Who Dunnit?

With minimal encouragement from Hannah while I was looking for books to pad my TBR with, she suggested a change of pace with the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith aka JK Rowling. I have always been hesitant to pick up her pseudonym books because Harry Potter has a Horcrux on my soul and I didn't want anything to taint my love for this author in case it didn't jive with me. Fortunately for me, I had nothing to worry about. 

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // Travel By Page to the West End

"I wouldn't have to lose my temper if people weren't such morons."
--Lucy Parker, Act Like It

My Thoughts
The Belle
When Hannah started telling me about a book she read on the plane home and how great it was, I was intrigued. Then she mentioned it 1. takes place in London 2. is low on drama and high on hilarity and 3. focuses on people in the West End theater scene, I was sold! And I am so incredibly happy with my decision to impulse buy these books and read them immediately. They were the perfect balm to my soul after leaving the UK (and battling a bout of the stomach flu).

UK Recap Fit For a Queen // Besties Abroad

If you've been following on the blog or Instagram, you know that Hannah and I were traveling in the UK--but kind of don't bring it up or I'll cry all the tears of sadness that 1. I'm no longer with her 2. I'm not in the UK anymore and 3. I'm no longer with Hannah. I didn't think it was possible to love her more but it was! I am mourning the loss of this trip still today but I digress. While we were there, we did a UK Recs series for books, TV/Movies, and places we love; we thought we would do a parallel 3 day recap talking about books, what we did, and a back home mug life!

Yesterday we talked about the books we read while traveling, today is our real recap of what we did and 3 Good Things about each day. Hannah and I both keep a 3 Good Things planner/journal so this was the perfect format for us to reflect back on what we did AND what our favorite parts of each day were.

UK Recs Fit For a Queen // Favorite Places

In case you don't follow me on social media, Hannah and I are currently traveling around the UK! We both wanted to commemorate our adventure on our blogs and what better way than to talk about all the different facets of the UK and why we love it. We'll be talking about our favorite books set in the UK, movies, and what initially drew us to our love of this place.

Today, we're talking about what we love about the UK and favorite parts about actually being there. I have an obsession with traveling and while I want to see so much of this world, my heart is always in the UK. It will always be my first choice destination no matter how many times I've been there and so this doesn't turn into a dissertation about my love, Hannah and I decided to prompt ourselves with these four questions:

1. When/How did your love for the UK begin?
2. What is your favorite thing you've done there?

3. What is your favorite place there?

4. What is one thing you're most looking forward to on this trip?

For Love of Family

"I did it only for him actually"

--Penny Vincenzi, No Angel

Genre: Adult Historical Fiction

Publisher: The Overlook Press

Pages: 626

Publication Date: October 5th, 2004

Source: Gifted by Hannah--thanks, love!

Previous Books in Series: First in trilogy
Find on: Goodreads | Amazon

My Thoughts

The Belle
This sat on my shelf for way too long after being gifted to me by Hannah about 2 years ago. Its a tome. 600+ pages, tiny print, and even knowing this book was right up my alley based on thy synopsis I still dragged my feet on committing to it. I regret this decision.

Instalife {4}

Back for another Instalife! I love these posts because I love Instagram; taking photos, highlighting what I'm reading, where I am, where I've been, I just love it! So here's what I've been up to the last few weeks on Instagram...

Best of Travel {2016}

Today I'm talking about my favorite travel moments of 2016! Oh, my gosh where has the year gone!? I know I and everybody says this every year but it's so true! I remember this time last year I was preparing for my trip to the UK and Spain and ah! I cant believe that was already a year ago! I have been fortunate enough to have made a lot of fantastic travel moments this year. This was one of my favorite years of travel to date, probably because I got to go to the countries of my soul twice this year! I have been to grateful for the time I've been able to spend traveling so before I wax poetic for an hour, here are my favorite travel moments of 2016!

I flew to London on December 27th of last year but I'm still counting this because it was one of my favorite travel memories to date. Lost luggage, no sleep, and only 36 hours in my favorite city but it was worth every annoyance. It was the shortest amount of time I've ever been in London but it made it all the more sweeter. The atmosphere of Christmastime in this city was tangible to me. There was a different kind of energy in the air and when I think back on my time there it truly feels magical. Favorite, favorite, favorite moment of travel. 

Recap and Favorite London Spots

InstaLife {3}

It's been awhile since I've done one of these adn I managed to have a few photos from my last trip show up throughout for some throwback/memories/still holding on to Scotland and England any way I can! As you can see I'm definitely getting in the holiday spirit! I love this time of year, the feeling, the decorations, the ambiance, everything! I started listening to Christmas music in November and I have no shame. I hope you all are having a great holiday season so far and remember what this time of year is about no matter what you celebrate at this time of year.

