{Book Review} The Stroke of Eleven by Kyle Robert Shultz

The adventures of Beaumont and Beasley are at an end.

The Council of Scions has finally caught up with Nick Beasley and his friends—and the sinister enchantress Madame Levesque has plans for them. Nick and Cordelia must solve an ancient mystery for her. Otherwise, Crispin and Molly will be lost forever.

The investigation leads Nick and Cordelia to the Castle of Basile, a bizarre place detached from space and time. Old friends are trapped there, and Nick and Cordelia are soon imprisoned along with them. Their jailer is the Fairy Godmother from the tale of Cinderella…who turns out to be far less benevolent than the storybook version.

A masked man offers to help—but can the White Rabbit really be trusted? What is Cinderella’s dark secret? And what will happen when the clock strikes twelve?

AMAZON | GOODREADS | AUTHOR'S WEBSITE | AUTHOR'S BLOG

 

I think the best way to describe my feelings about this book is SKDLJFLKJDS:LFJL:DSKJ:LFKJ:DLSKJF:LKJDS:LFJKSLDKJ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okey doke. Now that we have that established…

The Stroke of Eleven is the 3rd installment in the Beaumont and Beasley series, of which I’ve been screaming to you guys about since I read the 1st book back in June. BECAUSE I LOVE THIS SERIES. (You can read my review for the first book, The Beast of Talesend, HERE. Annnd I realize I didn’t actually do a review for the 2nd one, Tomb of the Sea Witch, because I faaail at book reviews. Well…JUST READ IT. IT WAS EPIC. It involved an Antihero Magic School, mermaids, a DRAGON(!!!!), and a band of “mythfits”. <--- Boom. A review. I’m amazing.)

This 3rd book may be my favorite yet. I DON’T KNOW. They’re all so good! But where the first two (the first especially) was more on the lighthearted side, this one took the feels to a whoooooole ‘nuther level and just… *collapses* THIS BOOK, GUYS.

 

THE RUNDOWN

Where The Beast of Talesend was a Beauty and the Beast retelling and The Tomb of the Sea Witch The Little Mermaid, The Stroke of Eleven is a Cinderella retelling. (Though with these books I use “retelling” loosely. They’re more…fairytale continuations-ish?)

I’m aware there are like 293982 Cinderella retellings out there, but, personally I neverrrr get tired of them. And this one took the events and made them so, so epic. Trust me, you’re gonna love it! And, again, it’s not really a retelling. More like the events after the story of Cinderella happened. In a sense.

ANYWAYS. Nick, Cordelia, Crispin, and Molly have finally gotten captured by Madame Levesque. To keep Crispin and Molly safe, Nick and Cordelia must go to this mysterious, phantom castle for Levesque and do what she asks. Once there, things start getting even more dangerous than they realize. *cue complex, epic plot things and FEELS*

 

CHARACTERS

The whole gang is back. I’d say Nick and Cordelia were even more spectacular in this one. The things they had to do and experience added a whole other level of depth to their already amazing characters and brought them closer and skdljflskjdfs. I CAN’T WITH THESE TWO.

Crispin was of course the BEST. As always. Except there was sort of a sad lack of him in this one. Still, the scenes we did get with him were fabulous. Molly, too, wasn’t present for a lot of it. But there was one scene in the beginning with her that made me crack up and love this sweet girl even more.

The Mythfits are back!!! Which I was so ecstatic about. I was worried they were just going to be in The Tomb of the Sea Witch and that be it. But nope! They were a very big factor in the plot of this one and it made me ridiculously happy.

ALSO MALCOLM. This cranky, shapeshifting dragon becomes even more epic in this installment. Every time we get a taste of him and his backstory, I want to know mooooore. I find him one of the most intriguing characters in the Afterlands. PLUS HE’S A DRAGON SO THERE’S THAT.

We also have new additions. Like the White Rabbit who was soooo mysterious and cool! And Cinderella and the Prince themselves! I. LOVED. THEM. The Prince had me cracking up. Kyle is the best at flipping over cliches and surprising you with the characters. Cinderella was a sweetie, which I was so glad of! The tenderhearted, nice Cinderellas are always my fave. I seriously adored both of them!

Basically, the whole cast is perfection and I am so attached to these people, it’s probably not even healthy.

 

OTHER THINGS I LOVED

Um…everything? Seriously, there was just soooo much epic stuff going on in this book! But there are definitely a few things that literally had me shrieking with excitement.

