Mini Reviews: A Wealthy Daughter Became Ocean Creatures' Favorite, I Have the Aura of Overbearing President, Little Sweetheart

Title: A Wealthy Daughter Became Ocean Creatures' Favorite
Author: Gu Wuhen

Chapters: 71 chapters +2 extras
Publication: N/A
Summary from Wattpad:

The wealthy daughter Sang Lanlan suddenly fell into the water in a shipwreck and woke up to find herself lying on the beach. The one who rescued her was a slender and handsome young man.

Sang Lanlan felt that the savior was too weak, so she consciously shouldered the task of caring for the teenager, and took all kinds of crabs, small fishes and shrimps every day to catch all kinds of crabs, small fish and shrimps to feed the teenagers, and even wanted to be her father. As a result, I don't know from which day, various marine creatures lined up to find the door.

In the beginning, it was sea prawns, sea crabs and abalones. Sang Lanlan could barely bear it, but when the dolphins and sharks came to the door with tears, Sang Lanlan realized that things were not simple.

-

Sang Lanlan, the eldest lady of the Sang Group, was in a shipwreck. Everyone thought she had died nine times, but they didn't expect that Sang Lanlan returned unscathed after more than a month. And also brought back a teenager.

The teenager was fair and clear, and looked gentle and harmless.

*The initial.

Sang Lanlan's half-sister: "I want everything that belongs to my sister, such as this little brother, I like it very much."

Sang Lanlan's suitors: "Where is the stinky boy? The reason for coming first?"

*Later.

Everyone: "...Daddy forgive me !" 

Sang Lanlan smiled: "I told you not to mess with my killer whale father, he is the overlord of the sea!" 

The teenager: "Are you sure I am just the overlord of the sea?"

Sang Lan Lan: "...QAQ"

Harmless in appearance, but cruel. 

The overlord of the sea VS the eldest lady who tried to be the father of the overlord of the sea but accidentally became the favorite of the sea.

*

*

*

Story about an Orca saving a human girl because he's too idle.

4.5 STARS - I REALLY LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

This was so sweet and funny! I loved the role reversals. Sang Lanlan knew what she wanted, and she was decisive and deliberate on how to get everything while Sang Zui supported her every step of the way. 

I loved how confident and supportive they both were and how the book didn't focus on the romance for a long time because 1) they had other issues to deal with like school and terrible families, 2) the tacit trust and companionship they had was more important, and 3) because Sang Zui is a blockhead and ignorant about romance lmao. 

I also really loved their found family. I can't believe I started this book on a whim because I was hooked by the orca in the summary lol. I couldn't find this book on NovelUpdates, so I read the MTL on Wattpad. You know a book's funny if even translates well with MTL, and I was chuckling at the end of almost every chapter lol. This book is definitely worth a read if you want something light, sweet, and quirky.

Title: I Have the Aura of Overbearing President
Author: Jiang Yue Nian Nian
Chapters: 147 chapters + 3 side stories
Publication: 2019
Summary from Novel Updates:

Chu Chu suddenly transmigrated as the vicious female president in the book. The original owner wasn’t only obsessed with the male lead, but also hurt the female lead.

Finally she ended up having a Bad Ending. Her family business went bankrupt and she got disfigured.

On the first day she transmigrated into the book, she opened the wardrobe full of luxury goods and had a feeling of a poor citizen becoming rich overnight.

Chu Chu: Are you kidding me? Does a wealthy president not like the tasty food in Michelin restaurants or feel that Chanel is not good looking?
Chu Chu: Let’s go bankrupt!!
She just wanted to feel the domineering life of a female president, but accidentally she set the professional benchmark for strong women.

Original female lead: My goal is to become an independent woman like President Chu! Love delayed my journey to get rich!
Original male lead: ??

4 STARS - I REALLY LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

This was hilarious! I laughed in almost every chapter because of Chu Chu's shamelessness and overconfidence! She's got a poisonous tongue that can also brainwash you, and she's not afraid to use it! I love how she always does things her own way and everyone just gets sucked along with her flow. She's caustic and inspirational even when she's bullshitting lmao. 

The romance was cute and funny. Poor Zhang Zhang kept on getting KO'd by her unexpected critical hits lol. The romance was gradual and naturally showed their progress from friends to lovers, and I loved how Zhang Zhang gradually changed his ideals and self-deprecating thinking after being inspired by Chu Chu. 

Her family antics are also pretty funny. Her relationship with her stepmother is pretty entertaining lol.

