Book Review Monday- This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp| It'sCarenzaB

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How are you?

Today I am going to be reviewing This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp. I read this as part of a research project for college and ended up giving up 3/5 stars on Goodreads. To read my Goodreads review, click here.

This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp- Contains Spoilers

Non-Spoiler Thoughts

This Is Where It Ends is a really fast read because of the writing style. Although I read it over 6 days, I read quite a lot when I was reading. The four main characters are all very different and this book does have some diversity in it. It features two characters that are Hispanic and a Lesbian couple. It also talks about living with a severe health issue. It is about a school shooting, so if this is something you feel uncomfortable reading about then this book won't be for you.

Cover Chat

I really love the cover for This Is Where It Ends. I love how it has four pieces of chalk and that there are four main characters. This cover is really striking and is one of the reasons I picked it up.

Opinions

I was really excited to read this book and had had it on my TBR for almost a year, however, it was a bit of a disappointment for me. The premise of this book is really interesting, however the delivery makes it feel a bit cheesy. When I was reading through Goodreads to see what other people thought, I saw lots of people saying that it was insulting to people who had been involved in a school shooting and to some extent I have to agree. At one point, one of the characters saves a girl because he fancies her and hopes she'll remember him when he asks her out. I felt that this was really unnecessary to the plot as well as it being very unrealistic. If you're in a building where a shooting is taking place, you are not going to be thinking about asking someone out.

One of the main problems I had with this book was that the main characters were portrayed as being completely innocent and good. They were very two-dimensional characters. The shooter was also made to be completely evil, which I understand from the characters perspective, but from the author, I found this really off. People are never completely good or bad, they are usually a mix of the two.

Another problem I had with this book was the random texts, blog posts and tweets the author included. People inside a school would not start tweeting if someone was shooting them. I found it really unrealistic that they would start tweeting. I also found it odd that they would create a hashtag.

One thing I loved about this book was the diversity. Like I said in my Non-Spoiler section, this book has two people that are Hispanic and there is also a Lesbian couple. I was really happy that this book didn't just focus on white people and that it had more than one race and sexuality mentioned. I recently decided that I was going to participate in Diversity Bingo and I am hoping that I can use this book for one of the options.

Something I want to quickly talk about is when Sylvia briefly mentions that Tyler raped her. I understand that rape is a serious thing and that it should be addressed in literature, but it was mentioned once and felt like it was put in to make Tyler look bad.

So those were my thoughts on This Is Where Ends, let me know what you thought of it in the comments.
Love,
Carenza x 

Say No To Spoilers| It'sCarenzaB

Hey Guys!
How are you?

So this post is a mini rant that I started on my Instagram. Recently, I have noticed an increase in photos of people posting spoilers for subscription boxes. In this post I am going to be expanding on what I said on my Instagram as I'm hoping that more people will read this.

Spoiling other people is not okay. Whether it is for a book, a TV series, a film or something completely different, spoiling others will never be okay. Just imagine that it is you that have been spoiled. How would you feel? If you don't want something to happen to you, don't do it to others. It is as simple as that.

I completely understand the excitement people feel when they get there subscription boxes, I have been there and done that myself. But I know what I did was wrong. When I get my subscription box, I wait a few weeks before I even think about posting an unboxing out of consideration for others.

It's the lack of consideration that annoys me the most. All you have to do is wait a few weeks before posting your photos. It also doesn't help that the companies that run the subscription service retweet or like the posts that contain spoilers. I thought that they would have understand that people hate being spoiled.

If you want to post a photo that contains spoilers, make sure you mention that it contains spoilers as some people have to wait to get their boxes and would quite like to remain spoiler free. I know quite a few people who post unboxings on their Instagram stories who mention that it will contain spoilers.

The main theme for this post is to think before you post and have some consideration for others in the community. I'm hoping that after I've posted this, the amount of spoiler related photos will decrease. If you have any thoughts on preventing spoilers or posting photos with spoilers in, please leave a comment.
Love,
Carenza  x

A Monster Calls Movie Review| It'sCarenzaB

Hey Guys!
How are you?

So on January 19th, I went and saw the movie adaptation of A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. I loved it so much, I thought I would review it for you guys. If you haven't read the book or seen the movie, you won't be able to read this review as I am going to be discussing spoilers.

A Monster Calls Movie Review- Contains Spoilers

Poster Review

I really like this poster as it is quite simple but it is also quite powerful.

