Twist by Martha Collison REVIEW

Twist: Creative Ideas to Reinvent Your Baking by Martha Collison

4.32 out of 5 Stars

 

A Note: I am not a professional chef or baker. I am just the average Plain Jane everyday sort of gal in the kitchen.

 

Welcome to my first review of a cookbook! Buckle in, we don't know what we're doing, it's going to be a great time. I'm going to give this some structure as seen with the three headings below, but in all seriousness, this is my first time trying to review a cookbook, so it may go wrong or there may be something people are looking for that they may not find here. (If so, please let me know what so that I can add it in the future!) I actually read quite a lot of cookbooks and love trying them out. This is just the first time I'm reviewing one because I want to try to grow as a reviewer. And the reason I'm reviewing this one is because I love love love the Great British Bake Off, and Martha's book was the first cookbook that I went out and bought to try the recipes. 

Overall, I adore this cookbook. There are stains and sticky spots all over my copy from how often I've used it, and it is one I regularly check whenever I need a basic recipe for something really common, like a chocolate cake or a simple cookie. I would 100% recommend this book to people as a great basic recipes book, as well as learning how to take something basic and expand on it.

Difficulty:

In my opinion, the recipes weren't too hard to follow. There were a couple of techniques, particularly when it came to handling the sugars and gelatin, that were more challenging to me. But, I think that was more so because I just didn't have the experience at that point, not because it was described poorly. Also, I was definitely not used to the metric measurements. Everything I had been using up to this point were solely American cups, tablespoons, etc. I had to go out and buy a cooking scale because I just had never needed one before and I got sick of trying to convert everything from one measurement system to the next.

Originality:

I really loved how the recipes were simple, basic things, but then there were different ways your could vary them, or "twist" the recipe to make it your own. It makes the recipes much more versatile and multi-purposeful, so each recipe will be more than just a one time creation that is repeated over and over and over again. You can mix it up, and Martha guides you on how to do that while still achieving good results.

Favorite Dish:  

Martha's Lemon and Earl Grey Tea Cakes

Oh my god, this is probably one of my new favorite desserts of all time!!! Especially with the earl grey marshmallow topping, the whole thing was just so perfectly sweet without being overly sugary. It's also a flavor profile that I am just not used to seeing or encountering in my day to day life, so the novelty of it is fun and heightens the enjoyment of this dish. Working with the gelatin in the marshmallow was completely new to me too, but it worked! And I am so glad it worked because it was the best part of the whole thing!

Thanks for reading!

Original Sin by Lydia Michaels REVIEW

 Original Sin by Lydia Michaels

1.48 out of 5 Stars 

 

***Thank you to Bailey Brown Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review***

In full transparency, I DNF'd this book at 45%. Please keep that in mind when reading this review in case you have a different opinion or are looking to use this review as advice as to whether or not to read this book. For me, it was not my vibe, by really any means. And normally I don't DNF books, even if I don't like them, but there were some persistent themes in this book that I was straight up not comfortable with and I could not see them turning any corners to better (read, "healthier") portrayals by the time I put the book down. I'll get into those problematic themes a little further down, but ultimately, I just don't think this book was the right fit for me.

PLOT

The premise of the story is a vampiric soulmate connection that, when realized within the vampire character, needs to be sought out in order for them to not lose their minds. One of our leads, Adam is vampire, who gets such a call for the other main character, Anna, and a steamy romance ensues. I was very intrigued by this premise because the connection needing to be affirmed in order for the character to survive was so interesting and enticing when wrapped up in a romance novel. However....

The themes I had trouble with overrode any excitement I had about the premise of the plot. Adam is a "gentleman" and won't force himself on Anna, but at the same time, he legitimately kidnaps her, constantly takes away her free will, forces her to completely change her way of life and self-expression, and views his relationship with her as "his right." Many things wrong here. Many, many things, which significantly lowered the rating for me because I just could never in a million years be comfortable recommending such content to someone. To do so would be essentially an endorsement that behaviour such as Adam's and the relationship Adam and Anna fall into is okay and healthy, when it really is not. 

