I Loved You When

I loved you when I first laid eyes on you. I loved you when there were secret glances. I loved you when you smiled at me. When you sat next to me. When you talked to me. Your words leaving me beautifully dumbstruck. I loved you when everyone told me not to. I loved you when my pen gently carved your name into my journal. I loved you when it was wrong. I loved you when I knew I shouldn't. When I knew you would ruin me in so many ways. When I learnt what you had done. Yet I still loved you blindly. But I was too scared. To scared of rejection. Too scared of you. So I let myself continue to love you in my head. I guess I got too good at living there because you never saw. You never saw me. And eventually you began to love someone else. The funny thing is, I still love you. I still taste your name in my mouth before I say it. I still quietly tell my journal that you are perfect. I let you live in my heart and head even though you belong to someone else. I let my heart leap when I see you. When you look at me. I let it happen because I hope. I still hope. Maybe soon. But until then, in my heart you shall live until one day, someone takes your place.

C

Part-Time Princess By Pamela Dumond

Lucy Trabbicio’s a down-on-her-luck, young, American, former biker-bar cocktail waitress desperate to find a job. Lady Elizabeth Billingsley hires Lucy to travel to Fredonia, the tiny jewel of a country in the Alps, for ten days ‘tops’ to impersonate her.

In the mother of all makeovers, Elizabeth’s people teach Lucy how to dress, walk, talk, eat, be coiffed and even get naked like a European Lady. 

The goal?

To keep Crown Prince Cristoph Timmel interested in Elizabeth until she finishes her unexpected, pressing personal business in the States.

But fate intervenes… Lucy meets and is wildly attracted to sexy, bad-boy Nick on the oh-so-long flights to Fredonia. Unfortunately for Lucy—Nick and Elizabeth have a hot sexual history, which Nick wants to immediately resume.When the real Lady Elizabeth decides she’s not marrying Cristoph and never returning to Fredonia, Lucy’s faced with an uncomfortable decision—continue her deception, marry the prince she’s not in love with and live a dream life albeit without Nick, her dream guy? Or tell the truth and return to poverty and oblivion? - Goodreads

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Let me start off by saying that this isn't  one of the best books I've ever read. It was a very childish and typical read. I pretty much knew what was going to happen and when it was going to take place every step of the way. So there was basically no room for creativity in the general outline of the book. 

However, that said, I must say that I found the book to be pretty laid back and quite a nice relaxing and funny read. Ever since the Shopaholic books, I've mainly been reading the darker stuff. I've been reading Gillian Flynn and other books about murders and things. So this was a nice change of pace.

This book could have basically been written for a young girl if it wasn't for the occasional F-word, the sex scenes and that one strip club. It was almost mocking the readers intelligence. For example, Lucy keeps on almost saying 'Elizabeth- I mean I would like that." or someone would be like, "Luc-Elizabeth" 

And it happens all the time and I'm just here wondering when someone is going to wise up and figure it out. Of course we have people who finally realise that she is not who she claims to be towards the end and where the story needed it. But I found it to be rather unrealistic.

And the dialogue was very very childish. *mild spoiler here* I mean, so they set up a full royal wedding. The press is there and its the hugest event ever. Mid way through the ceremony, Lucy decides to reveal that she is an imposter and no questions are asked.

"Queen Cheree-Can I keep the puppy?"

She leaned back in her pew, sighed and nodded. "So be it."

"Thank you everyone! Have a splendid day!"

And that's it. Lucy waltzes out of the church and goes home with her puppy and eats chocolate ice cream. I mean are you serious? And immediately she is dubbed 'Princess with a Heart'. I don't know about you but in the world I live in, if someone found out that Princess Kate or Prince William were an imposter, there would probably be riots. They wouldn't just brush it off and say "Oh well, the imposter was nicer then the real princess anyway. Let's sign a petition and get the imposter from Chicago who knows nothing about ruling a county and lets dub her Lady Lucy and get her to rule over us." And aren't there consequences for doing that at a huge wedding? This is a royal wedding. I'm thinking they had a Princess Kate and Prince William audience for their wedding. And she just skips along out. Are you serious?