Opinions

This was probably one of the best book-movie adaptations I have ever seen. It does help that Patrick Ness, who wrote the book, wrote the script for the movie. It kept all the important parts of the story and made you feel as though you are part of the story. While it was a good adaptation, as a bookworm I want every single detail from the book, so I was a bit sad that Connor's friend from the book wasn't included in the film.

The movie was just as emotional as the book. I genuinely sat in the cinema and cried at the end of the film. Not once, but twice. I think I was the only one crying in the cinema. Even though I knew Connor's mum was going to die, I still cried.

The cinematography was really beautiful and the special effects were amazing. The Monster (Liam Neeson) was amazing and super detailed. I also loved how the stories the Monster told were in a watercolour style. It was nice seeing Jim Kay's art being used in the film as his images in the book were what made the story even more perfect.

I gave this movie 5/5 stars and I can't wait to watch it again when it comes out on DVD as it was such a good film. I still can't believe I cried in the cinema. I haven't done that since I saw Half Blood Prince in 2009.

So that was my review of the A Monster Calls movie. Let me know what you thought of the movie.
Love,
Carenza x

Book Review Monday- We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver| It'sCarenzaB

Hey Guys!
How are you?

For this Book Review Monday, I am going to be reviewing We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. I read this as research for one of my college courses and I really enjoyed it. I realise it came out a while ago, but I have lots of things I want to say about it. Like all my other reviews, it will contain spoilers, so if  you have not read the book or watched the movie, you will not be able to read this review.

We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver- Contains Spoilers

Cover Chat

I'll be honest, this photo does the cover no justice. I really like this cover as it is quite mysterious and it doesn't give too much away about the plot.

Plot

Eva never really wanted to be a mother; certainly not of the boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher who tried to befriend him. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with Kevin's horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband. Uneasy with the sacrifices of motherhood, Eva fears that her dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so drastically off the rails.Winner of the 2005 Orange Prize, We Need To Talk About Kevin  is a brilliant, controversial, unsettling book.

As always, this summary is taken from Goodreads. It is rated as 4.06/5 and this is from 104263 ratings.

Opinions

This book was amazing! I picked it up to read for one of my college courses and I really enjoyed it. I gave it 5/5 stars. It discussing a controversial issue of a school shooting and talks about it from the perspective of a parent. The main focus of the book was how Kevin ended up shooting people through Eva being a bad parent.

We Need To Talk About Kevin makes you think about the amount of gun crime that occurs in America, especially in the late 1990's and early 2000's. It also addresses the issue of the fact that America was a nation controlled by fear (at the time the book was released). I had to do a lot of research for a college project about school shootings, so I know at the time, schools in America were very tense surrounding the issue of school shootings.

It was one of the most emotional reads I have ever read. At the end of the book, when we find out Franklin and Celia have been killed by Kevin, I was really shocked. I knew there was something wrong and that he would kill people at his school, but I never thought he would kill his family. It came as a shock as this book is told through letters that Eva writes to Franklin.

If you have read the book and enjoyed it, I highly recommend the movie as it is very accurate to the book. It was made in 2011, so it should be quite cheap on Amazon, if you're looking for a movie to watch.

So that is it for my review of We Need To Talk About Kevin, if you have read the book or watched the movie, let me know what you thought!
Love,
Carenza x

Best of Bits'n'Bobs 2016| It'sCarenzaB

Hey Guys!
How are you?

Welcome to the final in my Best of series for 2016. I've already talked about my favourite books and cultural things. In this one I am going to talk about my favourite Bits'n'Bobs of 2016. A lot of these have been featured in my favourite posts, so it will come as no surprise that they are in my favourite list.

Bits'n'Bobs 

My first Bits'n'Bobs favourite of 2016 is my ever growing collection of Happy Hello bookmarks. I decided to treat myself one day and here I am owning more than I probably need. These bookmarks are ridiculously cute and I have loads more that I want to buy.

My next favourite is obviously my Tsum Tsum collection. You guys know that I love all things to do with Japan, so Tsum Tsums are a perfect thing to collect as I also love Disney. Again, I probably have more than I need, but I love them.

Another favourite is my Pop Funko collection that I started in 2016. My mum bought me two after my Gran died and then my collection sort of snowballed. I have almost all of the Harry Potter ones as I have limited myself to collecting them from the Harry Potter universe. These are my 3 favourite Pop Funkos that I own.

