It's been a little while since I've written any of my book advice blog posts - and some of my readers probably have no idea that I have this segment.

Because I'm nosy but also quite observant, I like to see what other people in the community are curious about; or even need advice on. That's when I decided to make these kinds of posts. I don't have very many and it's been over a year since I've written them so I thought I'd bring them back and rebuild this segment; mainly also because I have a whole list of things I could write advice for. 

If you want to read some of my previous posts, you can search them up at the top right of my blog via web browser, but if you're lazy like myself, I'll link them all here: Where to Get Signed Books, Where to Find Cheap Books, How I Write My Reviews, How to Find Time To Read More. (Please keep in mind theses were published over a year ago when I was still getting in the hang of blogging lol) 

Something I've noticed people as a lot is how to take off stickers from a book without the sticky residue. I mean, have you ever been so excited to read a book that you just purchased but first, really wanted to take off the sticker that's been bothering you? So once you get around to taking the sticker off, there's sticky residue and even worse, some parts of the sticker still stuck to the book. And no matter how hard you try and pick it at, it doesn't come off. 

Well first of all, you wouldn't have this problem if you shopped at Indigo *winky face* and I'm not saying that because I work there and am a blog affiliate, but because the stickers peel off so smoothly. But, if you aren't able to purchase from the wonderful Indigo, then I suppose this blog post is for you.

(I wanted to just say that this isn't a step by step how-to; but more so but what I do and hopefully, if you try it out, it'll help you guys as well.)

Clockwork Princess is the final book in Cassandra Clare's The Infernal Devices series.

I can't believe this series has ended.

(I also think it's the second series I actually fully finished besides A Court of Thorns and Roses)

But for the first time ever, I wasn't dreading the ending. I wanted to continue this series until the end because I wanted to consecutively spend as much time as I could with these characters.

For starters, I've grown to love these characters so much throughout this trilogy. Even if that does include Gideon and Gabriel whom I didn't really like at the beginning.

I love the relationship made between Gideon and Sophie as well as Cecily and Gabriel.

I have also started to like Gabriel as a character as he starts to realize much of his flaws and moving past it throughout the series. During Clockwork Angel, Gabriel is shown to be very annoying and somewhat transgressive, per se. Although he was very loyal to his father, he wanted to protect his father even though he did horrible things.

From the start of the book where his father is turned into a worm through demon pox, up until the end where Jem is sent to be a Silent Brother, Gabriel as a character has grown a lot and I truly appreciate that. I also love the loyalty that has grown upon him towards Will and Charlotte.

As for Cecily, I wasn't a huge fan of her character at the beginning. She really starts to grow on you though and I think I really started to appreciate her character once she started accepting her brother's fate as a Shadowhunter.

A lot of people tend to relate Cecily as a side kick character in The Infernal Devices, but I've never seen her as such. I see her as more of an extra side character, per se, like Gabriel and Gideon. When it comes to side kicks, I see more of Sophie being Tessa's side kick to be honest.

I loved seeing more of Will, Jem and Tessa as always. Although, seeing the bond between Will and Jem during the time Jem was dying and Will losing his parabatai was heartbreaking. I think I cried the most during those parts because you truly felt Will's heartbreak. His mourning when Will thought Jem died because his parabatai rune started to fade and bleed, when Will found out Jem was Brother Zacariah as they were fighting Mortmain. Even as Will goes through the depression because although Jem isn't dead, he won't get to see Jem as much as he used to. You can tell how much Will loves him by the way he talks about Jem. He never talks about him in passed tense. (He never says he was his parabatai.) It was truly heartbreaking.

As for Tessa, I think her character development was the weakest in this book. I mean. yes, we get her backstory and yes, she does defeat Mortmain and the Clockwork Army by shapeshifting into an Angel and defeating them. But it wasn't anything like I would've imagined for an ending impression and I was really disappointed in that.

I think a lot of the ending was based on Will and Jem's relationship alongside building relationships with other Shadowhunters (Will and Tessa's included) that Tessa didn't get that huge character twist most of us were waiting for.

I mean, we know that her mom was a Shadowhunter and her dad was a demon (which is technically impossible) and her mother is actually Starkweather's daughter switched with a mundane at birth.  But it wasn't a huge wow factor to me for some reason. I was just expecting a lot more to it.

The last character I really wanted to talk about was Charlotte. And it's mainly because what she's going through is what many women still go through to this day. It's frustrating to see Charlotte doubted and her ideas discouraged because she's a women. Like, the Consul trying to use Gabriel against Charlotte so he can "find proof" and kick her out was such an annoyance. I'm really happy that Consul Wayland's goal was diminished because he was killed and Charlotte became the new Consul (as Will was turned into the new head of the institute) because she deserved that. They both really did.

