Wicked Journey: #SparkBooks Launch

Wicked Journey is a feature is where I recount the times I actually went out of my comfort zone and went to different places. This includes book signings, travels, and other posts related to journeying.

So, yesterday was the first ever book signing I attended for this year. Now that school's out, I can definitely enjoy some reading. I found out about these books during MIBF last September and I only knew two of the authors, Kate Evangelista and Chrissie Peria, but the rest, I've only heard of now. Not only are the covers really pretty, these books are really cheap too. The stories, even if I haven't read all of them are phenomenal. So, I bought all six books in one go because that's how I roll.

Yup, number 4. This is the nearest I got to being an early bird in all of the book signings I ever attended.  Originally, six authors were supposed to be there. But Camilla Sisco (Submission Moves) and Bianca Mori (Tame The Kitten) weren't able to attend due to prior commitments *insert tears*.

I spent the day yesterday with this lovely lady, Jera, whom I haven't seen in a looooooong time. I was really happy that she came yesterday so we got to catch up.

The event was hosted by Mina Esguerra, author of Envy Park, The Harder We Fall and Never Just Friends. She's one of the first local romance authors I knew about. She has published a lot of books already, both in print and online. Aside from that, she also handles writing classes online and helps in spreading the love for local authors.

The first author she introduced was Chrissie Peria, author of The Kitchen When It Sizzles and All's Fair In Blog and War. Her new book, The Kitchen When It Sizzles, is about the story of Olivia Nadal, the almost perfect heroine and Nate Olivarez, very very smexy chef. Their lives intertwine in a really hot and sizzling romance and of course, food. This was one of the six I picked up and I am hooked. Here is Chrissie as she shared an excerpt from her new book. Chrissie loves taking photos, cooking, and taking care of a tiny human. Said tiny human was present yesterday and was the cutest thing I have ever seen.

(Click here to watch the whole video. Special thanks to Dianne of Oops I Read A Book Again for allowing me to share the videos she took yesterday.)

Next up was Agay Llanera, author of Once Upon A Player, Vintage Love, and Choco Chip Hips. Once Upon A Player is about the story of college star player (as the blurb said, in every sense of the word) Val Fabian and how she tries to win over Jake Clementia before graduation. Agay is also a freelance TV writer and when she's not writing, she's watching volleyball games in the arena. Here is Agay sharing an excerpt from her new book.

(Click here to watch the whole video. Special thanks to Dianne of Oops I Read A Book Again for allowing me to share the videos she took yesterday.)

Kate Evangelista is the proud author of Til Death and her new book Savor. She wanted to write that's why she entered medical school...really. Now, she's writing full time. Savor, from the looks of it, is pretty intense. The cover is intense. The blurb on the back is intense. It even came in with a warning. Savor is about Dakota Collins, a photography student with an eye patch, and Luka Visraya, smexy vocalist of the indie band called Vicious, and how their lives are intertwined. Here is Kate, looking as fabulous as ever, sharing an excerpt from her new book.

(Click here to watch the whole video. Special thanks to Dianne of Oops I Read A Book Again for allowing me to share the videos she took yesterday.)

Dawn Lanuza is the author of The Boyfriend Backtrack and What About Today. She's in the music industry by morning and writes during the night. The Boyfriend Backtrack is about Regina Cortes and how her life is like a movie. Every moment in her life is played out in a montage. All the men that has Regina has been with, their memories and all, come crashing back to her. Here is Dawn as she shares an excerpt from her new book.

(Click here to watch the whole video. Special thanks to Dianne of Oops I Read A Book Again for allowing me to share the videos she took yesterday.)

 Next up was question and answer portion time. I really learned a lot from these ladies. Their stories are somewhat drawn from personal experience and extensive research. In the case of Chrissie, she had to look up on cooking courses online. Like, what happens and the cooking jargon. Kate also shared that she does not look at reviews online. As she said, "It's a rabbit hole!" It was funny, really.

Then it was time to raffle off prizes from the authors. Most of the winners were guys and girls named Camille. And then there's me. Awkward duckling that I am, won a goodie bag from Dawn Lanuza!

Coming up to the authors, well, it was really funny. I'm thankful that there were only a few people in the event because it meant having more time to chat up with the authors. Dawn and Agay noticed me because they remembered my Twitter and Instagram handle! *woot woot*  I also got take more photos with them!

This was me being awkward with Kate Evangelista. Because a) her eyes are just so pretty and b) I literally have no idea what to say...

