[Wrap Up] August 2013

August was such a breeze! I was caught up with too many things that I totally lost track of time. I feel like I just closed my eyes for a bit and it's already the end of my birth month.

This past month, I began my endeavor in arranging and coordinating Blog Tours for independent authors. The first book for which I arranged a blog tour for was Dave Almarinez' The Blind Spot. It's a business/inspirational nonfiction book.

It is seriously taxing to be a blog tour coordinator on top of being a class president, a debate series chairperson and a third year law student, but I got through the whole month of August alive so far. Heh.

The second blog tour I arranged was for author Mina V. Esguerra's Interim Goddess of Love trilogy. The two-week long blog tour ended yesterday, and up to now, I feel surreal. I still can't believe that I managed to actually coordinate bloggers into posting for fourteen consecutive days. Up to now, I'm still like - howdidImanagesuchathing?!

But of course, it's just the beginning because I have three more blog tours lined up for the month of September.

What else?

Oh, yeah! In the month of July, I actually won a giveaway hosted by author Kanettra Holmes, but I only got my prizes in the month of August so I guess I should just count it for this month.

I got two ebooks! One is Strength (Mark of Nexus) by Carrie Butler and one other ebook of my choice. I chose Andrea Cremer and David Levithan's Invisibility. I can't wait to read them! (But they would have to wait because my to-be-read pile is seriously waaaaaay up there.)

   

And lastly, to finish this wrap-up, here are the books I've read and reviewed for the month of August:

★★★★★

★★★★★

★★★★★

★★★★★

★★★★★

★★★★★

[Linking Up] Feature & Follow #33

If you could only have ONE – one book – for the rest of your life. Don’t cheat…what would it be?

If I had just one book for the rest of my life, I would be very sad. =( I'll stick to The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. It's my most favorite book so far. 

[Blog Tour - Book Spotlight + Giveaway] Queen of the Clueless

 

Queen of the Clueless
Author: Mina V. Esguerra
Date Published: February 6, 2013
Publisher: Bright Girl Books
Genre: Fantasy, New Adult, Contemporary Romance

Book Information:

If you've been feeling neglected by the Goddess of Love lately, don't worry -- Hannah Maquiling, college sophomore, is in training to take over. The Original Goddess is missing, but Hannah is Interim Goddess now, and she should figure out how to solve humanity's love problems soon. Quin (God of the Sun) is still her mentor, still really hot, but apparently isn't as honest about his other earthly relationships as she thought. It's frustrating, and enough to make her check out possibilities with Diego (God of the Sea) and Robbie (Cute Human).

In the meantime, she's decided to spend some of her precious training time helping to break up a relationship, instead of putting one together. Why? Because the girl in question happens to be her best friend Sol, whose boyfriend is stealing not just from her, but from other people on campus. Sol didn't exactly summon the Goddess, but this is what power over Love is for, right? Surely it's not just about matchmaking, but ending doomed relationships too. (Even when it's not what people want.)

Links:
Goodreads
Smashwords 

Barnes & Noble 

Excerpt

Not an art expert, but within five minutes of staring at the painting, a tear had rolled down my cheek.

"Are you all right, Hannah?" Robbie Carlos asked me, already fumbling at his pockets for tissue or a handkerchief. He didn't have any, because he was a guy, and after a moment's hesitation he brushed the tear way with a knuckle. But my hand was already there, so all he had done was knock his fingers against my skin.

Shit, why am I such a caveman, he thought. I knew that because I could hear his thoughts, at least when it came to me. Because he was in love with me, and I was the Interim Goddess of Love.

More on that later.

"Yeah, sorry," I said. "I can't believe I'm actually really feeling this."

"Maganda's Regret has that effect on people." Our tour guide, a jolly, entertaining middle-aged man who asked us to call him "Uncle John," had come up beside me. He looked pleased at my reaction. "Even young people like you, they tend to stop and take a moment to understand it. And it sucks them in."

Uncle John was referring to the large painting hanging on a display right in front of us. It was huge – larger than any painting I'd ever seen in anyone's living room. It had to be larger than me (heck, it was larger than Robbie, and he was a basketball player), and we were standing several feet away from it just to see the entire thing properly.

The small plaque hanging next to it said it was called Maganda's Regret, 1904. Featured in it was a beautiful woman, in a plain white dress, standing over a lush, green landscape. She was looking back at something, off to the side, away from the beautiful forest.

She looked sad.

Uncle John left my side and went closer to the painting, cutting off everyone's view, so he could address the entire tour group. "This is the spectacular work of Arturo M. Indemne, one of the country's treasured artists. Here he depicts the story of Maganda. Do you college kids know the story of Malakas and Maganda?"

