Sara Raasch - Snow like ashes

I love a good fantasy book and this certainly did NOT disappoint! I had been eyeing this up for a while before luckily receiving it as a christmas present. Snow like ashes is the first in a trilogy of books by Sarah Raasch. If you liked anything like the tearling books by Erika Johansen you will love this! 
The book is set in the land of Primoria with 4 season kingdoms and 4 Rhythm kingdoms each with it's own magical conduit for each of the rulers to help grow their kingdoms. The story is about a girl named Meira who is one of 8 people left from the 25 that escaped Winter when it was destroyed by spring. Meira is 100% devoted to the cause of saving Winter and they aim to do this by getting both parts of the conduit that was broken when Winter was overtaken. Meira quickly learns that she doesn't really get much choice when it comes to destiny and has to shape the way she is to try and stay as true to herself as she can in each new situation no matter how much she doesn't agree with it.
The book was really well written and Meira was such a great character though sometimes when she was discovering her thoughts and herself I kinda felt like a few things were repeating themselves or just a little unnecessary- it's hard to explain until you read it really - no spoilers happening here! Though it didn't really affect my love for the book at all. There were a few twists and turns, one which I had an inkling about - which came true but the book was so addicting I finished it within 3 days. I think I'm going to get Ice like fire to read this weekend - I was going to wait for my holiday but I can't wait till March to find out what's going on! 
have you read this?? what did you think? 
x
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Book review: The Red Queen

I'm just going to say..casually... YOU NEED TO BUY THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW.  like RIGHT NOW. like click here and buy it. NOW. did you buy it? good choice! This is like a dystopian fantasy book where there are two kinds of people in the world red blooded people or silver blooded people. The red blooded live in poverty whilst the silvers are rich with superhuman powers. Mare Barrow is angry, angry with the world and the way it is. Why are her people the ones to suffer? She's the kind of girl that does what she needs to to survive regardless of what other people think. One day Mare finds herself in a new situation and all of a sudden is thrown in with all these silvers disguised as a long lost silver princess and is engaged to one of the heirs. She uses this position as one of power and tries to help a red rebellion take down the silvers.  I'm really trying not to give a lot away because this book has some seriously amazing storylines that I really didn't expect. I felt like Mare herself was a really great character and always stayed true to herself. She falls in love with one prince and ends up with another and I was really shipping her and Cal but then the more she interacted with Maven I was like oh god. Who should she end up with? Both of them had really great points and were written so well. All the while she was putting herself and her people first and doing whatever it takes to survive. Oh gosh, honestly this is so hard to write just how amazing this book is without giving it away.  I closed the book and immediatly wanted MORE. There are two mini novellas coming out in January I beleive and the next book is due out next year. This is one of those books you just don't want to end! I'm doing it. 10/10. Bravo Victoria Aveyard - write me 20 more books please! Have you read this?! Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
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Book review: the truth about the Harry Quebert Affair - Joel Dicker

' if you're not brave enough to run in the rain, you'll certainly never be brave enough to write a book'
I really didn't expect to love this book as much as I did, it has a great storyline and it's written in an interesting way, in a way the book is almost written backwards in the sense the chapters are counting down and the table of contents is at the back. 
Each chapter starts with Marcus Goldman's tutor Harry Quebert giving him a writers tip from when he is initially teaching Marcus how to write.(the line at the top was one of my favourite lines from the book and was one of the tips) In a way Dicker followers the advice Harry gives Marcus during the book.
 The story follows Marcus as he gets severe writers block and goes to Harry's house for inspiration and advice, it's here he stumbles upon an old box with a photo of a girl Harry was in love with. It then goes on to the body of this girl being dug up from Harry's garden with his original manuscript of the book that made him famous. 
Marcus firmly believes Harry is innocent and we follow him as he attempts to prove this and someone clearly doesn't want him to. The story is told so well and there are some shocking twists that come out even when you think it's all been solved. If you like a good murder mystery I guarantee you will love this! 
Each character is well written and you get a good background to Marcus's drive and I find him a really interesting character in the sense that he purposefully stages himself to look better and ends up getting the nickname ' Marcus the magnificent'. His mum is an absolute psychopath and provides a little bit of comedy value to the book as well. The book flowed consistently and proved a great read! Score wise? hmm 9/10
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Book: The girl on the train