I was waiting for these toxic possessive edges and forceful removals of identity to be recognized and to have those attitudes (as expressed by Adam and his family) corrected. But by 45%, they hadn't started to change at all, and if anything, the attitude of "his right" and "it's necessary for survival" were becoming more ingrained, and I couldn't stand it anymore, so I stopped reading. Really sad, because I think the premise of a soulmate connection having such a strong impact on a person is a great one, but this was so bogged down by these horrible themes that I couldn't see a way out or a way to redeem it.

WRITING

What makes all of this so much sadder is that I actually liked the author's writing! I believe this may have been one of her earlier books, so there is no way I am writing off this author. Her style, while not high-brow literary, had that captivating edge to it that I love. It's the kind of writing that will draw you in and before you realize it you're up past midnight. Excellent writing, I just wish the execution of the story had been vastly different. 

 

So in the end, I can't recommend this book because of its thematic issues. However, I am open to reading more from this author and seeing what else she has created!

Thanks for reading!

On Blogging: A Reintroduction

On Blogging

Reintroducing myself after a very long time away

Oh wow, this feels weird, is the first thought that I have about writing this post. I can't just dive back into posting reviews as if I've been doing it consistently for the past two years; I need to acknowledge this gap in my postings. But it feels so absolutely strange to be writing out a post at all, let alone a post like this which is not the primary ground for content on this blog. At least, content like this wasn't originally the ground for content on this blog. I think over the years, the more stressed or taken over by life events and busyness I became, the more I just posted filler content so that I could feel productive. Originally though, this was always meant to be a place for me to share my thoughts and appreciation for books in the form of reviews. I love the tags and the ships and the TV and movie reviews, but it was always supposed to be about the books and expressing thought-filled opinions on them as a reader. 

I have no regrets about those posts by any means. I loved writing them and sharing them, and I'll probably continue to do so every now and then. However, in the slight rearranging of my blog, and the minor updates I gave the blog aesthetically, I did get rid of a bunch of labels for my posts and changed the upper banner to include only genre labels. These genre labels will take you only to book reviews. The filler content and reviews for other mediums are still present, but I don't want them to share the center stage with the book reviews anymore. As I'm coming back into blogging, I really want to try to revert back to my original love of reading and sharing my love for reading online. Will there still be other content besides book reviews? Yes. But, what I'm sincerely hoping for is that I can build this blog to be a place where people can look toward for genuine book reviews from a fellow reader. 

Luckily, I am getting to a place where I will be able to read and review as voraciously as I once was. Because even though I may not have been posting book reviews, I have most certainly been reading still. I don't think I could picture myself without a book on hand or downloaded on my phone. But as I'm returning to blogging, there may be a handful of posts where I'm getting back into the swing of things and finding my voice again, so please bear with me! I have loved seeing that people have read my posts, and I LOVE when there are comments or engagements with them online. Fortunately, blogging for me has been a wonderful positive hobby, and I am really excited (and a bit nervous) to be coming back to this blog. 

XOXO,

Thanks for reading!

Excerpt from Hurricane Summer by Asha Bromfield

Excerpt from 

Hurricane Summer by Asha Bromfield

Blog Tour

COMING MAY 4, 2021

As I slowly start to crawl my way back to the land of blogging, I am thrilled to share this excerpt from Hurricane Summer! This YA coming-of-age takes readers to Jamaica, where the lead protagonist Tilla comes to realizes the more about herself, her father, their relationship, and Jamaica and the world itself. 

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2

We touch down at 1:46 p.m. local time.

Warm air floods the plane as the doors open, and the sweet aroma of fruit wafts in the air. Passengers race to grab their bags as the thick accent comes over the PA once again:

“Ladiez and gentle-mon, welcome to Kingston, Jamaica. It iz a beautiful day here on the island, and we wish you nothing but irie on your travels. It has been our pleasure to have you on board. As always, thank you for flying Air Jamaica.”

