This book. Wow. Just wow.
I bought this on a whim, mainly a guilty pleasure cover buy, but also for the fact that we (myself and the book), share the same name. Rebecca. Obviously!
In this book, we follow our female lead, who begins her take working for a Mrs Van de Hopper as a servant almost. She lives with her, dines with her, holidays with her, and so on, all in exchange for £90 a month. When we first come across the pair, they are holidaying abroad, when they just so happen to be staying in the same hotel as Maxim De Winter, esteemed Englishman and sole owner of the stately homes of Manderley. We see the relationship between our main character and Maxim blossom during the hotel stay, to the point where Maxim asks her to becomes his bride! From there, we are taken on a journey full of twists and turns with the newly-weds, as our main female character struggles to come to terms with life at Manderley, all the while trying to understand her husbands ever-growing silence ad suspicion surrounding his deceased first-wife, Rebecca.
*from here this review will no longer be spoiler free, scroll to the last paragraph to see my overall thoughts and rating*.
I adored this book. I read it as part of my #2016classicschallenge, and have completed it in under a week. Which for me, and a 400+ page book, is pretty damn impressive! Initially I believed our main character to be a bit of a pain, as the author writes in all of these other scenarios playing out in our females head, so I was never really sure what was truth and what wasn't at certain points. However I found that becoming less and less frequent the more I read, which was a definite bonus.
I went through every single emotion I could possibly imagine with almost all of the characters, bar one or two who I loathed from the moment I met them. I have to say, Maxim exceeded my expectations, and I loved his character development throughout the book. I began hating him for leading our poor female on (I've yet to learn her name, it's probably mentioned somewhere and I didn't pay attention), until suddenly it all went up in the air when she confronted him about his feelings. And then - well, that was one hell of a revelation!
***
Overall I'm giving this book an amazing 5 out of 5 stars, which is rare for a classic read (for me anyway). This means that I would highly recommend it to absolutely anyone and everyone. Don't read classics? Read this one. Prefer YA? Try this, trust me you'll love it. I just hope someone somewhere has thought about a novella or sequel so we can see what has happened to our beloved couple since the end of the novel!
Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?
Wednesday, 10 February 2016
Monday, 8 February 2016
Life Update
Until I consider whether this is going to be a permanent feature in my blog, I will just be calling this a "Life Update".
Okay. So exactly four weeks ago today (I think that's right), I took the plunge and joined my local weight loss group with my mam. She's been going for little under a year now, and has done phenomenally, so I finally bit the bullet and joined myself. Everything was going great. Until...
My hiccup.
I've been weighed tonight (it's just after 9pm) at class and found since last week I've put half a pound on. I'm feeling both frustrated and upset but at the same time I'm feeling nothing at all. And I think I know why.
I didn't stick to plan.
Each week for the first four weeks of your journey, you're meant to fill out food diaries to see what you're eating, what your habits are, and how you can change them if necessary. You pass then back to your consultant who then looks over them and returns them the following week (or texts you like mine does, she's such a good consultant!)
This week however, life admittedly got in the way, and although I was mentally preparing my meals and counting my good and bad foods, I wasn't actually writing these down, not even on a scrap bit of paper, let alone my food diary! So naturally I had a rather naughty week as a consequence (totally my own fault and I take full blame), which I've paid for in my gain. To me, this proves that I really do need my food diaries to help me control my eating habits and make the correct changes I need.
Anyway, this ramble is now over, I've had my say and can't decide if I want to keep up with this segment or if this is a one off.
See you all soon with another post!
Okay. So exactly four weeks ago today (I think that's right), I took the plunge and joined my local weight loss group with my mam. She's been going for little under a year now, and has done phenomenally, so I finally bit the bullet and joined myself. Everything was going great. Until...
My hiccup.
I've been weighed tonight (it's just after 9pm) at class and found since last week I've put half a pound on. I'm feeling both frustrated and upset but at the same time I'm feeling nothing at all. And I think I know why.
I didn't stick to plan.
Each week for the first four weeks of your journey, you're meant to fill out food diaries to see what you're eating, what your habits are, and how you can change them if necessary. You pass then back to your consultant who then looks over them and returns them the following week (or texts you like mine does, she's such a good consultant!)
