Sorry..

Hey all! sorry for not posting in like 4 days, it's been busy and all with Christmas celebrations! We are happy to say we have reached 100 subscribers which is really exciting. Thanks to you all for the support :)

How was your Christmas? or your holidays if you don't celebrate?

I had a lovely time and am very grateful for everything. Family time is precious (even though there are always arguments ;)).


That's all I wanted to say really. Hope you have a good ending to 2013.


Much love x
~Katie

New video!

We have a new video up, I did a review of Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging! Please check it out here:

We are also on 96 subscribers so it would be wonderful if we could reach 100 by Christmas.. (hint hint) :D

Subscribe by clicking the button over there or by clicking this link:
http://www.youtube.com/ANovelAdventure

Thankyou and Happy Holidays to you all!
~Katie x

Horrible Histories

Have you heard of Horrible Histories? it's a book and a TV series. In particular, I want to talk to you all today about the TV series which is brilliant. (I am in fact actually watching it right now..)

Look at the beautiful cast.
Just LOOK AT THEM. (sorry I get emotional thinking about Horrible Histories.)

So yes.. this TV show is funny, interesting, clever and most importantly teaches you things! I don't even care that it's meant for children.. adults can watch it too you know. The funny thing is I know more adults that watch it than children, oh life you are funny sometimes. This show features various different sketches about history (as you must have gathered) and puts them in a funny light. It also tells you facts and asks you questions about history.

The show also features a song an episode, these songs are very clever and I won't deny a few of them are on my phone.. my favourites include The Four George's and The Suffragette Song, check them out here:

The Four George's: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPtYmq5qFVA
The Suffragette Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBCi_UASgOs

Go forth and watch all the horrible histories!
(I promise I'm not addicted)

As I said before, the cast act so well and I love them all so so much. Horrible Histories ended on it's fifth series this year sadly but the whole cast have recently been on a new show: it's called Yonderland and I believe it's the finale tomorrow.

Go check that out here..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKc3caoK31M

I just realised how much advertising I'm doing for these shows.. I'm not getting paid I promise! I just really like them!

With all that said, hope you guys have a lovely day and talk to you soon :)
Bye x

~Katie

BookTube

Hey all!

IT'S 6 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS THIS IS SO EXCITING :D

I just wanted to do a blog post about the BookTube community, which I'm sure many of you will agree with. I personally think the BookTube community is so much friendlier than the "normal YouTube community" (call it what you will). This is because of a few reasons.

Firstly, I feel like everyone is more likely to take a look at your blog/channel and comment on it. They seem to be more willing to make friends. Secondly, it seems to me that this community interacts more with each other than any other community on YouTube itself (this is only my opinion, so please correct me if you think I'm wrong!).

We have nearly 90 subs on YouTube, which is exciting in itself but what I love most about our channel is that the people who watch our videos like to interact with us. I do love the feeling of community :)

So... what do you guys think about this? do you think BookTube is friendlier? or do you disagree with me?
let me know in the comments below!

P.S. Please watch our latest video or Subscribe if you haven't already. Links below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htkr2IRkjz8
http://www.youtube.com/user/ANovelAdventure

Talk to you guys soon x
~Katie

New Video!

Hey all! We uploaded our weekly Monday video just a few hours ago.. it features Louisa reviewing Slated by Terri Terry which is a brilliant book (99p on Kindle Store: what a bargain!). Check the video out below and subscribe if you like the look of our Channel :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htkr2IRkjz8


Subscribe by clicking the lovely button over there.. >

~Katie x

New Mid-Week Video!

Hey guys, we have a new mid-week video! It was uploaded on Thursday and includes our Christmas Tree Made Out of Books Tag. Basically you create a Christmas Tree out of books if you hadn't guessed :P we tag anyone and everyone. Specifically we tagged Amber and Miranda, you can find their channels in the description of the video.

Please go check it out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_LDyXagLP4


Have a good weekend/week :)
~Katie x

Arthur Christmas

Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted in a bit- I'm not very well. I thought I'd do a post on here anyway as I have a film to recommend to you all. Yesterday, I watched Arthur Christmas which is (obviously) a Christmas film.

This film is soo cute. It's funny and has all the elements you need for a good Christmas film. Also look at the elfs! aww. SO yeah, what more do I need to say? go watch it if you can :)

bye  for now x

~Katie

NEW VIDEO: Revision Tips

Hey guys, so it's that time of year again, and no I'm not talking about Christmas. EXAMS. Yup so I'm currently in Uni and I don't have any exams but I do have coursework, and I know a lot of people have coursework or exams (or both- unlucky.)

So I decided it would be a good idea to give some revision tips.  I hope that this helps someone out there who like me has a procrastination problem If nothing else  I made this video in the vain hope that I will listen to my own advice. (Probably not).

Let me know if this was helpful, and leave any tips of your own in the comments. (No but seriously, I have an actual procrastination problem, I mean I'm literally supposed to be doing work right now)

Please subscribe and all that jazz if you liked the video.

~Louisa.

Why is Christmas so exciting?

