Psst! Hey! Hey you! If you're local in Metro Detroit Michigan, I have an awesome giveaway for you! While supplies last, grab your pair of tickets to the promotional screening of The Light Between Oceans!  Have you read the book and now you want to see the adaptation?  This is the perfect opportunity! No entering required. First come, first serve. I have 25 sets of tickets attached to my giveaway link below.  The promotional screening will be on Tuesday, 8/30 at MJR Troy Grand Digital Cinema 16​ at 7pm!

This book has been on my TBR list for what seems like forever.  I'm currently listening to the audiobook and my review of both the book and the movie are coming soon!  Check out the movie preview below, you too will be trying to finish the book before the movie comes out!

Happy Reading,
~Tamara

Hey friends,

Today I have a combo for you, a book and movie adaptation review rolled into one! I listened to If I Stay on audio in December and I had a chance to check out the movie as well! Be sure to watch the coordinating video on my Book Tube channel!

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile 
Release Date: April 9, 2009
Format: Audio MP3
Pages: Hardcover: 201 pages/ Audio Length: Approx 5 hours
Narrator: Kirsten Potter
Source: Library Borrow
Genre: YA Contemporary
Review Date: February 4, 2015
Rating: 3 bookmarks


Synopsis: Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?

Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters.

If I Stay is the first of a book duology by Gayle Foreman.  Overall I enjoyed the book. I liked that the main character Mia was so smart and talented, I liked how she was able to pull strength from memories of her family and friends and move past the horrific accident that changed her life.  The story was complete with its mere 201 pages, and that’s always good.  When the book is so short sometimes I wonder if the story is fully fleshed out, but it is in this case Foreman did a good job telling a story without dragging it out. Not many authors can do that successfully.  While there were aspects that I enjoyed in the story, I did find it a little slow at times.  

I listened to this on audio, and again, I overall liked it. The narrator did a good job, unfortunately the narrator didn't help the pacing of the story.  At this point, I’m unsure if I will continue on with Where She Went, which is the second book in the duology. If I do, I'll probably read it instead of listening on audio.  Maybe that will make a difference.
  
While this book wasn't my favorite, it was okay and I liked it enough. If you enjoy young adult contemporary novels, this may be a good option for you to check out. 

Hey friends,

Today I'm doing a collaboration with Tiffany from Angelized 1st.  With the Halloween release of Horns staring Daniel Radcliffe, we decided to both read Horns by Joe Hill and view the movie.  Visit Tiffany's blog to follow Daniel Radcliffe’s movie journey from Hogwarts to Horns. Below you'll find my review of Horns the book and my opinion on the movie adaptation. 

You can also find Tiffany on Twitter, Tumblr, Goodreads and her YouTube channel!  Don't forget to drop if and read Tiffany's post!

Publisher: William Morrow | HarperCollins e-books 
Release Date: First published January 1, 2010
Format: Kindle
Pages: 466 pages
Source: Amazon
Genre: Horror
Review Date: October 30, 2014
Rating: 4 bookmarks

Synopsis:At first Ig thought the horns were a hallucination, the product of a mind damaged by rage and grief. He had spent the last year in a lonely, private purgatory, following the death of his beloved, Merrin Williams, who was raped and murdered under inexplicable circumstances. A mental breakdown would have been the most natural thing in the world. But there was nothing natural about the horns, which were all too real.

Once the righteous Ig had enjoyed the life of the blessed: born into privilege, the second son of a renowned musician and younger brother of a rising late-night TV star, he had security, wealth, and a place in his community. Ig had it all, and more—he had Merrin and a love founded on shared daydreams, mutual daring, and unlikely midsummer magic.

But Merrin’s death damned all that. The only suspect in the crime, Ig was never charged or tried. And he was never cleared. In the court of public opinion in Gideon, New Hampshire, Ig is and always will be guilty because his rich and connected parents pulled strings to make the investigation go away. Nothing Ig can do, nothing he can say, matters. Everyone, it seems, including God, has abandoned him. Everyone, that is, but the devil inside. . . .

Now Ig is possessed of a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look—a macabre talent he intends to use to find the monster who killed Merrin and destroyed his life. Being good and praying for the best got him nowhere. It’s time for a little revenge. . . . It’s time the devil had his due. . . .

What I can say with absolute certainty is that this book is memorable.  Every chapter, every page, things just got more and more shocking. Ig and Merrin were a true idealistic love story that crash and burned in the worst way possible. We watch Ig and Merrin fall in love and we watch the relationship crumble. Merrin is murdered and while not put to trail or convinced, Ig is the number one suspect in everyone's eyes. After a night of drinking that he can't remember Ig wakes up with horns and his whole world shifts. With these horns people blurt out to him every bad thought and secret that they would never normally speak aloud. Ig can also touch them and see everything that that they've ever done, the horrible things anyway.

This book is dark, it's screwed up, and it's hard to put down.  Characters have tons of depth and they all evolve. Some for the worst and some for the better.  Ig is a good guy, for the most part all of these characters are good people in their teen years. They get good grades, they get accepted into Ivy league colleges, have internships in amazing and high places. They all seem like the quintessential New England middle upper class teens.  But there's always one rotten egg that spoils the bunch. You'll have to read the book to find out who and why!

