Mini guide for sexual terms and acronyms in Erotic Books for clueless pandas

*post recommended for mature readers, as we’re going to talk about sex*

Guys, can I just go straight to the point here? Let’s talk about sex in books.

I love it, you love it, everybody loves it – of course, we all have our preferences, as erotic books are just one more gender or sub gender in our shelves. If you have been following me for a while or for a week or two, you may know I ALWAYS pend to male/male books when we talk about sex and steamy scenes, for example. It doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a good heterosexual sex scene or even a lesbian sex scene or even a ménage or an orgy scene.

The thing is, I must confess: I positively PANIC when I read a blurb and I find that soup letter of acronyms and really weird words that go far away from their original meaning to describe sexual stereotypes and situations. I don’t know if this is due the fact that this panda isn’t a native English speaker or if I just didn’t spend enough time with the cool panda kids to know my way around the sexual vocabulary, but it’s a given fact. I panic, I get frustrated, I try to google terms and, well, that is ALWAYS THE WORST THING. Apparently, sexual vocabulary is one of those things that you either know or not and end of discussion.

BUT. NO. MORE. Because this panda had enough.

Thinking of how much I struggle to understand many popular acronyms and terms, both in the heterosexual and the gay fields (I can’t promise in the lesbian and other genres, as I’ve read few erotic books in any other erotic category so far),

I DECIDED TO PUT TOGETHER A FREAKING DICTIONARY.

And then this mini guide was born.

this panda after finishing the task

 

So seat back, make yourself comfortable and grab your pens and notebooks. TODAY, WE LEAVE THE DARKNESS TOWARDS THE LIGHT.

A Game of Thrones Challenge

Hello, my darlings! Long time no see, right? Well, October was a chaotic month in all aspects of my life: my work is wreak havocking my brain, my pc screen sat broken for almost three full weeks before I got it back, I was crazy enough to accept a Game of Thrones challenge (more of that in a moment, haha!), I got sick for a whole week and almost had to be interned at the hospital thanks to a never-ending diarrhea… Rollercoaster doesn’t even start to describing my life this year. I’m so ready for 2017 – It has to be better than 2016.

Anyway, I’m here today to share with you the results of my Game of Thrones Challenge!

Game of Thrones Challenge: the results!

On my quick update bellow, I briefly mentioned accepting a challenge from a friend: I would have to read all five books of A Song of Ice and Fire in 30 consecutive days. Now I’ll tell the whole story and a bit of how this craziness went, haha!

First of all: I won the challenge. I started A Game of Thrones on September 27^th and finished A Dance With Dragons at 10:37PM of October 27^th. Now that the suspense is gone, I begin my tale, haha!

Despite watching several loose episodes of the TV show, I had never shown a true interest in reading the book series. The books are so big and heavy and I’m not really a fan of epics. My cup of tea leans more towards fantasy, YA and New Adult overall. However, my offline bff Jenny (who is already tired of reading her name on my blog, btw) was pinning hard for me to read the books and she knows me well enough: we would be 90 years old in a home, playing bingo all day, and I would still have excuses to dodge reading Game of Thrones. So, she played dirty: she challenged me and bet on it.

She knows I get intimidated by physically big books, so she said not even I could read the five books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series in a month in English (we are both Brazilian girls, so our native language isn’t English, which naturally poses a harder challenge than reading it on Brazilian Portuguese). She also said she would buy me two books if I did it. However, Jenny knows me so well she knew I would also need a threat in case I lost. She loves movies overall, so she stated that, If I couldn’t read the books on time, I would have to shut up and watch a whole movie series of her choice the next time we met.

But Annelise, why is it so bad to watch movies? Movies are nice and cool! Nope, not for me. I’m really a pain in the ass with new movies (new movies = movies that I have never watched, not necessarily “new” movies. I have resistance with old movies too, no prejudices here). I can’t explain it, I just don’t feel like watching 95% of what hits the theaters. The last move I watched on the theater was Finding Dory and, before that, I’m pretty sure it was Maleficent or the last movie of the Hobbit series (sorry, I have a terrible time related memory, haha!).

So, now that you know how bizarre particular I am regarding movies, you may start to understand my dread. I HAD to win, there wasn’t an option for me – the books were just a nice bonus, haha! So, I’ve got myself the 5 ebooks and started my journey though George R. R. Martin’s world.