Hey guys,

So I was wondering why Christmas is so exciting. 'Cause it is most definitely very exciting but as a 20 year old I'm not sure why. As a child you know that Santa is coming and presents are super exciting and you have adults hyping it up, but (spoilers) Santa isn't real and a lot of the presents I get now I will have probably asked for myself.

The day itself in my house has always been really chilled out, we get up have breakfast then get ready and open presents. Usually at least one of those presents is something that I have to set up or play with or something like that. Then it's time to eat.

For most people the food is probably exciting but I'm a vegetarian and neither of my parents are- so the food is always nice but not extremely exciting. And then we usually just watch a film.

So why am I so excited about Christmas?

I'd be interested to know what you guys do for Christmas, let me know in the comments. Are you super excited?

~Louisa.

Guess what..

...

Only 19 days till Christmas!

How exciting is that omg. I hope you all are well, we put up the tree and various Christmassy decorations last weekend and that really got me into the festive spirit. I put on some Christmas music and ahhh it was so lovely. This sounds like a really childish thing to say, but I wish I still believed in Santa :( it made Christmas so much more magical! The funny thing is I still have a stocking every Christmas.. yes I am a five year old child inside.

What I wanted to ask you guys, was what are your Christmas traditions? do you do anything different at Christmas? please answer in the comments below :D

You can check out our latest video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSIo7YTUSOA

and Subscribe by clicking the nice button over there! ->

Love you all x
~Katie

Tea

Ok..so... this post may seem a bit odd but just bare with me guys.

Tea. Tea is a wonderful invention (at least I think so). It is stereotyped that we British love Tea so much we become Tea-mad. Is that a thing? I don't know. Anyway, I find this quite odd because not every single British person likes Tea- I mean we're all different. I know for a fact Louisa doesn't like Tea. So where has this apparent "obsession" come from?

To be honest, though I do find things like this quite funny:

Yes Tom, we can see you love your Tea.

Personally I prefer Tea to coffee but I love a nice hot chocolate too. What do you think? Do you prefer coffee, tea or hot chocolate? Let us know in the comments below!

Bye for now x
~Katie

NEW VIDEO: Sex in Young Adult books- Debate!

Hey guys,

So it's been a really long time since we've done one of these so sorry about that- I know people seemed to like the other debate we filmed so I'm going to try and make them a more regular thing.

This time we went controvercial and approched the topic of sex in young adult books- should it be allowed or not?

Your input is what makes these types of videos awesome, so do leave your opinions on the subject in the comments. Also we would love it if you subscribed to our YouTube channel by clicking on the button over on the left.

Thanks guys.

~Louisa

Potterhead's Unite

Yes, you've guessed it... it's a post about Harry Potter!
How did you know?

So Harry Potter, as you probably are well aware is a world-wide phenomenon. It's was my childhood and I'm sure thousands of others childhood's too. It's truly beautiful. (That was meant to sound less cringe-worthy than it did!). Just recently I've had the urge to watch all the films in one massive Potter Marathon we shall see how that goes... I worked out that all the films combined equal to 19.4 hours!

I think if I were to choose my favourite film and book from the series, I would choose Prisoner of Azkaban or Deathly Hallows Part Two. Book wise I would perhaps choose Goblet of Fire or Chamber of Secrets? To be honest it's hard to remember, I am ashamed with how little Potterhead stuff I've indulged in recently.

With that said... I want to know:

What are your favourite Harry Potter Books and Films? 

(p.s. who doesn't have a guilty pleasure for this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMzrgXFeX_o)

Bye
~Katie

Conclusions

Hey there :) it's me (Katie) again.

Yaaaaaay..

 I realised something quite funny the other day- without any routine/ or doing anything during the day I start to get upset. I don't think this does my emotions any good. So I'm definitely happy to start doing more things in the near future, being busy means you think less and that is usually good. Especially if your me and you always worry about everything that could possibly be worried about.

However, I think this attitude is slightly strange- because a few years ago I would have hated routines because it meant I was going to School and well who likes School? Now I've come to realise just how important daily routines are- they keep you sane.  Of course, everyone needs a bit of excitement here and then. They need to be given the chance to do something they wouldn't normally do.

I've also come to the conclusion that School is too heavily based on exams which makes the majority of students not want to attend. Education is a very important aspect of life and of course it doesn't end after school! Being educated should be something every child receives and sadly that isn't the case. In this way, I kind of miss School and being educated in the way that you are- however I certainly don't miss some aspects of School!

We shouldn't take School and education for granted but at the same time, we are allowed to complain or get help for any issues that occur while at School. That's my opinion anyway.

Well I'm sorry about that- I just wanted to ramble on a bit about some stuff I've thought about recently, while I've had the time to think. Hope you all have a wonderful day.


Bye :)

A little book review!

Yo, it's me again :)

Today I wanted to talk to you about the Cherub series by Robert Muchamore. This particular series (which includes 12 books) has been a favourite of mine since I first read it like four/five years ago.

