Films for Thoughts on Thursday: Pitch Perfect 2

This is a weekly meme that I am hosting here at Reviews from a Bookworm. To take part all you have to do is share a movie review once a week, link back to Reviews from a Bookworm and add your link to the linky tool.

This weeks movie review will be for:

Pitch Perfect 2

I still remember the first time I saw Pitch Perfect, me and my mum were having a day out together and decided to go see a movie. It was the only movie that sounded even slightly appealing and the trailer had me eager to see it. But I honestly didn't know what to expect from it, I had no idea if it was going to be a huge disappointment, just okay or a new favourite. But my mother and I both absolutely loved it and had such a fun time watching it. We laughed so hard it hurt, we sang along with the awesome tunes and we left wanting to go back in and watch it all over again. So maybe it seems weird that the announcement of a sequel had me way more nervous than it did excited. I just worried that it would be another sequel that didn't live up to my expectations, another sequel that just ended up disappointing.

I can't even begin to describe how shocked I was to find that I ended up absolutely loving this one. I loved it so much that I felt it was almost as good as, if not better in some ways, to Pitch Perfect. My mother preferred Pitch Perfect 2, I think because it had her laughing a lot more than the first did, which is saying something as we laughed so much at the first film. Her vote has been cast, but I am still undecided about which movie I prefer, I will have to decide after a rewatch of both back to back once the DVD is released.

How To Survive YALC: Advice and Tips

How To Survive YALC 2015!

Last year I was lucky enough to be able to attend all two days of the YALC event at the LFCC. For anyone who doesn't know, and has clearly been living under a rock, YALC was the UKs first ever YA literary convention. AND IT WAS AWESOME! I loved every single second of it, despite the sweating and the queueing and how much of my money disappeared from my account quicker than I could blink. It was an amazing two days, but I do wish I had gotten some more information before going, just simple tips that could have really helped me out. So I am here to share them with you guys!

1. Be Prepared For Endless Queueing 

No one likes queueing, it's just a known fact. So you need to know that you will spend a lot of your day queuing. You will queue for EVERYTHING! You will queue for a long time to get in, then you'll queue to get tickers to events, then queue to get your books signed. Not to mention that you will queue for the toilet and for food too, where you will be charged an extortionate amount. So make sure you either have someone with you to keep you entertained, or bring something with you to keep you entertained whilst you queue. And maybe learn to sit randomly on the floor like a weirdo, because otherwise your legs will ache like crazy by the end of the day.

Top Ten Tuesday: Hyped Books I've Never Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted at The Broke & The Bookish.

This weeks topic is:

Top Ten Hyped Books I've Never Read

This was a little hard for me, trying to come up with books that I haven't read yet and that I would consider 'hyped' books. I decided just to go for books that I hear endless things about and seem to see EVERYWHERE!

The Holy Bible by Anonymous, Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon 

The FIND ME Book Tag: Photographing the Precious!

    The
         FIND ME
                      Book Tag

A book tag where I get to take pretty pictures of books... Yes, please! I saw Cait do this and knew I would have to get to it soon. Then Amanda did it too, which reminded me that I totally said I'd do it, then never did. So off I went to mess up my beautiful and perfectly organised bookshelf, in order to hunt down a book for each of these! I am rather happy with how these turned out.

Just found out this is a tag from Novel Ink, so I am linking back to that here!

A BOOK WITH A SUNSET

The Start of You and Me by Emery Lord 

This was such a wonderful read, and it'll make a perfect summer read if you want something to read whilst lounging on the beach. You can go and get swept up in this adorably cute book!

A BOOK WITH WATER

Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund, Under the Influence by L.B. Simmons & Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman

Apparently I really like covers that include water in them. I like them so much that I found it really hard to just go with one picture for this one. So I had to go with three. But, can you blame me when the covers are all so pretty!

A BOOK WITH A FLOWER

Elixir by Hilary Duff

I own hundreds of books and yet I seemed to really struggle to hunt down any books with a flower on the front cover. At least this finally proves that there was a reason I still haven't gotten rid of this book, despite the fact I have zero intention of reading it. At least now I have found some little use for it, I will feel better when I finally do get rid of it without reading it. 

The DUFF by Kody Keplinger: Book & Movie Review

Title: The DUFF
Author: Kody Keplinger
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
Buy this book: Amazon (US) / Amazon (UK) / Book Depository

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn't think she's the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She's also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her "the Duff," she throws her Coke in his face. But things aren't so great at home right now, and Bianca is desperate for a distraction. She ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it. Eager for escape, Bianca throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with him. Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out Wesley isn't such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she's falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone. And eventually, through this realization, Bianca begins to see how harmful her unhealthy way of dealing with her problems has been, and finds a way to confront them head on.

I am the first to admit that I have a problem with buying books and then just leaving them unread on my shelves for years. The DUFF was one of those books, and I am so mad at myself for waiting so long to read this book. I'd keep looking at it on my shelf and thinking that I should really hurry up and get to it, but four years went past and it just never happened. That is until the film trailer dropped. The movie looked like it was going to be so much fun and I knew I just had to read the book before I went to see it. I am so glad that I did because I ended up absolutely loving this one, even if it turned out to be completely different to what I was expecting.

The trailer for this books movie adaptation had me expecting this book to be quite a light, funny but somewhat predictable and clichéd read. But you quickly realise that the book is going to be a lot different from the 'geek girl works with popular jock guy to become less of a DUFF and score the guy!' type storyline that the movie is obviously going for. I am so glad that turned out to be the case because this book brought so much more to the table. It's been one of the stand out reads for me this year and I really wish more YA books were like this.