Stacking The Shelves #10: Spring And Summer Haul

Stacking The Shelves is a feature hosted by Tynga’s Reviews where bloggers share what books (both physical and digital) they received, won, bought, and borrowed.

Hi there Misfit Booknerds! For those who are wondering if there's Spring in the Philippines, I just dream we do. HAHAHA! *cries* I am, however, referring to the titles I received during the seasons ARCs or finished books were released. Other than that, I'm just trying to be somewhere I'm not... OH SPRING!

You can also take note that I have not made an STS for months and months (since January), due to the lack of book hauls. (blame my thesis expenses LOL). You may now mock me.

During April till July however, I have received a number of books, both physical and electronic. Some of them are advance and backlisted titles, while others are borrowed or part of blog tours. So yeah. Here we go!

April

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

May

What It's Like To Have A Bookish Best Friend

Hi there Misfit Booknerds! How have you been??? Are you busy with school or are you reading? Please be reading. HA! Wouldn't you be so glad if you can talk to your best friend about that book you're reading but alas, your best friend isn't exactly the type who reads books! You're life is a lie. LOLJK! Cherish those best friends of yours.

Anyway, I've been known to not label friendships. One time, one of my friends told me that she doesn't know what our relationship really is, even though we're practically on the best friend standpoint, if you know what I mean. The truth is, I just assume that if I have a friend whom I'm very close with, they are already my best friend. And I don't care if I end up having a ton of best friends coz of it. Everyone matters to me. *tackle hugs you all*

Writers Central: With Our Words (Part 1)

One thing I remember my sister said to me about love was, "Love is unfair. It doesn't give you the chance to breathe or think straight, yet it lures you in so fast in the beginning and flops you down like a rotten sack of potatoes after it's sick of you. Yeah. Unfair."

Misfit Talks: When I Was A Kid...

Hello hello, Misfit booknerds! Thank you by the way for reading my short features! It means a lot! It's fun to hear your thoughts about my life as it is but what if I tell you some stories about myself as a kid? Yeah, let's wallow about that for a moment and prepare your mind for extreme awkwardness and weird photos... LOL!

So, yeah, let me share with you the fact that I was born in a small town in Batangas, in the Philippines and I am the first girl from the side of my Dad, so they kinda celebrated and thought I was the most adorable thing in the planet. Of course, that all changed when I turned to be this piece of work. LOL

Review: Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway

Title: Emmy & Oliver                               

Author: Robin Benway

Publication: June 23rd 2015, HarperTeen

Format: e-ARC, 352 pages

Source: From the publisher (Thanks HarperTeen!)

Buy it on: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iBooks | The Book Depository | Kobo | National Bookstore / Fully Booked (PH)

Synopsis:

Emmy’s best friend, Oliver, reappears after being kidnapped by his father ten years ago. Emmy hopes to pick up their relationship right where it left off. Are they destined to be together? Or has fate irreparably driven them apart?

Emmy just wants to be in charge of her own life.

She wants to stay out late, surf her favorite beach—go anywhere without her parents’ relentless worrying. But Emmy’s parents can’t seem to let her grow up—not since the day Oliver disappeared.

Oliver needs a moment to figure out his heart.

He’d thought, all these years, that his dad was the good guy. He never knew that it was his father who kidnapped him and kept him on the run. Discovering it, and finding himself returned to his old hometown, all at once, has his heart racing and his thoughts swirling.

Emmy and Oliver were going to be best friends forever, or maybe even more, before their futures were ripped apart. In Emmy’s soul, despite the space and time between them, their connection has never been severed. But is their story still written in the stars? Or are their hearts like the pieces of two different puzzles—impossible to fit together?

Readers who love Sarah Dessen will tear through these pages with hearts in throats as Emmy and Oliver struggle to face the messy, confusing consequences of Oliver’s father’s crime. Full of romance, coming-of-age emotion, and heartache, these two equally compelling characters create an unforgettable story.

