Beautiful Creatures Trailer

I have been seeing this trailer on a number of blogs recently. I have not read this book yet, but if the trailer to the film is anything to go by, this is will be the next book I read, it looks really good!! Just in case you have missed the trailer have a look below...

Excited!!!

Beautiful Creatures

A Bad Lip Reading

I stumbled across these on Cuddlebuggery Book Blog and they caused me some weird looks at work when I was laughing out loud! I wanted to share the love and introduce you to the Bad Lip Readings of Twilight and the Hunger Games. I think my personal favourite line is from Twilight "Dude, you slapped a fish..."

You are welcome!

Revolution S01E01: Pilot

After watching the first episode of Revolution last night I felt that I really wanted to get my feelings about it down and share them with you all. I received a text from my fellow TV addict and friend while I was out this evening saying that "OK, Revolution is ace. The Dad from Twilight is amazing!" Scott, I am impressed that you knew he was the Dad from Twilight!! Also a recommendation from Scott is usually a guaranteed win, so I watched it as soon as I was in my front door!

I knew that there was a new TV show coming out that JJ Abrams was involved in, but I had no idea what it was or what it would be about. I have to admit that I have never been a huge fan of Elizabeth Mitchell, so I started off a little bit weary. As soon as all of the electronics shut down however I started to feel the dread building in the pit of my stomach (because lets face it I would last 2 seconds without electricity) and I knew I had to keep watching. Also by this time we had caught a glimpse of Mr Hot Australian Doctor from ER (or him that was in the show with the Cape that no one watched (except for you and me Scott!!)) and there was no way I was turning it off, I had to know if he survived... did he get hit by a rogue plane falling from the sky?

Tracy Spiridakos

So we know that this is set 15 years after the blackout which gives all of the characters time to find their place in this new society. Quickly we are introduced to the main character who is an adventurous, risk taking girl, who is reminiscent of some of my favourite YA heroines. I could see elements of Tris from Divergent in the character of Charlie, who is played by Tracy Spiridakos. This character seems totally flawed in that she is a bit flighty, emotional and a bit of a bitch to her Dad's girlfriend... I like her. She has been given the weighty task of traveling to Chicago to find her Uncle who in turn will help to find her brother who has been kidnapped by the militia.

This is a fairly simple sounding task, but in a world where society's have crumbled and we are left with a certain lawlessness that is reminiscent of Deadwood, this is a daunting task. My one annoyance about the pilot episode was how little bother they had travelling from their little village to a heavily populated city. Even in Firefly, where there was some semblance of a governing body, making a trip across SPACE (I mean there is loads of it) was really risky. Also we all know growing up with ANY of the versions of Robin Hood that there are, travelling through the forest is dangerous, they hide in the bushes... I'm not sure who, just gangs of outlaws. Also I'm not good at geography, and it seemed at the beginning that they might live close to Chicago, but they got there very fast. A couple of days and they were there, around all the obstacles like flooded lakes, roads broken and unusable due to disrepair and broken bridges. It seemed like and easy journey, if it was going to be so east why had no one gone before now?

You're Welcome!

With all this said I loved it, there was the dystopian society where everyone is back to the dark ages and the storyline of fighting for your family's honor,. I also did not mind Billy Burke's awesome and crazy re-enaction of The Bride fighting the Crazy 88 in Kill Bill. He is a total badass with a sword. Oh yeah, there were also the scenes with Billy Burke in candle light and Billy Burke making some kind of moonshine... he is my kind of man!!

I am looking forward to seeing where the story goes next now that we are set up ready to get stuck in to some good plot arcs. I certainly already have some questions I want answered and I am sure there will be more as this goes on. I hope the rest of the series lives up to the pilot.

Review: Airhead by Meg Cabot

Title: Airhead
Author: Meg Cabot
Published: 13th May 2008
Publisher: Point
Series: Airhead #1
Source: Own Copy

EM WATTS IS GONE.
Emerson Watts didn’t even want to go to the new SoHo Stark Megastore grand opening. But someone needed to look out for her sister, Frida, whose crush, British heartthrob Gabriel Luna, would be singing and signing autographs there—along with the newly appointed Face of Stark, teen supermodel sensation Nikki Howard.

