Book Review: Frostbite (Vampire Academy #2) by Richelle Mead

Frostbite by Richelle Mead
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely fascinating! I nearly cried when reading the last 2 chapters.

Frostbite is the second installment in Vampire Academy series written by Richelle Mead. Like the first book, Frostbite is really a page-turner and it'll keep you up all night just to finish a few more chapters.

I personally love the character growth in Rose. Even though she showed her vulnerable part a lot in the book, but eventually she became more matured after all that has been happened to her.

Her vague relationships with Dimitri and Mason brought up a lot of conflicts in the book. What I didn't expect is Rose's mother (which never mentioned in the first book, if I remember well), showed up in this book and "taught" Rose a few lessons direct and indirectly as a guardian.

Richelle Mead did a great job in ending the story to make us feel proud of Rose because she has become stronger.

Highly recommended to vampire lovers and YA fans!



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Book Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is a story about a group of children with special abilities (for example an invisible boy, a girl who can control fire, a boy who can bring back the dead and more) who hide in a time loop to stay away from normal people which thought they're witches or ghosts and also to protect themselves from being hunted by the hollowgasts and wights. The loop is maintained by headmistress (or called ymbryne) called Miss Peregrine who can transform herself into bird form.

The main protagonist of the book is Jacob Portman whom grandfather, Abraham Portman used to live in the loop. Since young, Jacob was flooded with the stories and photos regarding the peculiar children. And one day, Abraham was killed in an awkward situation and Jacob saw the "monster" what killed his grandfather. Before Abraham died, he gave some hints to Jacob to locate the loop.

Somehow, Jacob managed to get into the loop "by accident" and met the headmistress as well as the peculiar children. During his encounter with the children, Jacob struggled in making decision whether to stay with them (in year 1940) or to go back to his own time (which is at the present time). Somehow, the antagonist (the wight) managed to slipped into the loop and kidnapped Miss Peregrine. The children want to rescue her but they doesn't know where she is...

I read the sequel before this, so when I read this book, the whole picture came clearer. Overall, this is a great story with time-traveling, gifted children with special abilities, horror of the hollows and wights, excitement of actions as well as romance between Jacob and Emma (the fire girl). But there's one thing I found it's quite illogical is, Emma used to be in love with Abraham (Jacob's grandfather) so how can she has crush on Jacob by meeting him only a few times? Anyway, I do enjoy reading this but not as good as the sequel - Hollow City. So I gave 4 stars out of 5 to this instead of full 5 stars for Hollow City.

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Book Review: Chicken Soup for the Soul: Stay-at-Home Moms

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Stay-at-Home Moms: 101 Inspirational Stories for Mothers about Hard Work and Happy Families by Jack Canfield
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a self-help/inspiration book for stay-at-home mothers. No matter you chose to be a stay-at-home mom or you're forced to be one due to environment, this book is a must-read for you.

With 101 carefully selected short stories shared by mothers who have made the choice to stay at home, or work at home to raise their children, you'll know that you're not alone. All the frustration, joy, despair and any other mixture of feelings that you have now are also experienced by the other stay-at-home moms.

If you're staying at home, you'll get tips on multi-tasking your house chores, finding joy and self-esteem from the stories. If you're working from home, Jane Green, Jodi Picoult and other moms who work from home share you their experience on setting up your home office, arranging the time for your work and your children as well as having your own personal time!

Read one story a night before going to bed, you'll know that you're not alone. While thinking back, you find it's worth to make the decision to stay at home for your children.

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My Journey as an Independent Book Seller

Recently, an independent book store located at Selangor state was closed down. This triggers my thought of the risk to become another independent bookseller.

A few friends of mine thought I'm taking a risk when I said I want to sell books at my neighbourhood. Yes, we don't have a descent book store selling fiction and non-fiction books at Sandakan and I wanted to own the first. Like other Sandakan readers, I always wonder why isn't there any book store like Popular or MPH open up a branch here? I guess perhaps they think there is still not enough readers for them to start their businesses here. Instead of wondering, I started Book Lovers.

Without any background and experience in book selling and without any financial support, I founded Book Lovers in May 2013 as an online book store with my own used books as our initial inventory. Despite all the obstacles and difficulties I encountered, I'm blessed with the support of my husband, my friends and also my beloved customers (you know who you are :)).

In November 2013, we're honoured to be invited by the owner of Urban Cafe Sandakan to have a corner (now two corners!) to have our books selling in the cafe. This is a major milestone for Book Lovers to reach out to more readers and expand the influence in promoting reading.

Book Lovers is also blessed to be able to get supplies directly from the publishers now and hence we're able to provide cheaper books to you. With our pre-order schedules (tentatively twice a month), we strive to provide you titles that we don't have in stock, subject to stock availability from the publishers.

Lastly, we would like to thank you for all your support, no matter in the form of purchases, likes or comments on our Facebook posts. We promise you we'll continue to improve our service to serve you better.

Yours sincerely,
Regina Foo
Founder of Book Lovers

Book Review: Angelfall by Susan Ee

Angelfall by Susan Ee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Note: I read this book after World After, which I received for free from Definitely Books.

