Saturday, October 31, 2015

#NOTD: Deer in the Woods

Hello everyone! Welcome back to another #NOTD! I'm trying to make these more regularly because I've just been loving the something extra they bring to the blog. Today's post is also going to include a brief review on the Bundle Monster Plate No. 702 which I just bought. 

What I Used:
(L-R): Nirvana (Sinful Colors), Mellow Yellow (Sally Hansen), Paint the Town (Maybelline), The Hue is Blue (Pop-A-Razzi)
Not depicted: Treat and Boost (Revlon) & Wild Shine Top Coat (Wet n Wild)

Born Pretty Store Plate No. 08, Bundle Monster Plate No. 702, Born Pretty Store Stamper
Not depicted: Old gift card (Scraper)

Steps:
1. Apply a base coat to protect your natural nails.

2. Apply a brown polish to all your nails except one for an accent - I left my ring finger (left hand) and pointer (right hand) blank. 

3. Apply a light blue polish to the fingers you left blank.


4. Take the Born Pretty Store Plate No. 08 and apply red polish to the leaf design. Scrape off the polish with an old gift card and pick up the image with a stamper in a rolling motion. Then apply to any finger of your choice. Repeat with yellow polish on the opposite hand.

5. Take the Bundle Monster Plate No. 702 and apply yellow polish to the flower (mums?) design. Scrape off the polish and stamp to your thumb. Repeat with red polish on your opposite hand.

6. Using the same plate, take the brown polish and apply it to the deer in the center of the plate and stamp to the finger with light blue polish.

7. Apply top to seal in your design.

The Final Product:

Quick Review: I'm absolutely in love with this plate! The pay off is amazing as you can see from the flower design. The deer came off a bit sheer but I'm attributing it to the brown polish I used. I can't wait to try out the other designs on the plate because they look so adorable! 

The final look is a bit sheer but again I'm guessing it's due to the opacity of the polishes I used. This actually took forever to do because I kept messing up since I was so impatient but the end result is super cute and I'm in love with how soft the brown looks!

Foreverly Obsessed,





Monday, October 26, 2015

Penny Thoughts: Summarizing Books

Hello everyone! It's been a while since I've done a discussion post and recently this topic has been on my mind so I thought I'd talk about it. As you can tell from the title, I'm talking about summarizing books.

In the past, I've always started my reviews with a short summary where I basically paraphrase what the Goodreads summary says but with my own words and insights. For some reason, I always get stuck on writing the summaries which is kind of strange since I read the book. 8 out of 10 times, I will have some notes on the book but I don't summarize the book in those notes so I end up staring at a blank review screen for a while.

Summaries are difficult to write because I'm trying not to spoil the book while keeping everything interesting to draw people in. Also, like I mentioned before, I post the Goodreads summary above anyway so it becomes a struggle to reword everything without the final product being too similar to the printed synopsis.

Surprisingly, there have been times where I have opened review posts with the intention to write out my thoughts and post it, but because I blank out at the summary I close the post without editing. I have no idea why summarizing is so difficult, but I've realized that I tend to skip it when describing a book. I've done a couple of monthly wrap ups on the channel and every time I have to remind myself to actually talk about the book, but it's a constant struggle.


On the positive side, summarizing books helps me to be able to recall the general idea of the story especially when I'm recommending it to a friend. I just need to figure out a more eloquent way to describe things other than using "so" "like" "you know."

So my question for you guys: Should I continue to include summaries in my reviews?

I'm going to try a couple reviews without to see how it feels and if reviewing becomes a easier task. There might be a couple books where I include a review because it comes easy to me, but I'm going to give it a go. Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Foreverly Obsessed,



Friday, October 23, 2015

Update: My Long Absence


Hello everyone! This is not an official Life of a Blogger post but the post looked awkward without a banner up top and this one was the most fitting. So October has been a pretty boring month here as up to this point I've only uploaded 4 posts and haven't posted anything in the past two weeks. I'm also falling behind on updating my lists for my videos such as my September Wrap Up.

