The Lucius Flux: 2015-05-24

Flux Reviews: P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han

12:21 am

Title: P.S. I Still Love You
Author: Jenny Han
Publication Date: May 26 2015
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Format: Paperback
Price: ₱395 (Philippines) - $8.11 (Amazon)

Plot Synopsis:

Lara Jean didn’t expect to really fall for Peter.

They were just pretending. Until they weren’t. And now Lara Jean has to learn what it's like to be in a real relationship and not just a make-believe one.

But when another boy from her past returns to her life, Lara Jean’s feelings for him suddenly return too.
Can a girl be in love with two boys at once?
In this charming and heartfelt sequel to the New York Times bestseller To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Lara Jean is that falling in love is just the easy part.

The Review

(This book is a sequel. My review of the first book, Jenny Han's To All the Boys I've Loved Before can be found HERE.)

You'd think that after what happened in To All the Boys I've Loved Before, Lara Jean wouldn't have any more problems from her letters to her secret crushes, with boys popping up into her life from them, but no. Never have you been so wrong. (Except for that Trigonometry question you did last month)

So the ending of the previous book, To All the Boys I've Loved Before left a lot of questions that need answering, and that it was a somewhat bad ending, according to some of my friends and other bloggers. And this book solved it, it concluded (almost) everything, this is the sending-off book to the duology.

Quick Pro-Tip: Don't read the back of the book, don't read the summery! Super hinting of a potential love-triangle!

I was actually surprised when someone on Facebook showed us that it was out before the release date, which is May 26. That post was on May 24, I was sooooo freaked-out because why the hell would it be released before the release date???! Man, you gotta love the Philippines. Sometimes.
The next day I dashed to my local NBS and got myself a copy, read it in like, a day while isolating myself from everyone, even in my own house! And the next morning I was ready to review it!

Other problems from the previous book comes to haunt them again, old faces re-appear *cough* Lucas, Chris, (that bitch) Genevieve, and Josh *cough*, new ones make appearances, and the ol' "Ski Trip Incident" resurfaces with a sucker punch . . .

Everything's getting okay, but when someone from her past comes back, this is where things get complicated. She didn't expect to fall for Peter, it was all pretend back in To All the Boys I've Loved Before to save face in front of Josh, and for Peter to get Genevieve jelly, but what if their feelings for each other weren't fake? What if they're legit? And when Player 3 enters the game into her life, her old feelings for him resurface as well, this screams warning sirens in my ears saying "LOVE TRIANGLE ALERT!". Wait, is she starting to like this new guy? Cheesus Crust, calm down, Lara Jean, you've already fallen for Peter and maybe Josh, can't have you falling for another guy, jeez.

Will she follow her feelings for this new guy, or will she stay with Peter? You have to read it to find out!

First of all, I like the new guy, he's fun, he's quirky, he's hot to girls! I swear, they look so damn cute together and I ship them so much!! In my opinion, Lara Jean should choose him than Peter.

He looks more than just taller. Now that i can take the time to really look at him I notice more. With his fair hair and milky skin and rosy cheeks, he looks like he could be an English farmer's son. But he's slim, so maybe the sensitive farmer's sone who steals away to the barn to read. The thought makes me smile

The plot basically revolves around this rather saucy scandal with Lara Jean and Peter K, how they deal with it, an old friend of Lara Jean coming back into her life and how this plays out with Peter and LJ, and why Genevieve's such a total pain in our arse. Yes, apparently there is a reason why. Who knew?

You haven’t brought me down. Just the opposite. You’ve brought me out. You gave me my first love story . . .

This book kept tugging at my heartstrings and you know, giving me almost-tears, which is the next best thing. One minute LJ and Peter's making me smile and go "Awwwwww" the next the book makes me go "Oh shitshitshitshit NO! Omg whyyyyyyy hahahahaha A meme? You serious? Hahahahahaha!" and then the next it's making me grin like an idiot!

Replace "Breadcrumbs" with "My Feels"! <3

All I'm gonna say is "Question everything", just like the previous book, will Peter and LJ get together-legit in the end? I dunno. Will all the questions be answered by the end of the book? Maybe. Is Genevieve and Peter really over? But I am going to give you guys a hint: The Selection by Kiera Cass ;) (No, there won't be a lot of suitors for her!)

I agree that Lara Jean still acts younger than her age, but in this book she really grows up, she's gotten smarter, more funny and she becomes more independent and she deals with stuff better. Although her little sister Kitty is sometimes more mature than her, sometimes. But still.

The ending wasn't that conclusive, it left some small questions hanging, but that's good, I guess, Jenny Han wanted some things left to the imagination, and that's good!

Reading the last pages, the last scenes of Lara Jean's story, and letting go, is like saying goodbye to an old friend at the airport. Waving goodbye as he or she boards the plane, knowing full well you can't follow, and you're left feeling empty. That's what this book did to me.

"I wish that things could go back to the way they were between us. That you could be you and I could be me, and we'd have fun with each other, and it would be a really sweet first romance that I'll remember my whole life"

"When you lose someone and it still hurts, that's when you know the love was real."