- IT’S TIMEY WIMEY. We’ve got time travel and time loops and time staying still and just…TIMEY WIMEY THIIINGS. Which is my faaaavorite. I can’t even express how ecstatic I was when I heard this book was full of convoluted time travel-y things. One of my favorite story aspects in one of my favorite series? YES PLEEEEEEEEEEASE!!!

- ALICE IN WONDERLAND THINGS. So the other books have had hints of some Wonderland stuff going on. But this one dove right into it with the addition of the White Rabbit and some other stuff. And and and AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! You all probably know how unhealthily obsessed I am with all things Alice in Wonderland. I was literally whisper screaming over certain parts and at each and every nod this had to Wonderland. IT MADE MY WONDERLAND-LOVING HEART SO HAPPY. I cannot waaaaaaaait to see where all the Wonderland stuff goes in the rest of the series.

- The Castle of Basile. Trying to avoid spoilers here, but the mystery involving the castle and the way it worked was SO. FUN. Everything was just so funnn!

- Nods to Beauty and the Beast. Despite being a Cinderella story, there was actually a lot of continuation to the Beauty and the Beast threads and it was so sweet to see! I LOVED all the nods to that.

- The humor! Kyle’s specialty. And despite this book being more feelsy, there was still pleeeeeeenty of humor to go around. Basically every other line is quotable. I was laughing so much!

- THE FEELS. When I wasn’t laughing, I was wanting to cry. Because ACK. And yes, this is a positive. GIMME ALL THE FEELS. I looooved how this story got way deeper and more feelsy than the previous installments. Humor and feels—precisely what I look for in novels!

- PLOT TWISTS. Plot twists eeeeeverywhere!!! This story had me reeling right and left. I just love how much deeper and complex this story took everything! I’m so anxious to see how everything continues to play out because EEEEP. ALL THE THINGS.

I need to stop or this list will go on forever. But like I said, I LOVED EVERYTHING.

 

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

*cricket, cricket*

…Nothing?

Seriously, I’m trying really hard to think of something I didn’t enjoy, but I’m coming up with nothing. I guess there were some events I was suuuuper nervous about. But they actually sorta turned out better than I hoped. Though I won’t know the full outcome of Certain Things until later books. So it’s sort of like a…half complaint but not really because I don’t know how things will turn out?

Wow. That made zero sense. It’s hard reviewing a 3rd book of a series because SPOILERS. Anyways! I really just loved everything.

 

CONTENT CAUTIONS

Nothing, really. Though this one was more feelsy and complex, it still kept to the clean style all the others books have run. Lots of magic and fantasy things with a few fights, but descriptions of gore is down to a minimum.

Though, there were a few instances where characters said “Oh my God” or things like that. Which I realize everybody in the universe and their cousin’s talking dog uses that term like 300 times a day. But…I just am not a fan. I hate how we now use God’s sacred name so lightly over eeeeverything. But that just may be a me thing. And it wasn’t used much in the book, only a few times that I can remember.

Other than that teeny tiny thing, it was perfectly clean. I highly recommend for ALL ages!

 

CONCLUSION

Between the feels, deeper plot, timey-wimey things, Alice in Wonderland threads, and twists around every corner, this 3rd book may top as my favorite Beaumont and Beasley novel yet!

If you’ve read The Beast of Talesend and The Tomb of the Sea Witch, YOU NEED THIS NEXT BOOK ASAP. And if you haven’t, what is wrong with you???? Go immerse yourself in the delight that is the Beaumont and Beasley series! Fairytales, humor, endearing characters, 1920s-feel world, epic plots, and all manner of twists—IT’S JUST THE BEST.

 

TALK WITH ME!

HAVE YOU READ THE STROKE OF ELEVEN??? If so, I need you to fangirl/boy with me! If not, goooooo! NOW. (Just read the first two books first because this one will make zero sense if you haven’t…) And do you enjoy fairytale crossover stories? (I’m obsessed.)

Goals of 2018

HAPPY 2018!!!

I do hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year's. I have returned from my (very brief) break, refreshed and excited for the new year!

I have many plans in the works for 2018. Plans I’m actually going to make a for reals effort to achieve unlike last year. But after spending 2017 reevaluating my life, learning more how to balance things, and healing after a not-so-great 2016, I am back and more excited than ever to dive into a year of productivity and accomplishments!

