Back to School Made Fashionable with House of Fraser

The time for kids to go back to school is nearly upon us and of course that means the dreaded school uniform shopping. I've always found when buying the obligatory uniform from the school itself it can not only be expensive but the ties and cardigans/jumpers are never anything particularly nice to look at and who wants to be dressed the same as everyone else anyway? This is where House of Fraser can help.

August Book of the Month - Paper Butterflies

If I'm honest there haven't been many books that I've been really excited to read this year but Paper Butterflies caught my eye quite a while ago and I was waiting impatiently for Lisa Heathfield to release it and I wasn't disappointed hence why I have chosen it as my August book of the month.

June's life at home with her stepmother and stepsister is a dark one - and a secret one. She is trapped like a butterfly in a net.
But then June meets Blister, a boy in the woods. In him she recognises the tiniest glimmer of hope that perhaps she can find a way to fly far, far away from her home and be free. Because every creature in this world deserves their freedom... But at what price?
This is a story that is honest and raw. It covers the subjects of racism and child abuse so be warned it isn't the easiest of reads.

June is a mixed race little girl that unfortunately lost her mother at a young age. Her father has found love with another one who has a daughter of her own and from the outside looking in they look like they are a happy family. Kathleen comes across as a doting step-mum concerned but what people don't see is something quite tragic.

Read With Me 2016 #35

Hello and welcome to another Read With me. Thanks to all that linked up last week. I'm going to keep it brief this week and next as I will be on holiday as of today and I won't be back until next weeks linky has started but I'm hoping you will all still link up and I will comment and share your posts as soon as I can!

My Sunday Photo 2016 #35

Hours of entertainment from a pack of glowsticks. The girls were having loads of fun combining colours, making different shapes. They even had a rave up in the bath, we kept the lights off in the bathroom and they were making the bath glow up like on big rainbow.

My August Favourites

How is it almost the end of Summer already? Hope everyone has been enjoying some sunshine. But for now here are my August favourites, all those products that I have been loving this month and I'd like to recommend to you.

Baked from BKD Book Review

If you've read my blog before it will be no secret from the recipes shared that both myself and my children love getting creative in the kitchen and of course our favourite thing to do is baking, I mean who can resist cake? I think getting our kids cooking is an important thing, not only are they learning an important life skill ; they are also getting the opportunity to have fun with you, something Adelle Smith from  award winning children's baking company BKD completely agrees with. And this is where her recipe book BAKED: Amazing Bakes to Create With Your Child aims to please.

Anti-Stepbrother Book review

I was provided with an ARC in exchange for an honest review of Tijan's latest novel Anti-Stepbrother and honestly I cannot give this book less than 5 hot hot stars.

I'll admit that Tijan is one of my all time favourite authors, the Fallen Crest series is one that I read over and over and recommend to everyone who asks for different books to read so when Anti-Stepbrother was announced I was definitely expecting good things and waiting not sopatiently for its release.

He told me to 'settle, girl.' 
He asked if 'something was wrong with me?' 
He said I was an ‘easy target.’ 
That was within minutes when I first met Caden Banks. 
I labeled him an *sshole, but he was more than that. Arrogant. Smug. Alpha. 

He was also to-die-for gorgeous, and my stepbrother’s fraternity brother. 

Okay, yes I was a little naive, a tad bit socially awkward, and the smallest amount of stalker-ish, but if Caden Banks thought he could tell me what to do, he had another thing coming. 

I came to college with daydreams about being with my stepbrother, but what if I fell for the anti-stepbrother instead?

Missing Presumed Book Review

I was kindly provided with a copy of Susie Steiner's latest book Missing Presumed by HarperCollins UK via Netgalley for the purpose of this honest review. Coming under the genres of mystery & thrillers, this is crime novel with less of the crime and more of the thought behind it.

At thirty-nine, Manon Bradshaw is a devoted and respected member of the Cambridgeshire police force, and though she loves her job, what she longs for is a personal life. Single and distant from her family, she wants a husband and children of her own. One night, after yet another disastrous Internet date, she turns on her police radio to help herself fall asleep—and receives an alert that sends her to a puzzling crime scene.

Edith Hind—a beautiful graduate student at Cambridge University and daughter of the surgeon to the Royal Family—has been reported missing for nearly twenty-four hours. Her home offers few clues: a smattering of blood in the kitchen, her keys and phone left behind, the front door ajar but showing no signs of forced entry. Manon instantly knows this case will be big—and that every second is crucial to finding Edith alive.

The investigation starts with Edith’s loved ones: her attentive boyfriend, her reserved best friend, and her patrician parents. As the search widens and press coverage reaches a frenzied pitch, secrets begin to emerge about Edith’s tangled love life and her erratic behavior leading up to her disappearance. With no clear leads, Manon summons every last bit of her skill and intuition to close the case, and what she discovers will have shocking consequences not just for Edith’s family, but for Manon herself.

