LIKE CHAI TEA — books & lifestyle.

Nicolette from Falling Over Books did this tag based on this Twitter post. No idea of the original source though but I love the idea of this. There's another romance tag I found around the blog community but they have different questions and I opted for this one. And I was just about to focus this on contemporary romance reads but I inserted two fantasy books because I can.

I'm a romance-junkie so this tag was fun to answer.

01. First romance you remember reading: I don't remember a specific title but I do remember during the early days of me discovering romance books that I read ones by Nicholas Sparks. I just put Dear John there for randomness.

02. Last romance you read: Fumbled (Playbook, #2) by Alexa Martin

03. The romance you are most likely to recommend to a newbie: For YA, I would recommend one of the books that really made me love contemporary romance and one of my early reads as well and that is Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. For NA/Adult, I would recommend Hotshot Doc by R.S. Grey.

04. The romance you are most likely to recommend to another romance reader: Archer's Voice by Mia Sheridan because it's packed with sweetness and it's quite heavy on the emotional side. Also Shameless by Lex Martin. It's a quick, light, and sweet read.

05. An underrated romance you wish more people would read: I keep mentioning this book and I don't know how underrated it is but I hardly see people talk about this book or any of this author's books. It's Forever Right Now by Emma Scott. It's a really good book that tackled stigma on recovering addicts, family, and dreams. I love it so much. Just check out Emma Scott's books.They're wonderful.

06. An overrated romance you wish people would stop talking about: I don't have any actually... I won't be mentioning any romance book that got adapted into movies though. I mean there are books that people keep talking about but I see the same people talk and talk about it so I wouldn't say it's overrated because it just looks like a group of friends gushing over the same book/series.

07. An auto-buy author: I have a post about that here.

08. An author you used to love that you’ve since abandoned: Abbi Glines. I'm not that fond of her latest releases anymore but I will always have a special place in my hear for the Rosemary Beach Series (Grant and Harlow are my favorites) and the Sea Breeze Series (Marcus and Low for this one). Also Krista and Becca Ritchie. The Addicted Series also resides in my heart and I will always, ALWAYS, love the ensemble especially Lily Calloway and Loren Hale. I just don't fancy reading their post-Addicted works anymore.

09. Favourite trope: I have so many. Some of them are best-friends to lovers, enemies to lovers or hate to love, fake dating/marriage, and marriage of inconvenience or marriage on the rocks.

10. Best book with your favorite trope: All Your Perfects for marriage on the rocks, The Deal (Off-Campus, #1) for fake dating and it's lowkey enemies to lovers and also best friends to lovers. The pace and development of Hannah and Garrett's relationship was one of my favorites to read. Filthy Gods (American Gods, #0.5) by R. Scarlett for enemies to lovers, Love, Life and the List by Kasie West for best friends to lovers.

11. A book you didn’t like even though it has your favourite trope: Bound by Hatred (Born in Blood Mafia Chronicles, #3) by Cora Reilly has the hate to love trope but I swear, I was so annoyed with the heroine that it took out all my energy in reading. Silk and Shadows (The Virgin Diaries, #3) by Lauren Landish has the smart girl in the class tutoring the popular jock trope and that's kind of one of my favorites too but this was just eh.. NOT IT for me.

12. Most hated trope: Love triangles. It annoys me when a book has this trope and it's so obvious who's the hero/heroine going to end up with. Like why waste my time with unnecessary drama? I'd always end up feeling bad for the one who doesn't get the HEA even though they're not my pick of who the hero/heroine will end up with. Also cheating. That's another trope I hate.

13. A book you liked even though it has the trope you hate: Guilty pleasure read would be Undeniably You by Jewel E. Ann. It has the cheating trope *hides* I don't even know why I bother... there's also All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover. That book made me cry, okay.

14. Your problematic favourite: Pretty Venom (Gray Springs University, #3) by Ella Fields and again, it has a cheating trope so you can see why it's problematic. But then, the author already had a note before you read the book for the kind of mess this book is going to be so at least there's that. Well, I still read it... and enjoyed it. I loved the drama for some reason and how the hero was wallowing in misery lol.

15. A book everyone else loved that has you scratching your head: I don't really bother with what people read and if they like it or not as long as they remain civil and respectful. I'm not scratching my head for these but I'm one of the fewer people (I'm probably the 1%) who wasn't all that fond of it. Pretty Reckless (All Saints High, #1) by L.J. Shen, The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren *hides again*, and Sempre (Sempre, #1) by J.M. Darhower. You can click the titles to redirect you to my little thoughts about why these books didn't do it for me.

