Book Blitz: Holly Hearts Hollywood by Kenley Conrad with Giveaway #ReadSwoonRepeat

4 star

Summary:

Holly Hearts Hollywood is the first book in a series.

Seventeen-year-old Holly Hart wants to be a star. She moves to Los Angeles from the small town of Cedar Junction, only to hear she’s too fat and ugly to be a famous singer.

But when Shell Shocked Records looks past Holly’s plus-size and less-than-graceful-personality to offer her a recording contract, Holly cannot believe her good fortune. On closer inspection, however, the the record execs want Holly to do all the singing, and a thinner and more beautiful girl, Lacey, would lip-sync and get all the credit. Holly goes for it because after all, she wanted to sing.

Contractually bound to secrecy, Holly is more than happy to sit backstage and write in her journal while Lacey shimmies in the limelight and basks in the fame. Before she knows it, Holly is friends with Serena, the pop-star daughter of a music-mogul, flirting with an intern, and developing a strange half-friendship with Lacey.

When Grayson Frost, the biggest country star in America, and coincidentally, a former school bully begins dating Lacey, Holly hopes that he won’t recognize or torment her.

Through a series of embarrassing and weird events, Holly gets to know Grayson and learns that he is much nicer and more mature than he was four years ago. Holly is horrified when she starts falling for him. When Grayson admits he fell for Lacey’s voice, what is a girl to do when she can’t legally tell the truth at the moment when the truth matters the most?


From the synopsis alone, I was already confident that I would like this book. The plot really interested me because it's something so very familiar that it's actually quite refreshing. The story is told in a diary/journal type way, and I think that this suited the overall sweet personality of the main character. 

I gave this 4 stars just because I didn't like how the story ended. I just want this book to end in a way where everything is resolved and won't leave me frustrated. Don't get me wrong, I like my plot twists and surprises and angst as much as the next reader, but this book that just felt really sweet and romantic had no business having that kind of ending. Even so, that was not a deal breaker and if there is a second book, which I hope there is, I would be glad to read it.

Kenley Conrad did a great job with constructing an emotional connection between the characters and readers.

In conclusion, this book was great! It's cute, light and swoony. What more can I ask, right? I would definitely recommend this to all YA lovers out there!
LINK TO GOODREADS
PURCHASE LINKS:
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iBooks

Holly Hearts Hollywood
by Kenley Conrad
Publication Date: September 2014
Publisher: Swoon Romance



From nine to five, Kenley is a home insurance agent. At all other hours of the day she is a young adult author, singer, dancer, cat lady, fangirl, wife, bookworm, and internet enthusiast. Her favorite pastimes include crying over really good books, riding with her husband on their motorcycle, and binge-watching seasons of television shows. When she’s not working or writing, she likes to perform in local community musical theatre productions.

Connect with the Author:  Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads


Complete the Rafflecopter for a chance to win!

Giveaway Information: – Winner will be drawn June 17, 2015

·         One (1) winner will receive 2 eBooks of any previously published Swoon Romance books of their choice (INT)

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GCQ Travels: Bicol

audrey
We are in Bicol! Ok, not the three of us but Beryl and Auds. Kimi is currently in Taiwan which is why she couldn't come here. This vacation might be quite long, but we're planning to do a lot of things to make it really fun. We'll be blogging most of these things for you guys, but not all of the things that we will blog about will be about books. We might do a couple of DIYs or just fun experiences that we wanted to share with you.

Since we arrived here, we've already done a lot of things. We'll be sharing to you the highlights of our trip so far.


Gorgeous view of the Mayon Volcano


Swimming with one of our cousins


We made OREO MILKSHAKES!!!


Audrey got her nails done :)

 That's it for now! We'll be posting more next time, so stay tuned! Hope you enjoy! :)

Random Saturdays: GCQ Facts

20
Hey guys! It's been quite some time since we've posted something that isn't about books. This is why we decided that every Saturday, we will be sharing personal stuff about the ladies behind Geeky Chiquitas! :) For this first post, we will share to you 20 random facts about us. It could also be just about one of us, two of us or for all of us. Enjoy!

 Numbers 1-5 will be about Beryl, 6-10 about Audrey, 11-15 about Kimi and 16-20 about all of us.

1. I HATED reading books when I was younger. Yes, I really did and now I'm book blogging! Just as they say "Expect the unexpected".

 2. I heart fresh orange juice! I could go swimming in it. Ha ha kidding!

 3. I can't wink properly. I've tried this many times, but usually people just start laughing. I think I look like I'm having a seizure.

