Book Review - 'One Of Us Is Lying' by Karen M. McManus

 

Hello everyone!

I recently read the book 'One Of Us Is Lying' by Karen M. McManus and I loved it so I wanted to tell you what I thought of it (without giving away to many spoilers!)

One Of Us Is Lying is about the death of  Simon Kelleher, a high school student, the investigation in to finding out what happened to him and how Cooper Clay, Nate Macauley, Adelaide Prentiss and Bronwyn Rojas fit into it all. The book is a mixture of The Breakfast Club, Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars. The main characters are all so different and appear to fit into the stereotypes of a jock, a criminal, a princess and a brain. However, due to them being investigated for murder they realise that they are actually good friends.

Throughout the book (and even from the question on the front cover) we make assumptions and guesses as to who killed Simon which adds to the theme of stereotypes because it is someone we might not have thought of solely because of who they appear to be.

I love that the main characters break from the stereotypes that everyone thinks they are. Cooper is a baseball player who turned out to be gay. Bronwyn is a goody- two shoes who did whatever she could to help her friends, even something as shocking to her as breaking the rules. Nate is a drug dealing bad boy who was actually innocent. Adelaide is a pushover, popular girl who ended up solving the crime of who killed Simon.

There are also other mature themes in the book such as depression, suicide, bullying and homophobia. But the author also explores the friendship between Nate, Cooper, Bronwyn and Adelaide who form an unlikely but lasting bond after being forced together by the events that take place.

I feel like the ending of the book was hinted at throughout but the motives of the people involved in Simon's death was still a shock.

So those were my thoughts on 'One Of Us Is Lying' by Karen M. McManus. The book is currently on offer for £5.49 in Waterstones but you can get it from WH Smith and Amazon as well. Have you read this book? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments.

Love Courtney x





What I Got For Christmas 2016

    

Merry Christmas!

Well Christmas is over (*sob*) but it's still December. I hope you all had an amazing Christmas. The past few days my Youtube subscription box has been full of 'What I Got For Christmas' videos and I've read so many blog posts as well. I love seeing what people got so I wanted to do my own post in case you are as nosy as I am.

I love pyjamas and being comfortable so when I recieved two pairs of slippers, pj's and a dressing gown on Christmas morning I was so excited. The pj's are slightly oversized so they are that bit more comfy and the dressing gown is longer than I'm used to and it's so soft!



Another thing I got for Christmas was books. And lots of them! I love reading but I've run out of books to read so I made a list of books I thought would be interesting and my mum got me some of them. The three fiction book I got are 'The Moonlight Dreamers' by Siobhan Curham, 'Flawed' by Ceclia Ahern and 'Follow Me Back' by Nicci Cloke.

I also got 'Our Story' by The Vamps and 'Our World' by Little Mix. I love The Vamps and Little Mix so I really wanted their books.

I haven't read any of these books yet but I might do reviews of them once I have.

My family know I love candles so they made sure I was well stocked up. I got the candle from B and M Bargains which I mentioned in my Last Minute Gift Ideas post. I also got a candle from Primark which is in the scent madagascan vanilla and another candle which smells of vanilla toffee but I'm not sure where this is from. Then I got some light changing candles which is handy because my cat Fitz doesn't understand candles and flames so whenever I have a candle lit I need to make sure she doesn't dip her tail into the flame.

The next thing I got was a mini hot water bottle which is the perfect gift for me because I'm always cold. I also got the Sweet Christmas gift set from Lush which has three products in it that are all Snow Fairy scented. Then I got a perfume from Next which is called Just Pink. It smells so nice and the bottle is so pretty.



The last lot of gifts I recieved that I'm going to show you today are all random but really cool. I got a DIY emoji cushion set. So you get two small cushions and two bigger ones, the stuffing to stuff them with and the faces which you can sew onto them. I'm really excited to use that. Then I got something which is really practical. It's a laptop tray so that I can sit in bed and do my homework. This is great because although I have a desk, the room it's in gets really cold in the winter. Finally, I got a light up letter box. I don't actually know what they're called but they have been everywhere recently. I did mention this in my Last Minute Gift Ideas but I wasn't expecting to get this because I have almost no space in my room but I got it and I think it's really nice so I'll just find somewhere for it.

