Reading wrap-up + Favourites // March 2018

Hello, beautiful people!

I can't believe March is finally over, it was an eventful and tiring month, sometimes amazing, sometimes awful, but that's life, I guess. What I want to remember out of it are moments such as Disneyland Paris, Livre Paris, where I met Victoria Schwab, Marissa Meyer and Diana Gabaldon (!!!), seeing my best friend every week, despite not living in the same city, watching amazing TV shows and helplessly falling in love with books. There were so many positive things happening in March that I hope it will outweight the way I felt most of the time in my future memories.

W H A T  I  R E A D

In March, I decided not to have a monthy TBR anymore and it was such a nice feeling: while I read tons of books during the first ten days of the month, I "only" read four books during the last three weeks of it and I felt so great about it. Reading isn't a competition after all, even though it feels like it at times (I'm mainly the one competing with myself, but still), it was so nice to just take my time with books, for once.

• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, 5/5 stars
• The Cruel Prince by Holly Black, 4/5 stars
• First Ladies of the Republic: Martha Washington, Abigail Adams and Dolley Maddison, and the Creation of an Iconic American Role by Jeanne E. Abrams (e-ARC), 3.5/5 stars
• The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley, 3/5 stars
• The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher, 4/5 stars
• Renegades by Marissa Meyer, 5/5 stars
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi by Jason Fry, 4.5/5 stars
• The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar, 3.5/5 stars
• Villette by Charlotte Brontë, 2/5 stars
• Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, 5/5 stars
• Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie, 4/5 stars

I completely fell in love with three books this month, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, Renegades by Marissa Meyer and Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, I wouldn't be able to pick a favourite out of these three! I also had my first big disappointment with Villette by Charlotte Brontë, but it was a buddy read and ranting about it to my friend was hilarious and made the experience enjoyable somehow.

F A V O U R I T E  B L O G  P O S T S

Ashleigh @ A Frolic Through Fiction went to Haworth to visit the Brontë Parsonage and she made me want to visit it even more, someday.

Evelina @ Avalinah's Books talked about book smugglers in Lithuania at the end of the 19th century.

Marta @ The Cursed Books explained why blogging might be bad for your reading and what you can do about that.

Elise @ The Bookish Actress talked about the "not-like-other-girls" trope, and why we need more 'unlikable' heroines (her posts are amazing in general though, I can't believe I just discovered her blog!).

My lockscreen, aka one of my favourite Star Wars fanart. 

I found it there, but I'm not sure who the artist is, sadly.

F A V O U R I T E S

TV SHOW // Jane the Virgin

I watched a lot of TV shows that I adored this month, but Jane the Virgin won everything. If you don't know, this one has been on my favourite shows list for a few years now, but I forbid myself to watch it if the season hasn't finished airing yet. Why, you will ask? Because whenever I watch it, I enter the ultimate stage of binge-watching, aka I won't do anything but watch it and it always ends in cliffhangers, so I can't bear to wait each week. I wasn't supposed to watch season 4 just now because of that, but I obviously did. Oops. 

Season 4 is absolutely amazing so far, it's been delivering so many important messages that matter even more to me on a personal level and that's why the binge-watching was even worse than usual. This show always makes me feel better, makes me smile no matter what, it was no different for season 4. I cannot wait to continue watching it week after week, even though it will mean I'll scream every time it ends on a cliffhanger, but oh well. There is no point in forbidding myself to do things that will make me happy. I also love Petra even more than usual, this season. She's the type of character I can't help but love, I have to say that the Petra we've been seeing lately is the best.

TEA // Empress Grey from Marks & Spencer

I was carburating to Jasmine Tea in February, but considering how winter-y the weather still was in March, I needed to drink a more winter-y tea again. As M&S is a loyal friend of mine, I tried this one out from them and adore it, I've been drinking it during breakfast every morning for the past few weeks (it goes very well with porridge, I have to say!). It makes me feel so warm, more comfortable in my own skin on a daily basis and that's what I need from a good tea.

TV SHOW // The Good Place

I finally watched The Good Place and it was one of the best things ever. The Good Place follows Eleanor Shellstrop, who lands in an idyllic afterlife only to discover that she has been mistaken for a very good person. Certain that she lived a bad life and is destined to be sent to hell if she's discovered, Eleanor tries to keep her presence a secret even though it causes disruption to everyone around her. The Good Place is one of those shows that's weird, in a very good way (like Legion*). It's the kind of show that you binge-watch because you want to understand what's going on. I usually need to have a show where an episode is about 20 minutes long on the go, it's perfect for breakfasts or study breaks, I am so glad I had this one in March. It was absolutely hilarious, had such a diverse cast of characters and I cannot wait to watch season 3!

*can you tell that I was rewatching Legion while I was typing this? 

BEAUTY // Green clay masks

Doing face masks has become a weekly tradition for me lately and after trying out several of them, I have settled on green clay masks this month and I adore them. They always make me feel like my skin is all new and clear whenever I'm done with them. They're perfect in my Sunday self-care routing while I'm watching a TV show now. I've started to use more beauty products lately, so stay tuned, maybe I'll have things to say in the future, even though I have no idea about what I'm doing lmao.

MUSIC // Found/Tonight

I don't listen to a lot of new music each month, but this one song was more than enough. Found/Tonight was the March Hamildrop and oh my, nothing can tops this. N O T H I N G. Found/Tonight is a mash-up between You Will Be Found (Dear Evan Hansen) and The Story of Tonight (Hamilton), performed by Ben Platt (the original Evan Hansen) and Lin-Manuel Miranda (the original Alexander Hamilton). A portion of proceeds from the song are going to the #MarchForOurLives initiative. It's simply everything and to quote Evan Hansen, words fail to tell you how much I adore it and how much I listened to it on repeat this month.

TV SHOW // Star Wars: The Clone Wars & Star Wars: Forces of Destinies

I managed to have daily Star Wars content in March and that's everything I ever needed. I started watching The Clone Wars and adore it. Like many people, I'm not the biggest fan of the prequel trilogy (it has its good parts and its... less good parts, shall we say), so I wasn't intending to watch The Clone Wars any time soon, considering it's set between Episodes II & III, but I had to watch it if I wanted to watch Star Wars Rebels, so. Anyhoo, I actually adore it, it's another 20 minutes long show perfect for short breaks and I even came to like Anakin Skywalker at times, which is an improvement. Let's be real, though, Ahsoka Tano is the best character and I love her to pieces. Thanks to my little brother for telling me the first two seasons were on Netflix France, even though my responsabilities weren't as happy about it.

My fierce baby

On the other hand, I watched Star Wars: Forces of Destinies and it's so cute, it's on Disney's YouTube channel, each episode lasts three minutes and mainly follows the female characters of Star Wars (in season 2 there is an episode only focusing on Luke, which I liked, but why??). I watched the episode of Rey and the Porgs five times because I'm ridiculous and would watch anything Star Wars, even if it's supposed to be for kids or something. I can't wait for May, because we'll get the rest of season 2 (more content from The Last Jedi, YES) and Kylo Ren* will appear at some point!

*Did you really think we would get through a monthly wrap-up without mentionning Kylo? Think again. *evil laughter*

What did you read this month? Any new favourite books?

Lots of love,

Lucie