My last favourite of 2016 is half Bits'n'Bobs and Books and that is Fairyloot. Both of these candles were included Fairyloot boxes. I really  liked how you never new what the book was going to be and how there were loads of items.










So that concludes my Best of series for 2016. Let me know some of your random favourites from 2016!!
Love,
Carenza x

How to Bookworm #4- Getting Involved| It'sCarenzaB

Hey Guys!
How are you?

Welcome to the fourth post in my How to Bookworm series! I hope you guys have been enjoying the other posts in this series. At the moment, I only have two more planned, but if you have any suggestions- please let me know.

In this post, I am going to talk about participation and getting involved in the book community. There are loads of different ways to get involved in the book community and I'm sure they'll be ways that I don't know, but here are a few of my favourite ways to get involved in the community.

Read-A-Thons

Read-A-Thons are my favourite way to get involved in the book community as lots of bookworms gather together to read a book/ books. I often see lots of great read-a-thons happening and wish that I could participate, but I always end up forgetting about them. Taking part in a read-a-thon is really fun as you can make new friends because you are reading the same book/books. 

I know at the moment that some Bookstagrammers are hosting a Bone Season read-a-thon in preparation for the third book coming out in March. They have set dates to read certain chapters by and host weekly (I think) Twitter chats about it.

Another amazing read-a-thon is the Biannual Bibliothon which is hosted by a bunch of amazing BookTubers. The amazing thing about this read-a-thon is that you don't have to be a BookTuber to part take. They set 7 reading challenges, one of which is a group challenge, and you get to pick which books you read. The next one is in July.

At the moment, I hope that I can host my own read-a-thon from July to September re-reading the Harry Potter books as I haven't read them in a while.

Monthly Photo Challenges

I know a lot of people who like to enter monthly photo challenges on Bookstagram as you get a great sense of community. There are always photo challenges going on and more often than not, there are loads of different ones to enter. It allows you to be creative, while receiving prompts. I took part in one in December and had loads of fun. 

Reading Groups

My final favourite way to get involved in the book community is through reading groups. If there is a certain genre you are interested in, there is probably a reading group for it on GoodReads. A lot of BookTubers and Bookstagrammers have reading groups. They'll pick a book and a date to read it by and then have a discussion. I have yet to take part in one of these, but I know there are loads of amazing ones out there.

So that is it for this blog post, I hope you guys liked it. If  you have anyways to get involved in the book community that I missed, please leave a comment.

Love,

Carenza x

Book Review Monday- History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera- Spoiler Free| It'sCarenzaB

Hey Guys!
How are you?

Today I am going to be doing my first spoiler free review as the book I am reviewing doesn't come out until tomorrow in the US and on February 9th in the UK. The book I am reviewing is History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera. I was lucky enough to win an ARC of this book through Maximum Pop Books in November 2016. I read it as soon as I got it and loved it so much it made it on to my favourite books of 2016 list (books that weren't published in 2016 list). In this review I am going to be talking about the things I like that aren't spoiler related. I hope you guys like this review and you should all go and read History Is All You Left Me.

History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera- Spoiler Free

Cover Chat

So this is the cover for the UK ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) of HIAYLM. If you google the final cover, you will see that they are quite similar. I really like how simplistic the cover is. 

 Plot

When Griffin’s first love and ex-boyfriend, Theo, dies in a drowning accident, his universe implodes. Even though Theo had moved to California for college and started seeing Jackson, Griffin never doubted Theo would come back to him when the time was right. But now, the future he’s been imagining for himself has gone far off course.

To make things worse, the only person who truly understands his heartache is Jackson. But no matter how much they open up to each other, Griffin’s downward spiral continues. He’s losing himself in his obsessive compulsions and destructive choices, and the secrets he’s been keeping are tearing him apart. 

If Griffin is ever to rebuild his future, he must first confront his history, every last heart breaking piece in the puzzle of his life.

As always, this plot is taken from Goodreads.

Opinions

I gave HIAYLM 5/5 stars. I had known that this book was going to be emotional and that it would probably destroy me. It was a beautifully written book, told in an unusual style and deals with the issues of grief really well. It also deals with relationships and learning to move on. It is the first book I have read that has a Gay main character. It has inspired me to read more diverse books as I really enjoyed this.

