Fevre Dream

By George R R Martin

[Abner Marsh has had his dearest wish come true - he has built the Fevre Dream,
the finest steamship ever to sail the Mississippi. Abner hopes to race the boat
some day, but his partner is making it hard for him to realise his ambition.
Joshua York put up the money for the Fevre Dream, but now rumours have
started about the company he keeps, his odd eating habits and strange hours.
As the Dream sails the great river, it leaves in its wake one too many dark tales,
until Abner is forced to face down the man who helped his dreams become reality.]

This was meant to go up last night but we seemed to be having wifi issues and you know me, still not scheduling my posts yet. 

Whoops. But here it is, the review for a George R R Martin book that isn't Game of Thrones!

Hm. I thought George R R Martin and vampires would be a good mix considering his other fantasy works. 

Alas, I was mistaken.

I really wanted to like Fevre Dream but I just wasn't taken with it.

I loved the characters. Abner was great, stubborn, set in his old ways, but loyal and courageous. 

Joshua was a true gentleman (apart from the one minor fact that he's a vampire), he sticks to his cause through and through no matter how tough it gets. 

And then there's Julian. Pure evil and a power-hungry bully. They were all written so well, that is definitely one thing Martin does extremely well - character development!

The plot though, I wasn't sure about. I can't put my finger on it, but something was just off. 

There were some great tense moments in amongst all of the river-boating stuff. 

Maybe it was the period it was set in? Or maybe it just wasn't like any other vampire novels I've ever read before. 

But the quiet moments didn't make me want to keep reading, I found myself getting a little bored if I'm honest.

The setting on the river and the slave plantations were pretty interesting though. The imagery was fantastic incorporating all of the corruption and power battles.

Bit of a weird one overall.



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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!

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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!

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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.

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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!



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Romeo and Juliet, The Garrick Theatre

Image from Pinterest

So when this goes live I don't know what I will be doing but I should (fingers crossed) have had a blissful anniversary weekend with the love of my life 😍

Anyway, I saw Romeo and Juliet on probably one of the hottest days of the year in the midst of July.

I took a half day at work and met my friend, Yasmin, at Charing Cross.

The show started at half two so I'd grabbed a wrap from WH Smiths and she grabbed a quick McDonalds (is it just us or when it's boiling do you just not want to eat??)

We were so excited because Richard Madden (aka Robb Stark from Game of Thrones!!!) was playing Romeo.

Not the whole reason we booked the tickets at alllllll 😉

Well, unfortunately, we arrived at the theatre and there on the wall was a notice to say that Richard Madden was indisposed due to a running injury.

A RUNNING INJURY.

God damn it.

Anyway, we settled ourselves into our seats (the tickets I'd booked were slightly cheaper with a notice that there would be a pillar blocking the view), the room was considerably cooler than the outside thank the Gods.

The pillar didn't seem to be in too much of my way, it was just obscuring whatever happened to be slightly to the right of the stage. Not a problem at all, right?

Ha, ha, ha.

It just so happened that Romeo's characters always stood in that exact spot so that I could rarely see him.

Well at least it wasn't concealing Richard Madden from view ey? Just his understudy (unfortunately I can't remember his name and we didn't pick up a programme - he was very good though).

Lily James made a stunning Juliet, the costumes and her performance equally beautiful.

The sets were also brilliant.

Directed by Kenneth Branagh (Gilderoy Lockhart for all you Harry Potter fans), the play itself was set in what seemed to be the 50s, with the Capulet's and Montague's dressed more like gangsters than in Shakespearian dress.

The masked ball and the final scene were probably my favourite.

Lily James rewarded us with a slice of her singing voice which was quite lovely actually and the whole forbidden love theme had me rooting for them even though I knew what was coming!

It was a little hard to follow the strong Shakespeare dialogue at times, but there were quite a few humourous bits as well as the odd song which we weren't expecting.

Derek Jacobi was also brilliant and worth a mention.

I definitely felt more educated once we left. 

It's different from a full-on musical, a lot to take in, but an interesting experience and maybe one I will try again whether or not the male lead is someone from Game of Thrones!

What I'm Loving Right Now

I meant to make this a sort of series but, yanno, I don't think I post regularly enough for that. My blog would just consist of these posts and reviews if that were to happen.

Maybe one day when I can find some sort of motivation again. I swear, I used to be so good at being organised, turning up early, having presents and cards ready in advance, buying products way before they run out. But now, no, I'm Miss Disorganised and can't seem to find where I put my motivation.

Anyways, without any further ado, here are the things that I'm loving right now:

1. Audible - I recently wrote a review of listening to my first audiobook and I just have to share my love for them again. Honestly, they are genius. I'm currently listening to The Silmarillion (as I tried to read it and just couldn't get into it properly!) and I already can't stop thinking ahead about which one I'm going to use my precious monthly credit on next.

2. Dracula - I have finally, finally read Dracula (review to come when I finish all of the other horror stories within this book)! It was easier to read than I first anticipated which was a surprise and now I really want to see Christopher Lee's film adaptations!

3. Formula 1 - The season has started again and I am loving every second of it, even more so that it's on Channel 4 now and the presenters don't irritate me. I was a little bored at the end of the last season as the Mercedes team were constantly winning (started off that way this season too), but then the last two races were shocking and exciting and I'm hooked all over again.

4. Running - I don't know if I've mentioned it on my blog yet (probably not as I wanted to see how it went) but I've recently started running. I couldn't find myself getting into a proper routine doing the abs and squats each week so I thought I'd try something new. I'd heard a lot about how it's a good stress/anxiety reliever, and so far I am thoroughly enjoying it!

5. Game of Thrones - apart from episode 6, I think every episode of this new season has been action-packed, fast-paced and full to the brim with unexpected twists! I just. GAME. OF. THRONES ❤ can't wait for the last few episodes.

6. Avocados - my new obsession and they're healthy, result! Absolutely love adding these to a salad to put with my dinner, even tried it in a Spanish omelette yesterday and it was to die for ❤ ❤ ❤ still need to try it on toast tho.

7. Warmer weather - I used to hate heat and the summer months but, now, I'm really starting to enjoy them. Everyone is so much happier and it's all chilled and beaut. Don't get me wrong tho, I still enjoy winter, I will forever be a winter girl, with my constant freezing cold hands and feet!

What have you been loving lately?

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