November 2022 Reading Wrap Up

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I feel like in terms of reading November was a slow one, but I also thought I’d read more than I had lol. Oh well, it’s the end of the year things, in general, are winding down I’m not too mad about not reading much, especially when I have already reached my goal.

Stunning PLL #11

Full thoughts here.

From what I remember about this one, I didn’t like it that much. I also felt like I read it months ago but it was only a few weeks ago. I think the story was just getting a bit too farfetched for me, which is saying a lot considering how wild the TV show ended up being. But still, we soldier on as we only have a handful of books left.

Daisy Jones & The Six

I picked this up after loving the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. This one had a very different vibe from that one but still the same theme of women who have more layers to them than people realise and we love that.

It took me a while to get into the writing style because there was about six people’s thoughts going on at all times but eventually I got into a groove. It was a good story and I really enjoyed it.

I also found out they are turning the the book into a TV show so I’ll be tuning into that when it’s released to see how everything comes to life on the screen. I also feel proud of myself for reading the book of something first before I watch a film/TV show adaptation lol.

Currently Reading: West with Giraffes

I’m not ready to return to PLL just yet so I decided to pick up one of the many Amazon Prime First Reads books I have accumulated over the last two years. I think I’m finally on the 2021 picks lol.

This one will take me a while to read though, mainly because it’s taken me a while to decide if I enjoy the style of writing or not. I feel that if most people aren’t feeling it right away they would bail out within the first few pages but I was really giving this one a go.

But I’ve finally adjusted to the writing and I think it’s an interesting story so I’m going to stick with it, even if it’s going to take me twice as long as normal to read. It’s not that the language is difficult or anything, I just feel like I need my full attention on it compared to other stories.

It might be my last read of the year but that’s okay it just means we have even more to be reading next year as my to-read pile continues to grow lol.

Stunning PLL Book #11 by Sara Shepard Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ 1 Comment

This one was a wild ride. First of all, the girls think that a grown-ass woman is A? Almost like when on the TV show they thought A was Jessica DiLaurentis lol. Why would a middle-aged woman care so much about your secrets? It’s so random. I guess they do provide good reasoning as to why they think she is A but it never quite added up for me.

Anyway yeah, so this one was like extra ridiculous, and I know I usually go into a full-blown account of what happens but with this one I’m going to try to keep it brief. I say try because when I start writing it just kind of gets away from me.

So first of all the secrets and the drama the girls had was very random and not relevant to anything. I mean Emily was the main focus here so everyone else’s drama was just thrown in because they all have to be tortured equally you know?

For example, Aria finds out that Noel’s dad did drag and then A threatens to expose it unless she breaks up with Noel. Like what was that? It is so random and provides nothing aside from it just being funny. I think the most shocking thing was that Noel knew about it and that it was just a normal accepted thing. Which, I mean fine, Noel’s dad do what you want but if he’s not actively hiding it then surely more people in Rosewood would talk? I don’t know just wasn’t my vibe. There had to have been more scandalous secrets for a family as rich as Noel’s to be hiding, but that’s what we went with.

Next, there is Hanna stalking Mike and his new girlfriend, I mean not surprising but A leads Hanna on this wild goose chase acting as if Mike’s girlfriend Colleen has been hiding a huge secret. Again a lacklustre reveal – she did an embarrassing commercial and Hanna was going to share it with everyone. Hanna has a change of heart though, realising that she didn’t want to be a bully and so instead, A shares a video of her stalking Mike and Colleen making her the loser.

Again, nothing surprising, I feel like a lot of Hanna’s stuff is very repetitive. Plus Mike ends up getting back together with Hanna in the end anyway because he thinks it’s cool she loved him enough to stalk him?? It’s very dumb.

As for Spencer, she is trying to impress a club at Princeton by baking pot brownies and bringing them to the club’s potluck. Yeah, this one also was dumb. Basically, Spencer makes fast friends with this girl but then feels uncomfortable seeing her smoking pot, A calls the cops on her and everyone thinks Spencer did it. Then Spencer apologises to the girl and the girl invites her to a potluck and Spencer thinks she means to bring food with drugs in it? Yeah okay.

Naturally, this idea backfires, like seriously backfires as A switches Spencer’s brownies out for some that are much stronger and laced with LSD and something else I don’t remember. This is definitely a step up for A and hella dangerous. Someone definitely could have died but they did not and it was all kind of fine in the end.

Definitely not my fave situation and honestly thought Spencer was smarter than that but yeah that’s where we are with that one.

Finally, there is Emily, and we finally learn what happened to her and her baby. So Emily had promised this woman, Gayle, her baby after Gayle offered her a lot of money but Emily ended up changing her mind because she seemed like a psychopath. Which is fair because who randomly offers someone $50k for their baby?

