Currently: December

I really have just been watching ongoing kdramas and trying to catch up with everything while I also ofcourse read and then Taylor Swift keeps dropping albums??? What a crazy last couple of months. Here is what's keeping me entertained this month. 

Please Don't Date Him S1 | The premise of the show really drew me in. A fridge that exposes cheating men? count me in! I really do love the main leads and the side characters in this really cute and fun show. It's not too serious and has that kdrama romantic comedy charm while also just being something that is comforting without being too emotional. 

Hilda S2 | Talk about comfort shows. Hilda's color scheme and animation style is one of my favourite things about the show and not to mention the adorable adventurer with a heart of gold and a curiosity bigger than space itself! I'm so far slowly enjoying this show that brings me so much joy!

Mr Queen S1 | I don't watch sageuks mostly, I never found them interesting enough to start and even the one I did watch halfway through, it was so boring it completely strayed me away from the genre but when I saw the trailer for this show I knew I needed to watch it. Turns out, I was right. It really is a gem that is SO FUNNY and Shin HyeSun is absolutely killing the eponymous role. I am enjoying it so so much. 

White Ivy by Susie Yang | I started this off because of the Asian American character and it really was doing the rounds in the critics circle so I had high hopes for it. Al and I were buddy reading it and both of us sort of have DNFed it at around 15-20%. There were so many things happening but also it was also quite fast paced and I didn't really get to feel much for the characters. The writing itself is a bit stuffy but I do want to give it one more chance before I write it off so I shall continue. 

If We Were Villains by M.L.Rio | This was our bookclub book for this month and I was excited because it had Shakespeare and a murder? But a few pages in, I really found it to be quite obnoxious. The writing is alright but the characters are a bit all over the place and unlikeable. I will still try to read a bit more beacuse I've been told it gets better so I am holding on to some hope. 

Evermore by Taylor Swift | 2 Taylor Swift albums under 6 months??? The best thing 2020 has given us. I'm still absolutely stunned that this is a reality for us. Folklore was so good and then we have evermore which is as good and both are so enjoyable. It's only been a couple weeks so I haven't had much time to really go into it but I've listened to it in its entirity twice and found a few songs I instantly loved and now I'm doing a deep dive by listening to each song for 2 whole days so I can understand the lyrics and try to comprehend the levels of meaning that her songwriting puts into each song. I'm 1/3 into the album already and my current favourites are champagne problems and no body, no crime. I'm sure it will keep changing as I listen to more. 

So, what's keeing you entertained?

Hey hey you you, I don't like your email.

 So, back in June when I first heard of hey.com and their email redesign, I was so excited. Gmail is great but email was becoming such a chore and hey had a lot of features that I thought would simplify my life and emails so I wrote a very heartfelt email to them to get the access code. Here's a little snippit from the e-mail I sent them. 

After sending this email, I waited patiently, checking my email twice every day to get the invite code. After 3 days I started to think it would never show up, but a week later, the code was in my email. Imagine my excitement, I went ahead and set up my email. I'm online as "heyshaha" on almost every social media site (it's both a greeting and my name, or in my language Dhivehi "hey" means "laughing" and I often say I'm laughter because that's my branding, haha) and one of the MAJOR reasons I was drawn to the hey email was clearly the name hey. Yes, I am a sentimental ball of energy, I know it. Clearly, my decision making is very much emotionally affected. I really was sold. Back then all my friends could hear was me gushing about hey. I showed everyone (including my boss, haha) how cool it was. You can see my stream of tweets here about just how much I loved being a part of hey. 

screening first time emails and only ones you let in actually gets to your inbox?

YES. one of the many features I REALLY LOVE ABOUT HEY

it really is a redesign of email

— Do Do Sha Sha La La Sha (@heyshaha) June 24, 2020

no one;

me: check out hey email, it's so good *continues to speak about it's features for 13 whole days*

— Do Do Sha Sha La La Sha (@heyshaha) June 24, 2020

lmao everytime I enter my hey email into anything I feel so HAPPY like ahhh email has not been this happy in a long time!

