Olivia's Catastrophe: June Wrap Up & Giveaway!

Sunday, 9 July 2017

June Wrap Up & Giveaway!

Hello everyone!

Before I get right into the wrap up, I wanted to start with the main point. You may be wondering where my posts have gone, or why I will not be active for a little while into the future. The truth of the matter is: Olivia's Catastrophe is going to be changing. The design will change, the layout and niches shall change a bit, and the biggest news of all - we're going to be moving to Wordpress!

I hope you'll bear with me through all the changes. And I shall definitely have the occasional post going live, so don't worry, I won't be gone completely! I also fully intend to shower you with giveaways in my absence to make up for it. Don't worry ;)

First of all, I posted an epic guest post with Rogue Cart about the top 10 books you HAVE to read in summer! If you're looking for more books, you should head over there.

I had a very nice start to the summer. I went out to lunch with my Mum a couple of times, and my best friend had her 19th birthday party which was a nice celebration. We had a family over to dinner at our house and we made a Jamaican themed meal for them. I went out shopping quite a bit.

I also had my last day working at the nursery. It was so hard to say goodbye to all the lovely kids, and the brilliant teachers I had been working with. I was only there for a short period of time, but I really appreciated my stay.

I went to see Wonder Woman with my little sister and another good friend, and it was FANTASTIC! I absolutely loved it, and that's coming from someone who hasn't been enjoying superhero movies lately. I also finally watched White Chicks like I had been meaning to for ages. It was hilarious :D

BUT NOW FOR THE MOST EXCITING NEWS. I am currently in Spain, where I am working as an Au Pair until August. I'm staying with a lovely family. The are a foster family, and have three kids. One of them is a premature newborn, and the other has Alcohol Syndrome, which means I had a lot to learn. But we are falling into a routine, and they are lovely. Although the family does eat sugar-free and are vegetarian, so I feel like I am still adapting to that.

We've also been doing some touristy stuff. We go to the beach at least once a week, if not more, because the kids love it. I love it too, so that makes me happy. Every Tuesday we go hiking. I went hiking in my converse the first time, and it was incredibly steep. Since then I have bought proper hiking boots, and we climb every Tuesday. The peaks are at about 1,100 - 1,300 metres high. I'm also scared of heights. I'm so afraid of them that I feel like I have conquered the world once I reach the peak.

We celebrated the night of San Juan on the beach, making wishes, burning them in the fire and then humping over them. The next day we went into the city to watch the monuments burning. It was a beautiful experience. I've been to meet many families. One family made me paella because I had to try the Spanish dish, and I've been out partying with a bunch of university students I meant. In Spain, the party goes on till 7-8 am. I would've been completely okay if I hadn't had to go meet the host family's extended family at 10am the next day. Two hours sleep is NOT enough. :P

I'd never walked walked through a vineyard before, so that was nice. And we've been cycling around. Basically, very active. I'm loving it and I will let you know about more of my adventures around Alicante next month. I'm filming a lot and hopefully will be able to make a series of vlogs about the trip. But make sure to follow my snapchat if you want to keep up to date with all the cool things happening.

Eight books. But I am counting that as a jolly good number because one of them was 913 pages long, and the other was 1015 pages.

I have reviews posted of Internet Famous by Danika Stone and The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue already, so head over there for my thoughts on those!

I also read Insight and Oversight by Santino Hassell. I was so excited to get into this series because it's a spin off on the family mentioned in one of my favourite novels of his - Stygian. The new adult aspect is good, but the plot is mind blowing. Which is why I love the paranormal storyline. Although I liked Oversight less than Insight due to there being a new main character introduced who was a bit too stoic for me, I still really loved both books.

THEN I STARTED THIS SERIES. ASDFGHJKL

The Agency series by Santino Hassell and Ais is an unpublished series which you can get in ebook form, but not in physical. It's because it started as an online series and they didn't want to publish an unedited work, but haven't had the time to do so yet. However, there are edited versions of the first two books, Evenfall Part One and Evenfall Part Two availible. I read those and FELL IN LOVE with Boyd and especially Hsin Liu Vega, an assassin with a serious hatred of other people. Then there is also the mission plot line, their whole crazy new adult love story, and the writing is unbelievably good.

I was doubtful at first, but after finishing the first books I had to read the unedited versions of Afterimage and The Interludes too. The story gets all the more complex and intense and I was fangirling until the early hours of the morning. I flew through the 913 and 1015 pages. And I'm already reading the finale.

Nope. No TBR this month. I've been so busy here in Spain that I haven't been reading much. I'm just gonna read what I feel like reading, whenever I feel like it.