For those of you who follow me on Instagram, you'll have already noticed that my illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban finally came around today and I'm so beyond stoked to dive back into the wizarding world of Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling was, naturally, one of the most prominent authors in my childhood and it brings me great pleasure knowing that I still love this series even after all these years. I've loved the previous two illustrated editions of Rowling's novels but this is the one I've been waiting for--Prisoner of Azkaban was always my favourite of the series.

Seeing Jim Kay bring J.K. Rowling's words and wizarding world come to life is a dream come true. I love the way he breathes a new sort of life into her stories and characters; creating a lush setting of colours and magic for new and old readers alike. I'm huge on seeing pretty much anyone's artistic vision when it comes to adapting the series and I can never tire of it. Kay's vision is one of the best.

In honor of its arrival, I took a few pictures of it--because, obviously. It's too pretty not to try. And as I have a free day today, and it's cool and rainy, I am going to keep myself busy swooning over the illustrations and getting reacquainted with my favourite world.

Obligatory, "thank you, J.K. Rowling for my childhood." 

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany & Jack Thorne | Rating: ★★★★★

Like most fans, I had marked down my calendar for July 31st, 2016. Although I had known ahead of time that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child wasn’t a book, instead it was a script, and that a great deal of the story itself wasn’t penned by J.K. Rowling, I was so thrilled to be having a new Harry Potter story nine years after the final book was released. How could we not be? This was our childhood. Hogwarts is our home. Because of all the spoilers that had leaked to Twitter upon the plays previews, I had low expectations from the start and I think that is why I loved (yes, loved) The Cursed Child as much as I do.

Far from my favorite release in the series, The Cursed Child is every bit as darkly magical as the previous seven full-length-novels. It took me back to my childhood. It reminded me what it was like to be so bloody excited for a book release, I barely nodded off whilst reading it and stayed up far later than I’d normally. There was something in it being the first Harry Potter story to have purchased with my own money, as many people from my generation have expressed. Midnight release parties, Freeform’s beloved Harry Potter Weekend and more played out to the tune of my weekend during its release date.

I felt younger again. I felt happy. You know that feeling, right? Tingling in your veins as you finally get your hands on a physical copy of something you love. Most of us hadn’t felt it since 2007–and I can’t explain how wonderful the sensation was after being from it for so long. My review would have come sooner but as I don’t have a laptop (still) and I couldn’t articulate what it was I wanted to say, here we are almost a week after its release.