 4.  I always screenshot different clothes, shoes, bags, and other "girly" stuff that I want online, then I just keep it there. I normally don't buy them.

5. I feel queasy when I see blood. I think that's obviously the reason why I can never be a doctor.

DIY Nail Art Tutorials

beryl



The perfect DIY nail manicure is here! Yesterday, my best friend and I got bored and tried painting our nails but since we thought that we could make our own nails and boost our creativity, we tried two kinds of nail arts.

The first nail art that we tried is the braid manicure.


Braid manicure is quite similar to braiding your hair but instead you're braiding your nails! Isn't that cool? 


The braid manicure only consists of three different colors and the pattern is all up to you! 

The second nail art we tried is the newspaper nail art. 

BOOK IN REVIEW: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

attachments



Title: Attachments
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Publication Date: April 14, 2011
Hardcover: 336 pages
Rating: 4/5 stars

Upon reading the plot synopsis of this book, I didn't expect myself to actually like it, in the same way that I did not expect myself to like the main character, Lincoln, but I read it anyway because Eleanor & Park and Fangirl were both sooooo good. And there are obviously no regrets. 

Attachments is about Lincoln, your typical 28-year old no-life loser, who's still living with his mother, stuck in a job he doesn't even like, has zero social life unless you consider spending Saturday nights playing D&D with old friends, and who hasn't been with a girl since he broke up with his highschool girlfriend 8 years ago. I'm not a big fan of characters with the nice guy loser syndrome, but Lincoln sure is likable. 

The novel introduces us to Lincoln's new job: being the IT person in charge of monitoring the employee's email accounts for any inappropriate usage. It's his job to read the people's emails and sending them warnings if they say anything profane or inappropriate. It's creepy, but it has good pay, and for Lincoln, at least it's a job. The novel's narrative goes back and forth from Lincoln's 3rd person POV and Jennifer and Beth's email exchanges, a writing style which I really liked, as it kept my interest throughout the book. Reading it was simply a breeze - light, easy and enjoyable. 

BOARDGAME IN REVIEW: Monopoly Empire

2013

To celebrate my last night of freedom (my classes commence tomorrow, i love ya tomorrow), I decided to spend it by playing a healthy game of Monopoly Empire with my 10-year old cousin Kelly who lives next door to where I temporarily stay while I'm in college (ew).

 Monopoly Empire is my cousin's newest Monopoly boardgame. She is addicted to Monopoly and owns everything that has to do with Monopoly; I've never seen someone love Monopoly as much as her (not even me). In any case, Monopoly Empire is the newest addition to her Monopoly collection, and we both had a hell of a time playing the game.

 This will be my first boardgame review - I've never actually written one before, mostly because the last time I played a decent boardgame was when I was... probably 8 years old (and the boardgame I'm talking about is also Monopoly - just the Classic one).

 So here's my attempt to write a review on a boardgame.

 Boardgame: Monopoly Empire
Publisher: Hasbro
Year Published: 2013
Number of Players: 2-4
Suggested Ages: 8 and up
Playing Time: 90 minutes (or less)
My Rating: 3.5/5

I've always loved the classic Monopoly ever since I was a child because it gave me the chance to pretend I had money and a house and that cash was easily accumulated just by passing by the GO SIGN. Now, Monopoly Empire is a little bit more different. With this new Monopoly boardgame, you are able to own (yes, own) all sorts of bigtime brands like Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Nestle, Xbox, Samsung and more!

2014 Must Try Hairstyles

beryl



A new year has come and a good way to make it unforgettable at the end of the year is by trying new things!

This year, I would like to try crazy and different hairstyles, but I don't think my hair would grow that fast to try them all so I'll just share them to you. 

1. Straight Bob-Cut


I have a natural straight hair with bangs, so I think this haircut is easy to do with my hair. You just need to cut it off. Even though it's risky, isn't it fun to try a new style? To have a new look? You won't need to worry for bad hair days anymore because with short hair, it's always easier to fix.

2. Wavy Curls 


Wavy curls is my fave of all time! I love getting my hair wavy because who wouldn't get bored with having such straight hair all the time? Sometimes, I even bun up my hair then pull it off after some hours, just to make it wavy. How desperate am I, right? When you have to attend formal events, you can easily go with this hairstyle, no problemo.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE GEEKY CHIQUITAS!

