Good afternoon, peeps! I feel very rant-y this week, so I decided to leash it all on my Top Ten Tuesday theme, haha! So, turn on your rant-y vibes, because I’ll complain my heart out! Hahaha
As you may know, this meme is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish =D My theme today is Top Ten Most Frustrating Characters EVER! In no particular order, let’s talk about those people 😉
I KNOW IT’S SATURDAY AGAIN, I’M SORRY! My life has just been all kinds of crazy, oops! Anyway, I’m still doing the thing, because I must tell you all about the awesome bookish sales of the world ❤
By the way, hello! Hahaha! The Friday Fever is hosted by my bff Beth, from the Betwixt The Pages, and here are her rulez:
Friday Fever is your one stop igloo for all things bookish and sales-worthy! These are all epic finds under $5.00 on Amazon Kindle! Click the cover to be taken to the AMAZON page!
Remember: these deals can change at any time. ALWAYS double check before hitting the buy button!
Beth works with weekly themes for her posts, but I’m doing a general sales deal. All the books here recommended I’d purchase for myself or I already own and think you should give them a try as well =) No recommending things I can’t back up, haha!
As I’m one of those pandas that always picks up books mainly because they are so pretty and have pretty titles, HERE WE HAVE JUST COVERS, MY PEEPS! Also, I’m lazy
Good morning, monochromatic friends! Or maybe that’s just me and Beth?! Welcome to the last issue of Friday Fever before Christmas =D I’ve gathered some a m a z i n g deals from this last week to show you and I’m in hopes that I’ll be able to jump on this wagon as well, haha!
The Friday Fever is hosted by my bff Beth, from the Betwixt The Pages, and here are her rulez:
Friday Fever is your one stop igloo for all things bookish and sales-worthy! These are all epic finds under $5.00 on Amazon Kindle! Click the cover to be taken to the AMAZON page!
Remember: these deals can change at any time. ALWAYS double check before hitting the buy button!
Beth works with weekly themes for her posts, but I’m a rebel and also #holidaysseason, where everything is at sale, so, until Christmas is gone, I’m going a general sales deal. All the books here recommended I’d purchase for myself or I already own and think you should give them a try as well =) No recommending things I can’t back up, haha!
Hello, hello! Get your sunglasses, plastic glittery ball and the sun blocker because this post will be A TRIP TO THE BEACH!
I know what most of you’re thinking: but Annelise, how are we going to be on a beach mood with Christmas AROUND THE CORNER and SUCH A COLD WEATHER?
I’ll tell you how: come visit my lovely panda hideaway! In Brazil, today is the first day of… SUMMER. It’s so hot in here that Britney Spears totally wouldn’t be able to Breathe On anyone. #breatheonmestupidjoke #sorrynotsorry #it’sabadpun #I’mkeepingit
As my poor panda fur starts to make me sweat like a pig and I find my white parts getting red on this merciless sun, why not try to bring some warmth to my Winterish book dearies? It’s the only logical thing to do before I pass out from the damn heat =D #dramaticpanda
By the way, I almost lost the whole point as usual, but we’re here gathered today because this meme is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and my theme today is Top 10 Good Beach Reads! You know, in case you didn’t notice?
Hellooooo, dear little owls! Welcome to the mark of another miracle! I’m back at attempting to posting the Top 10 Tuesday meme ❤
I’m seriously feeling the solid posting slowly coming back, haha!
Last time a Top 10 Tuesday was featured over here was on June 21th, aka in another life, so let me refresh everyone’s memory LMAO
This meme is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and my theme today is Top 10 sequels I’m dying to read, as I’m stubborn and love a rebellion, haha!
Good night, lovely people! I was going to bother you all only tomorrow morning, but as Beth, from Betwixt The Pages, so kindly reminded me three times, she tagged me on the This is My Genre, Tell Me Yours! #booktag =D If you don’t know Beth yet, you totally need to #justsaying, so go check her own post and blog here, please! She rocks all the right books and jams ❤ Beth, once again, thank you for the tag!
