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La Belle Sauvage – The Book Of Dust #1 Review

The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage is the first in a new trilogy by Philip Pullman. I first saw the His Dark Materials advertised in my school library when I was young and then went on to watch the film The Golden Compass. La Belle Savauge is a prequel to The Northern Lights book (The Golden Compass in the US) and I have really enjoyed getting back into the series. I first listened to the entire original His Dark Materials trilogy a few years ago thanks to Audible. *Contains Affiliate Links

I was gifted the first Book of Dust La Belle Sauvage for Christmas in 2017 but I have only just got around to reading it and it is the first book I am reading for my 2019 reading challenge. Below you will find what I thought of the book! People may be here for The Book of Dust review, I did not know it was a new trilogy until I was told but the next Book of Dust The Secret Commonwealth will be the second in the new trilogy.

La Belle Sauvage Review

La Belle Sauvage is the prequel to The Northern Lights and really sets up the scene for Lyra’s adventures. The main character is a young boy named Malcolm and his daemon Asta. He is an inquisitive, likeable and hardworking young boy that doesn’t really want to get himself into trouble but seems to be quite good at getting himself into some sticky conversations. La Belle Sauvage is very much an adventure story primarily set in Oxford in The Trout Inn and across the river in The Priory. Many characters from the His Dark Materials series are mentioned and introduced so it’s great to hear a bit more about them and their background.

For those familiar with the series Lyra is in La Belle Sauvage but instead of a scrappy, witty and courageous young girl we find her in The Northern Lights she is instead a young baby. However, for those that haven’t read the other series it really shows how important she is and how many people are really interested in her. The book also goes in to the exploration of Dust and what it is, talking about stream of consciousness and all sorts of other interesting things.

The book reads very easily and is a great adventure story for pre teens and those that loved the His Dark Materials trilogy. It’s a great read for parents to read to older children too although it’s a good 500+ pages so perhaps not one to do in one night. It actually took me around a week to read a hardback copy amongst parenting and family duties that I have to keep up with.

The book has a very pro secular stand point and quite anti-religion. There was a particular chapter in the book that introduces The League of St Alexander which really made me feel how children can turn against an authority very quickly if being told what they’re doing is God’s work, despite it not being morally good, just or kind. Morality is a strong theme throughout the story and doing what is right vs what is good is often what Malcolm feels he has to choose between.

2019 Reading Challenge

One of my goals for 2020 is to read 52 books or around one a week. Some might be new, some are ones I’ve had for a while or been meaning to read, some I haven’t quite finished yet and some will be recommendations from others. You can see all the books I’ve read so far on my Good Reads 2020 Reading Challenge.

January 16, 2019
Making Plans for 2019

With a new year we often want to start making new plans. This could be anything from moving home, a new hobby or a holiday. I like creating my goals lists so I have some focus on what I’m doing with my blog and home too. I find this really helpful.

Some people, however, might want to look at starting a business or turning their hobby into a business but might be lacking the funds to do so. This year I am planning on making more money as well as paying off more debt so that I can be more financially free and I am glad my business did not require much investment to start as I already had an established blog and following. However, for others that are more creative and make products a small business loan might be a better option if funds are low.

I have recently seen so many small businesses creep up for homemade clothing, resuable wipes, eco friendly kits and journals which is amazing however they all had to start somewhere and that start often requires money. When it comes to loans you always need to make sure you can afford the monthly repayments and don’t borrow what you can’t afford to pay back. The first year of business is usually quite tough if you’re starting completely from scratch.

When it comes to changing a hobby to a business and you already have a bit of a following getting your audience on board is usually a great idea and can really help give you some feedback. You will usually have your first customers or consumers from your following too and the best part is you probably already have your ideal customer which, hopefully, means that you wont make a loss in your first year of business.

I think changing things up each year is healthy as long as you do it with care, consideration and responsibly.

*Collaborative Post

January 14, 2019
January 2019 Goals
This year I’ve decided to split my goals up into monthly blocks so that I can, hopefully, do and achieve more. I’ve tried to make them manageable but also a little out of my usual comfort zone so that I can really work towards something I want.

I’ve decided against resolutions as such but I do have a word of the year. My word for 2019 is:

This means in 2019 I want to do more of the things I love rather than giving up or stopping things. I will be swapping things around a little bit and I’ve given myself a few monthly challenges for the year to hopefully help me get healthier, happier and enjoy my time more.

