Wicked Review: Reality Boy by A.S King

Published: October 22, 2013

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Acquired: Borrowed Paperback

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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!

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{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

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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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Wicked Photo Diary: April 2015

Hi y'all! I'm introducing a new "thing"-for lack of a better word on the blog. It's called "Wicked Photo Diary". Just like any other millenial out there, I'm obsessed with Instagram. I currently have:

- 554 posts
- 333 followers
- 949 following

Every end of the month, I'll be recapping what happened to my life via this diary for people who don't follow me on Instagram. Just so you know, I'm not really forcing you, okay? I'm just giving you an idea. You could follow me on Instagram. Totally not forcing you...(click the photo to follow me on Instagram. I love you to bits.)


April 4, 2015

Yes, food. I love food, don't you?

April 8, 2015

This is the day I announced to everyone on Instagram that I'll be writing and finishing my very first novel. Update, I'm still 2,000 words short of my goal and April is done. But I'll still finish it.

April 10, 2015

The Iron Throne invades Manila! I set up a trip with my brother at the Bonifacio Global City just so we can take pictures on the Iron Throne and walk around. The Iron Throne was too high so I sort of half-sat on the throne so my short legs can reach the floor.

Taken at the Adidas store in BGC. This is my failed attempt at stealth photography (duh!) because the sales people were looking at me funny because I fangirled so hard when I saw this Bayern Munich poster.

April 11, 2015

No trip to BGC won't be complete without visiting Fullybooked and taking a photo of the gorgeous book mural.

April 11 was also #NationalSiblingsDay. Here's mein bruder/my brother.

April 12, 2015

This was taken at Boot Camp which is a store away from Adidas. Since I'm a new football fan, I got so excited that I touched all of the jerseys. But my favorites are the DFB (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) or the German National Football Team's second kit. The first one is the white one and also the away kit of FC Bayern Munich at the far right.

April 13, 2015

This is the first teaser for my novel, That One Summer, made by yours truly.

April 15, 2015

Pardon the duck face. This is my very good friend, Honey, whom I haven't seen since we graduated in high school some five years ago.

April 27, 2015

I was a happy duckling. FC Bayern Munich were crowned champions or Deutscher Meisterschaft for the 2014/2015 season of the Bundesliga. This is record breaking because this is their 25th title! They won it pretty early and in the comforts of their home. Wild, huh?

So there you have it. How was your April so far? Let me know in the comments!

{Blog Tour: Review} Baited (3-Part Serial) by Ali Parker

Title: Baited (3 Part Serial)

Author: Ali Parker

Published: April 12, 2015

Amazon || Barnes and Noble || iTunes || Kobo || Scribd

Rebecca Martin has achieved most things one might hope to by thirty. She is a successful business owner, drives a nice car and is wrapping up the details on a custom built home on the lake. The only thing she is missing is someone to share her accomplishments with.

One man has never been far from her thoughts – Kade McMillian, but his return to town after far too many years of chasing his dreams couldn’t be more poorly timed.

With a younger man demanding Rebecca attention at the office, she has to decide between reconstructing a relationship from her past or diving in deep to something new and seemingly forbidden.

This is my first time to review a serial and I'm really excited for you guys to know what this serial is all about. So Rebecca Martin is successful and is a force to be reckoned with in her firm. She's got everything she could've ever wanted in life and she's just thirty years old.

Her friend, Parker, is trying to set her up with a younger employee, Jason. Jason is young; he's just 22 and he's the best accountant in their company. Rebecca doesn't want to lead Jason on and one of the reasons is Kade McMillan, her former best friend whom she fell in love with.

I love how Ali Parker created Rebecca Martin. She's very headstrong with her opinions. She's not the heroine that will likely be so head over heels in love with the male character. She's what other female characters lack: she's very smart.

Over the course of the story, Becca finally lets Jason have his way. She agrees to Jason's proposal that they give each other a try. But then Kade McMillan steps in. What's supposed to be a sort of warm welcome to Kade turned out cold. Becca realized that she doesn't have feelings for Kade anymore. It was all too late for them.

All in all, you could say that I totally loved this series. I recommend this for anyone who wants to try New Adult Contemporary Romance aka YOU.

Ali Parker is a contemporary romance writer who is looking to flood the market this year with lots of great, quick reads. For those of you who love a full-length novel, we'll be boxing up the serial trilogies into a box set a week after the last release.

We're looking forward to putting out both Baited, and Ali's latest project, Jaded in the month of April.

Want to know when Ali releases something new? Join her mailing list!

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Wicked Review: Fake Boobs by Ryan Ringbloom

Published: February 1, 2015

Acquired: Digital copy

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Tori Albert is eighteen, her confidence level is zero. Her life experience…also zero. She’s a girl lost in the shuffle, hiding in the shadows, craving attention. If only someone, anyone, would notice her, maybe life would improve. 

Grant Donovan can’t stop noticing Tori, but she is young, inexperienced and naïve. She is also his best friend’s younger sister. Grant knows the best thing he can do is just walk away. So why the hell isn’t he walking away?

When a late night knock lands across her bedroom door, Tori knows what stands behind it could end in disaster…but how many time does opportunity come knocking?

Just when she thinks her luck is finally changing, the assurance Tori believes she has finally found is taken away. With new assets and a new goal in sight, Tori will soon learn her new found confidence isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Unfortunately, some things you just have to learn the hard way. 

The minute I saw this on Netgalley, I knew I have to have this book. I loved this book so much. This had me on the edge of my seat laughing and crying at the same time.

Tori grew up with thinking that she's Plain Jane. She graduated from high school a virgin and she's never had a boyfriend. People are envious of her because she's thin and she never gains a pound when she eats. What they don't know is that, she's more envious of others, especially those with a huge bust.

I felt Tori's insecurities and I almost felt sad for her. She considers herself as invisible and ugly when I know she's not and she doesn't see it. But now, she's starting college and things are about to change. With the help of her roommate Kenna, she's slowly starting to feel like a normal girl. She wears make-up and she feels good about it.

Then there's Grant. How often have we seen a younger sibling falling for his or her older sibling's friend? Such relationships are either destined for greatness or they go down the drain. Grant cares for Tori in a brotherly manner. But obviously, that's just his excuse. They spent the holidays together in each other's arms before it all ended.

Grant is very thoughtful to a fault. He values his friendship with Tori's brother, Jim, as well as Tori's well being. As much as he wanted to be with her, he can't. He has life planned out for him. He'll go to aviation school in Florida and finish college and then start working. Tori wasn't a part of his plan but he definitely wants her there, he just doesn't know where.

Tori began to revamp herself. Because Grant rejected her, she's got herself fake boobs and men lined up for her...and her new chest. She's not satisfied. She wants Grant to notice her. She wants Grant to love her.

I just want to say that this is a must read for everyone. Not only is it a really nice contemporary romance but it makes you think about the really important things in life.

Ryan Ringbloom is a YA/NA author who lives for anything Romance. The passion, love, angst, awkwardness… she loves all of it. When Ryan needs a break from reality she sneaks off to read a romantic story or write one of her own. Drinking coffee, reading Tweets and hugs from her five year old are the best part of her day.

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