Coldplay - Ghost Stories

It's a stormy day and what's perfect on a day like this? Put those records on. 

Before I make my own review on Coldplay's latest album 'Ghost Stories' I've seen quite a few not so rave reviews about it so I still went ahead ang bought my own copy of the album via itunes for $5.99 which I guess would be the same if not cheaper if I bought it from a physical record store.

The album cover is of course very Coldplay with the simple watermark angel wings in the middle of the deep blue ocean. I don't know but I've always felt the melancholy in every Coldplay album. The same vibe is there but you'll definitely feel how they matured as a band sonically if you compare how they sound then and now. The same ocassional sweeping sadness and ambient vibe is still there though. Three tracks off the album I liked: 'Sky Full of Stars,' 'Ink' and 'Oceans.'

'Oceans' being my fave because I can see myself listening to it on a long car ride amidst the white out or maybe outdoors one  winter day with my puffer coat. My imagination has gone over the horizon again. Anyways going back, I just like the vibe of this track no matter how rueful it is lyrically. 

Ghost Stories is a fine album but I think I'd still pick 'Parachutes' over it. But then, like I often suggest, go check it out yourself 'cuz people have different taste. it may not appeal to me like the rest of Coldplay albums but nevertheless i find their every album a classic as years go by when you look back and listen to it again they just never go old. 

By the way, my take on the album is never in any way affected by previous reviews I've read over the worldwide web. What I said on this bloggie is based solely on how I felt about the album. I listened to it without prejudice. 

Reco

My sister and I's pet cat Atari 

(@atari_the_pudeh his own 

Instagram account). 

Sorry for the grumpy face

he just woke up teehee.

A view from our homey; 
photo from my IG account.

My cat has been keeping me company for days (both day and night I should say) whilst I am recovering from my surgery (it's been a week and a half) which he doesn't normally do on a regular basis. Well, I guess animals can really sense it if don't have enough human strength to heal yourself thus a li'l cuteness from a furry friend might help :)

I think this is my badly needed rest and no matter how bored I am It works to my advantage because I am so burn out from work lately and aside from that I could blog more often, watch movies and re-arrange things here at home. 

A scenic view from our homey; 
photo from my IG account.

Being away from our flat can be a breather because our family home may be 13KM away from downtown but it sure is massive allowing me to walk and see the beautiul views from the window when the fog/haze is gone. 

Breakfast of champions; Quaker Oat's Fruits n' Nuts oatmeal 

+ Soyfresh's Strawberry freshly popped from the microwave oven. 

Photo from my IG account.

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately if I still wanna go back to my job which brought me about stress and illnesses? or should I just work home based and lose my health insurance or prob'ly just go back down south? Haiz. Boredom is kicking in again.

More movies!

• Tumbok (Horror/ Tagalog) •

'Tumbok' is tagalog/filipino word for a house built in the middle where three roads meet. As per Feng Shui it's not a good spot as it may mean badluck. 

Ronnie and Grace inherited a condo unit in Manila. The building stands in a 'Tumbok' spot. 

Ronnie is tabloid photographer whilst Grace is a housewife. The two left the province to live at the condo unit but not too long before Grace started experiencing eerie things at the unit.

Grace kept having nightmares about a woman being abused. I later on found that Ronnie and family as a kid used to live at that same condo where his mother, deranged and abused killed his baby sister and all their neighbors were already dead as well  thus their present interactions with them is just like a vicious cycle that goes on and on.

To make the long story short it wasn't an evil free ending because Ronnie seemed possessed later on by the evil lurking at the condo unit and the bad luck will seem to go on which only means that the only way to resolve it is by demolishing the building and not build anything anymore. 

It was an ok movie although it didn't scare me to my wits. I don't know but I guess it won't hurt to be superstitious sometimes. 

• Insiduous, Chapter 2 (Horror) •

Characters

Josh Lambert and Renai Lambert - husband and wife

Elise - the medium

Lorraine Lambert - Josh's mom
Carl - communicates to the dead through word dice

Um, to be honest i didn't even know that it's already a sequel to another movie called Insiduous, the conjuring until after I read the Dvd sleeve. 

The Lambert family moved to Josh's family house and from the start been experiencing what seems to be poltergeist bothering their household such as things gets hurled and the baby scooped out from the crib etc.

Josh, as a child was used by medium Elise to pinpoint (Flashback 1986) what seems to be wrong with the house and he did point out certain hot spots (places where spirits may be dwelling) in the house. 

