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Author Interview: Ines Bautista-Yao

I’ve been catching up on Filipino indie authors recently and one of my favorites is the awesome hybrid author Ines Bautista-Yao. I’ve read one of her books, a sweet romance called Only A Kiss, and fell immediately in love with her fluid prose and her heart-warming take on romance. This week, Ines has launched her new book called Just a Little Bit of Love, which is a compilation of three short stories set in the world of Only A Kiss. I’ve read all of these stories and love them (but I love Ina and John’s story On the Sidelines the best, okay). But if you need a little bit more convincing before one-clicking the book on Amazon, I asked Ines some hard-hitting questions (hihi not really) about her latest release. Check out the interview below 🙂

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Book Review

Review: Vintage Love by Agay Llanera

26-year-old Crissy Lopez’s life is in dire need of a makeover. Her wardrobe revolves around ratty shirts and beat-up sneaks; her grueling schedule as a TV Executive leaves no room for a social life; and worst of all, she’s still hung up on the Evil Ex who left her five years ago.

When her fashionable grand-aunt passes away and leaves behind a roomful of vintage stuff, the Shy Stylista inside Crissy gradually resurfaces. Soon, she feels like she’s making progress — with a budding lovelife to boot! But the grim ghost of her past catches up with her, threatening to push her back into depression. To finally move on, Crissy learns that walking away is not enough. This time, she needs to take a leap of faith.

I’ve been seeing a lot of good things said about Agay Llanera‘s writing. I’ve one-clicked all her books since then, but it wasn’t until I grabbed copies of her print books at the Manila International Book Fair that I finally got to read my first Llanera book, Vintage Love. And wow, weren’t they ALL right about her.

Llanera’s writing makes me feel as if I’m reading about a friend, about someone I care about and that I am sincerely cheering on. And those were the feelings that stuck with me from the first few pages of Vintage Love. Crissy was a very charming hero, relatable and fun with all of her hang ups, her insecurities, with her little triumphs. This was a girl I knew, maybe even someone I’ve been myself at one time before, and I liked seeing her trying, seeing her make her mistakes and learn from them. It’s a sweet story that was very real, and I can’t wait to get back my copy of Once Upon a Player (from my friend who is also now clearly a big Llanera fan) so I can continue binge-reading this awesome author.

Vintage Love and Once Upon a Player are both available in print in bookstores in the Philippines. You can get the ebook versions on Amazon 🙂

About the author:

Agay Llanera is a freelance writer for television and video, and a published writer of children’s books. She is a member of KUTING, a private, non-stock, non-profit organization, which aims to be the Philippines’ foremost writers’ organization for children. Email her at agay.llanera@gmail.com and visit her blog at agayisagirl.blogspot.com.

Book Review

Review: Only A Kiss by Ines Bautista-Yao

When she was nine-years-old, Katie knew she wanted Chris to give her her first kiss. It wasn’t because she was in love with him (no way, he was her best friend! Besides, she was in love with his fourteen-year-old big brother), it was because she could make him do anything she wanted.

Besides, it didn’t really mean anything. It was only a kiss after all.

But then things started to change. They grew up. They parted ways and went to different high schools. And other girls and boys—well, just one particular boy—came into the picture, throwing their lives upside down.

Told from the alternating points of view of Katie and Chris, this love story between two best friends will tug at your heartstrings and leave you thinking how the simplest things can mean so much.

The first thing that got me about this book is the pretty cover. Then I read that the author started writing this after hearing ‘it’s only a kiss’ from the song Mr. Brightside. Being a fan of the Killers, pretty covers, AND the friends-to-lovers trope, I just had to get this book.

