Welcome Home Captain Fox; Maud

Hey guys!

A week ago, I went on a trip with my school to see Welcome Home Captain Fox at the Donmar Warehouse, Covent Garden. This is my thoughts and opinions on the performance. Enjoy X

Welcome Home Captain Fox is based on a true story of a soldier coming back from he war having lost his memory. The press put out the story to the public trying to find his family.
As a result of this, hundreds of families contacted to say that it was their husband/father/son etc. Many visited and denied that he was theirs but many still pushed on for reasons like benefits (money). 

Eventually they found out the village he was from and put him at the train station as by instinct he walked his way home. 

The play was kind of similar but was adapted. 

The actors were absolutely incredible and you could tell that they really got into the part of their characters. 

The actors were...

• Michelle Asante, Barnaby Kay, Rory Keenan, Katherine Kingsley, Trevor Laird, Sian Thomas, Danny Webb, Fenella Woolgar, Daniel York, Kit Connor, Ilan Galkoff, Rory Stroud.

If you are not aware, the Donmar Warehouse stage is small and very close to the audience, I think this really added to it as the actors were so close that they had unintentional interaction with us. 

Overall, I really loved this performance and would 100% see it again. The only thing that I didn't really like was the cigarette smoke, in the performance they smoke and the smoke was coming into the audience and my eyes were watering like crazy! 

I really ,recommend if you are in London, to go and see it as its great and really funny :)

Happy Reading (and watching),

A Court of Thorns and Roses Review; Maud

Hey guys!
How are you? I've had a pretty rubbish week to be honest.
I'm sorry that I didn't get round to doing my currently reading on sunday but I was busy actually finishing A Court of Thorns and Roses. I am currently around 100 pages into Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.
Emile and I talked about how we haven't done reviews for a very long time and that most our reviews are of Contemporary novels.
I thought I would review A Court of Thorns and Roses as I finished it earlier this week. Enjoy!

                                                               *non-spoiler part* 
A Court of Thorns and Roses or ACOTAR is a fairy tale retelling based on Beauty and the Beast.
It is set in a place called Prythian which it split into the Human realms and the Faerie realms (Spring Court, Summer Court, Autumn Court, Winter Court, Night Court and Day Court) cordened off by a wall. The story revolves around the protagonist, Feyre, a human huntress.
She thinks nothing of killing a wolf in the woods to capture its prey to feed her poverty stricken family, but a few days later a faerie turns up at her door stating that the wolf was indeed a faerie in disguise. The treaty states that if a human kills a faerie then they will either be instantly killed or taken back to Prythian. She chose to leave her family and go with the "beast". This story is of her experiences of in Prythian and love.
I really recommend it so read it and come back to read below>>>>>>

The Lady in the Van Book Review // Emile

Bonjour!

I've broken my resolution. Again. All I can say is that I have been very, very busy this week. And also the WIFI in my house is so temperamental that I have trouble getting Blogger up and then sometimes it doesn't even publish. To be fair to me, I have been keeping notes in my journal about this book, so I haven't entirely failed. 

Today I am doing a review of The Lady in the Van by Alan Bennet. This was released as a movie last November and was recommended to me by a teacher at my school. I liked the idea of it and I thought it would a change from the norm to do a non-fiction review for you guys. 

"In 1974, the homeless Miss Shepherd moved her broken-down van into Alan Bennet's garden. Deeply eccentric and stubborn to her bones, Miss Shepherd was not an easy tenant. And Bennet, despite inviting her in the first place, was a reluctant landlord. And yet she lived there for fifteen years. "

This book is incredibly short, only one hundred pages, which to me was not enough to capture the essence of Miss Shepherd and her effect on the community, on Bennet's life and how she really lived. I wouldn't say that this book is gripping, but I definitely enjoyed it and it would be good for a read-a-thon because of how easy it is to read. 

The novel is made up of a series of anecdotes in chronological order, often several years apart, of meetings and sightings that Bennet has with Miss Shepherd. In the book you don't actually find out that much about Bennet, which I would've like because he was a main character, and yet there wasn't much depth to him. I suppose if you want to find out about him you can look him up on the internet. 

I laughed occasionally whilst reading this. A couple of quotes that I like are "Mrs Thatcher isn't the iron lady, it's me" and "With Miss Shepherd taller was wiser too" which I find funny because that would make me rather stupid even though I have always thought that I was actually quite intelligent for my age. If I may say so myself. 

As far as the movie, I haven't seen it yet however I do think that Maggie Smith was a perfect choice to play Miss Shepherd. (For those of you who don't know, Maggie Smith played Professor McGonnagal in Harry Potter. I will be doing a movie review as soon as I can get my hands on it. 

