[Books] Losing It by Cora Carmack

Goodreads | Booklikes
Dec 9 - Dec 12

Synopsis

Sick of being the only virgin among her friends, Bliss Edwards decides the best way to deal with the problem is to lose it as quickly and simply as possible - a one-night stand. But her plan turns out to be anything but simple when she freaks out and leaves a gorgeous guy alone and naked in her bed with an excuse that no one with half-a-brain would ever believe. And as if that weren't embarrassing enough, when she arrives for her first class of her last college semester, she recognizes her new theatre professor. She'd left him naked in her bed about 8 hours earlier.

Review

I was extremely excited to start this book. I saw it on goodreads, read the synopsis and hastily went to bookdepository to buy it!

The book started off okay, it was straight to the point. Bliss wanted to lose her v-card and the best way she could do it was to have a one night stand. In the end she gets too nervous and leaves the guy naked on her bed as she ran away. The next day she sees the same guy she left the night before standing in front of her class and introduced himself as her new professor. Dan dan daaaaaan.

First of all, the cover. I just want to point out that being in the middle east, I can't just go around carrying a book with a book cover like that without a book jacket. So it barely left my room. I can't stop starring at Garrick on the cover. It is perfect ;) (okay mixed feelings there)

I was glued to this book for daaaays. It was a very sweet and slightly angsty, just a bit, but the humor covers up most of the angst. Again, I just have to say that I love how it's all straight to the point, which makes it a perfect short and enjoyable read.

This book really reminds me of a dirtier version of those boy-next-door contemporary YA books.

I recommend this book to those who are all into those forbidden love scenarios. This could be a choice for you.

  

[Books] Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren

Goodreads | Booklikes 

November 14 - 21, 2013

Synopsis

An ambitious intern. A perfectionist executive. And a whole lot of name calling.

Whip-smart, hardworking, and on her way to an MBA, Chloe Mills has only one problem: her boss, Bennett Ryan. He's exacting, blunt, inconsiderate--and completely irresistible. A Beautiful Bastard.

Bennett has returned to Chicago from France to take a vital role in his family's massive media business. He never expected that the assistant who'd been helping him from abroad was the gorgeous, innocently provocative--completely infuriating--creature he now has to see every day. Despite the rumors, he's never been one for a workplace hookup. But Chloe's so tempting he's willing to bend the rules--or outright smash them--if it means he can have her. All over the office.

As their appetites for one another increase to a breaking point, Bennett and Chloe must decide exactly what they're willing to lose in order to win each other.

Originally only available online as The Office by tby789--and garnering over 2 million reads on fanfiction sites--Beautiful Bastard has been extensively updated for re-release.

Review 

Where do I start?

This is kind of my first new adult romance, besides 50 shades; if that counts. 

Its all about the attraction between Chloe Mills and her boss, Bennett Ryan. They're attraction grows stronger by the minute, but alas they despise each other, but that's what makes it hotter and they can't seem to keep their hands off the other. 

I loved how this book has two POV's; Chloe's and Bennett's. I always enjoy reading a mans point of view when it comes to books like these. I got instantly absorbed into this book from the first page up to chapter 8 or 9. Then I just got bored and uninterested. At first it felt enthralling, then as I moved on, it got predictable. 

I started off with the audiobook but couldn't continue on because it was too detailed when it came to the hot stuff. My ears literally started to bleed. I just can't listen to sex scenes. Both my sisters read this before I did, and they both agreed that it'll make your eyes bleed if you do give this one a go. 

I got bored yes, it got predictable yes, but I didn't say that I didn't enjoy it. I did. This one is definitely in my top 10 Best Romance novels. It's a great book, if you read it straight and not stop halfway through, to keep all the emotions and feeling that's been built up from page one intact. 

Beautiful Bastard is an intriguing and riveting new adult novel, it's sometimes complicated and all the way hot. I recommend this to those who have a boring office job and are looking for something interesting, also if you're into erotic romance with a slight splash of humor and a blunt, bossy and dick headed protagonists this is perfect for you! 

