Book Mail!!!!

Last March 16, 2016, around 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm, I was scrolling through my social media accounts while waiting for our exam in Differential Calculus. When I opened my instagram, I was shocked of how many comment notifications I got. It was more than usual! So being the curious and impatient puppy that I am, I opened it immediately. And this was what the blabbering was about:

geekgirlreads is my bookstagram username 🙂

 

The moment I saw this post, I literally screamed and squealed and jumped for joy! … in our university cafeteria… with all the students and faculty looking at me. But who freaking cares?! I JUST WON A GIVEAWAY ❤️‍

 

I immediately contacted them and settled with two books – Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, and Everything I Never Told You. But since I am a girl and I just LOVE every book I see in book depository, I changed it to a more mainstream book, and one book for my sister (check her bookstagram @bookishmuggle to see what she recieved!)

It was May 5 (or so) when I sent my order at bookdepository.com. Few days after, it was finally dispatched from UK! Now all that’s left to do is wait…

 

And wait…

 

And wait…

 

And freaking wait

 

 

 

(this is the only bad thing when it comes to book mail. it takes FOREVER before you have it 😭 luckily, forever doesn’t exist. HAH! in your face, lovebirds)

 

After waiting for a long time, it finally arrived! I received a message earlier from my sister saying that the book mails are finally in her hands! 😍

 

I screamed my heart out (again, in our cafeteria) and went home as fast as the jeepneys and tricycle could handle. And thanks to adrenaline, my legs didn’t feel weak despite of how fast I was walking.

 

AND HERE IT IS!

I unwrapped it as fast as my hands could handle and…and… I was completely speechless.

 

It’s so beautiful! 😍 There are some defects but whatever! The book looks so gorgeous and it’s mine and I can finally meet Lou Clark and Will Traynor ❤️‍

 

I haven’t posted anything on my bookstagram but I have posted one photo on my personal account (@nichikolaa)

 

Also my gallery is currently filled with photos of this book so expect geekgirlreads to have posts filled with this gem ❤️‍

 

I’ll be reading Me Before You this weekend and if ever I finish it by then, I’ll make sure I’ll post a review as soon as possible!

 

For now, I’ll be in my paradise, sniffing my brand new baby 💖

 

 

Too Late

“I guess that’s the difference in being loved the right way and the wrong way. You either feel tethered to an anchor… or you feel like flying.”

Author: Colleen Hoover

Rating: 4.2/5

Started on: April 24, 2016

Finished on: April 26, 2016

Genre: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Sociology, College, Adult, Contemporary Romance, Dark, Suspense, Mental Health

Synopsis:

Sloan will go through hell and back for her little brother. And she does, every single night.

Forced to remain in a relationship with the dangerous and corrupt Asa Jackson, Sloan will do whatever it takes to make sure her brother has what he needs.

Nothing will get in her way.

Nothing except Carter.

Sloan is the only good thing to ever happen to Asa. He knows this and he never plans on letting her go; even if she doesn’t approve of his lifestyle. But despite Sloan’s disapproval, Asa knows what it takes to get what he wants. He knows what he needs to do to remain on top.

Nothing will get in his way.

Nothing except Carter.

First and foremost, I’d like to apologize for being a rebel. Colleen Hoover and other mature audiences warned the minor nonreaders to NOT read this novel on wattpad due to some (well a LOT) of inappropriate, detailed scenes (for everyone who doesn’t know, I’m just 16 years old, turning 17 this July). I overestimated my open-mindedness and understanding, thus causing me to lose the remaining innocence I have left *cries*. Nevertheless, Too Late is a fantastic read and the things I sacrificed for it was worth it!

[Although I do not encourage minors like me to read this..unless you’re really eager to open your mind to a lot of sexual stuff, and lose your innocence.]

Too Late is my fourth CoHo novel since 2016 (and in my entire bibliophile life) so I already knew that this would definitely have a plot twist that will destroy my heart or will make me sob pathetically, my parents would think I’m insane. However, despite the expectations I have, I was still caught off guard – Colleen Hoover was still able to blow my mind and shatter my heart in a way I wasn’t expecting. I have never read a novel before this that made me flinch so bad I had to pee every end of a paragraph, or even a sentence. It’s terrifyingly stunning and it made me had the best (and worst) emotional roller coaster ride of my life!

[WARNING: This summary will 99.98% spoil you. It’ll be perfect for the minor ones, and a life wrecker to the matured ones who hasn’t read the novel yet]

 

 

“It’s too late to kill me, Asa. You killed me a long fucking time ago.”

