Stacking the Shelves #14 January Haul

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and is a great way to showcase books you've recently added to your bookshelves. It is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

But for my STS, I'll be showing here only the physical copies of books I recently owned/borrowed/won. eBooks/eARCs will be showcased on my In My Mailbox posts.

Bought from National Book Store:

1. Just One Day (Just One Day #1) by Gayle Forman (SIGNED)

2. Just One Year (Just One Day #2) by Gayle Forman (SIGNED)

Bought from Fully Booked:

1. Incarnate (Newsoul #1) by Jodi Meadows

(It's not in the picture since someone borrowed it)

2. Asunder (Newsoul #2) by Jodi Meadows

3. The Madman's Daughter (The Madman's Daughter #1) by Megan Shepherd

From the author:

1. No One's Angel by Kelly Walker (THANK YOU SO MUCH KELLY WALKER!)

Borrowed:

1. Wicked Lovely (Wicked Lovely #1) by Melissa Marr (Thanks, Mylene!)

How about you? What's added to your haul? :)

ALL THE FEELS TOUR: Gayle Forman Book Signing Event in Manila

The year 2014 started with an amazing event by the National Book Store for book lovers here in the Philippines. Guess what? We had Gayle Forman for the first book signing event this year!

Last Saturday, January 18, 2014 was my second time to attend a bloggers forum. Big thanks to my lovely blogger friend Isabel of Sab The Book Eater for bringing me as her plus one! The forum was held at Powerbooks, Greenbelt 5. It's so great to meet these lovely ladies again. Never mind how noisy we can be when we start ranting about our favorite books and characters!

While waiting for the forum to start, strike a pose!

We were so excited to meet Gayle!

Gayle is such an adorable woman. Before the forum started, she sang some lines from Walt Disney Frozen's OST, Let It Go. She kept singing yet she told us that she's horrible at karaoke. Lol

Gayle while answering the questions during the blogger forum.

We were given the chance to ask Gayle things about her and her books. Here are some of the things we discovered about her and her life with her books:

• Writing ritual: Coffee. (We obviously know this. We just thought maybe she has some weird ritual like doing headstands before she writes. Oh, wait-- THAT is my ritual.)
• Best song from Just One Day: Again, she sang Let It Go. Followed by Adelle's Rolling In The Deep
• Easiest book she wrote: If I Stay. She said she didn't expect much and this book didn't give her much pressure. It's just a series of love stories (Family, friendship, romance, music)
• The kind of adventure she wants for Just One Day in her life: Well, she told us she can't have any adventure yet as of now since she have little kids. But she wanted to go to Brazil next, or Africa (Safari).
• Important role of music in If I Stay: She told us that her husband is a musician. And that she's been obsessed with music. She also said that music is an emotional trigger to a lot of people.
• Next book she's working on: Guys, it's a stand-alone! It'll be called I Was Here and will be out in Winter 2015!

ALL. THE. FEELS. Gayle Forman bookmarks were given during the event.

And here comes the signing! More pictures! These wonderful photos were taken by the very talented Hazel of Stay Bookish. Visit her blog to see more of her talent put into taking awesome photos of books and more! Teehee! ^^,

From left: Me, Kim of Divergent Gryffindor and Sab of Sab The Book Eater

Nicole and Michelle of The Twins Read striking a pose with Gayle

Elyssa and Celine of Two Ends of a Bookshelf

Kayla of The Bookish Owl and Sab of Sab The Book Eater

Sab (again!) Dianne of Oops! I Read Again and Kazhy of My Library in the Making

Jesselle of The Lifelong Bookworm and Kate of The Bookaholic Blurbs

PH YA Book Bloggers with Gayle Forman

Thank you so much National Book Store for making another wonderful event possible for bookworms like us. It's very overwhelming to meet the persons who wrote our favorite books and made us swoon over the characters. More bookish events like this please!

Gayle, Me, and my signed books! I'm soooo happy!

We love you very much, Gayle Forman! Hope to see you again!

