♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥: The Hottest State by Ethan Hawke

, 10Ethan Hawke will break your heart. The Hottest State chronicles one year in the life of young, dashing William Harding: aspiring actor and charming lover. When he first meets Sarah, a girl unlike any he's ever seen, he knows from the beginning that he's a goner. She's beautiful. She's elusive. Every little thing she does strikes William greatly. The passion the two share, the chemistry; it's all so surreal, that even he can't believe it. He knows right then and there, that she is the one, that s ...more So I haven't updated Goodreads for at least a year. I've been reading, I've just been too lazy to review. So I'm gonna start again! I obviously can't review every book I read, but just for books I think deserve a review from me, or for books that I've been asked to review (if you are an author and would like to send me an ARC, send it on over! I'd love to read it and post a review!).

I found this book at Goodwill one day when I was scourging for used books. Most of the titles there are really weird (Reaching Heaven: You and Your Ways with God and the People Surrounding You. No thanks). But I found this one and saw the back cover. First of all, Ethan Hawke is quite the hunk (seriously). Maybe not anymore, but back when he was all hip and young, yeah. I didn't even know he had written novels, so being a fan of his movies, and his picture, I purchased the book for 12.5 cents (they were four books for 50 cents. Seriously! That's a good deal if I ever saw one. I highly recommend you go to your local Goodwill the next time you're in need of a good read. It's like a treasure hunt; most of the books there are slightly rubbish, but every once in a while, you find a real gem. Plus, you could save a fortune off of Barnes and Noble). I'm glad I did. Here is Ethan Hawke's The Hottest State: 

The Hottest State
Ethan Hawke

Page Count: 208
Release Date: 1 October, 1996
Publisher: Little, Brown (Hachette Book Group)
Source: Purchased at Goodwill

When William meets Sarah at a bar appropriately called the Bitter End, he is a few months short of his twenty-first birthday and about to act in his first movie. He is so used to getting what he wants that he has never been able to care too deeply for anyone. But all of that is about to change. And it is Sarah—bold and shy, seductive and skittish—who will become William's undoing and his salvation.

William's affair with Sarah will take him from a tenement on the Lower East Side to a hotel room in Paris, from a flip proposal of marriage to the extremities of outraged need and the wisdom that comes only to true survivors.

Ethan Hawke really will break your heart. The Hottest State chronicles one year in the life of young, dashing William Harding: aspiring actor and charming lover. When he first meets Sarah, a girl unlike any he's ever seen, he knows from the beginning he's a goner. She's beautiful. She's elusive. Every little thing she does strikes William greatly. The passion the two share, the chemistry—it's all so surreal, that even he can't believe it. He knows right then and there, she is the one— the one he'll love forever, but little does he realize that although she may be the pursuit of his pleasure now, he is just a twenty-year-old in love; in a year's time, he'll just be a twenty-one-year-old with a broken heart.

The way Hawke captures your interest is enthralling. He makes you become William Harding. I by all means, am not a helpless twenty-year-old boy in love, but throughout reading the book, I really felt like I was. All of William's movements and thoughts, I could relate with... so eerie. When William cried, I felt like crying, and when he got psychotic over his breakup with Sarah, I could feel the pain tugging inside of him. There's this one funny scene where he throws furniture around, and it's not funny like "haha!", but funny because, it's a scene where it should have been a turning point. I should have said "Wow, this William is nuts". But I didn't say that. Instead, I found myself cheering him on, because as crazy as he was, the emotion that was seeping throughout all of it, was so legitimate.

This novel was by far one of them most entertaining novels I've ever read, and not only because I feel like it's something straight out of my own past, or future, for that matter. Ethan Hawke will make you laugh, and he'll make you love William's story, but in the tragic end, Ethan Hawke will break your heart.

Radical Rating: 10 hearts: I'm speechless; this book is an extraordinarily amazingly wonderfully fantastically marvelous masterpiece. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Thanks for reading :)

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♥Stephanie

&never again will i get my ♥ broken because never again will i leave my ♥ open

What's new Buenos Aires? Haha sorry, I just had a little Evita moment right there (otherwise known as: my favorite musical in the whole wide world. Check it out!) ♥

So today, I will talk about heartbreak, which is the most infamous aspect of falling in love.  It's the most painful thing you will ever go through (including childbirth and appendicitis...not that I'm all too experienced in those categories, in the first place) but you must experience it in order to know true love. First of all, what is true love? According to a knowledgeable source (that would be me), love comes in many stages:

1) Physical attraction. As much as well all deny it, love at first sight is never because the person is so delicate and intellectual and sensitive to my annoying-ass bitching, but rather, because they are insanely gorgeous (or sometimes nice-smelling...hey, you never know; I find a guy with an alluring aroma amazingly attractive, if you must pry).