2014

Hi guys! HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We have just finished celebrating the New Year and we would like to share to you the things we did to celebrate it. We are also gonna tell you our plans for next year and our New Year's resolution.


To celebrate the New Year we had a big dinner, ate ice cream, inflated, like, a thousand balloons, and pestered our parents and aunties to play a game that the three of us, with the help of a cousin, planned. The game we planned was a scavenger hunt. We were going crazy because we didn't hide the clues yet and our relatives were already downstairs. After eating, they weren't leaving the dining area yet and we had to put a clue there. In the end, we decided to put the clues sneakily into where they were supposed to be. No one noticed us, I guess we can become ninjas now. After playing the game, we cooked spaghetti for the whole family and ate like there was no tomorrow. It was so fun!


We also made a list of our New Year's Resolution. We chose one out of the never-ending list that we made and here we are about to share them to you. Our New Year's resolution is to pray hard, study harder, and party hardest.  Yeah. 

And of course, it wouldn't be New Year without the mandatory FIREWORKS!!!

DIY Shirt #2

black
Just as I promised, here is my second shirt DIY for the day! I used a normal green shirt then designed it to be somewhat ragged but still unique. 

This design can be paired up with your favorite shorts and is a great way to turn your unwanted tshirts into something fun! 

You can even wear this in parties just like what Kimi did before! 


Because I found this really cool, I'll show you the step by step tutorial below! 

Step 1: Cut a small part of the sleeves.


Step 2: Rip out the remaining sleeves. 


Step 3: Measure how long you want the strips to be then fold it. 



DIY Shirt #1

cloth
Holiday seasons are the perfect time for DIYs! How cool is it when a simple shirt can turn into something new? Today, I made two DIY shirts just by using simple materials. In fact, I didn't spend on anything. 

Basic tshirts are the bomb guys! You can transform it into anything you want. This DIY is one way to make use of your tshirts which you don't use anymore. 

 I really had fun making the shirts, so I'll share the steps with you! 

Step 1: Get a shirt that you are willing to cut. 




Step 2: Fold a part of the shirt.


Step 3: Cut the folded part. 



Step 4: Do the same until the bottom. 


Without passion, there is nothing: An organizer's experience in the first ever Student Media Congress

dlsu
(I look so horrible and stressed on this picture but please don't judge... I was up at 4am. HEHE)

I first heard of the Student Media Congress from a pub on Facebook. They were recruiting people to organize the event, and I immediately signed up to be part of the organizing team, just because. It was basically just because I wanted something to keep myself preoccupied with outside my acads - and what better way but to help organize an event dedicated to educating students about the changing media landscape? But I never really thought that time that it would impact me in ways unimaginable.

Day 1 - July 26, 2013
Calltime for Day 1 was at 5am. I woke up really early, excited to get to work. I was assigned to be the PA for some representatives from one of the sponsors, The Philippine Daily Inquirer. I was nervous, since I've never had prior experience in being a PA for a bigtime speaker - and especially not TWO. There were two of them assigned to me, and they were bringing in a team of 6 people as well, with 4 cars. It was really stressful and tiring since the parking space given to them was located at the other end of the campus, very very far from the venue where the congress was being held. But it was really worth it, not just because it was fun, but because they somehow really liked me that they gave me a notebook, ballpen, notepad AND 6 tickets to Wolverine!!!! Only regret though: I wasn't able to get a picture with them :(

Day 1 had a lot of great speakers too - Maria Ressa, Val Victa, Jaemark Tordecilla, and so much more! Although I wasn't able to hear all the talks they gave because I was too busy accommodating my own speakers, I did get to catch short glimpses from each speech. It was very informative and interesting to know so many new things about media. After the event, we had a meeting with the team, and prepared for Day 2. I got home a little early (relatively, anyway) 8pm. I only ate a hotdog for the whole day, I spent all day running around the campus to fetch my speakers, and I lacked sleep - BUT I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT :)

Here's a full photo recap of my Day 1! :)


Day 2 - July 27, 2013
Calltime for Day 2 was a little later - 6am. While Day 1 was a whole day event of full of talks, on the other hand, Day 2 was filled with individual workshops, either competing or non competing. I was assigned as workshop head for 3 workshops. Day 2 was a little less tiring than Day 1 since I didn't have to run around the campus, but pretty stressful nonetheless. I didn't get to eat lunch (again), I had to deal with a lot of mad people who didn't like waiting, I had to meet and converse with speakers who were somehow pretty intimidating - but I learned so much! :)


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