Stacking The Shelves (11): February 2016

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks! Hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

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Hello beautiful people of the blogoverse! This is my first Stacking the Shelves post this year. To be honest, I have not purchased any books since the year began because I have no money to spend on impulsive book shopping extravaganza. I am saving the little cash I have with me for something big. Hopefully, I'll be able to share that soon.

So, let's get on with it. Here is my February book haul...

LOVE BOOK #06: Ugly Love

The sixth, and probably the last, Love Book for the February Reading Challenge is Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover. Last I heard, this book is actually going to be a movie soon, and they are already filming. So if you want to know more about it, or if you're planning to read it before the movie comes out, read on!

UGLY LOVE
Author: Colleen Hoover

Publisher: Atria Books

Number of Pages: 337

Date Published: August 5, 2014

Genre: New Adult Romance

Goodreads:

When Tate Collins meets airline pilot Miles Archer, she knows it isn’t love at first sight. They wouldn’t even go so far as to consider themselves friends. The only thing Tate and Miles have in common is an undeniable mutual attraction. Once their desires are out in the open, they realize they have the perfect set-up. He doesn’t want love, she doesn’t have time for love, so that just leaves the sex. Their arrangement could be surprisingly seamless, as long as Tate can stick to the only two rules Miles has for her.

Never ask about the past.
Don’t expect a future.

They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can’t handle it at all.

Hearts get infiltrated.
Promises get broken.
Rules get shattered.
Love gets ugly.

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My Thoughts:

COVER CRAZY: LOVELY VICIOUS Series by Sara Wolf Cover Reveal by Entangled Teen

Cover Reveal: 

Lovely Vicious Series by Sara Wolf

presented by Entangled Teen

YA Contemporary Romance / Dark Comedy? YES PLEASE!

Welcome to the Cover Reveal for the

Lovely Vicious Series by Sara Wolf

presented by Entanged Teen!

Can you say binge read series!

Love Me Never (Lovely Vicious, #1)

Author: Sara Wolf
Publisher: Entangled Teen

Release Date: Apr. 5, 2016

Seventeen-year-old Isis Blake hasn’t fallen in love in three years, nine weeks, and five days, and after what happened last time, she intends to keep it that way. Since then she’s lost eighty-five pounds, gotten four streaks of purple in her hair, and moved to Buttcrack-of-Nowhere, Ohio, to help her mom escape a bad relationship.

All the girls in her new school want one thing—Jack Hunter, the Ice Prince of East Summit High. Hot as an Armani ad, smart enough to get into Yale, and colder than the Arctic, Jack Hunter’s never gone out with anyone. Sure, people have seen him downtown with beautiful women, but he’s never given high school girls the time of day. Until Isis punches him in the face.

WOW (2): Adulthood is a Myth, A Sarah's Scribbles Collection by Sarah Andersen

Waiting On Wednesday (WOW) is a weekly event or bookish meme, hosted by Jill of Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that readers and bloggers are eagerly anticipating and patiently waiting for.

This week, I am so pleased to share a book that I have been wanting to read since the moment I knew there was book about it. It is a collection of short sketches or scribbles (comic-style) by Sarah Andersen about the true to life accounts of awkward situations we often get ourselves stuck in.

LOVE BOOK #05: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

The Love Book to be featured today is the first book of one of my favorite series of ever  by one of my favorite authors of all time.

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You 

(Gallagher Girls #1)

Author: Ally Carter

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Number of Pages: 284

Date Published: April 25, 2006

Genre: Young Adult Contemporay

Goodreads:

Cammie Morgan is a student at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, a fairly typical all-girls school-that is, if every school taught advanced martial arts in PE and the latest in chemical warfare in science, and students received extra credit for breaking CIA codes in computer class. The Gallagher Academy might claim to be a school for geniuses but it's really a school for spies. Even though Cammie is fluent in fourteen languages and capable of killing a man in seven different ways, she has no idea what to do when she meets an ordinary boy who thinks she's an ordinary girl. Sure, she can tap his phone, hack into his computer, or track him through town with the skill of a real "pavement artist"-but can she maneuver a relationship with someone who can never know the truth about her?

Cammie Morgan may be an elite spy-in-training, but in her sophomore year, she's on her most dangerous mission-falling in love.

