Month: August 2024

Lucky (It Girl #5) by Cecily Von Ziegesar Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

This one started out boring but had redeeming moments at the end. Honestly, the first half was really dull for me.

Everyone was reeling over the aftermath of the fire which I mean why wouldn’t you be? Especially when the Dean is out for blood.

Not much to report other than Tinsley and Callie trying to get rid of Jenny. Though Callie flip-flops on it because she doesn’t want to look bad in front of Easy but ultimately decides Jenny needs to go.

To really convince the Dean that Jenny is responsible for the fire Tinsley enlists the help of a prospective student who is visitng Waverly for the week. The perspective happens to be none other than the Dean’s niece Chloe.

Nothing too crazy here, Tinsley and Callie just feed Chloe a story about how Jenny was the one who started the fire. It didn’t help that while Chloe was in art class with Jenny she ended up drawing a photo of the fire. Talk about incriminating yourself.

Everything comes to a head when everyone is sitting in the Dean’s office. The Dean has decided instead of doing the usual thing where everyone pleads their case and he decides who is guilty he is going to let them sort it out between themselves. Fun.

This was actually the most interesting part and the whole time I was reading I was begging it not to become a breakfast club scenario. Though they already made a breakfast club reference before so it couldn’t be that.

The discussion got heated as Tinsley entered in as the main character ready to point all suspicion towards Jenny.

All the time reading I was waiting for something to happen where someone would defend Jenny or call Tinsley’s motives into question but it didn’t happen. Everyone sat in silence as Tinsley ran her ideas by the group and by the end it seemed everyone was beginning to agree with her.

When the Dean enters the scene and asks who would like to confess Jenny wastes no time speaking up. Again I’m shook because I thought despite Tinsley’s pushing and everyone else’s silence someone else would’ve spoke up and said something. Not even Julian spoke up in a gentlemanly gesture to protect Jenny.

So Jenny is packing up to leave and she is trying to convince herself it’s a good thing. Why would she wanna be friends with a bunch of people who didn’t even try to defend her to the Dean? She was ready to leave and not have to deal with Tinsley bitch Charmichael ever again…

Until the Dean chases her down and says the owner of the barn is insisting that the cows were actually responsible for the fire and that Jenny is no longer expelled. Yeah. The cows. Dumb. But also the silliness I expect from this series.

So Jenny is no longer kicked out of Waverly and it seems as though someone paid off the barn owner to save her…interesting.

Not sure who I can picture bribing someone to let Jenny stay at Waverly. It’s definitely not Tinsley or Callie. And even though Brandon, Brett and Easy like Jenny it seems unlikely they would beg their parents to pay off someone for this. So I guess we will have to wait and see.

Unforgettable (It Girl #4) by Cecily von Ziegesar Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

This was a fun one.

First of all, Callie and Jenny agree to be friends and put the whole Easy drama behind them which is cute and predictable. Also predictable: Callie and Easy getting back together. Yawn.

I personally do not see the appeal of Easy, I have said it before but I dislike him and it looks like he’s not going away anytime soon so yeah. Gotta deal with that. Naturally, Callie doesn’t see any issue with getting back together with Easy because he was her boyfriend to begin with and things just seemed right. Jenny is just going to have to suck it up.

Sadly for Callie, Jenny does not take the news well, especially because Callie didn’t even tell her, Jenny had to see them together to find out the truth. In turn this makes Jenny mad at Callie and their brief friendship is once again over. Not that sad about it to be honest, Callie is just as annoying as Easy, if not more lol.

Things aren’t all bad for Jenny though because she has taken an interest in freshman Julian. He made a good impression on everyone by just being a cool guy who goes along with what Heath says which makes him popular with the upperclassmen.

What Jenny doesn’t know is that Julian is actually having a fling with a certain It Girl.

Yep. The Tinsley Charmichael has feelings for a freshman and it’s a side of Tinsley I did not expect. She sneaks around with Julian and shows that she is just a normal teenage girl after all. While she may get bored of the usual boys who give her whatever she wants, she finds Julian’s playing hard to get refreshing.

What she doesn’t realise though is that he ain’t playing hard to get lol Julian just isn’t interested in her after he gets to know Jenny.

Sad for Tinsley but at the same time something about her getting exactly what she wants is boring. So we need this drama. Especially when this drama causes her to set fire to a barn where everyone is having a party. Oops.

Aside from all of this drama we also find out that Brett has feelings for someone new. The new person being her new bestie Kara. We love a queer story.

Brett and Kara are exploring things on the down low with the surprising help of Heath Farro. Our local fuck boy. I did not expect him to keep their secret. Even if he was doing it because he was getting pics from them on the side. Turns out he has one redeeming quality after all. Sort of.

I hope Brett and Kara last, if only because we need one relationship in this series that doesn’t immediately go to shit lol.

Anyway yeah that’s everything that happens here. Naturally Tinsley is out to frame Jenny for the barn fire because she saw Julian and Jenny kissing and that causes her to freak out and toss Julian’s lighter behind her without looking. So really Tinsley started the fire but she already admitted to doing E and got expelled so she definitely won’t be making that mistake again.

Callie and Easy could have also set the fire as they were actually in the barn when the fire started. Jenny caught them having a post-coital cigarette and was not too pleased about it. Though I don’t think they were the culprits.