- Credit Drew @ TheTattooedBookGeek as the creator of the tag, either use the created tag name graphic or create your own and link back to the blog;
- Answer the questions;
- Tag as many people as you want!
QUESTIONS
I’d say romance, but that’s a lie. I could say historical romance, but that is also not right. The truth is I’m picky with both, so I’ll just stick with the universal truth: gay romance. If we’re talking about a good and sugared gay romance, then I’m in heaven.
I hate when I have to choose among my children, but if for some monstrous reason I got stuck reading the same author forever and ever, it would be Ava March. She’s my goddess on earth and she knows it. Or at least she should, as I’ve been bothering her by messages on Goodreads and e-mails since I was 17 – I’m 22 today, so the math proves how much patience Ava has with me, haha! Seriously, ALL HER BOOKS ROCK. I should know, as I have read them all. #psychotic #Ilovetoohard #sorrynotsorry
This question actually needs to be answered in three parts, if you all don’t mind lol Dear Annelise, of course we mind! Do you think we don’t have anything better to do than to read your babbles?
Sorry, I’m still answering it on three parts, please bear with me ❤
Part I: Historical Romance
Since I was a child, I’m a sucker for historical romances, especially the ones set in London, 19th century. At first, I only knew the heterosexual romance world – which I love dealy to this day – and what keeps pulling me back to it is to be able to see how you can find ways to rebel even when society is against you. To see how people behaved and how difficult everything was back then – can you imagine being hungry and not knowing how to turn on your own stove to bake yourself something? I honestly can’t and that’s why I keep coming back to this genre. I love to see how people were able to live and be happy with way less. How much simpler things were. If they had good toilets and tampons, I’d totally go back in time!
Part II: Gay Romance
I have such a fondness for LGBT love in general because I feel this is the last true social barrier for a relationship to actually work. If I’m reading contemporary romances and it is all about the couple getting together with some insecurity drama to it, I just don’t feel like reading it. I don’t see a valid problem, you know? But a LGBT couple has yet to deal with a lot of shit from society – many times, from their own homes. This sense of forbidden love makes me pin harder for them, in hopes that, one day, those labels won’t matter anyone and love can be truly free.
Part III: Historical Gay Romances
After Greeks and Romans turned into History [haha], pretty much all relationships posed challenges. The taboo levels varied according to the times, but no couple was safe – I hope you are seeing a pattern here, haha! On the 19th century, people loved to think they were oh-so-civilized and modern, but relationships were still very complicated. Nobles and servants together? Nope. Peasants and nobles? Nope. Royalty and beggars? NOPE. Birth itself was a barrier and there were serious punishment for marrying off your social position. Now, imagine the taboo levels for two men in love with each other when they can barely choose the women to hold their hearts? I FAINTED.
I’ve been a book lover from the crib, with no particular trigger to my adoration. However, what truly awakened the gay romance lover in me wasn’t a book, but a manga series called Gravitation, by Maki Murakami. To be honest, it isn’t even that good, but I didn’t know it was a gay romance when I first bought it and started to read it. I was 13, I think, and totally ignored the big +18 on manga covers since I was 8, so you can imagine my face-fall as I reached volume 2 and the male protagonists had sex. I wish I could have a gif of that moment, it was priceless, haha! I already had a soft spot for beautiful bffs males, so the thing just naturally evolved and officially got out of control as I entered college and met J. L. Langley’s books. Life as I knew back then was over, hahaha!
5. If you had to recommend at least one book from your favourite genre to a non-reader/someone looking to start reading that genre, what book would you choose and why?
Actually, I have already been there with Jess, from the Mud and Stars! If you want to immerse yourselves on the wonders of historical gay romance, I must recommend you All In With The Duke, from the goddess Ava March! It’s simply the best historical romance of my life. I hope this is reasoning enough, but in case it isn’t… Here’s my review for it!