Present; Elise died thus the police started questioning  the Lambert family and suspected Josh for killing the medium. 

Renai suspects and old ghost woman living in the house. Josh hear voices urging him to kill his family so he stays alive. One day, Renai was knocked unconscious by the ghost woman in white thus seeked helped of Carl who attempted to contact Elise's spirit through word dice. Elise answered 'Our Lady  of Angels' which is a hospital where Parker Crane, a patient there many years ago who attempted to castrate himself and eventually commited suicide. 

They later on learned that Josh is possessed by Parker Crane. 

Carl and Josh met Elise at the world of the dead whilst Josh's physical body (with Crane on it) attempts to kill his family. Carl and Josh successully got back to their physical body and learned that Parker Crane was raised as a child by his abusive mother who's also an angry ghost and brainwash Crane he can only reclaim his physical body once Josh killed his own family.

Carl and Josh went back to the world of the living and went through hypnosis to forget everything that occurred during their astral projection state. 

Not having seen the Insiduos, the conjuring prior to this one is not like having a piece of the puzzle missing as this sequel is able to stand alone because of the flashblacks at the beginning of the flick. 

The movie is just quite ambiguous i should say because everything just gets thrown at you at once during the start of the movie and won't let you wait for long before all scary part. Believe it or not it was a blockbuster movie which raked double the movie budget during it's first day in theatres last year 2013. 

It was rather scary but I wasn't a fan of it for some reason and I guess It pays to read wikipedia first for synopsis prior to watching this movie. It was ok really. 

The Mortal Instruments (City of Bones)

• The Mortal Instruments; City of Bones (Fantasy) •

*Movie adaptation of the book with same title by Cassandra Clare.

Setting: New York City

Main Characters

• Clary Fray - ordinary teener; found she is a descendant of Shadowhunters (half angel warriors to protect the world from demons).

• Jocelyn Fray - Clary's mother, A Shadowhunter/Nephilim

• Aidan Turner - Clary's mom's friend, from a wolf lineage. 

• Jace Wayland - A Shadowhunter

• Simon Lewis - Clary's good friend

• Valentine Morgenstern - Claims he is a Clary's father; ex-shadowhunter, wants the mortal cup.

I could barely remember the book 'cuz i read it long time ago and failed to finish it. Yeah i jump from one book to another am kinda guilty of that. 

Clary, a regular teener has been seen drawing strange symbols everywhere. Her mom Jocelyn, tried to tell her something but Clary left to see her friend Simon. 

Beforehand, Clary and Simon crashed a club with goth looking people. Everything seemed well until Clary screamed after seeing a man being killed by Jace, the thing is no one else saw them but her. The two left the club asap. 

The next day whilst hanging around Simon, Clary saw Jace standing outside (but Simon can't see Jace) the coffeeshop walking distance from her house. Clary got a call from her mom warning her but the call disconnected thus she hurried home and did not find her mom. Jocelyn took a potion, the two men kidnapped her. 

Clary hurried home but found their house ravaged and her mom gone. Clary encountered a demon until Jace came to her rescue. Simon then is able to see Jace.

Clary was taken by Jace to a neighboring witch and later on they found out that Valentine, an ex-shadowhunter is after the mortal cup which Clary only knows where to find. 

Jace took Clary to the institute to ensure her safety and orient her about the underworld. 

It's a long story but since i'm only supposed to give out a synopsis to make the long story short Simon was kidnapped by the vampires but eventually recovered by Clary and the rest of the Shadowhunters. 

Jace told Clary she loves her whilst at the institute. Simon also did but Clary only took him as her best friend. 

Clary found that the mortal cup is hidden inside one of the Tarot Cards painted by her mom (owned by Madam Dorothea, the witch neighbor). Valentine's men attempted to steal the mortal cup from Madam Dorothea (now possessed by demons) but failed. Clary recovered the mortal cup and showed a fake one to Valentine. Pushed Valentine to the portal with the fake mortal cup then destroyed the portal which vanquished him for good. 

Clary and the gang (the shadowhunters and the ally wolves) found Jocelyn though still in a coma. All demons were defeated and Clary went back to her apartment, fixed it with her newfound power. Jace came back asking her to go back to the Institute as she belongs to the underworld. 

T'was a nice flick, not boring at all as it's like having a glimpse of both the modern day and the underworld which i think is kind of cool. Am a fan of magic, superpower and stuff i guess that explains why the movie didn't bore. I think i'll watch it again with my undivided attention next time :-D

Health is Wealth

hospital food; taken yesterday via instagram

 I am currently recuperating from my surgery (Laparoscopic Cholesystectomy)  which rid off my gall bladder permanently due to a 1.5cm gall stone. My surgery took place last Sunday and thank God I am able to walk and go to the restroom inch by inch without an aid from anyone except close supervision in case I need help. 

