Movie Review- Beautiful Creatures

I normally don’t review movies here. Actually I think this is my first ever lol! But I adore Kami and Margie and their success in the publishing world; as well as the world of film and it made me want to post this for them. Because this movie was awesome!

I was lucky to get passes to an early premiere showing in my hometown last night (I went with my friends Mindy, Tiffany, Jacs, and my mom who loves Kami and Margie) and it was super cool since the premiere was happening in LA too! So yep I got to see the movie a week early and I know for sure I will be going to see this one again in the theater!

Me and Mindy at the theater in our "I'm A Beautiful Creature" t-shirts thanks to Little Brown!

If you've read the book Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl you should go into this knowing that no movies are the same as the books. But this came as close as close as you can get. I mean the book was a behemoth so they couldn't fit everything into the movie but they got the important parts and characters in there! I know some of you book purists won’t be happy with some of the things they left out but it didn’t bother me and trust me I complained a lot during The Hunger Games, all the Twilight movies, and The Harry Potter ones. But honestly I didn’t even miss the things missing in Beautiful Creatures and that’s saying a lot especially as this movie was 2 and a half hours long!

I was really surprised by Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert who played Ethan and Lena. When they were cast I didn't know who they were and I was worried that they wouldn't do these characters justice but they did. And more! I absolutely fell in love with Alden he was the perfect Ethan! And seeing Alice as Lena on the big screen made me feel like I got to know her better something I actually didn’t get from the book since the book was from Ethan's POV but seeing them both on the big screen together even though it was Ethan's story I felt like it was both of theirs!

I loved Jeremy Irons as Macon and Viola Davis as Amma. I do have to admit Emma Thompson who played Mrs. Lincoln / Sarafine stole the whole show! That woman was amazing she is such a brilliant actress!

The movie itself was brilliantly filmed the effects weren't cheesy and the location was gorgeous! I am really looking forward to another movie in this franchise because with that ending and we know there are 4 books there just has to be more!

Blogaversary Giveaway!!!!!

December 30^th was our one year blogaversary and we wanted to celebrate with you all! Thanks so much for following us and becoming some of our favorite people out there! As a thank you for making our blogging experience amazing we decided to have a giveaway and this one’s bigger than anything we’ve ever done! What’s up for grabs? Well there’s a bunch so here it goes!

There will be 4 winners!

Grand Prize winner will receive their choice of 6 of the books from this list the 2^nd prize winner will get 5, 3rd place will get 3 books and, 4th place will get 2! All winners will also get swag!

ARC’s:

Shatter Me- Tahereh Mafi

Daughter of Smoke and Bone- Laini Taylor

Tempest- Julie Cross

A Million Suns Beth Revis

Away- Terri Hall

Half Blood- Jennifer L. Armentrout
Slide- Jill Hathaway

Finished Copies:

Merlin’s Harp- Anne Eliot Crompton

Bloody Valentine- Melissa de la Cruz

Another Faust- Daniel Nayeri & Dina Nayeri

Claire de Lune- Christine Johnson

My Soul to Steal- Rachel Vincent


****UPDATE*****


The awesome Cyndi Tefft author of Between has donated an ebook to the giveaway as well as Jennifer Sommersby she's donating an ebook of Sleight! The amazing author Tiffany King has also given us a signed copy of Meant To Be and Forgotten Souls

The Grand Prize winner will also receive a poster signed by all the authors that attended the Smart Chicks Tour in Seattle October 2011! The attendees were Melissa Marr, Melissa de la Cruz, Kelley Armstrong, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Rachel Caine, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Sophie Jordan, Stephanie Kuehnert, Richelle Mead, Jeri Smith-Ready, Margaret Stohl, and Rachel Vincent.

Not only that but the grand prize and the second place winner will receive an Epic Reads sling backpack!

The giveaway is closed winners will be notified shortly. (Please see our giveaway policy for rules). Good luck!

Hugs and good luck Jaime and Patricia! 


US only sorry guys sorry but international shipping is too expensive :\

Jaime's Trip to The Smart Chicks Kick It Tour and The Northwest Book Festival

This weekend I got to fly up to Seattle, WA (Kirkland actually) for The Northwest Book Festival who hosted The Smart Chicks Kick it Tour. It was a beautiful cool overcast Washington weekend which was awesome because it has been pretty warm here in Nor-Cal. Mindy from Magical Urban Fantasy Reads, her friend Tiffany, and my mom who is a huge Jeri Smith-Ready fan flew up from Sacramento as well.

The festival is pretty small and it seemed to be mostly indie and self published authors but I did get to meet one of my favorite indie’s Cyndi Tefft who wrote the amazing book Between if you’d like to know more check out my review HERE. Cyndi signed my very own copy of Between, I sat in on a panel she was on, and we had an awesome time! Then my Saturday wound down so mom and I went to see Moneyball which was AWESOME I’m an Oakland A’s fan so I knew it would be but even if you’re not I suggest seeing that movie Brad Pitt was perfect as Billy Beane!!!

Sunday rolled around and the sun was shining it was a perfect day for the big event! We had breakfast at The Original Pancake House which if you’re ever in Kirkland and want some great grub eat there the food was fantastic! Then we headed over to the Teen Union Building where the Smart Chicks event was to be held; we met up with Kristina from kristina-worldofbooks who is a WA native and fellow blogger that I was really excited to meet! I also got to hang out with Tera Lynn Childs who wasn’t on the panels but drove over to visit. The Smart Chicks arrived shortly after us and my mom went kinda photo happy so most of the pics in the slide show are hers ;) The authors that attended this year were Melissa Marr, Melissa de la Cruz, Kelley Armstrong, Jeri Smith-Ready, Rachel Vincent, Rachel Caine, Richelle Mead, Sophie Jordan, Margaret Stohl, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Nina Kirkiri Hoffman, Sara Zarr, and Stephanie Kuehnert. There were so many of them they actually split up into two panels so we had about an hour and a half with each group to ask questions and hear funny stories. Then the signing started and I thought last year’s Smart Chicks event was crazy but this one topped it. I didn’t even get all my books signed I would have missed my plane but, Mindy and Kristina were more than happy to help out and get the rest of my books signed and will send them to me! Thanks ladies BIG HUGS!!!!! Oh one more thing before the slide show. Last year I went to the Smart Chicks event in Menlo Park, CA and this was before we had the blog. I can honestly say after that event one year ago was when I started to really want to start a blog and a big reason why I did so thank you Smart Chicks you have a loyal follower and friend here and I will always make your events!! Much love –Jaime

Ok and now the slide show I hope you enjoy!!!!!! 

Mom took some video with her new camera so I thought I’d share one of those clips My #TeamKilt girls will like this clip since it's Jeri talking ;) ;)

Thanks for letting me share my weekend with you I’ll have more fun event stuff to post after October 9^th when Patricia and I go to the Becca Fitzpatrizk and Michelle Hodkin signing and then in April when I (and hopefully Patricia) go to the Romantic Times Book Lovers Convention in Chicago!