22nd Diamond: Being Loved

Good evening

As I probably have posted before, I am currently reading The Fault in Our Stars by John Green which I am pretty sure will be finished in a day or two. This book really is wonderful and I really had a great time reading it. 

Some of the things I learned, while not yet finishing this book, is the notion of being loved. 

Reading a lot of books, I have came to a conclusion that a story without love would be boring and monotonous. Not that I hate them, it's just not that enjoyable to read. Books such as Harry Potter or even classics such as Bram Stoker's Dracula has romance somewhere in the story.

"Love just makes everything better."

However I can not say that I fully agree with that quote above. It might make everything better but there's always a limit to it. Love can make us blind. I still remember that Cassandra Clare said "To love is to destroy." I'm pretty sure love is not THAT BAD, but lust can be bad. And love is sometimes mistaken as lust. It's a complicated matter.

Anyways, my real topic for this post is being loved. Growing up in a family that is filled with love, a child would develop their own identity and a sense that they matter in this world. That is how crucial being loved for a child is. A child that grows up not being loved will end up in despair or suicide. Please take note that being loved by your parents does not mean that they will give you everything you want. 

Now the interesting topic. YOUNG LOVE

Don't you just swoon when a character in a movie says "I love you" to their loved one after a looong perilous battle or some sort. I know I do. A LOT. How bout if a real life "male specimen" really said that to you girls with his whole heart and look at you in the eye as he said it. You're going to be at Cloud 9!

It is an undeniable fact that all of us wants to love and to be loved.
It's just great to finally find that one person who loves you for who you are. 
However, with the young generation nowadays, the case is not wanting to love but to be loved. And THAT is the root of  jealousy. Simply seeing your boyfriend or girlfriend with someone else who happen to be of opposite sex will make a surge of anger inside of you. That's jealousy.




No it is not love and hate at the same time. At some point yes, but personally, I don't think it's love. Love is not letting go of everything either. Letting go of your girlfriend to do something wrong is not the right thing to do, boys. Love is wanting what's best for him/her. If it's best for you to let go, then let go. But don't let go if she doesn't want you to go. Simply improve yourself to be a better person. Know what's best for each other.

Now, in order to solve the case of young people nowadays *yes, I am also young and still learning myself*, NEVER and I do say NEVER, expect the other side to satisfy you with his/her "love". Not in a pessimistic kind of way. Just don't make his/her love your source of identity and security. Security can not be bought. Security comes from the inside and you do need to know that before you can love, you need to be secure with yourself too. 

"How do you expect a person to love you if you can't even love yourself?"

A message to girls:

Girls, you are beautiful. No matter what people say, you are beautiful just the way your are. *I am not quoting Bruno Mars* People might say that to be beautiful means you have to be skinny or voluptuous or anything else. To them, beauty is relative. It's what's appeasing to the eyes that means something. That is WRONG I TELL YOU, WROOONNNGGG. I am pretty sure what I'm going to say has been repeated a lot of times, but it is true. Beauty comes from the heart. When the heart good, then the outside is also good. Now what is the heart???

The heart is the source of your actions, the way you think and your worldview. It's the most complicated source. If it is filled with something good, let's see. Such as kindness, good characters, discipline. I am pretty sure it will show on the outside. From my observing, people who are discipline has a more successful, healthy, and happy life. This is why the heart matters so much. 

Don't ever let the world tell you that you're not beautiful. Trust me. There is that one person out there who will love you the way you are. There's already One since the day you got your first heartbeat. 

I think that would be all of my rants for today haha. I have been discipline in my blog lately huh? Let's see... Thank you for reading and I hope this helps you somehow. If there are any questions or if you are in need of any suggestions, feel free to comment or send me a message ;) Thanks again!

Sincerely yours,

Alicia. V

21st Diamond: Sweet Evil & Sweet Peril (The Sweet Trilogy)

Bonjour

I think my last post would be a few days ago...no, it was last night. Damn I have been diligent in this.

And it has occurred to me that my recent blog layout was full of errors. So I decided to change it. 

It's not as fancy as the one before *with all the flipcard animations and stuff* but I think it's enough.

I also took the liberty to change the colour format of my posts, so that  it'll be more readable. *You're welcome* Today I would do another book review . Guess I've been having too much time to

 read. And no, it's not Alice in Wonderland because I have not finished it, YET. 

It's Sweet Evil and Sweet Peril by Wendy Higgins

I have to say, the cover didn't look that promising to me. It looks like another YA book that has

another plot and stuff. YA is short for "Young Adult." The book trailer even made it worse...

The only urge I got for reading this is because of a poll made by a TMI fan. There we had to

vote for either Jace from TMI or Kaidan from The Sweet Trilogy. 

It sparked my curiosity. 

So I researched about it and voila! Kaiden Rowe is the prince charming in The Sweet Trilogy.

He's not really a prince charming really...he's more like a prince of Lust *you'll know later why*

I took the liberty to check on it on goodreads and the comments and reviews made me 

even more interested. So I read it. Ha! 

It's a nice book, with little bit sof humor and not so heavy and all. It only has around 300-400 pages (in my tablet) so yea, comparing it to TMI and Hunger Games and all that, this book is like Hex Hall. Wait, maybe Hex Hall was shorter. Anyways, I managed to finish this book in around 4 days? I had a lot of fun reading it and I hope

some of you guys do too. 

Down there, I'm gonna do a plot review like always and of course, SPOILER ALERT

But again, if you're not into paranormal fiction romance, I suggest this book is not for you.

I have been reading too much of them myself, and I think there's some of them loitering around in my dreams last night, or the night before. That's it! My next book is not going to be a paranormal fiction!

Now let's proceed with the plot review shall we?

1. Sweet Evil

So the story starts with out protagonist, Anna being born with some sister/nuns in the room. 

She's born in a convent and her mother died after giving birth to her. Of course, none of us 

knew that the baby girl was Anna. Baby Anna was then given to a man. And so it continues.

Anna is in highschool now and is going out with her fellow guy-friend, Jay. Who she claims have no feelings for her and vice versa. "He's like a brother" said Anna and he is, until the 2nd book anyways. 3rd book is not released yet ;) so we don't know. But so far, he's a bro. Anna also explained that she can see people's aura. Pink is for love, green for envy, red for lust, deep purple for pride, light purple for peace, orange and yellow for excitement, and so on and on. Anywayss, they're going to a concert of Jay's fave band and sure, what can go wrong in a concert? Nothing went wrong, except the hot sexy drummer guy in the band. Oh Anna made sure the readers knew how hot and sexy the drummer guy is. Want me to quote?

"He was smokin' hot. As in H-O-T-T hott. I'd never understood until that moment why girls insited on adding an extra T. This guy was extra-T worthy."

And nooo, it did not end there. But I'd rather not quote more. Where's the fun in that?

Back to the story, Anna saw a red starburst red in his heart, which means lust. But it's not like other people's auras. It's only a starburst at the heart. So she spent the whole concert observin his hotness and all. I had a really good time imagining him with all the descriptions of his biceps and hair and gosh....he is sexy. Ehem. So Jay got backstage tickets with another pal, and of course, Anna tag along. While the boys are busy smooching up the manager of the band, wanting their song to be relased, Anna saw the H-O-T-T drummer guy, Kaidan. Of course he was surrounded by girls/women *I'm not sure* but he caught her eye and she caught his. And he approach her. Woot!

So she talked with Kai *I'm too lazy to type his full name even tho it's cool so from now let's just go with Kai* with him asking what is she and all and poor Ann not knowing anything about her powers and what she is just stood there awestruck by the sexyness and answer with a word or two. Conversation ended and they went back. The next day Ann was invited by her dumb but cute and might-be-a-douche classmate Scott to a party by the lake. So she went, with Jay of course. Or else her protective stepmom, Patti, will not let her go. She partied, hard. Ven had some drugs bcoz Scott put it in her drink. If Kai didn't show up, Scott and Anna wud end up snoggin each other all night. So Kai interfered and explain sum stuff to Ann, then disappear into the party*i hate those kind of guys, they just appear and disappear whenever they want!* she went home with Jay, who actually got drunk and got into a fight with Scott, bcoz Scott drugged her. 

Next few days, Ann told Patti about meeting someone who also has similar powers with her (sharp senses, etc) and Patti panicked tellin Ann to never see him again. Of course, when one is told not to do so, one does it. It's a compulsory rule. So Ann went to Kai's house and Kai told her almost everything. Then Kai heard his father is home and told Ann to take her clothes off to feign that he's working, since he is the son of the Duke of Lust.

