DESKTOP WALLPAPERS: October 2025

It's officially spooky month! 🎃 I love this time of year - the colours, the crunchy leaves, the crisp air, the cosy hot drinks, it's perfect for my sensory-seeking brain. I'm always outside with my camera during the autumn months, making the most of things before the weather turns too cold for me to be snapping pics without gloves making things difficult. So, please enjoy some of the photos I've picked out for October's wallpapers!

October Trees Wallpaper

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Trees look so much more beautiful during golden hour at this time of year. And since the sun sets earlier, I can take golden hour pictures AND be back at home with a cup of tea by 8pm. Heaven. 

October Crunchy Leaves Wallpaper

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It's a tradition for me to snap pics of my feet walking through crunchy leaves every autumn. I just can't help myself.

October Red Leaf Wallpaper

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LEAVES!! COLOURFUL LEAF SEASON!!!! I love making the most of the wide array of leaves strewn all over the floor in October. 

October Mushrooms Wallpaper

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Nothing beats spotting some mushrooms on an autumn walk. It's all fun and games until I get my jeans covered in mud because I'm on the floor trying to photograph them. 

October Spooky Books Wallpaper

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Here's the bookish entry for this month, courtesy of my mum's horror shelf. She a huge lover of all things creepy when it comes to books, so I often snap a pic of her well-loved copies for Halloween. 

October Autumn Pattern Wallpaper

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Of course I had to draw up a little autumnal illustration for you all! I've been having fun learning how to make patterns on Procreate and here's the result. This ended up being my personal wallpaper for the month because I love it so much.

I hope one of these wallpapers meets your desktop needs this October! Do you have any plans for spooky season? What books are you planning to read? Let me know in the comments. I'll see you in November for some chillier wallpapers...

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summer reading updates │SMALL THOUGHTS #4

Summer is over and I am READY to delve into my autumn TBR. But before I do, let's discuss some of the books I managed to read over summer. I got through quite a few of them, so I've narrowed it down to four for the sake of our collective sanity. If you're interested in what else I've been reading, then you can always check out my StoryGraph!

Vesuvius by Cass Biehn 

The clock is ticking. The gods are watching. This thrilling historical fantasy set in the days before Mount Vesuvius destroys Pompeii is a meet cute with an explosive fallout. 

Clever thief Felix slips from city to city to survive the present and escape a past he can’t remember. When Felix steals a mythical artifact—Mercury's helmet—from a temple in Pompeii, pieces of his forgotten past begin to surface. 

Loren, an ambitious temple attendant, has seen Felix in his apocalyptic nightmares for years. The last thing Loren expects is for his dream to stumble headfirst through his temple doors, moments after an earthquake rocks the city. 

When Felix shows Loren the helmet, Loren sees the world coming to an end. He knows they have mere days to uncover Felix’s ties to the relic and to Loren’s visions if they have any hope of saving the city. But Ancient Rome is ruled by bloody politics and unstoppable destinies, and now that Loren and Felix are intertwined, their lives aren’t all they risk losing. When all has turned to ash and rubble, the boys will have to piece together their fates to make it out of a burning city alive. 

An exploration of ambition and class, autonomy and religion, survival and love.

I knew I was going to pick this up as soon as I heard about it. There’s nothing more me than a queer historical disaster retelling, and I adored it as much as I predicted I would. It was such an interesting take on Pompeii, focusing on a smaller cast of characters rather than the tragedy as a whole. Felix and Loren are adorable and I loved how their story wrapped up. Buuuuuut I still had questions at the end that I’m dying for answers to!

Royal Rating:

Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett

Emily Wilde has spent her life studying faeries. A renowned dryadologist, she has documented hundreds of species of Folk in her Encyclopaedia of Faeries. Now she is about to embark on her most dangerous academic project studying the inner workings of a faerie realm-as its queen. 

Along with her former academic rival-now fiancé-the dashing and mercurial Wendell Bambleby, Emily is immediately thrust into the deadly intrigues of Faerie as the two of them seize the throne of Wendell's long-lost kingdom, which Emily finds a beautiful nightmare, filled with scholarly treasures. 

Emily has been obsessed with faerie stories her entire life, but at first she feels as ill-suited to Faerie as she did to the mortal world-how could an unassuming scholar like herself pass for a queen? Yet there is little time to settle in-Wendell's murderous stepmother has placed a deadly curse upon the land before vanishing without a trace. It will take all of Wendell's magic-and Emily's knowledge of stories-to unravel the mystery before they lose everything they hold dear.