My Rating:

5 out of 5 Fallen stars

#LuciusFlux

Flux Reviews: Henry VIII: Wolfman by A.E. Moorat

8:35 pm

Title: Henry VIII: Wolfman
Author: A.E. Moorat
Publication Date: March 30, 2014
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Format: Paperback pocketbook
Price: ₱ ??? (Philippines) - $ ??? (Amazon)

Plot Synopsis:

Five hundred years ago Henry VIII was known for being larger-than-life, with had a fearsome temper and bloodthirsty reputation to match; more beast than human, some might say
Henry VIII was the bloodiest king ever to have sat on the throne of England. This fast-paced, exciting, and inventive retelling of his reign will bring to light the real man behind the myth. Be dragged back kicking and screaming to the paranormal world of Tudor England . . .

The Review

Step aside, Robb Stark, this guy's the real King in the North!

King Henry VIII of England is probably most well known for: (1) Being fat. (2) Beheading (Two of) his wives when they couldn't bear him a male heir. (3) Basically giving the Holy Roman Church the bird when he made his own church. (4) Actually being king of England.
But what the history books didn't tell us is the hidden aspect of his reign, that he's actually like, a literal fricken' beast. So yeah, your history professor lied to you guys.

He's basically that cool uncle you have over every Thanksgiving, with hunting for turkey and stuffings, except Henry fucking hunts deer and boars and shit.

Set in an alternate history in the 1560's-70's(?) during the reign of King Henry VIII, where werewolves or out in the country, demons are making pacts with humans, Seal Team 6-like elite cardinal special forces, witchfinder generals, the Sweating Sickness, and the ever-lovable Henry VIII, this is actually a great book, sure to fill you with suspense and give you a few chuckles over the sheer British humor in it, full of twists and turns, betrayals and discoveries.

Did I mention Cardinal commandoes? Nn the command of the Pope? Yeah, fuckin' Cardinal Commandoes, part of the Protektorate, which is basically a group of demon hunting priests who's job's to make sure Hellgate: London IRL doesn't happen.

And if the Wolfmen weren't trouble enough for the country, the Sweating Sickness is also ravaging the land, killing thousands. And the mysterious Wagon Men, the Scourge of the Countryside, who come into homes to carry them off, supposedly to cure them, hundreds, maybe thousands of the sick bastards to God knows where . . .

See? Totally legit

When you look at a picture of Henry VIII you usually saw this portly grim monarch who kills his wives when she doesn't give him a boy, but actually he's like one of us, his first thoughts are of breakfast and his wife, Katherine of Aragon, and how to avoid responsibility and hunting. He actually makes some funny jokes here. Just imagine a less loud and lewd Robert Baratheon. Both men used to be muscular, strong men back when they weren't king and when they weren't fat, both of them enjoy drink and food and feasts, both enjoyed hunting. The politics of King Robert's court was very closely tied to King Henry VIII's, that because they liked to hunt, they needed to delegate power. And as such, the courtiers would think that they can get more power.

A bookish "Witchfinder General" and his bad-ass wife (Who I imagined was played by Helena Bonham Carter) who has a knack for being almost comedically cruel and for being theatric, their parts were almost like a Mummer's farce, I couldn't take the action-y bit seriously! I kinda expected that Monty Python made a skit of this in one of their their Flying Circus or something!

The author tried to emulate the historical events very closely while making it his own with his own plot, alternately, he also uses some speech and phrases and situations that we may commonly encounter in the modern UK to make this more relatable and not like a textbook or a Shakespearian novel (Which I have no animosity towards.)

This is clearly a very good alternate-history/I-Dont-Know-What-Genre book for history buffs, fantasy lovers, and supernatural readers, genuinely a good read! Some chapters feature the POV of some other characters, minor and major. This is one of the books that me paranoid whether this character or that will live or die, (Just like A Song of Fire and Ice), if you haven't read up on your history, you won't know who kills who, which characters survive and so on and so forth.
If you're gonna read this because you watched Tudors or just because you want to find out more facts about the king, you might be disappointed because it would appear that this book is more focused on the monsters and the affairs that sprout from them than facts like the fact that King Henry VIII was a great composer.

Historical note

(From the Author)

Tudor enthusiast will hopefully note two things from my alternate readings of king henry's reign: Firstly that the action sticks very closely to real-life history and character; secondly, that I've taken some liberties with it. The most obvious 'cheat' is that I've compressed time--decades into seconds in some instances--while elsewhere I've used certain anachronisms for comic effect. *Excerpt Removed because of spoiler purposes*

. . .Because if the accused died during questioning, then it was a sure sign of witchcraft; if she displayed taciturnimnity, then it was a sure sign of witchcraft; if she passed out, then it was the devil putting her out of her misery, and a sure sign of witchcraft; if she should not admit her abominations, then the tortures would be increased unil such a time as she did. And if the accused confessed to witchcraft, then it was a sure sign of witchcraft, too.

My Rating: