My Recipe Box: Granola Breakfast Muffins

Today, I am excited to share my recipe for granola breakfast muffins. This is a post I originally shared back in 2016 but when I had a clear-out of posts, I archived this one. Now it's back! Mainly because I baked these this weekend.

Check out the recipe and instructions below...

The Inspiration Behind How To Write A Love Story (How To Write A Love Story Blog Tour)

I'm so excited to be a part of the How To Write A Love Story Blog Tour. I was a huge fan of Katy Cannon's book And Then We Ran, which I read last year, so I couldn't wait to read this latest book.

I also couldn't wait to host a blog post, written by Katy, for this book blog tour.

So, read on to find out what inspired Katy to write this brilliant story...

Whose Side Are You On? | Renegades by Marissa Meyer

Will you choose justice... or anarchy?

Author Interview: Lucie Wheeler (Mums Just Wanna Have Fun Blog Tour)

Hi all, I'm back after having a bit of a break from blogging (I have plans, I promise I'm not slacking!) and today it's my turn on the Mums Just Wanna Have Fun blog tour with author Lucie Wheeler.

I first met Lucie in September last year when me and my friend, Jess, decided to attend the launch event for Lucie's debut novel. We'd never met before then, but Lucie, Jess and I instantly clicked over our similar career paths and love of books.

After the launch, we kept in touch and we actually attended a book event together in November.

So when the opportunity came for me to be a part of the blog tour for Lucie's new book, Mums Just Wanna Have Fun, I jumped at the chance to support such a lovely, enthusiastic, talented woman.

I had the chance to ask Lucie some questions, not just about writing but about reading too. So, here are the quick-fire questions I asked Lucie...

Book Review: The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

I haven't posted a book review on my blog in so long. It's actually years since I posted one. As in July 2015... That long ago! So I'm back with a book review, mainly because I haven't got the time to film a book review for my YouTube channel. I do want to start putting more book reviews up on my blog though because I miss out on reviewing a lot of new books because I can't review all of them on YouTube, so I'll start posting more on here in 2018.

This review is for The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. I haven't read anything by Holly Black before but I've heard great things about her writing, so I was very excited when I was sent this book to review early by Readers First. Thank you, Readers First.

Let's get into this spoiler-free review...

WHSmith Zoella & Friends Book Club:Review (Books 5-8)

I'm back with the second part of my review for the WHSmith Zoella & Friends Book Club.

You can see my various blog posts and videos for all rounds of the book club below:

Zoella Book Club (Summer 2016 - Round One):

• I'm Reading: The Zoella Book Club 2016 (blog post)
• Reviews: Books 1-4 (blog post)
• Reviews: Books 5-8 (blog post)
• Full review (video)

Zoella Book Club (Autumn 2016 - Round Two):

• Unboxing (blog post)
• Author Interviews: Books 1-4 (blog post)
• Author Interviews: Books 5-8 (blog post)
• Full review (video)
  
  

Zoella & Friends Book Club (Summer 2017 - Round Three):

• Unboxing (video)
• Reviews: Books 1-4 (blog post)
• Review (video - coming soon)

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Here are the last four titles in the 2017 book club:

• The One Memory of Flora Banks
• After the Fire
• Girlhood
• Letters to the Lost

(You can buy the complete eight-book bundle, with the exclusive WHSmith covers, here)

So let's get on with the reviews!

Again, before continuing, please be aware that there are going to be some mild spoilers ahead.

WHSmith Zoella & Friends Book Club: Review (Books 1-4)

I have been loving the Zoella Book Club with WHSmith since it started last year. 

I was actively involved with the first round of the book club last summer and then WHSmith kindly sent me the entire book bundle for round two in October. Round one had us discussing each book in turn, via WHSmith's Twitter account, and round two gave me the chance to interview the authors, also via Twitter.

You can see my various blog posts and videos for the first two rounds of the book club here:

Zoella Book Club (Summer 2016 - Round One):

• I'm Reading: The Zoella Book Club 2016 (blog post)
• Reviews: Books 1-4 (blog post)
• Reviews: Books 5-8 (blog post)
• Full review (video)

Zoella Book Club (Autumn 2016 - Round Two):

• Unboxing (blog post)
• Author Interviews: Books 1-4 (blog post)
• Author Interviews: Books 5-8 (blog post)
• Full review (video)

Zoella & Friends Book Club (Summer 2017 - Round Three):

• Unboxing (video)
• Review (video - coming soon)

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I read the first four books in the order of the book club:

• Moxie
• The Start of Me and You
• Orbiting Jupiter
• History is All You Left Me

(You can buy the complete eight-book bundle here)

Remember, you can only get these exclusive book club covers at WHSmith.