Why do I breathe? Why do I eat? Why do I sleep? All those questions have the same answer: despite being highly enjoyable, I NEED TO DO IT, LMAO. Books are my safe heaven, the hobby I hop on when I’m tired, bored, happy, sad, excited, hopeful, in need of a hug… Books are my life. I actually own more books than clothes and shoes put together, haha! (Just to clarify: I’m only talking about physical books. Don’t even get me started on the digital shelves, haha!)
George R. R. Martin definitely rubbed on me, I can’t even make a tag post something short… Sorry, guys! For this one, I’ll tag…
Amanda, from the Cover2CoverMom
Because I’m really sure they are ok with tags, but anyone is welcome to do it! You can even say I tagged you on your post =D Jess and Amanda, please don’t feel obligated to do this if you don’t feel like it ❤
I guess that’s it, people! Hope you found this post where I just talk about my royal panda self all the time interesting ❤ What is your favorite genre?
With love,
Hello, world! I’m alive and awake, so let’s party hard!! Hope everyone survived this Tuesday – I could barely keep my eyes open. If this post sounds weird, it’s because I’m overly tired and writing with only one eye half open ;D
It’s Tuesday, so it’s Top 10 Tuesday day! This meme is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and my theme today is Debut Novels. I wouldn’t be able to pic only 10 favorites so far in 2016 anyway, I’ve read 129 so far. Please give me a break, haha!
Best debuts in this particular order:
1) The Bound Series, by Ava March
A Goddess was born at that moment.
2) The Tin Star, by J. L. Langley
An obsession was born on my part.
3) Chasing Rainbows, by Linda Oaks
It’s still hard to believe that this was Linda’s first book!!
4) Shattered Blue, by Lauren Bird Horowitz
This woman ruined me for fairies: she did them so perfectly that I doubt I’ll ever see such good Fae books around, haha! #dramatic
5) Cemetery Tours, by Jacqueline E. Smith
I already feel that a re-read is in order, this whole series is too awesome! But Jacqueline is all awesome, so…
6) Emerge, by Tobi Easton
BEST MERMAIDS EVER!!!
7) Sigmund Shaw: A Steampunk Adventure
My current favorite steampunk novel ever!!
8) Of Poseidon, by Anna Banks
My first mermaid book ❤
9) Painting Sky, by Rita Branches
I still can’t believe my eyes, this book was so intense!
And the mention of honor…
10) Harry Potter
No words needed, right? Right.
Thanks for reading! Can’t wait to see what everybody is posting today 😀 Do you have a favorite debut novel??
Hi, there! Good morning, hope you are hanging there on this Monday 🙂
Several weeks ago I stumbled on a very sweet meme created by Lila, from The Bookkeeper’s Secrets, called The Book Theme Meme. Long story short, you have to select a book and pair it up with a theme song 🙂
I usually don’t have musical themes for books, as it’s rare of me to spend time reading the same book to the point that I can select songs for it. I know it sounds awful, but what can I do? Haha!
However, sometimes coincidences happen and I stumble on songs that are the face of my current read. That’s the story of Emerge, by Tobi Easton, and I Want You, from Blake Lewis ❤ But let’s talk about the rules for the meme, shall we?
~> Link back to the originator (Lila @ The Bookkeeper’s Secrets);
~> Choose a book or series;
~> Choose a song that you feel represents the book (fyi: it doesn’t have to have words, it can be classical or score);
~> Tell us what about the song reminds you of the book. Is it a particular lyric/s? Is it the general feeling of the song? Explain a little.
Now that everything is clear, let’s get back to my chosen book and song!
There was I, reading Emerge, by brilliant Tobi Easton (review here!), and listening to my iPod on my living room, when I Want You starts to play.
