published 2/2015 (in the US. 2014 in the UK)  // 413 pages
read from 9/16-20/2015 
isbn: 978-1-4926-0208-8

im going on the record and stating that brit chic lit is my absolute most favorite guilty pleasure! Jill Mansell is anyways. 
I LOVE HER!!!!
this is my 8th/9th book of hers i read so, you know, the love is real (and it so happens to be my first physical book, all others have been ebooks)
this is one of those "thank you for existing my lovely nook" moments cause had it not been for that little machine i would have never discovered her. 

before i get started! yes, you already know the 1 or 2 people fighting the whole 'we belong together' scheme always end up together and almost always at the end. 
soo....

sophie is the main character (even though there are 3/3.5 love stories) in this story. 
because i have NEVER ran in to another Jill Mansell fan, im just guna do a total spoiler post (okay not total spoiler. just the end). but first!, here's the amazon review. 

Sophie Wells is a successful photographer with a focus on putting the past firmly behind her. When Josh Strachan returns to the seaside town of Cornwall from the States to run his family's hotel, he can't understand why the fun, sexy girl has zero interest in letting him-or any man for that matter-into her life. He also can't understand how he's been duped into employing Sophie's impulsive friend Tula, whose crush on him is decidedly unrequited. Both girls remain mum about the reasons behind Sophie's indifference to love. But that doesn't mean Josh is going to quit trying...

lies. both girls dont keep quiet. 
and he knows how he got duped into hiring her friend. 

so. 
there you are and here i go!

sophie fights falling in love with josh because her exhusband theo basically scarred her for life. when she was younger she married theo because he was ridiculously attached to his mother and her death wish was to have her son marry sophie so she could ya know, pass knowing he was going to be happy and taken care of. 
well, she dies and he loses his marbles. sophie understands but it gets to a point where she just cant take it. he wants to have a kid but she's wise enough to understand that kids a marriage does not fix. so shes taking birth control behind his back which he ends up finding out about. which then prompts him to think that she is cheating no matter what she tells him. 
so she moves out and thats how she meets tula. 
everything is great. 
then theo goes over to try to make things up and he sees her having a blast. which okay cool BUT it threw him for a loop and his result was to......commit suicide. 
so he writes her a letter that she gets earlier than she was supposed to so she was able to rescue him before things got bad. (which by the way I HATE the beyonce reference. leave her out of books please and thanks!) 
he survives but basically tells her to get lost. 
so for the next 4 years she's hella messed up. 

enter josh. he moves back to help his grandma Dot run their hotel. he runs in to sophie while she is there taking pictures and its basically from there that he falls in love with her. 

tula, her best friend has a HUGE crush on josh but he obviously doesn't care for her. 
enter riley, joshs' best friend, total playboy but ends up falling in love with tula. 

dot is with lawrence (joshs' grandparents) until one day lawrence runs into aurora and then ruins his marriage to dot by leaving her for aurora. 

in the end, yes, sophie ends up with josh. tula with riley. and spoiler, dot and lawrence end up together as well. 
so,  i spoiled the ends for you (ends because theres different love stories that make up this one story) but i left all the middle parts for each of the stories for you to read about! muahaha. 
so you gotta figure that out on your own. 
but really, brit chic lit. who isn't in to that? ;)
and trust me, theres a lot more that i left out! 

have you read JM? 
whatcha think? 

thanks for stopping by. 
have a good rest of your week! (: 






soo...i have NO idea how this picture even got posted. 
who even posts a random picture without saying anything?

member how ive been saying that my bloglovin // blogger app has been acting up? well this is the prime example! 
i went to disneyland on Friday to meet up with Joleen (for the 1st time ever!) and on the way to get some funnel cake we stopped by the front of the castle to take a picture. hence this picture. 

whaaat i do not know though, is how it got posted on here. 
i posted it on IG but then how it landed here iduno. 

anyways, here's the castle on 9/11. there was apparently a huge (different) firework show to honor those who served (but we missed it and i didnt even know!) and its also the 60th anniversary decoration. 

i hope you enjoy the picture. im currently trying to convince the boyfriend to get a pass with me!!!!

have a great week ahead! 
published: 2010  // 325 pages
read from:  8/30 to i think 9/4 (i lost the paper i wrote the date in. and also, i finished it liiiike 10 mins after midnight sooo ya know!) 
isbn: 978-0-375-86586-2


i have been wanting to read this book since maybe its release date and i dooont know why but i could never bring myself to purchase it and up until i checked it out from the library, it NEVER crossed my mind to ya know, check it out. collective sigh everyone. (also, not that you read my itty bitty blog, but thank you Elise for making me fall in love with the library again!) 

anywho, i will leave you with the amazon review and then ill word vomit mine because you already know how i am. 

