Searching for that rush...

Hey guys, I told you I read 'I Heart London' first even though it's the second to last book in the series. Ooops. But, here's my thoughts on the whole series up to then... Our protagonist is Angela from originally from London who finds out her fiancé has been cheating on her. She, in the tone of the novel, loses her shit and moves to New York. We follow her story on life, making new friends, new relationships, getting a job and trying to get over her ex. I'm quickly skimming over the details here as there's like four books to go through but I want to make this point early on... These books are freaking HILARIOUS. Like the things this girl does/ the people she meets/ the situations that arise. Absolute gold. I read two of them in ONE day... ONE DAY! Next in the series is 'I Heart Hollywood', although I have to say Hollywood might not be a place I want to visit. Seems a bit over rated to me but the story is good. Angela tries her hand at 'proper' j...

Hey guys, have to say I'm a big fan of Cecelia Ahern, I read and blog about her novels quite a lot. With her being one of Ireland's most prominent writers, we have to support our own right?! Right. Anyway, Love, Rosie, spans over 45 years and is told through instant messager, letters, greeting cards and texts. It's about two best friends, Rosie Dunne and Alex Stewart who are separated at secondary school and how fate keeps intervening in their lives. Alex's father is offered a job in Boston, his whole family is uprooted and moved across the Atlantic. This is of course, devestating for the two young friends but the two manage to keep their deeply rooted friendship steady. It seems the two are to be reunited with Rosie being accepted into a University in Boston but the start of many twists happens and it works out that Rosie cannot move. The novel is basically about your average woman who is trying to make ends meet through various different jobs and yet never truly ful...

Hey guys, we need to talk about Gone Girl! This will contain spoilers so look away now, until you've seen/read it! This book gripped me right from the beginning. Haven't seen the film, it's on the to-do list. I swapped teams and bounced loyalties all over the show. I began reading this book on bus to see my boyfriend Scott and I have to say, as the novel is so focused on a relationship and Nick, (the husband) is always asking, "what are you thinking, Amy (wife)?" I found myself thinking, well, "what are you thinking, Scott?" Him being the quieter of us, means there is some gaps in the conversation. Freaked myself right out, don't think he's planning my murder though... Yet. Dun dun dun. Anyway, at the start I was convinced Nick had killed Amy and had cooked up this scheme that she had been kidnapped. It's such a twisty novel, the thoughts Nick has does not do anything to help his case. He imagines Amy with her bed bashed in, is caught smiling...

Hey guys, I just thought I would share these with you all. It was myself and Scott's 2nd anniversary this weekend, today in fact. Last year we were in Paris but this year we decided to stay closer to home, with him working crazy hours and me going back to College and properly nerding it up! We booked (very last minute,) Harry's of Kinnegad in County Meath, Ireland. It is an absolutely beautiful part of the country and the weather was fantastic! I'm including pictures in this post so you can all see for yourselves! We arrived at the hotel around 4:30pm with a couple of hours to kill before dinner, we decided to go out and explore! After looking at the 'Things to do' sheet in our room, we decided to visit Belvedere House in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath.  It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, with a lovely house, gardens with quirky rock work features, stories and scenes from popular Irish books and all beside a gorgeous lake, we really were spoilt! We...

Hey guys, I know this is a little bit of topic for me, but I just really wanted to talk about this outfit. Mainly because it took for ages to get myself sorted, haha! It was my boyfriend's graduation on July 2 and the amount of effort I put into my outfit, make up and hair was quite ridiculous... And, d on't even get me started on his present.  Anyway, the outfit. It had to be formal and nice, yet not too nice as to take away attention from the graduate.. You see, stress!  Firstly, I thought a jumpsuit. I found this beautiful strapless pale pink jumpsuit by Love online, ordered it, it arrived, tried it on... .  HATED IT. It was extremely see-though. So see-through you could even see my belly button?! Why? It was £45, not overly expensive but cost enough to expect better quality... Left a nasty review on that website. This left me in a fluster, as I had no clue what to wear.   One day, on my lunch break from work, I went down to Tempest, which unfortunately is...

