what I read this week (1st august-8 august) (spoiler reviews)

 hello earthlings!

after the previous entry, I feel like I should update my "what I read this week" weekly (duh) and shouldn't wait until the end of the month because like the previous entry, I forgot what I wanted to say especially for the best books. for this entry, I will be including ratings I gave them on goodreads and including the spice rating. 

Punk 57 by Penelope Douglas

unfortunately, this was my first book of august. I heard so many good things about this book, including the spicy scenes and a lot of comments (good ones) about the male character named Misha. after reading, I really don't get the hype with this one. like any other spicy books I've read, I would always comment how it is written like a teenager who doesn't know anything about intercourse and is written in a rush after a whole 30 minutes of pleasuring themselves. yes, this book felt like that. I really don't like Misha's treatment with Ryan as well. If this was enemies to lovers, Misha didn't have to get physical with Ryan.(the scene where he throws her to the pool. really?) maybe I'm just basic or vanilla one might say, most enemies to lovers I've seen are only verbal petty fights with one another and a good teasing here and there. even if he was grieving over the loss of his sister, he didn't have to change that way and treat Ryen differently like its her fault and yes, I did note that Misha treated Ryen that way because the first time he saw her, she was like any other girl and isn't as sweet as she seem in the letters she sent to Misha. the spicy scenes are alright but I did not give this plot any justice whatsoever. it ruins the whole point of the story. I did not like both of the characters too. 

Ratings:

Plot: 2/5 stars

spice: 2/5 stars

The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata

this, was my first book of Mariana Zapata. It was also my first love with Mariana Zapata. I was aware that this book was slow burn and I loved every pages of this. Despite the whole thing being fake, how natural Aiden to get to call Vanessa pet names in front of people who flirted with him had me swoon. "My girl" "My wife" all had my stomach churning in all places. I knew this was a slow burn romance but I was expecting when will a spicy scene come up and I was around 400 pages in with no sexy scene at all. But I waited...and it was worth it. I loved how it only happens when both characters realise they love each other and care for each other. and this book was the standard (for me) in all romance novels. literally. because I couldn't move on to reading any romance books if it was not written by Mariana Zapata.

Ratings:

Plot: 5/5 stars

Spice: 5/5 stars

Kulti by Mariana Zapata

Yes, I literally couldn't move on from Mariana Zapata's books. This book was refreshing because every time I read something related to Sports Romance, it's always about Football and not Soccer (although I pretty much prefer soccer as football...). So finding out about my favourite author writing about soccer? Consider me sold! I was really excited about this one and there's a lot of good reviews about this. Despite that, I did not enjoy this as much as I wanted to. It was great but it was not as swoon worthy compared to the previous book.

Ratings:

Plot: 3.5/5

Spice: 2/5

Her Soul to Take by Harley Laroux

I was convinced by a tweet to read this with a little spoiler on what happened in the book so I had to give this a shot. This is my first fantasy romance and I was grateful enough to really like it, and something that has to do with demons and monsters? I'll take that anyday!

Rating:

Plot: 5/5 stars

Spice: 5/5 stars

Hands down by Mariana Zapata

No, I was not done with reading Mariana Zapata's books. I truly loved Zac's character in The Wall of Winnipeg and Me and his friendship with Vanessa and I read the description that its a childhood friends to lovers AND falling in love with your cousin's friend trope. I really had to read this on the spot and not wasting any time to finish this. though I might have to say, I loved this book but I didn't feel the sparks because of the pet names/endearments he uses to call Bianca. Sort of made it seem like it was not special anymore..but I truly enjoyed this one! 

Rating: 

Plot: 4/5

Spice: 3.5/5

From Lukov With Love

Another sports romance but Ice Skating. I love watching Ice Skating sports and finding out Mariana also writes for this sports? Please TAKE MY LIFE!! Ivan is the perfect boyfriend-husband material there is, he's in the line as male characters that had me WISHING there is somebody like him in real life (although, we have to accept this is fiction, no one as perfect as fictional characters..as cheesy as it sounds). he was so gentle about her insecurity, her bottled up feelings and problems with her dad. Ivan was so patient and so loving. Again, my weakness if when a character taking care of the other and they subsciously call them "baby". In fact, this happened twice when he told Jasmine to choose to either stay with her brothers or to stay with him because Jasmine said she has a stalker. Wait, I'm not done yet. She chose to stay over to his place, lo and behold. He has so many babies!! So many pets and his mother told Jasmine that he rescues them. My goodness, Ivan setting my standards so high for men now I'm gonna sue him. He's really grateful that he's only a fictional character, a pigment of my imagination...

Ratings:

Plot: 5/5

Spice: 4/5

Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren

I was sceptical and worried about this because of the synopsis, it made it sound like a Colleen Hoover book but nonetheless, I gave it a shot. Just like how I read Hands Down, this had no sparks to it because they were already childhood friends to lovers before but only with miscommunication that they didn't get to talk about because of the loss the female character had to go through. In fact, this book was really cute as it shows the progress from years before when both characters were young and they've noticed the change on each other. from their personality and their looks. This book wasn't all that bad and I enjoyed reading this.

