The horrors of an ever-growing TBR

 I feel like all avid readers can relate when I say my To Be Read (TBR) list is never-ending. It feels as though every time I pop into The Works for 'just a browse', I leave £20 poorer because 'the books in The Works are such a good deal!'; and they are, but I buy books faster than I'm able to read them. Hence, I'm making it my new summer goal to get through as much of my physical TBR as possible, and then sell them on my Vinted page!

I thought that I could also make it into a fun little blog series where I write a review on each book I finish, and then I could also direct people to my Vinted if they're interested in reading said book. For anyone searching for a book to buy in about 3 months, here's my whole physical TBR (in no particular order...):

    (a beautiful picture of my TBR that was relocated from my shelf to the floor)

1. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
2. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez
3. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
5. Coming Up For Air by George Orwell
6. Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell
7. Daydream by Hannah Grace (Current read)
8. The Summer I First Saw You by Elizabeth O'Roark
9. The Summer You Found Me by Elizabeth O'Roark
10. The Summer I Saved You by Elizabeth O'Roark
11. The Summer We Fell by Elizabeth O'Roark
12. How To Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie
13. Five Survive by Holly Jackson
14. The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
15. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
16. The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
17. The Housemaid's Secret by Freida McFadden
18. Carrie by Stephen King
19. Dracula by Bram Stoker
20. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
21. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
22. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
23. Persuasion by Jane Austen
24. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
25. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
26. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
27. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
28. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
29. The Christmas Fix by Lucy Score
30. A Merry Little Christmas by Cathy Bramley
31. David Bowie: A Life by Dylan Jones
32. A Statin-Free Life by Dr Aseem Malhotra
33. The Health Gap by Michael Marmot

Sorry to any Wuthering Heights and Little Women superfans, but the last two were gifts and therefore won't be posted on my Vinted! I know many people are weeping at the thought, but I believe you can make it through these tough times.

On a more serious note, I'm hoping that posting this list to my Blogger will motivate me to actually work through all of these books over this summer before university (though the Christmassy ones may have to wait for November/December to be read), as I'm hoping to have a bit more cash, and a bit more room on my shelf for when I start uni! I'm also considering joining my university's book club when I join, as they seem to just work through one book a month - though I'd only join once my TBR is basically empty and I find that I have enough free time to commit, as I currently want to join about 20 different clubs/societies...

I hope that anyone who reads this found it interesting enough to maybe keep an eye out for when I finish any of these books, and for anyone looking to spend a bit of money, I already have a couple of items on my Vinted (*cough* Dazed28 *cough*) if they're interested!

Book Review: 'The Daisy Chain Flower Shop' by Laurie Gilmore

My Rating: 4/5

Genre: Cosy romance

A struggling florist gets herself into a fake-dating situation with the local inn's architect as they delve into the history of her dead relatives and attempt to solve her curse of separating marriages with her flowers.

(Minor spoilers ahead)

This book contained adult themes, and hence this review may also contain adult themes

This book was a classic fake-dating trope, which is something I find Laurie Gilmore does best. I'm proud to say I have read all of her Dream Harbour series, and (to me at least) each of her books follows a classic romance trope. Sunshine x grumpy, opposites attract, forced proximity, one bed, single dad, fresh start, found family, fake dating - and I hate to admit it, she does it so well! Especially when I read The Cinnamon Bun Bakery, I thought she did a much better job at writing a virgin 30-year-old than a certain other author who wrote all of her 30-year-old characters in a way that made me feel as though I was reading from the perspective of a 16-year-old (not to name any names).

Although a problem I have with the book is its hatred of the name 'Daisy' in the first few chapters!

"Hailey, who had a much cooler name than Daisy." (I mean, Hailey is a nice name, but Daisy is cool too...)

"Cuteness is for kittens and babies and little girls. Not grown women. Have you ever heard of a CEO named Daisy? Or an astronaut?" (Now I haven't met many astronauts or CEOs, but surely there's at least one named Daisy, right?)

This probably isn't a problem for people whose first name isn't Daisy or any sort of flower variant, but as a Daisy myself... they really were touching a nerve whilst reading!

