Tag: Book blog

Rich People Problems

“Alamak, it’s that Ed Saranwrap! I love his music!”

Did you miss the hearing about the lives of Nick Young’s crazy rich family and friends?

Well, I am about to give you a brief recap of the events of Rich People Problems. Trigger warning for depiction of attempted suicide during part three, the last few pages of chapter 15.

Su Yi has a heart attack, and all of Nick’s relatives fly out to Singapore to see her while she is in recovery. Nick hesitates because he is still traumatized by his grandmother’s attempt to break up his relationship with Rachel. However, Rachel convinces Nick to make amends because his grandmother is not expected to recover. After hearing the news, Eddie Cheng, Nick’s cousin, becomes the devoted grandson to ensure that Su Yi will leave him Tyersall Park when she passes.

Meanwhile, Astrid and Charlie are both going through very public divorces while also dating in secret. Michael will not let Astrid live happily ever after with a man who actually cherishes her, and he demands five billion for their divorce settlement. Michael does not need the money he is just petty.

Concurrently, Kitty Pong, now known as Mrs. Bing, starts a petty war with her stepdaughter, Colette Bing. Although Colette appears to be unaware that the two are feuding. Tension only escalates once Kitty learns that Colette received five billion dollars in the divorce settlement between her parents.

A majority of Rich People problems is told through Nick’s POV. The moment Nick arrives, it is a struggle for him to see his grandmother because everyone is convinced that Nick’s presence will send Su Yi into cardiac arrest. Thanks to Eddie, who started the rumor and convinced himself that he will be the new owner of Tyersall Park. Nonetheless, Nick finds a way to see his grandmother and make amends.

I am happy that Nick received closure from his grandmother as well as an apology for her actions in the previous novels.

Eddie is, of course, an asshole to his family as usual and he is convinced that his grandmother will leave him her house. He is delusional, of course, none of the characters can stand Eddie, especially his grandmother.

Astrid takes a lot of hits in this novel. I thought her story had come to a close when she decided to leave her manipulated husband but, in this book, she has to juggle her ex, Charlie’s ex, as well as her parent’s disapproval over Charlie Wu. Astrid’s parents suck, Eleanor’s personality is tamed compared to both of Astrid’s parents. I thought they would be happy that Astrid left an abusive environment behind, but they were angrier that she chose to date Charlie Wu. Her parents cared more about their social status than their daughter’s happiness and well-being. As a result, of all the toxicity, Astrid ends up rediscovering herself and becomes an even better person. I was skeptical about this new change since Astrid is already awesome but turns out she has lived a lot of her life trying to please her parents, hence her first breakup with Charlie. The conclusion of Astrid’s story made me happy even though the plot twist was unexpected I felt that it resolved everything for Astrid and Charlie.

I was surprised that we got to see more of Kitty Pong’s life. I like Kitty, but I did not expect to hear more about her in this book. I thought her story ended once she decided to marry Jack. I felt that Kitty’s story continued to keep Colette relevant and I did not care to hear about either of them I was more invested in the lives of the other characters, even Eddie, who I have hated since the first book.

I also enjoyed that we were able to hear a lot about Su Yi’s past and how exactly she came to live in Tyersall park as well as what she did for Singapore during the war. I thought her story was fascinating, but I wish we had gotten more details about her earlier life. That could have been a cool prequel.

Rich People Problems also gives us some more Carlton plot which I was happy to see. Carlton is an interesting character; he is not as down to earth as Nick, but he has a good heart. Plus, he gets a new love interest! I was happy to see he overcame his trauma from the previous book.

Overall, Rich People problems did a good job to wrap up the series, and most of the characters ended up with a happily ever after.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Before I go, I wanted to bring attention to what is happening with the The Crazy Rich Asians movies. The wage gap is ridiculous and gross. I want to see these movies made but I want them done correctly.

Until next time continue Living in Libros,

Gaby

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This sequel SLAPS

Today I am excited to finally review Protect the Prince by Jennifer Estep.

