Sarah Addison Allen Books: A Must Read for the Romantic @ Heart

Two gifted sisters draw on their talents to belatedly forge a bond and find their ways in life in Allen's easygoing debut novel. Thirty-four-year-old Claire Waverley manifests her talent in cooking; using edible flowers, Claire creates dishes that affect the eater in curious ways. But not all Waverley women embrace their gifts; some, including Claire's mother, escape the family's eccentric reputation by running away. She abandoned Claire and her sister when they were young. Consequently, Claire has remained close to home, unwilling to open up to new people or experiences. Claire's younger sister, Sydney, however, followed in their mother's footsteps 10 years ago and left for New York, and after a string of abusive, roustabout boyfriends, returns to Bascom, N.C., with her five-year-old daughter, Bay. As Sydney reacquaints herself with old friends and rivals, she discovers her own Waverley magic. Claire, in turn, begins to open up to her sister and in the process learns how to welcome other possibilities. Credit to Amazon for book details

Twenty-seven-year-old Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter in her North Carolina hometown is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her hidden closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night…. Until she finds it harboring none other than local waitress Della Lee Baker, a tough-talking, tenderhearted woman who is one part nemesis—and two parts fairy godmother…

Fleeing a life of bad luck and big mistakes, Della Lee has decided Josey’s clandestine closet is the safest place to crash. In return she’s going to change Josey’s life—because, clearly, it is not the closet of a happy woman. With Della Lee’s tough love, Josey is soon forgoing pecan rolls and caramels, tapping into her startlingly keen feminine instincts, and finding her narrow existence quickly expanding. Before long, Josey bonds with Chloe Finley, a young woman who makes the best sandwiches in town, is hounded by books that inexplicably appear whenever she needs them, and—most amazing of all—has a close connection to Josey’s longtime crush. As little by little Josey dares to step outside herself, she discovers a world where the color red has astonishing power, passion can make eggs fry in their cartons, and romance can blossom at any time—even for her. It seems that Della Lee’s work is done, and it’s time for her to move on. But the truth about where she’s going, why she showed up in the first place—and what Chloe has to do with it all—is about to add one more unexpected chapter to Josey’s fast-changing life. Brimming with warmth, wit, and a sprinkling of magic, here is a spellbinding tale of friendship, love—and the enchanting possibilities of every new day. Credit to Amazon for book details.

The Red Pyramid: A Book Review

I had just finished reading the 1st book of yet another Chronicles by Rick Riordan, The Red Pyramid. In comparison to his first hit on the Percy Jackson stories, The Red Pyramid gives you a more or less similar scenario of normal children being godlings. Although this time, the theme centers on the similarities between Old Egypt and the Modern World. Percy Jackson's story was of him being the son of the Sea God Poseidon and his task on battling the gods who sided with the evil Titan Kronos and Kronos himself. The Red Pyramid on the other hand, focuses on Sadie and Carter Kane, children of two famous magicians whose task was to restore peace between Egypt's House of Life (magicians) and the pharaos who ruled Egypt. A little family background showed that Sadie and Carter grew apart from each other, Carter being the loyal companion to his dad's travels all over Egypt and Sadie, living a normal life with her grandparents in London. The children were lead to believe that the reason for this arrangement was because their dad lost custody over Saddie to their mother's parents. Also they were lead to believe that their dad "killed" their mother when they were still young. Little did they know that they possess great magic that works best when they are together. A flashback in the story showed little Saddie and Carter arguing over a birthday cake and suddenly the cake exploded. The story's progress was fast complete with action scenes of magic and fantasy, that makes Rick Riordan's book entertaining and exciting. Later in the story, Sadie and Carter realized that they are what the magicians in the House of Life called godlings since they serve as mediums to the spirit of the Pharaos(imagine being possess by a spirit). Carter being the great Egyptian ruler Horus and Saddie, Horus wife Isis. This may seem weird and a bit incestuous at first, but the author gave no hint of being it such as the story progresses. Anyway the children began learning their skills in magic and meeting new friend and enemies along the way. They met Bast the goddess whose spirit resided in Saddie's cat Muffin, who later on was discovered to be the loyal servant of the sun God Ra and who acted as the children's protector. They also met a relative, their father's brother, also a magician, and other members of the House of Life who meant on killing the children. The story's energy and excitement begun when their dad accidentaly released 5 spirits into the human world, in an attempt to bring their dead mother back. The spirits comprises of Nepthys, Osiris, Horus, Isis and Set. Set being the most evil and creator of Chaos. From here on, the children were posessed with the spirits of Isis and Horus, while Osiris (the god of the dead) inhabited their dad's body. Set was set free and battled with Osiris (the dad) and sent him into the underworld. Now, at this time, little was known as to the whereabouts of Nepthys(Set's wife). Sadie and Carter, becoming orphans in just one night, was then taken by their uncle Amos and brought to his invisible mansion in New York. From there all hell broke lose. Muffin turned into Bast, a baboon played basketball, and an albino crocodile head-butted with pre-historic longnecks. Here they met Zia(who later in the story was discovered to hold the spirit of Nepthys) and some other gods of the Egyptian period. The children were led to a battle to stop Set from creating Chaos all over the earth. Honestly, you wouldn't notice that this is actually a long book because the action, the mystery and make-believe aspect of the story keeps you lifting pages after pages. It has more dialogues as opposed to more narrations which sometimes, as we all know, makes the story boring. Plus the character depicted in the two children were those of someone who is looking to have some fun but not in a chaotic and disastrous way. This book is definitely not for teenagers alone. It's a family read and good for all ages. I have already completed Rick Riordan's 5 Percy Jackson books. This time I'm not going to let The Red Pyramid pass as another collection to my library. Happy reading everyone!

Spring Sunday in Summer

2:40am on Monday already. I'm still awake and thinking..how will i be able to put more traffic to my blog? I admit i am new to this blogging craze so im practically still learning the ropes. Anyhow, why spring sunday you might wonder since Philippines don't have Spring..we don't have four seasons to be exact. Spring cleaning...an extensive job of cleaning, tidying and removing dirt and dust. Who started that phrase anyway? Spring cleaning? hmm.. well that's exactly what kept me busy the whole day. I am ashamed to say that the house was a mess, dusty to the point of suffocation. It has been 4 weeks since we've cleaned the place and it was literally packing dirt, dog hairs and dust. We started cleaning around 5pm and ended at 1:am the next day or today. Well of course with a 2 hr dinner break in between.  Now my back aches and worst my nose is clogged up with all the dust that it hurts my head to even force them out. But at least now the house is way cleaner and more tidy than it used to be. 
There was a scheduled power outage at 8am (something we were'nt aware of) and it ended until 5pm.  I was on the verge of  drifting into REM sleep with the AC in full blast when it all started. After that came the unbearable heat and humidity. It was summer all over again. I drifted in and out of sleep trying to fan myself for comfort still the heat was just so unbearable, you can feel it blowing on your face. So I went out of the room and tried to sleep on the couch. I was getting the hang of it when it suddenly became so humid. I was praying so hard for rain to come at any moment to cool the air but it didn't. Rain came at around 4pm just enough to say a quick hello before the electricity came back on. Doods had to go out and stay at his parents' place so he can somehow get some sleep. There was no power interruption in their area. I on the other hand, bravely stayed and faced the "agony". Turned out Doods exchanged sleep for a bit of family get-together. I after all did manage to sleep despite the heat.