Wicked Photo Diary: May 2015

Happy June 1st everyone! Well, if you're in Asia, it's June 1st and it's still May 31st across the Pacific Ocean. ANYWAY. We're halfway through the year. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? I can't. Here's another round up of what happened in my life through my Instagram photos! And also, May is my birthday month so...yes, I'm 21 years old.

May 2, 2015

This is the Centennial Terminal where my brother and I dropped of our mother to fly down to Cebu where my maternal grandparents are. It was a pretty sad weekend for our family as we lost our loved one but I know my dear grandfather is safe and sound, wherever he is now.

May 3, 2015

This 1 of 4 books that I borrowed from my good friend Neil. He supplies me with the best books ever. And also, May 3rd is a pretty sad day for Filipinos as well, as the People's Champ lost to Money Mayweather. So much for beating the May-weather. My Heart and Other Black Holes is a splendid read and I just realized that as I was typing this, I haven't reviewed it yet. Woops! I'll be posting one really soon!

May 5, 2015

How often can you get a free Starbucks beverage? Answer: RARELY. Well, at least, in my case. A friend of my OJT Supervisor gave this to us interns and voila, free Tall Dark Mocha Panna Cota Frappucino to beat the heat!

May 9, 2015

This book had me on the edge. I mean, really! Every time I look at it, it gets my heart racing. Check out my review here. Everyone should read A.S King. She is the best!

May 10, 2015

I took a photo because I just found it really cool. It's Mother's Day too so, my brother and I picked my mom and my grandmother up from the airport because we're dutiful children.

May 20, 2015

I vow to read everything by A.S King because she's so amazing. Check out my review here.

May 23, 2015

After all the feels I got from A.S King and Jasmin Warga, I settled down with Victoria E. Schwab. This one gave me the right amount of creep and I love it. Check out my review here.

Mom wanted to buy a dedication cake and my brother and I, being really avid football fans, decided to dedicate the cake our favorite clubs. Mine's FC Bayern Munich and while he's with FC Barcelona. Both teams won their respective league cup trophies so we're happy football fans.

May 24, 2015

This is my cousin, Kieffer, and he's the cutest thing on earth. We had a party in the province for one of my grandfathers and my mom and I have a competition on who gets to touch Kieffer first since we rarely get to go home in the province because it's so far away. Needless to say, my mom beat me to it.

May 26, 2015

I love this drink so much. It's the best thing ever. I don't really like purple potato but mixed with coffee, I'm solved!

May 29, 2015

Stock photo because May is the month of flowers.

I already miss having to go to the office and write a lot. It's the first time I've written for a website and I want to make a career out of it. I met some really cool people during my one month stay and I pray to my lucky stars that I get to work with them again someday.

May 30, 2015

I mean, how can you not take a photo? Just. How. Btw, I finally know why this thing is so expensive. It is so sinful and decadent and I love it so much I wish I could marry Godiva.

Awkward photo skills. I know.

May 31, 2015

I woke up to some good news yesterday that Arsenal won their 12th FA Cup trophy! *insert intense screaming*

So there you have it. How did May went for you? Tell me in the comments below!

Wicked Review: The Archived by Victoria E. Schwab

Published: January 22, 2013

Publisher: Hyperion

Series: The Archived #1

Acquired: Borrowed Paperback

Amazon || Barnes and Noble || The Book Depository || Fullybooked

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was: a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn't just dangerous—it's a constant reminder of those Mac has lost, Da's death was hard enough, but now that her little brother is gone too, Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself may crumble and fall.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.

This book creeped me out. I mean, it talks about the dead. You see, the Histories get to interact with the Keepers. Some of them are really young kids. When they see Mac, they ask her to show them home. Death is an inevitable thing really and no one really knows where we would go after we die. It was sad and depressing and creepy.

But nonetheless, it kept me at the edge of my seat. Mac grows restless from clearing her list now that she's moved to a different branch. The Histories are coming back to the Narrows where they don't belong. What scares her the most are the Keeper-Killers, the older Histories. They are more restless and more dangerous and harder to kill. The Librarians say there's something wrong with The Archives.

Mac meets Owen, a History lost in the Narrows. It was sort of hard to wrap my head around the fact that Owen can touch Mac even if he's a History and that his name hasn't come up her list yet. Truths are revealed and suddenly Mac is torn between protecting Owen because she feels something for him or that she should tell the Librarians about him. Wes, on the other hand, is another Keeper. Together, they try to put the Coronado, where they are currently stationed. He helps her clear out names off of her list.

Mac thought that the Archive is a safe place. But it isn't what she thought it was and now she must choose who to trust so that she can protect those she loves.

Victoria is the product of a British mother, a Beverly Hills father, and a southern upbringing. Because of this, she has been known to say "tom-ah-toes," "like," and "y'all."