Which means today, for my first 2018 post, I’d like to share what my goals are for this year. (Because it’s a fact one is more likely to achieve their goals if they shout them to the whole wide world. Huzzah for peer pressure!)

GOALS OF 2018

 

EDIT BURNING THORNS

My absolute #1 goal for this year is to do another full revision for Burning Thorns. (Which is my YA Beauty and the Beast retelling for any who don’t know.) Yes, that was my main goal for last year and it didn’t happen…at all. But this year I’m ready! SUPER READY. I’ve already started reading back through the manuscript to give me a full scope of the story and what all needs major changes.

I HAVE MISSED MY BBYS. I love these characters and the fairytale world and all the pain I caused and just the STORY. I cannot wait to work on making it the best it can be. (Annnd I may need another round of beta-readers later this year. *wriggles eyebrows*)

After I do a full-on revision (because I’m thinking there may be some drastic changes to the story, though that’s still in the works), I’ll probably do some smaller polishing up.

My goal is to get that done by July. Becaaaaause…

 

ATTEND REALM MAKERS

I’M GONNA TRY TO MAKE IT TO REALM MAKERS THIS YEAR! *SCREAMS IN EXCITEMENT FOR A THOUSAND YEARS*

Now, it may not happen. There is definitely a chance it won’t work out. But if I can get enough time and money and everything together, IT COULD HAPPEN. I’ve already talked to my family about it and we’re trying to make this dream a reality SO WE’LL SEE. And hey, even if I can’t make it this year, maybe all the work I put toward it will make it where I can go next year? Whatever happens, I AM making it to Realm Makers someday! Buuuut I’m reeeally hoping that someday will be this coming July. *SHRIEKS*

SO YES. That’s gonna keep me busy as well as I prep for it. Getting Burning Thorns ready to pitch there is of course the main goal, but there’s other prepping I want to do as well like make business cards, a one-sheet, research all the staff/editors/agents/etc. that’ll be there, and all that fun stuff that conferences require.

The best thing about this, even if I don’t go, is it’s setting up a deadline and something to work toward. Yes, getting published has always been my main goal, but sometimes it’s hard to force myself to edit and look into literary agents and work on query letters, etc., etc. when I don’t have a tangible goal to work toward. Does that make sense? With Realm Makers, I know I’ll have a real, physical thing to keep me pushing on with editing Burning Thorns. And I need that. Boy do I need that! Having this July deadline is just the motivation I’ve been searching for!

 

RESEARCH LITERARY AGENTS

This is something I’ve been meaning to do for, erm, years? And I’ve failed. I want to buy the Guide to Literary Agents 2018 and start combing through it. BECAUSE I’M SERIOUS ABOUT THINGS THIS YEAR, GUYS. I AM!

 

WORK ON A QUERY LETTER

Am I the only one who is terrified of these things? I mean, essentially it’s just a couple of paragraphs about myself and my novel (both of which I have like thousands of words of blog posts of). If I sat down and worked on one, I’d probably find it’s not all that overwhelming. But for some reason just even the term “query letter” makes me want to go hide in a hole at the ends of the earth forever. I DON’T EVEN KNOW.

BUT I NEED TO MAKE ONE. This may happen later in the year, but it’s gotta happen.

Although I would like to also build a “resume” of sorts for a query letter. Such as writing articles for some magazines and things? Soooo that may also be on the goals-list this year, but these thoughts are still in the works. But hey, if you guys have any good ideas and or/links of magazines, contests, what-have-you I can join to help build that writers resume, I’ll give you an infinite supply of (virtual) cookies and love you forever!

 

EXERCISE

I fail at this so, so, so, soooo bad! The year before last I had gotten into a pretty good exercise routine, but this last year I got busy and just…stopped. IT IS NOT GOOD. This year I’m getting back into it! I’ve got to stretch and exercise my body more. Being a writer requires like 29389 hours a week (you can do that math…) on the computer which is not good for our poor bodies. So yes, EXERCISING HAS GOT TO HAPPEN.

I will be doing stretches and exercising nearly EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I WILL!

 

READ MORE

It’s just sad how little time I make for reading. For the past few years, 30 books a year is my average. PATHETIC.

I’m realizing I’m probably not always fueled to write because I’m not filling my brain with story like I should. For some reason I have in my head I’m not allowed to read until I have all my tasks done??? Well GUESS WHAT. It’s basically impossible to have everything done. There are aaaalways things to do. Thus I just…barely ever get around to reading. And yet last year I spent like a gazillion hours playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and watched a ton of movies??? Hmmmm. Priorities, Christine?

