ON-AIR: #RomanceClass Podcast, Part 4

March 13, 2016 No Comments

Right, so I kinda slacked off for a few weeks and forgot to put up this update, sorry! It’s here now–the next two episodes of the #romanceclass podcast featuring The Boyfriend Backtrack by Dawn Lanuza and Finding X by Miles Tan.

Incidentally, both episodes were recorded live from the live reading session held during last year’s Filipino Reader Con at De La Salle University, Manila. If you want to have your own #romanceclass live reading experience, it’s your lucky day! #AprilFEELSDay is on April 17, 2016 at Pegi Waffle (San Juan Manila) and, you guessed it, we’re having another live reading sesh! More about that exciting event in the following days, but do save the date!

Anyway, here are this week’s episodes:

The Boyfriend Backtrack by Dawn Lanuza

SYNOPSIS

If they say that life flashes right before your eyes when you die, do you also get a flashback of your exes when your perfect boyfriend is proposing to you? At least that’s the case for Regina Cortez. There’s her dramatic high school boyfriend, her first college crush, the irresistible heart breaker, and the ever elusive one. By backtracking to her past, will Regina make it to ‘I Do’? Or will she just keep running away?

Dawn Lanuza’s The Boyfriend Backtrack on Amazon and at National Bookstore branches nationwide. You may also order the book straight from the author.

My review of The Boyfriend Backtrack is found here.

Click on the Read More button for Miles Tan’s Finding X.

Interviews, The Writing Community

BLOG TOUR: #FatefulTurns Author Interview | Chi Yu Rodriguez

March 8, 2016 No Comments

Hello and welcome to my stop for this week’s blog tour featuring the #StrangeLit bundle, #FatefulTurns! For this round, I’ve chosen to interview Chi Yu Rodriguez, author of Sparks of Circumstance.

At eighteen, Jana Cross begins to dream.

Sometimes, her dreams are of a cafe that sells a different kind of coffee. Here, espresso shots are focus and discipline, sugars and syrups are encouragement, tea and milk are calm, and whipped cream is joy.

Sometimes, she dreams of another realm, an enchanted forest with different creatures doing her bidding and her subjects calling her by a different name. She dreams of power, of striking fear. She dreams of things that aren’t real.

Or are they?

When danger finds Jana, she begins to follow her dreams. Will they lead her to her death? Or will they finally lead her to the truth?

This is the beginning of her story.

Get the #FatefulTurns bundle (ONLY P45 this week!) on Buqo to read this story.
Add the bundle on Goodreads

I wanted to try something different for this interview, so I prepared small note cards on which I wrote a few keywords I got from reading Sparks of Circumstance. I asked the author to pick cards (which were presented face down) and she answered questions based on the keywords on the cards she picked.

This is the very first Keyword Q&A I’ve done, and I intend to do more of it in the future, but for now, here’s Chi Yu Rodriguez talking about her favorite thing about the book, a bit about her writing process for SoC, and a brief introduction on what’s to come.

Click on the Read More button to read the interview.

Giveaway

[ CLOSED ] GIVEAWAY: The Byebye Bouquet by Chi Yu Rodriguez

March 4, 2016 No Comments

[ UPDATE: March 26, 2016 ]

* * *

It’s always fun to champion indie reads, especially when they are written by Filipino authors (who are also your friends). Last Valentine’s Day, my friend Chi Yu Rodriguez released her debut romance novella, The ByeBye Bouquet, and I couldn’t be prouder. <3 Check it out below:

Every month for the past year, like clockwork, Meile Simon has gotten orders at her shop for the same type of bouquet, from the same guy, delivered to twelve different girls. By the third month, she starts to take note.

Warren Leigh likes women. He does. He knows there are too many beautiful women out there just waiting to be plucked by the right guy. But he firmly believes that personal relationships with them must have an expiration date.

When the girl who likes to watch flowers bloom encounters the guy who’s only in it while the fragrance lasts, curiosity gets the best of both of them.

In the midst of intermittent weather, will their connection blossom or wilt?

Available on Amazon and Buqo
Add it on Goodreads

Click on the Read More button for a short excerpt off the novella and instructions on how to join the giveaway. Good luck, and please spread the word! ^_^

Reading, Review

{ BOOK REVIEW + TOUR } Songs To Get Over You | Jay E. Tria

February 29, 2016 3 Comments

Hello and welcome to my tour stop for Jay E. Tria’s new release: Songs To Get Over You! This blog tour is organized by the Bookish Diaries Book Tours. You may click on the image below to visit their website.

Oh and YES! This blog tour comes with a nifty giveaway! Get a chance to win a print copy of Songs To Get Over You and a TRAINMAN shirt by joining HERE.

It’s harder to get over someone who was never really yours.

They say rock stars get all the girls. But Miki knows that’s not always true. He, for one, though the guitarist of popular indie band Trainman, just can’t seem to get the girl. It’s kind of his fault, really. No one told him to fall in love with Jill. No one told him to stand still and watch as she moved on from a terrible breakup into the arms of another guy—a Japanese celebrity with the face of an angel and the body of a god.

So when someone else comes along, someone who finds him cute, smart, and funny (sometimes in the haha sort of way), will Miki finally move on? Or will he continue to pine for Jill?

Buy it on Amazon
Add it on Goodreads

What Drew Me In

Oh, this? This was an insta-buy for me. I have read the first book in this series–Songs Of Our Breakup–and loved it. It’s only natural that I one-click the shit out of this book, right?

Click on the Read More button for the rest of the review. May NOT be spoiler-free.

Backlist Revival, The Writing Community

Dream Cast: In Over Her Head by Anne Plaza

February 22, 2016 2 Comments

Hello and welcome to the Backlist Revival Tour, where we aim to make noise for indie-published Filipino romance books released before 2015. This is my first time participating in this tour, and for this round, I am featuring Anne Plaza’s In Over Her Head.

In Over Her Head
by Anne Plaza

All she wants is to get even…

Erika Apostol’s quiet and unassuming life gets disrupted when she learns that Richard Javier, the very same person who broke her heart many years ago, is now back in the country. Her world is turned upside down as old feelings she thought were buried resurface to haunt her once more.

Determined to give Richard a dose of his own medicine, Erika finds herself involved in an outrageous plan devised by her friends. They enlist the help of Jerome Gonzales, an attractive and charismatic DJ (with a playboy reputation), to pose as her significant other.

As the plan goes in full swing, Erika discovers Richard’s jealous side, and that there’s something more to Jerome than meets the eye. Will this grand charade work out the way it should, or will she be left with nothing in the end?

Buy it on Amazon | Smashwords | iBooks
Add it on Goodreads

Click on the Read More button to get to know author Anne Plaza’s dream cast for In Over Her Head.