Products I used up in 2017

 

 

My goal for 2017 was to use the products I already have instead of buying anything new. I have a lot of makeup, so I still find it exciting when I finish a product. Something that I have become aware of recently is the ingredients and the harmful chemicals used in cosmetics. Therefore, it’s my intention to eventually convert to all natural (or as much as I can) makeup and skincare, along with other household products. But before I can do this, I want to use up what I already have.

 

I haven’t bought a lot of makeup in 2017 as I have put myself on spending ban- unless if it’s something I need or ran out of (or if it’s really pretty or limited edition). Because I haven’t bought a lot, I have used up a lot of products. I have kept most of my makeup empties (I’m sure there have been some that I have missed).

Favourite Books for 2017

 

I read around a total of 235 books this year! This is a lot less than last year but still a lot by most standards.  The books are in lose order but as I found it too difficult to rate them all. My favourite and biggest series I read this year was Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. All eight books should be shown but by showing the first book, I really mean the whole series.

 

Most of the books I read now are by my favourite and well established authors or authors I know well. However there have been some debut authors this year that have made my list. These authors are Davney Perry and Noel Branham. Both are amazing authors and have been a go to. Especially Perry as her Jamison Valley series has quickly become a favourite of the year.

 

Many of favourites have been continuations of my favourite series. This includes Ella Franks Temptation series, I’m sad to say goodbye to Tate and Logan but it has been an amazing journey. I also liked the Devil’s Wolves series by Carian Cole and the newest book by Beth Flynn was much anticipated. Aly Martinez always writes amazing and very emotional duets and Katy Regnery is great at retelling fairytales (so is Linda Kage). Emma Scott made me cry with all her books and so did Mia Sheridan.

 

I am working on reading all the books published by my favourite authors and this goal will continue into 2018. I read all of Brittainy C. Cherry’s books this year and of course they were all amazing.

 

Because choosing just 50 books was really hard, I also have 10 runners up that were also amazing reads. Overall 2017 has been an amazing year for books and I’m sure 2018 will be no different.

 

My Thoughts on Kindle Unlimited 2017

 

“I saved $290.46 by having Kindle Unlimited in 2017.”

 

I was very excited when I heard Australia was getting Kindle Unlimited (KU). I read a lot of books, therefore I believed KU was a perfect match for me. In January 2017 I got a free trial of KU when I signed up. I read 15 books with KU that month that came to the total cost of $47.44. Seeing that I got a total of almost $50 worth of books I then decided that $13.99 a month seemed like a good deal.

 

Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service which allow you to read as many books as you want from a large selection of books. You you first sign up you get a 30-day free trial. I would recommend using this free trial to see if the service is right for you (you want to make sure you read over $13.99 value of books- you’re looking at reading at least 3-5 books a month as a minimum.

 

Once you have subscribed you can choose up to 10 books to borrow at time from a large selection of books. These books will show “read for $0.00 on Kindle Unlimited”. I have had no trouble finding books that I want to read and many of my top favourite authors have their books on KU. Just to put in persective I read 122 books on KU in 2017 and 40 out of my 60 favourite highly rated books (4.5-5 stars) were from KU.

 

The important question is, ‘is this service really worth it’? This depends on how much you read and what you read. I read a lot of romance and many of my favourite authors are self-published or indie authors. I have read that this type of author, offers a large selection of books on KU. So for me this is perfect. However, there may not be a large selection of more ‘mainstream’ books, but the offerings on KU vary and is always changing.

 

Therefore, if you’re curious about KU I recommend getting the free trial and figuring out for yourself if this is the service for you. Also you do have to have to read from a Kindle (bu that is a given). To have KU for a year in Australia it will cost $167.88.

 

Below I have made a table of all the books I read this year and compared it to the books I read on KU. As you can see I got my value for money and I ended up saving $290.46 ($13.99 x 11 months including 30 day free trail). I read 235 books this year and 122 of them were on KU. Therefore I read just over half the books I read this year on KU.

 

So for me there is no question that I will be continuing with the service in 2018. You can find some amazing authors and books on offer in KU, you only have to look.

 

 

Happy reading!