{Blog Tour: Giveaway + Review} Belong To Me by Laura Howard

Welcome to Day 2 of the Belong To Me Blog Tour. This tour is brought to you by the wonderful people over at Xpresso Book Tours.

 

Belong To Me by Laura Howard

Publication Date: March 26, 2015

Series: Moore Crossing #1

Genre: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance

 Amazon || Barnes And Noble

Kate and Noah thought they had the kind of love that could last through anything. Until their world crumbles out from beneath them.

After months of separation, the tragic death of Jack, Kate’s twin and Noah’s best friend, throws them back together. As they try to heal from the horrific loss, will they be able to overcome old wounds or are they destined to live separately forever?

They were each other's first. They were best friends and what was supposed to be a no strings attached relationship went haywire. It was painful to read, really. Kate fell for Noah and Noah fell for Kate but they were too scared to admit to each other. Their relationship resulted to a baby that unfortunately passed away after Kate gave birth. Double pain.

Kate was too wrapped up in her own wounds that she left home to go to England to study. I can't even imagine how that must feel like. Kate lost her baby and then later on she would lose her brother, her twin brother at that!

She didn't realize that Noah, the love of her life, was also in pain. She didn't realize that he too was hurt by the passing of their baby. And now, his best friend is gone.

It's been said before. Love hurts. A band even made a song for it. But that's just how it is. You have to endure the pain that comes with that four letter word. Even if this book was really short, I definitely felt all the pain and all the love that came with this book. The characters are developed well and I fell in love with them immediately.

Belong To Me is just the first book in the series and I'm excited to know what happens next.

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Laura Howard lives in New Hampshire with her husband and four children. Her obsession with books began at the age of 6 when she got her first library card. Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley High and other girly novels were routinely devoured in single sittings. Books took a backseat to diapers when she had her first child. It wasn’t until the release of a little novel called Twilight, 8 years later, that she rediscovered her love of fiction. Soon after, her own characters began to make themselves known. The Forgotten Ones is her first published novel.

Website || Goodreads || Facebook || Twitter

Follow the Tour here!

Wicked Photo Diary: July 2015

Hello, everyone! Wicked Photo Diary is a monthly feature where I share what has happened in my life through my Instagram photos. Think of it as an organize photo dump...only wicked!

Well, would you look at that? It's already the eighth month of this year. July flew by so fast. Everything got so busy especially with my prelim exams. But now, they're done! I can finally breathe! Here's what happened to me last July!

July 5, 2015

Got this meme on Facebook because everyone in my news feed is sharing it and this is what I really felt last July. Swamped with tons and tons of work for school! Whew~

July 7, 2015

Probably the last clear blue sky I saw for that month because it rained so hard afterwards.

July 8, 2015

July is also Book Discrimination Month hosted by my good friends, Faye and Erin, who are sisters! Book Discrimination can be in so many different forms and I'm really happy that I was able to share my experience with the whole community. You can check out my post on Faye's blog here.

July 9, 2015

Random photo of the grey skies that followed.

July 10, 2015

I don't know why it took me so long to start reading Confess by Colleen Hoover. It was just beautiful. This is my favorite artwork inside the book made by Danny O'Connor. Just. WOW. You can read my review here.

July 11, 2015

This is what the river at the back of our ancestral home looked like after the storm. Pretty high, I know! The sound of the river rush is so calming.

July 17, 2015

This is one of the first books that I'll be reviewing for after a long time. Watch out for my review on August 18th! This is such a lovely book. You can follow the tour here.

July 20, 2015

I'm also a part of the Alexa Crushed Blog Tour. You can follow the tour here.

July 21, 2015

One of two required readings for my creative writing class. This is my first creative nonfiction book written by a Filipino author and I loved it so much!

July 24, 2015

I watched Paper Towns with my brother and we both loved it. Cara Delevigne can act. She really portrayed Margo very well.

July 27, 2015

This is what I look like, just so you know.

July 30, 2015

Yup, we're inside the recording studio recording our radio drama.

July 31, 2015

I did miss reading this series. Which means I should totally continue reading it because this series is just amazing. Ever since Vampire Academy, my heart belonged to Adrian Ivashkov. *swoon*

I still managed to squeeze in some reading time because I can. Heh. Here's a list of the books I reviewed on the blog:

Calm Like Home - Kaisa Clark

The Opportunist - Tarryn Fisher

Dirty Red - Tarryn Fisher

Thief - Tarryn Fisher

I hope you guys had a wonderful July!

