Crash by Nicole Williams: My Thoughts

Title: Crash
Author: Nicole Williams
Ratings: 4 stars
Publisher: Self-Published
Published: July 2012
Read: August 5 - 6, 2012

To be honest, I don’t know how to start writing down my thoughts. I’m in a state of memory loss. or so I think. HELP? I finished Crash a week ago and after which I jumped into reading my academic books (some nose bleeding medical stuff). Poor me. My memory cells are in a total chaos. Tap. Tap. Where to begin? OK, let me give this a try.

I always come across some of the works of Ms. Williams (Eternal Eden, Fissure, etc.) on my Goodreads feed and although I’ve added most of her books to my TBR pile, (I even have some of them in my reading device already) I never take a chance to read any of her books. BUT thank heavens, I gave CRASH a shot! And oh my, as was I sinking into it, I am cursing myself for my late appreciation of Ms. Williams’ works. I should have read one of hers before, her writing is incredibly good. 

So CRASH . Lucy Larson’s dream has always been centered on dancing. It uplifts her soul; builds her spirit high and brings a sense of hope every time the reality of her life will sink in. Dancing is her lifeline; it’s the peace she finds in the emotional chaos she’s been into ever since the death of her older brother and her family’s devastating financial crisis. Life must be playing tricks on Jude Ryder. He never in a lifetime thought he’ll end up in Last Chance Boy’s home when things got out of hand back in his real home. So with all the damn-to-die-for looks is a scarred boy trying to live each day while battling with his own fears. And as if life can’t get enough in troubling Lucy and Jude, they’ll end up crashing into each other’s path while trying to find a way to forget what’s in their past. 

How Lucy finds Jude in the beach one day is the funniest, most swoon-worthy and squeemoment for me. And since the book was told in Lucy’s POV, we get a front row experience on what’s been going on in her mind the day their paths cross. Just by reliving that moment, I found myself smiling (CRAZY!). I’m pretty sure on the fact that in some point of our lives we dealt with our I’m-Gonna-Faint moments whenever we happen to see an amazingly gorgeous guy in front us. But the catch is, not everyone gets the chance to have that hot guy to walk towards her and ask for her name and number. DAMN!! I hope that day will come and I’m gonna be fainting for sure. But Lucy is one lucky girl! and how she deals with Jude and his tricks is something I’ll never thought a girl can do. Because I can’t even see myself handling someone like Jude that day! I’m getting you all curious about this huh? GRINNING. 

WAIT. As I was scrolling my notes section, I found this one: With sons, all he had to worry about was one penis, but with a daughter, he had to worry about everyone else’s – Lucy’s Dad. This isSO SO funny, my belly is aching. So that’s what our fathers are contemplating about? SMART THINKING DAD! 

That is one of the things I loved about this book, it keeps you holding on to your seat because you might just fall from your chair from laughing so hard. Lucy knows how to play along with Jude’s humor, she is so good that sometimes I can’t tell if it’s Jude or her who is already talking. Yep, she’s that witty. 

“How could I know so little of him, yet still feel like I’d never known anyone better” – Lucy. The search for answers about Jude’s real identity and what is in his past are the two things that constantly block any progress in their relationship. Since its Lucy POV, we are given snippets of the events that have transpired in her life but with Jude, everything is a mystery. I have to always keep repeating my mantra about patience “I’ll get to the end” but damn the suspense is high. I am so intrigued with Jude’s actions every now and then. Frustration hits me whenever he’ll do something that will put him in a terrible position(What the hell Jude?) but then when I think of it, he is scarred, he is still in pain and probably that is the way he lets himself cope with the loss of balance in his life. 

“You can’t be friends with the person you were meant to spend your life with” – Jude. And I died. And I died. I think the reason why I am so eager to read books with bad boys in it is that I want to know how such guy will trash all his negative baggage and come out clean just for the girl he loves. Cause love matters most than anything else. Squee. Jude just know how to make my heart stop. 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Crash. It reminds me of Beautiful Disaster maybe because of the same bad boy idea but this has a different twist and builds up with just enough tension that can break your heart into pieces, put it back to place then crash again. I am certain it is in my to-read again books; I kind of skimmed some parts in it since I wanted so badly to get to the last part just to calm my senses. 

So you think you should let Crash sit in your shelf for a bit longer, I don’t think you should do. Here’s why: 

“The name’s Jude Ryder, since I know you’re all salivating like a rabid dog to know, and I don’t do girlfriends, relationships, flowers, or regular phone calls. If that works for you, I think we could work out something special.” 

WHAT THE?!

Gone for sometime BUT...

