For You And Only You by Caroline Kepnes Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ 1 Comment

It is time to dive in to the 4th book in the Joe Goldberg series. This is the first time that the TV show season has aired before the book has come out and I definitely watched season 4 of You before reading this so naturally I had to wonder how different or similar they were going to be.

So far the TV show has been following the books kind of close. All the same players are there, things are just different. I’d say book one and two and seasons one and two are very similar, season three we veer off a little but it’s fine, both are still good and entertaining. Season four of You and this book, are different in almost every way. The characters are completely different and Joe is in a whole other country for the TV show lol.

That’s not to say I wasn’t guessing what was going to happen in this book because I was. I thought maybe the TV show was reflecting what would happen in the book, just that the book wasn’t published yet. Wrong. But that’s what made me want to keep reading, it would have been boring if the same twists from the TV show had been here.

So in this book, Joe is starting off in a writing fellowship at Harvard. Quite a leap from where we last left him, I barely remembered where we left him but we left him heading out to Florida where he started a new life and opened the dream bookstore that Mary Kay had always wanted.

Turns out the pandemic hit Joe’s world too and during that time he wrote a book and he decided to pursue getting it published and the only way to do that is to suck up to another writer which brings Joe to Harvard. He is currently kissing the ass of Glenn Shoddy who wrote Scabies for Breakfast. Lovely title.

But on the first day of the fellowship Joe finds love, naturally. This time in the form of Wonder Parish. Ugh. I hate her name, Wonder like I think I hate it more than Love Quinn if only because I shudder every time I have to read Joe say “Won”. Like it’s not for me. But anyway, Joe thinks this will be his most epic love yet because Wonder is a writer just like him and their going to be this writer power couple and it’ll be great.

The first hurdle that comes Joe’s way is that Wonder has a bestie called Bobby and you know what happens to a potential male love interest in this series lol. They get the axe. Except, Joe’s not on his murder shit anymore, he’s done with that, but not in an obvious way like in the last book where he was actively thinking he was reformed. He’s just not always immediately thinking “this douche has to die”.

He does however think it would be convenient of Bobby took a little trip and fall down the stairs, after all accidents happen. So you know, things go according to Joe’s plan until he finds out that Bobby is actually gay and that he’s made a horrible mistake lol. Did not see that one coming for him to be honest, but he manages to call the authorities in time and all is well. Bobby is saved, he doesn’t even suspect Joe of his attempted murder and all is well.

Except, it’s not going that well. Joe has been spending a lot of time sucking up to Glenn. He even takes up cycling so he can bond more with his mentor. Though he grows tired of this quickly, especially when he discovers that Glenn didn’t even write that book he’s so proud of. Yikes.

Turns out that Glenn has been the front man for a book that his wife, Sly, wrote. She tells Joe this in a ‘cone of silence’ and Joe is dying to tell Wonder but he doesn’t, he keeps it to himself. He realises the person he really needs to impress is Sly but Sly is all about Wonder, which is good because that means Wonder will get published but bad because Joe has to prove himself to her now.

Honestly when Sly revealed that she was the mastermind behind Scabies I was hoping this was when Joe realises he should be with Sly. I was waiting for this to go the way of the TV show where Joe and Kate get together and become a rich power couple. But nope. Didn’t happen.

Instead, what ends up happening is Glenn tearing Wonder apart during her workshop which sends Wonder off a ledge where she wants to quit writing. This is bad for Joe since it ruins his picture perfect life he’d planned out with Wonder. Joe knows deep down that Wonder is a writer and she needs support if she’s ever going to finish her book and the only way for that to happen is if they get another mentor.

So Joe decides it’s time for Glenn to go…go off a cliff lol. This is where all his cycling with Glenn comes in handy, he lures Glenn onto a trail with the premise of beating Joe’s personal best and all he needed was a bit of fishing wire in the right place to make Glenn go bye bye. Not even sad about it to be honest, he was annoying. Though I don’t think I’ve ever really been sad over anyone that Joe’s killed.

So with Glenn gone, Sly is up to bat. She becomes the new leader of the fellowship which is great news for Wonder because she is back in the game and with all the praise she is getting from Sly and her fellows she is more enthused about writing than ever.

Joe on the other hand is struggling, he made contact with Glenn’s agent at the funeral and he sent Sly a copy of his book. But Sly has been keeping quiet about his book, not mentioning anything to him until he reaches out, and when he does she showers him with praise to give him a little ego boost. How nice!

On top of this Joe is battling with another one of the fellows in class because she has figured him out. There was a murder podcast that popped up about the death of one of Joe’s victims in Madre Linda and everyone in class was talking about it. Sarah Beth, the fellow who is known for writing murder mysteries, is on the case and suspects that Joe is the killer. Oof. Not good.

So Joe tries to break into Sarah Beth’s “dead shed”, a place she goes to write, to try to find what she has on him and in doing so he triggers a knockout gas and gets tied up by Sarah Beth. And even worse, she’s gotten him to confess to everything. The deaths in Madre Linda, his murders in LA, all the way back to Beck. He just spills his guts, and this has me shook because I didn’t think he would ever confess to anything. But he hopes this is enough to let Sarah Beth let him go and she does. But she now has tapes of him confessing to a hell of a lot of murders…

Luckily for Joe, it seems like all Sarah Beth wants is a good novel so she is using Joe’s tapes as inspo. She also hints at him to kill her ex boyfriend? Which is crazy but thankfully Joe doesn’t do it because he stands by the fact he’s not actually a murderer. Especially not a hit man for hire. Though Sarah Beth hits him back with a “JK I didn’t think you actually would kill him”. But it’s not like she’d be mad if he did.

Anyway yeah that was a weird stint because I thought it was going to go somewhere but it doesn’t really. At first I was wondering if this was like Joe in the TV show hallucinating that someone had found out his secret but then he had too many public interactions with Sarah Beth to know, plus with her husband so I don’t think he could have made it up. But maybe he did? Either way it’s not like he’s blacking out and not remembering murdering people. There’s been surprisingly few murders in this one lol.

