Tuesday Top Ten: Favorite Fictional Book Couples!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Well, online almost. But its nearly there and to celebrate, price this week’s Tuesday Top Ten is getting a little romantic. Now, I know this is a post that I’ve already done but that was QUITE a long time ago and I’ve read so many books since then…its hard to narrow it down!

However, my poor sentimental heart was finally able to do so and I present to you my top ten favorite fictional book couples!

10. William Herondale and Tessa Gray from The Infernal Devices Series

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Will and Tessa have one of those romances that, if it actually existed in real life, you’d be torn between being massively jealous and also massively apt to throwing up all the time. Its incredibly beautiful, tragic, deep, genuine, intense. Its one of the most beautiful love stories I’ve read and what makes it even more beautiful is the love that the two of them share with Jem as well. Its just…amazingly written. It should be a love triangle but it doesn’t feel that way because the three of them love each other so much. Plus, there’s just something amazing about their love of books and how their love of words bring them together, and how they fight alongside each other…sigh.

9. Cara and Aelyx from The Alienated Series

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This is one of my newest favorite couples to come into my life, just this past summer. I met Melissa at ALA and got an ARC of Invaded and knew I had to read the first one and I am SO glad I did! This two part series is AWESOME and I’m massively in love with Cara and Aelyx and their story. What makes it so great is how annoyed and disgusted (especially on Aelyx’s part) they are with each other and how it slowly builds to something else. I love how they figure things out. I mean, Aelyx GOOGLES how to kiss. Its silly and sweet and intense and I love every single moment of it.

8. Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark from The Hunger Games Series

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DUH. I know its cheesy and so completely unrealistic as far as fictional relationships work out but I still love every minute of it. Because despite everything that their world throws at them, they still make it through. I tend to like Gale more as a character but I love Peeta more for Katniss and I think its because they balance each other out SO much. Plus its kind of bittersweet how they work so hard to protect each other and it always seems to fail but they never ever give up on it. I don’t like the conclusion, so to speak, of their relationship, I don’t think it makes sense with the characters at all but I love their relationship.

7. Four and Tris from the Divergent Series

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This is one relationship that I love, not just because I’m absolutely obsessed with this series but because it turns out to be completely opposite of what you expect. When you meet Tris, she’s unsure, unconfident, struggling to figure out who she is, while Four seems strong, confident, sure. But the closer they get to each other, the more you realize that its Tris that helps Four, brings him out, makes him a better person. He relies on her, looks into her for strength and I love that. I think its better when a couple is equal but I love seeing that a female character can be seen as the strength in a relationship.

6. Aly and Nawat from The Tricksters Series

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This is one of my favorite relationships, so easily because it is one of the most unique ones I’ve come across in any book. Aly is a born noble girl, trained in the ways of a noble lady but also the fighting and stealth of a common born spy. She’s kidnapped and sold into slavery for a wealthy family in an enemy kingdom. She meets Nawat, who is a crow turned man. They each have their own journey to take, though they are inevitably intertwined with each other, and what I love is that they each do the things they need to do before they came together. Its beautiful. It really shows…you don’t need a guy to get where you need to be, and that a really great guy will be there, even if you can’t be there yourself.

5. Levi and Cath from Fangirl

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Okay, I love this relationship because I want this relationship. Seriously. I want this relationship so bad. I love 1-4 so badly on this list but if I had to choose a relationship that I genuinely wanted more than anything…it would be this one. I think a lot of that comes from the fact that I feel very connected to Cath. She feels like me in so so many ways and I can understand her fears and her concerns and her anxiety and her struggle to become close with people because she’s afraid they can’t handle who she is. But Levi comes in and just loves her, for every single thing that she is. And he’s a goofball, which I just love, and he just is so genuine and real and I love everything about their relationship. This is relationship goals.

4. Rose Hathaway and Dimitri Belikov from The Vampire Academy Series

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I want to be Rose Hathaway. Or I want to be with her. I can’t really figure it out. Maybe both. That’s kind of weird ;) Either way, the Vampire Academy series is one of my favorites ever and I love that it takes legitimately all six books for Rose and Dimitri to get where you finally wish them to be. Their relationship is SO tragic BUT neither one of the characters are tragic. They always focus on their job as dhampirs, as guardians and getting the job done, and that’s why they’re one of my favorite relationships. They are awesome together, but as more than a couple, as a team.