School just started last June 6 and less than a month has passed and it's already eating up most of my time!!! Really, my professors are bombing tests here and there. My schedule is less tight as compared to the last one but being in the fifth year I guess doesn't ensure you of having lesser time for studying. Can you imagine having to squeeze your neurons during the first day already because of a pop quiz? Well, it's been a regular for a pharma student to endure such situations, and maybe I'm proud to say I've survived all those days and nights of torture.

So I'm back, for good? I hope so. I really want to keep my blog updated with events of my fifth year and my last year as a student in the Pontifical University. Wohooo!! I don't know how quickly time has passed by. It's not easy, not a bit, but faith coupled with determination got me in here.

What keeps me busy at the moment? Well right now, I'm busy underlining with my cutie pens the key words for our monthly exam in Radiopharmacy. You might be wondering but in pharmacy we have 3 major exams to endure for a semester. That is how hard a pharmacy student's life is like. Not to mention the endless quiz, reports, research papers, practical exam in between those. Ok, going back, so I'm busy reviewing and I'm planning to finish all the handouts if not just more than half of it since I'm going out the whole day tomorrow for my shopping spree for HK study tour this coming July 6!!! Yes!! Something I'm so excited to talk about. But not in this post haha I have to end this one and go back to studying again. I'll make sure to make a post about my thoughts and preparations for HongKong sometime this week.

That's it!! Happy to say, I'M BACK!

-Sharlaine :)

Clap Clap! Gimme Some :)

I really admire those people who have the will and strength to update their blog with all enthusiasm. How do you that? (shout from a lazy girl over here) Just like now, I am pleading my fingers "Please continue typing, we've started this so might as well continue doing it". Hopefully they'll agree with me. I don't want this blog to be like the others that I've abandoned just after a few days or months of using it. I know I'm not so good in playing with words, I have my own stuck up moments whenever this white box is in front of me and I am guilty of having grammatical errors every now and then. But yeah, I'll keep on trying and I hope my fingers and brain will never abandon me. :) Let's do this guys.

Late Post: The EK-perience

I made a promise to myself that I will try with the best of my ability to update this blog frequently and yeah I failed HAHA. A late post, sorry. So here we go.

Since we've been almost boring holes in our sofa for quite sometime this summer, my Ate Sunshine thought of going to Enchanted Kingdom. Yep, it's not Disneyland :( but hey my chances of going to EK are very minimal since my family aren't used to going out of town whenever dad isn't here, so yes let's go!! And since it is her treat, who am I to reject that offer? We got out of Manila around 12 noon and the good thing is, Mr. Sun has been thoroughly cooperative, his rays aren't that scorching. Ok, so driving through SLEX we exited at Sta. Rosa and once there we almost lost our way going to Balibago. The funny thing is we are blaming it to the poor direction signs posted in the road, really if it stated 'Enchanted Kingdom Next Right', you would assume that after this right it is the next one that they are referring to. But NO! They meant to say that it is actually the coming right. OK so it's quite confusing no? HAHA. But thank God, we finally reached our destination, a big thanks also to the locals who have been very grateful teaching us the right directions. Ang bait talaga ng mga PINOY!!

Once there Shiela and I got our free hotdog on a stick and a can of coke, Yey!! It is one of their pakulo this summer offered to students and yes since I am still a student (though in fifth year. HAHA) I am so thankful for their summer blowout to us. Their promo is valid from April 9 to June 3 2012, so guys there are still a few weeks remaining to grab their awesome offer :) Here are the ticket rates by the way:

Regular Day Pass:
Weekend / Holiday Rate : Php 500.00
Weekday Rate: Php 400.00
Student Promo: Php 380.00 (Weekends / Weekdays)

Planning to go? Read for more in their website: http://new.enchantedkingdom.ph

 

And here's what happened that day:

NAKAKATAKOT OR NAKAKATACUTE? :)

Funny smile of Mama. And oh see that gorgeous lady holding her phone? Sobrang ganda niya as in. HAHA. 

Thank you for reading.

Much love,

Sharlaine :)

Currently Reading with Love :)

The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons




View all my reviews

The Opportunist by Tarryn Fisher

OMG. I've been contemplating for more than an hour if I should give it a go or not. The reviews are screaming how a wreck you'll be after reading and you'll be demanding for the second book to come. Damn, I don't know if I'm that courageous enough to torture myself so for the mean time I have to let it sit in my shelf. Gahd. I'm so confused.

View all my reviews

Point of Retreat (Slammed II) by Colleen Hoover : My thoughts

I know that after reading I have a lot to say but now I don't know where to start, just like in Slammed. Oh wait, I remember that beautiful poem about writing mentioned in the book. It's entitled Write Poorly by Edmund Davis-Quinn. It's an inspiration for those people like me who most of the time got stuck up in I-don't-know-what-to-write moments. You can find the whole poem in the book or in the blog of Mr. Edmund. I just feel I have the need to post his poem together with my review since from his work I feel someone's nudging my shoulder and telling me to just write, just do it.

