January and Birthday Haul 2019

January is always a pretty successful month because it's my birthday so I got lots of awesome fandom stuff and I'm so grateful!!!!!

Pre-Birthday
Walking Disaster- Jamie McGuire
The first buy of 2019 and it was a steal! I found this at a charity shop for £1 and it still in pretty good condition! Walking Disaster is effectively the story of Beautiful Disaster but in the guy's point of view. Beautiful Disaster was a total guilty pleasure read for me so I'm sure I'll like this one just as much.
Beautiful Disaster Book Review

Kingdom of Ash- Sarah J. Maas (American Hardcover)
Please don't judge me!!! I really needed this! Yes, I already have a paperback of this book but this was the American Hardback edition! It was too beautiful to resist! I read this book last year and it's one of my all-time favourites so, when I found the stunning American hardcover in a bookshop, it would've been a crime not to buy it. I also have the American copy of Empire of Storms when I went to New York a couple of years ago so that beautiful hardcover was feeling lonely and needed a friend... which I couldn't say no to.
Kingdom of Ash Book Review (Part 1)
Kingdom of Ash Book Review (Part 2)

The Breakfast Club TAG

It's tag time! As The Breakfast Club was one of my favourite movies last year, I thought I'd do a quick tag revolving around it! I found this on Joely's Reads Youtube channel so I'll link that here in case you want to check it out.

1. Don't You Forget About Me- a book you can't forget for the right or wrong reasons
Holes- Louis Sacher
This is such a nostalgic book for me. I remember my primary school teacher reading it to my class when I was about nine and it was the best story I'd ever heard. There was a major plot twist, I loved the characters and I was just captivated by the plot. I'll always remember this book for the very best of reasons as it's such a lovely part of my childhood.

2. Sincerely Yours, The Breakfast Club- a group of book characters you love
The Morganville Vampires series- Rachel Caine
This is a 15 books series... 15 books! And I've read each and every one multiple times. You don't do that if the characters are sloppy.
The Morganville Vampire series has some of the best characters ever- that's why everyone keeps reading! The plot lines can be a little sub-par sometimes but the characters make everything so worth it. They're all so bad-ass and loyal and sassy and it makes for one hilarious cast of characters.

Game of Thrones 6x02 'Home' TV TALK

This episode we switched back to a couple of characters that we haven't seen in a while.... characters I was perfectly happy I hadn't seen. This wasn't my favourite episode but it was still extremely entertaining and the beautiful show it always is.

TV TALKS:

Season 1:  1x01  |  1x02  |  1x03  |  1x04  |  1x05  |  1x06  |  1x07  |  1x08  |  1x09  |  1x10

Season 2:  2x01  |  2x02  |  2x03  |  2x04  |  2x05  |  2x06  |  2x07  |  2x08  |  2x09  |  2x10

Season 3:  3x01  |  3x02  |  3x03  |  3x04  |  3x05  |  3x06  |  3x07  |  3x08  |  3x09  |  3x10

Season 4:  4x01  |  4x02  |  4x03  |  4x04  |  4x05  |  4x06  |  4x07  |  4x08  |  4x09  |  4x10
Season 5:  5x01  |  5x02  |  5x03  |  5x04  |  5x05  |  5x06  |  5x07  |  5x08  |  5x09  |  5x10
Season 6:  6x01

SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD
Starting with Bran... he's back! Yay.... We haven't seen him in over a series but he's doing fine- just learning... everything. He may not be my favourite story line ever but I didn't mind seeing into the past- meeting a young Ned and Lyanna as well as a young Hodor- or should I say Wylis!!

Renegades- Marissa Meyer BOOK TALK

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I had to give this book five stars because I was addicted from the very first page to the end. It's no secret that I love superheroes (Marvel is my life) and Marissa Meyer took on the challenge so well! There's such a flurry of cool and original powers and I fell into the world so easily.
Renegades reminded me a little of Vicious (V.E. Schwab) because it plays a lot on the idea of good vs evil and how it isn't always an easy binary to distinguish. Renegades really makes you question who's the hero and who's the villain by providing different perspectives and angles on everything which I loved! It was such a fascinating debate to explore and made everything so beautifully complex.
Another thing that Marissa Meyer aced was representation and diversity!!! Because there's such a large cast and selection of prodigies, there was so much for room for diverse characters; ethnicities, sexualities, physical disabilities, ages and appearances! This was just the icing on the cake for me because it was so refreshing to see such a diverse set of awesome and inspiring characters.

