Book Review: The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

Warning: SPOILER ALERT!!!

Here's the SUMMARY of the book, courtesy of Goodreads:

When U.S Marine Logan Thibault finds a photograph of a smiling young woman half-buried in the dirt during his third tour of duty in Iraq, his first instinct is to toss it aside. Instead, he brings it back to the base for someone to claim, but when no one does, he finds himself always carrying a the photo in his pocket. Soon Thibault experiences a sudden streak of luck -- winning poker games and even surviving deadly combat that kills two of his closest buddies. Only his best friend, Victor, seems to have an explanation for his good fortune: the photography -- his lucky charm.

Back home in Colorado, Thibault can't seems to get the photo -- and the woman in it -- out of his mind. Believing that she somehow holds the key to his destiny, he sets out on a journey across the find her, never expecting the strong but vulnerable woman he encounters in Hampton, North Carolina -- Elizabeth, a divorced mother with a young son -- to be the girl he's been waiting his whole life to meet. Caught off guard by the attraction he feels, Thibault keeps the story of the photo, and his luck, a secret. As he and Elizabeth embark upon a passionate and all consuming love affair, the secret he is keeping will soon threaten to tear them apart -- destroying not only their love, but also their lives.

Filled with tender romance and terrific suspense, The Lucky One is Nicholas at his best - an unforgettable story about the surprising paths our lives often take and the power of fate to guide us to true and everlasting love.

*REVIEW:

There are not too many books that leave lasting impressions upon our memories. Books that we think about, remember, and are able to read over and over again. Anybody who has read a book by Nicholas Sparks knows that his novel are books you can't put down and read repeatedly. I'm not a Sparks junkie or anything. But, I'll admit that I am a pretty big Nicholas Sparks fan, even though his novels are basically all the same. In fact, I've only read three of his book until The Lucky One and I did enjoy them. I might even say that A Walk to Remember was a favorite of mine for a time. There's the background, then the first meeting, the tension, the 'first-date-lovey-dovey' setting. That's followed by more time spent together admitting they love each other, conflicts, issues, and then happiness. Yeah! I am aware all his novels are similar, but there's something in there that just draws me in. Everyone knows that Nicholas Sparks is an amazing romantic author. But not many take time to actually read them. His famous warming imagined love stories, gives his fans another reason to adore him with this tale of a once-in-a-lifetime quest for true romance. 

In The Lucky One, the reader is first introduced to Logan Thibault, the main character and his dog, Zeus. A young man who when serving his time in Iraq finds a photo buried in the sand of a young woman. He posts the photo on the bulletin for the owner to find it, but time after time nobody claims the picture. Since no one claimed the picture, he kept it. Soon, he realized that this photo becomes his 'lucky charm'.

Present the despicable ex-husband here. The actions, thoughts and throw in some extra bad ass attitude for good measure. Then, link with mysterious stranger here. Make him extra charming and bold! Oh, and have a little issues because of his past. Finally, connect the beautiful but clueless single mother that no one is willing to date her. Make her appropriately conservative, but secretly ready to get wild. Add in adorable son that the father mistreats but the stranger instantly click with.

The Lucky One developed some excellent characters. The story line is sweet and romantic. It is a beautiful love story and can definitely hold its own to the love story of Allie and Noah, Paul and Adrienne, and Landon and Jamie. It's a basic love story, guy meets girl and they fall in love with some twists and complications. The story does gives us some insight into the mysteries of "fate". The universal question - Do you believe in destiny? Fate? Well, do you? This wonderful story just make you a believer, if you weren't sure before, and it may restore your faith in the adage that "Everything happens for reason."

The pages of this book takes us from extraordinary passion, to frightening suspense and everything in between. However, there are times that it becomes predictable (one of flaws of his books) but a little less so than his others. While reading, I wanted to know what would happen to he wonderful characters in this book, as well as what would happen to the not-so-nice ones. I was caught up in the story right from the start. I wanted to know if the main character was following his destiny, or was he misguided by some evil in his head. The romance was good, but realistic still, to a certain point at least. 

All I can tell you is that it entirely surprised me with its ending. I was expecting something entirely different from what had happened. I did think the way Sparks executed the end was clever. While, he doesn't always shake up the perfect happily-ever-after part, he gives you some serious suspense that keeps you on the edge  of your seat for the last 100 pages at least. And the epilogue gave the readers an ending that isn't normally seen in Sparks book, which was nice. You'll just have to take the journey yourself by reading "The Lucky One". It's a mesmerizing, heart string story, to say the least.