 

Sloan is a teenage girl who would do anything and everything for her brother, Stephen. At an early age, Sloan was force to be mature enough to take care of her brothers since their mother is no longer capable of doing her duties to her family – unless a public appearance of a loving mother is needed.  She thought everything was under her control, until an unfortunate thing happened to one of her brothers. Few years after, Sloan is finally free enough to go to college and not live with her malevolent mother while having her brother, Stephen taken care of. As days go by, she meets Asa Jackson, a very attractive classmate of hers who doesn’t seem to make school his priority. She was happy enough to look at him from afar until he asked her out. Sloan thought her first date in her entire life would be the stairway to heaven she’d always dreamt of…until Asa unraveled the mask hiding the monster he is.

 

Every day of her life, Sloan sees and experiences hell with Asa, and this had been going on for two years. She’d love to escape from his brutal hands and get away from his illegal lifestyle, but that would cause her brother’s life. Fortunately, Carter and Dalton came in the picture and changed everything in her life, including her desperate love for Asa.

 

As her feelings for him fades and her love for Carter grows, Asa begins to imagine a future with Sloan and forces her to marry him. Sloan, knowing how dangerous and a psychopath he’s become, finds an escape route both for her and Stephen. What she didn’t know is that this thought of her would trigger her fiancée to commit the crime he’d always want to oblige. Will Sloan forever remain in the hands of Asa Jackson or will Sloan finally get the love she truly deserves?

 

First, I didn’t like how Asa treated Sloan like a prostitute-slave, and his senseless ideas about women being (please excuse the term) hoes. It’s very disrespectful and painful, especially to the mothers.

Second, I loathed how helpless Sloan became. Girls shouldn’t feel like the only way to resolve a problem is by asking a guy for help.

Third and the last reason, I despise John and Kevin so much I’ll gladly burn them alive if I was given the chance.

Hopeless and Losing Hope

“And once again in my new world full of heartaches and lies, this hopeless boy somehow finds a way to make me smile.”

Author: Colleen Hoover

Rating: 4.75/5

Started on: March 22, 2016

Finished on: April 07, 2016

Edition: Kindle edition

Genre: Romance, New Adult, Young Adult, Contemporary, Sociology, Fiction, Chick Lit, Drama, High School

Synopsis: (by book)

Hopeless

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.

Losing Hope

In the follow-up to Colleen Hoover’s #1 New York Times bestseller Hopeless, the charming and irresistible Dean Holder tells the passionate story that has melted thousands of hearts.

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.

Honestly speaking, I am not fond of books with faces on their covers. It creeps me up and it always gives me an impression that it won’t be worth the read. But maaaan was I wrong about this duology.  Since I’ve finished the gorgeously written novel, November 9 by Colleen Hoover, I’ve been eager to read all of her novellas, even though some, like these two, doesn’t have appealing covers, in my opinion. Anyway, it’s the mindblowing, heart-wrecking plot twist that gets everyone in their knees, right?

Well, let’s not linger around my thoughts about these books any longer.  Let the book reviewing commence!

 

 

“I want you to remember who you are, despite the bad things that are happening to you. Because those bad things aren’t you. They are just things that happen to you.  You need to accept that who you are, and the things that happened to you are not one and the same.”

Sky Davis is a 17-year-old girl who grew up with her best friend, Six, and her loving foster mother, Karen.  She and Six had been living a life every teenage girl has – sleepovers, rebelling against their parents, and making out with different guys almost every night. The only not-so-typical thing about Sky’s life is… well everything. She never experienced any form of social media, or even a television for that matter, she was home-schooled ever since, and she never felt anything when she’s around guys, no matter how hot or good looking they are. Until Holder shows up.

 

Dean Holder hasn’t been around for the past year for who-knows-what-reason. When he finally decided to go back due to an unwanted occurrence,  he coincidentally bumped into Sky in a grocery store, where he was 101% sure that the girl he’s staring at is his long lost childhood sweetheart, Hope. Unfortunately, this was another “hallucination” of Holder so he decided to run, and afterwards saw Sky standing in front of his house. They met a lot of times after that and, needless to say, they both developed feelings for each other.

 

Unfortunately, their “live” feeling was mildly ruined by sudden realizations and confessions from both parties. Sky started questioning her entire life and Holder’s feeling for her. On the other hand, Holder was so confused with what to do with his hopeless life and whether to keep his memories with Les, his twin, or permanently let all of it go.

