Webnovel Review: Custom Temps [Quick Wear] by 西大秦

Title: Custom Temps [Quick Wear]
Author: 西大秦
Chapters: 113 chapters 
Publication: 2018
Summary from JJWXC:

After her death, Rong Ya became an employee of the Lucky Recycling Station. Her job was to solve the predicament she was unwilling to face on behalf of the client and to get through the trough of life. The better the task was completed, the higher the commission she got.

After work -

Rong Ya: The client's life is really colorful, eating a melon is overwhelming!

Fighting for the college entrance examination, the 18th-tier actor, the woman who married into a wealthy family, in the winter of March, the ex - boyfriend and husband have memories of past lives

3.5 STARS - I LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

I really liked all of the arcs. Each client had different situations they wanted to get out of, so Rong Ya had to work hard to figure out how to solve the situation. I also loved how realistic the settings were. For example, Rong Ya's first client was a student who needed to pass her high school examination with a relatively high score. Rong Ya thought that it wouldn't be too difficult to pass high school curriculum since she was in college when she passed away. However, as soon as she opened a math textbook, it was like a completely different language for her lmao. She had to come up with a super intense study plan to relearn everything. 

Each world was distinct and interesting. The were a lot of characters and conflict to keep you interested in seeing how Rong Ya would complete each task. I also liked how Rong Ya always had different identities. She was a student, a young adult, a mom, etc. Her interpersonal relationships increasingly became more complicated as she completed her tasks.

I didn't expect there to be a male lead and romance because the short summary didn't mention anything about it. However, it was a nice slow burn. And the male lead's origin was pretty unusual, so I liked that, too. 

I think the author really likes the love interest falls in love first and slowly boiling a frog in warm water trope where the male lead is interested first and slowly gets the female lead used to his companionship and presence first before confessing. It's not a bad trope, but it's definitely the common theme of most, if not all, of the books I've read from this author.

Overall, a really good quick transmigration book!

JUNE: Concerts, Baby Shower, Sunflowers, Father’s Day, Bachelorette

June was full of events! I think there were big plans every weekend lol.

The first weekend, Shelle, Kyle, Tawanda, and I went to Monsta X’s concert! The concert was supposed to be on Valentine’s Day but was postponed because of the huge Covid resurgence. It just gave us more time to listen to their new album lol.

The concert was super fun! It was the first concert we’ve been to in person since Covid hit, so it was fun being immersed in a huge crowd screaming our lungs out lmao. Since all of us except for Tawanda were just casual Monsta X fans, I was surprised by how many of their songs I recognized!

Also, while we were in line, some of their ATL fanclub members passed out pink paper hearts cut out from construction paper as part of their fanclub project to have a sea of hearts when they played a song. Can’t remember what the title was, but it was super cool looking out and seeing hearts everywhere. Even the members were surprised by it!

We made such a big deal that Allkpop actually had an article about it lol. They had a video of the members asking us about the hearts. Unfortunately, I can't find the article anymore :(

The other funny incident that occurred during the concert was that the crowd kept on woofing in between sets. This also happened during Eric Nam’s concert a couple of months ago, so I’m not sure if this is just a thing that fans do or if it’s just an Atlanta kpop fan thing lol.

Then, the next weekend was Shelle and Kyle’s baby shower. Cassie was nice enough to organize the whole thing, so that was a relief for me since our culture doesn’t really DO baby showers lol. We just showed up at the venue earlier to help set up.

The whole family came, so Alec, Brian, and I ended up with the hardest task of blowing up the balloons for the balloon arch. Luckily, the balloon arch kit came with two pumps, and Alec brought his bike pump, so we were as efficient as possible while everyone else picked up the food and helped set everything else up.

The baby shower was nice. I got to see a lot of friends that I hadn’t seen in a while, and some of our cousins even made it.

Also, Shelle gave Alec a packet of sunflower seeds she got from work, and he planted them a month ago. They finally started blooming, and it’s insane how tall the stalks are!

We take progress pics every week, and it’s crazy how tall they keep on growing!

