TV Show’s I’ve Been Watching /2017

Small update : Hey booklovers! I know I’ve been so terrible at updating and reviewing this year. I’m sorry I will try and do better. I have a couple of reviews coming up for you,I haven’t been reading too much due to the nausea and fatigue from the first trimester of my pregnancy. I’m past the nausea now !! Thank god! I’ll be 18 weeks this Sunday, starting to feel little flutter movements ❤  I’m still pretty tired so instead of reading I’ve been watching TV series. So here is what I’ve been watching, let me know if you’ve seen any of these shows.

The OA

This is a Netflix show that I’ve been told to watch by a few people now. Not really knowing what it was about I started watching it and I finished it in 3 days! I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did.I need answers!! can’t wait for a second season. The storyline sucks you in and the plot is engaging. It’s a slower moving show which I’m not usually into but it was just so interesting that I couldn’t stop watching.

Gypsy

Gypsy is a Netflix psychological thriller, staring Naomi Watts as Jean a therapist who throws herself into roles in her patient’s lives.I really love this series. I saw a lot of negative reviews and I don’t understand where the hate is coming from. I have always loved Naomi Watts she is an amazing actress.Sophie Cookson plays Sydney and she is fantastic. Naomi and Sophie are currently my fave f/f couple on tv. It’s such an addicting show and i need more !!! The show ended with so many un-answered questions and I really hope its picked up for a second season.

Jane the Virgin

After watching a few episode’s I was hooked, I absolutely love this show! It is a Spanish soap opera, told as a tella-novella. I know it sounds kinda weird and don’t let the title put you off the show. This show is so clever.Gina Rodriguez is such a talent actress, she is beyond charming and she is so beautiful. I just love her as Jane. My favourite character on the show is Jane’s father Rogelio. He is a tella-novella actor and is so vain, but that’s the whole point. Every scene he is in I laugh.

Game Of Thrones

Season 7 just premiered last Sunday and I’m thrilled. I can’t wait for Jon and Daenerys to meet ❤ Ahhh ! I need them to love each other! There’s just so many things coming together. But knowing the writers something terrible will happen.Unpopular Opinion, Ed Sheeran was absolutely fine in the show. they didn’t over do it or anything just casually stuck him in a scene.

 

Some other shows include Outlander, rewatched season 1 and finally watched season 2. I had some disappointed feelings with season 2 but the ending won me back and I’m so excited for season 3 in September. Shadowhunters , is very problematic but I love Simon and Clary,so I continue to watch it just for them.

Are there any show’s you suggests I watch? I’d love to hear from you 🙂

Paper Princess by Erin Watt Review

Title: Paper Princess
Author: Erin Watt
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary
Pages: 370
Rating: 5 Stars

GoodReads Synopsis:

From strip clubs and truck stops to southern coast mansions and prep schools, one girl tries to stay true to herself.

These Royals will ruin you…

Ella Harper is a survivor—a pragmatic optimist. She’s spent her whole life moving from town to town with her flighty mother, struggling to make ends meet and believing that someday she’ll climb out of the gutter. After her mother’s death, Ella is truly alone.

Until Callum Royal appears, plucking Ella out of poverty and tossing her into his posh mansion among his five sons who all hate her. Each Royal boy is more magnetic than the last, but none as captivating as Reed Royal, the boy who is determined to send her back to the slums she came from.

Reed doesn’t want her. He says she doesn’t belong with the Royals.

He might be right.

Wealth. Excess. Deception. It’s like nothing Ella has ever experienced, and if she’s going to survive her time in the Royal palace, she’ll need to learn to issue her own Royal decrees.

Review

“You may have lost your family, but you’re not alone anymore, Ella. You’re a Royal now.”

Paper Princess has become my newest guilty pleasure read.I have no idea when was the last time a book got me so addicted to it. I had lost all sense of time Erin Watt, the pseudonym of two authors, Elle Kennedy & Jen Frederick. This book is marketed as Ya but it has a lot of mature themes and I would say its more NA.

Ella Harper- I loved this girl. LOVED For every hit he tried to make with her, she hit back just as hard, or harder.She was strong, independent, unwilling to take shit from anybody, and a character you could easily root for.

Reed is the mysterious one of the group of royals. He is difficult to figure out. He is the you love to hate him kind of character and you question yourself as to why you like him.

Easton was definitely one of my favorite characters and I loved the fun relationship he formed with Ella. Like they just hang out in her room like actual brother and sister.

This was such a fun fast read, and it ended on a major cliffhanger!!