This year that’s all gonna change! I’m going to make time for reading, and try to choose books over pointlessly scrolling on social media for hours on end. I also want to read some writing-help books. (Because I’m bad and tend to only ever get around to reading fiction.) But I’d like to give Go Teen Writers a reread (that book is when my writing life completely turned around and I got serious about things, 30000% recommend), and I also received Storyworld First by Jill Williamson for Christmas and definitely want to dive into that one soon.

Basically, I WANT TO READ MORE. And need to read more. I think my writing is suffering because of my lack of reading. READING IS GOOD. READ BOOKS, CHILDREN.

(I also own waaay more books that are unread than read and that makes me weep daily and it must be fixed.)

 

PARTICIPATE IN NANOWRIMO

Ooooobviously this is happening. I’ve done it 8 years in a row and most certainly don’t plan on stoppin’ now!

I have an idea of a book I may write for it. But sheesh, that’s 10 months away. I’ll probably change my mind 87 times before then!

 

UNPLUG MORE

Despite all my big writerly plans, I very much want to unplug more. If the last couple of years taught me anything, it’s that one cannot spend every waking second on the computer and social media. That’s just not good!

I’m thinking I may set a time in the evening (like 7 or 8?) where I have to stop and not touch the computer again until the next day. And use those hours before bed to, ya know, read or something. This isn’t a solid plan. I’m still figuring things out, but it’s certainly something I’d like to try. My natural instinct is to work until I diiiiie. I am not one to take breaks. But one can’t survive without breaks. That’s not healthy! I’ll be able to do more work and produce better quality if I give myself rest and refueling time each day.

And on that note…

 

ORGANIZE MY TIME

Another failure of mine—time organization. I’m either working 24/7, or wiling away my time scrolling on Pinterest for hours, or being productive with useless things, or…yeah. You get the idea.

This year I want to be more organized with each and every day. This means daily goals. At some point last year, I started making Thursdays my blog post writing days. Every Thursday I knew I’d need to write a post for the following Monday. That way, I wasn’t overwhelmed the other days thinking, “Should I write a post today?” but I also wasn’t scrambling around on Sunday or Monday trying to get a post together. This helped ease the stress of blogging a ton. And made it where I could relax during the weekends knowing I had a post all set for Monday. I’d like to do this with other things as well. Such as setting a day or two out of the week for answering emails, and doing social media, and another day for researching things. And so on and so forth.

But, on a smaller scale, I’d like to set hourly goals. Such as from 3 or 4 answer emails. Not sure if this will work, but if I can get it to, it’ll really help me not wile away my time, but, on the flipside, help me not spend so much time working and draining myself. Because once the hour is up I’ll have to stop.

I haven’t actually worked out any of this yet, but it’s something I’d really like to try. I think it’ll help me stay focused and ease the stress of each task if I had a specific day and/or time for everything. I know it works with blog posts, so I suspect it’ll work with all my other projects as well!

 

BE INTENTIONAL

A lot of people choose a word for each year, something to focus on and live by throughout the year. It’s a wonderful thing to do, and I’ve done it myself for a few years now. But this year, I hadn’t planned on choosing a word. I was just going to go with the flow and work on my tasks and do the best I could.

Then, right as the new year rolled around, I found myself using and focusing on a single word.

INTENTIONAL.

It just kept cropping up on its own accord. I couldn’t seem to shake it. And then I realized, that’s exactly what I want to be this year. Intentional. Because I’m not always intentional about the way I live. I don’t pursue my dreams as hard as I should, I can be so selfish and not intent on helping the people around me, and even my walk with God gets pushed to the back burner far, far more than it should. I’m not intentional with my life at all. But this year, I want that to change.

I want to purposefully work toward being publishing, I want to help others more, be there more for my family and friends, and follow God with every fiber of my being.

I want to live intentionally.

Not wandering aimlessly, not wasting time and putting myself before others and throwing my dream to the wayside. I want to be intent in everything I do.

God gave me a word for 2018 after all. And I hope to pursue it with all the energy I possess.

 

So those are my plans for this year. More may come. I’m still working on my list, and I suspect little things will be added to it as I think of them. But these are my big ones—edit Burning Thorns, work on making it to Realm Makers, and living intentionally.

I think 2018 is going to be an amazing ride!

 

TALK WITH ME!

