It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

audrey
2a

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we gather to share what we have read for the past week and what we plan to read this week. It's a great way to meet new blogs, add new titles to your TBR list, and network with other bloggers.

It was such a busy week for all of us, but we managed to sneak in a few books! :)

LAST WEEK'S READS:

Strange Sweet Song Twelve Steps 
Faking Normal17228280

Strange Sweet Song by Adi Rule (Audrey)
Twelve Steps by Veronica Bartles (Kimi)
Faking Normal by Courtney Stevens (Kimi)
Better Off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg (Kimi)
Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira (Audrey) 
The Other Way Around by Sashi Kaufman (Beryl) 

Book in Review: Love Letters to The Dead by Ava Dellaira

2014 publication


Title: Love Letters to The Dead
Author: Ava Dellaira
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Publication Date: April 1, 2014
Hardcover: 323 pages
Rating: 4/5

Laurel was given an assignment in her English class to write a letter to a dead person. She wrote more than just one letter to more than just one dead person. Through the letters we are able to see her life. She adjusts to her new school. She meets new people and gets new friends. She finds herself a boyfriend. At first we think it's pretty normal but as you go on, you realize that something's not right. What is wrong in Laurel's life? What's going on? Will her secrets stop her from going further in her relationship with Sky?

This book was really good. The writing was beautiful and never boring. When the secret was revealed, I wasn't really shocked since the author has already dropped a lot of clues. That didn't ruin the book though since I didn't really mind. 

I loved how the author wrote the book. I think that if the book wasn't written in letter form, it wouldn't be as great. I loved how the book didn't try to gloss over what happened to Laurel but didn't give too much information either. The moments wherein Laurel and May are shown together were definitely my favorite parts of the book. May seemed like such a great sister and you could see that Laurel adored her. As for Laurel's friends, they were great but to be perfectly honest, I didn't like them all that much. Sky seems great too but I feel like the author wasn't able to show much about him, Hannah, Natalie, and Laurel's other friends.

Book in Review: The Other Way Around by Sashi Kaufman

adventure


Title: The Other Way Around
Author: Sashi Kaufman 
Format: ARC
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Lerner/Carolrhoda Lab
Rating: 4/5 

Almost everyone around Andrew West has their own impression about him. It's either he's goth, gay or emo. You might think that a boy studying in an all girls school, where his mom is the headmaster, is ultimately popular and has lots of friends, but Andrew is the complete opposite. When Andrew experiences an awful thanksgiving, he decides to just run away from home and maybe visit his grandmother's house. Instead of going to his grandmother, he catches a ride with a bunch of older teenagers, who apparently are Freegans. He follows them as they go to different places, eat food from dumpsters and his adventure goes on.

Waiting on Wednesday: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

audrey


"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

WHAT WE ARE WAITING FOR:


Title: To All The Boys I've Loved Before
Author: Jenny Han
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: April 15, 2014
Kindle Edition: 288 pages

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister's ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.

WHY WE ARE WAITING:

Book Tours: Twelve Steps by Veronica Bartles {Review + GIVEAWAY!}

book giveaway

Title: Twelve Steps
Author: Veronica Bartles
Publishing Date: 03/25/14
Rating: 4/5 stars
Amazon Amazon UK Goodreads

Book Summary:
Sixteen-year-old Andi is tired of being a second-class sibling to perfect sister Laina. There in Laina's shadow, Andi's only noticeable feature is her pretty awesome hair. And even that is eclipsed by Laina's perfect everything else.
When Andi’s crush asks her to fix him up with Laina, Andi decides enough is enough and devises a twelve-step program to wrangle the spotlight away from Laina. After all, great hair must count for something.
Step 1: Admit she’s powerless to change her perfect sister, and accept that her life really, really sucks. OK, maybe that's two steps in one.
Step 4: Make a list of her good qualities besides great hair. There have got to be at least three good qualities, right?
Step 7: Demand attention for more than just her shortcomings, and break out of her shell. Easier said that done, but worth the effort in the long-run. 
When a stolen kiss from her crush ends in disaster, Andi finds that her prince isn’t as charming as she'd hoped, and realizes she may need a new program--perhaps with less steps!
As cracks in Laina’s flawless façade begin to show, the sisters work together to find a spotlight big enough for both to shine.
MY REVIEW:

