FEELS: NOTED || The Last Night of Her Wake by Chrissie Peria

Disclaimer: Everything you will read after this will be spoiler-free. This is not an actual review. These are just feelings, put into slightly incoherent words that hopefully make sense enough for you to understand how a certain book affected me. There will be no technical comments, no nitpicking. Just feelings, all the feelings.
EMOCHI_GifScale_LastNight-chrissie

Get it on Buqo

First things first: Don’t forget to follow the #StrangeLit blog tours. Which will be going on for the rest of the month!

Do download the Buqo app and purchase your own e-book copy of #StrangeLit Killer Seasons, and rate it on Goodreads.


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This story in the #StrangeLit Killer Seasons bundle is one of those stories where… you think you know, but you really have no idea. I mean, the title itself should be self explanatory, right? Someone died. A girl died. It was the last night of her wake and she’s probably not dead. You’re probably going to read a story about how she’s watching over her coffin, spitting out ironic commentary about the people coming to visit.

It’s probably going to be this hilarious story about how the afterlife sucks, told in the point of view of a girl who died.

Well, simply put… NO.

It’s a story about how life sucks, told in the point of view of those who got left behind.

Continue reading FEELS: NOTED || The Last Night of Her Wake by Chrissie Peria

FEELS: NOTED || Only A Kiss by Ines Bautista Yao

Disclaimer: Everything you will read after this will be spoiler-free. This is not an actual review. These are just feelings, put into slightly incoherent words that hopefully make sense enough for you to understand how a certain book affected me. There will be no technical comments, no nitpicking. Just feelings, all the feelings.

EMOCHI_GifScale_OnlyAKiss_InesGet it on Amazon | Buqo | Local bookstores

First things first: Do rate/review Only A Kiss on Goodreads, or give a shout-out to the author on Twitter and Facebook.

When she was nine-years-old, Katie knew she wanted Chris to give her her first kiss. It wasn’t because she was in love with him (no way, he was her best friend! Besides, she was in love with his fourteen-year-old big brother), it was because she could make him do anything she wanted.

Besides, it didn’t really mean anything. It was only a kiss after all.

But then things started to change. They grew up. They parted ways and went to different high schools. And other girls and boys—well, just one particular boy—came into the picture, throwing their lives upside down.

Told from the alternating points of view of Katie and Chris, this love story between two best friends will tug at your heartstrings and leave you thinking how the simplest things can mean so much.

I went back in time, that’s what happened when I read Only A Kiss. I went back to re-live a childhood that wasn’t mine, filled with cotton candy, rainbows, and firsts I never had. From the very beginning, it was wonderful and fluffy and just… see that gifscale up there? Totally accurate.

Continue reading FEELS: NOTED || Only A Kiss by Ines Bautista Yao

FEELS: NOTED || The Hometown Hazard by Dawn Lanuza

Disclaimer: Everything you will read after this will be spoiler-free. This is not an actual review. These are just feelings, put into slightly incoherent words that hopefully make sense enough for you to understand how a certain book affected me. There will be no technical comments, no nitpicking. Just feelings, all the feelings.

EMOCHI_GifScale_Hometown-dawnGet it on Amazon | Also available on Buqo

First things first: Don’t forget to follow the #TheHometownHazard blog tour, join the giveaway, and get a chance to win a free e-book copy of The Hometown Hazard!

Do rate/review The Hometown Hazard on Goodreads, or give a shout-out to the author on Twitter and Facebook.

Jules Coronado has been away from her hometown for almost a decade but when an intruder breaks in to her childhood home, she finds herself coming back. Changes evidently took place in her small town, including her childhood best friend’s younger brother, Kip – now tall, slightly scruffed, all grown up and caught climbing into their garden wall.

Kip Villamor has a mission and despite Jules’ doubts, they team up: going on fieldtrips, tackling unsuspecting men, and trespassing offices to dig up dirt. But Jules has secrets of her own, one that might be exposed – unless she keeps her walls up. But climbing walls are Kip’s forte, remember?

Will her secrets keep her on his side, or will it force her to disappear again?

It was the cover that got me at first when I saw the blog tour invite. I mean, look at how pretty this is! Obviously, a good cover is a big factor. But I’ve gotten books with nice covers, and ultimately put them down before I could even finish the story. It didn’t happen with The Hometown Hazard. (Though we did get a little “tense” for a bit, right, Dawn? :p)

I expected an in-your-face romance when I signed up for this tour. And I did get romance, definitely! But The Hometown Hazard is a lot more than just romance. It has suspense, and a sense of mystery that reminded me of the crime procedurals I love watching on television–with more sexual tension, of course.

Continue reading FEELS: NOTED || The Hometown Hazard by Dawn Lanuza

FEELS: NOTED || Choco Chip Hips by Agay Llanera

Disclaimer: Everything you will read after this will be spoiler-free. This is not an actual review. These are just feelings, put into slightly incoherent words that hopefully make sense enough for you to understand how a certain book affected me. There will be no technical comments, no nitpicking. Just feelings, all the feelings.