As I have already said, this book deals with grief really well. In my 2016- A Reflection post, I talked about the isolation I felt after my Gran's death. This book captured perfectly what I felt. It talks about how different people have different coping mechanisms to deal with death. As my Gran's death was the first death in my family (that I could remember), I really didn't know how I was going to act. What I am trying to say, in a very long winded way, is that I found myself relating to this book a lot and I really wish that I had had this book earlier.

Another thing this book deals with is relationships. Not only romantic relationships, but friendships, which is something that gets over looked in YA. The friendships in this book are as strong as the romantic relationships. Adam Silvera builds really strong character relationship and that is something I love about his books.

Probably my favourite thing about this book is that it was an LGBT book. Griffin is gay and as I've already said this is the first book I've read that has a gay main character. I found it really interesting reading from someone of a different sexuality. It deals with sexuality in such an amazing way, I don't think I can but it into words how much I love this book.

So that is it for my non-spoiler review, I will be posting a Spoiler review closer to the UK release date in February. Let me know if you've read anything by Adam Silvera.

Love,

Carenza x   

Best of Culture 2016| It'sCarenzaB

Hey Guys!
How are you?

Welcome to the second in my "Best of" series. Last year I talked about books, beauty and Bits'n'Bobs, but this year I have decided that I am going to stop talking about beauty on my blog as I have no interest in it. I have decided that I am going to start talking about culture as culture is a huge part of my life.

I know that culture is a very vague word, but on here it means theater (plays and musicals), art exhibitions, films and tv, travel etc. I am now going to start featuring culture in my favourites every month.

Theater

I am very fortunate to be able to go so many plays and musicals with my parents. Most people I know would rather go on sunny beach holidays, but we would rather go to the theater. I get to see a lot of plays and musicals and it was very hard to narrow it down to my favourites. I will be honest I am only talking about plays and musicals from June onwards as I can't remember lots of what I saw before June because of exam stress.

First on my list is getting to see The Book of Mormon for the second time. I had already seen it in 2015 with my Dad and my Mum was desperate to see it. So the weekend before my birthday we went and saw it. It was even better the second time. I highly recommend you go and see it as it is hilarious. It is written by the people who created South Park. I will warn that it has lots of swear words and if you get easily offended, this musical isn't for you. I can safely say that The Book of Mormon is my favourite musical.

Next on my list was my trip to Edinburgh with my Dad to the Edinburgh Fringe for the 3rd year in a row. If you are ever planning to go to Edinburgh, then this is the time to go. There is so much to see, I can guarantee that you won't be bored. My Dad and I only went for a day and we managed to fit in 5-6 pieces of theater.  

In mid June, my parents and I went to Glyndebourne Opera House near Brighton as part of my Dad's present to my Mum for her birthday. I had never been to an opera, so I didn't know what to expect but I really enjoyed myself. I believe the opera we saw was called The Little Vixen. The costumes the singers wore were amazing, as was the set. I don't know if they do this at all Operas, but at Glyndebourne the interval was longer than the performance. In the interval, you have a picnic! The food was really nice and it felt very posh. I hope at some point in my life, I can go again as I really enjoyed it.

My final theater favourite is the Winter season at the RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company). I've been going to the RSC since I was 6 years old and I have always enjoyed it, but this season was the best thing I saw. Obviously, I enjoyed everything else at the RSC, but these plays have stayed in my mind. I particularly enjoyed the plays in the Swan Theater. If you ever visit Stratford Upon Avon, you have to go to the RSC and see something.

Films and TV

There were a lot of amazing films that came out in 2016, as well as a lot of TV. I think I have narrowed it down to my ultimate favourites, otherwise the list would be endless. I will warn that I am rubbish at describing why I like films because I am not a film reviewer. 

Films

My first film favourite is Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. You guys know that I love the Harry Potter series, so I was both excited and skeptic when they announced the Fantastic Beasts films. I do have a review on here for the film, you can read that here. My review goes into loads of detail about why I like the film.

My next favourite film was Moana. I have always been a fan of Disney, so every-time they release a new film I get really excited. Moana was very different from the other Disney films as it shows that you don't need a man by your side. I've noticed that Disney is branching away from the "a princess always needs a man/prince to save her" recently and I couldn't be happier. I loved the songs as they were written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, so they were in a similar style to Hamilton. 