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My Thoughts:

I read this book in 2010... back when I was a teeny bopper, super fangirl, easy-to-please girly girl myself. The plot, the cute cover, and the catchy title (I am a sucker for long catchy titles e.g. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, The Catastrophic History of Me and You) sold the book to me. And I really enjoyed it.

LOVE BOOK #04: Wanderlove

I think I'm in some kind of a reading slump. READING SLUMP! Why? Why now? It's been 2 weeks since I last read a book, and I am seriously not liking it. So, I guess the featured book today will not be something from my recent read pile, but something I dug out from my Goodreads archive.

The fourth "Love Book" that is part of my February "Love Book" Reading Challenge (for the full details, click here) is Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard.
 

WANDERLOVE 
Author: Kirsten Hubbard

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Number of Pages: 338

Date Published: March 13, 2012
First Published: March 8, 2011

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

Goodreads:

It all begins with a stupid question:

Are you a Global Vagabond?

No, but 18-year-old Bria Sandoval wants to be. In a quest for independence, her neglected art, and no-strings-attached hookups, she signs up for a guided tour of Central America—the wrong one. Middle-aged tourists with fanny packs are hardly the key to self-rediscovery. When Bria meets Rowan, devoted backpacker and dive instructor, and his outspokenly humanitarian sister Starling, she seizes the chance to ditch her group and join them off the beaten path.

Bria's a good girl trying to go bad. Rowan's a bad boy trying to stay good. As they travel across a panorama of Mayan villages, remote Belizean islands, and hostels plagued with jungle beasties, they discover what they've got in common: both seek to leave behind the old versions of themselves. And the secret to escaping the past, Rowan’s found, is to keep moving forward.

But Bria comes to realize she can't run forever, no matter what Rowan says. If she ever wants the courage to fall for someone worthwhile, she has to start looking back.

Kirsten Hubbard lends her artistry to this ultimate backpacker novel, weaving her drawings into the text. Her career as a travel writer and her experiences as a real-life vagabond backpacking Central America are deeply seeded in this inspiring story

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My Thoughts:

I am not entirely sure of the exact sequence of events in the book and all the details because I read it almost four years ago. But what I'm sure of is that this is one of those books that will deeply satisfy you after (while) reading it. It's the kind of book that will take you places, make you see realities, and has characters that you can, in one way or another, relate to.

COVER CRAZY: PLAYING DEFENSE by Cate Cameron Cover Reveal by Entangled Teen Crush

Cover Reveal:
Playing Defense (Corrigan Falls Raiders #2) by Cate Cameron
by Entangled Teen Crush

 

Swoony hockey players? SCORE!

Welcome to the Cover Reveal for

Playing Defense (Corrigan Falls Raiders #2) by Cate Cameron

presented by Entanged Teen Crush!

Sounds like the perfect book to snuggle with on a cold, winter eve!

Playing Defense (Corrigan Falls Raiders #2)

Author: Cate Cameron
Publication Date: March 14, 2016

Publisher: Entangled Teen Crush

This Entangled Teen Crush book contains adult language, swoon-worthy kisses, and sexy hockey players. It may cause you to watch a hockey game...or ten.

WOW (1): A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

Waiting On Wednesday (WOW) is a weekly event or bookish meme, hosted by Jill of Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that readers and bloggers are eagerly anticipating and patiently waiting for.

The book that I am "Waiting on" this week is actually a book that I just seen a couple of hours before typing this post. I was on twitter, somebody shared an article about the most anticipated books to be released on March, and the thumbnail was a picture of the cover this book. It spoke to me, and I clicked it. Then, I read the blurb, and I knew immediately that I had to read it. The rest is history.

LOVE BOOK #03: Love and Other Unknown Variables

The third "Love Book" of the month is Love and Other Unknown Variables by Shannon Lee Alexander. This is part of my February "Love Book" Reading Challenge  wherein I'll read as many books as I can or feature some "Love books" I've already read with the word "Love" in the title. Here's a link to my previous post fully explaining everything.

Since I haven't been reading for the past couple days. I'm going to feature a book I read on January 2015. I completely forgot I wrote some kind of review of the book on Goodreads, but haven't blogged about it yet. So, I just copied everything I wrote and pasted it here so you'll know how I really felt immediately after reading the book.

