fantasy

Top Ten Tuesday: 2016 Releases I Meant To Read (But Didn’t Get To)

10th January 2017 by Gemma 4 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. More information, plus future topics can be found on this page. This week was ‘2016 Releases I Meant To Read’.

I thought I’d do these prompts at least once (or twice?) a month since I seem to fare better at having one on instagram. Maybe it’ll make me a more regular blogger!

So I kept my ears quite close to the ground last year when it came to new book releases, and I have more than a handful of books published in 2016. Unfortunately, I still haven’t figured out how to balance reading with bookstagram and blogging, so I didn’t manage to read most of them (although I’m sure most readers always feel they haven’t read as much as they would have wanted in a year). I have to re-think my book purchases for this year, which is a post for another day!

Anyway, here are some of the books that were published in 2016, and I will hopefully get to tick them off the TBR list before the end of this year. …

Anticipated Reads for Spring 2017 – Part II

29th December 2016 by Gemma 3 Comments

Back again for the rest of the books slated to be published here in the UK for the rest of spring 2017! If you missed yesterday’s post for the Jan-Feb 2017 releases, you can make your way over by clicking here.

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Anticipated Reads for Spring 2017 – Part I

27th December 2016 by Gemma 3 Comments

While trying to ignore the fact that the flat is getting overtaken with books (no more shelf or stacking space!), I’ve looked through the books coming out for the first half of 2017 and listed down those that tickled my fancy. I can’t say I’ll be able to read them all, since I’d have to buy them first and that, plus the space issue…erm. But we’ll see how long my self-control lasts, eh?

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Bookish Merch: Feyre Candle by William & Joseph

18th September 2016 by Gemma Leave a Comment

Foreword: I’ve always liked scents. I used to spend money on oil fragrances from indie sellers (yes, I was into BPAL) but I’ve given up on that as it needs a lot of testing to find the right fragrance for you. Skin/body chemistry makes the scent different on application after all, not to mention any temperature changes from shipping that might affect the oils. Candles and wax melts, however, seem more stable — at least what it depends on most is the craftsmanship. When using wax melts, I might sometimes test it on my electric and tealight wax burner depending on how intense I want the fragrance to be. I am aware, though, that this means shorter fragrance life for the wax tart, and I will definitely mention it on the review if I used the tealight burner with it.

Feyre Candle by William & Joseph
“[..] the fragrance features sparkling citrus top notes leading into a heart of transparent white flora, dewy rose and watery jasmine with notes of creamy coconut and succulent peach resting on an indulgent base of light woods and smooth amber.”

William & Joseph makes scented candles inspired by books and, at the time of writing, Disney. The shop owners are based in England, UK, and seem to be very nice guys. My item was lost in the mail (having issues with lost packages in our flat building recently, so whether it was stolen or lost in shipping, we still don’t know), and they replied promptly to my messages about it and were so helpful in making sure I would definitely get the second parcel they sent out.

Their candles are made with “superior grade paraffin wax”, and at present, are priced at £12.95 and does not including shipping. If this appears a bit pricey to you, I suggest reading more of this review.

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Subscription Box: Illumicrate August 2016 Unboxing

4th September 2016 by Gemma 4 Comments

In case you have been living under a rock this year, themed subscription boxes are now all the rage, and I’ll just direct you to the wiki page to read all about it.

Illumicrate is a book-themed subscription box curated by Daphne, who has established herself as a UK book blogger over at Winged Reviews. It’s a quarterly service, which I must admit is the basis of its appeal for me, since I figure she gets time to really source out which books are coming out to include in the boxes, as well as speaking to various creatives and independent retailers about bookish merchandise.

This is also my first ever subscription box, and I was very impressed with the contents! And so without further ado…