For you guys to understand a little, let me describe the book for you:
Lia is literally a fish out of the water. Being a teenager is complicated, but being a teenager that is also a mermaid – and one that has never lived on the sea – is way worse. She can’t even confess to her high school crush, Clay Ericson, and tell him how handsome his smile is, as he is a human. Never mind the fact that her parents want her to fit into the human world, Lia still is forbidden to date one.
For one year, Lia was in control of her emotions. She put distance between herself and Clay, focused on studying and keeping her legs firmly on the ground – literally. She wasn’t happy, but wasn’t unhappy either, as this is just how things are for her race since the disaster with The Little Mermaid. Yup, that one.
Until Mel becomes the new girl and an octopus on Clay, with her hands and body all over him. It’s beyond painful for Lia to watch them together, but there is nothing she can do to compete with a human girl… Which Mel totally isn’t.
Over Lia’s dead body that she will allow another mermaid to play with Clay’s feelings.
The war is on.
– from my review 🙂
And here you can listen I Want You, from Blake Lewis (ignore the video, it’s fanmade).
Now you have background, let’s talk about the song:
When I touch you, there is no more hurting
We’re more than lovers freezing time
Bound together, bodies resonating
Getting louder as we climb
‘Cause you and me
We break the laws of gravity
And I, I believe
You’ve been waiting for too long,
so give in to your fantasy
I want you, you burn into me
Your taste runs through my mouth
I want you, lost in ecstasy
You shiver as I’m going down…
You move like honey as you brush against me
Your body language sends you off
You whisper closely, baby wont you hold me
So I’ll never let you go
‘Cause you (’cause you), and me (and me)
We break the laws of gravity
And I, I believe
You’ve been waiting for too long,
so give in to your fantasy
I want you, you burn into me
Your taste runs through my mouth
I want you, lost in ecstasy
You shiver as I’m going down…
That’s basically the song. As you can see in AZLyrics, he repeats the bridge and chorus one more time, but here I already have enough to work with, haha!
This song translates completely how Lia and Clay feel about each other. Lia has denied herself the pleasure of being with Clay in all kinds of sense for so long that, when she has the chance to touch him and be with him, she loses it. I can’t give you detailed info because, hello, spoilers, but trust me. Also, their romance breaks so many laws in Lia’s world – and in Clay’s world too, if we consider that mermaids shouldn’t exist – that breaking gravity’s law would be easy to add to their infractions’ list, haha!
And, most important: every time Lia and Clay were together, they felt complete, whole. As if a piece of them was put back where it belonged. Oh, and there is the matter of Blake Lewis’ voice and Samantha Jones’ back vocals. This song has all the feelings of a mermaid song and if I could hear mermen folk sing, I am a 100% that it would sound exactly as Blake Lewis does in this track 🙂
Okay, that was a lot of jibber jabber to say two things: a) READ THIS BOOK; and b) LISTEN TO THIS SONG.
Now I’m happy, haha! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed my answer to this meme 🙂 I don’t think I’ll be a regular at Lila’s meme, but I’m going to make sure to always participate whenever I have the perfect song for a book!
Hi, there! I’m alive after a very unproductive Saturday – Jess, from Mud and Stars, can testify that, haha!
Anyway, it’s time for a tag and lovely Victoria, from Addlepates and book nerds, nominated me to the Dragon’s Loyalty Award 😀 Thanks so much, dear! It’s my first time receiving it and I’m beyond happy, haha!
(x) Display the award on your blog and announce your win with a post;
(x) Link the blogger who awarded you;
(x) Present six deserving blogs with the award and link your awardees in the post and let them know of their being awarded;
(x) Write seven interesting things about you.
Seven interesting (?) facts about me
1) I just started to work again after a year break to finish college and put my health back on track 🙂 I’m enjoying it a lot and hope to stay there for a while, as I like my clients and my co-workers!