• a. This is the stage of love where you most often make a fool out of yourself, because you're so smitten and tend to either clam up, or ramble nervously. So don't be too frightened; it's only natural.
• b. It's also a very fragile stage. By that, I mean that the smallest action or trait that is even the teeniest bit unattractive, (like nose-picking or chest hair) will make you lose interest. At the same time though, the smallest action or trait that is the teeniest bit attractive (like athletic ability or similar musical interests) will make you go BONKERS and be even more infatuated. So it's very versatile, and it usually marks the point whether you will begin to fall even harder for this certain someone, or whether the attraction will fizzle out.

2) Romance. If you've made it this far into the game, congratulations. More than 50% of my "crushes" usually don't make it to this stage, but if you've got someone who does, well then, great. Romance is when you being to try harder for the person's attention. Both parties play roles of influencing the other, by pampering them with gifts or sweetening them with words.

• a. Sadly, love sometimes dies a little in this stage. Why? Because some people use romance as personal gain; they play with you a little and once they have what they want (like a plasma screen television), they end the relationships. Which sucks, but it happens. So be careful.
  
• b. Flattery, flattery, and more flattery. Some people may call this stage "puppy love" because it's the point where the conversation goes back and forth: You're so cute!...No, YOU'RE so cute!....No, YOU are!! (I just barfed a little in my throat). Anyways, yeah, it's sweet, but it won't be like that forever, just maybe for the first couple weeks (months, at most). Remember, compliment the other person to make them feel better about themself! If you really want to win their heart, it's all about flattery! Put some sugar on that.

3) Intimacy. Now, if you just giggled a little because of the word, "intimacy", you're just being immature. Get outta town.

• a. Obviously, even you can come up with physical attraction. I mean, it's not that hard. Most people abuse intimacy and mistake it for love; they think that intimacy is love, when rather, love is intimacy. It's different, you know? Call it what you wish: passion, cuddling, bonding, sex...it's all doing physical stuff that is out of your regular routine, because you begin to prow a safe, desired feeling when you are with that person.
• b. What's overlooked though, is emotional intimacy. This stage is when you begin to really get to know your lover. You touch their scars and ask how they acquired them, you cautiously ask them about their first time (and though you won't admit it, you're very impatient too). The most crucial thing here, is that it is when trust begins to build. All friendships and relationships are built off trust, and if you don't know the person, you can't really trust them, so consider this the beginning of a very long journey :)
  

4) Commitment. The #1 Killer in the US. Of love, that is. 

• a. You know commitment-phobics. People (usually of one particular gender that I won't discriminate), that are afraid to settle, get serious, or stick with one person for the rest of their life (or until the relationship ends); you know them. Though this isn't the hardest part of a relationship, it definitely is the rarest, because it is very difficult to initiate this "official" together-ness.
• b. It's the last step though. Once two people are committed to each other, nothing else matters, because now they're complete. True, after this comes, marriage, children, et cetera, but that's a whole nother story. It's not about who we meet and how we meet them, but rather, the reason we choose to stay with them until the very end. ♥

No updates on my part. Sorry I haven't been writing for a while, summer's been hectic and unmerciful. Gotta love it though :) I will keep you posted about some more Textnovel stuff, however!

♥always,

Stephanie!

suscribe on textnovel!

Sorry it's been a while since my last blog post. I've been meaning to write at least one every month...but it's already May, and well, I guess I just sort of skipped April. Ah. Well, I've just been brought to attention that my Textnovel page isn't on my blog. Whoops! If you guys would so kindly go to the profile link, sign up for Textnovel (if you're not already a member. It's completely free and you get to promote your writing!) and please "follow" me, I would appreciate it so much. Don't forget to comment on the stories! I know some of you already have, and follow this blog because you know of me from the website, so I thank you again for the support. Oh, and by "a lot of my writing", as it says on the Profile section of this blog, I really mean "two stories" :) Enjoy!

♥xoxosteph

if anyone's interested

CLICK HERE!