This one sunflower was taking its sweet time growing its head, and we soon found out why! There were five heads on its stem!

The next weekend was Father’s day, so we made plans to drive down and stay with the old man all weekend. Alec’s car tuner was also in Warner Robins, so we drove down in two cars so that Alec could drop off his car for a few weeks.

As usual, we had feasts every day since mom loves cooking for large crowds, so the whole weekend was full of food. We also made time to stop by Lane’s Orchard to get ice cream lol.

The next weekend was Shanice’s bachelorette party! You can read about our crazy (but relaxing) adventures here!

Mini Reviews: The Door of Rebirth, Zombie King Opens a Restaurant in Her Last Days, The Beautiful Lady Is Lonely

Title: The Door of Rebirth
Author: 请叫我山大王
Chapters: 208 chapters + 1 extra
Publication: 2018
Summary from JJWXC:

Two parallel worlds. 

On the day when the apocalypse broke out, the trajectory of history moved to two different lines, completely turning into two completely different worlds. 

One is heaven and the other is purgatory. 

One is the era of peace with red flags fluttering. 

One is the apocalyptic world where zombies are rampant. 

Gu Ning struggled to survive in the apocalypse, trying his best to protect his parents and his loved ones, but was tragically designed to die on the street. 

She wakes up in a strange space. 

One space, one door. If the door is opened once, it is peace, and if it is opened again, it is the end of the world.  

5 STARS - I LOVED IT

MY REVIEW: 

I basically spent most of my work day and sleeping hours reading the first half of this book because it was so addicting. 

This is exactly what I want from a zombie apocalypse novel! A badass female protagonist with intelligence and motive, character growth, weak to strong characters, a team with personality, exciting action and adventure, gradual romance, face slaps and reversals, and most importantly, intense battles with lives at stake! 

Definitely recommend this novel to anyone interested in zombie apocalypse novels.

Title: Zombie King Opens a Restaurant in Her Last Days
Author: Qin Bamboo
Chapters: 120 chapters + 3 extras
Publication: N/A
Summary from Novel Updates:

The greatly feared, the one who could make people tremble with just her name- the Zombie King was back!

She had finally been reborn..

But why was she still a zombie?

As a zombie, she can’t eat the delicacies made by humans. So what? She still had a legendary space where he could raise various animals and even grow crops!

Bittersweet tears roll down her face.

However, along with hardships to face, she had been gifted a lot of perks. She can exchange food for crystal cores~

Then again, making good food had never been an easy task.

To her shock, she discovered that the highest order of zombies was not the tenth order, as claimed before.

3 STARS - I LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

I liked how this was from a different POV. Because Fu Ke was a zombie in her previous life and was reborn still as a zombie, her perspective on humans was a lot different than your usual zombie apocalypse novels with humans as the main characters. 

I also like how Fu Ke's main interest was just to live well in the apocalypse. She didn't want to be a savior or a leader; she just wanted to live well with the people she cared about. However, humans always fear zombies and make a lot of trouble, so there's a lot of conflict. 

I wasn't expecting any romance because homegirl is a zombie, but there was actually a tiny bit of romance right at the end. The ending was also pretty rushed. There was a lot of time skips. 

Title: The Beautiful Lady Is Lonely
Author: 桃枝丸丸
Chapters: 155 chapters + 1 extra
Publication: 2021
Summary from JJWXC:

In every world, there are always some female partners who are blinded by love, give everything for the man who does not love him, and are deceived by the scumbag, but they end up in cannon fodder. 

After the awakening, the female partner let Lu Xi shuttle through the world to fulfill her wish for them: Isn't it fragrant to be beautiful alone? 

What man do you want? 

Men will only affect their careers. 

1. The educated youth who went to the countryside 

2. The female partner in the campus article 

3. The outdated female star 

4. The original wife of the Phoenix man 

5. To be determined... 

*Su Shuangwen* has CP, the male lead slices *The lead Su Shuang, daughter career Heart bursting 

4.5 STARS - I REALLY  LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

This was such a satisfying read. 

