Book Review: Lucky Me by Saba Kapur

Title: LUCKY ME
Author: Saba Kapur
Publisher: Amberjack Publishing
Published: April 2016
Pages: 446
ISBN: 978-0-6925-3639-1
Price: $11.95 [Amazon]
Rating: 2/5 stars

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"A jealous boyfriend, a manipulative arch nemesis, a creepy stalker, and a frustratingly good-looking bodyguard. Throw in some pom poms and a stolen cheer routine, and I was the definition of cliche." - Chapter Two

I know, you might be wondering why did I choose this kind of book at the first place? Lucky Me is definitely not my cup of tea. Please don’t judge. I was trying to explore new things. People who like this kind of story might give this book more than two stars. So, if you’re a fan, stop reading and find the review somewhere else. If you’re omnireader, or you have the same taste as me, keep going. I’ll explain more about the book.

Lucky Me is about a spoiled girl named Gia Winters who lived in a big mansion with her celebrity dad, Harry, and her brother, Mike. She had her good reputation, coolest squad in school, and the perfect boyfriend, Brendan. Saba Kapur did a really good job in writing the opening, I guess. It was written in form of fairy tale because Gia’s life is like fairy tale in Hollywood version. Her mom was also a celebrity, but she lived in different city. So, you can imagine how glamorous her life was right? For me, it was like reading Legally Blonde’s story (except Gia wasn’t that smart).

After the short and refreshing opening, I was brought to the point of the story. Danger. Yep. On the first chapter, Harry told his children that they could have been in danger because of something. That was why he hired bodyguard for each of them. The bodyguard would follow them everywhere, including pretended to be cousin when they were at school. Can you guess what happen next? If you’re smart, you must know that Gia’s bodyguard turned out to be super hot, super handsome, and super mysterious. I was like, seriously??

‘‘...a young, blonde-haired guy who was standing only an inch away. His eyes were blue, but not piercing, and I was standing close enough to see tiny bits of grey in them. He was the kind of attractive that you don’t come across too often, the kind that makes you all excited. He was the type of guy who you’d tell your friends asked for your number at a bar, when really all he did was walk past you.’’ – Chapter One

Everything after was predicted. Super cheesy. With the love triangle between Brendan, Gia, and Jack the bodyguard, I don’t understand why Kapur bothered to add one more guy to make Gia’s heart complicated. It was the cutie police. I know that a story comes from writer’s imagination, but sometimes you have to keep it real in order to make the reader feel related. I got bored easily and tended to skim. Kapur also described too many things in details. It wasn’t the fantasy kind of world. Most readers know how Hollywood’s life looks like. I think Lucky Me becomes a really thick book with no reason (sorry to say).

Book Sale Setelah Bersih-Bersih Awal Tahun

Awal tahun? Iya. Memang baru punya waktu dan niat buat membongkar semuanya. Karena kamar masih direnovasi (entah sampai kapan selesainya), buku-bukuku terpaksa ditaruh box. Somehow aku takut kalau terlalu lama ditaruh di luar rak buku nanti kondisinya jelek. Oleh karena itu, aku harus merelakan mereka untuk mencari ibu baru. Semoga ada yang berkenan ya :)

Novel Indonesia

• Camar Biru: Cinta Tak Selalu Tepat Waktu - Nilam Sari (Gagas Media) Rp 25.000**
• Secret Admirer - Karizza Rakmavika (Gagas Media) Rp 15.000
• Healing A Broken Heart - Petra Larosa Purba (Nulis Buku) Rp 10.000
• Project X: Te New Beginning of Net Detektif Indonesia - Tim Penulis NDI (Visi Media) Rp 20.000
• Nightmare Side #1 + VCD (Bukune) Rp 20.000
• Nightmare Side #2 (Bukune) Rp 15.000
• Nightmare Side #3 (Bukune) Rp 15.000
• Stalking Indonesia - Margareta Astaman (Kompas) Rp 20.000
• Menjadi Djo - Dyah Rinni (GPU) Rp 20.000
• Running Mission - Dimas Abi & Tim Dreamers Radio (Bukune) Rp 15.000
• The Jacatra Secret - Rizki Ridyasmara (Bentang Pustaka) Rp 20.000
• Cherish Cheri - Nita Trismaya (Plot Point) Rp 15.000**
• Tiga Burung Kecil - Mikha Ramadewi dkk (Plot Point) Rp 15.000**
• Jodoh - Fahd Pahdepie (Bentang Pustaka) Rp 30.000**
• Catatan Ayah tentang Cintanya kepada Ibu - Sandi Firly (Gagas Media) Rp 20.000