I was hooked from the first sentence. I loved Katie and her easy friendship with Chris that just made sense, not because he was there, but because their personalities complemented each other in the best way possible. I loved seeing them grow up, watching them learn to date, deal with broken hearts and move on from childhood infatuation. It was like watching a vivid reel of the lives of these two people, up to the moment that they finally realized they were meant to be more than friends. The writing made this journey engaging and just beautiful. I can’t wait to read more from Bautista-Yao, and it’s great that she seemed to have heard my wishes and granted them! The author just released a collection of short stories set in the world of Only a Kiss, called Just a Little Bit of Love. Get it for only $0.99 now!

Book Review

Review: Paper Planes Back Home by Tara Frejas

Paper Planes Back Home

Published on February 21, 2015
by Tara Frejas 
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Fantasy, Romance

Links:
Goodreads | Amazon | Smashwords | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Apple iBooks

SYNOPSIS:

When Gianna wakes up on a cloud, she is disoriented yet fascinated. She thinks she’s only dreaming until she gets a storm of paper planes—”They’re thoughts of people who remember,” a man on another cloud tells her—each pleading for her not to leave. The man tells her these planes are the key to get out of there, and while she thinks it’s hard to believe, she decides everything is worth trying if it meant finding her way back home.

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REVIEW:

I started reading Paper Planes Back Home days after I read the author’s StrangeLit story called The Forget You Brew. So I already knew I was going to get another imaginative story that would make several attempts at making me cry. Spoiler alert: the book succeeded in both points.

Paper Planes Back Home starts out on a cloud, where Gianna wakes up and meets Skylar, who patiently explains that they are in a form of limbo, and they need paper planes–manifestations of the thoughts of people who love them–to get them back home. As I flipped through each page, I grew more fascinated by the depth of Frejas‘ imagination, from the creation of this world between worlds, to the rules of the game, to the twists and turns of the intertwining stories. The characterizations were rich, and although the story introduced quite a bevy of characters, the author did not fail to keep my attentions on Gianna, Skylar, Aaron and Anna. The development of each of their stories got me hooked at each turn, and I rooted for them all until the end. At times I could predict where the story was taking me, but most times I was pleasantly surprised, and I consumed each word with my heart fervently hoping for a happy ending for them all.

The technical reader in me found a few things to note, however, from an abundance of adverbs to a few awkward sentences. But this was the author’s first ever novel, and in any case the kind of stories she weaved and the way that she wrote only told me that this was a writer who could only get better with each book she put out. And I cannot wait to read what she comes out with next.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tara Frejas is a cloud-walker who needs caffeine to fuel her travels. By day, she works in project management and events, and she writes down her daydreams at night. She began publishing fiction for public consumption in 2004, posting her pieces on various online channels like fan forums and Blogspot, eventually exploring other avenues like Livejournal, Soomp!, Tumblr, and most recently, Wattpad.

Aside from her obvious love affair with words and persistent muses, Tara is very passionate about being caffeinated, musical theatre, certain genres of music, dancing, dogs, good food, and romancing Norae, her ukelele. She owns a 6-month-old male bunny named Max who sometimes tries to nibble on her writing notes.

Paper Planes Back Home is her first novel.

Links:
Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook

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Book Review

Review: Learning to Fall by Mina V. Esguerra

“Go out with a stereotypical romance novel hero WHO ISN’T YOUR TYPE.”

Avid reader and art student Steph is participating in a monthly blog challenge to Live Like Fiction, and this was the task for October. When Grayson, former co-captain of her university rugby team, walks into her class, she knows it’s meant to be – she has to go out with this guy. Even if she’s never been attracted to big, hunky, athletic types. With Grayson’s “player” reputation off the field, Steph thinks he’ll be good for one date that’ll be worth blogging about, and that’s it.

But you know how it goes: Soon, it becomes more than just one date – and Steph and Grayson are caught up in “living like fiction.” How long can they keep playing their roles before reality steps in?

I received an ARC from the author in return for an honest review.

