[REVIEW] Never Never (part 1)

title: Never Never: Part One of Three (Never Never #1)
author: Colleen Hoover, Tarryn Fisher
genre: young adult, contemporary, mystery
publish: January 7, 2015 by Hoover Ink
purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository
rating: 5 / 5 stars
goodreads

Never Never, a novella series. Book one of three.

Best friends since they could walk. In love since the age of fourteen.
Complete strangers since this morning.
He'll do anything to remember. She'll do anything to forget.

This novella is recommended for readers age 16+ due to mild language and sexual content. 

a completely intriguing read!

I got this book for free from Amazon Kindle. I download free Kindle books all the time just because I want to make sure I have books everywhere I go (even though I have enough ebooks on my Kindle App). AND you know, Colleen Hoover is a super popular author and I'm curious.

2017 Bookentine TBR

#bookentine TBR

Hello,

I mentioned in my January Roundup post that I'll be participating in the 2017 #bookentine read-a-thon which is hosted by Ely & Michelle @ Tea and Titles. You can find the announcement post here so you can check what the read-a-thon is all about. And you can find the sign-up post here so we can all see each other's TBR and maybe follow each other :D

If you've been following me since my the Blacksheep Project days, you'd probably know that contemporary isn't my strongest genre (I'm a mostly dystopian, thriller, and historical reader). SO, discovering this read-a-thon felt like a great opportunity for me to stick my nose on the contemporary novels in my shelf.

things about #bookentine
- it's a YA contemporary read-a-thon!
- read-a-thon starts on February 13th and ends on February 20th
- hosted by Ely & Michelle @ Tea and Titles, as I mentioned earlier.
- it has three challenges:

1. Read a book with red and/or pink on the cover
2. Read a book by an author you haven't read before
3. Read a book featuring mental illness or disability

2017 Bookentine TBR

[REVIEW] Twenty Questions for Gloria

title: Twenty Questions for Gloria
author: Martyn Bedford
genre: young adult, contemporary
publish: April 12, 2016 by Wendy Lamb Books
purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository
rating: 3 / 5 stars
goodreads

It started with an appearance, not a disappearance. 

Gloria is tired of her ordinary life. An unadventurous teenager, she barely remembers the free-spirited child she used to be. So when a mysterious new boy strolls into school, bent on breaking all the rules, Gloria is ready to fall under his spell. 

Uman is funny, confident, and smart. He does what he wants without a care for what anyone thinks. The only people for him, he says, are the mad ones, the ones who never say or do a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn. 

He is everything Gloria wants to be. He can whisk her away and show her a more daring, more exciting life—one in which the only limits are the boundaries of her own boldness. 

But Uman is not all he seems. And by the time she learns the truth about him, she’s a long way from home…and the whole country wants to know: Where’s Gloria?

runaway kids. then what?

I bought Twenty Questions for Gloria because of the blurb. When I read it, the first thing that came to my minds was my oh-so boring life and how much I wish I'd be more adventurous but too scared to actually make a move. And I am like, oh hey this book could be an exciting read -- this boring girl and this confident guy and a mystery.

[WEEKEND READS] where I'm FINALLY moving on to my next read!

current reads.

Hello,

This week was quite good. Life isn't as stressful as before and I finally found my reading time -- my commute to work. Not the best one but it's my only chance to read without falling asleep. Also, unexpectedly, NEED by Joelle Charbonneau brought me out of my slump. It wasn't a very great read but it's thrilling and that kept me reading.

I hope I continue to finish more books in the next few days :)

recent reads

NEED | Joelle Charbonneau
Finished this just a few hours. Done with the reading slump, I guess?
ANYWAY, I really wanted to like NEED. It was thrilling and the mystery really kept me going. And literally, it's the only thing that kept me reading. I wanted to put it down because the multiple-POV here isn't working for me (and I LOVE multiple-POVs, so why?), and I'm mad at the shallowness of these kids, and I HATE the reason for 'NEED'. This novel is just a big flat NO for me. BUT it might work for others. who knows? Review will be up soon~

[REVIEW] Murder on the Orient Express

title: Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot #10)
author: Agatha Christie
genre: adult fiction, mystery
publish: January 18, 2011 by William Morrow (first published 1934)
purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository
rating: 4 / 5 stars
goodreads

Just after midnight, the famous Orient Express is stopped in its tracks by a snowdrift. By morning, the millionaire Samuel Edward Ratchett lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. One of his fellow passengers must be the murderer. 

Isolated by the storm, detective Hercule Poirot must find the killer among a dozen of the dead man's enemies, before the murderer decides to strike again. 

"It's tempting to say that Agatha Christie is a genius and let it go at that, but the world's had plenty of geniuses. Agatha Christie is something special." --Lawrence Block, New York Times bestselling author. 

I have yet to solve a Christie mystery.

This is my fifth Agatha Christie novel (not that I'm counting or anything) and I'm still at a lost for words. I ended up in that I-was-so-sure-I-was-right moment once again. Agatha Christie never fails me. really.

[REVIEW] Girl in the Blue Coat

title: Girl in the Blue Coat
author: Monica Hesse
genre: young adult, historical fiction
publish: April 5, 2016 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository
rating: 4 / 5 stars
goodreads

Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days finding and delivering sought-after black market goods to paying customers, nights hiding the true nature of her work from her concerned parents, and every waking moment mourning her boyfriend, who was killed on the Dutch front lines when the German army invaded. Her illegal work keeps her family afloat, and Hanneke also likes to think of it as a small act of rebellion against the Nazis. 

On a routine delivery, a client asks Hanneke for help. Expecting to hear that Mrs. Janssen wants meat or kerosene, Hanneke is shocked by the older woman’s frantic plea to find a person: a Jewish teenager Mrs. Janssen had been hiding, who has vanished without a trace from a secret room. Hanneke initially wants nothing to do with such a dangerous task but is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations—where the only way out is through. 

Beautifully written, intricately plotted, and meticulously researched, Girl in the Blue Coat is an extraordinary, unforgettable story of bravery, grief, and love in impossible times.

a beautiful story of love, friendship, and bravery during war times

Girl in the Blue Coat was an auto-buy for me simply because: (1) it's historical fiction (because I HAVE to read ALL the historical books out there. lol.), (2) it's set in WWII (it may be the most widely written historical period but there are still too much we do not know about it!!), (3) that cover is too bEAUTIFUL (GAH! I just know I need this in my shelf the moment I saw it!!)!!

JANUARY ROUNDUP (aka the start of my new book blog)

random photo. twenty questions for gloria.

Hello,

I decided to start my 2017 right by trying to organize myself and manage my time more. I opened this new book blog, the Blacksheep Reader, and so far I'm really proud of it. Aside from the schedule posts I have (I'm a couple of weeks ahead minus #weekendreads, of course), it's all thanks to you guys for keeping me motivated!

This January, I also started my internship. It's not super stressful but whenever I get home, I'm just so tired, all I can do is sleep BUT I still have to work on my thesis so that makes things quite stressful. BUT I always try to manage myself. AND because of this, I ended up being on a #readingslump. I haven't finished any book for a couple of weeks now and I'm really hating myself for it. I'm trying to fight it though by reading The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. I picked this because historical fiction is one of my fave genres. And so far, it's really working for me. Crossing my fingers that I finish this book before the week ends.

books read

January turned out to be a horrible reading month for me. I hope February turns out better. I can't believe my 2017 started with a reading slump.