Misfit Review:

When someone important in your life comes back after many years, knowing that them disappearing has caused great trauma to a lot of people, is it alright to just go back to the way it was or will the change be too much to handle?

Emmy & Oliver is a rollercoaster of feelings, brought about the traumatic experience of Oliver being kidnapped by his Dad one day, at age 7. After 10 years, Oliver comes back home and Emmy, his best friend, is both happy and worried. Things have changed. Oliver's mom won't rest till his Dad is arrested, Emmy's parents are way too overprotective of her and Caro and Drew, Emmy's best friends (Oliver's friends once), are gonna have to learn to adapt to everything again. It's a mixture of happiness and uncertainty for everyone and on whether everything should be done-over or should it be a start over.

Review: Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider

Title: Extraordinary Means

Author: Robyn Schneider

Publication: May 26th 2015, Katherine Tegen Books

Format: e-ARC, 336 pages

Source: Edelweiss (Thanks to the publisher!)         

Buy it on: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iBooks | The Book Depository | Kobo | National Bookstore /Fully Booked (PH)

SYNOPSIS:

From the author of The Beginning of Everything: two teens with a deadly disease fall in love on the brink of a cure.

At seventeen, overachieving Lane finds himself at Latham House, a sanatorium for teens suffering from an incurable strain of tuberculosis. Part hospital and part boarding school, Latham is a place of endless rules and confusing rituals, where it's easier to fail breakfast than it is to flunk French.

There, Lane encounters a girl he knew years ago. Instead of the shy loner he remembers, Sadie has transformed. At Latham, she is sarcastic, fearless, and utterly compelling. Her friends, a group of eccentric troublemakers, fascinate Lane, who has never stepped out of bounds his whole life. And as he gradually becomes one of them, Sadie shows him their secrets: how to steal internet, how to sneak into town, and how to disable the med sensors they must wear at all times.

But there are consequences to having secrets, particularly at Latham House. And as Lane and Sadie begin to fall in love and their group begins to fall sicker, their insular world threatens to come crashing down.

Told in alternating points of view, Extraordinary Means is a darkly funny story about doomed friendships, first love, and the rare miracle of second chances.

Misfit Review:

To be honest, I don't know what words to say. I always do. At times when I feel entirely overwhelmed with a book, I just want to sit and stare at the corner of my room, cry and stalk the author and ask for guidance, forgiveness coz I have screamed at the book many times, and just ask, WHY???? WHY YOU DO DIS?

Crushing on Authors

I've been told as a kid that having a crush on someone is completely normal and should not be deemed weird or out of this world. You can have as many crushes as you like, my Mom said.

To be honest, I've never been vocal about my crushes, unless they were animated characters or people from the telly who I may never even meet IRL. I'm also quite vocal about my crushes over at social media.. well, unless it's not awkward and stuff. What am I even saying? Jayvee, you're such a dork.

{BLOG TOUR} Review: We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach

Title: We All Looked Up

Author: Tommy Wallach

Publication: March 26th 2015, Simon and Schuster UK

Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages

Source: Pinoy Book Tours (Thanks again, Dianne of Oops I Read A Book Again)

Buy it on: Amazon | Barnesand Noble | iBooks | The Book Depository | Kobo | National Bookstore / Fully Booked (PH)

Synopsis:

Before the asteroid, we let ourselves be defined by labels:

The athlete, the outcast, the slacker, the overachiever.

But then we all looked up and everything changed.

They said it would be here in two months. That gave us two months to leave our labels behind. Two months to become something bigger than what we'd been, something that would last even after the end.

Two months to really live.

Misfit Review:

Many times, I find contemporaries tiring and repetitive in formula, while some just go beyond my expectations. We All Looked Up proved that it will definitely go beyond my expectations indeed, but it did bring up some casualties.

So the plot goes around as an apocalyptic few months left for the world because an asteroid called Ardor is going to fall from the sky and presents distress among people, especially the focus of the story, the teens in Seattle, who try to make the coming of the end worthwhile by throwing a party and making sure that they didn’t leave the world with any regrets.