... a new day has come

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

30 December 2009, Wednesday

Hello!!

How was Christmas? I just got back from overseas today. I've slept for about 3 hours before I got myself up. My luggage is still all packed and I'm totally jet lagged but it feels so good to be home =D

I haven't been overseas for 12 years now and it was quite an experience. One thing that has changed is that I don't get severe plane sickness like I used to. I was dreading the 8.5 hour flight but surprisingly I didn't get sick at all. It's a wonderful discovery since I was further dreading the awfully long flight to America of about 28 hours (eek!!)

I gotta start unpacking those bags of mine. I'm heading right back to work tomorrow and at this rate I'll never be back into it!

Wishing you a wonderful New Year!

2009 round up

Monday, December 21, 2009

21 December 2009, Monday

2009 Top Picks
There were so many good books this year and so many new authors for me as well! In random order of what I remember:

1. A Duke Of Her Own by Eloisa James
I love Eloisa James so it would be a rare find if she wasn't somewhere on my top 10 list!

Of all the Desperate Duchesses books, A Duke of Her Own is my favorite. It was the last and it was totally worth the wait.

The heroine was perfect and Villiers' eldest son stole away some of the best moments of the book. James' writes children so well that she makes you want to hear more about them =D



2. Letters From Home by Rhonda Nelson
This is my first time reading Rhonda Nelson and I quite love this book. So far this is my favorite of all her books. Stories of secret loves and finally having that guy recognize you - I looovve them!!

3. To Beguile A Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt

I'm a sucker for Beauty and the Beast style stories. As always, this was beautifully written and Hoyt delivers it with heart wrenching prose. Just beautiful.

Unfortunately, I still haven't read the final to this quartet: To Desire A Devil yet =( I've looked everywhere and still can't find it in stores. What is going on? Hope I find it soon =)




4. To Wed A Wicked Earl by Olivia Parker
Once again another new author to me this year. I rarely read of books where it is a guy who has a secret crush on a girl - usually it is the other way around. Hope I find more books of this story line. This book was truly good and I'm looking forward to Parker's future releases =D

5. Tempt Me At Twilight by Lisa Kleypas
Kleypas always delivers.

I felt that Poppy's book started out a bit slow - it didn't hook me in immediately and I didn't stay up all night reading it as I usually do. But after about 1/4 of the book, I started to get into it.

I'm awaiting for Bea's story and for her hero. It's sure to be interesting =D





6. Between the Devil and Desire by Lorraine Heath
Another new author to me this year. She is definitely not a debut author but I'd never read her before this year. I absolutely love her Texas Glory and Texas Destiny books which I would recommend to anyone (but it was not released this year so I thought I would give it a mention here =D).

I always find it interesting to read of non titled gentlemen not of the ton who are the hero to Ladies of the ton. Heath wrote this so well although there was quite a twist to the plot that was quite unexpected.




7. Seduced By Your Spell by Lois Greiman

Another new author (so many new authors this year!) and of course I'm hooked onto this Witches of Mayfair series. I'm impatiently awaiting the next book of this series and wondering what it is about. Hopefully Greiman's site will be updated with more details soon!







8. Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce
Pierce doesn't write more than one to two books per year, and I've got them all. I've been waiting year by year for one book at a time. Next book not till March next year and then the last in 2011. How can I stand the wait?

9. The Shadow Queen by Anne Bishop
Bishop is well known for her Dark Jewels series and she has been continuing them since. They've grown from being sci fi based to being more romantic. Not sure why?!?

10. Delicious by Sherry Thomas
Sherry is another author who has a distinct style of writing which is her trademark you can say. Thomas has since become one of my auto buy authors which includes no more than 5 authors in total I must say. She also released Not Quite A Husband this year but I still find Delicious to be one of my favorites.

A shout out to:

Captive of Sin by Anna Campbell
I'm currently reading Captive of Sin and I haven't actually finished it yet but it is so good. Have I said that I love Campbell's writing style? It is so elegant.

This Wicked Gift by Courtney Milan
This is not technically a novel but a novella but this story was incredible so I had to give kudos to Milan for producing a wonderful story. Can't wait for Proof by Seduction which is the story of one of the secondary characters in this novella!

Stuck On You

Friday, December 4, 2009

04 December 2009, Friday

I'm stuck on you... So hard to see that a woman like you could wait around for a man like me...

I'm stuck

No. I don't believe it's writers block. What I mean is that I'm writing my story but now I realize that it's not really feasible. I have to find some complications to move the story forward. Everything is just going all too well.

So I'm stuck.

Another short post.

I might be stuck with short posts until I find some routine to my life. Finishing my degree has left me at sea on what to do. I need to find a job but no positions are open. So stuck.

And she's back!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

01 December 2009, Tuesday

I finally finished!

I thought that the moment I finished my exams I would be able to get right back to it and start to do all the things I've been wanting to do, like write. But I didn't.

I was so out of it. I was extremely stressed over my exam results thinking that I would fail, thinking that maybe I wouldn't graduate even though every one is expecting me to. So I've been hiding away and waiting and waiting for my results. I was so horrible. I would sit in front of the computer and press the refresh button of my results page hoping that miraculously the results would appear. I know, I'm ridiculous!

But now I'm finally back. I've gotten all my results and I'm so damn relieved. I PASSED. I mean, I can graduate. I'm so excited.

First things first, I really gotta go and clean this room of mine, then, read my shiny new books:
Captive of Sin by Anna Campbell (supporting the Aussies)
The Heart of Christmas with Courtney Milan's novella to support her debut novella!

Okies, I'm off to get to it.

P.S: Of course my car just had to get hit on Sunday - That's the third time this year! Can't people SEE black cars? GRrrr.