Let’s talk the new year! Who’s shocked we’re already to 2018??? (*raises hand and waves it wildly* Me me me!) What is your main goal for this year? Who’s all attending Realm Makers??? Because I WANT TO MEET YOU ALL SO BAD!!! Any hopes you have for this year? Let’s make it the loveliest one yet! <3

P.S. What do you think of my new leafy text dividers??? I’m trying to make things more fancy schmancy ‘round here. AND I’M EXCITED. But I’d looove to know your opinion! Though bear with me because they are subject to change. I’m still playing around, but I do like these. So watcha think?

2017 Wrap-Up: The Life, the Geekery, the Bookishness

So apparently 2017 is almost done with us and I’d like to know who gave it permission to be nearly finished?????? WHERE DO I FILE A COMPLAINT? Because wow yeah. This year zoomed by at record breaking speeds and has left me sitting here in a daze wondering what just happened like the Hare in the Tortoise and the Hare story. (I don’t know either. Just go with it.)

Last year wasn’t my favorite. I wasn’t in the best place mentally, there were a lot of lows, and some tragic things happened. But 2017, 2017 was much, much better. I liked this year quite a lot.

THUS. I thought it’d be fun to do a little yearly wrap-up post to look back at the highlights of 2017. (Except “little” is so inaccurate because when do I ever do small posts???) I’m going to categorize this in sections because I love categorizing things almost as much as I love making lists.

SO LET’S DO IT.

. . .

A LOOK  BACK AT 2017

. . .

 

LIFE-Y THINGS

This year was a whirlwind of changes.

A few things that went down includes:

 

• My little sister graduated high school. BRB SOBBING. She’s the youngest in the family, so for the first time in 24 years none of us are homeschooling AND IT’S WEIRD. But I’m so proud of my sis!
  
  
• One of my best friends graduated from college. SO PROUD OF HER TOO.
  
  
• I got to stay with that same friend for a few days three different times this year and it was fabulous.
  
  
• My other bestie and her family moved…11 hours away. Definitely not a highlight, but at the same time I’m excited for them and all the new and exciting turns their life has taken.
  
  
• Turned 25 years old and just WUT??? When did I become an adult? Because, in my head, 24 is still “young adult”. But 25 is just…adult. Is that just me? I DON’T EVEN KNOW. I know I act like suuuuch and adult though, amiright? (You guys probably thought I was 14, didn’t you? #ForeverPeterPan)
  
  
• Got to go see a live ballet showing of The Nutcracker for the first time in yeeeeears and absolutely loved it!

 

There are many, many, many more things that happened this year. Changes and joys and hardships and growth. But all-in-all it was a fantastic, if not crazy, year.

 

WRITERLY THINGS

This was my quietest year of writing since…2009. Not even kidding. Usually I do at least two major writing projects a year, with maybe some smaller things in between. This year I didn’t really do anything until NaNoWriMo.

If you’ll remember, in January I had BIG WRITING PLANS for this year. So many goals of editing Burning Thorns and researching literary agents and working on query letters and all that fun stuff? Did I do any of that?

Erm. No.

But you know what? I’M OKAY WITH THAT. This wasn’t the year for those things, I know that now. There were too many things going on in life. But not just that, I think I needed to reevaluate myself. I was feeling stressed and overwhelmed and questioning everything, especially my writing, at the beginning of this year. But after taking almost a whole year off from doing any major writing and really focusing on learning to balance my time and taking a breath, I’m at a much better place. And I know, without a doubt, that writing is absolutely what I want to do with my life. So though not much actual writing happened this year, there was a lot of necessary growth and revelations within my own self. And it was good. Very good. I don’t regret one bit taking a writing hiatus.

BUT. I can’t entirely take off from writing. There were still writerly 2017 happenings.

 

• I wrote a 4,500-word, fairytale-esque short story When Spring Blooms, which was a ton of fun! It’s very rare I write short stories (because apparently “short” things aren’t part of my vocabulary?), but I always enjoy it when I do.
  
  
• I purchased Scrivener and fell. in. love. The levels of organization it allows makes my perfectionist self ridiculously happy. WHY DID I NOT TRY THIS PROGRAM BEFORE??? It is the bessst.
  
  
• Made an entire file of Scrivener for Burning Thorns with all sorts of sections and folders and goodness. So it is ready to be edited on, even if I haven’t done the actual editing yet…
  
  
• Made a map for the Burning Thorns world. Because I literally didn’t even have a name for the continent the world was set in. So that was fun!
  