This series starts of with The Recruit (pictured here) and it begins by telling us the main character's story. Here's what goodreads says: 

CHERUB spies, 17 and under, hack into computers, bug houses, download crucial documents, and Do Not Exist. James, recently orphaned, is their newest recruit, and brilliant in math. After 100 days grueling training, his mission begins.

I really do love this series. It's definitely for children but young adults could still read it and love it if they find it interesting enough.  James is rather a hard character to love, especially at the beginning of the series but throughout he starts to develop and become a much more lovable person. The characters in this series, I think are the best thing about it. They all have different personalities and get on well with each other, well apart from a few...

One character that really grates on me is Lauren, James's half-sister. I don't quite know why? maybe it's because she can be really frustrating sometimes.. hmm.

Anyway, the series develops throughout the next 11 books and there are some I prefer to others certainly. But I can say that the series did not disappoint and the 12th book had a great ending. Don't panic if you haven't finished the series yet and you think your too "grown up" to finish it because the last few books clearly show the characters more grown up so you will be more likely to relate to them.

Please read this series as I would recommend it 100 times or more! Let me know if you've read it and what you think. 

p.s. Is there meant to be a Cherub film coming out soon or has that been delayed? 

p.p.s. Please subscribe to our Channel if you haven't already:  http://www.youtube.com/user/ANovelAdventure

Bye 
~Katie

Studio Ghibli

Hey Guys,

I want to talk about studio ghibli movies because they are the cutest bestest films ever. And if your wondering why I'm speaking like a 5 year old, that's because ghibli movies are anime kids films. You will have probably heard of some of the films even if you haven't heard of studio ghibli. For example, Ponyo came out in the cinema- I haven't actually watched that one yet.

They are basically feel good kids movies that make you feel all happy and child-like after you finish them. My absoulte favourite is Spirited Away:

A fantasy adventure about Chihiro, a ten-year-old girl who is leaving behind everything she knows to move with her parents to a new home. Along the way, they stumble across a tunnel that leads to a spooky, deserted open-air restaurant where Chihiro's parents sit down and begin to eat. But she is uncomfortable with their new surroundings and wanders off to explore further. She meets a boy, Haku, who explains to her that the world they have entered is a holiday resort for spirits who have left behind their exhausting earthly duties. After discovering that her greedy parents have been turned into pigs, she learns the number one rule of the new world she is now part of: laziness is not tolerated, and only working hard can enable her to break the spell on her parents. (Description from Amazon.co.uk) 

I feel like this is one of the more grown up films, not only is it a great story but you can see certain themes that ghibli wanted to get across. For example this is a world where they hate laziness and that reflects Japanese culture. But even if you don't care about the themes and analysing the movie, it's just a great film.

My Neighbour Totoro is another of my favourites and even if you haven't watched the movie you will probably have seen totoro toys and merchandice about because totoro is adorable and well loved. This is very much a kids film but no less enjoyable for adults.

Me and my friend watched it recently and both squealed at the cute parts.


While their mother recovers from an illness, Satsuki and her little sister Mei get away from it all in an idyllic rural retreat. Far from the bustle of the city, they discover a mysterious place of spirits and magic, and the friendship of the Totoro woodland creatures. (Description from Amazon.co.uk)

 Whatever age you are if you haven't watched these films before and your looking for a cute film to watch in this awkward period where it's still slightly to early to watch Christmas films, then you should definitely check out some of the ghibli movies.

~Louisa. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..

Hey guys, it's me again! (Katie)

Just wanted to talk to you about Christmas... at the time of writing this post it is a month till Christmas (how exciting right?) and well I feel all Christmassy.

As you can tell I'm excited and listening to Christmas music can't help..

My favorites include..

and also Christmas films! oh how I love Christmas films (I need to stop saying the word Christmas before I get fed up of it).

Here are a few of my favorites:

Yes I do like a lot of Xmas films! Have you guys got any favourite films or music from the Christmas period? let me know.


Talk to you all later.

Bye!
~Katie

NEW VIDEO: Classic Attempt

Hey Guys,
If you haven't caught my new video yet, it went up last night. I introduce a new series Katie and I will be doing on our channel from time to time called classic attempt. This seires is basically trying to encourage myself to read more classics. When I get into them and understand them I really enjoy Classics but without an English Lit teacher spoon feeding me I rarely understand them, and give up part way through. So I thought in this series I would attempt to read the classics and then report back with how far I managed to get through each book, and a review of what I do manage to read.

For this first episode we kept the books simple with a couple of children's classics and Bridget Jones' Diary.

Please give it a watch, and subscribe for more videos if you liked it. It would mean a lot since I'm on 59 subs as I write this and I would love to get 60 (:
There's a nifty button on the left where you can subscribe.

Thanks for watching,
~Louisa

My problem with playing games

Hey guys,

So I am really weird. That's probably obvious but I'm going to explain one of the things that makes me weird: I like video games but I never actually play them.