Just to make everything clear, in this world, there are those who are called Dukes who were fallen angels and are sent by Lucifer from hell to make men sin. There are dukes for each specific sin such as lust, gluttony, lies, wrath, envy, etc. It's basically based on the sins that are mentioned in the Bible. Now these dukes have offsprings, that are called Nephilims, or Neph for short. Ann and Kai are one of them. Only later it was found out that Ann's mother is an angel of light and her father is a Duke of addiction. Nephs work for their fathers. Guess what's Kai's job is? Yeap, sleeping with females. He has the good looks and all though...

Continuing the story, Kai's dad saw them and knew right away that Ann is a Neph and still a virgin. Wow, this guy's definitely the Duke of Lust. Skipping the part where Kai's creepy dad told Kai to teach Ann "Nephs for Dummies", they went on a roadtrip together to California to see the Sister Ruth that apparently gave Anna to Patti and Anna's dad, the duke of Addiction, who is apparently in jail...

Of course, during the road trip somethings happened. What else do you expect on a roadtrip of a boy and a girl? Smooching? Definitely more than that. After Ann's first kiss and all, they arrived at California and met her dad. According to my imagination, her dad would be a biker dude with a bald head and a brown-gray goatee.....he sure looks like a Duke already. But he was actually very affectionate towards Anna and loved her dearly. He even feigned Lucifer that he has been working while he actually isn't. They parted and Ann heard that Sister Ruth had died. She went depressed and Kai, who clearly know that he loves her and this could not happen, told her to go home on the next flight. Well not actually "told" her, he drove her to the airport right away. Jerk. 

Skipping somethings, Ann was trained by her father so that it "seemed" like Ann was working and nobody would be suspicious. And so came the day of the council where every duke and neph would gather. During the council, a Neph *I forgot her name* who was the daughter of gluttony was called because she fell for her own sin, which made her fat. And the Dukes made fun of her during the council, even killing her. Ann, having a kind heart, stand against this and got the attention of the dukes. Of course, she screamed "No!" when the other neph girl was about to be killed. So Ann was also called on stage and about to be killed also *actually to be exact she was told to shot the other neph girl herself* and she refuses, resulting in the duke to point the gun at her. Then miraculously, angels appeared and protect Ann, saying its not her time yet. Of course the duke was angry, but she was safe. Then after that there was a pandemonium on getting out of the council place. Ann was reaching for Kai and vice versa but Ann's dad got hold of her first and shove her to the cab. And there was Kai, standing on the sidewalk as Ann was driven away on a cab. 

And that would be the end of Book 1.


2. Sweet Peril

The story continues with Anna, finally working in order to "lay-low" from the recent hubbub during the council. From a goody girl, she became a party girl. Of course, in the middle of working she is always reminded of Kai, who she left...sad. Then she went to meet some of the Neph friends, such as the twins Marna and Ginger, daughters of the Duke of Adultery, Kopano, son of the Duke of Wrath and later revealed Lust too, and Blake, son of the Duke of Envy who got the best job ever. They actually appeared in the first book but I didn't mentioned them because it doesn't seem relevant. 

The adventure continues as Sister Ruth's ghost appeared in front of Ann when she was in the bathroom and told her that she is the chosen one that will lead the Nephs to freedom and the Dukes to salvation *I think*. So she told her father then her father sent her on a quest to build a Neph army. So she traveled, with Kopano to Syria, and to Australia. Why Kopano you ask? Because Ann's dad didn't think that Ann was compatible with Kai. Plus, Kopano's dad is also like Ann's dad, feigning his work and letting his son to not work. As a result, Kopano is not an angry-type, but he's like a monk. Very peaceful and all. At least until Kopano got alone with Ann and kissed her....I swear I do not like this Kopano guy, no matter how kind he is. 

So finally, after getting the green card from her dad, Ann went to Kai and Blake who were residing in California. Ann went there and told them everything, the prophecy stuff and the plan. Then they agreed. Then of course, the relationship between Ann and Kai was back. They also went to an island where they saw the dukes bringing women, fyi they were hiding and the dukes were not actually supposed to be there, and they hid and saw an ally, Flynn from Australia, die, killed by his own father. They were shocked and all and when they were back, Kai invited Ann to spend the night together. Not in a sexual way. Just spending time with each other since they barely have the time to spend time together not guarded by Whisperers who are the dukes' mini army. Plus, Kai got jealous of Kopano so something needs to be fixed there. 