Protect the Prince is the second book in the Crown of Shards series, and it was released this past July. Kill the Queen, the first book in the series, was such an addicting read! An Evil Queen, gladiators, magic, and a kick-ass heroine what more could you want?

“Summer queens are fine and fair, with pretty ribbons and flowers in their hair. Winter queens are cold and hard, with frosted crowns made of icy shards.”

Kill the Queen was all about Everleigh quest to survive after her cousin, queen Vasila, along with the help of Maeven, decided to murder her entire family along with anyone else attending the seven spires ball. Evie, as the only survivor of her family line, runs off and joins the Black Swam Troupe, an old gladiator group. Evie does not reveal her true identity at first but as she grows stronger she comes to the conclusion that she must avenge her family and her Kingdom.

Protect the Prince picks up right where we left off in Book one. Everleigh is the queen of Bellona and she feels undeserving of the title, even though she won the duel to death against her cousin. Along for the ride are old favorites from the Black Swan Troupe: Paloma, Cho, Serilda, and Sullivan who all act like political advisors as well as bodyguards. As soon as Evie ascends the throne, she is sent to Andvari on an apology tour: the Andvarian King lost his son and a politician during the Seven Spire massacre. Luckily for Evie, her gladiator crush, Sullivan, is the illegitimate son of the king and sets up a meeting between the two kingdoms. Things heat up in Andvari when the King insists that Evie marry his remaining son thus creating an alliance between both their kingdoms. Maeven and her assassins return to take out Evie and the Prince, complicating their alliance.

After the events of the first book, Evie is surer of herself: she can kick ass without a doubt. However, she is unsure of her role as queen. I wanted to scream at Evie that she is the most powerful queen Bellona could ever have but sadly I could not. Evie is much more powerful than we initially thought. Recall in book one that Evie is immune to magic which thus allowed her to defeat her cousin even after being hit by Vasilla’s lighting.

There is more to Evie’s immunity than deflecting magic, turns out Evie can force that immunity out of her body. Extremely useful when surrounded by a bunch of magic wielders.

I loved this addition to Evie’s power! I’ve read plenty of books that deal with magic, but I’ve never read about a character who is immune altogether. That is a game-changer in my opinion

Sullivan continues to play the same games with Evie by denying becoming her boyfriend. His excuse once again is “noble” because he knows she will not gain anything from their relationship. Conveniently, we learn in this novel how Sullivan developed this insecurity. Sully comes around eventually which made me extremely happy: I have been rooting for these two to get together since their initial meeting. I am a sucker for the prince angst. I don’t want to spoil just how they get together but it is such a beautiful scene.

I felt like Clara Oswald throwing flowers at the 10th doctor when he married the queen. I Love my OTP and cannot wait to read more about them in the next book.

This book is not as bloody as the first one but there is still plenty of mature content. I would recommend these books to anyone who wants to jump into fantasy and wouldn’t mind some spiciness.

🌶️🌶️

Until next time readers continue living in libros,

Gaby

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My Latinx Heritage month TBR

I did not learn about Latinx heritage month until, I was in college and even then, I thought, “oh this must be new that’s why I never heard of it”.

Nope.

While researching this topic, I discovered that Latinx heritage month began as a weeklong celebration in 1968. Later, Regan expanded it to a month-long celebration, starting on September 15th. According to the U.S.’ government’s website, this celebration begins in the middle of the month because the 15th and 16th of September are Independence Days for many Latin American countries.

Continue reading “My Latinx Heritage month TBR” →
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I hate to say it, I hope I don’t sound ridiculous but I hated the novel To All the boys I loved before

I’m Back!

Same hot mess but now with a bachelor’s degree. I breifly fell off the edge of the earth for a bit there, nothing wild happened I just needed extra space and time to focus on schoolwork.

I thought I kick off my new unemployed/ super free status with a review of Jenny Han’s To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. For those of my readers who haven’t read this book or seen the iconic Netflix movie I will quickly summarize the plot. The story centers around Laura Jean Song Covey, a Korean American teen, living on the East Coast. Laura Jean is the 2nd of three sisters and she loves to stay at home, bake, scrapbook, and knit. For the most part Laura Jean’s life is pretty much sheltered, and her sisters are really her only friends. Laura Jean has never had a boyfriend, but she has had plenty of crushes who she writes love letters too with no intention of ever handing these letters out. However, when Laura Jean’s letters are accidentally mailed out, she ends up in a fake relationship with Peter, who she thought she no longer had feelings for.

