Review: Hearts in Darkness

I am on a good-novel-reading streak! Yes!

So I started reading Hearts in Darkness by Laura Kaye around 11 in the evening of April 8th and finished it past midnight of April 9th. It was a book you can't put down!

Hearts in Darkness by Laura Kaye is an AMAZING book!!! A big part of the story took place in the elevator where Makena and Caden explored each other through words and touch. I just love the simplicity of this erotic/romantic story. It simply tells us that there is so much more to falling for another person than mere looks. There should be a meeting of the minds. Chemistry is also very important as well as openness towards each other.

AND a person's outer appearance is very much different from who he/she is inside.

I hope there will be a book two of this story. But just the same, it is one great, swoon-worthy book you can't miss!

***

Hearts in Darkness rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Review: Reasonable Doubt

Reasonable Doubt by Whitney G. was the book that made want to read again. If only for that, I am giving this book 5 stars right away! But let me reassure you that this book is really worth your time, if you are into erotic novels, that is.

Just like with The Yearning, I found this book through an Instagram account I am following. Goodreads has this blurb about the book...

My cock has an appetite.

A huge and very particular appetite: Blonde, curvy, and preferably not a fucking liar...(Although, that's a story for another day.)

As a high profile lawyer, I don't have time to waste on relationships, so I fulfill my needs by anonymously chatting and sleeping with women I meet online.

My rules are simple: One dinner. One night. No repeats.

This is only casual sex. Nothing more. Nothing less.

At least it was, until "Alyssa"...

She was supposed to be a 27 year old lawyer, a book hoarder, and completely unattractive. She was supposed to be someone I shared law advice with late at night, someone I could trust with details of my weekly escapades.

But then she came into my firm for an interview--a college-intern interview, and everything fucking changed...

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!! If I can give Reasonable Doubt by Whitney G more than 5 stars, I would! This is a far, far better version of any and all erotic novels I've read! Miss Whitney G should, no MUST, come up with the next book like RIGHT AWAY!

Sooo good! Effing amazing!!! If you want a well-written erotic novel, this one is for you!

P.S. I was in a reading rut for the past couple of weeks now. Reasonable Doubt helped me get out of that rut! Yes!

***

Reasonable Doubt rating: 5 out of 5 stars

***

P.S.S. I am going to keep reading this book again and again, in between other books, until the next one comes out!

Review: The Yearning

The Yearning by Kate Belle is more than just a New Adult novel. It is a book that will leave you looking back on your past and wanting to purge the bad memories in it.

I saw this book in an Instagram account I am following. There was no synopsis included in the post but the cover alone made me curious. I checked in Goodreads and this was what I read that made me read this story...

"I want to reveal myself to you... I need your eyes to see, your hands to touch, your spirit to acknowledge that which I hold most deeply and secretly in my heart. My yearning for you."

It’s 1978 in a country town and a dreamy fifteen year old girl’s world is turned upside down by the arrival of the substitute English teacher. Solomon Andrews is beautiful, inspiring and she wants him like nothing else she’s wanted in her short life.

Charismatic and unconventional, Solomon easily wins the hearts and minds of his third form English class. He notices the attention of one girl, his new neighbour, who has taken to watching him from her upstairs window. He assumes it a harmless teenage crush, until erotic love notes begin to arrive in his letterbox.

Solomon knows he must resist, but her sensual words stir him. He has longings of his own, although they have nothing to do with love, or so he believes. One afternoon, as he stands reading her latest offering in his driveway, she turns up unannounced. Each must make a choice, the consequences of which will haunt them until they meet again twenty years later.

The Yearning was more than just a story about puppy love, infatuation, first love, and losing one's virginity... It was more than just a discovery, a union, a forbidden relationship... It was about finding happiness, contentment, and discovering oneself. It was so much more and it would leave you with a new-found appreciation for the life you have now.

Eve was fifteen when she met Solomon, the substitute English teacher who moved in next-door. She was easily captivated by his charm and sophisticated air. He was the cool guy who made her whole being tingle with anticipation whenever she would watch him from her bedroom window, smoking, reading. On the other hand, Solomon was equally intrigued with the innocent student who was watching him in his study. He was aware of her and, instead of being outraged over the intrusion to his privacy, he liked the power he held over his little watcher.

The harmless watching became something more and when the two finally acted on the palpable chemistry between them, a journey on sexual wonders and fulfillment ensued.

But, like any good thing in this world, it came to an end when they were almost discovered by Eve's father. He left town and she was shipped to the city to avoid a scandal.

