Beauty Queens aka best Girl Power book EVAAA.

Beauty Queens
by Libba Bray

4.3 stars out of 5

A plane full of Miss Teen Dream contestants- beauty queens, to be exact, crashes on a dessert Island.

Soon the girls find out, they are not alone, and, that girl power RAWKKZZZ.

Okay, that's obv not the real blurb, but it sucked, so I made up my own.


First of all, I think the rating says it all.

Few, very few books get higher than a 4 star rating from me, and only one book has ever 
gotten a five! (Harry Potter). Good reads are usually3-3.99 stars, EXCELLENT reads get 4 and above that are books which have it all. BQs, has it all.

The Writing: is wonderful, intelligent, easy to read, makes sense, to 
the point and unhurried.


The Dollop of Romance: is sweet and meaning full and sexy and honest.


The Girls: are, like shiny wrapped Easter eggs. Pretty sweet 
looking. And then the wrappers of each individual gets unwrapped and 
their insides are way better than you could ever imagine.
They have their secrets, they have their strengths and if there ever 
was a positive, feminist book- reader, you have arrived.

I wanted to be best friends with these beauty queens, I admired them and was inspired by them.

The beauty queens in this book are the quintessential, powerful and fantastic amalgamation of girl power and girls everywhere.
We are not a pair of boobs, or secret disappointments since boys are 'obv better' but we are fucking fabulous, so suck it up.BeautyQueens was hilarious and did not take itself too seriously, instead of being ambiguous about its message and giving it to the reader in a complicated, complex and 'open for analysis' way, it spoke to you, fully straight faced and head on: we are girls, we are your equals. 

We see right through the new world order, the horrible mind control. 

We are not oblivious, but tolerant. 

We can kick your ass, always- and forever.

It is the kind of book which is silly and straight-faced, both at the same time.
It mocks itself in ridiculous (hot bodacious pirate romance/ending dance number/etc) ways, but for me at least, instead of feeling annoyed about it, I felt that the silliness added to its awesomeness- it was so much fun!
Its insane with some bits cliched, but totally intellectual. Its an oxymoron, but really empowering.
Its Libba Bray's Beauty Queens.

Some of my fav quotes of the book: [These are just 1%, actually, since the whole book is brilliantly quotable].

1. There was something about the island that made the girls forget who 
they had been. All those rules and shalt nots. They were no longer 
waiting for some arbitrary grade. They were no longer performing. 
Waiting. Hoping.
They were becoming.
They were. 

 2. A little footnote in the book, when 'Bridal Death Match' mentioned:

36 Bridal Death Match , the popular TV show about brides who cage 
fight each other in order to win the wedding of their dreams.

3. It had the word bitches in it, which is perfectly fine to use if 
you’re a rapper or a director making a movie about career women, but 
not if you’re a teen girl talking about her homies.”

Good point, Petra. We know that young ladies of the teen persuasion do 
not use these indelicate words. Nor do they have thoughts about sex, masturbation, violence, being competitive, or farting.”

I did not give this book five whole stars because I wish it had been slightly more... Realistic, things 
were a bit too smooth, and sometimes a bit too silly. I suppose its the charm of the book- but still.


Overall? Awesome book.
Read it.

xx
CLG

Truth in cliches.

She looked at him, smiling at Her. He was enthralled by her grace and lightness. The way she flipped her hair, and looked up shyly through her eyelashes, the way she laughed, a girlish caress to the wind, the way she believed in what he did.
Because the beliefs they both had in common were the most important thing. That was the first thing he looked for now. Never again would he make the mistake of falling for the wrong girl.
He pushed away the ugly thought, tinged with just the right amount of discomfort and a pinch of pain.
It was a new day, a new him. He had chosen his path, he had done what was best for him, and he had convinced himself that what he was doing was okay. It was the right thing to do.
For him, anyway.
He took a sip from his non-alcoholic beverage and concentrated on the conversation.
It was, if he was honest with himself, a bit tiring to be constantly chipper and his jaw had developed a bit of an ache due to all the forced smiles. It wasn't that she was boring, it was just that she wasn't that interesting.

She saw his eyes glaze over for a few seconds and the pain in her heart lessened the tiniest bit.
Why could she not be happy for him? He'd clearly moved on, was visibly happy for her and played the cool card whenever they had a chance to catch up.
He was obviously made of tougher stuff than she. She saw him lean closer and point at Her face.
She felt nauseous. The girl laughingly said something, and he gently brushed her cheek with a tissue.
The black mark that she'd taken for a mole fell away, and as they stared into each others eyes, a tear worked its way into the corner of hers.

She stood up.
She had had enough.
She would not torture herself anymore.
He had led her on, made her feel special, then dumped her as soon as the other girl had made an appearance.
He had used her until the better package had come along- and even though she knew she was being unfair- they had technically agreed on everything- she wanted him, like she had all those years ago.
Was in love with him, and did not know how to cure it.
'Love' had been a sharp slap in her face.
Something that bruised her insides and made her crazy.
She knew it existed somewhere, but clearly not for her.
Would she ever feel this way again about someone?
She was afraid of the answer.
She did not want to be a jealous, selfish, shell of a person.
They say time is the best healer of wounds. They probably never had their heart stamped on until it was in smithereens.
She shook her head, dabbing at her eyes.
She reluctantly acknowledged that she would have let him go completely for a while, if she wanted her thoughts to stop doing a horrible dance around his being.
She had to give time a shot.

As she walked out of the cafeteria, he looked up and caught her eye.
She did not smile.
Neither did he.

The rate of change of momentum of a body.