I also took a photo with Kate's momager. Throughout the event, Kate was addressing her mom and well, I couldn't pass up the chance to take a photo with her mom. She was a very sweet woman. After Jera and I took photos with her, she said, "I'll be famous!" And we laughed and kidded that maybe at the end of the day, someone will put up a Facebook page for her.

I also grabbed the chance to get a picture taken and a book signed by Mina Esguerra since she was there and her books are 10% off that day. Win win for me!

I went home with a big smile on face. I will never forget this event. I'm looking forward to reading all these amazing books I brought home with me. This is probably the start of me reading local author's work, which is something I haven't done ever.

Many thanks to National Bookstore and to Anvil Publishing! Here's to more books from local authors~!

{Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway} Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Publication Date: October 20, 2015

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Series: The Illuminae Files #1
Pre-order here:

Amazon || Barnes and Noble

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do.

This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she'd never speak to again.

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

First, I'd like to thank Pinoy Book Tours for giving me a chance to be a part of this tour.

So, where do I even begin? I mean seriously.

The ARC that was passed around was around 600 pages and I only have three days to read it. How did that happen?

Illuminae is fast paced and unique. It's written unconventionally through a series of files that varies from transcribed interviews to description of videos. I felt ultimately smart or maybe close to those people in the intelligence groups that read classified information. You know the thing...anyways. It's not your usual indented paragraphs. It was that cool. Maybe that's why I finished it within a day because of the unconventional (well, at least for me) way it was written.

Kade and Ezra's relationship is complex. They broke up just when their home was attacked and they were forced to flee. Ezra's a second lieutenant in Alexander while Kade's a secret hacker in Hypatia. They are being pursued by Lincoln, this evil helicarrier across space. They find out things, mostly classified information, that can and will change their lives forever.

Kade is very strong. She's spunky, bad-ass, you-don't-mess-with-me-because-I-know-your-secrets-in-the-interweb-so-back-off-before-I-hack-the-shit-out-of-you kind of girl while having pink girl and petite. I love her very much. She sensed danger. She knew that the higher ups in Alexander, from where Ezra is, is hiding something. Ezra, on the other hand, is every bit of a tortured hero. He has lost people he loves the most aboard the carrier and off the carrier. He still loves Kade but wouldn't act up on it, at least not yet, because he knows that something is wrong.

What's wrong you ask? AIDAN

AIDAN is this super intelligent computer program...think Iron Man's JARVIS and Ultron. He's artificial intelligence with feelings. He runs all the helicarriers and is the only chance of surviving against Lincoln's death grip. But, now, he is rendered useless because of some crazy glitch. I'm no tech expert but from what I understand, they asked too much from AIDAN until he couldn't do it anymore so he retaliated.

 This is where things get really tricky, edge-of-your-seat sort of thing. They shut AIDAN to fix him and then bring him back up again. Only AIDAN wasn't the same anymore. I thought about it. Illuminae is set in a far away future where humans could literally travel through space as if you could just book a flight to another country. Wouldn't that be amazing? We'd have artificial intelligence, which according to Stephen Hawking, will be a possible feat for human race. But then we'd have to be wary about it. Humans created computers. We created their minds. We created their feelings, even if it's hard to comprehend. And that scares me. I mean, humans turn against humans. Who says that artificial intelligence or even computers won't turn against humans?

Just a side thought there.

Kade and Ezra get back together and it is the sweetest thing in the world! Don't worry. Their love story in no way took the bad-ass aspect off of this book. I mean, really. They are the couple of 2015. I love them to bits.

Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff beautifully crafted this story. I mean, it's just amazing! Really, really amazing. It literally blew my mind. Plot twist after plot twist. Surprise after surprise and here I am clinging on to what's left of my sanity because I need the next book now.

(P.S I have no idea if you can consider this a review because I mean, really. I rambled my ass off here. Thanks for understanding)

 

All thanks to Random House and Pinoy Book Tours! You, yes, you can get a chance to win HARDCOVERS of ILLUMINAE! (PH ONLY)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

  

Amie Kaufman is the New York Times bestselling co-author of These Broken Stars and This Shattered World, and Illuminae, the first in a new series starting in 2015. She writes science fiction and fantasy for teens, and her favourite procrastination techniques involve chocolate, baking, sailing, excellent books and TV, plotting and executing overseas travel, and napping.

She lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband, their rescue dog, and her considerable library. She is represented by Tracey Adams of Adams Literary.

