Tell Me Something Tuesday: REVIEWS

a weekly meme hosted by Rainy Day Ramblings!

This week's question, a part of the So You Want to be a Blogger edition:

What are your tips for writing reviews?

Since I'm still perfecting the content/style/everything of my reviews (I guess it's an ongoing process), I'm going to take the perspective of a reader rather than that of a book blogger. There are some reviews that I find more helpful than others and those are usually the ones that cause a tiny prod; either towards or away from the book! A good review, for me, is, to some extent:

Reader-friendly. Rational. I'm all for subjectivity but only when the whys are laid to rest. Why were they not comfortable with the writing style? Why did they not like the ending? Why did that secondary character not resonate with them? 

Also, when it comes to negative reviews, I prefer the ones that clearly state why the book was not for them. All of us have different preferences, so when the reviewer takes time out to say why he/she in particular could've been put off by the book, biases and preferences withstanding, I find it easier to match my preferences with theirs and take a call on whether the negatives are something I would care about! These reviews go out of the way to be helpful and I appreciate that!

Energetic! I love it when I sense an energy and urgency in the review to tell you everything (that's spoiler-free) about the book. It need not be endless gushing or a GIF-plastered rant. Just... not monotonous, you know? Reviews feel like art when they contain the angst/enthusiasm/nervousness/cringiness/deadpanness- everything they felt or made sense of while reading the book- in a way that is contagious! 

Venom-free. Personally attacking an author or being scathing without any real basis is my one and only turn off.

Insightful; as additional insights always help. It's one of the reasons why I'm eager to look out for reviews of books I've already read as well- to see if they've come away with the same things that I have after reading the book! 

Easy to read. It could be with regard to the format of the review or the ease with which the reviewer moves from one aspect of the book to the next. I'm not going to wade through one giant clump of a paragraph... I prefer ones that are better laid out and easy on the eyes.

Wordily genuine. Nothing beats a genuine-sounding non-glossed-over review. I'm always on the look out for those!

Succinct, because as I said before, I am not going to wade through 10+ chunky paragraphs. As much as I don't want too much of the review to be a synopsis of the book, I do like a one or two line summary that gives context to the review (in case I don't read the Goodreads blurb). While I personally find it very hard to be concise and keep cutting out the "excess chunks" of rambling, I do love clear and crisp reviews that practically hit the bulls eye in what I'm looking for as a reader!

Of course, these are all of the things I tend to prefer in a review. Sometimes ranking high on one or two of these aspects alone is enough to make the review helpful and relevant and crazyhilariousandawesome!

Preferences definitely vary since we're all on the lookout for different things! What do you look for in reviews? Or what do you give importance to when you write them?

TMST#6: On my favourite TV shows!

Tell Me Something Tuesday is an awesome meme hosted by Cambria Hebert!

This week's question:

Let's talk TV! What are your favourite shows?

It's so great to do a Tell Me Something Tuesday post after so long! I love TV. And I actually prefer TV shows to movies as my attention span is such that I'd rather watch a string of 30-40 minute episodes than a two and a half hour movie. While the list of my favourite TV shows is endless, I figured I would narrow it down to three four five of my absolute favourites.

The OC. The theme song by Phantom Planet is fabulous. And hello, Seth Cohen. ❤

Modern Family. I LOVE THE CHARACTERS TO BITS. Gloria, Luke and Phil are my favourites. Mockumentaries ftw.

Veronica Mars. Hello smart, real, fun, funny and plain awesome TV show. Kristin Bell was brilliant in this. I loved the plots and the characters and almost everything about this show.

Glee. Again, I love the characters. They are so much fun and so real. I love that Rachel, Finn, Quinn, Santana, Brittany, Mercedes, Artie, Kurt, Sam, Tina, Puck and the rest of the Glee Club couldn't be more different but together they are a part of something amazing. I can spend the whole day listening to their covers that are even better than the original.

My So-Called Life. Why do we have only nineteen episodes of this fabulous show? I cannot believe it was cancelled so early. Angela was someone I could relate to and I loved that My So-Called Life was about underrated but real issues. It captured the teen years so brilliantly and beautifully.

What are your fave TV shows? x)

TMST#5: On book boyfriends!

Tell Me Something Tuesday is an awesome meme hosted by Cambria Hebert!

This week's question:

Who are your book boyfriends? 

It all started with Ron Weasley from Harry Potter

Because Weasley is my king!

And then came Owen from Just Listen

Let's face it, all the Dessen boys are to die for! They are charming and make your heart race! I liked Owen from Just Listen the best, though. He was so patient and cute. I LOVED how ridiculously passionate he was about music and how his enthusiasm is infectious. And the way he tackled his anger issues! Definite book boyfriend material!

Marcus Flutie from Sloppy Firsts had me at "I won't narc on you, cuz"

I swooned when he said those words to Jessica! I love Megan McCafferty's Jessica Darling series and Marcus, who started out as someone with a total bad boy rep, was one of the reasons why! (It's been a while since I've made a fuss over Marcus Flutie!!!! I'm totally STFYGSUHSGSY-ing right now!)