— Do Do Sha Sha La La Sha (@heyshaha) July 5, 2020

Let's talk about the love story of hey and I. What did I love about hey? First, we have come to the conclusion that 80% of me paying for this specific service was the name. Now that that's out of the picture, let's talk about the features I loved. 

The Screener

As someone who gets SO MUCH SPAM (even when I have filters set up, ugh) I was so excited that email was getting treated as a special thing where no one can just barge into my email until I opened the door and let them in. They could knock once and I know they're there and if I let them in, then only can they get in. I still love this feature a lot but it's still very manual so at the beginning you'd have to screen in every email until you build a good system. I didn't mind it to be very honest. Having a clean inbox really was such a great feeling and I felt much lighter, like a load off my mind. 

Paper Trail and The Feed

I also loved that I could put all my online shopping recepits and bills out of my inbox (or the imbox according to hey, which is also such a clever little thing I loved. Hey's branding really is on point) into the paper trail. All the newsletters and other subscriptions I had, I could neatly tuck into the feed and read them later whenever I wanted. It was so easy. 

Reading emails together in a whole thread

This is another feature I really love and used a lot. Instead of clicking back and again clicking on a new email I could read everything? Yes! I started actually reading my newsletters ahaha. It worked really well until it didn't which is that even when I have read an email through this it still shows up as unread on my imbox until I manually click it, which was a bother so I stopped using this feature, sigh. Why doesn't good things last??

Sending large files without using Third Party Apps

I love WeTransfer and have been an avid user for years but being able to send large files just through email was so convenient. I think I used it once but the fact that I could was great. 

Clean Interface

I loved loved how clean hey looked. Gmail can look very cluttered and noisy but hey was fresh and clean and everytime I looked at my imbox I felt clean myself like I didn't have mutliple tabs running in brain all the time. I still love this and sometimes open hey just to see how nice it really looks. I'm by no means a techie, I'm your average internet user with just enough IT knowledge to manouver most websites, that's it so to me, this felt so wonderful. 

No notifications

I do love not getting notifications, I hate the notification sounds and it always makes me anxious and I loved this feature until I missed a very important email for uni. I think if hey at least had the badges option, I would love this feature more. Email is still such an important part that sometimes you need notifications. There is the option of clicking on for push notifs from threads yes, but this was a first time email so I couldn't have that on. 

Some other features I loved but never really had the chance to use much include being able to rename threads and merge emails into one, attach notes to myself on certain emails, the set aside feature and reply reminder. They all really sound wonderful. 

So what went wrong you might ask? How did this love story become a tragedy? Well, it started last month. So from July till late September, I really didn't have to use they hey email much except for personal emails. When college started in September (I'm a part time lecturer so I use my personal email for college) and I had to keep using email more frequently, hiccups started to happen. 

First, labeling was extremely hard? When I clicked to select messages, the button that uses it also was the one that showed the picture/name of sender so I couldn't rely on visual clues and I had to manually read through the subject of each email to figure out which is which. I thought, okay this is a little annoying but okay even in gmail I still have to read the name, so whatever, right? 

Next, not having a "Sent Mail" folder was really really really annoying. I had to remember when I sent the email or who I sent to or a keyword and I'm VERY VERY bad at remembering things so clearly this was when my love started turning sour. At this point I was like, I paid 99 dollars for email during a freaking pandemic so as the eldest daughter of a South Asian family, I had to use what I paid for, no matter how hard or annoying it was, right? That's what my parents would do and damned that was what I was going to do. 

I also lost a bunch of drafts and had to redraft emails a lot because I didn't know where the drafts folder was. Now this was completely my fault because if you go to the hey main menu, drafts is there but I didn't notice it back then. I have to be completely honest so I can't blame hey for this, but my own ignorance. 

Then the issue was that I could not mail to just one mail in the thread, it had to be to the most recent mail in the thread which didn't work for me cos another teacher had mailed and I didn't want to include her email cos it wasn't even relevant to mine but hey wouldn't let me so I had to manually delete her email from the thread and then reply which was ofcourse, very annoying but again, I complied. I was willing to change for "better email". 