Here are my stats:

A Game of Thrones: read from Sept. 27^th to Oct. 04^th

Overall impressions (a full review of the series will be written eventually, haha!): As I had watched several episodes on the first, third, fifth and, later on into the challenge, on the sixth seasons, the first book was just a deeper version of what I already knew. The first thing I did was to harden myself to not like anyone – I did tried to be indifferent to all characters, as “they all die” at some point, haha! As this didn’t work, I changed a bit my tactics to only like people I was sure it would appear on the sixth season – it worked pretty well most of the story, haha!

The reading pace was okay, as there was so much info everywhere and I was adjusting to George’s writing, but I knew I would have to do better than that to win. This is my third favorite book in the whole series so far, haha!

A Clash of Kings: read from Oct. 04^th to 10^th

Overall impressions: I did pick up my pace in the second book and George helped a lot, as there were so many Tyrion chapters ❤ (Tyrion, Daenerys, Jammie Lannister, Jon Snow and Brienne are my favorite characters in the series, in case you are wondering. I also quite liked Robb Stark, but oh well.) Also, I finally started to like Daenerys on this book, so it was fun.

me after entering Game of Thrones community

 

Oh, and judge me all you want, I was in love with Jamie Lanniester since the first moment he appeared on the first book, haha! Oh, and I need to make a comment about this book in particular: I was still a bit naïve about George’s ways and started it before I went to bed. “I’ll just read the prologue”, I said. Well, the damn thing had 50 pages. I was so mad at the time I took to overcome it that I read the book until chapter 3 before actually sleeping, haha! I was also really happy that a narrator from the previous book was dead, so it meant less people telling the story and things would go faster, right? WRONG. George exchange an okay narrator for two people I didn’t think I knew at the time. It was… frustrating.

A Storm of Swords: read from Oct. 10^th to 17^th

Overall impressions: I entered in an alpha state to see Jamie winning his own spot as a narrator in this book – also, the battles were really cool.

And the thing which happens to Tyrion was jaw dropping as well – sorry, I know many of you already know all the story, but I’m trying to not give away many spoilers, haha! The only thing that truly got me about this book was the amount of songs in it! I think George likes musicals, haha! I did a similar reading time in this volume, comparing to the previous one (6 days x 7 days), so I felt confident I was going at a pretty good pace despite the crazy schedule.

To be honest, I’ve read 474 pages of this volume on a single Saturday evening – my reading pace is weird, just like the rest of my personality, haha!

A Feast for Crows: read from Oct. 18^th to 24^th

Overall impressions: Despite keeping up with the amount of time I took on the previous volumes, it felts like AGES before I finished this one. I HATED this volume with a force – you see, there are cool moments, but the narrators are a pain in the ass and none of the people I wanted to see were in this book – interpret this as you will.

Each time I clicked on my e-reader to go to the next page, I kept thinking: one less page to go, we are almost there! This was sad in many levels. Also, I almost had a heart attack on a specific chapter involving one of my favorite characters and it was the TV show fault. As you guys may know/have guessed, there are some plot differences from book to TV show and one of those differences made me crawl out of my skin in fear that one of my fave characters could be actually dead on the book while this person waltzed along the show, haha!

I’m happy to inform it was only a false alarm, but omg. I suffered.

A Dance of Dragons: read from Oct. 24 to Oct. 27^th

Overall impressions: yes, my darling. You read it right. It took me only two days and a bit (I started the book in the night of the 24^th) to read the last published book in the series. It was that good.

Working was a punishment because it was 7h30min of my day without Game of Thrones in my life. All the doubts I had of not being able to fulfill the challenge during the fourth book vanished and I was left utterly heart-broken as I reached the family trees in the end of my ebook. How was I going to survive without Game of Thrones in my routine? Who would I be after reading this series? I suffered a slight book hangover through the last days of October, haha!

After such long and never-ending volumes full of stuff really cool and stuff I (reader) totally didn’t need to know, I came down to the conclusion any book with less than 1000 pages is a small book. The first sign came with my re-reading of the Never Veil series, in which each book has 250 to 300 pages more or less. If I had properly sat and read them, I would have finished in an hour or so each. As I’m lazy and still a little hangover about Game of Thrones and now I have a decent computer again to play and watch Netflix on a bigger screen, I put my hands on the books only a few times and already felt the pages ending too fast, haha! I’m ruined for life.

This is all your fault, George.

 

That’s it! Now you know a little of what has been going on with me, how my challenge went and I can’t wait to hear the opinions of GOT lovers! Let’s discuss this incredible series, please? Thank you.

Until another time, love you all!