How was Em to know that disaster would strike, changing her—and life as she’d known it—forever? One bizarre accident later, and Em Watts, always the tomboy, never the party princess, is no longer herself. Literally.

I have had this book sitting in my TBR pile for so long. I'm not sure initially why I didn't pick it up, but recently I was looking for something easy going and light hearted, this book checked all the boxes for me. This is the story of Emerson Watts who, after being involved in a fatal accident, finds herself waking up as teen supermodel Nikki Howard.

Emerson Watts is such a likeable character that you can't help sympathising with her. OK so she is now living life as Nikki Howard, teen supermodel who is rich and fabulous, but you can't help but think it's not all it appears to be. We get a good sense early on that Em is not the kind of girl who fawns over celebrity and would much rather be playing a computer game or watching a documentary than doing her nails or putting on a face mask. So living a life where she has to worry about buffing her lips and waxing is difficult for her and this collision of cultures makes for some very funny situations.

The basic premise of this story, and the whole trilogy, is a mystery revolving around the big bad, The Stark corporation, and why Em Watts is now Nikki Howard. The mystery is never taken to "out there" proportions however there was a good dose of the unexpected to keep you on your toes.

This book is full of humour. It's not too thought provoking or groundbreaking, but it is fun. I read it really quickly, in only a couple of hours. This was my first Meg Cabot book and I think it will be the start of a beautiful friendship / fangirl - author relationship.

I am still here, I swear!!

Hello, is anyone still out there? I have been very absent recently, not because I don't love you all, I have just been really busy and something was going to suffer... well a few things suffered, but let's not dwell on all of the things I've not got round to doing in the past few months.

So you may well ask what I have been doing to keep myself so busy. What an excellent question, and one I was hoping you wouldn't ask!!

After a very successful run as assistant director on Six Degrees of Separation, I was approached to be AD on another two projects. The first of which was Nobody Will Ever Forgive Us which ran for a week in the Edinburgh Fringe.

Nobody Will Ever Forgive Us

"I was in this very room at my wits' end when I heard buzzing and there was a wasp trying to get out of that window. You know how I can't stand wasps. So I opened the window as wide as I could but it just kept bumping up and down the glass...How could it comprehend me, whose brain is hundreds of times the size of its whole body? How do you know you're not bumping against the glass?"
A family thrown together with a secret they'd rather forget.
So Dad drinks. Mum and daughter Cath pop pills. Their youngest son, Patrick, finds god. And their youngest son, Johnny, finds snooker.

But when the secrets are dug up, there's nowhere to hide.
Premiered at the Traverse in 2008 and written by leading Scottish actor turned writer, Paul Higgins, Nobody Will Ever Forgive Us is a darkly comic look at a family under siege.
In an endles quest for meaning, where do you turn when you can't forgive yourself?

We were over the moon to find out that, not only did this play go down really well, but we won an award for it!! Yay! You can read about us winning the "Spirit Of The Fringe Award" here.

My next project (which may be my last so I can rest) will be Richard III set in the 1930's. Work has only just started on this and I am finding it all very exciting. I will keep you updated on this as we make progress.

The other thing taking up my time over the last few weeks was a well needed holiday to Barcelona. Me and my amazing best friend (commonly referred to as my wife!) spent 10 days splitting our time between visiting friends in Barcelona and laying on the beach in Salou. We were lucky visiting our friend in Barcelona while the Gracia Festival was in full swing. This is where the streets of Gracia are decorated and all compete to be the best. There is also live music at night with different bands playing in every street and mojitos being served out of the windows of the bars until the wee hours of the morning. I think we called it a night (or passed out) a little after 4am. To see some pictures you can check out my best friend Bug's website at Style over Sense, or check out the ones I have posted below.

Catch up with you all soon!!

Me and my BFF

May TV: The Good

For anyone that has met me you will know that in addition to being obsessed with books, I am also obsessed with TV shows. I particularly like American TV shows, and I love shows with characters who are privileged high school students or who are transplanted somewhere out of their comfort zone. Mostly I will watch anything as long as there are a few hot guys for me to drool over.