Immediately after I finished reading World After, I ordered Angelfall straight away to find out what happened in the prequel that made Penryn's little sister become a monster and why others thought she was supposed to be dead.

By reading Angelfall, some of the puzzles are solved such as why Penryn knows how to fight (at least she knows how to fight with tactics rather than with brutal forces). In this part of the character growth, I see the similarities of Penryn in Angelfall and Tris in Divergent. Both of them are small girls but with extremely brave and bold characters, and the learnt how to fight throughout the stories.

Raffe is sexy, strong, intelligent and handsome archangel with his angelic features despite losing his wings. His relationship with Penryn was built slowly from the dangers they came through together and there goes some romance. However, Raffe denied his feelings on Penryn just because angels are forbidden to be in a relationship with the Daughter of Men. I was surprised to read about the part that Raffe mentioned that he's agnostic. Are you kidding me? An agnostic angel?

In terms of writing styles, I really love the plot and the pace of this story. Susan's way of writing is similar to Veronica Roth - full of actions and fast pace, which is my cup of tea as I'm an impatient person.

I highly recommend this to fans of Divergent and those who like to read stories about angels.

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Book Review: Hollow City by Ransom Riggs (Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children # 2)

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Obtained this free copy from Definitely Books.

First of all, I haven't read the first book, i.e. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children before I started with this book. But the photos in the first few pages of the book introduced me with the characters involved in the prequel as well as in this installment. I often flipped to the pages to remind myself on the unfamiliar character names and their peculiar abilities. Sorry to say that I didn't know the name of the main protagonist (who is also the narrator of the story) until I read about 20 pages.

The story begins with a group of peculiar children escaped from the island which their loop (the home for the peculiar children which is located in another dimension) was invaded by the wights. They traveled on boats, foot, Gypsies horses and trains to London wanting to save their ymbryne which turned into a bird form and its soul was trapped in it.

During the development of the story, I can see that Jacob (the narrator and the hero of the story) realized his ability and started to grow it until something he never expected, especially at the end of the book.

His relationship with Emma (the girl who can create fire with her hands) has a little bit of romance but something is also stopping them to proceed further. In the later part of the story, Emma and Jacob had a heart-breaking discussion on that.

Overall, the story is full of excitement with very special supporting characters in the story as well as the horror that is brought by the hollows and wights (which are the antagonists).

This book should be recommended to ALL readers because of the richness in the plot and of course, the special features in the book, i.e. the peculiar photos. The author did a good job in creating stories out of the photos he collected all these years from the flea markets.

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Book Review: World After by Susan Ee

World After by Susan Ee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Obtained this free copy from Definitely Books.

I started reading this book without knowing the background of Angelfall, the prequel of this book. So in the beginning I have no idea what happened in the previous book.

From the narration from the protagonist, Penryn, I can know that there was a war going on between human and the angels. Apart from the human and angels, there are some other creatures that looks like scorpions which are very evil. And Penryn was supposed to be dead, which in this book, she's alive and carrying an angelic sword owned by an angel called Raffe.

As the story progressing, I was freaked out by the craziness of Penryn's mom and the monstrous sister, Paige. I can't imagine what happened to her with her stitched wounds on her face and her sharp razor teeth.

The flashbacks that brought by the sword to Penryn showed that Raffe is a strong warrior angel with exceptional fighting skills. Penryn could learn his sword skills through the flashbacks. The character growth of Penryn especially on her fighting skills can greatly show at the later part of the story, which she fights with tactics, not brutal force.

Overall the story really do attracts me even though I started with 2nd title. I enjoyed reading Susan's writing style of balancing the narrative description, a little bit of romance and great action of the fights.

I'll get the first book and looking forward for the next title in the series.

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Book Review: Trying to be Muslim by Norhafsah Hamid

Trying to be Muslim by Norhafsah Hamid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My favorite chapter of this book is Anger Management.

I used to be a bad tempered person and get irritated very easily. Although I still throw tantrums sometimes, but I realized that I gained patience and tolerance when getting older.

Norhafsah's journey and experience on fighting against anger and the Satan that used anger as a tool for our sins can greatly helps us (especially Muslims) in preventing to continue committing sins from getting angry.

I learnt from other readers of the book (Muslim women) that the author is able to read into their minds as if the story shared in the book has actually happened to them. I believe some of the Muslim out there are born into the religion but they know little about it.

I think this is a great book for Muslim as well as non-Muslims who want to learn more about this peaceful religion.

*Note: I should have rated the book 5 stars instead of 4. The reason is because I'm able to spot minor typo mistakes in the book.

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More Selections at Urban Cafe Sandakan!

Book Lovers has TWO bookshelves at Urban Cafe Sandakan now! That means more selection of books and more exciting offers!

Don't miss the "2 for RM 50" promotion on the new bookshelf. :)

P/S: The location of Urban Cafe is Lot 151, Block G, Ground Floor, Lorong Avenue 5, Bandar IJM, Sandakan.