Fifteen Lanes
by S.J. Laidlaw

Summary:

Noor has lived all of her fourteen years in the fifteen lanes of Mumbai’s red light district. Born into a brothel, she is destined for the same fate as her mother: a desperate life trapped in the city’s sex trade. She must act soon to have any chance of escaping this grim future.

Across the sprawling city, fifteen-year-old Grace enjoys a life of privilege. Her father, the CEO of one of India’s largest international banks, has brought his family to Mumbai where they live in unparalleled luxury. But Grace’s seemingly perfect life is shattered when she becomes a victim of a cruel online attack.

Review: My Kind of Crazy by Robin Reul

My Kind of Crazy
by Robin Reul

Summary:

Despite the best of intentions, seventeen-year old, wisecracking Hank Kirby can’t quite seem to catch a break. It’s not that he means to screw things up all the time, it just happens. A lot. Case in point: his attempt to ask out the girl he likes literally goes up in flames when he spells “Prom” in sparklers on her lawn…and nearly burns down her house.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Peyton Breedlove, a brooding loner and budding pyromaniac, witnesses the whole thing. Much to Hank’s dismay, Peyton takes an interest in him—and his “work.” The two are thrust into an unusual friendship, but their boundaries are tested when Hank learns that Peyton is hiding some dark secrets, secrets that may change everything he thought he knew about Peyton.

Event Recap: The Philippine Readers & Writers Festival 2016

Over the last weekend, National Book Store and Raffles Makati sponsored The Philippine Readers & Writers Festival 2016. It’s a simultaneous-events thing featuring different people from local publishing industry. There were also book signing events from international authors, Adam Johnson, Anna Todd and Paula McLain.

Photo: National Book Store FB page

Book Spine Poem #1

I know I haven't been posting on the blog lately but today I am struck with great inspiration to try book spine poetry for the very first time. I am not a first class poet and my photography skills are very amateur but I hope the message of the poem connects to you, my fellow book wanderers! Here it is, have a look.

Book Blast + Giveaway: Girl Against The Universe by Paula Stokes

If you fell in love with The Art of Lainey or got hooked to Liars Inc., then maybe you are also anxiously waiting for Paula Stokes' latest book, Girl Against the Universe. To ease all our pains while waiting, Paula is here to takeover this post to talk about all things GATU. Take it away, Paula!

Review: The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl by Melissa Keil

The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl
by Melissa Keil

Summary:

Alba loves her life just as it is. She loves living behind the bakery, and waking up in a cloud of sugar and cinnamon. She loves drawing comics and watching bad TV with her friends.

The only problem is she’s overlooked a few teeny details:

Like, the guy she thought long gone has unexpectedly reappeared.
And the boy who has been her best friend since forever has suddenly gone off the rails.

And even her latest comic-book creation is misbehaving.

Also, the world might be ending – which is proving to be awkward.

Guest Post + Excerpt : Parent Quest The Search For The Twin Mystery by Gabriel Ammah

Hello, fellow book wanderers! Currently searching for a book to dig in? Today, you might want to consider checking out an exclusive guest post by Gabriel Ammah and an extract from his debut YA book, Parent Quest: The Search For The Twin Mystery.

About Parent Quest: The Search For The Twin Mystery

Synopsis: 

A tragic accident and lightning strike changes the lives of two best friends in a magical way. After both of their parents go missing under mysterious circumstances, Neil and Cherron enlist two of their schoolmates on a journey to uncover the mystery - using social media, clue hunting and spying techniques - they uncover hidden secrets and conspiracy in the small English town of Ipswich.
(Add to your Goodreads TBR here)

Genre: Young Adult, Action/Adventure

Release date: December 26, 2015
Published by: Chontama Publishing
Purchase link: Amazon

Review: Beyond the Red by Ava Jae

Beyond the Red
by Ava Jae

Summary:

Alien queen Kora has a problem as vast as the endless crimson deserts. She’s the first female ruler of her territory in generations, but her people are rioting and call for her violent younger twin brother to take the throne. Despite assassination attempts, a mounting uprising of nomadic human rebels, and pressure to find a mate to help her rule, she’s determined to protect her people from her brother’s would-be tyrannical rule.

Eros is a rebel soldier hated by aliens and human alike for being a half-blood. Yet that doesn’t stop him from defending his people, at least until Kora’s soldiers raze his camp and take him captive. He’s given an ultimatum: be an enslaved bodyguard to Kora, or be executed for his true identity—a secret kept even from him.

Guest Post + Excerpt + Giveaway: The Hometown Hazard by Dawn Lanuza

If you're searching for a romance title to feel snug with this love month, check out The Hometown Hazard by Dawn Lanuza. In this post, Dawn will grace this humble blog to share five books that inspired and helped her in writing The Hometown Hazard. There's also an extract and a chance for you to win one of the 3 e-books of this title, open INT. It's raining bookish goodies over here, fellow book wanderers! Thanks to Bookish Diaries for organizing this event.