Their relationship was fixed that night and no, Ann is still a virgin after the night . The reason is because she wants to keep herself pure because she was given the SWORD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS which can kill demons but only a pure hearted soul can use it. Which is why they are holding back. But they had a great time together. Cleaning Kai's apartment, brownies, cooking, and other things that Kai thinks made Ann sexy and we readers just fall for Kai cause he's sooooo dreamy and hot. I still think he's a jerk though. Skipping all the drama, they all got reunited and Kai decided that he will no longer work. Then Ann's dad came and admitted that he was actually trying to make Ann and Kope (Kopano, yes abbreviated) a couple but now that he sees Kai really loves her and Ann loves him, he agreed. The book ends with Ann and Kai happy with each other and kissing while Ann's dad was listening and ends up knocking on their door.

Fin

That is basically the two first books of The Sweet Trilogy. Kai really does sound sexy and all in the book. Wendy Higgins really tried her best to describe him as hot sexy and all the adjectives that could describe an extremely high tempratured person *you know what I meant* Anyways, I am quite satisfied with the first two books and I can't wait until the third book is released. 

In the mean while, I am still reading other books such as Alice in Wonderland, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I think I would be finished with The Fault in Our Stars first because the story is really interesting and sweet. While for Alice and Dorian, I have watched the movies so I'm pretty sure of how the plot goes. I decided not to make a review on Bram Stoker's Dracula since it's a mouthful and I'm pretty sure there are other better reviews out there...

That's it from me today and thank you for reading!! Well this is a long post :D
I'm happy~ Have a great day everyone!

Sincerely yours,

Alicia. V

Goodbye Cory Monteith

       

I just had to write about this.

Today is the day our beloved Cory Monteith has passed away.

There are no words that can explain how sad I am. I am not a Gleek but watching Glee on my spare time, I could still remember the character of Finn who was always so kind and compassionate. In reality, Cory himself was open to the world and taught us that its perfectly fine to be ourselves. He has been an inspiration to some and an idol to a lot. 

My deepest condolences goes to Ms. Lea Michelle and Cory's family. I hope God will give you the strength to go through this and always know that there are people who supports you.

According to CNN, Cory was found dead on his hotel in Vancouver, Canada. He died at the age of 31. The cause of his death was not yet known. Rumors said he died of overdose which I personally doubt because he was already released from rehab and was doing fine. 

Glee will never be the same without him. And I could not imagine how broken Lea Michelle is right now. My heart sank when I heard that they were about to get married. I literally cried. 

                       

Stay strong Lea. 

That would be all from me. All I could do right now is pray and hope them all the best. I also find Glee Indonesia's banner touching and I just have to share it here.

"He didn't die. He took the midnight train going anywhere..."

R.I.P Cory Monteith. You will always be remembered.

Sincerely yours,

Alicia. V

20th Diamond: Hex Hall, Demonglass, and Spell Bound

Hello again world :)

It hasn't been long since my last post so I guess I have been having too much freetime.

How's everyone been doin? Surely I hope that you guys have a wonderful day. There's so many beautiful things in this world

Now let's start with today's topic. Today I will be doing another book review. This time it's a fiction and its entitled Hex Hall. The whole series is called the Hex Hall series which basically explains why the story is somewhere around it *plot review coming up, scroll down*. Goodreads actually recommended this book to me and to be honest, it's not bad. I mean sure some plot twists are predictable but the story is not bad, plus it's short. While other books are 600+ pages long (like Infernal Devices series and whatnots), this book is only around 300+ pages. *Which explains why I could finish the book in a few days*. But, it has vampires, werewolves, demons, fairies, warlocks, and hunters involved. So if you're sick of those stuff, don't read it, cause it's really full of it. 

Now let's begin with the plot review, and yes, SPOILER ALERT.

1. Hex Hall

The story starts with our heroine, the girl witch named Sophia. I love that name, it has a nice ring to it :) moving on, she is a witch and apparently she wants to help a friend who is in despair bcoz she got no date to prom. So Sophia, being so kind, made a love spell, which went wrong and end up with the "friend" almost telling everybody that Sophia is a witch. So that's enough trouble for Sophia to be sent to a boarding school named Hecate Hall a.k.a Hex Hall. 

Apparently, Soph's mom is not a witch and her dad is off somewhere. First day when Soph arrived, she got attacked by a nervous werewolf and all she can do is scream "bad dog!" Of course, some guy saved her and his name is Archer. Oh and he happens to be hot and has black hair. Then she continued to her room and met her roommate, who is a vampire named Jenna. And apparently later some killings happened and Jenna got the blame bcoz she's a vampire and her former roommate also died. How dramatic. Then Sophia met a bunch of witches who happen to be very beautiful, one of them is Archer's girlfriend *ooh bummer*. 

