BITS OF JOYCE: book

, by Joenah Joyce

My bookshelf

, by Joenah Joyce

I'm a big fan of Stephanie Perkins. Her books make me giggle with happiness and squeal with adorableness starting from Anna and the French Kiss, Lola and the Boy Next Door, to Isla and the Happily Ever After. It makes me feel that teenage romance and makes me believe that forever exist. #MayForever

ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS

This book is ain't your average teen romance novel. It has the spark between two people, a slow and rich relationship build, great side characters, hilarious dialogue and writing. Anna is an every-girl with a heart for cinema and a lack of knowledge in French. She's funny and feisty, obsessed with cleanliness, she's a fantastic protagonist. Étienne is constantly at the center of the story. He's charming, everyone loves him, short, sexy, and wit. This book is a mixture of the romantic comedy and the romantic drama between two meant-for-each-other characters.

LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR

I am fascinated with Lola, she's eccentric and outrageous especially when it comes to fashion, a one of a kind indeed. However, I can't really relate and connect with her. I also adored Cricket, he's shy, smart, sincere, and he respects Lola in a real way. The two are completely different yet they make a lovely couple. This book is colorful and quirky that makes the reader's imagination go wild.

ISLA AND THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER

After I finished Lola, I was too excited to read Isla that I ordered a copy from Book Depository right away because it was not yet available here in the Philippines. Among the three, this is my favorite. This is because I can simply relate with Isla, I know most of us girls can relate to her as well. Isla is a wonderfully complex character, she's shy, smart, deep, insecure, and passionate about love. With Josh, he's a rebel but passionate about art and love. On another note, I also love how people with disabilities like Kurt was acknowledged. This book is charming and sweet yet full of emotions that will surely catch the reader's heart.

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These are the kinds of books that I will read over and over again, it's light but with bits of drama. I love that Stephanie Perkins has written about three different kinds of love story, each with their unique high and lows. And I completely adore how she connected each of the characters in every book. It's uniquely awesome!

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, by Joenah Joyce

book

THE READING HABITS TAG

Books are my best friends, my security blanket, my ultimate love. And reading has become a need that I can't live without. I've stumbled about this tag on Alissa's blog and I was thinking it'll be fun to do this. To be honest, this has been sitting in my drafts for quite long now and I finally I now have the time to solely answer the following questions:

Do you have a certain place at home for reading?
Oh yes I do! I love reading while having a cup of coffee or tea in our front porch during early mornings and afternoons, and when it gets hot I move to my most favorite part of our home, my bedroom.

Where do you like to read?
I like to spend my time reading at coffee shops. Well, aside from food of course, the smell of coffee and cozy ambiance makes reading a wonderful experience.

Bookmark or random piece of paper?
To be honest it's both. I am fond of using bookmarks but the thing is I always lose it, so a random piece of paper would do. Hahaha.

Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop after a chapter / certain amount of pages?
It depends... When i'm really into that certain book it's hard to just stop so it's usually after a chapter or so.

Do you eat or drink while reading?
I do! A cup of coffee or soda. :)

Music or TV while reading?
Music of course. It's relaxing and the TV is just so destructive for me.

One book at a time or several at once?
One book at a time. I am the kind of reader who wouldn't read another book until I finish what i'm reading, and sometimes I take a break after reading a book to savor and internalize what I've read.

Reading at home or everywhere?
Everywhere. I'm not that picky with the place as long as I have my book with me i'm good to go.

Reading aloud or silently in your head?
Silently in my head. When i'm reading aloud I can't fully understand what i'm reading, I don't know why. Is that weird?

Do you read ahead or skip pages?
It depends. When i'm really inclined to that book I don't skip pages, in fact I read twice or thrice if there's a chapter or paragraph that I love.

Break the spine or keep it like new?
As much as I want to keep it new, it's hard not break the spine but i'm always trying not to.

Ebook or paperback?
Definitely paperback. Though I have lots of ebook in my ipad, I still prefer the real book. There's something with the smell and flipping through the pages of the real book. But if I can't find the paperback version, ebook is fine.

Do you write in your books?
No. As much as possible I keep it clean but if there's a quote or phrases that catches my eye I underline it with a pencil and I place a sticky note on that page.

Who do you tag?
Anyone who would love to do this! And I urge you do this especially if you're a bookworm :)

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, by Joenah Joyce

book

Hopeless Series

photo credit: vilmasblog.com

After reading Alissa of thewallflowersecrets post about Hopeless Series, I am immediately convinced to read it.