LOVE AND OTHER UNKNOWN VARIABLES

Author: Shannon Lee Alexander

Publisher: Entangled: Teen

Number of Pages: 336

Date Published: October 7, 2014

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

Charlie Hanson has a clear vision of his future. A senior at Brighton School of Mathematics and Science, he knows he’ll graduate, go to MIT, and inevitably discover solutions to the universe’s greatest unanswered questions. He’s that smart. But Charlie’s future blurs the moment he reaches out to touch the tattoo on a beautiful girl’s neck.

The future has never seemed very kind to Charlotte Finch, so she’s counting on the present. She’s not impressed by the strange boy at the donut shop—until she learns he’s a student at Brighton where her sister has just taken a job as the English teacher. With her encouragement, Charlie orchestrates the most effective prank campaign in Brighton history. But, in doing so, he puts his own future in jeopardy.

By the time he learns she's ill—and that the pranks were a way to distract Ms. Finch from Charlotte’s illness—Charlotte’s gravitational pull is too great to overcome. Soon he must choose between the familiar formulas he’s always relied on or the girl he’s falling for (at far more than 32 feet per second squared).

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My Thoughts:

Most of us are already so familiar with the “boy/girl meets cancer kid/teen (or any kind of terminal illness)” story. There are a handful of books with that kind of plot in the YA world. And when we look at this book from afar (the farthest distance you can manage), you'll probably see that it belongs to that infamous story line.

A Short LOVE LETTER From Me to You

Dear Friends,

Before anything else, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

To be honest, I did not prepare a Valentine blog post because I can't think of any new ideas for a bookish post related to today's heart-filled holiday. Most of the blog posts today are probably book recommendations, favorite couples, best romance books etc... And I'm just not in the mood for that this year. (Maybe next time)

THIRST: BLOOD OF MY BLOOD Spotlight + Giveaway

Thirst: Blood of my Blood

By: R P Channing

~ Kira Sutherland ~

After a near fatal accident (and getting cheated on by her 'boyfriend'), and beating up the lead cheerleader (with whom the boyfriend cheated...), and being labeled as having 'issues' in her school because she, uhm, sees ghosts, Kira is left with two choices:

1. Continue her 'therapy' (where she's told the ghost is a hallucination and also gets her legs ogled too often...)

Or

2. Go to Starkfield Academy, a boarding school for "Crazies and Convicts" (as the social media sites call them.)

She chooses the latter...

~ Cory Rand ~

Cory Rand has not had an easy life. His mother died in a car accident when he was twelve, and so did his mother's best friend...sort of. You see, Janice made a promise to take care of Cory just before she died, and so she lingers. Undead. A ghost that watches out for him.

LOVE BOOK #02: F*ck Love

It's the time again to feature my February "Love Book" Reading Challenge. Here's a link to my previous post fully explaining the challenge. On this challenge, I'll read as many books as I can with the word "Love" in the title. Aside from that, I will also feature some "Love books" I've already read (or I've been meaning to read), like this next book.

F*CK LOVE

Author: Tarryn Fisher

Number of Pages: 257

Date Published: December 31, 2015

Genre: New Adult Romance

Goodreads:

Helena Conway has fallen in love.

Unwillingly. Unwittingly.
But not unprovoked.
Kit Isley is everything she’s not—unstructured, untethered, and not even a little bit careful.
It could all be so beautiful … if he wasn’t dating her best friend.
Helena must defy her heart, do the right thing, and think of others.
Until she doesn’t.

***

My thoughts:

You could not get much out of the synopsis provided, for it was short and vague. That's probably one of the reasons why I read it - out of curiosity and the need to know more how the story will unfold. Also, a I've been seeing the book a lot on Instagram, Twitter and Goodreads when it was released and there were many good reviews about it.

F*ck Love is about Helena, a girl who has fallen in love with her best friend's boyfriend.

THE LUNAR CHRONICLES: The Books, The New Story, and The Amazing Giveaway

THE LUNAR CHRONICLES

It was the year 2012 when the first book of The Lunar Chronicles, Cinder, came out. Four years later, the last book of the series finally makes it way to the shelves of our book stores. Time flies so fast, doesn't it? Now, with four books and two companion novels, The Lunar Chronicles is finally  complete.

