Book Review #4: Lola and the Boy Next Door

Olla readers, me again and Alhamdulillah this is my 4th book review and I am so excited about this one.

This book is so relaxing but still not draggy which made me so in love in it until I could finish it in one day haha how cool is that. The characters are just enough for me and they are not too complicated to understand either. I found out that too much characters either minor or major would make myself to be less focus on the characters themselves.

The story already started out with explaining about why Lola was so afraid of their neighbour's come back to the neighbourhood which one of the reason I felt it's fun for me to read more without the need to rush but still make me wanted to continue reading as much as I could.

Even though this is quite an easy reading, I've felt a mix of feeling reading it. Lola love life is so smooth but yet complicated at the same time. The idea of Lola and Cricket living next to each other and that their room is also close to each other made me think of Taylor Swift's song, You Belong With Me and also some other teenage movies I've watched- hoping one day it could happen to me yeah day dreaming.

Somehow I could feel connected with Lola's love life. Because of some misunderstanding and an untold secret, Lola build a brick to separate herself from Cricket. She tried to find the same feeling of love but could not find it and then got together with a rocker man instead. At first I was mad on how people try to separate both of them- I mean despite the age difference, Max sincerely love Lola. Right ? Yeah.. that's what I thought too but then Stephanie Perkins started to mess up with my belief.

***SPOILER PART***

To be honest, at the first half of my reading, I dislike Cricket and Calliope very much. Why did he just moved away without even explaining the truth to Lola ? Nothing is too late. Well a call would do right ? Why did he have to wait until the moment when Lola is happy with Max to mess things up ?

I was on Max's side for quite a while. But then I noticed a few changes on Max while he's busy touring with his band. I know he was there when Lola needed him but not too clear things up. Lola ran to her only to run away from her problems- to run away from her true feelings towards Cricket. She wanted to forget him but she can't- OBVIOUSLY.

When the truth finally comes out- I just hated myself. Max is a liar ! Well I know I should have known but my head seems to not function well- probably because I still cannot forgive Cricket who's obsessed with her sister- Calliope is such a selfish young girl. Max spilled the beans at last- he doesn't even sincerely in love with Lola. He felt like he have too- not because he's not madly adoring Lola like Cricket did. I almost screamed in anger when Lola went to his apartment to clear things up but he yelled that he had slept with a woman ( the word woman is too irritate Lola of course ) and then he slammed the door. I wonder how Lola could cope quite well with that tho.

The romance between Lola and Cricket grew up slowly and steady which made me giggle everytime they are together. In my opinion, things tend to get better and stay wonderful longer with patience in ourselves. Sooner, I realised that Cricket is a resemblance of Peter in 'To All the Boys I've Loved Before' OMG ! How I wished both of them are in my reality !

As for Calliope, even if at the end it is revealed that she is not that bad, I still cannot understand why she's over-protective about her twin. I mean, Cricket is a guy already just leave him write his own story. I felt nothing when Calliope didn't get to be the Champion in the Olympics. She deserves it - hahaha I am mean.

***END OF SPOILER PART***

I really recommend this book tho. It's a light reading really, but worth it :) I am excited to start Anna and the French Kiss ( yeah I did it backward-on purpose ) after I read Anny May's Black Book :D

Book review #3: Percy Jackson

I realised that this is only my 3rd book review. I am LAME. I've read pretty a lot of books tho but I just so lazy to make a review bout them. But, I am super determined now after visiting my friend's blog, She's a bibliophile of course and she is so committed in reviewing the books she has read. Click here to check her out. You'll be amaze :)

Now let us start with my book review shall we ?

I've read the last three book of Percy Jackson which are : The Titan's Curse, The Battle of The Labyrinth and The Last Olympian. I'm not going to review in detail for each book of course. That's going to take days- or months for lazy girl like me.

Rick Riordan is really good in writing, expressing and adding some twist in these Greek myths- I can't argue that. His works make me wanting to know more about it, so I will always try to indulge myself with story and keep flipping the pages forward. Of course as I am Muslim, I refused to believe it but it's fun and eye-opening when you know more about other's culture and beliefs- even if it is claimed to be just a myth. I never restricted myself from exploring that. Another thing about these series is how it is written to make me think. Idk about other readers but whenever Percy had a dream or when their Gods predicted something, I always wanted to relate it with what has happened and what might happen. When I felt like I am missing some important part I will look back and search them just so that I could come out with something you know ? That's how good Riordan is.

For your information I don't read the first two books because well I thought I've watched the movie so why buy them ? yeah lame. I'm trying to save my budget tho.

