Tell Me Three Things

Title: Tell Me Three Things

Author: Julie Buxbaum
Rating: 5 Stars!!!
Published April 5th, 2016 by Delacorte Press
ISBN: 0553535641 (ISBN13: 9780553535648)

Synopsis : 

Everything about Jessie is wrong. At least, that’s what it feels like during her first week of junior year at her new ultra-intimidating prep school in Los Angeles. Just when she’s thinking about hightailing it back to Chicago, she gets an email from a person calling themselves Somebody/Nobody (SN for short), offering to help her navigate the wilds of Wood Valley High School. Is it an elaborate hoax? Or can she rely on SN for some much-needed help?

It’s been barely two years since her mother’s death, and because her father eloped with a woman he met online, Jessie has been forced to move across the country to live with her stepmonster and her pretentious teenage son.

In a leap of faith—or an act of complete desperation—Jessie begins to rely on SN, and SN quickly becomes her lifeline and closest ally. Jessie can’t help wanting to meet SN in person. But are some mysteries better left unsolved?

Julie Buxbaum mixes comedy and tragedy, love and loss, pain and elation, in her debut YA novel filled with characters who will come to feel like friends.

Source: Goodreads

Perfect days are for people with small, realizable dreams. Or maybe for all of us, they just happen in retrospect; they happen in retrospect; they're only now perfect because they contain something irrevocably and irretrievably lost.

Julie Buxbaum's Tell Me Three Things is wonderfully written about death, pain, loss and finding yourself once again. With her characters Jessie and Ethan, both of them are trapped and lost from the person they dearly loved. 

Leaving their usual life in Chicago, Jessie was forced to shift her life to cope up with her new step mother and step brother and especially, moving with a big house with a talented cook is something that Jessie did not expect. Adjusting from another environment is terribly hard. Worst is meeting people and knowing how to communicate without any bitches around. But unfortunately, it crashed into Jessie's life. She's matured enough to understand her father's feeling of moving on, falling in love and getting married to someone else. It was all new and yet Jessie accepted it without any restraint.

I loved Jessie's thoughts about the life of rich and spoiled kids in her school and taking advantage of anything they want. She was honest about everything she sees but she still managed to find the good things in Los Angeles, like her part-time job at a bookstore. It was a risk to take given the fact that she is still new and still in the middle of adjusting to new things. 

With SN/Ethan's character, I ultimately loved the mysterious card he laid out. From quoting The Waste Land into his keen observation on typing punctuation marks and new words, he totally made himself interesting and it feels natural looking at him like that. He was naturally a swoon-worthy kind of guy. *Ethan is Ethan is Ethan* 

But facing the reality other than just IM'ing is more than a risk to take. It shows how to trust someone even without seeing each other personally. Both Jessie and Ethan gradually realized how their feelings developed in the same way they feel the pain, loss and being alone in spite of being surrounded with people. They both know how to fill up each other holes when they wanted to spill out what their heart wanted to say, which always starts on them on telling three things about themselves. And slowly, the reality of meeting each other kicks in and it was an eventful setting to read. I feel surprised and relieved how Jessie and Ethan accepted each other and talked about when they felt lonely and when they looked at each other, they already know where they belong.

Tell Me Three Things is definitely a surprising YA book! I wasn't expecting myself to feel giddy and excited about how and when SN/Ethan do his next move. But mainly, this book gave me the feeling of finding and accepting the inevitable loss of being apart with someone we love and to love once again. 

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Blog Tour: Eliza and Her Monsters

Hey, guys! It's been a while *again and again, I know, sorry about that*! So I have joined another Book Blog Tour from my friend Precious of Fragments of Life. This is my 2nd attempt to once more, go back to joining book blog tours. Although it's quite tough to squeeze in the time on reading books because l find it hard to still have the energy to read after the long day of work. Anyone can relate on that? I hope it does. 

Anyway, so today is my turn to post my book review for Francesca Zappia's Eliza and Her Monsters. I'll try not to include any spoilers about this great book! *winks*

Title: Eliza and Her Monsters

Author: Francesca Zappia

Rating: 4.5 Stars!!!