She also tells stories.

She loves fairy tales, and folklore, and stories that make her wonder if the world is really as it seems.

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Wicked Review: Ask the Passengers by A.S King

Published: October 23, 2012

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Acquired: Borrowed Paperback

Amazon || Barnes and Noble || The Book Depository || Fullybooked

Astrid Jones desperately wants to confide in someone, but her mother's pushiness and her father's lack of interest tell her they're the last people she can trust. Instead, Astrid spends hours lying on the backyard picnic table watching airplanes fly overhead. She doesn't know the passengers inside, but they're the only people who won't judge her when she asks them her most personal questions--like what it means that she's falling in love with a girl.

As her secret relationship becomes more intense and her friends demand answers, Astrid has nowhere left to turn. She can't share the truth with anyone except the people at thirty thousand feet, and they don't even know she's there. But little does Astrid know just how much even the tiniest connection will affect these strangers' lives--and her own--for the better.

In this truly original portrayal of a girl struggling to break free of society's definitions, Printz Honor author A.S. King asks readers to question everything--and offers hope to those who will never stop seeking real love.

I am officially in love with A.S King. If you see my tweets, I tweet her during the oddest hours of the day. That's how much I love her.

The thing I most love about this book is how love is portrayed in the book. The love here is simple and uncomplicated. Astrid sends her love to everyone, not asking for something in return. It's the purest form of love there is. She sends her love to her socially anxious mother, to her pothead father, to her younger hockey player sister, to her gay friends, to her secret lover at work, the people of Unity Valley, and the passengers. For Astrid, we are passengers on a plane. We are thousands and thousands of feet above the ground and we are locked inside a plane. The plane is what society wants us to be and it's either, we open the door and skydive away from what society wants us to be or we stay locked in the plane, abiding whatever rules there are.

I don't know what it really feels like when you come out and tell the world you're gay or you're a lesbian because for one, I'm straight. A gay friend of mine once told me that coming out to his parents was hard that they didn't talk to him for months! And his siblings avoided him like a plague. But now, they've come around and they were once again a happy family. Astrid's struggle is real. I mean, these things take time to process, to wrap your head around it. I understand Astrid's point when her parents asked her point blank, if she was gay or not, and that he answer to it at first was, she didn't know.

All in all, Ask the Passengers is a wonderful story. You should pick it up because it's something we all should read.

A.S. King is the author of the highly-acclaimed REALITY BOY, 2013 LA Times Book Prize winner ASK THE PASSENGERS, 2012 ALA Top Ten Book for Young Adults EVERYBODY SEES THE ANTS, and 2011 Michael L. Printz Honor Book PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ. She is also the author of the ALA Best Books for Young Adults THE DUST OF 100 DOGS as well as a collection of award-winning short stories for adults, MONICA NEVER SHUTS UP.

Look for Amy's work in anthologies DEAR BULLY, BREAK THESE RULES and LOSING IT. (And brace yourself for 2014's novel, GLORY O'BRIEN'S HISTORY OF THE FUTURE.) Find more at www.as-king.com.

p.s.- If I don't accept your friend request, don't feel sad. It's because I don't really use Goodreads even though I'm completely thrilled that you do!

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Wicked Review: Reality Boy by A.S King

Published: October 22, 2013

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Acquired: Borrowed Paperback

Amazon || Barnes and Noble || The Book Depository || Fullybooked

Gerald Faust knows exactly when he started feeling angry: the day his mother invited a reality television crew into his five-year-old life. Twelve years later, he’s still haunted by his rage-filled youth—which the entire world got to watch from every imaginable angle—and his anger issues have resulted in violent outbursts, zero friends, and clueless adults dumping him in the special education room at school.

Nothing is ever going to change. No one cares that he’s tried to learn to control himself, and the girl he likes has no idea who he really is. Everyone’s just waiting for him to snap…and he’s starting to feel dangerously close to doing just that.

In this fearless portrayal of a boy on the edge, highly acclaimed Printz Honor author A.S. King explores the desperate reality of a former child “star” who finally breaks free of his anger by creating possibilities he never knew he deserved.

This book is so screwed up (I want to use the 'f' word but that would be so inappropriate...) but it's so beautiful, I love it so much. Now I know why A.S King is loved by all.

You see, from the first chapter, I can feel Gerald's anger. His no-holds-bar attitude kept me on edge and the fact that he has to live with such a screwed up family had me biting my nails. There are so many things going on in the book that I just don't know where to start.