This week however, life admittedly got in the way, and although I was mentally preparing my meals and counting my good and bad foods, I wasn't actually writing these down, not even on a scrap bit of paper, let alone my food diary! So naturally I had a rather naughty week as a consequence (totally my own fault and I take full blame), which I've paid for in my gain. To me, this proves that I really do need my food diaries to help me control my eating habits and make the correct changes I need.
Anyway, this ramble is now over, I've had my say and can't decide if I want to keep up with this segment or if this is a one off.
See you all soon with another post!
Thursday, 4 February 2016
REVIEW || We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach
Not going to lie - I teared up a little bit when reading this.
This book follows a group of people, some are friends in the beginning, others are not. But by the end, we have this beautiful group of friendship that is almost too cliche, but totally understandable.
*this review many not be spoiler free*
I'd eyed this book up for ages, before finally caving to my own wishes and purchasing it at the beginning of 2016. I knew I was in for a YA, I just didn't know how much of a YA it was going to be.
Turns out, quite a bit actually.
Sometimes, friendships or scenarios felt forced or awkward, as if they were there for the sake of it, as opposed to being there because they had earned the right to occur. Yet this didn't really effect the overall reading experience for me!
I got way too attached to all the wrong characters (naturally), and this book was no exception in the YA format of "wonderful friendship building followed by tragedy". And in all seriousness, I really didn't expect certain things from certain characters at the end of the book. I just really really wanted things to work out for P. He was always in his sisters shadow attention wise and was left to his own devices most of the time I believe, which makes his outcome even more distressing for me.
These are just my initial thoughts, although overall I will be giving this book a 4 out of 5 star rating. Once I figure out how to write down my thoughts and feelings more coherently or systematically, then I may come back to this review!
Have you read this before? Let me know down below in the comments!
This book follows a group of people, some are friends in the beginning, others are not. But by the end, we have this beautiful group of friendship that is almost too cliche, but totally understandable.
*this review many not be spoiler free*
I'd eyed this book up for ages, before finally caving to my own wishes and purchasing it at the beginning of 2016. I knew I was in for a YA, I just didn't know how much of a YA it was going to be.
Turns out, quite a bit actually.
Sometimes, friendships or scenarios felt forced or awkward, as if they were there for the sake of it, as opposed to being there because they had earned the right to occur. Yet this didn't really effect the overall reading experience for me!
I got way too attached to all the wrong characters (naturally), and this book was no exception in the YA format of "wonderful friendship building followed by tragedy". And in all seriousness, I really didn't expect certain things from certain characters at the end of the book. I just really really wanted things to work out for P. He was always in his sisters shadow attention wise and was left to his own devices most of the time I believe, which makes his outcome even more distressing for me.
These are just my initial thoughts, although overall I will be giving this book a 4 out of 5 star rating. Once I figure out how to write down my thoughts and feelings more coherently or systematically, then I may come back to this review!
Have you read this before? Let me know down below in the comments!
Sunday, 17 January 2016
2016 Classics Challenge!
Okay, we all love a good classic. There's no denying it, be it music, books, films or food. And today, I thought I would share a little blog post to contribute to some 'good classics'.
I recently watched a video from the wonderful Lucy, in which she shared her love of classics, and the idea of the "#2016ClassicsChallenge". Normally, I scroll through my YouTube subscriptions feed, watching videos whilst playing games on my Kindle, or colouring. But when something peaks my interest, I drop everything to watch it again, paying more attention the second time round. This was one of those moments.
The 2016 Classics Challenge is being held and run by The Pretty Books, and the sign up link for the challenge is here. In this blog post, Stacey (the lady behind The Pretty Books), states that the idea behind this challenge is to read one classic a month and blog, tweet, instagram or video your journeys! Completing one a month however, isn't a limit, and it also isn't a target. If you read more, thats fantastic, less, it's no big deal (which is a relief for me considering how poor I'm doing at the moment with this challenge).
Now, I know what you're all thinking "another generic post about classics", which is probably true. However, I just wanted to share with you all my aspirations for the completion of this challenge, and to let you all know that I will be aiming to take part in all aspects of this challenge! If you wish to join me, the sign up is linked above, as is Lucy's video!