I am going to go now because I am going to the cinema with my family to see The Force Awakens. I'm not a huge Star Wars fan but it should still be fun. 

Au revoir,

Emile x

Anna and the French Kiss review *NON SPOILER* // Emile

Hello!

I am finally going another review for you, the downside is that it is another contemporary. On the other hand we all like a good contemporary every now and again so here I am today to recommend a good one.

I have been in a major slump recently and the book that got me out of that was Anna and the French Kiss by Stephenie Perkins. I appreciate that there is nothing that I can say the will excuse a book have such a cheesy title, but the book itself is brilliant!

I loved the characters and the setting and the plot and the writing style and everything! It is such a nice, sweet story and I especially like all the characters and their different dynamics. It is more of a cutesy contemporary than a really emotional one but that is exactly what I needed. I was looking for a good contemporary in My Heart and Other Black Holes and even though I went into it wanting a book I would have to emotionally invest in I was less than impressed. 

Anna and the French Kiss is about a seventeen year old girl called Anna Oliphant who is sent to an American boarding school in Paris by her father, who she less than agrees with. When she arrives she doesn't speak any French, doesn't know anyone and is in a completely foreign city all by herself. During her time there she meets so many people, including Ettiene St. Clair, a handsome English boy who she rather likes, but will it work for them?

The story sounds cheesy but if it bothers you so much just mark it as a guilty pleasure and read it anyway because it is lovely and sweet and such a nice story. I know I keep repeating myself, that's because I'm not sure how else to describe it. 

I rate it 5/5 stars and highly recommend it; especially if you are looking for something to get you out of a reading slump!

Happy Saturday,

Emile x

AN UPDATE 26.9.15

Hello fellow book-lovers,

Due to increasing stress at home and school, Maud has decided to take a break from writing posts. This is most unfortunate but we both decided that it was the best thing to do. I will still be uploading, although I will write three posts a week now:

Monday: review
Wednesday: currently reading
Saturday: book talk/discussion/whatever I'm feeling like

Maud will return to writing posts at some points,  just when she has some more time on her hands. In the mean time, it will mainly be me running the accounts. I hope that everyone is alright with this.

See you on Monday,
Emile x

The Martian by Andy Weir review * NO SPOILERS* ~ Emile

Hola Martians,

I appreciate that that was not proper Spanish, but whatever.

About twenty five minutes ago, I finished reading The Martian by Andy Weir. I am writing this the Wednesday before it is uploaded, so as to give my immediate impressions.

The Martian is about a man called Mark Watney, stranded on Mars after is crew mates deemed him dead during an emergency take off. The story follows him while he struggles to survive four years in a jab designed for thirty days. You root for Mark the whole way, disappointed when he fails a task, and cheering when he succeeds. I love the fresh take on science fiction, which mixed with the sarcastic humour makes a really light book, despite the serious danger the main character is in. Also, I am a complete and utter nerd, so I loved all the scientific and mathematical elements. They aren't too hard to understand, and I would't say that they were essential to the story anyway.

I rated this book 4/5 stars.

Over and out,
Emile x

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas review *ALL SPOILERS ARE HIDDEN* ~ Emile

Ah, back to school. How wonderful -_-

Bonjour!

As you are probably aware, school has started again. Isn't everyone excited? I'm not. Anyway, the topic of this post is the newly released YA fantasy novel Queen of Shadows, the fourth instalment in the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas.

I am a HUGE fan of this series, as is my best friend. So naturally we had to go out on the release date, September 1st, to buy it. And I have to say I wasn't disappointed.

I can't really tell you much if you haven't read the first three books in the series, so all I am going to say is that it is amazing. The main character is a bad-ass seventeen year-old assassin called Celaena Sardothien who loves pretty dresses and luxury and won't take any rubbish from anybody. It's absolutely brilliant. If you haven't yet, just go and read it.

5/5 stars. It was just awesome.

No on to the part with spoilers. OPEN AT YOUR OWN RISK. IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE THRONE OF GLASS SERIES THEN DON'T OPEN THIS.

I warned you.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians series review ~ Emile

Bonjour mes amis!

How are you all doing today? Honestly, I feel awful. But hopefully that's just me. 

My latest book-ish obsession is the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. Unless you have been living under a rock you have probably heard of this series. It is a 5 book collection about a boy call Percy Jackson (obviously). 