Books that I threw off my TBR list

Hi, there! Good morning 🙂 Today’s post was inspired on my friend Kim’s one, from The Spines Breaker. She decided to clean up her to-read list on Goodreads and I realized that it had been years since I had done the same. Thanks for the insight, Kim! If you have the time, stop by her blog, it’s awesome! ❤

I had to open my heart and mind to clean my TBR shelf, but I’ve reached some basic concepts to take books off. Here we go:

1. I don’t even know why I’ve add this to my TBR

You know when you come across a book and you think you were drunk when you thought it would be the perfect one for you? Yup, those cases. It’s not like I think that those titles aren’t good, they just aren’t my type, haha!

 

2. The book sounds wonderful, but I don’t see myself reading it

I simply don’t. I don’t even see myself buying those, haha!

 

3. Historical romances that I still love and want to read someday, but have too many at home to pursue new ones

I have over 400 historical romances at home, counting only the ones I haven’t read yet. So I think it is useless to keep adding historical romances to my TBR while I don’t read at least a portion of the ones I already own, right? 🙂

 

4. I still want to read and have this book, but the chances of finding it on my country are so small that I’m giving up for now

In Brazil, there are some kinds of books that you simply can’t find and, when you do, you have to trade them for a liver and two kidneys. Sometimes, add a lung to the sum. As I’m not going to have the chance of putting my hands on those books, I sadly gave up on them for the time being 😦

 

5. Have added to my TBR because of the cover

I need to grow up, haha! I found several books that I clearly have added for the cover… Oops!

 

6. Sequel from a book that I didn’t read yet

I thought that makes no sense to mark a whole series as to-read if I don’t even know if I will like it. So, I cleaned up some titles on this category, like Cruel Crown or A World Without Princes. Let me read the first books first 😉

 

7. Friend’s recommendations that I think that are not for me

I’m very enthusiastic and open to book recommendations, but I found some titles on my TBR that, despite some loved friends saying how they loved such books, I can’t bring myself to be interested enough to buy and read them… I’m an awful person.

 

After all this cleaning and analyzing – which took me only three hours yesterday evening – I could take off from my TBR shelf 226 books. GO, ME! (you may notice that I didn’t put all covers from the taken off books on this post. The ones that are here are just illustrating my points, haha!)

Again, thank you for the idea, Kim! Now I only have 733 books on my TBR list on Goodreads, lol. Btw, feel free to add me there 😀

That’s it, thanks for reading! Have you ever cleaned your TBR list??

How Many Bookish Boyfriends has Annelise since the start of this blog?

Hello, a good Tuesday to you! I’m sorry I’m a little late in posting this, but my life is still a mess, haha!

Anyway, do you know how I always babble about doing a bookish boyfriends list because I have one in practically every single book I read? Well, this is going to be a thing this year, as I explained here 😀

And there is a new thing: after I had the time to go back home and have a routine again, I’ll prepare a post with a partial balance of my bookish boyfriends since I started the blog. All men that I can think of based on my 2015 reads will be there. Later on, I’ll prepare a page to leave the list there and will do a monthly post with the updates to you guys before including more names there 😀

This is it. I still don’t have a routine until next week, but this is becoming real right now! 😀

I’ll work on the page next week, but you can already take a quick look at the names of 2015! The links to all those reviews are on the Review Index 😀