Not one hand of the fifteen went up. I felt a bit ashamed for my generation.

Uncle John rolled his eyes. "Dear Lord. Our ancestors, before this archipelago was colonized and Christianized, had their own myth of creation. Each region or people would have its own version, but the short story is that Bathala created man and woman, and they were known as Malakas and Maganda. Google that.

"What not as many people know is that things were not so rosy for our ancestors' version of Adam and Eve. Maganda, true to her name, was very beautiful. Her very presence caused a disturbance in nature. Rain fell in torrents, flooding their home. The earth itself rumbled, and sent rivers of fire out of the mountains, just to get her attention. But she paid them no heed, and lived with her Malakas as Bathala intended.

"But then one day, she went exploring, and found herself on a sandy shore, facing the water. And the God of the Sea saw her."

Oh my god. I inadvertently squeezed Robbie's arm.

 

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[Blog Tour - Book Review] Queen of the Clueless

Queen of the Clueless
Author: Mina V. Esguerra
Date Published: February 6, 2013
Source: ARC
Genre: Fantasy, New Adult, Contemporary Romance


Rating: ★★★★★


Links:
Goodreads
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Smashwords

About the Book:

If you've been feeling neglected by the Goddess of Love lately, don't worry -- Hannah Maquiling, college sophomore, is in training to take over. The Original Goddess is missing, but Hannah is Interim Goddess now, and she should figure out how to solve humanity's love problems soon. Quin (God of the Sun) is still her mentor, still really hot, but apparently isn't as honest about his other earthly relationships as she thought. It's frustrating, and enough to make her check out possibilities with Diego (God of the Sea) and Robbie (Cute Human).

In the meantime, she's decided to spend some of her precious training time helping to break up a relationship, instead of putting one together. Why? Because the girl in question happens to be her best friend Sol, whose boyfriend is stealing not just from her, but from other people on campus. Sol didn't exactly summon the Goddess, but this is what power over Love is for, right? Surely it's not just about matchmaking, but ending doomed relationships too. (Even when it's not what people want.)

Don't forget to join the giveaway~!

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Review:
This book will make you want to read MOARRR!

We continue from where we left off from the end of the first book (Interim Goddess of Love). Hannah continues her training, under the tutelage of Quin, as the interim Goddess of Love. She's slowly getting the hang of her goddess powers, but of course, extrinsic factors also come into the mix.

I still appreciate the inclusion of Philippine mythology into this one. I especially liked that heartbreaking tale about the first woman and the God of the Sea. On the scene where Hannah learned about Diego's tale, my mood dampened a little. Surely, the aggressive and unpredictable God of the Sea deserves his own happy ending, too. (Miss Mina, ahemm... *hint* *hint* *nudge* *nudge*)

So then, the questions begs to be asked, "Should I switch to Team Diego?!" Hmmmm... But Robbie~!

Moving on, as I read through this book, I got a wee bit frustrated. This is probably the reason why I rated this book only three stars out of five.

I got irritated with Hannah because she seems to be way in over her head when she decided to take on Neil. I mean sure, I get it that you proved that you can actually handle being the Goddess of Love with Kathy Martin, but that was just one successful project! And Quin has had a millenia of practice in doing his job so he surely knows best. At the same time, I was worried for Hannah because Neil has power over her. If I were Quin, I'd keep an eye on Hannah 24/7 because I have a hero complex! But that's just me. Heh.

I also got frustrated over Quin because I was rooting for him and Hannah to get together since the first book, but what the hell?! He remains stoic, aloof and indifferent to Hannah's feelings! Actually, I get that Quin was getting a little bit affected by Hannah and her antics in this book because of the little things that he does, like flashes of lightning, anyone? It was subtle but I noticed it.

The second to the last frustrating thing in this book is Hannah's first kiss: Diego Simon. NOOOOOOOOO!!! I was hoping it would be Quin! They were so cute during the first book! If it was Robbie, I'd have been a little miffed but would have conceded since Robbie was such a nice guy, but it was Diego! Granted, I know he did it to awaken some of Hannah's goddess powers, but still! It was her freaking first kiss! (On the up-side, she still has her remaining goddess life to kiss Quin.)

And the most frustrating thing in this book, which made me want to claw my eyes and pull all of my hairs out: the ending. IT WAS A CLIFFHANGER!!!

You know that frustrating feeling you get when you're too engrossed in a book and you want to know what happens next but you've already reached the ending page? I almost threw my tablet out of frustration. True story!

On the up-side, the frustrated feeling that this book brought me simply means that the author was successful in making me hooked on her book (kudos to Miss Mina!), and that she was able to weave such an engrossing story.