So while Joe has been appeasing Sarah Beth, he has been at risk of losing Wonder, and he basically does when he accuses her of plagiarizing his book. He sent his book to Wonder in the hopes she would read it but she claimed she was “too busy” with her book to even start his but when Joe reads her pages for class he sees she’s stolen one of his metaphors. Wonder claims she didn’t and that she was inspired by an old book that she read to her niece but Joe isn’t buying it. This causes Wonder to fly off the handle at him and disappear for a few days.

Naturally, Joe thinks he can handle it but he can’t, he has to know where Wonder went. At first he thinks that maybe Sarah Beth had something to do with it. Joe did try to steal his tapes back from her and he failed and so he wonders if she took Wonder as payback. But no luck, Sarah Beth doesn’t know where she is.

So Joe tries Wonder’s family, he visits all of them to see if he can track her down. And once more, I am wondering if this is like when Joe blacked out and doesn’t remember kidnapping Mary Kay in the TV show. But nope none of that here. Wonder is hiding out in a posh compound that Sly set her up in.

Joe eventually hears back from Glenn’s agent about his book and he’s excited about it only to find out that Sly basically rewrote his manuscript and is trying to sell him as “Joe Erotic” he’s gonna be the next EL James LOL. Naturally Joe is furious and so he breaks into Sly’s house because if she did this to him then he definitely did it to Wonder. Thankfully, Joe has keys to the house from being Glenn’s “bro-tern” and so gains access to Sly’s laptop to see the damage. Why this woman doesn’t have a password on her computer is beyond me but Joe sees that Sly has rewritten Wonder’s book too. He also finds texts between Wonder and Sly where Wonder admits that she stole from his book and that Sly encourages her to get out of town and focus on writing.

This leads Joe to do some serious stalker research – which he’s a pro at by now – and he tracks Wonder down. Instead of being creeped out by this though, Wonder accepts Joe in with open arms. Joe and Wonder have a brief loved up few days living the rich life and writing together. It’s the way Joe always pictured their life and it’s wonderful. Until Sly shows up.

There’s a stand-off between Sly, Joe and Wonder as Wonder wants to fight Sly for what she did with Joe’s book but she has no idea that her work was also butchered because Joe is keeping it a secret. Sly then drops the bombshell on Wonder that she made edits to her book too and Joe knew this whole time. On top of that, Sly also knows that Joe broke into her house because he left his sunglasses there. Oops.

Luckily for Joe, Wonder doesn’t believe he’s the kind of guy to break into someone’s house, but she’s still mad at him for not telling her what Sly did. So things don’t end the best with them.

Cut to Joe basically deciding he has to kill Sly because she’s not doing any favours for him or Wonder. It’s easy for him to kill her off since she’s basically drugged out all the time after Glenn’s death, he just takes her passed out body and drowns her in the hot tub. But not before writing the perfect suicide note.

As Joe is about to make his escape though, he is coming face to face with Wonder and that’s not good, she can’t find Sly’s body just yet. So Joe and Wonder talk and they go through a lot, basically Wonder pointing out Joe’s issues and telling him he’s a shit writer and Joe is furious for her seeing him as he really is and not what he wants her to see. Then Joe getting his digs in at Wonder about how she’s all about her family and too scared to actually live her life. It’s some real shit. Joe even confesses to killing Glenn but Wonder doesn’t believe he would be capable of such a thing lol.

Naturally as all this is going on I am wondering if Joe kills Wonder. I mean it seems like it’s possible, the confrontation is a lot more than Joe would have let someone get away with in the past. But he decides to give Wonder another chance, after they talk he lets Wonder find Sly’s body and he’s holding out hope that if Wonder can appreciate Sly’s suicide note aka Joe’s note that he would forgive her for calling him a shit writer.

Wonder does not appreciate the suicide note and thinks it’s just the thoughts of a crazy grieving woman lol. So that’s the end of that relationship.

Surprisingly though, Joe does not kill Wonder, she lets her go on and her book gets published, though it’s still a heavily edited version of her original vision and Joe is disappointed in her. Though I think he’s still holding out hope that they can be together. Cute. I guess.

He is also still hanging out with Sarah Beth because I guess they’re friends? And you know, she knows he murdered all those people. And so yeah that’s where we end things.

I’m not going to lie, I feel like as the book progressed, more and more things were going over my head. So I was disappointed when Joe didn’t just kill Wonder because you know, that’s what he does. I also am disappointed that nothing from the TV show happened here. I mean I didn’t need it to be exactly the same but in terms of season 4 vs book 4 I would choose season 4.

I also wonder if there will be a book 5 as the TV show is getting a fifth and final season. Not that I have any idea where we go with Joe from here. I guess he goes off and starts fresh somewhere new since that was what he was headed to do when this book ended.

Still, I think I would have preferred if we ended with the last book, to me this story wasn’t 100% needed. I looked back on my review of the last book and I remember that there were a lot of crazy twists there that I didn’t need and was glad to be at the end of it. Though I have to say, I wouldn’t have hated more action in this book, there was a lot of literary talk and that’s great and all but wasn’t for me.

So yeah, overall okay no great. Would have preferred more murder lol. But yeah, guess we buckle up and see what You season 5 will bring, I’m hoping it doesn’t disappoint.

Love Is Blind Season 4 Reunion Thoughts

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Today we are talking about the Love Is Blind season 4 reunion! A few days late but you know it’s fine. I didn’t even watch this season until all the episodes had been released, like literally finished it the day before the reunion filmed so I’ve been behind on this season in general.

To be honest, I don’t think I’ve fully recovered from all the drama in the last season lol. I also feel fatigue from meeting so many new people each season like it’s exhausting always getting to know new people but I guess that’s the blight of reality TV. I just prefer the same cast we keep forever and we already know them, it’s easier.

But anyway yeah, onto this reunion. As always, my wedding predictions are wrong. I didn’t know if Bliss/Zack were going to make it and I also wasn’t sure about Kwame/Chelsea and they both surprised me but we’ll see if they last.

