Blog Archives
Book Mail: Advance copy of Misfit by Charli Howard.
Absolutely thrilled to be given the opportunity to read and review an advance copy of “Misfit” by Charli Howard – an international curve model and body activist whose charity, The All Woman Project, goes into schools to teach children about body image and mental health issues.
Here’s the blurb:
“So, how did a slightly bonkers misfit with anorexia, bulimia and anxiety decide to solve their problems? I became a model. As you do.
Charli Howard had always wanted to be normal – but for some reason, she couldn’t quite find out how to do it. As a teenager, she felt like the only one who struggled with anxiety and self-esteem issues when everyone around her seemed to fit in. So she tried to embrace standing out: by becoming a model. Believing it would make her happy and envied, she set out single-mindedly to make it – and she achieved her dream. But the reality wasn’t quite as glamorous as she’d hoped. The pressure on Charli to look a certain way took an extreme toll on her body and self-image, and no matter how thin she got, she was never thin enough.
When Charli, though medically underweight, was fired by her modelling agency for being too big, she decided she’d had enough. She used her platform for good and spoke out about the insane standards of the modelling industry, whose images influence young women and girls all over the world. Now, Charli is comfortable in her skin for the first time ever, working happily as a plus sized model in New York. Here, she shares her journey, from anorexic and bulimic teenager to happy, healthy twenty-something.”
I actually feel quite emotional about reading this book to be honest. Maybe it’s because I have a baby girl now and I hope she never ever falls victim to body shaming.
Charli is an inspiration to thousands of girls and I hope that when my little girl Willow is older, she’ll read this book and feel empowered. That she’ll feel comfortable in her own body, be proud of it, and that she’ll become a confident young lady that I know she can be.
“Misfit” will be released 22nd February 2018.
Blind Date With a Book!
For ages now I’ve seen on social media people having blind dates with books and have so desperately wanted to have one of my own! So imagine my excitement a few days ago when I saw on Facebook that my local library was doing one! A blind date with a book is basically how it sounds. A book is wrapped up in possibly brown paper so that you have no idea what book you’re going to read, apart from maybe the genre. I tagged my mother in-law in the post as I knew she’d be interested too and the following we popped down to our library to pick up our date.
The parcel above is the book I’d chosen. Each book is given a letter so that the folk at the library know what you’re reading but you don’t know until you unwrap it.
Say helloooo to my blind date….
The Ribbons Are For Fearlessness by Catrina Davies
The blurb:
I’m really enjoying it so far and I’m just about to start chapter 5. I unattractively snort laughed at the Wales and rain reference coz it’s so bloody true!
I swear we see more rain than sunshine here in Pembrokeshire! Our little town is near both the beach AND the mountains so this little reference was spot on lol! If you ever visit Pembrokeshire, don’t forget to pack a rain coat and wellies! Coz you Will need them. 😂
I hope you’re all having a lovely weekend. I’m now going to continue enjoying my date whilst having Dancing on Ice playing in the background. Anyone else watching it? Love me some ice skating!
Blame by Simon Mayo – Read-along!
Hi everyone. The lovely people at Penguin recently sent me a copy of Blame by Simon Mayo. I’m so excited to read it! My boyfriend’s mum has also got a copy so, starting tonight, we have decided to do a read-along where we’ll read a chapter each night. This is actually a great way for me to read as with having little Willow now, I’ve been struggling to read as much as I used to, but setting aside half an hour or so to read a chapter is doable!
If you haven’t heard of Blame yet, here’s the blurb:
“Heritage crime [noun]: A previously undetected crime committed by your parents or grandparents for which you are held responsible.
Ant and her brother, Mattie, are locked up in Spike, a new family prison. Society demands they do time for the unpunished heritage crimes of their parents. Tension is simmering inside the jail. When the tension breaks and a riot begins, Ant realizes they’ve got one chance to break out.
It’s time for Ant to show the world that they’re NOT TO BLAME.”
Have any of you read Blame? If so, what did you think? Do any of you have it on your TBR list? Do you fancy reading along with us? Let me know in the comments below.
Take care,
Dayna.
Sleep tight my beautiful kitties.