As I mentioned in my previous review I am really into crime thrillers at the moment. 'The girl on the train' has had so much hype around it lately I decided to give it a go whilst on holiday.  First of all: I read this book in a day - it was addictive. I loved Rachel as a character, like I loved the way she thinks about things, I often have the same thought process. Basically the story is about a couple that Rachel passes on the train everyday and she nicknames them Jess and Jason in her head and pictures this perfect life they have together and what they are like as people. One day the train passes and Rachel see's something that she knows is wrong. To make things more complicated her ex-husband lives like 3 doors down with his new wife and baby. 
You follow Rachel as she's going through a really bad patch throughout her life and see her try to turn things around and as she tries to help this mystery couple out. You also follow the ex-wife Anna and ' jess' and get an understanding of their not so perfect lives showing that not everything is as it seems.  Without revealing anything there was something that I predicted to happen, as in I kinda had an inkling about the bad guy but this didn't affect the rest of the book and I couldn't have predicted how it all came about.
Paula has a really nice and easy writing style, and each character gets a good clear personality. I never felt like the book was being dragged out at any point. I'm not sure it's a 10/10 but it's a 9/10 for me! 
What did you make of this?  Ciao x Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
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Book: S.J Watson - before I go to sleep

Okay, I know, I am super late on the bandwagon with this one. I've wanted to read this book for ages and honestly I'm not sure why I never picked it up but a holiday is always the perfect time to get a new read or two!(or five in my case..). I'm kinda obsessed with crime thrillers at the moment! The story is essentially about Christine who wakes up everyday and has forgotten everything from the day before. There's little hints right from the beginning that something isn't right, should she trust her husband? I'll admit throughout this book I was right along with her like ' don't trust him!!!.... maybe he's alright...NO! ...then maybe he isn't the bad guy here'. The book unfolds in a really capturing way that makes you want to understand what the heck is happening to Christine. You really feel for her Christine is really vocal about all her emotions and thoughts and I found her character really relatable.  The only thing that kinda irked me was that the book is supposed to be written as if it's her journal entries but the way it is written it's not really like a journal entry....if that makes any sense. And for someone with such poor memory how can she remember the exact words someone said earlier?! I sure couldn't! If you ignore that minor fact ( and it is only minor because I do really like the way she has written it, it just didn't feel like a journal entry to me..) this is a really great book! Overall? 9/10!  I'm thinking about watching the movie now, has anyone seen it? is it worth it?  Ciao x Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
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Review: eat nourish glow - Amelia Freer

Picture taken from Google.


This year I really wanted to get my healthy eating in order and improve my health and fitness, which you may have caught glimpses of.... although I haven't yet got my own kitchen to fully be able to do this. I decided in order to prepare myself I needed further education on nutrition and some more healthy recipes in my life!

This is about not treating your body like a dust-bin and listening to yourself and what works for you so that you can feel great. Naturally if you are going to fill your body with the right things you are also going to loose weight - added bonus! She explains what to have in your cupboards, how to start cutting out those bad things like gluten and dairy, explains the good fats and why we need to reduce sugar as much as we can. 

This book is jam-packed with tips and Amelia has a really great way of explaining nutrition to you, like a friend talking to you. Initially when I opened it and saw how small the recipe section was, I was a little disappointed but after reading the book I was pleasantly surprised to find recipes throughout the chapters! Whilst some of this I did know ( especially after reading - I quit sugar) I still found this book really valuable and educational and I feel really inspired to start my healthy journey.

I have created a new instagram to help me on my journey: healthy_lauzb - I'll be posting a lot of recipes and progress, there is soemthing about logging it for the world to see that helps with motivation! :)  .... This is most likely going to start end of May when I'm back!

Ciao x

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Book: Nele Neuhaus - Big Bad Wolf

I love Nele Neuhaus's style of writing, guaranteed this book is actually translated from German she has a way of hooking you in for more. This is a kind of sequel to her first book ' Snow white must die' what I mean is the entire story itself is separate but the cops solving the case were in the previous book and sometimes refer to some events in that book - you don't really need to read the other book to read this though. I was so hooked on this book when I came back in from Lost and Found ( read about that here) at like 4am I would sit up reading this for another hour! She doesn't pick her topics lightly the book is essentially about child molestation in Germany and starts off with a dead body being found of a young girl who had been sexually abused. When you think you have this book sussed out she throws in another plot twist. The book has a few different plots and characters that run along side together and throughout the book start to intertwine and like I said you think you know whose who and whose the baddies and what's happened but you just have no idea sometimes. She kinda drops little hints here or there. If you're not shy of these kinda topics I definitely recommend this book, she has a new one out in hardback so I'll wait for the paperback copy and get that ASAP. I wish more of her books were translated over because I think there are around 7 books in this series in German and I just want to read them all! 
Have you read this? Or 'Snow White must die' ? What did you think?  I'm still quite new at book reviews so if you have any tips let me know! :)
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Book: The Rosie Effect