I really like video games, games like assassins creed, the walking dead, final fantasy. I love all of these games but I haven't really played them a great deal. Granted I have played through one of the assassins creed games completely and got part way through another one but mostly I just watch play-through's of games on YouTube and never get round to playing them for myself. Even when I have the game. Like I've watched Hannah from the Yogscast's play-through of the walking dead, and a few months ago my friend lent me the game so I could play it for myself, and....I haven't even installed it on my computer yet.

It's mostly because I have a bunch of work to do for uni, I have my YouTube channel and this blog to keep updated and when I've finished all that I just can not be bothered to find the energy to actually play a game for myself- especially when there's a much more competent person whose already uploaded a play-through to YouTube. The main thing I like about the games are the story anyway, and I find that out a lot quicker when I don't have to rely on my abismal gaming abilities.

Is this a really bad thing? Am I missing out by not playing the games themselves?

If any of you guys like games let me know what you think in the comments (:

~Louisa.

P.S Don't forget our new YouTube video goes up today at 5pm UK time! If you press the subscribe button over on the left you will see when it's up. (And also make me happy )

Multi-Tasking Fail And Essay Writing

Hey Guys,

It's getting to that time of year where I have what feels like a 100 essays to write. And this year it's even worse because I have my dissertation to write, and my main problem is I'm just plain not able to do more than one thing at once. Like I know everyone says they can't multi task but I really can only focus on one essay at a time. And that is quite problematic when I have about 5 that are all in for the same week more or less.

The other problem I have is that I love Christmas, I don't want to be feeling miserable when Christmas comes around because I haven't finished all of my essays yet. I want to have as much done as possible so that I can be all festive and enjoy it. For some reason everything feels more christmassy this year, like even my mum seems more christmassy too. Every year I set her a baking challenge because she is rubbish and doesn't bake. Or cook. At all. Every year so far she has failed- but this year she has even booked a day off so that we can bake stuff before Christmas. So I want to get all of my work out of the way now, and that is making me stressed.

I've discovered that I'm not very good at sitting and concentrating for very long. Or at all. I blame YouTube for this as I have been watching 15 minute long videos for years now instead of watching hour long films, and now I'm not very good at sitting still and concentrating. So I basically write a paragraph, do something else and come back later and write another paragraph. Whilst this system works it's not exactly optimum efficiency, is it? So I've been trying to sit still and concentrate but no luck so far.

Can someone teach me how to concentrate?


~Louisa

Better late than never..

Hey all, sorry today's post is rather late but I got so caught up in the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who and the fanfiction I was reading I forgot to post... go me.

However!  These things have inspired me to do this blog post so silver lining am I right?

First thing on the agenda is the 50th: So I and many others watched this special episode of Doctor Who about an hour or so ago and boy did it blow me away! The way they tied everything together and in such a clever way was brilliant. I won't say much more as I don't want to spoil it (it's only just been on I mean c'mon who do you take me for? :P) but WOWZA that crushed my emotions.

P.S. Make sure to watch the adverts after its finished you may see something amazing..

Second on the agenda is fanfiction which I might.. just might be addicted to.. yeah I need to stop reading it. Urgh I just love it so much and some of these fanfic writers are so good that they could be authors one day, no joke. I might be doing a video on this, so keep posted guys!

Talk to you later :)

Pixar Theory

Hey Guys,
So I was planning on writing a post about the new Google+ integration with YouTube, but fuck Google+ right? Pixar theory is far more interesting.

So I was volunteering at a shop, and the guy I was working with had not heard of Pixar theory. So I attempted to explain it as best I could, whilst trying to suppress the fangirl in me. Basically as Pixar are so freaking awesome whenever I talk about it I tend to get very excited, and it makes me sad to think that there might be Pixar fans yet that haven't heard of Pixar theory.

This isn't the website where I first found out about it but it explains it pretty well http://www.pixartheory.com/
This is the rather in depth post where I first found out about it http://jonnegroni.com/2013/07/11/the-pixar-theory/

I'm going to leave all of the explaining to the links above because for me to even try to explain it would be doing pixar theory a massive disservice. All I am going to say it I hope your minds were blown like mine was when I first heard about it. I love it when movies have Easter eggs so the fact that all of the Easter eggs might combine to mean something is just completely amazing.

I'm not going to say  any more than that because I don't want to ruin the awesomeness for anyone that hasn't read about it yet so I am going to leave it there I hope to hear how your mind has been blown in the comments.

~Louisa.

My Music Taste..

Hey there guys! It's me Katie (: happy Thursday! hope you are all well.

Today I thought I'd talk to you all about the music that I listen to and in particular the music that I don't like to admit to listening to..

Since 2009, I've been a massive fan of The Killers- I like pretty much all of their songs (albeit a few) and have seen them in concert, which was incredible by the way. Since 2011 I've also been a massive fan of McFly after my friend persuaded me to listen to their music. I've seen them twice in concert and I was blown away both times by just how great they are. I also may have bought their autobiography and fan-girled a bit but who wouldn't? I don't mind admitting to liking these bands and in fact I'm proud to say I like them but I do listen to some stuff I wouldn't mind keeping behind closed doors..