GOODREADS

AMAZON

SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD

With books like this, it's inevitable you're gonna think about what power you'd want and personally, I'd go straight for Nova or Adrian's... though, I'm kinda leaning towards Nova's. Sure, I'd love to be able to create something just by drawing it but I'm so addicted to being productive and getting things done and just imagine having an extra 12 hours of the day! I wouldn't need to feel guilty about binging TV shows and wasting time ever again!

Dear Evan Hansen- Val Emmich BOOK TALK

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It's hardly surprising that I loved this book. The musical is one of my favourites and I was super excited when they announced a book was going to be written around the story. This story is perfect for a book format and I was really excited to get even more detail out of the plot! Don't get me wrong, the musical is amazing and heart-felt and relatable but... it's a musical! Like with movies, there's not enough time to get a real in-depth backstory for every character and the book really expanded on certain characters that may have been in the background of the movie.
This story revolves a lot around social anxiety and different relationships which makes it so beautifully relatable. Honestly, this story, book and musical, is a warm hug saying 'it's alright. I understand. You'll be okay and here's why...'

GOODREADS

AMAZON

SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD
Warning: This review will contain many comparisons to the musical because, let's face it, it's kind of hard not to compare them.
What I loved most about this book was learning more about Connor. Yes, he has a big presence in the musical but you don't actually find out that much about him- I didn't even know why he'd committed suicide!! I desperately wanted the book to provide more insight into his character and it definitely did! I loved Connor's chapters. It was so interesting to learn about his life, what he really thought of everyone and, especially, his relationship with Miguel! Miguel isn't even mentioned in the musical but I loved his importance to this book. And, honestly, it broke my heart to find out that Miguel didn't reply to Connor's 'I miss you' text because he was at work!! I nearly cried at that point.

Mean Girls the Musical SOUNDTRACK REVIEW

Here we are again, getting obsessed with yet another musical.
How to describe Mean Girls? Well, seeing as though I describe Heathers as "Mean Girls with a lot more death", I'll describe Mean Girls as "Heathers with a lot less death." The 2004 movie Mean Girls is actually based off the 1988 movie Heathers so... it sparks the debate of which is better (spoiler alert: it's Heathers).
Despite my overwhelming loyalty to Heathers, I thought I'd give Mean Girls a try and I'll be brutally honest and say that, at first, I didn't like it at all. Sure, there were a couple of songs that were okay but I wasn't all that fussed. Then I saw a Youtube clip of the entire musical and everything changed! Seeing Broadway songs performed is always better and I grew to actually like most of the songs (though I do still skip quite a few)! And since then, I've listened to the soundtrack non-stop and wanted to write a review!!
My favourite songs of the soundtrack are Apex Predator, Someone Gets Hurts and World Burn (mainly because Taylor Louderman who plays Regina George has the most stunning voice). Other than Regina, my favourite characters is also Janis because I can relate to her on a personal level ad she's also played by Barrett Wilbert Weed who is phenomenal (and incidentally played Veronica in Heathers).

A Cautionary Tale
I didn't really like this song at first but, after seeing a Youtube clip of it, it's grown on me! Janis and Damien are easily my favourite characters and this is a nice little introduction to the musical. This song can get super catchy and caught in my head for days on end so be careful!!

It Roars
I do like this song but sometimes it gets a little tedious. This song is nice to listen to but it gets boring after a while and goes on a bit too long for my taste. Cady isn't one of my favourite characters, so I also tend to prefer the songs she doesn't solo.

Forever Fictional is Three Years Old!!!

It's that time of year again when Forever Fictional is officially a year older!!! We've sped through the terrible twos and now we're three years old!! My baby's growing up so fast *wipes away stray tear*
So, like always, I wanted to look back over the year and check out my highlights and favourite posts!

As always, thank you so much to every person who follows, likes and comments on my blog! I love you all so much!!!

Strings- Original Poetry
I didn't post as much poetry as I wanted to last year but I'm really happy with the pieces that I did. Yes, there are many other poems that I wrote last year but... maybe a little too personal to post. Sorry, not sorry.