In order of appearance in the blog, we have…

• Darius Lindsay, from Grace Burrowes’ Darius
• Graham Cowrie, from Bonnie Dee’s The Tutor
• Halt, from John Flanagan’s Rangers Apprentice’s series
• Vince Pagano, from Jax Garren’s Stripped with the Vampire
• Cash, from Jax Garren’s Stripped with the Vampire
• Nobley, from Shannon Hale’s Austenland
• Max, from Ava March’s All In With The Duke
• Tristan, from Ava March’s All In With The Duke
• Dean Winchester, from Supernatural tv show and Bobby Singer’s Guide to Hunting
• Sam Winchester, from Supernatural tv show and Bobby Singer’s Guide to Hunting
• Hale, from John Flanagan’s Ranger’s Apprentice series
• Anthony Hawkins, from Ava March’s Viscount’s Wager
• Nicholas, from Steve Spatucci’s Breach Point
• Graham Cowrie, from Bonnie Dee’s The Tutor
• Jake, from Linda Oaks’ Chasing Rainbows
• Judah, from Lauren Bird Horowitz’s Shattered Blue
• William, from Erin Knightley’s Vexed by a Viscount
• Sigmund Shaw, from Mark C. King’s Sigmund Shaw: A Steampunk Adventure
• Gabriel Holmes, from Mark C. King’s Sigmund Shaw: A Steampunk Adventure
• Vincent Night, from Jordan L. Hawk’s Dangerous Spirits
• Henry Strauss, from Jordan L. Hawk’s Dangerous Spirits
• Bruce, from Lou Harper’s Secrets and High Spirits
• Kile, from Kiera Cass’ The Heir
• Vincent Prescott, from Ava March’s The Bound Series
• Devon, from Linda Oaks’ Finding Forever
• Vince Pagano, from Jax Garren’s Stripped with the Vampire
• Cash, from Jax Garren’s Stripped with the Vampire
• Edward Fenton, from Ava March’s Convincing the Secretary
• Michael Sinclair, from Jacqueline E. Smith’s Cemetery Tours series
• Luke Rainer, from Jacqueline E. Smith’s Cemetery Tours series
• Alexi, from Anne Rice’s The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty
• James, from L. J. Smith’s Secret Vampire
• Ash, from L. J. Smith’s Secret Vampire and Daughters of Darkness
• Percival Endicott Whyborne, from Jordan L. Hawk’s Widdershins
• Griffin Flaherty, from Jordan L. Hawk’s Widdershins
• Eric, from L. J. Smith’s Spellbinder
• Levi, from Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl

 

I think I’ll start a new religion where girls can have a thousand husbands, haha! The new blog page is coming soon, promise! 😀

That’s it, thanks for reading! Which are some of your bookish crushes?

Best books I’ve read in 2015! – Pt. 3

Hello, there! Happy Thursday for you 😀 Today I’ll be posting the final part of my selection of Best books in 2015! I’m using as a guide a challenged put together by bookstgrammer @annreads to do this 😉

21) Beautifully Written Books

• Austenland, from Shannon Hale
• All In With The Duke, from Ava March
• Shattered Blue, from Lauren Bird Horowitz
• What Lies Within, from James Morris
• Convincing the Secretary, from Ava March
• Cemetery Tours series, from Jacqueline E. Smith
• Secret Vampire, from L. J. Smith

22) New Favorite One True Pairing (OTP)

Kate and Michael, from Cemetery Tours ❤

23) Books that made you cry

This is a short list, as I usually don’t cry reading, but I have to make an honorable mention to What Lies Within, from James Morris. I cried my soul out in the end of this book and the swirl of emotions left me with one of my worst book hangovers ever 😦 I didn’t want it to never end, haha!

And now the other guilty ones of 2015:

• The Last Olympian, from Rick Riordan
• Wish, from Clamp
• Chasing Rainbows and Finding Forever, from Linda Oaks
• After Death, from Jacqueline E. Smith
• Shielded Past, from Patti Morelli
• The Heir, from Kiera Cass

24) New Favorite Side Characters

• Whitney and Clive Allison, from The Tutor
• Gabriel Holmes, from Sigmund Shaw
• Joshua, from Shielded Past
• Cash, from Stripped with the Vampire
• Brink, from Cemetery Tours series

25) Magical Read

Asylum, from Madeleine Roux. It was a phenomenon since the moment I saw it at the bookstore, haha!

26) Most Read Genre

For sure it was gay books and mangas, haha! There were 75 mangas and 13 books of gay romance among all my read stuff from 2015, haha!

27) Best Conclusion to a Series

The Last Olympian, from Rick Riordan. It was amazing how he was able to wrap up everything so well! ❤

28) Favorite Quotes

I keep a whole notebook just for nice quotes and I took notes of almost all books read this year, so if you want to read some nice quotes, you can do it here, haha 😉

29) Book You Finally Read This Year

Percy Jackson series, The Fellowship of the Ring, the end of the A Unfortunate Series of Events, The Ruins of Gorlan from John Flanagan and the Night World series by L. J. Smith ❤

30) Most Anticipated Release of 2016

• The Proposal (The Mediator #6.5), by Mega Cabot
• The Siren, by Kiera Cass
• The Professor and the Smuggler, by Bonnie Dee and Summer Devon [talked about it here!]
• Convincing the Secretary, by Ava March
• To Kiss a Thief, by Ava March

31) Favorite books from 2015

I refuse to choose, because there were too many ❤

Omg, we have reached the end of my Best Books of 2015 posts, haha! Thanks for reading all of this ❤ Which were your favorite reads of 2015?