Visit Gayle Forman and know more about her books at http://www.gayleforman.com/

Review: AN UNPLANNED LIFE by Beth Rinyu

An Unplanned Life

by Beth Rinyu

Series: Unplanned #2

Genre: New Adult Romance

Format Acquired: Kindle Book

Source: Author (Thanks a bunch, Beth!)

Published October 25th 2013

Purchase: Amazon

In the sequel/prequel to An Unplanned Lesson,Nicole and Dailan are living out their happily ever, raising Ryan and their daughter. Nicole has the perfect life and is no longer running away from her emotions. But when her past collides with her present,that perfect life slowly begins to crumble.

When Dailan gets in over his head taking on a huge case, that quickly becomes personal to him, Nicole and their marriage soon get put on the back burner. To make matters worse his new assistant is Rachel Wiser,the girl who made Nicole's life a living hell in high school.

Take the emotional journey into Nicole's past when she's faced with old ghosts, while she tries to cope with the effects that it's having on her present. Nicole must prove that she is no longer a scared teenager and fight with all that she has to protect the one person that she endured so much heartache for while trying to save her marriage to the one and only man who allowed her to open her heart.

MY REVIEW

(A copy has been provided to me by the author. This in no way affected my review for the book.)

Before anything else, I wanted to say YOU NAILED IT AGAIN, BETH!

(Spoiler alert!)

An Unplanned Life is the sequel to An Unplanned Lesson, wherein we started our journey with Nicole, her job, her family, and her lovelife. We witnessed how she and our sexy Dailan (Yes, you read that right: OUR. I am sharing him to you, ladies!) met, how they hated each other at first, then ended up falling in love.

“Sometimes the best things in life are those that aren't planned..."

We were able to catch a glimpse of Nicole's past, in which we learned that her very naughty student, Ryan, who happened to be the adopted nephew of Dailan, is in fact her son. Her son who she gave up years ago for adoption. In An Unplanned Life, we were given the chance to know more of her past, to get a clearer view of what really happened to her. Plus, our dear Justin is back! His disappearance in the first book made me really, really, really sad.

This books shows the typical reason why a lot of couples fight: jealousy. And like any other books out there, this will never be complete with a bitch or a douche. Here goes Rachel and Jonathan. I definitely loathe the two of them! People from her horrible past kept coming back to her to... I don't really know. To make things better? Or to make things worse? Rachel tries to ruin Nicole's life AGAIN. This part made me love Dailan even more. You should read to know why! He is the ultimate ideal husband!

“I loved him more than he would ever know. He was the only guy that was able to help me break the chains that were binding my heart for so long and I would be forever grateful to him for it.”

You better prepare for a lot of drama in this book. This one made me cry again. I can absolutely feel Nicole's feelings while I'm reading it. Yes, there is a lot of hatred and pain and problems... but in the end, there's a new baby that became our sunshine to the rain: Ella! She's so adorable I wanted to cuddle and kiss her!

"I'll love you forever; I'll like you for always. As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be."

This is another wonderful story by Beth Rinyu. And now I consider her as one of my favorite NA authors! I am so looking forward to read her next books. I definitely recommend this to you guys. This is a story of love, family, and most of all, not giving up for something worth fighting for no matter what the consequences are.

MY RATING

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Beth Rinyu

Ever since I can remember, I have always enjoyed Creative Writing. There was always something about being able to travel to a different place or become a different person with just the stroke of a pen - or in today's world a touch of the keyboard. I am the author of The Exception To The Rule, An Unplanned Lesson and Drowning In Love (releasing July 2013).

My life is not as interesting as my books or the characters in them, but then again whose life is? I was born and have lived in New Jersey my whole life. I'm a mom of twin teenage boys, a teenage stepson, a crazy Border Collie and a cat with an identity crisis! I guess you can say writing is my form of Calgon! I am married to a wonderful guy - but we'll keep that between us, I don't want him getting a big head! 

Thanks for taking the time to learn about my books and me! If you decide to read them (and I hope you do!) please be sure to go on and review it for me - yes, even if you don't like it!

