BOOK REVIEW - I Heart New York, Lindsey Kelk

I got this as a free ebook and firstly didn’t think I’d get into it as I’d be reading it on my iPhone, I was happily very wrong about this!

I’ve had a thing about New York for quite a while so I’ve been wanting to read this book for ages. It did nothing to dispel my eagerness to jet off there myself and in fact caused me to google flight prices...even though I blatantly won’t be able to afford to go until I’m about 40.

I adored the descriptions of the city and it absolutely matched up to my expectations and preconceived ideas. I really liked Lindsey’s style and look forward reading the rest of the series, particularly the I Heart Paris book as Paris is another one of my absolute favourite cities, and I have actually been lucky enough to go there. It'll be interesting to see what I recognise!

I really enjoyed the relationships that developed and was surprised to see where they went; I was actually expecting them to turn out quite differently! Lindsey writes with great humour right from the start, there are many moments that made me giggle out loud and some emotional moments without being too completely soppy! It’s possibly not one I’d read again and again but it did have a satisfying ending and I did really enjoy! I read it in two nights and could barely put it down. I would recommend it to all chick lit fans and anyone else who has a secret love affair with NY like me!

BOOK REVIEW - The Lover, Marguerite Duras

Right so you’d have thought that a book called ‘The Lover’ would be presumed to contain an abundance of romance but surprisingly I barely found this at all. It was quite a bleak book with just one strong (although one sided) relationship throughout. There was also a lot about her family situation which was admittedly sad although somehow I found myself feeling hardly any empathy at all despite it actually being an autobiographical novel.

It was in English, translated from French which I think may have hindered my reading process somewhat, as translations are not always as they should be. I shall eventually go on to read the French version as part of my course so it will be very interesting to see how they compare. I do wonder whether it was due to me having to read the book for uni that caused me to not enjoy it somehow, subconsciously? Or yes, perhaps it just really wasn’t my thing.

It was not really what I expected of the book as most other French romantic novels I have read are full of passionate fiery love and relationships. It was a quick but not particularly passionate or gripping read for me.

I feel a bit guilty not liking another one of these famous, crucial French novels, but there you go, perhaps it’ll grow on me with further study....or perhaps not.

Wow, so the last night of Hair was utterly amazing! A great atmosphere and not too many tears!!! I feel we really sent them off with a bang!

Below is the video of the dance party! Unfortunately we didn't make it up on stage but ended up in the aisle on our left which actually worked out really well because we could see everything that was going on! It was amazing! I feel so privileged that I was able to experience something as great as this!

We went to Tap Dogs the next day for their closing show even though we'd never been before and wow am I glad we did!!! Utterly amazing!!! I didn't think it was possible for anyone to have that much rhythm, balance and stamina! Pure tap for 1hr 20 mins, but not any old tap, MASCULINE tap. Yum. Honestly, girly crushes aside, it was incredible! The choreography was insane and I never thought I'd see a show and be utterly captured despite NO talking and NO singing. However, I AM very glad I wasn't sat on the front rows! They got utterly soaked. Pratically had buckets of water thrown over them! It was part of the dancing, not just the cast being mean but blimey! Didn't see that coming. I was wearing a nice dress as well, phew! Didn't get to meet the gorgeous Adam Garcia at the stage door unfortunately but we did have a lovely dinner at Leon on the Strand, (I LOVE THAT PLACE) and then grabbed a Yu-Foria (Yu-Foria and Snog are now my new obsession! Frozen yogurty goodness!!!! Healthy and barely any calories!) from Covent Garden and sat watching some live music for a while before we headed back to mine!

Monday we had a chilled out London day. We popped by the Gielgud to see if they'd taken the Hair posters down. I decided to be very cheeky and ask what they did with the posters. We had a lovely chat with the Front of House guy at the theatre who told us they all go to archive and he'd actually tried everything short of crying to get his hands on one!!! He said he was incredibly sad to see them go and it was so brilliant to chat to him! We had such a gossip! It made Milly and I feel so much better somehow! We then came out the theatre doors to see Jonathan Groff walking past us...without thinking we casually stalked him up the road for a while. He was on the phone so we didn't try anything silly! Haha! We stopped following him as we passed Snog and stopped off for another Frozen yogurt! Told you! Obsessed!!! I had one every day for three days! We reminsced about Hair, saw them taking the costumes and the carpets away and then eventually toddled home and went our separate ways! Amazing weekend though!

Peaceeee and love guys.

So, guess what. I've been to Hair again. That's 7 times now. Yes I'm well aware I have a problem. It's closing this time tomorrow though, so frankly I don't think 7 times was enough. I'm kidding. Kind of. If you've seen it, you'll probably understand the addiction, if not I understand that you won't. I wish you had seen it all those of you out there that haven't because it really is amazing, brilliant, fantastic and all those other kinds of words. Although really I don't think there are enough to describe just how much love it deserves and gives out. Peace and love people, peace and love.

Anyway, what I really came on here to talk about are books. Lovely papery books. Incidentally I nearly got buried under a pile of them earlier, but I won't hold it against them. It's my fault for having too many and not enough shelves. So any! I entered some book challenges, as previously mentioned. I've read 6 out of 8 romance novels so far and have yet to blog about any of them. I fail. So anyway, IT STARTS NOW. So if you're not interested in books, I'd avoid the next few posts, but if you have read the books or have any questions, please do comment! I'd love to get some discussion going!

Over and out,

with peace and love of course. x

TWO IN ONE WEEK. BLIMEY.

These are some of the photos from Spain. They're a mixture of mine and Soph's photos seeing as my camera decides to have sporadic fits and violently vibrates. No idea why .

We stayed at Finca Las Encinas in Las Juncares in Andalucia, and I can quite honestly say it was the best holiday I've ever been on! I am so so so lucky I won it! I still can't quite believe it! I won it from Philadelphia Soft Cheese!!! I'd never entered a comp like that before, but I thought oh I might get a cookbook, why not! AND THEN WON A GREAT BIG WHOPPING HOLIDAY. Hahah, so anyway! It just goes to show you've got to be in it to win it!

I would recommend the holiday to anyone! We learn to cook so much and such an amazing time. I've never had anyone try to make a stay so pleasurable as at Finca Las Encinas!

The Finca: http://finca-las-encinas.com/index.html

The Cooking course: http://www.golearnto.com/course/overview/1716/Mid+Week+Or+Weekend+Spanish+Cookery+Holiday

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.