Review: How Hard Can Love Be? by Holly Bourne

How Hard Can Love Be?
by Holly Bourne

Summary:

All Amber wants is a little bit of love. Her mum has never been the caring type, even before she moved to California, got remarried and had a personality transplant. But Amber's hoping that spending the summer with her can change all that.

And then there's prom king Kyle, the guy all the girls want. Can he really be interested in anti-cheerleader Amber? Even with best friends Evie and Lottie's advice, there's no escaping the fact: love is hard.

Teaser Tuesday: How Hard Can Love Be? by Holly Bourne (TT #1)

Photo: Kaboompics

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm. Grab your current read, flip to a random page, share two teaser sentences, but avoid spilling spoilers!

I am currently halfway reading through How Hard Can Love Be? by Holly Bourne. It is Book # 2 of the Normal series. This continuing story of the Spinster Club girls focuses on tall and ginger, Amber.

Review: What We Saw by Aaron Hartzler

What We Saw
by Aaron Hartzler 

Summary:

Critically acclaimed memoirist Aaron Hartzler, author of Rapture Practice, takes an unflinching look at what happens to a small town when some of its residents commit a terrible crime. This honest, authentic debut novel—inspired by the events in the Steubenville rape case—will resonate with readers who've ever walked that razor-thin line between guilt and innocence that so often gets blurred, one hundred and forty characters at a time.

The party at John Doone's last Saturday night is a bit of a blur. Kate Weston can piece together most of the details: Stacey Stallard handing her shots, Ben Cody taking her keys and getting her home early. . . . But when a picture of Stacey passed out over Deacon Mills's shoulder appears online the next morning, Kate suspects she doesn't have all the details. When Stacey levels charges against four of Kate's classmates, the whole town erupts into controversy. Facts that can't be ignored begin to surface, and every answer Kate finds leads back to the same questions: Who witnessed what happened to Stacey? And what responsibility do they have to speak up about what they saw?

Stacking the Shelves (STS #5)

Image: Kaboompics

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews. It's all about sharing the books added to our shelves, may it be physical or virtual.

Hey, it's my first book haul post for 2016. This week sucks for me (and maybe for many of you, too) because of David Bowie and Alan Rickman's passing. I am literally angrily shaking my fist to Death and all his friends and screaming, "Noooo, why?!" I admit I don't know these great guys personally but they somehow became a part of me through their works. At least two David Bowie songs are familiar to me: 1.) "Heroes" which was the song used for that "infinite" moment in the movie adaptation of "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"; 2.) and "Under Pressure", an anthem that I blast on whenever I can't deal with life and stress. These songs have lifted me up and helped me through some tough times that it's a sad thing that world is now without the person who sung them. My sorrow for Alan Rickman is of another level for the obvious reason that for me, he was and will always be the flesh and face of Professor Severus Snape. Twenty-one gun salute to you, Sir. You made the Slytherin House proud.

My 2016 #RockMyTBR List

In my last post, I announced the various challenges that I'll be participating in for 2016, one of which is #RockMyTBR hosted by Sara of The YA Book Traveler. I already got the chance to skim over my bookshelf and came up with a list of books (mostly YA) that I intend to finish for this challenge. I will post my list here so other readers can check if we have some books in common that we could buddy read with. Also, this list will be my way of tracking my progress with the challenge. I'll update this post from time to time to cross out those ones that I've already knocked off from my TBR pile.

My 2016 Reading and Blogging Challenges

Yesterday, I made a post resolving on a lot of things related to reading and blogging. I imagine that it will be a lot of hard work and I'll need a lot of support and prodding from the reading community so I decided to join some challenges.  Here they are:

Goodreads 2016 Reading Challenge Probably the reading challenge with the most number of participants. Maybe it's popular 'coz it's so easy to join. As long as you have a Goodreads account, just set a number of how many books you want to read for the whole year and you're done! Also, you can re-set the number of your reading goal anytime. You know, so when it's already in the middle of the year and you feel that you set the bar too high for yourself, just tinker down that number and you're right back on track. For 2016, I doubled up my goal from twenty in 2015 to forty books this year. Let's see if I get to the end of 2016 without tinkering down that number. How about you? Have you set your Goodreads reading goal yet? If not, I think you should do. And while you're at it, you should also add me as your Goodreads friend. Here's a link to my account.

2016 Book Blogging Resolutions

Yay, it's the first day of 2016, Happy New Year! Secretly, I wish 2015 did not come by so swiftly because of this eternal nagging feeling that I haven't read enough in the past year. So moving on, I thought that I need to improve on a lot of things and I need to write them so I can remember to do them. Stick with me for a while, here goes my book blogging resolutions for 2016, in no particular order: