Tag: YouTuber Book

Love Tanya Book Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys, so I’m here with another YouTuber book review. These books seem to be all I’m reading lately but I promise I will have some reviews of non-YouTuber books soon.

So Love Tanya is written by British YouTuber Tanya Burr and as always I am happy to hear when a YouTuber is releasing a book. I feel like it’s a way to connect with them that more personal. Especially if they have written about themselves.
One thing I love the most about these books is that they are all different. While Grace’s and Tanya’s books both give advice they do it in very different ways and I love to see the YouTuber’s personality come out through their writing.
When I was reading Tanya’s book I felt like I was reading a fairy tale. There is something simple about her writing style and the tone she writes in that makes her life sound like a fairy tale. Especially in the chapter where she writes about her relationship with Jim.
That was probably my favourite chapter in the book because you can tell just how much Tanya loves Jim and how important he is in her life. I’m a total sucker for a sappy love story and Tanya and Jim’s is definitely one of my favourites.
Jim and Tanya’s relationship has always been one I have loved. Not only do they look amazing together but they way they work together and support each other is so adorable and I will definitely ship them forever. I wish them the best of luck with their future and their upcoming nuptials.
Anyway…sorry I let my inner fangirl/shipper get in the way there…
I really enjoyed learning more about Tanya’s life before YouTube. I started watching her videos in August last year I felt like I didn’t know her as well as other YouTubers, so this book was the perfect way to get to know her. Plus, who doesn’t love photos of people when they were babies?
This book also contains a lot of Tanya’s style and beauty tips which I appreciated a lot. Sometimes you don’t want to sit through a 20 minute video to find the right makeup brush to use and this book explains it quite well.
I also learnt a lot about skin care through Tanya’s book as she took us through her beauty routine. Sometimes in videos people may not give proper descriptions on how a product works with their skin but in the book Tanya was able to give a better insight into her favourite beauty products.
One section of the book I didn’t actually read was the baking section however I don’t think that is a section of the book you can read in one go. However I did flick through these pages and the photos make everything look amazing so I can’t wait to get around to using these recipes in the future.
Another part of the book that went unused were the sections that Tanya left for us to write in. I know that they are there for us to write in but I feel like it’s wrong to ruin such a beautiful book with my writing. Like I just can’t bring myself to write in it so I have left these pages blank…I don’t know if anyone else is like that or just me but I am sure you understand what I mean…
Another thing I really liked about this book were Tanya’s “top ten..”s at the end of each chapter. Again it was another thing that allowed you to learn a little bit more about her and the things that she has a personal connection with. I know that when you watch YouTube videos you often miss things like that, especially if you don’t watch every single video a person posts so it was nice to learn about the little things like what her favourite places are.
These were also great for learning tips and tricks that Tanya had for different aspects of your life. Some of her advice is quite simple but it is often the type of things people forget so I think it’s nice to be reminded of them every once in a while.
Overall I think this book captures Tanya Burr perfectly as she discusses personal issues such as her anxiety, lighter topics such as beauty and baking and everything in between. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is looking to learn more about beauty, fashion, baking, dating and of course Tanya Burr herself.

Girl Online Book Review!

~ Courtney Shek ~ 1 Comment

It took me a long time to get around to reading it but I finally finished Girl Online!
Girl Online is a fictional book written by British YouTuber Zoella and I have to say I was so excited when I heard she was writing a book! I mean I have been excited for every YouTuber book coming out but I was very excited to learn that Zoe’s was a fictional book. Almost every other YouTuber is writing an autobiography/lifestyle type book so I was interested in seeing how Zoe’s was different from everyone else’s.
And before I get into the review of the actual book I just want to say that the cover of this book is stunning. The cover of the book is actually the whole reason I bought my own physical copy. I was originally going to buy a kindle version of the book because it was cheaper at the time but once I saw the cover I changed my mind and when I went to change my preorder the physical copy had went down in price so it was close to the kindle version’s price so I was very happy about that.

So I know that a lot of people were upset to learn that Zoe’s book had a ghost writer…and I just want to address my thoughts on that. I don’t really have a problem with the fact that she had one. I mean if she had help to make her novel she had help, there’s no shame in admitting that. Plus I think it’s a bit much to have high expectations for someone who has little writing experience to be a best-selling author right off the bat. Besides she’s not the first person to have a ghost writer…
However I do understand why people would get upset about the fact she didn’t write it on her own. I have to admit I was a little upset about this but only because other YouTubers that are writing books have done it on their own. The difference being that their genre of book is different from Zoe’s. Other YouTubers are writing about themselves which is easy to do but Zoe is writing fiction so it’s understandable why she would turn for help.
At least that’s just what I think about the whole thing. While I wish she hadn’t used a ghost writer there’s nothing I can do about it. I mean I know if I was in her position I’d probably do the same thing. So yeah…moving on to the actual story…

