Goodbye February, Hello March 2015

Saturday, February 28, 2015


February came by so fast, it's already March 1 and I am now facing my birth month excitedly and somewhat sadly because in exactly 23 days, I'll already be saying goodbye to my teenage year. *mixed emotions*

March, I think will be an academic filled month for me because there'll be less holidays and no more university and college weeks to look forward to, unlike February which is filled with those stuffs.

Before I head on to what I look forward to for this month, which really isn't that much, I'll look back on my little adventures on books and unrelated ones, maybe? or not.

FEBRUARY
On Book Reviews:

 I've read only three books this month, not much because I'm busy with stuffs. Aside from that, I decided to stop making lists for the month because I'm so lazy to finish them and I kind of discovered that I want to read books that I pick up, not books lined up on my list. Looking at a list make me lazy so instead of doing that, I'll just do this thing that Hazel @ staybookish does every start of the month. (She's my favorite book blogger)




 2015 Reading Challenge Progress: 8 out of 20 books

Book Acquisitions:


I got these babies from Powerbooks Book Lovers Sale and these are huge titles to acquire for such a low price.

Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi - Php 75 ($1.70)
First Love by James Patterson - Php 50 ($1.13)
And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini [HB] - Php 100 ($2.27)

 Blog Posts:

 Photographed my green spines because I decided that I want a rainbow shelf.
Joined End Note's Book Blitz hosted by Giselle of Xpresso Book Tours
Cinder by Marissa Meyer [Review]
Joined Sword's Book Blitz hosted by Giselle of Xpresso Book Tours [Ongoing ebook and print copy giveaway]
Joined This is the Wonder's Book Blitz hosted by Giselle of Xpresso Book Tours [Ongoing ebook giveaway]
The Sword and its Servant by Victor Salinas [Review]
Started a new blog feature called Book in Focus and this is my first post. Book in Focus: Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler
Gone Girl  by Gillian Flynn [Review]

 Monthly Adventure [From Personal Blog]:
Spent three valentines celebration. With my special someone, my dormies, and my best gals.





My first Faculty Showdown experience at PICC with my lovely friends.

Those are the bookish and unrelated highlights of February.

MARCH
Prelims Week, I am going to review after posting this. Bye.

My first blog tour hosted by CBB Book Promotions. I'm doing an author interview on March 8 so watch out on that.
Of course, my birthday!!! As I said, mixed emotions, I'm getting older. :(
Book I've Started today, March 1: And The Mountains Echoed.


Tell me, how was your February? Are you excited for summer? Well me, not so much, because of the calendar shift in UST so my summer will be spent on school.


Book Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

“Love makes you want to be a better man. But maybe love, real love, also gives you permission to just be the man you are.”



Title: Gone Girl
Author: Gillian Flynn
Published by: Broadway Books on 26th August 2014 (first published on January 1, 2012)
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Adult, Suspense
Setting: North Carthage, Missouri
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 560 pages
My Copy Source: Borrowed




On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne's fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick's clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn't doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife's head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media--as well as Amy's fiercely doting parents--the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he's definitely bitter--but is he really a killer?



As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn't do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?

Warning: This is a spoiler-free review, but I suggest that you do not continue if you want a surprising ride through the book. That's what I did, I didn't trust to read reviews because it might give me small insights and I know that this is not a book to spoil. I read the reviews after and I saw some have the same reaction that I had towards the end.
My initial reaction:What the fudge did I just read?!

Okay, my mind is on a whirlwind of emotions up until now. I finished this book a few days ago but I'm still debating whether I liked the ending or not. I loved the book, yes, I admired everything about it especially the twist, yes, but gosh that's not how I wanted it to end. Few chapters before the end, I was so convinced that my mind's ending picture is how the book's gonna end, but when I got there, the next thing I knew, I was facing an acknowledgement page and I was like, "WHAT?! THE?! HELL?! That's it?" and I am really disappointed at first, because it did not satisfy my thirst for justice, but, oh well, I guess I'll just have to suck it up.

Up until now, as I write this review, I can't make up my mind. I have a lot of what ifs bubbling up inside me that I can't talk about because I want this to be a spoiler-free review but it's just hard because this book is all about the "twist" and if I slipped up even just a little, the "WTF moment" will be ruined, and I do not want that to happen especially to those of you who haven't read the book yet. And I tell you, everything about Gillian Flynn's novel is a big cipher that you have to decode; it's a big "WHO?!", that in the end, everything that you are certain in the beginning will shatter to the ground and you'll join the what-the-hell-just-happened? club.

I adored the book because I certainly love books that surprise me. I don't want predictable, which by the way, are really big nowadays. I want the rare unpredictables because they challenge me, they always want to prove me wrong.