Lu Xi has to go to different worlds and accomplish her mission in order to resurrect. Each mission is usually to help the original owner live better instead of falling into the quagmire (usually because of a man or a man's family) like the plot intended. 

Each counterattack is great! Why stay with a man when he led to your downfall? 

I also loved how Lu Xi was always learning because she knew that these skills could help her in the future. Everything she learned was transferable for future purposes, so it was great watching her accumulate all of these skills and turning into a veritable force of nature in future worlds. 

The ending was also really nice, and I'm glad that she got her happy ending.

Shanice's Bachelorette

We didn’t have much time to plan Shanice’s bachelorette, but it turned out to be great anyway!

FRIDAY, June 24th:

• We met up at Alec’s house to change into our chauffeur gear and carpool to pick up Shanice at the airport
• Lol Josh had lied and told her that he planned a surprise trip to celebrate their first date anniversary, but she figured it out the night before that he wasn’t coming because his suitcase was empty. He had to tell her the truth that he wasn’t coming but that he had already arranged for someone to pick her up
• Went to the airport and put on our stuff. Jackie let us borrow some suit jackets and gloves while Emily bought chauffeur hats, and Meethu made a sign. We were ready! She was so surprised when she found us lol
• Went to Sweet Octopus for lunch, which was super close to our hotel.
• 
• Because she preferred hotels to Airbnb’s and because we were booking pretty late, we still managed to find a nice hotel in downtown Duluth with connected rooms
• Checked into our rooms before rushing to the Mall of Georgia to make it in time for our pirate themed escape room
• After that, we went back to the hotel and hung out for a while before going to Spa Land & Sauna to relax and have dinner. Luckily, Shanice has always wanted to go to a Korean spa and was excited to try it out.
• Boy, what a culture shock at first! After paying for admission, we went into the women’s room and immediately saw a naked lady and were told to change into their clothes or shower before going into the hot pools or cold pool. Lol we were so confused. However, the lady in charge of scheduling appointments there gave us a tour and told us why we had to shower and everything. So we showered and went into the hot pool all huddled together in one corner, NAKED, and laughed about how everything was so new to us
• We dipped our legs into the cold pool afterwards and died a little lol
• Then, we put our clothes on and went into the dry saunas, which were fun. Some were so hot that Meethu and I slightly burned our toes for standing on the ground for too long
• 
• We ate dinner at the restaurant inside, which was also really good. They gave huge drink portions, which was nice
• Overall, it was a fun, new experience for all of us. We’ve known each other for over 10 years, and this was the first time we’ve seen each other naked lol. But I would definitely come back again because I was SO RELAXED for the rest of the weekend. Normally, I would usually lay in bed with some type of back pain at the end of the day, but I wasn’t in pain at all the whole weekend! Definitely want to go back again and lay in the charcoal room or sea salt room again! :D

SATURDAY, June 25th:

• Walked across the street to eat breakfast at Maple Biscuit Company. Delicious!
• Then drove to Chateau Elan to surprise her with a wine bungalow. Our waitress was super funny and awesome as well, which made the whole experience even better.
• The aesthetics were great, the A/C kept up cool, the wine was nice, and the snacks were fun to try out.
• Shanice and Jackie ended up getting drunk at the end trying to finish up the wine lmao, so that was fun trying to get them to sober up while they kept running around in the heat.
• 
• It would have been nice to lay in the hammocks outside, but it was SO HOT and the sun was out, so that was a no go.
• Eventually went back to the hotel to chill for a bit before walking around to get pie to go for the boys. Since we started to get hungry, we dropped off our snacks at the hotel and drove to Yuki Izakaya for dinner while Shanice and Jackie were still sobering up lol
• After that, we went back to the hotel full and tired and watched YouTube while chatting

SUNDAY, June 26th:

• Woke up a little later and packed up while eating snacks
• Checked out of the hotel and drove to Vegreen, Shanice’s favorite vegan restaurant when she lived in Atlanta, for brunch
• 
• Emily drove us back to my house before leaving
• Chatted with Shelle and Kyle for a few hours before I drove everyone to the airport to drop Shanice off and then to Alec’s house to drop off Jackie and Meethu before making Alec feed me lol

Overall, the bachelorette was a success! Shanice said that she has been super stressed because of work for the past month, so just relaxing all weekend really made her happy and decompressed from work.