I gently shake Mia awake as Patois begins to pour out all around us. I grab our backpacks from the cabin, and we throw them over our shoulders before trudging off the plane.

As we make our way through the busy airport, we are sur- rounded by a sea of rich, dark skin. I feel courageous as we navigate through the brown and black bodies, and I can’t help but wonder if the feeling of belonging is why Dad loves it so much here.

Once we clear at customs, we continue our trek through the massive airport. All around us, people smile and laugh, and there is a mellowness to their pace. Most of the women wear bright colors and intricate braids in their hair, Afros, or long locks down their backs. An array of sandals and flip-flop highlight all the bright painted toenails as Mia and I weave through the crowd.

“Stay close!” I yell, grabbing on to her hand. When we find the exit, I grow nervous knowing what awaits us on the other side. I look to Mia. “You have everything?”

She nods.

“Okay,” I whisper to myself. “Let’s do this.”

With our suitcases lugging behind us, we spill out of the doors and into the hot sun. The heat immediately consumes me, and it is amplified by the chaos and noise that surrounds us. The streets are packed. Loud horns blare, and people yell back and forth in thick, heavy Patois accents. Men argue on the side of the road, their dialect harsh as they negotiate the rates for local shuttle buses. Along the roads, merchants sell colorful beaded jewelry and fruit so ripe that I can taste it in the air. Women wear beautiful head wraps and sell plantains and provisions, bartering back and forth with eager travelers. People spew out of overcrowded taxis, desperate to catch their flights as others hop in, desperate to get home. The sun pierces my skin as the humidity and gas fumes fill my lungs. The ac- tion is overwhelming, and I feel like a fish out of water. As we wait by the curb, there is no sight of our father.

“What if he forgot?” Mia asks.

“He wouldn’t,” I reply. “Mom just talked to him.” “What if he got the time mixed up?”

“He’ll be here.”

But the truth is, when it comes to our father, I can never be sure.

I fight with this idea as five minutes turn into ten, and ten into twenty.

The heat blazes, and sweat drips down my stomach. I check my watch: forty-two minutes.

I pull my pink hoodie over my head to reveal a white tank top, tying the hoodie around my waist to better manage the heat. Without my phone, I have no way of contacting him to see where he is.

But he said he’d be here. He gave us his word.

Fifty-six minutes later, our father is nowhere to be found. My eyes frantically search the crowd as I ponder how much his word is truly worth. Time and time again, he has proven that the answer is not much. I turn to Mia, ready to tell her to head back inside. Worry graces her face for the first time since we left. Her carefree attitude fades as the concern of a nine-year-old takes over. I can’t stand to see her like this, and I’ll do whatever it takes to escape the feeling that is bubbling inside of me.

We’ll take the first plane out.

“Mi, Dad’s not coming. Let’s go back insid—”

“Yow! Tilla!” A deep voice interrupts me mid-sentence. I whip my head around to find my father standing a few

feet away with two freshly sliced pineapple drinks in hand. “Daddy!” Mia screams. She drops her things on the curb

and sprints toward him. My heart does somersaults.

One glimpse of my father and I am a child again.

 

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Thank you to Wednesday Books and Asha Bromfield for letting me be a part of this tour! Review to come!!! 

 

Thanks for reading! 

 

 

2021 Resolutions

 2021 Resolutions

Finally, we have said goodbye to 2020. Like literally the rest of the world, I am so happy to see the year change. However, I am also being very mindful of the fact that, at least for a little while, things may look the same in everyday life. And it's strange to me to try to set out goals for this year when it feels like I have literally been yanked to a stop in life. I'm lucky enough that my life hasn't actually been stopped -- I can still make progress in several areas of my life -- but the pacing has shifted everywhere and it feels like the weight of each aspect of my life has changed as well. It's strange. It's weird. And as I sit here, I can't in certainty say what this means for me. I'm not sure what I want my life to look like. I can't say how I want to have grown coming out of the pandemic. So I don't know how I'm supposed to look at the year in front of me and pin aspirations to its timeline. 