Published May 30th, 2017 by HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062290134 (ISBN13: 9780062290137)
Synopsis : 

Eighteen-year-old Eliza Mirk is the anonymous creator of Monstrous Sea, a wildly popular webcomic, but when a new boy at school tempts her to live a life offline, everything she’s worked for begins to crumble.

In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, smart, and friendless. Online, Eliza is LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of a popular webcomic called Monstrous Sea. With millions of followers and fans throughout the world, Eliza’s persona is popular. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves her digital community. Then Wallace Warland transfers to her school, and Eliza begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile. But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart. With pages from Eliza’s webcomic, as well as screenshots from Eliza’s online forums, this uniquely formatted book will appeal to fans of Noelle Stevenson’s Nimona and Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl.

Source: Goodreads

"Worth as s person is not based on any tangible evidence. There's no test for it, no scale. Everyone's got their own idea of what it is. But I can tell you that Monstrous Sea is not the measure of your value in life, Eliza. Whether or not you finish it does not determine if you sholud live or die."

One thing that I ultimately felt when I was reading Eliza and Her Monsters is jealousy. I am jealous of Eliza's talent of creating a phenomenal story all over the internet and her drawing skills. I will pay anything just to have that kind of talent.

Monstrous Sea is Eliza Mirks's art. She created the world, characters, creatures, and constellations from her heart. Writing the story was pretty easy on her and being on the internet is so much better than facing reality and interact with people. Nowadays, the internet is part of our daily routine. It gives us the opportunity to do anything we want and share that across the globe. No boundaries, we just see everything on the Internet. To Eliza, Monstrous Sea is her identity that makes her unique. 

Some authors make themselves reclusive for a reason. Simply because they still wanted privacy with all the things that happened to them when readers get a bit overboard. In some cases, they are shy to face the world and their readers. I am guilty of the fact that whenever I finish a book and I feel I wanted the sequel in an instant, I tweet to the author like 'I NEED THE SEQUEL NOW!'. Of course, that is really exaggerated given that sequels typically releases a year after. Reading Eliza and Her Monsters made me realize how difficult it must be facing the pressure on stabilizing the foundation of the fandom and the stories itself. Authors and writers are happy when they have comments like that, but when it all pops out all out once, the panic comes in. That's how Eliza feels whenever she stays up all night to finish the two or three pages of Monstrous Sea. She loves her fans that she don't want to disappoint them. Because of the fact that people appreciate your work and support it, that is the best thing closest to heaven.

When Wallace came in, he became the plot twist in the book. Eliza's world shook, specifically dealing with reality is what scares her the most. Interacting on the Internet is easy, you can delete the sentence when you feel it is not right, but in reality, once you said it, it is already done. Eliza was quite afraid at first on how to deal with it, but I loved that she took the chance to be Eliza Mirk instead of LadyConstellation. She slowly unravels herself with the reality of facing her fans and gets to talk with them. It was a really a great thing to read that kind of setting. When a character chooses to get out of their comfort zone and face the things that scare them the most.

Wallace and Eliza 's relationship is a cute setting to read. Both characters are shy to tell what they truly feel and a lot of writing was involved instead of real-talk-mouth-moving conversation. But I did like how subtle it became from the start. And the risk of sharing their own secrets made the book even better.

There are snippets of the Monstrous Sea which almost gave me the feeling of reading two stories at once. One is Eliza's life itself and the other is her Monstrous Sea. I kind of like how it jumps to the comic excerpts of it. Looking at Eliza's work and reading it, it feels obvious how much she pours her heart out with every page. 

With Eliza and her Monsters, readers have the opportunity to look into a writer's world. The art of creating a new world and giving the characters their fate and choices is astounding. This book brings a lot of familiarity of being at home with your fandom and shipping the sail to any OTP that we want to happen. You'll get to read a package of two stories at once in a magical and surpising way.

About the Author

Check her out on these links:

Website | Twitter | Instagram

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ARC Review: The Love Interest

Title: The Love Interest

Author: Cale Dietrich

Rating: 3.5 Stars!!! 

Hardcover, 384 pages
Expected publication: May 16, 2017, by Feiwel & Friends
ISBN: 125010713X (ISBN13: 9781250107138)

Synopsis : 

There is a secret organization that cultivates teenage spies. The agents are called Love Interests because getting close to people destined for great power means getting valuable secrets.

