Shadowhunters Vs. Shadowhunters

The time has finally come. We are a few episodes into the new Shadowhunters TV show, and we have been asked countless times "so, which one do you like more? The TV show or the movie?". We figured we'd go ahead and break it all down for you in a classic SBSR battle. Well be starting with the main players in the show, working our way down to the smaller characters, and then lastly answering the big question.

Clary Fray

Kat McNamara vs. Lily Collins

Angela: My answer is a given on this one... Lily Collins.
Everything about Kat bothered me before the show and now
after it's just increased.
Leah:  Obviously Lily. Lily is queen and no one can ever fill her shoes.

Jace Wayland

Dom Sherwood vs. Jamie Campbell Bower

      

Angela: Think this will be another given but, Sexy Campbell Bower
is my pick. Dom's Jace persona feels forced and so does the romance.
Leah: Another vote for JCB. Dom just doesn't fit Jace's personality at all, but
most importantly he and Kat have ZERO chemistry.

Simon Lewis

Alberto Rosende vs. Robert Sheehan

       

 

Angela: This is my toughest choice on the entire list. I love everything about
both Rob and Alberto... but Alberto really just has something special
to him.
Leah: I'm going to go with Robert Sheehan on this one even
though I really love both of them.

Isabelle Lightwood

Emeraude Toubia vs. Jemma West

     

Angela: I like Jemma West attitude in the movie more, but
physically I think Emeraude captures Izzy better. Going out on a
limb here and going to say Emeraude. If they stop using her as a distraction and
start using her as the BA she is I think she could be outstanding.
Leah: Definitely Emeraude. I didn't like Jemma West as a pick for Isabelle at all.

Alec Lightwood

Matthew Daddario vs. Kevin Zegers

Angela: Kevin Zegers you fine, but Matt Daddario takes the cake.
Tall, dark, and oh so handsome. I will say I believed the friendship
between Kevin and Jamie more...but there's still time.
Leah: Why is this a question? Matthew Daddario, let me have your babies.

Jocelyn Fray

Maxim Roy vs. Lena Headey

Angela: There is no contest here. Lena Headey. She is all thing
badass. Maxim Roy is just awful.
Leah: 100000% agree with Angela on this one. Lena all the way.
Maxim Roy just isn't my kind of actress.

Magnus Bane

Harry Shum Jr. vs. Godfrey Gao

Angela: I was hoping Harry would wow us when it came to the part of
Magnus... but yup going with Godfrey.

Leah: This is my hardest pick because I'd really like to get weird with both of them.
After much deliberation, I'm going to go with Godfrey just because
I like his acting more. They both are stellar though.

Valentine Morgenstern

Alan Van Sprang vs. Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Angela: I thought as soon as I saw the show I would like Alan better...
Nope, going with Jonathan. Pretty bad when a guy with mullet braids
beats you out.
Leah: JRM all the way. He plays such a good evil character!
I loved him as Henry VIII and I LOVE him as Valentine. 

Luke Garroway

Isaiah Mustafa vs. Aidan Turner

Angela: Calling a draw on this one. I like both equal, but at the same time
don't really think about either.
Leah: I think I'll go with Isaiah. He is so handsome and I really like his take on Luke.

Dorothea (Dot)
Vanessa Matsui vs. CCH Pounder

Angela: Vanessa is truly stunning, really she is, but that's it.
I wanted grit with my Dorothea and CCH Pounder is just an amazing actress.
Love her, so she's my choice.
Leah: Definitely CCH Pounder. I hate what they did with
Dorothea's character for the show.

Hodge Starkweather

Jon Cor vs. Jared Harris

       

Angela: Sup sexy, young, and fun new Hodge... Oh wait!?. They decided

in the show to give you a creepy "get in my van" mustache... Ummm yeah

gonna have to go with Jared Harris. And that voice!

Leah: Jared. I don't like the new take on Hodge. Leave well enough alone!

The Silent Brothers

     

Angela: The movie Silent Brothers freak me the F out. The TV show
Silent Brothers look like something from The House of Wax movie. So movie
Silent Brothers it is.
Leah: Movie Silent Bros. They are so scary, and the ones on the
TV show don't make me feel even a little bit of terror.

Now the real big questions...
TV show or Movie?

       

Angela: The Movie! People are so hard on the movie, and
I think now with the show being out they are going to look back on the movie
and see how good it actually is. The acting, the scenery, and the actual story
are just so past what they TV has given us so far.
Leah: Let's be real. The movie hands down. All hail Lily and JCB forever!

Fictional Book Boyfriends pt 7

It's that time again!!!!! We put some faces too the names in our books!  Here are our June picks for "fictional book boyfriends" or as some call them "dream-cast" and most recently "IfList". We basically pick a few of our favorite titles and show you who we imagined the leading men to be.