16. Your favourite romancelandia person to follow on twitter: Rheeza (this book tag was based on her tweet) because her taste in romance books is *chef's kiss*. I don't follow a lot of of people on twitter and the bookish people that I do follow, I love seeing their tweets on my timeline. I get the latest romance updates from some of them and some recommendations from the other.

17. A place or person you go for recommendations or review: Nicolette from Falling Over Books is my source for romance reads in the booktube community. Alba and Her Secrets from Twitter (this should be in #16 too). The rest, Goodreads.

18. A book that has a character that reminds you of yourself: Georgie Castle from Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey. I connect with her when it comes to being happy and doing what you're passionate about yet people don't take you seriously or would look down on what you do.

19. Romance cover you love: For those who don't know yet, I'm obsessed with pretty cover arts. This was hard for me and I had to restrain myself from posting a whole lot of book covers. For here we got Save the Date by Morgan Matson, If I'm Being Honest by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka, The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang, and Listen to Me (Fusion, #1) by Kristen Proby.

20. A book you’ve reread more than twice: Twisted Emotions (The Camorra Chronicles, #2) by Cora Reilly. I love Nino and Kiara so much. Definitely my favorite couple by this author. Hard Sell (21 Wall Street, #2) by Lauren Layne. Matt and Sabrina are like oil and water and I love it.

21. Best romance audiobook: I haven't listened to one yet.

22. Best romance/rom-com movie: Best is too much of a stretch but these are some of the romance movies I enjoy though. I don't know if I can categorize Kimi no Na Wa (Your Name) as romance but it does play a part in and it will always be special to me. The art style is so beautiful I wanted to cry (I actually did... over an art style). And the soundtrack was also cry-worthy especially how the songs' lyrics match up with the scene is assigned to it. Pride and Prejudice stayed with me for years. Confessions of a Shopaholic is a favorite of mine and my mom's. I've never read the books though.

23. Favourite heroine: Lily Martha Calloway-Hale from the Addicted Series. Also her baby girl, Luna Hale. I love them both entirely. There's also Trinity Lynn Marrow from a recent read, The Harbinger Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I'd fight anyone for her. And my all-time favorite fictional witch aka the love of my life in the fictional world, Sydney Katherine Sage-Ivashkov from the Bloodlines Series by Richelle Mead.

24. Favourite hero: Loren Hale, my darling taco-loving boy and Marvel elitist from the Addicted Series. Cameron Hamilton from the Wait for You Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. My OG favorite NA Hero. I love him and his cookies and boiled eggs. And again, from The Harbinger Series is Zayne. Him and his bacon. And my favorite brooding rich vampire slash artist and former asshole, Adrian Ivashkov from the Bloodlines Series.

25. Your all time favourite romance: I can't name one. Did you see the struggle in numbers 23 and 24? Most of the books I mentioned here are a favorite though.

Here's the list of questions

1. First romance you remember reading
2. Last romance you read
3. The romance you are most likely to recommend to a newbie
4. The romance you are most likely to recommend to another romance reader
5. An underrated romance you wish more people would read
6. An overrated romance you wish people would stop talking about
7. An auto-buy author
8. An author you used to love that you’ve since abandoned
9. Favourite trope
10. Best book with you favourite trope
11. A book you didn’t like even though it has your favourite trope
12. Most hated trope
13. A book you liked even though it has the trope you hate
14. Your problematic favourite
15. A book everyone else loved that has you scratching your head
16. Your favourite romancelandia person to follow on twitter
17. A place or person you go for recommendations or review
18. A book that has a character that reminds you of yourself
19. Romance cover you love
20. A book you’ve reread more than twice
21. Best romance audiobook
22. Best romance/romcom movie
23. Favourite heroine
24. Favourite hero
25. Your all time favourite romance

And that's it for the romance book tag.

Tagging Genesis from Whispering Chapters and Tanya from Girl Plus Books.

Anyone who reading this and wants to do this tag, feel free to. I do like to see your answers. :)

Hosted by: The Broke and the Bookish

Now at: That Artsy Reader Girl

Like what the title says, this Freebie is dedicated to book characters and what they like to eat and drink. I did not include books that are centered around food because 1) That would be obvious and easy; 2) I like the challenge with this one; 3) It's nice to know you have paid attention to details about the fictional characters you've encountered.

This was supposed to be my theme for July 09's Top 10 Tuesday Character Freebie until I thought of another topic.

So here it is. Just so you know, I tried my hardest to remember their favorites.
Note: The characters listed here are some of my favorite fictional people. EVER.

Cheese Plate - Grace Brighton

(Sex, Love & Stiletto Series by Lauren Layne)

We got a fancy one for the first spot.