DNF Reviews: The End of the World & After Being Fancied by a Necromancer

Title: The End of the World
Author: Mo Chen Huan
Chapters: 107 chapters + 12 extras
Publication: 2015
Summary from Novel Updates:

Global evolution, the last phase of its arrival.

Being born with a golden spoon in his mouth, Jing Xia has had a smooth sailing journey. Having experienced three Beast Tides, exterminated those with S grade physiques, he never expected to die tragically at the hands of his blood-related younger brother.

Opening his eyes, he found himself back in the time before the end of the evolution!

What?!

You have a spatial golden finger?

Hehe, I have an invincible human-shaped lethal weapon!!!

A certain human-shaped lethal weapon: ……

MY REVIEW: 

I made it to chapter 63 before deciding to quit reading it. I thought I could power through if I ignored a lot of the writing, but I lost interest and didn't feel motivated to finish reading the book. 

The main part of this book that annoyed me was the writing. I think the author was trying to be atmospheric and show how important the environment was to the setting by spending so many paragraphs describing the weather or setting around them. There's only so much I can take reading about the sky or how the sun illuminated the male lead from behind so that you couldn't see his tiny micro-expressions (that's all he does). These overly detailed descriptions gets really boring after the first few chapters because \these long paragraphs could easily be condensed into one or two sentences max. Instead, I'm basically skipping until the end of the paragraph to get meat of the topic or directly skipping to the dialogue because I know it won't mention the scenery.

Title: After Being Fancied by a Necromancer
Author: 一口西多士
Chapters: 88 chapters 
Publication: 2021
Summary from Novel Updates:

Cyril was a Harry Potter book fan. He unexpectedly obtained a chatterbox system that said it would take him to experience the desired Wizarding World.

He rubbed his hands together gleefully. Was there such a good thing?

However, once the system was finished, he found that this Wizarding World didn’t seem quite right?

Cyril (eyes shaking: Forest monster? Brass steam train? Gloomy wizard’s tower? Wizarding academy of the fittest? This wasn’t right!

System (forcing itself to be calm): Magic creatures! The appearance doesn’t matter! The architecture isn’t the key! It is still a wizarding academy! There isn’t anything wrong with it! Not bad, not bad!

Cyril struggled to make it through the Blackheart Wizard Academy. Fortunately, there was the gentle and courteous chief gentleman to cling to. This was until he found that the handsome chief seemed to be plotting against him…

My god! This seemed to the other identity of the crazy great magician and necromancer?

***

According to legends, the dark, paranoid, crazy and perverted great necromancer rubbed the white and delicate neck of the beautiful young man in his arms and whispered, “My dear, I heard that you have been very close to the commander of the Holy Light Knights recently?

Cyril denied it three consecutive times with an innocent fact, “I’m not! I didn’t! Who is talking nonsense?”

MY REVIEW: 

I only read up to chapter 10, but I wasn't impressed with the writing, plot, or characters at all. 

The writing focuses too much time on how beautiful the characters are from the tips of their fingers to their eyes. 

The plot is pretty obvious just from the summary alone, and once you read about their first interactions with each other in chapter 10, you can already tell how the relationship is going to go. It's not healthy at all. I'm really not interested in reading about this type of relationship, so this book is hard pass for me.

New Anime and Movies This Summer That I'm Excited For!

It's been almost 10 years since The Devil is a Part-Timer came out! I've been excited for this and Classroom of the Elite's sequel since the news came out! There's also a couple Chinese donghua that I'm interested in. Couldn't find much info about them, but the art looks nice! 

There's also a couple of movies I'm excited to watch! Still need to watch the new Dr. Strange's movie first lol.

