Waiting on Wednesday (18): Ugly Love!!

 

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It gives us the chance to fangirl over all of the books that we can't wait to read!

UGLY LOVE by Colleen Hoover

Hitting the shelves on August 5, 2014 from Atria Books

When Tate Collins meets airline pilot Miles Archer, she knows it isn’t love at first sight. They wouldn’t even go so far as to consider themselves friends. The only thing Tate and Miles have in common is an undeniable mutual attraction. Once their desires are out in the open, they realize they have the perfect set-up. He doesn’t want love, she doesn’t have time for love, so that just leaves the sex. Their arrangement could be surprisingly seamless, as long as Tate can stick to the only two rules Miles has for her.

Never ask about the past.
Don’t expect a future.

They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can’t handle it at all.

Hearts get infiltrated.
Promises get broken.
Rules get shattered.
Love gets ugly.

MY THOUGHTS

I recently read my very first Colleen Hoover book (it was Maybe Someday ;P), and I totally loved it, so now I'm even more excited for Ugly Love! I definitely plan to make sure I read Colleen's previous books, too. I loved that in Maybe Someday she took a situation that could've been awful and just horrible to read about, but she made it something that you could relate to and even understand in a way, so I'm extremely excited to see what goes on in Ugly Love!! I really just can't wait!!! :D

Anyone else super excited for Ugly Love?

What are you waiting for this Wednesday?

Tea Tuesdays! (11): Today's Tea is...(Iced) Pink Passionfruit!!

I'm totally obsessed with tea, so every Tuesday, I'm sharing one of my favourites...and maybe sometimes something just totally awesome and tea-related.

Recently my biggest tea obsession has been loose tea! If you're new to loose tea, check out my first Tea Tuesday post and see how easy it is to brew! You can also click my "Tea Tuesdays!" button above to see my previous tea posts! :D

The weather has been absolutely fantastic in Edmonton lately, so today's Tea Tuesdays! post is all about ICED tea!! :D 

Today's tea is DAVIDsTEA's Pink Passionfruit...ICED!! :D

Pink Passionfruit was from last year's Summer Collection at DAVIDsTEA, so unfortunately you can't get any of it right now, but I did make sure to get myself a 100g tin before it was gone. Sadly, it won't last forever, but this tea is a delicious treat so I like to savour it when I do have it! :D

This is what it looks like: 

Making iced tea is pretty simple. I usually just steep my tea as usual, and then just add the hot tea to ice in a cup. I used my lovely $5 tumbler from Walmart to make it this time. :D 

And if you're really unsure of how to make it iced, here's the steps that I use: 

1. Choose your tea!

2. Steep as usual (use a tea ball, steeper, perfect mug...whatever you want! :D)

3. Add your preferred sweetener (sugar, agave, etc.) if you like your tea sweet. You want to do this when the tea is hot though so that it dissolves and spreads throughout the whole drink. You can even add it before you add your hot water. 

4. Add the hot tea to ice. You can do this in a tumbler like I did, or you could do it in a pitcher if you wanted to make a larger serving. :) (Also, if you don't have any ice, you could even add the hot tea to really cold water...ice is definitely easier though :D)

5. DRINK AND ENJOY! :D 

So, here's the tumbler I used! As you can see from the picture on the bottom left side, I filled the whole tumbler with ice, and when I filled my steeper before, I filled it to the regular size for one cup of tea. This tumbler is about 500-600 mL so it works for that amount, but make sure to overfill your cup if you decide to make a smaller glass. :)

YUM! I'm always a fan of Pink Passionfruit, but it is definitely at its best when it's iced! I'm not super picky about which teas I ice since I do like a wide variety, but if you want to try it for the first time, I'd suggest a herbal or fruit tea since they have more light and sweet flavours naturally which make them the perfect way to refresh on a hot day! :D

Here's hoping that one day DAVIDsTEA brings Pink Passionfruit back though because I love it sooooo much! haha :D

What do you think?

Do you like your tea iced?

If you haven't tried it before, do you think you will now?

Cover Catch-Up (12): Vibrant, Striking, and Long-Awaited!!!

In "Cover Catch-Up" I share some covers that have either been recently revealed, or that I've just found and really wanted to share. 

I stumbled upon quite a few amazing covers last week, but I limited myself to just three!! These three covers have been on my mind ALL WEEK!! They're so striking, and I'm excited and eager to read all three books!!! :D

The first cover that I have to share is for Rachel Vincent's The Stars Never Rise! :D

 

Isn't this cover gorgeous?! :D I actually haven't read any of Rachel Vincent's books yet, but I have heard great things about them, so I'm thinking I'll have to get on the Rachel Vincent train with this book! It has a gorgeous cover and the story sounds amazing, too! With this cover though, I love the way the colour is almost burning off of the cover. It's so vibrant that it looks like it's glowing, and I have a feeling it'll look even more amazing in person! :D

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The second cover that I have to share today is for Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen!