With that being said, I really don't have a reason for my absence other than the fact that I have just been procrastinating a lot. November 1 is coming up and everyone is freaking out about EA/ED applications which in turn is making me freak out. This doesn't make any sense since I don't have any deadlines on November 1, but all that is to say: I don't have a reason as to why I haven't been posting.

I can't even count the number of times I have pulled up a review post or an empty post with the intentions to write something and put it up and just closed it because I wasn't feeling it. My procrastination is going to come back and bite me, but I'm hoping that after this post goes up, I get my game back on and start posting at least once a week even if I'm drowning in work.

I currently have 2 reviews and a discussion planned so hopefully I can get them all up next week! So there you have it, my not so real excuse as to why I haven't posted anything in two weeks. Fingers crossed I actually get something done!

Foreverly Obsessed,


Saturday, October 17, 2015

#NOTD: Silver Dots

Hello everyone! Welcome back to another #NOTD post! I just got some new polishes so I decided to play around and came up with this simple nail look. I apologize for how inactive I've been recently on the blog, I've been swamped with school work and procrastinating so much on YouTube, but hopefully I'll be able to get back on my game before October wraps up. With that being said, let's just into the look~

What I Used:
(L-R): Treat and Boost (Revlon), Calypso (Sinful Colors), Glam Factor (Pop-arazzi)
Not depicted: Quick Dry Top Coat (Revlon)

Reinforcements (I ended up changing my mind so I didn't use them), Dotting Tools (Sally Beauty Store), Tweezers, Star Glitters (Taiwan)

Steps:
1. Apply a base coat to protect your natural nails - I used Revlon's Treat and Boost.

2. Apply a dark blue green polish to all your nails - I used Sinful Color's Calypso
Edit: I ended up changing my design and applied Pop-arazzi's Glam Factor to my pointer (left hand) and middle (right hand)

3. Take a dotting tool and using a silver color, make small dots on your ring finger

4. Take a small star glitter and apply to your pinky (left hand) and thumb (right hand) - you can pick any two fingers, I chose to put my star there.

5. (Original plan) Cut your reinforcement in half and place it on a finger of your choice on either hand to use as a guide to make a French tip.
Edit: I ended up applying silver to my pointer (left hand) and middle (right hand) because I didn't like how my tips came out.

6: Apply top coat to seal in your design.

The Final Product:

So this is what I came up it! I also picked up two other polishes from Sinful Colors so I'll see if I can come up with some designs using those colors. Let me know in the comments what you thought and if you have any suggestions for future designs! 

Foreverly Obsessed,







Monday, October 12, 2015

Mini Review: Jane Unwrapped

ASIN: B014CR0PQA
Pages: 238
Source: Entangled Teen
Publication Date: October 12, 2015
Appearance:
26598923
Some tombs should never be opened...
Fluorine uranium carbon potassium. Jane’s experiment really went wrong this time. After a fatal accident, teen scientist Jane becomes the first modern-day...mummy. Waking up in the Egyptian underworld without a heart certainly isn’t the best—especially when it means Anubis, god of embalming, has to devour her soul. Yuck. But when Jane meets the drop-dead gorgeous god, suddenly she's thinking this might not be the worst thing to happen. And then she is pushed to do the impossible—just time-travel and kill King Tut. Well, every experiment has variables which can end in disaster... Jane just wishes she could decide whether she wants to strangle Anubis or kiss him.

Hello everyone! Welcome to my review for Jane Unwrapped which just released today! Since this is a mini review, I'm going to jump straight into the review~

I have always been fascinated by mythology for the longest time but for some reason I never made it to exploring Egyptian mythology. For the limited amount of knowledge that I have, this book wasn't difficult to get into. The plot is really interesting and has a steady buildup to the final climax.