Emily ends up calling her friends to help her get the baby to the original adoptive parents Emily had chosen before Gayle offered her money and she thought she had gotten away with it, until Gayle shows up again in her life. Gayle has moved into town recently to help fund Tom Marin’s senate campaign. Coincidence? The girls think not and sus out that she’s A because she is getting revenge for Emily changing her mind about the baby.

It’s a stretch, because why would Gayle want to punish the rest of the girls for something Emily did? Seems a bit random. Also they justify it because Gayle is always around, she knows Hanna’s business because she’s on her dad’s campaign and she knows about Spencer’s Princeton activities because she’d been spotted there before. Doesn’t really explain how she knew Aria’s thing but the girls are just adamant she’s A.

Not to mention, Gayle comes face to face with Emily and says she wants what she’s owed, which people assume is the baby. So now everyone thinks Gayle is trying to track down Emily’s baby and steal it from her. Again this whole thing sounds ridiculous as I type it. Like between this book and the last, it’s like some switch in me has flipped and I just find all this so dumb??

I mean at least in the last book, Kelsey was the same age as the girls and you could see her as A because she’d be petty like that. And the drama was still silly between the girls but it wasn’t so over the top it was unbelievable. This time though I feel like things were wild for the sake of it.

PLUS A lures the girls to Gayle’s house at the end of the book saying that they had Emily’s baby and then A ends up killing Gayle at the end like…are you serious? Why? What is the point?

The girls also find out that Gayle was Tabitha’s step mum which is something new but they didn’t know until the end. I mean if they had known before that would have been a stronger case for her being A if she somehow knew about Jamaica. But seems like she didn’t know.

And the final bomb to be dropped is that at Gayle’s funeral, her husband, aka Tabitha’s dad, reveals that he got an autopsy done on his daughter and he knows it was a murder and not an alcohol overdose. So the girls are not out of the woods for this murder just yet.

So that’s everything, still quite a long post but I feel hits the main points. Like I said I feel like this book was way too OTT with the drama that it just made everything seem ridiculous. I suppose this is the downfall when a series runs on too long, the same thing happened with the PLL TV show. Which is sad but since I have made it this far we might as well continue on.

We still need to find out what Aria did in Iceland that was so horrible and Hanna has a summer secret too so I hope we get those revealed soon. I just need them to be a lot less extreme because I don’t know how to take this series seriously anymore. I guess it’s not supposed to be super serious as a teen drama series but still, there has to be some layer of believability.

Maybe I’ll read something else before diving into the next book to cleanse my mind from all the craziness that happened in this book…Or we just power through and get it done as quickly as possible…either way I am finishing this series.

Love Is Blind Season 3 Wedding Predictions

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I feel like it wasn’t that long ago I was writing about Love is Blind season 2 lol. I guess maybe because the season 2 After the Altar episodes weren’t that long ago. But I thought I’d share how I feel about the couples of season 3 and what I think will happen at the weddings. So we already have seen Raven and SK’s but I’m still going to talk about it because it was a shocker. This whole season has been a mess and I have lots of thoughts so might as well share a blog post, even though I have been tweeting up quite a storm recently about the show lol and will no doubt tweet more as the rest of the weddings unfold. But until then, here are my predictions for the rest of the weddings.

Raven and SK

I was not expecting SK to say no and I feel like many people felt the same way. Never did he give an indication that he was going to say no he was so positive about this whole experience and so yeah that was wild and dramatic.

If anything, I thought Raven was going to say no. She was not ever going to live up to the ideals of a Nigerian wife and I know SK said that’s not what he wanted but I’m sure down the line there are some things he would wish for that Raven would not feel comfortable doing. So I think overall this was a good decision.

It’s just wild that even his family didn’t know he was going to say no. Especially after how he talked about how he loved Raven and everything before he was like “I don’t tho”. Savage. I could never go through something like this only for them to say no at the wedding. I bet Raven is glad her family didn’t wanna be involved now.

Bartise and Nancy

I feel horrible for Nancy to be honest. Like you know it’s bad when she’s literally crying to someone else about how your fiancé doesn’t seem to find you attractive.

Then there’s the whole abortion thing. Yikes. I know Bartise thinks they can talk through it together and he was learning from her but I also feel like if in the future, Nancy for whatever reason needed to abort their child he would not be okay with it. I just don’t think that’s a thing you easily change your mind on.

OH, and of course, Bartise bringing up Nancy having the business with her ex every five minutes. I feel he’s insecure but like there’s been no evidence of Nancy sneaking off to meet her ex or doing anything shady. So to me, it’s just him complaining about something just to complain.

