The Book Review ~ Rich Bitch

Rating: 5/5

Make sure to engage your brain before picking up this book! It is really a fantastic read but you need to have your wits about you, and an open notebook at your side.

Nicole Lapin is a genius, what she writes about might be common sense but it makes so much sense. It explains so many problems that people I know have and makes me realise where NOT to go! 

Her advise is applicable to everyone at any station. You can use her set-up plans for each area of your life and apply them immediately no matter what your financial status or income. 

She has made me so eager to get going and start living and using my income wisely! AMAZING!

Thank you Nicole xxxx

The Book Review ~ The Little Stranger

Rating 4/5

This was another fantastic read. I cannot believe I have never read Sarah Waters before! She was right up my street with a gorgeous Gothic setting and fantastic characters. The writing is incredible with a great flow, although the chapters are a bit to long with little chance to break. 

Waters creates a fantastic plot where the reader can decide what is truly happening within the story whether the events are supernatural or psychological. It is an amazing thing to do. I still am undecided as to which side I am really on! Ghost or medical? 

It's the story of a Doctor who finds himself in tangled with the local eccentric family and their rather freaky house which is falling into decay. As each family member seems to loose their mind under his care strange things appear or happen causing doubt as to whether in his mind as to whether psychology is to blame or the houses Little Stranger. 

The creation of this little stranger was incredible. There was no doubt in your mind that there was something there. Everything was haunting to the point where a few BBC news updates which blared out my phone whilst I was reading caused me to leap a few feet in the air!

There was only one thing that really ruined the novel. It was the final section. Obviously Waters had a brilliant conclusion planned but getting from what seemed like the natural conclusion to the actual end there was a complete dip in the narrative. It dwindled and lost some of the thrill that is had held throughout the other 400 pages! 

My name is ThePoshGurl and I am a Cycling Addict

Next month I will do something I never though myself capable of doing... a SPORTING EVENT! I will be cycling 75 miles for Plan International (to sponsor me) at the Cotswolds Sportive in Cheltenham. For most people I know this will be a major shock. I come from Vancouver a sports capital but I was exactly the opposite when I lived there. I was unfit and lazy. In fact I was unfit and lazy until January this year when sick of the bus I began commuting in from my village to work in Oxford. A new bike and a selection of cycling clothes later and I have become a fully fledged Pedal Head. In the last few weeks I have kicked up training, (yes training) for the sportive and have been even leaving a full days work at the office and going out on a 30-40 mile bike ride home! 

So what has caused this huge change. TidyBoy will tell you it's my latest form of procrastination - I get into things to avoid doing what I should be doing - well that is true. BUT there is also something more. I won't get all romantic and talk about the empty roads, being at one with the countryside or the need for speed! Instead it is something that has taken me back to my childhood. I was a crazy horse girl as a kid and was riding everyday after school and all weekends. I would go as far as to wear my riding gear on non-school uniform days just to save time getting to the stables! In those days I used to ride my bike to the stables with a bridle in a backpack and a saddle on my handlebars! My favourite thing to do was to go hacking on my horse. I could go for hours and go anywhere. I would pack snacks and drinks in a backpack and be missing for hours. I think cycling has filled that void. Whenever I see a person hacking out I literally cannot feel anything but jealousy. However, riding a horse is expensive. So my metal framed friend is my substitute. Sure I can't turn it into a freshly cut field and gallop it, but the feelings of being out in the open air and being free are still the same. 

Yesterday TidyBoy led the route and it was quite literally a show of manliness! Up this hill and down this one and then up this one and still up this one and up another one... hill after hill after boring hill. There was no variation. No pretty villages to ride through. I got quite grumpy! Although TidyBoy was persistent in the fact this was "good training" I couldn't help but notice the difference in our passions. He does it for speed, and fitness. I do it for something completely different. Although I know the bike cannot hear me when I aimlessly chat to it, and it's not fluffy enough to cuddle the feeling is the same and I cannot wait to explore when I take my new passion back to the Canadian Mountains!

The Book Review ~ The Taxidermist's Daughter

Rating 5/5

I have read Kate Mosse before and her books never disappoint. Her book "The Winter Ghosts" I managed to read in a single sitting on a train to Cardiff. This book is a bit thicker but if I had had a day I think the same could have been done. It is an absolute thriller - the story completely consumes you and you cannot put it down. 

The book is chiefly a mystery - a girl is murdered, men go missing, but there is so much more. A mysterious second narrative crops up at the end of every section justifying these disappearances and gruesome murders. The protagonist has memory loss and as things remind her of what she witnessed as a child the crimes and criminal are revealed. 

The writing is truly Gothic with gorgeous bleak descriptions that make you physically shiver when you read them. The characters are fantastic with the nervous clerk, useless policeman and handsome young hero! 

I could really go on for hours about how brilliant this book is - it really is all encompassing. When I wasn't reading it I was trying to use the clues to figure out what was going on - and then the rest of the time I was reading it... nonstop! 

Clearly another triumph for Kate Mosse.