It’s the end of the month! Time for another post on what I read and watched this month. I love this little series!
BOOKS
By Your Side by Kasie West
Rating: 4 stars
I was so excited to read a new book by one of my all time favorite authors. Unfortunately, this one didn’t hold up to the level of love I hold for her other books. It’s about a girl who accidentally gets trapped in the library for a long weekend and a boy who chose to hide out there on his own. I appreciate how they got to know each other over the days they were stuck, but I didn’t feel super connected to the characters. I feel like once they were out of the library there was almost no interaction between the two which is always frustrating. But nonetheless, I still give it 4 stars!
My (not so) Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella
Rating: 4.5 stars
I really enjoyed this book! It’s about a young woman who finds herself at her ideal job, working in marketing at a fancy agency in London. She has the “perfect” boss and changes so much about herself to try and fit the image she wants to portray. But throughout the book she learns a lot of lessons about what’s really most important in life and staying true to herself, her roots, her family. The book is full of humor, friendship, and a bit of romance. I loved everything about it!
Sugar by Kimberly Stuart
Rating: 3 Stars
The premise of this book sounded awesome, but it definitely wasn’t one of my favorites. A high level pastry chef moves across the country to work in an ex-boyfriend’s fancy new restaurant, and ends up being the star of a reality show she wants nothing to do with. I found the book a little stressful thinking about how every minute of her life was devoted to the job and how easily she looked over every other person around her. The reality show was much more of a sub-plot, almost a very annoying addition to the story. The book was just okay.
The Secret of a Heart Note by Stacey Lee
Rating: 4 Stars
This was a sweet and unique book about the only two aromatuers left in the world. A teenage girl is trying to find her way in her first public school, while constantly dealing with the scents of people and emotions that are always swirling around her. The scent descriptions did get a bit old after awhile, but the story line was refreshing and fun. I loved the relationships Mimosa developed throughout the book.
The Crown by Kiera Cass
Rating: 3 Stars
The Selection Series by Kiera Cass is one of my favorite young adult book series. I absolutely loved the first few books, but I feel like they’ve gotten progressively worse. I found this final book to be rather dull and frustrating. I didn’t like the main character that much and was disappointed with how little she interacted with the men who were in the castle trying to win her hand in marriage. This book was focused so much more on the political nature of their dystopian world. Something I was not interested in reading about.
A Thousand Letters by Staci Hart
Rating: 4 Stars
I have very mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, I really wanted to scream at the characters – a lot. They supposedly had such a deep and driven romance and then let something completely childish ruin the next seven years of their lives. I enjoyed reading about the way they found each other again, but the process was frustrating! Elliot’s family situation was pretty horrific, nearing unbelievable. But I loved how she stayed strong and didn’t let things get to her. She was a strong, yet fairly quiet character that I admired.
The Secret Wife by Gill Paul
Rating: 5 Stars
I think from the unfitting picture on the cover of this book and intriguing title, I expected this book to be about some sort of affair and hidden away mistress of some sort. It was NOTHING like that. It’s the story of Tatiana Romanov and her secret relationship with Dmitri, a soldier in Russia during WWI. The story follows Dmitri’s life, interspersed with chapters about his great-granddaughter Kitty who is trying to piece together his past. The story is deep and involved, and I loved everything about it. It’s a true testament to love that can last and stand the test of time.
To Catch a Killer by Sheryl Scarborough
Rating: 4 Stars
This was an interesting read about a couple of teenagers trying to catch a murderer using their own methods of crime solving. I liked the way they worked together and found justice in the end. The book kept my attention, though it wasn’t incredibly memorable.
MOVIES
It’s been a big month for movies! Usually I’m lucky to watch one or two movies and they’re usually not that great. This month was a good one!
The Lego Batman Movie
We saw this in the theater – the first ever movie we went to as a family. I liked it! It was pretty funny and I really liked how Robin fit into Batman’s life, as his adopted son. I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes legos or Batman!
Masterminds
Another fairly ridiculous comedy, but it wasn’t terrible. I enjoyed a couple of laughs. It did really make me miss the Owen Wilson of Wedding Crashers, though. Where did he go??
Snowden
Okay, I thought this was pretty dull. But I’m always up for a Joseph Gordon Levitt movie. He did a great job, as always. It was interesting to watch, knowing it was a true story. But also seemed to drag on forever.
Beauty and the Beast
I’m so glad I was able to see this opening weekend! Beauty and the Beast was always one of my favorite Disney movies, so I was really excited to see the remake. This is the only one of the new live action remakes I’ve seen. And it was great! I did feel like they made Belle rather pretentious in the beginning – something I didn’t feel in the animated version. But overall, it was an awesome remake. The singing and dancing and everything were fantastic!
Trolls
So, in general, I don’t like animated movies. I never really have. But we’ve been trying to find more things we can all watch together for movie nights on weekends. I’ve been avoiding Trolls since I assumed it would be pretty girly. But we finally watched it and we LOVED it. Seriously, one of my favorite animated movies ever. Everything about it was so great!! Shepard, who just plain hates movies, has watched it like four more times since then. On one of the days he was home sick he just watched it on a loop. The music is so great we’ve been listening to it every day. Great movie!!
TV – Together
Superstore
I have to start adding pictures for the tv shows I’m enjoying the most. So once again – Superstore!!! I completely love this show. It’s so funny!! I feel like it’s been a long time since a really great comedy has been on the air. Greg and I binged the second season and are all caught up now. I hate waiting a week in between like normal people. Such a great show!!!
Homeland – Still a pretty serious watch. I usually don’t even understand half of what’s going on because I’m much more interested in the character development than the nitty gritty of the plot. I’m still highly intrigued by Quinn’s character this season.
The Flash – Getting kind of sick of the must save Iris plotline. They had a musical episode last week with half of the Supergirl cast. It was kind of strange, but not bad.
Arrow – Eh, as usual. This show is so dark and serious these days.
Love – The second season of Love was released on netflix, so we just started watching that. I’m liking the second season so much more than the first. The characters are funny, but also incredibly annoying. It’s amusing, though.
TV- Alone
The Royals
Okay, this has totally become my guilty pleasure. I binged all three seasons in a week and a half. I LOVED this show. So juicy and delicious! Jasper…yeah. Liam is pretty great too. Even Eleanor is an awesome character. The first and third season were amazing, second was a little slower and more focused on the older generation. But overall, I highly recommend this show if you just want something fun to watch!
New Girl – Sticking with it. I still love all the guys on the show and am super annoyed by Jess. It looks like they’re gearing up for a great finale, though. About time!
Vampire Diaries – It’s done and over. I think I binged this show last spring or summer. It definitely has its ups and downs. A lot of people dying that are never dead for long. But I enjoyed it and I’m sad it’s over. I’m glad they were able to pull all the characters together for the last episode.
The Mindy Project – Just kind of sticking with this one too. It used to be one of my favorites, but I’m just not that into it anymore.
Bones – Another show that ended forever. I can’t remember if I watched this when it first started however many years ago, but I’ve definitely been watching a very long time. It was a solid show with many likable characters and interesting plotlines. I’m sad to see it go.
Modern Family – Also, just okay. I pretty much only watch tv when I’m sewing, so most of my shows are just kind of fillers to entertain me while I’m doing mindless work.
Grimm – There’s just one episode left and then this is done forever too. 🙁 I really liked Grimm! The friendship between the characters was so strong. I enjoyed watching how they worked together every week. What am I going to watch now that so many of my shows are over??
And that’s it! What have you been reading and watching this month?!