So let's get started with the reviews!

Before continuing, please be aware that there are some spoilers ahead.

Book Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series by Sarah J Maas

If you've been anywhere near me in the last few weeks - either in person or via social media - then you will have probably heard me mention these books once or twice (or one hundred times, but who's counting?)

So I decided to film a video for my YouTube channel, reviewing the books and having a general chat about them. The first part of the video is spoiler-free and then I go into talking about particular parts of the book, so there's something for everyone, whether you've read them or not. 

Please remember that these books are classed as young adult. I know I often review middle grade and YA books but these books contain themes not suitable for younger readers.

You can see the video below or watch through YouTube here:

Celebrating 225 Years of WHSmith: Our Favourite Books

WHSmith are celebrating their 225th anniversary and to kick things off this year they asked people to share their favourite books. Read the WHSmith blog post here.

I got involved and got people talking about their favourites. So, let's get on to the answers I got to the following two questions, as asked by WHSmith:

• What is your favourite fiction book written in the last 225 years?
• What is your favourite children's book written in the last 225 years?

Here are the responses for favourite fiction book:

Spoiler-Free Book Review: Hold Back The Stars by Katie Khan

For my latest YouTube video I did a spoiler-free review of Katie Khan's debut novel Hold Back The Stars, which you can watch below:

Buy it here: Hold Back The Stars by Katie Khan

In my video I give a brief summary of the book, talk about the characters and the plot and give my honest thoughts on the book as a whole.

My favourite part to film in my book review video was the section I'm calling "If it was made into a movie". I love films as well as reading books so I enjoy thinking about who I would cast as the main characters if it was ever made into a film.

Katie Kahn actually watched the video and sent me a lovely message through Twitter:

This is awesome @JanayBrazier, congrats on your first book video! I love Tom Holland ☺️ Thank you for your ace review of #HoldBacktheStars 💕 https://t.co/xBq7lSAlL9

— Katie Khan (@katie_khan) February 6, 2017

@JanayBrazier I love hearing other people's casting ideas! When I started writing it in 2012 I was thinking Felicity Jones & Sam Claflin ☺️

— Katie Khan (@katie_khan) February 6, 2017

@JanayBrazier I think nearly 5 years later I need some slightly younger actors! 😝 Thanks again, really enjoyed your video. x

— Katie Khan (@katie_khan) February 6, 2017

WHSmith Zoella Book Club: Author Interviews (Books 5-8)

It's time for my final post about the WHSmith Zoella Book Club as round two comes to an end. I've loved being a part of this, reading some incredible books and getting to talk to all of the authors about their writing. It's just brilliant.

The first four online interviews that I did with Meredith Russo, Alex Bell, Gayle Forman and David Levithan and Rachel Cohn can be found here and the unboxing of the books and other goodies that were very kindly sent to me by WHSmith can be found here. You can also see my video review for all eight books on my YouTube channel.

Let's get to the interviews:

Janay Brazier: WHSmith Zoella Book Club Video Review

I've finished all of the books from the second round of the WHSmith Zoella Book Club, with only one Twitter Takeover night left to go on Tuesday 31st, so I've uploaded a video to my YouTube channel reviewing them all.

WHSmith Zoella Book Club: Author Interviews (Books 1-4)

As many of you reading this will probably already know, I took part in the first WHSmith Zoella Book Club during the summer and fell in love with it. I've always been a big reader but I enjoyed this book club so, so much. Zoe Sugg chose eight books that she loved and shared them with us. I joined in with their Twitter events, bought and read every book and wrote blog posts about them. So, imagine my excitement when Zoe announced that should would be doing another round of the book club through autumn/winter, into February 2017.

I was very kindly sent the whole new collection of eight books and I did an unboxing post in October (here). I noted in that blog post that I was going to keep the layout of my posts the same as last time, talking about the first four books at the halfway point and then talking about the other four books at the end. However, this time I got the amazing opportunity to ask the authors questions about their books, so rather than me talking about the books and reviewing them with my own thoughts, I'm going to post interview-style, with the questions I asked the authors and their responses. Then, at the end of the whole book club, I will review all eight books and rank them just like I did before.

So, let's get into the interviews:

Unboxing: WHSmith Zoella Book Club

Hooray, Zoella has done another round of the book club with WHSmith! I absolutely adored the last book club and enjoyed reading all eight books on offer, so when she announced in a vlog that she was doing it again I was desperate to find out which books were included.

Zoella released the official video on Wednesday 19th October (see below) and the books were released online and in store the following day.



I sat down to watch the video as soon as it went live.

I had the lovely surprise of receiving the whole eight-book collection in the post on the Friday.