Ratings: 

Plot: 4/5

Spice: 3.5/5

what I read in July (spoiler alert: all of them are romance)

 hello earthlings!

after stumbling upon a TikTok video of people recommending They Both Die At The End, I couldn't wait to get to read the book once all of my classes ended (note that I said once my classes ended, not when the semester ended. I was just too excited to get back to reading). without further ado, here's 22 books I've read in July.

They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera

coming across reviews from both TikTok, Tweets, Youtube and Goodreads, I am fully aware that this book is angsty and as the title have said, they both die at the end. somehow, reading and seeing how the story progress gives me a light of hope that the title would tell me otherwise but I was so so wrong and I was so naive for that. It did made me tear up in some scenes and I truly loved this book. even though it was depressing, you can pick up something that you can learn in the book.

Shipped by Meredith Tate

I don't have much to say about this book other than it was really cute and its the strangers/enemies-irl-but-friends-online type of trope. it was really a cute book but the female mc was too focused on her studies and I wanted more of how she fell in love with the male mc because we could only see that from the male mc. other than that, I think I really liked the female mc because I could feel her in terms of academics and her fixations of her favourite tv show. 

People We Meet On Vacation / You and Me On Vacation by Emily Henry

this was my first adult contemporary romance, first friends to lovers book and my first Emily Henry book and I didn't think I would love it so much. fun fact, I read the first few chapters while I was waiting for my turn to be vaccinated. I thought the book will be a cringe at first but to my surprise, I really liked it. I loved both characters as well, the many times Alex was described as "handsome" got me swooning. Just how good looking is Alex?! that we had to be reminded that he is, in fact, so hot?! After reading this, I saw that Beach Read was as good too but I haven't picked that up yet because I want to savour it, I loved Emily Henry's way of writing romance so much. 

Dare to Live, Dare to Love by Nicole C Moon

this was a spontaneous read, I saw this book on my twitter timeline and it was tweeted by the author. since Emily Henry's book, I fell in love with friends to lovers trope and I was hoping if there's any good one but nope, this one did not disappoint. 

The Roommate by Rosie Danan

this book felt so sinful to me, might be the slight flu I had or the fact that this book was so steamy caught me off guard that I almost drop this one and kill myself with not finishing it but yes, I made it through and this book was wonderful.

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

a book highly recommended on BookTok and it was said to be spicy. Not that I was searching for the spiciest book or anything but this book was far from that.  I feel like the previous book I've read (the roommate) is much more spicier than this

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

can you believe I gave up on this twice? I just couldn't understand what was going on but it was all worth it at the end, Michael being one of the characters that stayed rent free in my head for days and I wouldn't even complain about it.

The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

I meant to read this earlier and have seen good ratings about this and oh boy, I never realised this was a slow burn romance (that I forgot this genre existed) and I had the nerve to leave a review saying "everything isn't rushed" T^T this had me went on a search for more slow burn romance and please, who can be Aaron at this point. Him and Michael can stay in my mind for how many days they want.

Meet Cute by Helena Hunting

to be honest I never understood what was meet cute and I've seen this phrase everywhere in books but yes I decided not to search about it lol anyway, I was a little skeptical of this considering the male mc is a former celebrity (but a child celebrity!) and why you might ask. I just couldn't see the romance between celebrities and a normal person, maybe that's just me T^T overall, this book was amazing, I do think it's a little rush!

The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams

I have seen so many good reviews of this as well and it's my first time reading "second chances" type of trope in books. I have to say, it became one of my favourite trope because of how well Lyssa Kay Adams deliver this with this series and it makes me curious about the rest of the book in the series too!

Isn't it Romantic by Lyssa Kay Adams

This was released just right after I wanted to read the second one but I read this as soon as I saw the description was about the Russian's marriage with his wife who happens to be his childhood friend too. I am a sucker for childhood friends to lovers and this book was amazing at it.

Undercover Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams

I love all the books in the series (I have yet to read the third one but I know it's gonna be good anyway), but I was excited to read this one knowing Mack and Liv were gonna be enemies to lovers. I didn't like Liv as much in the first book because she seems to appear hard headed but I had a hunch that I was gonna relate to her and it did, we had a lot of common when I read the second book. So this book was really good and I enjoyed reading every pages T^T

Hand The Moon by Alexandria Bellefluer

again, this book is also childhood friends to lovers trope with falling in love with your best friend's sibling type of trope. But! the synopsis of the book had said that the male mc tries to convince the female mc through dates that reminds him of romcom movies and is optimistic about love, hence he is the CEO of a dating app. I was a little skeptical about that because any characters that claims to believe in love because they watch, they read romance books or movies makes me scoff. nevertheless, this was fiction and I read this while listening to 98 degree's I do and it enhanced my reading experience with this book. I'm not really a fan of romantic movies but I do love romance movies from the 80's-90's, and this book made me yearn for those movies, one of the reasons why I gave this a 5 star.

