16 Things I've Learned In 2016

Hello, it's Natalie. Back from the dead. Or at least that what it feels like now that I've been away for so long. I am, however, back with some good news that I hope will make me feel much better about posting on here from now on. Flowers In My Books is no longer a book blog. No, my friends, Flowers In My Books is now a wherever-the-mood-takes-me, lifestyle-fun-music-movies-rants-and-feminism-also-books blog. You may have noticed that I've been feeling a little uninspired with this blog lately, and since uni is taking over my reading schedule I wanted to make a change and I hope that you're as excited about this as I am.

Moving Out: Tips and Tricks

As some of you may know, I am a fully fledged child being forced to live on her own and make her own choices and decisions daily. Aka: I made the decision to move to University. Being as wise as I am about being an adult (i.e. not very) I wanted to share some tips and tricks that I could've done with during the whole adaption process.

Spoopy Week Day Three: Hello my name is G Dizzle to the Hizzle

Hello, I'm Georgia. I am Natalie's mom friend. I was considering properly introducing myself to you all but if we're honest that'll be incredibly boring, so instead I will tell you two things about my writing style:
1. I use brackets far too often. It's as if I have two writing voices running parallel to each other; the first one telling you all the facts and being sensible, and the one in brackets just throwing out some absolute wildcards and really slowing the discourse right down...kind of like when you're dragging a drunk friend home and they're saying some semi-funny stuff but they're not exactly pushing your journey in a forward motion, y'know?
2. I absolutely, more than anything ever, love puns. Like, you might think you're good at wordplay, but let me tell you, dear friends: I am better. I am super non-competitive in regards to basically everything else but pun-making? I reign supreme.

I apologise in advance for messing up Natalie's carefully curated layout with all of my weird bullet points and ridiculous photos and other such annoying things. Anyway, I think the time has come for me to, y'know, properly start this whole shebang. Here is the story of Halloween 2015.

Spoopy Week Day Two: Character's Halloween Outfits

We've all imagined what our characters would do in terms of celebrating Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, and we've seen a few celebrating their birthdays, but I've not seen anyone talk about which characters would be a Halloqueen so I'm here to push that along. Mostly, I just want to think about my faves in Halloween costumes.

Spoopy Week Day One: Halloween Playlist

I know, I've been gone for 10,000 years. But hopefully you can forgive me because I'm returning with something very special - my very own spoopy week. I wanted to celebrate Halloween and what better way to do it than with an entire week of (four) posts dedicated to Halloween and all things spoopy. You might also be treated to a guest post or two! Fun, right?

A Quick Update

Hello everyone! First of all I would like to issue an apology for being way too inconsistent with my posting over the past few months and then weeks after that after posting my birthday post. But I'm sure you'll be glad to hear that I made it to uni! I've been here for almost a week now and I'm loving it so far. Everything is moving so fast and it's so busy that I've barely had time to sit and think let alone write a post, and classes haven't even started yet! That being said, I'm not sure when I'll find time to post again but I will try and get at least one up a week for you guys, as long as I'm able. Thanks for sticking around and I hope to see you again soon!

A Very Belated Birthday

I'm officially the worst blogger in the world. Recently the blog hit it's 2nd birthday and instead of being on here to celebrate it, I was out in the world going through a pretty hard slump of, well, just about everything. I don't want this post to be something negative about how slumps suck and I don't want it to be full of false promises saying that I will be on here a whole lot more often so instead I'm just going to talk about this past year of blogging.

Guest Post: A Throne Of Glass Review by Aagya Pradhan

Do you ever get the feeling that your friends are much, much smarter than you and actually, have an awful lot more to say? Because I do. And that's not belittling myself, I know that I'm smart too and I also have a lot to say, but all of my friends are very intelligent people and I respect them a lot. So I thought what better way for me to share their knowledge and life experiences than asking them to feature on my blog?

What To Do When Blogging Gets Difficult

We all go through phases in our blogging lives, sometimes we have so many new and creative ideas that we're passionate about, but no time to write them. And other times it's the complete opposite. It feels like we have all the time in the world to put out fresh, quality content but nothing is inspiring us.

Do You Want To Have An Adventure?

The topic of adventures has been playing on my mind lately. With my upcoming move to university, it's something that I've been thinking about an awful lot and I'd love to discuss it with you today. I've never been the type of person who craved adventure. I was really quite content to stay at home surrounded by the comforts of things that I've known my whole life. My laptop was there, my books, my TV, my entire family lived in the same city. There was no reason for me to ever want to leave, no desire for me to do anything different, but that's just goes to show that everyone is capable of change, and everyone should change.

When Happiness Correlates With Rereading

Rereading is one of my favourite things to do when I'm feeling run down, stressed out or even just nostalgic. In fact, rereading is something that I do on any occasion, because it's something that I feel I need to do. No question about it. I get bombarded with questions from family members like "Haven't you read that one already?", "That one? Again?" and my personal favourite "What? You don't have enough books to read?" so often that in the future, I'll just redirect them to this post, which, in a nutshell, is 'I Love To Read Books Over and Over Again So Just Shh About It Already'.