My final favourite film was Stark Trek Beyond. It is quite possibly my favourite of the 3 Star Trek Films. It was very funny, but it also had some more serious scenes. I loved the opening scene. I was really happy that the film paid tribute to Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin as both died before the films release.

TV

My favourite TV series of 2016 were:

• Lucifer
• Poldark (series 2)
• The Living and The Dead
• Game of Thrones (I know I'm really behind, I only just joined this fandom)     

I'm not going to go into as much detail as I did with films because I can't put into words why I like them, I just like them.

Travel

My favourite place I traveled to in 2016 was Brighton. I visited Brighton when I was very little, so I don't really remember much about it. It was nice being in a seaside town that felt a bit old-fashioned (it has the huge pier). The Lanes were really fun to visit and the weather was mostly good. I hope in the future I can go back to Brighton and spend more time exploring and take more photos.

So that is it for my Best of Culture for 2016. Next weeks  post will be Best of Bits'n'Bobs and I have a feeling that this is going to be a really long post.
Love,
Carenza x

Book Review Monday- The Paper Magician by Charlie N Holmberg| It'sCarenzaB

Hey Guys!
How are you?

Welcome to my first Book Review Monday of 2017 and for my first review of 2017, I thought that I would review my first read of 2017- The Paper Magician by Charlie N Holmberg. My best friend bought me it for Christmas as I saw it once on Amazon and thought it sounded interesting. You guys know how my reviews are formatted, so I will get straight into my review.

The Paper Magician by Charlie N Holmberg- Contains Spoilers

Non-Spoiler Thoughts

I really enjoyed this book. It was a nice, fast read to start the read of with. I had seen some very negative reviews on Goodreads and began to doubt whether it was worth my time. It was. I would describe it as a cross between The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare and the Harry Potter series. There were some moments that I found a bit "off", but apart from that I really enjoyed this book.

Cover Chat

I really like the covers for this series as they give VERY subtle things away. I also love that they are quite minimalistic. I hate it when covers looks overcrowded. I really like it when covers have silhouettes on them and because the book is set in the Victorian/ Edwardian period, you get this amazing puffy dress. I don't think my description is doing this cover any justice.

Plot

Ceony Twill arrives at the cottage of Magician Emery Thane with a broken heart. Having graduated at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, Ceony is assigned an apprenticeship in paper magic despite her dreams of bespelling metal. And once she’s bonded to paper, that will be her only magic… forever.

Yet the spells Ceony learns under the strange yet kind Thane turn out to be more marvelous than she could have ever imagined — animating paper creatures, bringing stories to life via ghostly images, even reading fortunes. But as she discovers these wonders, Ceony also learns of the extraordinary dangers of forbidden magic.

An Excisioner — a practitioner of dark, flesh magic — invades the cottage and rips Thane’s heart from his chest. To save her teacher’s life, Ceony must face the evil magician and embark on an unbelievable adventure that will take her into the chambers of Thane’s still-beating heart—and reveal the very soul of the man.

As always, this summary is taken from Goodreads. The average rating on Goodreads is 3.62/5. This is taken from 35423 ratings and 4224 reviews.

Opinions

I gave this book 4/5 stars. Like I said at the beginning of my review, I really enjoyed this book. I love reading fantasy and this was something a bit different. If you love fantasy and are looking for something different, I suggest you pick up The Paper Magician.

In The Paper Magician, there are several different forms of Magic. Ceony is a Paper Magician, so she is "bonded" to Paper. I found myself thinking "of just get over it" every time she complained that she was becoming a Paper Magician rather than a Metal Magician. The book captured what it's like when things don't go to plan in a really weird way.

The Paper Magician was set in London, so I'm assuming the characters were English/ British. At one point in the book, Ceony was talking about her mother and was calling her "Mom". It is very rare that someone in the UK will refer to their mother as "Mom". This tiny detail annoyed me a little bit as it felt out of place with the story.

The section where Ceony was going through Thane's heart was very moving. I really enjoyed learning things about Thane's past, but we also got to learn things about Ceony too. During this scene, we met the villain who was Thane's Ex-Wife, Lira. Lira wasn't that great of a character. She was hardly there and didn't scare me. The end of this book was supposed to be an epic showdown but it wasn't that epic. It just sort of happened and I had to reread the scene to realize it had happened.

Towards the end of the book we find out that Ceony is falling in love with Thane. Ceony is 19 and Thane is in his thirties. I don't want to read a love story between a 19 year old and a middle aged man. I really hope that they stay friends rather than become lovers.