Percy is a demigod and after a strange turn of events ends up living at Camp Half-Blood, a camp for demigods. Demigods are the children of gods and humans, because of this they attract monsters which means they do not often survive without help from the camp. On the way he meets new friends and enemies and heroes and villains and it is epic. I love it. 

The books are as follows:

1. Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief

2. Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters

3. Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse

4. Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth 

5. Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian 

There is also a follow-up series featuring the original characters as well as some new ones called the Heroes of Olympus. This series incorporates Roman gods as well as Greek into the world of Percy Jackson. Here are the books:

1. The Lost Hero

2. The Son of Neptune

3. The Mark of Athena

4. The House of Hades

5. The Blood of Olympus 

I highly recommend this for people of all ages. 5 stars! 

Au revoir,

Emile x

That is all if you have not read the entire Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. If you have read them, then this next section is for you. If you haven't, then open at your own risk. 

The Making Of Harry Potter; Maud

Hey guys!

It's Maud...I really apologise for my lack of posts and updates. 
Term time is a very busy time for me as I am really committed to ballet (I do it 3/4 times a week) and as I am in secondary school, I get a TONNE of homework :[
I broke up from school on July 23rd and have absolutely NO homework, NO ballet and am not going on Holiday! This means I will have a tonne of time to write blog posts, fanfiction and read! 
I am going to be posting lots to make up for all I have missed. 

Anyway, this blog post is about The Making Of Harry Potter! Me and Emile visited on July 19th and were certainly astounded by the sets, props, outfits etc.
Emile had already been before with her school but realised that she had missed and not noticed lots before. I ,Maud, had never been before. I t was a dream come true and I'd waited a year and a half for it. A few pictures will be inserted down below.

We took more pictures at the studios but they were either bad quality or had us in them. 

We really enjoyed our time at the studios and recommend it to everyone! 

The shop is very expensive but we got...

Emile:

• A Chocolate Frog and got Rowena Ravenclaw as the card
• Ravenclaw Scarf
• Ginny Weasley's wand
• Ravenclaw postcard
• Lots of free bookmarks

Maud:

• A Chocolate Frog and got Albus Dumbledore as the card ;)
• Hufflepuff scarf
• Sirius Black's wand
• Hufflepuff postcard
• Lots of free bookmarks

I hope you enjoyed this post and I promise to get better as posting regularly!

QOTD: What Harry Potter house are you in?

Happy Reading!

Maud xxx

Throne of Glass ~ Review by Sarah J. Maas (Emile)

Bonjour!

One of my most recent bookish obsessions, has been the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. I love it so much! It is to be a six book series. Currently only the first three books are published as well as a book of novellas The Assassin’s Blade. The first part of this review will not contain any spoilers, and the part with spoilers will be covered. Read that at your own risk!

Throne of Glass is about an assassin working in a death camp. One day she is visited by the Crown Prince who takes her out of the mines to compete to become the King’s very own champion. She must defeat thieves, assassins and fully trained soldiers in order to earn her freedom. Will she survive? And where will she be at the end?

(That wasn’t the blurb that was my own summary. )

As you already know, this is one of my favourite series I have read this year.

5 out of 5 stars.  Awesome.

In these books I love how Celaena is a girly-girl yet still kick-ass and doesn’t take any rubbish from anyone. I want to be like her sometimes, apart from the devastating life and the murdering people. 

I highly recommend this series. If you like young adult fantasy and kick-butt characters this is for you.

Au revoir,

Emile x

Now for spoilers! If you have not read the whole Throne of Glass series so far, (books 1, 2 & 3) then do not open this.

Currently Reading - Emile 01/07/15

Bonjour!

I am currently reading Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas and OH MY GOODNESS I LOVE IT!
Read the Throne of Glass series. Enough said.

In case you have been living under a rock, Heir of Fire is the third book in the to be six book series.
Soon I will do a series review of the first three books because the rest aren't out yet. The fourth book is to be called Queen of Shadows.

And Queen of Shadows doesn't come out until September 1st :(

Au revoir,
Emile :) x

Sophie's World ~ Jostein Gaarder book review *spoiler free*

Bonjour!

I have finally finished Sophie's World! That took three whole weeks *_*.  It was a good book though - let's get to this.

Just because it took me so long to read this book, does not mean that I didn't enjoy it. I found the philosophical history very interesting, and I liked the way it was woven into the story.

Sophie's World follows 14 year old Sophie Amundsen, who one day gets two letters in the mail. One reads "who are you?" and the other "where does the world come from?". As these letters from an unknown philosopher spark her curiosity, Sophie gets plunged into the middle of an eccentric mystery.