 

Life Update

Today was my official last day of class, this week was really stressful with exams. I got two of my marks back and there both above 80% ! I need to wait till next week to get the other two back. It was hard saying good-bye to everyone knowing they have another year ahead of them that I won’t be a part of. I will be going back in 2019 but it will be with a different group of people. I’ve met so many great girls this year and I don’t regret going into the program.I got hired at a nursing home down the street from my home, that I will be starting at on Monday ! 🙂

So, I have 3 book reviews that I’m currently working on and mini review of all the poetry collections I’ve read this year. Also have a Thirteen Reasons Why series review I’m working on.

Poem -Anxiety-

For World Poetry day I decided to share a poem I have been working on for the last couple of days with you. I have been nervous about sharing it because I’ve been out of practice with writing and scared that it wasn’t very good. Also my poetry is personal so it feels as if I’m sharing a piece of myself with you all. I posted a picture on Instagram and I have gotten some support from people, which is incredible, thank you !

 

It whispers in my ear,
I shouldn’t listen to it
Telling me
all the things
that could go wrong
I struggle to breathe
As hands
wrap around my lungs
People just look
Judging me
I can’t fight off
this monster
they don’t see
nobody does
my heart throbs
my muscles contracting
mychest burning
the monster
tightening it’s grip
I feel sick
Its too hot
I wish I could tell
But when asked how I am
I smile
and say
Im fine

-Anxiety — Stephanie Gillespie

 

Please leave me feedback and let me know what you think ! 🙂

 

Instagram: _stephgillespie_
Twitter: SteffieReads
Goodreads: Stephanie Gillespie

What I’ve been doing while not Blogging

Hey everyone! I’m so sorry I have been gone for so long! Nursing school is kicking my butt.  I was unsuccessful in one of my classes, and its a prerequisite to continue. SoI won’t be returning to school until winter of 2019 when the class is offered again.It’s been a really tough time for me. Trying to figure out what I’m going to do. My anxiety has been really bad these past few months, and the class I failed were video taped while doing demo’s. I made such stupid mistakes because of my anxiety. There have been day’s I felt like giving up, I am finishing the term which in done in April, then its job hunting time.

So coming up in the next few few week’s I will be returning !! I have read 12 book’s so far this year. I am so excited to be coming back. Reading and blogging help my anxiety but with school I had zero time. I have missed you all and reading your reviews.

Tv has saved me since I have no time to read. Some new shows I’m currently watching: Supergirl ❤ !! ,This is Us,Riverdale. That’s not to mention the shows that are staples in my life.Also I have been trying to get back into writing poetry. I used to write all the time then, life happened and I got busy with work then school. Gretchen @chicnerdreads  has inspired me with her poetry book “Love , and you “coming out April 4 🙂 Im so excited for her !! She’s such an awesome person and so nice. Please support her ❤

What has everyone been reading? Leave me some comments 🙂 I’m counting the days till April 10 !

 

Christmas Break TBR !! 🎄

Officially done with my first semester of nursing school!!! As much as I didn’t think I would make it through this semester, I did!It was the toughest semester by far, but next semester will be even harder. Now it’s time to relax over the break and prepare my mind for its next beating.

I don’t usually make TBR’s but I haven’t read a novel since September and I have a stack of book’s I really want to get too. These are my top 3 I want to read and if i have time to read more then thats a bonus 🙂

1.Heartless by Marissa Meyer: I’ve been dying to read this and it will be the first thing I pick up to read.

2.Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff: This is another one Ive had since it’s release date and haven’t had the time to get too.

3.Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

It’s Christmas Eve Eve! 😂🎄 I hope you all have a wonderful christmas! And if you don’t celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a lovely day anyway 😄

Passenger by Alexandra Bracken Review

Book:Passenger
Author:Alexandra Bracken
Genre:YA, Fantasy,Historical
Pages:486
Rating: 5 Stars

Synopsis:

Passage, n.
i. A brief section of music composed of a series of notes and flourishes.
ii. A journey by water; a voyage.
iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them—whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are playing, treacherous forces threaten to separate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home… forever.”

My Thoughts

WOW. An awesome book to start out the year! Oceans, deserts, forests, London, France, New York City.. I wish every book could have these amazing settings. swoons* I LOVED this book

I love both Etta and Nicholas so so much. Etta is such a strong character,shes stubborn and head strong, shes impulsive but not in a stupid way and i love her for that. Shes realistic and believable. Nicholas, is such a complex character. He is a person of color, and he has a lot of struggles with that while traveling to different time periods. I’m extremely impressed with how she handled the topics of racism and sexism between time periods—accurately and head-on. Etta and Nicholas have such a a strong connection to each other that I love, they have a really beautiful romance.

I love the history in the story. The time travel was explained really well and so much research and thought had gone into writing this book. The ending was so intense, the twists and turns. I had no idea how it was going to be resolved, and it blew a hole in my heart. I can’t wait for the sequel !