Now, let's come to the breaking point. This was when I finally decided enough was enough. I had to submit an assignment draft and a table with some details through mail so as usual, I copy pasted the details (the table) from Ms Excel into the mail like how I normally would and bam, it lost the table formatting. I deleted it and redid thinking there was an issue. I checked around formatting options but alas the table formatting just wasn't there and that's when I realized, damn. My entire life is on excel sheets and tables. After a lot of frustration I was like, FINE I'll just send it like so. So I started attached my file my dragging and dropping it and THE FREAKING FILE GOT ATTACHED IN THE MIDDLE OF A WORD. NOT EVEN AFTER THE WORD BUT RIGHT FREAKING MIDDLE OF THE WORD. I can no longer look at the word "Understanding" the same way. I mean look at this??? I'm surprised my course coordinator could understand my mail considering what a mess it looks like. The table looks terrible and the way the attachment just is in the MIDDLE OF A WORD still makes me so angry. 

This was the day I decided I won't let my South Asian value for money stop me from being upset with EMAIL and forwarded my hey email back to my gmail. Since I've paid a full year I guess I still can use they hey email until next June but only 3 months into this I'm already fed up, the shininess has faded away and I'm stuck with having more issues with email than I should. 

Again, I'm not a big enough techie to know whether I really didn't know or whether hey does have solutions for these and I just haven't found them? Maybe my friends were right in saying I am a bit pretentious for paying for fancy email haha, either way it was nice while it lasted and I still have a soft spot for hey but I'm not gonna continue using it. Definitely not worth the money for me and left me with 2002 problems in 2020 and this year is already annoying enough without having to be frustrated with not being able to copy paste a table into an email. The rest of my life was already on Gsuite so yes, staying with gmail seemed to be easier too, I could easily use it syncing to my calender, classroom and to drive anyway.

So it's adios to you hey. I hope someone else is able to enjoy you but it isn't me. This love affair is over for now, as we say in Dhivehi it's time to vadhaau kiyan (say goodbye) to you!

October 2020 Favourites

I'm back to feeling overwhelmed because life is back to being extremely busy with online classes, work, and ofcourse juggling my 232 hobbies! Last month was such a whirlwind, I don't even know how it went by so fast. Here are a few products I've been loving lately. 

Yes, there are a lot of Kanken stuff so let's start with that. I got some very very later birthday gifts from very special people and ofcourse they know how much I love the Kanken range so they spoilt me with the cutest products. 

Kanken Hip Pack | Yes, this is a fanny bag and it's so spacious! It's become my go-to bag for the obvious reason of it being adorable and also ochre yellow which if you didn't know is my absolute favourite colour. Did I mention how spacious it is? I can pretty much fit all my essentials in it! 

Kanken Keyring | I also really love this blue so this keytag is wonderful. After much thinking I finally added it to keep company to the tardis that is part of my keychain. What else do I say about a keychain other than that it does the job and looks very cute. 

Kanken Pencil Case | I love this print so much. I't so bright and cheerful. Again, for a pencil case so slim, i thought it wouldn't fit much but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it fits all my essentials! 

Steampunk Gear Ring | I don't know if you guys know this about me but I do love the steampunk aesthetic eventho I'm too afraid to fully embrace it so this ring is just the perfect amoung of edge for me. The only downside is that the gears aren't functional, they're just still but it still looks very cute and cool! 

D12 Ring | I made this ring myself out of another ring base and some wires. I may have turned a lot of my DND dice into jewelry because I do love quirky accessories hahaha. This ring is y far my favourite ring I've made. 

Mini Amethysts | I'm just getting into crystals and I love my birthstone amethyst. It also holds a special place because my favourite blogger was Shea of My Amethyst. It's the stone of contentment which I definitely need more of. 

Lover Phone Cover | I'm not sure if this is available anymore since we're in Folklore era but yes it's the same case that was in her You Need to Calm Down video. I expected the Lover part to be more visible but it's very subtle. Nevertheless, I'm always happy to have any Tay Merch so this is a big win. 

