Movie Review: Beautiful Creatures by Guest Reviewer Holly H.

Back in January/February, we ran a giveaway for one lucky winner to win a $40 gift card to go see the movie with a plus one. The winner of the giveaway was the lovely Holly H. and she finally got the chance to see the movie this past week and gives an inside look as to what can be expected for those who haven't seen the film and what she liked (and didn't like *wink) about the movie.

Beautiful Creatures Review

By: Guest Reviewer Holly H.

Beautiful Creatures was a good movie. The music sounded magical, mysterious and sad. It was perfect!  The location where they filmed the movie was how I pictured it and the actors fit the characters well.

Alden Ehrenreich is adorable as Ethan; however it’s obvious that he is much older than sixteen. It bothered me for a little bit, but after a while it slipped my mind as the story progressed.

Alice Englert, was a good pick for Lena. She played her well and definitely looked the correct age. I also loved the dress that she wore for her birthday!

Macon was casted well, but when I was reading the book, I always pictured him like Tom Hank's character in The Ladykillers.

Emmy Rossum’s was perfect and exactly how I pictured Ridley. She was hilarious!

Emma Thompson was good as Saraphine. Not who I pictured, but she does a good job at being an evil character.

I thought it was strange how they had combined Marion with Amma. I guess to save time? But Viola Davis is an extremely talented actress and made the part work.

I have to admit that I was a little disappointed that they didn’t show Ethan and Lena’s connection. Since that was a big part of the story, I'm surprised they didn't add it in there.

Being a southern girl, I found the accents tolerable. I’ve heard worse accents from many other movies.I think that the whole religious aspect was a bit more over dramatic than the book and I found it annoying, but luckily that didn’t last long.

My favorite scene was when Lena and Ridley were fighting in the dining room, the table was spinning and Larkin just kept on eating like it wasn't a big deal and it happened all the time.
Also, I thought it was funny when Macon asked Lena to play the piano and she told him they don't live in a Jane Austen novel. That is most definitely something I would have said!

I haven't finished the book yet, so I'm not sure how the end of movie differs from the book, but I can imagine there is a difference and I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen or read it yet.

My conclusion is that the movie was enjoyable and I hope that they continue on with the series.

My sister and I had a great time watching the movie! Thanks again!

Synopsis: Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

Check out on Goodreads.

Purchase on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Book Related News: Beautiful Creatures, Warm Bodies & Sea of Monsters

As y'all know, us ladies, here at TeamNerd Reviews, are SUPER excited for the movie adaptation of BEAUTIFUL CREATURES coming now FEB 14 (Original date was FEB 13 but it was changed to fall on Valentine's Day since the Caster Chronicles does deal with love conquering all! How romantic!)

Here's a new TV spot that featured Beautiful Creatures and had some glimpse into new scenes not yet seen:

Also, here's "Beautiful Creatures: Book to Movie Featurette":

Warm Bodies is another movie adaptation from the book written by Isaac Marion. The movie is scheduled to be released FEB 1st by Summit Entertainment. We aren't huge zombie lovers as others are, but we've recently started getting into the zombie-fest obsession, and have gradually grown fond of them so, we're looking forward to seeing the movie (and reading the book). In case you haven't seen the trailer and have no idea what we're talking about:

 And here are the first 4 minutes of the movie that was released a bit ago:

Fun set visit and interviews with the cast with Emmy winner Jake Hamilton on Jake's Takes.

Other Zombie Related Books You Might Interested In

Undeadly (The Reaper Diaries Series, #1) by Michele Vail. Bridget just did a review for this book and LOVED it!

Something Strange and Deadly (Something Strange and Deadly Series, #1) by Susan Dennard Annabell read this book and enjoyed it.

Dearly, Departed and Dearly, Beloved, the first books in the Gone With the Respiration Series by Lia Habel. She is a very talented writer and manage to make the zombie world both beautifully creepy and charming.

