Review: Dream a Little Dream (Silber #1) by Kerstin Gier

Oh how I miss reading Kerstin Gier's novels!

Title: Dream a Little Dream (Silber #1) by Kerstin Gier, Anthea Bell (Translation)
Release Date: April 14th 2015
Published by: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Source: Publisher (Thanks Ruth!)
Buy: Amazon | Book Depository

Summary:

Mysterious doors with lizard-head knobs. Talking stone statues. A crazy girl with a hatchet. Yep, Liv’s dreams have been pretty weird lately. Especially this one where she’s in a graveyard at night, watching four boys perform dark magic rituals.

The really weird thing is that Liv recognizes the boys in her dream. They’re classmates from her new school in London, the school where’s she’s starting over because her mom has moved them to a new country (again). But they seem to know things about her in real life that they couldn’t possibly know, which is mystifying. Then again, Liv could never resist a good mystery. . . .

Everything started because of smelly cheese imported from Switzerland. I know it sounds amusing and funny, but it did. And then Liv's dreams of settling in a nice place with her family was exchanged for staying in London which comes with a surprise addition to their family and then suddenly she was getting involved in something that sounds too good to be true.

One of the reasons why I love reading Kersin Gier's novels is because she always writes with female protagonists who are witty, comical and Liv is no exception. I like the thoughts that always swirl inside her head, from her thoughts about her new step siblings, her school uniform or boys in general. I like the way she panics and how endearing she can be while doing so, how she can't stay away from secrets and not resist the potential of an adventure because she's naturally inquisitive. Awkward, funny, persistent when needed and with a skeptical but speculative mind.

As cliche as it may sound, being surrounded by hot boys, I like that Liv still keeps a sensible head (most of the time) around them, and that the author has done away with the usual love triangles and instead comfortably assigned different roles to the three who aren't the object of Liv's very confusing but otherwise adorable feelings. Grayson wonderfully fits the role of being an older brother, that genuine concern he has as a step brother to Liv despite the initial awkwardness made me like him a lot. Jasper, who was the embodiment of the typical things you expect from a Ken (doll), good looking, confident and very caught up with girls, he lends an interesting side to the four boys for being the poster boy for good looking guys who doesn't care for anything else other than girls. Arthur, who was quiet and mysterious, dangerously beautiful, curious and serious with something dark in him. And Henry, who has his own secrets to keep. He grew on me, with that thirst to explore things that can't be explained, not to mention being observant and patient with Liv. Take your pick, readers, because each boy has something in them that you'll learn to like while reading!

Reading Dream A Little Dream was quite an experience in itself because I too am convinced that the very thing the conflict of the story is based on simply just doesn't exist. Is it real? Is everything made up? A bunch of coincidences? Nothing is certain, speculations are everywhere, but with Liv's curiosity, she was able to explore not just the dreams, but successfully bond with people, make friends, settle into a new life and have friends. It's not just about the dreams, but each character's story moves along with the main plot. What's fascinating is even if the story revolves around this make believe conflict, you read on because Kerstin Gier injected just the right amount of suspense and thrill, clues and scenes that you can't resist seeing the story through to the end. Lizard doorknobs, a door with three locks, doors which won't open unless you answer a statue's question, cotton candy worlds, cemeteries recreated from a memory, scenes from the past, fears imagined. I love how imaginative the world is in Dream A Little Dream, how fascinating a dream world can be, what one can do, what one can find out, how it can be used, what power dreams can hold.

If you've read Kerstin's other novels, then you're familiar with how she paces and times everything, holds out the answers up to the very end of the story, and then the plot twist comes out of nowhere, leaving you craving for more, so you have to be on your toes all the time. What an enjoyable new novel from Kerstin! With a protagonist you will love, mixing it up with puberty and the thought of growing up, high school gossip and cliques and supernatural elements with a dash of romance, comedy and suspense makes up for an interesting story in Dream A Little Dream. A strong start for what is shaping up to be another incredible, fun series from Kerstin Gier! A word to the wise, the ending will make you feel agony with the thought of waiting for the sequel. Talk about a cliff hanger!

Favorite quote:
It's in dreams more than anywhere else that you get to know people best - along with all their weaknesses and their secrets.

Content (plot, story flow, character):

I am majorly curious over Henry's life. There are things in this book that makes me want to know more about the whole thing. And besides, he's as adorable as Liv is!

Shining: Worthy of a Goddess' Love!

