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Only A Kiss

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#FeelsRushIn recap: Things You Missed If You Weren’t There

I felt like captioning and posting pictures of #FeelsRushIn on Instagram this way, in list form as a way of organizing my feelings. I do not know if I was able to accomplish that feat; to do any sort of rationalization of emotions (huh is this even possible?). But in any case, the list is here.

If you weren’t there, beware. You missed the following:

#romanceclass books. A lot of the #romanceclass titles are indie, which is only a cool way of saying that these are rare Pokemon that you won’t find in your neighborhood bookstores. These are available as ebooks though and in print direct from the author (see full list in romanceclassbooks.com here). But last Saturday these books were there, spread out in one table. All our feelings side by side, waiting and raring for you to grab them and take them home. Additional perk: most of the authors were there too, so you could have met them and grilled them a bit about their books (this doesn’t happen to just me, right? 😀 ).

 

Shirts, totes, stickers and magnets. Our feelings come in other forms too, such as t-shirts and tote bags created by WearDPT, stickers and tumblers care of Vinyliism, and magnets, thanks to Quote Hanger. Last Saturday, the awesome humans behind these merch spread out the goods and took some orders too.

 

Free #romanceclass ebook for every donation to Ayala Malls Little Free Library. The Little Free Library is a recent Ayala Malls project. Basically they install reading corners in select malls, i.e. Trinoma, Glorietta, UP Town Center, with the goal of encouraging mall goers to borrow and read books. To help these cute libraries load up their shelves, we invited people to donate books in exchange for a #romanceclass ebook of their choice. A read for a read.

 

Live readings. It’s not a #romanceclass Feels Day without the live readings, a.k.a. the culmination of all the feelings. We had Herv Alvarez and Salve Villarosa back. You would remember them from their YA reads last #AprilFeelsDay. This time they were joined by Migs Almendras (also known as book cover Dante, exhibit A below).

 

They read excerpts from When Cocoy Became Kikay by CP Santi, Only a Kiss by Ines Bautista-Yao, What About Today by Dawn Lanuza, The Bye Bye Bouquet by Chi Yu Rodriguez, and No Strings Attached by Mina V. Esguerra.

 

Sounds like a lot of fun things happened, yes? Check out the video recap below done by author Chi Yu Rodriguez, if you need more proof.

If you were there, you know all of this. You felt them all. Thank you, thank you so much for being there and feeling with us. If you weren’t, again I ask, why weren’t you? And I ask that in the sweetest way possible, because we’d really love to see you there next time. So please calendar October 22, okay? We’re doing this again. See you then? Awesome.

 

Special thanks to Ayala Malls Trinoma and Filipino Readercon 🙂

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!