I stared at the paper, clenching my pencil hard in my sweaty hand.
'Define Force.' was the simple question and my brain was thinking hard of its not-so-simple answer.
Force... force... that's mass into acceleration... but whats the definition? 
I looked up yet again, squinting at the large clock some ten feet away from me. Three minutes till I could kiss Physics goodbye forever. Three minutes were all that stood between me and that last precious mark.
I read and re-read the stupid line, hoping for a clue in the repetition.
What had my notebook said about force?
I knew its base units and I'd learned its formulas. The SI units had been memorized and burnt into my retina and brain since Olevels, 2009.
But what about the blasted precise.CIE.definition?
I took a deep breath, scrawled down a cursed sentence and she cleared her throat.
My three minutes were up, she told us.
I was free, was what she meant.


*Of course, in real life, I wrote the wrong definition and I still have a lot of exams left. 

Imran Khan.

That will be all.

Book Review: Wishcraft by Lanie Kincaid

Wishcraft

by Lanie Kincaid

(Publication year: 2011)

Delilah Goodman has spent the past year doing what she does best: casting simple spells and trying to get over the heartbreaking betrayal that left her husband and her younger sister dead. Raised as a witch, there’s a lot she can do, and a lot she can’t, so she spends her time working as a pastry chef. She’s trying to heal, but in the meantime she’s become a regular at a bar down the street. And Brandon is just another night that she’ll remember and he won’t.

Brandon Stewart literally doesn’t know what hit him. He knows he went into the bar with his friends and after that . . . he just can’t recall. He does have a vague recollection of a hot blonde and a craving for pumpkin cake. With spiced whipped cream. And chocolate. Neither of them can fight the force that pulls them back together. As Brandon becomes more important to her, Delilah realizes that what she’s done is so very wrong. Her own sister altered her memories, and Delilah knows how it feels to be played. She has to come clean to Brandon


What I thought


This was a pure romance novel, with a whole lot of witchcraft thrown into the mix.
If I'd judged the book purely by the cover- I'd have never picked this book up- it screams amateur and isn't one bit creative. But, I decided to read it when I got a net galley email about it, the blurb sounded interesting enough and like something I'd enjoy- and I'm glad I did.

Wishcraft isn't terribly original or particularly earth shattering.
But it is a good, well developed romance with MAGIC!
Its also funny, sweet and yeah- magical, with a whole bit of mystery thrown in- a good rainy-day read.

So first of we have a killer protag, Delilah who loves to cook (and is so super awesome at it!) and is kinda, totally messed up because of some heavy stuff that happened to her in the past.
Then we have Brandon, a really sweet and funny guy who fall in love with the wrong bi- I mean- witch. *cough*

I really like how the romance of the novel was built and executed.
The relationship between Brandon and Delilah was sweet and built up over time, instead of the instant-love stuff that's written about so much in novels.
The love story was really sweet and didn't paint Brandon as a knight-who-could-do-no-wrong, but a human guy who had his low moments too, but despite it all, was a positively adorable/hot/sexy and a GOOD, DECENT guy.

In a lot of romances you find the guy to be all about the looks. Here we had Brandon, who was obviously good looking with his beautiful green eyes and whatnot, but I was glad that the author didn't keep going on about his killer bod and other manly physical features as a lot of other romance authors do.

Delilah was also not your typical romance-novel girl. She did not swoon and die and over analyze in the beginning of the relationship. Through it all, one can see her always handling everything maturely, without being dramatic and crazy. But she isn't painted as super-woman either- shes properly balanced, with her own personal breakdowns and stuff.
The point I'm trying to make here is, both Brandon and Delilah were made into proper, believable, likable characters and through it all, you couldn't help, but root for them.
The witchcraft arc, was also, surprisingly quite believable, and had a bit of depth to it. It seemed to be a part of the book, instead of just being there to look pretty and fun.

All that being said, Wishcraft wasn't quite lighthearted, even with all its romance.
The slight twists and turns were enough to get a reader hooked and interested for more, and the mystery about Delilah's life was unraveled slowly, bit by bit and managed quite well.
I wasn't dying of suspense, but I really wanted to find out what REALLY went down with Jules and David, and what Delilah's role was, in it all.

Overall, Wishcraft was an entertaining book, with some dark undertones and an overall lovely love story, with  a sprinkling of occasional humor and a ton of magic.

It gets three out of five stars. (= a good read)

Thank you Net Galley for providing me with the review galley!

Note on the cover: It sucks. I'm sorry, but it does. A nice sparkly cover please!

xx
CLG

thanks man, owe ya one.

I lost my iPod.
I know.
It was an iPod touch, first generation.
I know, comparatively, its the crappiest out there- but I didn't care.
Nope.
Not one bit. It was the coolest electronic device that I could call all mine. And as time went on, as time does, I grew to love it to bits.
It had so much stuff in it. So.Much.Stuff.
 And not even bs stuff, like, important, i-cant-live-without stuff.
My own portable Quran, TextPlus which is the best app for free texting to the US/Canada [where my bffs live] and ETC.

The main 'stuff'? A whole collection of fabulous ebooks.
With an awesome ebook-reading app to go along with it.

Forever Alone.

Without my songs, my books and my social apps.

AND STEVE JOBS DIED ON TOP OF THAT.

Thanks Steve, for my iPod and everything else that you've done. It was, actually, truly incredibly awesome.

Here's a link of this really cool speech he did in 2005. Don't worry, its not boring AT all. I thought it might be, but its not.
In his own words: 'Its just 3 stories. No big deal!'



Also, he was ADOPTED? AND FIRED FROM APPLE? And then, RE-HIRED!
I also did not know about him creating Pixar too.
That's like even more special, in a way, than the whole Apple deal, because dude... TOY STORY? A BUGS LIFE?
Best movies ever.

In the words of the (fake twitter) Professor Severus Snape:

xx
CLG

Ps: Please pray for my ALEVELS. Its on like donkey kong- 28th Oct. *heart attack*