Shopaholic to the Stars by Sophie Kinsella

 Synopsis :

Sophie Kinsella returns to her beloved Shopaholic series with Becky Brandon (née Bloomwood) newly arrived in Hollywood and starry-eyed. She and her two-year-old daughter, Minnie, have relocated to L.A. to join Becky’s husband, Luke, who is there to handle PR for famous actress Sage Seymour. 

Becky can’t wait to start living the A-list lifestyle, complete with celebrity sightings, yoga retreats, and shopping trips to Rodeo Drive. But she really hopes to become a personal stylist—Sage’s personal stylist—if only Luke would set up an introduction. Then, unexpectedly, Becky is offered the chance to dress Sage’s archrival, and though things become a bit more complicated, it’s a dream come true!

Red carpet premieres, velvet ropes, paparazzi clamoring for attention—suddenly Becky has everything she’s ever wanted

This is what I say :

Becky, Becky, Becky...I really quite dislike you in this title.  I think you are way over in your thinking and actions.  You are extremely self centered in this title and reading you trying to justify your action, it's just pathetic.

You can do so much better and I would have think that after 10 years and after 6 books, you might have grown up a bit but unfortunately it doesn't seems to be the case.  If it's anything you seems to be at at your worst in this title.

Shopaholic to the Stars is book number 7 in the Shopaholic series.  The story did not end here but spill over to book number 8 which is Shopaholic to the Rescue which I have already read.  Yes, my sequence of reading is all wrong but it doesn't really matter in the end.

Anyway, it's a good thing that I did not read this title first. If I did, I might just stop right at this book cos this book really doesn't show Becky in a good light. Instead, I find her downright horrible and extremely immature.  But because I have read to the Rescue, somehow I can be more forgiving.  Perhaps America doesn't fit her well as she turns out to be better when she went back to UK for Christmas Shopaholic.

I must say among these 3 recent titles Christmas Shopaholic is my favourite title.

Shopaholic To The Rescue by Sophie Kinsella

 

Synopsis :

Becky Bloomwood and a hilarious cast of beloved family and friends (plus one enemy!) set off in a van to find her missing father, last heard from in Las Vegas.

Becky’s father Graham and her best friend’s husband, Tarquin, have disappeared from Los Angeles saying simply they have “something to take care of.”

But Tarquin’s wife Suze who is Becky’s best friend, and Becky’s mother Jane, are convinced the two men are hiding something and are in danger—their imaginations run wild. They must track them down!

Hijinks ensue as husband Luke drives Becky, daughter Minnie, Jane, Suze and other favorite Kinsella characters across country from LA to Las Vegas in search of the missing men.

Becky feels deeply guilty about ignoring her father while he was in LA, in addition Becky feels her enemy Alicia is threatening her friendship with Suze.

This is what I say :

Shopaholic To The Rescue is book number 8 in the Shopaholic Series and no, it's not the final book although a lot of readers seems to be tired of this series already but hey, not me!

I guess if anyone can lead me back to reading, it would be Becky and after a period of not reading for quite a while, I am glad it's Becky that I am spending my reading time with.  I am actually reading this title and Shopaholic To the Star at the same time but I seems to be reading Shopaholic To the Rescue faster than To the Star which in the sequence of story, I should be reading To the Star first as that's book number 7.  In fact, I got my reading sequence all wrong as I have already Christmas Shopaholic and that's book number 9.

So I am reading book number 9 first followed by 8 and then 7.  Ah well, as long as I am reading right?

Anyway, as expected from Becky's story, it's never borng, it will be pretty dramatic (sometimes for the wrong reason) but Becky always delivers at the end with much adoration from her family and close friends who are pretty short-sighted where Becky's concern. It's all feel at the end and that's whats important

After this title, it's time for Becky to be back to herself and celebrates Christmas in Christmas Shopaholic!

