My Favourites For May

Goodbye May and hello June.

I know I say this every month but it is hard to believe that we are almost to the longest day of the year when it doesn’t seem long ago we were celebrating new year.

I will admit, I am a Christmas girl but I am loving these longer summer evenings although does anyone feel they seem to have ages in the evening, get into something and then look up and it’s nearly midnight? Just me?

As it’s still the first week of June, I reckon I have just enough time to squeeze in a May favourites.

There were many things I loved in May. It was a little hard to pick a handful but, yep, I managed it. Haha.

The book I loved in May was Tick Tock by Mel Sherratt. I have already done a review of this book and if you want to read it along with an extract, click here.

It was great to be back with DS Grace Allendale and each book in this series just keeps getting better and better.

Grace and her team are investigating the murder of a young girl. The killer is out there and it all suddenly becomes very personal for Grace.

Tick Tock was full of suspense. I wanted to know what was going on but at the same time, I didn’t want it to end. It’s brilliant. An honourable mention to The Last Time I Saw You by Liv Constantine which came a close second.

BBC

My favourite TV show in May was …. Line of Duty.

I was really late to this show having only finished watching the previous series days before the new one began. My husband and I were just gripped and it is so incredibly addictive. We saw the ‘are you still watching Line of Duty?’ a few times on Netflix which may as well say ‘are you still up watching this? Go to bed you idiot.’

This show is thrilling, brilliant and utterly frustrating. My favourite character is Ted Hastings. Go find those bent coppers, Ted.

Game of Thrones was also a favourite for May. Yes, we all have our opinions on how it should have ended. No spoilers but apparently I did read that George R.R. Martin was very specific with one element of the ending. Should it have been ten episodes? Yes, but it was brilliantly acted (a special mention to Peter Dinklage,) had proper ‘OMG’ moments and I am sad it’s over. I will just have to console myself with a new series of Black Mirror, the upcoming series of the Handmaid’s Tale and a rumoured return of Happy Valley later in the year.

My favourite app this month is called Forest.

Working on the pomodoro principle, what I love about this particular app is that it offers a challenge within my writing and activities challenges.

I love trees and planting them is what you get to do, if only in a virtual way.

There is a set of trees to pick from and once the timer is done, a tree gets planted in the forest. It’s a very cute app. So simple but so lovely.

If you’ve been following my blog for a while then you will know about my major notebook addiction. Despite making a load of notes digitally, I still can’t resist the odd notebook.

My favourite for May was this beautiful one from Papier. It combines notebooks and Disney and I was able to personalise it. I got to choose between lined, blank (how do people keep that neat?) and dotted which is what I went for. The paper is so smooth and I am totally in love.

The film I loved in May has to be Avengers: Endgame. After waiting for so long, we all got to see how it ended and I think it was done well. I was totally in tears by the end though and want to see it again because we could only manage to get a seat at the front which is a quick way for me to feel sick. I am such a wimp.

There is not a lot else I can say about it just incase there is someone out there that hasn’t managed to see it yet that wants to. Farewell Avengers. It was ace.

My final favourite is a place. It was the boy’s birthday last month (we are both getting too close to forty for our liking,) and it was a day spent with family.

We went over to Corfe Castle and having not been there for years, I had forgotten how stunning it is.
I am really into history and you don’t get much better than Corfe Castle.

I mean, look at it. Beautiful.

What have been some of your favourites this month? I’d love to know in the comments below.

(Apart from Tick Tock which was a review copy from the publisher, all the above was brought using my own money. You know, just for transparency and all.) 

by

Laura

I’m Laura. I started Novel Kicks in 2009. I wanted a place to post my writing as well as give other writers like me the opportunity to do the same. There is also a monthly book club, a writing room which features writing prompts, book reviews, competitions, author interviews and guest posts.

I grew up by the sea (my favourite place in the world) and I currently live in Hampshire. I am married to Chris, have a cat named Buddy and I would love to be a writer. I’m trying to write the novel I’ve talked so much about writing if only I could stop pressing delete. I’ve loved writing since creative writing classes in primary school. I have always wanted to see my teacher Miss Sayers again and thank her for the encouragement. When not trying to write the novel or writing snippets of stories on anything I can get my hands on, I love reading, dancing like a loon and singing to myself very badly. My current obsession is Once Upon a Time and I would be happy to live with magic in the enchanted forest surrounded by all those wonderful stories provided that world also included Harry Potter. I love reading chick lit. contemporary fiction and novels with mystery.