Penny has a secret.
Under the alias Girl Online, Penny blogs her hidden feelings about friendship, boys, high school drama, her crazy family, and the panic attacks that have begun to take over her life. When things go from bad to worse, her family whisks her away to New York, where she meets Noah, a gorgeous, guitar-strumming American. Suddenly Penny is falling in love – and capturing every moment of it on her blog.
But Noah has a secret, too, one that threatens to ruin Penny’s cover – and her closest friendship – forever. 
– Girl Online Blurb (source)

As soon as I read the blurb I was interested in this story… and I was so excited to finally begin reading it and while I did enjoy the story I didn’t like it as much as I thought I was going to.
To me it felt like this book was written for a younger age group. The style of the writing is simple and the whole storyline turned out to be a tiny bit anti-climactic for me.
I thought that the beginning of the book was good, I liked the style of writing for Penny’s blogs and I found this aspect of Penny very relatable. As someone who also enjoys blogging and understands the need to put your thoughts out there for even one person to read I did enjoy this part of the book. I also found the reason for Penny going to New York understandable…
I have never had a video of me go viral before but if it did I’d probably flee the country too. Especially if it was that embarrassing.
Another thing I found relatable about Penny is her struggle with friendships. I’m sure we’ve all been there. When we have to decide when it’s time to stop being friends with someone or you’ve “outgrown” them. It’s something everyone has to do in their lives and I liked the way this is handled in the book. However not all fake friends are as easy to spot in real life as they are in the book.
Something that I wasn’t able to relate to is Penny suffering from panic attacks. I don’t suffer from a lot of anxiety but I do understand that a lot of people do. This book gave me an insight into what it’s like for someone who might be dealing with anxiety and I found this really interesting. I also liked that there was advice on how to deal with anxiety in the book. I thought this was important especially since Zoe has suffered from anxiety and panic attacks her whole life.
As the book goes on and Penny and Noah spend more and more time together I found the book was getting a little bit boring. I just thought that nothing really happened in that time she spent Christmas and New Year’s with him. And I know not every part of a book has to be exciting but I was just waiting for the time when Penny would finally learn about Noah’s secret…
Throughout the book I had my own ideas about what his secret might be. I think I was thinking too outside the box and have been reading/watching too many vampire things because I thought he was going to be a vampire or some other supernatural being….Or I thought he was going to find out about Penny’s blog or that he was actually a criminal or something really crazy and unexpected.
My friend Bryce actually came up with the idea that Noah was really gay and was going to end up with Penny’s gay best friend Elliot which would have been quite funny but also kind of mean.
But none of those things were Noah’s big secret.
I do have to say when I found out what his secret was I was a little bit sad. I mean I wasn’t expecting his secret to be what it was but I was expecting something a lot bigger. Which is why I felt like it was a little anti-climactic.
I was also surprised that we only find this out about 3/4s of the way through the book…I thought we’d find out sooner than that.
After that I felt like everything just happened in a blur. Which I guess is how it’s meant to feel but to me everything just seemed to be happening too fast. Faster than the rest of the book and I feel like it caused them to brush past some more important issues.
For example what Elliot was going through with his father. I feel like it should have been something that was put into more detail. I know that he’s not the main character in this book but if he is dealing with a serious problem like that I think maybe there should have been more about it…I feel like it was a little bit random to have in the midst of everything else towards the end.
However I did like the way that Penny took control of her situation and dealt with the cyber bullying. It also teaches you the lesson that while anyone can make up a rumour about you only you know the truth and that’s all that really matters. As long as you and the people you’re close to know the truth it doesn’t really matter what other people think and I think that’s a really important message to have. Especially if you are someone who does put themselves out there, on the internet or in real life.
As for the ending of the book…it was predictable. Which I didn’t mind because I do prefer happy endings more than sad ones. And for a book like this I didn’t expect there to be a sad ending. I also know that when two people go through so much together it does seem like a waste for them not to end up together. However sometimes that’s for the better but not in this case.
Overall I’d say the book was okay. I didn’t really hate it but I didn’t love it either…like I said before I really felt like the book was aimed at a younger audience just because of the style of writing and the way the story played out…I did however think the love story between Noah and Penny was quite cute but I’m a sucker for any type of love story.
Now the real question is…will I be buying the sequel? I wasn’t actually aware of the sequel until one day I was on Amazon and it came up as a recommended item for me. But I think I’ll have to wait to find out what the sequel is about before I consider buying it. Considering how I felt about this book I’m not sure if I will immediately jump at the chance to get the sequel but I guess we shall see when the time comes.
If you guys have read Girl Online please leave me a comment letting me know what you thought and also let me know if you will be buying the sequel when it comes out because I’d be interested to know.
And until the next blog post I bid you adieu 🙂
~ Courtney x

Grace’s Guide: The Art of Pretending to be a Grown Up Book Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment
Hey guys so today I am going to be giving you a review of Grace Helbig’s book. I have been meaning to write this book review for about 2 weeks now and I apologise that it has taken me so long to sit down and write it.