This story is a slow. After her older sister, Margot leaves for college in Scotland; Laura Jean spends 30 pages sad about her departure. At this point I was tapping my fingers on the desk wondering when Peter would make his grand entrance and the plot would kick off. However, after the initial excitement of their fake relationship I was bored but I continued reading anyways. The book continues with not much excitement happening between Laura Jean and Peter’s relationship until their Ski Trip when everyone becomes super noisy about their sex life.

Unlike other readers on goodreads who were annoyed by Laura Jean’s personality, I found her to be more boring than anything. I have similar hobbies to Laura Jean, and I like staying home but not to the extent that Laura Jean enjoyed her alone time. Moreover I found Margot annoying, she constantly caused Laura Jean stress about college by reminding her that she was doing things wrong at home. Let your sister be a teen Margot!

Kitty was more interesting than her two sisters, in my opinion, she is sassy and can be a brat but at the end of the day she only wants to help her sisters.

So some of you may wonder how does this book compare to the movie? In my opinion the movie brought a lot of these characters to life and made them more interesting. Movie Peter and Laura Jean are the cutest! And I tolerate movie Margot. The Movie also made Kitty shine even more.

I would recommend this book to readers who are curious about the story behind the movie or if anyone is impatient and wants to find out what happens to Peter and Laura Jean after the events of the movie.

I would give this book 2.5/3 stars as it is a pretty average read and good world to jump into if you need a quick and easy read and a great distraction.

Until next times friends continue Living in Libros,

Gaby

PS.

I began reading the sequel and I had to put it down after 100 pages because I was so bored. I’m hoping the movies continue to bring life to these characters.

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8 of my favorite books of 2018

Hello Friends!

Today I thought I would recap my favorite books of 2018.

Some books on my list are absent from this picture. To my Primas, I want my books back.
  1. Emergency Contact

I purchased this book, went to Mary HK Choi’s signing at the LA Festival of Books and then read the book a month later. And it was amazing. Definitely a book I would reread.


2. Labyrinth Lost

This book was amazing. Sure we got famous wizards such as Merlin, The boy who lived but were are our Brujas at? Look no further, Labyrinth Lost has a beautiful mix of different Latinx cultures and religions that make up this world. In addition, we also get a strong Latinx protagonist who is Bi!

3. Warcross

Warcross is amazing! If you were a Sword Art Online lover, like me. This book will blow your mind. This story had me at the edge of my sit and I loved that it was set in Tokyo, Japan.

4. Geekerella

Geekerella was so cute. I loved the way the fandom, cosplay, and the con was written. As a sometimes cosplayers I thought this story captured that aspect well. In addition, the characters in this book were awesome. Especially Fairy Godmother Sage.

5. The House on Mango Street

I had not read the House on Mango Street cover to cover until this year and I really enjoyed it! The collection of small poetic stories were really beautiful and Esperanza’s growth through the story was my favorite part of this book.

6. Six Of Crows

I have been meaning to read Six of Crows ever since I had heard about the series but did not read it until this year. This duology honestly blew away my expectations. I laughed. I cried. (I cried a lot). And I will carry the characters with me forever.

7. Kill the Queen

This book was described as a mixture of Game of Thrones and Black sails and it did not disappoint. There was a lot of action but also betrayal and deception as well as the overall growth of the main character, Evie as she prepares herself to take back her Queendom.

8. The Princess Saves Herself in this One

Another collection of poetry I fell in love with. The poems were beautiful and heart wrenching but what I liked the most about them was the way that they filled me with both inspiration and love.

Compiling this list of favorites was a little hard considering there were other great books I read this year that did not make this list. So here are some honorable mentions.