The only problem I really have with this book is the characters. I felt like they weren't as fleshed out as I would have liked them to be. For such a fascinating story, I felt really detached from Jane. Honestly, the only person I liked was Anubis and he spent a chunk of the book as a jackal. I did grow to like Jane but at the beginning, I found myself being pretty annoyed by the random inserts of her facts. I know she's supposed to be an extremely smart person, but they felt out of place. As for the love triangle (?) between Jane, Tut, and Anubis...I liked Tut as a person but he was just a weak character compared to Anubis so it's no surprise whose team I'm on. 

The ending was a bit too abrupt for my liking. I really enjoyed the "battle" scene between Aten and Jane, but everything just seemed to wrap up in a little bow and that was the end of it. Not exactly sure if this is going to be turned into a series but if it isn't, my interest in Egyptian mythology has begun to develop and I'm definitely going to looking more into it. 

*Huge thanks to Entangled Teen for providing a copy to review. All thoughts are 100% my own*

 3 out of 5 stars

Foreverly Obsessed,

Mini Review: Touching Fate

ASIN: B014CS5NI4
Pages: 194
Source: Entangled Teen
Publication Date: October 12, 2015
Appearance:
25151797
Aster Layne believes in physics, not psychics. A tarot card reading on the Ocean City Boardwalk should have been a ridiculous, just-for-fun thing. It wasn’t. Aster discovers she has a very unscientific gift—with a simple touch of the cards, she can change a person’s fate.
Reese Van Buren is cursed. Like the kind of old-school, centuries-old curse that runs in royal families. Every firstborn son is doomed to die on his eighteenth birthday—and Reese’s is coming up fast. Bummer. He tries to distract himself from his inevitable death…only to find the one person who can save him.
Aster doesn’t know that the hot Dutch guy she’s just met needs her help–or that he’s about to die.
But worst of all…she doesn’t know that her new gift comes with dark, dark consequences that can harm everyone she loves.

Hello everyone! First off, happy book birthday to Touching Fate! If you're interested in picking up a copy, just click the cover above and you will directed to the Amazon page! Since I'm posting two reviews today (two releases) I thought I'd shorten this review into a mini one so I'm going to skip the summary and go straight to my thoughts~

I have also been fascinated with the idea behind tarot cards despite my parents being strongly against me having anything to do with them so my initial attraction to this book was pretty strong. The storyline is very unique, I will say I've never read about fate changers in this context before. While everything was pretty well executed, there were just some parts of the book that felt overdone and repetitive. 

One of the main reasons is the characters. As much as I liked Aster, Reese, and everyone else I wasn't a huge fan of the romance. For someone who has had her heart broken many times by the wrong guy, Aster's pretty willing to fall into a relationship with Reese who is a foreigner visiting America. Not to mention he's in a complete different social class and doomed to die. Their relationship just didn't sit well with me for a good chunk of the book and while I ended up rooting for them so hard, my initial feelings towards them as a couple definitely made the book a bit hard to enjoy.

I absolutely loved the idea of the curse and towards the end of the book, I was just frantically clicking pages because I couldn't wait to see what happens next. The build to the climax has just the right amount of tension that just gives the book the perfect amount of pull to keep me continuously hooked. I really enjoyed how everything played out and this book was definitely one that started slow and built to a fantastic climax. 

*Huge thanks to Entangled Teen for providing a copy to review. All thoughts are 100% my own*
3 out of 5 stars

Foreverly Obsessed,

Friday, October 2, 2015

TOUR STOP: The Danaan Trilogy

TheDanaanTrilogyBT

ASIN: B00CKXODRG
Pages: 197
Source: Mark My Words Publicity
Publication Date: April 28, 2013
Appearance:
16288155
Allison O'Malley's plan is to go to grad school so she can get a good job and take care of her schizophrenic mother. She has carefully closed herself off from everything else, including a relationship with Ethan, who she's been in love with for as long as she can remember.
What is definitely not part of the plan is the return of her long-lost father, who claims he can bring Allison's mother back from the dark place her mind has gone. Allison doesn't trust her father, so why would she believe his stories about a long forgotten Irish people, the Tuatha de Danaan? But truths have a way of revealing themselves. Secrets will eventually surface. And Allison must learn to set aside her plan and work with her father if there is even a small chance it could restore her mother's sanity.
 

