Macarons & more | Paris + London

One of the great things about travel is that you get to try all different kinds of delicious food. Unfortunately the food was so good, I forgot to take a picture of most of my meals. So only the best looking dishes managed to get snapped. Coincidently most of these were my desserts. 

Pistachio macaron w/ pistachio cream and fresh berries | Laduree

Chocolate Brownie w/ vanilla ice cream and caramel popcorn |
Jamie Oliver's Italian Restaurant

Angus Beef Burger | Jamie Oliver's Italian Restaurant 

Honeycomb Cheesecake | Prezzo

Pistachio, Chocolate and Strawberry Guimauve macaron's | Laduree

Paris

After nine days in London we boarded a train and headed to Paris for the remaining five days. Here are some of the highlights.

Friday night markets along the Seine

The view from the Pont Alexandre III

The gardens at the Palace of Versailles

Sunset on the Seine

L'Arc De Triomphe 

The View from Mont St Michel

Mont St Michel 

The view from the top of the Eiffel 

Le Eiffel Tower

Harry Potter Studio Tour

The Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tour had to be one of the highlights of my trip to London. I absolutely adore Harry Potter and it was so amazing being able to see all the sets, costumes, props and really just experience the world that is Harry Potter. The level of detail put into the production of the Harry Potter films is insane and I don't think I really appreciated it until after I saw the studios. We also managed to score ticket to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince at the studios and the whole time I was watching it all I could think was "the actual great hall is just on the other side of the screen". And I mean literally on the other side. Like, there's not even a wall separating the theatre and the Great Hall entrance chamber. Anyway, it was so amazing I just had to share it with you all. Please don't hate me to much out of jealousy. 

For real though. 

Diagon Alley

Great Hall Shenanigans 

Gryffindor Common Room

Driving Lessons in the Ford Anglia

The Burrow

The Cupboard Under the Stairs 

I found the Chamber of Secrets!

Dumbledore's Office

Me about to trash Umbridges office 

Hagrid's Hut

Butterbeer  Skepticism (and rightly so)

Hogwarts

Percy Jackson's Greek Gods

While I was getting lost in the expensive labyrinth that is Harrods, I somehow managed to stumble upon Percy Jackson's Greek Gods. Keep in mind this was ten days before the release date. I immediately picked up a copy and went straight to the nearest cash register. I was so excited that I walked straight past a goldmine of Harry Potter merchandise without even noticing it until after Rick Riordan's latest book was safely in my possession.

I hope that gave some idea of the level of my excitement for this book and thankfully it didn't disappoint. I rate this book 5/5 stars and it deserves every star.

I know some people who've read the Percy Jackson series might be reluctant to read this as it's about Greek mythology not Percy adventures, but don't be put off this book is both interesting and hilarious.

When I imagine Rick Riordan writing this book I picture him writing the basic myths then going "you know what? I'm gonna add ALL the sass."
Seriously though, this book is still written by the POV of Percy and he is the one who is retelling the myths and he is so hilariously honest about his godly relatives and the ridiculously stupid and selfish things they did. It's fantastic!
I studied Ancient Greece in school last year and we did a whole term on myths and legends, so I was quite familiar with most of the myths, but the whole time I was reading it I was wishing this book came out a year and a half earlier. It would've been so useful! It gives a great recount of various myths, but unlike most 'informative' websites the stories are clear and entertaining. That being said I don't think it would be the best book to reference in my assignments. For some reason I don't think 'the promise of delicious cookies' would be accepted as a reason for the Titans turning on Ouranos by my teacher.

Another awesome thing about Percy Jackson's Greek Gods is that the brilliant chapter titles are back from Percy Jackson and the Olympians. My personal favourite titles are 'The Beginning and Stuff', 'Persephone Marries her Stalker, or, Demeter the Sequel' and 'Hephaestus makes me a golden  llama (not really but he totally should)'.
Seriously though, Rick Riordan makes learning fun.

One thing I was disappointed with was that I brought the British edition which doesn't come with illustrations and an uglier cover. This cover features a Logan (movie Percy) Lerman wanna be, some lightning, statues of Poseidon and Athena and the caption 'half boy, half god, all hero,' on the cover. Yeah. That happened.
But it's okay. I have ordered the other edition online.
The book also came with a sneak peek of The Heroes of Olympus which comes out on the 7th of October and I'm SO flipping excited for it!