Another movie we're REALLY EXCITED to see is Sea of Monsters, the second book in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series coming out FINALLY August 16, 2013! This movie being made was a surprise considering it's been two years and not much has been mentioned about continuing the series from Fox 2000 Pictures (the production studio)

The first film Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief wasn't phenomenal. The story line didn't completely stay true to the book and fell flat at certain moments, but as true fans of the series, we still stuck with the movie and vehemently defend it! So with the second film coming out later this year, we went hunting for some info about it, determined to find any little tidbit about what we could expect *hehe*

Alexandra Daddario, who plays Annabeth in the films, did a great interview with Collider. There's also another interview with her about the film here. 

Another great inside look into the film comes from Mike Scott, writer for The Times-Picayune, New Orleans. Apparently the cast used an the abandoned Six Flags Park to film some of the scenes from the movie. 

Cast & On Set Photos

Logan Lerman returns to reprise his role as Percy Jackson and we're fangirling over him *hehe*(Hey, he's 20 so it's allowed!)

Brandon T. Jackson returns to reprise his role as the satyr and Percy's best friend, Grover Underwood. These pics are from on set of Sea of Monsters. Good to see Grover getting in on the action!

Alexandra Daddario goes blonde as Annabeth. It's the first time she's ever been blonde and she looks great!

Douglas Smith will be taking on the role of the Cyclops Tyson, Percy's half-brother. Not sure how this is going to play out considering Tyson's character has only one eye so it's gonna be interesting to see how the producers and editors handle it.

Levan Rambin is playing the role of Clarisse, the daughter of Ares, the Greek God of War. There has been talk among fans that she doesn't fit the role, at least not physically. Not exactly who we imagined either being cast in Clarisse's role, since she is tough as steel and would rather punch you in the face than talk to you. Definitely wondering how Rambin took to the role.

Stanley Tucci is coming on to play the role of Dioynasis which is AWESOME! LOVE Stanley Tucci!

Anthony Head has taken over the role of Chiron, Centaur and who is in charge of Camp Half-Blood, which was originally played by Pierce Bronsnan.

Nathan Fillion will be taking over the role of Hermes, the messenger to the Greek God and father to Luke, the antagonist in the books and films, which was originally played by Dylan Neal in the first film.

Sean Bean returns in the role of Zeus, leader of the Greek Gods, and definitely happy he's coming back to be apart of the films.

That's it for now!

What do y'all think? Are you excited for the movie adaptations coming in 2013? What scenes from the book do you hope are covered in the movies?

New Year, New TeamNerd Reviews!

Hello Hello Everyone and Happy New Year!

We are SUPER excited for the New Year because we have so much going on, here at TeamNerd Reviews, during 2013!

New Features to TeamNerd Reviews

Anticipated Reads of the Month—There are some really GREAT sounding books coming out throughout 2013 and we’re really EXCITED to read many of them! Every month we’ll be sharing with you the new books coming out and the ones we’re looking forward to reading.

Weekly News Feed—Every Friday, we’ll be bringing you news related to books, movie adaptations, actors we lovingly stalk, publishing industry info and fun stuff going on in the blogsaphere.

Rants and Rambles—Whether it’s a character that pisses us off or an annoying driver or the lady at the post office who seems to be in a permanently bad mood, like anyone else we get frustrated and just need an outlet to vent so we’ll be bringing you our inside thoughts over stuff that just wrangles our feathers. Or stuff we LOVE and just HAVE to tell everyone about!

Polls—We’re pretty obsessed with participating in polls via Goodreads so we thought it would be fun to start adding some to TeamNerd Reviews.

Don’t worry though, we’re still keeping our old schedule as well: Book Review, Author Interview, Guest Posts, Favorites Monday, Indie Shoutout and Teaser Thursday.

Be sure to also check out our new Pinterest page!

Coming January 2013

God, Boys and Real Life Special Week—From January 14-January 18, 2013 we’ll be hosting a special dedicated to AVRA’S GOD by Ann Lee Miller. She’ll be stopping by to do an interview and guest post. We’ll also be posting an inside look into the book and reviewing the book as well as throwing a BIG giveaway!

Stolen Nights Blog Tour—On January 14, 2013, the Stolen Nights Blog Tour makes a pit stop at TeamNerd Reviews. It’s the second book in the Vampire Queen Series by Rebecca Maizel. Annabell will be reading and reviewing the book.