So that is my review of The Paper Magician by Charlie N Holmberg. I will definitely be continuing with this series later this year as I am interested to see where the author takes this series.
Love,
Carenza x 

Best of Books 2016| It'sCarenzaB

Hey Guys!
How are you?
Welcome to the first post in a 3 part series called "Best of 2016". I did this last year for 2015 and really enjoyed it, so I thought I would do it again. Just a quick note- while I am writing this, I am very ill, so it may not be as fluent as some of my other posts.

In this post I will be talking about my favourite books that were published in 2016. I have picked 6 books that I love and were published last year. They are in no particular order other than the order I took photos of them.

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas

 While I know a lot of people have mixed feelings about this book, I loved it. ACOMAF completely hooked me in and I read this beast of a book in 3 days. I loved the pace and the world building of this book. I cannot wait for the sequel A Court of Wings and Ruin to come out in May this year. ACOMAF is one of my most prized books as this copy is a US hardback that Sarah signed and personalized to me. My parents got me this with help of a friend of my dad's who lives in America. You can read my review here.

The next book on my list is the screenplay for the Fantastic Beasts and Where to find them movie. I knew that at least one JK Rowling book would have to make it on to this list and I chose this one over Cursed Child because I preferred it. I was happy that I could read the script of the film and be able to refer to scenes better. I loved that I could see how JK Rowling had written such a good script. You can read my review of the film here.  

Next is a book I don't talk enough about on here and that is Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton. I picked up this book not really knowing what it was about and it was one of the best reading choices I made. Rebel of the Sands is like nothing I've read and I am dying for the sequel Traitor to the Throne to come out this year.

Another book I don't talk about enough is Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin. I bought this on the same trip as Rebel of the Sands and fell in love with it too. I would describe it as a YA version of the Man in the High Castle, which is a book I haven't read but I have watched part of the TV series.  It was so well written and I need to pick up the sequel Blood for Blood, which is already out.

In 2016 I discovered VE Schwab's books and she has become one of my favourite authors. This Savage Song was such an amazing book about what it is to be human. I would highly recommend this. Our Dark Duet, which is the sequel, comes out later this year.

My final choice is Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare. I would have to say that this is my favourite book of 2016. It was so emotional and moving, as well as behind funny. I need the sequel, Lord of Shadows now. You can read my review here.









So that concludes my Best of Books for 2016. Let me know some of your favourite books. The next post in my Best of Series will be going up next Friday.
Love,
Carenza x

New Years Resolutions for 2017| It'sCarenzaB

Hey Guys!
How are you?
Happy New Year! 2016 is finally over and this means that there is now another chance to do the things that you said you would do. I can safely say that I failed my 20116 resolutions, but I plan to be more successful in 2017. I 7 resolutions I want to focus on in 2017, but I have some other things I am going to focus on which I am going to list as well.

New Years Resolutions

1) Learn To Balance Work and Play

For the whole of 2017, I am still going to be in full time education. This means that I learn that I am going to have to learn to balance my school life and my personal life. I started to get good at this towards the end of 2016. My personal life is a bit all over the place, with having to travel between two houses frequently and keeping up with reading and blogging. I also have coursework starting in January and major exams in May, so I am going to be quite busy this year.

2) Read More Than One Genre A Month

In 2016 I read mostly fantasy. While I love fantasy, I do want to branch out. I want to start reading more sci fi as well as more adult books like classics. I received some biographies for Christmas, so I am hoping I can read more books that are out of my comfort zone.

3) Improve Fitness

This is a resolution that I set myself last year and this year I intend to see it through. I am fed up with feeling uncomfortable in my own skin. I always feel very self conscious around others. I also want to improve it to prevent ill health in later life.

4) Be Happy

I haven't ever spoken about my mental health on here, but in 2016 I really struggled with happiness. I haven't been diagnosed with anything, but there were periods were I would feel happy or sad. I want to focus on my mental health in 2017. This does time in with learning to balance work and fun.

5) Be Organised

This is something that I improved in 2016 as in April I started bullet journaling. This has changed my life. I have become so much more productive as it helps me keep on track. I plan to start organising my revision to make it more efficient. I also want to become organised to help reduce my TBR. I also want to start writing blog posts in advance. Towards the end of 2016, I would write the blog post on the day it was suppose to be posted and I found this very stressful. I plan to start writing posts in advance, as well as taking photos in advance.