OK. That sounded worse than I meant it to be. When I'm feeling unhappy I like to listen to Glee an awful lot because the cheese just brings the happy. I don't usually mind saying I listen to Glee but I'm starting to lose interest in the show as it carries on with it's fifth season (fifth!).  I know a lot of people don't like Glee full stop so that is why I'm tempted to hide away the fact that I listen to Glee on full blast.

I also like to listen to Steps. Yes that "pop group that existed like 10 year ago"! My favourite song is Tragedy,  be honest here who doesn't like Tragedy? that song is a classic!

Another favourite guilty pleasure of mine is The Bangles, they did such songs as "Walk Like an Egyptian" and "Manic Monday", I have that album on my phone and listen to it regularly.  I try not to think that this was what my Mum and Dad were listening to like 15 odd years ago..


Anyway! that's a few of my guilty pleasure music stuff. If you want to comment and tell me yours, that would be lovely. Talk to you all soon,

Ta-ra!

NEW VIDEO: Too Much Information- Part Two

Hey guys so last week Katie did the TMI tag so this week it was my turn. I apologise for the fact that I look like Gandalf to Katie's Bilbo in this video height wise that is.

Please subscribe if you liked the video- There's a button over there you can press to do so-------->

Thanks
~Louisa

Thor: The Dark World and Other Things

*Please note this post may contain spoilers.*

Hey lovely followers! It's me (Katie) again :) hope you are all well.
I had a little think and thought that today I'd do a blog post about the latest Thor movie and Marvel films in particular. Recently, I've noticed that a few hardcore Marvel comic book fans seem to think that you can't enjoy a Marvel film without being this hardcore a fan. Obviously, I disagree. See, I enjoyed the first Thor film an awful lot without knowing what it was about- I also enjoyed Avengers Assemble, Captain American, Iron Man and of course the latest Thor film. The general consensus seems to be that Thor TDW is a brilliant film and I don't think everyone watching is either a Loki fan-girl or a hardcore comic book fan... so they must be doing something right.

Now moving onto the film itself..

What I found about this film in particular is that (and wait for it!) I preferred it to the first Thor film! I loved the first one but I found the sequel added more depth and comedic effect which made it better in comparison. The acting was superb and yes I'm a fan of Tom Hiddleston so don't get me wrong I loved every minute he was on screen. But I must mention that all the other actors (I can't bothered to type out all their names- have a look on IMDB) were also wonderful and I'm not surprised this is the top grossing film at the moment.

The story was shown in depth and there were many a surprises (and yes I'm talking to you Hiddles) along the way. Don't watch this film if you want to keep your emotions in tact. I'm not even kidding. Make sure to bring some tissues because there's a few sad scenes and a surprise cameo. Make sure you go to see it if you have the chance to because you won't regret it.  I saw it last weekend and I'm already desperate to see it again.. it's a shame the DVD won't come out for months yet...


Hope you enjoyed this post and please make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube! (there's a fancy button over there >)


Bye and keep smiling x

NEW VIDEO: Katie's Too Much Information Tag

Katie did Carrie Hope Fletcher's TMI tag video. If you are anything like me and you like to be a bit nosy, then you should definitely watch this video and subscribe to our channel!

Which you can do by clicking on the cool new YouTube button over on the right. I am finally learning how to technology.

~Louisa.

Television Times

Hey guys! It's Katie here, I'm not feeling that great so I decided I'd do a blog post while I'm sniffling away. 

Today I wanted to talk about a TV show that I've been loving ever since it started.

Now I say love it but the funny thing is I was very reluctant to start it simply because of the amount of hype surrounding it... you may think I'm strange because hype often means it's good right? For some reason I'm like this with a lot of films, TV shows and what have you. I think it's simply because I don't want to be disappointed. 

Anyway, onto the show... Orphan Black (OP) is a fab fabbity fab show on BBC America (which has just recently finished on BBC Three over here in Blighty) about a woman called Sarah who accidentally wanders into someone else's life while uncovering nasty secrets about herself and others. 

It is very well acted and without giving the story away, one person's acting skills are well above what you would expect for a TV show nowadays. It's set around a topic that interests me greatly (I'm sure you can research it yourself, I don't want to spoil it for you!) which of course helps to keep me interested in the show as it develops. OP has so many twists and turns to keep you hooked onto the series until it reaches its finale. It's also rich in comedic value which is always good for a TV show! 

I'd love to talk about it more but I'm worried about spoiling it for you. All I have left to say is... Go and give it a go and see what all the fuss is about- trust me you won't be disappointed! :) 

Talk to you all soon,

bye.

Alice in Wonderland and Splintered Review

Hey guys,

I don't know if it's just me that experiences this but I tend to go through phases. So for a while I'll be completely obsessed with reading anything I can get my hands on and then other times I'll be really into watching YouTube and TV. Recently I've been really into TV and YouTube and haven't had much time for reading, and I don't know if this happens to anyone else but when haven't read a book in a while occasionally no matter how much stuff I had to do that day I'll just have a sudden need to read.

