I’m so happy to be writing here today. I had a really stressful week – I’ve been changing banks and it’s been one hurdle after another but I *think* I’ve finally got everything in order at last. I’ve always thought that in order to be happy, you need three things – security, comfort, and love, and it’s really awful when I didn’t feel any financial peace for a little while there. No hard feelings though, I fully plan on gifting my bank adviser chocolates soon so we can have a fresh start!
On a more positive note, my darling and I have started our annual Harry Potter film marathon. Harry Potter is my whole personality (no matter how much I read and watch, deep down I know nothing will ever come close!) and I do something Potter related every day but we haven’t watched all 8 films together this year yet and this seems like the perfect time to do it! I will also be rereading all seven books before the end of the year. I think I know when but I’ll let you know – and I’ve got a Harry Potter project for 2025 that I’ll tell you about next year, perhaps in a video.
Cosy shows
I’m a huge fan of When Calls the Heart which I rewatch all the time, it’s one of the cosiest shows I know about a teacher on the American frontier and the town she calls home – Hope Valley. It’s a little surprising to me that I’d never watched its spinoff When Hope Calls, especially since I was aware of its being broadcast but I gave it a chance this week after hearing that a second season is coming and ended up binging the entire thing, it’s so good! Lilian and Grace are excellent characters that I loved when they were introduced in one of the When Calls the Heart Christmas special. They’re two sisters who were separated and placed in different orphanages after their parents passed. Now adults, they’re reunited and set up an orphanage of their own in Brookfield to care for children the way they wish someone had cared for them. Lilian and Grace are the heart of this show and I love them so much. Lilian is more reserved and serious and Grace a little silly and passionate and they balance each other well. They’ve got love interests in this that I really liked and I genuinely ended up caring for the townspeople (I really like the British nurse Maggie). The sets look brand new and seeing Nathan make several appearances in the show was wonderful. The Christmas episode is the best, which comes as no surprise, I just love TV Christmases, they’re so cosy. This is a lovely, comfy show that I can’t wait to keep watching next year!
Princesses
I watched the entire first series of Sofia the First on Disney+ and had to force myself to pause and do something else, it’s SO GOOD. Sofia wasn’t born a princess. The King of Enchancia chose her mother as his wife when Sofia was small and she was whisked away to the castle and to her new role as Princess of the kingdom, alongside her stepsister Princess Amber and her stepbrother Prince James. She has a lot of adventures and gets to do all sorts of things and learn from her mistakes (with a little help from other Disney Princesses who make an appearance), which reminded me so much of the video game Princess Peach Showtime where you get to play Peach in a variety of jobs (cowgirl, ice skating star, spy, etc). Sofia is a wonderful princess. She’s so kind and loving and I absolutely adore her, she’s one of my favourites. I’m so looking forward to rewatching this show forever.
Speaking of Princesses, I’ve reached Cinderella in my Disney animated project (where I watch the Disney animated films in chronological order while listening to their related episode of the podcast Disuniversity). I loved it. What makes a girl a Disney princess – in my opinion – is that she stays true to herself despite everyone else around her being corrupted. She is good and sees the light at the end of the tunnel and never loses hope no matter what. Cinderella grows up in awful circumstances and yet never loses hope that something better is coming and that brings her godmother to help her. She has a strength and a courage that’s unyielding and I find that so inspirational.
I thought the film itself was too long – too much of Lucifer chasing the mice around – but Cinderella’s story proper is gorgeous. There are whole shots that took my breath away – the pink dress reveal, the castle, the scintillating dress transformation, the entire dance with the Prince – it all feels like a fairytale. The songs A Dream is a Wish your Heart Makes and So This is Love (My heart has wings and I can fly/I touch every star in the sky) are beautiful too. I love that she doesn’t know it’s the Prince she’s dancing with, she falls in love with him for him. Cinderella has one of the best quotes to describe falling in love – ‘I forgot about everything, even the time, but it was so wonderful’ which I chose for the title of this post).
The Kenneth Branagh movie is one of my favourite movies ever but it was lovely to go back to this. Cinderella is my favourite fairytale. One of my favourite things ever is The Cinderella Chronicles by Kate Howe, where she filmed a series of videos about all the Cinderella book and movie adaptations she’s ever read and watched.