 

Will the both of them truly meet their happily ever after or is it just an illusion that can never become a reality?

 

[P.S.: 

Since Losing Hope is just Holder telling his side (and his own plot twist in life), I’ve just (sort of) combined the summaries of both novels. ]

I gave Hopeless 5 stars, while Losing Hope gained 4.5 stars. I really don’t have a clear reason why I didn’t give Losing Hope the same stars as Hopeless. It just so happened that I already knew almost 75% of the story so some parts were a little dull for me. Nevertheless, these novellas deserve all the love and recognition in the world! I’m praying that people who related to Hope’s case can face it the way she did. And I pray there will be less similar cases that will occur in the future.

Paper Towns

“The town was paper, but the memories were not.”

Author: John Green

Rating: 3.2/5

Started on: March 05, 2016

Finished on: March 09, 2016

Edition: paperback (Speak)

Genre: Young Adult, Adventure

Synopsis:

Who is the real Margo?

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew…

“It is so hard to leave – until you leave. An then it is the easiest goddammed thing in the world.”

 

Ahh Paper Towns – a book by John Green that was published 2 years earlier that the heart-wrecking The Fault In Our Stars. Being one of the people who has read TFIOS before Paper Towns, I expected this novel to break my heart ruthlessly and would leave me in a puddle of tears. Apparently, that wasn’t the goal of this novella – it’s far from its goal, in my opinion. Nevertheless, I still liked Quentin and Margo, and the Paper Town.

[Friendly note: this review is a little SPOILER-ish. For those who still hasn’t read Paper Towns and wants to read it naively, read at your own risk…or just don’t read this part]

Paper Towns is about a guy named Quentin Jacobsen who loved his childhood sweetheart, Margo Roth Spiegelman since they were kids, and was never given a chance to tell it to her because of certain circumstances – and because, like most friendship that started at an early age, they grew apart. Q sees her everyday at school, hanging out with her friends and her boyfriend, Jason Worthington. And although it always breaks his heart to see her happy around a guy that’s not him, Quentin couldn’t resist his self because that’s the only time that he would see her, well except when he remembers the “tree incident” when they were still playmates. One weekday night, however, she came in his room through the window and forced Q to go with her, letting him experience the best night of his life with the love of his life. On the next day, however, Margo Roth Spiegelman was nowhere to be found.

 

Quentin and her best friend, Lacey Pemberton, was eager to find out where Margo went this time. Only in this adventure of hers, the footprints that she left was vague and, in a way, irrelevant. But with the help of Radar and Ben, they unravel the clues piece by piece until they were a road trip away from finding her.

 

The only question haunting Quentin’s mind is, is Margo Roth Spiegelman really there? Is she still alive or was this a mission to find a dead person like the way they found the dead man under the tree?

Unlike The Fault In Our Stars, this novella is made with pure contrast. This is because I loved the beginning and middle part so much since it was pure mystery and thrill and will really make you cringe on the edge of your seat. However, when the last part came in the picture, every love I’ve build up with the characters and the story was ruined. (poof!) Cliché was an understatement with describing how Paper Towns ended. It really disappointed me to the point where I’m scared of reading another JG novel.

Yep, I guess this is the consequence of falling in love with TFIOS intensely.

---

P.S.:

If you see someone having the same pattern as I have (details of the book, my thoughts about the book, book summary, why not five stars?) PLEASE keep in mind that I was the one who first made up this pattern (well some details of the book was inspired by bibliophilemish). As some of you have known, a blogger has copied this certain pattern of mine without giving credits or notifying me that SHE would use it. And this really makes me sad because I somehow considered her as a friend ☹️ *sigh* and I really do my best to make my blog unique…but of course she HAS to destroy that dream of mine. Ugh why do people do this? Get the idea of other people and have all the credits..how do you sleep at night? 😭

Evil part of my brain: like a baby! mwahahahaha! 😖

 

Anyway, HAVE A GREAT DAY PEOPLE! ❤️‍ Do NOT plagiarize. You’re gonna make every puppy and kitten upset.

 

– Nicolynne 👓

 

Random Rant

Last night while playing with my laptop, I decided to visit wordpress and scroll down a bit (because I can hardly do that with my android phone). It was, surprisingly, fun because most of the blog posts I’m reading was book reviews from books I haven’t read yet. However, the beautiful night was destroyed after I came across a specific blog post.