Well this happened to me the other day. I have a lot of coursework to do and I was planning on getting a lot of the reading for one of my assessments out of the day, maybe even start writing the essay but then I just got the overwhelming need to read a book. So I ended up doing no work whatsoever and reading all day instead. Which means I still have a ton of work to do. The bright side of this is that I have a review for every
one.

When I gave in to my need to read, I as usual took to GoodReads to look at my to read list. I'm already reading Salem's Lot- Stephen King, but I wanted something much quicker that I can read in a day. Splintered is a book I've been hesitant to read for quite a while, so I thought what the heck and decided to give it a go.

Splintered is an Alice in Wonderland based book, and I've mentioned this in a video before, but Alice in Wonderland is one of my all time favourite things ever. Not just the book itself but it's the one thing that I'm totally on board with all of the different adaptations. I absolutely love the Alice in Wonderland cross with Gothic/horror/steampunky type things as well as the more innocent Disney version, so I knew this book would be something I'd either really love or really hate.

This stunning debut captures the grotesque madness of a mystical under-land, as well as a girl’s pangs of first love and independence. Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.
When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.

I have to say it did have an eerily similar feel to it as the game 'Alice the Madness Returns' which is not a bad thing in my book because that game is so good, the dresses, the creepiness, the mental illness. SO FREAKING GOOD! In splintered the Wonderland world feels very similar, in that the creatures are not quite as friendly as how they seem in the book, but Alyssa is a lot more typical YA American teenager than the quite bad ass and scary Alice in 'Alice the Madness Returns.'


 If you have played that game and enjoyed it then you will almost certainly like 'Splintered,' and vice versa if you have read the book.  I thought the Tim Burton movie would have been more similar to this kind of Gothic madness based on 'Sweeney Todd' (Which is by the way one of my favourite movie's ever. I absolutely love Tim Burton movies) but he kept his adaptation very children's fantasy- which I love too, but I'm glad these creepy versions of wonderland exist along side it.

SO ONTO THE REVIEW!

Splintered had a good storyline in my opinion, it was very much a cross between typical YA fiction and Wonderland. It did seem to contrast a little bit when Alyssa first leaves the real world and goes to Wonderland. Like it didn't quite flow perfectly from one thing to another but after a little while it picked up again and it was easy to get caught up in the storyline. Like I mentioned above I did really like the creepy wonderland creatures, I like the idea that Alice was a child so she just saw the white rabbit as a bunny instead of a creepy creature etc. 

I was less of a fan of the young adult-y beginning and the romance but it wasn't overwhelming. The author kept that in the background and the Alice family curse in the foreground. There were still bits about it that were a little irritating, like the 'skater girl' nickname seemed a little forced and cringe worthy  like there's one scene at the beginning where she is skateboarding, and to me at least it seems like that's in there literally so he can call her skater girl for the rest of the book. Which is a little bit sickening. 

 I thought the world building was pretty well done. I particularly liked that it's insects and flowers that speak to Alyssa and all the woman in her family since Alice. That's quite random, it fit's with wonderland, and I can see how that would drive people mad. 

All in all I felt this was a pretty good adaptation and fits nicely alongside all of the other Alice in wonderland adaptations. If you are a big Alice fan then you should definitely give this a read.

NEW VIDEO: Perfectionism & Update

Hey guys, on Monday we put up a new video on our YouTube in which ramble a lot. Would be great if you could check it out (:

I basically just say what's happening with our videos and why we haven't posted in awhile. I'm still trying to write out my own good videos but since I won't have as much time being in my last year of University I'm having to compromise and do more tags. I guess most people don't mind tags, and it's probably just me that thinks there not all that creative but I don't know.

What do you guys think? Would you prefer to see weekly videos even if sometimes they will be tags or would you prefer to see more creative videos that I've put a lot more time and effort into but less often?

Please do let me know your opinions in the comments either here or on the video.

Thanks, talk to you guys soon.

Louisa.

Assassins Apprentice- Robin Hobb Review

Oh my gosh, another review? So soon after the last? I'm getting light headed with all this reading going on. 

So during summer Katie and I found a magical shop of wonder- a book shop where all books cost only £1.00 each. So we went on a quest to this shop to see what wonders it might contain. I was very sceptical- I was pretty certain that it must just contain books that I would never read, I mean there's no way wonderland can exist like 15 minutes away form where I live- that would be madness. But sure enough as we stepped into this shop I could see paradise. Okay I'll stop but seriously the shelves were double stacked, and there was a bit of every genre I'm interested in which is fab. 

I was remarkably restrained and only bought 5 books, 3 of which were the Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb. It has taken be forever to get through the first book, but that's through no fault of the book, and just because I went back to Uni and became very busy, and partly because I can never read high fantasy as quickly as other genres. 

