Sunday, December 30, 2012

[Books] Wallflowers #1 - Secrets of A Summer Night by Lisa Kleypas

Started on: December 27, 2012
Finished on: December 30, 2012

Synopsis
Four young ladies enter London society with one common goal: they must use their feminine wit and wiles to find a husband. So a daring husband-hunting scheme is born.
Annabelle Peyton, determined to save her family from disaster, decides to use her beauty and wit to tempt a suitable nobleman into making an offer of marriage. But Annabelle's most intriguing—and persistent—admirer, wealthy, powerful Simon Hunt, has made it clear that while he will introduce her to irresistible pleasure he will not offer marriage. Annabelle is determined to resist his unthinkable proposition...but it is impossible in the face of such skillful seduction.

Her friends, looking to help, conspire to entice a more suitable gentleman to offer for Annabelle, for only then will she be safe from Simon—and her own longings. But on one summer night, Annabelle succumbs to Simon's passionate embrace and tempting kisses...and she discovers that love is the most dangerous game of all.

Review

~ Warning: This review may contain SPOILERS ~ 

Secrets of A Summer Night, I was obligated to buy this book because I bought the second book of the series instead of the first one by accident. This book has also been sitting on my shelf for almost 2 years gathering dust. I thought it was time for me to read it.

And once I picked it up and read the first page, I simply couldn't put it down.

Secrets of A Summer Night is about a woman or four women (wallflowers) to be precise, who have gathered up for the purpose of helping each other in finding husbands. I thought, "alright, this is going to be fun". Four wallflowers hunting for rich men.

Annabelle is in her mid-twenties, and she needs to find a husband fast before her family becomes even more poor than they already are, and will be unable to pay for her brother Jeremy's schooling.
Mr. Simon Hunt is a rich underclassman, who is a son of a butcher. One does not expect a son of a butcher to be filthy rich do they. But things happen. He is fully interested in making Annabelle his mistress and have no interest of becoming her husband, until he spends more time with her than he did in the past 2 years of knowing her.

As I've said what seems like multiple times already, this book was just simply unputdownable. On the nights when I was reading until I was slowly drifting to sleep, I've had dreams about the book. Just by dreaming about a book just makes it so much better! I barely slept well because of it. I just had to pick it up and read what'll happen next.

Usually in historical romance books or any romance books in general, the protagonists admit their undying love for each other, they get married and that's it. But I was surprised that this book provides detail on what happens after their marriage and how both characters; Annabelle and Simon, gradually get to know each other even more, and really understand their feelings for each other.

The ending was no expected at all. I knew something was going to happen since there were still about 150 pages left of the book after the marriage, but I thought they were going to get into a big fight then realize their love for each other is stronger than ever. I didn't expect that someone was almost going to die. DAMN, I really thought he was going to die.

I love this book, it was a just so absorbing! I am not going to pick up the second book because I want proper sleep. This series is going to make me sleep deprived, I just know it.

I recommend those who love read romance, and books that are unputdownable to pick this book up and give it a try! You wont regret anything after you're done.

PS: Did anyone know that this book has a manga! Seriously! I'm so happy! Secrets of a Summer Night Manga


Wednesday, December 26, 2012

[Books] Golden Lily (Bloodlines #2) by Richelle Mead

Started on: December 1, 2012
Finished on: December 26, 2012
Synopsis
Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets—and human lives.

Sydney would love to go to college, but instead, she’s been sent into hiding at a posh boarding school in Palm Springs, California–tasked with protecting Moroi princess Jill Dragomir from assassins who want to throw the Moroi court into civil war. Formerly in disgrace, Sydney is now praised for her loyalty and obedience, and held up as the model of an exemplary Alchemist.