I'm excited for the movie, starring Zac Efron as Logan Thibault and Taylor Schilling. I really hope the movie relates to the book very well. I promise I'll do a movie review after I see it!! I've included the trailer at the bottom and I think it'll be a good adaptation. 

More book review coming soon!! Happy Readings!! :))

Book Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Hello everyone! Like I promise before I'll post now my book reviews here in my blog. This is the first one. Enjoy guys! :) Warning: SPOILER ALERT!!!

"May the odds be ever in your favor."

*SUMMARY from Goodreads:

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, the shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to death on live TV. Sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the games. But Katniss has been close to dead before and survival. 

*REVIEW:

That's right! I finally read it and watched the movie as well. I read The Hunger Games a couple of months ago before the movie hit the big screens. I absolutely love the first book (and enjoyed the series as well). I've avoided it for so long because this kind of story is not usually my thing. You know the whole dystopian future sci-fi thing - it just doesn't usually do it for me, I think it's more of a guy thing. Except now I think maybe it does. Or the series does, at least. I can certainly see why the book was such a hit. This novel struck many characters and themes (teenage love, poverty, family, sci-fi, and more), was an easy and quick read, as well as full of action. 

The author builds a fantastical yet believable world where it takes a future vision of United States no more but instead a country now called Panem which divided in twelve districts with the Capitol at the center. The rest of the story follows Katniss through training and competition in the game and of course the two people venture Katniss and Peeta, on to the journey to fight for their lives. The story has a fast paced, it progress quickly with well defined characters who have odd names. What the hell a 'Peeta Mellark' name??!! (Well, everyone has an odd name in The Hunger Games Trilogy, but still...Haha.) Well, what really hooked me in was the characters. They're brilliantly established a good portrayal of their part - especially Gale, who barely gets any face time in the book and yet have a strong presence. I liked the fierce Katniss, her prowess with the bow and arrow are unrivaled. How can you not like her?? So happy to see a lead character who could put the "hero" in a heroine.

I can certainly understand how the young or young at heart crowd fell head over heels for this novel. For me though, the love triangle between Peeta and Gale is a cliche, that might be passable for the intended audience. But I loved the spice of violence and bloodshed. The constant suspense kept me turning page after page, as I assume, most of those who read the book. 

Collin's prose is well pace filled with humor which cause the book to become addictive and hooked on every details the book describes. Like any good story, you are immersed in the world built around you, yet you know it is not real but you can't stop reading. There was a time, while you reading every chapter you are completely engross in Katniss character, feeling everything she felt, sees everything she saw. To the point where you have to choose between Peeta and Gale. Seriously, I love those guys - Wow! Who could pick between them? The baker's son versus the long time best friend. 

That being said, I was still blown away by the fact that book is still able to have some emotional impact to its readers as reading it for the first time. I might not remember the finer details but I knew the big elements.  I disliked the mutts part, but since this is a part of successful trilogy, were the audiences stuck around to find what happens. Plus, Collins has crafted such great characters with a very interesting love triangle and twists, at least. Brilliantly done, Miss Collins. Until then, I'll start writing review for Catching Fire. Yeah! I'm addicted. For those of you that haven't watch the movie yet, here's the trailer!! Check it out!!

Closing cycles

You rarely get to read good topics or excerpts on your Facebook and Twitter timeline. Most of the time, maybe, always it would just be full of random rants, posts and shout outs everything that they're doing. Today, it's this one and sudden urge to share this is really inevitable.

I love Paulo Coelho! I love all his quotable quotes. But yeah! I haven't read any of his books maybe I will some other time. This is one of his humorous article. Enjoy!

**CLOSING CYCLES by Paulo Coelho**

One always has to know when a stage comes to an end. If we insist on staying longer than the necessary time, we lose happiness and the meaning of the other stages we have to go through.

Closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters whatever name we give it, what matters is to leave in the past the moments of life that have finished. Did you lose your job? Has a loving relationship come to an end? Did you leave your parents' house? Gone to live abroad? Has a long-lasting friendship ended all of a sudden?

You can spend a long time wondering why this has happened. You can tell yourself you won't take another step until you find out why certain things that were so important and so solid in your life have turned into dust, just like that. But such an attitude will be awfully stressing for everyone involved: your parents, your husband or wife, your friends, your children, your sister, everyone will be finishing chapters, turning over new leaves, getting on with life, and they will all feel bad seeing you at a stand still.