This is a tale of love, marriage, betrayal, lies, lies, and more lies. The story keeps coming at you in all directions and you can't run away from the reality that it's crushing everything that you believed in. No characters can be trusted because there's so much to learn in each of them and as the story unravels, the person you once knew is not the same person anymore and you're suddenly in a roller coaster ride of deceits and lies.

I gave the book four stars because I want this certain character to have a life out of the marriage. I want to bitch slap someone in the face because of *bleeeep*, yeah I can't spoil you guys. But ughhh, this is all so frustrating!!! The one star deduction doesn't make me love Gone Girl less. I love it and I hope you guys do/did too.

I really want to to talk to someone about it [I've discussed it to my bookwormie friend and she liked the ending, as opposed to my dislike. Well.], drop me a message and let's talk, I want to spill my thoughts!

Book in Focus: Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

Monday, February 23, 2015

Book in Focus is a new feature on my blog inspired by staybookish's Novel Portraits. I've always loved taking photos of books I own, snapping a picture of it while reading and uploading it to my instagram account, but I wasn't really aware that there is a thing as book photography. So when I saw Hazel's feature, I thought of trying out some snapshots and upload it here.


Why We Broke Up
Novel by Daniel Handler
Art by Maira Kalman

Take a peak inside it's dust jacket. It's pretty and I think I love it even more with those rose petals in a white background. This is ome of my favorite book covers of all time. Everytime I take a peek at my shelf, my eyes are always drawn to it, the redness of it and... I think I'm getting weird. Moving on...


This is the best part of it. Real people sharing real heart breaks. I loved reading each and everyone of their stories. 


Book Review: The Sword And Its Servant by Victor Salinas

Friday, February 20, 2015

"It seemed wrong to want to die, unless the pain of death is less than the pain of prolonging life."



Title: The Sword and its Servant
Author: Victor Salinas
Published by: Understone Group, LLC on 20th May 2014
Series: Grauwelt #1
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Setting: Grauwelt [Fictional]
Format: Kindle [Received in exchanged for an honest review]



The links between the Nine Worlds of Creation are deteriorating. The Gates of the Underworld are closed. A veil of shadow shrouds all the land. Rumors of a dead savior reemerge.

Einsa finds herself without memory of her past and her origin, held prisoner by the Lowa, a species of warped monsters bent on using the Children of Mann for their horrendous genetic experiments. She and her companions are merely lab rats waiting to be plucked by their captors - until they decide to make their escape. Einsa's only hope for survival in the fallen world that awaits her rests with Klinde, an ancient and infamous warrior who is just as cunning and bloodthirsty as the enemy.



I've never really considered myself as a fan of dark fantasy, probably because I never tried to finish one because I am not at all interested, but this book made it easier for me to like one; with all the characters that are out of the ordinary. It is actually my first time reading a dark and gruesome fantasy that I never really thought that I would totally be immersed in.

At first, I cringed at the thought of a Lowa, a breed of a big wolfish hound or something, dominating the first half of the story,but then I got used to it and I started to get fond of Ghesdalt, one of the Lowa, and I hate that I tried to like him and face the fact that it would be short-lived after all. I hate it and I hated Ulf, his brother, and I'm not gonna hide that fact.

What got me interested in this book, is that, it is not trying hard at all. The words flow like it is a world that you can never imagine yourself stepping into. It is a world unimaginable, it is basically an extension of our childhood nightmares. Remember the time when you were a child and you were so afraid to take a peak under your bed or open the closet door for the fear of monsters lurking just beyond the darkness? You can't imagine my surprise when I found out that under the bed or behind the closet door is a portal to a world that is called Grauwelt. A world I wouldn't dare visit, not in my lifetime.

What I liked about this book is, it's full of surprises, unpredictable, fast-paced, and filled with unimaginable characters. It's laced with the horrors of our childhood, our childhood's worst nightmares. You will never know who are the loyal ones to the throne and conversations are never safe, for the breathing castle seem to have ears that reports back to its master.

As I have said earlier, I grew to like and hate some characters and I'm gonna tell you I don't love any character at all. I hate the main human character, Einsa, she's not as strong a pursuit as I wanted her to be, and I don't feel her bravery throughout the book at all, even though there were a lot of fighting scenes that include her limp arms that just want to suck the power out of the sword. I hope she gets stronger in the next books and I hope I can feel a strong presence now that she's had a lot of gruesome fights out of her prison cell.