Cosy mystery books
I love cosy mysteries and I don’t have any ongoing series right now so I wanted to give a cheese-themed cosy mystery series a try (not a huge surprise to anyone who knows me!) I picked up Cheddar Off Dead, the first in the Cheese Shop mystery series by Korina Moss.
I really enjoyed this! I’m so glad it’s the first in a series. Willa has just opened a cheese shop in a small town in California and is looking forward to showing off her shop and her cheese knowledge to a local food critic. Sadly, he turns out to be horrible and soon enough, dead; right in front of Curds & Whey. Willa has no choice but to investigate or risk having her shop’s reputation ruined forever.
I LOVED all the cheese in this. I knew most of the varieties in this book – I have a passion for cheese and I’ve lived in Paris my whole life so lots of exposure to it too – and it was wonderful to read all the descriptions, pairings and dishes. Definitely a book for foodies. The characters were well fleshed out, I really warmed up to them and I’m excited about following their adventures. I always love when we hear about other small shop owners too. A really good read, I can’t wait to read the rest!
Cosy vintage books
I also read the second book in the Barsetshire series, Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell, after absolutely loving the first. Woohoo that was wonderful!! Wonderfully absurd and ridiculous but also so charming and the best ending. If all her books are like this, what a gem this author is!!
This is once again about a family of wildly eccentric well-to-do characters who invite Mary, a lovely and much simpler girl, to their estate. Mary is infatuated with David who’s an inconsiderate playboy who doesn’t deserve her, there’s a ridiculously funny man who keeps inviting himself to country houses, a French family and wildly amusing series of everyday nothings with the Nanny, the housekeeper, the children, and lots of delightfully funny scenes of domestic life. I adored this. I laughed so so much.
Historical romance books
Cotillion by Georgette Heyer is one of my favourite books ever and this is my favourite book cover of all time (the Three Graces by Vittorio Reggianini)! I highly recommend it if you enjoy Regency romances.
Kitty’s, guardian, her uncle, will give her a fortune as a dowry: several unsuitable suitors propose to her but Kitty has eyes for Jack. To make him jealous, she enters into a fake engagement with one of her suitors, Freddy. Comedy ensues.
This is one of those perfect novels and the more I reread it, the more perfect it is. I laughed so much reading this, Kitty and Freddy hitting all the London tourist spots was so hilarious I had to put the book down to laugh. I love that Georgette Heyer’s world is a very niche corner of the Regency (the ton, its titles, its marriage mart, its Season) and it’s so deeply immersive because she knows this corner intimately, it feels like she lived there. I love this book so much, both Kitty and Freddy are so incredibly excellent and I’m so glad poor Dolph got his happy ending. Fantastic stuff.
Fantasy of Manners books
I also treated myself to a reread of the Harwood Spellbook series by Stephanie Burgis, about Cassandra, a woman with incredible magic in a world where magic is strictly a male pursuit, who loses her powers and to spare her fiancé Wrexham the shame of any association with her, breaks off her engagement.
The first book, Snowspelled, takes place on one snowy night and features a wide cast of characters and a world where goblins are elves’ pets and politics is firmly a female activity. The gender dynamics are really interesting but what moved me the most what Cassandra’s family and their love for her, which she only realises slowly throughout the book. It’s a great tale of a burgeoning revolution born out of the desire to do better together. It’s a beautiful story and the heroine is perfect and the banter in this second chance romance is amazing.
I don’t want to spoil the rest of the series but I think Thornbound is even better than Snowspelled because the setting is so cosy and Wrexham and Cassandra are together (no spoilers there I hope!) and my favourite thing ever in this series is the novella Frostgilded which is a bonbon of a Christmas gift where Cassandra tries to set up a surprise for Wrexham at Christmas only to have everyone thwart her plans. It’s hilarious, super cosy, and there’s curry!
I highly, highly recommend this series, it’s one of my favourites ever and I’m so so happy I reread it, it’s so perfect!
That’s it for me this week, I’m going to finish my current read today, have meatballs and braised fennel for lunch and lots of tea. I hope your week is magical, you deserve the world! Lots of love! ❤️
Magical Emma Rose 