Cantu Shea Butter Leave in Conditioner | I got this from Deseo but it's probably out of stock now. It's really great to bring back moisture to hair and works as an overnight leave in mask too. I use it for extra conditioning because my hair does get frizzy sometimes so it helps with the frizz a lot. 

Simple Day Cream | This is my first time trying this brand and I'm a fan. This cream especially is so light and works great as a moisturizer after toners/serums. My skin has visibly gotten better since starting to use this. I may have to get the night cream and face wash too. 

Ximivogue 3 Step Blackhead Removing Kit | Funny story about this. I was shopping with Dhum and actually saw this but thought it was a hand cream set so I didn't check it but then Dhum showed me that it was a blackhead remover set and there were only 2 sets in stock and we both got them. We both loved it. It's probably the best black head remover I've tried yet.

That's all the things I've enjoyed last month. What are your must haves for this month?

July 2020 Favourites

 I absolutely love doing favourites but guess I'm always late ahaha. Here are some products I really loved last month!

Rainbow Quran | I think I first saw a rainbow Quran in a Dian Pelangi post maybe 5- years ago and I've been wanting one but the vanity of it was what has stopped me all these years but when I finally saw one in the store, I decided to get it. Ofcourse, a Quran isn't supposed to be something you own because it looks pretty but I think reciting from this makes my heart extra happy and I tend to use it more, so I'm rationalizing this purchase, ahaha. 

Miniso lunch box | Ive always wanted to be one of those people who make cute bento-type lunch boxes and take it to work and I finally caved in and got one. If you're not following already, do check out Sulheejessica on tiktok, she's the inspiration behind a lot of my wanting of this. 

Miniso Cutlery Set | I only bought this for the metal chopsticks tho they are a bit short for my liking but I love this set and I carry it around in case I might need it. So far, I've mainly used it to eat dumplings at work. The spoon is wonderful for eating cake, just saying. 

Wireless Charger | I was getting a secret friend gift and saw this at Ximivogue, it was just under MVR 70 which is SO CHEAP so I bought it, thinking even if it doesn't work it's pretty cheap so whatever, and guess what? it does work!!! Even when I have a super bulky phone cover on. I really love it and tho I haven't had to use it much, it's so convenient, especially when I'm at work. 

Mini fan | It's the watching kdramas getting me to buy things like this. Honestly, this fan is so great (except I don't like that there's a light) I took it while I was on a picnic with my friend and while coming back, it was so hot on the ferry so I took it out and was fanning myself when this dude 5 rows ahead of us kept looking back at me, I got so uncomfortable, I had to turn the fan off, it was probably the light since the sound is not too loud (especially considering the sound level of the ferry). I use it after I put on setting spray, it's just so convenient. 

Green Tea Make Up Remover | I do a lot of shopping aat Ximivogue and usually their skincare is so good so I wasn't surprised to find that this gentle make up remover is so nice. It feels so smooth and minty on the skin and does the job so well. I use reusable cloth make-up wipes, the combo of which works amazingly. I've been using it for about a month and have been loving the results. 

Charming Mandarin Fragrance | I love citrusy smells and this has such a strong mandarin smell which I love so much. Again, I bought this from Ximivogue and I use it as my daily perfume (I rarely if ever splurge on expensive perfumes, I'm not too big on that)

Aloe Gel | Ive been seeing this everywhere and I finally took the pluge and bought one after seeing Rish recommend it. It's so soothing! I absolutely love it. I use it maybe 2-3 times a week. My favourite ways of using it is as a shaving gel when I'm shaving my face (which honestly was scary at first but once I did it once, it really made such a big difference!!) and as a gel to use with my face roller (which I freeze beforehand so it's really cooling on my face). If I'm out a lot on a day (which rarely happpens now due to the virus) I'll use it to cool down. I can't believe it's taken me more than 28 years of living in the middle of equator to start taking the sun seriously ahaha. 