I know I just dissed the whole book but I truly didn't mind it too much. It wasn't excruciatingly bad or anything (and I've read excruciatingly bad). It just isn't for readers who are too old or who are looking for something a bit more serious in nature.

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My Rating: 3/5 
*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review*
Purchase the books at The Book Depositary using my special link Here. 

The Life Intended By Kristin Harmel

In this richly told story, Kristin Harmel weaves a heart-wrenching tale that asks: what does it take to move forward in life without forgetting the past?

After her husband's sudden death over ten years ago, Kate Waithman never expected to be lucky enough to find another love of her life. But now she's planning her second walk down the aisle to a perfectly nice man. So why isn't she more excited?

At first, Kate blames her lack of sleep on stress. But when she starts seeing Patrick, her late husband, in her dreams, she begins to wonder if she's really ready to move on. Is Patrick trying to tell her something? Attempting to navigate between dreams and reality, Kate must uncover her husband's hidden message. Her quest leads her to a sign language class and into the New York City foster system, where she finds rewards greater than she could have imagined. -Goodreads

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Can I just say firstly that this book made me cry exactly 3 times? That's 3 times more then I usually cry over books. I cried at the first chapter, I cried at the second chapter and I cried at the epilogue. And the rest of the time I was just heartbroken.  I was wrecked with this book and now I have a serious book hangover.

Okay. Calm down Cam. Professional mode: ON.

This book has definitely made my list as being one of the best books of 2014. It was engaging, sweet, honest and the characters were lovable and real. I enjoyed the storyline so incredibly much. It almost felt like I was reading a true story. Which is strange because the book has so many coincidences that you would never imagine would happen in real life. Yet the book still felt surprisingly real and not at all like a fantasy novel or anything like that. Not that it even is in the fantasy genre.

I really enjoyed watching Kate struggle to get over Patrick and learning through the dreams how to finally be happy. I think my favourite part was the epilogue. When she had that final dream of Patrick but how she was so contented with her own life that she no longer felt that burning desire to stay like she did when she first got the dreams.

This book is not yet published but it will be incredibly soon. I would advise everyone to grab a copy as soon as it goes on sale because you don't want to miss this incredible read.


My Rating: 5/5
Date Of Publication: 30th December 2014

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Special thanks to the publishers for giving me an advanced copy of this book to review.

The Shopaholic Series By Sophie Kinsella

MEET BECKY BLOOMWOOD, AN IRRESISTIBLE HEROINE WITH A BIG HEART, BIG DREAMS --- AND JUST ONE LITTLE WEAKNESS .. (Goodreads)

About a month ago, I decided that I wanted to read the famous Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella. It seemed like a very teenage kind of book at first but I felt like I was missing out on something good. So I got the books and after 4 weeks, I finished reading all 7 books.

I enjoyed the series so much. I fell in love with Becky Bloomwood and her quirkiness. I thought she was a cute character that was very child-like in her dealings with people.

Basically the seven books follow Becky Bloomwood as she moves through life. Becky has an addiction to shopping and is known for royally screwing up everything she touches. The book follows Becky from the time when she is a small-time financial journalist and travels with her as she meets her big-time husband, moves to New York, gets married, has a child and as she attempts to break into the fashion industry.

I really loved this book because of the way Becky thinks. I felt like it was a lot like the way I think. I see and hear things and immediately start thinking of how amazing it would be if I was famous and if I had my face everywhere.

I think I mentioned how I saw a lot of myself in Becky in one of my Sunday Summaries.

The book isn't very intellectually stimulating and sometimes it can be a little cheesy and predictable. There is the traditional thing that goes wrong and the miraculous saving of the day at the last minute in every book. At times, Luke says and does things that seem unrealistic and very cheesy but hey. This is a romantic story too.

Anyway, if you haven't read it, you really should because it's just wonderful and it will really make you laugh. I read some of the reviews of this book too so let me just say right now that if you can't enjoy a funny and simple book, then don't read it. It's not meant to be a serious read that makes you think. It's just fun.

In other news, Sophie Kinsella replied me on Twitter and she retweeted a tweet with a link to this post!!

Purchase the books at The Book Depositary using my special link Here.