Mistborn: Book One, The Final Empire

By Brandon Sanderson

Narrated by Michael Kramer

Image From Goodreads

[A thousand years ago evil came to the land and has ruled with an iron hand ever since. The sun shines fitfully under clouds of ash that float endlessly from the constant eruption of volcanoes. A dark lord rules through the aristocratic families and ordinary folk are condemned to lives in servitude, sold as goods, labouring in the ash fields. But now a troublemaker has arrived and there is rumour of revolt. A revolt that depends on a criminal that no one can trust and a young girl who must master Allomancy - the magic that lies in all metals.]


It took me a while to get into this one. There were a lot of new concepts and places and characters I had to learn all at once, so getting my head around it in the beginning was interesting.

Once I'd begun to understand it though, it was great. I really warmed to the characters. They were interesting and well-rounded with flaws and dreams like anybody else.

I particularly liked the banter that seemed to go back and forth between them, especially in the first half. It all got very serious towards the end with consequences taking place.

I couldn't decide whether Vin's harshness towards herself was irritating or endearing. We've definitely all been there. But her interactions with Elend at the beginning were heart-warming and had you rooting for them all the way through like most budding romances tend to do.

I loved getting to know backstory's of the characters as well, especially Kelsier and Dockson. I was also intrigued by the different "types" of characters: mistborn, mistings, Gods, terrismen, obligator, inquisitor, mistwraiths. The inquisitor's and mistwraith's fascinated me most with their individual, unique qualities.

The whole balance of adventure and plotting the downfall of an empire against the structural system of class within balls that were thrown, court gossip and power battles between various houses was enchanting.

I was shocked by the ending though. Everything seemed to fall apart so quickly but it was very exciting and I can't wait to see what happens next!



☽

TopGolf, Watford

If every weekend to come is like that one just was, I will be a very very happy girl.

Adeel was over for the whole weekend and we'd thought about going to TopGolf for a while as he'd been a few times before.

I love crazy golf as well so it seemed like the perfect thing to do.

Although, we could have picked a warmer day!

It was beautifully sunny though, just absolutely freezing.

I actually started my day off with a quick run (the photo above was taken at the end). I run around this tiny little walkthrough area that is coincidentally a figure of 8 shape, so perfect for laps.

After that, we got ready and drove to Watford. Even getting there at around 12 it was pretty busy, although nothing compared to when we left at around half 3!

We started off with the crazy golf course outside - a sixteen-hole course full of many obstacles including a number of small lakes (they provide nets for you to fish your ball out with, how thoughtful!), not that we need worry about them on our own venture around the course as they were all pretty frozen...

Then we went inside for some food (I ordered calamari and he ordered a burger - they were pretty darn good too!) and whilst we were waiting our turn came for the driving range. 

We each got twenty golf balls to hit as far as we could into any of the targets at varying distances. 

It's fair to say I couldn't hit it very far but I had a higher score for the most part of successfully hitting the targets.

Adeel hit it very far with power I couldn't even dream of matching, but his aim kept going to the left. All the better for me! Although he still beat me by one point in the end...

He beat me by a great margin at crazy golf too.

Clearly I need to work on my golfing skills.

Sunday was spent watching movies in bed all day, warming up after our frozen day out.

Perfect.

☽

The Mortal Instruments: Book Six, City of Heavenly Fire

By Cassandra Clare.

[Darkness has descended on the Shadowhunter
world. Chaos and destruction overwhelm the
Nephilim as Clary, Jace, Simon, and their friends
band together to fight the greatest evil they have ever
faced: Clary's own brother. Nothing in this world can
defeat Sebastian - but if they journey to the realm
of demons, they just might have a chance...]

Well this one certainly started with a bang.

Tense throughout with twists and turns right up until the very end. The final instalment is addictive and answers all looming questions. The characters grow, some die and relationships blossom.

Funnily enough Isabelle and Simon's "TBD" relationship was my favourite out of the three main ones, Magnus and Alec a close second.

I found myself liking Alec a lot more in this one. He'd been so serious in the rest of the previous books, that for him to make me laugh repeatedly in this one was quite a change - even if it was just because of his sarcastic comments at inopportune moments.

I also loved seeing Magnus of all people vulnerable for once, not the all powerful demon we know him to be.

The ending was also tied up all neatly and beautifully.