None of us can be in the present and the past at the same time, not even when we try understand the things that happen to us. What has passed will not return: we cannot forever be children, late adolescents, sons that feel guilt or rancor towards our parents, lovers who day and night relieve an affair with someone who has gone away and has not the least intention of coming back.

Things pass and the best we can do it is to let them really go away. That is why it is so important (however painful it maybe!) to destroy souvenirs, move, give lots of things away to orphanages, sell or donate the books you have at home.

Everything in this visible world is manifestation of the invisible world, of what is going on in our hearts and getting rid of certain memories also means taking some room from other memories to take their place.

Let things go. Release them. Detached yourself from them. Nobody plays this life with marked cards, so sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Do not expect anything in return, do not expect your efforts to be appreciated, your genius to be discovered, your love to be understood. Stop turning on your emotional television to watch the same program over and over again, the one that shows how much you suffered from a certain loss: that is only poisoning you, nothing else.

Nothing is more dangerous than not accepting love relationship that are broken off, work that is promised but there is no starting date, decisions that are always put off waiting for the ideal moment. Before a new chapter is began, the old one has to be finished: tell yourself that what has passed will never come back.

Remember that there was a time when you could live without that thing or that person. Nothing is irreplaceable. A habit is not need. This may sound so obvious, it may even be difficult, but it is very important.

Closing cycles. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because that no longer fits your life. 

Shut the door, change the record, clean the house, keep off the dust. 

Stop being who you were, and change into who you are.

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Closing cycles. The cycle of life is sometimes difficult to understand. Sometimes you cannot walk away and close a cycle just because it NO longer fits your life...not even when it involves SOMEONE else life. It's not right to walk away. It's not right to LIVE only your life, yeah! you have your own life to take business for but still there's someone who stays with your side...your family, friends or special one..and you continue to put your life on hold for them. 

We cannot begin a new chapter in our life if we don't accept that we need to close a previous cycle in our existence. It is like mourning to give up the past, especially when it made an impact on your life. I believe we all have the right to blast our emotions when something or someone is gone. Shredding some tears can often makes us feel better and helps us put thing in perspective. This our way out, our escape route. God has left this door open for us to step through and start moving forward. Yes! It is hard! Our memories are a part of us. They are locked deep inside us and constitutes what we are today. So the choice is to live in crazy, raw reality or live in a mirage of peaceful life. I like better to live in reality no matter what the cost is so you should wake up from a sweet dream, baby! Everything should be renewed, giving space for the future!!

Visita Iglesia...Holy Week 2012

Philippines, being a Catholic country, it holds many religious activities. One of it, is the observance of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ which is during the Lent Season. During the Lent season Catholic Filipinos perform their sacrifices and penance. Also, during these week-long holiday majority of Catholic devout perform religious activities such as going on pilgrimages on different churches and visit churches or what we called Visita Iglesia where Catholics visit seven (7) churches, while some are simply stay in their homes, do prayer and penance at their parish church or chapels. 

Obviously, I am a Catholic. I was born and raised in a Catholic family. I grew up in a hometown where senakulo (Passion plays) and pabasa still does every Holy week. And for Catholics the Visita Iglesia or church visits has been a tradition of the faithful. This tradition is also practiced by my family every year. My mom makes sure that all of us will participate. Since my dad don't want to be stuck in the traffic we had our visita iglesia last good friday (april 6) which usually done during maundy thursday. So, I woke up at around 5:00am. Although I was bit lazy to get up, I forced myself to get off my bed because I didn't want to miss this kind of sacrifice to the Lord our God which is done every year.  

This post refers to the churches which we had visited. We visited seven churches but to some it even extends to fourteen churches. So here it goes:

1st Church: Cainta, Rizal

2nd church: Pasig City

3rd church: Libis, Quezon City

4th church: Greenmeadows Ave, Quezon City

5th church: Guadalupe, Makati City

6th church: Bel-air Village, Makati City

7th church: Makati City

In every visits we recite the Stations of the Cross in each church. The Station of the Cross represents the final hours of Jesus Christ before he was crucified. This habit is practiced as an act of penance during the Holy week. Here some of our few pics.

