Booktok Holiday Books

"Rather than serving you, I prefer to die." The Outsiders have been subjected to the oppression of the king's soldiers for centuries, especially during the annual Purge, where every fifteen-year-old person - now an adult - is kidnapped. Ystal is only a child when, during his tenth Purge, is bought by a mysterious man. He says his name is Sylien and that he is an Alchemist, the only known survivor of a population that has now been destroyed. He claims to be looking for an assistant, and that Ystal is the right person. Through mysterious spells, ancient books of lost history and unknown feelings, Ystal will make a journey, in search of true freedom, against a tyrant who, for years, has reigned supreme.

Being the only child to the Queen of Castle Grey, lost within the confines of mount Trenon, Kilvic is made to learn a number of things best suited to the heir to the Elzcrid bloodline at the hands of tutors handpicked by his mother. However, his fifteenth birthday sends him beyond the reaches of his mother’s domain. She has tasked him with the duty of learning more. Understanding greater things than she can teach him, greater things with which to cope with the curse upon his bloodline as she had been taught by her father and mother. Finding himself in a new kingdom, in an academy designed for only the most elite of mages, Kilvic is tasked to survive the new things he will come to learn, while struggling with the chaos of human association, as he comes to understand that while he may know a great deal about the world from the castle archives, it is a different thing to experience them. The association between people isn’t as easily deciphered as the books made them seem. As he struggles with the task of becoming a mage and a student along with surviving new friendships, failure threatens him at every turn and people prove pettier than the books would have him believe. Yet, despite all these, somewhere hidden in the shadows of the kingdom, a creature stirs, taking from the academy the one thing it values most. Kilvic must survive the trials of the academy, keep his friends, best his first enemy, and ensure that what stirs must not cause more damage than the kingdom can bear, lest the supremacy of Castle Grey be called into question in realms beyond that which most know. And all in time to attend the Winter Hall Fest.

Ava Monroe thinks she’s living every girl’s dream. Her best friend, Mia, introduces her to Ethan Blake—a gorgeous, smart, slightly mysterious senior who’s only at their school to finish his final exams. Their connection is instant, electric. For six months, Ava falls harder than she ever knew possible. Ethan is everything: attentive, passionate, and hers. But when summer arrives and Ethan prepares to leave for university, everything shifts. The texts slow to a trickle. The calls stop. He grows cold, distant, and finally asks for a “break”—to focus on school, to not distract her. Ava is shattered but tries to move on. Then the new school year begins. Mia returns from holiday with a confession that rips Ava’s world apart: Ethan didn’t leave because of university. He left because he’d started falling for Mia. And Mia—Ava’s best friend—let it happen. Now Ava must navigate the wreckage of two betrayals, reclaim her sense of self, and decide if some wounds ever truly heal.

After Emily's heartbreaking birthday party, Sandra invited Emily for a one-week Christmas holiday in her father's mansion. Emily's fiancé, Desmond, celebrated her childhood friend Tricia at Emily's birthday party and made her look like a shameless guest. To help Emily recover from the heartbreak, she invited her to her father's mansion for a one-week Christmas holiday. When she arrived and met her best friend single dad, she lost her home training. She couldn't control herself. As forbidden as it looks, she wanted to have him all for herself. She wanted him to claim and use her as he wished. She was ready to risk her friendship with Sandra and have what her body desires. Before the end of the holidays, she got what she wanted. But what happens when she finds out she was pregnant with twins for him? Will he accept or reject her? Will it affect her relationship with Sandra? I guess you have to find out yourself.

With Valentine’s Day approaching, my husband, Edwin Welles, finally freed up his schedule and agreed to spend the holiday with me. I joked that he must be the busiest man in the world. After all, the acting chairman had no time for the actual chairman. However, as soon as we entered the cinema, his phone rang. With just a single glance at the screen, a trace of panic appeared on his normally composed face. “Honey, a serious problem has come up with the tech project. I have to go back and deal with it.” I watched him walk out through the ticket checkpoint. The surrounding noise of the crowd made my chest feel tight. All of the company’s tech projects utilized my father’s patents. He was the dean of the top research institute and the company’s chairman, yet he had not received any news of a problem. What could Edwin, a research novice, possibly need to go back to handle? I opened the phone tracker app and followed him. I would just have to see for myself what this “serious problem” really was!