For real though, if you're still reading this you should just stop and go and buy this book.
Bye! xx

London

I recently got back from a 2 week holiday in London and Paris with my parents and even though it's a bit different to my usual book reviews I thought I'd share my holiday photos on this blog. So please enjoy.

Regent Street

The Queen Elizabeth Tower & Parliament House 

Piccadilly Circus

Trafalgar Square

Stonehenge

St James' Park

Me at the top of St Paul's Cathedral

Windsor Castle

London at Night

Bath

Bath (again)

The Top of St Paul's Cathedral (again)

I will have two more posts on my Trip coming up soon. One is of Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio's and the other will be of Paris.

xx

     
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Rebel Belle Review

I read Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins literally a month ago, but it was one I really wanted to review so I've finally gotten around to writing this review. So much happened in this book took me awhile to work out what I wanted to say. Nevertheless here it is. 

I gave this book 4/5 stars on Goodreads and although I enjoyed this book immensely, there were many aspects that irritated me in relation to characters and the plot. 
But before I go into the negative I thought I’d first talk about the positive. p.s there will be spoilers (although nothing too specific or anything that wasn't obvious after reading the first few chapters).

Positive:
I really enjoyed the way Rebel Belle was written from Harper’s POV and I found it really helped set the tone to the book and kept it light hearted. 
The plot was fast paced and action packed, which made it a really fun read. 
This book was hilarious! The character reactions to events were so funny and yet they felt quite genuine. I was often literally laughing out loud, which may have drawn odd looks from my family. Oops. 
The plot was pretty simple so far, however I have a feeling this will change with the next books. I really like it when series do this as it can be kind of annoying when you’re thrown into the deep end of a book.
I always find the whole fantasy world in Southern USA really interesting as it seems so conflicting and because of that Rebel Belle kind of reminded me of Beautiful Creatures, which I really like.

Negatives:
I really didn’t like how Rachel Hawkins wrote Harper’s relationship with Ryan. It felt a little convenient and I really hated it how Harper was completely neglectful and yet it was often made out that Ryan was just being needy.
She also obviously wanted Harper to move on to David and because of that I felt like she didn’t bother giving Ryan much of a personality. It bothers me when there are love triangles and the author feels the need to make one boy a lesser being in some way to justify the choice of the girl.
There were some instances in the book when the characters had conveniently, uncharacteristic dumb moments which moved the plot forward but also seemed unrealistic. 

Predictions:
So I’m no oracle, but my predictions for the next books is that we’ll find out that the Ephors wanted David to become mega-oracle so they can use David’s power to make themselves more powerful. It practically says so in page 298 (hardcover version).

Thanks for reading. xx

On The Fence Review

Charlie is a tomboy. She has no mum, a police officer dad and three brothers. Well four if you count Braden, her next door neighbour. But when Charlie is forced into taking a job at a clothing store and is persuading into becoming a canvas for make-up tutorials a bit of girly-ness begins to rub off on her. And her life begins to change. 

When I started this blog in January I had never read a book by Kasie West. I have now read three; Pivot Point, Split Second and On the Fence and it’s pretty safe to say that i’ve become quite the Kasie West fan. I absolutely love the way in which Kasie writes relationships (of all sorts, not just romantic ones) and On the Fence was no exemption to this. I absolutely enjoyed reading about her relationships with her brothers and Braden and how became friend people she previously thought were polar opposites to her. All of the relationships felt natural and realistic but still interesting and amusing. On Goodreads I rated On the Fence 4/5 stars.

I also loved Charlie’s character development. Through her new job Charlie grows and becomes more of herself than before. I often don’t like it when characters change and aren’t at all themselves anymore, but in On the Fence Charlie is still the same person there is just more to her and she is able to be open with her feelings and becomes less of the tomboy stereo-type. 
This was particularly good as I didn’t like the way Charlie was presented at the start of the book. Kasie made a real effort to describe how much of a tomboy Charlie is and often it felt like the book was telling me this rather than showing this to me. Not that Kasie didn’t back up what she was saying with actions. 

It was really interesting to read about Charlie while she was with Evan because in those instances she changed herself to be someone he would like and I’ve seen my friends do that and found it quite relatable and showed how insecure Charlie really was. 

The fence chats between Charlie and Braden were so much fun to read, even when Charlie was being a bitch. It did bother me though that Charlie and Braden made the same mistake twice where one was trying to talk about their feelings for the other, and the other was trying to talk about Charlie’s mum. Miscommunication pisses me off in books/movies/life. Just listen to what they’re saying, not what your going to say! 

Overall this is a really great summery read.

Thanks for reading. xx