Raving: What A Girl Wants by Lindsey Kelk [Migrated Post]

”… I do know you shouldn’t make decisions based on what makes you feel safe. Make your decisions on what makes you feel alive. Life might be too short for regrets – but it’s far too long to live with a compromise."

Blurb: Tess Brookes was the girl with a plan. Now she’s the girl with a choice.

Should she stay in London and start her own advertising agency with her best friend and potential boyfriend Charlie? Or should she head to exciting Milan to pursue both a new career as a photographer and a new man, the enigmatic and elusive (and highly irritating) Nick?

For the first time, Tess has to choose between the life she always dreamed of and a future she never imagined possible. With her heart and her head pulling her in different directions, Tess has to make a life-changing decision about What a Girl Wants.

Two words: Love it. Prepare to enter a wilder roller-coaster ride of emotions with Tess. This is the story of a girl with more than one passion in life, and she’s standing at the crossroads of more opportunities than she can take. She must decide, because you know, you can’t have it all. She was that girl who always had a plan, and when plans changed, she’s presented with these choices: London or Milan? Photography or advertising? Nick or Charlie? After 10 years of getting friendzoned, the tall, dark, and handsome Charlie finally confessed his love to her and offered to start their own advertising agency together in London. On the other hand, there’s the proud, arrogant, self-absorbed Nick she met in Hawaii and the photography gig of a lifetime waiting for her in Milan. Who can blame her indecisiveness?

How to Get Him to Become Your Personal Mind-Reader [Migrated Post]

This is a satirical piece I'm writing for fun, to be taken with a grain of salt, based on my personal experience in communicating effectively as a woman. Enjoy~

Start by telling him what you want. Why you were angry last Tuesday night, how you’re not asking for his solutions and just his ears, and what you want to have for dinner on Valentine’s Day. If you don’t know exactly what you want, just break the silence. Tell him all the choices you have on your plate. Let him speak his mind. Stop him from thinking you’re giving him the silent treatment for some mysterious reason. Choices aside, it’s probably not the best idea to push all the decision-making responsibilities to your man. You and him, it’s a two-way street.

Whenever he disappoints you and you’re all too tired to explain what looks like the most blatant mistake ever, think about the last time you disappointed him so much that he let out a big sigh. Yes, it’s one of those “Let me get some air” and “Can we talk about this later?”. We, unlike men, like to talk. The more heated we get, the more we want to scream, “Why can’t you understand? You’re supposed to get me!!” Men are a different breed. After hours of heat, they need to reset the logical parts of their brain, much like your computer needs to cool off after all the energy it has sustained. You will never realize this in the heat of the moment, but when you’re overwhelmed with emotions, a few rational thoughts can make huge amends.

Also, stop trying to make things seem obvious. What might seem obvious to you might not necessarily seem obvious him. Instead, clarify. If you want him to buy you a dress, don’t say, “That’s the prettiest dress I’ve ever seen!” Say, “I’d like to have that dress some day.” Rather than starting an argument about the prettiest dress the both of you have ever seen, let him know what is it about the dress that concerns you: You want to have it some day. It doesn’t matter if he thinks it’s pretty or you think it’s pretty. He cares about you, not the dress. Don’t make him care about the dress. You know you want it and you hope to own it. Say it like it is. Don’t expect him to know you want it by saying something that doesn’t concern you about the dress.

On your anniversary night, you’re lacquered in your most kissable gloss and divinely sculpted in a Herve Ledger. You were expecting him to kiss you, with tongue, good night before you slide out of his car, but he didn’t. You’re mad, you can’t believe it, you’re upset – but don’t fret yourself. If you’re so upset (and/or somewhere between angry and horny) that you can’t even, keep a quota of 3 unanswered calls and 3 unreplied texts. True, nonverbal communication is the majority (93%) of what gets said, but it doesn’t give you a license to expect him to do the exact thing you want him to do, done exactly the way you want it to be done. Even if you’ve looked the other way and gave one-word answers to show your discontent, you still need to verbalize exactly what’s on your mind, preferably as soon as possible. He may seem unaffected by all your efforts to look good that night, but you don’t know how hard he tried to control his stutters and shaky knees. It doesn’t help either that men can’t read body signals like women can.