 Twelve Steps is a book about two sisters who go to the same highschool, and both think one is better than the other. Andi and Laina have a tight sibling relationship and are very close, but both have their own problems and insecurities. Andi is in love with Laina's best friend Jared, but Jared has been in love with Laina ever since. Laina, on the other hand, has her own troubled past which she keeps bottled up in her diaries. This is a story of how these two sisters find themselves and break out of their own shells.

 Twelve Steps is something that I was immediately drawn to right after reading the first few pages. I love reading stories about sisters, it's a kind of trope that I haven't been exposed to more. I think this book would've been very problematic if not handled as light and cutesy as it was. This one's premise is basically "We're both popular but we think the other one is better than the other" Not that I am undermining other people's problems, but that kind of premise would've lacked depth and emotional value if not treated correctly. It is not so relatable or rewarding to read, and would not have worked as well. Reading contemporary has always been difficult to me as I'm usually presented with books that contain the same premises and characters and love interests that it has gotten way too tiring. Twelve Steps was an enjoyable book that definitely exceeded my expectations.  I read it expecting to read something with fluff, but got out with something more.

 What I loved the most about this book is Andi. Andi was a compelling protagonist who spoke her mind and did whatever the hell she wanted no matter what. It was very easy to relate to this girl, as I myself am the second child in my family, and do strive to be better than my older sister. I found Andi to be a strong and independent character, and though she came off to me as manipulative with her schemes, bottomline is she had a good heart who put her sister first before anything else. This was proven throughout the book when every time she felt second-best or hurt, she was always more concerned about her sister's welfare rather than her own. She also came off as very feminist to me, and I found myself cheering "you go girl!" every time she delivered a piece of dialogue that made me root for her. Her snarkiness and witty humour all came hand in hand.
"First of all, you need to drop the competitive attitude. Dating isn't a contest. And no girl in her right mind actually wants to have guys fighting over her like she's some kind of prize. Laina's a person with feelings, not a trophy for the winner. And you're going to lose her entirely if you don't stop treating her like the toy at the bottom of your cereal box. She doesn't belong to you."
"I don't know what hurts worse: the fact that Jared is such a male chauvinist pig that he can't see why turning my sister into the prize to be won in a stupid pissing contest with Shane Crawford is a bad thing, or the fact that he's never even thought about fighting for me."
Laina was an okay character that I felt was underdeveloped. She didn't seem to progress from Point A at the beginning to Point B at the end. I felt no substantial character development. I was hoping that she would be the one to finally confess about what had happened to her (no spoilers!) but it was Andi had gone to tell the truth. But overall, I thought Laina was a great sister. What I didn't like about this book the most though are the male characters. Shane and Jared... Jesus, where do I even begin? I think I have had enough of scumbag misogynists, but they keep popping up everywhere! Again, there is no problem with creating problematic characters, but I hate it when they stay that way and don't develop. Shane was a crappy character, and yes he doesn't get the girl in the end, but with all chances to change, he never makes an effort and just keeps screwing things up. I was glad to see him go in the end. Jared, Oh God... I can vouch for Andi about how annoying this guy is. He is in love with Laina, but he leads Andi on and even kisses her and thinks it's okay. I don't like how the ending makes it seem like he's such a great guy who defends Laina - you spent the entire year thinking Laina was okay about what had happened just because it didn't technically happen so you automatically assume it was okay? I don't like how in the end he kind of gets Laina (it is implied...?) when he clearly doesn't deserve her or Andi. If Laina had known how poorly Jared treated Andi, I'm sure she'd leave him on the curb to die.