BEAUTIFUL CREATURES GIVEAWAY!

We’re OBSESSED with the CASTER CHRONICLES by Kami Garcia and Magaret Stohl. The epic romance, the dark battles, the sexy and nerdy male leads (Team Ethan & Team Link!), we just couldn’t keep from falling in love with all four books. In celebration of the movie adaptation coming FEB 13, 2013, as well as the fact that Bridget's wedding anniversary hits the same day the movie comes out, we decided we want to spread our LOVE for the series (and happiness for Bridget's anniversary) to fellow fans of the book! We are giving away a $40 American Express gift card for someone and a plus one to go see the movie!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms and Conditions

**Opened to both U.S. and International Followers**

**Must be 13 years or older**

**Winner  will have 48 hrs. to respond back before they forfeit the right to the gift card**
**We are also willing to switch the gift card for cash to make it more convenient for our International followers**

Once the winner is selected, we will mail you out the giftcard. The winner MUST use the gift card ONLY for the movies and has to do the following:

1) Take a picture of yourself and whoever you choose to take with you either inside the movie theater or by the poster of the movie hanging in the theater or with your ticketstubs or all three if you want.

2) Write a post about your experience and send it to us. What did you love about the movie? What did you hate? What were you feeling going in? Whatever! Just tell us about what it was like for you and your friend.

We look forward to sharing in the changes with everyone and we wish everyone the best of luck with the giveaway!

~Annabell + Bridget

End of the Year Wrap Up for 2012!

As the year 2012 comes to an end, we gals at TeamNerd Reviews, felt we couldn’t go out without celebrating in our top favorite reads throughout the year and recognizing our support team for the AMAZING people they are!

Here’s our 2012 End of the Year Wrap Up!

Top 5 Favorite Authors

Kami Garcia and Magaret Stohl

Lisa Mantchev

Anna Banks

S.L. Scott

Melissa Marr

Top 5 Favorite Books 

(not necessarily published this year, but read this year)

 1. Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

2. The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

3. Balthazar by Claudia Gray

4. Something Deadly This Way Comes by Kim Harrison

5. Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr

Top 5 Covers We LOVE to Look At!

 Lucifer (Sons of Old Trilogy, #1) by Annabell Cadiz

Mark of Athena (Heroes of Olympus Series, #3) by Rick Riordan

Incarnate (Newsoul Series, #1) by Jodi Meadows

Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter ofSmoke and Bone, #2) by Laini Taylor

 A Shimmer of Angels (Angels Sight Series, #1) by Lisa M. Basso

Top 5 Male Leads

1. Charlie Adams (Naturally, Charlie Series)

2. Barnabas (Madison Avery Series)

3. Tucker (Unearthly Series)

4. Galen (Of Poseidon Series)

5. Ariel (Theatre Illuminata Trilogy)

Top 5 Female Leads:

1. Lena (Caster Chronicles)

2. Sydney (Bloodlines Series)

3. Kelly McGinnis (Kelly and Umber Series)

4. Alexia Tarabotti (Parasol ProtectorateSeries)

5. Rayna Evans (The Angel Sight Series)

Top 5 Bad Boys We Try SO Hard to Hate:

 1. Adrian Ivashkov (Bloodlines Series)

 2. Cas Lowood (Anna Dressed in Blood)

 3. Archer (Hex Hall Trilogy)

 4. Asher (Beautiful Dark Series)

 5. Naji (The Assassin's Curse Series)

 Special Thank You Shoutout

Shelley and Kathryn from Tsk, Tsk What to Read for all their support and love throughout the year! These ladies are NERDALICIOUS!

Jessica from The Library Mouse for all her kindness, encouragement, and cheerleading all the way from across the pond. You are a NERD-AWESOME friend!

Lizze Groski from My Life Beyond Labels. We were so grateful to have met Lizze this year and have the privilege of calling her friend. She has such a big heart and always ready to offer support to every author who comes her way.

Katy Sozaeva from Now is Gone. She’s not only a TERRIFIC editor but a great friend and supporter of not only TeamNerd Reviews but authors everywhere.

Jennifer Rainey from Independent Paranormal and RADTASTIC author! She is beyond kind, wonderfully friendly, and has a beautiful soul.

