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Manga Review: Fall in Love You False Angels Vol. 1

The Japanese hit manga rom-com comes to print! The sweet smiles across the faces of the “perfect” student council duo hide secret, tough-as-nails personalities. These two-faced angels vie for dominance while keeping up their flawless act…but how long will it take for contention to give way to attraction?

This modern spin for fans of classics like Kare Kano: His and Her Circumstances and Kaguya-sama: Love Is War is already a best-seller in Japan!

It’s such an adorable manga! It definitely has Kare Kano vibes. What I love about it so far is how you are thrown into the story fairly quickly. But I’m sure we will learn more about the main characters and their reasons for hiding their true selves as the story progresses.

This feels like it will be a very charming and adorable love story. But I think more importantly it will be a very cute story about their friendship. I’m looking forward to buying this manga when it is released, and I look forward to reading the other volumes.

 The publisher provided my arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: The In Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill

Once again, we are exploring another bookstore and revisiting different points of time for our main character. However, the title and cover were huge factors that made me stop and want to read this book. But I think this tagline is the main reason.

The In-Between Bookstore is a stunning novel of love, self-discovery, and the choices that come with both, for anyone who has ever wondered what their life might be like if they had the chance to go back and take a bigger, braver risk.

I appreciate how the story gently pulls you into Darby’s life and explores the reasons behind his feelings of not belonging. Even surrounded by friends, he had unresolved things in his past and present that prevented him from finding meaning in his present.

The use of flashbacks is a great touch; even when certain details come up again, they reveal new layers that help us understand Darby’s thoughts and emotions in a different light. I may not relate to Darby’s experiences in the same way, but especially when you’re young and the world feels so heavy, it is easy not to see the whole picture. Or to be blind when others are struggling, too. I was rooting for him throughout the book. Every time he revisited his younger self, I was excited to see what new things he would learn about himself.

I was so invested in Darby’s search for what was missing in his life. This book got me thinking about my life and what it means to belong. The concept that everything consists of choices and that each decision creates a branch of possible outcomes lingers long after you turn the last page.

 The publisher provided my arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: The Vanishing Bookstore by Helen Phifer

Witches, different timelines, and a family curse? These are all things that drew me to this book. I enjoyed the pacing in the beginning. However, although the story was interesting and kept me turning the page, I felt almost rushed towards the end. It alternated between different timelines and would jump between our protagonists and antagonist perspectives. All while keeping things easy to follow.

Even though I wish the bookstore had been featured more throughout the story, I still adored the family bond between the characters. Lenny was my favorite character, and I would love to see side stories featuring her in other lifetimes. Ultimately, it was an enjoyable read, and I would recommend this book to people who enjoy cozy, witchy thrillers.

 The publisher provided my arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

~Blogging for Books~ Portrait Revolution

Portrait Revolution by Julia L. Kay

My favorite thing about art books, aside from making interesting reading material/making a drab coffee table all pretty, is the inspiration they ignite. Even though  I’m not actually an artist in the traditional sense of the word, I enjoy art and dabbling in it. And  I love the way this book showcases different styles and mediums. Making it easy to get inspired by all styles, yet also figuring out the style you might personally prefer.

For me it was definitely the watercolor medium. I love the way watercolor translate to paper and seeing the different techniques. Like with all art, there are so many you can try. It’s also interesting to see how, within each style, lines translate to form a full portrait. Or how the capture each person’s face.

I was excited for this book, but ultimately, I feel it might have been wasted on me. I didn’t test out any of the techniques myself,  so I can’t really speak of the tips and tricks this book goes over, but it did make me want to create in general.  The perfect inspiration for any artist, so this book made a great gift for my artist brother. He’s always in need of inspiration so I’m hoping this book was able to motivate him. Still, even though I didn’t keep it for very long, I still enjoyed being inspired by it and feeling my creative juices flowing.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

~Book Haul~ Jan. to Feb.

Here’s my belated Jan/Feb book haul, it has been in the works for awhile now and I finally had time to film it. I had the camera zoomed in way too close, I usually like to have the bookcase framed differently. I dunno, I was off. But like Audrey mentioned in her Spring Break entry, I too think videos add a little something extra to the blog.

Anywho, here’s a list of the books I mentioned in the video!

What books have you recently purchased? Can you read more than one book, switching between them? I’m curious to know your book buying rules as well.