Title: Little Sweetheart
Author: Wu Ying Wu Zhong
Chapters: 120 chapters 
Publication: N/A
Summary from Novel Updates:

Xia Zhijun got the title ‘study god’ after scoring first place in the whole city. He’s the model of a good student in a teacher’s eyes: good grades, good manners, and quiet. When he wasn’t smiling, his entire body emits a cold abstinence aura. The girls only have the guts to look from afar and not get close.

Later, it was rumored throughout the entire school that even the study god would fight and hit on girls. Whoever dared to provoke his girl, he would teach you how to be a person at every minute. The night of the graduation ceremony someone saw him blocking Gu Siyi in the corner. He didn’t stop kissing even when she cried. He bit her lips and said in a raspy voice, “I’m going crazy…”

During college finals, Gu Siyi almost bursted out crying, “I’m such a failure. I won’t be able to find a good job in the future…And if I can’t find a good job, I can’t provide for myself…”

Xia Zhijun played with her pink earlobe and remarked, “I’ll take care of you.”

After they graduated, Xia Zhijun created a research company and Gu Siyi became the boss’s wife.

The commercial rocket, “Star of Siyi” was successfully launched. So everyone knew that the new technology superstar, Xia Zhijun has a wife who he spoils a lot.

3.5 STARS - I LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

This was a really cute and sweet book about a couple who met in their first year of high school and their relationship until they become working adults along with their friends. Gu Siyi and Xia Zhijun showed how being in love makes you want to be better and work harder even starting as young as high school freshmen. There's some drama because the main couple is too high profile and beautiful, but there's never a problem with Gu Siyi or Xia Zhijun like miscommunication or misunderstandings, which was refreshing. Whenever they run into a problem, they talk to each other and help each other out. 

Another nice surprise was that there was a love triangle, but it was focused on Gu Siyi's best friend instead. Instead of it becoming a dogblood drama, the guys take a step back and let her best friend make her decision instead. Where do you see such healthy friendships??? 

Overall, I think the book handled friendships and relationships very well. You have friendships that are nipped in the bud, friendships that end in regret, and friendships that lead to lifelong friends. Then, there's the different family relationships because parents have their children's best interest at heart, but it's communicated in different ways. Then you have relationships that stand the test of time, relationships that die as unrequited love, relationships that end, and relationships that take years to come to fruition. 

Definitely recommend if you want to read a light, contemporary romance.

Weekly Haul 133

I've surprisingly only got a couple of books for Christmas this year. Then, one of the poetry books I ordered off of Amazon also came in early.

One Punch Man vol. 4 by Yusuke Murata

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

Euphoria by F.S. Yousaf

Let's just not mention how many copies of The Prophet that I have because I'm still ashamed to have not ready any of them yet -__-"

Mini Reviews: Reborn With an Old Enemy on the Day of Our Marriage, I Rely on Kisses to Clear Survival Games, The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System

Title: Reborn With an Old Enemy on the Day of Our Marriage
Author: 林知
Chapters: 93 chapters + 9 extras
Publication: N/A
Summary from Novel Updates:

Lin Qian and Zheng PingQing, two people who have wanted to kill each other for many years, fell in love. After a lot of ups and downs, they finally married.

But they didn’t expect to get reborn together on the day of their wedding.

Back to the year when their feud was at its most intense.

The friends around them also saw each other as enemies.

Yet the two men in question were…in the eyes of the frightened relatives and friends of both sides; they began to scatter dog food.

Friends and relatives: ???

Ermm…..this is awkward.

4 STARS - I REALLY LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

The couple's bantering/flirting was hilarious! This is about a couple, with 10 years of experience hating and loving each other, finally getting together and about to be married only to go back in time right before their lives turned for the worse. They use their newly given time to start over and change everyone's lives for the better. In the process, they become the dads of multiple students lmao. 

This book is hilarious and entertaining. You've got a bunch of misunderstandings in the beginning because the couple's hatred for each other is so legendary that no one believes that they could ever be friends let alone lovers at that time. You've got a bunch of antagonists trying to one-up the couple and failing because Lin Qian and Zheng PingQing are mentally 10 years older and wiser and able to make better comebacks. And you've got a lot of characters growing up and maturing and mending relationships that they didn't think they could ever have back. There's a lot to like in this book!

Also, Zheng PingQing really is shameless. He's almost as shameless as KK from Later, He Became a Royal Healer. If you liked the student antics and misunderstandings of the school tyrants of Fake Slackers, you'll probably enjoy this book, too. 

Title: I Rely on Kisses to Clear Survival Games
Author: 啾咪啾咪兔
Chapters: 90 chapters + 9 extras
Publication: 2019
Summary from Novel Updates:

Cheng Zhi Chu was pulled into an infinite stream of horror games. If he didn’t clear them, he would die.

