Hopeless Fountain Kingdom

Melodrama

Melodrama Faves: The Lourve, Hard Feelings/Loveless, Supercut
Lorde hasn't released a new album since Pure Heroine, which was, holy crap, 4 years ago. I loved Pure Heroine. Sure, Royals may have been super overplayed on the radios for a whole three months straight but I still jam out to all the other songs on her debut. So, I was so excited to hear about her new album. When she dropped Green Light, loved it. Liability? Loved it. Perfect Places, loved that one too. Melodrama is just as great as Pure Heroine and it's nice to see that she still has her touch despite the 4 year gap between her two albums. Lorde has always been great with lyrics and I definitely saw more of that in Melodrama. There isn't a song off this album that I don't like and I am just so excited for Lorde. Hope there won't be another 4 year wait for her next album lmao.

Ultralife

Have you listened to any of these three albums? What did you think of them?

In my lifetime, I have watched one Korean drama: Playful Kiss. It was a super long time ago (the drama itself is very old) but it was a pretty terrible drama now that I think back on it. I have a good idea on what Asian dramas are like though, based on what I have seen and obsessively watching Chinese dramas. Each country's dramas are different so I don't have a total understanding on Kdramas so all my opinions are based on the Chinese ones I watch. Anyway, I was pretty excited for this book ever since I read the synopsis. Girl tries to pursue a boy based off tips she gets from watching Korean dramas, oh my lordy I already knew this book was going to be hilarious. I went in with high expectations and I was most definitely not disappointed. So! Let's get into the review.

One of my favorite things about this was the awesome characters Goo wrote about. The main character is kind of like me: she is a planner, she likes to make lists, she also endlessly binged watched her dramas, which is most definitely me. I can safely say that I would probably never pull something Desi did to pursue a guy but I get her. I understand her ways just because I can really relate to her. I also really loved the side characters of this story. Desi friends are in some ways pretty great. I love how chill they are with each other and how supportive they are of each other. (They shouldn't have supported Desi's Kdrama plan though these people do not know when they hear a bad idea) I looooved Desi's relationship with her father as well. He is such a funny character and definitely added some more humor to the book. Also, Luca was such a perfect love interest. He was *SWOONY AF*.

Alright, I got a lot to say about this plot so buckle yourself in. I am going to be real with you, the whole "let's take tips from Kdramas" thing was such a bad idea now that I think of it. I understand Desi needed a plan and something to go off but please people, don't try that at home it's a bad idea. Some parts in this book was kind of screwed up, some parts of the book was extremely cringy but that is the beauty of Asian dramas. The typical romance drama will have the most cringy scenes, with the most obsessive characters, who have the most terrible ideas and who are constantly giving you second-hand embarrassment. However, that is the beauty of these dramas. The female lead is constantly getting herself into stupid situations, the characters will do anything - no matter how screwed up - to get to their love interest, and there will always be a scene where the female lead get's injured and the love interest lovingly performs some first aid, as if they can't do it themselves. Sure, what Desi did was kind of screwed up and a little ridiculous but that captures an aspect of Asian dramas: a lot of screwed up shit.

I also knew this storyline was going to be a great one to read about because I knew a lot of events in this book were going to be hella based off of stuff that happens in the dramas. Stuff that happens in those dramas always give such funny and light content and the happenings in this book definitely made the book so light and funny. Also, reading about Desi trying to make her and Luca's love story like the ones in the Kdramas made the book that much funnier to read about. And honestly, Goo did a great job picking apart dramas and finding a way to put them "in real life." It was so fun to read about something I love being incorporated into a book and I can only hope more books like I Believe in a Thing Called Love come our way.

And I can't forget about the fabulous rep and diversity of this book! I don't think I've read many books with Korean main characters so I am really happy to have this book. Korea is definitely an interesting culture, with their super popular music and dramas, and their bomb ass fooooood. This was such a great sophomore novel for Goo and I am really looking forward to what else she has in mind.

I Believe in a Thing Called Love

Rating:

Desi Lee believes anything is possible if you have a plan. That’s how she became student body president. Varsity soccer star. And it’s how she’ll get into Stanford. But—she’s never had a boyfriend. In fact, she’s a disaster in romance, a clumsy, stammering humiliation magnet whose botched attempts at flirting have become legendary with her friends. So when the hottest human specimen to have ever lived walks into her life one day, Desi decides to tackle her flirting failures with the same zest she’s applied to everything else in her life. She finds guidance in the Korean dramas her father has been obsessively watching for years—where the hapless heroine always seems to end up in the arms of her true love by episode ten. It’s a simple formula, and Desi is a quick study. Armed with her “K Drama Steps to True Love,” Desi goes after the moody, elusive artist Luca Drakos—and boat rescues, love triangles, and staged car crashes ensue. But when the fun and games turn to true feels, Desi finds out that real love is about way more than just drama.