It was HORRIBLE. This blogger made a book review and basically copied the way I present my book reviews and did not give any credits (a small “inspired by: knottygeekgirl.wordpress.com would be enough. Or just my name). I’m not sure if I’m the only one in this website who presents book reviews in that specific manner though. Maybe someone from Portugal or Estonia has the same pattern. Well anyway, that’s not my point. My point here is THAT blogger is my friend.. We’re not that close (since we only met at bookstagram) still, I considered him/her (protection purposes) as a friend! But what did she do?! She copied the way I write book reviews, did not give any credits, and is now continuing with his/her life like he/she didn’t commit a crime! I’m just so disappointed with this because I try my very best to make my blog unique. Although I admit I have a few inspirations (i.e., @bibliophilemish and @bookwormaniac from bookstagram) but I’m just inspired by their blogs..then I thought of a way to improvise mine. But this person?! He/she didn’t need to put on the same effort I had because he/she has me. I’ll be the one who’d think of a cute whatever, that person would be the one to have credits. It’s effin disappointing. Hell, it infuriates me whenever I think about his/her posts!

 

Why oh why does people copy the hardwork of other people just so they can have an easy one? 😭😭😭💔💔💔💔💔

Never Never trilogy

Just remember.

Author: Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher

Rating (as a trilogy): 4/5

Started on: January 23, 2016

Finished on: January 25, 2016

Edition: Kindle edition

Genre:  Romace. Young Adult, New Adult, Contemporary, Mystery, Fantasy, Fiction, Suspense, Paranormal

Synopsis (by book):

Never Never part 1

“I may not remember anything about her, but I would bet her smile was my favorite part of her” 

 

Synopsis:

Best friends since they could walk. In love since the age of fourteen.

Complete strangers since this morning.

He’ll do anything to remember. She’ll do anything to forget.

 

Never Never part 2

“Until then, never lose hope. Never stop loving me. Never forget. Never Never,”

 

Synopsis:

 Never forget that I was your first real kiss. Never forget that you’ll be my last.
And never stop loving me between all of them.
Never stop, Charlie.
Never forget.
Silas races against time as more truths unravel, while others twist tighter together. And now, the stakes are higher as Silas’ control slips and others begin to point fingers. Charlie is in trouble and he must be the one to bridge the chasm between their past and their present. Because somewhere between I love yous and Never Nevers and Never Agains, a truth they can’t imagine, beckons to be found.

“Where are you, Charlie?”

 

 

Never Never part 3

“Fate is the magnetic pull of our souls toward the people, places, and things we belong with.”

 

Synopsis:

New York Times bestselling authors Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher are back with the much-anticipated final installment in the Never Never novella series.
Together, Silas Nash and Charlize Wynwood must look deeper into the past to find out who they were and who they want to be. With time ticking down, the couple are in a race to find the answers they need before they lose everything. Can they regain what they once had? And will it restore who they once were?

This trilogy caught my attention from the first time I saw posts on bookstagram regarding these novels. I never read any reviews about Never Never because I wanted to read it naively. The only idea I had was a lot of people was disappointed with the last book. I didn’t try to figure out why because it might give  me an idea of what this trilogy is about. It was worth it, anyway. While I was reading Never Never and after I finished it, I wasn’t influenced by other people’s opinion – which was really nice since I ended up loving the third book .

 

 

“Just remember.”

Charlie and Silas had been best friends since they were born. And like the ordinary human they are, they fell in love with each other.  Despite their corresponding family problems, their love still gained strength and made them survive every issues and problems concerning their family and theirselves. However, certain circumstances came in their way, which forced them to break up,  and let the universe play an evil trick on them.

 

Never Never is yet another novel that will prove readers that soul mates does exist and fate is something people should never, ever play with, or doubt.

 

[P.S.

I made this summary spoiler-free as much as my capabilities would allow, which explains why this review seems so vague and repulsive. I would really encourage the non-reader of this trilogy to read it without much knowledge of what would happened.]

Among these three books, I loved Never Never part 3 the most (excluding the epilogue), and part 2 the least. Part 1 was where the action and eeriness was put in focus, which really made my eyes pop and hunger me for more. Part 2 was when…well this was where my heart was beating rapidly then stopped because of the clichéd twist in its plot. With the last book, however, my heart was able to beat hastily and calmed down at the same time.  I especially loved when Colleen and Tarryn didn’t end the book so sudden, unlike a lot of novels. Never Never part 3 made sure it provided me enough emotions and retorted all of my questions from book 1 up to the last chapter. The only problem with the last book was the epilogue. UGH! The staleness was too much for me to handle.