Miniso Eyebrow/Face razor | So yeah I took the plunge and finally shaved my face (I've only done it once and haven't done it again, yet) and it was less scarier than I expected. This miniso razor is so easy and literally does not hurt one bit (I was really scared at first aahh) and it is so easy to manuever, especially with the gel on. I would not recommend shaving it dry. I've watched so many videos of tips and do's/don'ts of it to prepare for it. I would definitely do it again. 

Miniso bracelets | Yes, this is looking more like a Miniso/Ximivogue haul but yeah I did shop a lot from Miniso last two months so it shows. I really love quirky bracelets, especially ones with safety pins (I'm kind of obsessed with safey pins for a while now), so ofcourse I got this bracelet. It's more like a bangle and it goes so well with any outfit. The goldish heart bracelet I got mostly because it's like wearing your heart on your sleeve (I used to always wear a crochet heart on my sleeve on Tuesdays as a reminder of a person so I'm very fond of that phrase) and it's just so cute! Plus, I have very few non silver looking costume jewelry so I just had to. 

I've put links of the ones I could find. What have you guys been enjoying lately? 

Ramadan in Lockdown

Ramadan Mubarak everyone! It has been a while, huh. Since my last post, so much has happened. Male' has been on a lock down for a week now and with tomorrow being Ramadan, we are heading towards unknown waters. It's going to a really tough time for all of us and its time to come together in kindness and in perseverance. Here are some things to help us get through this holy month and make the best of it. 

Plan the month accordingly

I made a Ramadan spread last year on my bullet journal and it was so helpful to keep track of all the things I wanted to do so I copied the same spread for this year. I'm tracking how much Quran I need to read everyday for my goal of reciting all of it during the month, habits, and more. It makes me feel productive when everything's there to see on the page, and also motivates me!

Give back!

Zakaat is not the only time we can give back during this month! So many people are in need of assistance whether it be financial, mental or emotional support and we can be there for our friends and community. Every Ramadan, we always make small care packages for our neighbours, do whatever you can with what you have.

Keep it simple

Ramadan can sometimes we very wasteful as we try to make so many varieties of dishes and post all of it on social media. Right now, food security is questionable and so many people are without the staple foods so let's cut back and go back to our roots this year. Let's only make what we can eat and keep it clean and simple. Let us be in abundance with dua and good deeds and keep the sufuraamathi modest. 

Check up on friends and family

It's a shame we could not have maahefuns and we have to forgo all the roadhaveeluns this year but we are still connected with our friends and family, on social media or a call away. Let's check on them and see how they are doing. 

Roadhakurukurun!

Playing games are inevitably a cultural part of the Maldivian Ramadan. Whether it be carrom or card games or monopoly, we really outdo ourselves in playing games. This year, everything is digital. We're playing monopoly, plato games and scrabble go with friends online. I'm also looking forward to online D&D sessions, that is going to be something new for my D&D group! There are also so many TV shows and movies I have to catch up with so I'll use some of the free time to do that! 

Do Taraweeh at home

I will miss going to the Masjid for taraweeh but in these extenuating circumstances, I''m glad to have my family around and we do taraweeh in our sitting room. It's not the most ideal but we play the cards we are dealt with. It's also a bonding activity for the whole family! 

Readathon!

Books are obviously a big part of my life and this Ramadan my book club is planning an exciting readthon which I hope to fully take part in! Also, it's a great time to dive into Islamic history, I always enjoy Figh and learning more about the roots of religion and books about Islam, what better time than the holy month to dive deeper! 

May Allah make this an easy month for us and guide us to make the best of this month! Happy Ramadan!

Currently: February 2020

I can't believe I didn't do a single currently post all last year, what a disaster. This month has been a lot low on entertainment because life has been the most hectic I can remember. I'm trying to do everything, as usual, ahaha. Here's what I've been up to. 

Crash Landing on You S1 | This is the one I'm obsessed with at the moment. It stars Hyun Bin whom I've loved since Memories of the Alhambra. This show is about a South Korean woman who crash lands on the DMZ in North Korea and chronicles her life there after she is found by a NK soldier. I LOVE this series so much and I have two episodes to watch which I cannot wait to do. I really hope it has a happy ending. 

