Gems that kept me up all-night!

The Teddy Bear Agreement/ Sleep Deprived

***Feb 26, 2017, Update: As you might have read before, the author of TTBA removed and rewrote the story again. Now it is called Sleep Deprived. I do not want to remove TTBA from my list because it was a gem. I also believe the new version is different than TTBA so it does deserve a review of its own. Therefore, I am going to include my review on the new version here as well. ***

The Teddy Bear Agreement

Blurb:

I was just about to push myself away and sneak out of the room when his arms tightened just a fraction more around my waist. "Wait, not yet, I'm awake." Will's breath tickled my ear as he brought me closer and even threw one of his legs over mine. He backed us both away from the edge of the bed and I was pretty sure he was hitting the wall with his back. "You'll make it harder for me to sneak out without waking you up," I whispered, my slight annoyance edging in my voice. The quick exhale of breath coming from his nose was a probable chuckle as he murmured back to me: "That's the point."

[This story contains a million grammar errors, you have been warned.]

My two-cent:

I usually try to read a completed work, because I am not patient enough to wait for the updates. However, this is one of those works that I had to really gather every drop of patience from my blood. Plus the author did update it quite often for which I am very grateful. I am just adding this earlier in my list because the book is going to be taken down soon and I wish that people get a chance to read this wonderful piece before it's gone. The plot is amazing at least so far. You get to see the different personality of characters and also the development of them as the story moves on. There are much cute and aww moments that makes you all giddy-giddy inside and wish to have your own (sexy and warm human) teddy bear to cuddle with. There are many errors (both grammatical and details) that do make it hard to read at times, but then again the author did warn about that beforehand. But overall it was one of a phenomenal piece I have had a chance to read. No matter if it stays up or goes down, it will always stay in my memories. It was an absolute pleasure reading this!

Status: Completed (removed by the author to rewrite it) 

Sleep Deprived

Blurb:

College, a reason enough to be sleep deprived.

Lizzie Hale is rarely not sleep deprived. She can't sleep alone, and even her meager excuse for a teddy bear (it's barely the size of her arm) doesn't help all of the time. Call it self-prescribed insomnia if you will (though self-prescribing doesn't help much when she refuses to go get checked). Because of her constant over-thinking behavior, and her fear of making new friends she kind of cornered herself to accept anyone that would be okay living with her in a cheap apartment, as long as they weren't psycho killers.

William Anderson accepted a last minute offer of an apartment with a girl. A girl. It's not like he expects to get laid, but he's not complaining. Though he doesn't exactly expect Elizabeth Hale either, and he surely doesn't expect for her to slowly become interested in his past, the past he'd rather keep hidden. The past that brings constant nightmares which he quiets by swallowing sleeping pills every night or else he can't sleep at all.

So when a certain bear is donated by accident and Lizzie stops Will from almost overdosing on sleeping pills they decide it's time to change something in their lives.

Hence they come up with an agreement to start sleeping together.

My two-cents:

You might think why I waited this long to read the revised version of TTBA when I loved it the first time. It was because I loved it. I did not want to see it change but at the same time, I was excited to see what new the author could throw in this mixture (and a lot from what I read). I also do not like waiting each week with cliffhangers in the stories for updates so I waited until the book was completed. I finished it last week. It ... I have a mixture of feeling for the revised version. The Title: very appropriate not just for the characters but for me as well. I had midterms last week so I was a walking zombie and when I came across this book, I felt like it was just for me. The Characters: Will, loved him as always, the sexy-funny teddy bear I would not mind having. There was a major back story added to his character, that made him seem more human instead of a simply sexy piece that came in to swoon the girl(s). Except that he stayed almost same. Elizabeth (formerly Cassandra), loved her name change! (Sorry I just love Elizabeth more since there are rooms for more nicknames to play around with). A huge change in her backdrop, I liked her situation here because it kept the plot connected from beginning to end, unlike last time where it was a bit dispersed. However, I should let you know she got on my nerves at times. I wanted to smack on her head for over-reacting at times. Holly, she went through a drastic change as well - from being a major character to minor in regards to where the plot went. Instead, their mom played a major role in Holly's place. Other characters had bits and pieces of changes as well. Daniel (love this one too) had some changes as well that added to Will's backdrop changes. The author also mentioned race+nationality for each character in one of her author notes, which profoundly made them more real [Marco - Korean? I can just picture him more]. The Chemistry: Despite the fact that my favorite scene was cut out, I loved the overall chemistry between Will and Elizabeth. They were funny and lord overly corny at times. I loved the connection between characters. Lots of humors made it fun to read. On that note, author did mention that this revised version is going to be with more humor and lighter than previous one. The Storyline: There was a drastic change in the plotline itself. I liked the preious version because of the content itself that made the new version a bit dry in terms of character growth. However, this version was well connected and flowed easily which shows that author really sat down and thought this through to make a profound improvement in their writing. There are numerous errors (spellings and grammars) that does make you pause while reading -- a sweep of editing should eliminate that. 

Overall, I enjoyed it. Simplified and cut-clean than the previous version that brought everything well together from beginning to end. The character development went smoothly but did not see much as I would have liked them to grow especially in regards to the relationship between Will and Elizabeth. The author seemed to play safe with their relationship, while complicating the family relationships. I guess one must have something to anchor them so they won't fall apart eh? 

I hope you all enjoy this piece as well. xx

P.S. Yayyy korean-drama lover! Did you watch Goblin? ;)

Status:  Completed