I think... hold on.  -xo-xo-xo-xo-xo-xo-

Okay. I think I will give myself one definable goal, and then a general overall theme for the year. 

Actually Read the Books in My Sense & Sensibility "Course"

Last year I was really hoping to read a whole bunch of British literature written by female authors. And then the semester started in January and that didn't really happen. Now though, I ~think~ I have a lighter course load and I really want to at least read those books. Maybe I'll read them in order, maybe I won't. I just want to have fun with them and pick through them for pure enjoyment throughout the year. As I go along, maybe I'll review them or something and add a tag to group them all together. 

Chase My Younger Self /Attitude

This one is like a major "huh????" for the general person. What do I mean by this? I think I just mean to take everything a little less seriously and to be less stressed about the direction of my life. I have no way to phrase it other than "my younger self." I don't know exactly.... I think back to when I was 10, 12, 15, whatever it was and yes, I was stressed, but I was also just living. Each day was a huge f***ing deal and every moment was fully embraced. Now, I think I'm so caught up in the "plans" for things that I am literally unable to be fully immersed in the actual goings on of my present life. Gonna try to change that back. :)

Last year I gave myself some more concrete goals, and that was fine enough. At least for a little while before the pandemic wrecked havoc on the world. But looking at what I've "given myself" for the upcoming year, I feel really good about it because it gives me the room to breathe and room for the world around me to shake up a bit as I fumble along. And hopefully, these are closer to long-lasting changes than just resolutions and I'll hold onto them past this year.

Thanks for reading and thank God for 2021!!!!

Best Books of 2020

Best Books of 2020

While I did not reach my Goodreads goal of reading 100 books, I did read 93, which is one more than last year, so I'm considering that a win still! And of those 93 books, there were so many that I enjoyed reading, a couple that were meh, and a sprinkle of books for school. Below though are FIVE of my favorite books that I read this past year. :)

Fable by Adrienne Young

From Blood and Ash / A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Crescent City by Sarah J. Maas

Feminists Don't Wear Pink and Other Lies by Scarlett Curtis (and others)

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston 

Thanks for reading and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Hiatus End: Stress & Comfort Reading

Stress & Comfort Reading

What I've Been Reading While Finishing the Semester

 

I'M BACK TO BLOGGING I'M BACK TO BLOGGING I'M BACK TO BLOGGING I'M BACK TO BLOGGING!!!!! 

 

I know this effects probably like, a less than zero amount of people other than myself, but I am so excited to be writing a new post. This semester has been absolute craziness, and I am so glad that I officially took a break until now. Not just because I clearly needed to relieve myself of that pressure, but because it is making ~this moment~ so much sweeter. As a general semester update, I'm actually not done yet. I thought I would be, but I have one more final that I'm planning on taking tomorrow. However, I still feel like I can break my hiatus today and write up a post because I have been studying nonstop so I (a) have earned these hours of blogging, and (b) need to remind myself that I have other activities outside of school. 

 

To get back into things, I thought I would share how I stress-read and what that means for me. Because even though I was horrifically busy this semester, I still turned to books for escapism and stress relief. And I think this highlights a very specific lens through which we view the use of books, and it's a use of reading that we've all gone through. Stress reading our comfort books is a wonderful, wonderful thing because not only do I think it is literally therapeutic to distance ourselves from the sources of stress, but also because it reminds us of why we love reading. 

I'm going to be tying this stress reading post in with a Blog Prompt from Bookending Winter 2020, which I signed up for over a month ago knowing I wouldn't be able to start participating until today. Maude from @ Psyched About Books created this one and here is a link to her original post. Here's the prompt:

Comfort Reads by the Fire

Winter is the season for warmth and comfort, reading books by the chimney in your favorite armchair. What are your top 5 comfort books to read / reread during this season?

 

Random side note: I love the logo that comes with these prompts and BEWinter20.  

My small twist to this prompt is that I'll be talking about other things I've read so far this semester while stressed out. Here we go!

Here's what I've read since I went on hiatus... keep in mind, a lot of those series are complete rereads so I flew through them. 