I feel sorry and at the same time, I am proud of Gerald. For one, no kid, let me tell you, no kid deserves a childhood like his. I MEAN REALLY?! A REALITY SHOW?! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!? WHO DOES THAT?!!? Why would any parent do that to their child? Don't parents USUALLY keep their children away from the television or the Internet for fear of the "bad and unhealthy stuff"? RIGHT?! He lives with his crazy mother, clueless father, psychopathic older sister and another sister who's left them for a better life. What kind of parent are you to let your child that he or she is "retarded" or "learning disable"? I know I shouldn't talk like this because for one I don't have a kid of my own so obviously, parenting is a foreign concept to me. Trust me when I tell you that anyone with a brain and two eyes would realize how perfectly dysfunctional Gerald's family is.

Now that I have it out of the way, let's talk about Gerald. So, Gerald has learned how to keep his anger in check by attending anger management classes and boxing as exercise. This is a weird combination, I know but for him, it works. He goes on with his life even if he's stuck in the special education class or that kids at school taunt him and call him names or that he's in love with the girl at register #1.

He gets in trouble later in the book for shutting down completely from reality. In his head, there's this place where he can escape to. I think this is an effect of having to be in a reality TV show. He got so exposed to other people and what people see think is the 'real' thing and that's when he lost the concept of reality.

It's heavy but it's heartwarming. It's depressing but it'll make you happy. It's fictional but it seems so real. This is Reality Boy.

A.S. King is the author of the highly-acclaimed REALITY BOY, 2013 LA Times Book Prize winner ASK THE PASSENGERS, 2012 ALA Top Ten Book for Young Adults EVERYBODY SEES THE ANTS, and 2011 Michael L. Printz Honor Book PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ. She is also the author of the ALA Best Books for Young Adults THE DUST OF 100 DOGS as well as a collection of award-winning short stories for adults, MONICA NEVER SHUTS UP.

Look for Amy's work in anthologies DEAR BULLY, BREAK THESE RULES and LOSING IT. (And brace yourself for 2014's novel, GLORY O'BRIEN'S HISTORY OF THE FUTURE.) Find more at www.as-king.com.

p.s.- If I don't accept your friend request, don't feel sad. It's because I don't really use Goodreads even though I'm completely thrilled that you do!

Twitter || Website || Goodreads

{Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway} Marry Me, Charlotte B! by Carla de Guzman

Welcome to Day 1 of the Marry Me, Charlotte B! Blog Tour! This Blog Tour is courtesy of the wonderful people at The Bookish Diaries Book Tours. Click on the banner for the schedule of posts. Scroll down and let's get this thing started.

Marry Me, Charlotte B!

Published: April 30, 2015

Genre: New Adult

Amazon || Smashwords

You are cordially invited to the wedding of the year!

Nellie Canlas loves her job. She loves being assistant to reality TV star and wedding planner goddess, the fabulous Charlotte Bertram, and she loves working with couples to make their wedding dreams come true. What she doesn’t love is having cameras following her all the time, especially when she’s crushing hard on the lawyer from another floor.

Robert Bertram doesn’t like planning weddings. He doesn’t like being on TV either. But when he finds himself in possession of Nellie’s diary, he thinks he can turn her into anyone’s dream girl. If he doesn’t fall for her first.

Thank you to the wonderful people at The Bookish Diaries Book Tours for this opportunity.

It took me till the end of episode one or chapter one to realize that this book was written in a way that it looks like a reality TV show written on paper. I, for one, watch reality TV shows, like, Keeping Up With The Kardashians. I know they're not 'reality' really but it's just fun to watch.

So this reality show centers on the Charlotte Betram and her wedding planning team. They're about to undertake the biggest wedding of the century and Nellie Canlas is tasked to be the wedding planner for the said wedding while being a dutiful sister and planning her older sister's civil wedding, She has a lot on her plate.

Everything's in good taste. Nellie's weirded out by the fact that everyone knows she has a crush on this cute lawyer from another floor while Charlotte Betram's son, Robert, is pining for her. Robert feels that Nellie has a lot of potential. She's stuck forever as Charlotte Bertram's assistant and Robert feels like it's his job to make things better for Nellie.

But all good things come to an end as Nellie realizes that all of this is just a set up. It leaves her heartbroken. Robert has lost the girl she loves. No love story happens without any struggles and thus Robert and Nellie live happily ever after.

This is the second Carla de Guzman book I've read and I'm happy that I got the chance to read another book of hers. Her writing is tasteful and fun and it tugs at the hearstrings and leaves you with that giddy feeling after which I call 'kilig', :D

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Carla de Guzman (ck.deguzman@gmail.com) had horrible handwriting as a kid. That didn't stop her from writing, though. Riddled with too much energy and a vivid imagination, she started writing every midnight. She grew up with her toes in the sand and her bags packed and ready to go on adventures. These books are chronicles of her journeys, with a silly love story mixed in.

When she’s not sitting in a plane or working, Carla writes for her blog, Some Midnights (www.somemidnight.wordpress.com), Modern Filipina and for When in Manila.

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