Thanks everyone for reading!
Tuesday, 29 December 2015
[spoiler]REVIEW: Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
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| **not mine, taken from Photobucket, credit to the creator who is linked in the image** |
Okay, so this review is an alternative, almost discussion-style post as opposed to my spoiler-free review here, so if you do not wish to be spoiled, please head there!
This book took me an aaaaaage to complete, at least that's what it felt like! But it's a big book, that requires commitment, which I seemingly lacked.
I absolutely adored the down-to-earth characteristic that Sue displayed, although I did disagree with Sue's lifestyle, but hey-ho, in that time period, needs must right? And I'm certain she wasn't the only one being a fingersmith. I felt that her development through the book allowed us, as readers, to feel like we were living it up with her, in the sense that we felt how she felt, even though we knew what she didnt. One thing I did not like however, was that we knew a lot more of the truth than Sue did, way before she did. That was one thing I felt that let me down, as I could not sympathise as much with Sue whilst she was hating Gentleman and Maud with all her might, yet so desperately clung onto the idea that Sucksby was looking for her, which was, as we all know, is far, far, far from the truth!
Maud. Oh Maud, you seemingly naive, yet cunning girl. Yes, we understand your frustration with your lifestyle, and your Uncle, but you were looked after well, fed, and everyone tried to do the best for you. Hell, even I sympathised with you and I was Team Sue all the way! Well, I sympathised with you until you went, unsupervised, into the library and did the thing. I think, a part of me actually wanted Sue to carry out her hateful thoughts onto you, just for that act. Yes, I understand there was smut in probably every single one of those books, but someone took the time and effort to create the thing and you went ahead and destroyed at least one! You went down in my expectations after that Maud, especially when we discovered you were penning your own in the future. Not good.
This is just a couple of my initial thoughts on the book, mainly on two of the characters. Is this something that you would like to see more of on my blog? A spoiler-free review, followed by a spoiler/discussion style post as well, where I offload all my thoughts which are free to discuss with you as readers? Let me know in the comments if this seems like a good plan.
That's it for now, I'll be back in the New Year!
REVIEW: Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
***Please note, this review may not remain spoiler free***
Recently, I had the pleasure of picking up Fingersmith. I got it for a pound (£1) in one of my local charity shops, and had heard so much about the author, and with a new release of hers looming, I thought I may as well try her out, to see what her writing is like.
When I first read the back (I know some people refrain from doing so because of spoilers, but ultimately, how would I know if I was interested or not?), I got the impression that Sue Trinder (our lead female) was a sort of female version of Oliver Twist, and that the white gloves on the cover of the book were of some sort of significance to this line of work. Oh how I was not wrong.
The book follows Sue, who lives in London with her mother-esque figure Mrs Sucksby, as well as Mr Ibbs, John and Dainty, with the occasional visit from a man named, well, Gentleman. It is through Gentleman that Sue undertakes the biggest 'pickpocket' task of her life, and leaves her in a rather strange predicament....
I'll leave it there, incase of spoilers!
Basically, this book contains love, lust, greed, jealousy, rage, spit, murder and above all, bravery. I would highly highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good Dickensian novel, with a little bit of a twist thrown in there! If you've read the novel, please let me know down below so we can discuss it further - there will also be a spoiler blog post on this novel coming up, so avoid that like the plague if you wish to remain spoiler free!
See you all soon my lovelies!
R
Recently, I had the pleasure of picking up Fingersmith. I got it for a pound (£1) in one of my local charity shops, and had heard so much about the author, and with a new release of hers looming, I thought I may as well try her out, to see what her writing is like.
When I first read the back (I know some people refrain from doing so because of spoilers, but ultimately, how would I know if I was interested or not?), I got the impression that Sue Trinder (our lead female) was a sort of female version of Oliver Twist, and that the white gloves on the cover of the book were of some sort of significance to this line of work. Oh how I was not wrong.