But can someone tell him why others clear the games using violence and force but his method of clearing the game is by kissing the boss?!

Cheng Zhi Chu: I am a straight man. Even if I kill myself or am killed by monsters, I will not kiss the boss!

Boss: Be good. Kiss me and I’ll let you go.

—————–

Bai Yi had been trapped in the game for many years.

Rather than exploding in anger in the silence, he had turned crazy. And so…….he split himself. His soul was broken into many pieces and each of them became the boss in the games.

But, regardless of how the soul was split, from the beginning to the end there was one thing that didn’t change —–He, likes Cheng Zhi Chu.

Every fragment of his soul was utterly in love with him.

It was also because of this that he and every fragment of his couldn’t stand seeing people other than himself getting close to Cheng Zhi Chu —- Even if the other party used to be a part of himself.

Dark desire gradually surged inside him.

Anyone who gets between him and Cheng Zhi Chu——even if it’s himself —– he would kill them all.

——————–

“The person who you should really kiss……is me.”

3 STARS - I LIKED IT ENOUGH

MY REVIEW: 

This was my first horror instance novel, and I was really addicted reading it! The horror instances weren't scary for me, but they were definitely gory and twisted and had me glued to the book trying to figure out what and why everything was happening. 

However, I felt like Zhi Chu was a little too passive. He'd be petrified in fear or confusion half of the time, and it'd take outside factors like the male lead or another character to break up the scene and rescue him. 

Bai Yi was the epitome of an OP, yandere male lead; he was even jealous of his own self (even though his souls did have their own personalities). The one thing that I didn't really get was how he fell for Zhi Chu. They mentioned it with the painting, but they didn't really go into detail about how it actually went down? Like, was that really the reason? Because if so, that sounded more obsessive and possessive than actual like? 

However, the diary entries at the end of each chapter were great though lol. Wish I could have seen the sketches, too, lmao. The book felt rushed as well. Zhi Chu's supposed to beat a lot more bosses, but it doesn't pan out that way. In a way, that's good for me as a reader who doesn't want to read a 2000 chapter novel, but plot-wise, it felt pretty rushed. Anyway, I'm now interested in reading more horror novels to read more about how twisted people can be.

Title: The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System
Author: Mò Xiāng Tóngxiù
Chapters: 81 chapters + 20 extras
Publication: 2015
Summary from Novel Updates:

“Can’t I properly read stallion novels anymore!”

Shen Yuan transmigrated into someone who’d tormented the young male lead almost to death, the scum villain Shen Qingqiu.

It must be known, the original Shen Qingqiu ended up being carved alive by his disciple, Luo Binghe, into a human stick, a human stick!

Ten thousand “f*ck your moms” rampaged through Shen Qingqiu’s heart:

“It’s not that I don’t want to cling to the male lead’s thighs, but who made him so f*cking black. The type who seeks thousand-fold retribution!”

Why have all the female lead’s scenes been forcibly given to him.

Why, as a scum villain, does he need to constantly sacrifice himself, blocking knife and gun for the protagonist!

Shen Qingqiu: “…I think I can still save him, one more time.”

3 STARS - I LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

This is the first book written by the author of the uber popular The Founder of Diabolism (I will read this novel one day!). I stayed up until 4am reading this novel before passing out and finished reading the extras the next day. It was that addicting. 

This was a hilarious satire on popular stallion (harem) cultivation novels full of plot holes. The main character gets transmigrated into the latest webnovel that he read and coincidentally roasted in the forums. I actually started reading this because I saw that the anime had started airing and saw that the translation was recently finished, so I wanted to read the novel first to have a better understanding of the anime.

Shen Yuan's life has suddenly become so difficult . He was just roasting scum villain Shen Qingqiu in the forums and then suddenly transmigrated into that same character in the novel. Now, he has to hug the main character's golden thighs in order to not die a torturous death like depicted in the novel. The worst part is that the system doesn't let him OC until he earns enough points first, so he's always creating these misunderstandings with Luo Binghe, so there's a lot of misunderstandings and hurt feelings throughout their time together.

Overall, a good and hilarious book to read if you're interested in cultivation or satiric novels.

NOV: Birthday Surprise, Family Time, Financial Advisor, Avoiding Plans With Other Plans, Work Stress, Thanksgiving

November was a short month. I felt like it passed by so quickly. One minute, it was my birthday, the next minute was already Thanksgiving.

