beautiful creatures

We are starting this blog off with a bang! I am going to dive right into my first book review.

All opinions are my own, I received no compensation, yada yada yada :)

In honor of the release of the movie today, I am going to talk about the book Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

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Book: Beautiful Creatures

Authors: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Genre: Young Adult Paranormal

Series: Caster Chronicles

Pages: 563 (according to my kindle app)

I was very excited about reading this book, since I do love a good paranormal story. I actually became interested in this book because of the trailer for the movie, which almost never happens. I am one of those who thinks a movie can never do a book justice (the only exception: A Walk to Remember- the book was horrible compared to the movie adaption). But it looked interesting, and that's usually all it takes to get me to read a book.

The story is set in fictional Gatlin, South Carolina, a small southern town filled with small southern minds. The main character is a 16 year old boy named Ethan; he's popular, on the basketball team, but has recently lost his mother and his father is in a grief-stricken stupor. He's bored and tired of the same old routine in Gatlin when a mysterious new girl arrives in school. Her name is Lena Duchannes (doo-can), and she is the niece of the town's mysterious recluse, Macon Ravenwood. Ethan is instantly smitten with Lena, regardless of the opinions of his family and friends. Lena is considered an outsider, not from Gatlin, and therefore, dangerous. Little do the townspeople of Gatlin know that Lena is far more dangerous than they think. She comes from a family of casters, and her sixteenth birthday is looming in the distance.

 What will happen? 

Will she fight to remain Light, or be claimed for the Dark, as she fears?

 (I totally read the last two sentences in my mind in a deep movie announcer voice. Feel free to do the same)

This book reminded me quite a bit of Twilight. 

Before you groan and roll your eyes, know that I thought Twilight was a pretty good series until Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson ruined the characters forever (Does she have more than one facial expression? Sheesh). 

In my humble opinion, this book could have been a lot better than it was. I found myself getting bored halfway through. The story started becoming redundant, with waaaaay too much emphasis placed on the lovey-dovey stuff and not enough on the character development of the bad guy.

There's this huge countdown to Lena's birthday, because something horrible may happen. I found myself thinking, "who cares? can something interesting please happen?"

Now, this could be entirely because I am getting too old for teenage romance stories.

(Noooooo!)

At 25 years old with a baby, a husband, and laundry piling up all around me, I simply find it difficult to relate to a 16 year old falling in love for the first time. Shocking, I know. Maybe this should be a sign that I read more grown up books?

Nah.

I digress. My final opinion of Beautiful Creatures is that it is a decent book without a lot of plot or character development. This may because there are two writers, but I don't know. I would suggest reading this book only if you have nothing else on your reading list. It wasn't awful, but certainly was not great. 

Perhaps the movie will be better?

 Someone will have to let me know, since going to the movies is nowhere in my immediate future (with a 2 month old, and all).

a blog is born

Welcome! I'm so glad you've stumbled onto my little slice of the internet. This is my first foray into blogging, although I've been reading blogs for about a year now, and contemplating starting my own for a few months.

At first, I was hesitant- who would want to read about my life?

But then I figured, what the hay. As a brand spanking new stay at home mom, my creative outlets are few and far between. Even if no one ever reads this blog, at least I will be occupying my mind!

Which brings us to me, your narrator. Haha but really, I'm the narrator of my own life, I suppose. So here we go! I have been happily married to M for a year and a half, but we have been together for almost 8 years.

One of the happiest days of my life.

 We just had our first little bundle of joy! Little D is 2 months old, and the most amazing thing I have ever laid my eyes on. I quit my job to stay home with him, and it has been a big adjustment! Let's just say, you don't get a whole lot of human interaction when your days are filled with bottles, changing diapers, singing songs in the most annoying high-pitched voice you can muster, with spit up on your clothes, in your hair, down your back.. you get the picture.

Completely worth it. Every single second.

 Following blogs has always made me feel like I have a group of friends, even if that's not necessarily true haha! We just moved to a new town a few months ago, and making friends has been...challenging, to say the least. So I am excited to join this community of amazing women! I've been on the outside looking in for quite a while, so I'm ready to fully immerse myself in the blogging world!

My biggest passion in life is reading. My parents taught me to read at a very young age, and I've been obsessed ever since. There's nothing quite like leaving your life behind, and entering a world filled with new places, people, magic, fantasy, and sometimes, a sexy love scene or two ;-)

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I've always been told, write about what you know. And there's nothing that I know better than books! So, in addition to a smattering of random thoughts, my main focus in this blog will be to recommend and review books. I will read them, give you a short synopsis (no spoilers! I promise) and recommend some of my favorites.

So here we go!!! I hope you'll stick around! :)