The Lux Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout

The Covenant Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova

Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams

Happily Letter After by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

The Iron Fey trilogy (first 3 + novellas) by Julie Kagawa

Midnight Breed 1-5 by Lara Adrian

 

For me, I have a couple of go-to authors when I'm stressed out, like Jennifer L. Armentrout. Her writing is so easy to fall into and the characters so sympathetic. There are times when I'll literally just reread specific scenes because I know the books so well at this point I don't need a refresher as to the context of the scene. Another go-to author would normally be Sarah J. Maas for me, but I know that if I were to start rereading ToG or ACOTAR that I would not crawl out of my bed for days while I was reading.

Other comfort books I'll read when I'm stressed are just general rereads, even if they're middle grade books from way back when. Sometimes I think its just nice to revisit something that reminds you of a different time in your life.

 

The top 5 of these books (or others) I would pick to recommend 

to others for warmth and comfort would be:

 

1. Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova

This was an unexpected delight. It's not perfect, but I still was able to just read through it and enjoy the process of reading it. I actually only gave it like, 3 stars on Goodreads, but that was mostly for technical stuff. In terms of enjoy-ability, it was a good book and I could totally see myself or anyone else curling up with this while it's snowing outside.

 

2. The Iron Fey trilogy by Julie Kagawa

It was so interesting to reread the original trilogy of this series. I first read these books back in I think my freshman year of high school. It was so long ago I don't even have the date marked on Goodreads because I didn't have Goodreads at that point. It might have even been middle school that I read these. I can't really remember. Anyway, to me this series was such a comfort read because it was such a loving throwback. Have my taste as a reader evolved since? Yes. And that meant that I wasn't obsessive with reading these books this time around, but because I have such a strong memory of adoring these books, I still love them. If you haven't read this series, I recommend it. Or, in the alternative, picking up a book you loved in middle school / early high school and rereading that.

3. Anything written by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Jennifer L. Armentrout may be one of the most addictive writers I have ever met. I don't think there is a single book of hers I've picked up and haven't given at least 4 stars. There's the Lux series, the Covenant series, the Wicked trilogy (currently being made into a movie), the Blood and Ash series... and so much more. Anything. Literally anything by Jennifer L. Armentrout will be a comfort read to curl up with.

 

4. The Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward

One of the genres in general that I turn to for comfort reads, especially when I'm stressed, is romance. As you may have seen from the list of books I read during the semester, if it wasn't a reread, it was a romance. Romances are captivating in a way that is quick, strong, and feel-good. This series by J.R. Ward is also addictive like JLA's stuff, but it is definitely an adult series. If you are old enough for mature content, I'd say give this series a whirl. It's like the adult version of Twilight, but mixed with the Avengers.

 

5. Relentless by Karen Lynch

This series is sort of the definition of fluff, but it's also urban fantasy. It's a bit of an easier read than JLA (who also writes some urban fantasy fluff), but the thing that I like about this series is the concept seems original to me. The themes are not, but they're the same themes that we all (at least me lol) love, like the protagonist is uber special for some reason, there's a soul/bond connection, there are classic sassy/broody/comedic characters interwoven. The original bit is that the characters have a sort of demon inside of them, and the way that symbiotic relationship works is what appears unique to me. 

Why am I not putting SJM or Holly Black or some of my other favourites on this list? Well.... here's the thing, and I kind of touched on this earlier... for me, while high fantasy and deep complex fictional stories are some of my absolute favourite books of all time, I also find that I will get so wrapped up in them that I cannot do anything else. And that isn't to say the books listed above aren't deep or complex -- some of them really are -- but there's a different levity that I get while reading those books for whatever reason than I do while reading, say Throne of Glass. 

So there you have it-- what I've been stress reading and what I recommend as comfort reads! I'm really looking forward to taking this final test so that I can fully participate in the Bookending Winter 2020 events. Hell, I'm looking forward to finishing the semester so I can fully blog again. That will be such a fun relief to be fully back into things!

 

Thanks for reading!