 The only formidable guy character in this whole book is Dave, who treats Andi like a real person and doesn't use her at his disposal. But I wasn't too sure about the ending as I kind of saw Andi as someone independent and wished she hadn't ended up with any of them. I couldn't see the chemistry between her and Dave, so that contributes to that too.

 Overall, Twelve Steps was a cute and fascinating read which I recommend to anyone who's in for something light and funny. It was really enjoyable and had some underlying themes, which were best to be just subtle given the tone of the book. It was well-written and had great plot pacing as well. Twelve Steps is definitely a great book of sibling rivalry and finding your place in this world.


About the Author
As the second of eight children and the mother of four, Veronica Bartles is no stranger to the ups and downs of sibling relationships. (She was sandwiched between the gorgeous-and-insanely-popular older sister and the too-adorable-for-words younger sister.) She uses this insight to write stories about siblings who mostly love each other, even while they’re driving one another crazy.   When she isn’t writing or getting lost in the pages of her newest favorite book, Veronica enjoys knitting fabulous bags and jewelry out of recycled plastic bags and old VHS tapes, sky diving (though she hasn’t actually tried that yet), and inventing the world’s most delectable cookie recipes.  TWELVE STEPS is Veronica Bartles's first novel.

Author Links:
http://vbartles.com/
https://twitter.com/vbartles
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorVeronicaBartles

***GIVEAWAY***

 OK SO FINALLY, the GIVEAWAY!!!

Here are the giveaway details for this tour:

1 ebook of Twelve Steps & $10 Amazon gift card (INT)

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Blog Tour Organized by:
YA Bound Book Tours

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Things On My Bookish Bucket List

audrey

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!


This week's topic is about Top Ten Things On My Bookish Bucket List (could be blogging related, book related etc. -- meeting authors, reading x many books per year, finishing a daunting book, etc.)

1. We would all like to finish reading at least 70 books before the year ends. 

2. Have our own bookstore. We all love books so we thought that it would be great to be able to have a place where we can spread the love for books to the people who visit the bookstore.

3. Read all the classics we have. We don't really read classics so we're trying really hard to read those that we have as real books or ebooks.

4. Become popular book bloggers all over the world. We know that this is hard to achieve but we believe that if we work hard, we'll get this.

5. Meet and greet all our favorite authors like Rainbow Rowell, David Levithan, Stephanie Perkins and more! We have so many authors that we want to meet so part of our bucketlist is to meet them.

6. Be able to design a cover of one of our favorite authors' books. Wouldn't that be super cool? You'll be able to know that you were great enough to actually design the cover of the book of your favorite author. We think we'll probably faint though if this happens, but we'll recover. Don't worry!

7. Collect all our books and pass them to our future children. There's nothing better than the feeling of knowing that your kids will get to enjoy the books that you enjoyed too when you were young. It's like sharing something that's very intimate. Sharing something that will bring you closer to them.

8. Take a creative writing class. Inspired by: Fangirl. It seems like a great opportunity for us to take this kind of class. It only will we learn stuff, we'll have fun as well.

9. Write our own book. We have so many book ideas that we really hope to one day bring those ideas to life. Place them on paper and make them work!

10. Plan and go to a bookish tour. We've never really been in one so it would be great to go to at least new in the future. We really hope that we'll get to do this sometime soon.

What's your Top Ten Tuesday? What did you think about ours? Leave a comment!

Book in Review: Everyday by David Levithan

audrey
Every Day
Title: Every Day
Author: David Levithan
Publisher: Knopf
Publication Date: August 28, 2012
Hardcover: 322 pages
Rating: 4.5/5

 (We wrote this review together, so...)

 This is a story about a being named A. A doesn't have a permanent body. A doesn't have a gender (for convenience we will be calling A "Being" like a replacement for he/she/it). Being moves from body to body to body, never staying in one for more than a day. A doesn't try to change a person's life or do anything too different or significant when being does stay in that person's body. Being could be a girl today and a boy tomorrow. Being could be Asian, American, German, or anything else. Being can have blond hair, dark hair, brown hair, or dyed hair. Being can be athletic, nerdy, artsy, suicidal, an environmentalist and many more. Being can be rich, poor, or middle-class. A can be the total opposite of what being was yesterday and it's totally normally for being.