Write poorly
Suck
Write awful
Terribly
Frightfully
Don’t care
Turn off the inner editor
Let yourself write
Let it flow
Let yourself fail
Do something crazy
Write 50,000 words in the month of November
I did it.
It was fun, it was insane it was 1,667 words a day.
It was possible.
But, you have to turn off your inner critic, off, completely.
Just write.
Quickly.
In Bursts.
With joy.
If you can’t write run away for a few.
Come back.
Write again.
Writing is like anything else.
You won’t get good at it immediately.
It’s a craft you have to keep getting better.
You don’t get to Juliard, unless you practice.
If you want to get to Carnagie Hall, practice, practice, practice.
(or give them a lot of money).
Like anything else it takes 10,000 hours to get to mastery.
Just like Malcolm Gladwell says.
So write.
Fail.
Get your thoughts down.
Let it rest.
Let it marinate.
Then edit. Then edit. Then edit.
But don’t edit as you type,
that just slows the brain down.
Find a daily practice,
for me it’s blogging every day.
And it’s fun.
The more you write, the easier it gets. The more it is a flow, the less a worry. It’s not for school, it’s not for a grade, it’s just to get your thoughts out there. You know they want to come out.
So keep at it. Make it a practice. And write poorly, write awfully, write with abandon and it may end up being really, really good.

See, his words are like magic. They are some sort of a force that wakes up your inner and sleeping writer side to come out of its shell. Ok so I'm just gonna write.

Warning: Better if you have read the Slammed first before jumping into an endless battle with your patience while reading my review of Point of Retreat. I don't want you throwing pillows to me because I'll be revealing the juicy parts of the first book.

We are left in awe while our heart's constricting in pain with Julia's letter to Lake and Kel in Slammed. Now that Julia is gone, what's gonna happen next? Lake has a lot of responsibilities in her back now that she'll be not just a sister but a mother to his little brother Kel. But with Will on her side everything seems to be more bearable. Now that both of them are placed in the same situation, with no parents at their side, how is Will gonna prove to Lake that what he feels for her is not something that blooms out of their conditions in life? And with Will's past showing up in the scene, how will Lake finds in her heart to trust Will?

I don't know that it's even possible for a person to feel a combination of fear, anxiety, sadness, and happiness in a short time like a minute. I thought I'm crazy. Or maybe I am that time. That's how this book has affected my sanity. Those emotions that I rarely feel when reading has been awakened mostly within the last chapters. If you thought you're caught in an emotional roller coaster ride in Slammed, forget that, you'll be a total wreck while reading Point of Retreat. Damn, those last chapters, I never know when's the last time I felt so angry in a book that I am considering to give it less than a star in rating. She's so good, Ms. Hoover might have perfected the art of giving heart stopping scenes that made me paced my room as my anxiety is increasing, my palms were sweaty and my heart was doing somersaults. Although I definitely hate to be in that predicament I think it is one of the strengths of the book, yeah it’s bad to suck up the sanity of a person while reading but after everything else I concluded how a great job this book has done to me. E-M-O-T-I-O-N  W-R-E-C-K-E-R at its best!!!

Oh by the way, this one is told in Will’s POV and it’s a pretty long one. Books written in a guy’s view has always piqued my interest and I definitely loved Ms. Hoover’s idea of telling the second part of the series in Will’s. I never imagined that it’s possible for some guy to have crazy thoughts over a girl and Ugh I loved Will for that. Just like this one “She’s wearing her hair down tonight. I love it when she wears her hair down. I also love it when she wears it up. In fact, I don’t think she’s ever worn it in a way that made me not love it. She’s so incredibly beautiful...especially when she’s not trying to be.” Oh God! I hope some guy in the future will be having the same thoughts over me, I need some WILL-power in my system. HAHA :)

You’ve also met the lovesick couple, Gavin and Eddie, in Slammed and this time those two will have a longer exposure while having to deal with their own issues. I love Eddie’s sense of humor since Slammed and if you put another little Eddie in the picture, Kiersten, how crazy the whole thing would be. Oh wait, Kiersten is not a daughter of Eddie, she’s this little girl gifted with an uncanny ability to cuss!!!! I am laughing so loudly while reading her lines; she’s someone to look forward to so I wouldn’t tell further more about her, no spoiling I promise.

And oh, there is something about the stars in the picture above. You’ll find the idea amazing why it is even put in the story. There you go, a poem, some Will’s past, an emotion wrecker situation, a Kiersten, some stars, and so much more. Whew, that’s a lot waiting for you in Point of Retreat!!! Hope you’ll love it to death the way I did.

Ratings: 5++++
Copy: Ebook
Read: May 16, 2012