I recently finished the series last week and one of the things that caught my attention was the mention of the cheese plate. Miss Grace Brighton here loves cheese plate and Jake, her love interest but was still her not-really-but-kinda enemy at that time, suddenly went from discussing a magazine article to "cheese plate" and how it's the fifth magic word (or words) that gets a woman in bed.. according to the article. Their conversation was funny though because she called it BS but a few chapters later, she went and ordered a cheese plate because she couldn't stop thinking about cheese.

Pancakes - The Blackthorn Siblings + Emma & Cristina

(The Dark Artifices by Cassandra Clare)

Julian Blackthorn (my darling boy) is the parental figure of the young Blackthorns in the LA Institute... and is also the designated cook who happens to serve pancakes to the pancake-loving family, and we include Emma and Cristina here. With Ty getting the pancakes first, Dru wanting butter and syrup, Livvy with just syrup, Emma with sugar, and Cristina just wants them plain.

"Too much coffee, not enough pancakes."
"I hope they put that on my tombstone."

And that's a legit Emma x Julian quote.

Pizza - The Falcone Brothers

(The Camorra Chronicles by Cora Reilly)

One of my favorite mafia romance stories and one of my favorite families despite how twisted they are (given how this series is centered around the mafia and it's dark). We got the Falcone brothers who are feared in Vegas because they torture and kill their enemies without batting an eyelash yet they like to bond over pizza once they're back home.

Pizza is like a staple food in their lives until Nino aka Falcone Bro #2 decides that these people need some real food so he goes grocery shopping. Literally he's the only one who remembers to buy groceries.

Bacon - Zayne and Trinity

(The Harbinger Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout)

Nothing like a brooding hot gargoyle-man cooking your breakfast and stealing your heart through bacon. That's exactly how mornings with Zayne and Trinity are since they're living under the same roof and he loves to feed her with bacon. Seriously, they c

"You're doing really good."
"At what? Eating bacon? I'm extremely skilled at that."

All Zayne had to do is cook some bacon and Trinity is ready to keep him in her life.

Coffee - Sydney Sage

(Bloodlines Series by Richelle Mead)

Here we have my all-time favorite fictional woman to ever grace the YA community with her magic powers, handsome brooding vampire boyfriend-now-husband, and her cup of coffee. I love Sydney Katherine Sage just as much as she loves her coffee.

She's totally a coffee-addict that in The Fiery Heart, she and Adrian had their own little support group (with just the two of them) to control their addictions: hers with coffee, his with smoking. And so far, their little group was successful.. though she still drinks coffee but now, moderately.

Tacos - Loren Hale

(Addicted Series by Krista and Becca Ritchie)

Find you someone who'll love you like how Loren Hale loves Lily Calloway and tacos.

Lily: *is tangled in the sheets and comforter*
"Do I look like a good taco?"
"I'd eat you."

I say she looked like a burrito in that scene but if they say taco, then it's TACO.

Blue Food - Percy Jackson

(Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan)

If I remember correctly, Percy likes anything that is blue. I Googled this to be sure and the results did say that he drinks or eats blue food. Correct me if I'm wrong because I haven't read this series in a long time.

Tuna Casserole - Sawyer and Darlene

(Forever Right Now by Emma Scott)

This is my favorite Emma Scott book and I'm grateful for Darlene's existence in Sawyer's life that she gets to feed him a tuna casserole after him having to be content in eating frozen food. This casserole was like a constant part of their lives too lol. Like... this casserole played a big part of the start of their friendship. And I'll stop there to avoid spoilers.

Waffles - The Dregs

(Six of Crows Series by Leigh Bardugo)

When you say "waffles" and "the dregs", Jesper Fahey is definitely the spokesperson for it. The squad does love waffles though but Jesper is the loudest about it.

This love for waffles they have going on also birthed one of most used quotes from Nina Zenik and Matthias Helvar in Tumblr edits:

"You're better than waffles, Matthias Helvar."
"Let's not say things we don't mean, my love."

I'm crying. I miss them and I miss eating waffles even though I just had some last Friday.

Wine - Matthew Clairemont

(All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness)

I started this list with a fancy food plate and now I'm ending it with a fancy drink from one of my favorite, and probably the only, adult fantasy books. Matthew is an expert when it comes to wine. I kinda forgot if his choice is specifically red wine. If you've watched A Discovery of Witches, you'd definitely see Matthew holding a glass of wine here and there.

How about you, do you know what your favorite character/s like to eat or drink?
What's your topic for today's freebie?

Hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer

This week was quite eventful. A total upgrade from last week I must say.

