Wednesday 31 December 2014

General Whimsy: Good-Bye 2014.



Good-Bye 2014! 

You are a good year...largely. 
I read 295 books! 
I wrote.
I learned. 
I cooked. 
I baked. 
I watched movies. 
I loved. 
I made plans. 
I got excited. 
I felt sad. 
I felt joy. 
I bought pretty things. 
I choose happiness. 
I journaled.
I took pictures. 


You were good to me 2014. And I bid you farewell with warm feelings. 

Have a lovely New Year's Eve. 

Mine is a quiet one spent at home, cooking and being happy. 
I couldn't ask for much else. 

See you next year! 

Happy New Year. 


2014 Favourites: Top 5 Romance Books of 2014

Romance novels are a dime a dozen! There is something out there for everyone's taste! What makes romance as a genre so interesting is that there can be all kinds of love stories- funny ones, tragic ones, dramatic ones, scary (stalkers and such) ones etc. However, what is also interesting is that there are so many badly written romances out there. 

A good romance should have the basic elements in place- characters that one connects with and roots for, some fun quirks which makes these characters endearing and memorable, great chemistry, great banter and also some steamy love making! What?! Let's not be coy now! 

So, without further ado, let's get into it, shall we? 




5 and 4. As far as romance novels go, for me the discovery of the year 2014 was Colleen Hoover. She writes, what people are calling, 'New Adult' books- basically, steamier than the teenage/ young adult rom-coms and whose protagonists are, largely, over eighteen (to allow for the aforementioned steamy lovemaking stuff, I presume! *wink* *wink*) 

I, especially, enjoyed Maybe Someday, Hopeless and Ugly Love. She writes romances well, her protagonists have demons of some kind that they are trying to exorcise and there is a lot of love and some steamy love making as well. There! The full package! 

Hopeless is reviewed here
Maybe Someday is reviewed here.




3. My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick is a well-written love story with a nice plot, cute characters and the kind of complexity that one does not get to see in many YA romances. Here is the review. 


2. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes is a simply lovely, heartbreaking book about loving someone else, sure, but most of all, loving yourself and seeing value in who you are. This book made me laugh and cry (oh how it made me cry) and it is such a lovely book! Jojo Moyes is simply a brilliant romance writer! Here is the review of this amazing book.  





1. My absolute FAVOURITE romance book this year was 'The Rosie Project'. I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Don's character! He is just so adorable and funny and so endearing.
 Here is the review.

Hope you enjoy these books, if you go out and read them!

Have you read any good romances this year? If yes, please share your favourites in the comments! We're always on the look out for light, breezy and fun romance books! :)

And oh! Happy New Year's Eve!

Tuesday 30 December 2014

2014 Favourites: Top 5 Thrillers of 2014.


1. The Strangler Vine by M.J. Carter: I randomly came across this book in a book store and it sounded interesting and like something I'd enjoy. I read it and loved it and reviewed it HERE. 


2. The Fate of Mercy Alban by Wendy Webb: A very engaging read that I just couldn't put down. It was creepy and scary in parts and a very fun read. Reviewed HERE


3. Oscar Wilde and The Candlelight Murders by Gyles Brandreth: Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle solving crimes! Yes please! Such a unique concept and such a good read. I cannot wait to read more books from this series. Reviewed HERE. 


4. The Silkworm by Robert Gailbraith aka J.K. Rowling: We are absolutely loving the Cormoran Strike books. Loved the first one and really loved this one too and I cannot wait for the next book to be out. Such amazing reads. Great thrillers, amazing writing and just stellar books! Reviewed HERE


5. The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah: Poirot is back! Nothing could make me happier. Ah Poirot! So great! Reviewed it HERE

P.S: Some of these books were read and reviewed by my sister- who is a contributor to my blog and I appreciate her reviewing books for me. :)

Sunday 28 December 2014

General Whimsy: What's in My Bag? 2014 Edition.

I am more than obsessed with What's in my Bag tags on Youtube and I have seem so many of those videos it's not even funny! But they are so freaking entertaining. 

I did one of these posts last year featuring my Travel Backpack. I figured it's time I did another one of these before the year is up. 

This bag is from Zara. I bought it in October...I think and I've been using it since mid-November. Well, was using. I am currently using a satchel my sister bought me for Christmas! I really love this bag and I love how spacious she is and how much stuff she holds. I started using her after months of using tiny satchel bags (I am a total satchel bag fiend.)and it was so refreshing to use a bag with ample room. 

So here we go...with what's in my bag. This is picture heavy post so I'd recommend sitting comfortably and getting nosey. :) 




All the stuff laid out neatly. I am a big believer in having tiny bags inside my bag to keep my stuff organised. And I love having a plethora of cute pouches around to keep me both organised and making the inside of my bag pretty. 


Of course I have some reading material on hand! Duh! 



My planner for December. This darling little notebook is from ChimpWear. 



Some essentials: my keys/ for my home, car and keys to my old flat in Bangalore. I forgot to return the keys :( but my landlord changed the locks (I think) and it reminds me of my flat and life in Bangalore. 



My purse hook from Accessorize. I am a bit of a germa-phobe and the thought of putting my bag down on some dirty surface creeps me out. 


Another super essential..hand sanitiser from Bath and Bodyworks. Love this stuff. 


A comb with a encouraging message on it. 



A pouch to hold my camera and a little penguin with a hat to hold spare batteries and SD cards. Both of these are from Accessorize. 



A colourful coin purse to hold my ancient but very loved and appreciated iPod. 



A case from Chumbak to hold my glasses and a matching cloth to clean said glasses. 
Isn't the auto rickshaw print just darling? 



A case to house my sunglasses also from Chumbak. 




For some odd reason I had two little things to hold my phone. 


I don't carry around a ton of make-up with me. 

Just lipstick. 
Powder. 
Perfumes. 
Lipbalm. 

I usually also have a black eyeliner but for some reason it was missing. 



Love this lipbalm. 


Lipsticks of the moment. Maybelline Warm me Up.
Lo'real Caresse Lipstick in Dating Coral.
And MAC's Mehr. 


Two perfumes, a roller ball from L'occitain and Elizabeth Arden Green Tea. 


Lippie loves. 


Bird Wallet from India Circus. 


Forever 21 pouch that holds my Kindle. 

My Kindle case is from Amazon and I dressed it up in glitter washi tape for the festive season. 




Some books on my Kindle. 


A tiny little notebook to write in and my adorable pencil case! So freaking cute! 



That cute little face! 
All the pens I carry around. 


And now some random stuff... 


Some perfume smelling/sniffing paper bits from L'occitane, we recently bought some perfume from the brand and these bits ended up in my bag. Also a straw from Starbucks. 
And a whole lotta watches. I am a freak. All my watches are out of battery at the exact same time and they need to go the watch store to get their batteries changed. I still haven't managed to get this done! :( Need to do so soon. 


A leather card holder. I use this to hold my loyalty cards for a bunch of stores. 
I found an old receipt in my bag too..



And finally, all my stuff sitting inside my bag. This post was nearly never ending. 

Let me know if you've done a similar post on your blog, I'd love to go see it. Like I said I love this stuff! 


The only things I don't have but I usually tend to carry around are of course feminine stuff...for obvious reasons. I also usually have gum but I was out. And a bottle of water. 

Hope it was fun looking inside my bag. :)