But the closer she grows to Jill, Eddie, and especially Adrian, the more she finds herself questioning her age–old Alchemist beliefs, her idea of family, and the sense of what it means to truly belong. Her world becomes even more complicated when magical experiments show Sydney may hold the key to prevent becoming Strigoi—the fiercest vampires, the ones who don’t die. But it’s her fear of being just that—special, magical, powerful—that scares her more than anything. Equally daunting is her new romance with Brayden, a cute, brainy guy who seems to be her match in every way. Yet, as perfect as he seems, Sydney finds herself being drawn to someone else—someone forbidden to her.

When a shocking secret threatens to tear the vampire world apart, Sydney’s loyalties are suddenly tested more than ever before. She wonders how she's supposed to strike a balance between the principles and dogmas she's been taught, and what her instincts are now telling her.

Should she trust the Alchemists—or her heart?

Review
DAMN! (I'm not even sure I'm allowed to swear in reviews) But damn! I cannot believe I took that long to finish this book! My assumptions are that I must have changed my genre or the book wasn't really as good as I thought. I'll go with the genre change.

Let's get on with the review shall we...
Golden Lily, the second book of the Bloodlines series. I enjoyed the first book as much as I enjoyed other books by Richelle Mead; she is one of my favorite authors. The gap between the first and second book releases was kind of a big gap. I wanted to reread or skim through Bloodlines (the first book) before I start reading Golden Lily, but then I thought, it was fine, I'm sure I'll remember what happened. But I didn't. I had to google some of the things that happened in the past book AND also in the Vampire Academy series (since Bloodline is a spin of the Vampire Academy series). I was confused in the first few chapters for a while, but things started to clear up.

The tension between Adrian and Sage is honestly what kept me going. I so want them to get together, but it is of course a forbidden love (that never stopped Rose and Dimitri).

The entire plot of Golden Lily was okay. It was interesting and engrossing but it doesn't give me the same exciting feeling that books like this used to. Honestly, I have mixed feelings towards it.

There were new characters that was introduced, new groups and love triangles everywhere! Well just one. And there is a mystery man that I am very curious about, which I'm sure, he'll be featured in the next book.

The last few pages was just... I can't explain it. It was just... argh ! (in a good way)

I am excited for the third book of the Bloodlines series and I hope it will be as good as the first two books combined.

FOUR FABULOUS FLOWERS! 


Friday, December 14, 2012

[Blog Tour] Living in the Light, Review




Hello readers!!! 

Here we have another stop in Living in the Light Blog Tour. 
Welcome Welcome! :) 

For my part for this tour, I have reviewed Living in the Light! 
It was a good book! 
Check it out my review below

 


Synopsis
Living in the Light provides readers with step-by-step methods to overcome depression and anxiety. It offers solutions through a combination of cognitive techniques and gospel-centered principles that will empower readers with the ability to regain their peace and happiness through eliminating all aspects of darkness from their life, embracing a life full of light.

Review 
Living in the Light is a self help religious book that allows readers to read and learn how to deal with their depressions and anxiety. When Lacey A. West gave me this book to review, and she said it was slightly religious, I decided to give this book a chance; since I don't read nor review religious books.

The book began with a great description of how depression and anxiety feels like based on the experiences of the author and other peoples experiences as well. Following that comes the steps and stories on how those individuals dealt with their depression. At the end of each chapter, there was a "Take Action" segment, which basically is a summary of what you need to do to live a happy life and deal with your problems. Which I think is a great way for the readers to grasp what the point of the chapter is.

Even if this book is a religious book, and some may be uncomfortable reading or even mentioning religion, but is dealing with a great depression and anxiety, I think this book will appeal to them, regardless of the religious areas of the book. I recommend it to those who would like to rid themselves of their depression stages in life and improve themselves in their own way. I can personally say that this book has taught me how to deal with my future depressions that I will hopefully not encounter in life.


Thanks for stopping by! ^^

Sunday, December 9, 2012

[Books] 2013 TBR Challenge


Hey readers!

The To-be-read Pile Reading Challenge of 2013 has been announced.