I need to start reading again

 Yes

I most

certainly must

I have not been reading

 regularly as I did in years before

For this, today is my confession to you

For the past few months, I have been seduced by k-drama

Yes, I am now very much a certified k-drama fan for almost a year

Ask me about Crash Landing, Goblin, Flower of Evil, Hotel Del Luna

And we can have long conversations on the plot, actors, actresses, and even IU's dresses in HDL.

Ask me simple Korean like anyeong haseayo, sarang heo, bangasupninda and I can answer you

But if you ask me about what I have read recently, I would have no answer for you

Such is the dilemma I face now as I really want to pick up reading again

But the look from Hyun Bin, Lee Joong Gi, Kim Soo Hyun is *sigh*

Dont forget reality show like 2D1N, Salty Tour, Master in in House

I love them too...Lee Seung Gi, Kim Jun Ho, Kim Jong Min

They made me laugh and brought me to places in Korea

That I would not have a chance to go (especially now)

So how do I say good by to k-drama and 

K-reality show to pick up me read?

It's difficult but I must try

Otherwise I would

not have much

to blog 

on

.

The Fireman by Joe Hill

 Synopsis :

The fireman is coming. Stay cool.

No one knows exactly when it began or where it originated. A terrifying new plague is spreading like wildfire across the country, striking cities one by one: Boston, Detroit, Seattle. The doctors call it Draco Incendia Trychophyton. To everyone else it’s Dragonscale, a highly contagious, deadly spore that marks its hosts with beautiful black and gold marks across their bodies—before causing them to burst into flames. Millions are infected; blazes erupt everywhere. There is no antidote. No one is safe.

Harper Grayson, a compassionate, dedicated nurse as pragmatic as Mary Poppins, treated hundreds of infected patients before her hospital burned to the ground. Now she’s discovered the telltale gold-flecked marks on her skin. When the outbreak first began, she and her husband, Jakob, had made a pact: they would take matters into their own hands if they became infected. To Jakob’s dismay, Harper wants to live—at least until the fetus she is carrying comes to term. At the hospital, she witnessed infected mothers give birth to healthy babies and believes hers will be fine too. . . if she can live long enough to deliver the child.

Convinced that his do-gooding wife has made him sick, Jakob becomes unhinged, and eventually abandons her as their placid New England community collapses in terror. The chaos gives rise to ruthless Cremation Squads—armed, self-appointed posses roaming the streets and woods to exterminate those who they believe carry the spore. But Harper isn’t as alone as she fears: a mysterious and compelling stranger she briefly met at the hospital, a man in a dirty yellow fire fighter’s jacket, carrying a hooked iron bar, straddles the abyss between insanity and death. Known as The Fireman, he strolls the ruins of New Hampshire, a madman afflicted with Dragonscale who has learned to control the fire within himself, using it as a shield to protect the hunted . . . and as a weapon to avenge the wronged.

In the desperate season to come, as the world burns out of control, Harper must learn the Fireman’s secrets before her life—and that of her unborn child—goes up in smoke.

This is what I say :

This is the second title written by Joe Hill that I read.  The first was The Heart Shape Box which I didn't like. 

Having said that, I didn't quite like this title either but I certainly like it better than The Heart Shape Box. In fact, this title actually reminded me of Carrie by Stephen King and I think I like it because of that too.

I think if made into a movie, it would be quite terrifying and gruesome with the fire and everything.  Very much having apocalypse as the theme, it seems that the spores (or virus) caused one to ignite up when feeling agitated and will end up burning oneself and all those close by.

The ending....I didn't quite like the ending, I kinda see it coming. Everything seems to point towards a happily ever after ending but it's too good to be true so just a few pages in before the end of the story, things took a turn for the worse (which I was expecting, in a way) so I didn't really like that.

There's a few scene that visually would be extremely difficult to stomach but reading it is still quite acceptable.  I think if they made this into a movie, I will certainly give it a missed because I would find it rather horrifying.