Since my new laptop should arrive in April and I will carry it with me almost everywhere I really need it in a protection case and we all know it needs to be pretty!!

This is my laptop! 10.1 inches, 9 hour battery life, 5.3 pounds (2.4 kg)! These are the things that are very important for me since the laptop is mostly in my handbag!
I need some kind of cover! I want the cover to be adorable and pretty and not white. If it is white it will just get destroyed to quickly.
And technically I am still doing the "not buying black things" thing therefor I need the colors!

These are the ones I have found and liked! Now I just need to pick one (or two).






Which should I pick?

Book Review: My Last Duchess by Daisy Goodwin

The last book of the month is My Last Duchess by Daisy Goodwin. Daisy Goodwin is born in December so we are month buddies (I count all people that are Sagittariuses to be my month buddies!). This is her second book. Her first book, Silver River, was published in 2007 and is a memoir of her own life.

My Last Duchess was published in August 2010, it's a romantic story about a girl named Cora Cash and her journey into adulthood and life in general. Cora is a wealthy heiress in 1890 in America. Her mother biggest dream is for Cora to marry someone with a title so they move to England. In England Cora falls in love with a Duke and the story doesn't end there!

I did quite enjoy the book. Cora is a lovely character and you can feel for her. You can sense her loneliness and the bitterness between her and her mother without getting to annoyed at them.

What I didn't like was the supposedly twist that wasn't much of a twist for me, it jumped out on the first page when she met the Duke for the first time! Otherwise the book was good.

Some memorable quotes:

     Page 35: She smiled when she saw Lincoln waiting for her in the stable yard, twitching his head impatiently. A sixteen-hand grey stallion, Lincoln was the finest product of her father's stables. Core was not ready to admit that she might find a British horse to suit her, so she had brought her favourite hunters with her, walking them every day on the deck the SS Aspen, her father's steam yacht.

Cora about her horse Lincoln, I can just so easily imagine this scene happening.

     Page 57: Mrs Cash had wanted to leave Sutton Veney as soon as she had received her daughters note, but Lord Bridport had persuaded her that it would be better to go in the morning. As she sat down to dinner, Mrs Cash was grateful for the opportunity to find out something more about the man she now thought of as Cora's duke.

Mrs Cash can see a glimpse into her long lasting dream of Cora getting married to someone with a title.

     Page 89: So she had come fully prepared for the brief moment of disappointment when she would see the Duke shaping himself around the bulk of her inheritance. She was almost looking forward to seeing him moulded by its weight. It had not occurred to her that he could be indifferent.

Cora about the Duke.

      Page 128: The staff of Lulworth  were lined up on the grey stone steps as the carriage drew up, the male servants on the left. the female servants on the right, from the butler and housekeeper right down to the scullery maid and knife boy.

 When the Duchess (the Dukes mother) came for  visit.

All in all I quite liked this book and would recommend it. It has quite the charm and it flows very well. It is well written and that can save any type of bad twists.

Book Review: The Belle / The Brothel by Lesley Pearse

This is the second book for February! The Belle (or apparently The Brothel) by Lesley Pearse. Lesley doesn't have her own Wikipedia page! But I found something interesting on her own page.

Number One bestseller Lesley Pearse has created in Belle a heroine for our times: a strong woman who stands up for right in a world turned bad.

 Well I'm sorry to say, that's just wrong. The book is 574 pages and usually I prefer long books because the description is most of the time better. This book consists of 574 pages of copy-paste and you get so tired of it. I somehow assume that Lesley Pearse was paid by the word count!

Anyway, the book is about Belle who is sold into prostitution. Her family and friends search for her endlessly but she decides she likes selling her body for 2 dollars a night and that she is good at it so she does it but hates herself for liking it. Meanwhile a boy that fell in love with her before she was sold still loves her but she doesn't even write home because she is a prostitute. 574 pages later you want to slap some sense into her or burn the damn book!


Quotes from the book (no freaking favorite!)

  Page 99: It was bad enough that they were taking her to France, but Sly was sickened when Kent wanted her put in the trunk. Waiting so long at Dover had been one of the most agonizing times he'd ever known. If she'd woken up and started hammering on the trunk and alerted people, Sly knew he'd be facing a very long stretch in prison.

The kidnapper of Belle having some doubts.

  Page 211: The young man was growling more and more exited as Betty stripped off her clothes, and as she climbed up on to the bed and knelt beside him, she lifted her chemise to show him her private parts. Belle could see that she had a very luxuriant mount of dark curly hair there, and as the young man reached out to touch it, Betty groaned and arched her back, inviting him to take liberties with her.

Bella watching Betty (another prostitute) do her job.

  Page 246: It was she who had to put up with the men groping her, gawping at her, saying crude things, pawing her, fucking her and finally maybe even giving her the pox or making her pregnant. All Martha did was sit on her fat backside and watch the money flow in.

 Bella not happy about her pimp (Martha) getting all the money.

  Page 306: Almost daily she wished she were back with the other girls in Martha's kitchen over long, leisurely breakfasts, sitting around in their nightdresses with tangled hair, everyone talking at once about the night before and shrieking with laughter as one of them described a particularly odd experience. Then there were those lazy afternoons wandering the French Quarter or lying around in the back yard chatting and sipping cold drinks. She'd even give anything to hear the front-door bell tinkling, although that meant a gentleman was coming in and suddenly they all had to turn on seductive smiles and brace themselves for what was to come.

Bella being all sad when she didn't have to be a prostitute anymore.

  Page 551: Her eyes were growing used to the gloom now and she saw him pick up a lenght of cord to tie her hands behind her and round her ankles in much the same way he had the first time he captured her.

 Bella being kidnapped by the same guy again (she got kidnapped about 4-5 times in this book!)

I think these are enough quotes mostly because I really don't want to copy more of them!

hair hair hair

It's not very often that I finish a hair product (except for shampoos) but now I finished one and was sad when it finished. This product is a conditioner and I LOVE IT! Pantene Pro-V Brunette Expression, Daily Color Enhancing Conditioner (freakishly long name) does (for my hair) exactly what it says it will do! It keep my hair a bit browner then usual which is good since my hair is dyed a little darker then my normal hair. My roots get a bit darker with this conditioner and it keeps my dyed hair dark brown!

It even helped with minimizing my purple hue that my hair still had after I dyed it brown over the purple hair. But as soon as you wash your hair without it it goes back to its normal hue (usually after the second wash without it).

I usually wash my hair and then put this generously in my hair (even the roots since it doesn't weigh my hair down) and wash my body. I try to keep it in my hair for a decent long time (5-10 minutes) and then wash it out.

It makes my hair seriously smooth and it doesn't make my hair oily! My hair stays smooth for many days (I try to wash my hair only 2 times a week). My other hair conditioner usually smell funny but this one doesn't!

I don't know how the one for blond hair works (I haven't had blond hair since 2008) but if it is something like the brunette one I would definitely recommend that one as well!

I might buy the brunette one again but I really want to try John Frieda Brilliant Brunette Shine Release Daily Conditioner and see which one I like more. 

I'm now off into the sunny Geneva (with spf 50 on my face!)

Have a nice day :)