I would recommend this, all I will say is prepare to be drowned in information. Stick with it though, it is an enjoyable book. Especially if you are a thinker like myself.

That's all for now,
Au revoir,
Emile x

Vicious ~ V.E Schwab Book Review *Spoiler Free*

Bonjour! Comment ça va?

Time for another book review! Today's is Vicious by V.E Schwab (also known as Victoria Schwab) The reason why I picked this particular book is that so far on this blog the only book reviews that we have posted have been contemporary, so on the other end of the spectrum today we have and epic science fiction novel.

Victor and Eli are classmates in college. Best friends with the same ambition and streak of evil inside both of them. For this year's college thesis, Eli has chosen EO's. Extraordinaries. Fairytales. However before long an innocent curiosity has led to a dangerous, and life threatening, quest. 

Ten years later Victor has just escaped from prison, and is on a hunt for his old friend (now foe) accompanied by a brawny sidekick with a gift for breaching internet security, and a young girl with a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every supernatural person he can get his hands on, apart from his partner in crime, a enigmatic women with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, and driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the arch-nemeses have set a course from revenge - but who will be left alive at the end?

Admittedly I did take some lines from the blurb of the book, but I was stuck for the right words there.

This book is brilliant. You don't know wether to love or hate the characters. They both do very wrong things, however you can see their course of reasoning. Even if there isn't much reason there. I would highly recommend this. V.E Schwab is a brilliant author- I have read her other adult novel A Darker Shade of Magic, which is a fantasy novel that I loved. Her writing is really unique and I just love it.

Overall rating:  4/5 stars. It was epic.

Au revoir,
Emile x

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Book review *spoiler free*

Bonjour!

Let's get straight into this!

I read this book recently, and I LOVED it. One of my favourite books ever. I am so glad that the author decided to write a YA book that wasn't about romantic love. This book was about friendship and family and about who you really are, how you see yourself and how other people see you.

The year is 1987. Aristotle (Ari) isn't doing very well. He doesn't really have any friends, and is always wondering about his older brother who is in prison. His father was a soldier in the Vietnam war; their family is full of secrets. One day, down at the swimming pool, a boy offers to teach him how to swim. That boy is Dante. Dante appears to be perfect. He reads poetry, draws, is funny and kind and peaceful. An uncanny friendship blossoms between them and through the story you see how they grow as friends and how their families become close. It is such a beautiful story, the ending made me cry. Happy tears and sad tears.

Overall rating:
5/5 stars.

I highly recommend this book to you all, read it!

Au revoir,
Emile :)

Fangirl Book Review *spoiler free*

Hi guys! Today, following on from Emile, I’m going to be doing a book review!

Fangirl is a novel about twins, Cather and Wren, who have always done everything together, ever since they were little. They had the same group of friends at school, both like writing FanFiction and helped each other through everything.

But now they are off to college and everything is about to change. Wren wants to go to parties, get drunk and live life like a stereotypical teen. Cather wants to carry on writing FanFiction and keeping to herself. With this difference of opinions, Cather must get used to being on her own. Also in this school year, Cather discovers that there is more to love than she ever thought possible…

I loved this book… it’s one of those books that you would pick up when you are miserable. It makes you go all warm and fuzzy inside! My favourite character is Cather as she is so relatable! Especially as I love writing FanFiction too! The only thing the book lacked was a major plot-line as this book didn’t really have one.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes Cutesy Contemporary Romance novels.

Happy Reading!

Maud

All the Bright Places - Book Review *spoiler free*

Bonjour!

You can already tell by the title that today I am doing a book review! My first one, so let's make this good.

All the Bright Places is a contemporary book about two characters, Violet Markey and Theodore Finch, who meet on top of the school bell tower where Finch talks Violet out of jumping off.

Theodore has a difficult home life, his Dad has left and he has had quite a hard life. He has struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts, and everyone at school calls him a freak. Violet is mourning her sister who died in a car crash last April where Violet survived, she still hasn't gotten over it. She hasn't gotten in a car since. When they meet everyone at school thinks that Violet is a hero because she stopped Finch from killing himself, only her and Finch know the truth. After being assigned to work on a school project together, they grow closer. As Violet becomes more open, Finch gets worse. How far will she go to save him?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It made me laugh, smile, cry and I felt so connected to the characters, especially Finch. I would like to know more about how Violet feels throughout the book. I read it really quickly, and was gripped all the way through. If you enjoyed Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell,  I think you will like this.

Overall:
5/5 stars. This was amazing.

Please leave me a comment telling me what books you would like to see a review on and what I could to make these reviews better.

Au revoir!
Emile :)