Peeta Mellark from The Hunger Games series slowly worked his way into my heart!

At first I was Team Gale. Then halfway through Mockingjay, something happened. I became enamoured with The Boy With The Bread and what became of him. Katniss is in good hands!

Cricket Bell, illustration
by Simini Blocker

And who can forget Cricket Bell from Lola and the Boy Next Door?

Tall, geeky and perfectly sweet... Cricket Bell, you make my heart melt! 

“Lola?" Cricket is on his knees at the side of my bed. I feel it. "I'm here," he whispers. "You can talk to me or not talk to me, but I'm here.”

Enter Adrian Ivashkov from the Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series. I was instantly smitten!

“Takes a lot of tries before you hit perfection." he paused to reconsider that. "Well, except for my parents. They got it on the first try."

Aside from being EXTREMELY hot and loving his snark, I love how in the end, Adrian can be extremely caring and considerate! Adrian makes me swoon. I cannot wait for The Golden Lily!

Other swoon-worthy fictional characters

Jonah Griggs from Jellicoe Road
Etienne St. Clair from Anna and the French Kiss
Thomas Mackee from The Piper's Son
Ed aka Shadow from Graffiti Moon
Four from Divergent
Gavriel Duval from Grave Mercy

Book boyfriends spoil you for life, don't they? ♥ Who are your favourite fictional hotties?

TMST#4: On my favourite book heroines!

Tell Me Something Tuesday is an awesome meme hosted by Cambria Hebert!

This week's question:

Who is your favorite heroine in a book? (Okay you can name more than one)

Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables


Anne was one of my first fave book heroines. It's been a while since I've read Anne of Green Gables but I remember being extremely annoyed by Anne in the first few chapters. She talked a lot and well, that's all I remember. But after that, wow, I loved how spirited she was! Towards the end of the book, I came to love and respect her. I still do!


Hazel Grace Lancaster from The Fault in Our Stars 


I liked her from the beginning! From her obsession with An Imperial Affliction  to the way she cared about what would happen to her parents more than she cared about what would happen to herself. She was so strong and sweet and she made me laugh! Hazel was someone I grew to respect and really made an impact on me.

Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games series

There is something to be said about Katniss's resilience! I loved how she always fights back relentlessly and is so gutsy and determined! I particularly liked her at the end of Mockingjay. The way she came out of everything that happened was admirable.

Rose Hathaway from the Vampire Academy series

There is no stopping Rose Hathaway! She is so badass and awesome. I also love how she started out as this really impulsive person who had absolutely no control over herself and grew up into someone I felt really proud of!

Anna from Anna and the French Kiss

'Cause she's simply adorable! Anna has her head on her shoulders and I love her little quirks. 

TMST #3: On my favourite book-to-movie adaptations!

Tell Me Something Tuesday is an awesome meme hosted by Cambria Hebert!

This week's question:

Do you usually like the book better than the movie or the movie better than the book? What is your favorite book to movie adaptation you have ever seen?

I almost always like the book better! Movies just don't capture the essence of the book... It's hard to convey in two and a half hours what those carefully crafted words gave us. And too many amazing scenes get cut out. Sometimes, of course, they make this totally amazing movie that does so much justice to the book that you feel like hugging each and every cast member! 

I still watch each and every movie adaptation of my favourite books in hope that it achieves such awesomeness. Even if it doesn't, it's nice to revisit the world of the book!

I am waiting for the movie versions of The Hunger Games and The Perks of being a Wallflower! I can't help the ridiculously high expectations I have for them! Especially for The Perks of being a Wallflower!

On my favourite book to movie adaptations!

Pride and Prejudice starring Keira Knightley! I watched it with my mother when I was thirteen years old and it made me go back and read Austen's Pride and Prejudice (followed by Emma). It's such a beautifully taken movie. Parts of it still make me smile.

A Walk to Remember. I guess the movie was very different from the book.The book was sweeter, more innocent and endearing. The movie was fun... it seemed like just another teen movie with the very hot Shane West who was full of snark as Landon until the scene where Jamie told him everything and I was sobbing along with Landon. I watched the movie before I read the book. I like both the book and movie for different reasons!

The Devil Wears Prada. Need I say more? I liked the book but the movie was even better! Meryl Streep was BRILLIANT as Miranda Priestly and Emily Blunt was great too! 

Tell Me Something Tuesday #2 Valentine's Edition

Valentine's Day edition of Tell Me Something Tuesday, an awesome meme hosted by Cambria Hebert!

This week's question:

Who are your favourite book couples?

Where do I even begin? So many amazing book couples have spoiled us for life! 