Book Cover:
You should see the finished copies, gorgeous, shiny and just utterly beautiful!

Read More

Goddess Offerings (51) / Stacking the Shelves (33)

Wow... I didn't realize it's been 2 months since I last made a Stacking the Shelves post! I've been a little bit busy, but I'm trying!

So these are the books I got over the past week, they're a pretty awesome stack so you should check them out. :)

Stacking the Shelves hosted is by Tynga's reviews! So leave a comment below and share your own haul!

For review:

Carousel by Brendan Ritchie
The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid
Nowhere But Here by Katie McGarry (2 copies)

The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski
Finding Mr. Brightside by Jay Clark
Dream A Little Dream by Kerstin Gier

Swapped:

The Secrets of Attraction by Robin Constantine

From the Lockhart signing:

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Real Live Boyfriends by E. Lockhart
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
Fly on the Wall by E. Lockhart

Thank you very much Mira Ink, Harlequin Teen, Penguin Teen Australia, Macmillan, Fremantle Press and Walker Books UK for these wonderful books!

Read More

E. Lockhart in PH signing recap!

I can finally say I have met the author of one of the very few books which managed to make me speechless for a good minute before I realized my heart was breaking. E Lockhart, New York Times bestselling author of We Were Liars and other amazing books such as the Ruby Oliver series, was here in Manila for a book signing this weekend and IT WAS SUCH A BLAST MEETING HER!

I was wide awake until 3:30 am the day of the signing, mainly because of a bad case of nerves. Come on, it's E. Lockhart. Some few months ago I was nursing one of the worst book hangovers of my reading life because of We Were Liars and then I'm finally meeting her face to face.

Ladies and gentlemen, E. Lockhart in the flesh.

The moment Emily sat there and spoke after the first question was asked, I know we're all going to be in for a treat. If you're going to listen to the recording below, it's obvious how there are always a couple of seconds of dead air because we're all eagerly waiting for her answers and Emily takes time to think of her answers, but once she speaks the words just flow out of her and we just sit there listen to her. Very surreal experience, dear readers.

I got the opportunity to ask her a question which was:

In writing We Were Liars, how hard was it to tackle a story with an unreliable narrator (in Cadence) and still be purposely vague. What are some of the difficulties you encountered while writing and what kind of considerations did you have to make to piece the story together?

E. Lockhart: I guess two things. For the first time with We Were Liars, I used a different word processor. I used one called Scrivener, which a lot of writers now have been using for a long time and it's often used by writers who are writing big multi book fantasy series that have huge arcs and a million characters to keep track of. What Scrivener allows you to do that Microsoft Word does not is see the structure of your book from a bird's eye. It's hard to explain but if you think of it that way, you can see it from above and you can move the pieces around, and then look at it again. And so because if this is an amnesia story, I really needed to think through where the pieces in the book were in the way that I hadn't needed to another novel, so I used that software.

And the other thing I did was I shared the book with a lot more colleagues than I usually do. So usually I'm fairly confident in what I've written as, you know, telling the story that I want to tell. But with We Were Liars I was not so confident because I didn't know when people will begin to suspect what, whether they would have this sort of misleading suspicions that I wanted them to have, whether they would actually figure it all out, and so I gave the book to a lot of my writer colleagues. I gave it to Scott Westerfeld and Robin Wasserman and I gave it to Sarah Mlyknowski and I gave it to Lauren Myracle. I gave it to all these people I know and now I owe favors to. (And they're making me pay them back!) And they gave me reads on it and one of the best reads I got was from Robin Wasserman who's a really great YA novelist and she was like "Oh! I know everything that's going on by page 10.". And I was like "You're right!". So she obviously could tell that I did not want that to be the case, so she gave me an edit that allowed me and said "here is where you're tipping your hand", "here is where your misleading is going to far and I don't believe you" and she gave a lot of comments like that which helped me revise well.

