January Favourites & Wrap Up 2019

I’m bringing back my well beloved (beloved to me, at least) monthly favourites! I used to loooove writing these every month, and they’re without a doubt my favourite posts to read. Why did I stop? I don’t actually know. But not to dwell on the past – we’re having a revival of the favourites posts! So what did January bring…?

The Priory of the Orange Tree

If you’ve seen me around at all in January then you’ll know that The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon has without a doubt been my favourite book of this month. This is a diverse epic fantasy book by my favourite author, following numerous perspectives and featuring DRAGONS. Yeah you heard me right. This book was very kindly sent to me by Bloomsbury after I requested it (how could I not??), and comes out at the end of February so there’s not much longer to wait now! I’m just SO excited to be able to talk about this with people and to see the absolutely STUNNING final edition in person. That’s all I’ll say on this one for now because I’ve been yelling about it endlessly for weeks already, but if you want to see my full thoughts then here’s my full review!

Admittedly though, it was a close call. Can my entire January reading be a favourite? 2018 was a flop for reading, with most of my books being an average 3 stars and absolutely NO new favourites. Yeah. That bad. But January has really kicked 2019 off right reading-wise, with a whole 9 books read already (10 now) and the majority being 4 stars and above! My wrap up is at the end of this post if you fancy a peep at what I read, but wow am I glad for my January reads ❤

Booktube

Honestly? Just booktube in general. 2019 has brought a few li’l changes to my channel – namely, the introduction of study vlogs, harry potter reread vlogs and a change in thumbnails (hence the colour change in the screenshot below) – and I’ve been SO INCREDIBLY MOTIVATED to work on my channel! I had so many ideas for the beginning of this year that I’ve been uploading twice a week, and while I expected that to mean views/comments would be lower than usual as people struggle to keep up, it turns out THE EXACT OPPOSITE happened and my stats have been higher than ever? Along with that, I’ve managed to keep up with commenting on other people’s videos and engaging more on twitter/instagram, and honestly I’m just feeling so much love towards booktube and the online community right now ❤ It’s been an absolute highlight of this month and I can’t even begin to describe how happy it makes me.

One of my goals for 2019 is to hit 5k subscribers, so if you’re not subscribed already and love all things bookish (which I assume you do since you’re here, I see you), please head on over and check it out , maybe even give me a lil subscribe eh? 🙂

Jesse @ Bowties & Books

Jesse (Bowties & Books) is a nonbinary afromexican booktuber and avid wearer of bowties. They read comics, fantasy, afrolit and more, have an adorable li’l cat called Ravenclaw, and if their bookstagram is anything to judge by, really likes hot drinks (we love). They are currently hosting the #Blackathon readathon throughout all of February with co-hosts Francina @FrancinaSimone and Lauren @TheNovelLush in honour of Black History Month [in the US and Canada – it’s celebrated in October here in the UK but you can still take part!].

I have just been adoring all of Jesse’s content lately. Across booktube, twitter and instagram, Jesse talks so eloquently about the books they’re reading and I just bloomin’ love it. I even found one of my best January reads – The Radium Girls by Kate Moore – from their channel, and now I’m just forever eagerly listening to their reviews and adding their recommendations to my TBR. I’ve also been LIVING for their vlogs and instagram story updates of day-to-day life. Jesse is just one of those people I find endlessly interesting and could listen to for hours. And along with all this, I’ve found out for myself that Jesse is one of the friendliest people. I love chatting to them about LITERALLY ANYTHING (admittedly it started with me obsessing over their cat) and seeing them hype others up just convinces me that they are, in fact, a good soul. Please for the love of god, go and check out their booktube, bookstagram and twitter account because you won’t regret it ❤

Green high neck jumper

We love cosy jumpers, amiright? Well I’ve found the cosiest of the cosy. And in my favourite colour! I found this gem of a jumper in New Look midway through the month and honestly just want to live in it. It’s so soft, so snuggly, and is absolutely perfect for this winter. Earthy and neutral tones are my favourite things to wear, so this just made me so incredibly happy. And with that green eyeshadow look too? I feel like a Slytherin Queen.

Rings

If I’m going to wear jewelry, it’s going to be rings and earrings. That’s the only type I’ll wear – necklaces and bracelets are not for me. But after an unfortunate experience with getting a second lobe piercing**, I’ve been particularly motivated to build up what I call a “proper” jewelry collection – i.e. only Silver/Sterling Silver metals (I prefer silver in colour over gold, but that would count too). Only going through phases of wearing jewelry up until the last few months, I’ve always just gone for cheap jewelry – the type that could turn your finger green if you wear it too long. And while that’s fine – because jewelry can be damn expensive – discovering that I’m actually allergic to some kind of metal made my mind up for me…I’m only buying sterling silver or higher quality metals from now on, since I know I’m not allergic to them. But it probably goes without saying that while it has a higher price tag, it also has higher quality, and I’ve found myself wearing my new rings (“new” meaning bought in the last 4/5 months or so) endlessly just because I adore them so bloody much. I LOVE intricate designs, stacks of rings and anything that reminds me of the beautiful designs you see associated to fantasy stories or fae, and seeing my hands decked in such gorgeous designs has genuinely brought me so much joy lately. And while I keep banging on about them being more expensive, that’s not to say they’re extortionate – on the websites I’ve been buying from, they’re typically somewhere between the £15-30 mark (depending on size and if any gems are included), which I think is pretty damn fair for something that’ll last years. My favourite website for jewelry shopping is currently Regal Rose, and I already have my next order planned out 😆

[**Long story short – I had a second lobe piercing but they lied about which metal the earrings were. I ended up being allergic to it, with both my ears blistering and taking months to heal (this started in September – they’re only just healing now). They kept making excuses for it not being an allergy – despite my doctor saying otherwise – and so I don’t know which metal I’m allergic to]

Ivy and Fairy Lights

This one doesn’t take much explaining because the photos says it all. In january I decided my desk space looked a little bland and dark, and with me adoring plants, decided to wind fake ivy vines and fairy lights around the lot. AND I ADORE IT. SO MUCH. Not only have I brought my woodland home inside, but I now have the cosiest lighting at night and a gorgeous background in my videos. Blessed.

The Body Shop Tea Tree Facial Wash

This is actually a product I’ve used before but stopped using years ago in my span of trying new skincare products. Not for any particular reason – I just wanted to try something new. But after deciding to start double cleansing in the evenings, I picked this one up (and was very happy to discover the product is larger than before without a huge price jump) and now I’m wondering why I ever stopped. Though I’ve been trying a few new skincare products lately and can’t definitely see specific effects yet (I need more than two weeks lol), I’ve definitely seen a noticeable difference between how long spots take to vanish from my face – it’s much quicker than before, where they used to last weeks. It also just leaves my face feeling SO SOFT after using it, and it’s genuinely the nicest, refreshing feeling. Why did I ever stop using it?

So that’s it for my January favourites!

And if you want to see my reading wrap up…

Let me know what one of your favourites of January was! If you have a favourites post of your own, I’d love to see it – link it down below!

Until next time,