Jane Eyre and Mr. Edward Rochester

Jane, on Mr. Rochester:

I am sure most people would have thought him an ugly man; yet there was so much unconscious pride in his port; so much case in his demeanour; such a look of complete indifference to his own external appearance; so haughty a reliance on the power of other qualities, intrinsic or adventitious, to atone for the lack of mere personal attractiveness, that in looking at him, one inevitably shared the indifference; and even in a blind, imperfect sense, put faith in the confidence. 

And was Mr. Rochester now ugly in my eyes? No, reader: gratitude, and many associations, all pleasurable and genial, made his face the object I best liked to see; his presence in a room was more cheering than the brightest fire.  

On Jane and Mr. Rochester's relationship:

I have now been married ten years. I know what it is to live entirely for and with what I love best on earth. I hold myself supremely blest—blest beyond what language can express; because I am my husband’s life as fully as he is mine. No woman was ever nearer to her mate than I am: ever more absolutely bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. I know no weariness of my Edward’s society: he knows none of mine, any more than we each do of the pulsation of the heart that beats in our separate bosoms; consequently, we are ever together. To be together is for us to be at once as free as in solitude, as gay as in company. We talk, I believe, all day long: to talk to each other is but a more animated and an audible thinking. All my confidence is bestowed on him, all his confidence is devoted to me; we are precisely suited in character—perfect concord is the result.

These quotes from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte highlight what I LOVE about both of them. For me, love is what Jane and Mr. Rochester have. It's beyond appearances and it's about connecting in the deeper sense. They are the ideal couple as they found in each other something others might still struggle to put to words.

Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler

Erratic and unladylike Scarlett and the infamous Rhett Butler. They were made for each other, weren't they? Only Rhett can handle Scarlett and Scarlett, Rhett! Did they have to play all the mind games? Gone With The Wind broke my heart. I read it in two days and desperately wanted more of Scarlett and Rhett; both of whom could be very unlikable but still won our hearts.

Scarlett O'Hara: Sir, you are no gentleman.
Rhett Butler: And you, Miss, are no lady! 

Rhett: No, I'm not gong to kiss you, although you need it.
You need kissing and often and by someone who knows how.

Anna and Etienne St. Clair

“His eyes lock on mine. "Anna, I promise that I will never leave you." 

My heart pounds in response. And Étienne knows it because he takes my hand and holds it against his chest to show me how hard his heart is pounding too.”

Anna and Etienne from Anna and the French Kiss by Stephenie Perkins. Because they scream cute couple! They scream Valentine's Day! ANNA BANANA AND ETIENNE ST. CLAIR! Anna is level headed and passionate! Etienne is extremely swoon-worthy and caring! Together they make you warm and fuzzy on the inside and make you believe in happy endings.

But for me, it all started with...

Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley!

Like most of us Harry Potter fans, I grew up with Harry Potter. And post-Goblet of Fire when it was all about who Harry was going to end up with as well I was hardcore Harry/Ginny! Isn't it sweet that Ginny is Harry Potter fan girl turned object of Harry's affection? Isn't it great that Harry saved her life before -fast forward three years- he realises that Ginny is more than Ron's little sister to him? 

             Since we're talking Harry Potter, it's the perfect time to pay homage to the couple that wasn't. As one-sided as the feelings were, it made me swoon and wish things had turned out differently. Though Lily/James is perfection, I cannot help thinking of

Severus Snape and Lily Evans

or more Severus Snape and his undying love for Lily Evans

Sigh. Enough said!

♥ ❤♥ ❤♥ ❤♥ ❤♥ ❤♥ ❤♥ ❤

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody! Who are your favourite book couples?

Tell Me Something Tuesday #1

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Cambria Herbert! All you have to do is answer the question of the week. It's my first time and I'm thrilled to be participating!

Tell Me Something.

What is the saddest book you have ever read? 

I'm sure there are others but I can't recall them all. Either way there are very few books that touch me enough to make me feel sad and sob my heart out. It's a rare and amazing thing to find a book that affects me so much!

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. The end. A little before the end. The death of a certain character had a profound impact on me. It was the saddest part of the series. Not just the character death. It was just after the character died when Harry was left with all these memories and questions he wished he could've asked that character that I started sobbing buckets.

A Walk to Remember was my first Nicholas Sparks book and I did not know a thing about the way Sparks' novels usually ended. I was fifteen and devastated because I liked the sweet relationship between the two main characters. The movie was even sadder to watch, especially with the Switchfoot songs in the soundtrack.

One Day by David Nicholls was such a sad yet beautiful book! I cried SO MUCH towards the end. Even in the middle, the characters were put through so much. But the end... woah. I was taken aback by the twist. It was so beautifully written and so so sad. A book automatically becomes amazing when towards the end, you feel nostalgic on behalf of the characters.

- - -

Also, stay tuned for an author interview of Beth Ann Masarik, author of the amazing The World Among Us: Prince of Darkness #1 on the 8th of Feb as a part of Beth Ann Masarik's The World Among Us blog tour! You can check out the full tour schedule here.