So I suppose we will be finding out the fallout from the fire in the next one. I say as I am already halfway through the next book lol. I am just behind on blogging but these things happen. Anyway, my prediction is that everyone ends up finding out about Julian’s lighter and he is the one that gets kicked out. Jenny is a main character and there are still at least four books in this series so she definitely does not get kicked out. I can’t see Callie getting in trouble either but I wouldn’t hate if Easy goes down for this. But we’ll see.

I’m actually surprised at how short the timeline for these books is? Like they all happen immediately one after another, it’s been four books and we have only covered Jenny’s first month at this school. It’s kind of weird. It makes me wonder where we end to be honest. Another thing I imagine I’ll find out very soon at the rate I’m going through this books lol.

I’m Engaged!

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I feel like I haven’t blogged here with a real life update in forever but here’s a big one for you: I’m engaged!

It feels weird to blog about to be honest, but I have blogged on and off for years about things in life so why is this any different? I guess because it doesn’t just involve me, it involves my partner too. He is not a public guy whereas I am literally everywhere online so that’s maybe why. So I won’t be sharing too many details.

I still wanted to make a little post because it also felt weird not to post. So here we are lol.

This proposal came as a huge shock to me, I wasn’t expecting it at all. I mean I knew it was going to happen eventually, my partner and I have been together for 8 years and marriage has definitely come up in conversation. I just didn’t expect it to happen now.

I wasn’t in a rush to get in engaged or married, I suppose because we already live together and own a home and have plans to go travelling next year. I assumed the proposal would happen in maybe the next year or so? But I got caught off guard at the weekend when I came home to a mountain of rose petals and balloons.

Obviously I said yes and am over the moon!

I don’t know when wedding planning will begin so let’s not even go there with those questions lol. I think it could be fun to blog the wedding planning journey but at the same time stressful. I’ve never planned a wedding and I don’t know how much I’ll really want to share about it when the time comes but it could be fun to make wedding content.

All I know from other people getting married is that it’s stressful and there’s a lot to organise, but at the end it’s a beautiful day filled with love and friends and family.

So yes, that’s where we are now.. I’m a fiancee and am excited to enter the next chapter of my life with my partner. Like I said, not sure if I will start sharing information on wedding planning or what not so I guess you’ll have to wait and see. Until then, it’s back to the regular content about books and TV lol.

I’m Obsessed with Mastermind

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I was writing a tweet about this and realised I wanted to talk more about it and then remembered I have a blog lol. So here we are.

I just wanted to make a quick post to say that I’ve been playing the Mastermind game for the Eras tour. Mastermind is a game created by Swift Alert that allows you to enter what you predict will be Taylor Swift’s outfits for her performance of the Eras Tour for that night.

I remember seeing people post online random screenshots from the game on Twitter when I was looking up things to do with my Eras tour dates and was wondering what this was. And so I finally did some digging and now I’m playing the game lol.

Before attending the show myself, I didn’t follow anything related to the tour. This was to avoid spoilers and also I just wasn’t interested.

However, after attending the show and getting post-concert depression I found myself online any time Taylor was performing to see what was going on. I mean fundamentally, I know the show is the same every night, minus surprise songs and the outfits but I still wanted to know. Plus, ever since Travis made a debut on stage you never know what is going to happen.

And that’s why I started playing this game. I thought it was a bit of fun and also it makes me feel really smart or something when I guess the outfits correctly.

I don’t have any strategy for it. Like I don’t analyse any stats of how often she wears something or anything like that. And when it comes to guessing surprise songs, I randomise every time because I do not have the brain power to start working out that shit lol.

But for most other outfits I make an educated guess and it works out for me.

I mostly feel proud when I guess the Lover opening outfit because it means I’m starting off well. Though after that it immediately goes downhill lol. I don’t think I’ve ever correctly guessed the Red t shirt and I never know about the Speak Now dress.

I got the Fearless outfit a few times right and thought I’d figured out a rough pattern for that, but that soon went out the window.

For Reputation, I always get my two points on the jumpsuit. I hope every time I’m wrong but so far it’s never lead me astray. I think maybe she might announce Reputation in London but couldn’t say for sure. Who even knows at this point?

The 1989 combinations, again usually randomised. Don’t know what is happening with them ever lol. Except for the few shows where she was wearing the matching combos. I have a theory she will save all green for Reputation TV but could be clowning.

I have been surprisingly good at getting the Folkmore dress which I think is cool and the same with the surprise song dress I feel like I get that a good amount.

I thought I was doing well with the Midnights outfits for a while but I think I’ve lost my touch on it lol. It was fine when Taylor was wearing the chevron for ages but I don’t know the pattern of when she switches that up anymore. Also the t shirt is hit or miss and the Karma jacket too. Though I get the Karma jacket more than the t shirt.

My average score is usually around 50 and I accept that I’ll probably never win but it’s just a bit of fun to do from time to time. Ngl I do get sad when I find out we have to wait another few days for the next quiz. And I’m not really sure what I’ll do with myself when the tour ends but I’m having fun.

Anyway, that’s all I came to say. I’ve been playing this game and there’s no one to talk about it with irl so I’m blogging about it lol. Let me know if you play and if you have a strategy besties x