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Hi there,

Who?

You.

Yes, you (who are reading this in 2016, kudos and thanks and lots and lots of love from me).

It's been almost two years since I last posted, blogged or even reviewed any book. The moment I started university for the first time, I struggled to keep up with my grades and also running a book blog with frequent updates. I've thought about returning more times than you can imagine but I've never really returned.

Recently, chatting to a somewhat prominent blogger, I realised that I should start blogging again because I had a voice. Not to toot my own horn but I've had people in real life (friends, of course, not strangers) come up to me and ask me for book recommendations because of my blog. And, I gave that up. I didn't share that with my friends from university.

I also read through my own blog with fresh eyes and was thoroughly amused with the voice I had.

So,

I am just here to tell you that I am almost back and I will return. In about a week, most likely less. I'm still struggling to finish up very overdue essays. I struggled very hard with focusing on my studies this semester. I've lost a lot of motivation just staring at theories and listening to things I'd never use in life. And now, in my third, final and crucial year, I am branching out and grasping on to things I never made time for.

My grades will suffer but I'll never regret choosing my health, my family and my personal interests over some grades.

Back to the point at hand,

I am almost back. With a whole stock of new books. And things to say.

This is going to be a little more niche place (as if it wasn't already) but I can't change the url to something along the lines of the-romance-junkie because people already know this url.

But as I primarily (read, only) read young adult and romance novels, that's what this blog will mostly feature. Maybe I'll have others but mostly just my guilty pleasures.

I hope you'll be here for my return. It won't be with much fanfare.

I hope to see you all soon.

With much love,
Avery

"Ellie Parker is a master at building walls around her heart. In the twenty-five years she’s been alive, Dex Remington has been the only person who has always believed in her and been there for her. But four years earlier, she came to Dex seeking comfort and then disappeared like a thief in the night, leaving him a broken man.

Dex Remington is one of the top PC game developers in the United States. He’s handsome, smart, and numb. So damn numb that he’s not sure he’ll ever find a reason to feel again.

A chance encounter sparks intense desires in Ellie and Dex. Desires that make her want to run—and make him want to feel. A combination of lust and fear leads these young lovers down a dangerous path. Is it possible to cross a burned bridge, or are they destined to be apart forever?" (Melissa Foster)

Title: Game of Love (Love in Bloom: The Remingtons #1)
Author: Melissa Foster
Published: 2014
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Contemporary Romance

TL;DR Review:

For starters, this novel was so awful that I didn't finish reading it. Game of Love reads like an angsty teenager with all hormones and emotions with no sophistication, no eloquence and certainly no skill. The writing was cheesy and exaggerated and the plot line seemed to revolve around the same issue. It got so boring that I actually went and read another book (which is equally as boring but that's a story for another day). Furthermore, the main characters were needy, clingy and desperate. We're talking about adults here with jobs, not teenagers. Another point of contention I have with Game of Love is Dex's obsessive behaviour with Ellie. He constantly guilt trips her into staying by his side and if it's not guilt tripping, it is emotional blackmail. It got to the point where Ellie decided to stay! It didn't feel like she stayed out of love but rather out of necessity because he's been the one staying all this while. It was just awful, awful, awful.

Review: [May Contain Spoilers]

For starters, I didn't finish this book. I cannot find it in me to even read to the end because it just got so extremely boring and it became a chore to read it.

Game of Love is the latest addition to Foster's Love in Bloom series, making this the tenth-novel in the larger series. The moment I scrolled through the start with Foster's list of books, I knew something wouldn't go quite right with this novel. The list was far too extensive which meant that there wasn't enough time devoted to perfecting each and every novel that she writes. I pushed through.

I loved Foster's interpretation of the gamer industry (albeit a little optimistic) and it was a career that very few leading men seem to hold. Mostly because of the fat-lazy-sloppy-disgusting gamer stereotype which although has been broken by the likes of PewDiePie, has yet to change it. I was quite optimistic that this novel would be full of feels, angst and all things that make a good romance novel.

However, once Ellie was introduced (and far too early into the story, I might add), things went downhill from there. In my notes while reading, I wrote, "While Ellie sounds incredibly educated, she also sounds extremely pathetic and needy. So does Dex. Both highly educated individuals but extremely pathetic and cringe-worthy."

I also wrote, "The writing seems to be the stuff you write as a teenager, looking for an outlet for your angst, not the stuff that someone who wants to be a professional writer writes. It's just beating the same issue around the bush and not in a clever witty way. It's laying it all out there for you and expecting you to swallow the boring bullshit."

Yes, Game of Love reads like an angsty teenager who has all these pent-up emotions that he/she needs to release and is just writing it all on the page. There is no sophistication, no eloquence. Just angsty, immature teenage writing. It is like the stuff I wrote at seventeen. I cringe when I look at what I used to write. Very pathetic, very needy and very clingy and very, very desperate. It is the same cheesy stuff that people never, ever say in real life.