So the reunion was meant to be live but it wasn’t? They blame technical difficulties lol. I don’t know what went down because I wasn’t trying to watch it live, mainly because it was meant to be at 1 a.m. in the UK and I didn’t care enough to stay up. But I guess it worked out for me since they didn’t go live for ages/if at all.

The first thing I want to point out about the reunion and all Love Is Blind reunions is that they never spend enough time on the happily married couples. I’m talking about the ones that seemed to just get along fine the whole time and you know they’re gonna say yes at the altar. E.g. Lauren and Cameron, Alexa and Brennon and this season, Tiffany and Brett.

Yes Tiffany did fall asleep in the pods, but that was nothing, we’ve talked to that to death. Since they didn’t really have any other conflict or issue to overcome – that they aired – they get nothing in the reunion. It’s like ten minutes tops, meanwhile we listened to Kwame and Chelsea go on for half an hour. It’s not a dig at Kwame and Chelsea, it’s more that I wish we could hear more from the happy couples and their lives. It’s not as interesting but they deserve a spotlight especially if they want to prove their experiment really works, they should be selling the shit out of the successful couples.

Also on the note of Kwame and Chelsea, I love that they brought up Micah only to not let her really speak at all on the situation. I don’t like that they ask her a question and then ignore her afterward, like yes, you are speaking about a couple but you also brought up Micah because she was involved there with the potential conflict. I just think we need to hear out all parties. Everyone criticizes Vanessa and Nick for being bad hosts and this is why lol. To be fair, it seems like they have a better handle on things in this one than they did in the past with the whole Shake situation.

It’s good to see that Kwame and Chelsea’s relationship is stronger than what we were shown on TV though because the narrative they were pushing was that it was very strongly one-sided in that Chelsea decided everything and Kwame was sacrificing a lot. I’m sure that was an issue for them but I hope they have resolved it.

It’s also nice that this reunion is a lot calmer and it’s not just everyone shitting on one person because it would’ve been so easy for them to all turn on Irina the way that everyone turned on Cole in the last reunion. And in my opinion, what Irina did was way worse than any of Cole’s actions. She was a classic mean girl and was awful to Zack when she saw him in person and there’s all the tapes to prove it. So it’s good to see everyone being mature about the situation.

That being said Irina kept talking in circles, plus she was half owning up to her mistakes and half dismissing them because of her mental health. Which, yes mental health issues are valid but if you were really having a big crisis about it then leave the show. Though based on recent reports I don’t think it’s as easy as just walking off.

I just know that I could never show my face if the world saw me treat people like she treated Zack it was so unfair to him. And it’s the exact shit that Shake was doing and he got treated worse for it, I guess because he was openly telling people he was done with Deepti but even so, it’s not good. Even if you are in a situation you don’t like you shouldn’t string people along just to have your 15 minutes of fame.

I am glad that Zack and Bliss are doing well though. Don’t love Zack’s beard but that’s a personal thing lol. I feel like they didn’t really touch a lot on their relationship that I recall, I guess because once they did get together it was smooth sailing like Brett and Tiffany we don’t need to ask them questions.

They did not handle talking about Paul and Micah well at all lol. It just felt awkward them seeming to pressure Paul for answers about why he said no at the altar etc. And Paul seems like the kind of guy who is not able to articulate himself well under pressure, I feel for the guy.

Also, I understand what he was trying to say about how you shouldn’t have to ask your partner to be more affectionate but at the same time bro you gotta communicate your love languages. If they are different from Micah’s then let her know she can do more of what you need, you know? Maybe she’s not all touchy feely but you need that then tell her. I’m not putting all the blame on Paul but I just think communication could be better for both parties.

I do wish we got more information about their relationship outside the pods but sounds like there wasn’t really one lol. I also would have liked to hear more from Micah but she didn’t seem up for saying much.

Then we move on to Jackie and Josh and I feel like it was a cop out for them not be there. I mean I understand why they aren’t there because they didn’t want to be put on blast but at the same time it just seems like they hiding. I also feel like Vanessa’s interview did not uncover anything lol. Josh barely said two words. Lame.

It seemed like Marshall wanted to say a lot about what Jackie said but he held back. I feel like he’s probably the smartest on that though it could be because he doesn’t want to paint himself in a bad light. Though at least he was there he could defend himself.

Then to wrap up the reunion, they had video clips they asked the couples to film of their married lives. This translated to some house tours? lol I mean I love a good sneak peak into people’s lives but I expected more. Thankfully Zack and Bliss came through with the goods, the cute photos and things. I gotta say I don’t love Zack’s singing but I didn’t marry him so as long as Bliss loves it, it’s fine.

I have to say, I wasn’t really sold on Zack and Bliss during the show but seeing them at the reunion changed my mind. They are so cute and in love and I am rooting for them.

The last thing I’ll say about the reunion is that Vanessa needs to stop putting pressure on people to have kids. It’s super uncomfortable, even getting Bartise to send in a video with his son and asking about having kids…it’s not a good look. These people got married only a year ago and still barely know each other can we give it time? But also what if they don’t want kids? It just wasn’t the best note to end on.

And all that leaves is the question, are they doing an After the Altar? I feel like they don’t have to since the reunion was live. But at the same time, I prefer seeing them in After the Altar just doing their own things and seeing more of the married couple life. I guess it’s just because I’m hoping for some last minute drama lol.

Oh and they announced a new season of Ultimatum, which I did enjoy the first season of so might check it out again. But all in all, I’d say reunion was fine. Nothing special. I never feel like the reunion episodes give me much. Anyway, glad to put another season of Love Is Blind behind me. Now to find other trash TV to fill the void…

Jasmine’s Hen Party! | Marbella Highlights

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I’ve just come back from Marbella after celebrating my friend Jasmine’s hen do and I thought I’d share some of the highlights of the trip!

Our AirBnb

The back of the house

The pool!

Because there were a lot of us going away on holiday, we decided to opt for an AirBnb, this way we could all be together rather than be separated in hotel rooms. As everyone knows, AirBnb can be hit or miss, we had settled on one before that did not have many reviews. But after a bit of mulling over we changed our minds and went with this villa.