Caden is a Nice: The boy next door, sculpted to physical perfection. Dylan is a Bad: The brooding, dark-souled guy, and dangerously handsome. The girl they are competing for is important to the organization, and each boy will pursue her. Will she choose a Nice or the Bad?

Both Caden and Dylan are living in the outside world for the first time. They are well-trained and at the top of their games. They have to be – whoever the girl doesn’t choose will die.

What the boys don’t expect are feelings that are outside of their training. Feelings that could kill them both.

Source: Goodreads

Hi, guys! I know it has been a really long time since I posted anything on this blog. A lot of things happened, mostly I was busy with work and I just tend to read another book after I finished any current book that I read. But now, I am back - hahaha! 

I've joined The Love Interest Book Blog Tour hosted by JM at The Book Freak Revelations. I was so excited when I received an eARC of this book because I've been wanting to read this ahead of time. Given its synopsis, I can already tell that this will be another great book to read.

If you want to know my thoughts of The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich, just continue to scroll down a bit. :D

BOOK REVIEW

There is nothing more exciting than seeing words like a spy, teenagers, love and secret organization that ignites to read a book. Which I automatically mark the book as To-Read on my Goodreads. The synopsis was captivating and straight to the point. Teenagers are trained to be the 'ideal guy or girl' for their designated target. But what indeed made The Love Interest sparked a lot is the world building within its secret organization. The details on getting on the organization and the slim chances of getting out of it made the book interesting.

The secret organization designates for two division, the Nice and Bad. They were trained to become physically attractive, from the build of their muscles up to their posture, everything is monitored to reach their goal. Each of them needs to become a lifetime partner for a few people which the organization sees the target as an influential person. The Love Interest eyed Juliet for a long time for her remarkable talent and undiscovered inventions. They wanted every piece of information into it. They trained Caden and Dylan to fall for one of them and choose one, the one that will be rejected will suffer the consequence.

Nice's are red. Bad's are blue.

For Caden and Dylan, it is a chance to live and experience freedom. They were trained and made to play to become the lover of Juliet. It was a competition that requires a lot of tactics and a lot of reading and decoding what typically a girl is thinking about when she is falling in love with a guy. It was fun to read how Caden and Dylan made sure that everything will go well, every event was timely accurate to fall at the right moment. They put up several romantic tactics in order for Juliet to slowly fall in love for them. 

But what made me surprised is the bond of Caden and Dylan. All those times, I was expecting a lot of betrayals with each side but it wasn't that much of an impact. It was their feelings that suddenly entwined in the process that made me really surprised. Both characters were confused and yet, they feel a lot brighter and warmer with each other. And I loved the way these characters accepted their own fate and choose the dangerous path in order to escape the organization that locked them in. 

Aside from that, I loved the way Juliet handled everything that she's been through within the course of the plot twist. Her determination and wits was clearly another thing that made me really excited to turn the page to see what will be her next move. She was the art of science that made my heart really happy.

The Love Interest is purely a YA book that readers will be curious about. From the structure of the organization up to its surprising plot twist, Cale Dietrich put a lot of art and sexiness into this book. I was really surprised with every emotion the characters felt in each chapter. I recommend this to the readers who wants to see a game of love with a spice of action.

About the Author

Cale Dietrich is a YA devotee, lifelong gamer, and tragic pop punk enthusiast. He was born in Perth, grew up on the Gold Coast, and now lives in Brisbane, Australia. The Love Interest is his first novel.

Check him out on

Twitter | Goodreads | Website

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Late Valentines Day Post

 

Last week was Valentines Day and wow there are a lot of lovers everywhere I go. Every streets that I passed by, boys carry their flowers and wait for their girlfriends. A week before that, my boyfriend and I had a date and then we spent the night with his friends on a condo that they rented via Airbnb. I actually kept on telling him how much I wanted a Kindle. But then, he keeps on insisting that I should buy things if I really needed them. Needing and wanting have the gray area between it. So being persistent is the only way to get what I want/need.

Then I won, he searched and contact a Kindle seller on our local online buy/sell shop. Luckily, fate was on my side. He found one and he agreed that we can meet him up and buy it immediately. I was so excited and curious on how it feels to have a Kindle at last. My friends know how much I wanted to have one but I always had a doubt if it was really worth it. When he finally bought it, I already knew that Kindle is one of the best thing that I had as a booklover.