 On a certain day, A meets a girl named Rhiannon while inhabiting Rhiannon's boyfriend's body. A usually tries not to do anything too different while staying in anyone but this time, being just couldn't resist. A finds beingself liking Rhiannon and tries to find ways to meet her, even while in the body of someone else. They slowly build a relationship and get to know more about each other. Can their relationship survive under the circumstances?

 We actually read this book a long time ago but have put off making a review until now. We needed a bit of time to reflect on this book. Even now, we're not sure if we consider the ending happy or sad. There's something about this book that drew us in. Maybe it's the unique plot? Maybe it's the impossible romance?

 We loved how Every Day was able to show that though A likes Rhiannon, being is still capable of liking someone of the opposite gender. This highlights the fact that A really doesn't have any gender. Levithan was very clear on saying that A isn't a boy or a girl. A wasn't shown as a masculine character or a feminine one though others might think that A is more male than female.

 Every Day was an extremely unique book. The plot was new and fresh, totally not a cliche. We love the plot since it makes you realize how creative Levithan is. He manages to make many books with different topics. His characters don't sound the same like some author's characters do. A was the kind of character whose voice was different from the others. Being was a being (as in being-being not being-he/she/it) that had already figured out what being (back to being-he/she/it) needed to do in order to not mess up anyone's life. we loved how the book started and also loved how it ended. We loved how A, though he never really got education from the same teachers for more than a day, isn't stupid. Being makes use of being's common sense and the things being learned while inhabiting somebody's body to survive. As for Rhiannon, she wasn't stupid either. We don't like her very much but we don't hate her either. She was on our neutral side but even so, we can understand why A would like her, why A would risk so many things for her. Rhiannon didn't do stupid things or rush off into danger. She and A were good together.

 Normally, in books, we like happy endings but we realized that if this book ended happily, it wouldn't be perfect anymore and would seem forced just to please the readers. We also realized that if it ended sadly, we might hate the book, think of it as too depressing. What Levithan did was create an ending that wasn't sad but wasn't happy either. It was more hopeful than happy. Peaceful than sad.

 The writing was easy to read and would grab your attention from the very first page. It showed everything it had to show and made the events perfect. We don't know why we didn't give it a 5. There's just a tiny little thing that's missing but we can't figure out what it is. Other than that, we loved the book.

 Have you read Every Day? What did you think about it? Leave a comment!

Bloggiesta Spring 2014

audrey

Okay, this is our first time joining Bloggiesta, so we're kind of new to this. Basically, it's dedicating 4 days (March 27-30) fixing and improving your blog, and ticking off things from your blog to-do list! It sounds like one big fiesta, because you get to do it with other bloggers at the same time. It's a great opportunity to join challenges, giveaways, Twitter chats and meet new people! If you haven't heard of it before, you can check it out here.

❏  update review archive
❏  add a blogroll
❏  add new friends on Goodreads
❏  write 3 reviews
❏  do two mini challenges
❏  Fix the sidebar
❏  edit old posts
❏  change one thing on your layout and/or look
❏  comment on other Bloggiesta partipants blogs
❏  clean up tags
❏  Fix Tumblr 
❏  Add share buttons under posts

This list will most likely get longer or shorter, depending on what we estimate to be able to achieve during those 4 days. It's our first time participating and we really hope we can do everything on this to-do list! Good luck everyone. :)

Soupy Sundays: On Cliches (5)

audrey

Soupy Sundays is a discussion post at Geeky Chiquitas in which we talk about our opinions on certain topics. This week's topic is on cliches.


ON CLICHÉS 

Some people really hate cliches. They say that some plot lines are so overused. Of course it's nice to find a plot which is new and fresh since we tend to see a lot of the same plot lines in every genre. It gets tiring to see all of the same kind of books over and over again. They may be written differently but are, in essence, the same.