Luna Sky, a member of a wolf pack, was married to Alpha Blakes, whom she believed to be her mate. She had no idea that her husband and her best friend Tricia were having an affair until after they returned from their holiday in Malibu. As Luna discovers that her husband and her best friend have been cheating on her, she makes the decision to confront them about it, only to discover that she has successfully caught them in the act of adultery. Tricia did not feel remorse even after what she had done to her friend, Luna. On the other hand, Blake chose Tricia over Luna all because Luna could not bear him a child. Things took a bitter turn for Luna when they confessed that they already had an unborn child. Tricia did not feel remorse even after what she had done to her friend. After that, Luna was called a traitor and cast out of the pack. Now that she has returned as Kira, she intends to get revenge on the two individuals who subjected her to great humiliation and betrayed her trust. Despite this, she still harbours affection for Blake, her former Alpha. . . . …….

Vivian Harper has always been invisible—a shy, introverted high schooler who prefers books to bullies at Westbridge High. But when Tyler Grayson, a dangerously handsome transfer student with eyes that pierce through her defenses, arrives, her quiet life unravels. Tyler whispers of werewolves and mates, secrets Vivian can’t comprehend. As Vivian grapples with the truth of her hidden werewolf nature, Tyler reveals his own: he’s a future alpha, bound by pack duty, and Vivian is his fated mate. But with every secret unveiled, a new threat emerges—will their mate bond survive, or will the shadows tear them apart?

As I'm unable to get a ticket for my return trip after the Thanksgiving holiday, I specifically booked a first-class seat home. Just as I find my seat, I see an unruly child jumping around on it. I patiently smile and say, "Kid, this is my seat. Where is your seat?" He makes a face at me. "It's mine now, old hag!" I grab him by the collar of his shirt, wanting to lift him out of the seat. At that moment, a woman's piercing voice sounds behind me. "What are you doing? Let go of my son!" I release my grip and say as gently as possible, "Please control your child. This is my seat." Suddenly, she raises her voice. "He's just a child! Can't you, as an adult, give way to him? You're young and dressed decently. How can you have no compassion at all?" I'm so angered by this distorted reasoning that I laugh. "If you're so compassionate, why didn't you spend the money to buy your child a first-class seat?"

Jewel is expected to be a modest Hasyenda Mangubat heiress but she is addicted to erotic novels. She would buy those books in secret and hide them in her room, away from her parent's eyes. She agreed to marry the Mayor's son, Gideon Manasseh, in the hope that Gideon would tolerate her vices. But to her surprise, her new husband appears to be stricter than her parents. Not only do her vices need to be hidden from him, but so do her sexual nightmares. Because those wet dreams are crawling out of her fantasies into her reality... and it is scarier than she thought.

The novel is mainly about the forgotten British poet/writer named C. J Richards who lived in Burma/Myanmar in colonial times and he believed himself as a Burmophile. He served as I.C.S (Indian Civil Servant) and when he retired from I.C.S service, he was a D.C (District Commissioner) and he left for England a year before Burma gained its independence in 1948. He came to Burma in 1920 to work in civil service after passing the hardest I.C.S examination. He wrote several books on Burma and contributed many monthly articles to Guardian Magazine published in Burma from 1953 to 1974 or 1975. Though he wrote several books which had much literary merit to both communities, Britain and Burma (Myanmar), people failed to recognize him. The story has two parts: one part is set in the contemporary Yangon (then called Rangoon) in 2016 context and a young literary enthusiast named “Lin” found out unexpectedly the forgotten writer’s poetry book and there is surely a good deal of time gap that led him into a quest to know more about the author’s life. The setting is quite different comparing to colonial Burma and independence Myanmar (Burma), early twentieth century and 2016 which is a transitional period in Myanmar. The writer’s life is fictionalized in the novel and most of the facts are taken from his personal stories and other reference books. It is a kind of historical novel with a twist and it has comparatively constructed the two different periods in Myanmar history to convince readers, locally and abroad more about history, authorship, humanity, colonialism, and transitional development in Myanmar today.