My Mom and Dad @ Sto. Rosario de Pasig church

Me and Mom @ Don Bosco church - Final Station of the cross

Mommy and Daddy again! @ Don Bosco Church

During Holy week, it's our time to REFLECT and DEFLECT. Let us not forget the real essence of Lenten Season. It is not just about fasting and abstinence just to say that you've done your part. It is about remembering, wherever we might be, how much love Jesus had to sacrificed Himself to saved us all. Let us all be thankful for the unconditional love He gave us. Remember, GOD IS AWESOME, all the time! 

Hope you guys, have a blessed Holy week and week-long holiday!! 

The One that Got Away

I just thought that this would be nice to share...

So true, so real! It makes sense. Worth reading!

In your life, you'll make note of a lot of people. Ones with whom you shared something special, ones who will always mean something. There's the one you first kissed, the one you first loved, the one you put on a pedestal, the one you're with...and the one that got away.

Who is the one that got away? I guess it's that person with who everything was great, everything was perfect, but the timing was just wrong. There was no fault in the person, there was no flaw in the chemistry, but the cards just didn't fall the right way, I suppose.

I believe in the fact that ending with someone, finding a long time partner that is, does not lie merely in the other person. I can actually argue that an equal part, or maybe even the greater part, has to do with the matter of timing. It has to do with you being ready to settle down and commit to someone in a way that goes beyond the little niceties of giddy romance.

How often have you gone through it without realizing it? When you're not ready to commit in that mature manner, it doesn't matter who you're with, it just doesn't work. Small problems become big; inconsequential become deal breakers simply because you're not ready and it shows. It's not that you and the person you're with are no good; it's just that it's not yet right, and little things become the flash-point of that fact. 

Then one day you're ready. You really are. And when this happens you'll be ready to settle down with someone. He or she may not be the most perfect, they might not be the brightest star of romance to ever have burned in your life, but it'll work because you're ready. It'll work because it's the right time and you'll make it work. And it'll make sense, it really will.

So that day comes when you're finally making sense of things, and you find yourself to be a different person. Things are different, your approach is different, you finally understand who you are and what you want and you've become ready because the time has truly arrived. And mind you, there's no telling when this day will come. Hopefully, you're single or be in a long-term relationship, or be married with three kids...it doesn't matter. All you know is that you have changed. And for some reason, the one that got away, is the first person you think about. 

You'll think about them because you'll wonder, "What if they were here today?", "What if we were together now, with me as I am and not as I was?". The one that got away is - the biggest "What if?" you'll have in your life.

If you're married, you'll just have to accept the fact that the one that got away, got away. Believe me, no matter how fairy tale you think your marriage is, this can happen to the best of us. But hopefully you're mature enough to realize that you're already with the one you're with and this is just another test of your commitment, one which will just strengthen your marriage when you get past it. Sure, you'll think about him/her every so often, but it's alright. It's never nice to live with a "might have been," but it happens. 

Maybe the one that got away is the one who's already married. In which case it's the same thing. You just have to accept and know that your memories of that person will probably bring a nice little smile to your lips in the future when you're old and gray and reminiscing.

But if neither of that is the case, then it's different. What do you do if it's not yet too late? Simple - find him or find her. The very existence of a "one that got away" means that you'll always wonder...what if you got that one? Ask him out to coffee. Ask her out to a movie. It doesn't matter if you've dropped in from out of nowhere. You'd be surprised, you just might be "the one that got away" as well for the person who is your "the one that got away". You might drop in from out of nowhere and it won't make a difference. If the timing is finally right, it'll all just fall into place somehow. It  would be a great feeling in the end, to be able to say someone, "Hey you, you're the one that almost got away."

Source: Mark J. Macapagal (The Manila Times)

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Its strange how people just walkin' in and out of your life. When you thought that they are always going to be there...FOREVER and ALWAYS. In our life a whole chapter always begins, everything changes from time to people, nothing stays the same. The existence of that "one that got away" means for me that, if you know who is that person in your life...grab them, tell them and let them know before its too late. Tell him/her that you will loved and respect him/her forever and you're scared of getting old without them. 

So am I that person?? Kind of, no, maybe yes, I am. :)) Don't we all wish something "so good" could stay forever? Don't we all hope that happiness is there to stay? Just always remember that if you lose someone today, it means God has planned someone better is coming tomorrow.  I'm just a girl who saw through it all and I kinda figured out who my "one that got away" is. I'll just find him or he is looking for me maybe he is just out there from nowhere. How about you did you find your "one that got away"?? :P

"Don't be the one who searches, finds and runs away." - Paulo Coelho