The book follows Sue, who lives in London with her mother-esque figure Mrs Sucksby, as well as Mr Ibbs, John and Dainty, with the occasional visit from a man named, well, Gentleman. It is through Gentleman that Sue undertakes the biggest 'pickpocket' task of her life, and leaves her in a rather strange predicament....
I'll leave it there, incase of spoilers!
Basically, this book contains love, lust, greed, jealousy, rage, spit, murder and above all, bravery. I would highly highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good Dickensian novel, with a little bit of a twist thrown in there! If you've read the novel, please let me know down below so we can discuss it further - there will also be a spoiler blog post on this novel coming up, so avoid that like the plague if you wish to remain spoiler free!
See you all soon my lovelies!
R
Monday, 14 December 2015
Why I Love my Kindle.
Okay, so I know that there's probably a billion different blog posts on the Amazon Kindle, or it's various products including the Kindle Fire, PaperWhite and the original Kindle, so yep, I'm writing another one.
Just about everybody has heard of an Amazon Kindle, or owns one themselves. And if the figures are anything to go by - a staggering 64 million e-book purchases between January and September of 2014 (figures found in this article) - pretty much everyone will have read a book in their format, or know someone who has. If this is in fact true, then why do people seemingly scoff, or scrunch their faces up at me, when I tell them that the Kindle is my tablet of choice?
Kindles run on the Android system, just like the Samsung/Sony/HTC/pretty much anything except Apple products. Yet I know people who swear by Android as they 'cant get away' with using Apple products, but they still own an iPad that they treat like their baby, or an additional limb. So really, what is the issue?
Personally, I believe there are a number of things about it to make you fall in love with a Kindle. For example, it's the device that was created for e-books. Its initial purpose was to support PDF and e-book formats in the best possible way, to allow more people more access to their books on the go, rather than lugging their War and Peace novels around with them (believe me, it's actually pretty hard, speaking from experience). However, the thing I think I love the most about my Kindle (a Kindle Fire), is its versatility. One minute, it's a book, the next a game, or an App, or a different book! But then it becomes a film, or it becomes music. The only thing that my Kindle lacks, is a camera. However, that is because my Kindle is the version before the ones with the cameras installed. But that really doesn't bother me. I'm more than content just flipping between my apps and my books.
I think that's just about it for now. However, I will be posting again in the near future regarding my Kindle! Next time, it wont just be me declaring my love for an e-reader, it will actually be two posts comprising of the books I own on my Kindle, how much I paid for them, and whether I've actually read them yet!
Just a quick last note about those future blog posts - the unread HEAVILY outweighs the read books on my Kindle!
Just about everybody has heard of an Amazon Kindle, or owns one themselves. And if the figures are anything to go by - a staggering 64 million e-book purchases between January and September of 2014 (figures found in this article) - pretty much everyone will have read a book in their format, or know someone who has. If this is in fact true, then why do people seemingly scoff, or scrunch their faces up at me, when I tell them that the Kindle is my tablet of choice?
Kindles run on the Android system, just like the Samsung/Sony/HTC/pretty much anything except Apple products. Yet I know people who swear by Android as they 'cant get away' with using Apple products, but they still own an iPad that they treat like their baby, or an additional limb. So really, what is the issue?
Personally, I believe there are a number of things about it to make you fall in love with a Kindle. For example, it's the device that was created for e-books. Its initial purpose was to support PDF and e-book formats in the best possible way, to allow more people more access to their books on the go, rather than lugging their War and Peace novels around with them (believe me, it's actually pretty hard, speaking from experience). However, the thing I think I love the most about my Kindle (a Kindle Fire), is its versatility. One minute, it's a book, the next a game, or an App, or a different book! But then it becomes a film, or it becomes music. The only thing that my Kindle lacks, is a camera. However, that is because my Kindle is the version before the ones with the cameras installed. But that really doesn't bother me. I'm more than content just flipping between my apps and my books.
I think that's just about it for now. However, I will be posting again in the near future regarding my Kindle! Next time, it wont just be me declaring my love for an e-reader, it will actually be two posts comprising of the books I own on my Kindle, how much I paid for them, and whether I've actually read them yet!
Just a quick last note about those future blog posts - the unread HEAVILY outweighs the read books on my Kindle!
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