Click the titles to go to the reviews and click here for past post.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Love triangle forms between shadowhunting best friends and a mystery girl.

 

 

Joe Collier as Will Herondale 

We'd gladly go into a Vampire party if this slice of handsome was escorting us.

Mario Maurer as Jem Carstairs

We'd like to be the ham in this man sandwich.

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas 

The smutty and oh so good version of Beauty and the Beast 

Ken Bek as Lucien 

Not even a robotic eye could keep this guy from looking all sorts of fine.

After by Anna Todd 

Girl and guy go back and forth in a non-stop love hate relationship.

Joshua Anthony Brand as Hardin Scott

We just wanna Live While Were Young with this babe.

Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover 

Two musical neighbors lust after one another, but of course something is keep them apart.

Brendan Dooling as Ridge

Someone please tell us how to sign "I want your babies".

 

The Mortal Instruments Movie Review

One of the Christmas presents that Angela gave me was The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones DVD because she wanted me to be able to be on the same level of fangirl as her when it comes to TMI. I watched it this afternoon with my hubby (seeing his reactions to everything was the best btw), and OMG SO GOOD. There are a LOT of changes from the book, but most of them I understand why they had to do it (wouldn't translate as well on screen).

The biggest change for me was the scene at the vampire hotel. First, Raphael isn't in the movie at all. If you remember, in the book he meets them outside of the hotel and helps them get inside when he is pretending to just be a rando teenager. When he gets them inside that is when it is revealed that he is a vamp. He isn't even mentioned in the movie. Second, Simon doesn't get turned into a rat! He drinks the juice at Magnus Bane's party, but he doesn't turn. When Clary and the gang come to rescue him at the hotel, he is just tied up and suspended in the air, but there is no rat anything. I get why this was changed in the movie. It would be pretty hard to explain everything in the movie if it happened the way that it did in the book. So, I get it. I still wish it happened, but I get it.

I really liked all the casting for the characters. I'll admit, Jamie Campbell Bower was not my first for Jace, but I think he did the role justice. JBC is what we like to call ugly hot. At first glance, you're like this dude is UGLY, but as time goes on you can't stop looking at him and then BAM you don't even realize that now you're strangely attracted to this scrawny British dude with Jesus abs.

My favorite character in the book and in the movie is Simon. I love love love Simon. He is so adorbs and I want to punch Clary in the face everytime she friendzones him. I also LOVE Magnus. The actor they picked for him is super hot and had me totes jealous of Alec.

All in all, I really really liked the movie. This series is so kick ass and I loved seeing it translated on screen. I'm sad that other movies won't be made, but hopefully other stuff will happen in the future (like the rumored possible TV show). I'm glad this is in my DVD collection and I can't wait to rewatch it!!

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

I'm going to start this post off with my obligatory statement on how the following will contain spoilers, because I really don't feel like I can review this book without giving away a spoiler to SOMETHING. So if you haven't read CoG or the first three Mortal Instruments book, don't read any further!

It took me over a month to read this book in its entirety. Every time I would start to read, I would get frustrated by one of the characters to the point where I had to put the book down. The big one was when Simon gets thrown in a cell by the new Inquistor around page 100 that I put the book down several weeks. I was SO frustrated that poor Simon (who still is one of my favorite characters, btw) kept getting the crap end of every situation! When Alec just handed him off to the guards, I was literally yelling at the book saying "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KITTEN ME!" 

Anyway, I finally picked this book back up because I really do love the series and I felt ready to fight through my frustration and see what happens. I pushed on and am really glad I did. I spent most of this book wanting to punch Jace in the face for acting like a douche bag. He really says some awful stuff and ends up hurting almost everyone who he is close to with words or actions at some point. I get his frustration and why he was acting the way he was, but CALM DOWN DUDE and stop man-strating.

I also really felt bad for Clary for a large part of this book. The series has progressed enough where a lot of information is finally getting revealed about why things are the way they are, and I really felt like Clary was getting dealt a bad hand in this book. Jace really hurts her with his words and she is left alone, truly alone except for Sebastian (and we see how well that worked out!), for a large part of the book. Her mom is a in a coma, Jace basically says that he spends all his time cleaning up her messes and he wishes she would GTFO, Simon is in a jail cell, Luke is off with his pack somewhere, all the Lightwoods are giving her the cold shoulder for Jace's sake, and her father is freaking Valentine. On top of all that she is in a country she has never been to, staying in a house with a strange lady, and is trying to find some elusive warlock to break her mom's coma/spell. Where I felt she was really whiny in other books, I really felt bad for her in this one. The one thing I really highfived her for was stepping up and just saying EFF EVERYONE and getting things done herself. Yeah, she doesn't exactly do things the best way the first way, but she gets things done. She really learns a lot about herself and finally learns to use her rune power for good. She basically is the reason why the New Council is formed at the end.