Not to mention, Dex is constantly blackmailing Ellie emotionally. He seemed very, very obsessive and he seems to want a girl that he USED TO KNOW. Not the woman that Ellie is today but the Ellie he used to know.

He constantly reminds and guilt-trips her her of the night she left and how that made him feel and how she should not run again. He constantly reminds her of how he was her emotional-support-rock and allowed her to climb in through his window and cuddle. And he never stops complaining about how much it hurt. We get it, Dex, you were upset that you were just a one-night stand, no matter how much you love her. GET OVER IT. (If I was Ellie, I would have ran as well. And ran so far away from this creep)

It was so bad that Ellie decided to stay. It didn't feel as if Ellie was staying because she loved him because let's face it, throughout reading this novel, not once did I feel like Ellie loved him. Ellie respected him and trusted him but she felt no inch of love. It also felt like she was staying out of necessity for his feelings because he's always been the one to stay so now it was her turn.

And don't even get me started on the sex. It's the most boring sex I've ever read and trust me, I have read boring sex.

There is nothing more I would like to do than to remove this from my Kobo.

Some Quotes: (Fair warning, creep alert)

Chapter 1: "By the time they were teenagers, he'd craved so much more of her than just friendship, and when she'd come to him four years ago, he'd thought they'd finally fall into each other's arms for good and he'd be able to finally show her how much he loved her."
Chapter 9: "She could still feel his heart beating against hers, his hand covering her lower back, the other cupping the back of her head, and the way his embrace had felt like he was claiming her as his own."
Chapter 13: "Ellie, I'm sorry. Don't go reticent on me, please. This is so hard. I'm trying, I'm really trying to stay with you, to stay with us, but I don't know what you expect of me. I hurt, Ellie. Every fucking time that you clamp down on your feelings. Every time you shut me out, it's like a gunshot to my heart. A man can love a woman for only so long without it being reciprocated. On some level, you must know that."

Rating: 1/5
Other Details: I read the Kindle edition, approximately 230 pages and published 2014.

As I begin typing this post, it is half-past Christmas on my side of the world. Normally, I don't like to do personal posts because I like my blog to be purposeful which means not talking about myself. However, because it is Christmas and I haven't thought of a suitable Christmas gift for my readers, I thought I'd say a few words on my favourite Christmas carols and songs.

The First Noel


This is my all-time favourite Christmas carol and I sing it the year round, especially in my shower when I'm practising what I call my "choir" voice. There is something so utterly beautiful and reverent about this song and it makes me feel all nice and warm inside. (Side not: I'm not a Christian or a Catholic. I don't believe in religion) I cannot exactly explain why I love this carol so much.

Silent Night


After The First Noel, Silent Night is my other favourite Christmas carol. I still remember when I was seven and I was performing in a school play about Christmas. This was the first carol to ever resonate with me. And it's one of my "choir" voice songs. When I was younger, I never understood the lyrics and it was the melody that stuck with me. The lyrics meant nothing. And now that I'm older and I know the story of Christmas, the lyrics do carry more meaning but not for me.

We Three Kings of Orient Are


It's a bit odd that this is one of my favourite carols, no? But it is anyway. It's also one of the songs performed in the aforementioned play and it has stuck with me since. It's actually the first place I learnt of Christmas' story and for some reason, there is a very, very, very vibrant image of the three kings in my mind whenever I sing this song.

They aren't carols but here are two of my favourite Christmas songs.

Jingle Bell Rock (I've no idea if it's a carol or not but it seems to modern to be)


I never knew the existence of Jingle Bell Rock until I watched Mean Girls. And now, whenever I hear Jingle Bell Rock, I think of Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams in those tight outfits dancing and then, smacking their thighs. Not a pretty picture in my mind but yes, that's what it is.

Feliz Navidad


Feliz Navidad has the catchiest tune and rhythm to it and I just love it. It makes me shake my hips and shimmy my feet whenever I hear it come on. I don't understand a word he sings except for "I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas" and "from the bottom of my heart".

For the first time ever, Bookworm in Pearls brings you two reviews in one because these novels were far too short and as one Goodreads reader calls, "cheating the readers". It is very frustrating when authors do that as I lamented in my review for Bad Boy Rock Star. I find that it's very lazy and bad writing to cut your novel halfway when there's still so much more you can fit in. It speaks about how limited a writer's imagination is when he/she has to resort to chopping the novel into three/four parts just to keep readers reading and the money flowing in.

"A woman dances the same way she fucks.

Soft and self-conscious; lithe and graceful. Or wild. Passionate.

Unleashed.

It’s not just women either. If you want to know how a man will perform between the sheets, just take him to the nearest dance floor. You’ll learn everything you need to know. His stamina, his rhythm, the slow grind of his hips. Some people are born to it, others learn through years of careful study.

And dancers? We fuck best of all.

Our bodies are our instruments, and we use them in a symphony of pure pleasure. We know just how far to push you, the breathless pacing of true art. The rise and fall that will make you beg for mercy; the ache of satisfaction when we give it to you hard and strong.

