This week’s round-up includes finishing the new seasons of Bridgerton and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, feeling lost in the chaos of life, trying to understand why Trump has attacked Iran, and much more.

Film

Last Sunday night saw the 79th BAFTA awards, and there were some interesting results! One Battle After Another walked away with the Best Film award and a host of others, while Hamnet won Outstanding British Film, which I’m a little mad about – I Swear should have won it in my opinion, but at least Robert Aramayo won the Leading Actor award. I Swear is an incredible film, and after what happened at the award ceremony, I think it’s more important than ever that people see this film.

Television

An Offer from a Gentleman, otherwise known as Benedict’s story, has thus far been my favourite of the Bridgerton book series, and I really enjoyed it’s television adaptation. I think it captured the character of Sophie very well and did right by her relationship with Benedict, and I very much enjoyed Yerin Ha‘s performance. I’m also glad they kept to the big plot points of the book! I’m sad that’s another season of Bridgerton over, and I truly hope Shondaland don’t keep us waiting too long again for the next season, which I really hope will be Eloise’s story, To Sir Phillip, With Love, because that’s another favourite of mine, too!

Another show’s season that has come to an end is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. I really enjoyed this show, and the novellas are a delight, too. Considering there are only three novellas, I very much hope they expand the adventures of Dunk and Egg, as they are a wonderful pair together, as are their actors Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell, respectively.

Music

Soooo Hilary Duff has released an album for the first time since 2015, Luck… or Something, and I gotta tell you, it sounds and feels exactly like a Hilary Duff album, just more mature. We have grown up alongside her and the lyrics of her music reflect that, but the instrumentations still sound and feel so familiar. It’s actually quite a fun album, and if you’re feeling quite nostalgic for those 00’s girl pop sounds, I hightly recommend it!

Also, in some sadder news, Hilary’s castmate from her Lizzie McGuire days, Robert Carradine, who played Lizzie’s dad, sadly passed away last week. It’s such a shame we never got the reboot we wanted, and if we ever do, it just won’t be the same without him. May he rest in peace ♡

Literature

I have been hit with a wave of YA nostalgia lately after rereading Darren Shan‘s Demonata series recently. I have previously mentioned that I planned to reread The Hunger Games series, and I’ve just reached Mockingjay (already about 20% in!) and rewatched the movie adaptations, and it’s all scratching an itch I didn’t know I had. I’m looking to reread the Divergent series after this one, then I’m going to need a break from the dystopian trope! I feel like it wasn’t so long ago that I reread the Twilight series, so I’ll probably skip that one, but I’ll be looking for recommendations of YA novels that I haven’t read before (I’m looking at The Mortal Instruments for after Divergent, as I’ve never read that series!), so please hit me up if you have any to suggest!

Life

There has been a lot of upheaval lately, a lot of things ending or soon to be ending, and I have to admit, I’ve been feeling pretty lost in the chaos. I don’t know if the current Mercury retrograde is to blame for much of it, but I’ve noticed my horoscopes have been saying there is massive change currently, but there is a lot of good to come out of it. A particular quote I quite liked was, This isn’t a disruption. It’s emotional recalibration. I’m not entirely convinced when it comes to horoscopes, but I am very open-minded, and that particular sentence really made sense to me. Emotional recalibration. That’s exactly what this feels like – going through a dark tunnel to hopefully a brighter change on the other side (I won’t go into the complete sobbing breakdown I had!). Another horoscope put it far more bluntly for the upcoming week: You don’t like endings, Pisces. You cherish familiar comforts. Yet every ending also makes room for a new beginning – and one occurring this week should bring joy rather than sadness. Whether this stuff is true or not doesn’t really matter, because it makes me feel hopeful and want to try for a more positive frame of mind.

A Random Fact I Learned

Not exactly random, but earlier today President Trump launched an attack on Iran in collaboration with Israel, of all nations. It’s something I feel very conflicted about. I’ve been posting about the plight of the women in Iran and donating to causes that help them and others in the country, so on the one hand I feel relieved that they will hopefully get some respite from the Islamic regime, however I have concerns about what comes next and what ulterior motives Trump, and Israel, have, because there’s no way they did this purely to free people and promote peace. I don’t even know what’s been happening in Venezuela since Trump has turned his attentions away from there in the weeks since capturing the Venezuelan president. I have further research to do, but my general feeling right now in all of this is anxiety, and we should all be paying attention.