[REVIEW] Bad Girls with Perfect Faces

title: Bad Girls with Perfect Faces
author: Lynn Weingarten
genre: young adult, thriller
published: October 31, 2017 by Simon Pulse
format: Hardcover, 320 pages
purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository
rating: 4 / 5 stars
goodreads

When I looked up, his smile was wide and real. “Ready?” he said. 

I faked a smile back. I had gotten so good at faking things. 

I thought: You brought this on yourself, Sasha. You will have to pretend forever now.
He squeezed my hand again. He couldn’t begin to imagine what this actually was. He had no idea what I’d done. What any of us had.  

When Sasha’s best friend Xavier gets back together with his cheating ex, Ivy, Sasha knows she needs to protect him. So she poses as a guy online to lure Ivy away. 

But Sasha’s plan goes sickeningly wrong. And she soon learns to be careful of who you pretend to be because you might be surprised by who you become…

the question is 'how far?'

I've been hoping to read this since it first came out. The cover easily caught my attention but I wasn't so hyped for this because I wasn't reading my YA lately. But this bored me found out that it was a free read at Riveted Lit. So I grabbed the chance.

[WEEKEND READS] where I prepare for 2019 #catreadathon

you guys have been seeing too much of my shelf clutter lately. lol.

Hi,

I've been busy with work lately. which is a good thing and is something I like if you've read my 3 Things from 2018 post 😉 This is also the reason why I haven't been bloghopping much because I usually do that during my free times at work 😅

I haven't read much though which is something I'm hoping to change this coming week since I'm joining Olivia @ Olivia's Catastrophe's read-a-thon, Catastrophe Read-A-Thon, which is a two-week long read-a-thon. Yes for 2 weeks! hahaha.

recent reads

Dry | Neal Shusterman & Jarrod Shusterman
This was a really good read although it still can't top Unwind which is still my fave Neal Shusterman novel (and also my fave book of all time). It does incorporate the usual Neal Shusterman characters, well-written plot, and engaging survival adventure. It's a recommended read especially if you haven't read any of his novels :)

2019 Catastrophe Read-A-Thon TBR

Hi,

I was going to do #contemporaryathon but then this challenge feels better because it's open to a larger genre of books. AND it's a two-week read-a-thon which gives me more time to read. There are 7 books in this TBR and I'm sure I won't be able to get through all of these. I'm hoping to get around 3 to 4 books though. Crossing my fingers that'll actually happen.

things about #catreadathon
- reading challenge runs from February 14th to February 28th
- hosted by Olivia @ Olivia's Catastrophe
- the annoucement post can be found here and here!!
- the read-a-thon is about reading books that's been on our TBR for who know when even?
- there are #bookstagram challenges & blog challenges (which I'll most likely do!)
- the reading challenges are:

1. Read your oldest unread book
2. Read a 400+ tome
3. Cover Buy
4. So old you don’t know where it’s from
5. An author you know and love
6. A new to you author
7. A hyped book

January Wrap Up (aka the month of YA)

Harry Potter is not in photo. It's with my little cousin :) Also I read Bad Girls with Perfect Faces in Riveted

Hi,

I thought January will be my back-to-blogging month. I was so sure that everything will go smoothly since I got a few post ideas, I drafted posts, bookish-lists, and reviews. But then again, I was never in the mood for it. I was barely in the mood to open my laptop and schedule away posts. But it doesn't mean that I don't want to do this anymore. I really do. I just  don't understand why I'm not in the mood for anything.

Last week was pretty tiring but also very good for me. My best friend and I watched Glass and it was 'meh'. I enjoyed Unbreakable and Split but this one just felt forced. They shouldn't have done this. ohwell. After watching, we had lunch at Little Flour Café which was okay. It's like an all day breakfast café and it was weirdly not our fave type of food (unless of course they have pancakes or waffles for me, but nah!). After that, we dropped by the bookstore I used to work at. I said 'Hi' to all my ex-co-workers; we checked out books; and I bought my ordered copy of Dry by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman 💖

We talked about buddy reading Dry but he ended up devouring the book in 2 DAYS! Hate that he left me because of my slow pace. But also super happy because it means he's enjoying my fave author 😊

Anyway, this month was a good reading month. I read 4 books. Also, I unexpectedly bought 3 books which is so wrong for me. And also, this also meant I just broke my challenge. But I'll go save my self and read 8 more books before buying a new one to be successful in my challenge of read 3 books = buy 1 book.