Something I really wanted to touch upon that I didn't in the earlier reviews was the use of different languages. I'm really happy that Cassandra Clare incorporated the use of different languages in this novel. For example, Jem's mom is from Shanghai and dad is from England, I'm really happy that Jem knew how to speak Mandarin and taught Tessa throughout their engagement. I loved that he talked to her in his Native language and she was learning to understand certain phrases. I loved that Will did the same but with Welsh. I really loved that element because it really humanized these characters, if
that makes sense. It didn't make them seem like regular, English speaking characters, but it allowed them to stick to their cultures they were based in.

I also really love how all these series' are tied together. Like how in this book, we see Magnus and Henry create the portal for the first time which Clary and Jace use in City of Bones or City of Ashes (one of the two, I can't really remember lol). I love how in the Epilogue, Jem mentions the new generation of Fairchilds, Lightwoods and Herondales (referring to Jace, Clary, Alec and Izzy) to Tessa. It truly gives you such excitement and extends your love for this series. Because you get to see different characters grows and families expand.

I'm so sad this series is all over, but I'm super excited to see Tessa and Will in the future series Cassie is coming out with, and I'm excited to dive into the rest of the Shadowhunter world!

What Shadowhunter series do you like most? Let me know in the comment or on my Instagram, I'd love to know!

Hey, hi, hello!

It's been a while, hasn't it? 

Before I get into my actual movie review, I thought I would give you a little update on how my life has been. I've been making a lot of changes to my lifestyle lately and have been trying to work out what works best for me and how I can balance work, blogging, reading and leisure. 

I've been struggling to find balance for a while now and although I seem to have figured out ways, it just never ends up working out for me because I'm stubborn and I want to get everything done at once, to the point where I get so exhausted and drained; therefore making me lose interests in everything until I find something to give me a new motivational boost.

I don't want to keep being super active at one point then disappearing again for another because I really do want to be consistent and so I think I've found a way that can help me do all things I want/need to throughout the week!

I've decided to make a little posting schedule on my blog which was something I was previously against, for a while! 

Originally, I just wanted to get all the content I could out at once and although I did successfully at some points in having this blog, it didn't consistently work for me because I was so drained from pushing myself to write all the time; every day.

My new posting schedule will now be every Monday, and Wednesday which will give me time to write the blog posts I want to but don't feel obligated to rush them and will give me more time to pre-write and schedule posts. 

I'm also working on a couple of other personal things like sleep (which I've had horrid insomnia for maybe 10 or 11 months now - I've been sleeping a lot better lately so hopefully it stays the same), and eating healthier so hopefully I'll gain a lot more energy and motivation!

So yeah, apologies for that long intro; I really wanted to get that whole update out of the way! 

With all that being said, let's get into my review of IT: Chapter 2!

So, I guess you all really liked my painting edges experience so I thought I'd make a new series on my blog about this.

I am not a very crafty person. I'm a perfectionist though, so it may seem that I am crafty most of the time but I'm really not. I'm not very good at cooking things out of the ordinary. (It took me two years to perfect eggs and I'm still struggling with not burning grilled cheese lol) 

So I thought I'd take advantage of my two flaws and make a series out of it - because thats what we do to be a little positive! 

I've decided to try out fun crafty and food related things that have some relation to books, and talk about my whole experience. With that being said, none of these blog posts will be tutorials (I'll mention what products I used and recipes I follow, but the post itself isn't a how to) because honestly, I don't think you'd want to learn how to do these things from me.

Today, I decided to do something I've always wanted to do and that's customize my own Funko Pop!

I think it's quite evident that I collect Pop! Vinyl Figures. I mean, they're all over my library and bedroom. I even got my boyfriend to start collecting them! I thought I'd use this as an opportunity to try and create one of my favourite characters at the moment: Will Herondale from The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare.

I've decided to follow the somewhat tutorial of this YouTube video, so if you want to see how the original owner made it, the link will be here.

With that being said, let's go and make our own little Will Herondale!

I used very simple products, most of which I used in my sprayed edges blog post!


For starters, I used the same dollar store paint brushes to change up the hair colour and outfit on our Will Herondale. For a pack of 5 (I believe), I think I paid roughly $2 which isn't so bad if you're trying to do this project on a budget!


The next thing I used was also the same black dollar store paint that I used for my sprayed edges. I believe this was a couple of dollars as well. (I can't really remember, it's been a while since I've bought it.) The paint is acrylic which dried a little more matte than I would've wanted but I think it turned out really well!