Rola from XO Reads. She is as cute as a button and perfectly silly. She's as much as a book-a-holic as us and has such a beautiful soul. Definitely glad to call her friend!

Raine Thomas, author and friend. She has been nothing but supportive and encouraging from the moment we met her and we can’t thank her enough!

Marilyn Almodovar, author and friend. She is blunt, sarcastic and sassy. Three traits, we gals at TeamNerd Reviews, share and welcome *hehe* She’s always been supportive and a cheerleader.

Grandma Tina, happily adopts all those who come to her and freely offers whatever support you need. She’s got more sass and grit in her little finger than any cowboy we’ve ever met! Thank you, Tina, for all the laughs and all the love!

Jessica Wentz from Jess's Book Blog. She has not only help to promote all things TeamNerd Reviews and participate in many of the themes we've hosted, but she's also been wonderfully kind and sweet.

Brendan from Untreed Reads Publishing, who has not only put up with our constant request for stories, but lengthy emails about life. He has a WICKED sense of humor, too!

Bill Blais, author and friend. His constant encouragement, wisdom, and support has been so very much appreciated.

H.A. Goodman, author and friend. Right from the beginning, Hal not only offered unfailing support but ridiculous and wonderful humor. He’s also a BIG nerd and a weirdo so he fits right in with us here at TeamNerd *hehe*

Special Message from Annabell: I Heart You Shoutout

To my familia: Ana, Nelson, Omar, Xiomara, Jackie, Nitsu, Cris and Natalie. Y’all drive me crazy every day but you definitely keep life interesting and everything good that I accomplish in my life, big or small, wouldn’t matter nearly as much if you guys weren’t with me. Thank you for all the laughs and love. (But seriously, is five minutes of silence so much to ask for?! Maybe the new year will bring me some LOL)

To Bridget Strahin and Eve Coke, two of my best friends and my BIGGEST supporters (outside of God and my parents whom I LOVE greatly). You guys have been AMAZING friends and without your unyielding support, cheerleading, love, and patience, getting TeamNerd Reviews off the ground as well as LUCIFER (SONS OF OLD TRILOGY, #1) wouldn’t have happened quite as well as it has.

We also want to thank EVERY author who has stop by TeamNerd Reviews for reviews, interviews, and guest posts. We APPRECIATE so much the chance to get to read your work and to know each of you. We wish all of you even MORE success in the coming new year and even MORE LOVE!

And BIG thank you to ALL of our supporters! Whether you just stop by on occasion to check out what’s going on with TeamNerd Reviews or actively follow us on the blog, Twitter or Facebook, we are so GRATEFUL to have you and look forward to sharing a whole new year of TeamNerd Reviews with each of you =D

We hope everyone has a FANTASTIC New Year’s celebration with loved ones and friends! God Bless!

~Annabell + Bridget

Beautiful Creatures Panel: Miami Book Fair International

**Originally posted November 17, 2012**

The Miami Book Fair International takes place every year from the second Sunday of the month to the third Sunday. This year is began NOV 11 and ends tomorrow (Nov 18, 2012). It's a week long affair that celebrates a specific theme, a different theme chosen every year. This year at the book fair, the celebration centered around writing from Paraguay.  But authors from all over come out along with booksellers, retailers, publishing houses and tons of fans! 

This year I discovered two of my FAVORITE authors were going to stop by the Miami Book Fair International: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, the authors of the Caster Chronicles Series. Since I am an OBSESSED fan of the series (along with Bridget), I was SUPER excited they were coming to town! Not only were they signing books but they were doing a panel with two of the actors from the upcoming Beautiful Creatures film, Alden Ehrenreich (who plays Ethan Wate) and Zoey Deutch (who plays Emily Asher). They were also going to show clips from the film so I was definitely DETERMINED to go!

Here are the highlights from the Beautiful Creatures Panel that was held today at the fair (where I got to be in the front row *hehe*).

