#4. Book Reading Challenge 2015 Reviews

Three more book review towards the Reading Challenge. 

A funny book:The Recently Deflowered Girl by Hyaointhe Phyppe

A book a friend recommended: The Kiss of Deception by Mary E Pearson

A popular author’s first book: Love letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira
 


                         The Recently Deflowered Girl by Hyaointhe Phyppe

Goodreads:An infectiously funny guide to post-deflowerment decorum, with illustrations by a master of the absurd. 

I don't want to give away any back story about this book. One, because there isn't much to talk about. Two, this is something you need to read with no back story. Only thing I can share is that it is about little incidents when the girl gets "deflowered" following an awkward situation where she comes up with the most well-timed but never-would-have guessed replies.
When my friend wanted me to try this one I was wary as it looked like a picture book. Don't let it fool you; reading it was the craziest, most intelligent, and hilarious ten minutes of my life. I read it again, just to relieve this perfection.

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson's

Goodreads: In a society steeped in tradition, Princess Lia's life follows a preordained course. As First Daughter, she is expected to have the revered gift of sight--but she doesn't--and she knows her parents are perpetrating a sham when they arrange her marriage to secure an alliance with a neighboring kingdom--to a prince she has never met.

On the morning of her wedding, Lia flees to a distant village. She settles into a new life, hopeful when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive--and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets--even as she finds herself falling in love.


The Kiss of Deception is the first book in Mary E. Pearson's Remnant Chronicles.  It's a good day when I find a book that has a gripping story line coupled with fine writing skills. I enjoyed turning the pages of Kiss of Deception and seeing things through Lia's perspective.  Seeing the journey she takes, the transformation into a new identity she builds for herself keeps you reading on. 
Talking about the two men in her life. Even though one is an assassin(Kaden), I was rooting for both of them equally. It is only much later on could I decided I was Team Prince Rafe. I think book two is going to throw some very interesting light on Kaden.

Love Letters to the dead by Ava Dellaira

Goodreads: It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more -- though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her. Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was -- lovely and amazing and deeply flawed -- can she begin to discover her own path in this stunning debut from Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead.

I read this book right after I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Maybe that is the reason this book didn't leave an impact for me, the story line being sorta similar with the other one. Nonetheless, this is book you might want t include in your list. There is something dark yet something so warm in the story of Laurel. The one thought running through my head while I was reading it was I wanted Laurel to stop thinking about May and see herself as this amazing person. But this was something she had to learn on her own and it is portrayed beautifully. The ending made me tear a bit.

note: Images do not belong to me

Roads are like people

http://wallpapercave.com/vespa-wallpaper

Ever since I became the owner of a new gearless bike, I’ve been promoted from a pillion rider to the one handling the vehicle. And the view? It’s much different. After the initial two months of shaky maneuvering, sudden brakes, and constant fear of killing myself, I’ve finally settled into the coats of a rider and the roads before me have emerged with new light. 

I realized, roads are like people. Each one its own character, features and mood swings.

The stretch of road from my house to the next traffic signal is a hypocrite. The breeze blows dust off its seemingly calm body, with moments of complete silence. You blink once, or maybe watch a vine video and look up, the widening road- before a silent friend- is now bustling with cranky vehicles, the honking unbearable and the constant (I mean constant with a capital C) ambulances screeching in pain. 

And there is this other road that I love riding through in evenings. Facing West, it is riding into the sunset, the sky stripped with the setting colors. It’s aesthetic qualities aside, I’m terrified of blinking on this road, lest I run over tiny human kids who wear grey uniforms and get camouflaged into the asphalt. People do not understand zebra crossing here nor that fact that a bike crashing into them can be fatal. No, they have all the luck in the world, time on their side and they run into the traffic with no care in the world. Scary, I tell you. You do not want to meet the personified version of this road, they will probably make life a living hell of unwanted surprises. 

There is this road that transforms into a shallow river when it rains heavily. Thank you well designed drainage system. Venturing into this ensures you get a shower of muddy water splattered on you and you splatter the same muddy water on the next person. What do you call this person? Someone you want to see only on sunny days and ignore on overcast ones.  

There are roads that just hate you. Like that one person in your school who glares at you every time even though you have no idea who they are. No matter how safe you try to ride, slowly and steadily, you are bound to make an error and get reprimanded by some stranger. Bad luck, I pin it to.  

What’s the opposite of smooth, silky, straight stretches of roads? One spotted with potholes, humps and downs, and everything deadly. It is impossible to feel happy when you are on riding here. Your bones get rattled, your new bike takes a toll, and your love for the civic government body shrinks. This road is a person who needs some immediate grooming. 

Not all is bad in the world of roads. Riding through a boulevard, the speed in your control, the bike rumbling under you, the wind whistling in your ears. This is the man you love. 

And when it rains? Hanging out with your best friend! The muddy splashes aside and getting drenched. Celebrating the Christmas of traffic lights that is plethora of reds, the yellows, the green, and more red, lights that become brilliant in the rain. 

You meet new people every day, new roads made acquaintances. People are stories, so are roads. To ride undisputed under the skies and the ground below gripping onto you. Steady. Sail. Fly.