On my birthday, Archana surprised me by coming over to my house with flowers and food and spending the rest of the week there. She had jokingly made plans with Shelle about it a few weeks ago, so I had forgotten about it until she showed up lol. It was nice having her there. We caught up and complained about work lol. We dropped her off at her apartment that Friday night as we left to go down and visit our parents.

For my birthday, mom prepared a huge menu for the whole weekend. It was so much food, I was never not full lol. I can't even remember everything that she made lol. 

I think I didn't mention it previously in my monthly updates, but I recently got a financial advisor. I mean, I should have done it earlier when Covid-19 first hit so that I could have set up my stocks earlier when everything was down, but it's too late now. Anyway, he's been helping me a lot with figuring out how to prevent myself from losing money and where to invest my money. I've been having monthly or weekly calls with him for the past few months to cover all of my bases.

Every year, Shelle and Kyle hosts Thanksgiving and Christmas at their house for Kyle's mom's side of the family. That Sunday, I made plans to have lunch at Archana's new apartment because I wanted to avoid it lol. She also invited Lee Ann and her sis, Kay, for lunch as well. 

After they left, Archana and I went for a walk (there's a hiking trail connected to her parking lot!) as the sun set. It was really nice. There's even a river next to the trail, and I saw a giant spider at the metal bridge we had to cross to get back to the apartments. Lol I definitely want to go back for a walk around the trail.

The next week was a short work week since we had Thanksgiving holidays. However, I still became extremely stressed out because of work. I found out that one of my projects were supposed to be pushed out on December 15th and panicked because we didn't have all of the training completed. I forgot about the project halfway through the year because my reoccurring meetings stopped, so I didn't get weekly reminders, and because I was swamped with other higher priority projects. This made me feel incredibly guilty for forgetting to keep up with the project and for stressed because I thought I had to pull out like 4 training decks out of my ass in two weeks.

Luckily, we had a couple meetings throughout the week and worked it out. We only needed two decks ready for the official launch, and the rest can be slowly worked on next year. Thank god. I was about to lose sleep over this.

After work on Wednesday, we headed down to the parents' house. I also brought Brian's birthday present down for him. The last time we visited the parents, he said that he wanted white Croc's for his birthday, so of course I thought it was my sisterly duty to accessorize it for him lmao. I wanted to make it as lame as I could, which is why I put the B22 for his name and age and then the puppy because he's been asking the parents for a dog for the past year. Then, I put the other accessories based on his interests like Marvel and Pokemon Go. 

Isn't it beautiful? lolol

We actually stayed at my parents' house until Monday night because Shelle had to go see dad's lawyers on Monday morning. It became an extended weekend vacation with the parents lol. 

Dad actually made some muscadine wine that he was ready to bottle, so Shelle bought some bottles off of Amazon and brought it down with us. We helped him bottle the wine and made some fancy labels or him to give to his friends lol. There was still a lot of wine left, so Shelle ordered some more bottles, and we planned on bottling the rest the next time we visited.

So yeah, November was a short but busy month!

Webnovel Review: I am the Lucky Cat of an MMORPG by Black Wings

Title: I am the Lucky Cat of an MMORPG
Author: Black Wings
Chapters: 89 chapters + 7 extras
Publication: 2009
Summary from Novel Updates:

Bai XiaoYu who’s forced into becoming an otaku due to a tragic event in real life,

Met a magical lucky pet cat when he took to hiding in a game.

Not only did the cat beckon fortune, it also beckoned a sugar daddy and enemies.

Can it beckon ultimate happiness?

2 STARS - IT WAS OKAY

MY REVIEW: 

This book is just alright. 

I'm not sure if it's because I already know that the publish date was 2009 and has made me biased, but I can tell that it's an older writing style. Like, this was the writing style I was used to reading from fanfics back in the day. The biggest example was the way the author used exposition, explaining all of the little details of just one spoken sentence or thought process in case you missed it's obvious intent and using their friends to also highlight all the small details of their romance. There was also the obviously outdated shou/uke and gong/seme characteristics described in the beginning were similar to novice yaoi writers. There's even a fujoshi side character that seemed more like a self-insert when she wasn't doing her job as a healer. 

It's hard to put it into words, but if you've read fanfiction or self published works like on Wattpad for a long time, you'll understand what I mean about the writing style, especially in the beginning.

Also, don't you think the relationship, once they got together, was really fast paced? Especially compared to slow pace it took for them to get together? They went from sending each other messages to grinding levels together, to kissing and moving in together real quick!

