How the Hangman Lost His Heart by K.M Grant

Won this book from one for BookXcess Blog Bonanza quite sometime ago.

This is a historical comedy book where the heroine, Alice de Granville, is the niece of a "traitor". Her Uncle Frank was beheaded and she went for the execution. She went to take his Uncle Frank's body back but the King had proclaimed that all traitors head have to be put on a spike and to be display for the public.

Alice was convinced that her Uncle Frank body should be "reunited" with his head. She went and stole the head.

Hence begin a series of hilarious and thrilling escapes.

A light hearted book. Easy to read. Suitable for teens.

Message From An Unknown Chinese Mother By Xinran

Just finished this book last night. It's about adoption in China and the anguish of the women who give birth to female baby.

At first I thought main it's because of poverty but as I read on, I really felt heart sick for the women in China during that era. Giving birth to a male heir is the up most important thing in China. The first child must be male or else woe will come to the woman and child

Baby girls have very low chance of survival in China especially during the One Child Policy was implemented. Should a woman give birth to a baby girl. The baby girl would be killed/murdered. Some killed by the mid-wife, some by the in-law and some even by the mother herself. And if the woman kept on giving birth to baby girl, she is considered as useless.

Apart from that baby girls were given up for adoption so that the baby girl will have a better life in other country.

The stories in this book really opened my eyes.

One of the touching part of this book is that Xinran hungers for her mother's love. She have a mother but it seems that love was being withheld.

I guess what makes this book so touching is that all the stories there are real life stories. And even Xinran herself have experienced loosing her foster daughter. I hope someday she will be reunited with her foster daughter once again.

The Big Bad Wolf Sale Is BAAACCK!

Saw this book listed in BookXcess Facebook page the other day. Cannot stand it. Immediately e-mailed them to reserve this book for me. I love Xinran's book. Got hooked on her book since I read "The Good Women of China".

Went and pick it up yesterday afternoon.

Surprise..surprise...I found this bookmark in the book I've just purchased. Yup...The Big Bad Wolf Sale is BACCCCKKKK!

Hopefully I'll be able to attend coz am dying to get my hands on The Time Travellers Wife book. Haiz...came home. Login into Facebook and saw that BookXcess have posted more photos of the new arrivals. Among them is The Time Traveller's Wife. Guess I have no luck to read this book gua.

How I wish Bookxcess would start a page called MY WISH LIST. Then customers list the books that they are looking for and BookXcess would notify them if as and when they have stock of the books in the list. Or maybe some kind hearted friends can purchase for them? Just like it's done for Ang Moh's wedding gift.*hint*hint*

Meantime, have started to read this new Xinran book. Loving it.

Christmas Treasures- Betty Neels & 2 others

This Mills & Boons is a 3-in-1 book.

1) Always and Forever by Betty Neels

Amabel is a "small dull creature that wears the most appalling clothes". She kept the B & B(not blackberry but Breakfast and Bed) while her mother went to Canada to visit her sister who have just gave birth. Amabel was a bit scared as this is the 1st time she is all alone and was hoping that her mom would come back soon

People thought she should close the B & B while her mom was away but money is a problem. Her mom had to take up a loan to go visit her sister and the new baby.( I don't understand, why so desperate to see the baby till have to take up loan for it.)

One day a guest checked in with his mom. That guest was Dr Fforde, a doctor, and he seems to be very concern about Amabel staying alone there keeping the B & B. He kept contact with Amabel

One day Amabel received a shocking letter. Her mom met a man and married the man. And they plan to convert the B &B into a greenhouse. Her mom hinted that Amabel should find work. (Grrrr...such a selfish woman.)

Her mom and her new stepfather came home suddenly. The darn man didn't like Amabel but expect her to work in the Greenhouse for him. Her mom sid she should do it and after she help her stepfather then maybe she can go out into the world to find a job (Habis manis, sepah dibuang).The final step came when the man planned to destroy her cat and dog. She ran away.

When Dr Fforde found out, he helped her again and again. But he have his own problems too.

I don't like this story at all. There is no clear time frame for this story. Don't know it's set for which era. Modern or historical.

Amabel seems to be such a pushover. Worry too much. I don;t seem why Dr Fforge sees in her apart from she being so "helpless".Very frustrating to read about her. Thought the story have a happily ever after, but if in real life, I wonder if this marriage would work.

2) The Perfect Christmas - Caroline Anderson

Julia is a widow with a young daughter, katie. her "husband" was a terrible flirt who abandoned her after she gave birth coz she is not sexy anymore. He managed to wrap his car and himself onto a tree one night and left Julia with a mountain of credit cards debt. She had to sell the house and work herself to the bone to payoff the debt. And she had swore off man as she want to protect her daughter

She is a nurse and one day she saw a roadside accident. She helped. And there was this man who is a doctor who also help. When she arrived to the hospital, she found out that this man is a new doctor in the hospital.

The doctor, David, was attracted to Julia from the first moment. But Julia tried to hold out as she does not want any messy relationship for the sake of her daughter.

This is story have the regular feel of a typical M & B. Enough romance and stuffs. Like it.

3) Christmas At His command - Helen Brooks

Marigold Flower...yup that's the name of the heroine was a woman scorned.. She borrowed the Cottage from her colleague Emma to hide during Christmas period to lick her wounds.