I liked how everything was wrapped up at the end of the story and the revelations were compelling.  We find out why Ig and Merrin's relationship crumbled at the end, and it's sad. We find out who murdered, how and why. 

This was my first time reading Joe Hill, and it was a good experience. I'll be reading more from him.  I recently found out that Hill's father is Stephen King, go figure.  I had no clue, but once I knew that, I could see where the ability to weave a twisted story comes from. If you're up to reading something in this genre, I recommend giving Horns a try. 

Continue on to find out my thoughts of the movie adaptation of Horns.

What's BTMA? It stands for "book to movie adaptation". My BTMA reviews are done separately from the book review.

Movie Release Date: October 3, 2014
MPAA Rating: R
Watch Date: October 10, 2014
Rating: 5/5

If you have not read the book, then this review will be a little spoiler-ish. You've been warned.  

The movie Gone Girl features Ben Afleck as Nick Dunne and Rosamund Pike as Amy Dunne.  I must say that the casting choice was perfect.  I was a bit nervous when I first saw the choices, but I'm completely happy with it.  Nick's sister Margo and Amazing Amy's parents were also good choices. Actually the entire cast was spot on.  

As always, there were several notable changes from the book to the movie. With that said, those changes didn't take away from the story itself.  I think the biggest character change was that Tanner Bolt is black...and he has no wife.  In the book Tanner is white and has a black wife. I'm not sure why they changed that, but whatever. It was funny because Tanner's character in the movie did do a thing or two that his wife actually did in the book. 

What's BTMA?  It stands for "book to movie adaptation".  My BTMA reviews are done separately from the book review.

Movie Release Date: June 6, 2014
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for some violence and intense description of thematic material)
Watch Date: September 20, 2014
Rating: 4/5

This is an adaption of the book The Fault in Our Stars written by John Green. The two main characters are played by Shailene Woodley as Hazel and Ansel Elgort as Augustus. They are both teens with cancer, as I'd assume you already know.  I felt that this was a really good adaptation over all. Yes, there were a few changes, as one would expect, but nothing too outrageous.

It felt a little weird watching the same two actors that played siblings in Divergent act as boyfriend and girlfriend in this movie. It was weird, but by the end of the movie I seemed to be over it.

Everyone kept telling me to have a box of tissue handy. Well lucky me, I'm not the mushy type, not much anyways. I didn't cry at all....until the very end when Hazel gives her eulogy for Gus. That was pretty sad.  If you're a person that cries easily, then you should probably have a huge box of tissues handy.

Hey blogger and reader friends,

Happy Friday everyone. I decided to do the topic of choice today. It's a freebie for us to discuss whatever we like! Since I love going to the movies and comparing books to their movies, I thought this would be a great time to mention movies that I'm looking forward to for the remainder of this year. First up are the movies that I have already read and reviewed the books.  They are in order by release date.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.  The movie is in theaters on June 6th.  While I thought the book was good, I'm not rushing to see this in the theater for the plain fact that I don't want to be sad watching a movie that I'm paying to see. But I will indeed catch it when it's available for streaming.

Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. The movie is in theaters on October 3rd.  I just loved this thriller and the movie trailer actually looks promising! While I'm not sure about that weird song playing through the entire trailer, I won't let it put me off. Let's see if the movie can do justice to this crazy couple!

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.  The movie is in theaters on November 21st.  While the Mockingjay book was my least favorite in the trilogy, I still think that I will enjoy the movie adaptation.  The Hunger Games movies have been really good so far, so I expect nothing less from the Mockingjay Part 1.  

The following are movies that I haven't read the books yet, but I will before the movie is out. The trailers look really good!  They are in order by release date.

• Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. The movie will be out on September 1st.
  
• The Maze Runner by James Dashner. The movie will be in theaters on September 19th.
  

What new book to movie adaptations are you excited to see before the year is over?

Happy Reading, 
~Tamara

What's BTMA?  It stands for "book to movie adaptation".  My BTMA reviews are done separately from the book review.

Movie Release Date: March 21, 2014
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (For some violence and intense depiction of thematic material)
Watch Date: March 21, 2014
Rating: 5/5

I saw Divergent last night with my book club, and let me say this was a very, very good movie. Yes, things weren't perfect. Yes, there were inconsistencies from the book. But, even with those things present, the movie was still well done. The casting was impeccable. The movie makers picked some of the most exciting and relevant scenes from the book. The pace with amazing, even though the movie was nearly two and a half hours long, it didn't feel like it. It felt like I blinked, and it was over. I'm actually debating if I should see it again!

Of course no book to movie adaptation is perfect.  What could have been done better?  The relationship progression between Tris and Four was abrupt and the development of the relationship was lacking.  Also lacking is the formation of the friendship between Tris, Christina, Will, and their other initiates. They had a tight knit group and that vibe was not as prevalent as it could have been. 

What was done right?  Again, the casting was amazing. I won't cover each character, because there are too many. But I was very pleased with every actor/actress chosen for the roles. 

I liked that the history of the current situation was explained a bit and it was very clear how the factions work and what each of the belief systems are.  Even if you haven't read the book you'd still have a good understanding.

Even the level of brutality that the initiates experienced during Dauntless training was surprisingly vivid. There was one particular situation that was toned down a lot.  I have a guess as to why they altered that particular scene.  Most likely because they wanted to ensure that PG-13 rating!