Lap Chole is a surgical way to permanently remove the gall bladder due to gall stone/s the not so invasive way as you only have 3 small incisions: your navel, in the mid portion beneath the breast and another less than an inch incision about 5 inches away from your navel. 

For a start I spoke with my surgeon a week ago regarding the procedure, got all my LOA (leave of absence) forms signed (i opted for 3 week vacay), Medical certificate from my Doctor, i picked a hospital and there ya go he called the hospital to schedule me for Lap Chole. I was a little scared at first because I never had any operation in my entire life except RAI (radioactive Iodine) to cure my Hyperthyroidism before.

~Surgery/Admission Day~

I presented this hand written instruction from my surgeon to the Hospital's ER. Prior to surgery, it is a must to to disclose whatever medical condition you have or had in the past because it might affect how your body will react to the procedure. It's their standard measure for the doctors to know about your previous ailments to avoid complications during surgery so I told them about my previous health condition and the hospital contacted my Endocrinologist to make sure my thyroid is ok and the good news was I am now thyroxine free. My Endoc prescribed a hormone replacement medication called Levothyroxine™ (Euthyrox).

A medication was injected through my IV so my stomach won't be too acidic since you have to undergo fasting from morning until surgery time, a patched test for the anti-biotic which thank God I wasn't allergic to and more other anti-biotic i think. Going back, 30 minutes prior to my surgery, it was mandatory to prep up, stripped off all my clothes and undergarments and was just left with a  surgical gown no matter how I hate this part but i want to be well and just get this surgery done and over with. I kept my calm because I know the surgery too will pass. I asked God for his guidance and I wasn't even advised that the anaesthesia has been injected to my IV. I was groggy in a second like falling into the void and then hours later I woke up, no pain but a li'l uncomfortable on the part where the gall bladder used to stay. The pain killers given helped me tremendously endure the pain there was after surgery except that I was kinda groggy for 24 hours, puked a bit after drinking cold water which I wasn't supposed to except no one told my me nor my hospital care taker. My stomach badly reacted after drinking cold water thus explained why I vomit kinda, like an aftershock. 

~Fourth day post surgery.

In my opinion, I believe that Lap Chole is the a good way to remove gallstones using tubes as it won't leave big scars which would enable the patient to clean their wound themselves and just use a regular band-aid to keep it protected. Constipation and bloatness often happens after solid food intake that's why soft diet helps during the first week post surgery. As i am writing this blog I have all my medications sitting beside me, I have tons of anti-biotic, pain killer etcetera. Thank God as well for my health insurance because i did not cash out anything except for the band aids and of course medicines which I have to take once I'm back home to recuperate.  So, if you've been feeling a lot of discomfort because of gallstones, don't endure it because in my case it was not a pre-existing condition thus my insurance covered the whole procedure alongside PhilHealth.

My surgery could've cost 112K but because I have PhilHealth it covered 31K for the Doctors professional fees and when i say 'fees' i had 4 Doctors: a couple of surgeons, one Anaesthesiologist and of course my Endoc who constantly visited me to check my thyroid level. My total bill just boiled down to 85k and stayed 48hours at the hospital. Never mind the not so pretty hospital room as there's a certain limit to room coverage and if you're finicky go pay extra. In my case, as long as my insurance is able to cover the costly part then i'm ok with just a basic hospital room equipped with tv at least, heater and a fridge then i'm good to go. 

Make it a point to read your insurance guidebook btw because it should tell you everything you need to know before heading off to the hospital and decide undergoing any medical procedure. Make sure you're with the company/job for over a year (in my case 2 years and 3 months) because according to my surgeon, the HMO coverage varies depending on the employees tenure with the company. Which means, if you're six months or less, you have to shell out cash and yeah Lap Chole isn't cheap. Whilst at the hospital, someone from my HMO spoke to me to let me know up to how much they're able to cover (110K and up to my health card's maximum limit).

Please be also mindful of the term pre-existing condition as there's just a certain limit to same illness coverage wise and I read for Laparoscopic it's 30k if I'm not mistaken so that means that your insurance won't shoulder the full cost anymore in the event you undergo another Lap Chole. It won't hurt as well to email your insurance company when in doubt as it will help ease your mind from worrying about financial matters. In my case, PhilHealth covered 31K the most (Doctor's professional fee). So do the math, the actual cost of the procedure less 31K for PhilHeath and you'll get the approximate cost more or less. 

