Tag Archives: Project 20:10

Flinging, flinging

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Every Girl's Guide to Flings

Every Girl’s Guide to Flings by Marla Miniano

In her high heels, short skirts, and purple eyeliner, Rickie is known as the wayward friend of good girls Anna and Chrissy. Her string of meaningless flings, happening parties, and more boys lining up to ask her out make her the envy of every teenage girl—till she sets her sights on a very bad idea: Anna’s ex. Is Rickie headed for disaster? Or will she finally fall in love and get her very own happy ending?

In a group of friends, there are always roles. There’s the witty one, there’s the nice one, and there’s the popular one, the one who likes to party, drink and gets into relationships flings all the time.

That is Rickie.

Rickie is the “bad girl” friend of Anna and Chrissy, from the Every Girl’s Guide series by Marla Miniano. Rickie is surrounded by good girls — from Anna and Chrissy to her older sister, Lexi, who she thinks is perfect. Rickie fits into her role pretty well, doing exactly what other people expect of her: to party, drink and hook up with cute boys she meets in these parties.

Then Rickie meets Jaime again, who, incidentally, is Anna’s ex. Thinking he’s already a free-zone, especially after she learns he’s broken up with his girlfriend, Olivia, she goes after him, using his friend Diego to make him jealous, who also incidentally, falls in love with Rickie.

I knew from the moment when the guy who Rickie ends up with shows up that she will end up with him, but it was actually quite nice to see how she grows from the party girl to learning to accept the things that other people think of her to be. As I mentioned, Rickie lives up to the expectations of her — people expect her to be the party girl, the one who always goes out, the one who has flings and never falls in love. But her friends and her sister think more of her, and at first she couldn’t live up to it. When things fall apart, Rickie takes a step back, and tries to see herself for what her friends and her sister and a new found friend see in her.

I found this book a lot interesting, and quite a satisfying end to the Girl’s Guide series. It was nice to get into Rickie’s perspective, and I sympathized with her when she said that she was just included in Anna and Chrissy’s group, even if she felt that Anna didn’t like her too much. While I couldn’t relate to Rickie’s life, I could somehow relate to her figuring out that relationships need work, and that she doesn’t need to be afraid when people fall in love with her.

I liked it, and if I had teenage sister/niece/cousin/friend, I’d recommend this series to her. :)

Rating: ★★★★★

2010 Challenge Status:
* Book # 21 out of 100 for 2010
* Book # 4 out of 20 for Project 20:10

Just Like Christmas Lights

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12 Steps to Quitting AJ12 Steps to Quitting AJ by Faye Ilogon

Grace and AJ are like Christmas lights—off and on, again and again. But their last breakup was devastating. It was enough to make Grace want to run him over in her pale pink Beetle. She even composed 12 steps to quitting him, which wasn’t easy because he admittedly was her first love—the boy she lost her heart to when she was still collecting Hello Kitty stationeries; the boy she never stopped loving since. But something happens that changes Grace’s life forever. Now it’s time for her to reevaluate everything she has going for her and make a decision. Is this the end of Grace’s life as she knows it? Or is she finally going to have the happy ending she so desperately needs?

I can’t remember if I mentioned it before,  but I’m not really sold on what local chick lit can offer. Blame it on bad experience with the first few books I read, I guess. Plus, sometimes I feel like the story is too short for the price of P150/book. I mean, I can read the entire thing in a couple of hours, for crying out loud.

But I’m kind of glad to see that the stories are improving and are being slightly more relevant at this time, and the protagonists are more spunky and interesting and less flat than the others I read a couple of years ago.

Of course, I may be just deciding that the other characters are flat on the old books I read because they’re not really my kind of stories, you know?

Anyway, 12 Steps to Quitting AJ is one of those greatly improved books that I’m referring to. The story seemed simple at first, and I half-expected it to be another story about a girl who can’t let go of the guy, who’d meet a new guy and she’d realize that she had the best guy all along. It wasn’t that — there wasn’t even another guy. There was a gay friend, another girl, and a whole lot of personal issues with Grace, and even a bit with AJ. It was a bit hard to really get into the story immediately, because the story wasn’t written in a chronological order. The story tends to jump from one time frame to another, but I think it’s quite effective because it gives us a view of how Grace thinks.

Grace definitely had issues, and they’re not the light issues like what are the safest fat burners around. While I didn’t agree on how she finally got over them (sort of), I thought AJ was a very nice male protagonist. AJ seems like a bad boyfriend at first, but he redeemed himself at the end very well, and he may just be the right person to offset Grace’s neurotic tendencies.

Oh, and what’s fun about this book is there were so many references to 90′s stuff! Betty and Veronica, songs for Grace’s playlists, and even a poke at the pink MMDA fences, care of one of Grace and AJ’s friends.

Overall, it’s a nice novel, one you’d like to lose yourself in for a couple of hours. 12 Steps to Quitting AJ reminded me that love isn’t really a step-by-step formula, it requires a lot of honesty for a relationship to work and loving someone is ultimately a decision to stick with them through thick and thin. :)

Rating: ★★★★★

2010 Challenge Status:
* Book # 19 out of 100 for 2010
* Book # 3 out of 20 for Project 20:10

Wedding Bells in Vegas

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Vince's Life: The Wedding by Vince TevesVince’s Life: The Wedding by Vince Teves

Vince thinks his life is over when he loses Cat – the girl who turned his life around after Andrea broke his heart. Then his friend Connie drops the bomb on him telling him she’s pregnant and that she wants him to come to her wedding in America – where Andrea is. His first love. Does this mean Vince and Andrea finally get another chance? Or does Vince land an ending that he never expected?