WHSmith Zoella Book Club: Review (Books 5-8)

I have loved taking part in the Zoella Book Club with WHSmith. I posted about it back in June here and the first part of my book club review (for books 1-4) can be found here. I've loved sharing opinions and thoughts on these books with others on WHSmith's Twitter. The book club nights have all been brilliant and I'm sad that it's all over, but it's been great!

Here are the last four books of the Zoella Book Club:

• The Potion Diaries
• Everything Everything
• The Sky Is Everywhere
• Billy and Me

So let's get on with the reviews and Twitter chat! Before continuing please be aware that there are some spoilers ahead.

WHSmith Zoella Book Club: Review (Books 1-4)

I have been loving the Zoella Book Club with WHSmith. I posted about it back in June here, and now we are at the halfway mark. I decided when I started this book club that I would review all of the books and give you my views on them all, as well as sharing my input to the book club nights on WHSmith's Twitter. The book club nights on Twitter were brilliant, although I was gutted to miss the third one, discussing We Were Liars, as I had to be at work late.

I read the first four books in the order of the book club:

• All The Bright Places
• Beautiful Broken Things
• We Were Liars
• Fangirl

(You can buy the complete eight-book bundle here)

So let's get started with the reviews and Twitter chat! Before continuing please be aware that there are some spoilers ahead.

Recipe Box: Tanya Burr's Rocky Road

I was so excited when Tanya Burr's baking book, Tanya Bakes, was finally released as I've been waiting for it for so long. I was even happier when I received my signed copy!

A video posted by Janay Brazier (@janaybrazier) on Jun 30, 2016 at 9:20am PDT

I've made rocky road before with my mum's recipe, which has always been one of my favourite treats. But when I saw this recipe in Tanya's book, I knew straight away that I had to try it.

It's not too different at all when looking at the ingredients. It's butter, chocolate, syrup, biscuits and marshmallows. But there is one main difference when it comes to the biscuits - this uses cookies!

I've always used digestives before, just like my mum, and while I absolutely love that rocky road, I'm not a huge fan of digestive biscuits. I find them dry and bland, plus I associate them with being ill when my mum used to give them to me when I'd been sick and wanted to try eating again as they were plain.

But back to the cookies. What a great idea! So this was the first recipe that I tried out from Tanya's new baking book and here's how to make it:

I'm Reading: The Zoella Book Club 2016

I was so excited when I heard that Zoella was starting a book club for the summer and I was even more excited when I saw the video she put up on her channel, showing the eight books in the 2016 book club. You can see the video she posted below where she tells you the eight titles in the club and a little bit of the back story, as well as a quite note on why she chose to share these books.

So, here are the eight books in the book club! I was happy to see Fangirl and Billy and Me, because I've been wanting to read these two for a while now and this is now the perfect opportunity for me to read them.

I've also heard amazing things about All The Bright Places and Everything Everything, so I was glad to purchase them and add them to my bookcase. I've actually just finished reading the first book in the club, which was All The Bright Places, and I thoroughly enjoyed it but I won't give anything away as the club has only just begun and I don't want to ruin it for anyone.

I'd never heard of Beautiful Broken Things, We Were Liars, The Potion Diaries or The Sky is Everywhere, but they also all sound like great stories from what Zoe mentioned in her video.

I'm so glad that I can spend the summer reading some brilliant books and sharing my views and thoughts with others on the same reading journey. I've spent the last eight months only reading books that were on my set list from university, some of which were not interesting to me, so it's nice to finally have the chance to read something I want to read rather than something I have to read.

Are you part of the Zoella Book Club? Keep in touch on Twitter, Instagram and find me on Good Reads.

Welcome!

Hi! This blog has been a long time coming for me so I thought I'd spend the first post introducing myself a little bit more.
So, I'm Janay Brazier and I'm twenty-two years old. I'm a natural blonde but with good A-Level grades in English language, media studies, sociology and psychology, so not your 'typical blonde' - although I can have my moments!

I currently work as a teaching assistant at a primary school in my hometown whilst completing my Open Degree with the OU. My degree has consisted of primary education-based modules with some creative writing units, and I plan to train as a primary school teacher when I have completed my degree next year.

As well as having a passion for teaching and writing I also love fashion and make-up, which will be shown through my blog posts in the future.

I also love keeping fit, so I will share some of my workouts with you too.

I am a massive fan of Pinterest! It's probably the website I spend the most time on. I'm not really a fan of Facebook, but I do use Instagram and Twitter occasionally.

If anyone is interested in following me can find me at the following:
Instagram: janaybrazier
Twitter: @JanayBrazier
Pinterest: Janay Brazier

And so, on with the blog...