Author Bio: 

Website

Twitter

Facebook

Goodreads

Mina V. Esguerra writes contemporary romance, young adult, and new adultnovellas. Her young adult/fantasy trilogy Interim Goddess of Love is a college love story featuring gods from Philippine mythology. Her contemporary romance novella Fairy Tale Fail won the 2012 Filipino Readers' Choice award for Chick Lit. Through her blog Publishing in Pajamas (minavesguerra.com), she documents her experiments in e-publishing.

When not writing romance, she is president of communications firm Bronze Age Media, development communication consultant, indie publisher, professional editor, wife, and mother. She created the workshop series "Author at Once" and #romanceclass for writers and publishers.

[Blog Tour - Book Review] Interim Goddess of Love

 

Interim Goddess of Love
Author: Mina V. Esguerra
Date Published: July 13, 2013
Publisher: Createspace
Source: ARC
Genre: New Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Rating: ★★★★★

Links:
Goodreads
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

Book Information:

College sophomore Hannah Maquiling doesn't know why everyone tells her their love problems. She's never even had a boyfriend, but that doesn't stop people from spilling their guts to her, and asking for advice. So maybe it shouldn't be a surprise when the cutest guy in school tells her that she's going to have to take on this responsibility -- but for all humanity. 

The Goddess of Love has gone AWOL. It's a problem, because her job is to keep in check this world's obsession with love (and lack of it). The God of the Sun, for now an impossibly handsome senior at an exclusive college just outside of Metro Manila, thinks Hannah has what it takes to (temporarily) do the job. 

While she's learning to do this goddess thing, she practices on the love troubles of shy Kathy, who's got a secret admirer on campus. Hannah's mission, should she choose to accept it, is to make sure that he's not a creepy stalker and they find their happily ever after -- or at least something that'll last until next semester. (As if she could refuse! The Sun God asked so nicely. And he's so, well, hot.)

Review:
A uniquely Filipino brand of mythology told from the perspective of Hannah Maquiling, a college student, a responsible daughter, and presently, the Interim Goddess of Love.

Story-wise, I love how Miss Mina had incorporated Philippine folklore into the story. Sure, Philippine mythology is totally different from the more famous Roman or Greek, but it's none the less colorful, and without the complicated sexual relations among the gods. *snicker*

I also like Hannah. She's like a completely relatable friend. At the beginning of the story, she's just like any other girl, which is one of the charms of the story. She's a listener, she's good-natured and she's level-headed

Personally, I feel like I've found a kindred soul in Hannah. I've been the confidant of several of my friends, and I'm mostly a listener rather than a talker. This is one of the reasons why I really liked her. I'm no Interim Goddess of Love, though. I think it's too much work, and I'm too lazy. LOL.

And then there's also Quin - leader type, mysterious and enigmatic Quin. I've been pinning for him and Hannah to end up together, but he's just too... aloof. Yes, he's polite. Yes, he's always there when Hannah needs him. Yes, it's very easy to fall for him. But he has this wall up around him!

During the scene where Quin awakened some of Hannah's Goddess powers, I kept imagining that Quin didn't really need to be touchy feely with Hannah, but he did anyway because it gave him a valid excuse to touch her. (I think this is just a product of my imagination, but what the hell?)

I honestly wanted more to happen between Hannah and Quin. Sure, Kathy Martin's love life seriously needed help, but I was more into Quin and Hannah, so when the story ended, I was crying for more! The ending seriously frustrated me that I had a hang-up about the story for almost three days. (Can you imagine that?!)

The only thing I didn't like about this book is that it's too short and I wanted more!!

All in all, the whole story was engrossing. It painted a pretty accurate picture of a middle-class community in the Philippines. It incorporated Philippine folklore into the story. The characters were distinct and engaging, and the story is sure to make the reader want more.

[Book Review] Courting Greta

Courting Greta
Author: Ramsey Hootman
Date Published: June 8, 2013
Publisher: Gallery Books
Source: ARC
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Rating: ★★★★★

Links:
Goodreads
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

Book Information:

Samuel Cooke knows most women wouldn't give him a second glance even if he were the last man on earth. He's the cripple with the crutches, the nerdy computer genius every female past puberty feels compelled to mother. So when he leaves his lucrative career to teach programming to high schoolers, romance definitely isn't on his radar.  

Perhaps that's why Greta Cassamajor catches him off guard. The sarcastic gym coach with zero sense of humor is no beauty - not even on the inside. But an inexplicably kind act toward Samuel makes him realize she is interesting. 