3. Adrian Ivashkov and Sydney Sage from the Bloodlines Series

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When I first started reading the Bloodlines series, it was clear that the couple that would come out of this series was Adrian and Sydney. Having met and fallen in love with both of those characters in the VA series, I was so confused on how these two would even WORK. But as the series continued and you watched them fall in love with each other, I was panting alongside everyone else. I just finished the finale book, The Ruby Circle, today, release day and I won’t say much because of spoilers but I’m so happy with this relationship. They both changed from book one to book six and they did it together. They were equals from beginning to end and I love that. They rely on each other and they save each other and I ship it so hard.

2. Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger from The Harry Potter Series

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All you haters can sit down and shut up. Everyone says that Ron doesn’t deserve Hermione and all that junk. I myself read way too much Dramione fan fiction, admittedly. But this is one of my favorite couples because I think they work together. They are different, but I think that’s what makes them work. Ron loves Hermione, even though she’s much smarter than him and is constantly berating him and all that kind of thing. Hermione loves Ron, even though he can be selfish and unthinking. Love, real love, is about accepting each other’s flaws and still loving each other anyway. Of course there’s a limit to that but I think Ron and Hermione are the example of a perfect imperfect relationship. Relationships aren’t beautiful and amazing and all that. They take work and they don’t always go the way its planned and that’s exactly what this relationship is.

1. Jace Lightwood and Clary Fray from The Mortal Instruments Series

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They continue to be my favorite couple and I think that’s because of when I read the book. You want to talk about an overdramatic, tragic story of a relationship? This is it right here. Book One: Jace can’t admit he has feelings. Finally kind of does…oops, him and Clary are brother and sister. Or wait they’re not brother and sister. Oh, wait, he’s being possessed by Lilith, oh, wait, now by the real Jonathan Morgenstern. I mean, seriously. Its the most dramatic relationship that takes place over a period of, like, five months. But I love both of these characters. I love the way they fall in love, I love the way they balance each other out, I love the way they eventually fight together, I love every single bit of them. And that is not going to change.

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Who are some of YOUR favorite book couples? Make sure to share in the comments!

Let’s Talk About…Tris’ Movie Fear Landscape and Its Importance

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Congratulations initiates. We rocked the box office our opening weekend and we have already confirmed that this is a franchise, visit web as we will be getting Insurgent next year. I am very proud of us all and its very nice to not have heartbreak when it comes to a YA adaptation, approved let me tell you that.

Now, recipe I’ve been trolling the inter-webs, like I tend to do and I have noticed that there is a particular scene in the Divergent movie that has some people a little…miffed, I suppose. Now, the only way for me to get involved is to talk about it, so here I am.

I admire the Divergent movie a lot. I liked it a lot. There were a few changes that were a little weird, and of course, the movie just never will be as good as the book but I honestly think they did a great job. I’ve been through a lot of disappointment lately and I was highly impressed with this movie.

Now the scene in question that has everyone in an uproar is Tris’ final fear landscape that she goes through as part of her final initiation into the Dauntless faction. Her fears are all there, like normal, but one of them tends to be a little different than in the book.

In the book, Tris has a fear of intimacy, and it is shown in her fear landscape during her final test. She is afraid of Four and what she could share with him, physically. I think a lot of that stems from nerves, and the fear of the unexpected. But I also think its a control issue too. Tris always feels in control which is why fear wakes her up, instead of shutting her down. Being intimate with someone is giving up some of your control, and before you experience it, its a scary thing. I can understand completely why this would be part of Tris’ fear landscape.

Now in the movie, they roughed it up a bit. The Four in the book just wants to share that intimacy with Tris and she’s reluctant. In the movie, we have a forceful, sort of rapist Four going on. He’s forcing the intimacy in her, questioning her “Dauntless-ness”, and using physical force to get his way. It was definitely a sexual attack, as opposed to the simple fear of intimacy in the book.

And this has a lot of people in an uproar. People don’t like that Four was represented this way (although, guys, it was a simulation, it’s not actually Four), and that changing the fear in the movie changes the way that you would see Four. Now, while I can kind of understand that, and I feel like this approach was incredible and I didn’t mind the change at all.

There is something very important going on in our world today if you’re paying attention. A woman’s body is being treated like a toy, something to be played with, and constantly argued over. Our right to birth control, our right to abortion, our right to use our bodies as WE see fit is a constant argument, and a huge part of this ongoing argument is the control that we have over it when it comes to what we let others do it. Rape is in the news all the time, and sometimes, all the time, a girl has a fear of losing control over her own body.

So while the scene in the movie didn’t necessarily copy the book scene, I understand the importance of this scene. Who are the fans of the Divergent series? Who is going out to the theaters in droves? Who is going to be mostly impacted by this? Its mostly girls, and mostly teenage girls. Their impressionable minds are the ones that are seeing this scene and processing this. So I feel like the change, whether deliberate or not, has a massive amount of importance.