But unfortunately on the way to the cottage, her car broke down. To make the matter worse, she twisted her ankle very badly.

Then a car stop . A man came down to help her but before that he "shoot" her. Not with a gun but with words. He thought she was Emma. From his description, Emma and her family seems to be a horrible bunch. Nevertheless he did help her. Took her to his home and nursed her.

Then he found out the mistaken identity. He was attracted to her and vice versa. But as usual, there are obstacles.

A whirlwind romance. Good read.

Well this book seems to have a bad beginning but the later two stories were good. Satisfying. Worth the money.

The Lovely Bones By Alice Sebold

Just finished this book. Am feeling extremely sad and depressed. Guess I will have to stop reading this sort of book. But can't help myself as this book is very good.

Story start with Suzie Salmon narrating about her life in heaven and how she observed her family and friends on earth getting on about the news of her murder. And later on how they deal with that

Suzie was murdered. But her body was never found with exception of an elbow.

She even have the opportunity to observe her murderer.

What got me so sad and depressed was the hopelessness of the situation. From Suzie's description. She can have everything in Heaven. Even the air was tuned to her personal preference. Everything seems to be perfect but how come I feel so empty reading that? She should have been happy but instead she felt "comforted". What if life in heaven is THAT mundane?

I also felt sad for her dad. He "knew " who was the murderer but nobody believed him till it's too late. On engrossing himself to hunting for the murderer, he had also pulled himself away from his beloved wife. His wife had felt lonely and restless for so long.

Am not satisfied with the ending of the story for I love good ending. But then, nothing in this world is perfect, right? Perfect ending don't happen for every case in this world.

Really a very touching story.  I wonder how Alice Sebold managed to come up with such a sad story.

 bought this book from BookXcess last week. It's in their new shipment. Go and grab this book if you want a good cry. Worth cry for.

THe Last Promise By Richard Paul Evan

This is another good book. Thanks to Jenna for lending me this Book.

It's a Cinderella story turns bad. Eliana, a small town girl who went to Italy for her last two month study was swept of her feet by a handsome Italian man. His name is Maurizio and he is well connected.

When they were courting all things are fine but after marriage, Maurizio turned out to have the Male chauvinism  trait. He expected Eliana to serve him hand and foot. He very much controlled her entire life. Not only that. He frequently left Eliana with their asthmatic son for business trips and these trips involves many love affair. Eliana know about this but she can't do anything about it  as Maurizio had threaten to take their son Alessio away from her.

Eliana thought she can turn a blind eye on the love affairs. That is until the arrival of their new tenant, Ross. An American who is working illegally as a Tour Guide Assistant.

Their attraction is mutual that is until Maurizio got to know about it. He took Alessio away from Eliana. Eliana was frantic and was willing to sacrificed everything to get her son back and this include her own happiness.

I am glad that I did not give up on this book. At the beginning I find it hard to start reading. But as I get along, things starts to reveal themselves.

Lovely book. Now I hope get my hands on his other books especially "The Christmas Box"

A Perfect Day By Richard Paul Evan

A friend loan me two Richard Paul Evan's book for nearly a year. I have tried reading this a few months ago but the "mood"  just wasn't there.Have you ever found yourself to be in need of a certain mood to read a certain book? I have considering to return the books to her without reading but decided to give it a try once again.

Robert met Allyson before her fathers death.  Allyson's mother had pass on some years ago and her father single handed raised her. Their relationship was very close. So close that her father wanted her to have a perfect day before he tell her that he was dying. He hopes that the man who marry Allyson would love her as much as he loves her. Robert promised Allyson's dad that.

Robert wanted to be a writer his whole life but he had to keep his dream in abeyance and take up a job in a Radio Station in order to support his family.  However, the family was happy

One day, lightning strike. He was fired from his job. Ally then urge him to go after his dream of being a writer. For more than 3 months he gave all he have and wrote a book.

The book was based on Ally and her father's relationship and their last days together. He sent to 25 agents but on and on he kept receiving rejection letters. Ally was always there to comfort him and urge him not to give up hope. He was like a zombie when he kept receiving those rejection letters. He gave up hope and went to work as a water sprinkler installer with his brother.

Then he received a call from and agent. The agent love the book. From then on he gain fame and fortune. He suddenly have millions of fans and constantly on book tour. This leaves Ally and their daughter very much alone at home. There were constant broken promises to Ally.

The gulf between them deepen till they could no longer stay together. Like Chinese saying "able to through hardship together but unable to go through being wealthy together".

The book agent felt very bad at this. Coz she felt it's her fault . Somehow she had managed to break up this wonderful family unit.

Then Robert had a strange encounter. A man he met told him that he have till New Year to live. At first Robert did not believe him but then the man seems to know everything about him and even things that he didn't tell people  and the man even managed to predict a few future incidences.

This convinced Robert and he suddenly realised his folly and set on to rectify his error. He dare not hope to win Ally back but at least he hope to be there for his family with what ever time he had left.

I finished this book in a day. This just show how good this book is. I am so glad that I gave this book another try. Sometimes I just need the mood to be right to read a certain book.

Thank you very much, Jenna, for lending me this book for such a long time