  

[Books] Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Synopsis

Orphaned, penniless, Jacob Jankowski jumps a freight train in the dark, and in that instant, transforms his future.
By morning, he's landed a job with the Flying Squadron of the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. By nightfall, he's in love.
In an America made colourless by prohibition and the Depression, the circus is a refuge of sequins and sensuality. But behind the glamour lies a darker world, where both animals and men are dispensable. Where falling in love is the most dangerous act of all... 

Goodreads 

Review

I bought this book a couple of years back, and it's been on my shelf for ages. I recently found the audiobook I thought might as well read and listen at the same time to make things faster.

This was the kind of book that I thought would bored me bu I was surprised that I really enjoyed it. It was the same feeling I had when I read The Help, it sucked me in from the very first words. Though it did take me quite a while to finish the book, I just wasn't in the reading/listening mood for the past few weeks. 

I've grown to love these kind of book that not only focuses on the romance part but focuses on everything and has meaning behind it all. 

The book focuses on Jacob Jankowski and his life when he runs away from his home town and joins a circus. 

I immensely enjoyed this book. It was intriguing, adventurous and a slightly easy read. The characters were very diverse and fun; hence circus. 

As for the narrators of the audio version, they were fantastic and did a great job. They kept the listener listening. And the production was delightful, with all the soothing music that I swayed along to for that couple of seconds

Water for Elephants is a great novel, I would read it again in time. And I definitely recommend this novel to anyone, absolutely anyone who enjoys reading something outside their genre. Though I have to warn those who want to let younger readers read this, it has explicit sexual content.

[Books] P.S I Love You by Cecelia Ahern

Goodreads

Sept 10 - 18, 2013

Synopsis 

Childhood sweethearts, they could finish each other's sentences and even when they fought, they laughed. No one could imagine Holly and Gerry without each other.

Until the unthinkable happens. Gerry's death devastates Holly. But as her 30th birthday looms, Gerry comes back to her. He's left her a bundle of notes, gently guiding Holly into her new life without him, each note signed 'PS, I Love You'.

As the notes are gradually opened, and as they year unfolds, Holly is both cheered up and challenged. The man who knows her better than anyone sets out to teach her that life goes on. With some help from her friends, and her noisy and loving family, Holly finds herself laughing, crying, singing, dancing — and being braver than ever before.

Life is for living, she realizes — but it always helps if there's an angel watching over you.

Review

My first Cecelia Ahern novel and it wasn't a disappointment.

Holly has lost her husband and she's been having a hard time getting out of her grieving stage and back on her feet. Her husband Gerry, left her a list of things do to after he'd died, and I believe it was such a great way of closure for Holly. Go Gerry!

I expected this book to be sad and filled with sobs but I thought wrong. It was funny and there were literally times when I would burst out laughing. And Yes it was a bit sad at the beginning and the mention of death depressed me, but the characters were filled with so much wit and bluntness, it made the book so much brighter.

The main character Holly, poor thing, had lost her husband and her time of grieving saddened me so much into almost tears. It sounds weird to me but I enjoyed seeing how she picks herself up again (no idea why that sounds weird) and how she went back to being her better self just because of those letters that was sent by her dead husband Gerry. 

This different way of closure after someone close to you had passed inspires me to make my own list for those around me, or maybe just that one person. xD

What else can I say about this book, it is sad but the sadness was overlapped by laughs and sweet hopeful smiles towards the end. It's a great book for anyone to enjoy. If you're into romance and self-help books that will help you become a better you, this book may inspire you. 

[Books] The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Goodreads

Started on: July 7 2013

Finished on: July 14 2013

Synopsis

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step. 

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone. 

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken. 

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own. 

