Bookish Rants and Raves: MG & YA Book-to-Film Adaptation

So, a person would have to be living under a rock these days not to have heard about the impending release of the film version of smash hit The Hunger Games. Though the film is not out until March 23 in most markets worldwide, there’s already a slew of raving reviews and talk of the movie being projected to top $140 million in its U.S. opening weekend. Wow.

The Hunger Games films are just the latest in what seems to be a rampant streak of middle grade (MG) and young adult (YA) film adaptations. Sure, it’s not a completely new development, but it sure does feel like the percentage of young-adult targeted movies based on blockbuster books is at an all-time high. Framed differently, it also seems like almost every well-loved YA series gets optioned for film adaptation…sometimes immediately following its release. Not all are successful (critically or monetarily), but …

Review: Still Hot For You by Diane Escalera

Format read: ebook provided for review by the author
Release Date: 19 March 2012
Number of pages:  78 pages
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Formats available: ebook
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s Website, Amazon, Lyrical Press

Blurb:

Want to get your man talking? Give him booty!

Desperate times call for desperate measures. And Shay LaCosta is pretty desperate. She’s wrecked her blissful marriage of five years by demanding she and her husband Dylan have a baby. What the hell was she thinking? She knows she was wrong and she’s ready to set things right, if only Dylan will let her. Bet he can’t shun her Booty Camp offer: delicious, white-hot sex in exchange for what’s going on inside his brain.

Dylan may be macho and stubborn, but he really does miss his wife. A little of Shay’s pushing gets him past their estrangement and into her web of seduction. She seems …

Elements in Lit 201: Victorian Era, Gothic, and Steampunk

We’ve covered a little bit of all three items mentioned in the title in previous Genre and Elements posts, but as I’m reading Wicked as They Come by Delilah S. Dawson, the main character makes a statement about “[being] transformed into a curvy Victorian bombshell. Or a Gothic bombshell…” She continues on to describe the Gothic as “decidedly dark and sexy…” It got me thinking about the subtle differences between these styles of dress. Moreover, the book has a definite Steampunk overtones, with each ‘Bludman’ or ‘Pinkie’ having a clockwork animal in their charge. What better way to experience the differences (or similarities) than with pictures!

Click on the image if you would like to check out the store website.

So, let’s start the comparison: The Victorian Era coincides with “Queen Victoria’s reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901” (source: Wiki) …

Review: Love Story by Jennifer Echols

Format read: paperback
Genre: young adult romance
Release Date: Julyy 19th, 2011
Number of pages: 241 pages
Publisher: MTV books
Formats available: ebook, paperback
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s Website, Amazon, Book Depository (UK), Book Depository (US)

Book Blurb:

SHE’S WRITING ABOUT HIM. HE’S WRITING ABOUT HER. AND EVERYBODY IS READING BETWEEN THE LINES.

For Erin Blackwell, majoring in creative writing at the New York City college of her dreams is more than a chance to fulfil her ambitions – it’s her ticket away from the tragic memories that shadow her family’s racehorse farm in Kentucky. But when she refuses to major in business and take over the farm herself someday, her grandmother gives Erin’s college tuition and promised inheritance to their maddeningly handsome stable boy, Hunter Allen. Now Erin has to win an internship and work late nights at a local coffee shop to make her own dreams a reality. She should despise Hunter…so why …

Guest post: How to Solve a Love Triangle by Erin Nicholas + Giveaway

I am extremely happy to welcome back to BLI one of my alltime favourite contemporary romance authors, the wonderful Erin Nicholas, who is celebrating the release of her latest novel Everything You’ve Got! As I’ve told you countless times Erin’s books are outstanding not only due to her fantastic characterizations and the sexy love stories, but due to her making her secondary characters, family and friend relationships such a pivotal part of the romance, and of course the extraordinary humour she infuses her stories with! So here is your chance to read about a behind the scenes secret and win yourself a copy of her latest book Everything You’ve Got! Please give Erin the warmest welcome! 🙂

How to Solve a Love Triangle

I hate love triangles in books and movies. Well, that’s not completely true. Two guys being in love with the same girl definitely sets …

Dual Review: The Marriage Bargain by Jennifer Probst

Format Read: e-book
Length: 216 pages
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Genre: category contemporary romance
Series: Marriage to a Billionare, #1
Release Date: February 14, 2012
Formats Available: e-book
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Entangled Publishing, Author’s Website

Blurb:

A marriage in name only…

To save her family home, impulsive bookstore owner, Alexa Maria McKenzie, casts a love spell. But she never planned on conjuring up her best friend’s older brother—the powerful man who once shattered her heart.

Billionaire Nicholas Ryan doesn’t believe in marriage, but in order to inherit his father’s corporation, he needs a wife and needs one fast. When he discovers his sister’s childhood friend is in dire financial straits, he’s offers Alexa a bold proposition.

A marriage in name only with certain rules: Avoid entanglement. Keep things all business. Do not fall in love. The arrangement is only for a year so the rules shouldn’t be that hard to follow, right?

Except …