I am so glad we trusted our guts and went with a place that had a few more reviews, because this place was stunning. There was room for everyone, with two to a room, each room had their own bathroom, there was a spacious living area which was great for us to eat at, get ready at and even play games.

I’d highly recommend looking into staying there if you are a large group in Marbella. It is just a 15 minute Uber/bus ride from the main town and a short walk to the marina at Puerto Banus. There is also a pool near the villa which we frequented and we usually had it to ourselves. Not sure if it’s due to being there in the off season or what but it was great.

The perfect place if you want a chill holiday, especially if you are planning nights in. It was also a reasonable price between 8 people for 5 nights so again, would recommend.

Jack’s Smokehouse

We stopped here for lunch on our second day and it was probably one of the better restaurants we went to. Maybe not in terms of food, the food was probably your average kind that you’d get in the area but the vibes there were great.

Us with Suzie

Our waitress, Suzie, was a highlight, she was super friendly and made sure we had everything that we needed. She gave us recommendations for nights out and even took photos with us when we left haha. Honestly, just want to say that if I ever go back to Marbella, I’m intent on finding her and saying hi.

But yeah, aside from that, the music they played was great, the cocktails were amazing and all in all it was a great afternoon. If I had to describe summer vibes those were the ones. The restaurant wasn’t busy, we basically had the upstairs to ourselves, sun was shining, music blaring and good food, drinks and company. What else could you possibly want?

Someone on Google compared this place to a TGI’s and I’d have to agree. So if that’s the kind of thing you’re looking for, definitely stop here.

Arkham Escape Room

The team that escaped lol

I feel like it’s no secret that Jasmine loves an escape room, so obviously one of the things we had to do was book one for her hen party! And I think of all the things that could have gone wrong, the escape room was at the top of the list.

I remember looking up websites for the escape rooms and none of them were good. I’m not saying your website has to be amazing, but if you’ve put in minimal effort it doesn’t look good for your business. Plus, I don’t think a lot of the places had reviews which also made it difficult to find one we wanted to book.

Originally, we were going to go to Prison Island because it was a franchise and at least we knew it would be decent. Though Prison Island is actually in Malaga and not Marbella, so it would’ve been a lot of travel for us. So we decided to go with Arkham escape room because it was close by and to be honest, I think it had the best website/room description.

This escape room was really good, it’s hard to talk about escape rooms without giving anything away but this one was very well designed. The story is Hansel and Gretel themed and the backstory is strong and on top of solving the puzzles to escape the room there is an added challenge.

I will say the room is scary in that there is a live actor that can come in occasionally, this is not something stated on the website and so we were not prepared but I’m putting it here so you are warned. I think I would’ve done better without the possibility of someone coming into the room but I guess that adds to the experience lol.

Sadly because there were a lot of us we did have to do the room in two groups, one group made it out in time and one did not. Sadly mine was the one that got out after time ran out but we still completed it and that’s what counts.

Before going into the room the game master did say people find escape rooms in Spain harder than in other places and I’d have to agree. The ones I’ve done at home weren’t as difficult, though they aren’t super easy either. I really enjoyed the challenge of this one and would definitely recommend it if you are looking for an escape room in Marbella. Plus, we were able to do the room in English which is a big advantage lol otherwise we’d never have made it out.

Joy’s Live Bar

We went to Joy’s twice while we were away. The first night, we didn’t stay long because we had to get up for the escape room the next morning but we enjoyed it there, enough to come back anyway haha. It was their 9th anniversary the first night we were there though the celebrations were kind of tame? I mean you wouldn’t have really known it was an anniversary unless you saw the sign on the door. That or we weren’t there long enough to know. Though we did get our photo taken a lot that night, and we were only there for about an hour.

We went back the next night to stay a lot longer and there were no photographers this night, at least none that I saw. But the vibes were still good, the drinks were a standard price so nothing special but the music was good and the live singers/entertainers were also good.

I do wish there was more space to dance there though, since we were mainly there for dancing, we were kind of cramped into this one space that wasn’t really a dance space, more like a gap between the tables for people to walk through but was large enough to dance in. It’s a small venue which I think is a shame considering the performers all seem larger than life so I think if the space was bigger it would be better.

I also think we were the youngest people there by about 10 years, which isn’t the worst but it was definitely noticeable. On top of that, we definitely had to fend off some creepy men which I guess is to be expected anywhere, but it’s not great. Though the bouncers were on the lookout because I think they did speak to some of them which was nice. I don’t recall this, though the other girls did, so that’s something.

Aside from that though we did have a good time, despite the small dancing space we still made the most of it and were there til around half 3 in the morning. So it was definitely a fun night.

There are plenty of other places the girls and I went while we were away but these four were definitely the big highlights that I wanted to mention. I really enjoyed my time away with the girls and hope we will make this annual girls’ holiday a tradition because it was so much fun last year too.

In the meantime I will be resting up and preparing to go to Paris in May, it’s only for a couple of days but it should still be good! So if you have any recommendations, hit me up. I plan to be living my Emily in Paris life to the fullest while I’m there.

My 2022 Planner Flip Through!

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I am so excited to share this flip-through of my 2022 planner! It took a long time to complete but I am so obsessed with it. Everything is so pretty and I just know I will be looking back at this for years to remember 2022.

Sticker planning is such a random hobby for me but I am so glad I found it because it brings me so much joy, I can’t even explain.

Now that this planner is done, I can finally start my 2023 planner! Yes it’s April but it’s fine, I’ll catch up lol.

Try-On Clothing Haul! | New Look & Shein

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

It’s been a long time since I hauled something that wasn’t stickers. But I splurged on clothes last month so decided to do an old-school clothing haul.

Not going to lie the lighting isn’t amazing in this but I’ve always used natural light so yeah we do what we can. Probably won’t have another clothing haul for a long time so enjoy!

Long Time No See! | Life Update

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

It’s been 3 months since I uploaded a YouTube video so I thought it was time for a little life update. Mainly just talking about my channel and what’s going on there, feels weird to post something with my face in it because it’s been so long but enjoy!