So that is everything I'm going to show you. If I showed you everything that I got for Christmas we would be here for ages. I love everything I got and this post wasn't me trying to brag or boast. I just love seeing these types of posts and videos. Le me know your favourite gift you got for Christmas and what you got up to on Christmas Day.

Love Courtney x





 





November Favourites

Hello everyone!

Now I know pretty much everyone says this but i really can't believe it's the end of November let alone almost the end of the year. Christmas is next month. How crazy is that?! I have never done a monthly favourites here on my blog but I love reading other peoples posts and watching their Youtube videos. So I thought I would give you a roundup of some of the things I have loved recently. I'm not going to talk much about beauty favourites today because I have a winter essentials post coming soon so I will talk about my favourite bits in there. Also this post would be far too long if I included them.



My first favourtite is this scarf from Primark. It is so big and does a great job at keeping you all warm and cosy during winter. Plus it's such a bargain at £4. Primark do so many different patterns but I went for this red, navy and white tartan one. I think everyone should have an oversized scarf for wintertime.

My next favourite is 'Everything Everything' by Nicola Yoon. I read this book in about 3 days. It's so good. 'Everything Everything' is about a 17 year old girl called Maddie who has a rare disease which means she could be severly allergic to anything but she doesn't know what. One day a boy called Ollie moves next door and they begin talking online. If you haven't read this book you definitely should. The ending is such a plot twist. I bought this from WH Smith for £7.99 but it is also available on Amazon.

Another favourtite of mine this month has been the Garnier PureActive 3 in 1 wash, scrub and mask. Going into winter my skin has gotten a lot more dry than it normally is so it has become flaky and I have had a lot of obvious dry patches mainly around my nose. I wanted to find something to combat this so I bought this scrub from Tesco for £3.50. I have only used it a handful of times but I can already notice a difference. It's not too harsh on my slightly sensitive skin. However it does make my skin feel a bit dried out after I use it so I just have to make sure I put some moisturiser on to help this. You can also buy this from Boots, Superdrug and FeelUnique.

The rest of my November favourites are not physical objects. I have a song and 2 tv shows. The song I have been loving is 'Shoutout To My Ex' by Little Mix. I have loved Little Mix since they were on the X Factor so any song they release I am bound to love. 'Shoutout To My Ex' is no exception. I find it so catchy and the vocals and video are great. I can't wait to see them perform it at their tour next year which i luckily got tickets for.

2 tv shows I have been loving this month are Home and Away and I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. Home and Away is a show that has been on air since the 80's so it's definitely not new. I've also been watching it for years but recently I have just found it so good that I had to mention it here. If you've never seen or heard of Home and Away it is a soap opera set in Australia. It tells the story of the residents of a small Australian town called Summer Bay. Everyone in the town has secrets and there is quite a lot of drama and sometimes murder.

I'm a Celebrity is another show which is not new and I've watched for a while but I wanted to give it a mention because it's so good. It comes on once a year round about October/ November time so you know when I'm a Celeb comes on it's almost Christmas. The whole concept of I'm a Celebrity is that they put 12 celebs in a jungle in Australia for a few weeks and make them do trials and challenges to earn food. I think the celebs this year are all really good as they have done really well in all of the Bushtucker Trials. Let me know in the comments if you watch I'm a Celeb who is your favourite and who you want to win. I really like Joel and Scarlett becasuse they are hilarious.

That's most of the stuff I have been loving during the month of November. As I said if I spoke through everything we would be here all day. Keep an eye out for my Winter Essentials post which will be coming at the start of December.

Let me know some of the things you've been loving this month in the comments. Speak to you soon!

Love Courtney x