This month we have been seeing the season end for a number of shows, and the actual end for a couple. So over the next few days I will share are my thoughts on what I saw as the good, the bad and the downright awful.

First The Good:

Hart of Dixie

Hart of Dixie Season 1

Our very own Summer Roberts (Rachel Bilson) from the OC is all grown up and finally found her path! She did not continue on the eco-warrior track, instead she is now a doctor called Zoe Hart. That's right and not only that, she's a surgeon, only problem is that to get the fellowship she wants she needs to improve her bedside manner and is told to spend some time working as a G.P. Where better to do this than a million miles away from New York City, where she lives, and uproot to Bluebell Alabama.

In Bluebell she meets the resident mean girl Lemon Breeland (Jamie Fox) and mayor Lavon Hayes, or as I like to think of him Mr Miranda Bailey (Cress Williams) from Grey's Anatomy!! Any good CW show would not be complete without some guy-candy to drool over, and who is that I see over there? Is that Street (Scott Porter) from Friday Night Lights? Why yes it is and he has managed to get up out his wheelchair to be all hot and sexy as the small town layer. I have saved the best for last, we have the delicious Wade Kinsella (Wilson Bethel). I don't actually recognise him from anything else however he has quite an extensive IMDB page and even appeared in an episode of the OC!! Here is a sample of some of his skills...

Wade

The premise for this show is quite simple with the girl from New York being transplanted to a small town in Alabama. For me the balance of medical problems and the everyday dramas was just right. Top that off with Zoe's Dad being the awesome Gary Cole and you have a winner for me. The series has just finished their first season in the US and let me tell you it was an amazing ending. I had to watch it a couple of times, you know just to check I had not missed anything. I almost melted my eyeballs out!! I am so happy that this has been picked up for a second season, but did the CW really have to leave us hanging?

Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl Season 5

Oh lordy... what a season. There was so much going on that one week this would be on the good list, then the awful list and then the list of programmes that are so bad, they are kind of amazing! I feel that Gossip Girl just managed to scrape itself onto the good list. This season caused a few heated discussions in the office and some amazingly hilarious impressions of Elizabeth Hurley building her "media empire". I do hope we see her again next season.

Trying to list everything that happened to each character this season was quite a challenge so I will highlight my favourite things. Blair had her wild romance with a random prince and became a princess for about 5 minutes before running of with Dan. This was shortly after Dan wrote a book, published his book and sold the movie rights, all to have it wash down the drain and lose him all of his friends (for 5 minutes). Before the wedding pregnant Blair and Chuck were going to run away together and were in a car accident. Poor Blair lost her baby and Chuck was in a coma (for 5 minutes).

Georgina Sparks

My favourite ever character, Dawn Summers, sorry I mean Harriet the Spy, no that's not it, I mean Georgina Sparks, came back!! She showed up as Gossip Girl and was totally awesome before deciding it was too much for her and handing over the honour to Serena who was Gossip Girl for 5 minutes and messed up everyone's life. Grandma Van Der Woodsen (Cece Rhodes) passed away after being conned into thinking that Ivy-Charlie was her granddaughter. Lola-Charlie turned up in the hospital and ruined all that!! Nate tried to run a media empire while Elizabeth Hurley danced around him in some very revealing dresses and running her prostitution ring on the side. The whole season finished with Serena running away to become a coke head and Blair running off with Chuck!! The whole thing is so fantastical it's amazeballs! I am actually pleased that next season is the last, this craziness needs to be over, but am I the only one who misses Jenny?

The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries Season 3

You have to love the CW for their amazing programming, and as crazy as The Vampire Diaries gets I just love watching it!! I think the cast is what makes this such a joy for me, I just love watching my husband, sorry, I mean Ian Somerhalder working. Ever since watching Young Americans (anyone else love that programme?) I have been a little in awe of him. No man should be that pretty!! Sometimes some of the yummy yummy eye candy also get lines that just make you want to slow clap for them.