Read With Me 2016 #34

Welcome to this weeks Read With Me. How is everyone doing, managing to read a lot whilst the kids are off school?

Well my lot managed to complete their library challenge last Friday, collecting their medals. We will still be going down the library once a week whilst they are off for the holidays as it is something that keeps them entertained and it costs absolutely nothing, a big positive right there!

My Sunday Photo 2016 #34

As much as I am pretty rubbish at growing my own flowers, I love nothing more than stopping and admiring other peoples plants.

Getting Prepared For Going Back to School With Duck Tape (GiveawayIncluded)

If you are anything like me then you will already be trying to get prepared for your kids going back to school. I have already bought all of the uniform although I'll admit that I've been putting off labelling it all. The one thing I've got left to sort is stationery but of course Duck Tape are around to lend a hand.

What to Wear to a Summer Wedding?

My lovely sister in law got married yesterday, hooray. But on the build up to the wedding I spent a lot of time wondering just what to wear. I mean it's tricky isn't it because of course it is meant to be Summer but we live in Britain so any sort of weather is possible.

Luckily my girls were all sorted for the big occasion because they were all bridesmaids so their outfits were all chosen and bought by their auntie, the colouring was all coral, orange, pinky so I wanted to almost blend in, I'm not one who likes to stand out in photos!

I changed my mind frequently on the outfit that I wanted to wear, in the end I wore something entirely different to what I'm posting now but I thought it was still too pretty not to share.

A Cosy Night in with PlanOurDate

Being a parent means that the children of course always come first but that also means that other aspects in my life get neglected for instance my relationship with my husband.  Date nights tend to be none existence because of the difficulty getting babysitters and then there's the fact that by the time the children are in bed we are both exhausted and nine times out of ten we end up in bed watching TV whilst scrolling through our phones (romantic right!?). This is where new company PlanOurDate can help.

Bop It Review

I have always been a fan of the game Bop It, I remember trying my best to beat the highest score. Back then it was Twist it, Flick it, Pull it, Spin it and of course Bop it. Hasbro's latest version of this classic toy brings with it some new commands which include Answer it, Selfie it and Hammer it, definitely moving into modern times. You can see them all in the picture below.

Read With Me 2016 #33

Hello everyone. Welcome to this weeks Read With Me. I joined up to Netgalley a couple of weeks and I'm really glad I did as it is introducing me to authors I would probably never have glanced at otherwise.

It is free to join and you can request to review certain books and other times you will be invited to read others. Great way of supporting authors by publicising their books but also great for you as a reader to expand your own reading library, well electronically anyway.

My Sunday Photo 2016 #33

Just a simple photo today. This is a view that I absolutely adore and one I get to see oh so often, this is Dover seafront.

Siblings (August)

For this months siblings project post I decided to concentrate on my youngest two. They never used to be that close but over the past few months they've begun to form quite a strong bond. Always opting to play with one another, sit next to each other.

Immortal Writers Book Review

After reading my review of The Goodbyes, Blue Moon Publishers kindly gifted me a copy of one of their up and coming YA fiction novels, Immortal Writers which is written by author Jill Bowers. This slips into the fantasy genre and I would say fans of Abi Elphinstone's The Dreamsnatcher will really enjoy this one.

Young up-and-coming author Liz McKinnen has no idea that her life is about to change forever when she comes home from her first book tour. When she's kidnapped and told by her captors that she has to kill her fantasy book's antagonist, she thinks that she's fallen into the hands of crazy, dangerous fans... until her antagonist sends a real, fire-breathing dragon after her. Liz is quickly initiated into the Immortal Writers, a group of authors from throughout time whose words have given them eternal life, and whose prose is so powerful that it's brought stories over from the Imagination Field into the Reality Field. As Liz meets authors such as William Shakespeare, JRR Tolkien, Edgar Allan Poe, and Jane Austen, she has to learn how to control magic, fight dragons, and face her own troubled past before her power-hungry villain takes over the world. Will she survive the ultimate battle against the dragon lord whom she created?

The Trap Book Review

Mumsnet recently gifted me a copy of this debut thriller of a novel from author Melanie Raabe to read and review. This story is quite gripping even from the opening pages...

For 11 years the bestselling author Linda Conrads has mystified fans by never setting foot outside her home. Haunted by the unsolved murder of her younger sister - who she discovered in a pool of blood and the face of the man she saw fleeing the scene, Linda's hermit existence helps her cope with debilitating anxiety. But the sanctity of her oasis is shattered when she sees her sister's murderer on television. Hobbled by years of isolation, Linda resolves to use the plot of her next novel to lay an irresistable trap for the man. As the plan is set in motion and the past comes rushing back, Linda's memories and her very sanity are called into question. Is this man a heartless killer or merely a helpless victim?

