YA, Chocolate and Durian

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YA Mafia. I never heard of it until yesterday when I happened to visit Dear Author websites. If you are not sure what is YA Mafia, it sort of a group of YA Author who may I quote from Holly Black blog “a cabal of writers who give one other blurbs, do events with one another, and like each other’s books. Also if you cross them they can ruin your career”

It looks like a threat that is directed more to those reviewers that reviewed their works. I’m not sure whether this group really existed but if they do, it is not healthy at all. The reviews by these independent reviewers are meant for us, the readers. Since we going to spend our money on these books shouldn't we get unbiased reviewed? If the review is bad and they don't like it, they should work harder to produce a better book and not alienate the reviewers. I will feel cheated if I read a review that is based on the friendship and association.

You might be wondering how I choose my book. I normally frequented the following websites, All About Romance, The Romance Reader, Dear Author and few other websites to get the review and the rating. In fact I have been to All About Romance websites since the early 2000s and they have never disappointed me in their reviews and I hardly read reviews on the Amazon.com nor from Goodreads to influence me in my buying. I really hope that the YA Mafia is only rumours.

There is also another "mafia" group that was just established on Sunday Malaysian time. It is known as Chocolate Mafia and the leader is Carolyn Jewel, who called her hero in My Immortal Assassin, Durian. Not Durian the King of fruits but a dangerously sexy demon fiend. I haven’t read this but it is in my TBR pile of books that is still packed in the box in my store room. I will let you know whether the My Immortal Assassin's Durian is as tasty as our King of fruits, Durian once I get the chance to read it. Oh! She also has a cat by the name of Abu.

 

Heh! I’m not sure how you can join this gang but from what I know you just need to love chocolate and also Durian. But I might be wrong!  Okay, gotta go...Salam....

A Little Bit Wild by Victoria Dahl

Hey I'm not a book reviewer but if the book is interesting and worth for me to blog, I would do it. So is this book, A Little Bit Wild by Victoria Dahl. What I like about this book is that it is not the normal kind of romance book that you read. Furthermore, one of the character reminds me of someone I know in my office. If you are my friend from same office reading this, you may already know who is that person. This guy in my office is a real gentleman. He is very helpful, has great personalities, soft spoken and I can say that he is not good looking and big.


Okay, back to the book. Normally, the historical romance hero and heroine will be rich, handsome and with titles and for the heroine will be prim and proper,  and beautiful. But not this particular book. No doubt, the heroine, Marissa, is beautiful but she is shallow, wild and naughty even though she didn't show it to the society of her true character. For the hero, Jude, he is definitely not handsome and in fact, if I read it correctly this guy is ugly and he is a duke's son but he is a bastard. What's Jude lack in his looks department, he has good personalities and charming and most of the women like him.


Marissa is the only girl in the family and she was caught in the act of having sex by her eldest brother. As the common practice during that period, she has to marry but Marissa didn't want to marry the guy she did it with. So here come our hero who offered himself to marry her. We, Malaysian, will definitely label him Pak Sanggup but actually Jude like her. Jude knew that Marissa likes good looking men with great thighs. He knew that Marissa will not look at him in other circumstances. So what did he do? He volunteered himself and decided that he will win Marissa.  He used his charms to get to Marissa. Did he managed to get to Marrissa? Definitely. He managed to make Marissa feel jealous when he talked to women and eventually Marissa realised that she loves Jude. She realised that good looks will not make a happy marriage. Betulkan? 


I also like when Jude told Marissa the difference between men and boys. Aahh! You guys have to read the book if you want to know what's the difference. I would not share it here. This book also has the element of surprises. Marissa received a threatening letter that can exposed her character to society. The writer of the letter demand payment. And you will be surprised who is that person. It never cross my mind until she was exposed. So go and look for the book if you want to know who. Worth reading it!


This book remind me of my mom favorite quotes "Senang mata susah hati, Sakit mata senang hati." What it means is that if you have a handsome or beautiful partner, be prepared for the heartache as many people will go after your partner. If you have an average looking partner or ugly partner, you will definitely have less heartache cause nobody will go after your partner. But today's world is different. If you have loads of money, how ugly you are, you will look handsome or beautiful. 


Okay friends, this is my rating for the book: A-. Happy reading! Salam.