A run down of the forum Q&A:

- When asked which book of hers is her favorite, she said it's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. The pranks took her forever to figure out as she had to read the history of college pranks and high school pranks, and how to prank. (Thank you, internet!) She would have sections on the book that says "Prank goes here, it is brilliant!". She was very pleased for creating a character that is smarter than hers.
- Each book she has written has a structural device that is a challenge for her.
- Will she write books with fairy tales in it? Nope, because Emily has just finished a draft of a new book, but she had set herself another structural challenge because that is what keeps writing fresh for her.
- No publishing date for the book yet because they're changing from two season to a three season structure. Her due date suddenly became a weird deadline.
- If there is one thing she can change in We Were Liars? Nope, not the dogs. To tell the truth, Emily did not re-read We Were Liars, because she's writing a new book. She made the best book she knew how to make, and then she stopped thinking about it. She can rewrite things and add scenes and tinker with her writing but she's not thinking about it, she's thinking about the things she needs to change in her new book.
- We Were Liars had a style of writing which was like "going out of a limb" for Emily. She was ready for people to read the book and say "this is the most pretentious book I've ever read", for people to dislike the style and dislike the character because of the style.
- We Were Liars was first an idea for a book about "real estate".
- The plot for We Were Liars was written in 10 minutes, before Emily picked up her daughter.
- "Sexy things and bad things, put them in your book and then they will be fine." (This is according to Emily. :D )
- If she can write something not quite Young Adult, what would it be? Con Artists.
- Her next book is not set in high school and has a little bit of murder. About international jet setting 19 year olds.
- If there was a reality show about the Sinclairs? It'll be about cooking, a cooking show. Emily would like to know what's going on in their kitchen. "The secrets of the Sinclair family kitchen". Or "The real housewives of the island."
- We Were Liars is really about families fighting over property, grown children fighting over parental love and approval and younger kids hearing older people fight and feeling powerless and angry about the way the grown-ups are conducting themselves.
- Again, for the fairy tale parts in We Were Liars, Emily has this collection of fairy tale books, which her father gave to her mother, and was one of the only things she brought when she and her mom moved, and they move a lot. She would read them when she was little and the fairy tales in WWL came naturally from Emily's memories of reading the books. She was interested in We Were Liars in writing a story in which objects were endowed with a lot of family baggage and meaning. She'd always been using that box of books in her head.
- Is she an emotional writer? She had to push herself in rewrites to put the emotion in the book. She's scared of it and avoids it in the first drafts of a novel, which is true for the comedies and We Were Liars. She would shortchange the scenes where the emotion is the highest and would do it for multiple drafts until she faced the fact that she would actually feel things and write them down.

My two most favorite questions and answers of the forum are:

What advice can you give to aspiring writers who are looking to develop their own writing style?

I was taught to probably write just as you were, which is to erase myself. In scholarly writing, that is what's taught, in journalism, that is what's taught and so I came out of college writing as formally as stiltedly as invisible as a person, as a personality as could be. A breakthrough for me in finding my voice as a storyteller was trying to write like I would talk to a friend. The Ruby Oliver books, the first couple of those were the first Young Adult fiction that I've written and I suddenly realized that the way that you would tell a story to a friend was actually a pretty unusual way of telling a story. It didn't always go chronologically. You're going back and forth through time, the way that you would actually tell a story and you'll fill people in just what you need to fill in and I realized "Oh, that- you know I didn't need to think that everything should be in perfect order and that I didn't need to be invisible". I can just try to talk on the page.

If you were Cadence and you had a choice, would you let them go?

I think I would, because you cannot stay on an island forever. You have to go back to the rest of the world. You can't, you have to go back to the world.

You can listen to the whole thing here, as Emily said a whole lot more and it was one of the longest forums I've attended but TOTALLY WORTH EVERY SECOND.


Afterwards, we got in line and had our books signed and Emily brought out her stamps! We, of course, had fun talking to her a little bit more (she said sorry about the "pain" in We Were Liars) while she was signing our books! She also signed our shirts. :) And as per usual, I had fun taking photos of my book blogger friends!

I am just so happy to meet E. Lockhart and talk to her about her books and convey my feelings for her works. It was such a surreal experience! I have no other word to describe it! She was as awesome as I thought she'd be.

Also met a fellow book blogger / booktuber Kevin (@tomebound, I'm sure you know him, he's on Instagram too!) at the public signing and got to talk to him about books and Insurgent. So nice meeting you again, Kevin!

And here's a picture of us bloggers with the fabulous and amazing E. Lockhart!

I cannot thank National Bookstore enough for this opportunity to meet Emily! Thanks for another unforgettable experience and for meeting such a wonderful author. Wow.

And as a bonus, here's Emily's short message for the bloggers who attended the forum. Emily took the time to read our blogs before the forum and her message just made me so proud to be a Filipino Young Adult book blogger.


Were you there at the signing? Share your experience with me!

Read More

[Blog tour] A Darker Shade of Magic by Victoria Schwab + Giveaway!