  
• Fully plotted out The Nether Isle. Which felt great. It was the first time I really got back into writing related things in moooonths. I felt like myself again!
  
  
• WROTE The Nether Isle! (Which you all know about since I haven’t stopped talking about it for like 3 months now… *cough*)

 

So it wasn’t an extremely productive year, but it wasn’t a fully idle one either. And I did some things to set me all up for my 2018 writing plans. Overall, I’m feeling good about everything. I wrote a short story, set up everything for Burning Thorns edits, wrote an 117k-word book, and got past some mental blocks. Even if it was my slowest year of writing in a long time, I’m happy with what I accomplished and look forward to diving into more writing ventures come the new year!

 

BLOGGY THINGS

I think I made strides with blogging this year. Though I did take a few hiatuses, breaking my 4-year streak of posting every single week. But, well, it was probably time to allow myself a few little blogging breaks after consistently posting for 4 years, right???

Other than those hiatuses, I really poured myself into the blog. This year I wrote some deeper posts than I usually do, tried to give you guys the best quality content I could, and got better at having nice graphics at the top of each post. I gained quite a lot of new followers this year (hi, guys! I love you all!), so I think it all paid off.

Some favorite posts of mine I did this year are:

 

 

 

 

 

WATCHED THINGS

You guys should know I’m a total movie and TV show nerd, and this year introduced me to quite a few fabulous ones!

Movies saw in theaters:

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Which I…wasn’t wild about and it makes me weep. I HAD SUCH HIGH EXPECTATIONS. B&B is my favorite fairytale! The Disney classic animated movie is my childhood! All the previous live action remakes (Cinderella, Maleficent, etc.) were beyond perfect! I was just positive this one would be spectacular. But…no. It wasn’t a bad movie. It just didn’t capture that B&B magic for me. Emma Watson just wasn’t working as my dear Belle. *ducks from rotten tomatoes* I DON’T KNOW. I didn’t hate it, but it was just kinda…meh. *sobs forever*

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2

OKAY BUT DIS MOVIE. I loved it nearly just as much as the 1st one, which is saying something because the 1st one is one of my favorite Marvel movies. BUT THIS WAS SO FUNNY AND EPIC AND EMOTIONAL AND SJDFJKHSKDJHFKLDSF. Probably my favorite movie of 2017!

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING

This movie rekindled my love for my Spidey baby! See, when I was young, Spider-Man was my FAVORITE superhero. As the years rolled on Iron Man and Captain America took my heart. But seeing this one reminded me of how much I adore Spider-Man. He’s literally a kid trying to protect a whole city and just HE IS PRECIOUS. And Tom Holland is absolutely my favorite Spider-Man thus far. I do feel like the pacing of this movie was a tinge slow sometimes? Maybe too much setup? I don’t know. But I still loved it!

THOR: RAGNAROK

I think I’ve already flailed about this movie 2 or 3 times now but…I LOVED IT. I wish there could have been more emotion and not just comedy, but it was still fantastic!

I…think that’s all I saw in theaters? And all of those are Disney and 3 out of 4 are Marvel. I seem to have a problem??? But come on, MARVEL!

There were others I wanted to see but didn’t get a chance. And still haven’t! Like The LEGO Batman Movie and Wonder Woman. But hopefully I can get to those sometime soon.

I also discovered some TV shows this year. Of which I now wonder whyyyy I had never watched before.

GRAVITY FALLS

Why why why WHY have I gone this long without watching the magic that is Gravity Falls? WHY??? This show looks like some goofy kiddy cartoon but DON’T BE DECEIVED. I mean, yes, it’s a goofy kiddie cartoon but it’s also DEEP and HILARIOUS and has an epic PLOT and the CHARACTERSSSS. I will now have Gravity Falls feels for the rest of my life. *collapses* JUST WATCH THIS SHOW. Basically every. single. line. in it is quotable and hilarious and the characters are golden and just GO WATCH IT. (Except you probably have because I feel like I’m the only person in the world who has never watched it until now???)

 

Mabel is a gift to this world.

STAR VS. THE FORCES OF EVIL

Another totally hilarious cartoon! This one does start out as a pretty goofy, random cartoon but it gets much deeper as it goes on. And THE CHARACTERS. Star is from another dimension and has a magical wand that she uses to, well, defeat the forces of evil. But she makes spells like a narwhal blast. So yeah. She’s totally bubbly and reckless and fun. (She kind of reminds me of me, TBH.) Then there’s Marco. Sweet, precious, cinnamon roll Marco. The show is worth watching just for those two. And let’s not even talk about how shippable they are.