Author Links:

Facebook | Goodreads

Review: BLUE IS FOR NIGHTMARES by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Blue is for Nightmares
by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Series: Blue is for Nightmares#1
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Format Acquired: Paperback (Deluxe Spellbook Edition)
Source: Purchased from Fullybooked

Published November 1st 2003 by Turtleback Books

"I Know Your Secret . . ."

Nightmares. Dark Secrets. Premonitions of Death.

Welcome to Stacey’s World!

It begins with the dreams. White lilies, the death flower. Being chased through the woods, knowing she cannot outrun her pursuer forever. Visits from the spirit of a girl who was murdered. Threats and taunts from an unseen assailant.

But that’s only the start. When the dreams begin to spill over into Stacey’s waking life, that’s when the nightmare really begins.

Stacey's junior year at boarding school isn't easy. She's not the most popular girl at school, or the smartest, or the prettiest. She's got a crush on her best friend's boyfriend, and an even darker secret that threatens to ruin her friendships for good. And now she's having nightmares again. Not just any nightmares – these dreams are too real to ignore, like she did three years ago. The last time she ignored them, a little girl died. 

This time they're about Drea, her best friend who's become the target of one seriously psycho stalker. It started with weird e-mails and freaky phone calls. Now someone's leaving Drea white lilies – the same death lilies that have been showing up in Stacey's dreams. Everybody thinks it's just a twisted game . . . until another girl at school is brutally murdered. There are no witnesses. Worst of all, no one has a perfect alibi. 

With everyone as a potential suspect, Stacey turns to the one secret weapon she can trust – the folk magic taught to her by her grandmother. Will Stacey's magic be strong enough to expose the true killer, or will the killer make her darkest nightmares come true?

MY REVIEW

Some people have always wondered why and how I came up living a life full of reading and books. Well, I love reading books ever since. But the FIRST Young Adult I ever read was White is for Magic by Laurie Faria Stolarz. Ever since I finish reading that book (which is way back in highschool) I spent my time looking for the first installment in the series. I don't even know before that I can reserve books online, or order them if they're not available here in the country.

So when I finally had a blog and learned many things on how to acquire books, I was happy yo finally have my copy of Blue is for Nightmares. I always wondered how it all began...

This book kept me hooked. I envy Stacey, 'cause she's a witch (Anyway, I'm a vampire) and it's very interesting everytime she's doing one of her spells. I learned a lot of spells, since I bought the Deluxe Spellbook Edition. I like it how certain colors of candles represent something, how she mixes different kinds of oils and other ingredients to complete her spells.

The best part of this book is how her dreams about Maura haunted her, and how it made me itch to know who the bad guy really is. Some said they figured it out very early, but I didn't. Lol. Then here goes the death of another bitch, Veronica Leeman. It made me more curious as each chapter goes by. Even though Drea, her bestfriend, is a little bit bitchy, I didn't want her to like, die or something. On the other hand, I can't help but love Amber. She's funny and bubbly at times. She's like the neutralizer between Stacey and Drea when things got heated between them.

About the romance, it's the love triangle between bestfriends type of romance. Stacey is inlove with Chad who happens to be the boyfriend of Stacey who happens to be her bestfriend.  Enough for the romance part, I didn't really focus on that part of the book. Heh.

Reading this book gave me the creeps. Well, it should since it a mystery-thriller type. I enjoyed reading it and it kept me intrigued until the end, which makes me wanna read the next books. The titles were pretty interesting too! Good job, Stolarz. Good job. :) 

MY RATING

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Laurie Faria Stolarz

Laurie Faria Stolarz grew up in Salem, MA, attended Merrimack College, and received an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College in Boston. 

Laurie Faria Stolarz is an American author of young adult fiction novels, best known for her Blue is for Nightmares series. Her works, which feature teenage protagonists, blend elements found in mystery and romance novels.

Stolarz found sales success with her first novel, Blue is for Nightmares, and followed it up with three more titles in the series, White is for Magic, Silver is for Secrets, and Red is for Remembrance. The four novels in the "BIFN" series have sold over 500,000 copies collectively.Stolarz has also announced a graphic novel entry into the series titled Black is for Beginnings, which she published in summer 2009.

Author Links:

Website | Goodreads | Twitter