I made a Formspring account! And so far, all my questions are from my friends who were doing test runs...and some weird anonymous people (unfortunately I don't know who those people are, by the definition of anonymous). So I'd really appreciate stuff! Ask me anything, feel free to leave your name and email if you wanna stay in touch, but I don't mind anonymous questions either, if you'd prefer. I'll try my best to answer everything...so ask awayyy :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yay! It's the day of love! Hooray for love! How can you not love love? ♥

Sometimes the Words Escape Me

♥ The meaning of words? There're a lot. There are different types of words, to be particular. I'm working on this book about a girl that grew up in New York City, and she's as far from the word "city girl" gets. But what sets her apart the most is her love for words; her rationalizations and critiques of all the different types make up her personality. She's sarcastic. She's stubborn. Most of all, she's got the softest core that could break your heart. When finally, she has the chance to be something, be something other than the stereotypical name she's always been recognized as, Elena Sarales explains to you, with the most honest and insightful of words, that when you ride into a new town to start a new life, how love and acceptance can be as sour as a crabapple; how at the same time, it can be the sweetest fruit you could possibly bite into.

Here's an excerpt:

       Life in London takes a getting used to. Its suburban cheerfulness almost makes me sick. But what really interests me are the people. Back in New York, I knew nobody, I was nobody. There were just so many things around me that there was no time and essence for other people to notice me. So naturally, today, as I was taking a jog downtown (because jogging is such an easier way to stay in shape than lifting weights), I was surprised at how many people made eye contact with me. At first, it was kind of discomforting; I cast my eyes down or pretended to be too absorbed in the music playing from my iPod. Soon though, I got used to it, and I managed to give out acknowledging smiles to complete strangers and small murmurs of How are yous that honestly would never be answered.

       I also had sort of an epiphany. Well I don't know if you'd call it an "epiphany", really, because I guess that sort of is a stretch, but I did realize something big. Maybe not big to you, but definitely big to me. Running down those campus bike trails, passing those reflective window shops with my ponytail bouncing up and down, I noticed how all the different types of guys. Most of them ranged from the regular college age: late teens to early twenties, but some were a little younger, younger than me probably, and some were a lot older, like my dad older. And looking at all the different faces and smiles and walking patterns, I came to conclusions that all college guys are hot. All of them that aren't overweight, nerdy, acne-spotted, or have severe facial hair (i.e: a goatee, because they may speak French here, but it doesn't mean the guys have to act all French), that is. It's kind of funny. I pulled a total Miya thing, today. I looked at all the guys, whether in disdain or lust, and just might have given them a sort of "rating". I immediately disqualified the unattractive ones (in other words, the Frenchies) because they didn't seem to particularly deserve a rating, but all the other guys that fit into my hot guy category, I gave them one. Also, I found out today, that there are two types of guys in that same hot guy category (I know, I'm so specific, aren't I?): The Cockys and The Quiets. The Cockys are the guys with shaggy beach hair (where in the world would you get a beach in London?) that are surrounded by a gaggle of friends (most likely, girls who wear belly shirts on campus) that always seem to be laughing or engaging in a laughable conversation whenever you approach them. Not that I would ever voluntarily approach the type. They're generally the "popular" guys you see in high school, the ones with that too-cool-for-you smirk, hence their given name. Eye contact was a major thing, though. I did make enough of it with a fair share of Cockys during my jog. They would briefly glance at me, either flash a smile or avert their eyes to their friends, and move on. But others, they'd be too engrossed in discussion with their clique that they wouldn't even see me passing by. The Quiets however, are a completely different story. They're the ones with headphones in their ears, hands in their pockets, looking down at their shuffling feet as they slowly trudge on. Eye contact with the Quiets is rare, but in the event that if you do make eye contact with them, it's a little awkward and not self-esteem boosting at all, because their eyes usually have a sad, soulful plea in them. They would be considered the intellectual type, I suppose. But usually, they're too busy staring at the ground below them to even notice you. So if ever, some cute hooded guy doesn't smile at you when all the other guys do, don't feel bad, just consider the mannerless oblivion to be in their nature. 

     By the end of my little stroll that day, I am able to assign Jake into the Cocky category, the ones that make eye contact, and Sage into the Quiet category, the ones who don't.

       -- From Memoirs of a {New York} Traveler
           © 2010 Stephanie Gamverona

Please keep in mind, that this isn't edited yet so it may sound a little shabby, and that it is original writing, so due to infringement laws, you DO need my permission to use it ;)

Questions or comments? Feel free to email me!

Have an amazing 2010, everyone! xOXo->steph!<-