Novel Terjemahan

• The Invention of Hugo Cabret - Brian Selznick (Mizan Fantasi) Rp 25.000**
• The Abundance of Katherines - John Green (GPU) Rp 25.000** [Cover baru]
• Perfect Match - Jodi Picoult (GPU) Rp 20.000**
• The Tenth Circle - Jodi Picoult (GPU) Rp 20.000
• Dari Arsip Campur Aduk Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - E.L. Konigsburg (GPU) Rp 15.000
• After: Setelah Malam Itu - Amy Efaw (GPU) Rp 20.000
• Dear John - Nicholas Sparks (GPU) Rp 15.000
• Unwind: Pemisahan Raga - Neal Shusterman (GPU) Rp 25.000**
• Kisah Hantu-Hantu Cina - Lafcadio Hearn (Bukune) Rp 10.000
• The Story Girl - L.M. Montgomery (GPU) Rp 25.000 [Classic Read]
• Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn (GPU) Rp 20.000 [Goodreads Choice Award 2012]
• The Fifth Mountain - Paulo Coelho (GPU) Rp 20.000**
• The Ninth - Ferenc Barnas (GPU) Rp 15.000
• Heretic - Sarah Singleton (GPU) Rp 10.000
• I Will Always Love You - Jo Chang-in (Bentang Pustaka) Rp 25.000**
• Double Tap - Steve Martini (GPU) Rp 20.000**
• The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton (Qanita) Rp 25.000** [Classic Read]

Novel Bahasa Inggris

• The One That Got Away - Kelly Hunter (Harlequin Kiss) Rp 20.000
• Much Ado About Anne - Heather Vogel Frederick (Simon & Schuster) Rp 20.000
• Whisper in the Jungle - Robert Mwangi (Self Published) Rp 20.000
• 30 Days in Sydney - Peter Carey (Bloomsbury) Rp 35.000 [Hardcover]

** Buku masih disegel

Mayoritas kondisinya masih bagus banget kok. Soalnya ya kalau nggak cuma sekali dibaca, malah belum disentuh sama sekali. Silahkan klik judulnya untuk sinopsis dan rating (aku refer ke Goodreads kok). Kalau ada pertanyaan, silahkan tanya lewat sini. Sedangkan pemesanan bisa lewat e-mail ya :) Beli banyak bisa dapat diskon loh.

Book Review: This Song is (Not) for You by Laura Nowlin

Title: THIS SONG IS (NOT) FOR YOU
Author: Laura Nowlin
Published: January 5th, 2016
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Pages: 220
ISBN: 978-149-260-290-3
Price: $12.11 (Book Depository) // $9.95 (Amazon)

*Digital ARC was received from Sourcebooks through Netgalley*

Rating: 3/5 stars
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I always fall for novels about music. It's not always necessary talking about music, but just put the word "song" on the title and I'll read it. Well, that's the case with This Song is (Not) for You by Laura Nowlin. I must admit that the cover is not that beautiful. It's not the kind of novel with very captivating cover which will hypnotize people to buy it. But, yeah, the "song" word works (for me). Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity. I had to shut down my old NetGalley account in order to have a clean slate in book review. Hopefully it will work well. So, back to the novel. I haven't heard anything about Laura Nowlin. I thought she's a newcomer, but it turns out she already has a book before This Song is (Not) for You and she has quite lot fans. That's why I started this book on my Kindle App with a pretty high expectation.

Music will always be a part of my life. A huge part. But there are other things in life that I also want, and I don't want to give them up to pursue just one thing. - Tom

Ramona is just an average high school student who doesn't have many friends because everyone thinks that she's weird. But, she has Sam who is always beside her. The "weird" thing about Ramona is that she always has feeling about something. She feels like Sam is meant to meet her and so does Tom, a guy whom she met at an audition. She feels like Tom is meant to be in her band. So, they three get along and play music together. They do it great. I, of course, cannot hear the song. According to how Nowlin describes it, it sounds great. I imagine Fun. kind of songs. Ramona on the drum, Sam on the guitar, and Tom as the chaos maker with his own instruments.