It may be so but we think that some books that are cliches are actually nice and enjoyable. We believe that a book's greatness is based more on how it was written. Maybe a book might be a cliche but if it is written well, if the plot was given justice, then it would probably be great for us. There is also a reason for why certain topics become so popular. Maybe that topic was simply great or could be worked with at so many different angles that people found it good enough to be worth reading about over and over again.

We admit that it might be hard to come up with new, fresh topics since there are so many books that you can't help but think: "What's the use of trying to think of a new topic when probably every single one has already been done?" Well, you might think that all topics are covered but we believe that if you think hard enough, you'll find a topic that's new. If you really can't think of one, you can choose to use one that you think hasn't been used much.

There are a lot of plot lines that we want to read yet haven't read yet. Sometimes, we are disappointed about how there are so many books on a certain topic but none on another. On a past post, we listed down a couple of topics that we haven't seen yet in a book that we would probably like to read. There were about ten topics there and we believe that we even had more that we didn't list down anymore. (You can check it out here.)

Even though we would like to see new, fresh topics when we read a book, we cannot deny that there's something about cliches that is kinda comforting. The feeling when you read a book and you already know what is happening is just different. It gives this comforting feeling. Makes you feel safe like nothing's gonna surprise you or anything. You already know what generally happens so you don't feel the need to analyze everything. You can just relax while reading a cliche. 

In conclusion, we don't think that cliches are bad. We believe that a book should not be judged solely on its plot line but by it as a whole. Though we think of it as such, we would still like to see more unique topics. More books that cover new territories. Every plot is worth writing about because someone out there might be looking for a book like that so we hope that writers everywhere try as much as possible to write about different things. Audrey even saw a book on Goodreads that showed you how to sharpen pencils. If that isn't unique and different, we don't know what is.

What do you think about cliches? Leave a comment!

LGBT MONTH: Sign up Post

Aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe
Fighting Dreamer
LGBT Month is hosted by Cayce at Fighting Dreamer and Laura at Laura Plus Books. It runs throughout April and it’s here to celebrate LGBT readers, LGBT authors and of course LGBT books!

For the whole month of April, I will be posting all things LGBT! I am pretty stoked about this event, as LGBT is a genre I want to explore more, as I've only read few books in it. I love how positive this event is, and I encourage all of you to sign up as well! It's going to be a great opportunity to learn something new and become more aware about equality and acceptance.

These are the LGBT books I have read: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, and basically every David Levithan and Julie Anne Peters book. Those are all pretty basic, and I plan to read more in April. If you have any LGBT books in mind or LGBT posts you want me to post, help me and leave a comment! :D

To know more about LGBT Month, go here.

Creepy Cartoon Theories

audrey

Everyone watches cartoons, or at least once in their life. Admit it. We think it's funny and entertaining. Some people watch it because they simply want to watch something childish and innocent and to take a break from all those sad and heart breaking movies slash shows. Some of our favorite cartoons are Spongebob, Adventure Time and other random cartoons. What if all those cartoons are based on creepy true stories? 


1. The Rugrats Theory 

The Rugrats is actually just a figment of Angelica's imagination. Chuckie died along with his mother which is why Chaz is a nervous wreck. Tommy was still born which is why Stew is always in the basement making toys for the son who never had the chance to live, and the DeVilles had an abortion. Angelica didn't know if the baby would be a girl or a boy causing her to make up twins. One girl and one boy.

There's only one Rugrat that isn't a figment of Angelica's imagination- Tommy's brother, Dil. The only problem is that Angelica doesn't know the difference between the made up ones and Dil.

We find it difficult to elaborate on this topic so we'll be posting a link of hone theory instead.

The Link:

http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Rugrats_Theory



2. Courage The Cowardly Dog

We believe that Courage's owners are actually dead and in hell. The place is way too creepy to not be hell! Eustace and the other villains all look like they're dead and already rotten. Others look like their appearances have been altered by the setting which we still believe is hell. Anyway, if you want more on this topic, you can look at the link below.

