Movie Review: The Host

When an unseen enemy threatens mankind by taking over their bodies and erasing their memories, Melanie will risk everything to protect the people she cares most about, proving that love can conquer all in a dangerous new world.

I went into the movie without too much expectations, as besides one trailer and a few photos I hadn't seen much else. I had read the book though, but since it has been a fair amount of years back since I've read it, I couldn't exactly remember anymore what was about to happen, though I knew how the rough storyline was. And that might have been good thing. REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK.

Shuffle Saturday

Shuffle Saturday is a weekly theme hosted by Pretty In Fiction to share a random song from your Ipod.

Nailpin - This Coma

I came across Nailpin a couple of years back when Joyce recommended the band to me. It's a Belgian rock band for those who don't know them. I have to admit that their music isn't the first on my fanlist, but they do have a couple of song that I quite enjoy, of which 'This Coma' is one. 

Book Review #13: Angel Eyes

Angel Eyes by Shannon Dittemore 

Brielle’s a ballerina who went to the city to chase her dreams and found tragedy instead. She’s come home to shabby little Stratus, Oregon, to live with her grief and her guilt . . . and the incredible, numbing cold she can’t seem to shake. Jake’s the new guy at school. The boy next door with burning hands and an unbelievable gift that targets him for corruption. Something more than fate has brought them together. An evil bigger than both of them lurks in the shadows nearby, hiding in plain sight. Two angels stand guard, unsure what’s going to happen. And a beauty brighter than Jake or Brielle has ever seen is calling them to join the battle in a realm where all human choices start.

Angel Eyes by Shannon Dittemore has been a book that has been on my to-be-read list for quite a while and finally managed to gotten around to read it. Rating wise I would give it 3***. Let me explain why.

Playlist Fiction: This or That with the authors

After introducing Playlist Fiction to you last week, I've got another post today concerning the awesome authors that are publishing under the label. I was really excited to this post and I'm glad they all agreed to participate, namely in a 'This or That' post. Keep reading on and find out what Laura, Stephanie, Jennifer Rajdeep and Laura prefer. 

1. Writing books or Reading books?
Laura Anderson Kurk: Wow. That’s impossible hard to answer. Um . . . writing, I guess. But I write books that I want to read.
Stephanie Morrill: Oh my goodness, this is so hard! I’m gonna have to say writing. As much as I adore reading, when my time gets squeezed, it’s writing that I miss the most.
Jennifer Murgia: Reading books. Sometimes I need an escape from the stories in my head.
Rajdeep Paulus: BOTH! OF course!
Laura L. Smith: Really? Give us the hardest question first? I am who I am because of the books that I've read. I come alive when I write--it defines me. I cannot choose.

2. Books or Music?
Laura Anderson Kurk: I couldn’t live without either. But if I HAD to choose, it would be books.
Stephanie Morrill: Okay, so far this is just torture! After much inner turmoil, I’m going to say books.
Jennifer Murgia: Books.
Rajdeep Paulus: Both again. Especially together!
Laura L. Smith: Another hard one. Gheesh! Give a girl a break. Alright, music also defines me, sets my mood, enhances it, gets me out of a rut, energizes and mesmerizes me. But if a gun was to my head - I pick books. 

Cover reveal Frostbite by Lynn Rush

Sorry for the lack of blogs, getting kinda crazy with college work and this dinner that we organise for the 1st of April. But here I'm again with a new blog and an exciting one, namely the cover reveal of Lynn Rush's "Frostbite".

Amanda gives a whole new meaning to cool…

Amanda Smith is sick of getting chased from town-to-town. So when she lands in tiny Trifle, Arizona, she hopes it’s her last move for a long time. Despite hating the smallness of the town, she settles in and finds a best friend, and even a boyfriend. Normality at its finest.

But for a girl who can shoot snow from her hands and lift a two-ton truck over her head like a bag of feathers—normal is not an option.