 

I requested for the latest version of Kindle Paperwhite and the only available color was white. But seriously, white looks really flawless when I hold it. The common is the black one, so having a white one makes me really giddy every time I read.

 

The funny thing is the packaging, it is Certified Frustration-Free. I had no problems on opening it, like the usual packaging that comes with a tape in every corner. So this is a plus points if you plan on buying one, you won't have any problems opening it. HAHAHA!

 

At the moment, I already have 37 books saved on my Kindle. I only purchase books on Amazon when they are on sale. *Insanely on sale* I got The Star Touched Queen and A Darker Shade of Magic for only $2.54. Almost every night I search for the books that I love that could be on sale, and so far, I got those titles. The others books were $1.99 only. If I'll compare the price the printed copy to the kindle one, they have a huge difference. So I save a large amount of price when I purchase on Amazon Kindle.

Of course, this doesn't mean that I will not buy printed books anymore, it's just that this time, I will limit the books that I will buy now. And I am really delighted on that and I want to thank my boyfriend for buying me a Kindle.

What's your experience when you had your Kindle?

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Queen of Shadows

Title : Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass#4)

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Rating: 5 Stars!!!

Published September 1st 2015 by Bloomsbury USA Childrens 

Synopsis:

The queen has returned.

Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she’s at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past…

She has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight.

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die for her. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen’s triumphant return.

The fourth volume in the New York Times bestselling series continues Celaena’s epic journey and builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world. 

Source : Goodreads

"When you shatter the chains of this world and forge the next, remember that art is vital as food to a kingdom. Without it, a kingdom is nothing, and will be forgotten by time. I have amassed enough money in my miserable life to not need any more-so you will understand clearly when i say that whatever you set your throne, no matter how long it takes, I will come to you and I will bring music and dancing."

One of the great things about Sarah J. Maas is her characters decision to get the hell out of the war. But, it was in a time mannered way. Aelin started off on thinking the consequences if she marched ahead inside the tower. Though we all know Aelin will pretty much do it, she control herself no to and think about other people. And the people who died for her.

In Queen of Shadows, a lot of pressured has been placed into Aelin's back. There is Aedion that believed in her that someday, the Queen of Terrasen will be back and rule them all. While Chaol has been contemplating Aelin's plan to save or kill Dorian. A lot of doubt was actually added on that end. And Rowan, who suddenly appeared to be so much more than just her carranam. Of course, add some Valg Princes and The Thirteen and now every thing seems on piling up on Aelin. 

 

As Aelin realizes the deadly damages the King of Adarlan keeps on doing, she put a lot of risk on trusting people. Even if it means getting allied with Arrobyn. The man who put a lot of painful lessons on her. From that point, I know Aelin has a plan on turning the tables on him. But I didn't know it was freaking deadly and bloody. A pool of blood has been shed to be exact. I could say it has bit of foreshadowing but I did loved how Aelin planned all along on killing Arrobyn. HAHA!

 

But of course, one of the most thrilling part of the Queen of Shadows is The Thirteen! From Heir of Fire, Manon has been one of the apple of my eye when it comes on being the menacing character that I love to read. She has a voice that speaks out the truth of living as well the tragedy of surviving with it. But now on this book, it came deeper on what I expected. The secrets behind the Blackbeak and Yellowlegs clan boost up the thrill of the plot.

Most importantly, nothing gets better when Aelin, Aedion, Rowan destroys every thing. From the Valg Princes up to the King of Adarlan himself, for Dorian and for the future that was caged for a long tim, it was all magic in my eyes.

Queen of Shadows surpassed the characters limit of expressing their emotions. Every chapters intoxicates the reader to imagine what it feels like to act when fate decides to pin them up. And add it up when feelings get tied up in a middle of the war. This book put a lot tragedy and redeeming every characters life.

 

 

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January Bookhaul

Hey guys! It's been a while. *seriously* Last year, I've went through a lot of things in life. Which resulted me on a hiatus and made my blog like a ghost town. Months passed by it was even hard to finish a single book. Everytime I went home, my body just gives up on doing anything worthwhile. It comes to the point that I just stare on my bookshelves and feel nothing at all. For a while, I was scared that I thought I do not love books at all and that made me hate myself. 

