Author: Sara

Stuck in Love Movie Review

1 Comment

Stuck in Love

stuck-in-love-poster

Rated:

Rated R for language, treat teen drug and alcohol use, and some sexual content

Directed By:

Josh Boone

Cast:

Lily Collins, Logan Lerman, Nat Wolff, Jennifer Connelly, Greg Kinnear, Kristen Bell, Liana Liberato

Find the rest on IMDB here.

IMDB Movie Synopsis:

An acclaimed writer, his ex-wife, and their teenaged children come to terms with the complexities of love in all its forms over the course of one tumultuous year.

Okay, I thought that was possibly the lamest synopsis ever so here is mine: William Borgens (Kinnear) is a published author and he’s always taught his children to love books and to love writing. Three years ago, his wife (Connelly) cheated on him and left him for another man, and yet he still holds on to her. His children, Samantha (Collins) and Rusty (Wolff) are both effected by this, of course, in vastly different ways. Rusty is a hopeless romantic, pining after a troubled girl, Katy (Liberato), while Samantha is cynical and doesn’t believe in love, and pushes away the advances of Louis (Lerman). The story is a course of a year as all three of them experience the different stages of love and how they change in that year.

My Review:

First off, can I just comment on the fact that this movie was like my YA hero dream? You have Lily Collins who plays Clary in The Mortal Instruments, Logan Lerman who plays Percy in Percy Jackson and now Nat Wolff who plays Isaac in the upcoming The Fault in Our Stars movie. So that was enough to make me want to watch it. Then all these people online started watching it out of nowhere, and I thought, okay, I have to get on board with this.

And I absolutely LOVED this movie. It was such a beautiful movie and a great story. There is realism in every part of the story. The dad holding on to the cheating ex-wife and unable to move on, the cynical daughter unable to accept the ideas of love and a son who wants nothing more than to find that love. Watching those stories unfold, watching them all go through hurt and heartbreak and love and all of that, was just a beautiful thing to watch.

The thing about the characters is that Josh Boone doesn’t hold back on the intelligence of all of them. Every single one of them is extremely intelligent in their own way and I think that’s why makes watching them make the wrong decisions or take the wrong turns so addicting, and so compelling. I think every actor and actress here has a lot of heart and does an amazing job capturing their characters.

I think Logan Lerman brings around the kind of performance that he has in Perks of Being a Wallflower and I think that he can really stand out in these kind of roles. Lily Collins really shines, and I’m not just saying that because she’s absolutely beautiful and I have a crush on her. I adored her as Clary Fray, and I don’t think anyone else could have been Clary Fray but I think this is more of a winning role for her. She was absolutely beautiful in this movie, and I think she stood out big time.I think she is really the highlight of this movie.  This is the first time I’ve ever seen Nat Wolff in anything besides pictures that John Green puts up of the TFiOS set, and he really captured my attention and my affection in this movie. He plays the awkward, sincere and lovable Rusty so well and I can’t imagine that he won’t be able to capture Isaac as well.

I love the adults as well, don’t get all cranky at me. I think the adults were an important part of the movie, especially Kinnear and Connelly as the parents. They were there, they had their own story to figure out but their story was so reflective on the stories that we got between Samantha and Louis and Rusty and Katy. I think that was the important part.

The music? Beautiful. There was just this indie sort of feel to it, combined with some songs that were recognizable. The music just seemed to fit so well with the movie and the story.

Loved the Stephen King cameo. I’m just saying.

I also just…I felt a real connection to how everything was just so wrapped in books and writing. William is a writer and he has inspired his children with books and writing. Samantha is about to become a published author (I had a mini fangirl attack at the thought of Lily Collins being an aspiring novelist), and Rusty is obsessed with Stephen King and with writing stories. Louis is a writer. The love that connects them all through stories and books was something that I couldn’t help but feel connected to. As a lover of books and of words and of writing on paper, I couldn’t help but understand how a book and a story could bring people together, whether it was a family or two people in love.

The only reason the movie doesn’t get 5 out of 5 is the predictability. It is a very predictable movie. It was beautiful and enjoyable to those with a hopeless romantic heart, who love to see pretty bows at the end of a movie about love (not in books though. I’m seriously sadistic when it comes to books…) but I love seeing romance. But you can almost predict what is going to happen in the end, and that might deter some people from liking it. But for me, it is still a wonderful story, and one that you enjoy even if you can already guess the ending.

Rating:

4 out of 5

*     *     *     *     *

Fan of the Week-Michelle!

Leave a comment

Michelle

IMG_3301Michelle with Nicolas Flamel author, information pills Michael Scott

Age: 34, this web from Houston, Texas

How She Found this Blog and Her Favorite Parts of It:

A friend of mine had shared your blog and I started reading it from there.  I believe I went through 50% of the blog post in a day.  I connect well with the writing style.  The majority of the books that are reviewed are books I will read and on my “to read” list.  I am a big fan of the Top Ten Tuesday posts.  I tend to list things in top 5 lists (influenced by High Fidelity).  So a Top 10 makes a lot of sense to me.