6) Join In More

I am someone who is very happy to sit at the back of the room and not join in, but this is something I want to change. I very rarely contribute in class and I want to become more involved in the book community. I feel that this will help me to grow as a person.

7) Have Fun

I want to make 2017 the best year it can be. I want to travel a bit and explore the area I live in. I want to have fun with my family and make lots of memories. I just want to have a year that I can smile at.

Two Things I Want To Focus On

If you have also read my reflection post, then you will know that I want to focus on my mental health and family in 2017. My mental health was all over the place in 2016 and I really want to improve it. I hated feeling so sad and empty all the time last year, I don't want to let 2017 be the same. I want to focus on my family as my family means the world to me. My parents are amazing and very supportive. They have done so much for me and I want to start giving back to them.

The Little Things

Every year I always forget the little things I want to change and they are as equally important as the big things. Here is a list of the little things:

• Complete my exams
• Get good grades in my exams and courses
• Move back with my family
• Go to a few bookish events
• Go to YALC in London
• Grow as a person
• Finnish writing the stories I've started
• Be more involved in the book community
• Take more photos- more photos that aren't of books
• Cuddle my cat every time I come home to see him
• Drink more water
• Explore new places
• Travel around the country
• Stop putting things off that I don't want to do

So those are my New Years Resolutions for 2017. I hope that you all have an amazing 2017. Just a quick reminder that my update posts will be posted every 3 months rather than every month. In this posts I will keep you updated with how things are going.

Love,

Carenza x

2016- A Reflection| It'sCarenzaB

2016. What a year. It went so fast and so much happened, not only in my personal life, but in the world. 2016 was a year of amazing things and terrible things. I can safely say that 2016 was one of the best years of my life, but also one of the most challenging years of my life.

The year started good, I was getting into exercising and improving my life. I had been offered a place at the college of my dreams, but unexpectedly, my gran died. I had known for some time that she would die, but I never expected it to be as soon as it was. I had only been to one funeral before and that was when I was 3 years old, so I didn't know what to expect. I was both upset and relieved by the news of her death as she had been suffering from dementia. It is horrible to see someone you know forget who they were.

Her death had an odd effect on me. I felt empty, I had thought I would feel depressed, but I just felt empty. My family were amazing during this time, we all held each other together as there was so much to be done. After my grandpa died when I was 3, she had organised her own funeral, so it was a weight of our shoulders. While my family were amazing during this time, some of my friends were not so amazing. They found it hard to understand why I didn't want to be surrounded by people. I liked being with one person at a time and having them accuse me of trying to steal their friend, frankly didn't help.

It took me a few months to get my life back to a normal routine. I kept up with my school work and luckily, none of my grades slipped. What I found I had no interest was reading. I found it hard to sit down with a book, which is something that has never happened to me before. I also found that I wasn't that interested in my blog. I had started my blog on a whim, never really knowing why I did it. I just enjoyed writing and knowing that some people would read it. But in the months after her death, I fell out of love with the things I held dearest.

It was around this time that I discovered Bookstagram. A whole community where people who loved book talked about books. I'll be honest, I had no idea what I was doing at first. Most of my early bookstagram photos only have three likes. But soon, I began to pick up on how to make it easier for people to find my photos and get noticed. I started the year with 3 followers and ended the year with over 60.

In 2016 I discovered I had a new passion- Pop Funkos. I never stop talking about them on my blog or my bookstagram. I have been in love with Japanese culture for some time and finding something else I could collect made me happy. But with my love for Pop Funkos came a lapse in my love for Tsum Tsums. I plan to rectify this in 2017.

2016 seems to be a year of discovery for me, whether this was the book community or self-discovery, 2016 helped me find new things. At the end of 2015, I was severely depressed. I felt that I had no friends and I hated my school. It was definitely a rock bottom point in my life. But then I discovered BookTube. It felt that I had finally found people who truly understood my love for books and all things nerdy. Although I have never meet any of these people in person, it felt as though they were my friends.

From April to June, I took a break from blogging. I had the first set of serious exams and I knew that I needed to concentrate on them. While I was doing this to benefit my education, I couldn't help but miss my little corner of the internet. It was a place I had created, somewhere I could write and feel happy. But sometimes education has to come first and this was one of those times.