SelfieMic Review

When I was little I used to love singing along to my favourite songs on the radio (admittedly not all that well) and as I grew up my love of belting out a good tune didn't lessen, I remember many a night of playing Singstar on the Playstation with my friends, those were indeed the good old days. Well now a new tech toy has arrived which has me all excited, the SelfieMic.

Ravage by Tillie Cole Book Review

I was lucky enough to be gifted a copy from the publishers of this book St Martin's Press via Netgalley. Having read the the first in the Scarred Souls series and I was expecting very good things from Ravage and I'm pleased to say that I am giving this book 5 out of 5 stars.

I'm a huge fan of Tillie Cole, one of my favourite books from this year happens to be one of her other novels, A Thousand Boy Kisses however the Scarred Souls series is something entirely different. The one similarity is that it still focuses on broken characters.

Taken by the Jakhua Clan as a teen, 194 was stripped of his name, his identity, and his freewill, meticulously honed to be a ruthless, soulless killing machine, trained solely to spill blood and stop hearts. This is a role he resents with every fiber of his being, but one he embraces to gain back the precious leverage the Georgians wield as their weapon of control: his younger sister, 152.

Read With Me 2016 #32

Hey everyone, welcome to this weeks Read With Me. How is everyones Summer holidays going? So the girls started their reading challenge last week and after two days they'd already read their two chosen books but I decided to wait until Friday to go back to the library to choose their next couple of stories each. Here's what they chose :

My Sunday Photo 2016 #32

I showed you a picture a couple of weeks ago of my girls painted plant pots and I was talking about the fact that we were attempting to grow some flowers, herbs and vegetables.

Well this photograph is a little update for you to show that their efforts are so far paying off even though slugs have tried to eat the coriander!

Chocolate and Banana Coins Recipe

It's been a while since I shared a recipe on here so I thought I would show you one of my favourite treats right now, chocolate and banana coins. They make a great alternative to ice creams in the Summer months because they are frozen and of course with the fruit element they are relatively healthy too so perfect for both kids and adults.

The Goodbyes Book Review

I was provided with a review copy of this novel by Blue Moon Publishing via Netgalley. I'll begin by saying that I give this story 4 stars you can read on to find out why...

Webb Turner grew up in a seemingly idyllic Pennsylvanian town, tortured by a troubled household. His young life is turned upside down by the exciting, magnetic and wild girl next door Bree. They keep each other at arm's length their whole lives, however, dancing around the issue of their unresolved feelings while Bree's life steadily spirals out of control.

In the meantime, Webb's life is on a different trajectory. He escapes the small town to become a globetrotting rock music sensation, with a new romantic interest on his mind and the past left in the rear view mirror - until he hears that Bree is dying. This shocking news unleashes a torrent of unresolved angst that won't be dammed  until Webb drops everything and everybody mid-tour to undertake a dangerous drive through a blizzard to be by Bree's side, just for one last chance to say his final farewell.

This story definitely isn't your typical romance. A tale of unrequited love, missed moments and seemingly unbreakable bonds.

Miles of Smiles Book Review

I love book post and the latest one to drop through my letter box was Miles of Smiles. This is a gorgeous looking children's book that looks at the concept of just how far a smile can really travel.

What happens when Baby gives her mom a smile? Mommy passes it on! And that's how one smile begins an upbeat journey, making stops at different places along the way until it links a whole community together and finally comes back home.

Dots Super Connect-the-Dots-Puzzles Book Review

I have often expressed my love of colouring in on this blog but did you also know that I love a good puzzle? I was recently sent the fantastic Dots Super Connect-the-Dots-Puzzles book and I'll admit I was thinking that this would be aimed more towards kids but it is definitely something that adults can enjoy too.

To the People on the Tube Who Laughed With My Children.

Children and public transport don't always go together, especially younger kids who can find it hard to sit still and be quiet. There are adults who can get annoyed by a child's antics, wishing for the them to be quiet, to stop moving around, many of those don't have their own so won't have the same patience as us parents do (although I certainly lack it some days too). However last week on a trip to London I was pleasantly surprised by a select few people on the tube who laughed along with my children.

Read With Me 2016 #31

Hello you lovely lot, welcome to this weeks Read With Me. Will you be encouraging your children to carry on reading now that the Summer holidays have arrived?

I don't think I could stop my kids from reading. We headed down to the library last Friday to get them signed up to the Summer reading challenge, this year it has the theme of "Big Friendly Read". The reason we waited until Friday was because you have to be at least 4 years old to join in and my youngest turned 4 on Thursday :)