Best books I’ve read in 2015! – Pt. 2

Hello, again! Nice Wednesday for you 😀 Today I’ll be posting part two of my selection of Best books in 2015! I’m using as a guide a challenged put together by bookstgrammer @annreads to do this 😉

11) Unique read

I don’t know how to count, so I’ll select three books that changed my life this year:

a) Shattered Blue, from Lauren Bird Horowtiz

from my Instagram 🙂

This was my first fairy book and it was so special! Lauren presented me with a wonderful plot, beautiful bookish boyfriends, a strong female main character and a delicious love triangle. Honestly, I can’t wait to read the next! ❤ You can read the full review here 🙂

b) Chasing Rainbows, from Linda Oaks

I wish my 14-year-old self had read this book. It taught me that life will always have ups and downs; the real trick is how you will handle the downs and treasure the ups. A beautifully written Young Adult volume that every teen should read! For the full review, click here!

c) Cemetery Tours series, from Jacqueline E. Smith

This book series swept me off my feet. I’ve read the first three books in three days and I regret nothing, haha! It was one of the best ghost series that ever crossed my life and I dare say that it is my favorite ever ❤ You can see here reviews for book one, book two and book three 🙂

12) Best Character Development

This one goes to Charlie, from Stripped with the Vampire. I have never seen a character to develop in a book like he did, it was awesome!

13) New Favorite Friendships

• Percy and Grover, from Percy Jackson series
• Vincent and Cash, from Stripped with the Vampire
• Michael and Luke, from Cemetery Tours series
• Raven Queen and Apple White, from Ever After High book series

• Will and Horace and Will and Halt, from Ranger’s Apprentice

• Clara and Nicholas, from Breach Point

• Sigmund and Gabriel, from Sigmund Shaw: An Steampunk Adventure

• Shelley and Winston, from What Lies Within

• Kate and Annie, from Shielded Past

14) Books that deserve more attention

Books in general deserve more attention from people because more people should read frequently – not madly as us book bloggers and lovers, but I really think everyone should read at least one book per month. It is good for the brain 🙂

15) Best Villains

• Ash, from Secret Vampire

 

• Sylvester, from Dangerous Spirits

from my Instagram 🙂

• Chance, from After Death
• The bad guy from Sigmund Shaw: A Steampunk adventure (I can’t say the name, as it is a huge spoiler, haha!)
• Chance and Chase Logan, from Chasing Rainbows

16) Books you re-read

• Sailor Moon, Naoko Takeuchi

• All In With the Duke, Ava March

• The Bound Series, Ava March

• The Guide of Love, Ayano Yamane
• The Society of the Spectacle, Guy Debord

17) New favorite male characters

A whole post about this is coming soon, haha!

18) Longest book you’ve read

The Complete Essays from Michel de Montaigne, for my college. I died a little, but it wasn’t a bad read at all, haha! It had 1344 pages, haha!

19) Favorite Debut novel

I am so thankful for having met so many new and awesome authors this year, I can’t possible chose only one, so let’s go back to the list thing:

• Lauren Bird Horowitz
• Linda Oaks
• Mark C. King
• Steve Spatucci
• James Morris
• L. Hannah
• Anya Valentino
• Hart
• Kalee Marshall

20) Didn’t meet your expectations

I’m glad to say that few books are going to be mentioned here, haha!

a) Shuriken to Pleats, from Matsuri Hino

b) Boy Princess series, from Seyoung Kim

c) The Need, from S. L. Hannah

d) The Night Clock, from Paul Meloy

e) Misunderstood, from Anya Valentino

f) The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, from Anne Rice

g) Roses of the Angel, from Kalee Marshall

 

That’s it, we reached the end of part two! Stay tuned for the final part of my best books of 2015 coming soon tomorrow 😀 Thanks for reading!

Best books I’ve read in 2015! – Pt. 1

Hi, there! Good Tuesday to you 😀 Today I’m finally posting my official selection for 2015, so please be prepared for a huge post! I’m so grateful to have read so many good books! I’ll use as a guide a challenged put together by bookstgrammer @annreads to do this, so le’ts go 😀

1) First read of the year

My first reads were this comic book by Donald Duck and this book called Venom, by Kristen Middleton ❤

from my Instagram ❤

2) Shortest book you’ve read

A short manga story called No Toy. It doesn’t even possess a cover and it was 6 pages long, haha!