Goodreads || Twitter || Website

Jay Kristoff is the award-winning author of THE LOTUS WAR trilogy, a Japanese-inspired steampunk fantasy. Part 3, ENDSINGER, is out now. He's also co-author of the upcoming ILLUMINAE (with Amie Kaufman), a YA Sci-Fi... thing, to be released by Knopf/Random House in 2015, and NEVERNIGHT, the first part of a new fantasy trilogy kicking off in 2016.

Jay is 6’7 and has approximately 13380 days to live. He abides in Melbourne with his secret agent kung-fu assassin wife, and the world’s laziest Jack Russell.

He does not believe in happy endings.

Goodreads || Twitter || Website 

Follow the Tour here!

 

Wicked Review: Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern

Published: May 5, 2015

Publisher: Harper Teen

Acquired: Paperback

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

John Green's The Fault in Our Stars meets Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park in this beautifully written, incredibly honest, and emotionally poignant novel. Cammie McGovern's insightful young adult debut is a heartfelt and heartbreaking story about how we can all feel lost until we find someone who loves us because of our faults, not in spite of them.

Born with cerebral palsy, Amy can't walk without a walker, talk without a voice box, or even fully control her facial expressions. Plagued by obsessive-compulsive disorder, Matthew is consumed with repeated thoughts, neurotic rituals, and crippling fear. Both in desperate need of someone to help them reach out to the world, Amy and Matthew are more alike than either ever realized.

When Amy decides to hire student aides to help her in her senior year at Coral Hills High School, these two teens are thrust into each other's lives. As they begin to spend time with each other, what started as a blossoming friendship eventually grows into something neither expected. 

I don't know why I constantly torture myself with reading books that will ultimately kill me on the inside. Maybe, I'm a sadist that way. I have no idea.

Amy Van Dorn and Matthew Malone have this complicated friendship. For one, Amy, despite her cerebral palsy and her Pathway, is a very smart girl yet she's very naive. Matthew showed her that the world isn't as wonderful as she thinks it is.

Amy made a promise to herself to make friends as she starts her senior year in high school. No one knows Amy very well, except for the fact that she has a talking computer and a walker and that she has an aide beside her. But she was determined to change that when she suggested to her mother that they hire kids her age to be her "friends" so that they can introduce Amy to other kids their age as well. Out of the four, Matthew stood out. Mainly because Amy likes him. And that he's just like Amy.

Both of them hide behind their disabilities: Amy with her cerebral palsy and Matthew with his OCD. It's like their shield and at the same time, it's their leverage against the world and against each other even. Amy figured to help Matthew get over his OCD by giving him assignments, all the while secretly pining for Matthew. Matthew was oblivious to all of the little hints Amy's been dropping, all because he's scared of his own feelings for her.

College tore them apart. Amy got accepted into a prestigious university while Matthew's trying to figure out his life, a life without Amy in it. Until this one incident that changes their lives forever. And change it did.

Say What You Will is very subtle. Or maybe that's just putting it mildly. It packs a punch that leaves you breathless. I've always been a fan of contemporary, romance or not, and no matter what people say against it, I love it anyways. Cammie MCGovern has a flair for plot twists. Plot twists are very tricky. Just like jokes, plot twists need that perfect timing and Say What You Will has it.

It's easier said than done is what they always say but sometimes, saying it is as hard as doing it. No one can really perfect that.

Cammie McGovern was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford and received the Nelson Algren Award in short fiction. Her work has been published in Redbook, Seventeen, Glimmer Train, TriQuarterly, and other publications.

Goodreads || Twitter || Website

Wicked Review: A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall

Published: August 26, 2014

Publisher: Swoon Reads

Acquired: Borrowed Paperback

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

The distinctive new crowdsourced publishing imprint Swoon Reads proudly presents its first published novel—an irresistibly sweet romance between two college students told from 14 different viewpoints.

The creative writing teacher, the delivery guy, the local Starbucks baristas, his best friend, her roommate, and the squirrel in the park all have one thing in common—they believe that Gabe and Lea should get together. Lea and Gabe are in the same creative writing class. They get the same pop culture references, order the same Chinese food, and hang out in the same places. Unfortunately, Lea is reserved, Gabe has issues, and despite their initial mutual crush, it looks like they are never going to work things out.

But somehow even when nothing is going on, something is happening between them, and everyone can see it. Their creative writing teacher pushes them together. The baristas at Starbucks watch their relationship like a TV show. Their bus driver tells his wife about them. The waitress at the diner automatically seats them together. Even the squirrel who lives on the college green believes in their relationship.