Skipping a bit of unnecessary stuff, let's go to the middle. Since the popular girls asked Soph to be a part of their coven and she refused, some weird stuff have been going on. You know, like cursed mannequins that makes the wielder create horrible dresses and stuff, which is a completely normal prank in a Prodigium school. (Prodigium: basically the general name for creatures such as vampires, werewolves, witches, etc.) Then dear Soph is approached by a ghost, who happens to be her great great grandmother, and was later exposed as a demon. Which made Sophie also a demon, not a witch. Demons have greater power than witches, according to this series. Moving on, Archer's girlfriend found out that Sophie has been going out of Hex Hall at night to train with her great great grandma, Alice the demon. So she decided to came along. After all the drama and hubbub, Archer's gf died and Sophia defeated Alice who is evil and has been doing all the killing that happened in Hex Hall.

That's basically the main plot, but what fun is the main plot without a lil bit of romance. Sooo, this guy Archer who happen to be sooo hot was put into detention of cellar duty with Sophia because both of them did something offensive in front of one of the meanest teacher in school, the so called Vandy, who was a witch but got her power removed. Cellar duty is basically making a log book of things in the cellar, and the things happen to be magical and moves around so the job is worthless. What does a girl and a boy do when they're locked in a room alone? Yes, they develop a relationship that involves kissing and making out. Classic. Of course being Archer's gf died and all, they're free to date, but noo. Apparently, for Prodigiums, being engaged to another Prodigium is normal. It's like India, they have arranged marriages. Only this time its engagement and they call it being betrothed. Sophia was betrothed too a super hot warlock who has great healing powers and is a guardian of Hex Hall. his name is Cal. Unlike Archer, he's not witty and sarcastic and a bit of sexy naughty, Cal is plain nice. And apparently, Cal has feelings for Soph. 

2. Demonglass

A plot twist that occured in the first book is that Archer, the hot guy that had making out sessions in the cellar turned out to be one of the hunter of prodigium, a group called "the Eye." They have another name, L'ochio O Dio which practically means the same thing. This group of people have been hunting prodigiums since centuries ago. Every new student that arrived at Hex Hall will be shown a video *the magical hologram video* of the Eye killing prodigiums for centuries. Sophia, knowing that Archer is one of the Eye by discovering the big eye tattoo on his chest, ran away, while Archer was left broken hearted. Dude, what do you expect? She'll be like "Oh that's fine. Let's just continue." No that will not happen! Why didn't you tell her in the first place?!

In this second book, Sophia realizes that her powers are dangerous and therefore decides to go through "The Removal" that will take away all her powers and might kill her. So her long lost father who is actually the head council of all prodigiums decided to pay a visit, after all these years, and invites his daughter Sophia to a mansion outside of Hex Hall for the summer, along with her friends Jenna the vampire and Cal the bethrothed one of course. So she did follow her dad. In the mansion, she grew closer to her dad, closer to Cal, met Lara Casnoff, the main villain of the story who is at that time like her dad's secretary *the villain is always the closest one*. Oh, and Archer's ex's ghost is not tied to Soph because they tied powers or sumthin. 

The story continues with Sophia finally reunited with Archer and they had some private time together then the bad guy Lara decided it's time to make the move. So she took away Soph's dad's powers, burn down the mansion hoping that everyone in it dies as well, which was Soph, Archer, Cal, Jenna, Soph's dad. But nooooo, our heroine, Sophia, managed to run away and went to a portal to the place Cal told her to go, which was the Branicks' place. Branicks are one of the "few" groups of hunters of Prodigiums other than "The Eye." 

That is a short review of the whole book. I didn't mention some characters such as Nick, who was one of the demons that went beserk and was used by Lara. Nick's girlfriend, also a demon and also used. Some other council members that I barely remember the names of because they died and rarely appear in the book. Please bear with me. 

3. Spellbound

The third book begins with the ending of book 2, Sophia getting out of the portal and met a Branicks girl then had a little fight. So it turns out, Soph's powers are being suppressed by Lara bcoz she was about to go through the removal and apparently, Archer's ex-gf ghost can still use magic even if she's a ghost. So she helped, A LOT. Then Sophia met the Branicks, met her mom there who is actually a Branick. What a plot twist really. So it continues. Then Cal and her dad shows up. Lara made the island in which Hex Hall is located disappear and all the students of Hex Hall is transported via gold light and twisting back to Hex Hall bcoz Lara thought of making them all demons she can control.

