April Favourites 2015

This month, I seem to have had more favourites than the past few months, particularly music favourites, some of which you will have seen in previous posts, others are new to both me and this blog.

Books

• Paper Towns by John Green- As you may have read in my review of this book, I really loved it; from the beautiful way in which it was written, to the characters and relationships, it was just a wonderful book overall, and in my opinion, was better than The Fault in Our Stars. I won't go into too much detail with this as it can all be found in my review so if you do want to read more on this, you can find that here, or if you want to buy the book, you can find it here.
• The One Dollar Horse by Lauren St John- This was the other book that I read on holiday and although I started it a few months before, I struggled to get into it, so I ended up only reading a little bit at a time. However, when I was relaxing in the sun by the pool, it seemed much easier to get into it, and I ended up really enjoying it. It's very technical in terms of horses and eventing terminology but if you're interested in that sort of thing, I'd recommend reading it, if not, you'd probably get a bit confused or not find it particularly enjoyable. I am looking forward to reading the second book as soon as I get chance. You can find the book here.
• Wattpad- A slightly different favourite to books but it ties in so I thought I'd place it in this grouping anyway. For anyone that doesn't know, wattpad is a website/app that allows people to share their own writing with the world, whether it's fiction, fan-fiction, all sorts. I love finding stories that other people have written but haven't published, and it's a great site for any budding authors to showcase their work and allow other people to have a read and even leave comments which can be both rewarding and helpful. You can find the website here.

Music

• Olly Murs Concert- This was very touch and go as to whether we could attend but we made a fairly last minute decision to go and I really enjoyed it. Getting there and back was a bit manic as it wasn't at our nearest arena, so we had to get the train which we weren't used to. When we did get there though, I had a lovely time and Olly was incredible; he was great at entertaining the audience with his speech/comments, as well as with his performance and voice. It was definitely a memorable night. You can find his latest album here.
• Handwritten by Shawn Mendes- Once again, this is in my favourites, sorry if you're getting bored of seeing this, but as the whole album was released earlier this month, I couldn't not put this in. As I've mentioned before, his tone and overall voice is insane and I love all of his songs, I don't think I'll be getting bored of his album any time soon. You can buy the deluxe album here or the regular album here.
• Title by Meghan Trainor- I know, I know, this has been on my favourites so many times before but I just thought I'd keep it on here anyway as it is still one of my favourite albums. You can find her album here.
• See You Again by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth- I am obsessed with this song and have had it on repeat so many times. It's so beautiful and emotional and it brings me to tears each time I listen to it, even more so when I watch the video (especially when the cars go different ways towards the end). I also think that Charlie has a lovely tone of voice and I have enjoyed listening to his covers for almost a year now, so to hear him being played on the radio as part of a number one song, it's a nice thing to experience. You can watch the video here.
• See You Again Cover by Hobbie Stuart- Since I love the original and I love Hobbie's covers, there was no way that I wasn't going to love this. Although it was only uploaded a few days ago, I wanted to feature it in April's favourites because I love it so much and felt like it deserved a place in this post. You can find it here.
• Love Me Like You Do Cover by Hobbie Stuart and Gabby (velvetgh0st)- Oh my god! This cover is insanely good; their voices sound incredible together and I love their version of the song (maybe even more than the orginal), I really hope Gabby starts uploading covers more frequently because her voice is beautiful and she'd be crazy not to share it with the world. You watch the video here.
• And as requested by a friend, Cheerleader by OMI, which I do like, but it's not a favourite. However, she loves it and was with me when I wrote this post so she suggested (*cough* demanded *cough*) that I put it in :D You can watch the video here.

Beauty and Fashion

• Oh La La Perfume- I won't go into too much detail with this as it was featured in my holiday haul (here), but I have loved being able to smell and use this perfume again, particularly as it gets closer to Summer as it's a scent that definitely reminds of that season and the sun in general. 
• 'Prada' Bag- Again, I won't blab on about this as it was in my holiday haul (here), but I have been using this a lot outside of college and it's just so practical: it goes with everything, fits everything I might need in and looks lovely. I will definitely be getting my money's worth out of this.
• Soap and Glory Hand Food- I often find that when I go to bed, everything else is moisturised and I forget to do my hands as I usually only do them when they feel in need of it, but this last month, my hands have felt particularly dry at night and I tend to find myself reaching for the hand cream before I drift off to sleep. I also have a history of using hand cream a lot over the years and from what I can remember, this is the best one I've discovered, it feels amazing on my hands, very soft and lightweight so that I barely recognise that I've got any on (no
  
  sticky/heavy feeling), but it still leaves my hands in a great condition. I would definitely recommend this hand cream to anyone who struggles with lightly-moderately dry hands and wants a cream that does the job, without leaving an annoying feeling after application. You can find a 50ml version here or a 125ml version here or a 250ml version here. 

Other

• Hobbie Stuart- I discovered Hobbie through Gabby (velvetgh0st) last month (I think) but I only really started watching his covers properly this month and his voice is incredible, I love his tone which seems to suite a fairly wide range of songs that he covers, and I love to see his and Gabby's friendship, both in videos and on twitter. 
• Once Upon a Time- Surprisingly, I hadn't heard much about this show until everyone suggested Zoe (Zoella) watch it and at the time, I wasn't watching any series so I decided to give it a go too. I liked the first couple of episodes but it didn't really grab me as much as I expected it to and I contemplated stopping watching it, but a few episodes after that, it got more interesting and exciting. I'm now towards the end of the first series (I don't watch it as often as I usually would a series as I have so much revision at the moment), but I am really enjoying it now (although at times, it is very confusing!) and I'm looking forward to the next few episodes and series.
• Union J Autograph- My lovely friend got me Union J's signatures and it's currently in my drawer next to my bed so every time I open it, it makes me smile. So thank you so much for getting me that, I love it. <3
• This final thing is a moment which only happened today but since it happened in April, I'm including it in this months favourites; and that is that JJ from Union J followed me on twitter which may not seem that exciting to anyone else but as you may have read in previous posts, Union J are my favourite band and I have been fans of theirs since their first performance together on X Factor (that seems so long ago now!), so any fangirls/boys out there will probably know how exciting it is when your idol/favourite singer follows you. It also came at a great time because I was having a really rubbishy few days/weeks so it definitely helped improve my mood even if it was only for a few hours, particularly as I hadn't tweeted anything that morning so it definitely took me by surprise to say the least!

What have you been loving this month? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading.

Love, Steph x

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