DEWEY'S READATHON REVIEW: THE ART OF SHIFTING GEARS BY CHI YU RODRIGUEZ.

Title: The Art of Shifting Gears
Author: Chi Yu Rodriguez
Series: Standalone
Edition: Paperback
Publication: April 2017 by Anvil Publishing
Source: Copy provided by the publisher
Pages: 120
Genre: New Adult, Romance

Synopsis:
Rae de los Santos was en route to a perfect adult life. She knew what to major in, she knew what career path she was going to pursue, and she knew who she was going to be with all the way to the realization of her dreams—until her seamless journey made a turn for the unimaginable and skidded to a stop.

All of a sudden she was facing every roadblock possible, and the people she held dear ended up running over her heart.

For a year, she distracted herself with hot lead and burnt rubber, using karting as a lifeline until she was strong enough to face the world that shunned her.

But during Rae’s junior year in college, she was again blindsided by signs that weren’t supposed to be there. Will Rae go full speed ahead? Or will the seduction of the past slow her down?

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The Art of Shifting Gears is another #romanceclass book that I enjoyed! I think this is the first book in the history of MY ever that I met a racer/mechanic female protagonist! Though our Rae is set to become a teacher, her hobbies and abilities are not limited to it and that's a character arc I've tremendously loved.

I was just a little bit - for the lack of a better term - unsatisfied. The story happened within a year and it left so many questions unanswered. Not sure if it was intentional to keep the readers imagining. As a reader however, I would like to have an understanding of what have happened in the past in order to have better judgement. But I was left guessing the following:

a) What really happened to Tessa, Rae and Mike? (Like, I get the gist but shouldn't there be more to it)
b) When did the parents pass? Money started to become an issue? (From the looks of it, yes. But it also sounded that they're well-off in the beginning, so what happened?)
c) What Jason supposed to be an LI as well?
d) Where is the follow-up on the racing encounter with Mike?
e) How did Rae end up with Jason when there is really no chemistry? Wait, what? REALLY?
f) What's the podcast for, to be honest?

and more. The fluidity of the story wasn't as smooth as I expected, it really felt like half of the story is missing and tropes that were mixed up just didn't work well together. But what I loved most are family dynamics, diversity and the rawness of life struggles. I want more racing, I want more car scenes and I want more girl power.

The Art of Shifting Gears is 5% cars, 50% life problems and 45% boy drama. But banters are to look forward to. The story has so much potential but needs a little bit polishing in my opinion. Would have been a lot better if 'sub-scenes' (or back story) have follow-ups and if prose didn't just jump over one another.

Thank you, Anvil Publishing, for the review copy!

"When things left unsaid and emotions left unexpressed have been stewing for so long, they become dense. They weigh a person down, the grime of pain sticks to their skin, forms a permanent lump in their throats that keep them from breathing normally ever again."

BLOG TOUR REVIEW: KEEP THE FAITH BY ANA TEJANO.

My first blog tour for the year (and in a while actually) is Keep the Faith by Ana Tejano! Guys, I have so much love for this book and I couldn't seriously express all my feels but here's my review! Thank you Ana for having me!

Title: Keep the Faith
Author: Ana Tejano
Series: Standalone
Edition: Kindle
Publication: July 31st 2016
Source: Kindle copy provided by the author
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:
As a community development worker, Faith was quite familiar with heartbreak and recovery after all the time she spent on disaster relief missions. So when her five-year relationship ends right before she left for a mission trip to a typhoon-stricken town in Iloilo, she tries not to make a big deal out of it. How can she be broken up about a breakup when she’s with people who literally lost everything?

But now that she’s back, all Faith wants is for her life to go back to normal and have people stop looking at her with pity. Never mind that she still has a lot of questions about the breakup, or that she feels a tiny ache every time her ex comes up in conversations. She’s okay now, and happily distracted by Nico Tamayo, the attractive new guy at work.

With new possibilities in the horizon, Faith thinks she is well on her way to moving on. But when her past comes calling back to her, will all the good things in her present be enough to keep her on the path? Or will she finally learn that there was more to heartbreak and recovery than what she knows?

