The Blog of 2012 Award

Hey everyone, how’s it going? I’m sitting at my desk typing this out for you while BBC 6 Radio plays in the background, a recent habit I acquired in the past few days, one of the good habits 🙂 I’m thinking about how my now – the present – and everything in it will be an old dusty thing of the past, for instance the modern music now playing and the station is even airing songs of yesteryear.

I’m thinking how years to come I’ll remember lecturing my two little sisters and brother this morning that what’s not theirs they must not touch. Ranting to their wary round faces that I don’t want them trashing our shared room and God help me I will blow it if they do it anyway. Ten years or so from now I might remember this day when I chastise my own kids.

Advertisement

Happy Chinese New Year!

Spring is here again! This year it’s the year of the Dragon!

Image via theholidayspot.com

The dragon is a symbol of power and strength, and those born under this sign are often predicted to have lucky and abundant lives. Their characteristics are said to be strong, intelligent and self-assured. Other Years of the Dragon include: 1904, 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976 and 1988.

– Patch.com

This is one of the most important holidays in Asia but thousands of people in many countries are joining in the revelry. The streets will be alive with lots of people, lion and dragon dancers parading and firecrackers warding of the mischievous spirits and the bad luck of the previous year. Children are given red envelopes with money and not forgetting the dumplings! Yum!

I’m Hindu but that doesn’t stop me from loving this holiday, but unfortunately I have never been to any Chinese new year celebrations, but I do hope that I’ll have the opportunity in the future. Here in Guyana, South America, we do have little celebrations and parades and shows but it’s not where I live 😦 The other upcoming spring festival is Diwali, signifying the beginning of a new year for Hindus, but more on that in another post.

Have a happy lunar new year everyone!

Peace out 😀

Existence by Abbi Glines

Cover via Goodreads.com

Rating: 4 Stars

Goodreads Blurb

What happens when you’re stalked by Death? You fall in love with him, of course.

Pagan Moore doesn’t cheat Death, but instead, falls in love with him.

Seventeen year old Pagan Moore has seen souls her entire life. Once she realized the strangers she often saw walking through walls were not visible to anyone else, she started ignoring them. If she didn’t let them know she could see them, then they left her alone. Until she stepped out of her car the first day of school and saw an incredibly sexy guy lounging on a picnic table, watching her with an amused smirk on his face. Problem is, she knows he’s dead.

Not only does he not go away when she ignores him, but he does something none of the others have ever done. He speaks. Pagan is fascinated by the soul. What she doesn’t realize is that her appointed time to die is drawing near and the wickedly beautiful soul she is falling in love with is not a soul at all.

He is Death and he’s about to break all the rules.

My Review

I came across Existence by chance and the cover just spoke to me, or maybe it was his haunted glowing eyes … So I tried the sample and I was intrigued, falling in love with death? How in the world will this end, so I did the obvious and went ahead and got it. I believe Pagan is what one would call a mediator but what they do is help souls move on but the ones in this book don’t speak at all, so all she does is ignore them. Until Dank. He was definitely a weird soul, for one, he speaks to her … among other things.

Leif, a hot jock on the school’s football team, was another jerk, an arrogant stuffed shirt or at least that was what Pagan had thought, what she’d labelled him, until she learned of his little secret when he had come to her for help with his speech problems. He wasn’t at all what she’d thought of him … not at all. So as you can imagine, they hooked up. Everything was going fine except for the fact that Dank wouldn’t leave here alone and to her surprise she found herself hopelessly falling for him … and him with her.

With the both of them knowing of their feelings for each other, what would it all lead to? They were from two completely different worlds. Dank’s appearance was not the only strange happening in the recent string of events. Souls were attacking her for some reason that eluded Pagan but Dank seems to know many things that she doesn’t. Just who is he, really? He’s not you average left-behind soul,that’s for sure, he’s something more … much more. He knows he’s not good for Pagan, he wasn’t supposed to feel this way for her and tried to tell her so but not the million dollar question: why? Of course she didn’t listen, she didn’t like being left in the dark and the following events rocked Pagan and left a gaping hole inside of her and further along leading her to a special home for the mentally unstable young women (where she met a certain fellow mental, Gee, who I wouldn’t mind befriending), an event that didn’t surprise either of us.

Overall, Existence was a good read, its not-so-original plot (hero who heroine cannot possibly be with due to paranormal circumstances) but an enjoyable one nonetheless. I felt that Pagan’s character could have been a bit more developed as well as the the supporting characters, Dank’s shrouded in mystery (you know,being Death and all) so his is fine.

A somewhat predictable ending did not prevent me from gasping after reading the very last words. I would’ve given this a 3.5 star because though interesting Existence may be it didn’t have an iron grip on me but it got a 4 because for the handsome hero (shallow of me,I know but what’s a girl to do?) who just happened to be Death (can you imagine?), the twist at the very end and the fact that it was a quick and fairly enjoyable read.

By the way I felt that I just had to share this with you; when I got this on my Kindle on Amazon, there was this line that had said ‘Existence is waiting for you in your Kindle library,’ now tell me that doesn’t sound weird to you, imagine existence waiting for moi! Okay I’m done now:)