I enjoyed the addition of Emma Carstairs and Julian Blackthorn too. I thought starting the story off with the Shadowhunter children training was lovely and an interesting insight into the Shadowhunter upbringing.

I loved the tension between the downworlders and the Shadowhunters throughout. It had you guessing as to who would betray the Shadowhunters in the end (not who you expect!!)

Sebastian's antics were horrific and had me bawling within a few chapters! The demon dimension was also a nice touch and change of scenery.

A good ending to a great series and lovely for Tessa and Jem to make an appearance to tie up any other loose ends from the Clockwork series!



✌︎

The Infernal Devices: Book 3, Clockwork Princess

By Cassandra Clare.

[As Tessa Gray prepares for her wedding, a net of
shadows begins to tighten around the Shadowhunters
of the London Institute. Mortmain needs one last item
to complete his plan. He needs Tessa. Jem and Will,
the boys who lay equal claim to Tessa's heart,
will do anything to save her.]

I reallyyyyyy need to start writing these up as I finish them like I do on Goodreads!

I've actually managed to become quite organised this year (so far). I pack my lunch the night before work, I stop watching TV by half eight/nine o'clock, I get ready for bed by half nine and leave myself plenty of time to read as I have set myself a higher goal of 50 books this year.

I'm also running regularly and eating healthier which was a main goal last year but it sort of fizzled out towards the end of the year.

But no, this year I'm running alone more and my driving is way more confident. I'm itching to get out more and actually do stuff, so now all I need to do is write these posts up as soon as I finish a book...

Can't be that hard, can it?

I wonder how long this will all last.

The review today is for the final in the Clockwork trilogy. I finished it ages ago so I only really remember the basic outline.

But I loved it. Even more, I think I'm in love with one of the fictional characters. 

Haha, whoops.

He's just so dreamy and chiselled.

My God though, I was so distraught when I finished it!

The epilogue shattered my heart into a million pieces. It was such a bittersweet ending what with it sort of working out okay in the end, but sort of not? I don't know, I can't say too much without giving it away.

From unexpected deaths, twists, romantic notions, drama and and one hell of a battle, this book and the storyline is by far the best of Cassandra Clare's work that I've read so far.

I can't even say that much else without spoiling it. I'm blown away and a little lost for words.

I didn't want it to end. I wanted to be in Tessa's world forever.

These three books outrank the six Mortal Instruments by far for me.

I will definitely be re-reading these again at least.



☽

Favourite First Series Watched In 2016

It was definitely a good year for TV, although you could say the majority of the stuff I watched was actually a good few years old.

I love getting stuck into a really good series so a first series has to really draw me in to keep me hooked.

Pretty Little Liars definitely did that for me. I blitzed through the entire lot in a few months so I'm now awaiting the last half of the final season along with everyone else.

Okay so it did get a little bit ridiculous after the first "A" was revealed but I'm not going to give up on it when there's so little left to go!

∞

Westworld was a recent one my housemate and I decided to watch as we'd heard a lot of weird but good things about it.

It was definitely beyond weird, but hey that's JJ Abrams for you.

A weird mix of the wild west and sci-fi, you have a million questions by the end of episode one and are no near answering them by the end of all ten episodes.

It certainly does heat up though from the end of episode seven, so if you're finding it hard to grip, bare with it.

I can't believe we have to wait two years for the next one!!

Prison Break was another I got into as a recommendation from my previous boss. I had a weird on-off relationship with this one. When I was watching it I loved it, it was action packed and you didn't know quite how it'd end up but then when I stopped watching it I wasn't completely gripped to start another episode.

Maybe it was because my mum accidentally told me who died at the end when I was only a few episodes into series one. 

Oh well, throughly looking forward to its return for a fifth season in April!

∞

The Walking Dead I literally only started last month I think. 

I kept going back and forth in my mind as to whether I should watch it or not as zombies absolutely terrify me, but I'd heard so so many good things. So I took the plunge and it is truly fantastic and has you on the edge of your seat, wondering who will make it through the terrifying apocalypse!

I'm currently on season three and I have to say, I'm addicted!

Stranger Things was the first series my housemate and I decided to watch together one evening as we were bored with sitting in our own rooms all the time. 

This literally had me hooked within the first minute. That opening scene was gripping and I loved the whole idea of the series and how 80s America it is.