Samuel is certain she won't accept his invitation to dinner - so when she does, he's out of his depth. All he knows is that he'll do whatever it takes to keep her as long as he can. 

Pretending he's got his class under control? Easy. Being vulnerable enough to admit why he ditched his programming career for teaching? Um, no. That would require honesty. And if there's one thing Samuel can't live without, it's the lies he tells himself.  

In this poignant, witty debut, Ramsey Hootman upends traditional romance tropes to weave a charming tale of perseverance, trust, and slightly conditional love.

Review:
A book that courageously breaks fiction stereotypes, and successfully grabs the reader's heart with warmth, humor and love!

[Blog Tour - Book Spotlight + Giveaway] Interim Goddess of Love

Interim Goddess of Love
Author: Mina V. Esguerra
Date Published: July 13, 2013
Publisher: Createspace
Genre: New Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Book Information:

College sophomore Hannah Maquiling doesn't know why everyone tells her their love problems. She's never even had a boyfriend, but that doesn't stop people from spilling their guts to her, and asking for advice. So maybe it shouldn't be a surprise when the cutest guy in school tells her that she's going to have to take on this responsibility -- but for all humanity. 

The Goddess of Love has gone AWOL. It's a problem, because her job is to keep in check this world's obsession with love (and lack of it). The God of the Sun, for now an impossibly handsome senior at an exclusive college just outside of Metro Manila, thinks Hannah has what it takes to (temporarily) do the job. 

While she's learning to do this goddess thing, she practices on the love troubles of shy Kathy, who's got a secret admirer on campus. Hannah's mission, should she choose to accept it, is to make sure that he's not a creepy stalker and they find their happily ever after -- or at least something that'll last until next semester. (As if she could refuse! The Sun God asked so nicely. And he's so, well, hot.)

Links:

Goodreads

Smashwords

Excerpt:

Disclaimer: I'm new at this.  

It's only been three weeks, I wanted to say. So if I do anything wrong, mess you up in any way, I shouldn't be held responsible. But the girl sitting in front of me, she didn't know that anyway. She didn't know that by walking into the College Guidance Office, seeking something as abstract as "guidance," she would instead find me, and be the first to summon me.

Quin told me that I would get better at the diagnosis with each "project." 

It helps if you're familiar with the feeling, he always said. But it'll get easier.Kathy Martin had been sitting on the couch across from me for ten minutes, but I only noticed her there after a pencil rolled off my desk. I bent to pick it up and saw Kathy's shoes. Ballet flats so orange, they looked like they were on fire. 

"You scared me," I said, or maybe something with more profanity. "I didn't see you there." 

"I get that a lot." 

"Are they expecting you?" I asked, going into secretary mode. 

Kathy shook her head. "No," she said. "Should I have made an appointment? I thought I could just walk in here." 

I checked the calendars of the two guidance counselors who were on that day and saw that neither would be available for another four hours. And they were both out at the moment. 

The disappointment on Kathy's face was unexpected. No one ever wanted to see a guidance counselor that badly, at least not on the Tuesdays and Thursdays that I did filing work there. 

"You could come back at five," I offered. 

"Do you work here?" 

I didn't, not in the way Kathy meant with her question. Located just outside of Metro Manila, Ford River College was a relatively new school (compared to the over-a-century-old ones put up during the Spanish and American periods), but it already had a reputation for being the place to send your children if they were very smart, or if you were very rich. I was there on scholarship, but I didn't think that automatically put me in the camp of very smart. Maybe lucky. 

One of the strings attached to the free education was that I had to work in a "relevant administration office" several hours a week. If Kathy couldn't tell I was a student, I could guess why. Students of Ford River wore uniforms only on Mondays.  

"I'm just a student employee," was the gist of it. 

"Oh." More disappointment. 

I could see what was coming, when her face lit up briefly. 

"Can I talk to you instead?" she asked. 

Could she? It wasn't like I was idle. I had two hundred sheets of student personality test to fail, and they needed this yesterday. I was sure Kathy could see that, because they were all on top of the desk, a Great Wall of Papers between us. 

"You're fine that I'm just a student?" 

She shrugged. "I just want someone to talk to. I'm Kathy, by the way." 

"Hannah Maquiling. What do you want to talk about?" 

She sighed. "There's this guy who likes me. I don't know what to make of it." 

I sighed too. "Let's walk to the cafeteria and you can tell me about it." 

"You don't mind?" Her eyes were big and pleading, and I saw it, before I felt it pass my skin and get into my bones. 

Longing. 

I knew that, longing. The act of identifying it seemed to make it worse, and it felt like it slammed into my chest instead of crept in. 

