"The Queen of the Tearling" by Erika Johansen

Hello everyone,

it's been quite a while - 10 days to be exact! Initially I planned to take a week long break from blogging simply because I had an important exam to prepare, among other things, and I thought it'd be better if I just focused on that for a few days. However, my computer has been a bit of a douchebag for the past few days and I could not access my blog (does that ever happen to you? I was worried I'd lost it!), but thankfully it's all good now. Wehey!

I'm here today with a book review. I know they don't seem to be the most popular posts among my readers, but this is a book that I need to share with the world. It took me about a month to read it, which is a long time for me, but I want to say beforehand that it did not have anything to do with the novel itself, but rather with me being a lazy reader towards the end of the summer. It is the first book of a trilogy that claims to be the "female version of Game of Thrones" but since I don't watch the show or have read the books, I can't really tell you if that's accurate. What I can tell you, though, is that it is brilliant. 

In a nutshell

The Queen of the Tearling tells the story of Kelsea Glynn, who, on her nineteenth birthday, is forced to face her destiny and head back to her place of birth to inherit a wrecked and corrupt kingdom. Everyone expects her to be like her mother: vain, careless and definitely not a fighter, but Kelsea could not be any further from that. She is an unruly teenager who is ready to get her kingdom back to its feet. The question is, will she be able to or will she die before she even gets to put a crown on her head?

Thoughts

I genuinely loved it. The storyline is really smart and well-thought and it made me incredibly happy to see how the author made Kelsea deal with the most serious issues of her kingdom, such as gender based violence, rape and so on, in such a graceful manner. I really liked Kelsea as a queen, mainly because she was very clear ideas of what she doesn't want her reign to be like (nothing like her mother's, that's for sure) and she actually does something about it, which I think is admirable given the situation. However, she also frustrated me so much sometimes - what's with that obsession with the Fetch?! It's definitely not one of the most relevant things about the book, but the way she handles her feelings towards him, if you can even call them feelings, just upsets me. As for the rest of the characters, I liked some of them so much that I just wish I could read about them every single day of my life (hello Mace, hello Pen).

I was so ready to give the book 5 stars on Goodreads (yes, despite Kelsea's love choices, because that does not change the way I feel about the novel itself), but then I read the ending. I don't want to give too much away in case any of you want to give it a go, but I was so ready for something that didn't happen. I desperately wanted a final conflict, a scene where Kelsea finally confronted her enemy/enemies. Sadly, that didn't really happen, which was a bit disappointing. Anyway, I loved the book as a whole and I'm now looking forward to the next one. Hurry up, Erika Johansen!

Have you read The Queen of the Tearling?

What did you think?

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Life Update: Rise & Shine

If I had to use labels, and I guess I do, I would define The Aristochats as a beauty, lifestyle and fashion blog, although you will have noticed by now I write a little bit about everything - without really being an expert on any field. I write these posts mostly for my own amusement, so I don't really have everything planned out or scheduled in my mind. Sometimes I will think "Oh, I'm going to publish that beauty haul on Sunday" but then I feel like writing about an amazing book that I have just finished and so that's what I do. This is not something I'm doing professionally, it's just something I do to let my creativity flow, so I don't worry about following a strict schedule. Sometimes I enjoy writing about beauty and sometimes I want to chat about life. And what's what I want to do today.

I started September with 2 followers on Bloglovin and now that the month's coming to an end I'm at 39. Some may say it's not a lot, but that's more people than were in my class in my last year in high school so, for me, that is a lot. Especially because I wasn't sure I was going to be able to keep up. I have given up blogging before simply because I thought I couldn't find the time to do everything. Now, though, I have been doing it for two full months and I don't want to stop any time soon. I'm proud of that, and I'm proud of this little blog. I'm not going to lie, that does feel weird to say. I guess I'm used to writing about how inadequate or stressed I feel, whether that be for the blog or for my own sanity, so it feels nice to say something good about myself for a change. Being proud of it, of what I do and what I write about, is allowing me to share it with more people, hence getting more involved with the blogging community. All that is just a massive highlight of my month, something that's made me smile quite a few times over the past few weeks.

As for my personal, away-from-the-blog life, everything's going great. I'm rarely ever satisfied with the way things are going (the "I can do better" kind of attitude always kicks in), so this is new for me. Not long ago, I decided to change the things I wasn't happy with. After all, I realized nobody else could ever do that for me. I started doing things for myself, to improve my life, to feel better about who I am. I quit my old job, which I hated, and found a new one. I walked away from people who were not treating me right. I decided to stop worrying about the future so much and focus on the present. I started feeling more and more confident and comfortable in my own skin. I am nowhere near perfect - in fact, I probably have over a thousand flaws that could tear me down if I let them, but I'm not going to. I only have one life and one body, so I might as well start taking care of them. In the words of the always wise Brooke Davis, "I am who I am. No excuses."

If you're in a bad place right now, please, just remember that you are the only person in charge of your own life. If you have the opportunity to change the things that are making you miserable, and in most cases you do, then go ahead. Don't let them consume you. Rise and shine, friends. 

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Love, Listen, Watch, Read: September

I am currently planning a blog post on what my life has been like lately (a life update, if you will), which I think will go up at some point next week, so we'll just leave my monthly highlights for that one. Not that anyone cares that much anyway, but the other day I was just thinking about how last year, when things started going wrong and I wasn't 100% me, I blogged about it. I wasn't even blogging regularly at the time, but I still decided to write about how I wasn't feeling my best. Why not let you all know when I'm feeling amazing and things are going great too?

As you may know, my summer spending ban finally came to an end this month, so I've been loving quite a few new (and old) beauty products. I fell in love with Revolution's G i r l s  O n  F i l m palette as soon as I opened the package. It is so pretty. I have only tried a few of the matte shades so far and the colour payoff and staying power is unbelievable, especially for the price. Makeup Revolution is one of the brand that proves that affordable does not equal bad quality. Now, I may be a bit late to the party, but I've also been loving the Electro Baby Lips. Initially I got B e r r y  B o m b (can't beat a purple lip) and a few days later I came back for P i n k  S h o c k, but while my sister did buy that one, I ended up getting O h !  O r a n g e  ! instead. I thought it would look too orange and so that it would be more suitable for the summer months, but it is the perfect nude lip for me. I always feel like I'm way too tanned to pull off nude lipsticks and I have finally found something that does the job for me. You go, Maybelline!

As for entertainment, there really hasn't been much variety. For some reason I haven't been reading much, but I am finally finishing T h e  Q u e e n  O f  T h e  T e a r l i n g, which I loved, so that's my book of the month. In fact, I've spent this month doing three things: going to university, working and watching C r i m i n a l  M i n d s. It has been on tv every weekend for the past few months and every Saturday and Sunday morning you can find me and my sister sitting in front of the tv like nothing else matters. We got so much into it that we decided to start watching the show from the beginning. And now I'm obsessed. It's such a smart show. I've said it before and I'll say it again, big up to whoever comes up with those storylines. I highly recommend it - it will blow your own mind!

September Playlist

Fireproof - One Direction

Steal My Girl - One Direction

Keep It To Yourself - Kacey Musgraves

Blowin' Smoke - Kacey Musgraves

Greenlight - 5 Seconds Of Summer

Still Fallin - Hunter Hayes

Nina - Ed Sheeran

The Man - Ed Sheeran

Nervous Girls - Lucy Hale

Ego - The Saturdays

What have you been loving this month?

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