I also filmed this because I was planning to do a haul video but I didn’t want that to be the first thing I uploaded in three months so yeah consider this a bonus lol.

Grey’s Anatomy Season 18 Thoughts

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

It’s been two years but I am back with some Grey’s Anatomy thoughts, I don’t remember anything that’s happened because it’s been two years but I am also not binge-watching 17 seasons to find out lol. Maybe one day I’ll really get back into all of Grey’s Anatomy but it’s not the time. Plus there’s been a lot of TV shows I’ve been loving recently that Grey’s has really taken a backseat but I’m determined to get caught up again so let’s dive in!

I did read my last recap/thoughts post so I get the gist, so we are in COVID times, Meredith had COVID but she’s fine – but also I know from reading online she leaves next season so let’s not get comfortable with seeing her again lol. Maggie gets married, Link and Amelia are over(?), Jo is getting a baby presumably adoption my blog post didn’t say and probably many more things I’m missing but they seem like big things to start with.

  • I thought Teddy and Owen were already married lol it’s been too long honestly who even knows with them
  • Is this new plastics surgeon our answer to Christina Yang after all these years? I miss her
  • Who is Nick??? I’ve never seen him before lol – apparently he was around in season 14…well I watched season 14 in 2019 and I don’t remember him haha
  • I admire Amelia sticking to her guns on the marriage thing but my heart breaks for Link for sure
  • So like were they really hinting at Meredith’s departure this early? She’s goes to do the Parkinson’s research? But then Amelia doesn’t leave so…idk
  • I love the resident Olympics that’s so fun – gives me old days vibes
  • Love seeing Schmitt thrive and everyone helping out ugh so cute
  • So Meredith isn’t leaving just yet. I mean I knew that it’s next season but what makes her finally leave?? Other than Ellen Pompeo wanting a change lol
  • I forgot QUEEN ADDISON is back this season omg I loved her so much. She’s iconic
  • Addison bringing up Derek right now is so rude I was doing so fine on not crying. That lasted THREE episodes
  • So Schmitt is the clear favourite which is fine but like show the others every so often
  • I guess Maggie just isn’t in this season at all?
  • I’m all for Amelia’s flirtation with Kai. It’s cute
  • More Station19 crossover that I don’t need. Cool
  • I knew Nick would be Meredith’s new love interest but eh. I need her to have another Derek epic love it feels like she’s been through a lot of love interests recently which I guess is fine but idk not as interesting
  • I love some togetherness shots of the cast being cute. I tell ya despite the fact they’ve gotten rid of as many people as they’ve brought in, they still always feel like a family. Even if it takes a while to warm up to some of them. I know if they get everyone back for a finale I’ll cry like a baby
  • I knew they’d to the Link and Jo friends to lovers but why is it so damn obvious lol
  • Schmitt got too confident too quickly…and my heart breaks for him
  • We really love a tragedy don’t we…if Owen survives I’ll actually be shocked
  • Owen’s alive but he spilled that tea to Hayes and he can’t take it so he’s leaving?? Bro he is not the one I need to exit the show they better find some reason for him to stay
  • Megan better not jump off the deep end like this show has definitely had more heartache than anything in this season I swear something depressing happens every 5 minutes. I need more good moments. Especially when this is after COVID jeez.
  • I’m not gonna lie I was hoping for Jo and Link to remain platonic because it seems so impossible for us to have those relationships in Grey’s like I just need a Meredith/Alex kind of vibe again but we’ll see there’s probably going to be a lot of breaking up and making up in their future
  • I hate Maggie’s weird dream fantasy about Ellis because of that letter. It’s so dramatic and we all know that everyone in the Grey family has parental issues
  • Winston’s brother is definitely a scam artist
  • I am sad that Hayes left and everyone’s forgotten about it 5 minutes later, but I guess that’s the nature of the show now. Oh a character is leaving? No big deal. I guess he didn’t really serve a purpose other than being Meredith’s love interest for 5 minutes lol.
  • So the hospital is going to shit as the residency program might be cut, a classic Grey Sloan struggle lol. Brings me back to the days when Izzie cut the LVat – we love the chaos
  • Schmitt’s mum better be okay and he better recover this is so much trauma
  • Richard being high is such a cliche storyline lol the doctors have already eaten weed cookies once – I don’t need it again
  • Oh okay so Meredith is leaving, she’s already decided this season and then next season is when she really jumps ship. I see. Plant the seeds now so it doesn’t hurt as much when she’s really gone?
  • Not Meredith just making eye contact with Bokee while she is working on surgery on the hate crime victim and me bursting into tears omg
  • Yeah that hate crime hit hard. Thankfully I’ve never experienced it but I know it’s a real thing for many people of colour
  • Jackson and April are back! For 5 minutes but it’s nice
  • I can’t believe they would show me a Derek flashback when I am VULNERABLE
  • Oh they wanna do a whole montage of all the trauma we have been through the last 18 seasons. Great. Cool. Wasn’t like I wasn’t already crying. Amazing.

So there we have it, I have officially watched 400 episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. Wow. I can’t believe it’s been that many but also I can I mean we are on season 19 now people. I can’t stress enough how glad I am that I binged this series when I was at uni because there’s no other way I would have made it to this point with this show.

I am interested to see how they write Meredith out now though considering she’s just been handed this Chief job. Also they never mentioned Megan again after her son recovered from his surgery so I guess that’s just fine now? And Schmitt just jumps back in as if his mom wasn’t injured? I assume she is fine too?

So we leave this season with some questions, but there’s already a lot of season 19 out so I’m jumping directly into that to see if we get some answers. Though realistically, I doubt it. They seem to pick up and drop things quite quickly on this show, for example COVID doesn’t exist there anymore? I guess in real life people don’t really talk about it anymore but still, I expected to see at least one person in there suffering from long COVID or something.

Anyway yeah, probably be back soon with more Grey’s thoughts, now I’ve been binge-watching it again it shouldn’t take too long to get caught up.

Vicious PLL Book #16 by Sara Shepard Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

This one was a wild ride from start to finish but do we expect anything less for a finale? I’ll tell you it was way more interesting than the TV show final season.