3) New Favorite Authors

Omg, be prepared for the list:

• Lauren Bird Horowitz
• Linda Oaks
• Mark C. King
• Jacqueline E. Smith
• Steve Spatucci
• Jordan L. Hawk
• James Morris
• Rick Riordan (I had never read Percy Jackson before 2015)
• Madeleine Roux
• Shannon Hale
• Miyuki Abe
• Grace Burrowes
• John Flanagan
• Hinako Takanaga
• Rihito Takarai
• Jax Garren

Those are the awesome author’s that I had the privilege to literary meet in 2015 ❤

4) Biggest Surprise

My early Christmas present from Ava March ❤ She sent me an ARC copy of Convincing the Secretary months before its release and I got tackled down good, haha! To read its review, click here!

5) Books with Beautiful Covers

Those are my read beauties from 2015 ❤

Venom, Kristen Middleton (4 stars)

The Gentleman and the Lamplighter, Summer Devon (4 stars)

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – Official Movie Guide (5 stars)

Keep Out, Yuka Hichiwa (5 stars)

Sanctum (Asylum #2), Madeleine Roux (5 stars)

All In with the Duke (Gambling on Love #1), Ava March (5 stars)

Chasing Rainbows (The Chasing Series #1), Linda Oaks (5 stars)

The Need, S.L. Hannah (3 stars)

Shattered Blue (The Light #1), Lauren Bird Horowitz (5 stars)

The Heir (The Selection #4), Kiera Cass (3 stars)

Secrets and High Spirits (Secrets #4), Lou Harper (3 stars)

What Lies Within, James Morris (4 stars)

Misunderstood: Secrets of a Teen Queen, Anya Valentino (3 stars)

Convincing the Secretary (London Legal #3), Ava March (5 stars)

After Death (Cemetery Tours #3), by Jacqueline E. Smith

6) Newest Fictional Boyfriends

A whole post about this is coming soon, haha!

7) Best Sequel

• Dangerous Spirits, Jordan L. Hawk [review here!]

• Viscount’s Wager, Ava March [review here!]

• Supernatural: Bobby Singer’s Guide to Hunting, David Reed [review here!]

• Finding Forever, Linda Oaks [review here!]

• Between Worlds, Jacqueline E. Smith [review here!]

• Daughters of Darkness, L.J. Smith [review coming soon!]

• After Death, Jacqueline E. Smith
• Convincing the Secretary, Ava March
• Sanctum, Madeleine Roux

8) New Favorite Female Characters

• Isabel, from Goddess of Legend

• Jane Hayes, from Austenland

• Annie, from Shielded Past

• Rhi, Emma and Winnie from Stripped with the Vampire

• Kate, from Cemetery Tours

• Poppy, Mary-Lynnette and Thea, from Night World series (Secret Vampire and Daughters of Darkness so far)
• Addison Hayes, from Chasing Rainbows
• Noa, from Shattered Blue
• Kara Thorn, from Finding Forever

9) Books that made you happy

All of them, haha!

10) Best standalones

I just realized that I have read very few standalone books in 2015, haha! But the best are:

• The Gentleman and the Lamplighter, Summer Devon
• The Tutor, Bonnie Dee

And this is the end of part 1, haha! Tomorrow, there is part 2 ;D Thanks for reading!

5 books I wish I had read before Christmas

Hello, there! Merry Christmas Eve to you! Almost official Christmas *–*

I was never that kind of person that feels the need to read books matching the time of the year. Like, I’m in the middle of Summer and I don’t think I’ll be reading a summer themed book any time soon. It’s Christmas time, I didn’t read any themed books or watched any different movies.

Usually, the end of the year is my most anticipated time of the year. You see, my parents and I live very far from anyone of our family, so the summer vacation with Christmas and New Year are our big chance to spend quality time with our loved ones. Besides, my family has some cool Christmas traditions that I love and the food is amazing, haha! So, as my real life is already wonderful during this time of the year, I never feel the need to run for a book and hide in its festivities.

However, it seems that nothing is changeless in the world. Several reasons piled up together killed my happy and nice summer vacations, along with my once cool Christmas time. Everything this year is just wrong. So, on this night of December 24^th, I regret not escaping to a place where the party would give me a happy ending.

But let’s not cry over the spilled milk, right? 🙂 So I made a list with 5 books that I wish I had been able to read before Christmas, let’s go!

5. The Captain’s Christmas Bride, by Annie Burrows

Wrong man

Lady Julia Whitney is at her wit’s end. Her perfect beau just won’t propose! But she’s struck upon a plan to ensure her marriage by Christmas. Between masquerades and mistletoe, she finds herself fully compromised by the wrong man!