The scientists who murdered her mother come barreling into Amanda’s quiet life. She must decide if she’ll run again or stay and fight. The price of either choice might be her life or the lives of those she’s come to love

Shuffle Saturday

Shuffle Saturday is a weekly theme hosted by Pretty In Fiction to share a random song from your Ipod.

Ed Sheeran - Give Me Love

I'm pretty sure this song hardly needs any explanation right? It's a gorgeous song, that is played on my Ipod very, very often.

My writing: the story so far

Can I just say a huge thanks for the comments on the '10 questions on my writing' blog? They were heart warming, really. Why I am mentioning that in this particular post? Because I'm going to give you guys another peek into my writing. This time though in the projects that I did before I started writing that story 'The golden heart'.

I actually had a lot of fun browsing through my old stories. The first one that I came by that I actually have saved as a word document (before I did some drabbling in notebooks and though they for sure might have had some nice elements, I never turned them into actual sotries) was called 'Miss & Mister Dance'. I started the story in 2006 so that is quite a while ago. It was about a girl, fancy, rich, into ball room dancing, and a guy, always getting into trouble, and the typical street dancer. Boy meets girl, fall in love, dance together and well I guess the ending is fairly predictable here. I enjoyed writing it though a lot. It had some inspiration from 'Step Up', hence the usage of Gina Rene's U Must Be in the story. The total word count was 18.761 words. Not bad I would say. I wrote the story in Dutch in case anyone would like to read it, though I think some of you might have read it actually when I wrote it that long ago.

Favourite fanvideos: And you belong with me

As I watch a lot of fanvideos on Youtube all of the time, I thought it would be nice to now and then share some of my favourites with you guys.This time a fanvideo that I've had in my favourites of Youtube for a very, very long time already, but I still adore it to pieces.

Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Hermione/Ron
Song: Coldplay - Swallowed by the Sea
Artist: RestrictedBeauty

Let me introduce you: Playlist Fiction

Playlist Fiction is a new line of riveting, relevant young adult fiction by authors Laura Anderson Kurk, Stephanie Morrill, Jennifer Murgia, Rajdeep Paulus and Laura L. Smith. Playlist Fiction is backed by MacGregor Literary, Inc.
We're a collection of Contemporary Young Adult ebook titles that are full of life, laughter, tears and all that falls in between.
Are you ready to Download the Drama? We launch April 1st!

That says it all doesn't it? Playlist Ficion is a new line of books, which start to launch April the 1st. And guess what? I've been part (and well of course still am) of their awesome Street Team. This means I'm going to introduce you guys to all of the awesome authors & their books that are involved in the playlist. 

As mentioned above, the authors that are involved are Laura Anderson Kurk, Stephanie Morrill, Jennifer Murgia, Rajdeep Paulus and Laura L. Smith. Over the coming weeks I'll do seperate posts on each of the authors and the books they are going to release with in the Playlist Fiction. Excited already? Good!

Blog Hop: 10 questions on my writing

I got tagged for this lovely blog hop by Hannah. It is a blog hop about the book/story you are currently writing. So here we go, hope you guys will enjoy it! 

1: What is the working title of your book?

The current working title is 'The golden heart', though I'm not sure if that's the title I'll keep in the end.
 

2: Where did the idea come from for the book?
Fairly honest, I can't exactly remember anymore. I thought of something similar to this a long, long, long time ago. As in years and years ago. I never really started on writing it though, I'm not sure why. Only about a year ago I started to seriously jot down things about the story plot and the characters and well, right now I'm actually writing it.
 

3: What genre does your book come under?
Fantasy, that's one, as well as YA I think.
 

4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Ouch, that's a hard one. My female main character would come closest to this photo of Nina Dobrev (only her hair colour would be slightly different) and my main male character to this photo of Joseph Morgan. There is a third main male character in the story, but I haven't found a right actor for it yet. 