2) I’m totally not a movie person. I always have déjà vu feelings when I read movie synopsis and I never was much of a movie watcher to say that I’ve “seen it all”. I’m okay with tv shows, though. I like to marathon them all at once, because if I stop, I will pick it up again only months – OR YEARS – after. Also, I have an extreme difficulty in ending them for this reason. In 21 years, I’ve only finished watching the classic Scooby Doo season, The Little Mermaid tv series from Disney, and I Dream of Jeannie. Btw, I finished I Dream of Jeannie last month, so yay for me, haha! Now I’m hell bent on finishing Bewitched. I started it all over again and am on the middle of the second season – work got in the way of this plan, but I’ll be watching more episodes tonight, for example 🙂
3) I’m a linguistics nut. If I could, I’d learn all the languages in the world. I currently only speak Brazilian Portuguese and English fluently unfortunately, but I’m working on my French now – I’m learning by myself for now, but I think I’ll enter a proper course on the next semester 🙂 My top priority languages to learn after mastering French include German, as I’m a German descendent, Japanese, as I HATE to depend on online translators and editors to read the titles that I want, and Russian just for the fun of knowing it, haha!
4) I’m a sucker for gay romance and gay manga. I’m often asked whether I’m a homosexual myself, but it’s not the case. Actually, I’ve never had sexual desire towards any real living person, be it a girl or a boy. I recognize their beauty, but I have no desire to touch or be touched. I’ve only fell truly in love once and it was for a boy, in my last year of high school. Complications aside, I’ve never once felt the need of kissing him or even touching him. However, as he was sort of in love with my best friend, I admit I didn’t put an effort on this and, ever since, I haven’t truly fallen for anyone else. I tried to fall for one of my best male offline friends, but that didn’t really work out either – his fault for not making the effort of going out with me even as friends, haha! So yeah, I’m heterosexual that lives desire through fictional gay men. Totally natural, yeah.
5) My 22th Birthday is on August 12th of this year and I don’t know how to feel about it. You see, this week I found a very white hair among my dark blonde others and I still sport the same face that I had when I left high school at 17, so I don’t feel like 22. I also still need to take my driver’s license, so I guess that helps me not to feel as I’m not a teen anymore. Even with my college being proudly over with all the stars and all and working since I turned 18, I feel froze in time. I’m not saying that I wish to look older, but I wish I could feel older. I wish I could feel like 22 and not like I’m still 17. But oh well, at least I get some funny jokes from my friends on the matter. I’m often called a vampire because of my never aging face and the fact that I tend to oversleep during the day given the chance – my regular sleep time if allowed is of at least 10 hours. My personal record is 18 hours of uninterrupted sleep, oops!
6) I have a small Lhasa Apso called Lady that is one of the beings that I love the most. She’s a stubborn and lazy girl, but she seems to have a sixth sense that never fails to alert her if I’m not feeling well or if I’m upset. She hates taking pictures, but I pretend I don’t know that, haha!
7) I love to travel, but I haven’t been getting many opportunities to do so, especially to new places. I do have to travel to visit my family, but that results in always going to the same places. My goal for the next year is to travel to a new place, let’s see how that will unfold, haha!
Hmm, that post ended up being way more personal than I intended it to, but oh well. Sorry guys, thanks for indulging my reflections, haha!
I nominate…
So, the people that most comment on my blog are:
You guys don’t need to do this award, I just wanted to say how much you all mean to me! Also, thank you that is reading this too! *–*
And that’s the end of an unnecessary long post, haha! How is your weekend so far? 🙂
Hi, there! I gave up on caring about which time I post what, as which really counts is the posting, right? Yup, I thought so, haha!
It’s Tuesday, so it’s Top 10 Tuesday day! This meme is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and my theme today is Most Unfortunate Character Names – yup, still a rebel and not doing the free theme, haha!