This book is twisted in a way that the perception of good and evil are kind of unconventional. Hell is not a place of pure evil, I don't know, the evilness is not depicted in the story because Hel helped mann by gifting them the children of Hel and defeat the Great Hund. I think the evil lurks somewhere above hell, in Grauwelt, where the Lowas are residing, or just, it lurks somewhere whose intentions are as dark as Grauwelt itself. Though with the children of Hel, I can't decide where they are in the scale of good and evil, right now I'll put it somewhere in between just leaning a little bit closer to evil.

So anyway, it's one of my firsts and I'll give it three roses because, although I loved the world the author has created, I was expecting more out of the characters that has been limited through changing POVs and I wasn't as drawn to them as I expect to be because it's a fantasy and I should be dreaming of it but no, I did not. There's also a lot of confusion with the names of the places, characters and species but thanks to the author, who is generous enough to have a glossary for all of us to truly understand the story better. And for the record, I am looking forward to the next book because I am intrigued about the other children of Hel and I wanted badly to meet them all.



Book Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Friday, February 6, 2015

"She was a cyborg and she would never go to a ball"


Title: Cinder
Author: Marissa Meyer
Published by: Feiwel & Friends on 3rd January 2012
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #1
Genre: Romance, Fantasy, Young Adult, Science Fiction
Setting: New Beijing
Format: Ebook, 400 pages




Cinder is a cyborg, but the prince doesn't know that.

The prince has his eyes set on Cinder and he wants to take her to the ball but she has other plans for the night of the event.

The Lunar Queen, Queen Levana has her plans of marrying the Prince so she could take over the Earth.

There's a lot of things that could happen on the streets of New Beijing but with the death of the emperor, Prince Kai must immediately take over the throne while maintaining the peace between the earthens and the lunar. He is not yet ready and Queen Levana went to Earth with the sole purpose of being the empress to the throne. And with a sudden turn of events, someone that everybody thought was dead resurfaced, someone that could actually dethrone the Lunar Queen and end her dominion, not only to the Lunars, but to the Earthens as well.

I have been seeing this for quite a while in the past, I guess? And I don't actually know why it didn't spark my interest to try and read it. Maybe because it's about cyborgs and futuristic stuffs that is not really one of my interest. But O-M-G, after reading this, I keep on telling myself, "Why? Why did you ignore this book for a long time?" And it actually remind me of the series by Marie Lu, The Legend Series, if I'm not mistaken, because of the whole pandemic stuff and the government taking these infected people trying to save them when actually there's no cure? I'm not sure, I haven't finished both series yet, but this one reminded me of that series. Maybe I'll give it a go again some other time.

Okay, I never really thought I would love a cyborg-related novel. I'm mostly into hot aliens (Hi baby Daemon Black) and angels (Hi baby Patch Cipriano) and other romance novels but not the sci-fi thingy. But this one definitely would be an exception.

There has been a lot of reviews lately about this book and they were all good reviews and it made me want to read it. And the fact that it was Cinderella (please don't mention a cyborg Cinderella because it's not a welcoming concept) *Pfft, you loved it even if she's a cyborg*, OKAY, a cyborg Cinderella! I never thought I'd be welcoming that stuff. I am really an avid fan of disney princesses and fairy tales and I love spin-offs and retellings of stories so I did gave this one a chance.

I LOOOOVE this book, I cannot tell you how much I L-O-V-E this book and please don't get irritated but you should try it too, okay? Please read it and tell me that I'm not alone and you loved it like I did!

It's an easy read and although I'm not swooning over the guy protagonist, it's okay because I enjoyed the book even without the hot guy that I would actually want to find in a YA novel.

Everyone knows I LOVE THE LUNAR CHRONICLES!!!!!!!!I loved how the author told the story of Cinderella in a futuristic society and with a twist that made me laugh when I read it because the highlight of Cinderella was really the glass slippers that she left and in this story, it was sort of funny that I was really impressed at Marissa Meyer's imagination. *bravo* Now it got my mind worked up wondering at the twists that she could incorporate in Red Riding Hood's story which was the story of the second book called Scarlet.

I'm looking forward to the next installment of the series, oh em gee. Please stop this agony, I have a book list that I want to finish. I hope I finish all four so I could get my itchy hands on Scarlet as soon as possible.


Gosh, I'm excited to know all these characters that I haven't met yet. And I'm intrigued with the Queen's story. How about you? Do you love The Lunar Chronicles? Because, I'll tell you I'm starting to love this fairy tale with futuristic twists.




Say HI to my Green Spines! ♡

Sunday, February 1, 2015


Some lovely books that I have read and one unfinished, but I'll get there soon. :) Which one of these are your faves? Mine's Insurgent. (Like really, that goes without asking)


Have a lovely week ahead, dearies! ♡


Love,

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