ASIN: B00JV4ZMBI
Pages: 163
Source: Mark My Words Publicity
Publication Date: April 21, 2014
Appearance:
22023380
Allison thought it was crazy enough when she found out her father, Liam, wasn't entirely human. But now she has to join his magical allies to unravel his former mistress's plans. Aoife wants to keep Allison's parents apart forever. 
Despite Allison's efforts to keep Ethan, the only guy she's ever cared about, out of this supernatural mess, fate keeps throwing him back into the mix. 
Will Allison be able to find the amulet that holds the enchantment Aoife placed on Liam and destroy it? Are Ethan' s feelings for Allison strong enough to endure the magic of the Tuatha De Danaan?

ASIN: B00OX4PUJU
Pages: 182
Source: Mark My Words Publicity
Publication Date: October 24, 2014
Appearance:
23514009
The eagerly anticipated finale of USA Today Bestselling Danaan Trilogy. 
The time has come. Allison's quest to save her mother from Aoife's wicked enchantment will test everything she believes in. Who is trustworthy in the land of the Fair Folk, the Tuatha de Danaan? It's up to Allison, along with her host of allies, to unravel the truth. 
Journey along and discover the power of family, love and duty as Allison faces the most difficult trial of her life. 


Hello everyone and welcome to my tour stop for the Danaan Trilogy by Laura Howard! Since this is an overall trilogy review I'm going to get straight into my review and try to keep this as non-spoiler as possible!

I've been wanting to pick up this trilogy for the longest time ever since I read one phrase in the synopsis of The Forgotten Ones: Tuatha de Danaan. A huge part of my life from middle school onward has been fascinated with the heroic legends and beautiful stories of Celtic and Irish mythology so it's no surprise that I was so excited to read a YA novel focusing around the Sidhe. While this story didn't exactly deliver a heroic legend, it was so fast paced and engaging journey that kept me furiously pressing the keys on the Kindle because I couldn't read fast enough.

The story telling is so gripping and the situation of things in the novel when it first begins just allows everything to fall into place. There were some things that I can trouble grasping such as the whole half human half fairy deal that was going on with Liam. Everything just seemed so messed up and out of everyone's control throughout most of the book that it felt like the character really couldn't do anything but sit and wait. 

While I had some trouble connecting with Allison for maybe 20-30% of the novel, I was still able to enjoy the story through her perspective. I am honestly loving the twisted fairy idea that I have been reading lately and Aoife is definitely twisted. I will admit she's a bit wrong in the head, but I didn't perceive her as much of a threat. She was just a really annoying character who kept getting in the way of things. I will also say that I wanted a different outcome for her, but maybe I'm being to harsh.

In terms of the other characters, I did not like Ethan for the majority of the first book because he got in the way of Allison's goal of breaking the geis on her parents. However, his dedication is admirable and at the end I do think they make a good team. I didn't trust most of the Danaans for a big chunk of the trilogy because they were just so manipulative, but in the end I guess everything did work out.

All in all, I enjoyed the overall story and how engaged I was while reading. I sort of put off reading this until the very last minute which isn't a good idea, but I managed to blow through the entire trilogy in just two days. Also, does anyone want a spin-off with Samantha and her bodyguard (his name is escaping me) as the main characters? Personally, I think that'd be amazing~


LauraAbout the Author
Laura Howard lives in New Hampshire with her husband and four children. Her obsession with books began at the age of 6 when she got her first library card. Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley High and other girly novels were routinely devoured in single sittings. Books took a backseat to diapers when she had her first child. It wasn’t until the release of a little novel called Twilight, 8 years later, that she rediscovered her love of fiction. Soon after, her own characters began to make themselves known. The Forgotten Ones is her first published novel.

3.5 out of 5 stars
    

Foreverly Obsessed,