My Favourite Books of 2016 (So Far)

While I'm aware that this post would have been more suited to go up midway through the year, no one has ever said that I'm the most organised person in the world so we're going to roll with this. I also felt like I hadn't really spoken enough about the books that I've been loving this year and I want to thrust them into your (un)willing hands and tell you to take care of my babies.

Things I've Been Loving: June + July Edition

I wish I didn't have to start every post lately with 'Sorry it's been so long' but in order for that to happen I need to fix up my own game and actually get to posting more frequently. I completely missed June's favourites so to make up for it I'm combining June and July into one post. Don't forget to let me know your own favourites below!

Netflix and Books Tag

This tag is hosted by Novel Ink and Bookmark Lit and I HIGHLY recommend that you go and check out their posts, because they're amazing and also they explain the rules better than I ever could. As soon as I saw the title of this tag I knew that it would somehow end up on my blog. If there are three things I love it is Netflix and Books and Tags. I don't want to delay from this post any further so I'm just going to leave this introduction here. I'm not entirely sure if these answers have to specifically be from Netflix but I'm not sure enough of my shows are on there so I'm going to go outside of Netflix for this one.

The Series Series #3: When Enough Is Enough

We all have that one series, the series that starts off great and you will explode if you have to wait a second longer for the next book but then comes the next book, and the next one, and the next one, and the next one, until suddenly there are 10 books in the series that all echo the same theme. This is the type of series that begs the question: when is enough, enough?

The Series Series #2: Series I Want To Reread.

Hey, guys! While you are reading this I will actually be in Mexico, probably living it up by the pool or something. I've scheduled a few posts to go live while I'm away so hopefully you will enjoy them, including this posts which is all about The Series I Want To Reread and I am very excited about this post so let's get cracking, shall we?

The Series Series #1: Series That I Want To Read.

Back in 2014 I wrote a post sharing all of the series that I wanted to start, a lot has changed since then and I figured that I should give you an updated version. If you want to check out the original post to see how much has changed I will link it here. This post is the first part of a mini series that I'm doing here on the blog all about, well, series, so if you like this be sure to come back and check out the other posts I'm doing.

(This post doesn't include series that I've started reading/series that I want to finish. Purely just series that I want to start but haven't yet).

Things I've Been Loving: May Edition

Hey guys, It's been a while. I've been sort of AWOL during the whole of May due to finishing up with college and just being super weighed down with tragic amounts of work that I had to complete. It's all done now and I am finished with college FOREVER so expect loads of posts from me this summer. Like I said, nothing really exciting happened this month so this post will probably be a bit minimal.

What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick

What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Gwen Castle has never so badly wanted to say good-bye to her island home till now: the summer her Biggest Mistake Ever, Cassidy Somers, takes a job there are the local yard boy. He's a rich kid from across the bridge in Stony Bay, and she hails from a family of fishermen and housecleaners who keep the island's summer people happy. Gwen worries a life of cleaning houses will be her fate too, but just when it looks like she'll never escape her past - or the island - Gwen's dad gives her some shocking advice. Sparks fly and secret histories unspool as Gwen spends a gorgeous, restless summer struggling to resolve what she thought was true - about the place she lives, the people she loves, and even herself - with what really is.

This book was provided to me via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

#ThisIsWhoIAm: A Time Capsule Experience

In honour of the launch of Harriet Reuter Hapgood's brilliant debut novel, The Square Root of Summer, I have been invited to take part in Macmillan's #ThisIsWhoIAm campaign. To celebrate the creativity of the book and it's characters, Macmillan have asked me to put together a time capsule that represents who I am right now in Summer 2016. Today - May 3rd - people all around the world will be posting their time capsules showing who they are with the hashtag #ThisIsWhoIAm so if you enjoy this post you should go and check those out, and why not make your own while you're at it and join in on all the fun! I loved putting together my time capsule and I'm so excited to show you guys the things that I feel encapsulate this moment in time.

The Square Root of Summer publishes on the 5th May 2016, I have already read it and I thought it was a beautiful read so if you're interested on hearing more about it, or reading my review, check it out here.

Things I've Been Loving: April Edition

April was a very busy month, in the best possible way. I managed to get quite a bit of reading done, which I'd been slacking on in the previous months, this would be down to ARC April (which, admittedly, I was awful at) and then the readathon on the 23rd! I also got to see a lot of friends this month, due to a little thing that I'll get more into later, which I loved because I don't get to see some of my friends that often due to them not living super close to me. So, yes, all in all April was great, I loved it, and now I welcome May, my birth month, to come and top it.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick. What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane. Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that. What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.

Since I couldn't possibly force everything that I love about this book into a straightforward review, I'm going to do what I do best and give 5 reasons why everyone should read Me Before You.

An ARC April Update

Hi, Hey, Hello. It's been one week since April started aka the start of ARC April and I'm super excited to be bringing you my first week update because I've read some pretty solid books and I want to share them with you, out of the kindness of my heart of course.

Things I've Been Loving: March Edition

March has been a weird month. The beginning was filled with stress and worry about everything from my mums health, projects at college and getting into my back-up uni and the end has been, well, a de-stress of all of those things. My mum is better, the projects I was worried about are over and I finally got the acceptance I've been waiting for since November AND applied for student finance AND have booked my accommodation, so it's safe to say that everything has worked out pretty much perfectly.