Hey guys, Yep that's right, no posts in ages then two at once!! 'English as a second language' was finished about half an hour ago and I'm proud to announce that I'm writing a post on time... ON TIME!   The main character Alex, finds herself stuck in a rut, in her home in New York. At 26, she's stuck in a job that no-one wanted, going after all the wrong men and having zero clue what she wants out of life, she decides that going back into education is the way to go. Well, 'she decides' is a rather loose description as to what happened, she found herself in an awkward confrontation with her ex who decided to tell that she's off to Oxford University, England and when he scoffs, that she could never get into Oxford, she's determined to 'show him'. As it stands, she did not get into Oxford, she got into the University of Yorkshire but still he doesn't need to know that ;) We follow her through her assignments, many, many nights out, cra...

Hey guys, Picked up this little gem in a charity shop, basically heaven for a book lover with no clue what to read.. Anyway, picked this one up and it is amazing! Such a talented author and a well written story. Lindsay takes a simple story and moulded it into one which, literally blew my mind.  The main character Angela, is so easy to identify with, in more ways that one (a fellow writer and accident prone clutz). But it's her relationships, she has with the people in her life which are very honest and such a picture of 'everyday' life. She has a troublesome ex, crazy friends, work drama's, interesting relationships with her parents and not to mention, an absolute Adonis for a fiancé. Something which I can identify with completely, well almost, no fiancé here, one very lovely boyfriend though. :) Anyway, it turns out that 'I Heart London' is the final book in a series, it begins with 'I Heart New York'. It follows Angela on her journey from London...

Hey guys, Been in a bit of a slump recently, just one of those periods where you really, really want to read something but have no idea what. I mean, I don't even know if I wanna read romance, a thriller, an autobiography.... No clue. Please, please, give me some suggestions. I'll be forever grateful thanks :) Annie xx

Hey guys, I know it's been a while, but it took forrreeeevvveerrrrr for this book to arrive. Basically, ordered it, it got lost in the mail, had to be resent, 3/4 weeks later. Arrived.  Three (ish) weeks to arrive and like a day to read, if even. Also, works been nuts too so that added to the delayed post. (Sorry!) Anyway, back to the book. Plot still follows Tris on her search to save everyone, including herself it would seem, few added characters such as, Four's 'dead' mum, Evelyn (wwhhaaaattttt?!), more ups and downs and betrayal.  Tris, seemingly is going through a mental breakdown, which confused the hell out of me, I usually am quite good at picking up people's emotions and thoughts but this storyline just completely threw me. Does she love Four? Who can she trust? Can she trust herself? Does she even know what the hell is going on herself? What is happening?! Confusion aside, was not as impressed by this novel as the first. The plot twists were amazing t...

Hey guys, while waiting for a new book order, my aunt lent me some books to keep me entertained. One of these was 'The Redeemer', it's not a book I'd pick up for myself but it's crime fiction and I looovvvveeeeee me some crime so I thought, "why not?!". This novel took me some getting used to the style and tone of the novel, the start left me slightly confused as to where it fits in, but it does become clearer towards the end. The story jumps from present to past to present again in pretty fast succession, so it's best to read this in a quiet and peaceful place. I found myself identifying more with the characters as the story went on, rather than an immediate connection. Some characters are better than others and I found myself myself caring about some but not all. The main character  and lead detective, Harry is an alcoholic hard nut detective who is potentially one of the most interesting characters of the novel. The way he thinks, the fac...

Hey guys,  I usually try not to get involved with book series when there's a lot of hype, maybe it's the inner hipster in me. But this time, I decided to give it a try and the fact it was on offer in Tesco. (I'm a sucker for a bargain, give me a break!) Anyway, I got it, I heard a lot of reviews about it which compared it to The Hunger Games, which I'm so not a fan off, but I kept an open mind... I loved it! Believe me, I'm as surprised as you are. I could not put it down, I started reading it on Sunday night at 8pm, I had it finished on my lunch break on Monday afternoon (1pm).  I could totally relate to the characters, I got into the deep secrets, the plot twists, the devious façade put on by the Dauntless and  Erudite  leaders and the little bit of romance going on between Tris and Four.  It has everything, dysfunctional families, friendships and trials, action, death but also kindness, warmth and bonds that cannot be broken. I c...

Hi guys, I'm really making up for not posting for about three months, with two posts in one week.. ONE! (Snaps for Annie) who would have thought!? Haha.. Well anyway, my lovely boyfriend bought me this book and I didn't want to start it before I read the original Sherlock Holmes books so I could fairly see how it fitted into the series.  As an Anthony Horowitz fan, (love Alex Rider) I was pretty excited about this book but also quite wary, our Anthony has a habit of having lavish details and a pretty high body count.  I have to say, this book falls right in line with the originals, in a yes, more shocking and twisted story but it's explained at the start by Watson.  He tells us, how he thought this story was too shocking for society at this time so he left it in a safety deposit box with instructions that it wouldn't be opened for a hundred years. Clever, right? As I've mentioned Anthony likes lots of details and lots of bodies, but this book was so well done ...