Right husband?

Captain Dunbar cannot believe he’s fallen for this chit’s game! Now he must marry society miss Lady Julia with nothing to connect them other than incredible passion. But he’s about to discover that the best Christmas presents come in surprising, and delightful, packages!

4. Winter Wonderland, by Heidi Cullinan (Minnesota Christmas #3)

Finding Mr. Right can be a snow lot of fun.

Paul Jansen was the only one of his friends who wanted a relationship. Naturally, he’s the last single man standing. No gay man within a fifty-mile radius wants more than casual sex.

No one, that is, except too-young, too-twinky Kyle Parks, who sends him suggestive texts and leaves X-rated snow sculptures on his front porch.

Kyle is tired of being the town’s resident Peter Pan. He’s twenty-five, not ten, and despite his effeminate appearance, he’s nothing but the boss in bed. He’s loved Paul since forever, and this Christmas, since they’re both working on the Winter Wonderland festival, he might finally get his chance for a holiday romance.

But Paul comes with baggage. His ultra-conservative family wants him paired up with a woman, not a man with Logan’s rainbow connection. When their anti-LGBT crusade spills beyond managing Paul’s love life and threatens the holiday festival, Kyle and Paul must fight for everyone’s happily ever after, including their own.

Warning: Contains erotic snow art, toppy twinks, and super-sweet holiday moments. Best savored with a mug of hot chocolate with a dash of spice.

3. The Christmas Tree Bargain, by J.L. Langley (Ranch #3)

Christmas at The Tin Star Ranch brings means a lot of things to Jamie and Ethan. It’s a time of togetherness to celebrate the adversity they’ve overcome to be together. It’s also a time of playful bargaining.

Ethan insists on his usual ugly Christmas tree, and Jamie wants something in exchange. An early Christmas gift is the agreed-upon price, and Ethan knows he needs to make it good. Luckily, Ethan knows just what toy will satisfy The Christmas Tree Bargain.

Publisher’s Note: This is a male-male love story and contains homoerotic sex acts that may be offensive to some readers.

This would be actually a re-read and I still may do it, as it is a small ebook 🙂

2. What a Lady Needs for Christmas, by Grace Burrowes (MacGregors #4)

The Best Gifts are the Unexpected Ones…

To escape a scandal, Lady Joan Flynn flees to her family’s estate in the Scottish Highlands. She needs a husband by Christmas, or the holidays will ring in nothing but ruin.

Practical, ambitious mill owner Dante Hartwell offers to marry Joan, because a wellborn wife is his best chance of gaining access to aristocratic investors.

As Christmas—and trouble—draw nearer, Dante and Joan’s marriage of convenience blossoms into unexpected intimacy, for true love often hides beneath the most unassuming holiday wrapping…

1. Simon and the Christmas Spirit, by Bonnie Dee & Summer Devon

The holiday spirit has forsaken Simon Harris. A recent reminder of the man who used then left him sends lonely Simon on a glum visit to his club to while away a few hours. A breath of fresh air in the form of Christopher Andrews is about to enter his stale life.

Performer of many talents and faces, Christopher gained entrée into the club to win money at cards. Unfortunately, he’s losing. But the evening needn’t be a complete disappointment as he strikes up a friendship with a gentleman which ends in a bedroom.

Simon and Christopher enjoy a few hours of pleasure together, never expecting to see each other again, but Simon’s newfound resolution to change might just transform both their holidays.

I talked about this book here 😀

That’s it! Thanks for reading and sorry for laying my heart a bit on the beginning, but sometimes, we have to talk to someone, haha! And I’d love suggestions of Christmas books to read, haha!

10 Songs that make me think of Damon Salvatore

Hi, there! The lovely Jess, from Mud and Stars, inspired me in the other day with this post about music and books, so now here I am with my top 10 songs that make me think of Damon Salvatore, from The Vampire Diaries 😀

Not optional, buddy. Sorry.

Those are not in order, just random songs put together on a list, haha!

1. Demons – Imagine Dragons

I totally can see Damon humming this song, home alone, wandering that big house of his ❤

 

sit and enjoy, love 🙂

2. Give You What You Like – Avril Lavigne

At heart, Damon is a hopeless romantic, but he has no illusions left in life, so the lyrics and the mood of this song just matches him.

 

“if the delusional girl thinks so, what can I do?”

3. Bruises and Bitemarks – Good With Grenades

Come on. THIS WHOLE SONG SCREAMS DAMON SALVATORE!