2016 ARC April

You may have heard of ARC August happening in 2015 and yes, you guessed it, Octavia and Shelley of Read. Sleep. Repeat. are hosting it all over again - except in April!

On Rowan and Chaol and How It's Not A Love Triangle

We all know love triangles, we've all heard of them, we've all read them and we've all probably been extremely frustrated by them. The 'Love Triangle' trope is something that is overplayed, usually quite silly and, hell, it just doesn't happen in real life, like ever.

Things I've Been Loving: February Edition

Hello everyone and Happy March! February felt like it dragged on forever so I'm hoping that I'll have a lot more things to talk about this month, especially on the book front seeing as I got quite a few books in at the beginning of the month.

The Number One Rule for Girls by Rachel McIntyre

The Number One Rule for Girls by Rachel McIntyre

Daisy knows a thing or two about love and romance. She's surrounded by it - in fact, there's no escape! Not only are her parents childhood sweethearts turned soulmates, they also run a very successful wedding agency called 'Something Borrowed', helping couples to tie the knot in whatever frilly, quirky, tasteful, outrageous way they choose. So it's no surprise that Daisy has a pretty clear vision of how her life with her boyfriend Matt is going to pan out. There's one major flaw in this plan - Matt and Daisy have split up! Determined not to brood, Daisy sets out to re-invent her life and her dreams. And that's when Toby enters the scene, who appears to be perfect, but is turning all the Rules upside down.

This book was provided to me via netgalley in exchanged for an honest review.

Review:

Lets Talk: Sex Education

Many of you who live in the UK, and even those who don't, may be aware that a few days ago David Cameron rejected the movement for compulsory Sex Education in schools. Here are a few articles if you want to read up more on the matter but I wanted to pose a discussion on this blog because it's something that is extremely important to me as you may know from my post about periods.

3 Thoughts I Have About Asking For It by Louise O'Neill

Asking For It by Louise O'Neill

It's the beginning of the summer in a small town in Ireland. Emma O'Donovan is eighteen years old, beautiful, happy, confident. One night, there's a party. Everyone is there. All eyes are on Emma. The next morning, she wakes up on the front porch of her house. She can't remember what happened, she doesn't know how she got there. She doesn't know why she's in pain. But everyone else does. Photographs taken at the party show, in explicit detail, what happened to Emma that night. But some people don't want to believe what is right in front of them, especially when the truth concerns the town's heroes.

Trigger Warning: This post talks a lot about, and uses the word rape alot.

TBR Jar + The Choice by Nicholas Sparks

The Choice by Nicholas Sparks

Set amid the austere beauty of the North Carolina coast, Nicholas Sparks' novel tells the story of Travis Parker, a small town veterinarian who's perfectly content with the active life he leads. That is, until Gabby Holland enters his life.

Review:

Things I've Been Loving: January Edition

I'm actually on time for my favourites this month which is, truly, a miracle. I spent most of the month at home and doing everything that wasn't reading so this should be a fun one to write.

Did I Mention I Love You? By Estelle Maskame

Did I Mention I Love You? By Estelle Maskame

When sixteen year-old Eden Munro agrees to spend the summer with her estranged father in the beachfront city of Santa Monica, California she has no idea what she's letting herself in for. Eden's parents are divorced and have gone their separate ways, and now her father has a brand new family. For Eden, this means she's about to meet three new step-brothers. The eldest of the three is Tyler Bruce, a troubled teenager with a short temper and a huge ego. Complete polar opposites, Eden quickly finds herself thrust into a world full of new experiences as Tyler's group of friends take her under their wing. But the one thing she just can't understand is Tyler, and the more she presses to find out the truth about him, the more she finds herself falling for the one person she shouldn't - her step-brother. Throw in Tyler's clingy girlfriend and a guy who has his eyes set on Eden, and there's secrets, lies and a whole lot of drama. But how can Eden keep her feelings under control? And can she ever work out the truth about Tyler?

Desktop Beauties - My Favourite Wallpapers

For those of you who were here during the Visual Week I did last May you'd know that I love typography and lettering especially when it comes to bookish things. One of the things that falls into that category is bookish desktop wallpapers. I'm a bit obsessed when it comes to having a variety of wallpapers to choose from so for all of those like-minded people out there I'm going to share two of my favourite creators of said desktop beauties.

Let's Talk: Hello, Again

It feels like I've been starting off every post with 'Hello, Again' lately so I'm going to try and make this my last Hello, Again post for a long while. I have so many new ideas for content and I'm so excited to get them out to you but first of all I just wanted to have a chat about what's been going on.

Books to Music: Troye Sivan Edition

Back when Badlands dropped I posted a Books to Music feature that explained Halsey songs as books. I'm doing this again, except this time it's about 10x better because it's Troye Sivan ladies and gentlemen. That's right, I'm doing Blue Neighbourhood as Books.

There may be spoilers in the explanations so be careful when reading but I will put an extra warning on the particular ones that have spoilers.