Yeah, I kind of failed or lost that 2012 reading challenge because I kind of added and reduced some books, and completely forgetting about the rules of the challenge.
Hopefully, this time I'll try to remember the rules and regulations. xD

Here are the details !

Challenge Guidelines:
  1. This challenge will run from Jan 1, 2013 - Dec 31, 2013.
  2. Anyone can enter! You don't have to be a blogger, as long as you review the book you've read! (On your blog, Amazon or Goodreads/Shelfari!)
  3. Any genre, length or format of book counts, as long as it is a book that's been sitting on your shelf for some time now. Only books released in 2012 and earlier! NO 2013 ARCs and 2013 fresh-off-the-press releases allowed!
  4. You can list your books in advance or just put them in a wrap-up post. If you list them, feel free to change them as the mood takes you.
  5. When you sign up in the linky, put the direct link to your post about joining the 2013 TBR PILE Reading Challenge. (If you don't have a blog, post about it on Facebook or Tweet!)
  6. You can move up levels, but no moving down.
  7. Sign-ups will be open until Dec 15, 2013, so feel free to join at any time throughout the year.
  8. On the 20th of each month one of the hosts will post a wrap-up. Every wrap-up will have it's unique theme, a mini-challenge, a giveaway and place for you to link up your reviews from this month. For each review you link up, you will get one entry in a drawing of one book of choice from Book Depository.It's open to INTERNATIONALS. The giveaway will be open until the next wrap up post goes up! (i.e. the entire month)
  9. If you miss a wrap-up post + giveaway, you can link up your reviews next month. Do not, however, try to link up one review twice - we will be checking ;) 
  10. December is a wrap-up for the whole year. All the book reviews you linked up January-November + the ones you'll link up in December will be entered into a HUGE giveaway - a box of books. 
  11. You don't have to follow all the hosts to join the challenge, but you do have to follow all of us to be entered in giveaways!

Levels:
(how many books you're planning to read for this challenge in 2013)

1-10 - A Firm Handshake
11-20 - A Friendly Hug <--- :3="" hug="" p="">21-30 - A Sweet Kiss
31-40 - Love At First Sight
41-50 - Married With Children


Schedule:

January 20th: Evie @Bookish (www.evie-bookish.blogspot.com)
February 20th: Rachel @Fiktshun (http://www.fiktshun.com)
March 20th: Justin @Justin's Book Blog (http://www.justinsbookblog.com/)
April 20th: Tiffany @Escaping.. One Book At A Time (http://escapingonebookatatime.blogspot.com/)
May 20th: Bonnie @Words At Home (www.wordsathome.ca/)
June 20th: Justin @Justin's Book Blog (http://www.justinsbookblog.com/)
July 20th: Emily @Doodle's Book Blog (doodlesbookblog.blogspot.com/)
August 20th: Tiffany @Escaping One Book At A Time (http://escapingonebookatatime.blogspot.com/)
September 20th: Rachel @Fiktshun (http://www.fiktshun.com)
October 20th: Emily @Doodle's Book Blog (doodlesbookblog.blogspot.com/)
November 20th: Bonnie @Words At Home (www.wordsathome.ca/)
December 20th: This one will be posted on all the blogs. There will also be a huge BOX OF BOOKS giveawayand this time you can link up ALL YOUR TBR Pile REVIEWS you wrote for the entire year!

~~~~~~~~~~~
This challenge, I'm not aiming for anything like Married with Children. I just want to really get these books off my shelf.

So my books that I will be reading next year are.


  
        

These books are literarily sitting on my table/shelf. Its just all piled up on top of each other and I don't have place to put anything. 

It'll be great to get these off my to-read list and my table/shelf.! xD


Sunday, December 2, 2012

[Books] Monthly Review Wrap-up: November


Hello readers!!

It's time for my review wrap-up for November!
I almost forgot about it ! xD

Most of the books I read this month were eBooks from self-published authors, that I got for review. 


It's December already! And I have 3 more books on my TBR Pile!