This season has held a few treats for us. One being The Originals. I love them, even the creepy ones!! We have the parents; psychopathic vampire – vampire hunter, Michael and psychopathic witch – I want to kill my kids, Esther. Speaking of Esther’s darling children, we have; psychopathic Klaus, psychopathic Rebekah, not so psychopathic Elijah, and the unimpressive Kol and Finn (did they do anything other than die?). I think I have a bit of a crush on Elijah and in my opinion he could have been given much more screen time! We also found out that when the Originals are killed with the magic stakes EVERY SINGLE vampire from their bloodline dies!! NOOOOO!! This gives us a few problems as killing off the psychopathic kids could result in the death of one of my beloved pretty people... as long as it is not Sefan, Damon or Tyler!

Alaric was wonderfully tragic this season and his demise made me weep, how could they kill off such an awesome vampire hunter? I know he was half evil but he was also awesome when he was evil! Elena sent Jeremy away (no Jeremy come back) and then she came to her senses and brought him back. Through Jeremy’s Ghost Whisperer style powers we also had a lovely little visit from Rose! Rose, we missed you and it must be nice being a Vampire again away from all of those zombies!!

Rebekah looks bored torturing Damon

Finally Elena made the right choice and chose Damon (thank god!), well they had a pretty good snog anyway. Damon... we had a good few topless incidents, what a shame his shirt is torn off so much! I found Stefan to be rather annoying this season and wished he would go away so that Elena could get it on with Damon! I guess the producers realised that he was annoying and brought his real life wife in as Dr. Meredith Fell, or as I like to refer to her Pregnant sister from Pretty Little Liars!! To top off the season we had Elena turning vampire on us!! I have enjoyed this season so much which was enriched with the amazing episode recaps over at Forever Young Adult, I bow to them. I can't wait to see what is in store for next season, I am hoping for a lot more naked Damon action.

GCB

GCB Season 1

I am so sad this has been cut down in its prime. This series was everything I dreamed that Texas is. Big and showy and full of kickass women including the pint sized Kristin Chenoweth. Unfortunately the powers that be have decided to cancel this after only 1 season so we will never know what will happen between Amanda (Leslie Bibb) and the hot priest. Will Carlene (Chenoweth) ever get her affordable houses for Christian living off the ground? How many purses does Gigi (Annie Potts) store her guns in? And has Sharon (Jennifer Aspen) really lost control of "Eating With Jesus"? How is business going at the Booby Barn?

The Good Christian Bitches

I am sad, so I will leave you with the above awesome picture while I go off, cry for a while and try to buy the book online.


Feel free to have you own say below! Next up the programs I thought were just plain bad...

Cover Reveal: Stormdancer

Recently the cover for Stormdancer, the first in this Japanese Steampunk series, has been released to the public. I think the cover is beautiful and gives a better idea of what the book is about compared to the UK cover, but I think the UK cover is a bit more public transport friendly. I am so excited to read this book, I hope it's as good as it looks!

Title: Stormdancer
Author: Jay Kristoff
Published: 18th September 2012
Publisher: Thomas Dunne books/St Martin’s PressSeries: The Lotus War #1

And the previously released UK cover -

A DYING LAND
The Shima Imperium is verging on the brink of environmental collapse; decimated by clockwork industrialization and the machine-worshippers of the Lotus Guild. The skies are red as blood, land choked with toxic pollution, wildlife ravaged by mass extinctions.
AN IMPOSSIBLE QUEST
The hunters of the imperial court are charged by their Shōgun to capture a thunder tiger—a legendary beast, half-eagle, half-tiger. But any fool knows thunder tigers have been extinct for more than a century, and the price of failing the Shōgun is death.
A SIXTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL
Yukiko is a child of the Fox clan, possessed of a hidden gift that would see her executed by the Lotus Guild. Accompanying her father on the Shōgun’s hunt, she finds herself stranded: a young woman alone in Shima’s last wilderness, with only a furious, crippled thunder tiger for company. Even though she can hear his thoughts, even though she saved his life, all she knows for certain is he’d rather see her dead than help her.
But together, the pair will form an indomitable friendship, and rise to challenge the might of an empire. - From Goodreads

So what do you think. Do you prefer one cover over the other and are you excited for this? Japanese lore and Steampunk, can this book live up to the hype?