The cast are brilliant, the choice of music is brilliant and I love the mix of horror and sci-fi and especially the way the Duffer Brothers introduced each episode as a separate entity.

∞

Containment was one I randomly saw advertised whilst watching something else and I seem to have a weird love/fascination for watching virus outbreaks (maybe that's why I'm so into zombies now?) 

It's only a one-off series unfortunately but my God. 

There's one episode in particular that broke my heart, literal floods of tears and I had to take some time to myself after just to process!

I hate when a TV series gets cancelled or finishes and I definitely hate when they kill off characters, especially crucial ones, but that's what also makes them good.

Hopefully this year will provide some more fantastic series to get stuck in to.

I know I can't wait for the final season of Game of Thrones and the final bits to Pretty Little Liars and Prison Break!



✌︎

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Six Other Stories/The Alchemist

Two book reviews for the price of one, ha.

In all honesty, they're both just really short so the reviews themselves aren't very long.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Six Other Stories

By F. Scott Fitzgerald

[Full grown with a long, smoke-coloured

beard, requiring the services of a cane

and fonder of cigars than warm milk,

Benjamin Button is a very curious baby

indeed. And, as Benjamin becomes

increasingly youthful with the passing

years, his family wonders why he persists

in the embarrassing folly of living in reverse.

In this imaginative fable of ageing and 

the other tales collected here - including

'The Cut-Glass Bowl', in which an ill-meant

gift haunts a family's misfortunes, 'The

Four Fists', where a man's life is shaped by

a series of punches to his face, and the

revelry, mobs and anguish of 'May Day' -

F. Scott Fitzgerald displays his unmatched

gift as a writer of short stories.]

I really really really like F. Scott Fitzgerald as a writer but, with that said, I didn't enjoy the plot lines of these short stories as much as I thought I could have.

I don't know if it was because of the style or of the era he wrote them in, but I found the storylines to be jumpy in parts and in others I had absolutely no idea what was going on.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was the most memorable of course, but I'd heard a lot about it and had already previously seen the film which, by the way, is just as weird.

I enjoyed the settings these were written in; Fitzgerald didn't even have to state it for me to know it was all based between the twenties and forties.

There's not really much to comment on the characters as the stories weren't long enough to allow them any development.

Tender is the Night is still my favourite Fitzgerald novel, but this was an interesting read.

✥

The Alchemist

By Paulo Coelho

['To realise

one's destiny

is a person's only

obligation.']

I thought this was a cute little book (physically) and I suppose internally as well.

The cover itself is probably what attracted me to it in the first place to be honest.

I liked the idea of omens and destiny and travelling to the desert to the pyramids but overall it didn't really engage me.

It was just the sort of book trying to send a positive message.

I have heard a lot of good things about Paulo Coelho though so I'm going to try picking up a few of his other books and see what they're like.

Films I Want To See In 2017

All images from Pinterest

I love New Years, it means I can make a load of new lists with goals and upcoming things I want to see or do.

There are so many great films to come out this year; I have no idea how I'm going to fit them all in!

I've also been thinking about the direction of this blog a lot of late and I'm not sure I'm going to continue with it.

I've enjoyed it for the most part but I only began it to keep me writing if I couldn't find the time to do some more of my book, but now I find time only for this and never for that, yet that one is the more important to me. 

I use this as a distraction, an excuse, and I don't know if I want that anymore.

I guess I will see in the next few weeks whether I will continue this or not, but I need to set up some sort of schedule either way to get my book writing in.

Anyway, here's a look at the releases over the next year I'm excited for in film:

January
✽ A Monster Calls
✽ Underworld: Blood Wars

February
✽ Fifty Shades Darker
✽ The Great Wall

March
✽ Logan
✽ T2: Trainspotting
✽ Kong: Skull Island
✽ Beauty and the Beast
✽ Power Rangers

April
✽ The Fate of the Furious

May
✽ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
✽ King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
✽ Alien: Covenant
✽ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

July
✽ Dunkirk

November
✽ Thor: Ragnarok

December
✽ Star Wars: Episode VIII

There are a handful of others (mainly DC and Marvel-related) that I will no doubt have to see because I'm a nice, loyal girlfriend, aha...



☽

Arrival

Image From Pinterest

Being an adult kinda sucks - I so wish I had more time to spend with my family.

But work is looming and reality a-beckoning.

Arrival was one of those films where we saw the trailer before watching another film and though it might be good.