Well, he had to reach some sort of agreement eventually, haha!

4. Lost in Paradise – Evanescence

Honestly, if you hear this song, this lyrics, this suffering, and are not able to connect it with Damon, I’ll have to kindly and discreet ask you which planet are you from 🙂

 

that’s why you have Rick in your life!

5. This is War – 30 Seconds to Mars

Damon, in both the book and the TV show, has lived in several wars, literally and metaphoric, so I can’t disconnect this song from his story, haha!

 

“fair enough”

6. Do Somethin’ – Britney Spears

Damon is always the center of the show, of all attentions in any room, but he hates when people try to label him, so miss Britney defines him good 😀

 

“can’t argue with that either”

7. Waiting for a Friend – The Pretty Reckless

I love Damon and Alaric’s friendship, so I think that this song describes how Damon sees Alaric after they have no more hard feelings for each other (you are free to understand this last phrase in any way you want ;D)

 

I promise I won’t tell Alaric, don’t look at me like that 😦

8. One More Night – Maroon 5

Just like Ian Somerhalder singing Sugar, Damon singing One More Night is a sign to be hold. You know, in my head, where this song completely describes all romantic affairs of his life and death. You know.

 

it is! You know, in a disfunctional way…

9. Never Enough – Epica

I can totally picture Damon in a High School Musical moment singing this to Katherine anytime. I’m that lame.

all that I have to say about my last comment

10. Run – Katharine McPhee

This song is not really hers, but that’s the version that I like, from Smash series 🙂 Somewhere between seasons 1 and 2, the original (?) version of this song even features some Damon scenes, so I think I’m up to something when I say that this reminds me of him, haha!

 

“this could have gone way worse”

Yup, be happy that I didn’t choose (many) absurd songs, hunf.

That’s it, haha! 😀 Thanks for reading! Do you know/like any of this songs? Do you have songs that remind you of a fictional character as well?

 

 

*I do not own any of those videos, they are here linked with illustrative purposes only 🙂

Avulse books or box sets: an existential doubt

If you follow me on my Instagram profile (follow me! :D) or read any of the posts in the blog, you may notice that I collect books besides reading and loving them, LOL. This collecting thing is a bit tiresome sometimes, I admit. This post is full of book lovers problems, be prepared.

my The Selection box X my Tales from the Kingdoms books

I’m mostly unlucky with book boxes. I love them, I find them very beautiful and practical, but I usually already have all or most of the books inside of it to make it worth buying it. It’s so dammed frustrating! They take so long to release those that I already got the separate books instead.

I brought here three examples in my collection: The Selection series, Tales from the Kingdoms series and Percy Jackson main series.

The first series that I started among those three was TFTK, in my book reader. I loved it and needed it, but, short in money that I was, several months had passed before I was able to buy the printed copies as well. I bought Charm on a liquidation, then Venom at a used bookstore and then Beauty, on another liquidation. Some weeks ago, I saw a beautiful box with the three books inside at a bookstore and wanted to be dead. It was the economical edition. Dammit, guys 😦

my babies ❤

The second series was The Selection. I also started it in my book reader after nudges from a friend and read them all in a matter of one week. A few months later, Christmas arrived and I was able to buy them all, in a beautiful box set. Points for me /o/

my other babies ❤

The third series, Percy Jackson, was very similar to The Selection, but I didn’t buy the box, as I didn’t find any; I just bought the five books at once and, again, navigating through an online bookstore, yesterday I found the box edition.

While admiting that buying a book at time has lots of advantages, I like the boxes way better. They usually have something more inside and, even when they haven’t, like my The Selection box didn’t, they still are pretty and good for organization in the book shelf.
Unfortuantelly, here in Brazil, they take too long to publish those and I don’t usually have that patience. The only ocasions that I can manage to buy boxes is when I don’t have money for a long time, like months, and them I go and buy the box set later. Oh, and we never know when a saga/author is going to turn into a box set too ://

There’s also the issue of costs. Even when publishers do release boxes, I usuallyt don’t have the money to buy them, as they have a greater cost at once than buying books separatelly 😦

I’ll remaing in my suffer, as not years of theraphy healed my anxiety with certain topics, but I can say that I’m happy to be buying more and more boxes, even in a slow rythm: today I just ordered online a box set from Collector’s Edition with two Austen romances, one Brontë and Little Women ❤

Resuming: I will keep ranting about how boxes are great and expansive, but I still prefer them and I’m still wanting the TFTK box set, LOL.