Bittersweet Love

"Once you've read a book, you and it belong to each other for life."

--Kimberley Freeman, Wildflower Hill

Genre: Adult Historical Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher: Touchstone

Pages: 524

Publication Date: August 23rd, 2011

Source: Borrowed from library

Previous Books in Series: Standalone
Find on: Goodreads | Amazon

My Thoughts

The Belle
One of my favorite things about reading is starting a book you have zero expectations of and that book grabbing you by the proverbial balls and heart strings. Wildflower Hill was that book. I fell down the historical fiction rabbit hole and had this book not been on of Hannah's top recs, I would have never picked it up. Australian historical fiction? What in the actual hell interesting could have happened there? This is when I put my foot in my mouth.

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // My UK Adventures Part 3

It's been a little bit of a break in between posts, real life and all that, but here is my final *sobs* part in my UK Adventures from a few weeks ago! In case you missed the first two parts here's how I spent my time in Scotland and London. Today I'm focusing on all the different day/weekend trips I took! I love London and Britain in general because of how easy it is to get to so many different places simply by train. The train and I were BFFs by the time I left and I don't regret one second I spent on it (cancelled trains and detours not included) because it always brought me to somewhere incredible. 

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // UK Adventure Part 2

Hello, again! Welcome back to part 2 of my UK adventure posts! In my previous posts I talked about Scotland and the day trips I took, today I'm focusing on what I did in London. I was very fortunate to spend an extended amount of time in London and my heart was so happy. Having been to London several times before, it has never felt like enough. There is something about this city--and the entire of the UK, let's be honest as you can see in my other posts--that just speaks to me. I feel at peace when I'm here, when I'm in Scotland, it just makes me feel complete. This place is my travel soulmate. So yeah, I got to go back to places I've been before and loved and got to do so much new stuff and see places I haven't before. Best 3 weeks of my life! Here's my London, hope you enjoy!

Adventures in the Great Wide Somwhere // Travel by Page to England

It's no surprise that I would try and find a way to combine reading and traveling. A huge motivator in all my travels has always been books. Guaranteed, any trip I take if you ask me why I wanted to go there it's 98% of the time going to start with this sentence, "Well I read this book..." Because I didn't start really traveling until my 20's, I still think that reading is the best and most cost effective form of travel. That feeling of being transported to another time, another place can always be found within the pages of books. That's why I wanted to start doing book recs based on countries. This first edition of this will, of course, be England. Most likely the book will take place in London but a lot of them travel throughout the country especially the historical ones.

So without further ado, here are my book recs for England. Whether you're planning a trip or looking to travel within the confines of your living room, these books will take you there. Note: I had SO many England recs that I divided them up between Setting, Historical, and Swoon. So no matter what you're looking for, I'm hoping you can find something here. Also note: No other country will be this extensive. As I've said a thousand times, London is my soul mate city. I read a lot about it.

Long Live Jane {My Lady Jane Blog Tour and Giveaway}

Welcome to my stop on the My Lady Jane blog tour! I was so excited to put this post together because I'm combining more than a few of my loves in life. Books, history, and traveling, all in one post! For my stop on the tour I'm highlighting a few places I've been in real life that Jane would have visited in her lifetime. Hope you enjoy and check out my review of this fun, romantic, and justified alternate history!

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // London, England {2}

Last week I talked about my love for London and my favorite attractions to see. This week I'm going to add to that because if I did this in one post it would have been waaaay too long. This week I'm talking about a few of my favorite neighborhoods, transportation, and where I like to stay and not to stay.

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // London, England {1}

Hey guys! So this first post is gonna be just a pinch long because 1. Please check out my brand new, beautiful graphic banner thanks to the amazingly talented Rachel from hello, chelly blog! 2. I wanted to thank you all for your feedback and positive words because I have been so incredibly inspired lately! 3. I'm going to do my absolute damnedest to make this a regular post on Wednesdays because 4. I want start doing a a weekly hashtag on Instagram called #WanderlustWednesday and make it unique to me and everybody who wants to participate. That means I'm going to post on Instagram every Wednesday with the hashtag something travel related and I want YOU to join. It can be almost anything--a throwback travel photo of a place you've been, a Google image of where you want to go, an inspirational quote, a travel themed trinket you have, anything that inspires your wanderlust. I know I am incredibly unique and lucky to have the schedule I have and I won't have it forever so I didn't want to make it exclusive. Even if you've never left your hometown you can participate! Sound good? Let's make fetch aka #WanderlustWednesday happen! Ok, moving on!