The Liebster Award

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Hello Hello! How are you?

I’m doing a tag as one of my posts for this week, it’s taken me ages, but I’m pushing through and doing as many as I can! It’s my first proper day back at university with all my classes stuffed into the week, so I thought I would start out easy with a tag and work my way up to the review of the massive book I want to post this week aha!

Thank you so much to Leslie from Books Are the New Black for tagging me in this award, I’m so sorry it’s taken me so long! You definitely have to check out her blog and other social accounts, she is lovely! You can read her post and her answers here!

THE RULES

• Acknowledge the blog that gave it to you and display the award.
• Answer 11 questions that the blogger gives you.
• Give 11 random facts about yourself.
• Nominate 11 blogs and notify them of their nomination.
• Give these blogs 11 questions to answer.

LESLIE’S QUESTIONS FOR ME

1. A character that reminds you of yourself?

Hum, this is a hard one as I’ve never really thought about a character resembling me much, but I suppose that I have identified to many characters in books before! I think I have to go for – and this has taken me ages to think of – Elisabeth from Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson, I don’t really know why, but while I was reading this book, I felt like I was quite similar to her for some reason.

2. A book that you loved and wasn’t in your typical genre?

I’m pretty sure you’re all bored of me talking about this book, but once again I am going to scream it from the rooftops, I adored A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson, it was amazing and so far one of my favourite books this year, if not THE favourite (I know, it’s crazy). And it’s crazy because my typical genres are fantasy and historical fiction, the biggest amount of mystery I get is from watching Criminal Minds, so giving this one 5 stars and loving it as much as I did was a big surprise to my fantasy-historical fiction loving heart!

3. What’s another hobby you enjoy (besides reading/blogging)?

I don’t know if you can call this a hobby, but I really love bullet journaling, it’s something I started a few years ago and didn’t get in the swing of until late last year, now I’m hooked and currently just finishing setting up my new university bullet journal for this year! I am not the most creative or artistic person (unlike my parents) but I adore how it calms me, I get to be creative and try different things, granted I sometimes get frustrated and have a little moan about getting a spread not quite perfect, but it’s a great thing I do besides reading and blogging and I recommend to all my fellow organisation freaks out there, I promise it’s worth it.

4. One unusual thing about yourself?

I don’t consider myself as an unusual person, but I live in France which can be a very hot country and it doesn’t get *that* cold here, but I hate the heat so much, I don’t like it, it’s awful. I can deal with it if I’m in another country than my own, but as soon as spring starts in France, I have to go hide in the garage because it’s just too much for me.

5. If you won the lottery what is the first thing you would do/purchase?

This is such a hard question again, but the first thing I would purchase is either something for my mum or for my fiancé. They are both really creative and artsy people, the loveliest ever and I would like to buy them something nice that they can use like some type of crafting machine or art supplies! And of course, after that, I would buy myself a cabin, decorate it and fill it with books ehehe!!

6. What is your favorite trope?

These are really hard questions Leslie, argh!! I wouldn’t say I’m a person who necessarily has favourite/hated tropes and I don’t pay that much attention to them, I’m sorry if that makes me a bad reader, please forgive me! I do really like a love triangle or enemies to lovers tropes if they are done well, and other than that I kind of like them all, well, all the ones I’ve come across aha!

7. Favorite colour?

Finally an easy question yay! My favourite colour is green!

8. Best advice for a reading slump or what works for you?

Oh, I hate when I’m in a reading slump, it’s not something that happens that often to me honestly (touch wood) but when it does it’s a massive one and I’ve been in slumps for like a 6-month period before. The best way that I’ve found to get myself out of a slump is to NOT pick up a book at all while I’m not feeling like reading because I will just end up pushing myself and it won’t be reading for me or for fun anymore. When I feel like I’m ready to read again, I usually pick up a contemporary romance or one of my favourites to get me back in the mood again!