Oh, and we suggest that you don't watch this cartoon unless you are really, really brave or have seen worse things. We watched this before and it left is with nightmares. Although, if you like this show, we don't mind. We all have different tastes. We are just really creeped out by this.




3. Powerpuff Girls 

There is a theory about The Powerpuff Girls in which it says that the girls are actually just one girl with multiple personalities. Apparently the girl has been bullied by her older brother because her older brother is jealous of the dad's affection for the girl. The older brother is showed as Mojo Jojo. The other villains seem like kid's tots since the girl envisions herself as a child because she was bullied at a young age. If you want to learn more about this topic, there's a link below.




4. Wall-E

So there's this theory about how Wall-E killed everyone and everything on Earth. This explains why there are robots like Wall-E who are scattered all over the place and yet Wall-E survived. We don't really want to believe this theory since Wall-E doesn't seem like a killer. It does explain a few things. If you want more in this topic there's a link below.



Feature Follow Friday: Reading Habits

audrey


The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee’s View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it’ll allow us to show off more new blogs!


GFCbloglovin

This week's question:

How have your reading habits changed in the past few years? Did you get interested in a new genre? Do you read more? Less? Why do you think your habits changed, if they did.

We definitely read more books than before. Even though we have schoolwork, we still find time to read books. We have explored a lot of new genres that we thought we would never have even tried before. One genre that we started to enjoy reading is sci-fi. Basically, because of blogging, we have tried more genres than before. We think that our habits changed because we matured. We have experienced lots of new things that we never tried before, so even our book picks have widened. 

What's your Feature Follow Friday? What did you think about ours? Leave a comment!

Life of a Blogger: Travel

audrey
lifeofblogger

Life of a Blogger is a weekly feature made by Novel Heartbeat to help the readers get to know us bloggers better. This week's topic is travel. This is a great opportunity for us to let our readers get to know us better. 

travel

We love travelling! We have traveled to a couple of places in the country and a couple out of the country. We have traveled together (of course, we're cousins!) but some of the places listed below may not have been visited by all three of us. Some may have only been gone to by two of us or by one of us. Most of it though. were visited by all three of us. 

Place We've Been To (Local):

1. Manila - We live here!
2. Bicol - Our hometown
3. Baguio - We all went here, but not together :(
4. Tagaytay - Not together either :(
5. Batangas - We went during a family trip! 
6. Cebu - Only Kimi
7. Ilocos - Only Kimi

Places We've Been To (Outside The Country):

1. Hong Kong 
2. Shanghai - Only Audrey and Beryl
3. Beijing
4. Taiwan - We went to Taiwan during a family trip too! :)
5. Korea 
6. Malaysia
7. Singapore
8. Virginia
9. New York
10. New Jersey
11. Delaware

Places We Want To Travel To (Local):

1. Palawan
2. Boracay
3. Bohol

Places We Want To Travel To (Outside The Country):

1. Paris
2. Canada
3. London
4. Japan
5. New Zealand
6. Las Vegas

There are a lot more places that we want to travel to but we listed only a few. If we listed them all, we may never get this posted in time! But seriously, there are a lot of places out there that we would love to visit. There is no shortage to the beautiful places in this world and we hope to see as much of them as we can.

What's your Life of a Blogger? What are the places you've traveled to? Where do you want to travel to in the future? Leave a comment!

Wibbly Wobbly Wednesdays: The Timekeeper by Mitch Albom

audrey

Wibbly Wobbly Wednesdays is a new feature on this blog where we talk about any book that has something to do with the concept of time. The book may be about time travel, set in the past or future, or just has a bizarre timeline. If you are a Whovian, you know what we're talking about! :)

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom

Before, we said that we have never read a Mitch Albom book. Now, we can honestly say that we have since we have just finished reading The Time Keeper. We realized that it would be perfect for our Wibbly Wobbly Wednesdays post so we chose it for the post. 