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

Review

The Help by Kathryn Stockett is a book that shows you the maids side of the story back in the 1960's. It was a time of the KKK and discrimination of other races, it was also the time of Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. But this book mainly focuses on two black maids and one white rich girl who becomes an outcast in her town because of what she wrote. Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter

I bought this book last year because I watched the movie and thought it was interesting enough to buy the book and read it. When I started this book, I didn't think I would enjoy it so much. I thought it would be one of those boring books with meaning that would take me a whole month to finish, but nooooooo... this book was unputdownable. 

I listened to the audiobook of this, and the narrators did a marvelous job, they all did. I was speaking in a southern accent the entire time I was listening to it. 

I don't know if I've read any other books that made my heart melt just like this one did. It really touched my heart how people in this book can be so kind and patient with others. 

I highly recommend this book to be read by everyone. At least once in their life time. This book is up there with the must reads before you die list, because this book gives out a meaning that is unexplainable. 

It's an amazing book that is a must-read!

[Books] Too Hot To Touch by Louisa Edwards

Goodreads

Started on: May 12, 2013

Finished on: May 31, 2013

Synopsis

When it comes to competitive cooking, Max Lunden is no stranger to winning…though he’s never been great at working with a team. A master chef—and major hunk—he’s traveled the world, picking up new cooking techniques as well as beautiful women. But when the prodigal chef returns home to his family’s Greenwich Village restaurant, he discovers one too many cooks in the kitchen—and she’s every bit as passionate as he is…

Juliet Cavanaugh used to have a crush on Max when she was just a teenager, hanging out at Lunden & Sons Tavern, hoping to catch a glimpse of the owner’s oldest, and hottest, son. Now a chef herself—competing in the biggest culinary contest in the country—Juliet will be cooking side by side with the one man she’s always admired…and desired. But despite their simmering attraction, Juliet is determined to keep her cool—no matter how hot it gets…

Review

I'm finally done with this book! I don't know why but it felt like I took forever getting through this book.

Too Hot To Touch.. How can you not pick up this book? It has a shirtless guy on the cover and the title is already as tense as it can get!

This isn't a love story, it is a sudden romance of rekindled high school crushes, with a cooking competition right new to it. Juliet Cavanaugh ran away from home (I wonder why her mother was never really worried that she left home for 6 years) and what luck, she is taken in by her best friends family; the Lundens. The Lundens eldest son, Max Lunden left around the same time Juliet/Jules left home. He left to explore and learn different culinary techniques of the world. The Lundens own their own very successful restaurant, but as years past, business has been going a little bit down. The Rising Star Chef competition seems to be their last resort into becoming a successful restaurant again. Max is called home by his mother to join the competition with the rest of the team, and guess who's in the team? That's right, Jules Cavanaugh. Tense fire goes back and forth between Jules and Max for the first  few days of his return, which will obviously end up into becoming something more. This book tells a story of how the team gets through the competition and the drama that's behind it all. 

I was very excited to read this book, I bought the first book off book depository since they didn't have it in bookstores where I'm from. So I picked it up, read the first chapter, and thought, "hmm...maybe it'll get better, most books do". As I kept reading further, it got a little exciting but not over the top exciting. It was okay. As I move further, I began to get bored. I really wasn't feeling the spice of this book. As much as I love cooking and as much as I love reading a romance that involves cooking, I expected the book to be a lot better. 

The writing was alright, I noticed a few unnecessary details, but then got used to them as I went through the book, In a few chapters, there are peaks into the judges of the competitions life, and they relationship. I am not sure if I enjoyed this interval or not. I practically skimmed through the last few chapters of the book. 

The book cover and synopsis really drags your into the buying the book. Shirtless guy cooking plus the tense synopsis, it makes you go "oooooo... what's going to happen?"

Overall, I think this book is a one-time-read kind of book, just like how some movies are one-time-watch only movies. It was an okay book. I don't think I'll be reading the rest of the series, I don't know, maybe I will in the future. But right now, no. 