Hey guys, After about 4 years of saying "I'd love to head the Sherlock series", I bought the complete series of Sherlock Holmes in January 2014 and have just finished all 1,408 pages of it.  The stories themselves are brilliant, you think the case will lead you one way and then BAM! Mind-blowing revelations. Basically everything in which the TV shows and movies have lead us to believe. Though I got to say, the novels made me appreciate the BBC version of Sherlock so much more. To update certain cases the way they have, takes certain talent and knowledge. I'm going to discuss the novels as a whole instead of individual stories, as I would end up writing a dissertation on the subject and 'nobody got time for that'.  The stories give the reader a series of cases, the more famous stories like 'A Study in Scarlett' are single books whereas certain cases like that of Moriarty is a section in a novel. Most stores bar two are 'written' by W...

Hi guys, This post is just a bit of fun! This is a true account of what it is to live in Ireland, North and South. Hope you enjoy...! Annie xx You know you're from Ireland when... If you die from alcohol poisoning, you're consi dered a lightweight,   The  person that you insult most is probably your best friend,  Saying 'I will yea' means that you definitely won't,   'Hes fond of a drink'  means he suffers from severe life-threatening alcoholism  Saying you're going for a drink means you might not be seen again for 3  days,  Crisps are called 'Taytos' and fizzy drinks are called 'minerals',  'For the craic' is the best reason for doing anything,   The best cure for a hangover is more drink,   Nobody can go a day without saying 'Jaysus',  'Meeting' has a double meaning,  Tea is the solution to every problem,  'I got stuck behind a tractor' is a perfectly valid reason for being late,...

Hey guys, this is an interesting one. As a writer myself and aspiring novelist, (one day, its the dream) this novel hits close to home with me. Ruby Miller the story's protagonist is basically the story version of myself except I don't have an heartbreaking, ex fiancé (far to young for that malarkey thank you very much). Anyway, Ruby is a romance novelist who had her heart broken by her cheating ex fiancé and has lost her belief in love. For a romance novelist, this is rather bad news. So with the advice of her beloved agent, Ruby gets on a plane to Goa, India to meet her younger sister Amy. With disastrous yoga classes, drugged chocolate, stolen bags, a handsome American stranger and a fortune telling, love doctor type character. This novel basically has it all. Follow Ruby on her journey across India on her quest to find her sister and make her understand that marrying a yoga instructor is a bad idea, all men are lying cheats, righ...

Hey guys,  As one of the world's biggest Jane Austen fans and an even bigger fan of Pride and Prejudice, there was no question of me not buying this book (of course the offer of 2 for £7 did have some influence).  It's like Downton Abbey has come to Longbourn and I love it! The servants perspective is so interesting as they are from different social backgrounds and give us the insight that Austen tries to hide. Especially when Lydia Bennet runs away, Austen skirts over the details of Lydia's time with Wickham in London, yet Baker gives us the bare-faced facts. We see a different side to many of the family members including Mr Bennet, Mrs Bennet and Elizabeth. Mr Bennet has an illegitimate son with one of the servants which is the fore-running theme throughout the novel and also stems our pity of Mrs Bennet. We have an insight into her still-born son and it's aftermath. Basically Mr Bennet is a bit of a player and it's Mrs Bennet who suffers through a lack ...

Hey guys, this novel discusses themes that I find very, very interesting. Based in 1833 when the British Navy is surveying the coastline of the Arabian Peninsula, mapping and writing about their experiences and discoveries. The story follows Lieutenant James Wellsted who's ambition and determination to further his navy career into glory goes awry when two fellow shipmates vanish. Wellsted mounts a daring rescue plan and must involve himself with the very men who go against everything he believes. Slavery is still an epidemic throughout Arabia and the story follows a young, Abyssinian beauty, Zena, ripped from her village is followed very carefully until her path crosses that of Wellsteds. Now his property Zena must accompany him on his mission, unknown to either of them what lies ahead. Zena finds herself back among the very men who ripped her life apart, struggling to keep her headstrong nature as well as her developing feelings under check. Wellsted's very heart is on the l...