 One thing and another, Sophia and Archer and Jenna and Cal managed to retrieve more demonglass (demonglass: material that can fight, hurt, and kill demons) from hell and fight at the island. They eventually came to a pit where Lara was doing the whole ritual and Sophia, with her powers back, tries to close the pit and end the ritual. Poor Sophia, she fell to the pit, and hurt her knee. Then Cal jumped down to the pit, healed her knee, and pushed her up. Then the pit closes. Yes, CAL DIED IN THE END. 

Then when all is set and done, Sophia became the new council head since her father's powers are gone and she is considered a hero. She's back with Archer and Jenna is now safe. Cal eventually became a ghost that healed the Graymalkin Island, the fictional island of Hex Hall, and Archer's ex-gf, who is a ghost, decided to stay with him. Awww. 

Fin

Not a bad story, and considering the time I spent reading them, it's worth it. I guess I missed out a lot of characters in the review, but it doesn't really affect the main plot that much. Basically that's the story. I find the third book the most enjoyable to read, maybe because Sophia got her power back and now she's all powerful. I didn't really like the fact that Cal died; however, he's gonna have some company so I guess that's good. Overall, it's a 7 out of 10. Not average, but not rilly that good either that I'm going to read it all over again. If there's ever a movie about it, I'd probably watch it. 

Another fact I just found out is that this book is somehow related to Disney. Maybe in terms of publishers and all. The author Rachel Hawkins has also released a spin-off of the Hex Hall series, entitled School Spirit. The story is around one of the Branicks girl, Izzi. See, I didn't mentioned Izzy in my plot review. I don't think I'll be reading the book though because I'm not really interested in the character of Izzy. 

Another book I have started to read is Beautiful Creatures. Oh yes it's an old book, but I've watched the movie and it sucked....my friends said the book was awesome though so I'll be reading that. I have also finished reading Bram Stoker's Dracula which was amazing as a classic. I think I need to read other books that does not involve vampires or magic. Alice in Wonderland? I think so. 

Anyways, thank you for reading this review and I hope it will be useful to you. Feel free to comment or critic on anything that went wrong. I might have falsely remembered somethings haha. See you on the next post!

Sincerely yours, 

Alicia V

19th Diamond: Colette & Lola

Hello foodism!

I did promised to do a food/restaurant review so here I go. Today's review would be the recently opened cake store in Jakarta. Apparently, it has been the cool-spot lately and there's a long line in front of its door. Today I took the liberty to check out what's all the hubbub is about and since I'm a fan of cakes and patisserie, I figured I'll be treating myself  :) It took me 15 min to get seated. Lucky?

First thing you'll realized when you step in is the lego cakes that are put in the front glass 

container. I guess it's one of their signature creations, though I'm quite pessimistic about 

the taste. On the left side would be the small cakes counter and on the other side,

 macaroons and cupcakes. I went with a few friends so we can try  a lot of cakes

 at once without feeling guilty or anything. One thing I didn't regret is bringing my 

own water. The water there costs 15 thousand which is quite illogical for me because 

it only cost 2 thousand in a supermarket.  

Anyways, 

We got seated and I was actually thinking of ordering a hot chocolate since it's 

raining and all. They didn't have it. Hopefully they'll add that in their menu someday, 

or ice cream would also be nice. We ordered 3 cakes. 

On the top right, it's called Bittersweet Love. It's made out of chocolate sable shell, dark 

chocolate ganache, and hazelnut praline crunch. I like this one better than all three of them. 

It's chocolate, and kind of taste like milo at the first taste, but its good, like real good. Although I 

have to say, it kind of gets messy eating it because the shell is quite hard...

On the top left would be My Lady Grey. I just fell for the name. It sounds soo, prestigious, and old...It's Valrhona caramelia chocolate and lady grey tea-infused Bavarian cream. No I don't 

know what the hell those ingredients are (they're from the official website) but to me the 

cake taste like chocolate cake  covered in thick cream that has a sweet chocolatey sour(?) taste.