Vera’s spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie Kahn. And over the years she’s kept a lot of his secrets. Even after he betrayed her. Even after he ruined everything.

So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone—the kids at school, his family, even the police. But will she emerge to clear his name? Does she even want to?

Edgy and gripping, Please Ignore Vera Dietz is an unforgettable novel: smart, funny, dramatic, and always surprising.

okay so mega spoilers from here on out! 

FREAKING CHARLIE!!!!!
sooo many unanswered questions!? did charlie die of alcohol poisoning? (yes he did les) i mean like on his own will or did someone, iduno, shove it down his throat!? was it jenny flick? or her ex? 
what happened to charlies parents? okay i know that but like what the hell?!? dammit Charlie!!!!

okay. so, Charlie and Vera are beeeest friends until you know, Charlie (sorrry) fucks it all up. 
he starts to  believe all this other nonsense coming out of Jenny's mouth and he blows off Vera. like you think hes a jerk but then you read that he hits her (well it was a slap but it doesn't make it any better) and that's when you're like duuuude! you don't wanna hate him cause you know, he's dead (and a fictional character) but the more you read on the more you think "dude, what a dick!"  (and not to get all philosophical with you but im thinking that maybe he didn't believe Jenny he just sooo badly didnt want to turn out like his father that instead of realizing he could have been someone completely different he just said fuck it and went along with Jenny cause he saw this as a way out? or maybe even jenny being someone that later on could eventually be treated like his mother was and he wouldnt feel guilty about it because he never really truly cared for her?)  

Charlie is all messed up because he's (unfortunately) used to seeing his father beat up on his mom and Vera is basically paranoid that she will end up becoming an alcoholic runaway stripper because those are her parents and so because they're both paranoid that this is their future, they take this friendship that eventually could have turned in to something beautiful and mess it all up. well, charlie because you kinda cant really blame it on her. 

soooo.....Jenny is this messed up kid who completely hates Vera for unjustified, this is a high school thing to do reason so she brainwashes Charlie to hate Vera but the thing is Vera never did anything. she always kept Charlie's secrets (also because her dad is like some robot jerk!) and she never really cleared her name to charlie because "why should she defend herself when she isn't guilty." (i like her logic. that's my thought exactly.) 


soo this whole book just recaps the course of their friendship and its all about Vera needing to clear Charlie's name. he is the one blamed for what Jenny did and he haunts Vera (think Dean Koont's Odd Thomas bodach's style) to the point where she's constantly drinking to try to avoid it but clearly that's when they tend to come out. 

i dont know. i like this book i really do but i feel like.....it left a lot of unanswered questions like what happens to Jenny? do they (the cops) clear Charlie's name? what happens to the perv? i KNOW how it started but WHY did the $5/used underwear thing start? was it to save Vera? did charlie strike up a deal? what the random ass trip? how the hell or why in the hell are Vera's parents still in touch? like how did that happen? and i mean waaaaas it necessary? ahhh!!!

see what i mean? 
over all a good-ish book. i just wish i had more answers for you. or maybe less questions. 
but dont let this weird post stop you from checking it out! in fact i beg of you that you do! maybe you'll have a lot of these answers for me. 

as always, i'll leave you with some of my favorite bits! (: 

- i like that this books chapters have names instead of chap 1 2 and so on. with that being said the "a brief word from the Pagoda" chapters were my favorite! specially the one on page 206!

Do you have any idea how old watching idiot kids drink and do drugs up here on the rocks is getting? the funniest part is, they all think they're more cool than their parents were, and their parents did the same crap. also - tossing beer cans? that's a $300 fine. you're lucky I'm an inanimate object. 

- "am i not destroying my enemies when i make friends of them?" - Abraham Lincoln (page 84) can i also just say that i LOVE that there's random quotes everywhere!

-it didnt work because i knew not to give the best of myself to the worst of people. - vera page 197


as always, i said more than i should but trust when i say there's a lot i left out. like the **** and the *** and that ***! haha.

let me know what ya think if ya pick (or have picked) it up. 
thanks for sticking around and reading my rambling! 
you da best! 
have a great weekend!!!!