Review: Get Rich Blogging by Zoe Griffin

I believe in blogging, food and giving support where support is due, so when Laalaa from Dolce Vanity let it slip that her pearls of blogging wisdom had been published in a book, you have to believe I rushed to Amazon to get myself a copy of ‘Get Rich Blogging’ the minute my pay slip hit my account.

My copy came this week and I’ve spent a lot of time over the weekend on my bed with some sticky tabs and a highlighter pouring over it . . . don’t worry I was aware that this book is not a ‘get rich quick’ scheme for bloggers (despite what the catchy title would lead you to believe). Instead Zoe Griffin; author and blogger behind Live Like a VIP, takes readers through what it really means to have a blog and how to get some revenue from it.

'Get Rich Blogging" covers everything from naming to designing your blog to gaining readership, basically the majority of the things you might want to know about the workings of a blog has been broken down with great, practical examples with lots of helpful website links.

While I didn't really find this book very useful to me as it did contain a lot of things that I already know and I felt that it didn't stress just how difficult it is to blog and gain recognition in the blogging market, I would give this book to a new blogger or some who has just gotten into blogging as it would quickly round-up what they need to know and they can skip through the whole "trial and error" process that I went through. While I didn't agree with everything this book said I think that it has helped refocus on my blog and what I need to do to give it a little push.

Another reason you should get this book is because my darlings, Adrienne The Sunday Girl and Laalaa Dolce Vanity and of course the Queen of British Blogging Jane British Beauty Blogger have ALL been featured!!!! Here’s the link to Amazon so get clicking!!!

Miss out on MAC Stereo Rose Mineralize Skinfinish?? Well even though it's sold out in all the stores, here is your chance to WIN one!!!! Enter my February give-away!

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Book Review: 'Miss Peregine's Home for Peculiar Children'

A mysterious island. . . . An abandoned orphanage. . . .A strange collection of peculiar vintage photographs.

‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’ is the debut novel by Ransom Riggs which tells the story of  how a horrific family tragedy and thin trail of clues sets sixteen year old Jacob off to a remote island in Wales, where he is lead to an abandoned orphanage.

Jacob has grown up listening to his granddad’s captivating stories about the island he lived on during the Second World War, which included monsters and strange children with powers. When his grandfather unexpectedly dies, Jacob finds himself taking solace in these stories and decides to try and find the truth within his granddad’s stories

He finds the abandoned and crumpled down Orphanage sure enough, and while he explores what is left in the ruins, it slowly becomes clean that maybe Miss Peregrine's children were more than just peculiar . . . . Maybe they may have been dangerous . . . . Maybe they were quarantined on a remote island for a good reason . . . And somehow 70 years on, they may still be alive.

Now I’m just going to pause here (as I don’t want to give away too much of this story) and explain what made me pick up a children’s/young adult book to read. . . .honestly, it was the pictures.

Riggs is a collector of vintage photographs and injects these photographs into the novel as a narrative guide that paints a realistic element to the story. While this does make this novel very original in this way, I couldn’t help running parallels with Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’ with the X-men (big house, kids with superpowers cordoned off from the general population) . I thought it started off great but started slowed down rapidly towards the end that I started skimming over the pages just to get to the end.

It's pretty hard to show any originality in books these days, but I was pleasantly surprised by how different (and similar to the X-men) this book was. I actually quite like this book and gave it to my sister to read but given that she started reading this book late at night, she claimed she couldn’t finish reading the book as the photos creeped her out. *shrugs* I guess not everyone appreciates the same things.

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