Rape is not a simple thing, and its nothing something we can toss aside and act like its not happening because it is and its happening all the time. Young girls are being raped all the time and the rapists are getting away with it. We are losing control over our bodies all the time, and its terrifying. I was robbed the other night at work. I was out delivering pizzas, and a man came up to me, and demanded the money in my pocket. Luckily enough for me, that was all he wanted and he took off. But this could have gone a multitude of different ways. He could have taken me, raped me, done a number of things to hurt me. He didn’t and I’m lucky.

But so many girls are NOT lucky. This is a real problem right now, and girls are constantly in fear of what a boy is capable of doing to us. Its the fear of losing control. Losing control over my own body is terrifying. I have a control over my body, what I put into it, what I wear, what I do with it, everything. And someone taking that from me is a terrifying thing.

So I think that the filmmakers managed to capture what what was ultimately important about that scene. Its not about Four, or his representation as a character. We know Four. He would never do something like that, ever. Four lost his own control over his body as a child when his father physically abused him, and he regained that control when switching to Dauntless. It was a simulation. Four would never do that. Repeat that to yourself. Four would never do that.

But it brought to attention so many things. Rape can happen at any time, and often times, its done by someone you know. Tris has a fear of losing control of her body, and I don’t think just to Four, but to anyone. Think of what Drew, Peter and Al tried to do to her. That is a real fear. And I really think it was important to show that to this generation’s girls and to show them that they can fight and that we recognize this as an important thing, something to be noted of. I don’t know if the change to her fear landscape was deliberate but if it was, I think it a was a wise move and I really appreciate what they did.

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Divergent Giveaway: Win a Copy of Divergent Signed by the Author and Cast!

Happy Divergent Release Day!

I hope you all are going to the theaters today (and ALL WEEKEND) to go see this movie. Remember guys: movie sequels are only made if the first one is successful so let’s go out, visit this see Divergent and get Insurgent made!

So I hope by now that you all have watched my vlog recap of my time at the Divergent Black Carpet Premiere in Los Angeles. It was an absolute blast and I had such a great time. I am so glad I was able to meet people like Theo and Miles and Ansel. SO much fun.

Check out my full collection of pictures from the premiere on Facebook here.

Check out my vlog about the premiere here.

Luckily for all you who were unable to attend, my friend Abby got an extra book signed and by a TON of the cast and it looks like its time for me to have a giveaway!

Make sure you read this whole post! Its VERY important!

Here is the Prize: 

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One Copy of Divergent Signed By: 

Author Veronica Roth
Kate Winslet (Jeanine Matthews)
Tony Goldwyn (Andrew Prior)
Ansel Elgort (Caleb Prior)
Theo James (Four)
Miles Teller (Peter)
Ashley Judd (Natalie Prior)
Zoe Kravitz (Christina)
Maggie Q (Tori)
Amy Newbold (Molly)
Christian Madsen (Al)

The Rules (Yes, there has to be Rules): 

The contest will run from today, March 21st to April 4th!

The winner will be contacted within 12 hours of contest end, and if the winner does NOT respond within 24 hours, a new winner will be chosen.

The contest IS International :)

Make sure to come back every day to tweet about the giveaway and earn extra entries!

Share with your friends!

This contest is in no way endorsed by Veronica Roth, Neil Burger, Lionsgate Company, Summit Entertainment, Katherine Tegen Books, etc. WhatANerdGirlSays is not responsible for any lost or damaged prizes.

The Catch (Yes, There’s a Catch)

Now, that’s a ridiculously amazing prize. Look up above at that list. That’s incredible and it took some hard work to get those signatures. Which means I expect some hard work to be done to earn this prize.

There are a TON of ways to enter, so enter a LOT. Do all of those entries! Show me that you want this. Every person who does every single thing on the rafflecopter list will be entered into a special secret giveaway. Please email a snapshot of your completed rafflecopter to whatanerdgirlsays at gmail dot com.

There are also options to show off your Divergence. Show me you are Dauntless, Abnegation, Erudite, Amity, and Candor. More details in the rafflecopter. Those who do those entries will also be entered in the secret giveaway!

Are you ready to enter already? Here you go!

Enter Now!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Divergent Black Carpet Los Angeles Premiere Vlog Recap!

Hey guys! How’s it going? I hope you’re having a wonderful week and I hope that you’re planning on going out to see Divergent tomorrow. You all know how important that first weekend is for a movie, viagra in order to get a sequel so go out there and watch it guys!