The ARC called this Someone Else’s Fantasy, and the working title made sense given the story’s premise. Steph, art student and book blogger, has joined a blog challenge that gave her something to do each month, something completely out of her usual rhythm. For October, the challenge is to “Go out with a stereotypical romance novel hero WHO ISN’T YOUR TYPE.” Enters Grayson Price in Steph’s drawing studio, the tattooed, big and blonde rugby captain, posing for the art students to draw with barely any clothes on. So Steph thinks, well, That wasn’t so hard. He just walked into the room, didn’t he?

Learning to Fall is the steamiest Mina V. Esguerra book I’ve read, and that’s coming from Falling Hard (previously titled The Harder We Fall). I just thought people would want to know this very important fact. But then, the steam was done really well, and does not distract from the book’s plot but actually helps it along. Steph and Grayson both do not have their lives in order (who does, really?) but they’re both trying to get there. They have their own stubborn ways of doing it, and they also have unique demons they have to face. One of the things I appreciated about the book was that Steph and Grayson learned to depend on each other, to help each other, while still learning to figure a few things out on their own. That’s a key thing to a relationship that works, I think. To be able to be an individual, while also being one-half of a whole.

Learning to Fall is available on Amazon! One-click it here!

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About Mina V. Esguerra

Mina V. Esguerra writes contemporary romance, young adult, and new adult novellas. Through her blog Publishing in Pajamas (minavesguerra.com), she documents her experiments in publishing.

When not writing romance, she is president of communications firm Bronze Age Media, development communication consultant, indie publisher, professional editor, wife, and mother. She created the workshop series “Author at Once” for writers and publishers, and #romanceclass for aspiring romance writers.

Her young adult/fantasy trilogy Interim Goddess of Love is a college love story featuring gods from Philippine mythology. Her contemporary romance novellas won the Filipino Readers’ Choice awards for Chick Lit in 2012 (Fairy Tale Fail) and 2013 (That Kind of Guy).

Contact her at minavesguerra [at] gmail [dot] com / @minavesguerra on Twitter. Visit her Amazon Author Page. Find her books here.

Book Review

Review: World Cup Hook Up by Katrina Ramos Atienza

Stacy missed the excitement of the World Cup, but when a certain incognito guest checks into her dad’s inn, not even her craziest soccer dreams could have prepared her for this golden goal.

I know nothing about soccer. Or most sports for that matter. That’s why I was excited to read and review this book.

Stacy was stuck in a beautiful resort island in Greece, interning for her father who she doesn’t usually get to spend too much time with. Doesn’t paint a such terrible picture, does it? But Stacy was supposed to go to Brazil with her best friend (and best friend’s boyfriend) to watch the World Cup. And that’s enough for her to not see a free stay in Greece as a lucky draw. Until Adi, a soccer hero in the stunning flesh, shows up, that is.

World Cup Hook Up was a sweet, short, and educating read. Educating, because if it taught me anything, it is that soccer is a game I should consider following. Because all the hot guys. That said, I needed a Google image as a mental image reference for Adi before I could get into the groove of things, but once I did, it was a smooth, quick ride. Adi and Stacy’s chemistry was virtually instantaneous, sparked by a shouting match or two (aww gosh, you kids are too adorbs). Often I have a problem with insta-love tropes, but I think for World Cup Hook Up the paradise island setting pulled it off. I just wish the book was longer. Or is that me being selfish? Okay fine.

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About Katrina Ramos Atienza

Katrina Ramos Atienza, born and bred in Manila, Philippines, has been writing all her life—and has been equally obsessed with style and design for roughly the same amount of time. Instead of a career in fashion, however, she’s worked in the fields of PR and corporate communications while blogging, freelancing and writing fiction. Four chick lit novels (Pink Shoes, 2006; The Hagette, 2006; If the Shoe Fits, 2008 and Shoes Off, 2010) are available in paperback in the Philippines, while her earlier short fiction works have been published in Philippine publications and collected in the Growing Up Filipino II anthology. Her latest contemporary romance, Well Played (2013) is independently published. She graduated from the University of the Philippines at Los Baños and is married with two kids.

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