Hello lovely readers! As you may have guessed, I am way late in this tour, but I am posting and hey! I still have exclusive content just for this blog tour. But first...

Guess which London I'm in? Yup.

It's Grey London.

I had a chance to ask Victoria a question, which was: What's the weirdest thing you have done while trying to get ideas for your writing?

Victoria answered: As strange as my ideas are, my process is fairly ordinary. The only thing is, my mind is too cluttered when my body is still, so I have this habit of walking. I walk when I need to parse ideas, I walk when I need to sort out plot, I walk when I need to write and can’t get out of my head enough to do so. I’ve thought through stories in half a dozen countries, trodding up soggy hills in the Lake District, wandering through a small church in Prague, one day I clocked 14 miles just wandering NYC. While trying to sort through ADSOM with my beta reader, I paced my front yard in the middle of January for two hours. I would say that very few of my ideas sort themselves when I’m sitting still.

A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC

V. E. Schwab

Step into a universe of daring adventure, thrilling power, and multiple Londons.

* * *

Kell is one of the last Travelers—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel universes, connected by one magical city.

There’s Grey London, dirty and boring, without any magic, and with one mad king—George III. Red London, where life and magic are revered—and where Kell was raised alongside Rhy Maresh, the roguish heir to a flourishing empire. White London—a please where people fight to control magic and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. And once upon a time, there was Black London. But no one speaks of that now.

Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, ambassador of the Maresh empire, carrying the monthly correspondences between the royals of each London. Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. It’s a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which seeing firsthand.

Kell is now Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs into Delilah Bard, a cutpurse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they’ll first need to stay alive.

Buy a copy: Macmillan / Indiebound / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Books A Million

* * *

V. E. SCHWAB's first adult novel, Vicious, debuted to critical praise and reader accolades. Schwab is the author of YA novels The Near Witch, The Archived, and The Unbound, and the Everyday Angel series for middle grade readers.

Follow her on: veschwab.wordpress.com. @VESchwab. Facebook. Goodreads.

If you'd like to know more about A Darker Shade of Magic, check out the links below:

Explore Darker-Shade.com - a special website for A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC that is full of information and materials for readers.

Take this fun Buzzfeed Quiz you and your readers can take that will sort you into a magical London.

GIVEAWAY TIME!

WIN A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC PRIZE PACK!

Thanks to our amazing friends over at Tor, I'm giving away a limited edition signed by the author, double sided poster which features BOTH the US and the UK covers. I'm also giving away a FINISHED COPY of A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC. If you've been checking my Instagram, I posted the prettiness of the finished copy there as well, if you wanna check it out!

Rules:

- Open Internationally

- Ends March 30th

- Must be at least 13 years old to enter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck! My review will be posted this weekend and I hope you'll read it as well!

Read More

Review: I Wrote This For You and Only You by pleasefindthis

I first discovered Iain Thomas (pleasefindthis) from a friend of mine who loves poems, and I was surprised and happy that there was more to look forward to with this book. Now that I've read this, the words just reminded me of why I'm starting to love poetry. I am equally delighted and stunned with the myriad of emotions this book held and presented to the readers.

Title: I Wrote This For You and Only You by pleasefindthis (Author), Jon Ellis (Photographer)
Release Date: March 1st 2015
Published by: Central Avenue Publishing
Source: Publisher (Thanks Michelle!)
Buy: Amazon | Book Depository

Summary:

"I need you to understand something. I wrote this for you. I wrote this for you and only you. Everyone else who reads it, doesn't get it."

Replete with the most recent and original entries, this third book based on the I Wrote This For You project continues the exploration of hauntingly beautiful words, photography and emotion that’s unique to each person that reads it.

Poetry is powerful. How a few, carefully chosen words form beautiful, complete thoughts attempting to convey a thousand and one feelings to the reader. Various interpretations can be drawn from it, but the feeling stays. That's what makes this book so fascinating. Where I Wrote This For You hooks your heart and wraps it around a complicated series of emotions, I Wrote This For You and Only You felt more thoughtful, more mature, and more encompassing, with the familiar hard hitting feelings coursing through each poem. There is at least one poem that is bound to speak to you a lot deeper than the rest, where you will feel like that particular poem, that particular group of words were strung together for you, and only you.

The combination of words and photos is a one of a kind experience where you will think "why this particular photo?" "how does this fit the words the author has written?" and you do not just interpret the words, you also look at the photographs and think just what kind of message it might also convey, given the words that follow after it. Does the photo capture the essence of the words or does the words describe what message the photo aims to get across?