The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich Review

Book:The Dead House
Author:Dawn Kurtagich
Genre:YA, Horror, Paranormal
Pages:400
Rating: 5 Stars

Synopsis:

Three students: dead.
Carly Johnson: vanished without a trace.

Two decades have passed since an inferno swept through Elmbridge High, claiming the lives of three teenagers and causing one student, Carly Johnson, to disappear. The main suspect: Kaitlyn, “the girl of nowhere.”

Kaitlyn’s diary, discovered in the ruins of Elmbridge High, reveals the thoughts of a disturbed mind. Its charred pages tell a sinister version of events that took place that tragic night, and the girl of nowhere is caught in the center of it all. But many claim Kaitlyn doesn’t exist, and in a way, she doesn’t – because she is the alter ego of Carly Johnson.

Carly gets the day. Kaitlyn has the night. It’s during the night that a mystery surrounding the Dead House unravels and a dark, twisted magic ruins the lives of each student that dares touch it.

Debut author Dawn Kurtagich masterfully weaves together a thrilling and terrifying story using psychiatric reports, witness testimonials, video footage, and the discovered diary – and as the mystery grows, the horrifying truth about what happened that night unfolds.

My Thoughts

I love scary books but it’s extremely hard for me to find books that actually scare me. A lot of Ya horror isn’t scary, but 99% of horror movies don’t scare me either. But this book is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. The Dead House was exactly what I was looking for in a horror book.

I loved the format in which this book was written. Written from pieces of a journal, the story unravels in a unique way. Mostly there’s journal entries, newspaper clippings and even some video camera screenshots. I can’t believe this is the author’s first novel! Unreliable narrators are one of my favorite kind of stories. The main character(s), Kaitlyn and Carly, are wonderful and complicated. .You can literally feel their fear and confusion in the diary entries.

It is the kind of book that you’d love to read and hate to put down, if you’re into psychological thrillers with all kinds of creepy. The ending is a shock as well, I wasn’t expecting what happened. A very fun read. Spooky and fantastic for October/Halloween read.

THE CREATURES OF THE NIGHT TAG

This tag was created by Kat over at  Katytastic channel

1.Vampire
Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris

2. Werewolf
New Moon by Stephanie Meyer

3. Zombie
Something strange and deadly by Susan Dennerd

4. Ghost
The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall by Katie Alender

5. Witch/Warlock/Spellcaster
Harry Potter is the obvious answer

6. Fairy/Fae
The Fever series by Karen Marie Moning

7. Demon
The Mortal Intruments, The infernal devices by Cassandra Clare

8. Angel
Daughter of smoke and bone by Laini Taylor

9. Alien
The Lux series by Jennifer l Armentrout

10. Superpowered human
Juliette (Shatter Me) by Tahareh Mafi

Fall Essentials + Obsessions!

This post of going to sound so basic but I love the fall so much. It’s the season I look forward to all year. The leaves are starting to turn color,and its glorious. I love it so much.

I like to read paranormal/horror books in the fall. Coming in October I will be making a post of “spooky” recommendations. It’s such a good essential to have to get into a darker Halloween mood.

Make a Fall playlist, my favorite kind of music to listen to in the fall time is more indie, acoustic. I put a bunch of my favorite songs into a big list. Just a nice chill playlist to listen to while studying or reading.

How can I talk about fall without talking about candles! My favorite fall scents from Bath and Body works; Leaves, Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin, your whole place smells great and its just awesome. My new favorite is marshmallow fireside,I didn’t think I would like it but omg its amazing !!

Fall is by far the best time to wear boots. I’m so excited I got a new pair of boots and I love them !! Go for long walks in the afternoon with the crisp fall air and crunching leaves under my feet. Super comfy cozy sweaters, and it wouldn’t be Fall without flannel.

And of course you need fall drinks weather you like tea or coffee, if not then grab a hot chocolate. Personally I love pumpkin spice lattes. I’m a very basic person 🙂

I love spending time outside this time of year. So of course apple picking is a must. To be honest I went last weekend and it was so much fun. Something new this year where I live is Zombie Manor, its a house set up and you walk through it and its filled with zombies and other creepy things,I’m planning on going next weekend. Hopefully I don’t get too scared haha. Another thing they do around my city is Boo at the Zoo, it’s honestly my favorite thing, they decorate they zoo in all things Halloween, this is where I’m having my sons birthday party ( his 10th birthday is Tuesday, Where has the time gone ! )

It wouldn’t be fall without Halloween/horror movies. My favorite is John Carpenters Halloween and Earnest scared stupid I used to watch it every year as a kid and want to pass the tradition on to my son 🙂 I’ve been so busy since school started and I haven’t had much time but these are some simple things I love to do and I’m so happy I still have time to do these things. Oh and I almost forgot Gilmore Girls, I dunno why but watching it in the fall there’s just something that makes it so much better. What are some of your favorite fall essentials?