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review; the duff
The DUFF by Kody Keplinger Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn’t think she’s the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her “the Duff,” she throws her Coke in his face. But things aren’t so great at home right now, and Bianca is desperate for a distraction. She ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it. Eager for escape, Bianca throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with him. Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out…
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;the last five books I added to my TBR
Alternatively; Help I Keep Adding Things To My TBR And Am Losing Control Of My Life. It took me way too long to figure out what to write for this week’s post, but well, here we are! My GoodReads TBR is big. And growing daily because there are SO MANY BOOKS I WANT TO READ THANKS AUTHORS. So I thought I’d highlight the last five things I added to my TBR. I’m going to be honest, I don’t actually remember adding some of these books, but I must have for a reason? I’m listing the books in the order they were added to Goodreads, from the earliest to the latest.…
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instant to-read; the fairytale retelling edition
If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you might have noticed that I love fairytale-retellings. I love the Disney versions for most of them too, and the stories from which they are taken – or at least as far as I know them. But my one true weakness when it comes to books? Fairytale-retellings. If the back of the book – or the front! – boasts anything about the story being inspired by or a take on any fairytale ever, the likelihood of my reading it is Very High. Of course, there are some fairytales I veer towards more than others. I love them all, don’t get me…
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review; a thousand pieces of you
A Thousand Pieces Of You by Claudia Gray Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him. Marguerite can’t let the man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt – and her own heart. Soon she discovers the truth behind her…
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recipe; lighter tomato cream pasta
Pasta was my go-to meal of choice when the husband and I were living in New Zealand. We were both students, and it was just easy to make after a long day. It never hurt that pasta is always yummy. So there was always at least two cans of tomatos in the apartment and a packet of fusili and gnocchi. I adapted this recipe from Texanerin, and after realising I could make pink sauce with cream cheese instead of cream and cheese, I have not looked back. I’ve even adapted my cousin’s three cheese sauce into a cream cheese type sauce! This can be made with any pasta ever. I’ve…
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;an incomprehensive list of badass fictional mothers
It is almost Mother’s Day here in Malaysia, and I figured I’d make a list – I keep making lists!* – of fictional Moms that are awesome! *Lists are so easy to do and so much fun, but is anybody getting tired of them because maybe I should stop… So, as the title suggests, this is NOT A COMPLETE LIST because I’m definitely going to wind up forgetting someone and people might definitely not agree, and I might run out of Moms to gush about. Oh, who am I kidding, with the ‘absent parents’ trend in YA, I might definitely run out of Moms to talk about, but I refuse…
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review; blue lily, lily blue
Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater There is danger in dreaming. But there is even more danger in waking up. Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs. The trick with found things though, is how easily they can be lost. Friends can betray. Mothers can disappear. Visions can mislead. Certainties can unravel. Review:
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;five books for rainy days
I’ve been stumped on what to write for this month, I’m going to be honest. I’ve been doing a lot of last minute blog post writing and a lot of last minute everything, and I can’t seem to drag myself out of this procrastination and this slump. But apparently yelling into the Void (i.e. Twitter) helps, because one of my friends suggested writing something about books for the summer. The weather we’ve been having here in Malaysia has been more rainy than summer-y, so instead, here’s a little list of books that are, in my opinion, fun to read when it’s raining outside and you’ve got a mug of something…
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unboxing; blu’s bookish bag, april 2018
Twice in one year! This year has really been a ‘treat your self’ kind of year. Or ‘treat yo’ shelf’, if I’m more accurate. Okay, shameless plug to my bookmarks shop over. When I heard the theme for the April Blu’s Bookish Bag, I could not resist. I was already planning to get another bag after January – and am probably getting another one later this year? – and the April theme just caught my attention. The bag arrived some time last week, and this time, I waited till my daughter was napping to open it and take photos. Can we say ‘lesson learned’? SPOILERS AHOY! The theme this time…
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handle with care; the tropes edition
More tropes! I’m not going to lie, I sort of imagined myself throwing some confetti in the air while shouting this. I don’t know why, but it is possibly because I’m running on a little sleep and nothing but coffee in my stomach. In the last post, I talked about tropes that I will always read – and sometimes be disappointed by, of course that happens. But in this post, I will talk about tropes that might be over-done, but sometimes? Can be written in a fresh way that I find myself enjoying them. And surprisingly, this time all the tropes are not romantically inclined! Just – most of them.…