Relax. See a movie.

• Water for Elephants (Drama/Love story) •

Main Characters

• Jacob Jankowski - Polish-American; main character, fell in love with Marlena

• Marlena Rosenbluth - Star of the Circus, Benzini Brothers; wife of August

• August - Marlena's Husband, Owner of Benzini Brothers 

Jacob, an elderly man stubbornly refused to leave the place where the circus would be held claiming he didn't escape from a nursing home. Charlie, the circus manager,  thought that Jacob might've indeed escaped from a nursing home. Charlie, out of compassion invited Jacob to his office and eventually found the old man's circus story interesting upon seeing the photo of a woman on an elephant sitting in Charlie's desk. 

Flashback - Jacob as a young man studying at an Ivy league school Cornell University as a Veterinary medicine student. He received a devastating news the day of his final exam--his parents passed away leaving him empty handed. He learned his parents were in deep debt leaving him no home no nothing. 

Jacob took the first train he saw after walking many miles. He later on learned that he hopped on a travelling circus train called Benzini Brothers. 

He started working outright after he was invited by the men on the train who also works for the circus. Jacob saw Marlena, the beautiful bombshell who happened to be the circus' main attraction and her as white as a snow horse. Jacob noticed Marlena's horse is partially limping and seemed in pain since he's a VetMed student on his final semester.

Jacob was later on introduced to August so he gets hired as an official circus employee. August declined at first but when Jacob mentioned that Marlena's horse may never walk again he got August's full attention. August learned Jacob is from an ivy league school Cornell and even called him a veterinarian thus welcomed him to the circus, introduced him to Marlena (his wife). 

Jacob secretly fell in love with Marlena. He also learned that August has temper, a schizophrenic and at the same time cruel to animals. Because of Jacob's genuine love for animals he suggested to put down Marlena's horse to put an end to the poor animal's suffering. Jacob shot the horse, maybe inhumane but the most humane way to alleviate the horse's pain in an instant. 

The story is quite long but after Marlena lost her horse, August bought an old elephant named Rosie to perform with Marlena. Jacob often gets invited to dinner by the couple and he learned that August is possesive and sometimes hurts Marlena. 

August became cruel to Rosie and hurts the elephant because it won't obey any command from him. Jacob then learned that Rosie was trained in Polish thus solves the problem. Marlena alongside Rosie became the star of the show again. 

Marlena and Jacob fell in love, August found out about it, Marlena told Jacob that August is planning to dispatched him and the later offered Marlena to run away with him. The two did but eventually got caught by August's men in a hotel room, Jacob was mauled and the men took Marlena. 

Jacob went to the circus and there goes the havoc. August's dusgruntled former employees started unleashing the carnivorous circus animals like the lion, tiger etcetera. There was a stampede and while August is on the act of strangling Marlena (wh totally went nuts) the elephant Rosie then pulled something from the ground and hit August which instantly killed him. It was a relief, not the bloody part but that's the only way to end the story, get the villain killed right? and in that case no human gets penalized. 

Jacob and Marlena, inspite of the age difference got married and had five kids. 

The end.

Back to present day - Charlie agreed to Jacob getting a vet job at the circus. 

I honestly loved this flick. I did read few chapters so at least I already have an idea that it was during the time of depression. The book was quite lenghty and despairing but the movie was awesome. Given a chance i'll watch it again cuz there are very few movies nowadays that makes sense fortunately amongst them was Water for Elephants.

• Side Effects (Suspense) • 

Emily is suffering from depression long before. Her husband was incarcerated which even more heightened her depression. After her husband was released from prison she continuously acted weird because of her condition and turned to her new shrink, Dr. Banks who later on prescribed this experimental drug (seen on TV commercial) to combat her depression.

Emily used to see a different shrink in the past (catherine zeta-jones) but quit seeing later on. Things has gotten disarray when Emily started sleep walking as a side effect of the anti-depressant drug prescribed to her. One fateful day, Emily stabbed her husband while sleep walking which led to his death. 

Emily was detained because all the blame was put on Dr. Banks, he became legally responsible for Emily being his patient. Later on Dr. Banks learned that Emily is a liar and drilled down on him to be responsible for her condition. 