"Nah," I said, trying to sound casual and not at all like her emotion was suffocating me. "It's my job, I guess." 

I was told that they would find me, wherever I happened to be, and they would want and need to talk about boys, and girls, and relationships, and what it all meant, and I had to make time for them. 

For I am the interim goddess of love.

INTERIM GODDESS OF LOVE GIVEAWAY~!!!

Win a copy of the Interim Goddess of Love Trilogy (for international participants)
or either a Team Quin, Team Robbie or Team Simon keychain (Philippine participants)!

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Author Bio: 

Website

Twitter

Facebook

Goodreads

Mina V. Esguerra writes contemporary romance, young adult, and new adult novellas. Her young adult/fantasy trilogy Interim Goddess of Love is a college love story featuring gods from Philippine mythology. Her contemporary romance novella Fairy Tale Fail won the 2012 Filipino Readers' Choice award for Chick Lit. Through her blog Publishing in Pajamas (minavesguerra.com), she documents her experiments in e-publishing.

When not writing romance, she is president of communications firm Bronze Age Media, development communication consultant, indie publisher, professional editor, wife, and mother. She created the workshop series "Author at Once" and #romanceclass for writers and publishers.

[Linking Up] Feature and Follow #32

Share something you’ve learned about book blogging or just blogging in general in the last month.

In the last month, I've been tasked to arrange blog tours for a couple of independent Filipino authors. I had to be the middleman between authors and bloggers, and I learned that being an author doesn't end when you publish a book. You also need to market those books, and bloggers help a lot through blog tours.  

[Book Review] Love Rehab

Love Rehab
Author: Jo Piazza
Date Published: June 4, 2013
Publisher: Open Road Media
Source: ARC
Genre: Chick-Lit, Contemporary Romance

Rating: ★★★★★

Links:
Goodreads
Amazon
Barnes & Noble


Book Information:

Cyber-stalking, drive-bys, drunken text messaging, creating fake email accounts—you’re gonna have to face it, you’re addicted to love. 

Sophie isn’t dealing with her breakup well. Dumped by her boyfriend, Eric, for his sexting, D-cupped, young Floozy McSecretary, Sophie leaves Manhattan and lands back in her hometown, crushed and pajama-clad, blaming herself and begging her ex for a second chance.

But when her best friend, Annie, gets in trouble for driving drunk and is forced to go to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, something clicks in Sophie’s strung-out mind. Women need love rehab, she realizes, to help fix the craziness that comes along with falling for someone. 

If you start it, they will come. When she opens up her home to the obsessed and lovelorn, Sophie finds a way to help women out there who have overdosed on the wrong men—and she saves herself in the process. 

Love is a drug and the only things that can save us are the steps, rules, and one another. Step one: Admit you have a problem, and keep the hell away from Facebook.

Review:
A bad break-up that's so realistic, it's so funny!

Everything began when female protagonist, Sophie, got dumped by her boyfriend because of his floozy secretary with D-cups. Of course Sophie didn't take it lightly. I mean, who would? So then, Sophie did what every heartbroken woman do: she flooded her ex's phone, stalked him on Facebook, begged him to take her back, cried her heart out and wallowed in a sea of pity. She also did all of the crazily cliche stuff that jilted women were known to do. (Even to the point of posting her ex's wiener online. LOL.)

In a bid to recover from heartbreak, a brilliant idea popped into Sophie's head when she was forced to attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting with her friend Annie. She decided to start her own group for love addicts, hence, the Love Addicts Anonymous was born.

What I liked about this book is that it realistically depicted the crazy stuff that heartbroken women do. Logic was literally thrown out of the window and insane things abound!

Personally, I know that being heartbroken is a very hard struggle, but in this book, heartbreak is being treated like a problem with a solution, contrary to the usual approach of letting time heal the wounds.

Character-wise, I love Sophie. She had her crazy moments, but she decided to take matters into her hands and be pro-active. This was really courageous of her, considering that she was such a wreck after her boyfriend broke up with her.

I also love Annie and the rest of the supporting characters, the string of women who became members of the Love Addicts Anonymous and even Dr. Twelve Steps. I'll just say that a problem really does lighten up when you have people who support you, and the women of Love Addicts Anonymous found a kindred soul in each other because of Sophie. And when each of the character grew out of their heartbreaks, it was such a happy moment.

What I didn't like about this book though, is that despite depicting the craziness of a heartbroken woman, it failed to realistically portray the drama that ensues when several women come together. I mean, if a handful of women with problems come together under one roof, there's bound to be conflicts. In this book, I found none of those.

All in all, this was a really entertaining read. I have no doubt that everybody would be able to relate to the things that were depicted in this book.