 Hey, don't judge, i'm an amateur food critic. This cake costs Rp.32thou

On the bottom would be Miss Gingerbread. It's made out of gingerbread crumble, 

which was really nice btw, and tiramissu mousse with spiced genoise. I'm not a fan of ginger, 

but this one is not bad. I wouldn't order it again though because I'm pretty sure there are still 

other nicer cakes. Chocolate~

I also took the liberty to buy some cake to takeaway and a macaroon to try. I choose the 

rose & raspberry macaroon that tastes like syrup, but the smell of rose is just perfect. 

The texture of it is also perfect as it softly melts inside the mouth but crumbles softly 

when bitten. It's crunchy but also soft. Lately other bakeries that sells macaroons 

in Jakarta, such as Bakerzin and Manon, has bad macaroons. It's like they left it 

for a night in the refrigirator. 

The cake I decided to take away is called Sugar Daddy. It has fruits in it and it looks 

nice, so I'm expecting much. 

The service and atmosphere.

Since it was reall crowded, I'm not gonna judge on the atmosphere. The interior design was really cute and I really like how they have these cute little name cards on the table and stuff. It adds something.

They also put on some French music which I think is not bad since it's a cafe after all. 

The waitress and waitresses are also friendly. It's just too crowded and that makes it a bit uncomfortable. Can't blame it on them though. 

For the position of the cake shop, it can be accessed from Sudirman. Take left across Ratu Plaza and then left again. There you'll meet Jl. Senopati. From there, just observe the right side. It's right below Yeyo. 

Enjoy the food there! and thank you for reading!
Official website would be http://colettelola.com/

Sincerely yours,

Alicia V

first photo credit to tara-amelz.blogspot.com

18th Diamond: Clockwork Princess

Hello again world 

It really has been some time since the last post, but now I can promise myself to contribute more

to this blog. I have finally finished high school and it's all up to me now. yay!

Today's post would be a BOOK REVIEW

Guess I haven't made one in a while. I promise, next time it's going to be a movie review,

or maybe a restaurant review ;) Hello foodism hahaha

Back to the main topic of this post, as you guys would have known from the 

title, it's going to be about the final book of the Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare.

I'm going to do a small plot review of the book so THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. And if you 

have not read the previous books, then this review will not help you in any way and most

probably wastes your time. 

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

The book starts with an epilogue of the death of the "grand daughter" of Aloysius Starkweather. 

I don't really know that guy but he has been one of the oldest member among families of Shadowhunters

Anyways, his grand daughter shouldn't have died. It turns out, the one who died was not his

grand daughter. The main character of the story, Tessa is the daughter of the real grand daughter

of Aloysius. This however will only be exposed at the end of story.

After the dramatic scenes from the prologue, with death and all and the first encounter between Jem

and Will (how do u imagine Jem and Will during their childhood? cute :3), it came back to the main story after the previous book, Clockwork Prince. There it goes, Tessa getting ready for her wedding.

She's wearing a beautiful dress that kinds of suffocate her. I really can't imagine how dreadful it was

for women to wear dresses like that everyday in the past. But the wedding was not on that day. She's just

testing the dress. Then Will's jealousy was being shown and the normal drama. And another fighting scene.

Jem, is on the brink of dying because somehow, the bad guy, Mortmain, got hold of the drug that

Jem needs to survive. And so, he's left with what he can have. So one of the biggest problems in the book

was getting another cure for Jem. Vampirism was actually brought up but Jem refuses. 

Since Mortmain needs Tessa for his "diabolical plan", he kidnaps her. Of all the things he could do, kidnapping, the classic method of all bad guys. He did not came to the institution, he just sent his clockwork-army and some nanny to do the job. Mrs. Black was her name I think...I honestly forgot. Oh, and Jessamine died during the battle. Since she was kidnapped, she, of course, made some efforts to run away. It worked, 

for a while. Then the bad guys got hold of her again and she was brought to the Mortmain headquarters, which happens to be located near Will's house, in Wales. 

Anyways, Will, being the knight in shining armor and riding on a white horse came to the rescue! However he is not wearing a shining armor or riding a white horse, he's wearing the leather shadowhunter gear and rides a black horse. I kind of like how Will is the Black Knight and Jem is the White Knight. Besides, Jem has silver hair :P Anyways, he continues the rescue and met some werewolves on the way, and of course, made some fight. And he felt that Jem died since they're parabatai and it hurts him. He had to move on so he continues his journey again and arrived in a village, in Wales. That night, Mortmain's clockwork army came to the village and slaughtered everybody, excluding Will and his horse. Tessa was being shown the whole thing from the headquarters. And so Will, in a state of shock, went away again. It might sound normal here, but trust me, Cassandra Clare did a great job in describing the terror. Anyways, Will arrived at the evil headquarters and finds a big hall filled with automatons, not yet alive. Then he met Tessa. Then he got slapped because he went in the room Tessa was being held and they are now both trapped inside. 