[Books, Review] Goodnight, Brian by Steven Manchester

Goodreads | Amazon

Synopsis

Fate was working against little Brian Mauretti. The food that was meant to nourish him was poisoning him instead, and the doctors said the damage was devastating and absolute. Fate had written off Brian. But fate didn’t count on a woman as determined as Brian’s grandmother, Angela DiMartino, who everyone knew as Mama. Loving her grandson with everything she had, Mama endeavored to battle fate. Fate had no idea what it was in for.

An emotional tale about the strength of family bonds, unconditional love, and the perseverance to do our best with the challenging gifts we receive, GOODNIGHT, BRIAN is an uplifting tribute to what happens when giving up is not an option.

Review

When Brian was born, the doctors said that because of the formula fed to him since infancy, that he would be unable to walk, talk or be a vegetable his entire life. But Brian's grandmother; Mama, never lost faith in her grand baby. It was because of her faith and love for Brian, that things turned out great for the entire family. Brian was able to walk and talk, showing the doctors that they were wrong.

As I read through the beginning, my heart just broke. Hearing the news that Brian would have no hope in the world. But as I got to the middle of the book, it was very very heart warming. How everyone adjusted to the whole situation, how the entire family had faith that Brian would do what every normal person does. It really teaches you that anything can be possible as long as you have faith.

Brian's life would be completely different without the faith and love of his grandmother; Mama.

This book is a well-written, emotional, heartbreaking, lesson learning book that teaches the readers that anything can be possible if they have faith and believe. It provides the encouragement that one needs to improve themselves into becoming better people.

I recommend this to those who enjoy reading about heart breaking but absorbing contemporary fiction.

[Books] Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally

Goodreads 

Started on: July 31, 2012

Finished on: August 4, 2012

Summary
"Whoever said football and girls don't mix hasn't read Catching Jordan. I couldn't put it down " -- Simone Elkeles, New York Times bestselling author of the Perfect Chemistry series

ONE OF THE BOYS

What girl doesn't want to be surrounded by gorgeous jocks day in and day out? Jordan Woods isn't just surrounded by hot guys, though-she leads them as the captain and quarterback of her high school football team. They all see her as one of the guys and that's just fine. As long as she gets her athletic scholarship to a powerhouse university.

But everything she's ever worked for is threatened when Ty Greeen moves to her school. Not only is he an amazing QB, but he's also amazingly hot. And for the first time, Jordan's feeling vulnerable. Can she keep her head in the game while her heart's on the line?

"A beautiful novel with a real and captivating depiction of high school relationships, Catching Jordan shows the same reverence for the human heart that it does for the game of football." --Karsten Knight, author of Wildefire


Review
Jordan Woods is one of the boys. She's the star quarterback of the football team of her high school, plus she's the captain of the team. Most of the girls in her school think she's a tomboy, a dyke. They think that she slept with her whole team. But she never took those things into account. She was strong and didn't care about anything but play ball.

Catching Jordan, another fabulous love story that I could not put down. This book tells us that if you want something badly enough, you go ahead and fight for it. It also tell us that men can be such boneheads and idiots most of the time.

When I first picked up the book, read the summary and looked at the cover, I thought "Oh that must be Ty with Jordan". Uhuh, what I wrong or what. I loved the cover, it give the entire subject and theme of the book. I absolutely loved book covers like that.

I have to admit that I don't know football that much. The terminology that they use when playing, I was at a total loss.

The way the book was written was great. It was a very easy read, which I absolutely loved. I loved the fact that what Jordan was going through can be relatable. I mean, I can some what relate to it in someways, and I think that others can relate to it as well in their own ways.

I was surprised that the book was meant to be for YA readers above 13 with all that hooking up it in, or mentioning of hooking up. It seems inappropriate for them at that age. I think it's meant for readers above 15 at least.

Overall, I absolutely loved the book. And I totally recommend it to all YA readers who are at least above 15. Its a fantabulous book that all ladies will love, if they crave for something sweet.