9. If you could receive any ARC in the mail what would it be?

This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I would ADORE getting the next book in the ACOTAR series in the mail, it’s one of my favourite series and I can’t wait to read it!

10. Do you subscribe to any monthly book boxes? or other items?

Yes! I have a monthly subscription to Fairyloot, they have such amazing boxes with amazing items inside and I absolutely love every one of them I get, it’s something I look forward to and it’s lovely to open and get excited over! I haven’t re-subscribed to them yet, but I got myself a 1-month subscription to Book Box Club at the start of the year and the box was amazing! I really need to get myself another one of them because it was a lovely little addition to my month!

11. If you had to choose, what book villain would you be?

Wow, this is such an interesting question! I’m going to go towards a classic and say the Red Queen from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, I don’t count myself as a violent person, but I think that the vibes she gives off are kind of me when I get angry or frustrated at something or myself. That probably makes me sound awful though aha!

MY RANDOM FACTS

• I was born in England (both my parents and my whole family are British) but I moved to France when I was 18-months-old.
• I learned to read and write in French before I did in English but now I literally only read English books unless if it’s a book for university.
• I also have an Indian ancestor and I’m fascinated by genealogy, I’d love to one day travel to the place where my great-great-grandmother was born!
• I’m a very organised person and sometimes that isn’t the best thing for me, I have some really freaky moments and I drive people mad with all my “don’t put that there”, “omg what are you doing”, “urgh let me do it”, etc, etc.
• My dream is to become a published author, I have a book sort of half drafted and I have the rest of it written in my head, I really need to finish it, don’t I?
• I’ve travelled to the UK (loads of places I can’t remember), Germany, Switzerland, Scotland and all around France, but I want to go to so many other countries! I love to travel, I just wish I had more time and money!
• I named my car Polly and then named all my friend’s cars and it’s just stuck, all our cars have names and we never say “the car” we say “let’s go in Polly, or Lenny, or Vera, etc”, lol, I’m so weird.
• I have an unhealthy obsession with Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh and have about a million Eeyores and Eeyore-things, I’m pretty much an Eeyore expert by now and can do all his moods and voices! I’m afraid I’m starting to sound like a freak now, right?
• One of my favourite books is Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, we read it in class when I was about 14 and I fell in love, I’m actually the only person who read it out of 30 students!
• I love anything cosy, snuggly, soft pyjamas and socks and slippers, sitting on my sofa cuddled up in a fuzzy blanket with the fire roaring, a cup of tea in one hand and a book in the other, I’m a proper cold-weather snuggly-blanket type person!
• I got engaged on my 18^th birthday and we are still not married, but one day soon I hope!

QUESTIONS FOR MY NOMINEES

1. What was your favourite childhood book? Do you still love it today?
2. Do you like slow-paced books, fast-paced ones or ones that are a bit of both?
3. Do you have a favourite bookish character? Why?
4. Coffee or Tea? Or something else?
5. How do you organise your books?
6. Have you travelled? If so, which was your favourite destination?
7. Do you prefer the summer (hot weather) or the winter (cold weather)?
8. Do you like bookish merch? Which is your favourite item?
9. Name a series that you love and recommend to everyone, regardless of their favourite genres.
10. What is your favourite thing about your blog?
11. What is your favourite thing about being a book blogger?

MY NOMINEES

The Artsy Reader

Holly Loves Books

And On She Reads

The Confessions Of A Music and Book Addict

Fi’s Bibliofiles

Kerri McBookNerd

Stephen Writes

Becky’s Book Blog

Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub

The Book Dutchesses

Shelves of Starlight

And anyone else who wants to take part and do this tag! As always, if you don’t want to do it, it’s not a problem, don’t feel obligated just because I tagged you! If you do decide to do it, remember to tag me so I can read all your answers!

That’s all for now, this was a great tag, I really enjoyed it and I hope you enjoyed reading it! See you soon, stay safe,

Ellie xx