I’ve been eagerly awaiting the conclusion to Emily and Wendell’s story, and I finally got to read it over the summer! I was super satisfied with the ending that was given to the pair of them – they make my heart extremely happy. As much as I enjoyed it, I found it a tiny bit slower than the previous two books, which is why I couldn’t give it five stars. I still think that the second book is my favourite from the trilogy. 

Royal Rating:

What Would Boudicca Do? by E. Foley & B. Coates

Tired of being talked over? Of social media making you feel crap? Of the pressure to 'have it all' and a hot bod too? 

Boudicca stuck up for herself and now she can help you do the same. It is time to start channelling the spiky superwomen of history to conquer today. It is time to turn to women like Frida Kahlo and Josephine Baker, Hypatia and Cleopatra, Coco Chanel and Empress Cixi. In this irreverent guide they will help you figure out how to dispatch a loverat, back yourself, kill it at work and trounce FoMo. 

With original illustrations by Bijou Karman, What Would Boudicca Do? will make you fired-up and ready for anything.

There’s nothing I love more than learning about woman throughout history. I was originally pulled into this one because of the title – I’ve always adored Boudicca since my dad taught me about her as a child. It was a fairly quick and fun read, relating the struggles of historical woman to our everyday issues. I would have preferred a bit more of a deep-dive into their lives, but I understand there wasn’t really space to do that here. I did note down some of my favourites so I could learn more about them on my own though!

Royal Rating:

Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian

It's 1989 in New York City, and for three teens, the world is changing. 

Reza is an Iranian boy who has just moved to the city with his mother to live with his stepfather and stepbrother. He's terrified that someone will guess the truth he can barely acknowledge about himself. Reza knows he's gay, but all he knows of gay life are the media's images of men dying of AIDS. 

Judy is an aspiring fashion designer who worships her uncle Stephen, a gay man with AIDS who devotes his time to activism as a member of ACT UP. Judy has never imagined finding romance...until she falls for Reza and they start dating. 

Art is Judy's best friend, their school's only out and proud teen. He'll never be who his conservative parents want him to be, so he rebels by documenting the AIDS crisis through his photographs. 

As Reza and Art grow closer, Reza struggles to find a way out of his deception that won't break Judy's heart--and destroy the most meaningful friendship he's ever known.

It’s the way I knew this book would probably make me cry before going into it, yet I still had the audacity to be surprised when I started sobbing like a baby. This was such a brutally gorgeous story, set in a period of time that still gets desperately overlooked. The ending was also a punch in the gut because it reminds us that no matter how far we feel like we’ve come in the fight for equal rights, there is still an uphill battle, and we need to keep going.  

Royal Rating:

So there we have it, that was just some of the books I've buried my nose into this summer. I also got a new kindle for my birthday in back in June, so I'm back to using NetGalley and can't wait to request some of my most anticipated reads. 

What books have you loved recently? 

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DESKTOP WALLPAPERS: September 2025

The superior season has finally arrived - HAPPY AUTUMN EVERYONE! 🥳 I'm big on autumn. All of it. Give me orange tress and crunchy leaves, cosy candles and curling up under a blanket to read. It's an unbeatable season in terms of pure vibes. 

I always tend to head out with my camera more during these months because everything just looks extra beautiful. So, please enjoy my selection of pictures for September's wallpapers! 

September Leaves Wallpaper

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The ground just looks super pretty when covered with crunchy leaves, don't you agree? My PC is filled with pictures like this one because I just can't help myself.

September Roses Wallpaper

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Blooming season might be wrapping up but there are still plenty of adorable roses to be found whilst out and about. 

September Crunchy Leaves Wallpaper

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Sometimes you just need to get outside and step on some leaves. There's nothing more satisfying than that crispy CRONCH. 

September Autumn Scenery Wallpaper

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This place is one of my favourite walking spots in the autumn months because it feels so magical to walk through the trees whilst the leaves fall around you. Highly recommend just going for autumn walks if you can. 

They're just some of the autumnal pics I've been capturing for your wallpaper needs, but I still have plenty more for the next couple of months! But before I go, tell me: what books do you like to read in autumn? I need RECS. 🍂

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