This book is the sequel to ' The Rosie project' which was a great first novel by Graeme Simsion so SPOILERS( I guess?) if you haven't read that. Though I'm sure like most Rom-coms you can predict the ending that Don and Rosie end up together.  The Rosie effect (which I won't lie I wish he had called ' The baby project' instead...anyone else?) is basically what happens when Rosie and Don move to America and Rosie finds out she's pregnant. If you read the first novel you know Don is all about structure and rules so he basically tries to implement this to Rosie while pregnant. Due to Don's nature he doesn't tend to show excitement and instead devises the baby project where he tracks the babys progress and researches the best way to look after it while in the room( I.e what Rosie should be eating...). Rosie now becoming a mother starts to realise how Don's introvert personality may affect his father skills and starts to see him as unfit. You basically see how Don copes with trying to learn how to be a father which put him in some interesting situations and how he copes with the possibility of loosing Rosie whilst trying to be a good friend. - I hope I didn't give much away there?  There is something so genuine and lovely about Don you can't help but feel for him throughout this book. I really love the way Graeme has created in such detail his personality and traits. Overall if you loved the first you're gonna love the second. It's a great sequel and although the general ending is predictable Graeme puts Don in some pretty funny situations. It's a great light read if you don't want something too heavy.  Have you read this?  Ciao x Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
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Book: Eat Pray Love

I was thinking today.... many a post ago, I said I was going to start book reviews.... where did that go? Anyway I thought I wanna jump back on the bandwagon, so here I am! I am an absolute bookworm and I feel I should share this love with you all. There is something about getting lost in someone else's life and escaping your own that I just love.  A life I love to jump into the most? Elizabeth Gilberts! I LOVE like really love eat, pray, love. It's so inspiring how much she turns her life around from this bitter divorce and destructive relationship and goes after what she wants and hey! - who wouldn't want to go round Italy for 4 months eating all the pizza and pasta they want? I adore her writing style, I watched one of her interviews and she said she always aims her books at one of her friends. I think she really accomplishes this it also really inspires how I write on this blog and each post. I really do feel like a friend is talking to me and telling me all her inner secrets. The way she talks about each of the characters she introduces to you just makes you feel like you get them.  In the story she essentially starts in america and introduces how this all came to be, her divorce and realising she didn't want to be married, her relationship with a younger man that introduced her to yoga and the break up from that. She then goes to Italy for 4 months, India for 4 months and Bali for 4 months. In Italy she divulges in her love for all things Italian - the food and the language. In India she learns discipline and how to reach her inner self and finally in Bali she learns to love herself and well, I'm sure you guessed this part and to allow someone else to fall in love with her.  This book is an amazing pick me up, only slight downfall, and I mean slight is that it makes me want to pack up and travel which sadly isn't on the cards. I recently lent this to a friend from a bad break up for inspiration that no matter how hard life is you need to learn to love yourself and appreciate and go for what you want before you can let someone else in and let them truly love you. She hasn't finished the book it has 108 'chapters' before you gasp and think that's a lot they aren't big chapters. I also really love how she matched this to the 108 mala beads. Oh - slightly off track there, she hasn't finished the book but texted me and told me she was sobbing on the train because it was so relatable to her.  You should also watch her Ted talk Elizabeth is such an inspiring and refreshing person and if you hadn't read this book? go and get it!  If you have read it tell me what you think! Ciao x Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
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Book: The Rosie Project.

It wasn't really my intention to write about books on my blog, I am a massive bookworm so maybe it makes sense I drop a book review or two...

I finished this book the other day and all I wanted to do is share with the world just how much I loved it! without giving too much Don Tillman has no luck with women. One day he decides he is going to find himself a wife and develops the wife project: a questionnaire. Don has a very particular way of thinking, it possibly verges on autistic, he is aware he thinks differently but he never admits he is autistic. It is so interesting the way he thinks and you can't help but feel for him in all the situations he gets himself into.

Obviously comes Rosie into his life, everything the questionnaire says he doesn't want. Maybe it's a little stereotypical knowing what will happen but it still has a few shocks and surprises throughout the book.

I'm really trying not to give anything away but I really do recommend you get this book! It's an addictive read!

Have you read this already? what did you think? any books to recommend?

Ciao x

P.s picture isn't mine as I have misplaced my camera and will be updated saturday with my own pic. Oops.