 

EMOCHI Choco Chip HipsGet it on Amazon | Smashwords

Sixteen-year-old Jessie, a baking aficionado, is shy, overweight, and worries too much about what people think. But one summer, a family emergency makes her realize that life is too short to live it on autopilot. Taking her life by the reins, she embarks on a journey that involves ditching the apron for her tank top, as she hip-hop dances her way to new friendships, stronger family ties, and into her school’s most elite club.

I’ve heard good things about this book. A lot a lot of good things. I hadn’t had the chance to purchase it though when I went to UNIQUBE to hunt down Songs of Our Breakup. It was there, in bright green paper, Choco Chip Hips was the free e-book that came with my purchase.

I don’t know, maybe something about the concept and the cover subconsciously scared me. I only got around to actually checking out the first chapter last week. And even then, I had to stop and take a break before continuing. Because the feelings… oh, the feelings, you guys. It was just too real. A plump, young girl, struggling with her inner demons, insecurities and love of food, trying to overcome them so she could find her place in the world. Her happy place, to be exact. And dagnabit it hit way too close to home… 🙁

Continue reading FEELS: NOTED || Choco Chip Hips by Agay Llanera

FEELS: NOTED || Blossom Among Flowers by Jay E. Tria

Disclaimer: Everything you will read after this will be spoiler-free. This is not an actual review. These are just feelings, put into slightly incoherent words that hopefully make sense enough for you to understand how a certain book affected me. There will be no technical comments, no nitpicking. Just feelings, all the feelings.

EMOCHI Blossom Among FlowersGet it on AmazonKobo |  Barnes & Noble
Or get the paperback at UNIQUBE

High school student Hikaru Saito is in trouble. She is failing English because she’d much rather bury her nose in the latest manga than study pronouns and prepositions. To keep her from getting kicked out of school, she is assigned a tutor in the form of the most popular boy in school: golden-haired genius Takeshi Hinata.

You’d think Takeshi would be Hikaru’s surefire way to academic success, but her stubbornness, lack of concentration, and general disinterest in things other than her precious manga frustrate Takeshi to no end. To make matters worse, a young, pretty boy teacher is determined to rescue Hikaru every chance he gets, riling Takeshi up even more—and confusing the hell out of Hikaru.

But as they spend more time together and get to know each other beyond their high school reputations, Hikaru and Takeshi enter a situation neither of them expected to find themselves in—one that factors in stolen kisses, controlling parents, a princess-in-hiding, and the deepest yearnings of a teenage heart.

About a month or so ago, Tara, another author friend of mine, decided to read the book Songs of Our Breakup. She spazzed about it, live tweeted the heck out of it, and was imploring our small group of friends to read it too. I was curious. But when I looked into buying Songs of Our Breakup (“Songs”), I discovered that the author Jay E. Tria had another book, her first book, Blossom Among Flowers (“Blossom”). I really was planning on getting Songs, first. But Blossom’s book blurb just made it impossible to pass up.

I read the book in less than five hours. Oh yeah, I took note. Because it was a work day, and I couldn’t focus, and I rushed to finish all my work stuff just so I can set aside two hours of lunch to read the next hundred pages—the first hundred I read in the same amount of time before I clocked in that morning. Whatever was left, I read in about thirty minutes, hidden away in the office pantry, as soon as five o’clock rolled around.

This book consumed me as aggressively as I devoured it.

Basically, Blossom and I made out like teenagers. And it was awesome. ♥

Continue reading FEELS: NOTED || Blossom Among Flowers by Jay E. Tria

FEELS: NOTED || Just For The Record by Six De los Reyes

Disclaimer: Everything you will read after this will be spoiler-free. This is not an actual review. These are just feelings, put into slightly incoherent words that hopefully make sense enough for you to understand how a certain book affected me. There will be no technical comments, no nitpicking. Just feelings, all the feelings.

 

EMOCHI Just For The RecordGet it on Buqo / Order the paperback

Just for the record, the heat can get to even the most calculated of minds.  

Let it be stated that Rhys loves Ryan forever and ever. But certain needs are not being met, leaving her frustrated and asking for too much than the conservative and almost rock star, Ryan, is willing to give. Uncooperative (or cooperative, depending on your point of view) weather provides her an opportunity to ask not what she can do for her friends, but what a friend can do for her.

Isaiah likes to say that the best thing about Rhys is that he can stand in her breathing space and feel nothing. Something of a breather when dancing with Lia short circuits his entire operating system. But all his beliefs are challenged when Rhys chances upon him in a steamy practice room in the middle of a heat wave.

This book and I met during the early days of the SparkNA writing workshop. We were asked to pick three books to read from the Romance Class Catalogue for one of the activities. I’d already picked my three when Therese, a friend and SparkNA classmate, started sending me screenshots of this story.

She wasn’t just sending them, either. She was aggressively insisting that I read it. She said it reminded her of me. From the excerpts I was getting it was difficult to disagree. Even before I finally bought the book, I knew for sure it would give me feelings. But then it gave me way more. Like, flip-table-ugly-cry-and-scream-onto-a-pillow feelings, yo.

Continue reading FEELS: NOTED || Just For The Record by Six De los Reyes