It's Just My Opinion...

I have every intention of actually making this into a real blog one day, you know on word press or something. So going off the advice that I have read from other book blogs, Booklikes seemed like the best place to get my feet wet. That being said, in an effort for people who may actually read my posts to get to know me better, I am going to start posting my top 5 favorite things once a week. This week's topic, authors.

1. Anne Rice: She was my first love and I always seem to find my way back to her.

2. Stephen King: I don't scare easily, but he is one of the few authors who can scare the pants off me.

3. Ann Rule: Her true crime books are some of the scariest reads. I think because the crimes actually happened, I find them so much more terrifying than fiction.

4. Charlaine Harris: Sookie Stackhouse is the reason why I returned to the supernatural world 2 years ago after a 5 year stint in crime/suspense novels.

5. James Patterson: I find his books fun and exciting even though they do tend to be quicker reads. I most enjoy getting his books in audio form and listening to it while in my car on my commute.

Honorable Mentions: Thomas Harris, Jeaniene Frost, Edgar Allen Poe, Clive Barker and MaryJanice Davidson.

Who are your top 5 authors?

I LOVE book series, I feel like you really get to know the characters and I enjoy watching my favorites grow and change throughout the series. I decided that since I just finished the 4th book of The Caster Chronicles, that I would start by reviewing the series as a whole.

The books center around Ethan Wate; mortal, Wayward, high school student and his Caster girlfriend Lena Duchannes.  Poor Ethan, that guy was really put through the ringer in this series, yet he always seems to come out on top. At times I felt he was a little too nice and too sweet for his own good, but he really looked after everyone he loved. I loved his devotion to Lena, his friends and his family. Lena often times bordered on the edge of emo that was just this side of annoying. I really enjoyed this series, it had a great love story and wonderful cast of supporting characters. It was a little PG for my taste, but it's a great series if you are looking for something you can read with your kids. I am really looking forward to reading the spin off series, Dark Creatures which centers around Ethan’s best friend Linc and his “girlfriend”, siren Ridley. I’m hoping for a little more darkness from this series, which I think will be lots of fun.

The thing that I probably love even more than book series, are movies based on books. We tend to have a love/hate relationship, but I can’t help myself even if I know that movie is going to be horrible. I give this movie 3 stars and I give that only for the fact that they did an amazing job casting these characters.

In general, I try to read the book before I watch the movie, however this was one series I did the opposite. I really enjoyed the movie...until I read the book. I find it so unbelievable annoying when Hollywood makes changes that are just so unnecessary. I get that some things in a movie have to edited. It is next to impossible to fit all of the details that an author can include in a novel into a 90 minute feature film. However, when the screen writer just butchers someone's work, it is infuriating to me. Why change things? They completely changed almost half of the book. I would have loved to have this series done all the way through, but not if it's going to be picked apart. Instead of being called Beautiful Creatures, the movie should have been titled, Gatlin, A Movie Loosely Based on the Novel Beautiful Creatures.

And that is just my opinion.