One thing that truly made my week entertaining was the new clock in the house because it's a pendulum clock (a modern-looking one). I wasn't even a fan of it because its ticking is loud though I got used to it already. And I totally forgot that it makes a sound when it hits a certain hour so last Friday at almost midnight, I was feeling hazy from sleep (my mind was totally out of this universe) and I went to the kitchen to get some water, and that's just when the clock decided to let everyone in the house know that it's 12 MN. It gave me a freakin' jump scare when it made a sound. And what happens next? I suddenly remember all those horror movies I've watched that had pendulum clocks sounding at midnight. I ran back as fast as I could to my room like a guilty person getting chased by a debt collector. My mom heard my footsteps and asked why I was running at midnight like a lunatic. I had to ~~nervously~~laugh at myself the next day.

The ghosts hovering around me were probably laughing and thanking me for saving them from having to work a tactic to scare me because I did a good one by myself. And that's a little fact I read from Reader's Digest a long time ago that each person has 2-3 ghosts with them LOL I don't know how legit or how they even know it but oh well, it's part of the exciting things in life.

I'm sorry that that was quite long.
Finally, let's go to the book talk because I've been productive in reading lately.

First of all, I FINALLY COMPLETED MY 2019 READING CHALLENGE! This is really huge for me because this is the first time I'm this early in completing the challenge. And with 100 books, I feel so relieved because I when I decided a number of books I wanna achieve reading, I originally planned for 50-60 because last year, real life kept my so busy that I expected it will be the same this year. I am still busy though but I did manage to insert some reading time here and there. I miss feeling this accomplished in reading.

RECENT POSTS THIS WEEK:

Series Review - Sex, Love & Stiletto by Lauren Layne

Top Ten Tuesday - Settings I Like Seeing

Can't Wait Wednesday - Central Park Pact Series

BOOKS READ THIS WEEK:

Sex, Love & Stiletto Series by Lauren Layne (I read all 4 books and I'm proud of myself for getting through it. I enjoyed the series and Just One Night is definitely a favorite / REVIEW HERE)
Raw (RAW Family, #1) by Belle Aurora (★★ / I could say this was dark like what the blurb said but it was predictable for me. I don't even know if I want to continue the series because the epilogue invited a new story to be told and well, it has a book #3 for it but I didn't connect to the characters nor was I really into the story.)
The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker (★★★★ / Finally, a story that made me sad.)
Scythe (Scythe, #1) by Neal (★★★.5 / I liked the concept but I needed more from it. If this was a chicken about to be cooked, I'd say it needed more seasoning.)

CURRENTLY READING:

Fumbled by Alexa Martin (I'm actually almost done with the book as I'm typing this post.)
A Place in the Sun by R.S. Grey (Trying to go for something outside my TBR and read one of R.S. Grey's popular books.)

TBR UPDATE:

19/31. That's quite an upgrade. About to be 29 soon because I have the RAW Family Trilogy in my TBR but I'm not sure anymore if I want to continue reading the rest of the books. As for The Dark Elements Series, I still have strong plans to read the books. BUT, I feel like reading them once The Harbinger Series' second book's release date comes to a close (definitely in 2020) because I plan to reread Storm and Fury right after I finish TDE. I like to keep my mind's memories of the prequel fresh... and I just like to read about Trinity Marrow again. I love that girl, just so anyone knows. So we goin' 31 to 29 to 25. 25 for the TBR. Now it's 19/25. I think I'm good.

BOOKS I GOT:

Faking Ms. Right by Claire Kingsley / Lies by Kylie Scott / Filthy Vows by Alessandra Torre

Kiss and Break Up (Magnolia Cove, #1) by Ella Fields / Rush by Emma Scott / The Guy on the Right by Kate Stewart

WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO:

Waffles - I had an appointment for my braces' adjustment last Tuesday and I decided to go get some waffles after. I didn't even care that my teeth hurt after the adjustment. I WANTED THOSE WAFFLES. But sadly, it was raining so hard the entire day that I didn't get to sit and enjoy the waffles I ordered because I had to drive back home right after I got them. I didn't want to deal with the traffic jam and I had my appointment in the afternoon and I wanna get home before the sun sets. It's hard driving on a rainy night.

Buzzfeed Videos - I used to watch Buzzfeed videos back then for the food (I mean there's Tasty but Buzzfeed got its own food videos as well). Out of boredom, I started watching their videos again and I landed on Hannah Williams' Mom In-Progress videos... and I got hooked. I LOVE HER VIDEOS. It started with me watching her I Let My Kids Meal Plan Our Week to every Mom In-Progress video that's been posted. Her kids are so sweet and cute and she's a great mom and her husband's also a great dad. It was so fun watching their family and how she let her kids have the reigns on certain things for like a week.

How about you?

How was your week?

Here's me spreading virtual hugs and happy thoughts to you all ♡

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