Birthday Treats Arrived - My New Kindle Reader!! It was a Bargain!

Well I'm absolutely delighted to say that the Kindle reader I treated myself to for my birthday arrived yesterday from Amazon, and dang am I delighted with it so far!! Those of you who know me well, will recall that I said a while back that I was hoping to get myself a Kindle reader sometime in the New Year once I had saved up my pennies, but then on Thursday night, the reader I had my eye on suddenly dropped from £49.99 to £29.99 with the Black Friday sale, and since the 16th November was my birthday, it seemed like too good an opportunity to resist, so I went for it and placed my order. 

On Monday afternoon, as promised by Amazon, it was delivered to my address, and with a little bit of supervision (help??) from the cats I broke into my birthday parcel. I actually treated myself to three birthday gifts in the end: a Candy Cane Lane Yankee Candle, Nancy Cohen's 'Writing the Cozy Mystery', and the Kindle Fire 7. I'm chuffed to bits with all three!! 

I had a lot of jobs to get through on Monday, so I decided that I wasn't allowed to open my parcel until all of my work was done - talk about a carrot! Well the time finally came, albeit late at night, and I opened up the Kindle Fire packaging, which to my delight was fairly minimal and nothing too unnecessary in the packaging department - better for the environment which was a nice plus. 

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I'm a huge lover of technology, but I'm also incredibly inpatient and very lazy, especially when I'm tired. I love new things, but I hate having to set things up and learn how they work. So that was another huge plus in my book for this device. Once I unpacked it, and without reading any instructions, I simply found the on button on the top, switched it on, and in a matter of seconds the screen came to life...first with the word 'Amazon' and a few moments later with the word 'Fire'. It was already partly charged, so I was able to work the device right out of the box. This makes it a great item to grab at the airport if you are off on your hols and decide to grab one from the Duty Free at the last moment. It would easily fit in a handbag too. 

I'm already in love with this device, I really can't sing its praises enough, and if I was looking to get a Kindle for a friend for Christmas, or for a child, then I would certainly recommend this one, especially if you can get it on the current Black Friday deal (at least in the UK). The only thing I wish I had done, was to order a screen protector and a protective cover, because I've already got my little fingerprints on the screen, but they cleaned off really easily. So I'll definitely be ordering those next. I'm already reading my books, and I'm ridiculously happy with this new addition to my life!!

I was surprised at how little the Fire 7 weighed. In fact it probably weighs less than your average book, which will be a huge bonus for my wrists, especially as I spend a lot of time each day typing at my keyboard, and am always conscious of avoiding carpal tunnel and similar issues that so many authors are hindered by. That will make reading really comfortable, and the screen display was also lovely and sharp and not too reflective or glaring, so that will be nicer on the eyes when reading before I go to bed. 

The other thing that surprised me, was just how robust the Fire 7 felt, not flimsy at all, and nowhere near as heavy as an iPad (at least the older versions). In fact, I couldn't help but draw many comparisons to the iPad, which costs hundreds of pounds, and seeing what this device had to offer for a fraction of the cost. Technology really has come such a long way to be able to get a device that seems akin to an iPad, but for £29.99!! Even at its regular price of £49.99 it still seems like an incredible device for all that it can do. 

The setup was ridiculously easy. Notifications on the screen talked me through everything, including how to click home, and how to swipe back and forth and how to work Alexa. It already knew my name because it had connected with my Prime account (which you can try for free for 30 days by the way in case you aren't familiar with it), and as soon as I logged in, all of the free cozy mystery books I've been downloading were on my Kindle app, along with my Amazon Prime movies, television programmes, and Audible audiobooks. 

It surprised me to find that there were also games, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Netflix, and loads of other apps, much like I might have on my iPhone or like you would have on an iPad. And even better still, it has Alexa, something I've been wanting to get since it first came out, and which can be connected to the lighting in my future home one day, and other technology to be controlled by voice command. 

If you want to check out the Kindle Fire 7 for yourself, I'll post the links here:

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I also bought Nancy Cohen's 'Writing the Cozy Mystery' which I'm really enjoying so far.

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And my long time favourite candle, especially for Christmas and winter feels, the Yankee Candle: Candy Cane Lane which always makes me feel happy when I'm writing my next cozy mystery book

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