It’s not often that I will post about my personal life. At least not a post like this…
When I moved away to Pembrokeshire, leaving my cats (albeit with my parents as 5 of the 6 were the whole family’s cats) was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. In some ways, it was the hardest. I spent countless days crying and missing them. Particularly Felix as she was my little fur baby. I wanted to take her with me, but as grumpy as she was to the other cats, I wasn’t sure how she’d react to living with me on her own. It got even harder once Willow was born as I knew I couldn’t see them anywhere near as much as I had been but I was excited for the day when they’d finally meet her.
Yesterday I’d heard from my mum that Tessa was really poorly. Not just that, but Felix was also missing! Terra, our other cat, kept going out to look for her. In the early hours of this morning, cuddled up with my mum and dad on the sofa, Tessa sadly passed away from suspected poisoning.
Tessa lazing in the garden.
Felix was always the crazy one.
Completely and utterly heartbroken over the news. Hurting so bad and I have cried so much my head hurts as well as my heart. I’m still holding onto a glimmer of hope that Felix and Terra will be found and that they’re OK but it doesn’t look good. 😭
Terra always dreamed big and saw himself as a panther in the making.
Such an incredibly sad day. I’m hating the world and hating the people who think it’s ok to poison cats and other pets. 😿 How can we have lost 3 beautiful cats in the space of 24 hours?! It’s just not fair!
Now Felix won’t be waiting in the garden when I come home from Wales for a visit. Looking at me all shocked when I call her name then happy purring and meowing when she realises it’s me. No longer will she laze on my bed, having some down time from the other cats, and no longer will I be able to have cuddles with our three fur babies.
Sorry for such a gloomy post. I just wanted to write about it and get all my feelings out. Completely devastated right now.
My Summer Book Stack.
Woohoo the Summer has officially arrived! Happy belated Summer Solstice everyone! Living in Pembrokeshire now means I get to go to the beach a fair bit during the Summer as we have several near by. That is on the few occasions that we actually get to see a bit of sun lol! I’m not one for the hot weather, but I do love bright sunny days where the sky is a beautiful shade of blue with a few fluffy clouds floating by. The perfect opportunity to sit on the beach and do a spot of reading. This brings me to my post. I’ve decided to put together a few books that I’d like to read over the Summer. My Summer book stack! Now, whether I’ll be able to get through them all, I don’t know but I shall certainly try. The books I’ve chosen are:
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
Burn For Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian
Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare
Life and Death Twilight Reimagined by Stephenie Meyer
I’ve had some of these books for quite some time but hadn’t got around to reading them. Hopefully I’ll get through them all this Summer! I am particularly excited about reading Lady Midnight as I adore Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices. Have you read any of these? Do you have a Summer TBR list? What will you be reading? Let me know in the comments below! 😃
Oh, and if you don’t already know, we’re on Facebook! Stop on by and say hi!
Take care,
Dayna.
Next On My TBR List: And I Darken by Kiersten White.
A few weeks back the lovely Harriet at Penguin sent me a copy of the soon-to-be released And I Darken by Kiersten White. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to read it yet BUT this weekend will be THE weekend that I can finally get engrossed in it! I am so excited to be reading this book! Here’s the blurb:
AND I DARKEN by Kiersten White
Published 7th July 2016
“The phenomenal first book in an epic feminist trilogy set in the bloody Ottoman Empire, by the New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White.
Perfect for fans of Game of Thrones and The Queen of the Tearling, this is the ultimate, gripping, ‘can’t-stop-reading!’ novel to get stuck into on your summer holiday. Anti-princess Lada Dracul is destined to be the next feminist heroine, following in the footsteps of recent strong, gritty female characters Arya Stark, Jessica Jones and Star Wars’ Rey.
No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwyla likes it that way.
Ever since she and her brother were abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman sultan’s courts, Lada has known that ruthlessness is the key to survival. For the lineage that makes her and her brother special also makes them targets.
Lada hones her skills as a warrior as she nurtures plans to wreak revenge on the empire that holds her captive. Then she and Radu meet the sultan’s son, Mehmed, and everything changes. Now Mehmed unwittingly stands between Lada and Radu as they transform from siblings to rivals, and the ties of love and loyalty that bind them together are stretched to breaking point.”
Look out for my review in the coming weeks! 😃
Have a lovely weekend, all!