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Whoa. I just finished reading Keep the Faith by Ana Tejano a few minutes ago and WHOAMYGOD, I didn't know that it would affect me this hard. I am literally ugly sobbing right now because of these emotions I couldn't handle all at once. It was such an amazing story that it massacred my heart and I think I will never recover. This book guys, it hit home and this one means the world to me. I am absolutely surprised how deeply in love I am with this story. Tejano writes so beautifully, it felt as if I am reading a 400-page novel when in reality, this is such a short one. There was no rush in it and I felt it in my bones how the story unfolded, how the characters developed and how my heart crushed. This one legit took me by surprise and swept me off of my feet. Words are not enough for me to express how gripping this one was. My God, it's truly beautifully written I cannot reiterate it enough.

Keep the Faith is a story about Faith who was trying to move on from James. Her ex-boyfriend of 5 years dumped her before she left for Iloilo. Reasons for the break-up she's unsure of but in IloIlo, she tries to bury the breakup at the back of her mind because she's in denial. As a community development worker, focusing on helping others took most of her attention thus unable to really face the finality of her relationship, her broken heart. When she got back to Manila, most of the people around her were so careful about mentioning her ex. It appeared as if people wanted to cage her so she won't get hurt much further by which only aggravated her denials. Then she meets a new employee, Nico. A possible rebound. Who knows? But everything went haywire from there.

The story mirrored my past feelings. I am all too familiar with the confusion, betrayal, false hopes, denial and anger enveloped in the story. There's no easy way to move on and it differs for each one of us but Keep the Faith made me relive the feelings. This book reminded me that those feelings were real, that those feelings made me a better person and those feelings are packaged with moments I would surely have with me for the rest of my life. Keep the Faith is as relatable as it gets and I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity to read such riveting story. The grief and the loss are two absolute reflections of our lives and it can't get any truer than that.

Would have given the book 8 stars if only the story ended at 91%. I just think that sometimes, not all stories have to end the way this has ended. And the full names. What's really up with the full names.

Keep the Faith just went up as my second favorite contemporary romance of all time. I am still incoherent because I am in awe. Tejano's writing style is so flawless and spontaneous. I wish I could write like that! And don't judge this book for being a thin one, you'd be surprised how heavy the feels it could throw right at your face! This book certainly set the bar high for Romance Class books and I am so thrilled know what's in store for me in my next Tejano book!

I loved Keep the Faith. I LOVED IT SO SO DAMN MUCH MY WHOLE LIFE ACHES. Strikingly executed and emotionally direct, it's a story that will touch your heart in unforgettable ways. READ THIS NOW!

Thank you Ana for sending me the Kindle copy!

"One thing so terrible about a relationship ending is you end up with having so much love left in your heart and no one to receive it."

"The thing about heartbreak, I realized, is it's not really about waiting for things to stop hurting before you start moving. A broken heart can and will heal in time, but for time to actually do its job, I needed to acknowledge what I had lost and move on. However, I knew it was going to take a while - that the road would be littered with bumps and possibly smaller heartbreaks that would punch me in the gut and make me grieve again.
Even with all the truths I held in my heart, there were so many uncertainties left and so many things that I had to learn over again on my own. I didn't know if things would turn out the way I wanted then to, until I got there. For now, all I needed to do was to keep moving, because at the one of the day, uncertainties were simply an exercise in faith."

REVIEW: THE BOYFRIEND BACKTRACK BY DAWN LANUZA.

Title: The Boyfriend Backtrack
Author: Dawn Lanuza
Series: Standalone
Edition: Paperback
Publication: September 2015 by Anvil Publishing
Source: Bought from National Bookstore
Pages: 161
Genre: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary

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?

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HELLEW CHASE SEVILLA YOU BEAUTIFUL HUMAN BEING YOU OMG I AM BABBLING

What? I loved The Boyfriend Backtrack by Dawn Lanuza like I love Blueberry Cheesecakes! This book is a quick read and truly an enjoyable one! I am now obsessed with Dawn's writing and I cannot wait to breeze through her other works!

The Boyfriend Backtrack is just the perfect New Adult novel for me. AS IN PERFECT I-NEEDED-THIS-BOOK-AT-THIS-VERY-MOMENT PERFECT. The setting is here in the Philippines and I am of course familiar with where this one took place and it gave me funny feelings because OMG FINALLY A BOOK I CAN HONESTLY SAY "I KNOW THAT DAMN PLACE!" (Especially the hospital because I've been there a lot of times) It's funny how Reg spaced out and had a flashback of all her exes when Kevin proposed to her. At the beginning of the book, I knew she's skeptical about the engagement because it's pretty much obvious but what I didn't expect was Reg legit went back tracking her exes for closure. I mean, that's just freaking weird, like, after years of not seeing seach other, you had to go find them just to tell them, like, why it didn't work out and stuff? DAMN CRAZY, RIGHT? I can relate to having anxiety/panic attacks when meeting people you actually don't really want to me at all but you kind of have to? Or like those confrontations you have to go through to finally close like whatever chapter in your life? All the feels right there! And she has this ex who wrote a song for her titled Devil Woman HAHAH OMG THAT IS JUST CRUEL BUT FUNNY BECAUSE WOW EX REALLY?! Her exes are weird af and Reg's face if so readable I was just laughing the entire time.