*this is what I ultimately wanted to say to my books. :(*

Fast-forward to this year, my bookish life had its colors again! I finished Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas!!! Dang it, that book is just freaking majestic! I am now reading the Empire of Storms, it was satisfying to start a new book; a hardbound one. Also, the main topic for this blog post is that I've got a bookhaul!!! It was indeed a cool start to read books. 

Last week with my bookish friends Kate and Kai, we went to our local bookstore - Fullybooked, the bookstore has 4 floors. Imagine coming back to your wonderland after a long months of reality. I was overjoyed to be surrounded with books again. We talked a lot of new things that happened in YA books this past few weeks. Also, the great thing is that the store has its 20% discount. Now we are talking about destiny. HAHAHA! Me + books + 20% discount = euphoria. My boyfriend was with us and I felt like I am the luckiest girl in the world! HE BOUGHT ME TWO BOOKS! I also received my ARC that I requested from HarperCollins and I cannot wait to dive in to those new books from them!

HERE ARE THE GLORIOUS BOOKS THAT I HAVE RIGHT NOW! <3 p="">

From HarperCollins

Ronit and Jamil by Pamela L. Laskin

Girl Code by Andrea Gonzales, Sophie Houser

Bought at Fullybooked

The Love that Split the World by Emily Henry

There is No Dog by Meg Rosoff

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

AND NOW IT IS OFFICIAL, I AM OUT WITH MY HIATUS. HAHA! 

What books did you got this month? :)

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The Unexpected Everything

Title : The Unexpected Everything
Author: Morgan Matson
Rating: 4.5 Stars!!!
Paperback, International Edition,
519 pages
Published May 3rd 2016 by Simon and Schuster

ISBN: 1481486071 (ISBN13: 9781481486071)

Synopsis:

  

Andie had it all planned out.

When you are a politician’s daughter who’s pretty much raised yourself, you learn everything can be planned or spun, or both. Especially your future.

Important internship? Check.

Amazing friends? Check.

Guys? Check (as long as we’re talking no more than three weeks)

But that was before the scandal. Before having to be in the same house with her dad. Before walking an insane number of dogs. That was before Clark and those few months that might change her whole life.

Because here’s the thing - if everything's planned out, you can never find the unexpected.

And where’s the fun in that?

Source: Goodreads

“Theoretical crushes could remain perfect and flawless, because you never actually had to find out what that person was really like or deal with the weird way they chewed or anything.”

The Unexpected Everything is my first Morgan Matson book. I actually saw a lot of her published book even when Amy & Roger's Epic Detour came out. But at that time, I honestly did not care any of it and now I felt I have been missing a lot of her books all this time. Suddenly, National Bookstore announced she will be here. It was a call sign to me to get into her books obviously. 

From the beginning, the political issues are all there. The conflicts were quite vague and accusations are still not clarified. But even so, Andie's father whole-heartedly accepted the fact of it. The nature of getting into politics is seriously a deep one on me. But I did like how it went all simple and straight-to-the point. 

So when it instantaneously hit Andie's life-changing internship, I saw her heart broke. Or maybe her dreams getting grind down into dust. It was a long and deep kind of realization for someone like her when she was used on having all things planned out. It was entertaining with the idea of letting Andie shift into another pace of life. She became this free-spirited girl that needs to stay positive whatever it takes.

Meeting Clark hits all the sparks in me. I can only imagine Clark's shy voice and I already feel myself giggle in a second. He is not the kind of guy that are commonly on contemporary books I've read, Clark is a conservative guy. He's all clean from the start and no pretense on any of it. And I did like how it all went with the outgoing personality of Andie. 

The conflicts that the characters had are so realistic. Andie has her father-and-daughter issue with her Dad being in and out of the congress. Clark having a conflict with his ideas as an author, both of them managed to solve what was missing. And I think it was the closure that they needed to the ones that they fear to lose. I was glad how Morgan Matson made the characters pushed their hearts to fight for what they wanted the most.

The Unexpected Everything brings up a full package of falling in love and friendship. Morgan Matson created an art of falling in love in the cutest way! Most importantly, this book gave out the feeling to cherish what a family can do to solve any problems. All it takes is to risk chances, you might never know what to expect, right?

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