My goals for January are:
- Lose 1 Stone – I’m not going to do weekly weigh ins for this as I think that’s counter productive for me and I don’t want to focus too much on numbers but I equally know I need to get rid of some excess fat. So I am going to weigh in and measure on 1st January and then do it again on 31st January to see if I’ve made some progress.
- Eat More Veggies – alongside this we are challenging ourselves to try more Vegan and Vegetarian meals as well as cutting out dairy and gluten. I’m inspired by Veganuary and I think this will help me be more creative with my meals and try more things. As for the dairy and gluten I just want a lighter month on the food front, I’ve been trying more plant based milks recently and I kind of want to ditch cheese.
- Swim More – I love swimming and I am hoping to get out and use the Gym membership I haven’t really used since August due to pregnancy and then recovery. I want to swim at least once a week and plan to go in the evenings when Adam is now home to be here with the kids.
- Dance More – another bid to make use of my membership and hopefully help with losing one stone so I am going to give Zumba a go. I really enjoy it when I do it and I think it will really help!
- Earn £500 – more of a business goal but I really want to work on making a full time income from self employment. I’ve steadily grown since becoming self employed in 2015 and despite not working as much in 2018 I have done fairly well. I’m going to focus on having more structure to my working day and seeking out more opportunities.
- Increase my Instagram followers by 25% – I want to do this because I really like Instagram and I want to get better at taking photos. I’m going to become much more active on there in January so I can hopefully, by the end of 2019, be at that crucial 10,000 followers mark. I’m going to look for photography challenges to join in with, get more active on stories, find more accounts I want to follow and just generally be much more active on there.
What are your goals for the month or the new year and what are you doing to keep track of them?
January 1, 2019
Felix at Two Months

I wanted to do monthly updates of Felix as he grows but that kind of went out of the window as things have just been so strange. Really we’ve just been soaking in that newborn stage but now things really seem to be falling into place and I can’t quite believe I’m sharing how he’s grown in the last two months with you. Firstly, my recovery is going well however I still can’t walk as fast as I did. I question if it’s just healing and the muscle damage from surgery was quite a lot but I’m trying to walk more and pick it up. I get tired very quickly when walking, I know part of that is my weight as well and carrying around excess fat whilst recovering from abdominal surgery was never going to be completely smooth sailing. Some friends have recommended getting some Physio and it’s something I’m going to look into!

Felix is doing really well. He has his 8 week jabs coming up in a couple of weeks and was last weighed at his doctors check. He came in at 11lb2oz and is following the 50th centile. I’m planning to get him weighed again just before Christmas to see how he’s doing but he’s outgrowing his 0-3 month clothes, is having plenty of wet and dirty nappies and is generally a pretty contented baby. I feel he’s taking after me a little bit, he’s an early riser and very smiley and happy in the mornings, but come the afternoons he has trouble getting to sleep and napping, gets quite grouchy and fussy then falls asleep around 8pm and then he’s done until 5-6am – this has been gradually getting longer since he was about five weeks old which I really did not expect. Evie was not good and it took until three months for her to sleep 11-5am which was her pattern for quite a while, and she seems to have decided to copy that pattern again now as she is once again in bed very late and up so early.

Felix smiles, makes lots of lovely cooing noises and gurgles and he can really scream. That seems to happen the most when he’s really hungry or he’s headbutted us too hard. He’s starting to enjoy playing and cuddling his soft toys now and likes following you around the room. We’ve put the Christmas tree up but he hasn’t really focused on that yet. He does seem to like music and is quite partial to an episode or two of Strictly Come Dancing (which I have become obsessed with).

December 4, 2018
BakedIn Baking Subscription Club for Kids

I’ve always loved baking and over the years I’ve had my fair share of brilliant bakes and utter disasters, usually because I haven’t followed a recipe or I’ve missed a vital ingredient. This want of cooking has passed on to Evie who is always asking to make cakes. Having had the opportunity to try BakedIn, a baking box subscription service, I thought this would be a great chance to try a new recipe and have some mother daughter time. My time has mostly been dedicated to Felix but now we are settling into a routine we were actually able to do something together and we made some pretty delicious Whoopie Pies. I’ve never made Whoopie pies, I’ve never used a piping bag and usually when it comes to something with a bit more effort than cupcakes I get a bit flustured. However, this was not the case with the BakedIn Baking box.

The best thing about the box is getting all the ingredients pre-measured and labelled. There are also really easy to follow instructions, with pictures, and as the ingredients are labelled you always use the correct thing at the right time. All of the dry ingredients have been provided for you and it clearly states on the recipe card what you need to include which is the fresh ingredients so things like eggs, milk, butter etc. However, as these are all staples most people have in their homes it is not really too much hassle.

We had a lot of fun making our first BakedIn box recipe which included all the dry ingredients for the Whoopie Pies. We decided to make halve and freeze the other half of the biscuit dough for another time. I have to say I have never made anything like this at all and it was really nice to do something together with Evie. I was so surprised with how easy everything was to follow. The only thing I didn’t like was getting stuck in with my hands to make up the dough but that is personal preference and is usually the nature of baking. It’s not a factor that would stop me using BakedIn and I am strongly tempted to sign up myself so that we can try a few more recipes together and share our bakes. Its a great way to spend time together in amongst the new baby madness.

You can sign up to BakedIn from £8 a month however using the code KAYLEIGH299 you can get your very first box for just £2.99 when you subscribe which is a complete bargain and well worth trying out!

Disclaimer: We received a BakedIn box in exchange for this review.

December 2, 2018