I found out later during the later part of the movie that Emily's former female shrink (catherine zeta-jones) has a relationship with her thus manipulates her and blame the crime on Dr. Banks so they could continuously conceal their illicit relationship. Zeta-Jones was also then responsible for Emily's money through bank transfers to different accounts making her look broke inspite of having a filthy rich husband with whom she eventually killed. 

zeta-jones and Emily's ploy did not last for very long. Dr. Banks used Emily to con zeta-jones but later on the two were both incarcerated. Dr. Banks reclaimed his job as a shrink and life with his girlfriend and stepson. 

I enjoyed this movie seriously because of the twists aside from Rooney Mara is one of the best actress i've seen to date (remember the Girl with a Dragon Tattoo hollywood version?). This flick won't bore you. 

• The Haunting in Connecticut (Horror) •

The Campbell family moved to upstate Connecticut because one of the Cambell boys, Matthew has cancer and they need to save money travelling far from home to the hospital. 

The Campbell's then chose this old Victorian home because of its low cost. The family settled in and started experiencing weird things. Matthew picked the basement room because he found it big enough for him inspite of the eerie locked sliding door.

Matthew started having visions about the house as if he gets teleported to a different time, same house yet he saw a lot of corpses occupying the locked door in his room. He then saw Jonah, the son of the house owner in his visions/nightmare or whatever who seemed to have strong psychic abilities.

Lemme just skipped that part a bit because the Campbell's then learned that the house they bought used to be an old funeral home. Imagine how spooky that is right?

Anyways, moving on, the house later on seemed possessed, things gets hauled here, there and everywhere, lights flicker, Matthew seemed possessed too.

Matthew became friends with a priest at the Cancer institute who happened to know matters about the supernatural. The priest advised they have to free Jonah's spirit and the rest of the souls trapped in the house. And so Matthew did by burning the house down but eventually almost caused his life. The Campbell's eventually survived.

This movie was ok. T'was lenghty though but nevetheless it's tolerable compared to other nonsense horror movies. 

why does it always rain on me?

(photo courtesy of pinterest)

I'm a recovering Hyperthyroid patient. I can say that my RAI went well because I feel ok after roughly four months until a couple of weeks ago i was rushed to the ER after experiencing extreme hyperacidity that won't go away inspite of taking mepracid and maalox. 

It was my rest day from work thank God and I have been feeling quite ill since morning of that same day. I went to my follow up check up with my endoc that morning and heard a good news that my FT4 level is now normal but not my TSH (just google it) yet but it's ok as it takes a while for TSH to normalize and that we'll wait and see until September which would be sixth month post RAI. I took the antacid that morning and even blamed the coffee for my hyperacidity. I was ok after that and felt the hunger pang as it's lunchtime. 

My sister and I bought some high on carb lunchies to go at the flat. All was well until my check up with my endoc that late in the aftie I started feeling uncomfortable again. I felt chills and the hyperacidity is starting to kick in again. After my check up with the endoc I asked my sister to go home cuz I wanna rest because I was extremely tired for the day. We got home, I felt nauseous and started vomitting.  I shrugged it off and pushed myself to sleep for as much as i could as it's almost nightime. I took another antacid but to no avail the burning feeling underneath my rib cage did not dissipate at all so that's when I asked for my eldest sister to rush me to the hospital and that was around eight past in the evening.

Our house is 13 kilometers from downtown where the hospitals are. My twinnie and I are renting a flat downtown and stay there during our work week and go home to our family abode (which is 13km away from downtown) during our rest days so just imagine how uncomfortable I felt all through out the trip. My eldest sister shrunk the usual 30 minute drive to 10-15minutes. It was a gruelling and longest 15 minutes of my life god.

All went well, I asked my sister to rush me to the ER. I was asked to drink this medicine, an injection for my pancreas which was oh my prickly painful, medicines were prescribed as expected and lastly an ultrasound to see if it might have gallstones causing the uncomfortable burning feeling in my stomach and of course the vomitting. My eldest sissy already went through open surgery and had her gall bladder removed because of one quite big gallstone years back so she insisted that I take the ultrasound ASAP. 

I sure did not more than two days after and hell yeah they found a 1.6cm or 1.4cm gallstone (depending on the machine used as I asked for a second ultrasound just to make sure) to my dismay. 

I mean yeah right? that I even attributed it to my former condition hyperthyroidism. I started reading and researching but it all boiled down to one thing, an operation is required although it's my discretion whether I want it or not but the risk is still there to remove my gall bladder. I'm kind of sad because I don't wanna lose anything in my body except to lose weight but I guess there's not much of a choice and I'm just thankful to God that I knew it before it gets worst as in my sister's case. I just hate to be dissected geeez. 