It's like a journey through life, through heartaches, falling in love, being let down by that love, moving on, learning through living, of people you meet, friendships, the ghosts of the past and what haunts us, of moving on, dreaming and hoping. Wise words. Advices. A little bit of everything. It's a book filled of poetry and yet there's so much to read. It's just a beautiful thing to read.

It's not so much as what words were used, it's the tone, like it's just speaking to you and telling you something, and you, as a reader, cannot help but respond. Not many big words were needed nor used and yet the impact was there, sustained, embedded in each poem. Kudos for another wonderful compilation of words and emotions, Iain Thomas.

My rating:

Content (plot, story flow, character):

This. Is. Amazing.

The most memorable (part of a) poem of all, for me is this:

You're wrong. The question is not "How many times can your heart be broken?" The question is, "How many times can it heal?" #feels

A few favorites of mine, which might say a lot about what type of poems I like: The Nature of Science, The Soft Crackle, The Pictures from the Camera we Threw Away, The Heart Outgrows the Chest, The Image Repeated Over and Over, The Removal of Me, The Language Breaks, The Nerve Endings Shatter Like Glass, The Efficiency and Perfection of the Lost, The Dark Words You Walk Down at Night, The Heart Cannot be Discounted, The Train Hit Me and I Didn't Feel It, The Missing Bread Crumbs, The Correct and Proper Way To Feel, The Breaking of People and The Light That Shines When Things End.

Stunning: Worthy of a Goddess' Praise!

Book Cover:
Very simple, I like it!

Read More

Waiting on Wednesday (155): Made You Up + Hello, I Love You

This week's WoW picks has a theme: Blue. And, well, gorgeous covers.

Just check them out below! :D

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine

Title: Made You Up by Francesca Zappia
Release Date: May 19th 2015
Published by: Greenwillow Books

Want? Add to your Goodreads list!

Summary:

Reality, it turns out, is often not what you perceive it to be—sometimes, there really is someone out to get you. Made You Up tells the story of Alex, a high school senior unable to tell the difference between real life and delusion. This is a compelling and provoking literary debut that will appeal to fans of Wes Anderson, Silver Linings Playbook, and Liar.

Alex fights a daily battle to figure out the difference between reality and delusion. Armed with a take-no-prisoners attitude, her camera, a Magic 8-Ball, and her only ally (her little sister), Alex wages a war against her schizophrenia, determined to stay sane long enough to get into college. She’s pretty optimistic about her chances until classes begin, and she runs into Miles. Didn't she imagine him? Before she knows it, Alex is making friends, going to parties, falling in love, and experiencing all the usual rites of passage for teenagers. But Alex is used to being crazy. She’s not prepared for normal.

Funny, provoking, and ultimately moving, this debut novel featuring the quintessential unreliable narrator will have readers turning the pages and trying to figure out what is real and what is made up.

Why I'm waiting for Made You Up:

For some reason, I am really in love with the cover of this book. I can't put it into words but after I've finished reading the summary and I looked at the cover closely, I felt like it fits the story.

What is reality and what isn't? That phrase just got me. And who is Miles? I like that I'm going to think real hard while reading this book, guessing what is real and what isn't. And I've never read the Silver Linings Playbook, but Made You Up just makes me want to read it now. There's something about Alex being an unreliable narrator that gives this book so much appeal. I need it!

Title: Hello, I Love You by Katie M. Stout
Release Date: June 9th 2015
Published by: St. Martin's Griffin

Want? Add to your Goodreads list!

Summary:

A teen escapes to a boarding school abroad and falls for a Korean pop star in this fun and fresh romantic novel in the vein of Anna and the French Kiss.

Grace Wilde is running—from the multi-million dollar mansion her record producer father bought, the famous older brother who’s topped the country music charts five years in a row, and the mother who blames her for her brother’s breakdown. Grace escapes to the farthest place from home she can think of, a boarding school in Korea, hoping for a fresh start.

She wants nothing to do with music, but when her roommate Sophie’s twin brother Jason turns out to be the newest Korean pop music superstar, Grace is thrust back into the world of fame. She can't stand Jason, whose celebrity status is only outmatched by his oversized ego, but they form a tenuous alliance for the sake of her friendship with Sophie. As the months go by and Grace adjusts to her new life in Korea, even she can't deny the sparks flying between her and the KPOP idol.