And lastly, I used a Newt Scamander Funko as the base of my Will Funko Pop! These usually aren't that expensive; I'm pretty sure you can get these for as cheap as $9. When I ordered this Pop Figure, I had the option to get the original Pop with the wand (I was originally going to cut it down and make it into a steele like the video tutorial) or the chase variant in which he's holding a book.

As you can see above, I got the Chase variant, which, originally, I was pretty bummed about it. But then I remembered that Will loves books so I managed to work it all out.

I followed the video tutorial and painted his hair black, alongside his pants and it was already looking like a new Funko Pop. The only thing I would've changed in this process is the type of paint I ended up using. Like I said earlier, the paint job ended up a bit more matte than I would've liked it too.

To separate this Funko from looking like a regular man and into more of our Shadowhunter, Will Herondale, I decided to draw a couple of runes throughout the exposed skin as well.




As for the book, I decided to write "Vatek" which was one of Will's favourite books that he mentioned in The Infernal Devices.

I think, overall, Will turned out beautifully. I didn't end up putting painters tape on any of the parts I didn't want painted, but I still managed to stray on the areas I really wanted to.

I'm really excited to be doing more of these kinds of blog posts! If you have any suggestions on what creative bookish things you'd like me to try out, definitely let me know!

Hi lovelies, it's been a while since I've posted.

I know what you guys are thinking; "Jessica, I'm really tired of your excuses!" and I don't have one at the moment, other than the fact that I have been in an incredibly harsh reading slump. But, I've been slowly getting back into the swing of things and I'm hoping I'll be back to reading and blogging more avidly soon.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I stumbled across a post by NunuKz on Twitter (TheperksofbeingNoura on Insatgram) basically announcing a BTS-themed Read-A-Thon. I'll admit, I've never joined a Read-A-Thon held by other people before; I've had my own 24 Hour Read-A-Thons by myself but when I found out this was based on BTS, I was sold.

If you don't follow me on my social media accounts, I am kpop trash. I post about them often and I know a lot of people who don't like kpop are probably so tired of my posts, but it is what it is. (My twitter header always switches between Jaehyun from NCT, Baekhyun from EXO and Wooseok from Pentagon and you guys seem to love calling me out on it lol - they're my ultimate biases, fight me.) 

BTS is one of my favourite groups, not necessarily my ultimate group but definitely one of my top 10, so when I found out about this Read-A-Thon, I was sold! (I also have a BTS and Kpop book tag that are both coming out very soon, so look out for that as well.)

Today, I wanted to share my TBR (to be read) list for this fun little Read-A-Thon which starts on August 20th!

Here are the prompts for ReadAThon Of The Soul.

If you've skimmed through the prompts a little, it says that you don't have to read books for all the prompts, but I thought, why not? Since I've been in such a reading slump lately, I definitely want to use this Read-A-Thon as an opportunity to catch up on some reading. 

I tried to pick books that could be used for more than one prompt so I'm not forcing myself to read that whole month which will put me into another reading slump, but I also tried to pick books that would really interest me and hopefully get me back to reading 15 books a month.

Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay

Ever since I found out about this book a couple months ago, I've been dying to read it. From my knowledge, this book follows a Filipino teen whose cousin was killed by the president of the Philippines' drug war. For those who don't know, I am Filipino and my family has gone through something similar a couple years back with extended family. I haven't actually read any Filipino rep books yet because they're pretty hard to find in YA, so I'm super excited to have stumbled across this one. 

For this book, I'm going to read it for the Persona and Dionysus prompts because it is an own voice book as well as a diverse read.

Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff and Amy Kaufman

Ao Haru Ride Vol (?) by Io Sakisaka

Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone

Bonus Books:

Now, like I said earlier, I don't want to push myself to read more books than I don't really need to, especially because I just came out of a reading slump. But I did want to add a couple of books to those prompts that are being executed by one book (like two prompts under one book), just in case I'm in the mood to read more (which tends to happen a lot.)

I'm only going to read and add these books to my Read-A-Thon list if I've completed all the previous books and still have time to read more/am still in the mood to read more. It's not something that I'll necessarily push myself to do if I don't feel like it, because the main purpose of this Read-A-Thon, for me, is to not only have fun and meet new kpop book stans, but to also get back in the hang of reading!

So the prompts that I've decided to execute with one book are Persona, Dionysus, Mikrokosmos and Jamais Vu.

Vicious by VE Schwab

This Time Will Be Different by Misa Sugiura