I’m actually disappointed Nancy said yes. She has put up with so much crap from Bartise and she hasn’t done anything wrong. I thought she would have given up on him immediately from when he started talking about how he felt about seeing Raven but she didn’t.

As for Bartise, I don’t know what he says. In my head, it would be easy for him to say yes because Nancy is a good person, he would be financially secure with her income and live his best life. Like his friends said before the wedding how he wanted someone to take care of him, which is all well and good but is that a partner or a parent you know?

Ooh I just rewatched the first ever promo after the first lot of episodes dropped and it looks like Nancy’s brothers are pissed so something tells me Bartise could say no. I mean not that the brothers were impressed with Bartise to begin with. So could be messy, now I’m intrigued to see what happens.

Alexa and Brennan

The first couple to get engaged is always framed as the ones meant to last. And I think Alexa and Brennan could be good together. I mean they are a bit awkward at times but I feel like that’s to be expected when you meet and have a relationship without seeing each other haha.

I don’t know if they would be as solid as Lauren and Cameron but realistically no one will be. But I could see them both saying and things being fine. Even with Alexa wanting a prenup lol.

That being said the promo for Wednesday makes me think Brennan might say no though like him crying? But he could just be emotional…I think Alexa says yes though, I don’t know if she has reason to say no.

Cole and Zanab

As soon as I saw Cole I knew he was going to be another Shake type. And he’s living up to that. I mean as soon as he got out of the pods and was talking to the other guys he was already like “I am not physically attracted to her.” Great. I mean it’s valid not to be physically attracted to someone but if it’s not happening just walk away. Like why string someone along for TV it’s harsh.

And then when they started showing Cole and Zanab having good moments I just felt like Cole was trying too hard to compliment Zanab. I mean she may like that and need that to feel secure in the relationship but if Cole was playing it up I can see him getting bored of it quickly.

It also does not look good when Cole is asking Zanab to be nicer to him haha. To be honest their dynamic has been really weird and I don’t like them as a couple.

People on Twitter seem to have mixed feelings about them saying Zay is the one that’s crazy or Cole is a manchild and I think it’s both lol. Like Zanab wants someone who looks like Cole but isn’t Cole since she seems very annoyed when he tries to be his actual self. And for Cole, he wants someone who is a little immature like him to have fun with and not be too serious, oh and looks like Colleen obviously lol.

But yeah I don’t know if Cole will say yes or not. In my head, because of how Zanab talks she’s in it 99% of the way but maybe while walking down the aisle she gets some sense knocked into her and says no. Let’s wait and see…

Colleen and Matt

Oh boy. Well, Matt was giving such a red flag when he threatened to walk out the first time. Like he got so angry over a conversation Colleen had with Cole and I don’t even think it was bad. It was crazy. And then it happened again a few episodes later and I’m like…this is not the kind of person you want to marry.

I think it’s obvious Matt has some issues to work through and was so not ready to go on this show and commit. Like in the latest promo you see him freaking out and being indecisive. I also think he’s the one that says “I do not” in the first promo they showed after the first lot of episodes aired or something. (Though I just rewatched the promos and I could have made up the fact someone says I do not because I didn’t hear it the second time???) But I would be okay if he says no because he’s too on edge all the time to be fully in this relationship.

I don’t know what Colleen would say, to be honest, I mean she’s very on the fence so could go either way. I mean if Matt was the one to say yes would she also say yes? I don’t know. But also if she says no after he’s said yes in my head he would just fly off the handle like he has previously so would make for good TV. So I guess we shall see.

And so those are all my predictions for this season, I honestly feel so much more up in the air with these ones compared to last season. I had clear ideas of who was going to say what but this time I am very unsure. I guess because this time I went on Twitter before writing this and people were swaying me in different directions lol. Either way I am very invested in these weddings and can’t wait to see how it unfolds. See you all at the altar on Wednesday!

October 2022 Reading Wrap Up

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I feel like this month I wasn’t reading very much which is weird because I didn’t feel particularly busy with anything but it is what it is.

The Spanish Love Deception

This one I did like when I started reading but as things went on it really started to drag for me. Plus when the characters finally got together I really started to not care anymore which is not what you want with a romance novel. Don’t get me wrong I love a good enemies to lovers story but this one was not it for me.

I am sad though because I did want to like it but I think it was too long and descriptions started to get repetitive. So I was just glad I made it to the end.

Twisted PLL Book #9

Full thoughts here.

We are back in the PLL world again for the second half of the series. The girls thought they were free from A until Spring Break goes wrong for them and A is back with a vengeance…

I am interested to see where we go in this second half of the saga, mainly because the first half ended so nicely. Hoping that it doesn’t go south like the TV show but so far things seem good.

