Recent Reads: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Posted on 24/11/2018 by Pam

My review: ?????

Ah, Naomi Novik does a wonderful job of taking fairy tales for inspiration, and changing all the things you know, but still with a fairy tale hint.

Spinning Silver has a hint of Rumplestiltskin, the Snow Queen and others I don’t want to spoil, all wrapt up in a Russian style setting, with cherries in tea, Russian sounding terms of endearment and so much snow.

Miryem and Irina do the best for their families, one the daughter of an unsuccessful money lender, and the other the daughter of a duke. They have a lot of danger, sacrifice, worry, flame and snow to overcome.

I really enjoyed this book, and it feels in the same realm as Uprooted because they are both books with fairy tale basis with twists.

This is currently in the GoodReads Choice Awards for 2018, and it’s up for best in fantasy! If nothing else, the awards are good for having a look through for new ideas on what to read!

Personally, I feel conflicted about the GoodReads Choice Awards. They are great, but having looked through them, I’ve read only a couple of books that are up for awards, and I feel like it’s a popularity contest at that point, as if choosing to vote for the book that I’ve read is saying it’s the best, when I’ve not read the competition.

Spinning Silver is out now, and available wherever you can find books! Here’s the Amazon link, since I tend to give that. I borrowed my copy from my local library

Recent Reads: The Fall and Rise of the Amir Sisters by Nadiya Hussain

Posted on 22/11/2018 by Pam

My review: ????

I had loved watching Nadiya Hussain on Great British Bake Off, cheered and cried when she won. So you can imagine my excitement when I spotted she had written a fiction book (The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters)! I added it (at least mentally) to my to read list, but then I saw the second book was coming, so I ran off and got the first so I could review the second!

In the first book The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters (available on Amazon, and every where you can buy books) looks at all the secrets the sisters, and family, have from one another, and the chaos that it can cause on their lives. Fatima (Fatti) feels out of place, still living at home with her parents in her 30s, wanting more, and coping with her feelings by eating. Farah lives a perfect life, with her successful husband, in a beautiful home, is the dependable one, but then her husband is in an accident, and things start to unravel. Bubblee has never approved of her twin, Farah, marrying Mustafa, and not just because he was their first cousin, but at least she’s left the village, can live her life, and create her art in London, which means success must just be around the corner, right? Mae is the youngest, and obsessed with social media, and blogging about her family. But she blogs about her family anonymously, so no one will ever connect the dots…

In The Fall and rise of the Amir Sisters, Mae is off to university, Bubblee is visiting home, Farah is desperate for a baby, and Fatti is happy, and we know that everything is going to change.

I enjoyed seeing where the characters went, and how things changed, even if my heart did ache for Farah and Mustafa. I thought the way the family interacts with each other is authentic (the scene in the hairdressers, for instance. Who wouldn’t want to hide from that conversation!), and you can see the love they have for each other. The characters are consistent from the first book in to the second, and Nadiya Hussain has put them through an emotional rollercoaster.

I’m looking forward to the third book, which I feel must be planned!

The Fall and Rise of the Amir Sisters is out on 24th January 2019, and available on Amazon to pre-order, and everywhere else you can find books!

I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and HQ (the publishers) for this book.

Check out my GoodReads profile for more reviews.

DediKated – An evening with Kate Somerville

Posted on 18/11/2018 by Pam

A couple of Friday’s ago, I did something pretty different for me – I went to an event in London at a pop up by Kate Somerville. It was an evening with Kate Somerville and Caroline Hirons (who I credit with changing my view on skincare from being I’ll moisturise occasionally, to I have a routine that I do in the morning, and another for night), but she couldn’t make it, so Nadine Bagot stepped in.

I was going to the event as Caroline Hirons told her Facebook group (Caroline Hirons Skincare Freaks is the name, and I feel like that says it all!) about the event, which had space for 35 people. We sold it out in 11 minutes.

So, I had a ticket to this event, and just had to count down the days until it, and dream of what amazing things could be in the goody bag we were told we’d get (I’m telling you now, I had no idea it would be so amazing!).

Anyway, Friday night, I’m in London, meeting other people from the Facebook group, and it was a lovely vibe! People were talking to each other about what they’ve tried, and what they loved, and we were all counting down the minutes until we could get in!

Nadine Baggot on the left, and Kate Somerville on the right

We were in, and we were trying to stay out of the way of the photographers, and the rest of the people in the room, who looked like they were working. But, we were in the room! Hurrah!

Now, I should probably tell you a little about who Kate Somerville is! She’s an American Aesthetician (beautician to you and I!), who started her own clinic in Hollywood, and offers treatments from facials up to PRP (the vampire facelift), Botox, laser treatment, light treatment, micro needling, and the list goes on!

She also has a skincare range that is available to buy in the UK, and Caroline Hirons is a big fan of hers. And if CH rates you, then I’m going to be interested!

Kate Somerville with some ExfoliKate on her hand

We all crowded into a little room, with Kate and Nadine perched on tall stools at the front, and we waited for everyone to file through coat checks. Once we were all in, Nadine introduced the event, and Kate. And then Kate Somerville started talking about her products, and it was so interesting to hear from her about how her mother used to give her goats milk baths, and that’s what started her to realise how good goats milk was for skin.

Kate passed around some products, like DermalQuench Liquid Lift and DermalQuench Wrinkle Warrior, and whilst so many of us were trying these on the backs of our hands, one bright spark near me was using it on her neck, which made complete sense, but still gave me the giggles as she was rubbing it in.

Kate also talked us through the products we were getting in our goody bags, and these were Goat Milk moisturising cream, ExfoliKate intensive exfoliating treatment, Deep Tissue repair, also known as Peptide K8 (but which I can’t find on the UK or US website, but it’s been around for a while as Caroline Hirons has raved about it!) and we could use the price of our tickets to redeem against something, and I chose ExfoliKate facial cleanser daily foaming wash.

All in all, I had a great time, and I’ve not even shown you around the venue yet!

It was 4 floors worth of wonder! On the first floor, we had the event itself, with Nadine and Kate sticking around to answer questions and take photos, whilst people bought things!

The next floor up had a bar where you had your own gin cocktail made from the Oxygin bar (I had driving to do, and don’t really drink, so had a mocktail, which was delicious!), and this floor had the Hylauronic Acid products, swings and a bed in a wall!

The next floor up had doughnuts hanging on the wall, and was dedicated to glow, but had orange lights that really didn’t work well in photos!

And the top floor had the EradiKate products and the ExfoliKate products, a candy floss machine, and a bath with a waterfall tap, and a goat next to it.

I had a really good time, and would go again! The downside of this is that I’m really loving Goat Milk moisturiser and ExfoliKate facial cleanser, so that’s going to be expensive when I need to replace them! I’ve barely touched the Deep Tissue Repair as it’s really expensive, and I am quite nervous about loving it, and the ExfoliKate intensive exfoliating treatment is something I’m sure I’ll be using when it gets colder, and my skin gets drier!