Josh & Hazel's Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren

another friends to lovers type of trope, I was honestly so excited for this. halfway through the book I don't think there's a major conflict but the constant reminder of how the female mc is "crazy" throws me off a bit. another pet peeve of mine when reading is the pregnancy trope. I don't mind when it comes later in the epilogue but during the story progressing? is the baby is the product of the conflict? I honestly would love to see the story progress that they love each other and realise their partners qualities. not some "she's having my baby so I shall love her and the baby" type of thing. so this had the potential, big potential! but it ruined it with the pregnancy trope. maybe I might give pregnancy trope another chance in the future but maybe not now..

The Mistake by Elle Kennedy

yes, I indeed have a list of "tiktok made me do it" books and this is one of them. this is more like an obligation and the book community on tiktok LOVED this one, so I had to try. it wasn't as amazing as people claim it to be and I hate when the girl changes her appearance and suddenly she's valuable and she knows her worth. but isn't the girl is a little too easy on the male character? my girl really did a list of ways to embarrass the male mc but then accepts his apology just like that. and then the radio announcing scene is also cringe. 

The Score by Elle Kennedy

I read this willingly..I have no idea why. but safe to say I loved this one out of all books because the conflict was real, love both characters and their banter was funny. 

Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn

I read this willingly, through scrolls from goodreads and here I am, reading this. this almost put me on a reading slump that I do not look forward to and maybe because I'm dumb, I had to read them twice for each pages. I did not even bother to read the epilogue for this one too.

Love at First by Kate Clayborn

I am a sucker for a love interest that works in a medical field and made me read this straight away after reading the other book. this did not disappoint however I was scared if this ended up bad and not dumb friendly for me to understand. there's this one specific scene that made my heart flutter and will be one of my fav scenes in any book where the girl is unconscious and the male mc calls them "baby" subconsciously. makes my heart soar!!!!!

Passion on Park Avenue by Lauren Layne

all I have to say is that, I had high expectations for this but the ending did not sit right with me, not that its harmful or whatsoever but it was so bland?? it had its potential. as if its like, you had no romance books to read in this world and you're left with this, unwillingly giving this a 5 star book (which I did not) because this was your last chance of rating a good book but it was bad. I don't even know if that made sense but I did not like this at all. 

The Man Ban by Nicola Marsh

a day after its release, I went ahead and read this book with no time to waste. yes, I am a sucker for medical field love interest. I was honestly so shocked this was fast paced but in a good way. it was really good, both characters have good banter with each other. (flex: after leaving a review on goodreads, the author sent me a friend request...)

Heartbreak for Hire by Sonia Hartl

the last book of my July goes to this gem!! I was waiting for this one and I was happy it did not disappoint. it could've been more emotional and tear jerking scenes but I guess if we needed that we could've read colleen hoover's books..am I right? :D (no one asked but I do not ever want to plan on reading her books after reading one..I was a teenager then but now as an adult I feel like its too messy. call me basic or vanilla but I don't want my feelings and thoughts to be distraught)

finally, we've reached to the end of the entry. I'm sorry if this seem half ass because I did not remember some of the scenes and the names of the characters as well. but I had fun reading these and happy I get to read more than 10 books (my initial goal on goodreads) this year and planning to read more in the next few months. Goodbye!

where I've been

 hello earthlings!

its been a whole year since the last time I updated my blog, I've been meaning to post another entry to announce that I got accepted to one of my preferred universities studying politics (not mentioning the name here for privacy reasons if one of my uni friends would somehow find out about my blog, even if they did it's not like I'm here to talk about them - maybe in the future but who knows what :p). As someone who's not used to receiving good news about my academics and is really used to being the bare minimum (not saying I'm actually successful now and on top of my game.. I am still struggling with that after years of not trying hard enough T^T), it's completely a shock to me. new chapter just means new discovery of things like going to the airport for the first time, going to new places and meeting new people.  truthfully, it is been hard trying to adapt to things from going to middle school, to going to sixth form and now to university. but going through six form helps me mature in terms of productivity and my work ethic. 

just about a semester into my first year (which I spent learning online, how sad is that), I was given a position in a club and then another one in my second semester of my first semester. sort of regret of being so active in joining activities that my seniors actually recognise my name and my face. one of them actually said how they like seeing me around and appreciated me because of that. I don't know if I would feel honoured or regret over that statement.

anyway, in a few months I'll be in my second year. I don't expect much other than studying hard. I don't think there is much to be expected of when you're in university though. Right? Other than that, I've been reading a lot lately especially reading romance books. i honestly thought I could read 100 books by last year considering I had a lot of time in my hands but I only get to read 22 books. quite sad. however, after finishing my second semester of my first year, I get to read a lot of books and I plan to do reviews of it. last month, on July, I've read a total of 21 books that I properly read (did not finish book doesn't count). I was honestly quite shock as well because I couldn't even read more than 1 book in a day. other than that, my best friend (Sha) convinced me to play Genshin Impact and yes, I got addicted to it and spent most of my time in the first few months of 2021. it is quite addicting, the story is great and the characters are lovable too.

I think this should be it for this entry, the next entry would be me rambling about books I've read in July. See ya!