Party of Five S1 | I didn't know what this series would be about before going in but rest assured, I've cried multiple times though episode 1 only. It's about a family is US and how they deal with life when their parents are deported and the five of them have to fend for themselves. It's so emotional but also full of love and laughter. 

Next in Fashion S1 | Tan and Alexa are just the right amount of zazz and I'm warming up to this show. Minju and Angel are my current favourites. I LOVE the runway of the show and the challenges so far.

All the Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace | I am trying to read more fantasy this year and this book was released just this month and I picked it cos of the mermaid talk about it and so far, zero mermaids ahaha but I do like the story line and its set in a Maldives kinda place with islands so that is exciting. 

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah | This is the book we're reading for our book club and I really am loving it. Trevor has a charm about the way he writes, it's so easy and funny and wonderful, even when he's writing about hard topics. I'm really enjoying this book so far. 

Panga Soundtrack | There are SO MANY amazing songs in Panga soundtrack starting from the title track to my absolute favourite Dil Ne Kaha. Jugnu is another wonderful song, I really cannot get enough of it. 

What's keeping you entertained this month?

2019 Highlights

Last year was definitely the toughest year of my remembered life. My mental health was at worst and so many awful things happened. In a way, I feel like my biggest accomplishment was surviving the year. Here are some of the highlights of a year I'd not like to revisit ever again. 

I started a new campus and it was a lot of work. I had to travel by bus for 30 mins everyday just to get to it ahaha. It was definitely an interesting experience. Most of my classes were so fun and it's always an endearing thing, having the chance to get to teach people. 

I was planning to do the #moreloveletters, one letter per day but the year had different plans. I wish I was in a place to sit down and write more positive things, but I'm surprised I even managed to write all 38. 

Giving is perhaps the one thing that I wholeheartedly enjoy the entire process of. Choosing gifts, packing them, making cards, I love it all and I'm humbled to have a group of people I can give my love to. 

Weirdly enough, it was a good reading year. I managed to read more than I expected. Here are my reading review of the year. 

21 seasons is a lot huh but reading and shows are my escapism and clearly I needed that. I discovered so many great shows and caught up with constant favs. In case of movies, most of it was feel good movies, again reasonably so. 

Just 9 emails, I know. When I'm down, I can't usually find the inspiration or courage to write like I used to and it was hard to remain hopeful when my world was crumbling down. 

I also pretty much let go of the blog but I'm slowly picking up and I have a bunch of new posts planned so hopefully it will go well. 

Most of the cakes I baked were my signature condensed milk cake and only once did I mess it up hahaha. Baking is such a soothing and rewarding thing. 

I don't know what kind of a catch 22 this is, but yeah I went on so less trips so I was stressed out most of the year. One of those trips, the year end family trip was my favourite. I was spending time with the people who love me the most and just going to the moodhu, playing badminton, sleeping, reading and chilling. It was everything I needed. 

I did make a couple new friends, perhaps to make up for the friends I lost during the year. It's becoming so difficult to truly make friends. Like, yes, I know a lot of people but we're not really friends, acquaintances at most so it's relatively a success to be able nurture 5 new friendships. 

After a really long time in a job I loved, I said goodbye and closed that chapter to find another job which I'm learning to love. It's always bittersweet but for a new thing to begin, another thing must end and I will always keep with me the memories and the lessons I learnt from them. I also found a new campus, like I mentioned before and it's been quite a learning curve for me. Keeping myself busy helps to not go into that dark place. 

So yeah, what a crazy year. Thank you for the good memories and let's not revisit the bad ones, I've left you back in 2019. 

2019 in Books

I always do a wrap of my reading at the end of the year and so I decided to make it again this year. Last year was an interesting reading year, with some good reading at the beginning and end of the year but a very bad mid of the year. I think I needed books a lot last year because it was a tough year. So, here goes. 