Title: The Time Keeper
Author: Mitch Albom
Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Hyperion

Synopsis (via Goodreads): 

In this fable, the first man on earth to count the hours becomes Father Time. The inventor of the world's first clock is punished for trying to measure God's greatest gift. He is banished to a cave for centuries and forced to listen to the voices of all who come after him seeking more days, more years. Eventually, with his soul nearly broken, Father Time is granted his freedom, along with a magical hourglass and a mission: a chance to redeem himself by teaching two earthly people the true meaning of time.

He returns to our world--now dominated by the hour-counting he so innocently began--and commences a journey with two unlikely partners: one a teenage girl who is about to give up on life, the other a wealthy old businessman who wants to live forever. To save himself, he must save them both. And stop the world to do so.

We realized that Mitch Albom truly is a great author. This book was beautiful and heartwarming. We were transported into The Time Keeper's world and got lost in it. We loved it from the very first page and we thought that we should share this to all of you so that you can also see how great this book is. We are looking forward to reading more of Mitch Albom's works. We hope Mitch remains as good an author as he is now.

What did you think about our Wibbly Wobbly Wednesdays? Have you read The Time Keeper? Leave a comment!

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books On My Spring 2014 TBR List

audrey
Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. 

 This week's topic is the top ten books on our spring TBR list. We definitely have more than 10 books on our TBR list so we decided to put only those that we are most excited to read. 


1. Buzz Kill by Beth Fantaskey
Buzz Kill

I'm very excited to read this since I've heard in the synopsis that this is kind of a murder-mystery. I haven't read one of those in a while. Lately, all I've read are books in the YA Contemporary genre. Buzz Kill has a very interesting premise and I do hope I'll like it.

2. Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira
Love Letters to the Dead

I am actually reading this book right now but I am also reading a lot of other books so I doubt that I'll be finishing this book any time soon. I've always been a sucker for books that aren't written in the typical style. I heard that this story is written letter style so I immediately put this on my TBR list.

Book in Review: Strange Sweet Song by Adi Rule

2014 release

Strange Sweet Song


Title: Strange Sweet Song
Author: Adi Rule
Format: ARC
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Hardcover: 336 pages
Rating: 5 awestruck stars/ 5 also awestruck stars

NOOOOOO! I didn't want to give this book 5 stars. It wasn't because the book wasn't nice. It was because it felt like surrendering to this book's beauty, this book's charm. I saw all the 5-star and 4-star reviews of this book and thought to myself, I won't fall for it! I was so wrong. I'm here now writing a 5-star review of Strange Sweet Song.

I'll be starting with a synopsis of this book.

Sing da Navelli is the daughter of Barbara da Navelli, a famous opera singer. Since her mother died during her lead role as Angelique in Angelique, she has strived to be the next Barbara da Navelli. The only problem is that she isn't a diva like her mother. When she arrives at her new school, she finds out that her school will be having a play, Angelique. 

Her father does not know that her school is putting on Angelique which is why Sing was free to audition. She gets a role (I won't say which role) and starts having voice practice with Apprentice Daysmoor. She doesn't like Daysmoor from the very start. He's a grumpy, mean, emotionless man but is he really? 

Sing realizes that everything is not how it seems. She faces a lot of challenges. She finds love in the most unexpected place. She runs into betrayal. But most of all, she finds herself.

My Review:

This book was very original. There was enough hinting at was gonna happen that it didn't leave you utterly confused and enough restraint that you didn't feel like there were spoilers. Some may say that Adi hinted too much but I thought it was just right. I loved how Sing's name wasn't just a random choice that the author picked to make the book nicer. It was a conscious decision and affected a lot of things in the book. She was able to emphasize the pressure put on Sing. She was also able to show how Daysmoor helped her find herself without being the sole (or even main) cause for her determination to finally find herself and get better. 

WARNING: THIS PART MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!

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2015 Reading Challenge

2015 Reading Challenge
Kimi has read 3 books toward her goal of 100 books.
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