What do you do when you're alone in a room, trapped, with a guy who happens to be sooo attractive and you have feelings for him? Kiss him right? And that is exactly what happened. They talked and kissed and had sex since they thought they're gonna die tomorrow anyways. I wonder if that's what's going to happen with everyone one day before the apocalypse...After the exercise, they woke up and find Magnus, staring at them. Yay! They're saved! Magnus and the others travelled to the headquarters using a portal, which at that time was just invented. Anyways, yea they were saved and the final battle happened at the big hall which was filled with dead (now alive) automatons. Mortmain came and when hope is scarce, Tessa turned into an angel and crushed Mortmain. Tessa is a shapeshifter so all she needs to do is concentrate on her clockwork angel, who happens to be filled with a real angel....after the turn, she was in constant pain. 

Anybody wondered what happened to Jem? SO Jem did died. And then he became a Silent Brother. 

He actually helped with the last battle and all, but he was not allowed to have any connection to 

his life in the world anymore since he is now a Silent Brother. You know what that means. The wedding is off. And besides, Tessa slept with Will anyways so that's kind of a foreshadow that they'll get married someday. And they did not know that Jem is not dead, he just became a Silent Brother. Anyways, all is well and skipping all the drama, Will and Tessa got married. They had children, and grandchildren. Lots of them. Then Will died at the age of 78, and the night Will died was the only night Jem came as a Silent Brother and played his violin after so long. Jem and Tessa had made a promise before that every year, they will meet at the bridge (the special bridge) even if Jem is in a form of Brother Zachariah, the Silent Brother. Then

skipping a few years later, Jem has been freed from his Silent Brother oath and he met Tessa again. Then they got married and traveled the world together. 

And that's it. 

I'm not gonna complain. It has been a good story and I really had fun reading the series. But the ending feels like Cassandra just wants everyone to be happy. Both TeamWill and TeamJem. It's not a bad ending noooo, the game The Last of Us has a bad ending in my opinion but noo, this one isn't. It just feels a little bit weird. I understand that Tessa is sort of immortal and all so I guess, rather than spending eternity alone, it's better to be with someone you love. 

Some memorable quotes I got from reading the book:   

"I am catastrophically in love with you" - Will

He finally said it! AFTER ALL THE NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES, HE SAID IT

AND TESSA ACCEPTS IT!!! You cannot imagine how ecstatic I was when I read this part! If a guy who saved you said this to you, HOW DO U KEEP CALM?!

"Most people are lucky to have even one great love in their life. You have found two" - Magnus Bane

I wasn't as ecstatic as I was with the previous quote, but it is a true one. People who have found their true love are lucky and they should be grateful. It's never easy to find someone you love and loves you back. Not from personal experience. I just think that it's sweet :)

Okay, now talking about TeamJem and TeamWill, I'm a TeamJem, honestly. Even Will is a TeamJem! He said it himself! "Jem is the better part of me" But I still like Will. He was the one who protects Tessa, even if he was rejected and all. And he's smart. I find his passion in demon pox a bit disturbing though. I like Jem because he's kind and all. He also plays the violin which is beautiful. I don't mind his white/silver hair. He looks cool :P But anyways, I'm looking forward for the movie. I'm curious of who will portray who. 

A message to Cassandra Clare:

Thank you. Thank you for creating a wonderful story that I will never grew bored of reading. Thank you for the words that creates another world filled with wonders. You are a great author :) Stay awesome Ms. Cassandra Clare.

And that is all from me guys. Thank you for reading my post! Look forward to more coming.

Don't you just love happy endings~

Sincerely yours, 

Alicia V

credits:

1st pic - hooverlibrary.org

2nd pic - tumblr

3rd pic - it's on the water mark

4th pic - it comes with the book!!

Here's the 4th pic, the FAMILY TREE

17th Diamond: Catching Fire Trailer

This one would be a quick post :)

Here's the trailer for the new Hunger Games movies, Catching Fire!

It will be released on November 22 both on IMAX or theaters.

Can't wait for it!!