Wicked Review: Thief by Tarryn Fisher

Published: July 21, 2013

Publisher: CreateSpace

Series: Love Me With Lies #3

Amazon || Barnes and Noble

Note to Self

Love is patient; love is kind.
Love doesn't boast or brag.
There's no arrogance in love;
it's never rude, crude, or indecent-it's not self absorbed.
Love isn't easily upset.
Love doesn't tally wrongs.
Love trusts, hopes, and endures no matter what.
Love will never become obsolete.
I'll fight for her.

Thief

Caleb Drake never got over his first love. Not when he got married. Not when she got married. When life suddenly comes full circle Caleb must decide how how far he is willing to go to get the aloof and alluring Olivia Kaspen back. But for every action in life there is a consequence, and soon Caleb finds out that sometimes love comes at an unbearably high price.

Now that Caleb and Leah are on the brink of divorcing each other and fighting for the custody of their only daughter, Estella, Caleb is now moving on to Olivia to repair what is left of their crazy relationship.

From book one, Olivia and Caleb were running in circles. Caleb chases Olivia and Olivia runs away as far as she can but she keeps coming back to Caleb. Just when you thought you could move on, you just can't because you're still hung up on that person.

This book is beyond crazy. It's beyond me, period. Caleb is a spoiled brat. From day one, he set his sights on Olivia, who couldn't care less if girls drop their panties in front of him. His love for Olivia is primal, like a lion marking his territory and making it known to the world.

Olivia got married to Noah Stein, this equally smart and compassionate whom she met on a plane bound for Rome when Olivia decided to bare her feelings to Caleb once and for all. But her plane failed, obviously. Caleb hated that. He hated that he had to compete with someone for Olivia's love especially now that Olivia cares for Noah.

In book two, Leah dropped a bombshell that shook Caleb's world. He had to get away from Leah and his daughter. But when the truth came out, Leah didn't go down without a fight. So Caleb had to choose: Olivia or his daughter, Estella.

Love is such a tricky thing. As the song says, "too much love will kill you". All three books shows different forms of love and how people are willing to fight for love. Love need not be full of flowers and hearts. Sometimes, it's painful you want to kill yourself with it. Or sometimes, you just want to do something crazy for that one person you love.

This trilogy is everything I am looking for in a love story. I read all three books in a span of just three days because right after I finished the first one, I was onto the next one without hesitation. I highly recommend this if you're a lover for broken relationships and painful love.

I would like to write a novel that every, single person loves, but not even J.K. Rowling could do that. Instead, I try to write stories that pull on people's emotions. I believe that sadness is the most powerful emotion, and swirled with regret the two become a dominating force. I love villains. Three of my favorites are Mother Gothel, Gaston and the Evil Queen who all suffered from a pretty wicked case of vanity (like me). I like to make these personality types the center of my stories. 
I love rain, Coke, Starbucks and sarcasm. I hate bad adjectives and the word "smolder". If you read my book-I love you. If you hate my book-I still love you, but please don't be mean to me; I'm half badass, half cry baby.

Goodreads || Twitter || Website

Wicked Review: Dirty Red by Tarryn Fisher

Published: December 21, 2012

Publisher: CreateSpace

Series: Love Me With Lies #2

Acquired: Digital copy

Amazon || Barnes and Noble

Dear Opportunist,

You thought you could take him from me, but you lost. Now, that he's mine I'll do anything to keep him. Do you doubt me? I have everything that was supposed to be yours. In case you were wondering; he doesn't ever think about you anymore. I won't let him go....ever.

Dirty Red

Leah Smith finally has everything she has ever wanted. Except she doesn't. Her marriage feels more like a loan than a lifelong commitment, and the image she has worked so hard to build is fraying before her eyes. With a new role and a past full of secrets, Leah must decide how far she is willing to go to keep what she has stolen.

Yesterday, I posted my review of the first book in this phenomenal New Adult series, The Opportunist. It shed light to Olivia's story. Dirty Red is Leah Smith's story.

Leah Smith in The Opportunist is Caleb Drake's current girlfriend and soon to be bride. Just like Olivia, she is willing to go above and beyond just to keep Caleb. And above and beyond she went. She married Caleb and proceeded to give him a baby he so desperately wanted. It's just that she doesn't want children. Leah is vain and spoiled. Adopted to a rich family, she was used to having her way. She was beautiful, no doubt about that. She's also smart like Olivia.