Jokes aside, I would say the town of Dream Harbour continued to be irritating in a way that I loved and helped to drive the plot, and continued to give serious Stars Hollow vibes. I hate to admit it, but I loved the scene where Elliot speaks up for Daisy at the town meeting, and basically no one knows who he is - like, guys, he was at Jeanie and Logan's wedding?? I really loved how she delved into a nerdier guy for this book. I know WE all love nerdy history buffs. I also really enjoy reading about businesses in books for some reason... I was so sad when they didn't go more into depth with Kira's barn renovations in The Christmas Tree Farm (as if it wasn't the subplot to the romance).

I would 10000% recommend this book to any lovers of the Dream Harbour series, especially, and for anyone looking for an easy, fun romance read. However, if someone is reading this and hasn't even read The Pumpkin Spice Cafe, I would recommend they read the books from the beginning! It's not really as if you HAVE to read them in order, but I did, and I think it would help if you did, as the books have a lot of references to past events, and it means that when background characters are mentioned, it's kind of like you're getting a follow-up from the previous books.

Where to now? (Life after A-Levels)

I'm currently in a weird space of time where I'm free from the constraints of my A-Levels, yet still trapped by the stress of awaiting my results. How beautiful would it be if we were to immediately find out our results? It makes me wonder whether AI will eventually be used for these sorts of things! However, in its current stages, I wouldn't really trust that sort of thing.

Whilst I wait to see whether all of my hard work from the last two years has paid off, I'm itching to begin my journey into pharmacy, and I already have my summer all planned out; returning to volunteering in a charity shop after a year, beginning to flesh out my LinkedIn, retaking a British Sign Language Course, getting my first job, catching up on my reading goal for the year - and now blogging!

Blogging is something I've thought about doing for years, and despite my love for STEM, I can't deny the passion I have for writing. Although I feel as though my vocabulary has worsened since I completed my English GCSE, and I lack the creativity to write any of my own original fiction work (perhaps I'll get there someday), I find blogging is a good medium! I genuinely have no idea what sort of format to write this sort of thing in, though I have Googled it! But Google is currently in the grasp of their AI and really loves to use the AI overview over whatever they had before. Unfortunately, I've forgotten its name, but it will be missed (although the AI can be quite helpful and polite - yes, I know it isn't sentient!).

I probably shouldn't be treating this blog as something to convert my yapping mind into words, as I'm not sure many people will care enough to read (and this is cliché), but I should probably share some things about myself. Currently, I've just finished my A-Levels, now waiting for my results. I took one of the most basic combinations of chemistry, maths, and physics, and received all of my offers to do a Master's in Pharmacy - unfortunately, none were unconditional offers (I can dream), though I have managed to receive a reduced offer (yayy). For that, I am so grateful! When picking my A-Levels, I had hopes of doing a physics degree and becoming a nuclear engineer, but after doing a month of A-Level physics, I decided I despised it to my very core and loved chemistry much more. I wasn't creative enough to think of anything that I could do with a chemistry degree, so I opted to go for a pharmacy degree!

Pharmacy wasn't something new to me; it's originally what I had wanted to be when I was 14 (yes, another cliché, yet this is true), and so when deciding I would rather not put myself through any more physics than necessary, I opted to return to my roots. I wasn't able to gain any experience within a pharmacy, but I was able to volunteer at a primary school! Despite how frustrating it could be trying to convince children that the curtain blowing wasn't a ghost, it was something I genuinely enjoyed, which led me to see if you can specialise as a paediatric pharmacist. From my 10 minutes of research, I found out I could (very much a joke, I spent more time reviewing my future career), and so hopefully this is something I'll be able to progress into!

Now that I am free to do my own thing, I have some fun plans for the coming weeks! For example, as I mentioned before, I just recently got a job! It's at a local stadium, and so I should hopefully gain some valuable experience in customer service. Then outside of that, I'm going to return to some of my long-lost hobbies - weightlifting, reading, baking, and crochet - and also start some brand new ones - British Sign Language, running, and pilates (hopefully). I hope to be able to commit to all of these over the summer - as well as enjoying a holiday or two - and hopefully this blog will hold me accountable!

In seriousness, my whole goal with this blog was to document my journey toward becoming a pharmacist and share a more realistic view of the life of an MPharm student with the world, as that's something I'm not seeing much of online! I began a TikTok account around mid-September to share my journey through Year 13 - an account which I have unfortunately been 'neglecting' recently due to my focusing on my education - but I have really enjoyed interacting with the community and sharing tips for A-Levels (especially chemistry). That's something I hope to be able to continue to do in this blog, but in more detail, whilst also giving me a way to practice putting my thoughts onto a page.