I also highfived her when her mom shows up in Idris for not just running and giving her a hug, but for being super pissed at her. Can you blame her? I mean, her mom lied to her for her entire life about basically everything and it isn't until her mom falls into a freaking coma and is kidnapped that she has to figure out everything on her own and on top of that she falls in love with her freaking (not so) brother! I'd be pissed too! Jocelyn is pretty B.A. though. I really enjoyed how once she started explaining everything, she explained EVERYTHING. The whole past of her and Valentine and Luke and the Herondales and Jace and Jonathan/Sebastian is revealed. Finally! I knew before reading the spoiler about Jace not really being her brother, but I was so dang ready for it to be revealed in the book! Plus I really wanted to find out who his actual parents were and what is real story is

This book is my favorite of the series so far because all the questions so far have been answered. Plus there is finally some really sweet romance! The night that Jace dips out on his suicide mission to find Sebastian and Valentine, he spills his whole heart to Clary and tells her that he is in love with her. I had real tears in my eyes during this (mostly because my heart was aching because I knew they weren't related) because his profession is so sweet and so desperate for her to understand how he feels that you can't help but feel his sorrow that this may really be the last night he sees her. The ending is so sweet and heart wrenching as Clary has Raziel save Jace. The desperation of their love is what really tugs at my heart strings, so I am interested to see how that progresses in the future.  Also, Magnus and Alec finally get over their boy drama. I love them as a couple! I really love that Magnus plays a big part in this book. He is definitely one of my favorite characters too. I love that Jocelyn and Luke finally get together (I was shipping them from the beginning!). I also even like that Simon is now hot commodity and has Isabelle and Maia fighting for his attention. I hope he goes for Maia, but I really love that he was there for Isabelle when things got bad..... which leads me to the saddest part of this book. Poor Max. I didn't see that coming from a mile away. I really thought it was Isabelle that was dead. Again, real tears fell for when the nine year old died. It was so sad for all the characters.

"There is no pretending," Jace said with absolute clarity, "I love you, and I will until I die, and if there's a life after that, I'll love you then."

I'm happy with the resolution of this book, but I'm scared as to what is to come. You know something is going to come back and bite Clary in the butt for turning down the Seelie Queen. Also we know that Sebastian/Jonathan isn't dead, so I'm sure he will take on the new role as the big evil they are fighting. I hope the next book has a lot more Clary and Jace romance. I also hope we find out more information about Simon and what happens now that he is has this awesome rune on him.

On to book four! Hopefully it won't take me as long to read this one, but TMI has definitely taught me that book hangovers are a real thing and I have a hard time with reading a really long series consecutively. I like to read a book then break it up with a completely different book then come back to the series. I think it helps me appreciate the series more in the end by doing it this way. I want to be able to absorb all the information and not feel burnt out.

5/5 stars

Coming in October!

We have some really awesome plans for October! Fall has finally arrived in Charleston and so has the arrival of tights, dark colors, and every white girl in America's official uniform of leggings, cardigans, UGGs, and Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks. BUT instead of taking the expected route and doing spooky themed books this month, we thought we would recognize an amazing author and make it all about her. October has officially been deemed (well in our small corner of the universe) Cassandra Clare Appreciation Month, or as Angela is calling is #CCAM.

As long as I have known Angela, she has RAVED about the Mortal Instruments series. I saw all over Instagram when the sixth book came out and everyone was freaking out. Well, per usual, I am a few years behind the times and have not read any of the books. I will be devoting my entire month to reading the series (I'm expecting it to take 3-4 days for each book given how long they are), so basically about a book a week. After I finish each book I'll post a review per usual. At the end of the month when I read all of them, I'll watch the MI movie and then do a review of that. I'm super stoked to finally get in on this series!!

As far as how I (Angela) am going about honoring #CCAM I am finally going to be starting the Infernal Devices! There's only three books in that series but I as well will be reading and then reviewing each one. I also just maybe will be posting a little pic of the mi section of my room... Yeah I might have a little too much love for Mortal Instruments, judge all you want. But to keep from the mundane (yes pun intended) I will be posting a few other books that might not be Cassandra Clare written but more than likely they will be books that fall in the same genre. No promises though.

We also will be continuing our MCM Book Boyfriend Editions on Mondays and WCW Author Edition posts on Wednesdays. We are also hoping to feature a few guest posts! YALLFest is also quickly approaching in the beginning of November, so we will be posting our plans and things involving YALLFest as they come up. It's going to be an exciting month!!!

Upcoming Events for October:

Gone Girl movie premiere 10/3

In The Afterlight (Darkest Minds book #3) by Alex Bracken book release 10/28

Stone Cold Touch (White Hot Kiss #2) by Jennifer Armentrout book release 10/28