Ruthless PLL Book #10

Full thoughts here.

I count this as having being read in October since I only read about 20 pages on the 1st November. But this one was okay, I think I wanted more reveals. Like the Kelsey thing was fine and definitely a good red herring but overall lacked something for me. Still I am enjoying being back in this world so looking forward to seeing where we go from here.

And that has been my reading for October. It would have been nice to wrap up PLL at the end of the month but no big deal. I predict the end of the year will involve more PLL books and maybe some other things sprinkled in. Which has basically been the theme of reading this whole year haha but I’m proud of myself for making it through this series it’s been a long time coming.

One thing I can say for sure is I probably won’t be reading any seasonal reads because I never time those things well but never say never.

Ruthless PLL Book #10 by Sara Shepard Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ 1 Comment

We are back again with our Pretty Little Liars. And we have quite a few things to unpack so let’s get down to business shall we?

First off, Aria. Her drama didn’t really add anything to the main story so we can talk about it briefly. Basically, Ezra comes back. Yeah I know. I thought we were done with him but no, Aria sends him an email saying she misses him and next thing you know, he’s back in Rosewood.

He is still his old creepy self and it turns out while he and aria were apart he has written a book about her! And instead of Aria finding this really inappropriate and weird she loves it and thinks it’s romantic. Ugh. I admit it’s only marginally less creepy than in the TV show because at least he didn’t know Aria was a minor when they met and wasn’t obsessed with her because of Alison. But even then…a teacher writing a love story about his student is crossing so many lines.

It’s kind of brushed off as no big deal though because when Aria says she has some criticisms about it, Ezra turns into a whiny defensive baby and won’t listen to her. So there’s that.

Plus when Ezra suggests the idea of Aria introducing him to everyone as her boyfriend he doesn’t see any problem with it. Like yeah okay he’s not her teacher anymore but everyone in Rosewood knows he used to be. He doesn’t see anything wrong with the situation yet Aria sees some sense to it and doesn’t think it’s a good idea.

Again Ezra gets pissy about this with Aria and so they break up lol. Good riddance. Not to mention Ezra ends up making out with Klaudia, the Finnish exchange student who Aria accidentally pushed off a ski lift lol. Looks like Ezra will always be a creeper hitting on minors. Well it’s stated Aria is eighteen in this book but even then that doesn’t really make it okay.

And at the end of all that Aria and Noel get back together. So really Aria’s storyline amounted to nothing. Boring.

Hanna’s story is also in the love department as she starts a romance with the son of her dad’s political enemy. It’s supposed to be romantic and all star crossed lovers until Hanna sees a news article about him being a serial dater. Yawn. To get back at him she decides to tell her dad the drama she found out from the guy she was seeing. Oops. That’ll teach him not to mess with Hanna.

Didn’t get to see the fallout of what her dad will do with the information but I imagine it’s coming. So I guess we sit tight and see. Kate doesn’t even use this information against Hanna because apparently she’s been cheated on before too so I guess that’s nice?

Then there is Spencer and Emily. They are tied together this time around because of one girl. Kelsey.

In this book we find out that Spencer had spent the summer on some pills trying to ace her AP classes to get into Princeton. Her and her friend Kelsey got hooked on them and while all of Spencer’s other friends thought it was a bad idea, she didn’t listen.

Unluckily for Spencer, the girls get caught by the police with the pills and so Spencer decides to save her ass by getting Hanna to plant the drugs in Kelsey’s room and pin the whole thing on her. Harsh.

Spencer thought she was free from that whole situation and that she was getting into Princeton early admission. Only she gets a letter to say that there was a mix up and they accidentally accepted two people with her name and now she needs to work extra hard to secure her place.

This sends Spencer into a whole guilt trip frenzy as she channels her guilt of what she did to Kelsey into her performance of Lady McBeth. All for her to find out that A was messing with her. Cool.

Another reason Spencer was spiralling is because Kelsey reappeared in her life after leaving juvie. She is back at school and working on some orchestra thing with Amelia, Spencer’s step sister to be, so Spencer is constantly on edge. She also believes that Kelsey is A, especially after stealing her phone and finding out that she was in Jamaica that spring break. So she thinks Kelsey saw what happened, figured out Spencer is why she went to juvie and is out for revenge.

It’s a bit far fetched considering the other girls weren’t really involved in the drug bust, well Hanna was but how was Kelsey meant to know? But at the same time it makes more sense than other A theories that floated about on the TV show.

Spencer tells the girls her theory and shows them a picture of Kelsey to be on the lookout and this is when Emily discovers she knows her.