I cannot relate much with the characters tho because well, I never been in a real battle to save the world before. So yeah. But, I really adore how Percy, Annabeth and Grover stay together in any circumstances. They never mistrust or back on each other even though Annabeth and Percy seems to have a few misunderstanding and arguments. To be honest, I am sometime mad at Annabeth because of her pride and how she always believe that there is still good in Luke.

***SPOILER PART***

In The Titan's Curse, Thalia, Percy, Annabeth and Grover saved two other demigods at a like Army Academy- Nico and Bianca Di Angelo. Of course both of them don't even know their parents plus they don't even know there are demigods. After a bit of running and slaying the monsters they saved them with the help of The Hunters which was never mentioned in the first two books. They are Artemis's lady or something like that and they are very good at hunting monsters PLUS the girls are all immortal which not mean the wouldn't die but they will stay young for thousands of years. The head group I could say, have lived for about 2000 years. However, the demigods and The Hunters don't go along pretty well especially with Thalia tho. As I read it further, I discovered that once The Hunters had invited her to become one of them but she refused. But in the end, Thalia became one of them eventually in order to save Olympus (something about the prophecy) and to accepts Artemis reward for her. I am pretty positive with her choice. Even if at first I hate the leader because of her so called strictness and ' No boys' attitude, I then discovered there are reasons behind that. She was abandoned by her family because of her love towards Hercules and the end Hercules throw away all his promises to her. She was so alone before The Hunters found her. I am happy also that in the end, before she died in the battle, she expressed that Percy was nothing like Hercules- Percy was honest and keep his words.

Now, as for Nico and Bianca, it was a little hazy at first and I was not paying much attention to them too. However then it started to get exciting. Bianca accept the invitation to become one of The Hunters because she wanted to let go of her responsibilities toward this world and also towards Nico which is pretty mean I must say. Nico was mad too because Nico has no one else beside her. On the quest, Bianca followed the trip of 5- 3 demigods ( Thalia, Annabeth and Percy) and 2 Hunters ( the leader and Bianca). Nico made Percy promised to take care of Bianca but well the prophecy won. Bianca died in the battle. I cried because her last words was about how she loves Nico so much and she is sorry for all that happen. Nico was in rage when he knew about this. He lose trust on Percy and tried to attack Percy and Annabeth before running away from the campus. That was the moment when Percy and Annabeth realised that Nico and Bianca were the children of Hades, god of death because he summoned the dead accidentally of course. I was astonished also but there was no further explanation as the story ended here.

As for the next book, it was pretty boring because the quest is about walking through a tunnel which is the tunnel of Labyrinth. But this only happened in the first half of the book tho. After that it has gotten more exciting. This time it is Annabeth's quest and also this is the time for Grover to shine. While Annabeth and Percy tried to save the world from Kronos invasion, Grover searched for Pan which was his live long dream. I felt so glad for Grover bravery until he could find Pan but the saddest part is Pan was dying when they met him and he eventually died leaving the responsibility to save the nature to Grover. When I reached that point I already knew that when he got back no one would believe him and yes, it's true. I hate when that happen.

The most eye-opening part for me is when Percy keep on dreaming of how Nico is seeking revenge at him by summoning the dead and seek help from them. I know for a boy his age, loosing a family member would be a disaster but I just can't deal with how reckless he was until he endangered his friends' life. In my opinion, he should stay at the camp and learn more about whom he can really trust.

I started to sense that Percy has shown his jealousy towards Luke in these last two books. Before this he just kept it to himself but now he expressed it out to Annabeth. Well, not in that intimate way but during a sudden conversation between both of them. I liked it. but at the same time I also felt that she does not deserve a perfect guy like percy because she is so obsessed with Luke.

The last book is the one I have been waiting for and I am not dissapointed at all ! You will find out that this book is mostly about the BIG WAR. Greeks Vs Titans (that's what I understand). However there are also details in them that will answer most of our questions while reading this series. I was so shocked to find out that the prophecy is not about Percy. He is not exactly the demigod that will either ruin or uphold the Olympus- well of course for me HE IS THE HERO, he helped a lot, since the beginning. But actually Luke is the hero. YES.

Annabeth is true about Luke. Even if he has turned into Kronos, there is still him underneath it. and when Annabeth begged to Luke to remember his promise to her, Luke started to get control of his body and he took the knife given by him to Annabeth and killed himself. Before he died, he confessed that he loves her but then she said that she loves him as her brother. Good.

Well if you asked me, I am not sad at all when Luke dies like that because I still don't believe in him. I mean he's the bad guy right ? But oh well maybe I am to obsessed with Percy haha.

**END OF SPOILER PART**

Thank you for reading and tell me about you opinion too okay ? :D

My experience with cat having Hernia

Assalamualaikum, hello :)

Again, i failed on  being 100% committed in updating this blog. A big sigh.