I find this cover both creepy and gorgeous at the exact same time! It's simple, but so striking, and it's lingered with me all week since I first saw this cover! :D The story also sounds amazing, too!!!

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 The final cover (and the one that I'm most excited for!!!) that I have to share with you all today is for The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan!!! :D

After getting into his Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, I quickly picked up Rick Riordan's Heroes of Olympus series, and I'm finally all caught up with them!! I've been eagerly awaiting the cover reveal for this one, and I CANNOT WAIT TO READ THE BLOOD OF OLYMPUS!!! :D And the cover is fantastic!!! I love all of the intricate details, and how it just tells you so much of the story!! I also love that you can pick out the different characters, too....it just makes me so excited!!! October seriously cannot come fast enough!! This book will most likely pop back upon my blog as a WoW pick, too. I'm just sooooooo excited for it!! :D

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What do you think?
Are you a fan of these covers?

Mani Monday (11): Orange You Glad That SINNER Is Out?!

It's Monday again, so it's time for another Mani Monday!

It should come as no surprise (based on the way I always design my blog anyway :P) that my favourite colour is orange, so anytime that I can put some orange into my nail polish design, I am ecstatic! :D Today I'm sharing the lovely mani I've been rocking for the past few days...and I absolutely LOVE it! :D

The polishes I used for today's mani are Julep's "Dahlia" and "Zoe". "Dahlia" is the yellow/gold-ish colour, and "Zoe" is the orange/bronze-ish colour. :D I also purchased the polishes as a Julep Maven...I think you've all noticed by now that I'm addicted to Julep. :P haha

So, here's my gorgeous mani in "Dahlia" and "Zoe"!!! :D I did a kind of gradient/ombre thing with the two colours, and I absolutely LOVE it!!! :D

The best part about this mani...it was super easy!!! :D I didn't even use my makeup sponges to do this gradient. Since the colours are kind of close together, I just used the normal brushes that came along with the nail polishes, and kind of blended it together that way. :D

My copy of Maggie Stiefvater's SINNER is actually waiting for me to pick it up at the UPS store, but I did notice when I was at Chapters the other day that my nails matched the cover PERFECTLY, so I just had to snap a picture of it!! :D The fact that my nails matched SINNER is also most definitely the inspiration for my cheesy title today, too! haha :P

What do you think?

Do you like this orange/gold gradient?

And what's your favourite colour that you like to add to your manicures?

Review: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

 

Source: Received an egalley from the publisher through Edelweiss.
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release Date: Already Released.
Number of Pages: 352 (Hardcover)


Description from Goodreads:

Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast in this sweeping fantasy about one girl's journey to fulfill her destiny and the monster who gets in her way-by stealing her heart.

Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.

Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.

With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle-a shifting maze of magical rooms-enthralls her.

As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

As soon as I read the description for Cruel Beauty I knew that I just had to read it. I have always loved Beauty and the Beast...and I'm definitely a self-proclaimed Disney junkie, so this book totally screamed "READ ME!!!" to me! Sure enough, as soon as I started Cruel Beauty I was hooked!! :D I loved the story, the characters, and the world-building was absolutely amazing. :D I was also pleasantly surprised to figure out that Rosamund Hodge blends mythology into the story of Beauty and the Beast, too, because I'm also a huge mythology fan...seriously, this book was perfect for me and it lived up to and greatly exceeded any expectations that I had for it!

While the main character, Nyx, isn't the most likeable character, she is incredibly easy to relate to. Who hasn't been jealous or angry because they felt they had been mistreated? My guess is that almost everyone has...I know I sure have! Nyx's situation is something that's pretty impossible to relate to, but it's still incredibly easy to sympathize with her. I think her fierceness also makes it hard to dislike her, even though she's quite abrasive. 

Ignifex, the "Beast" of this story, is another character who comes off as completely horrible, but he grows on you...boy, does he ever grow on you. At first, all you see is the monster that Nyx has heard of and known her entire life, but despite Ignifex's flaws (and he definitely has them), he is endearing and he has some great qualities...he also definitely cares about and trusts Nyx, which is a good and bad thing. :P I loved getting to see both Nyx and Ignifex let their guards down though, and seeing them grow closer was wonderful! You couldn't help but fall with them as their relationship changed, and I loved that! :D

Not only were the characters and story amazing, but so was the writing!!! I swear, Rosamund Hodge is a goddess herself because her writing was good enough for me to want to worship it! I cannot wait to read more of her work in the future because I found her writing to be fresh, addictive, and beautiful! Seriously...it was so, so, so good! :D

Overall, I absolutely LOVED Cruel Beauty! It's definitely one of my favourite reads in 2014 so far, and I have a very strong feeling that it's going to stay at the top of my faves list for the whole year! I'd recommend this one to fans of fairytales, mythology, and retellings! I also think if you love your love interests to be a bit on the dark side, and your heroines to be flawed that you'll love it, too! :D

Have you read Cruel Beauty yet?
If you haven't...do you want to?