Soon, Grace realizes that her feelings for Jason threaten her promise to herself that she'll leave behind the music industry that destroyed her family. But can Grace ignore her attraction to Jason and her undeniable pull of the music she was born to write? Sweet, fun, and romantic, this young adult novel explores what it means to experience first love and discover who you really are in the process.

Why I'm waiting for Hello, I Love You:

If you've been following me for quite some time, then you know how much I love Kpop and the Korean culture and this book felt like all my dreams come true and then some. Finally, someone wrote the book I've been wanting to read for a long time!

And to mention Anna and the French Kiss (but with an Asian twist?!) is making me all the more curious about this book! I have never read any book that includes Kpop, idols / superstars, fame, the music industry like this book suggests, so I am eagerly waiting for the release of Katie's book. It's just something I need to read, both because I'm a Kpop fan and I'm an avid YA reader, and this just sounds like a really good combination I can't wait to get my hands on!

-----

So what are your WoW picks? Share them with me, please!

Read More

Review: Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang + Giveaway!

Sometimes we just need to pay attention. Sometimes we just need to notice. Sometimes, we just need to ask for help when we need it.

Title: Falling into Place by Amy Zhang
Release Date: September 9th 2014
Published by: Greenwillow Books
Buy: Fully Booked

Summary:

On the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton’s laws of motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road.

Why? Why did Liz Emerson decide that the world would be better off without her? Why did she give up? Vividly told by an unexpected and surprising narrator, this heartbreaking and nonlinear novel pieces together the short and devastating life of Meridian High’s most popular junior girl. Mass, acceleration, momentum, force—Liz didn’t understand it in physics, and even as her Mercedes hurtles toward the tree, she doesn’t understand it now. How do we impact one another? How do our actions reverberate? What does it mean to be a friend? To love someone? To be a daughter? Or a mother? Is life truly more than cause and effect? Amy Zhang’s haunting and universal story will appeal to fans of Lauren Oliver, Gayle Forman, and Jay Asher.

She's the kind of girl you'd love to love, and the kind you'd love to hate. Liz Emerson was one part of the trio of the most popular juniors in her class. Everyone knows Liz. Everyone. But then Liz crashed her car, and things started to unravel, and people realize Liz Emerson's life isn't perfect, not by a long shot.

Physics has never been a favorite of mine, but I give kudos to Amy Zhang for using Physics to illustrate Liz's life and paint it using cause and effect, Newton's Laws, mass and acceleration, gravity and motion. Told in bits and pieces seven days before Liz attempted suicide, crashed her car and the days that followed, Falling Into Place pushes the readers to slide into what was behind the fragile facade that makes up Liz Emerson's life.

Taking a look in Liz's life is a powerful experience in itself. The layers come off piece by piece as we see Liz on her very best and her very worst, the cruel parts and the lonely parts, the pretense and the dreams, the innocence, the potential and the wishes, the things that led her to break people because she too is broken, and the things she did and wished she did to feel whole again, to just feel, to find meaning in her existence.There are a lot of broken people in this novel, and sadly some of them cannot be put back together, but there are others like Liam, who we find unlikely strength from.

It's a cheerless tale, laid bare to the readers in jumbled thoughts and messy emotions and the potent way that Amy Zhang has told this story in simple narrative is what made Falling Into Place a haunting, meaningful read. Sometimes we need to read a book like this, where we just need to look at things just a little bit closer, where we sometimes need to notice, because we might not know when a friend, the one who was always smiling and laughing, might be the one who needed our help the most. Your heart will give a painful lurch or two when you finish reading this novel. Falling Into Place is a gripping, significant debut that needs to be read by everyone.

Falling into Place is available in Fully Booked.

Content (plot, story flow, character):

The sad nature of this book and the heavy theme might not be suitable for most people, but it discusses a very important issue and presents a theme that we all need to be aware of, so I highly encourage people to read this. It'll definitely help provide an insight on what people going through tough times like Liz would feel and do, and what we in our part can do to help.

Shining: Worthy of a Goddess' Love!

Book Cover:
That cover is deceptive, beautiful but there's more to it than meets the eye.

-----

Read this in a couple of hours and I am still stunned. Wow.

GIVEAWAY TIME!

WIN A FINISHED COPY OF FALLING INTO PLACE!

Rules:

Open to Philippine residents only

(If you know someone from the Philippines who can receive the book for you, then you can join!)

Must be 13 years or older

Ends 2/28

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Read More