Two decades later, with a husband and two kids, they met again in the same town where everything started. And that mutual yearning of two souls was still there, pulsing between them!

Life was so much different than when Eve was sixteen, of course. She had a husband and kids to think of. She also needed to make some choices that would change everything she kept in her heart for the past two decades.

The Yearning was one book you wouldn't be able to put down so easily! I read it in just a couple of hours because it was really that good! It was an erotic novel in a way, yes, but there was more to the story than just the sensual relationship between the two main characters.

Read it to know more!

***

The Yearning rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Acid jazz on loop.

I am a big fan of Incognito! I love listening to their songs when I am working or reading. Here are three of my favorite from their collection.


Without You

Beneath the Surface

A Shade of Blue
I just love their songs so much!

Happy listening!

I Wish They Taught Money in High School

I saw a post in a Facebook group where I belong to regarding this back-to-back book, I Wish They Taught Money in High School. I must admit that the covers alone caught my interest. Cute covers, don't you think? And then I read the title and I immediately thought that the book was definitely for me! Very catchy!

I read the first one, I Wish They Taught Money in High School So I'm Not Dependent on My Paycheck by Clarissa Seriña-de la Paz. Let me tell you first that I was prepared to like the book. I wasn't taught how to handle money back in high school but I knew that we didn't have enough so I learned early on to manage what little school allowance I had. This book tells of the author's experience in handling money and being taught by her parents. It also tells of how the author used Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow 101. And so much more!

The second one, the other book at the back, I Wish They Taught Money in High School So I Can Start My Own Business Right Away, is, well, all about money and doing/investing in a business.

Let me just say something about the two books. Both authors grew up with privileged lives. They were not typical Filipino kids who struggled with their school allowances and all that. Growing up, they had parents who had enough money to give to them and to teach them how to manage it. They didn't grow up seeing their parents cry over not having enough after paying all the bills. They didn't grow up seeing their parents struggle with paying their tuition fees. I am not saying they grew up with perfect lives. But finance-wise, I don't think they really know the meaning of stretching the last centavo.

This blogger, along with majority of Filipino kids, grew up with almost nothing!

I know that both books are meant to teach us how to become good handlers of money. I like that a lot! Now, I have enough so the book will somehow be able to help me handle my finances better. But majority of Filipinos in this day and age are minimum wage earners. I don't think the book will help them stretch what little cash they have.

Let me focus on one lesson that Ms. de la Paz got from her mother. Always pay your credit card bills in full. That is one very good advice! But let me tell you what reality is. You apply for credit cardS because your paycheck is always not enough! You use your credit card for grocery shopping. You use your credit card to get appliances and furniture for your home in installment basis. You use it to pay for school supplies and other stuff that your kids need. When your credit card bills arrive, you pay whatever amount you can afford above the minimum amount due, and then you wait for bonuses and other work incentives to be credited to your paycheck before you pay for most of your bill. No matter how much the average Filipino worker desire to pay his/her credit card bill in full, when the take home pay is not enough, he/she can't! And that's the reality of it.

I appreciate the efforts both authors put in their books to teach us all about managing our finances. It is great that they want us to increase the value of our net worth. But the sad reality is that, no matter how much you want to invest in stocks, money market instruments, time deposits and such... no matter how much you want to put up your own business, if you don't have enough, you can't. Believe me, I've been there so many times in the past. Even now that I have enough, I have priorities I need to allot cash for before anything else.

Overall, the book is for Filipinos out there who have more than enough to spare after paying their bills. Both books are good but not meant for everybody, in my opinion. It is certainly not for me.

Note: I am really sorry I would like to give the books a more positive review but I have to be true to what I felt like after reading both.

Note-2: The book was given to me for free in exchange for a review.

An angel on earth.

I believe that there are really angels in our lives and they need not really reside in heaven but amongst us. I have a friend from way back in college who I believe is one of my angels. She has been a source of comfort for me during those times I was down and in need of a good friend. She was there when I needed someone to rely on. When I look back during that dark period in my life, she was a beacon of light to me.

Look around you and you will be amazed to realized that there is an angel walking with you in this life.

Catching up with dear friends.

I saw high school friends today and it really made me smile. I was happy reminiscing the good old times, chatting up about people we all know.

It is good to be with friends who know me from way back. I don't need to watch my language. I don't have to be someone I am not. I don't need to moderate my voice and cut back my loud laughter. Everything is good with them.