STRANGER THINGS

 (The first non-Disney thing in this whole section!)

Erm. Yeah. I’m reeeeally late on this bandwagon. My brother (and basically everyone else in the universe) has been badgering me to watch it since it came out in the Fall of LAST YEAR. Annnnd I didn’t start watching it until this August or September. I FAIL AT LIFE. But obviously I loved it. It’s not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach but…it’s pretty epic! (Except I still haven’t found time to watch the 2nd season and IT’S KILLING MEEE.)

 

There were probably many more things I can’t remember (I’m proud I even remembered all of this!), but these were definitely my screen watching highlights of the year.

 

BOOKISH THINGS

Obviously I saved the most important one for last. BOOKS!!!

I read a total of…30 books for 2017. Ummm, yeah. Sad, I know. I’m trying to come to terms with the fact that 30 is my average for a year these days. It’s not a bad amount, just not neeeearly as much as I want to read. I’d much rather devour 100 books in a year but I can’t seem to be one of those magical peoples.

ANYWAYS.

It was a bit of a mixed year of reading. The majority of the books I read were a little meh. Buuuut I did find some gems that absolutely made my year.

SAMARA’S PERIL
by Jaye L. Knight

Book #3 of the Ilyon Chronicles and possibly the best one yet! This was my first book to read this year and WAS IT A GOOD ONE. ALL THE FEELS. ALL THE THIIIINGS. Just go read this series! (I deeesperately need to get my hands on Exiles.)

ELLA ENCHANTED
by Gail Carson Levine

Okay but hoooooowwwww have I not read this book until this year??? I should have grown up with this book! I AM ALL THE SHAME. No earthly clue why it took me half an age to read it, but IT WAS SO GOOD.

 

THE SENTINEL TRILOGY
by Jamie Foley

(Except the 3rd book isn’t out yet BUT I NEED IT PRECIOUSSS.) This is suuuch a fun and different style of novels. People with special abilities in a world much like our own and it’s basically the apocalypse with epic characters and the best bromance and YES. Kudos to my bookfairy Deborah for getting me to read these books. I LOVE THEM.

THE RELUCTANT GODFATHER
by Allison Tebo

One of my faaavorite reads of the year! This Cinderella retelling novella was the cutest EVER. I actually reviewed it should you want my full thoughts on it. But basically…GO READ IT! This book was a delight. And it kindled a friendship between my girl Allison and me, which made it doubly awesome! Seriously, go give her a follow and read her story. SHE’S THE BEST.

GRAPHIC NOVELS

So I discovered something super weird this year. I kinda like graphic novels??? I’ve never actually read any before. I had no idea if I’d like them or not. But this past August I was staying with my bestie and she talked me into trying a few and I officially got hooked. Unfortunately, it’s reeeally hard to find clean ones. *pouts* But they’re great for some quick reads. My favorite one I’ve read so far is Nimona by Noelle Stevenson.

THE BEAUMONT AND BEASLEY SERIES
by Kyle Robert Shultz

Okay. This may win for top favorite of my 2017 bookish discoveries. THESE BOOKS GUYS. 1920s detective style story but in a world where fairytales are real? GIMME GIMME GIMME. These books are hilarious. But don’t let that fool you! They get deep and twisty as they go on. In fact, the 3rd book, The Stroke of Eleven, was my last read for the year and I’m still reeling. I MAY NEVER RECOVER. (I reviewed the 1st book if you’re interested.) These books are golden! Kyle is hilarious and you should absolutely go check out his website and READ HIS BOOKS!

 

So even though I read a bunch of meh books this year, these totally made up for them! And if you’re still a nosy bookdragon, you can check out my 2017-reads GoodReads shelf for everything I read this year.

 

LEARNED THINGS

As I said at the beginning, this was quite the year of change and growth. And there was one particular lesson that stood out to me this year.

At this time last year, I was drained. I was tired, stressed, overwhelmed. I had Big Plans, but actually tackling them just made me want to curl under the covers and watch Netflix forever.

And it hit me: I was doing too much. I had no balance. I ignored friends and family and even God in favor of trifle things like staying on top of emails. I didn’t really take any breaks in 2016. I was constantly doing something.

