In Photos: Seventeen 4th Mini Album (All 13 Version)

I didn’t saw it coming. It just happened. One moment, I was chillin’ and the next thing I know…I slipped.

To be honest, before Don’t Wanna Cry was released I was just a casual listener of Seventeen and do so to keep myself updated. I saw their comeback teasers floating around on my timeline but I didn’t gave it much attention since I still have no idea with their members and the could be existing theories connected with their comeback. But I just have it in my mind that I’m going to anticipate for their MV, this time around, and see if their song is going to stick with me.

When they released the highlight medley for their mini album, I made sure to listen to it so that I have an idea on what to expect from them. Quick run through the album, I was impressed by all the snippets and it made me anticipate for it even more. But them releasing their Don’t Wanna Cry Special Spot was the game changer. For real. Just a few seconds of hearing some of their members sing and I loved it already! (Wouldn’t you know it but that part from the special spot is one of my favorite parts of the song?) My instinct told me that it’s going to be a good comeback for their group.

I was right and I’m glad that I witnessed everything during their Don’t Wanna Cry promotion period. From their comeback performances to their wins, I’m glad that I cheered them on.

The day of their comeback and Don’t Wanna Cry M/V release (May 22, 2017) marked the date of me slipping into their fandom. Into the Carat life. How can I not end up stanning them? I love Don’t Wanna Cry during my first listen. (I even blogged about it here and said all kinds of praises for it. Because it deserves to be praised.) I love the M/V. I love the choreography and how synchronized they are when they move. Furthermore, how can I not stan them? When they write their own lyrics, produce their music, make choreography for it and more. Seventeen has so much to offer and I’ll gladly give them my love and support.

The next thing I know, I was watching their variety shows, Youtube videos and listening to their songs repetitively. (Shoutout to Kim (@anoganap) for supplying me with links and educating me about Seventeen). Tip: Watching variety shows is always a good way to get acquainted with the members of the group you like. Through that you’ll be able to match them up with their names, faces, voices and bonus with their personalities. I decided to do a marathon for One Fine Day 13 Castaway Boys and One Fine Day in Japan. I fell in love with them even more.

What am I doing to myself? I seem to have an affinity towards groups with lots of members. EXO (9), NCT (limitless??) and now Seventeen (13). Oh how I love giving myself a bit of headache. Did I struggle getting to know them? Actually, I expected that I would have a hard time pinning who’s who but I easily get a hang of them. I enjoyed the process of learning about them individually, as a unit, as a group and as ships. Yes, I was educated (Hi, Kim!) early on about the ships that exist in the group. Meanie… 😆

Now that my Carat story is out of the way. It’s now time to talk and show you the first Seventeen album that I bought.

How can I resist such beauty? Just look at that gorgeous cover and you’ll know you won’t be able to.

I’m the kind of person who’s big on meanings and memories. So it was truly a must for me to buy a copy of their 4th mini album. It comes in three different versions – Alone (01), Al1 (03) and All (13). How did I choose which version to buy first?

Release Day Launch: The Time In Between by Kristen Ashley

About THE TIME IN BETWEEN (Magdalene Series #3):

After a painful loss, Cady Moreland is coming to Magdalene to start the next chapter of her life. A chapter that began eighteen years ago but had a heartbreaking ending. The time in between was full of family and friendship, but Cady could never get the man she fell in love with all those years ago out of her heart.

Coert Yeager has learned to live without the girl who entered his life right when she shouldn’t and exited delivering a crippling blow he never would have suspected. The time in between was full of failing to find what he was missing…and life-altering betrayal.

But when that girl shows up in Magdalene and buys the town’s beloved lighthouse, even if Coert wants to avoid her, he can’t. A fire in town sparks a different kind of flame that won’t be ignored.

As Cady and Coert question the actions of the two young adults they once were thrown into earth-shattering circumstances, can they learn from what came in between and find each other again?

Grab your copy of THE TIME IN BETWEEN today!

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBook | GooglePlay

EXCERPT

Present day…

I took in the mess of the large, circular room we were in and at first saw nothing but the mess—decaying furniture, a soot-covered stone fireplace, a kitchen that might have been put in in the forties but had not only not been touched the last nine years, it perhaps had not been touched the last nineteen (or more).

