I was mindlessly scrolling my Twitter feed when I saw Tara's tweet about signing-up for an ARC of Scandalized. It was a product of #SparkNA, a writing class I also joined last year. I signed up last Saturday and in that same day, I received the ARC kit. I wasn't able to start reading it right away, because you know "real life", but as soon as I did, I wasn't able to put it down.

Fi Legaspi is living the dream working in Seoul as a road manager for one of South Korea's hottest bands, East Genesis Project. Until she isn't.

When she finds herself in the middle of a scandal and a hostile fangirl witch hunt, Fi seeks the comfort of home, and to her surprise, not the person she had been pining for for years. All too suddenly it's no longer her career on the line, but also her heart. 

Will she walk away from everything that matters to her or fight to keep her dream alive?

How do I love this? Let me count the ways!

1. I never liked Kpop, but I used to be addicted to KDrama. Reading Scandalized was like watching one. Complete with a love triangle with a brooding guy and another guy who really really likes the main character. Only here, I get to choose who gets to be in cast and it all plays out on my mind.
2. Speaking of cast, I don't know if it's because Tara kept on tweeting about Daniel Henney, but in my mind, he is Gabriel. I had a super crush on Daniel Henney when I first saw him at My Name is Kim Sam Soon. 
3. I laughed at all the references to Mean Girls. 
4. I liked Fi and her resilience. I liked that she was not desperate to jump into a relationship with someone whom she had pined for for so long. I loved her dedication to her job - even if it was mostly a thankless one. I'm like her friend who wants to berate her for being too selfless, for looking after other people's welfare first. But also so proud of her at the same time. 
5. I got kilig with Gabriel and all the banter with Fi. But more than that, I loved how Tara sent an incredibly important message without being too preachy. We all have our opinions about celebrities and other people. We all have unkind thoughts. (what? you don't? sue me. haha.) But it's one thing to have them and another to act on them or voice them out. I always see hateful messages on celebrities' instagram accounts and all I can do is shake my head. I also see this a lot right now on Facebook, people calling each other names when others do not share the same thoughts on their chosen presidentiables. Saying hateful things is and will never be cool and this message was sent out loud and clear by this book. 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and I hope this book gets to many people's hands. Especially young ones who are more likely to say hateful messages online or even in person. If you would like to read this, Scandalized is now available for pre-order on Amazon!In Ellen Degeneres fashion, I'd like to end this post with this: Be Kind To One Another.

If you're like most people, then you probably have tried the usual chocolate-coated food: marshmallows, strawberries, bananas, almonds, *insert things you can find in choco fondue stations here*. Then there are the not-so-usual, but surprisingly good ones. There's polvoron, dried mangoes, potato chips, and even bacon, coated in chocolatey goodness.

Being a foodie, I usually don't pass up on opportunities to try new things to eat. That's (how I get all the extra pounds, haha!) exactly what happened when I saw a print version of this ad when we dined at Frankie's New York Buffalo Wings yesterday:

Photo taken from Frankie's FB Page

Limited offer! It might not be available next time. So even if we already placed our order, wewe had to add it.

Half dozen of Chocolate Wings

It actually tasted good. When you eat the wing part, you won't even think that it's chicken. But when you eat the little drumstick-like part of it, that's when it gets weird. The texture of that part of the chicken and the chocolate just didn't do it for me. I think this is by far, the most outrageous chocolate-coated food I have encountered. It was okay, but I won't be ordering it again. I love chicken and I love chocolate, but not when they're together.

How about you? Have you tried this before? What are your thoughts?  If not, then what's the weirdest chocolate-covered food have you tried so far?

Okay. First of all, let me be honest by saying I don't really know how to review. I guess that's why I can't solely be a book or a food blogger. I don't know how to elaborate on things to make good descriptions. So forgive me, this is me trying my hardest. ;)

As I've shared in my last post, I have attended #AprilFeelsDay. I was with my good friend, Jang, but I also met new people and saw some familiar faces from when I joined #SparkNA (New Adult romance writing class) last year. One of those familiar faces was Chrissie Peria.

Admittedly, I haven't read any of Chrissie's books prior to meeting her, but I found her amusing (in a good way). I'm the kind of person who needs to warm up with someone before I can start being madaldal. Chrissie, on the other hand, is the kind of person who can just strike  a conversation with anybody and be comfortable with it. She was entertaining enough that as soon as I got home, I bought All's fair in Blog and War.  I super loved the idea of this book and I really don't understand why I didn't buy The Kitchen When It Sizzles right away.