As a precautionary measure and to avoid furthermore gallstone attacks/episodes I already asked for my doctor to schedule me for an operation called Laparoscopic Cholesystectomy or simply called as Lap Chole ASAP before it gets worse. The thing is Lap Chole can be suddenly switched to Open surgery if it will not work for me during the operation which hopefully not and am crossing my fingers. 

My only consolation is I have all the health insurance that I need. I mean what if I'm meager and do not have access to healthcare? I still consider myself lucky althought at times I ask myself 'why does it always rain on me?'

I guess my sudden weight loss might've been the culprit brought about my hyperthyroidism although I was told by the Sonologist (the doctor who performs ultrasound) that my gallstone might've been 10 years old although at the back of my mind whatt??? ten years old?? I guess it might've gotten bigger as time went on. I might've switched to living healthy three years ago but I guess it's pretty late already. Anyways, nevertheless, I'm hoping to be well, free from all health constraints.

Live healthy, avoid fast foods for as much as possible, eat foods that are high on fiber and not unhealthy fats. Bombard yourself with green and leafy vegetables and eat lotsa lotsa fruits. Dieting and eating healthy can be costly but it's even more costly getting sicko uh oh. Just remember when you get old..it's payback time so eat healthy while you are young. Just a friendly advise. 

Haven (Book 1) by Kristi Cook

Violet Mckeena was sent to a boarding school in New York Junior year high school after her father was murdered. Her stepmother,Patsy accepted a job offer in NY thus decided to send her to a boarding school after she refused to stay with her grandma any longer because she wouldn't want to be any more burden to her after having lived with her for so many years.Violet got admitted to Winterhaven because of her exceptional academic records. An honor student and with the elite fencing team. 

The book started when Violet first set foot in Winterhaven. She was ushered in by Mrs. Girard. She describes Winterhaven with arched wooden doors that looked like it belonged in a medieval castle which is way different compared to Windsor Day, her former school.

Violet was introduced to Mr. Blackwell, the Headmaster and later on she was toured to the campus by Mrs. Girard. Violet met Cece, her roomie at the East Hall Dormitory. She also learned about basic shool policies such as the 11pm curfew, all cellphones must be left at their dorm room and so on and so forth. Cece and Violet clicked. Cece later on introduced Violet to the rest of her friends in Winterhaven.

Her first class, Violet saw Aidan Gray, the a boy from his class with gorgeous eyes. Everyone thought Aidan is kind of a snub  and not interested with any girl in school until he saw Violet the new girl in Winterhaven.

I'll just fast forward, Violet learned later on that Winterhaven is a special school for kids with special psychic powers like telekinesis, shape shifters etc. She also found that Cece's power is Astral Projection whilst hers is precognition or having a knowledge of an event before it even occur. She's been aware of what she can do long before but she never really acknowledged it. Violet,everytime she transcends to her visions of the future loses her grip from reality. 

Violet and Aidan eventually fell in love and later on she learned that Aidan is a vampire with super powers as well. Violet also learned about the school policy about not using their psychic powers in campus otherwise it means disciplinary action will follow suit.

Violet was heartbroken at once because of Aidan and decided to breathe some fresh air and go home to Patsy in New York. She encountered a dangerous man who almost got her into serious trouble hadn't Aidan came to her rescue who later on took her to his mansion home. She learned that Aidan's house has a servant of his kind, also a vampire but not deadly kind. Violet also learned that Blackwell, the Headmaster is also one.

Moving on, Aidan spends ample time in the school laboratory finding a cure for vampirism which he claims as some sort of  blood infection. Aidan takes an elixir so she wouldn't be tempted to bite the mortal Violet.

During one of Violet's vision she found that Blackwell is conniving with other vampires to vanquish Aidan because he is the good kind as he doesn't slay humans unless left with no choice as in the case of the guy who almost killed Violet. Violet and friends formed alliances with other kids in school incuding the shape shifters. Aidan once saved a shape shifter from a troublemaker mind you. Aidan found that Blackwell is indeed a traitor. Violet along with Aidan vanquished the bad vampires, Blackwell got kicked off and replaced by Mrs. Girard and there you go end of Book 1.

The advent of Twilight spawned countless vampire books. I honestly found Bella and Edward in this book because of the similarities. Violet, like Bella, is a mortal while Edward like Aidan are both vampires. I'm also giving Cook the credit for making 'Haven' much more colorful compared to Twilight though. I'm looking forward to reading the second book 'Mirage.'