Emily ended up going to a party and meeting Kelsey. The two hit it off right away and were having a good time and it looked like Kelsey could have been Emily’s new love interest. It turns out Emily has a thing for bold women who are a little daring and a little dangerous. Who knew?

But then Spencer and Emily fight about Emily spending time with Kelsey and then Emily ends up telling Kelsey that Spencer is the one that turned her in for the drugs and sent her to juvie. Uh oh.

Spencer then gets a text from A which contains a photo of Tabitha on the beach in Jamaica the night that Aria pushed her and she thinks Kelsey is the one that sent it. Especially when she runs into Kelsey and she asks Spencer if she got her text, this leads to Spencer attacking Kelsey making her look like a psycho.

This then sends Kelsey off the rails and she drives Emily out to the quarry – the same one where Mona tried to kill Spencer – and it looks like Kelsey is trying to kill Emily in the same way…until it is revealed that Kelsey is trying to kill herself?

So the girls theory about her being A is wrong. Naturally I didn’t think Kelsey was A but the girls did have every right to believe that she was. Turns out that Kelsey ended up relapsing on drugs after finding out Emily was friends with Spencer and was mad at her for keeping a secret. Things spiralled out of control for her when she found out that Spencer sent her away to juvie. But the girls ended up saving Kelsey’s life and she wrote them apology letters for what happened.

Kelsey ends up being put into the Preserve, the same institution where Courtney/Alison once stayed and that Hanna also had a stint in. They also discover that Tabitha went there too…so many coincidences. And of course A is still around so it’s not going to be that easy to get rid of her.

And that is where we end things. Naturally it got a bit dramatic at the end but I think it was lacking something for me, I guess I just wasn’t convinced that Kelsey would suddenly be so sucidial? It seemed out of left field for me but yeah.

Oh! And also they keep mentioning Aria doing something unspeakable in Iceland and I hope we find out that soon. I also feel like there’s more to the Emily pregnancy story that we are missing. She can’t just give up a baby at sixteen and go back to life like nothing happened, especially not with A around…so yeah lots of mysteries still be to revealed. Fingers crossed they are good reveals because I’ve been enjoying them so far.

Day to Day Life | Plan With Me | 11 – 17th July 2022 | Planning Time by ScribblePrintsCo

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I am trying to make time to film Plan With Me videos, even though it puts me even further behind in my planning lol. That being said I still plan to have this planner completed on time so I guess I’ll just need to go into over drive planning in the next couple months to get caught up. Also R.I.P to my bank account as I try to get all the stickers needed to cover the November/December period because I don’t think I have that sorted yet haha.

Still, I do not regret this hobby this year it’s been super fun and I love how pretty it turned out. Plus this year I have actually had a lot of activities to document and this is a fun way to do it.

Twisted PLL Book #9 by Sara Shepard Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ 1 Comment

After two months we are back with some more Pretty Little Liars! And the tea is GOOD so let’s dive in.

The story starts off with our four favourite girls, Spencer, Aria, Emily and Hanna on spring break vacation in Jamaica they are having the best time until a blonde girl at the resort catches their eye. Each girl has an interaction with this blonde who goes by Tabitha and they can’t help but feel there is something familiar about her…she reminds them of Alison – not their Alison, the one they were friends with and died, but Alison the twin who tried to kill them in a fire months before…yikes.

Fast forward to a year later and the girls have drifted apart after their holiday, it is clear something happened between them and this Tabitha girl but we don’t know what yet. And even if A has disappeared from their lives the girls aren’t exactly having a good time they all are facing their own issues as always because being a teenager is hard.

Though to be honest, the person that was probably having the worst time of it is Emily so we can talk about her first. Naturally, she seems to be the one we feel the most sorry for after the whole Alison thing because Emily was in love with her.

But not only that but the biggest bomb about Emily was dropped so casually in this book like while the girls are in Jamaica, Emily is assumed to have some sort of food poisoning or something as she is always throwing up. And it is also mentioned that she quit swimming again for a while which seems unlike her. I mean she was going to quit for five minutes when she started dating Maya but that didn’t go anywhere. Turns out the reason she was being sick is because she had morning sickness and that she actually ended up getting PREGNANT when she slept with Isaac that one time so she had a baby!! LIKE WHAT?! I was not expecting that, honestly, I was so shocked. Naturally, it’s a big secret – one that Emily wouldn’t want people to find out not even her parents know, she spent the summer with her sister so she is the only one that knew. Well, until Emily told her new best friend Chloe.

Chloe is a new girl in town and she moved into the Cavanaugh house. Spooky. As we know both of the Cavanaugh children died which is wild like first Toby committing suicide and then Alison killing Jenna…no wonder the parents wanted to get out of town. Anyway, Chloe and Emily hit it off really well and become friends. Chloe confides to Emily that she had a bit of a drinking problem before which is her big secret but not exactly on the same scale as Emily’s.