Anime: 

• The Devil is a Part-Timer!! Season 2
• Classroom of the Elite II
• Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV
• My Isekai Life: I Gained a Second Character Class and Became the Strongest Sage in the World!
• Uncle from Another World
• Long Zu
• Wo Kao Chongzhi Dang Wudi
• Cang Lan Jue

Movies:

• Thor: Love and Thunder (July 8)
• The Gray Man (July 15)
• Nope (July 22)
• Don't Worry Darling (Sept 23) 

Webnovel Review: The Best Zhuang Yan in the World by 请叫我山大王

Title: The Best Zhuang Yan in the World
Author: 请叫我山大王
Chapters: 93 chapters 
Publication: 2018
Summary from JJWXC:

Copy 1: Recently, there is a rumor spreading at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

The Flower of the High Mountains of Yangmei can be seen from a distance and cannot be played with. It is a standard abstinence department, and Zhuang Yan, who has been coveted by no mathematician sister for four years in college, has not been captured since then, and has been encumbered!

There are pictures and truth. The woman drove Zhuang Yan to school in a luxury car, and extended her hand to touch Zhuang Yan's head. Zhuang Yan's face in the photo was forbearing and submissive, which broke the hearts of countless school sisters who admired him, and even raised a crowd . Raising funds to save Zhuang Yan from the clutches.

The roommates who have lived with Zhuang Yan for four years are determined not to believe or spread rumors.

Until one day.

The roommates who waited ten minutes in the cold wind and waited for the dormitory door to open saw it with their own eyes.

Zhuang Yan hides a woman behind him.

A woman five or six years older than Zhuang Yan.

The roommates looked at Zhuang Yan's red, unnatural mouth, and suddenly felt that the sky had collapsed, and Zhuang Yan had really fallen!

The rich woman was like a wolf and a tiger, and she couldn't help but commit crimes against Zhuang Yan in the dormitory! It made Zhuang Yan's mouth swollen!

Zhuang Yan pulled out Yu Wanwan, who was hiding behind him, and said calmly, "Let me introduce, this is the rich woman in the rumors."

Faced with three heartbroken faces that were jealous of evil.

Yu Wanwan denied Sanlian: "I'm not, I don't, don't talk nonsense!"

Copy 3: Zhuang Yan likes Yu Wanwan since he was twelve years old. For the rest of my life, I will be unswerving.

Copy 4: Yu Wanwan: "I wanted to give my boyfriend (ex-boyfriend) a birthday surprise. I turned off the lights and sat on the sofa with a cake and waited for him to come back. My boyfriend and her best friend started gnawing at each other after entering the door. Should I? A friendly reminder that someone is in the room? Waiting online, it's very urgent. 

The best Zhuang Yan in the world, the world only likes you.

The heroine is super poor. 

4 STARS - I REALLY LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

This was a much more realistic slice of life romance between an older woman and her younger boyfriend. 

I think I enjoyed this book so much because of how relatable and admirable Yu Wanwan was. She dated her boyfriend for two years and found out that he was cheating on her with one of her previous classmates that she introduced each other to and immediately decided to breakup with him even though they were about to have their engagement party and get married the next year. She was so quick and decisive to get over him and move on even with everyone constantly reminding her that she's already 28 and implying that it would be difficult to find someone else better than her ex. 

Because of her poor conditions and giving up going to college to help support her younger brother to go to college instead, Yu Wanwan already knows her social standing and is content with staying in her own lane and enjoying the little things in life. She has an inferiority complex that really rears its head when she gets together with Zhuang Yan who is young, handsome, and rich. She doesn't even think they're gonna last long at first, but she can't help falling for Zhuang Yan's persistent efforts and is constantly trying to give themselves a way out because she's always planning for the worst. 

It was frustrating when it kept on happening, but it was also realistic. When you grew up as humbly and sensibly as Yu Wanwan, it's hard to change your low self-confidence when reality keeps on telling you that you're not super beautiful, you're way older than your boyfriend, you're only with him because he's rich, you guys don't match, etc. There was one section that really got me:

Yu Wanwan didn't think she was such a good girlfriend .

But she has the confidence to be a good ex-girlfriend.

If the other party proposes to break up, she will never entangle.