I have actually read the first two books of The Lunar Chronicles a few years ago, the same year they were released. But due to some circumstances, I was not able to continue where I left off in the series. Now that all the books are available, maybe it's time to binge read the whole series.

If you are not familiar with the books I am talking about, well... I guess you should get yourself acquainted with them. Because once you start this series, you will become hooked. You will be wanting more and more of it. And there is no going back.

If you want to read them, here are the links to my review of the first two books, CINDER and SCARLET. I hope it helps.

So, what is The Lunar Chronicles all about?

NBS EVENTS: Sarah J. Maas Book Signing Event

Last week, National Book Store announced (here's the link) that Red Queen author, Victoria Aveyard, is coming to the Philippines for a book signing tour on March 2016. As if it was not enough, NBS has invited Sarah J. Maas to a book signing event just a week after Aveyard's event! Yes, the Sarah J. Maas, the creator of fire-breathing bitch-queen, is coming to the Philippines, too!

What: Sarah J. Maas Book Signing Event

When: March 12, 2016, 2 p.m.

Where: National Book Store, Glorietta 1

Registration starts at 10 a.m.

Keep on checking National Book Store event's page
for more updates on the details and mechanics of the event.

#LiveBoldly: ME BEFORE YOU (Movie Update)

I knew that the book was going to be a movie. I read about it when it was announced and I knew Emilia Clarke (Game of Throne's Daenerys Targaryen) and Sam Claflin (The Hunger Game's Finnick Odair) got the two lead roles for the film. But I was not a big fan of the book. I read it almost two years ago, and admittedly, it was a profoundly moving and a gut-wrenching book. It successfully stirred emotions and might even (most probably)  make you shed (a lot of) tears. The story was great and the characters were alright as well. But it was not my cup of tea (and I probably had a different taste back then), so I did not pay much attention to movie updates and whatnot.

So, surprise! Surprise! I was indeed surprised (sort of) when Jojo Moyes herself revealed the movie poster yesterday, and the movie trailer was released a day after (which is today!). Here is the poster:

LOVE BOOK #01: Love and Other Perishable Items

The first book in my February "Love Book" Reading Challenge is also the first book I read this month. If you are somewhat confused with this "Love Book" thing, here's a link to my previous post fully explaining the challenge. To sum it up, I'll read as many books as I can with the word "Love" in the title.

LOVE AND OTHER PERISHABLE ITEMS

Author: Laura Buzo

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Number of Pages: 243

Date Published: December 11, 2012

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

Goodreads:

From the moment Amelia sets eyes on Chris, she is a goner. Lost. Sunk. Head over heels infatuated with him. It's problematic, since Chris, 21, is a sophisticated university student, while Amelia, 15, is 15.

Amelia isn't stupid. She knows it's not gonna happen. So she plays it cool around Chris—at least, as cool as she can. Working checkout together at the local supermarket, they strike up a friendship: swapping life stories, bantering about everything from classic books to B movies, and cataloging the many injustices of growing up. As time goes on, Amelia's crush doesn't seem so one-sided anymore. But if Chris likes her back, what then? Can two people in such different places in life really be together?

Through a year of befuddling firsts—first love, first job, first party, and first hangover—debut author Laura Buzo shows how the things that break your heart can still crack you up.

***

My Thoughts:

Basically, the book is simplistic in many ways. The story, the characters, the setting, the way it was written, even the cover - plain and average, nothing very special about them. There's no "wow" factor after reading it. But despite that, it was a surprisingly great read.

February Reading Challenge (Kind of)

After finishing my last book for the month of January, an idea just randomly popped in my head while I was deciding what book to read next. With the "Love Month" just hours away, I thought, "Why not read contemporary young adult or new adult romance books all throughout the month of February?' So, that was the plan... Contemporary and Romance books all month long.Until I decided to tweak the initial idea into another plan -  to read as many books as I can with the word "LOVE" on the title (regardless of the genre).

I know most of you probably has a February TBR List already, but if you want to join me, feel free. There are no official sign ups or anything like that. All you have to do is read a book with "Love" on the title, keep track of what you read, and share away. There are no restrictions to the challenge. Just to read as many "Love" books as you can. (Disclaimer: This was just a random last minute idea. I do not know if there has been or there is currently a reading challenge with the same idea as this one. If there was or there is, I have no intention of copying it.)