"Young Fitz is the bastard son of the noble Prince Chivalry, raised in the shadow of the royal court by his father's gruff stableman. He is treated like an outcast by all the royalty except the devious King Shrewd, who has him secretly tutored in the arts of the assassin. For in Fitz's blood runs the magic Skill--and the darker knowledge of a child raised with the stable hounds and rejected by his family. As barbarous raiders ravage the coasts, Fitz is growing to manhood. Soon he will face his first dangerous, soul-shattering mission. And though some regard him as a threat to the throne, he may just be the key to the survival of the kingdom"

I really enjoyed the story, I don't read a lot of high fantasy just because of how long they take me to get through them, and I found this to be a lot easier to read that the game of thrones series. I thought the book managed to cover Fitz' whole childhood without you feeling like she skipped over too much or kept too much detail in. That said the book does focus on character development and not on action so if you don't like that you probably won't like this. 

This might seem like a weird problem but usually when I get busy and put a book down for a really long time, when I pick it up again I've forgotten a lot of the characters and can't keep track of everyone. I didn't have this problem here. I thought there was a good balance between building up the environment and not having too many people to keep track of. Not only that but the characters themselves are all very intriguing , I want to know why Burrich is so set against using Wit (sharing conciousness with animals) and what happened to make him hate it so much. I really liked the fool and Verity. I'd like to learn more about the majority of the characters so I shall definitely be continuing the series after a break.

I think many people might be put off a little bit by the fact that the book is named assassins apprentice but there isn't actually a lot of killing in this first book, it is more of a coming of age tale than anything else. I quite like this myself, I think if there had been a lot of killing from the start and no background we would never be able to sympathise with or understand the character. As it stands we are able to see how he comes to become an assassin and not hate him.  

We only get a  relatively small glimpse into this big world Robin has built but I imagine we will see a lot more of the world  in the following two books.

Overall I give this book 4 stars. 

The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly- Jean-Dominique Bauby

Well hello there,
What's this an actual book review? Holy hellfire it cannot be!
That's right I actually read a book, but don't get your hopes too high 'cause this was a book that I read for Neuropsychology. That said, I think this book is a pretty interesting read no matter who you are. This book is a very quick read, with very short chapters, and there is a very good reason for that because it's written by a guy with locked-in syndrome.

Locked-in syndrome for any of you who don't know is a very rare possible consequence of a stroke. It leaves your mind completely intact but you are almost completely paralysed. Jean-Dominique was the editor in chief of the French magazine Elle. That in itself is a pretty scary thought, I don't know about you but I think we humans have a tendency to assume really horrific things like this only happen to old people and not really successful people in their forties.
If your anything like me your probably wondering how a completely paralysed man managed to write a book. Jean-Dominique woke up in a hospital and was completely paralysed except from one eye. During the course of the book he manages to gain very slight movement of his head with physiotherapy, but he still can't so much as turn the television on an off so how did he manage to write a book?
Well, he took the most important letters of the alphabet and rearranged them in order of frequency. (He is French so these are the most important letters in the French language.) His visitors would let go through every letter and he would blink when they reached the right letter. This is the very laborious process that he went through to write the book.

The book itself is a very interesting read, it basically follows his thoughts as he's stuck in hospital unable to do anything, unable to live his life. There are glimpses at what his life was like before the stroke, a visit from his kids at the hospital and in general just his day to day struggles living, essentially, without a life.

I would definitely recommend this to everyone, it's a very quick and easy read about possibly the worst thing that could ever happen to you.

The Great British Bake Off

Hi guys,

Firstly I just want to say our YouTube upload day after this week which is Halloween will be Mondays at 5.00pm UK time.

Back to the topic at hand, this week Katie and I wanted to talk to you guys about the great British bake off. For all of you non-brit's out there the Bake Off is a baking competition TV show on the BBC. It just ended to our great dismay and lets just we have a lot of feelings about it.

So it might seem strange to any foreigners to get so excited about a baking show but this show is the best, most dramatic competition that has ever existed! It's the only show where you see a fully grown man reduce to tears by a cake and we're not even kidding.

Personally, I think that the presenters Sue Perkins and Mel Geidroyc are part of what make the show so hilariously awesome. Their cheesy puns and baking humor deflect the baking drama so your not tempted to take the show so seriously. Whilst present the show Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry judge the show. And this is a match made in heaven let me tell you.

 I don't know if any of you will have heard of Innuendo Bingo but on  BBC Radio One people send in funny clips from tv shows that have been on during the week that sound slightly rude. They are played whilst two or more people have a mouth full of water. (The idea being you spit the water all over the other person if you find the clip funny.) Well these perfect judges have given so much innuendo bingo fodder! There is always lots of talk of soggy bottoms and in general lots of comments that sound rude. What makes this so perfect though is that it's usually Marry Berry who says these things and I'm certain that she has absolutely no idea shes doing it.

Incidentally the internet has compiled a whole host of pictures of Marry Berry biting into things and pulling hilarious faces.

This year the finalists were all woman but they had very distinctive personalities, which has made it very interesting as everyone seems to hate someone different. There are people like me who thought Ruby, the pessimist was hilarious and wanted her to win, but thought that Kimberly was an insufferably smug optimist who seemed to know everything and then would came last in the technical challenge. But then there are people like Katie who really hated Ruby's pessimism and completely missed Kimberly's insufferable-Know-it-all-ness. So I think it was probably a good job that in the end Frances, who was so very wonderfully creative won. Some people didn't think she deserved to win as she was often criticised for having style over substance but in the end she seemed to have learnt the most so personally I think it was fair, And it prevented the internet from exploding. So that's good.