She's actually a very nice person.

She can't say a word of retention, for fear of becoming humble and pitiful.

I think this section really sums up just how sensible and humble Yu Wanwan has become from her upbringing and life experience. 

That was also when I felt that Yu Wanwan was the most relatable for me. Her whole breakup with her ex and being a good ex-girlfriend thought process resonated with me, because I also am like that. If we breakup, my feelings for you are gone, and I don't want to waste time trying to get back together. There's no point in spending time and energy on someone who didn't want to make it work when we were together. That's why I was rooting for her to gain some confidence and get her man wholeheartedly!

But it's hard struggle to overturn your previous thinking that's pretty much become ingrained in your life. For example, not long after that earlier section, this scene happens with Yu Wanwan and Zhuang Yan: 

Zhuang Yan didn't speak for a long time.

After a while, Yu Wanwan heard him ask: "What if... yes?" His voice was deep, and he couldn't say the word "break up", and asked with some difficulty: "What are you going to do? ?"

Yu Wanwan felt a dull pain in her heart without warning, but her tone pretended to be relaxed: "What can I do? If you really want to break up with me..." She paused, feeling a little uncomfortable, and helplessly smiled a little bit and said, "I can't help it either."

There was a dark silence in the room.

Yu Wanwan's chest became more and more uncomfortable, she forced a smile, and said, "I let you down again, didn't I?"

"I'm just glad." Zhuang Yan finally spoke, with a low voice: "Fortunately I will never separate with you."

Like, my chest was also hurting when I read this scene! Yu Wanwan has been trying to surpress her growing emotions for Zhuang Yan because she doesn't think they'll last. She's trying to give them an out in case they breakup even though her heart is already breaking just saying it out loud. 

Zhuang Yan was also great. This guy was a straight ball since the beginning, which was exactly what Yu Wanwan needed. He was blunt and clear about his feelings, didn't play mind games, didn't hide his feelings, and constantly communicated his affection and anger with her. For someone with such low self-esteem like Yu Wanwan, Zhuang Yan's constant love and even domineering actions helped Yu Wanwan improve and want to be better for him. 

Of course, there was a breaking in period as they got used to each other's personalities, but even that was natural. There are always some friction occurring as you get along with someone intimately. It's just that working through those problems helps strengthen your relationship as you get along with each other. 

Overall, this was a great realistic romance between adults. It was real, raw, and heartbreakingly sweet.

Books I Want to Read This Month

I know that I said I would read at least one of these books last month and didn't, but I will try to do it this month lol. Don't have great expectations of me tho~

1. Oksi by Mari Ahokoivu
2. Spy x Family vol. 1 by Tatsuya Endo
3. Spy x Family vol. 2 by Tatsuya Endo
4. Spy x Family vol. 3 by Tatsuya Endo
5. A Man & His Cat vol. 3 by Umi Sakurai
6. A Man & His Cat vol. 4 by Umi Sakurai
7. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? vol. 12 by Fujino Omori
8. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? vol. 13 by Fujino Omori
9. Tamiko and the Two Janitors by Forthright 
10. Love Looks Pretty on You by Lang Leav
11. Euphoria by F.S. Yousaf
12. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda
13. The Anatomy of Being by Shinji Moon
14. Home Body by Rupi Kaur
15. The Sun Will Rise & So Will We by Jennae Cecelia

June in Retrospect

Now that I've gotten used to my new work schedule, I tried to make more time to read this month! It seems to work! :D 

I read: 

• When an Alpha is Marked by One of His Own Kind by 早更鸟
• Bursting After He Transmigrated Into the Cannon Fodder Omega by 凉白开开
• The World of Comprehension Needs Talents Like You by 开花不结果
• I Am Such a Little Fox by 开花不结果
• The Zombie Emperor’s Domesticated Cat by Metasequoia
• This Omega is Sweet and Wild by Mò Lǐ
• Doomsday Rooftop Gardening by 西大秦
• The Minister Under the Skirt [Quick Wear] by 请叫我山大王

I watched: 

• Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs (2022)
• Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)