5: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? 
Caught up in her royal life, Aveline would have never thought it would be her destiny to reunite her people and restore the long-lost magic. 

6: Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?
None of the above yet.

7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I'm currently still working on the first draft and well since I started last year, that would be at least a year so far. 

8: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? 
That is such a hard one. The first two that actually came to mind was 'The Mortal Instruments' series of Cassandra Clare and Trudi Canavan's 'The Magician's apprentice', though I would hardly dare to compare my own story to fabulous stories like that.

 

9: Who or what inspired you to write this book?
There are a lot of writers that I admire which goes from world famous writers such as J.K. Rowling to indie authors. Inspiration definately comes from authors like them. Though my best friend, Yasmine, is definately a source of insipartion as well as she reads along with what I write and now and then, when needed, urges me to keep going!

10: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
It is my first story that I'm actually writing that is completly my own. Previous I used to write a lot of fanfiction, but this is really mine. Further? The story will have elements of magic, war and definately some love as well. Oh and definately let me know if you want to hear more about it and I'll do a couple of more posts on the story.

To pass on this blog hop, I'm tagging the following awesome people. If I haven't tagged you and still wish to answer the questions, feel free to do so!
Aidyl
Ikhlas
Emily

Quote of the day

I know that it's a quote that pops up everywhere and isn't very original anymore, but it's just simply true <3

Apfel-Cranberry Kekse

Photos featured are all made by me

I've made these cookies actually already a while back, but forgot to put the pictures onto my computer, oops! They are Apple cranberry cookies and were jummy. The downside of it is that I can't get you the recipe or get it for myself again, since, as you can see above, it was a bottle filled up with all the ingredients already. The only thing to be added were eggs and butter (easy peasy huh?). Though I've noticed that when you google for apple cranberry oatmeal cookies, you get recipes that seem to be alike. This one seems to come really close to the ones I made. Did anyone of you ever tried making apple cranberry oatmeal cookies, liked them?

Favourite Sitcoms

I love watching movies and TV-series, you must know by now, and sitcoms are no exception to that. One of the Dutch television channels always airs sitcoms during the weekdays from about 6 PM to 8:30 PM, absolutely lovely to me. The series change now and then which is nice as well. So let me below list my favourite sitcoms out there (even though not all of them are regularly on TV anymore or stopped making new episodes). Let me know what your guys favourites are!

F.R.I.E.N.D.S
The first season introduces the six main characters: Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, and Ross. Rachel arrives at Central Perk after running away from her wedding to her fiancé Barry and moves into her best friend from high school's (Monica’s) apartment with her. Ross, who had a crush on Rachel since high school, constantly tries to tell Rachel that he loves her, while his lesbian ex-wife, Carol, is expecting his baby. Joey is shown to be a bachelor and struggling actor, while Phoebe works as a masseuse. Chandler breaks up with girlfriend Janice who frequently returns in later seasons. 

London: Borough Market

 Photos featured all made by me

As I pointed out last week I'll be doing a couple of blogs on things to see and do in London (besides the obvious visiting of the Big Ben, Tower Bridge and so on). Now when you think about London, or the UK in general, fine and nice food might not be the first thing that comes to mind. At least, that is the case for me. However, I managed to find a little piece of food heaven in London: Borough Market.

Borough Market is more than a place to buy and sell food. It’s a unique corner of London that captures our rich culinary history. A source of quality British and international produce, we have a reputation as the country’s most renowned food market. It’s a place where people to come to discover the tastes, aromas, textures and colours that only fresh, seasonal food can offer.

Guest Post by Rachel Harris: Getting to know your characters

Thank you so much, Arlette, for inviting me here today. I love talking about the craft of writing. I love losing myself in topics like theme and plot and character. In fact, the pre-writing phase is always my favorite part of the entire process.

And getting to know my characters just makes me giddy.

