Smelly caaaaat, smelly caaaat... I've been staying in a dungeon having the time of my liiiiiife producing hysterical laughs since term break (translation: I'm obsessing over FRIENDS and Parks & Recreation.)

Hi fella-over-there-with-a-hella-good-hair! I'm on a term break for two weeks, but I'm having a little reading ruuuuuut. It's kind of a letdown since I miss reading and blogging. I'm trying to rectify the situation by starting with Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson, but so far my heart is not fully into it. WHAT'S MY PROBLEM??!??!  I've written this post before but I never posted it. I figure this is the right time to publish this and ask for your opinions and recommendation in hopes that any of these books will be the reviving glory for my slump.

Being an avid fan of series, one of the cons(or maybe also a pro) is the agony of entering a beautiful, painful, cavernous hole and finding that it's still going to get deeper but you have to wait for a year or more. Terrible metaphor, but you know what I'm saying. Series makes me impatient but at the same time makes me exuberant especially if I can finally marathon it. There's no in-between.

I'm sharing a few first books of a series that I haven't read yet. This can also be my compensation to the latest TTT that I badly want to do but too occupied to write.

Since You've Been Gone
Author: Morgan Matson
Date Published: May 6, 2014
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Rating:
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Summary:
The Pre-Sloane Emily didn't go to parties, she barely talked to guys, she didn't do anything crazy. Enter Sloane, social tornado and the best kind of best friend—the one who yanks you out of your shell.

But right before what should have been an epic summer, Sloane just… disappears. No note. No calls. No texts. No Sloane. There’s just a random to-do list. On it, thirteen Sloane-selected-definitely-bizarre-tasks that Emily would never try… unless they could lead back to her best friend.

Apple Picking at Night? Okay, easy enough. Dance until Dawn? Sure. Why not? Kiss a Stranger? Um...

Getting through Sloane’s list would mean a lot of firsts. But Emily has this whole unexpected summer ahead of her, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected) to check things off. Who knows what she’ll find?

Go Skinny Dipping? Wait ... what?

“I don’t think you have to do something so big to be brave. And it’s the little things that are harder anyway.”

Summary:
The engagement of Lady Kestrel to Valoria’s crown prince means one celebration after another. But to Kestrel it means living in a cage of her own making. As the wedding approaches, she aches to tell Arin the truth about her engagement…if she could only trust him. Yet can she even trust herself? For—unknown to Arin—Kestrel is becoming a skilled practitioner of deceit: an anonymous spy passing information to Herran, and close to uncovering a shocking secret.

As Arin enlists dangerous allies in the struggle to keep his country’s freedom, he can’t fight the suspicion that Kestrel knows more than she shows. In the end, it might not be a dagger in the dark that cuts him open, but the truth. And when that happens, Kestrel and Arin learn just how much their crimes will cost them.

• It was easier to write Day's POV than June. Marie Lu said she is the exact opposite of June who's a left-brainy. 
• She had a hard time writing the love scenes than the fight scenes. She isn't romantic, she said. It took her a month to write a particular scene in Champion (wink wink wink wink).
• She intended to make Day a real criminal, like very notorious and a murderer. But Day's character evolved and then we have the new-born (walker in the light) Day.
• Day has been on Marie Lu's mind since highschool that's why she felt so natural writing him. 
• Legend was supposed to have 2 boys as main characters. June being also a boy since Legend was based from Les Misérables. Her husband told her that making the other character a girl will make it more interesting.
• Kaede is a very memorable character for Marie Lu because she wrote Kaede's character with the image of herself. Kaede is a pilot which Marie dreamed of becoming when she was young, but her mother told her that she won't be good at it. "That's great, achieve your dream, but not that" (we all laughed)
• Marie Lu is not closing her doors for a Legend spin-off. It might be about Anden or Tess.
• The Legend movie is in the process already. Screenplay is done (Marie didn't participate much since she has little idea of it), now they're finding a director and the casts (OMG!!!!!!!!!!)
• Marie Lu is a very visual person. She worked in Disney as an visual artist. She can't write a story without drawing her characters first (which btw is super duper cool!)
• Marie Lu's husband is a Filipino that's why she has a soft spot for the Philippines. (She absolutely love mangoes!)
• Three of her novels got rejected (unpublished) before Legend. 
• She writes on and off. There were months that she would write everyday, and there were months that she won't at all.