Dancing is the ultimate in sensual pleasure, a timeless erotic ritual that needs no words.

I thought I knew what it was like to dance with a skilled partner, a woman who could match my every step. My drive.

My passion.

Then I met her.

Every step she takes conjures wild, dark fantasies in my mind. Every sway of those hips demands satisfaction. My hands on her body. Her lips parted in the sweet gasp of release. Easing those sweet thighs apart and sinking inside deep her, inch by ravenous inch.

Her innocence is intoxicating. My lust is fierce. Primal.

To watch her dance is to know the torment of true temptation.

She will be mine." (Melody Grace)

Title: First Position (Dirty Dancing #1)
Author: Melody Grace
Published: 2014
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Contemporary Romance, New Adult and College Romance

TL;DR Review: 

Too awful for words.

Review: [May Contain Spoilers]

The blurb was hot, hot, hot and I was so excited to read this for I am a staunch believer in the sexual powers that dancing gives men and women. I did quite like Annalise in the beginning for she seemed like a headstrong woman who was flawed in that she liked dancing but she had to live up to her mother's name. There was also an insight into the insane dieting of ballerinas.

However, that was all ruined by Raphael, the lead male who seemed like a down right prick and of course, Annalise's reaction to him. She went from zero to sixty in three point five and one of the character's pointed out the same thing. She needs to stick her tongue back into her mouth and stop drooling over some stranger who seems to be written straight off the pages of a porn script.

Plus, Annalise is an innocent little virgin and I absolutely detest virgin stories. I don't appreciate having men teach me about sex which Raphael seems bent on doing with Annalise, the poor naive little girl. And I don't appreciate female characters who have no backbone and just fall into throes of awfully written lust and sexual fantasies. Annalise is constantly turned on by the sight of Raphael. He probably did some Italian voodoo on her or something with her lady bits constantly on high.

To reiterate, Raphael is just puke-worthy and nothing about him was remotely sexy. I kept trying to picture some hot Italian guy but nothing comes to mind.

Everything was cheesy and awful from the moment Annalise spies Raphael in a courtyard. I've never felt less turned on in my entire life.

Rating: 1/5
Other Details: I read the Kindle edition, approximately 83 pages and published 2014


"Charity Thompson wants to save the world, one hospital at a time. Instead of finishing med school to become a doctor, she chooses a different path and raises money for hospitals – new wings, equipment, whatever they need. Except there is one hospital she would be happy to never set foot in again--her fathers. So of course he hires her to create a gala for his sixty-fifth birthday. Charity can’t say no. Now she is working in the one place she doesn’t want to be. Except she’s attracted to Dr. Elijah Bennet, the handsome playboy chief. 

Will she ever prove to her father that’s she’s more than a med school dropout? Or will her attraction to Elijah keep her from repairing the one thing she desperately wants to fix?"

Title: Saving Forever Part 1
Author: Lexy Timms
Published: 2013
Publisher: Dark Shadow Publishing
Genre: Contemporary Romance

TL;DR Review:

Saving Forever Part 1 is the beginning of a cute and adorable romance. I expect that in the later parts, there will be conflict that will give this novel more substance. For now, it seems like an incomplete piece of writing designed to just introduce readers to the main characters at stake. Also, I'm not a fan of writers chopping their books and stopping half-short just to drag it out over a couple of publications. When I finished this one, there was more than half of my book bar left and even after the four "sneak peak" chapters, it wasn't quite full. A glance at the content page revealed just a lot of book-plugging and self-promotion. I loved Part 1 but I'm not interested in getting the rest because I don't feel like having each novel cut short just to force me to purchase the next one.

Review: [May Contain Spoilers]

Saving Forever Part 1 was actually a very, very good read but I didn't appreciate that the complete bar on my Kobo wasn't even half full when the novel ended. I finished it in about an hour. Four chapters of Part 2 were given as a sneak preview. Honestly, who gives you four chapters for a preview?

Like Timms so aggressively states in the novel, this is NOT erotica and I was glad for it. I'm quite tired of reading badly written erotica that makes me cringe more than get my lady bits all bothered. A sweet little romance is just what was needed to clear my palette. Most people didn't quite like it because this novel is honestly nothing but just a prequel. There was no conflict, no anything. Just two adorable characters liking each other.

The lousy length and novel-chopping aside, Timms writes and crafts rather well. It kept me interested to see what would happen between Charity and Elijah. Plus, I did fall quite a bit in love with Elijah but I kept picturing him as Dave Franco.


However, there was a scene where I felt was out-of-place, awkward and pretentious. I don't see a bunch of late-twenties and thirty-somethings going CLUBBING. Honestly, they'd go to a bar or to some dive-in or something but not clubbing for Merlin's sake. This scene, of course, served to showcase Charity as a trained dancer and gave Elijah a chance to be hero which seemed a little unnecessary.

Rating: 3/5
Other Details: I read the Kindle edition, approximately 116 pages and published 2013.