Today I thought of sharing with you my experience dealing with my cat that just had her Hernia surgery about 2 weeks ago. She's currently 6 months old. In layman's term Hernia is a condition where the inner lining of the skin cannot reform or heal itself like the outermost layer did. Well of course there is a scientific meaning and explanation behind this but this is what I think I need to understand about Hernia. 

The symptom of hernia also varies according to the seriousness level. As for my cat, it's just an ordinary one which most of cats have it. For example, a queen could have it after giving birth. The history behind my cat's hernia started when she got a big cut at her abdominal part. Well we are glad that my parents are Pharmacist so they quickly treat the wound. My mom wiped some Iodine at the wounded part and gave her pain killer. Well we all know that most medicines are tested on animal first right ? So yeah the prescription for animals is written in the patient information leaflet- it is not written clearly FOR ANIMAL USE of course but the dosages according to weight are there tho. So, after the wound closed up we thought, well it's okay now despite the fact that there is a kind of bump at that healed wound.

During her first check up, the vet diagnosed that the bumpy thing is a Hernia condition. She explained that we could either let it be like that or treated it by means of surgery because it's not too serious but if it is not treated, we might not know what will happen especially when we are not there to look after her. The vet also said that if the Hernia is not treated, it may cause problem when she's in labor someday. So me and my mom planned to have a surgery. It's not an easy decision tho because the most important part is not the surgery process but the post-surgery treatment. So we made sure that our schedule for 2 weeks after the surgery is free. 

Now lets get to the process shall we ?

First thing first, you must not let your pet eat or drink for about 12 hours- this is like fasting for a night. The reason is because, the vet will inject your pet with some kind of sedation so that she'll be sleeping during the surgery. However, if the stomach is full, your pet will start to throw the stuffs out and the sedation will not effect on it immediately. But it's okay tho nothing serious here.This happened to Bella tho because we still give her drink. Idk I think the officer did not explain well to us. 

After the surgery which barely took us 30 minutes, your pet will still be sleeping for about 2 hours-well at least Bella slept for another 2 hours. Idk maybe could be shorter or longer than that. BUT the most IMPORTANT thing is you MUST ALWAYS BE BESIDE YOUR PET. Don't think that " ohh she is sleeping, she's fine". NO. You don't know what might happen. Check on their paws, ears, breathing motion. We kept Bella in a cosy cage full with soft cloths and make sure that no fans are on high speed for about 3 days. Cold or windy situation could make them feel more pain. Well logically, when we as humans are feeling sick, we usually kept ourselves in our blanket right ? and yet we still shivered. So, that's quite same with others mammals- I guess.

You really need to make sure you follow the medication prescribed by your vet. BUT make sure you confirm again the dosage given so that it is tally with your pet's weight or other details. I stressed on this because the vet assistant in my place gave us the wrong antibiotic dose.Praise to Allah my mom could detect it so she read the leaflet again. Please note that if pets that are like quite fragile are overdosed with antibiotic it is FATAL. 

Usually your cat will not have the appetite for the first day after surgery but Bella is not like that. She ate after she woke up but of course she looked really weak. I am so stressed out just looking her like that. So my advice is that give some delicious and fresh food to your cat. Something with strong smell. As for Bella we bought her snake head fish at the market and steamed them. In my country, this fish is really famous in healing people after their surgery. So go and give them a TRY :D Of course it is quite expensive than canned food but hey ? it's for our family right ?

If the stitches are somewhere that your cat could lick please ensure that you bought Elizabethan Collar/E-Collar. Licking will make the stitches take a long time too heal. Trust me, this happened to Bella. The interesting part is, you could actually make your own E-Collar !! How wonderful is that ?? No money wasted and it will work just the same. Alhamdulillah my mom had this idea. Well actually the pet store at our place had no stock so yeah we gotta find the alternatives right ? Oh ya we made it using manilla card paper or we could say it is like a harder type of paper but not too hard okay ? The cons is that you need to change it regularly because it will get bitten or torn apart by your cat. 

Next, please make sure that your cat are caged or kept in a safe place until the end of the medication and until the stitches dry and fall down. You could touch it to check but make sure your hands are clean :) Don't let your cat go outside by that time okay ? I did it to Bella and yup the healing process was longer that it's supposed to be. 

My last advice- ALWAYS check on your cat ear temperature. Too warm or too cold is not quite good. Usually after giving the antibiotic, the temperature will lowered down a bit so don't worry. Just make sure it's not too much okay ? be there for your cat ALWAYS for the first 3 days at least.

Well, i think that's it :) I really hoped that this will help at least any one of you. If you have any questions comment down below.

Remember: Our cats are a part of our family too.