A slight downside though, the first person POV and narration's tense confused me a little bit.

Then we have Chase Sevilla who is actually a close friend of Reg since college. More like best friends. I loved Dawn's way of getting around this trope because I practically fell head over heels with Chase. He's the kind of guy one would actually fall for - SMART, handsome, tall, sexy, sweet, I don't want to say kind but he actually is - aaaah a lot more! He's sooooo easy to be with and he's probabaly the type I could talk to 24/7 because he's like that - like, you can just talk and he would be there for you anytime? Chase is not shallow but he can be for you just to keep the conversation going? He's that type! He's also a little bit cheesy aaaaah all I am saying is he's THE perfect package! (He's also a doctor so that's a MAJOR bonus!)

Maaaaaan, if you need a refreshing read and a story you can 100% relate to, pick up The Boyfriend Backtrack. This book is a source of happy feels!

"You only fall in love once, The rest are just endless rebounds."

DNF REVIEW: NEVER JUST FRIENDS BY MINA ESGUERRA.

Title: Never Just Friends
Series: Standalone
Author: Mina V. Esguerra
Edition: Paperback
Publication: Anvil Publishing / 2015
Source: Finished copy provided by the publisher
Pages: 134
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Trailer: Not available.

Synopsis:

It's too easy to fall in love with Jake. Don't do it.

Lindsay and Jake have loved each other (as friends) since their senior year in college, and she made sure they didn’t become more than that. The guy now known as Jacob Berkeley, star of a wildly successful TV show, was always too much for her. Too handsome, too many questionable hookups, too restless. Also sensitive, fun, and genuinely caring. She's his emergency contact, his "zombie apocalypse buddy," his holiday dinner companion.

They've kept up this low-maintenance friendship for years, surviving graduation, their new careers, her move to New York City to work as an environment consultant. But then, days before a big climate change conference, he shows up, with big news. Jake wants to pick up what he never managed to finish in college. He wants to save forests again, work in environmental research - and he wants her.

Don't fall in love with Jake...Why again?

Well, let's see how this will go.

This is my first ever DNF review. I tried so hard to finish reading it thinking this is just a hundred and thirty four pages long but I failed miserably. I picked it up over four times trying to get myself immersed in the story but nothing -- I got nothing. I have a strict policy that I won't DNF much less review one but I guess there's always an exemption to the rule. I tried, I promise. I tried and tried and tried until finally, I just gave up. (I technically finished it but I skimmed hard core so I don't think it would count. You know what I mean.)

Am just going to make this very quick, alright? So here are the reasons why I DNFed this one:

1. There was something about the writing style that I find absolutely weird.
2. The attempt in humor just...flailed.
3. Female main character was initially mad at the Male MC for not contacting her for a year and then when he came back, she immediately gave herself to him. She should have at least let him make it up or something but no, she just did it with him right away.
4. Male MC was always a jerk.
5. Male MC just wanted to have sex, all the time, anywhere.
6. The plot would have been interesting enough (campaign for saving the environment or something) but it didn't make sense at all. It felt so pretentious to me.
7. It was so confusing who was the narrator.
8. I couldn't relate to anything - Female MC, Male MC, the plot -- AAAAH NOTHING!
9. There were a ton of unnecessary self-monologue-ing that makes the story all jumbled up.
10. Did I say something about the plot not really making sense to me? I mean, what was it about really?

There you have it. I've seen mixed reviews on Goodreads, I don't want to be the ONLY black sheep. I just simple can't lie to myself, I would never have enjoyed this even if I read it thoroughly.

Never Just Friends didn't make it to my favorite reads list. The experience was weird, stiff and a little off that recommending this would be hard.

Sorry. I tried.

Thank you Anvil Publishing for sending a finished review copy!

ZERO STARS - DID NOT FINISH

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