Come Join Me on Litsy!
Hey everyone! I hope you’re all keeping well and enjoying the Summer so far! It’s been a while and I do apologise for that. Having a cute little baby girl seems to be taking up a lot of my time now, but I’m still here, I promise. 😀
Have any of you heard of an app called Litsy? No? Neither had I until recently when my fiancé’s mum introduced me to it. It’s a book community where book lovers go to chat about, well, books! Basically it is a simplified version of Goodreads. At least that’s how I see it. It’s the only thing I can think to compare it to.
When you sign up, they ask if you want to follow their suggested users. I chose to do that but you don’t have to. One of them is a Litsy book club which I thought was a fab idea and will hopefully be joining in the fun next month myself. 😀
Here is what your profile layout will look like:
When you want to post something, just click on the cross symbol. You can then choose to write a review, write a blurb (or a general comment), or quote something from the book. Once you’ve chosen what you would like to do, you select your book and then you can write about it! It really is a nice little app. I think if I was to suggest any improvements, it would be to maybe have hashtags (or simply search for words) so that you can find other people who are reading the same book as you, like the same genre, are bloggers etc. So, if you love books like I do then come join me: SecretLivesOfFictionLovers
Enjoy your evening, guys! Oh and I thought I’d share a photo of Willow:
She’s wearing an Alice in Wonderland bow that I had made for her. I hope she loves books when she’s older!
Currently reading … And my Valentine’s Day gifts! 💕
Hi everyone! I haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth … honest! This pregnancy (I’m now 38 weeks pregnant – eek!) just seems to have taken over! So apologies yet again for being so quiet! I seem to have really lost the reading bug of late but I’m *trying* to get it back! I’ve been attempting to read something on my Kindle but my hands are crying out for an actual book to hold and turn the pages of (you just can’t beat the feel of an actual book, right?) so I’ve given in and chosen to read The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury!
Here’s the blurb:
“I am the perfect weapon.
I kill with a single touch.
Twylla is blessed. The Gods have chosen her to marry a prince, and rule the kingdom. But the favour of the Gods has its price. A deadly poison infuses her skin. Those who anger the queen must die under Twylla’s fatal touch.
Only Lief, an outspoken new guard, can see past Twylla’s chilling role to the girl she truly is.
Yet in a court as dangerous as the queen’s, some truths should not be told…”
I haven’t gotten very far but of what I have read, I’m really enjoying it! I love my YA novels and this was one that was recommended to me by Amazon. Seems completely unique to anything I’ve read in the past so thought I’d give it a go. Can’t wait to see how it all unfolds. 😃
Now on to Valentine’s Day … With having a little one due any day now, Aled and I didn’t go mad this year. He did offer to buy me a new Pandora charm but I opted for books instead! Coz I do love my books (even if I seem to have lost all motivation atm) and thought it a great excuse to get some new ones! These are the books I’d chosen:
For a change, I thought I’d go for a classic by H.P. Lovecraft and a book called Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick. As you can see, it’s been compared to The Hunger Games but for me the only similarities seem to be the fact it’s a dystopian. Here’s the blurb taken from the back of the book:
I couldn’t find a blurb online that matched the back of the book, hence this picture.
Oooh Superheroes AND zombies … should be in for an interesting read here!
So, there you have it. I can’t wait to delve into these books and hopefully my reading bug will return and I’ll be back to normal with my head constantly stuck in a book. Or as much as our baby girl will allow, once she is here lol!
Currently Reading: If I Stay by Gayle Forman
A perfect Saturday spent enjoying a cuppa whilst reading a good book!
I know, I know, I’m real slow on the book wagon when it comes to reading If I Stay. BUT I finally am and can honestly say I’m loving it so far. Before picking up If I Stay, I was already a fan of Gayle Forman. I love her writing style. It makes reading her books a breeze and, before you know it, you’ve gotten to the end and find yourself wondering how the heck you got there so quick! This book is turning out to be no different which I’m thrilled about.
I’ve yet to see the movie adaptation so have no idea how it compares to the book. Have any of you guys read the book or seen the movie? What did you think?
I hope you’re all having a lovely Saturday; whatever you may be getting up to.
Take care,
Dayna.