So last Saturday, I met Chrissie again. She gave us her new calling card (super cute!) and a sticker that says "Nate puts the Bae in Bacon." I mean, what's not to love about that? Witty author, plus a reference to bacon! So when I got home that day, I bought The Kitchen When It Sizzles.

Summary:
Olivia Nadal is an almost perfect girl with an almost perfect life. She has stunning good looks, an exciting job that pays well, men lining up to date her, and a homey little condo she calls her own. The only thing keeping her from perfection is her utter inability to cook. 

Enter Nate Olivarez, a hotshot chef who's filling in for Olivia's cooking instructor. Sparks fly when they meet, but a fling with the visiting hottie is the last thing Olivia needs. But as things keep heating up in the kitchen, she can't help but wonder. Can things work out between her and Nate? Or is the sizzle all set to fizzle?

How do I love this? Let me count the ways!

1. The names - Olivia and Nate - are just two of my favorites. Like Olivia Pope of Scandal and Nate Scott of One Tree Hill.
2. A chef for a "boyfriend" - this must be every foodie's dream. I may not be a super fan of sticky ribs but this made me crave for salt and pepper spareribs which is my favorite! And hello, that scene where Olivia wakes up to the smell of bacon? That's what good days are made of. 
3. Sexual tension - Olivia and Nate screamed sexual tension from the first time they met and I think that was cute. The sexy stuff wasn't too graphic, but the story did live up to it's title. It was definitely sizzling hot. 
4. Relatable characters. I am not almost-perfect. I even dare say that I'm far from it. Olivia also annoyed me at times, but I totally related to her views on migrating:  "The truth was that migrating was never an option for Olivia. She was so deeply entrenched in her life here: her family, her friends, her career, her condo — everyone was so perfectly in place that she couldn’t imagine uprooting herself for whatever reason."
5. Chrissie's writing - I'm not saying this because I know her, but she is definitely one talented writer. When you read her books, you'll know she did her research and you'll appreciate all the little tidbits you'll learn in the subject. In this case, it's cooking! Like All's Fair, this one was enjoyable to read. *puts Chrissie's name in auto-buy list*

So, there! What do you think of my first review? Should I write more or should I stop with this? Hit the comments box (or tweet me @braintabs) and please let me know! :)

Back in 2011, I had a love affair with Nicholas Sparks. I hoarded his books and while sometimes he left me satisfied, there were times when he just broke my heart. It was good while it lasted, but I soon got tired of him and started to look for light-hearted romance.

I then discovered Mina Esguerra's books from Chachic's Book Nook.  Chachic reviewed Fairy Tale Fail and it got me intrigued. I liked the idea of reading a story about a twenty-something living in Manila, like me. Chachic said that she read it as an ebook, but back then I was not as fond of e-reading as I am now. I then emailed Mina asking how to score a copy and to my surprise, she promptly replied to me.


So. much. feels, you guys! The program included poetry reading (featuring Pierra Calasanz-Labrador’s The Heartbreak Diaries), tarot card reading, romance writing and publishing Q&A, mingling with and signing of books by the authors and the favorite part of most, if not everyone in there - the live reading!  

The live reading of romance books featured some very talented performers: Rachel Coates, Gio Gahol, Jef Flores, Salve Villarosa (Cuckoo for Books), and Herv Alvarez. I listened to audiobooks and I've seen book readings on youtube before, but heck, those didn't prepare me for all the kilig (note that kilig is not in italics anymore! haha) and other feels caused by live reading. My favorite performances were the reading of All's Fair in Blog and War by Chrissie Peria and The Real Score by Kesh Tanglao. I was literally giggling like a school girl while listening to Rachel Coates and Gio Gahol. In fact, I am positive the girls around me were doing the same. Us to British Gio reading The Real Score: *swooooooon*

I really enjoyed April Feels Day and it was so nice to see that Filipino Romance genre is flourishing. I hope I get to attend more events like this, maybe in a bigger venue next time to accommodate all the feels, you know?

If you wanna see more about the fun things that happened, Mina did a good recap here. You can also explore #aprilfeelsday on Instagram. 

I haven't read some of the books that were performed, but the readings were so good, I had to buy them as soon as I got home. I'd always love to find more books though, so if you have a recommendation, that would be awesome. I already finished The Kitchen When It Sizzles by Chrissie Peria, so I'm gonna review that soon.

I've been in a blogging hiatus for three years. I tried to go back a couple of times, but being the overthinker that I am, I got frustrated every time I failed to think of a niche. The other day though, I realized I really didn't need one, I just wanted to click some Xs in my brain.

Here I will attempt to stop some tabs from buffering in my mind and set them out in an actual browser. Happy browsing!