They become real people to me. I never begin a manuscript without feeling as though I know my characters inside and out. I want to know how they will react to any situation I throw at them, what their brand of humor is, how they hold themselves, and how they see the world. To show this, I thought I’d give you a glimpse into how I got to know my characters for one of my first manuscripts, a YA Contemporary Romance coming out next year with Spencer Hill Contemporary.

This story is dual POV, so I had two main characters. I went the most in-depth with these two, and each of them probably had about ten pages of information. I used Noah Lukeman's The Plot Thickens, 8 Ways To Bring Fiction To Life, along with some of my own ideas, to create their backstory, motivations, likes and dislikes, etc. This is also where I described their friends and family, who make up my minor characters. At this point, I also gave those characters their own backstories, and decided things like hair and eye color, etc;

Shuffle Saturday

Shuffle Saturday is a weekly theme hosted by Pretty In Fiction to share a random song from your Ipod.

 Lana del Rey - Summertime Sadness

 I just love Lana del Rey. I secretly hope that more Lana del Rey songs come up in the shuffle of my Ipod for my saturday posts. This is one of my favourites though and listen to it quite a lot. I'm not a big fan though of the remixed version that came out a while ago, it just ruined the pureness of the song for me to be honest.

Must see movie release this month: The Host

A parasitic alien soul is injected into the body of Melanie Stryder. Instead of carrying out her race's mission of taking over the Earth, "Wanda" (as she comes to be called) forms a bond with her host and sets out to aid other free humans. 

Cover reveal: A Tale of Two Centuries

I'm so excited to tell you that I'm going to reveal the coer of 'A Tale of Two Centuries' by Rachel Harris in this post. It is the sequal to 'My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century'. If you do not know this great book, check out my review here. Now you guys might be wondering, what is the book about? And of course what will the cover look like? Let's move on to it! (Oh did I tell you a printed copy and an e-arc will be given away? AND there's a small peek into the book as well!)

Tag: First Time

I came across this tag via Annelie and decided to have a go at it myself. Anyone who feels like filling out the tag, of course feel free to take it. So let's start and maybe you learn something new about me.

First thing you do when you wake up in the morning.
Turn my alarm off and slid out of bed, I happen to wake up rather easy in the morning, lucky me I know. I mostly quickly check my phone to see if I have any new messages and so on and then have breakfast.

First thing you do when you go to the gym.
Fill up my water bottle and then I'll start with cardio first. It varies what kind of cardio I do first, but most of the time you will find me first on the stepping machines.

First thing you do when you return from school or work.Grab something to drink and sit down for a while watching TV or read a book, though when I return late from school the first thing I'll do is making dinner ;).

London: let's look up closer!

I've done a couple of "Cities I've visited blogs", the latest to be found here, and I was planning on doing one for today on London, but then I realised I would never be able to put all of the city's awesomeness into one post.

Some of you might know that I've visited London twice: One time visiting for a week with my best friend Yasmine and one time when I did my internship there, which was a visit of 5 months in total. I've fallen in love with this city a lot and couldn't just let it gone by in one post on my blog. Therefore, I will do a couple of blogs on London, all of them zooming in on a different part of London or a different activity and so on. I know for a fact that two of my readers are currently in London, so girls maybe some things will come by that you will want to visit.

Movie Review: Pitch Perfect

Beca, a freshman at Barden University, is cajoled into joining The Bellas, her school's all-girls singing group. Injecting some much needed energy into their repertoire, The Bellas take on their male rivals in a campus competition.

Shuffle Saturday

Shuffle Saturday is a weekly theme hosted by Pretty In Fiction to share a random song from your Ipod.

Within Temptation - Shot In The Dark

One of my all time favourite songs by Within Temptation. The first time I heard Within Temptation was a Dutch band (don't worry that was a long time ago) I was absolutely flabbergasted. For a long time their music wasn't really my thing besides some songs now and then, but their album 'The Unforgiving' is absolutely amazing. This song, 'Shot In The Dark', is also from that album.