Their daughter, Estella, is her leverage against Caleb. Should Caleb decide to end things with her, she'll use Estella to lure him back. Except things didn't go the way she planned. She neglected Estella. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree though as her own birth mother and her stepmother, neglected her as well.

She grew up in the shadow of her younger sister, Courtney. Although both of them were adopted, her parents wanted Courtney over her. She was ridiculed by her own stepmother. Leah has a promising career in a bank until her father decided to appoint her as Vice President of their company just to spite her.

She wasn't supposed to fall in love with Caleb. She knew that Caleb was nursing a heartache so painful that she did everything she could to have Caleb love her. She wanted him to forget Olivia but Caleb couldn't.

I almost felt sad for Leah because she had a shitty childhood but that doesn't excuse the fact that she uses that to her advantage to get what she wants. She has lied to get where she is now. And she will continue to do so just so she can stay where she is right now.

I would like to write a novel that every, single person loves, but not even J.K. Rowling could do that. Instead, I try to write stories that pull on people's emotions. I believe that sadness is the most powerful emotion, and swirled with regret the two become a dominating force. I love villains. Three of my favorites are Mother Gothel, Gaston and the Evil Queen who all suffered from a pretty wicked case of vanity (like me). I like to make these personality types the center of my stories. 
I love rain, Coke, Starbucks and sarcasm. I hate bad adjectives and the word "smolder". If you read my book-I love you. If you hate my book-I still love you, but please don't be mean to me; I'm half badass, half cry baby.

Goodreads || Twitter || Website

Wicked Review: The Opportunist by Tarryn Fisher

Published: November 14, 2011

Publisher: CreateSpace

Series: Love Me With Lies #1

Acquired: Digital copy

Amazon || Barnes and Noble

Olivia Kaspen has just discovered that her ex-boyfriend, Caleb Drake, has lost his memory. With an already lousy reputation for taking advantage of situations, Olivia must decide how far she is willing to go to get Caleb back. Wrestling to keep her true identity and their sordid past under wraps, Olivia’s greatest obstacle is Caleb’s wicked, new girlfriend; Leah Smith. It is a race to the finish as these two vipers engage in a vicious tug of war to possess a man who no longer remembers them. But, soon enough Olivia must face the consequences of her lies, and in the process discover that sometimes love falls short of redemption.

This book has me all sorts of stuff. It had me crying, laughing, thinking, and I enjoyed every bit of it. See, Olivia is hung up on Caleb so when she sees him again after so many years, she wants him back even if she doesn't want to admit it.

Opportunist is the perfect word for her. She took the opportunity that Caleb has lost her memories and hopefully draw him back in. She's not obvious about it. I mean, you invite your "ex-boyfriend" over to your house for dinner even you fully know that he has lost his memory? This is a brilliant scheme.

What's more, Caleb has a "girlfriend", Leah Smith. These two are practically the same. They both want Caleb and they will move heaven and earth to make that happen. Caleb is one lucky bastard. This book is written in Olivia's perspective both in the past and the present. Olivia is sharp, witty, cunning, and smart. Which is probably why she's a lawyer.

She refused Caleb's advances when they were in college. She refused to be just another name in Caleb's little black book. But eventually, Caleb won her over. But Caleb being a typical dude, he wants to have sex with Olivia and she refuses.

They fell apart after a year and everything has taken a turn. This story involved Olivia and Caleb running in circles, never really staying with each other.

Tarryn Fisher, you are brilliant. Especially with that twist in the end. JUST. WOW.

I would like to write a novel that every, single person loves, but not even J.K. Rowling could do that. Instead, I try to write stories that pull on people's emotions. I believe that sadness is the most powerful emotion, and swirled with regret the two become a dominating force. I love villains. Three of my favorites are Mother Gothel, Gaston and the Evil Queen who all suffered from a pretty wicked case of vanity (like me). I like to make these personality types the center of my stories. 
I love rain, Coke, Starbucks and sarcasm. I hate bad adjectives and the word "smolder". If you read my book-I love you. If you hate my book-I still love you, but please don't be mean to me; I'm half badass, half cry baby.

Goodreads || Twitter || Website