World Book Day Baking w/ Kailtin
Like always, World Book Day is a great highlight of every year and last year was super fun as me and Kailtin (Liber Amoris) made bookish cupcakes!! Honestly, we're running out of fun bookish activities to do every year so, if you have any suggestions, we're all ears! But this ended up being super fun and the cupcakes looked amazing by the end (maybe a baking career will be a fallback if I don't become a writer... but let's hope not).

Game of Thrones 6x01 'The Red Woman' TV TALK

After the huge events of season five, it's hard to fathom how this show would improve.... and yet it always does! From the title of this episode, I was hoping for a certain thing to happen... but alas, it is not the time just yet. I have been spoiled for a major plot point so I know what's coming but it doesn't make the show any less entertaining.

TV TALKS:

Season 1:  1x01  |  1x02  |  1x03  |  1x04  |  1x05  |  1x06  |  1x07  |  1x08  |  1x09  |  1x10

Season 2:  2x01  |  2x02  |  2x03  |  2x04  |  2x05  |  2x06  |  2x07  |  2x08  |  2x09  |  2x10

Season 3:  3x01  |  3x02  |  3x03  |  3x04  |  3x05  |  3x06  |  3x07  |  3x08  |  3x09  |  3x10

Season 4:  4x01  |  4x02  |  4x03  |  4x04  |  4x05  |  4x06  |  4x07  |  4x08  |  4x09  |  4x10
Season 5:  5x01  |  5x02  |  5x03  |  5x04  |  5x05  |  5x06  |  5x07  |  5x08  |  5x09  |  5x10

SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD

Let's start in the North with the aftermath of Jon's demise. Davos, Ghost and a few other members of the Night's Watch stay by Jon's side to defend and protect him from the other mutineers (basically the whole of the Night's Watch). I'm beginning to really love Davos- he's a loyal and righteous guy in a world dull of psychos. We need to appreciate men like Davos more often.

Most Anticipated Releases 2019

2019 is looking to be an amazing year and there are so many books, movies and TV shows that I'm super excited for! So, I thought I'd list out the things I'm looking forward to most!

Books
Storm and Fury (The Dark Elements #4)- Jennifer L. Armentrout
I've been excited about this ever since I heard it was a thing. The Dark Elements series was originally a trilogy but this a spin-off series starting, following a new protagonist amongst old characters and it sounds so good! The protagonist apparently has the same eye disease Jennifer L. Armentrout has so I'm super interested to learn more about that and any type of awareness creates an instant A+ in my book.

The Burning Shadow (Origin #2)- Jennifer L. Armentrout
Let's face it, Jennifer L. Armentrout could release a dictionary and it would be on this list. This is the second book of the Origin series which is the spin-off series to the Lux books. I love this world, I love these characters and I'm going to love reading every single word. I received a digital arc of the first book last year so I'm gonna cross my fingers and pray for an arc of this one as well.

Again But Better- Christine Riccio 
Christine Riccio may be better known as the Youtube channel PolandbananasBOOKS and, as soon as she said she was writing a book a couple of years ago, I was ready for this. Yes, there's a major controversy around Youtube books but I think Booktubers are naturally and genuinely going to write books because we all love reading and the dream for many readers is to become a writer one day. Nevertheless, I'm so pumped for this book and am expecting that classic and infectious Xtinemay humour from this book.

December and Christmas Haul 2018!!!

Pre-Christmas
G'morning G'night- Lin Manuel Miranda
I got this early in the month as a gift from my mum which was the sweetest thing ever! It was a celebratory gift for me passing my driving test and it's a book I've been needing for a while! Lin Manuel Miranda is the writer of the musical Hamilton and this book is a compilation of his inspirational tweets. I've been reading it exactly how it should be read- one tweet in the morning and one in the evening. Sure, it means I'm only getting through two pages a day and it'll probably take me months to finish, but I'm enjoying it so far.

Queen of Air and Darkness- Cassandra Clare
This book was an extremely anticipated release for a lot of people and, honestly, I think I just bought it for the sake of it. I have the giant and beautiful editions of the first two books in this trilogy so I had to get the same version before they switched it to a smaller edition simply so they would match. But, I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I may not get any of Cassandra Clare's books in the future. I feel like the Shadowhunter world has stretched on too long now and getting myself to read each book seems like a chore. I've got so little time to read and so little bookshelf space that all these spin-off book planned for the Shadowhunter world just isn't worth it to me anymore.
(I'm sorry to rub it in your face that I have this, Shayna. I'm sure yours will come in the post soon ;D)