As you guys might have seen on my Twitter and Instagram and Tumblr and Facebook, I went to the premiere on Monday. It was an absolute blast, and I just…I had so much fun.

Now instead of writing up a recap of the premiere, I decided to do a vlog instead. I know, right? I’m becoming more and more determined to do more vlogs.

So here we are, check it out on YouTube, my vlog of the Divergent premiere!

If you’d like to see all the pictures that I took from the premiere, you can check them out at this link on the official What A Nerd Girl Says facebook page. 

If you’re curious about the song that’s playing in the video, its a song called “Small Talk” by a band that I just discovered last week, Green Light Theory. You can check them out on Facebook. They are trying to get on Warped Tour so what little I can do, I’m trying to do!

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow to check out my epic Divergent giveaway! You’ll be sorry you missed it!

Thanks for watching guys! Happy Fangirling :)

A Divergent Review…Is Coming!

I know, more about that’s a super weird title.

Forgive me for that.

On Saturday, check I was able to do something that I’ve been looking forward to for a few weeks now, treatment something that made me so extremely happy, something that literally has had a hold on my emotions all weekend long.

I got to see a pre-screening of Divergent.

AGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Me, before the screening.

My dear friend, Maggie, works for Lionsgate and asked me a few weeks ago if I’d like to go to a press junket screening and I immediately said yes. You guys know that I love Divergent. I don’t have tattoos on my collarbone for no reason ;)

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I was able to bring a friend along with me and I immediately thought of my fangirl BFF, Sylvia from FangirlFeeels.

Now, if you’re looking for a review of the movie, you’ve come to the wrong place. I’m going to be reviewing it but not quite yet. I’m writing it up but I don’t want to post it too early. The movie is still two weeks away and I want to post it closer to that. Look for it around the Los Angeles Premiere day (the 18th).

But I will say a few things:

One, Sylvia and I had an awesome time, and we probably were some of the most enthusiastic people in the audience.

Two, the casting of this movie is absolutely phenomenal.

Three, Theo James. Seriously. I can’t…I can’t even handle him as Four. The level of attractiveness of that man is just off the charts. I seriously, I can’t even handle it right now.

Four, you’re seriously missing out if you do not go see this movie on the 21st.

I had a great time, I seriously enjoyed the movie, and I can’t wait to see it again. I’m waiting just as anxiously as those who haven’t seen it for release day because it was just that good. I’m so proud of the team behind this movie. Its going to be so great, and I’m going to see this in the theater so many times.

Thanks to Maggie for being such a doll and getting me into this amazing early screening. I appreciate it more than you know!

Stay tuned for the full review coming soon :)

For now, enjoy the trailer!

http://youtu.be/Aw7Eln_xuWc

Allegiant-A Spoiler Filled Discussion

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Now that I’ve written my spoiler free review, website I’ve decided to jump into the books and discuss the moments that have been discussed all over the internet, doctor and discuss why I loved this book.

This is your last warning! I will be discussing spoilers from this point on, search so if you haven’t read it yet, I’d suggest you stop reading this and go over to my spoiler FREE review here. 

All right. Moving on.

There has been a TON of hate and extremely negative reviews for Veronica Roth’s last installment of her Divergent Trilogy.

And her’s the thing: I was insanely surprised at the ending that she presents to us. She kills Tris Prior. Tris Prior who is the MAIN character of her novel. That’s almost unheard of. Almost.

This caused tears galore for me. I couldn’t stop crying, some of it was shock and some of it was just pure heartbreak at the thought of this character that I’ve grown to love and admire as dead. It was incredible. I never thought that she would do that but I honestly felt like it was the most logical solution to the situation that was happening in the book.

So I expected people to be surprised, upset, heartbroken. I thought that there would be a little anger but this outpouring of heartbreak and that all the Divergent fans would come swooping together to mourn together.

Yeah, that’s not what happened. People are PISSED, they are angry. They are saying its the worst ending to a series ever, they’re threatening Veronica on Twitter and Instagram. The reviews all over the interwebs are just awful, AND people are going up to Veronica at her Allegiant events, and telling her straight to her face, how much they disliked the book.

And I think so much of it boils down to the fact that she killed off Tris Prior.

I understand. I do. I almost wanted to throw the book when it happened too. I was in so much shock. There’s a small chunk of book left after her death, so there’s some processing time. I knew I liked the book immediately, but in the aftermath and recovery process of the book, I discovered more and more why I liked the book and why I agree with the choices that Veronica makes.