Surely Gabe and Lea will figure out that they are meant to be together....

Again, I would like to thank my Misfit Queen, Jayvee, for lending me her copy of the fluffiest book I have ever read in my entire life.

This book is the cutest book I have ever seen. The synopsis is cute. The cover is cute. The ending is cute. Gabe is so cute. Lea is cute. There's this cute Squirrel. The story is cute.

So, there are fourteen viewpoints in this story. Each one of them have both encountered Lea and Gabe one way or another and noticed something really special about the two of them. You could see the different sides of the two characters from a different perspective and not just the main character's own which is very refreshing. I mean, the resident perverted bench and the squirrel are part of the fourteen, like, who would've thought?

Gabe and Lea cross paths every time. It's like the universe planned that they see each other ALL THE TIME. Gabe, well, is VERY shy. In Filipino, he's torpe (tohr-peh). He likes Lea very much. They share interests and they run around the same circle of friends. But, Gabe finds it hard talking to people. Not that he's a tortured soul or anything. He's deaf in one ear, which I think if pretty forgivable. Lea thinks that Gabe is ignoring her and things got out of hand.

I can barely count with my two hands the time I desperately want Lea and Gabe to just GET OVER THEMSELVES AND KISS ALREADY. They had to wait until page 238 to kiss!!!!!

Can I just say that page 238 is the cutest thing ever? YES IT IS THE CUTEST THING EVER. I mean, sure, it wasn't the fireworks kind of kiss but it was enough to melt my cold cruel heart.

A Little Something Different is such an easy read. I read it within a day. The story is simple. The characters are simple. The writing is simple. No fuss. No drama. No complications. No one died. It's pure, unadulterated, honest-to-goodness kind of story.

Wicked Review: Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang

Published: September 9, 2014

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Acquired: Borrowed Paperback

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

On the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton’s laws of motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road. 

Why? Why did Liz Emerson decide that the world would be better off without her? Why did she give up? Vividly told by an unexpected and surprising narrator, this heartbreaking and nonlinear novel pieces together the short and devastating life of Meridian High’s most popular junior girl. Mass, acceleration, momentum, force—Liz didn’t understand it in physics, and even as her Mercedes hurtles toward the tree, she doesn’t understand it now. How do we impact one another? How do our actions reverberate? What does it mean to be a friend? To love someone? To be a daughter? Or a mother? Is life truly more than cause and effect?

First, I would like to thank my Misfit Queen, Jayvee, for lending me her copy. I wouldn't be devastated if it weren't for her.

She wished to be happy, and fell asleep with an entire sky above her.

Liz Emerson was popular by nature. She hung out with the cool crowd and went to the coolest parties. And yet, her life was bleak, meaningless, and empty. Suddenly, her status doesn't matter because she feels empty inside. She hate silence. She hates coming home to an empty house with the silence consuming her whole being.

Liz spent her life ruining others. She brought them down and she was too late to remedy the wounds she has inflicted. I felt sad for her really. I am a self confessed mean girl. At times, I would stay stuff I would regret but then obviously, I'd be too late because the damage is done. I've hurt everyone and it leaves a hollow feeling inside.

Liz looked back and counted the bodies, all those lives she had ruined simply by existing. So she chose to stop existing.

The book alternates from before Liz crashed her car to events that happened after she crashed her car. Normally, I'd get confused with point of view alternation, but not here. Amy Zhang did a wonderful job with writing this story. At every turn of the page, emotions pour out. I mean, seriously. I had a hard time keeping myself in check because I don't want to embarrass myself in public while I'm reading this.

She wanted to go back. She wanted to be a little girl again, the one who thought getting high meant being pushed on the swing and pain was falling off her bike.

People think that talking about feelings is easy. But it's not. Especially when you grow old. At 21, I still wish pain was just like falling off of my bike or having a paper cut. It's easier said than done. This is where Liz and I connected in a way. You see, I understood her pain. I understood why she hurt. As much as we really want someone to talk to about it, we really can't. It's one of the hardest things to do. We humans are such fickle beings. No one can really understand what goes in our heads.

It is then, when she releases her need to understand, that everything falls into place. 

Amy Zhang used to have lots of imaginary friends. When people told her to grow up, she turned her imaginary friends into characters and started telling their stories. When she isn't writing, she can be found playing piano, hitting balls on the tennis court, or struggling through her weekly existential crisis. She lives in Wisconsin with her family.

Goodreads || Twitter || Website