Before I start this list, I’d like to say that those are unfortunate names for me, because of something that happened in my life or someone that I met and didn’t like. It doesn’t mean the name is bad at all most of times 🙂
In no particular order, let’s begin:
1) Severus Snape, from Harry Potter
Seriously? Can you just imagine the amount of bullying poor Snape suffered thanks to his name as a child and teen? (And this one is just bad, honestly)
2) Seth Andrews, from The Hidden Life [review here]
Seth was one of my favorite males ever, but WHY DID HIS NAME HAD TO BE SETH? This is the name of the God of Death in the Egyptian mythology and, as a good geek, I’m too used to think of Seth as someone evil 😦 Also, this was the name that I picked for all the bad guys in my childish Barbie plays, so I really have a negative connection with it… If karma exists, I shall marry a Seth someday.
3) Peter Stoller, from The Fall and Rise of Peter Stoller [review here]
Another case in which the name is not to blame. My family is from Germany, so I grew up with the German culture right beside me 24/7. One of the typical foods that my family loves is a sweet cake called Stollen, so I kept having ridiculous giggle attacks during the whole book – especially when I realized that Peter was just as interesting as the said sweet cake. Oh, and in my case, this is so not a compliment, haha!
4) Rowan, from Rowan of Rin series
I even mentioned this on the review of the first book [here]: this character’s name reminds me of Ronan, from the Grand Chase game, so I keep imagining said Ronan in the place of my darling Rowan, haha!
5) Eadlyn, from The Heir [review here]
Another case in which the name is just bad. I still don’t even know how to pronounce it! America for sure didn’t love her daughter to name her that way and I can totally understand why.
6) Shelley, from What Lies Within [review here]
Back to the “names are not the culprits” section. Shelley is an okay name… If you don’t watch The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon Cooper’s mom calls him Shelly and more often than not someone would call Shelley on What Lies Within and I’d smirk alone. I know, I’m stupid LOL
7) Gabriel, from Viscount’s Wager [review here]
I have a pretty messed up relationship with that name, as all the guys I ever met that had been given this name were jerks or assholes. So when my goddess Ava named one of her characters Gabriel and he also turned up to be a jerk and an asshole, I got depressed 😦
8) Ned, from Bedding Lord Ned
Who in hell though it was a nice idea to nickname someone whose name is Edward with NED? Can someone please explain this logic to me? Besides being bad and totally random on my opinion, this name reminds me of a really stupid cartoon that I used to hate as a child, called Ned’s Newt. It was disgusting and I kept remembering it while reading this book – btw, the book is awesome, haha!
9) Klaus Baudelaire, from A Series of Unfortunate Events
I save the best ones to the end, as my motive for this one is downward ridiculous. I actually like the name Klaus, it’s fancy and sounds manly, but I watched this soap opera when I was a child I’ve been sharing many childhood stories today, oops! called Chocolate with Pepper (a free translation from the Brazilian original title Chocolate com Pimenta) and the small city banker was called Count Klaus. What does this have to do with poor Klaus Baudelaire? Simple. Count Klaus was a poor ugly thing that was a sort of funny villain and was called an old goat by his poor fiancé.
Btw, this was one of the best soap operas that I have even seen, set in Brazil’s 1930’s. I wish I knew of a place that has it with English subtitles, you guys would laugh hard! Oh, and did I mentioned that the clothes were terrific? ❤
ANYWAY. Let’s drop the final bomb.
10) Light Yagami, from Death Note
Yes, this is a manga and not really a book, but I needed to put this character here. You’d think that it’s bad enough that his name is “Light”. Nope, you haven’t seen it all. Japanese people have the habit of putting last names before given names on everything, so he is called Yagami Light a lot. Still don’t think that’s bad? Try spelling it out backwards. Not convinced at all? Here, let me help:
IMAGAY LIGHT
If you still didn’t catch it… Try spacing it out:
I’M A GAY LIGHT
THERE, I SAID IT. IT IS SO BAD AND THE GUY IS ALLEGEDLY STRAIGHT HAHAHAHAHAHA
Ahem.
Thanks for reading and sorry that you had to put up with my silliness, haha! Which are some of the most unfortunate characters’ names for you?
The Book Adventures of Annelise Lestrange 