It was certainly a different take on an alien film. Most have a tonne of action thrown in with the threat of their invasion.

But this one was different. Good different as well, mostly.

I say mostly because the ending threw me off a bit. I don't want to spoil anything but there is a twist that just hurts my head to think about.

Adeel had kind of made sense of it at the time with a random explanation (not that he understood his own explanation, aha) but after five minutes of thinking about it, I was baffled again.

Amy Adams was wonderful. She was charming and innocent and relatable. Her backstory was heartbreaking (definitely tugs at those heartstrings early on!) but her development was great. Although the ending was weird, it was also sweet and I could see how her character would progress.

Jeremy Renner was also good. It was interesting to see him play something other than a superhero (is Hawkeye a superhero? I can never tell these days). His character was intelligent and hardworking and determined. I loved the way his and Amy Adams's character worked together.

The setting - and even the tone of the movie - was quite bleak and eery, but not in a bad way. It just had a kind of calmness about it which makes a difference from all the full on action you see these days.

There was definitely tension in it though when the small group of humans made contact with the aliens - you didn't quite know what they wanted or if they were there to hurt them or not.

I loved the special effects, they were really neat and captivating. I especially loved how the aliens communicated and found it fascinating to watch Adams and Renner's characters decipher the language.

On a side note, Forest Whitaker is also very good as the military colonel. He's fierce and is quite tough in this character, but I think he's a great actor.

Don't let the ending put you off, it's rather an intriguing film and one I would probably watch again.

---

Rating:
★★★★☆

Two Thousand And Seventeen

Happy New Year!

As always, my intention to blog got sidetracked this Christmas period...

I managed the few odd days but I didn't post everything I wanted to, leaving me with things overhanging into the New Year.

I've literally just been texting my friend about setting goals for the year.

We've both already set our Goodreads one (mine's set for 50 books this year) and I've also just set my running one - 180 miles. That's more than double what I did this year but I'm feeling optimistic.

All that's left really are the standard New Year resolutions.

Now, I haven't thoroughly thought these through but I may come back and add to them if I can think of any more!

Here they are:

✽ To be kinder. I'm not sure why exactly, but I don't feel like I've been a very nice person of late so this year I'd like to stop, take a moment, and think before I open my mouth.

✽To move out of this house. It's been mentioned numerous times on my behalf but I'm determined that that was the last New Years in this house.

✽To visit at least three countries whether that be alone or with someone. I want to break out of my comfort zone and start exploring. Maybe my love for photography will also come back if I don't have any teacher-set boundaries.

✽To spend a bit more time offline. Now that I'm working in an office, I realise I spend the majority of my time looking at a screen of some sort and quite frankly I'm worried I'm wasting my life watching TV or scrolling aimlessly through blogs. It's time to log off a bit more.

✽I hate myself for this one but I would like to eat less sugar. I have a real sweet tooth but I'm worried with the amount I consume. It may not be pretty for my moods for the first little while but I noticed a big difference in my energy levels when I started to eat more fruit and veg and maybe my skin will clear up with less sugar in my diet!

✽To get out more. To Adeel's annoyance I've suddenly always got ants in my pants in the fact that I always want to get out at a weekend and actually do something. I'm tired of sitting in all the time, watching TV. I want to go out for breakfast, I want to go to the top of the Shard (I work right next to it for God's sake!), I want to go on spontaneous road trips whether that be a half hour drive away or an eight hour drive away, I even want to go out in the evenings to a bar maybe or whatever people my age tend to do - I may not like it but at least I can say I've tried it again. This also includes more date-like activities. We did a little better this year but a lot of stuff kept getting in the way. I want time for us to be together.

✽To finish my darn book! I have got to stop writing this as a goal and actually do it. I'm quite close to be fair but I still think it needs a lot of work and I'm terrified of actually handing it over to a publishing company which is probably why I keep putting off finishing it...

✽To stop hoarding. I have so much stuff that I have absolutely no room in this one bedroom I rent. Unless I absolutely love a book or a piece of clothing or an object, I want to give it away. Others are in need of things and I feel awful for having all this stuff that probably goes to waste. I have already started to give my old clothes away but I want to continue.

✽Improve. I've decided this is going to be my word of the year. I constantly want to be improving in myself, my work, my art, my experiences, my relationships, my goals.

Wishing you all the best for the year to come.



∞