So the girls start off on trial for Alison’s murder, they fell right into Alison’s trap and are paying the consequences but it’s not looking good for them. Always in the wrong place at the wrong time and painting themselves in a bad light.

They decide before the trial starts to go to Nick in prison to see if they can get him to share any information on Alison and where she might go because we all know she’s still alive. Nick doesn’t want to crack at first but Emily pushes him and he mentions something about his grandmother’s old house in Cape May. Bingo. The girls go on the hunt.

Sadly for them, Alison escapes them once again as they show up at the beach house and it’s empty. No traces of Alison but the scent of that God damn vanilla soap that’s mentioned every five minutes. So the girls accept their fate, they’re going to prison because the only sure way they were going to get out was if they found Alison and proved she was alive.

So for their last night of freedom, the girls decide they might as well stay in Cape May and enjoy their time. I mean they’d already broken the terms of their bail by leaving the state so why not? Though the whole time the girls are having fun in the sun, something is niggling away at Emily and she can’t handle it any longer.

Spencer awakes in the night to find Emily missing and a suicide note in the hotel room. Uh oh. She races out to the beach where she can see Emily being swept away by the current. Spencer tries to rescue Emily but the storm is too strong and she is unable to. Which leads us to believe that Emily has drowned.

I don’t believe this for a second because it’s the last book and there is no way that one of the girls ends up dead now. They’ve been through far too much. I had a feeling maybe Alison got to her or something but I couldn’t be quite sure until the end.

So while the girls are grieving the loss of their friend, they also have to prepare to go trial for murder. It’s not a good time for any of them and Aria even decides to flee to Europe. Which is ballsy of her because I didn’t think she would scare off so easily.

Aria’s Europe adventure is short-lived, she travels to Paris and then from there heads out to Amsterdam where she runs into Noel of all people – apparently he had a feeling she would run away and she had mentioned going to Europe before so he thought he would follow her. Some would say romantic but I would say he’s crazy for helping a fugitive lol. But doesn’t matter because they both end up getting caught in the end and being sent back to Rosewood.

Meanwhile, Spencer and Hanna have been facing the trial alone, they had a big fight at Emily’s funeral so aren’t even speaking so it’s been pretty icy in the court room but things are not going in their favour. I mean, it seemed unlikely things would turn out okay for them when there’s so much evidence against them.

Outside of the courtroom, Hanna and Mike have been planning a wedding which is insane to me but Mike proposed to Hanna and said he would wait for her so they were looking to tie the knot before the verdict was decided. It might be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard but I gotta give props to both their families for agreeing to let it happen and for them to see it through in the end. With all the crap Hanna has had to go through over the last few years she deserved to have her fairytale wedding.

As for Spencer, she also considered fleeing the country and she was going to pay off someone to help her get a fake ID to do it but she decides in the end that she couldn’t go through with it. She couldn’t imagine going off the grid and never seeing her friends again, plus she has reconnected with Wren of all people? And she wants to see where that goes. I still think Wren is a creeper but he was Spencer’s doctor after they rescued her from the storm after trying to save Emily and for some reason Wren was still hung up on Spencer and so yeah that’s a thing.

After the high of Hanna’s wedding the girls get pulled into the courtroom as the jury has decided on a verdict and surprise, surprise the girls are found: guilty.

I am not gonna lie, I was a little hopeful for them after their lawyer tried to get the truth out of Nick when he was called onto the stand but I guess that wasn’t enough to convince the jury the girls were innocent. I mean at this point, the media and everyone was calling for the girls to be found guilty it was going to be hard for them to prove their innocence.

So the girls go to prison, but at this point we are only halfway through the book so we have to know there’s more to the story right? Correct.

The girls are only in prison for five minutes because then they are called back to the courtroom as a surprise witness has just made an appearance: Emily. She’s not dead! Though we knew that.

Turns out she faked her death to track down Alison. She went back to the beach house and found an envelope with an address on it so she decided to see it through. And it turns out that she did track down Ali! Turns out her mother had been hiding her this whole time. Which I guess makes sense, Jessica hid CeCe for a while in the TV show and she seems like the kind of person who would do anything for her children. Even if they are psychotic.

So Ali gets sent to prison and the girls are free! Yay! And everyone lives happily ever after. Aria gets back with Noel and is able to sell her paintings and live her best life, Hanna stars in the movie about her life and gets into Parsons, Spencer decides to take a gap year and her book deal is back on and Emily is just trying to find herself and discover who she is without being tied down to her family.

And as always Alison is still planning revenge even from behind bars, she’s manipulated people from a psychiatric facility before and she can do it again. We love that for her.

And so there we have it! 16 books later and we are done! Well not quite, there are a couple of companion books which I’ll probably read too but will not do blog posts on them. I actually started Pretty Little Secrets directly after this one lol. Even though I should have read it forever ago considering the placement of it is right after Mona being A and Alison replacing her but it’s fine.

The point is we made it to the end of this series! And I am so proud of myself lol. 16 books is A LOT and I definitely could have given up at any point but I held on to this rollercoaster journey ’til the end. Will I take on another book series? Probably, there’s always one and it makes it easier to find what to read next if it’s a series but in the meantime I’m going to finish up this side book, and start reading all the other books I bought last year and still have not read lol.

Thanks for joining me on this PLL journey if you did, it’s been a long one. And with it, I think it ends the consistent blogging for a while, which is sad because I liked updating here a lot but I guess I’ll just need more things to write about lol. So yeah be back soon with something, or not. Guess we’ll see.

Perfect Match Finale Thoughts

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I’m back with more Perfect Match thoughts. After binge-watching episodes 5-8 yesterday and spamming my Twitter timeline (sorry followers) I just know I am going to have a lot of thoughts for the final four episodes so I have decided to share them here lol.