1: Lu Shan - I took these three polaroids in Lu Shan, one of the naturey cities I had visited. I talked about my love for Lu Shan in my other post so I'm not going to gush too much about it here but I knew the view would look beautiful on polaroid. And it did! I got two pictures of the mountains and fog, along with one of me. ;)

2: Zhang Jia Jie - Zhang Jia Jie was the other mountain-naturey cities I had visited. Again, I talk more about it in my previous post along with everything that was in Zhang Jia Jie. This picture is a little hard to see, I will admit. The first two pictures from the left are just of the canyons and columns, and the next one is me with the canyons and columns haha! Yes yes, the pictures are a tiny bit dark but I promise it looks better in person.

3: The Great Wall of China - Again, talked about my trip to the Great Wall in my other post. (Seriously if you haven't read it yet it's right here) These pictures are pretty clear on what they are, one of me and the wall and another one of the wall, all the greenery around the wall, all through a little window in one of the Wall's towers. That shot took a lot of angling and squatting but I really loved how it turned out.

4: Shen Zhen and Zhang Jia Jie - These three are polaroids I didn't photograph in China so I had to do them in front of my closet door. Anyway, the first and last picture is taken in Shen Zhen, during that time me and my fam were eating above the city. The first is me, obviously, with all our food and drinks and the beautiful Shen Zhen view. The last is my attempt to take a picture of the view right when the storm clouds were rolling out. Problem is, there was a window, so I had to cover the flash and everything. The picture turned out okay I guess. You can see the city in the real polaroid, which is pretty good! The middle one is in Zhang Jia Jie, in a dried river. I wish the mountains were more visable in the background but other than that, I really liked how this shot turned out.

So yeah! That was the polaroids I took in China, along with just some of the bombass food I had. I hope you guys enjoyed and watch out for the last recap post, coming soon!

Which picture from this post is your favorite?

It was actually a little harder to put together this month's playlist. There weren't many new releases in July and I wasn't about to fill up the playlist with the new Lorde, Oh Wonder, and Halsey music lol. But, Spotify made playlists last month called "The Summer Rewind" with a whole bunch of old songs I used to listen to (peep that Miley Cyrus and Sara Bareilles) and wow it was definitely a flashback. I added some of those songs into my playlist because I honestly love some of the songs I used to listen to. Aaaand Taylor Swift was put back on Spotify recently! Yes yes, I'm not the biggest fan of the person she has become but I grew up listening to her music, so I decided to put some my favorites into this playlist. You can also find a link to my playlist here!

Some Favorites 
Faking It by Calvin Harris featuring Kehlani and Lil Yatchy: Kehlani is one of my favorite artist so I was so excited to see this song in Calvin Harris' recent album. It's hellaaaaa catchy and one of my favorite songs from Calvin's new album.

I Got You by Leona Lewis: *oldie alert* I only know like 3 of Leona's older songs (which I should fix soon tbh) but I was reminded this one on TV during a promo or something and I had heard it before multiple times when I was super young but never went and looked for the song. Well, I finally did after hearing it during the promo and it's now one of the favorites on this playlist.

What are some of your favorite songs recently? Do you recognize any songs on my playlist?

This was a good Chinese Drama month. I surprisingly was able to complete 2 despite the fact that I was on vacation and out 24/7. I cried the most watching Rush to the Dead Summer and to get over the pain I watched Love Weaves through a Millennium, which featured the same lead actress from the previous two dramas. Then I wanted something cute to watch and sped through the first 22 episodes of Boss & Me (cute cute cute) but THEN, stopped because I started reading again hahah.

I've been doing tons of traveling lately.
So, as you know,  I have been doing some traveling lately. I started July in China and the ended the month in Seattle. Yeah, it's been an extremely busy summer but I honestly wouldn't have it any other way. I have family in Seattle so I'm not here for the same reasons as China but I still love being in Seattle.

It was my birthday.
It was also my birthday this month! We spent that day driving up to Seattle so I spent my birthday in a car for 13 hours. On top of that, I was not feeling well, which kind of sucks. It was fine though and I thank everyone for all the birthday wishes. I have a giveaway going on for my birthday and blogiversary to win a bullet journal, which you can enter here!

So how was your July?