Her Favorite Fandoms:

This list is so long.  Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Supernatural, Firefly/Serenity, The Mortal Instruments/The Infernal Devices, The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, Percy Jackson, and my biggest (or at least the one I obsess about most) Copper.  Any question about any of these you have not heard of I am happy to introduce you or offer a shoulder once you get involved.  :)

Her Favorite Quotes:

“Greatness starts with every day boring stuff.  It’s how you approach it that matters.”  Francis Maguire-Copper

“Insanity is contagious.”  Joseph Heller-Catch-22 

“I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”  Ayn Rand

“Hearts are breakable, but even when you heal, you’re never what you were before.” -Cassandra Clare

Two Interesting Facts About Her:

I have 8 tattoos (9 if you count my matching wrist tattoos separately).
I have always been a book-a-holic.  All through high school I read classics and Shakespeare.  The Harry Potter series changed that.  I started reading more of the young adult genre.  It just entertains me so much.  I still love my classics but I love my YA more.

You Can Find Her On:

Instagram and Twitter 

*      *      *      *      *

Thanks Michelle for being this week’s Fan of the Week!

If you’re interested in being the Fan of the Week, find out how here!

Tuesday Top Ten – Must Read Book Releases of the Fall

Leave a comment

There are SO many books coming out this fall that I honestly don’t know if I’m going to be able to keep up! I already have a stack of books on my table my bed, and about 20-something books on my Kindle that need to be read, and I’m just NEVER going to catch up haha.

But despite that, there are a TON of books coming out this fall that I am insanely excited for, and these ten are ones that I will definitely be picking up.

Continue reading →

Tuesday Top Ten-Must Read Book Releases of the Fall

Leave a comment

There are SO many books coming out this fall that I honestly don’t know if I’m going to be able to keep up! I already have a stack of books on my table my bed, and about 20-something books on my Kindle that need to be read, malady and I’m just NEVER going to catch up haha.

But despite that, there are a TON of books coming out this fall that I am insanely excited for, and these ten are ones that I will definitely be picking up.

Continue reading →

Half Blood Book Review

6 Comments

Half Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

9680718

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, information pills and the children of two Hematoi pure bloods have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals–well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures. Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden. Unfortunately, she’s crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn’t her biggest problem–staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.

My Review:

I absolutely love the Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I do. I remember feeling really apprehension about buying it because I didn’t like the cover, and some people had said it was too romantic and mushy but I ended up really liking, and I think a big part of that was the fact that the main character, Katy, was a book blogger, and Daemon was a hot alien who reminded me of Jace Wayland. But I do enjoy the series, and I eagerly await the final installment.

That being said, I’ve had quite a few people bugging me to read her other series, the Covenant series, for awhile now, some of them a little more demanding than others (I’m looking at you, Erin and Eilidh). I read a lot of books os it was on my “to-read” list but I just couldn’t make time for it. Then yesterday, for some reason, even though I have a huge stack of books to read, I decided to pick up the first in the series, Half Blood.

I finished it last night.

I think I’m already way more in love with this series than I am with the Lux series. and I do genuinely love that series. But oh my god, Half Blood absolutely blew me away. There’s something different that Jennifer Armentrout captures in these novels that I just don’t think comes across in Lux, and its just a great book. I immediately went to my friend, and was like “I’m broke, help me find the others” and she lent me the second one on Kindle, which I am EAGERLY waiting to read once I’m done reviewing it all for you.

The main character, Alexandria who goes by Alex, is just a seriously awesome character. She is so, excuse the language, but badass. She’s a fighter, she has a tough attitude and she’s stubborn as all hell. She has to prove that she is worth to stay at the Covenant and she has to work hard to prove that, but her temper and her stubbornness gets in the way of that sometimes and it makes you love her as a character. I hate perfect characters that always tend to do the right thing, and even when they do the wrong thing, its because they were trying to do the right thing. Alex is a very real character, and she has her own doubts and ideas and she gets distracted and she flies off the handle and she doesn’t always do the right thing, and I absolutely love that. I love that you’re so in her head that you feel her confidences and her doubts and her emotions. She feels so real to you.

I love all the other characters as well. Seth is pretty interesting and I’m curious to see how the interactions between him and Alex continue in the future of the books. I can’t say much more than that about him because it would be wicked spoiler like. I adore Aidan, because well, you’re totally supposed because he’s super hot, and a badass fighter and Alex is mad about him, and yeah, now I’m mad about him. Caleb is a fun character, who I wish I had as my best friend. There are so many characters, and even if you only see them for so long, you know them. That’s a mark of Jennifer L. Armentrout. She creates these massive worlds but she builds all the characters to seem real, and she does it so quickly.

I really enjoyed the story, and really whipped through it. Its a very different view of the whole demigod idea, which is a popular choice of story telling in the past few years but its interesting to see the different approaches that you get and I really like this one. I think its interesting how there’s almost a hierarchy based on if you’re a pure blood or a half blood, and even when you’re a half blood, whether you’re a servant or a Sentinel. Its so interesting which makes me believe that there’s going to be way more to this story than just Alex’s struggles but perhaps the struggle between the different classes of demigods. It should be super interesting. Now, I’m going to urge all of you to go read this book, so I can stop writing this review and go read the second one!

Rating:

5 out of 5 stars