I never really caught Vince’s Life in Cosmo when it was first published there because I never read Cosmo. Or wait, was it Seventeen? I can’t remember. But I do remember contemplating if I will get the first book of the series a few years back. Back then it was a curious thing for me to read a story with a guy narrator, when almost all the books I read have female narrators.

When a friend told me that the first book was good, I picked it up and read it and liked it. I liked it because Vince was such a character. I don’t know if this is a true story, but I thought Vince was once of the most sensitive guys I’ve ever read about. A sequel came out and I read it immediately, too, and was satisfied with who Vince ended up with (even if I kind of wished otherwise).

I’m the type of person who reads through an entire series, so when a third book came out, I knew I had to read it. It was a quick read — I was done in a couple of hours (and I read it at work, too). Did I squeal in delight in the ending? Did I feel tingles inside me as Vince pursued his girl — again?

Sadly…no.

I don’t really have any expectations for this book, except for a possible surprise in the end as was stated in the blurb. I guess I was hoping for some kind of a twist, something that would not necessarily make me feel excited, but be surprised at the end and say, “Okay, I didn’t see that coming.”

But I didn’t. Don’t get me wrong — it’s a good story, yes, but I felt like it was a typical story — almost like I was reading a teleserye script. I don’t really know what kind of twist I was looking for, but I didn’t exactly jump for joy when I finished reading. Do you get what I mean?

Maybe I had too high expectations with the “ending he never expected”. I still had to hand it to Vince — he really is a sensitive guy. I mean, just read this part:

When it’s right, love isn’t difficult. It’s the easiest thing in the world. All the differences and hardships don’t matter, and there’s only one answer to every question. (p 90-91)

Or how about:

But there was also something else, something so beautiful and so fragile that I almost didn’t dare think about it. (p 129)

Yep, super sensitive guy right there. I think.

But you know what? High expectations aside, this book shows some kind of reality in live overall — life isn’t always exciting, and there aren’t always unexpected endings. Most of the time, life can be boring, and things don’t always happen the way we want them to. We can dream of surprises and twists and turns and stuff, but in the end, life will just give us what is best for us, and we wouldn’t ask for any other ending other than what we have. :)

I guess this is the end of Vince’s Life for us readers, unless a new book comes out with their kids who need to drink their vitamins? I don’t know…but I don’t think that would sell anymore. ;)

Rating: ★★★★★
→ Slightly disappointing, but then again I wasn’t really the biggest fan anyway. Personally, I liked the first two books better.

2010 Challenge Status:

* Book # 12 out of 100 for 2010

* Book # 2 out of 20 for Project 20:10

Project 20:10

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Just when you thought there are no more challenges to join for 2010, yes?

Of course not. It’s still January, there’s still room for challenges! :)

Introducing another challenge that I will be crazy enough to join this year — and this will probably be the last, because if I join one more I think I’ll really go crazy. :P

Where was I? Oh yeah, introducing the project.

An interesting graphic, I know. Here’s what Project 20:10 is about:

PROJECT 20:10 is a campaign to get people to support more local content, as well as create more local content.

By joining the project, you pledge to read/watch/play the works of twenty (20) local authors/ creators/ developers who you haven’t supported before, before the year 2010 is up.

Also, by joining, you pledge to create an original piece of high quality fiction/ comic/ animation/ game worth at least ten (10) pages/ minutes/ levels before the year 2010 is up.

The premise here is to solve the deadlock: the main problem for our lack of local content is there is no support, and there is no support because there is lack of local content. It’s an endless loop that will never end unless something is done to break it — and to break it, both sides should be addressed.

So this year, on top of my other reading challenges, I’m also joining Project 20:10:

SUPPORT 20: I pledge to read the works of 20 local authors who I haven’t supported before, before 2010 is up.

CREATE 10: I also pledge to create an original piece of high quality fiction at least 10 pages before the year 2010 is up.

I’m not sure if what I will write for this year’s NaNoWriMo will be considered “high quality”, but the Create 10 thing is almost done, at least by November. ;) The Support 20 might be hard, though, and probably way beyond my comfort zone. The only local fiction I pick up are the local chick lit — at least the ones that catch my eye. What else could I read? Do graphic novels count?

But a challenge is not a challenge unless I get to challenge myself, right? Okay, that probably only made sense to me. But if you’re a Filipino, you like reading and you’re interested in challenging yourself, join Project 20:10! This might be your chance to start seeing more quality Filipino works on the shelves of our bookstores! We have to start somewhere, right?

Oh, and Project 20:10 is having its launch on January 30, 2010 at the Ateneo High School Fair, 1:00PM. As part of the launch, there will be a talk on character creation by Yvette Tan, Elbert Or and more! :) More details in their Facebook group page (where you can join too!).

Okay, now where to get those 20 local works now…any suggestions?

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