I. HOPELESS

(Sky’s POV)
Sometimes discovering the truth can leave you more hopeless than believing the lies…

That’s what seventeen-year-old Sky realizes after she meets Dean Holder. A guy with a reputation that rivals her own and an uncanny ability to invoke feelings in her she’s never had before. He terrifies her and captivates her all in the span of just one encounter, and something about the way he makes her feel sparks buried memories from a past that she wishes could just stay buried.Sky struggles to keep him at a distance knowing he’s nothing but trouble, but Holder insists on learning everything about her. After finally caving to his unwavering pursuit, Sky soon finds that Holder isn’t at all who he’s been claiming to be. When the secrets he’s been keeping are finally revealed, every single facet of Sky’s life will change forever.

II. LOSING HOPE

(Holder’s POV)
In Hopeless, Sky left no secret unearthed, no feeling unshared, and no memory forgotten, but Holder’s past remained a mystery.

Still haunted by the little girl he let walk away, Holder has spent his entire life searching for her in an attempt to finally rid himself of the crushing guilt he has felt for years. But he could not have anticipated that the moment they reconnect, even greater remorse would overwhelm him…

Sometimes in life, if we wish to move forward, we must first dig deep into our past and make amends. In Losing Hope, bestselling author Colleen Hoover reveals what was going on inside Holder’s head during all those hopeless moments—and whether he can gain the peace he desperately needs.

III. FINDING CINDERELLA

A chance encounter in the dark leads eighteen-year-old Daniel and the girl who stumbles across him to profess their love for each other. But this love comes with conditions: they agree it will only last one hour and it will only be make-believe.

When their hour is up and the girl rushes off like Cinderella, Daniel tries to convince himself that what happened between them only seemed perfect because they were pretending it was perfect. Moments like that with girls like her don’t happen outside of fairytales.

One year and one bad relationship later, his disbelief in insta-love is stripped away the day he meets Six: a girl with a strange name and an even stranger personality. Daniel soon realizes the way he pretended to feel about Cinderella and the way he really feels about Six may not be so different after all. Especially when the two loves of his life end up being one in the same.

Unfortunately for Daniel, finding Cinderella doesn’t guarantee their happily ever after…it only further threatens it.

(credits: goodreads)

These books are just phenomenal! Colleen Hoover is a genius, she is now one of my favorite author! I’m just thankful enough that I have read her books. I developed this deep connections with the characters, like I’ve stepped into their world and feel what they are feeling. The emotions and feelings are just rich and intense, honestly I cried a lot while reading. Also, she nailed the alternate POV! It’s cool to know both of the character’s point of view, story, and feelings, the way she did it is just awesome. It felt like I just experienced reading a good book for the first time, something new and refreshing. Colleen is just freaking’ brilliant! These books have strong impact into my life, it somehow made me realise to be strong and to keep going no matter how sucky life is.

Anyway, here are my favorite quotes from the series:

“And while I could sit here and feel sorry for myself, wondering why all of this happened to me..I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to wish for a perfect life. The things that knock you down in life are tests, forcing you to make a choice between giving in and remaining on the ground or wiping the dirt off and standing up even taller than you did before you were knocked down. I’m choosing to stand taller. I’ll probably get kicked down a few more times before this life is through with me, but I can guarantee you I’ll never stay on the ground.”

“One of the things I love about books is being able to define and condense certain portions of a character’s life into chapters. It’s intriguing, because you can’t do this with real life. You can’t just end a chapter, then skip the things you don’t want to live through, only to open it up to a chapter that better suits your mood. Life can’t be divided into chapters… only minutes. The events of your life are all crammed together one minute right after the other without any time lapses or blank pages or chapter breaks because no matter what happens life just keeps going and moving forward and words keep flowing and truths keep spewing whether you like it or not and life never lets you pause and just catch your fucking breath.I need one of those chapter breaks. I just want to catch my breath, but I have no idea how.”

“The things that knock you down in life are tests, forcing you to make a choice between giving in and remaining on the ground or wiping the dirt off and standing up even taller than you did before you were knocked down.”

“It’s crap that you’re letting on bad year determine your fate for the rest of your life.”

“I’m gonna go live my life now, Les. A life I’m actually able to look forward to, and I’d honestly thought I’d never be able to say that. Then again, I’d honestly thought I’d always be hopeless, but I find hope every single day.”

“Not everyone gets a happily every after. Life is real and sometimes it’s ugly and you just have to learn how to cope.”

PS: If you have a book that you wanna suggest or share, please leave a comment below :)

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, by Joenah Joyce

Volume 1: The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion

Circe by Madeline Miller

My bookshelf