The two don’t really stay friends for long though, because it turns out Chloe’s dad is a proper predator. Like this just seems to be a bit of a theme in Rosewood and should we even be surprised? But basically, Chloe’s dad says he can help Emily get a swimming scholarship and he does, but he also makes a move on Emily and it is so gross. So Chloe sees Emily and her dad in a comprising position and as always blames the victim aka Emily. Which puts the girls on the rocks. Emily begs Chloe to keep her baby secret and she agrees but only if Emily keeps the secret about her dad being a creep…and that’s where we leave them. Not sure what comes of any of this but I imagine it’ll blow up soon enough.

Especially because A comes back to threaten the girls after Jamaica. We all know with A around secrets don’t stay buried for long…

But let’s move on to Spencer. Her mom is dating someone new, Mr Pennythistle. We hate him from the get-go naturally. He has two children, one is Amelia who is the younger sister and a brown-noser and annoying and the other is Zach who is a year or two older than Spencer. Spencer and Zach end up hitting it off right away and we see some weird flirtation happening between the two basically step-siblings…gross.

We find out after Spencer tries to kiss Zach that he is actually gay. Or so he says, I think he’s still trying to figure it out. But the night that Veronica and Mr Pennythistle announce their engagement, Spencer and Zach get drunk and pass out in Zach’s hotel room together. Mr Pennythistle finds them the next morning and freaks out about the situation since now they really are going to be step-siblings. Spencer thinks the best way to solve the solution is to out Zach to his father but instead of Mr Pennythistle being relieved he is actually just angrier and naturally, Zach isn’t too happy either.

Where we leave this mess is that Mr Pennythistle is sending his son to military school because he’s a clear homophobe and Spencer feels terrible. I am not sure if Veronica is still going to go through with the engagement but she probably will. She tells Spencer that it’s not their place but if they’re all about to become a family it kind of is their place…so yeah we see what happens with that.

Next, we have Hanna whose Dad is running for state senate or something? Seems a bit random, not that I really remember what he did before that. Anyway, the family films an advert for the campaign and it turns out audiences really responded to Hanna as they find her more relatable than Kate who seems too perfect. This is great news for Hanna but it’s not all great.

At the taping of the advert, Hanna meets this photographer guy who says she would make a good model, so she decides to meet up with him and get some photos taken. Totally innocent right? Well Mike – her boyfriend, because who can forget she’s dating Mike Montgomery? – thinks it’s a bad idea and they break up. Which is sad, But Hanna thinks she’s justified when the photoshoot with the photographer goes well.

Until she ends up back at the guy’s studio and she’s goofing around and her dress slips down and the guy gets some sleazy shots of her with her bra out. This leads him to blackmail Hanna with the photos because the last thing she needs is this getting out and ruining her dad’s campaign.

Hanna decides to pay the guy off using money from her dad’s campaign and she ends up blaming someone who works on the campaign for the missing money. She thinks she’s gotten away with it and all is well, but no this is A country we live in. And she is more than ready to expose Hanna as the thief and liar she is. Super fun.

And that brings us to Aria. Oh, Aria ended up in one of the worst positions right up there with Emily. At first, it seems petty, Noel’s family is hosting a foreign exchange student for a while and it turns out to be a European Goddess named Klaudia. This doesn’t make Aria feel good about her relationship with Noel, especially when she hasn’t slept with him yet and now he is going to be sharing a house with this blonde Finnish bombshell…not fun.

At first, Aria ends up bonding with Klaudia, she thinks they are friends and Klaudia is just misunderstood. Until she finds out that Klaudia has been texting about her and Noel to her friends back home. Turns out Aria’s suspicions were right and Klaudia thinks Noel is too good for Aria and she’s trying to steal her boyfriend. Poor girl.

This ends up with the girls fighting when the Kahn boys invite Aria and Klaudia to go skiing with them and Klaudia explains to Aria clear as day that she is going to sleep with Noel. The girls end up squabbling while on a ski lift and Aria ends up accidentally shoving Klaudia off of the lift. Yikes.

Klaudia ends up okay, well as okay as someone can be when they fall off a ski lift. Thankfully she was near the top so she only broke her leg but everything else about her is perfectly fine. Including her memory of what happened on the ski lift. So things are not looking good for Aria and Noel at least while Klaudia is around.

It is pretty harsh of Aria to push Klaudia off the ski lift but at the same time she was defending herself because Klaudia had pushed her first…still doesn’t look good to your boyfriend to find out this happened especially when Noel already thought Aria was jealous of Klaudia…so we see what happens with that. Though honestly not that interested in that drama.