After my short break, I had planned to come back with a bang, but I ended up having major problems accessing my email that I use to run my blog. I ended up being logged out of my email for 2 months, missing my blog anniversary and feeling very left out of the book community. But by chance, I got my email back and began to blog again. I felt so out of practice when I re-joined the community.

My decision to take a break from blogging was to benefit my education. I had the first set of serious exams that I will have to sit in my life and I wasn't going to let anything prevent me from doing well. In truth, I didn't struggle as much as I thought I would. I had been told that this time would be stressful, but it wasn't as stressful as I thought it would be. I put my heart and souls into my revision, but deep down I know I could have put more effort in. When I picked my results up, I had done well but not as well as I wanted to do. I am someone who puts a lot of pressure on themselves, I expect nothing less than perfect and these results shocked me. I had tried so hard and it felt as though I was being punished, I felt that the grades I got weren't what I deserved. My friends and family were really supportive, as was my new college.

A lot of my peers would ask me how I motivated myself to revise so much. The truth was every day I spent working, was another day closer to leaving. I was so excited to leave the place that I had felt so miserable in for 5 years, that I knew I had to do well in my exams to get out of there. Although I had made friends there and have some good memories from my time there, I don't miss it. Being there effected my mental health, my family could see how unhappy I was.

Leaving my school and starting at a new college meant moving away from part of my family. I had lived in the same house for my whole life, so moving to another part of the country was daunting. But what I found more daunting was the prospect of not living with my mum. My family is very small, so I found it hard to leave her behind. Living with my dad has been one of the best things that could happened to me, it's made my relationship with him a lot stronger and makes me feel so privileged that my family are willing to give up so much for me. Just a quick note- my parents are not divorced, they are still happily married. They live separately so I can attend the college I am at.

Before starting at my new college, I had only been to two schools and both times I had gone with people I knew. So starting at a much larger college and not knowing anyone was terrifying. I hadn't even been living in my new area for a week when I started and I felt so out of place. Thankfully, my lecturers are all amazing and the people there were very warming to me. I have made some friends that I will keep for life. I found a place where I fit in and don't feel like an outsider and it is one of the nicest feelings in the world.

My personal life has been all over the place this year, but so has my reading life. In January, I set myself the challenge of reading 50 books. This is something I thought I would never reach, but in November I reached my goal. I have ended the year by reading over 60 books and I hope that I have such a good reading year in 2017. But in 2016, I definitely sat in my comfort zone and hardly read anything that wasn't fantasy.

I have two reading highlights of the year, the first was going to my second ever book signing. I was lucky enough to get tickets to Carrie Hope Fletcher's book signing and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. She was very nice to talk to and she complemented me on my name, which happens a lot but always makes me happy. In 2017 I hope to got to more book signings and bookish events, I am trying to go to YALC in July. My other highlight of the year was winning an Advanced Reader Copy of History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera. I had wanted to read this book since I saw people talk about it on BookTube. I had never thought that I would get an ARC and here I am, ending my 2016 owning my first ARC.

2016 was a very bad year for celebrity deaths. We started of the year losing David Bowie and Alan Rickman. By the end we had also lost Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds. I have never cursed on here before, but 2016- Fuck You! Not only was 2016 a year for deaths, but we had a lot of change in politics. Don't get me started on Brexit or Donald Trump, I cannot contain my rage when I get started. The year was also littered with terrorist attacks around the world. Every so often, we would wake up to a new hashtag and it would only be a few days before there was another one. I hope 2017 has nowhere near as many deaths, for celebrities and ordinary people.

2016 was a year of ups and downs, a year for change. With every new year comes a new change. I plan on using 2017 to grow as a person. To learn what I need to focus on and remember that life is short and you need to have fun. I am going to make my 2017 the best year possible. It's time to step out of my comfort zone and embrace the opportunities that are thrown at me. I am lucky enough to be surrounded with amazing people who love me. there are two main things I want to focus on in 2017, my family and my mental health. There are obviously lots of little things I want to focus on, such as fitting in more time for writing and exploring the new area I live in, but these are the things that I want to focus on the most. I started 2016 in a very bad mindset and I don't want 2017 to be the same.

I hope that you'll continue to follow me on this journey. I am truly grateful for this little corner of the internet that I have created. It still shocks me that people read what I have to say and continue to support me. I want to take this time to say, Thank You.
Love,
Carenza x