The first thing I would like to comment on is the name of the book. It is very long. I don’t really have a problem with that other than when you try to post something on the internet talking about the book you usually have to shorten the title to “Grace’s guidebook”. Which is kind of sad because the full title of the book is one of the main reasons the book appealed to me.
For those of you who don’t know I am currently 17, in my last year of secondary school and currently have no idea what I am doing with my life. So the fact that one of the YouTubers I watch has released a self-help book on how to pretend to be an adult seems kind of perfect. I don’t know if it’s the best advice in the world but I think that it can be useful for the future. 
Anyway, you might think that it’s weird to read a self-help book all in one go, especially Grace’s which is split up into different sections. I have to say it was a lot of advice and information to take in at once but I wanted to get an idea of the type of advice she could give me so that if I ever did need advice on a particular subject I knew that Grace would be able to help.

Overall I would say that Grace actually did provide me with some helpful advice for the future. I mean I didn’t think she would give bad advice but at the same time I didn’t know if the advice would be suitable for me. Some of the topics Grace covered in her books I have yet to experience in my life and so I can’t put that advice into effect until these things happen to me for example, how to do the walk of shame.
Most of the advice that Grace gives in the book is actually quite simple. They are little things that you often forget while you are going through life and it is really nice to be reminded about them. For example when you are on the internet, don’t post your personal information such as your address, social security number, bank details…that kind of thing. 
To be honest I wasn’t expecting life changing advice from this book, if you know Grace then you know she isn’t a very serious person and she tends not to like to get too deep and meaningful – a perfect example of this is her podcast “Not Too Deep“. Not that I minded if the advice wasn’t that good. I was more interested in buying the book to support Grace (as a YouTube fangirl I will support YouTubers by buying their merchandise if it appeals to me even a little) and to learn more about her.
While the advice wasn’t completely life changing it was very helpful. As someone who is socially awkward and avoids being in public a lot I found Grace’s tips on how to host parties very useful. There are some things that she mentions in her book that you wouldn’t even begin to consider when you are preparing to do something, like when you are going for a job interview it is important to ask questions back rather than just answer your questions that way you seem more invested. I would never do that, but thanks to Grace’s book I will do it in the future.
As I mentioned before Grace covers a lot of aspects of being an adult in her book and at the beginning of each section of the book she will write an introduction and share a story or two of her experience regarding that particular topic. I really enjoyed these introductions as they allowed me to learn a lot more about Grace as a person which was really nice. It was nice to learn more about her real life and not just the YouTuber personality we see in her videos. Although as you read the book you discover that Grace doesn’t really have a YouTube personality and that the person you see in her videos is the real deal.
Another thing I really enjoyed about Grace’s book were the photographs, because who doesn’t love a book with pictures? They were very funny and adorable and just very “Grace”. Below are some of the photos within Grace’s book so that you can see what they are like:

Another enjoyable thing about Grace’s book is that at the end of each section she would have made an acronym for all of the advice that she gave on a topic. This means that it would be easier to remember her advice as well as produce random funny words at the end of the book sections. I have no idea how she came up with those acronyms but they are definitely memorable which means I won’t be forgetting any of the tips and tricks on how to decorate like an adult anytime soon.

And with that I think I have said everything that I want to say. The only thing to say is that the writing style is very casual and easy to understand, I noticed that the style of writing is in the style of how Grace would speak naturally so reading her book is just like watching one of her YouTube videos which I think made the whole book more enjoyable. It is surprising how well Grace’s sarcasm can come across based on the style of her writing. That or I have been watching so many of her videos that I can always tell when she is being sarcastic, even through written language.
Oh! That’s another thing that I enjoyed, Grace’s sense of humour. I don’t know if everyone enjoys Grace’s puns and bad jokes but I do. I might not laugh out loud at them but I do appreciate them and I imagine that if the book didn’t contain these puns or jokes that it wouldn’t have been Grace that wrote it.
And now I think that I have said everything I wanted to say. Overall I really did enjoy Grace’s book and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes Grace Helbig’s videos or is struggling to become an adult like myself haha. Will I ever use her advice in real life? I think I will. I might not follow it exactly to the letter but I will definitely think about it because like I said it can be useful. I just think it depends on the type of person you are and if you can apply the advice to your life.
And so yeah…I never really know how to end my blog posts. I just sort of drift off at the end and stop writing haha. I need to think of a better way to end them. But until then I hope you guys liked my thoughts on Grace’s book. Let me know in the comments below if you have read Graces book and what you think of it and I hope you will come back for the next blog post! Whatever that may be…
~ Courtney x