So if you want it, just ask for it. Pick up his call, reply his text, and ask for that French kiss. Don’t let him misunderstand you, and don’t even begin to exceed the quota. The worst starts to happen when you pile up the rocks for up to a week. Weeks easily become months, months become years, and years become a lifetime. You don’t want to build a life of resentment, only to look back and see a mountain you can no longer move, all because of the darn kiss. And I know, the way I said it – asking for what you want – sounds completely unromantic. But have you got any idea how much of a turn-on is dirty talk to men? It doesn’t matter if it’s only the first anniversary or your 50th, or if it’s a dome or a megalith standing between the both of you – all you have to do is ask. Now’s the time.

Most important of all, learn to let go of all expectations and start the straight talking. Honestly, gently, and lovingly like a lady. Choose to let him know what’s on your mind as best as you can, because no matter how well you think you know your man or how well you want your man to know you, he’ll never fully understand you, even if he want to. As Harper Lee once said, you never really understand a person until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it. Likewise, you can’t, and will never, truly know what’s on his mind 99% of the time. Neither does his buddy nor his brother, and certainly not even you.

P.S. The truth about men and feelings.



Love, Stace

The Best Advice You Can Get On Finally Owning Your Dreams And Ambitions [Migrated Post]

What A Girl Wants by Lindsey Kelk, page 235-236

“Life isn’t just about what you want,” I said, shifting on top of my clutch bag. Beading was not comfortable to sit on. “You can’t just do what you want and hope everything will turn out for the best. You’ve got to plan for the future, think ahead. It’s not about what might sound like the most fun now.”

“Wow!” Amy closed her eyes and smiled. “It’s like sitting here listening to your mum.”

All the colour drained from my face and suddenly, I felt very, very sick.

“Can you even hear yourself?” Amy asked. “You’re actually sitting there, telling me that what you want doesn’t matter, what makes you happy doesn’t matter. Is that what you want? Marry Charlie, give up your dreams and slog away day in and day out at the agency so you can turn into a bitter, resentful old cow like your mum?”

“Do I need to go to the restroom again?” Kekipi asked, switching his stare from me to Amy and back again. “Because I didn’t really need to go last time and I’m worried one of the waiters thinks I’m trying to pick him up.”

“No,” Amy threw her arm out in front of him, effectively sticking him to his seat, “you don’t need to do anything. She’s the one who needs to think about what she just said. You don’t know, Nick or Charlie. You can’t decide, agency or photos. You can decide and you do know but you’ve spent so long listening to, and believing, all your mother’s sh*t that you don’t believe it.”

She paused for breath and wine.

“You don’t trust your gut. This is the first time in your entire life you’ve had to make a difficult decision and you’re trying to wimp out of it, but you can’t. If I lived by your logic, I’d be married to Dave and as miserable as sin, maybe even divorced by now. Or worse, I’d be your mum and Brian, sitting around the house, hating each other. Is that what you want? Just be f*cking brave for once in your life.“

I stared across the table at the girl who had been my best friend for as long as I’d been alive.

Review: "Beautiful Player" by Christina Lauren [Migrated Post]

"Do you ever feel like the people who mean the most aren't the people you see the most? Lately I just feel like I'm not putting my heart where it matters."

Official blurb:

A bombshell bookworm. A chronic Casanova. And a lesson in chemistry too scandalous for school 

When Hanna Bergstrom receives a lecture from her overprotective brother about neglecting her social life and burying herself in grad school, she’s determined to tackle his implied assignment: get out, make friends, start dating. And who better to turn her into the sultry siren every man wants than her brother’s gorgeous best friend, Will Sumner, venture capitalist and unapologetic playboy? 

Will takes risks for a living, but he’s skeptical about this challenge of Hanna’s…until the wild night his innocently seductive pupil tempts him into bed- and teaches him a thing or two about being with a woman he can’t forget. Now that Hanna’s discovered the power of her own sex appeal, it’s up to Will to prove he’s the only man she’ll ever need.