There is so much more about the bake off that I haven't explained, but I hope that this has given you an idea of why we think the bake off is one of the best shows on TV, and explained all of the nonsense to some of our foreign friends who must be utterly lost and confused by the whole situation.

We shall be uploading a video soon to our YouTube so make sure you are subscribed for that and we will see you there!  (http://www.youtube.com/user/ANovelAdventure)

Bye.

Commitment to YouTube and Blogging!

Hello there amigos,

Firstly let me just apologise for making a blog and then completely abandoning it. I just went back into my last year of University and that has meant having no time for anything other than work, but I think I'm just about on top of everything now. That means I should have more time for YouTube and Blogging- Yay. 

So commitment everyone! From now on I'm going to write and post something for my blog every Saturday. I realise that one post a week isn't a lot for a blog but with my Uni schedule I think its all I can manage for now. If I get swamped with work again I'll ask Katie to post something on here so there will definitely be something up every Saturday. 

In terms of YouTube I'm filming a whole bunch of videos with Katie this afternoon, and we pretty much have a schedule sorted all through November so there will be at least one video a week on our YouTube channel 'A Novel Adventure' so make sure you are subscribed for that. (Well I had to get a little casual promo in there somewhere didn't I? ) I'm not sure yet what our upload day will be since that's pretty much up to Katie as her internet is much faster than mine, but we are defiantly going to try and make it the same day and time every week. I will let you guys know when I do what day and time our videos will be going up. 

Since I'm going to be busy with University we are going to record a bunch of videos and then Katie will edit and upload them every week. That will probably mean we will be wearing the same clothes and stuff in all of our videos so I'm sorry about that but it's the only way I can guarantee a video a week. 

Again sorry about the lack of videos and posts but I promise that is behind us . From now on there shouldn't be a gap as big as this on our YouTube or on this blog. I am usually freakishly organised and as such I'm really excited to write weekly posts and make weekly videos!

I shall be seeing you all again on Saturday for another post. (:

Adiós

(P.S I don't know why I had the urge to speak Spanish, I think it's because the weather in the UK right now is completely miserable and I'd rather be in Spain)  

Peter Pan Review

The boy who refuses to grow up teaches Wendy and her younger brothers how to fly. Then it's off to magical Neverneverland for adventures with mermaids, Indians, and wicked Captain Hook and his pirate crew in this illustrated, easy-reading adaptation of the classic fantasy. 

~ Description via GoodReads

For some possibly misguided reason I decided to create a series on my YouTube channel in which I attempt to read all of the classics I feel like I should have already read. I quit English Literature after doing it for the first year of A Levels in favour of Spanish. At the time I literally thought "well I can read any time." 

Wrong! I had no idea how hard classics are to read when you don't have a teacher to explain everything. Maybe its just me but honestly trying to read classics makes me feel like I am literally loosing brain cells. 

So I decided to ease myself  into this new series with a nice children's book. Peter Pan is one of those stories that I seem to know even though I've never read the book or watched any of the movie adaptations. I pretty much assumed that it was about a nice boy named Peter that never gets any older and his fairy companion Tinkerbell. 

For some reason I thought that Tinkerbell was going to be really likeable and almost like Sparks in Spyro the dragon, the little dragonfly that follows Spyro around everywhere.  But as it turns out neither Peter nor Tinkerbell were particularly nice. I guess I should have expected that, the whole point is that Peter never grows up, so I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me that he'd be really immature. I was really shocked at the end of the book when Wendy is all grown up and Peter asks who Tinkerbell is. 

I thought that Peter Pan was going to be really magical like my favourite childrens books which also happen to my favourite books of all time: Alice in wonderland and the Chronicles of Narnia. In reality the fairies barely featured in the book, and the only magical thing about the Neverland was its ability to accurately represent childhood. Between the pirates and the lost boys the Neverland was very childlike and fun with the language and the concept of motherhood.

Overall, it wasn't one of my favourite children's books but it was pretty cute and I will have to watch the movie at some point and see how that compares. 

Overall I give it 3 stars. 

Welcome to A Novel Adventure, my new blog to go along with my YouTube channel, in which me and my friend Katie talk about all things books. You should definitely check it out and maybe subscribe for virtual cookies. (:

In this wonderful new blogger place I will be probably ranting, gushing and reviewing books, as well as anything else that might be on my mind. Katie may also appear from time to time but I already review the books I read on GoodReads (Feel free to friend me on there if you like) but I am hoping to make my reviews bigger and better!

I read a lot of books usually fantasy, dystopia or apocalyptic but I'm a fan of a lot of different genres.  I'm starting a new series for my YouTube channel called 'Classic Attempt' in which I try and read all of those Classic's I've been struggling to read for most of my life.

If anyone wants something reviewed I would be more than happy to take suggestions, and if it sounds like something I would read I will give it a whirl.

Happy Reading (:

~Louisa