Here’s the second bundle for Buqo YA!
Would you do a set of dares to prove someone wrong? Would you risk your friendship so you can find love? Would you admit your real feelings? There are a lot of complications when it comes to finding love. Get the feels when you read these sweet stories.
From this bundle, I’ve chosen an excerpt from Ines Bautista-Yao’s “Plain Vanilla”. It’s synopsis:
Despite her quirky name and equally quirky family, 16-year-old Tempest Juan knows she’s ordinary. After reading a comment on Facebook which likened her to vanilla ice cream, Tempest decides she has to do something about it or be forever branded as plain, lukewarm, and well, vanilla. It doesn’t help that the comment was made by Paco Lorenzo, her cousin’s cute friend (no longer cute in her book!). When she happens upon a book of dares, she decides to attempt each one, no matter how hard. This is her personality at stake, after all. But somehow, Paco, the cause of all this, finds a way to be at every dare Tempest attempts, confusing her and forcing her to question what’s really going on inside her heart.
And the EXCERPT:
“But what about Margarita?”
“She sped off in another direction.” He shrugged, still pulling her along. But this time, he
wasn’t holding her arm anymore. His hand found its way into hers. And she told herself she
didn’t let go because it was dark and she didn’t want to trip on anything.
When they got to the covered courts, they didn’t bother to find a place to hide. It was so
dark, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Paco sat on one of the benches and pulled Tempest
down next to him. She was tempted to pull her hand away, but he still hadn’t let go. What was
the protocol when it came to something like this? Do you let go when you’re about to do
something like look at your watch or scratch an itch? Or do you just keep holding on till both
your hands get too sweaty? And why did it have to be so complicated?
“I think this is awesome, what you’re doing.” He smiled at her. Or at least she assumed
he was. It was too dark to tell.
“Sitting in the dark, holding your hand?” Tempest couldn’t pretend it wasn’t happening,
so might as well call attention to it.
Paco surprised her by squeezing her hand and still not letting go. “Well, yeah, this too.”
He laughed easily. “But I was talking about the dares. I mean, daring other people is something
Marga and I do all the time, but daring yourself is cool. Why didn’t you tell me about it last
night? I could have helped you do some of them while we were just hanging out. What’s on
your list anyway?”
Tempest didn’t tell him that the dares had only materialized today because of him.
“Well, nighttime hide and seek, sleeping under the stars, and glow-in-the-dark bowling are part
of it. That pathetic excuse for chalk art this afternoon was too.”
“That wasn’t pathetic.”
“Whatever.” Tempest snorted. “There’s also doing a color run which I am seriously
thinking of swapping with something else, running through sprinklers, flying a kite, making a
slushie—”
“You’ve never made a slushie?” Astonishment.
“I lead a very dull life, okay?”
“Or flown a kite?” More astonishment.
“Fine, Mr. I’ve Done Everything Fun in the World, what haven’t you done? If you were to
give yourself a list of dares, what would you put on your list?”
“Well, I wouldn’t mind breaking into an all-girls high school after dark and playing hide
and seek.” She could hear the smile in his voice.
“Boring. I’ve done that already.”
Paco burst out laughing. Tempest’s insides began to feel all warm and gooey. It felt good
to make him laugh. And to have his complete attention. And to still be holding his hand.
The bundle is available on Buqo! And to enter the powerbank giveaway for PH residents, head on over here.
Here are the authors from this bundle:
Dawn Lanuza 