books read

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter #2) by J.K. Rowling | Everlost (the Skinjacker trilogy #1) by Neal Shusterman | What to Say Next by Julie Buxbaum | Bad Girls with Perfect Faces by Lynn Weingarten

[REVIEW] In Order to Live

title: In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom
author: Yeonmi Park; Maryanne Vollers
genre: non-fiction, autobiography
published: September 27, 2016 by Penguin Books (first published September 25, 2015)
format: paperback, 288 pages
purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository
rating: 4.5 / 5 stars
goodreads

Yeonmi Park has told the harrowing story of her escape from North Korea as a child many times, but never before has she revealed the most intimate and devastating details of the repressive society she was raised in and the enormous price she paid to escape.  

Park’s family was loving and close-knit, but life in North Korea was brutal, practically medieval. Park would regularly go without food and was made to believe that, Kim Jong Il, the country’s dictator, could read her mind. After her father was imprisoned and tortured by the regime for trading on the black-market, a risk he took in order to provide for his wife and two young daughters, Yeonmi and her family were branded as criminals and forced to the cruel margins of North Korean society. With thirteen-year-old Park suffering from a botched appendectomy and weighing a mere sixty pounds, she and her mother were smuggled across the border into China. 

Park knew the journey would be difficult, but could not have imagined the extent of the hardship to come. Those years in China cost Park her childhood, and nearly her life.  By the time she and her mother made their way to South Korea two years later, her father was dead and her sister was still missing. Before now, only her mother knew what really happened between the time they crossed the Yalu river into China and when they followed the stars through the frigid Gobi Desert to freedom. As she writes, “I convinced myself that a lot of what I had experienced never happened. I taught myself to forget the rest.” 

In In Order to Live, Park shines a light not just into the darkest corners of life in North Korea, describing the deprivation and deception she endured and which millions of North Korean people continue to endure to this day, but also onto her own most painful and difficult memories. She tells with bravery and dignity for the first time the story of how she and her mother were betrayed and sold into sexual slavery in China and forced to suffer terrible psychological and physical hardship before they finally made their way to Seoul, South Korea—and to freedom.  

a must read eye-opening memoir.

I picked this book up when I saw Yeonmi Park's speech somewhere in facebook. I know about the theories talked about North Korea and I never really bothered to search about it. But after that video I saw, I got interesting. And at that time, I thought Yeonmi Park was the first escapee from North Korea. However, as days past then, I saw other nonfiction regarding people who escaped from North Korea such as The Girl with Seven Names which I also hope to read.

[WEEKEND READS] where my reading year started with great reads

Hello,

My 2019 started okay. Nothing special going on with me to be honest. It's been three weeks and nothing notable happened. That's sad. hahaha. Anyway, I am extremely happy that you guys actually read my 2018 non-bookish post and some of you even liking my story with my book best friend 💖 We'll be going out next weekend and watch Glass. He's been insisting on it. So that will happen. And I'll be picking up my copy of Dry by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman on the same day as well. Super excited for that!

Gotta survive this coming work week!

recent reads

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter #3) | J.K. Rowling
I finally finished this!! It started okay with me. I enjoyed it. It was light and fun to read. It's intriguing and I got invested real quick. The climax wasn't as exciting as the previous books though but still such a good read. But it was the final chapter that really pushed me to give it 5-stars. It's always that final chapter for me. Always that time when Harry talks to Dumbledore.

Everlost (Skinjacker #1) | Neal Shusterman
At the end of the day, I always end up loving Neal Shusterman's novel. Everlost had a bit of Unwind feels to it in terms of characters. The way they handle things, how they were written, how they ended up in the end (?). idk. It's not a very direct comparison but I just had that feeling to it. And it's all in a good way. The world is highly immersive and I was instantly so into it :)

Winter 2019 TBR

Hi,

This year, instead of doing a monthly TBR included in my monthly wrap up, I decided to make a seasonal TBR instead. So this is my TBR for January to March. This is kind of a way of talking about books I want to read for specific challenges I am doing as well as my personal reading challenge.

I'll also take one TBR book from last year's TBR or book haul just for the fun of it :)

Before my TBR, here's my Winter Bookish Bingo card so far. I hope to get through more of this this January. Aside from the five books listed below, I will still be picking out other books to complete this bingo card :)