Then I saw more.

The extraordinarily carved railing to the sweeping wood staircase that ran the curved side of the house. The red brick walls. The plank wood floors.

Book Review: Ghosted by J.M. Darhower

GHOSTED
Author: J.M. Darhower (Website | Twitter)

SYNOPSIS

He’s a troubled young actor, Hollywood’s newest heartthrob, struggling with fame as the star of the latest superhero franchise. Through scandal after scandal, addiction on top of addiction, a flurry of paparazzi hunt him as he fights to conquer his demons.

She’s a single mother, assistant manager at a grocery store, existing in monotony with her five-year-old daughter. Every day when she goes to work, lurid tabloids surround her, the face of a notorious bad boy haunting her from their covers.

A man and a woman, living vastly different lives, but that wasn’t always the case. Once, they were just a boy and a girl who bonded over comic books and fell in love unexpectedly.

When Kennedy Garfield met Jonathan Cunningham back in high school, she knew he had all the makings of a tragic hero. With stars in his eyes, and her heart on her sleeve, the pair ran away together to follow their dreams.

But dreams, sometimes, turn into nightmares.

Now, years later, the only thing they share is a daughter—one who has no idea her father plays her favorite superhero. But Jonathan is desperate to make amends, and at the top of his list is the woman who gave up everything for him and the little girl he hasn’t yet met.

GOODREADS

Purchasing link: AMAZON

Ghosted has everything that I want in a second chance romance book.

This book wasn’t part of my short list for to-immediately-read-books. I had no idea that J.M. Darhower is releasing a book. I had no idea that I would like its premise and even end up counting down the days left before its release. I had no idea that my eyes would be itching that much just because I badly want to read it. All thanks to Book Crushin’ for tweeting about it and also for my good timing to see it on my timeline!

Ghosted follows through the story of Kennedy Garfield and Jonathan Cunningham. They were the typical highschool teenagers who got caught up in a whirlwind romance and up and left their town to chase for their dreams. Oh sure, their love was pure, true and passionate but surely they wouldn’t be able to survive just by having that.

Kennedy worked as a waitress to support them while Jonathan continuously scours the streets of California for the opportunity to land a role in any acting gig. A couple of times he got lucky by landing some minor roles on Television dramas but it wasn’t enough.

Not a breakthrough role.

Not enough pay.

They kept that cycle of living before the fall. This is where it starts. Kennedy scored Jonathan an appointment to one of the big shot agents in the city, Clifford Caldwell. It wasn’t an immediate and easy deal but in the end he got signed. Finally, their dream is starting to materialize and come true.

Ensues the chaos. 

Meetings and shootings here and there. Celebrating holidays together were a hit and miss. What more with the time to relax and spend in each other’s presence? While Jonathan is seeing more of the world, Kennedy is holding fort in their home and slowly losing herself in the process. She’s terrified and she has the right to feel that because what they have been dreaming of for years is now turning into their own personal nightmare.

Along the way of achieving it, Jonathan became a tangled mess. They’re fighting, fighting, fighting up until the day that Kennedy walked out on him…

“The two of us always seemed to be on the same page until the day we just weren’t anymore, and there was no way to get back to that place once we struggled so much to communicate.”

Blog Tour: Everything Under The Sun by Jessica Redmerski

EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN
Author: Jessica Redmerski (Website | Twitter)
Publication Date: August 28, 2017
Genre: Fiction & Literature | Post-Apocalyptic | Suspense | Romance
No. of pages: 683

SYNOPSIS

Thais Fenwick was eleven-years- old when civilization fell, devastated by a virus that killed off the majority of the world’s population. For seven years, Thais and her family lived in a community of survivors deep in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. But when her town is attacked by raiders, she and her blind sister are taken away to the East-Central Territory where she is destined to live the cruel and unjust kind of life her late mother warned her about.