I’m obsessive and a bit OCD. When I have goals in mind or things to do, I can’t not do them. I can’t rest until everything is DONE. Except…everything is never done. There will always be things to do. Always emails to answer. Always blog posts to write. Always books to write and edit and research for. But that doesn’t mean we should always be doing those things. They’re good things, but there has to be balance.

So this year, I took a break. I wasn’t as rigid about publishing a blog post every single week, I didn’t force myself to have a major writing project going, I put off things in favor of hanging out with friends and family.

I learned to soak up the moments.

This life is fleeting. Friends and family aren’t always forever. And growing our relationship with God is the very reason we have breath in our lungs.

Yes, I still want to pursue a career in writing. Yes, I want to do more in 2018. Yes, my writing is important to me. But there are also other important things in life. And I don’t want to miss out on them.

This year, for the first time in a long, long time, I took a breath. I let myself relax and live. And it was like a soothing balm. I no longer feel overwhelmed and tired. I’m excited about things, I’m ready to tackle 2018.

I still fail. I still find myself saying no to spending time with family in favor of getting things done. But I’m working toward doing better.

So as we say goodbye to 2017 and hello to 2018, I want to remember. I want to remember that it’s OKAY to take breaks. It’s necessary.

But most importantly, I want to remember to soak up every single moment I’m given on this earth. To stop wasting away the days. To be grateful for every breath I take and use this little life I have as a blessing to others.

. . .

 

2017 was a pretty crazy year. But it was a good one. Possibly even a great one.

I look forward to seeing what 2018 has in store!

 

This is my last post for 2017, guys! So let’s chat about ALL the things. Did we watch any of the same movies or read any of the same books? What exciting things happened to you this year? And what are you excited about for the new year? Tell me all about it!

NOTE: Since this post came later in the week, I won’t have a post up Monday. It will be New Year’s after all! I’m going to soak up these last few days of the holidays. But I will be back on January 8th for my first 2018 post!

HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!

The NaNo 2017 Diaries {Vlog}

THIIIIINGS ARE GOING DOWN TODAY. The title of this post in fact does not have a typo. Nope. It’s correct.

I’M SHARING A VLOG.

My first ever vlog. With my actual face. And voice. TERRIFYING, I KNOW.

So why this sudden video? Well. During NaNoWriMo this year I thought it’d be fun to make a video diary every single day of all that was going on. At first I was thinking I’d do it only for myself—just a fun way to have a log of the month without having to journal anything (because goodness knows I was writing enough without having to also keep up with a journal). Buuuut then I had the wild of idea of embarrassing myself and DOING IT FOR YOU GUYS.

And that is why I am here today!

Although this is not even half of the videos I made. Each video was about 2 minutes long and there are 30 of them so…that would have been an hour long vlog. How about no? Instead I just pick and chose some of the highlights to smush together into a vlog. Except…erm…it’s still 27 minutes long. Oops? SOWWY. I did try to make it shorter. But apparently not only are my novels and blog posts monsters, my vlogs are as well??? You guys still love me though, right?

ANYWHOOZLE. We need to actually get to the vlog part!

Sadly, the first part of it is cut off because I’m a moron and began talking before my phone started recording. >.> And it’s not the bestest quality because I was using the front camera of my phone. If I ever do anymore vlogs I’ll try to use my back camera and make it higher quality. But this was just a little something I was doing each day in the midst of the insanity that was NaNo so…yeah. You get to see over-caffeinated, sleep-deprived, lost in NaNo Land Christine. FUN STUFF.

(And yes. This is another NaNo post. I know I’ve been doing these in a row for like…the last 3 months. *cough* BUT THIS IS THE LAST ONE. My next post will not be totally NaNo focused, I promise!)

Also, kudos to my awesome big bro for helping me put all this together because I was absolutely clueless with this stuff.

ALL RIGHT. Enough of my babbling so you can watch…me babble. Um. Yes.

Behold me in all my awkwardness!

 

If you survived all of that, you deserve cookies! *passes them around* SO TELL ME. What did you think? Would you guys be interested in me doing more vlogs on occasion? Orrrr should I stick to text posts? XD Share with me your thoughts!

NOTE: Since Christmas lands on next Monday (BUT HOW THO???) I won’t be doing a post then. Instead I’ll do my next and last post of 2017 a few days after Christmas (probably that next Thursday). It’ll be a big ol’ 2017 wrap-up post and should be fun! Until then…

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!