Because Aria doesn’t even have time to process what goes on with Klaudia before she’s getting a text from Spencer telling her to come over quickly because the girls are finally going to have to face up to what happened in Jamaica.

Turns out that after the girls encountered Tabitha in Jamaica she had invited them out to a crow’s nest lookout point at the resort. The girls decide to go and see what she wants and it seems to them that Tabitha really is Alison in disguise and she has brought them to the top of this resort to finish what she started when she started that fire and kill them once and for all.

Before this happens, Aria ends up pushing Tabitha over the edge first and the girls scramble to the beach to find the body but there was none…until now. A year later, there is a breaking news story about a body being found in the water in Jamaica. The body belonged to a girl who really was called Tabitha and she was apparently from New Jersey. The police are ruling her death as an accident but it doesn’t make the girls feel any better about the situation.

Now they know they didn’t kill Alison and that it was just some innocent girl…yikes. And naturally, A is there to remind the girls that she’s just getting started.

So yeah, a lot to unpack in this one. Mainly, who was this Tabitha girl? Was it Alison? Or was it someone Alison paid to antagonize the girls for her? It’s clear to me Alison didn’t die in the fire like everyone suggested but where is she now? And is she A? I mean I wouldn’t put it past Alison to hire some girl to pretend to be her in front of her old friends and not even bat an eye that she ended up dead. After all, she killed her own twin, Ian and Jenna so I mean it’s plausible.

Regardless of what the truth is, I’m kind of glad to be back in the PLL world I missed it. I mean thought the series was wrapped up pretty nicely before so I wasn’t sure what was coming next for the girls but I am really enjoying it. I thought it might feel a bit tired or unnecessary but the new mystery has me intrigued. We will see where it ends up this time but it’s safe to say I am fully invested in finding out.

My First Comic Con!

~ Courtney Shek ~ 1 Comment

So this is a month late because I completely forgot it was something that I wanted to write about lol. But in September I went to my first ever Comic Con!

Comic Con Northern Ireland announced a lot of Vampire Diaries cast members and I knew I couldn’t pass up my opportunity to meet them. I am a firm believer in spending money on doing something one time if you can because when are you ever gonna get the chance to do it again? Which is why I went all the way to New York City with my friend for a KPop concert and why I was going to spend a lot of money to spend ten seconds in the presence of someone who was on a TV show I liked when I was 16.

Sadly for me and probably most of the Vampire Diaries fans in Northern Ireland, the main men Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley cancelled a month or two before the event. But that’s okay because there were still a lot of the cast that were going to be there, along with a lot of other celebrities.

So on Saturday 17th September I made the trek out to the Eikon Centre for Comic Con. And I say trek because I do not live close to there and also if you weren’t driving or having someone give you a ride there it was difficult to get there. Thankfully they announced shuttle buses for next year but I don’t know how I would have travelled if someone hadn’t offered to drive me there and had someone to leave me in Belfast when the event was over.

The first thing I thought when I got there was – “wow this place is huge”. I’d never been to the Eikon Centre before so I had no idea what it looked like or what to expect. It’s basically a massive empty space for events which makes sense haha. But when I went into the building it was filled with people and things to see.

For example, movie and TV show props which you could take your photo at which is fun, as well as lots of retro video game consoles to play old games on. It feels weird to say retro video game consoles though because they did have Wiis and PlayStations there but at the same time Sega Mega Drives so there really was a mix. In the first main hall there was even live wrestling taking place so it really was a sight to behold.

I think I was overwhelmed to be honest, and that was before I went into the secondary hall which held all the vendors and the signing tables for the guests who were going to be there. Plus, all of the people in cosplay and out.

I had originally planned to do Comic Con solo because another thing I have started to do is start doing things on my own. I have been the person who won’t do things because I would rather have someone to do them with, which is fine but at the same time can mean you miss out on some cool stuff you’ve always wanted to do. So I now just buy tickets to things that I want to go to and if other people want to go great but if not then I know I can do it on my own and it’s fine. That being said, that doesn’t apply to travelling outside the country yet but I’m sure I’ll get there in time lol.

Anyway, I was going to do Comic Con alone but I found out that someone from my pole class was also going for the Vampire Diaries cast so I decided to meet up with them and I’m glad I had people to hang out with. One, so I had someone to take my picture at things lol but also to have someone to fangirl with. I mean, I’m sure it would not have been hard to make friends at this event if I wanted, if there was ever a place to make friends with similar interests to you, it has to be at Comic Con. But it was still nice to share the experience with people you know.