The characters were pretty decent. XiaoYu has his reasons for the way he acts, and he's actually pretty logical. He doesn't care for revenge or past grievances, but because he doesn't communicate well, it causes him problems. Yao is your typical handsome but cold gong who only becomes gentle with his lover. He definitely supports and cares for XiaoYu whenever XiaoYu actually lets him. The other side characters are pretty standard; they don't have much personality except to help facilitate information sharing and move the plot forward.

It felt like the plot stopped abruptly. It seemed like the guild wars and hidden professions were going to play a larger part of the novel, but it just stops at the end and isn't mentioned again. Even the author in the afterwards stated that there were a lot of loose ends but that she just wanted to finish the novel. The extras explained a couple of things such as XiaoYu's lucky cat and their life after the ending

I thought that this book would be similar to This MC is Kickass since both characters have high luck and are set in the future with VRMMORPG games, but at least This MC is Kickass has a stronger plot and more interesting characters (the main couple are pretty OP though). Actually, there's a variety of books you could read instead of this book. If you want to read a yaoi romance with a super lucky character, I'd recommend I Just Want to Be in a Relationship. If you want to read a yaoi e-sports book, I'd recommend God Level Summoner. Or if you want a more casual yaoi MMORPG book, I'd recommend Love You 59 Seconds.

Or you could read this book in two days like I did lol. Up to you.

Book Unhaul 23

I bought too many books these past few months and needed to make room on my shelves. I found a couple of books that I'm not interested in anymore. I feel like I would have really liked these books if I had read them 5 years ago.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Cress by Marissa Meyer

A Midsummer's Nightmare by Kody Keplinger

Just Like That ARC by Gary D. Schmidt

My Heart Underwater ARC by Laurel Flores Fantauzzo

The Year I Flew Away by Marie Arnold

Books I Want to Read This Month

I didn't manage to read any books off of this list last month lol. I had a whole week off for vacation and was also self-quarantining, so I thought I'd have the time and motivation to read some physical books, but I ended up watching a lot of shows and reading a webnovel. When will I pick up a physical book??? The world will never know.

1. Spy x Family vol. 1 by Tatsuya Endo
2. Spy x Family vol. 2 by Tatsuya Endo
3. A Man and His Cat vol. 1 by Umi Sakurai
4. A Man and His Cat vol. 2 by Umi Sakurai
5. The Way of the House Husband vol. 1 by Kousuke Oono
6. The Way of the House Husband vol. 2 by Kousuke Oono
7. The Way of the House Husband vol. 3 by Kousuke Oono
8. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? vol. 12 by Fujino Omori
9. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? vol. 13 by Fujino Omori 
10. I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level vol. 2 by Kisetsu Morita & Beniso
11. I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level vol. 3 by Kisetsu Morita & Beniso
12. The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang
13. Tamiko and the Two Janitors by Forthright 
14. Love Looks Pretty on You by Lang Leav
15. The Consumption of Magic by T.J. Klune

Also just remembered that it's the blog's 13th anniversary! Can't believe I've been posting for so long lol. Here's to another year of memories, books, shows, and Kpop! :)

December in Retrospect

Happy New Year! 2020 is officially over! \o/ Last year was a wild time. It went by so fast at first, and then it felt extremely slow and excruciating. Suddenly, December was over... 

Anyway, I think I was pretty well-rounded this month. I read a lot of web novels as usual (and some short stories!), but I also spent a lot of my time on the weekends catching up on anime/donghua and reading fanfiction lol.

I read: 

• After Being Marked by a Powerful Love Rival by 倔强海豹
• Rebirth of MC by 夕鱼
• Every Day the Protagonist Wants to Capture Me by Qing Duan
• The Lovesick Flower Buds Waiting for Spring by Miwa
• Wolf Me Up by Miwa
• Record of the Missing Sect Master by 一世华裳
• Vanguard of the Eternal Night by The Aria At The Fingertips
• PUBG Online Romance of the Century by Jiàng Zi Bèi
• Kyoudai Biyori by Tsuge Amayo 
• He's a Predator by Toriba Yuuji
• I’m Cinderella’s Sister, but I’m Reluctantly Going to Marry the Prince by Yuzu Lemon
• I Am a Duchess Who Has Rewound Nine Times, but My Tenth Life Seems to Be a Reward Mode by Shinoda Mikan
• Because I had too Much Strength, I became an Adventurer’s Bag Carrier by Sanko Moko

I watched: 

• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime OVA (2019)
• The Princess Switch: Switched Again (2020)
• The King's Avatar: For the Glory (2019)
• The King's Avatar 2 (2020)
• The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (2020)
• My Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! (2020)
• Fruits Basket Season 1 (2019)
• Holidate (2020)
• The Mandalorian Season 2 (2020)