  • The Victoria in my head
  • Alex, Approximately
  • Daughter of the Pirate King
  • The Girl from the other side (read my review for this here)
  • A Dash of Trouble

What was your favorite read of 2018? And what books do I need to check out for 2019?

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The Girl from the Other Side

The Girl from the Other Side

Story and Art by Nagabe

Page Count: I don’t know it’s a magna

Rating: 5 Stars

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Hello readers!

For today’s post I want to review the first book “The Girl from the Other Side”, a magna series. For those of you who are not familiar with Magna they are similar to comic books except they come from and are translated from Japan. A lot of Magna ends up becoming anime series such as Sailor Moon or Attack on Titan.

So what’s so great about the girl from the other side? In short everything. The series follows a young girl named Shiva who lives in an abandoned village with her demon guardian whom she calls teacher. In the first book we learn that some kind of sickness took over the village and Shiva was left in Teacher’s care. However for some reason Shiva cannot touch teacher or she will catch the curse and turn into some ugly creature…Forever. I know right so crazy.

Anyways Shiva is so sassy! And maybe part of that is because she is so young and kids don’t really have a filter but I found Shiva’s personality refreshing. I also loved that Shiva just rolls with the fact she lives with a demon now as if that is normal. Shiva does not ever show that she’s scared of teacher and I loved that.

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The reason I loved this book and this is what originally drew me to purchasing the first story was that the whole series gave me this Hades and Persephone vibe and as I read the magna that vibe was further validated. I mean Shiva may live with a creature of darkness but that doesn’t stop her from napping out in the woods or collecting flowers to make a cute little crown for Teacher. In addition, Shiva not being easily spooked by Teacher’s otherness reminded me of the duality of Persephone as she is both the Princess of Spring as well as the Queen of darkness.

I’m not sure how the rest of this series will go but I do remember reading a summary of the series that Shiva at some point was going to travel away from the other side, which is where she lives with Teacher, in order to find her grandmother and ask her just why Teacher came to be her guardian. And with the way the first edition to this series left me feeling and left me hanging you bet I’m going to purchase the next installments.

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Review for Bad Bachelor

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Bad Bachelor by Stefanie London

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Page count: 358

My rating: 4 stars

 

“…Darcy recorded all her reading activities and didn’t generally care what people thought of her taste in books. But there had been a phase when she’d read some erotic monster books for fun. Big Foot’s virgin mistress…” (p 157).

 

I don’t think I have read much contemporary romances since my days lurking on Wattpad. However, this month I decided to broaden my reading palette by reading some more romance novels. The two romance novels I read before this weren’t my favorite and honestly, I was feeling a little put off by the genre all together. But one evening I began the task of requesting more library books to read in the following weeks and somehow Bad Bachelor ended up in my pile.

Bad Bachelor is about Reed McMahon, a PR whiz, living in New York city. Reed’s done damage control for a fair share of his celebrity clients but that was all pretty easy compared to the shit storm that got thrown his way because of a budding new dating app, Bad Bachelor. Bad Bachelor is like yelp, it lets women rate the men they’ve dated, and in doing so the app is suppose to help women make their own decisions about the guys they’re seeing. But Reed ends up becoming the most rated guy on the Bad Bachelor app and the reviews aren’t all that nice.

Darcy Greer is out looking for love or at least someone to casually date after her last relationship. So, she starts using Bad Bachelor to look up potential guys who will definitely not break her heart. Darcy ends up meeting Reed through work and it isn’t all love and heart eye emojis at first site. The two hate each other but slowly they become friends and eventually lovers.

I loved Bad Bachelor because Darcy was so adorably quirky. She’s a tattoo covered librarian who loves her graphic tees and doc martens. She also loves to read, and she generally reads whatever she wants like monster erotica books apparently. But what really made me love Darcy was that after she sleeps with Reed for the first time she starts to make snow angels on the silk sheets, get it girl.

In general, this novel was a nice light read that I gobbled up. My only beef with it was that the ending felt rushed to me, but I think that was just because I was surprised I had gotten to the end so fast.

I recommend it for anyone who wants a cute but light romance read.

 

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