I had only one meet and greet scheduled for Comic Con, originally I was going to have a few but with cancellations and everything it boiled down to one with Daniel Gillies. I decided to only go for him because he was one of the only main people who didn’t cancel lol. But also Elijah is my favourite Original vampire from Vampire Diaries so I mean of course I wanted a photo with him.

The least fun part about Comic Con and anything in life I feel is the queuing. No one likes standing around in line all day and that’s another reason why I was okay with doing Comic Con alone – didn’t really wanna ask other people to stand around with me all day haha. But thankfully the photo queues did move quite fast. I guess that’s only good while you’re waiting in line though because the reason the queues go so fast is because they are funneling people in and out so fast.

Literally, the only words that Daniel actually said to me were “do you wanna do a back to back photo” and naturally I felt pressured so I just said yes. I mean I could have said no and we probably would have had a normal photo but my natural instinct was to say yes so that’s what we got. When I was waiting for the photo to be printed, I was concerned it was going to turn out terribly because I feel like back to back poses are just naturally cringey. But when I got the photo I actually really liked how it turned out, so that’s a plus.

Am I said I didn’t get to talk more with Daniel? No. Because I’ve done plenty of meet and greets in my life to know that’s just how it goes. Plus, I never have anything to say to people I meet anyway, like to me I just want the photo and that’s good enough. Maybe it’s superficial but isn’t that what this whole meeting celebrity thing is about at least a little bit?

Besides, if you want to talk more to the celebrities everyone always says go to the signing tables and I believe them. If you wait in line for an autograph you have more time with them, because if they aren’t scheduled to be somewhere or are on break they will probably be at the signing table. So if you want to have your time up close with them spend your money there.

I personally didn’t feel like I needed to get autographs from anyone, as I appreciate a photo more but me and my friend did hang around the tables to get a glimpse of some people up close. Which I feel like is always a fun time at a convention, celeb spotting haha.

And then to end the day my friend and I went to the Vampire Diaries Q&A panel they were hosting, they were doing 3 cast members on the Saturday and 3 on the Sunday but I decided to only go on Saturday because I had done all the things I had wanted to do that day and felt like it would have been a lot of travel the next day for one Q&A panel.

Naturally, the panel was packed out with people, but it was still a nice chance to ask questions and learn more behind the scenes information about your favourite show. If anything though I feel like people always ask the same questions lol. Which is fine, but I would have liked if people had more in depth questions than “should Caroline have ended up with Stefan or Klaus”. I personally couldn’t think of any questions so maybe it’s my fault but yeah maybe next time I will prep some hard hitting questions for them.

Overall though it was a good day. I enjoyed the experience and if you’ve never been to a Comic Con I would recommend it! Obviously it’s better to go when there is something there that will cater towards you specifically but sometimes it’s just nice to go see what all the fuss is about.

And this does not conclude my Comic Con adventures for the year either, I am also planning on attending Liverpool Comic Con in November. It is probably the biggest(?) Comic Con in the UK because they always have a really good lineup. And this year is no exception as they have booked the Salvatore brothers (hopefully they don’t cancel again) and also some of the Twilight cast so I knew I definitely had to be there. Hopefully I can share my experience there a bit sooner than I shared this one haha.

Anyway I look forward to seeing what Northern Ireland Comic Con will bring next year, as they had a lot of success this year, I am wondering who they could bring next year. Hopefully less people I want to meet to give my bank account a bit of a rest but you never know…Guess I should start saving while I can lol.

September 2022 Reading Wrap Up

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

After reading so much in August, this month was a flop lol. I would blame Disney Dreamlight Valley for lack of reading but considering I only read when I’m out of the house that’s not really an excuse. I think it’s just my routines with work and such are different now so there’s less reading happening. But it’s fine, we reached our goal anyway and that’s all that matters.

The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After

This took forever to read and I really was trying to get through it as quickly as possible. I definitely feel like not reading this would have been a better choice but since I bought the physical book I had to do it. These epilogues did not add anything for me to be honest, I could have done without most of them. I guess if you were really invested and wanted to know what happened next this would be for you but wasn’t my fave. I am also glad to officially put this book series behind me now, I feel like it had been dragging a bit towards the end.

Currently Reading: The Spanish Love Deception

Would 100% class this as a summer read and I did pick it up way back in July or something but we are reading it now haha. I have been enjoying it so far, though Aaron is just a little too frustrating and he’s getting on my nerves. But still, something fun to read and I have been looking forward to it every time I actually make the time to read.

So that’s where we are at the minute, I am about halfway through the Spanish Love Deception so I should finish it this month and then I don’t know where we will go from here. I have a few other physical books I could read and then there’s the second half of the PLL series…so got some options. I usually don’t have seasonal reads but I think it would be nice to find some books with Gilmore Girl vibes to read this time of year. So if you have suggestions let me know!