[Waiting On Wednesday] #23 - The Fill-In Boyfriend

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, which spotlights upcoming books that we eagerly anticipate and cannot wait to get here!

"The Fill-In Boyfriend" - Kasie West

When Gia Montgomery's boyfriend, Bradley, dumps her in the parking lot of her high school prom, she has to think fast. After all, she'd been telling her friends about him for months now. This was supposed to be the night she proved he existed. So when she sees a cute guy waiting to pick up his sister, she enlists his help. The task is simple: be her fill-in boyfriend— two hours, zero commitment, a few white lies. After that, she can win back the real Bradley.

The problem is that days after prom, it's not the real Bradley she's thinking about, but the stand-in. The one whose name she doesn't even know. But tracking him down doesn't mean they're done faking a relationship. Gia owes him a favor and his sister intends to see that he collects: his ex-girlfriend's graduation party — three hours, zero commitment, a few white lies.

Just when Gia begins to wonder if she could turn her fake boyfriend into a real one, Bradley comes waltzing back into her life, exposing her lie, and threatening to destroy her friendships and her new-found relationship.

| ADD TO GOODREADS |

WHY AM I WAITING ON IT?

First of all - it's Kasie West. That should pretty much tell you why I'm waiting on it. Oh & you see that cover? I might sound shallow when I say it but IT'S SO PWETTY, IT'S MAKING ME CRY WHITE GIRL TEARS! ;)

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING ON THIS WEEK?

Author-Stacking-Bloggers Thoughts

The THING. The awful drama that rocked the book blogging world over the weekend has got some buzz over the last few days. But apparently I live under the rock because I just discovered THIS Guardian article written by the author herself. Over the last hour I have been reading blogger's responses, tweets, and other opinions on what the situation brings. And yes, of course I know that everyone already posted about this but I just wanted to express on what I'm feeling and mark this day as the day when the blogging community remembered that this is still Internet. 

To recap the story, Kathleen Hale got offended about the blogger giving negative reviews and being very expressive about their comments and decided to "confront" the blogger in person. Yes, this included a background check ($19!!!), finding out where she lived, actually talking to her face to face, and trying to "catfish" her back. So who is supposed to be on who's side here? Yes, the blogger shouold not have used descriptive language when referring to someone's book but the author had no right to completely invade the privacy like this. 

So what is this mean for the book blogging world? The most scary thing is that in some way, we all have shared some sort of personal information. Our instagram, our address for the ARCs, our location. Technology right now can even give you directions to a person through Facebook so talk about being stackish! The problem is that this could have happened to anyone. And not even the authors or bloggers but someone random just wanted personal information. Sad truth is that thousands of people are victims to identity theft or stacking every year and needs to be reported. So please be careful and let's just do what we wanted to do from the beginning, which is explore our love and love of the others for books that helps us escape the reality. 

what other bloggers are saying:

Harassment, Stalking and Refusing To Stand Down @ Book Badger

On the importance of pseudonymous activity @ Dear Author

In case you’ve been under a rock @ LaurenDeStefano

The Choices of Kathleen Hale @ SmartBs TrashyBooks

[Book Review] Killing Ruby Rose by Jessie Humphries

Killing Ruby Rose
by Jessie Humphries 

In sunny Southern California, seventeen-year-old Ruby Rose is known for her killer looks and her killer SAT scores. But ever since her dad, an LAPD SWAT sergeant, died, she's also got a few killer secrets.

To cope, Ruby has been trying to stay focused on school (the top spot in her class is on the line) and spending time with friends (her Jimmy Choos and Manolo Blahniks are nothing if not loyal). But after six months of therapy and pathetic parenting by her mom, the District Attorney, Ruby decides to pick up where her dad left off and starts going after the bad guys herself.

When Ruby ends up killing a murderer to save his intended victim, she discovers that she's gone from being the huntress to the hunted. There's a sick mastermind at play, and he has Ruby in his sights. Ruby must discover who's using her to implement twisted justice before she ends up swapping Valentino red for prison orange.

With a gun named Smith, a talent for martial arts, and a boyfriend with eyes to die for, Ruby is ready to face the worst. And if a girl's forced to kill, won't the guilt sit more easily in a pair of Prada peep-toe pumps?

AMAZON | GOODREADS 

Killing Ruby Rose could have been explained as a YA mystery thriller. But we all know that YA means teenagers which equals high school, kissing boys, and curfew. So imagine the clash of all of these things plus bad guys that are cold hearted killers. This made me very very skeptical. 

Story begins when Ruby Rose is doing some spying on a bad guy. After her dad was killed on a mission, she's sure that someone had something to do with it and she decides to go after some of the bad guys that her dad was trying to put away. So she starts watching over them. Her own Filthy Five. Murderers, rapists, and kidnappers who somehow got away from justice and still on the streets. 

When she gets set up by a mystery guy, her whole life changes. She can't just be in the shadows anymore because every news channel thinks she's a murderer. Now the Filthy Five is starting to fall off the Earth one by one and someone is making her pull that trigger time after time. 

Did I like it? Yes I would say I really did. Even though she was immature and always tried to look for the most stupidest decision that she could have possibly made, the story was still appealing. Author really made the action stand out. If it's not for it, I wouldn't have been very happy with the book because of the main character. 

5th Annual Spooktacular Giveaway Hop

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[Waiting On Wednesday] #22 - I Was Here

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, which spotlights upcoming books that we eagerly anticipate and cannot wait to get here!

"I Was Here" - Gayle Forman

Cody and Meg were inseparable.
Two peas in a pod.
Until . . . they weren’t anymore.