She kills off four characters that have been with us since the very first book: Edward, Tori, Uriah and Tris. And each of their deaths were hard to bear, the last two especially for me. But I think that Veronica recognizes what other authors have recognized: that in a war, a rebellion, a battle, a fight…people die. You can’t be picky and choosy on who dies in something like that. I think she took a page out of JKR’s strategy and definitely George R.R. Martin’s strategy, and realized that important people were going to die.

I mean, have read Game of Thrones? The main character dies in the VERY FIRST BOOK. Yeah. All these people insulting this book and Veronica Roth? Don’t read the first Game of Thrones book…or any of them really.

Tris’s death, to me, makes a lot of sense. The way it plays out is a bit awkward but I don’t think her actual death is unexpected. I mean it is because she’s the main character and I don’t think people expect the main character to die. But Tris, as a character, sacrificing herself for her friends and her family, the people that she loves? That is incredibly expected of her. When everyone accepts that Caleb will be the one to die, to sacrifice himself for the good of everyone else, I was surprised. I wasn’t surprised that Christina or Matthew or Peter or Four or anyone else would be okay with that, but I was incredibly surprised that Tris was okay with that. Despite his betrayal, Tris loves her brother, unconditionally, and she’s the reason they saved him from his execution at the hands of Evelyn. I couldn’t imagine her letting Caleb die, I just couldn’t.

So it made sense to me that Tris decided to task the risk and she died, in the hopes that the people she loved would be safe. She offers herself up in Insurgent to die to keep others safe, why would it be such a surprise that she does it in this novel? It was a VERY Tris-like action, and I think that her dying is more plausible than Four, who I think a lot of people believed would die.

Besides, we need to look at Veronica Roth as an author and as a person. She’s a Christian and a born-again Christian and she has some strong religious views that we do see peeking out of her story at times. She has not hesitated to thank God in every single one of her novels. I think that she used the sort of allusion as a sacrificing Christ figure in her book, and it honestly makes sense. Sure, Tris doesn’t resurrect like Jesus does but I think that Veronica was going with the more realistic approach, and I think its beautiful. Its a beautiful sacrifice. It reminds me of the sacrifice that Harry Potter makes in going into his death. Again, Harry lives but I think Veronica took more of a risk and I personally thought it was absolutely beautiful.

I think also we need to think of Veronica herself. She is my age, only 25, and even though she’s incredibly popular and has been reviewed so highly, she is still a person with feelings and emotions. She has expressed her concern over things like this, and has sought out help due to anxiety and stress. Whether or not you agree with the ending, to attack an author, and to say the things that have been said to her…its just ridiculous and absolutely immature. A book is an author’s baby, the same way a painting is to an artist or a song is to a musician. Whether you like a book or not, you should never attack it or the author.

Which brings me to this point: who are you to say that you know better than the author, the creator of the world and the characters? My friend Paulina said something, like, people get confused on the differences between a bad book and a book that simply does not end the way you wish it to. I think that happened a lot with this. People expected it to end a certain way…they wanted to be surprised, shocked, they knew it would break their hearts, but I’m sure everyone expected Fourtris (Four and Tris, for those not in the know) to live together happily ever after. Don’t they always? But they don’t, and I think a lot of anger comes from that.

Look, these are Veronica’s characters and she can tell the story, and treat them as she sees fit. And you don’t have to agree with that. One of my contributors is not a fan of the ending, but the way in which she handled her disappointment and dislike was done in an incredibly mature way. You may not like what Veronica has done with her characters and that’s okay! I’m not saying you’re wrong. I disagree with that, but we are allowed to disagree.

What I do disagree with is the disrespect being shown to Veronica Roth and her books, the amount of hate mail she is getting, the threats and the all around immaturity that I’m seeing from readers. I have seen one person on Twitter, tweeting Veronica incessantly, offering payment for a better ending to the book. That’s just ridiculous. Handle this like a mature adult, accept that this is the ending of the series whether you enjoy it or not, and move on.

I could go on and on about this. Its not necessarily my job to convince you that I’m right and that the ending is a good one, even though it is in my own opinion. I was heartbroken, I cried, and I definitely will be reading the book again, eventually, after I get through my insane stack of books waiting for me to read.

My job is to convince you that we all need to be respectful when in regards to someone else’s work. We may not always like what we see or what we read or what we hear but this is someone’s hard work. Someone poured their soul and hard work and their heart into something like this and we cannot sit here and presume to know better than them. Veronica Roth wrote the book that she set out to write, and she obviously took the time to make sure that it was the right book and the right story, because quite a bit of time has passed since the release of Insurgent.

And here’s my last thing: if you don’t like the ending of Allegiant, write yourself some fan fiction and move on.