LOVE, SIMON+BOOKISH STICKER SETS LAUNCH BY TBBJOURNALS AKA ME HAHA

So umm finally, I have retrieved my Blogger password!! I can now finally blog OMG some publishers no longer approve my ARC requests maybe because they thought I've gone completely silent here! So imagine my big sigh of relief earlier when I found my credentials HAHA!

Anyway, this isn't a review because umm the titles says it all (but I will get to reviews shortly). I've been wanting to produce sticker for a while and when I say I while I mean since 2016 -- and last April 24th, I FINALLY DID IT!!! (I am only posting now because of me being dumb that I completely forgot my new password) OMG it was sooooo freaking surreal. It took me a while to draw and it took me an entire day (I am not exaggerating) to process everything. From scanning, laying out the illos in Photoshop, cleaning, laying out the stickers in print format, getting the correct color in prints (OMGGGGG THIS PROCESS IS CRAZY!!), testing prints in the sticker paper, cutting them out and finally packaging them. Seriously, it took me one whole day and extra muscle ache in the morning just to get these simple (but full of love) stickers.

This is the entire set of my first ever merch and I feel like a legit artist HAHA! Seriously, I have never done anything in my life - arts wise - that I put so much love and care like I did in this one. It isn't perfect but it's something I made because I loveeeeee what I do and how I did it. It made me happy, even more happier than selling them to be honest.

Love, Simon Sticker Flakes Set (just in time for the movie!)

Bookish set that my inner book blogger is so proud of!

Becky Books Illustration that my inner artist is flailing so hard for!

How the packaging looks like - this ,my children, is what my inner journalist (er?) is absolutely happy with!

Took a picture of the sets I sold (but wasn't able to take photos of the ones for Krish, Olivia and Erica) and I couldn't thank these "first set of clients" enough for reaching out and supporting my sticker shop. IT IS SO FUCKING VALIDATING I CANNOT BEGIN TO EXPLAIN IT. Especially when clients liked my stickersAnd I will say it again that I did put so much love in each envelope because I made everything by hand. That's something I would do over and over again because dude, the feels? UNBELIEVABLY DELICIOUS!

If you want to order, kindly DM me on IG. You can reach me via @tbbjournal or @tbbstoreph and I will gladly answer. Unfortunately international friends, my stickers are only available for shipping within Philippines. I haven't worked out how INTL shipping works haha but I am on it. Again, thank you for all the support!

REVIEW: THE UPSIDE OF UNREQUITED BY BECKY ALBERTALLI.

Title: The Upside of Unrequited
Author: Becky Albertalli
Series: Standalone
Edition: Kindle
Publication: April 11th 2017 by Balzer & Bray
Source: eARC provided by the publisher via Edelweiss
Pages: 336
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Romance, YA, F/F, Contemporary

Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love—she’s lived through it twenty-six times. She crushes hard and crushes often, but always in secret. Because no matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can’t stomach the idea of rejection. So she’s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.

Then a cute new girl enters Cassie’s orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly’s cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly’s totally not dying of loneliness—except for the part where she is. Luckily, Cassie’s new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. Will is funny and flirtatious and just might be perfect crush material. Maybe more than crush material. And if Molly can win him over, she’ll get her first kiss and she’ll get her twin back.

There’s only one problem: Molly’s coworker Reid. He’s an awkward Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there’s absolutely no way Molly could fall for him. Right?

PURCHASE THE BOOK HERE:

Amazon ▴ Barnes and Noble ▴ Book Depository

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli proves that she deserves to be in everyone's Auto-Buy Authors Lists. Simon VS set the bar quite high for me and it took a while before I joined the the fandom and it was an amazing book! I should have read it sooner!

This one filled me with extreme emotions. It resurrected my old feelings and made me love Molly so much. I was thin in high school (AND fat now) but Molly is so easy to relate to! Her voice is the kindest I've ever read and I loved it so much that she tries to think good of others all the time. Molly have also encapsulated her flaws in a way that people would be able to see themselves in and for me, Becky just represented fat people in a flawless way and I couldn't ask for anything more because Molly (I LOVE THIS GIRL), Becky (AND THIS GIRL) and Upside (AND THIS BOOK) have all star qualites.

Let's not forget the different types of love in this book! I have encountered M/M parents before and I think this is the first one I read F/F parents and OMG THEY ARE FABULOUS! Not only because they are F/F but because #lovewins (fuck yeah!) and Becky just gave us the perfect family! Thank you, Becky. Thank you for making the Upside world such a better place and I wanna live in it. Also, thank you for Reid's family, their circle of friends who are all equally brilliant and OMG for Cassie and Reid! Can I ask them to adopt me? PLEASE, BECKY?

Fat rep? Check.
Family dynamics? Check.
LGBTQPIA+? Check.
Mental Illness rep? Check.
So many other important things like self-worth? Check.
Fluffy romance? Cheeeeeeeeeeck.
Did I miss anything? Check. LOL

The Upside of Unrequited is a book worth picking-up and re-reading just right after. It's THE book you will easily definitely identify with and it has all the kind of feels you are thirsty for!

Thank you HarperCollins and Edelweiss for the eARC!

"ven if he likes me, I’m not sure he’d like me naked. I hate that I’m even thinking that. I hate hating my body. Actually, I don’t even hate my body. I just worry everyone else might. Because chubby girls don’t get boyfriends, and they definitely don’t have sex. Not in movies—not really—unless it’s supposed to be a joke. And I don’t want to be a joke."

"Something like that. But you know, there's an upside here. Because when you spend so much time just intensely wanting something, and then you actually get the thing? It's magic.” All of a sudden, I feel like crying. In a good way. In the best way. Because I know exactly what she means. It's butterflies and haziness and heart eyes, but underneath all that, there's this bass line of I can't believe this. I can't believe this is me. I can't quite articulate the sweetness of that feeling. It's finding out the door you were banging on is finally unlocked. Maybe it was unlocked the whole time."

REVIEW: SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA BY BECKY ALBERTALLI.

Title: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
Author: Becky Albertalli
Series: Standalone
Edition: Hardcover
Publication: April 7th 2015 by Balzer + Bray
Source: Bought from Fullybooked, Cebu
Pages: 320
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, LGBTQIA+, Contemporary

Synopsis:
Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.

PURCHASE THE BOOK HERE:

Amazon ▴ Barnes and Noble ▴ Book Depository

Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda has been on my radar for quite a while now. I didn't get to it right away because the hype is overwhelming, plus, I didn't have a copy yet. It just so happen that I spotted a copy on sale last year when I visited Cebu and I knew it would be the best memorabilia I could take home. I didn't read it until late December. Simon is the first book I read this year and it couldn't have been more perfect.

Thank you, Becky, for writing Simon vs. This is one of those moving, influential and important books we all need to read (I will definitely re-read!). I loved every single part of this book because it's so raw that it brings out all sorts of emotions. I loved loved loved Simon's parents, Simon, Martin (I learned to love this character at the end), and BLUE. OMG I NEVER GUESSED WHO HE WAS IT BUT I LOVED HIM EVEN FROM THE START. FROM HIS EMAILS UP UNTIL THE END. IT WAS FREAKING MAGICAL YOU GUYS. AAAAAAH I LOVE YOU, BLUE!

I can't find the right words to express how happy I am with Simon vs. I mean, this is the book I will forever push down everyone's way because Becky wrote THE perfect book!

"White shouldn't be the default any more than straight should be the default. There shouldn't even be a default."

"He talked about the ocean between people. And how the whole point of everything is to find a shore worth swimming to."

"Being secure in you masculinity isn't the same as being straight."