Thanks for reading

~Oct.-Dec.~ Book Haul

It took me a while to finally finish editing this video but here it is! I sort of took a break from buying books during those months and wasn’t reading as much either. But hopefully, I’ll return to reading more books, I didn’t reach my goal of 50+ books in 2016 so now I’ll try again in 2017…haven’t gotten off to a great start but no sense in giving up. 😀

Here are the books I mentioned in the video:

Going to try to get back on a vlogging schedule and try to read more. I have a Book Outlet Haul coming up and I can’t wait! What books have you been reading lately?

Thanks for reading

~Blogging for Books~ Story Genius by Lisa Cron

While in school my concentration was in Creative Writing, and I struggled with characters, and creating different voices for each character. But I still enjoyed writing each of the different stories I came up with. Story Genius by Lisa Cron stuck out to me because of its catchy cover but also because of its subject matter. It never occurred to me to continue writing stories after college, I haven’t made any effort to write creatively but this book brought back a lot of those college semesters.

What I liked about the book was the voice of the narrator. Very funny and it was almost as if I was discussing literature with a peer. Another thing was the humor, especially when it brought up Fifty Shades of Grey. (If you like this series, take no offense, you are entitled to like any book you like. And hey, if this series made more people read, then right now!) It poked fun at it for sure and explained how ‘beautiful writing’ isn’t enough to get readers interested. It’s the story itself, how does it capture your audience? In the case of this, it had readers wanting more…

The next thing I liked about this book was its helpful prompts…or exercises. The ‘What to Do’ sections. I thought it was an interesting way to sprinkle those in every once in awhile and not beat with it over and over again.  If you are the type of writer that struggles with finishing or developing your story, I suggest giving this a try. If anything, it might just help you think out the parts of your story that you haven’t really put much thought into in the first place. It also made for an interesting read.

Happy reading!

*I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

~Blogging for Books~ Think Happy

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I love affirmations and being positive is something I myself am working on and it’s a bit difficult sometimes. I try not to become a “negative evidence collector” but I find myself leaning more towards negativity rather than positive thinking.

Think Happy by Karen Salmansohn is the pep talk everyone and their pet cat needs. Now this book doesn’t just automatically change the way you view life. However, it helps you slowly want to change. But if you rather remain on the gloomy side, then this book won’t do much for you. I just want to express that.

The cute illustrations and happy go lucky attitude is just the bright light you may need to want to see that rainbow you seem to be ignoring. This book is small and the perfect addition to your coffee table. The cover alone brings a smile to your face and actually reading the different sections was eye opening for me. I found myself agreeing out loud.

My expectations when reading this book was that I figured it would be generic information that, if you’re not always a shiny, happy person, then it would just be annoying to read. I thought this would be the type of book that made me feel bad for not always feeling happy. After reading this little book, I felt myself feel motivated. Motivated to see myself in a more positive way. I expected the line, “If we all saw ourselves the way others see us, then we would all be happier.” But that’s not how this book was written. It was written in a way for you to feel inspired about being positive. And I’m glad the book wasn’t at all what I expected.

Learning how to be something is difficult, there are many tools available and having someone tell us what worked for them might not work for us. But this book isn’t exactly telling you how you can be happy. Only you are capable of finding happiness. I just feel as though this book motivated me, and I don’t want to be a pretzel!!!

*I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Thanks for reading.

~July Book Haul~

Here are the books I bought in the month of July, and I can tell you that I have made up for the lack of books in July jut in the first two weeks of August. But in July I just was taking it easy and trying to make time to read the books on my TBR.

I have three videos in the making and I’m hoping to make some time to get them filmed and edited, but I also have a few workshop possibilities that I need to work on….aside from my full time job. It’s all about balance, and as long as the other things don’t disturb my day job, then I’m good. But here’s hoping this outside stuff works out. I hope you’re doing well, what are you reading or what have you recently purchased?

Thanks for reading

~June Book Haul~

I present my June book haul!!! I have a total of 7 books this month and I read 4, so I think I’m doing pretty good. If I don’t enjoy the book then I get rid of it. I don’t see the need in forcing myself to read a book I’m not enjoying. I’m just trying to keep my book collection under control.

Here are the books I mentioned in the video:

Big things are happening and I’ll update about it as soon as I can, but for now know that I am extremely happy.

Happy reading

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