Highlights from my binge-watching yesterday were:

  • Francesca embodies Regina George so much it’s not even funny. I actually loved the way she dismissed Damien by calling over Kariselle and then telling Damien to go check up on Dom lol. Like it was so bitchy but also I’m here for it.
  • It throws me off that some of these people are the same age as I am because like I could never see Bartise and be like “oh yeah I wanna date him” but that’s also because I know he is trash from watching LIB and this.
  • Ines has been spiralling recently and I feel like this show has not been good for her. I do wish she had had that chance with Dom but he always seems to immediately lock in when he’s with someone.
  • Also, I had no idea they could bring people back after they had left but I guess it makes sense, there are only so many cast members this show could support.
  • I also don’t know if I vibe with Will outside of the Mole but I like his whole “I have to win this thing no matter what” attitude lol. It’s clear he isn’t here for love but just a fun time and also to win even though I don’t think you win anything other than being called a good couple lol

There are plenty more points I am leaving out but if you’re interested then you can take a browse on my Twitter. My actual profile is a bit of a mess because of the way Twitter displays threads on your actual profile, and I’ve been tweeting here and there on multiple threads recently but it’s all there if you wanna look.

Now we have that out of the way, it’s time for me to dive into these new episodes:

Episode 9:

  • The boys only support the girls being bisexual because they love watching girls makeout like don’t act like it’s a real supportive thing, you know Joey would be madder if Kariselle turned around and said she’s done with him and wanted to be with Francesca
  • Once again Ines is being treated like shit because Damien is hung up on Francesca. I hate that for her. All these men ain’t for her.
  • Chloe and Shayne are cute and I ship it, hopefully, it works out
  • I thought I was going to be all for Francesca this season but honestly, she’s turned into such a villain and also all her asides with Kariselle, ugh it’s tiring. Like it’s classic popular girl not used to getting what she wants and stropping about it and it makes good TV but sing a new song hun
  • Not even surprised that Will would go for Francesca because they both have the same drive to win things
  • Ines choosing herself is the best-case scenario for me. I love her and I want better for her.
  • Diamond was also too good for all the boys and I applaud her for exiting in the way she wanted
  • I am gonna miss Will because we didn’t see a lot of him but he probably wouldn’t have made a good match with anyone
  • Mitch just wasn’t ready to be on the show he couldn’t even commit to Chloe who was his ex lol

Episode 10:

  • Lol can’t even be surprised that Francesca would want an open marriage – also looked it up and not shocked that she and Damien aren’t together. Damien just seems to love to chase after women he can’t keep up with and will chew him up and spit him out…
  • In a weird way, I missed Nick, I didn’t expect to but now he’s on a date with Abbey and I’m like “oh remember Nick”
  • I feel like Shayne was acting the same way with Natalie on Love Is Blind, like he would just get in his head about something and then not listen to what the other person had to say. He’s so not ready to be here if he’s thinking of leaving

Episode 11:

  • Ooh Chaos bringing the singles back. I almost forgot about the Savannah/Francesca beef until she walked in the room. I wonder if there will be any cattiness tonight…
  • Will shooting his shot with everyone we love to see it. Come in and test everyone and their connections, that’s the name of the game
  • Francesca choosing no one is the plot twist I was not expecting but I am glad it happened. I mean she could have strung Damien along just to win but would it really have been worth it?
  • Not gonna lie, I didn’t like Abbey that much she seemed very insecure no matter who she was with.
  • Also not surprised Bartise decided to go for Izzy again.
  • Surprisingly, not as much drama as I thought there would be with bringing people back.

Episode 12:

  • I wasn’t thinking about it until just now but like a lot of these couples are long-distance and I don’t think any of them work in the real world lol. Joey and Kariselle give me hope but even then I don’t know…
  • I don’t see Shayne going to the UK constantly and vice versa for Chloe. But then Chloe did date Mitch for a while and he was in the US so idk…still doesn’t seem likely
  • SHUT UP JOEY NO YOU DIDN’T PROPOSE I’M SHOOK. Bro see now if they aren’t together I’mma be FUMING.

I’m not going to lie by the final episode I really didn’t care who won lol. Since everyone was so coupled up in the last few episodes it was not as interesting for me. I need the drama.

Suffice to say I’ve looked everyone up on Instagram and they don’t tell me anything – oh well Dom and Georgia aren’t together because it looks like Georgia is with Harry from Too Hot to Handle season 1 but we knew Dom was too good for anyone really.

I have mostly been waiting to see if Joey and Kariselle are still together. I have a feeling being back in the real world makes it more difficult because these dating shows put you in a bubble where you’re together all the time and have nothing to do but be together but like life ain’t like that. So yeah I don’t know, we’ll see. I’m rooting for them.

Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever been so hooked on a show like I also really love the Circle so I feel it’s the only other thing I have really been into like this. I also wanna say is this what Love Island is like? Because I’ve never watched it but if it is then maybe that’s what I gotta look into next lol.

Anyway, thanks for joining me on this short journey if you did because I had a lot of fun. Next on the horizon for me is probably dipping back into Grey’s Anatomy since it’s been a long time and even though I have kind of fallen out of love with it I’ve made it through so many seasons that I need to see it through til the end. So look out for my usual thoughts on that soon. Oh and me finally finishing the PLL book series because I am on the final book for that so that’s exciting!

So far 2023 has been a great year for my blog let’s hope I can keep it up the rest of the year haha.

Toxic PLL Book #15 by Sara Shepard Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

This one was a long game and you know what? I admire it. Alison really doing the most.

So in this one, the girls try to go back to their normal lives and it kind of works? Well except for Emily, but I wanna save her for last.

First up, we have Hanna who was approached because they are making another movie about the liars lol. They made one back when Mona was A and it was a bad made for TV movie. This time, it’s a big production and they want Hanna to play the role of Naomi.

Hanna agrees because it’s Hanna and she’s always wanted to be a big star. She becomes fast friends with Hailey is playing her in the movie.

Long story short, Hailey is awful at playing Hanna and is a terrible actress in general and so she quits the movie. This allows Hanna to swoop in and take the part because ya know, who better to play Hanna Marin than Hanna Marin.

Hailey finds out and gets angry at Hanna so leaks this photo of her kissing a costar to the tabloids causing Mike to break up with her. Fun.

