thin.

They are both such an inspiration to me and I hope I one day have a marriage as loving and as strong as theirs.

You’ve certainly proven the ones who said it wouldn’t last wrong!

Happy 25th Wedding Anniversary Mum&Dad. 

 Mum&Dad on Lock Bridge in Bakewell

Their engraved Love Lock on the bridge in Bakewell

Urban Decay: Brow Box in Brown Sugar

As a part of the new My Makeup Obsession part of my blog, I promised readers that I would write about the products I recently purchased from a brand I am now in love with, which at the moment happens to be Urban Decay.

The next  in the line up of recently purchased products is the Brow Box in Brown Sugar. 

First things first, for a long time I have hated my eyebrows, no matter how much they’ve been plucked, grown out, waxed, threaded (ouch!), tinted, etc. they never seem to quite go how I want them.

However, with the my newly purchased brow box, I actually quite like them!

The Brow Box contains two powders in which you use one of the angled brushes included inside to apply, a long with a wax to set, iddy biddy tweezers to pluck and another angled brush for wax. All this is included in a tiny container with two layers.

This is incredibly easy to apply, for myself, I have very dark brown hair, so I try and make my eyebrows dark and bold to match. To achieve this, I start with the lightest shade of the two, which is Sugar. I take some of this powder on the little angled brush, and follow the shape of my eyebrows with this easily.

Eyebrows without anything on

Eyebrows after having applied Sugar

As you can see from the image, if you have a lighter hair colour, you could even just leave this at this step and go straight onto apply the wax as these powders are so bold and pigmented, however, as mentioned previously I have darker hair, so prefer darker eyebrows.

So I then just repeat this step with the darker powder shade, Brown.

Eyebrows after having applied Brown

After that, I just go onto following my eyebrows with the little angled brush with the setting wax- this helps them last all day with no smudging or fading.

It’s as simple as that! There are probably many more things that can be done with the Brow Box, but I am no expert and am happy with the results of these 3 simple steps.

The Brow Box costs £18, which may seem a lot but due to the longevity of the product due to how little has to be used per application and what comes within it, I would say this is about fair.

A review of other Urban Decay products that I have purchased should be available soon, including the Naked 3 Eyeshadow Palette.

Bye for now!

Gold Vivienne Westwood Shoes (In collaboration with Melissa)

My Vivienne Westwood Shoes

A few months ago, I decided to treat myself to a pair of Vivienne Westwood shoes, and for that I chose these beauties! I would have wrote about these a long time ago, but as those of you might know who have been following me for a while may have known, I took a bit of a break from writing for a few different reasons- I purchased these within that time.

To my knowledge, Vivienne Westwood do slight variations every year of these kinds of shoes that they create in collaboration with Melissa, a brand that designs beautiful, practical shoes. These shoes are the 2014 edition, but I got them on sale whilst I purchased them in 2015.

These shoes are made out of Melflex Plastic, which is a recyclable type of TPU plastic- they’re also completely cruelty free and have no animal products within them, making them vegan. The logo is made out of enamel.

As mentioned previously, I’ve had these shoes for several months and have no complaints! They’re incredibly comfy because of the material moulding itself around my feet.The enamel logo is bolted onto the shoes to ensure that there is absolutely no chance of it coming off (this does not effect the shoes comfort)

The colour and design of these shoes is beautiful, and they’re perfect for wearing in the day with jeans or a dress, or for wearing as a sensible yet gorgeous choice of going out shoes!

They are extremely well made- I honestly can’t fault them at all!

My Brothers Vivienne Westwood Shoes.

These shoes are available in a variety of different colours and styles, and are even available for men to purchase. The men’s version are not in collaboration with Melissa, but are still the same style and are still just as good quality.

The women’s shoes are usually £110 full price, but I got mine for approximately £70 on sale.

The men’s are a bit more expensive at £160, but my brother bought his pair for £80 on sale.

These shoes will last an incredibly long time due to their high quality, and could probably even be resold for a similar price if I ever wanted to- not that I would want to because I love them so much!

I think Vivienne Westwood is such an incredible designer, and her designs are perfect for those of us who want something a little different, yet still beautiful.

Bye for now!

Frankie&Benny’s Restaurant Review

So, I thought I’d try a different kind of post to the usual makeup, books and games and talk about one of my other loves, food! 

Lately, I’ve been wanting to try a lot more places, as my boyfriend and I tend to stick to the typical British pub food when we go out, as he’s incredibly picky- where as I’m up for anything really!

Anyway, I finally managed to convince him to go to Frankie&Benny’s with me. I’ve been to Frankie&Benny’s a few times in the past, so this isn’t a first time visit, this is just my first time writing a review on it.

For those of you who might not know what Frankie and Benny’s is (I’d be shocked if you didn’t to be honest), it’s and American/Italian Restaurant- meaning it sells meals such as pastas, pizzas, burgers, fries etc.

Whilst there, we decided to skip starters and go straight onto the main meal, I chose to eat their Chicken Romana, which should be priced at £10.75. This meal pasta, with a creamy tomato and herb sauce, with pieces of chicken breast, bacon and pancetta bacon. If I’m honest, it was delicious. I have absolutely no complaints  with the food, it was all lovely and incredibly picky as portions weren’t stingy in my opinion, but my boyfriend says otherwise (please bare in mind that he can just eat and eat and eat.) 