Atticus Hunt is a troubled soldier in Lexington City who has spent the past seven years trying to conform to the vicious nature of men in a post-apocalyptic society. He knows that in order to survive, he must abandon his morals and his conscience and become like those he is surrounded by. But when he meets Thais, morals and conscience win out over conformity, and he risks his rank and his life to help her. They escape the city and set out together on a long and perilous journey to find safety in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Struggling to survive in a world without electricity, food, shelter, and clean water, Atticus and Thais shed their fear of growing too close, and they fall hopelessly in love. But can love survive in such dark times, or is it fated to die with them?

GOODREADS
Pre-order link: AMAZON

“I’LL WAIT FOR YOU.”

   “One more night,” I said, not looking at her. “Give me one more night and I’ll get you out of this city.” All I could see in front of me was the scenario: I’d wait until very late, after most of the city was sleeping, and then I’d dress her in my military clothes, make her pin up her hair underneath a cap, strap a rifle to her shoulder, a backpack full of goods on her back, and set her atop the mare waiting at the stables.

   “But there’s nothing for me anymore,” Thais said, wiping away the lingering tears on her cheeks. “There’s nowhere for me to go, and no one waiting for me there if by some miracle I make it alive. My mother and father are dead. My sister”—she looked up at me, and although I didn’t meet her gaze, I could feel her eyes on me—“my whole family is dead, and this world is dead and my soul is dead and everything that was once good and beautiful and right, is dead.”

   I looked at her then, her words stirring me.

   “That’s not true,” I said, and got up from the chair and crouched in front of her. “You may be the only good thing left in this world, and I’ll be goddamned if I let your light fade.”

   Tears tumbled down Thais’ cheeks.

Book Review: Axel (Corps Security #1) by Harper Sloan

AXEL (Corps Security #1)
Author: Harper Sloan (Website| Twitter)

SYNOPSIS

Fate hasn’t always been friends with Isabelle West. In fact, fate has been a downright bitch.

Isabelle has learned the hard way how hard life can be when fate isn’t by your side. It can hand you dreams on silver platters, but it can snatch them right back and hand you nightmares. One thing Isabelle knew for sure fate was consistent with was taking away everything she ever loved.

For the last two years Isabelle has been slowly clearing the clouds of her past. Happiness is finally on the horizon. She has a thriving business, great friends, and her life back. All she has to do is jump over the last hurdle…her ex-husband.

When problems start causing her to fear her new life, and memories that are better left forgotten start rushing to the surface the last thing she needs is a ghost from her past to come knocking on her door.

Axel never thought he would look into the eyes of Isabelle West again, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to now. He’s carried his anger for so long he isn’t sure he can just turn it off, but when he is faced with protecting her and an unexpected desire to have her again, life gets a little more complicated.

How will Axel and Isabelle deal when all their cards are put on the table and everything they thought was true blows up in their faces?

Note from the author–This book is intended for a mature reading audience and isn’t suitable for younger readers.

GOODREADS
Buy links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Axel by Harper Sloan is good debut novel and series starter.

“Fate hasn’t always been friends with Isabelle West. In fact, fate has been a downright bitch.” More than ten years of being pinned down under Fate’s thumb, piled up misunderstanding since then and “quite free” from her abusive ex-husband, a blast from her past comes strolling back in her life.

Axel. Her first and true love.

After years of scouring all over the place, Axel never thought that he’d finally see her. Fate’s playing around with them again. Not funny. Their confrontation and years of pent up anger must take a back seat first because of Izzy being placed in a life threatening situation brought in by her douchebag of an ex-husband, Brandon. Deal with Brandon and talk.

Now that they’re reunited with each other, Axel’s desire to protect her, to love her and basically his every desire for her fires up in his system while Izzy craves for him and his love too. Lust. Love. Yes, they still pretty much have it for each other. But before they are going to be able to move forward, there are a lot of things that they need to address first that concerns their past.

Both of them need answers. But can they handle it when everything is all said and done? Is their love for each other strong enough?

The story may be quite predictable for me but then it still managed to impress me when it came down to its pacing, the uniqueness of the intensity that the story brought and how every emotion that Harper Sloan poured into these characters seems to have come to life and found its way to claw in my heart.