It all works out in the end though because Hailey realises that she was being a terrible actress and doesn’t blame Hanna for going after the part. They make up and Hailey even gets Hanna back together with Mike. Yay!

Next we gave Aria who is a best selling artist? Some big art hot shot decides to buy one of her paintings for $100,000 which sounds very suspicious considering she’s never had anyone see her paintings before.

People hear about this and it makes Aria an overnight sensation in the art world with people reaching out for art shows and paintings. Aria even starts a little romance with an art blogger.

This all fizzles out for 5 minutes when someone from the New York Times calls Aria and asked why she posed as this big art guy to buy her own painting and Aria freaks out. She figures out that Alison must be behind this, especially when the painting that sold was of Alison and the name on the bank transfer was Maxine Peptwill which was her alias when she was hanging out with Noel.

I say it only lasts 5 minutes because the next day, everyone is still dying to get their hands on a painting for Aria. It seems the bad press wasn’t all bad.

Oh and she gets back together with Noel lol. Shocker.

As for Spencer, she has started a blog for people to share their bullying experiences. She really connects with some guy called Greg, who she becomes friends with. While at the same time she’s getting horrible emails from a guy called Dominic who is basically calling her a fraud.

Spencer’s blog gets some media attention and she is invited to tape an anti bullying discussion where she talks about her experiences. In this taping she comes into contact with Greg and Dominic. Dominic calls her out in front of everyone and gets escorted off the premises.

Greg ends up hanging around at the end and speaks to Spencer in person. They instantly connect and Spencer ends up telling Greg that the girls are still being tormented by Alison.

Cut to later on and Spencer finds out Greg has actually been an Ali Cat all along. Ali Cats are a group of Alison groupies who believe she is still alive and they all admire her and want to serve her. Which is creepy and I’m wondering how Alison managed to drum up a fansite in her spare time lol.

Anyway, Greg admits to Spencer that he was only getting close to her to find out things about Alison. And of course he vanishes before Spencer can ask any real questions.

But all is kind of okay because she gets a book deal based on her blog lol.

Finally we have Emily and she is having the most tragic time and I feel awful for her like just when things seem to be getting better for her they end in disaster.

Basically, Emily hears from Jordon in prison and goes out to visit her. It seems like Jordon is just as in love with Emily as she is with her so it’s all wonderful. Jordon even says there’s a chance that she could get out of jail early and they could be together.

The hope lasts for about 5 minutes because Jordon ends up dead. Yeah, Alison used her connection of Ali Cats to murder Jordon in prison. What the fuck??

To make things worse for Emily, she was also attacked by Alison at the school swimming pool. She had to attend summer school classes and while she was leaving one day she saw the pool was empty so decided to swim some laps, because she’s alone Alison found her and tried to drown her, demanding Emily to say she still loved her. Emily tries to fight back and say she would never say that again. When Alison seems to let up, Emily gets out of the pool and chase after her but she gets away.

Emily did manage to get a hoodie off of her, though when the girls hand the hoodie into the police, Fuji says they are unable to find any DNA on it. Though the girls did find a receipt in it for a minimart so they go snooping to see if Alison might be hiding out around there.

They come up at a dead end at the minimart, though the cashier did mention something about a blonde buying water. Naturally, she’s revealed too much so Alison says she’s gotta go. She ends up dying lol. Alison really be out here taking everyone down to get revenge on these four girls and it’s wild.

This does not deter Emily though as she decides to look up properties that Nick’s family owns to see if Alison is hiding out in any of them, one of the properties is near the minimart. Coincidence? Emily doesn’t think so, she convinces the girls that they need to stake the place out, so they buy cameras and set them up around the pool house at the back of the property as it seems the most likely place Alison would hide out.

For a while, nothing comes from the cameras, until the night that Spencer finds out that Greg was an Ali Cat. She confesses to him about the cameras and he says she just told him everything he needed to know. At the same time, Emily discovers that one of the cameras has been playing on a loop for ages so naturally the girls head to the pool house.

Now this is where I think they were being dumb. I mean they’ve done dumb things before but this one I just can’t believe even happened – I don’t even think they were this dumb on the TV show lol. But they get to the pool house, they see the that the inside looks different and there’s blood everywhere. They then go upstairs and see a dress which is covered in blood, which then Aria LIFTS and takes with them. But like not even carefully just grabs it and takes it because she thinks Alison’s DNA is on it but also in turn leaving her DNA on it…not smart.

But while the girls are upstairs they hear someone come into the house, sounds like they are cleaning up and they are too scared to go downstairs in case Alison is there. They didn’t really think it through when they were going to ambush her, I mean they came in their fancy dresses from the gala they were meant to be at and didn’t exactly want to call the police after all the drama they caused them before…

So they high tail it out of the place and decide to call the police anonymously. Yeah that’ll be fine, they’ll find the blood and figure Alison had killed someone right? Spencer even gets an alert about a body being found behind the minimart the girls had been at. She figured it was Greg after he revealed to her he knew Alison was alive from before.

Next thing you know, Fuji is showing up at Emily’s to arrest all of the girls. Shocker. They find out that all the blood in the pool house actually belonged to Alison, including a missing tooth. Damn. Plus, the girls’ fingerprints were all over the pool house and they even found their security cameras, Fuji even spies the dress that Aria had kept which she took from the pool house. Yeah. Dumb moves girlies.

Plus on the security cameras they found footage of Emily going off the rails and wrecking the pool house and threatening to kill someone. She was having a bad day and tried to clean it up but it clearly doesn’t look well for anyone. Well except Alison, the police now believe she was alive but the girls killed her. If she wasn’t able to kill them I guess going to jail for her murder is a close second in terms of revenge.

And that is where we leave the Pretty Little Liars in the second to last book, and honestly? I’m living for it. I guess I can see why the girls didn’t think they were making stupid moves when they hoped to come face to face with Alison, at the same time they knew she was dangerous so they should have had a better plan than to just show up and see what the craic was.

I am interested to see how this all ends and I really hope we get more information on Alison and how she survived and orchestrated this whole thing because I love a good villain story. So bring it on! One more book to go!