You by Caroline Kepnes

I started the year with this book and generally I would not have liked this book but somehow it all ended up really great and I enjoyed it quite a lot. This was when the first season just came out so I wanted to read before I watched it. The book is a bit different from the series but it's still very chilling and quite enthralling.

Circe by Madeline Miller

I am usually not one for mythology but again, this was a surprising read for me because I enjoyed it so much. It was the way it's written with such an easy grasp and the story flowed so naturally, I was enchanted by this book from beginning to end. 

image credits

Yesterday I was the Moon by Noor Unnahar

I know Noor has a book and I've been a huge fan of the twins for a while so finding this book was a total delight. I went through it very slowly because I knew I was going to enjoy it so much, and I did. I really loved and related to almost every single word and illustration and I need more. 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebeccas Skloot

I didn't really know much going into this book, it was a book club pick but I ended up really enjoying and getting attached the Henrietta and her family. We watched the HBO movie afterward and I cried a bit like the emotional ball I am. It was a truly remarkable book about a story that needed to be brought to light and Rebecca did it with such grace and simplicity, I found it to be just phenomenal. 

Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini

I got this book just when it came out and for some reason I just kept it without reading even though everybody kept telling me it took like 15 minutes to read it. When the year was close to ending and I needed to give my reading goal a boost, I picked it up and finished it in just 10 minutes. It was so beautiful, heart-wrenching and the art was just gorgeous. 

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Again, a book club pick and one I would not have otherwise chosen, but a refreshingly wonderful book. I stray away from fantasy often because it's quite overwhelming but this was a stand alone fantasy that I really enjoyed . The story was so fantastic and the world was just beautiful.

There's Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon

This is the second book in the companion series of Dimple Met Rishi. I didn't really enjoy the first book but this one, I really loved. Sweetie is fantastic, she is the desi baddie everyone wishes they were. I really loved the other characters, especially the families of Ashish and Sweetie. 

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

This is another fantasy book that I really did not expect to love, but ended up really loving. There's mild eastern lore and I just really loved the characters and the stories, especially how it all interconnects. It has magic, dragons, flair and of course love. It was a bit long winded tho.

image credits

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

This is such a cute book. I loved the president in the book, and the supporting characters in the book as much as the main characters. It does get a bit lengthy and pretentious at times but overall, I think it's just an adorable read.

The Rosie Effect by Simsion Graeme

This is the second book in the Rosie Project series and I really enjoyed the first one. Don and Rosie are such versatile characters that I've grown to love. This book introduces some new characters and complex issues but still remains quirky and fun. I am excited to read the next book in the series.

Rust & Stardust by T. Greenwood

This was another book club book that I enjoyed a lot. It's a very dark and emotional book that will keep you on your toes and it's based on a true story. I had to take breaks while reading this because it was so sad but I pushed through and I wish it had a happy ending but I'm glad I read it.

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein

This is a middle grade novel that I really enjoyed. Of course, I would, considering it's about a game set in a library. It was so much fun going with the game with the kids and figuring out the clues, and of course the nostalgia of all the middle school books it mentions. I am definitely going to keep up with the rest of the series.

That's the best books I've read but we cannot finish this post without mentioning some of the books I really did not like.

Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

So, ofcourse I had high expectations for this because of GGM but this was so boring itwas pure torture putting myself through it. It would pick up now and then but it was still very boring and I really didn't know where the story was going. The writing was also quite arduous for me.

Destination Paradise by Francesca Borri

Oh this was such an annoying book. I solely read it because of all the dragging it was getting on twitter and that was for good reason because I really hated this book and I don't often say it. It was so ignorant and badly written, plus lacked any kind of proper research. Of course, I am very biased so maybe this is coming from a place of that but yeah.

On the Island by Tracey Garvis Graves

This is another book I picked up because it is based in Maldives and boy, was it just so meh. The romance in it in very cringey and there was nothing Maldivian about it. I just really did not enjoy it.

That is a wrap for the year and I'm excited to start on a new bookish year! What's the best and worst book you've read last year?