Following their story to reach the dream and figure out their future is kind of entertaining. They are bond together but somehow they have different goals. When they're trying to be honest to each other, they're afraid to hurt someone else. I can feel how strong their friendships. I can understand how important they are to each other. So, yeah, I have to give a thumb up to Nowlin for this. I've never read a friendship as strong as Ramona's. But things get weirder when we talk about relationship. Well, don't be surprised. Don't you ever heard someone said, "It's impossible for guy and girl be in a friendship without falling for each other,"? There's something going on between Ramona, Sam, and Tom. But I can't give you more details about that because it's shocking! I was like shaking my head, confused, a little bit disagree. I was like "what the ****?!" But, the final judgement might be different based on the readers' culture. I have been warned.

Overall, I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. The story's idea is not unique, but Nowlin has her own way by putting a lot of music things (which is great). Describing music and successfully transfer the feeling to the readers is not easy. Nowlin did it great. I was a little bit struggling to understand some musical meaning, but it doesn't affect my understanding of the whole story. So, it's fine. Unfortunately, this story is very lack of family's value. I think it would be great if Nowlin brings the reader to get to know each family better in order to understand the sexual issue.

Series You Want to Start Next Year

YAY! I'm so happy I can finally join this exciting meme. FYI, Top 5 Wednesday is a meme on Goodreads, created by a BookTuber named Lainey (Hi, Lainey! Visit her YouTube account here). I have joined similar meme called Top 10 Tuesday. But you know, ten is a lot! Especially for me who don't have a lot of time cuddling with books anymore. So, if you're busy like me but still wanting to join a meme, you can join Lainey's here. She posts the topic once for the whole weeks of the month. It makes me easier to join because I can write earlier and schedule my post. Thank you :) So, this time the topic is Series You Want to Start Next Year. I have a lot titles and I know I won't make it all. But still, I hope someone will give me Hermiones' time-turner for new years gift *finger crossed*.

Book Review: Five On A Treasure Island by Enid Blyton

Title: FIVE ON A TREASURE ISLAND
(THE FAMOUS FIVE #1)
Author: Enid Blyton
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
Published: June 2001
ISBN: 978-0340796146
Rating: 5/5

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I remember my mom offered me the famous five series years ago when I was a kid. At that time, I have traveled to a lot of Conan Doyle's world and Agatha Christie's. Maybe that was why I didn't like famous five. It looked like a piece of cake. Too sweet. So, my mom gave away her famous five's collections.

Few days ago, my lecture gave me an assignment to read a detective or crime work by a woman author. Of course I chose Agatha Christie, automatically. I have a bunch of her collections in my room and I don't need to re-read them again, maybe just skimming. But, my friend suggested the famous five by Enid Blyton. Well, I think I'd like to read it. Famous five series only consists of 21 books, so why not? Since it's children's book, I didn't find any difficulty in understanding the words. Even though some words, or the writing style, is a little bit weird for me. I don't know if it's because it's a British work or because it's an old work. Overall I really enjoyed this book.

On this book, I get to know the characters. There are Julian the oldest, Dick, and Anne. They are siblings who are thirst of adventure. One holiday, their parents suggest them to visit their cousin, Georgina who lives at Kirrin Bay. Unfortunately, Georgina, who prefers to be called as George, is a difficult person. She likes to spend times by herself. She almost look like her father who hates to be disturbed. Unlike them, the mother, Aunt Fanny, is very lovely and understanding. She hopes Julian, Dick, and Anne can change her daughter's behavior.

Of course they do! They're finally getting along and George even bring them to her private island. Near the island, there is a shipwreck which belongs to George's great-great-great grandfather. The four children take an interesting box from the captain cabin and find a map which shows where the ingots--the gold--is hidden. They start their adventure under the castle. But, they have to deal with some men who are chasing the gold too! Those men even kidnap Julian and George. Will they be alright?