When her best friend Meg drinks a bottle of industrial-strength cleaner alone in a motel room, Cody is understandably shocked and devastated. She and Meg shared everything—so how was there no warning? But when Cody travels to Meg’s college town to pack up the belongings left behind, she discovers that there’s a lot that Meg never told her. About her old roommates, the sort of people Cody never would have met in her dead-end small town in Washington. About Ben McAllister, the boy with a guitar and a sneer, who broke Meg’s heart. And about an encrypted computer file that Cody can’t open—until she does, and suddenly everything Cody thought she knew about her best friend’s death gets thrown into question.

I Was Here is Gayle Forman at her finest, a taut, emotional, and ultimately redemptive story about redefining the meaning of family and finding a way to move forward even in the face of unspeakable loss.

| ADD TO GOODREADS |

WHY AM I WAITING ON IT?

Another Gayle Forman's book? Ummm YES PLEASE!!! Really hoping to get ARC of this one because waiting until January 2015 to get my hands on is just too impossible. I just... totally can't. I really can't! :P

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING ON THIS WEEK? don't forget to stop by this awesome giveaway hop!

[This-Book-Sucks Review] H2O by Virginia Bergin

H2O
by Virginia Bergin

It's in the rain...and just one drop will kill you.

They don't believe it at first. Crowded in Zach's kitchen, Ruby and the rest of the partygoers laugh at Zach's parents' frenzied push to get them all inside as it starts to drizzle. But then the radio comes on with the warning, "It's in the rain! It's fatal, it's contagious, and there's no cure."

Two weeks later, Ruby is alone. Anyone who's been touched by rain or washed their hands with tap water is dead. The only drinkable water is quickly running out. Ruby's only chance for survival is a treacherous hike across the country to find her father-if he's even still alive.

AMAZON | GOODREADS 

After awhile, any Apocalyptic books will have a similar twist to it, either it's the zombies or some sort of sickness that ends the world. But H2O sounded promising. The deadly rain, the water all around people has some sort of bacteria that eats the people alive, turning it into intense and slow death. 

With such summary, I was excited to read it because it was something new. It started out great, with a funny narrator in a "diary" form of Ruby. She was witty and funny and I really thought that I was going to like her. Plus there was actually an explanation of why the rain might have turned deadly (umm meteor?) and even though it wasn't perfect, it went with the story. 

however...

Ruby sucks. I can't even grasp why she survived until the end of the book. I really can't. For example:

"We son't like to go outside when it's raining; we don't like drinking water (it's boring); we don't like eating fresh fruit and vegetables (because THEY are always going on about how we should)". <- explain this bs, please. Umm water is boring? Yeah okay sweetie, you're boring. 

"I would get Simon's backpack, and I would use every bottle of water or soda water or tonic water or whatever - whatever was left - to scrub and wash my skin and my hair" <- Maybe you shouldn't waste water because it's the only one you have left to drink, you dumb b****. 

"He'd said kiss me, and I'd... Oh my !!! It was too awful to think about... and in a way, it was just as well. Pretty much everyone at school must be dead because if what had happened in the spongy-snake closet every got out, my life wouldn't be worth living" <- How selfish could you be that you wish everyone was dead because you would get embarrassed if someone found out that you kissed a Geek Boy (what she calls him). Blah, killit

Sadly, I can come up with more examples about how immature and absolutely dumb Ruby is. The whole reason why my rating is so low is simply because of her. Well.. and the ending. Meh

[Book Review] Us by David Nicholls

Us
by David Nicholls

'I was looking forward to us growing old together. Me and you, growing old and dying together.'

'Douglas, who in their right mind would look forward to that?'

Douglas Petersen understands his wife's need to 'rediscover herself' now that their son is leaving home.

He just thought they'd be doing their rediscovering together.

So when Connie announces that she will be leaving, too, he resolves to make their last family holiday into the trip of a lifetime: one that will draw the three of them closer, and win the respect of his son. One that will make Connie fall in love with him all over again.

The hotels are booked, the tickets bought, the itinerary planned and printed.

What could possibly go wrong?

AMAZON | GOODREADS 

There is a reason why The Happily Ever After books are always so popular among people. It is their escape from their own lives in hopes that something out there will always feel like a fairytale. But what happens after the ending, after the in-love couple have kids, live day to day life and faced with the reality? David Nicholls introduces us to this reality, to a different story that's not all butterflies and unicorns but the truth about couples when they are burnt out and want out. 

Unfortunately I haven't read One Day in which the story really began but I still enjoyed reading Us. The narrator walks us through his relationship and by remembering happy moments of his marriage and the way they met, we get more of a background. I really liked this story. You have Douglas, a scientist who cannot understand his son but wants to click with him. And then there is his wife. I really can't believe she just dropped "I want a divorce" on him like that but it is the hard truth of real relationships. Sometimes things just happen. 

This was an eye opener for me because of the way it looked deeper into the family life. I am not married but really hope to have a family and children someday so being able to get something from this book was amazing. I found myself really invested in the story and Douglas' and his family's lives. 

About David Nicholls

David Nicholls’s most recent novel, the New York Times bestseller One Day, has sold over 2 million copies and been translated into thirty-seven languages; he also wrote the screenplay for the 2010 film adaptation starring Jim Sturgess and Anne Hathaway. Trained as an actor before making the switch to writing, Nicholls’s previous novels include Starter for Ten (originally published in the U.S. as A Question of Attraction), adapted into a film starring James McAvoy, for which Nicholls also wrote the screenplay; and The Understudy. He continues to write for film and TV as well as writing novels and adapting them for the screen, and has twice been nominated for the BAFTA awards. He lives in London with his wife and two children.
Find out more about David at his website and connect with him on Facebook.