Behind the Scenes of Writing Beautiful Creatures

*Kami Garcia and Margret Stohl hadn’t planned on actually publishing the first book to the Caster Chronicles, Beautiful Creatures. They had written the book after a challenge Margaret received from her daughter. Kami, at the time, had been the teacher to Margret’s daughter so when Margaret had disclosed to her daughter they were teaming up to write a book together, Margaret’s daughter scoffed and didn’t take it seriously since her mom never finished anything. Margaret told her she’d take her challenge and set out to finish writing the book.

*Kami and Margret wrote the book for their children and their kids friends. They were actually planning on creating a website and publishing the entire book Beautiful Creatures for free on the site. Before they got the chance to though, a friend of Margaret’s who was a published author, gave their finished book to his publisher without them knowing and the rest progressed from there.

*When they were working on Beautiful Creatures, they would ask their kids and their kids friends what they would want to see in the book. The kids gave them four stipulations: 1) No vampires 2) No werewolves (they were tired of books with both those paranormal creatures) 3) Tell the story from the male point of view because they were tired of the guys always being jerks 4) Have the girl be the one with powers because they were tired of the girls always being the weak ones and guys getting to have all the powers. Kami and Margaret agreed.

*Link and Ridley didn’t originally play big roles in the books until Kami and Margaret’s kids along with their friends demanded to know what was going on with Link and Ridley so they added more scenes to their characters.

*When writing the book together, they approached it with complete openness. They would split sections of each chapter between each other, write their part up, and then switch with each other. They would edit what each other wrote without asking for permission and then move on to the next chapter. The idea was to always move forward until they were done writing the book and by the time they got down, only what really mattered to the story stayed.

*Margaret and Kami have a great sense of humor. Kami is also really sweet and Margaret is down to earth. She kept the crowd pretty entertained. They have a really great bond together.

Movie Scoop

*Alden Ehrenreich took on the role of Ethan because he liked the way the director, who also wrote the screenplay, placed in humor into the movie. He liked the way the movie shows what boys really go through when they’re trying to court a girl.

*Zoey Deutch who plays Emily Asher in the movie, was very quiet and shy. She didn’t speak much during the panel. But she did tell us she was able to work with Viola Davis and hang out with her in between scenes. She said Viola was such a sweet person and was open to helping all of the actors settle in. She is also really funny. Viola started her career as a stand-up comedian before turning to acting.

*Margaret said one of the things she loved about what Director Ricahrd LaGravenese did with the movie was the fact that he had every actor have a different Southern accent that matched where the characters came from in South Carolina. Both Kami and Margaret were amazed at how much the actors sounded like the characters from the book. They were particularly amazed with Alden as Ethan because he fit Ethan’s character so well (Margaret turned to Alden as she explained and told him he really is a good boy. But she sure he doesn't want her telling people that since it would ruin his reputation). The first time they stepped foot on the movie set, they got to watch Alden do a scene with Jeremy Irons (who plays Racon) and felt it was such a surreal experience since they looked and sounded so much like the characters in their heads. They were also taken away by the set because it reflected Ravenwood so well.

*We were able to see a special featurette of the film where we got to watch the scene of Ridley changing into a Dark Caster and an extended version of the trailer as well as the new movie trailer. As soon as Ridley is changed, she sees three books walking past her and uses her Siren powers of persuasion to have him walk toward her. He stops in the middle of the train tracks and just stares back at Ridley like a zombie. Ridley just watches him as the train slams into him. 

Meet and Greet

Chesszing it (and looking like a total nerd) with Authors Margaret Stohl (right) and Kami Garcia (left).

Signing my books & movie poster. Kami commented how impressed she was how well I took care of my books ;)

Zoey and Ethan signing the copies of my books. They were also laughing because when Kami passed on my copy of Beautiful Creatures to Alden to sign, she pointed out to him the library binding on my book and how well I took care of it. Alden laughed and asked if I stole the book from the library. I explained I hadn't, I just take very good care of my books. He smiled broadly and agreed that was a good thing =)

Chesszing it with Alden and Zoey. They were both very nice. Alden also confessed he hadn't read Beautiful Redemption as of yet after seeing my copy of it.

Beautiful movie poster which they each signed.

Kami was the one who drew the heart. Margaret signed it with "Annabell is a  . . ." leading into the title Beautiful Creatures.