Chicken Romana

The service was also lovely, the staff were friendly and polite, and the food came at a reasonable time, just enough time so we could have a conversation and settle in beforehand without feeling rushed. There was no problem when asking for the bill either.

As for the atmosphere of Frankie&Benny’s, I’m a little indecisive. Whether this restaurant is suitable for you really depends on the occasion that you are going there for. I loved the music played and the design etc. but it was all just a bit loud. (I’m not meaning to sound like a grumpy granny, but I can’t help it!) We were looking for a relaxing, chilled out atmosphere and instead we got groups of children celebrating birthdays and family nights out. It was sometimes a little difficult to talk to each other without having to repeat ourselves. I also have to bear in mind that this was a Saturday evening, which is a particularly busy time for anywhere. This isn’t to say that the atmosphere is at all bad, it’s cheerful and pleasant, and certainly not boring, it was just perhaps not the sort of atmosphere a couple would enjoy (but hey, you can’t please everyone!).

Would my boyfriend and I go just the two of us again? Perhaps not.

But would I take my family or friends for dinner out? Certainly! 

I also mentioned previously that each main meal cost £10.75, which to me is a bit pricey as there are lots of cheaper places around. However, we got our meals for cheaper by using a voucher that gave the overall bill total £10 off as long as two main meals had been purchased, leaving our bill total at £15.60 because we shared a portion of house fries. We then split this in half, meaning it cost us about £7.80 each ((excluding drinks),which isn’t bad at all!
So if you’re a bargain hunter like myself I recommend that you go onto either Frankie&Benny’s facebook page to discover their most recent vouchers (this is where I found ours) or download their app to be sent vouchers regularly.

What other restaurants would you recommend for us to try next? (We seriously need ideas!) 

If you guys liked this post, I may do others like it in the future!

Bye for now!

Urban Decay: Perversion Mascara

As mentioned in my previous post Urban Decay: My New Makeup Obsession, I recently purchased Urban Decays Perversion Mascara. This mascara usually costs £18, but I was lucky enough to have £5 to spend on my Debenhams Beauty Card and it was 10% off Beauty and fragrance in store on the day I bought it, making it £10.75. This seems expensive compared to what I usually pay for mascara, but God is this mascara worth it! 

If there’s supposed to be a second coming of Jesus, it’s happened in the form of this mascara. (Okay, maybe that’s a bit much but I love this mascara!) 

  

This mascara makes my eyelashes look so full and long, which really makes my eyes look so much bigger! It’s also incredibly pigmented, making the black lashes very bold. It only took one dab of mascara to get the lashes to the way they are on the pictures below. 

 Comparison photo: one eye with Perversion Mascara, one eye without any Mascara 
  

Both eyes with Perversion Mascara

In my opinion, this mascara may sound expensive, but if you’re going for big, black and bold with your lashes it’s definitely worth it. Little product had to be used to achieve this look that truly lifts my eyes. 

However, if you are skeptical about spending this much on a mascara, travel sizes are available to purchase from Urban Decay for £8. The travel size for cheaper will give you the opportunity to discover for yourself whether or not this mascara is worth it’s full price. 

I plan to post reviews of the other Urban Decay products I have recently purchased very soon. 

Bye for now! 

Urban Decay: My New Makeup Obsession

Before we start, I am aware that I am a bit late on the band wagon with this one, but Urban Decay is my latest makeup obsession! 

Over the past couple months I’ve bought some bits and bobs from Urban Decay, and it’s the best thing I’ve done in a while beauty purchasing wise. 

The products I’ve purchased over the past few months have focused on glamming up my eyes. Eye makeup is something I have really struggled with in the past, but I finally decided that enough is enough and that I needed to learn how to do this well as its such an essential for creating a perfect makeup look. After looking into a few brands, the best reviews for eye makeup were for the fantastic Urban Decay. All of the products I purchased have each been incredible. They’re all very pigmented and very, very long lasting. The products I have purchased so far are: 

• Naked Eyeshadow Pallette 3
• Naked Basics Eyeshadow Pallette 2
• Perversion Mascara 
• Brow box in Brown Sugar

I have been incredibly impressed with each of these products and plan to write posts for each individual product over the next few weeks to explain why, and demonstrate some of the looks I can now create using these! 

   
  

   

More in depth reviews about each of these products will be available soon.

What I would like to ask all of you is have you tried Urban Decay products before, and are there any others you would recommend? Leave a comment and let me know! 

Other than that, 

Bye for now! 

I’m back! (Honestly this time!)

So for anyone who has follows me, you may have noticed that it’s been a long, long time since I have written a post, a few months in fact- for that I apologise. I’m not going to get into too much detail, but a lot of things have happened these past few months that have made me lack the time and motivation to do things.
After a trip to the hospital that I may have mentioned in one of my previous posts, I took a break from writing posts for a couple of weeks, I then wrote a post saying I was back, well that didn’t actually happen. (Oops!)

Well now I am going to have some time freed up as I have finally completed my college course! (Hooray!) and I am feeling a lot better within myself to start doing this properly again.

Over the past few months I’ve gotten some new makeup, new books, new games, etc. so if you’ve liked my posts in the past there’s lots to look forward to within the future of this blog!

If anybody has any requests from the type of posts you would like to read, feel free to leave them down below.

Other than that, thank you guys for understanding, and hopefully my past followers will read my new posts and maybe we’ll get some new readers a long the way.

Bye for now!