Avengers: A Review

Heee. I get giddy when there is even the merest implication of Chris Hemsworth. Or Liam Hemsworth. Actually, all things Hemsworth are very acceptable to me. So naturally I was very excited for the Avengers movie.

We went on Friday night, and get this: they played the wrong movie! Me, my friends and two hundred other people had tickets for the Avengers, and they played 'Lockout' instead! Well, the first few minutes of it...there were some really angry comic book fans stalking the cash desk outside, demanding refunds and free popcorn.

Sadly, complementary refreshments were not supplied.

We eventually got to see the movie and guess what? It's awesome. There's things getting smashed and people yelling and screaming and scary, scaly things from another dimension flying through the sky. And Iron Man. Gotta love Iron Man. Downside? Scarlett Johansson spends the whole movie in very tight pants, and I felt inadequate and jealous. Very jealous. But I digress. There's even a sad bit! Oh, and the baddie is a proper baddie. Villains are so much better when they are just downright mean. I hate this whole 'tortured soul' business where the baddie might be redeemed or whatever, it's far too complex for my liking.

Word of advice? Go to see and early showing. We went at ten pm, and I didn't get home from the cinema til nearly two. It's a long movie, but worth it!

I HATE Waiting

This week is all about waiting. Waiting for my copy of Unraveling to arrive in the post. Waiting for Thursday, when all my assignments will be submitted and I can start studying for finals...which I can't get excited about, but whatever. Then waiting for this weeks Vampire Diaries (like hello cliffhanger! Did not see that ending coming!) and most importantly....Insurgent is out on Tuesday!!!



I am so excited for this, I can barely even talk. I loved Divergent so much it gives me energy, and Tuesday cannot come fast enough so that my book will get here because I was promised release day delivery! Though I'm still kind of hoping that I'll get it with the post on Monday, which would be awesome.

Roll on Tuesday. That is all I will say.

Crazy Cooking

Book: The Little Paris Kitchen
Author: Rachel Khoo
Publisher: Penguin
Shelfabilty: Get!

I have gone metal. Just raving mad. I blame college stress. Until a month ago I was a semi-normal and well adjusted person, and now I buy cookery books. Hmmm.

There is no rhyme or reason to this. I am not creative in the kitchen. I can make three things: spaghetti, omlettes and this Mexican rice thing that my brothers really like. Well, I can do homemade soup too but that hardly counts because all you do is boil things. But suddenly I am on a mission to create the perfect béchamel? Like I said: mental.

Mind you, if you are creative in the kitchen, you will probably adore this book because the recipes are great. They're simple enough for idiots like me to follow but still original enough to impress your mates,(or net you the grand on 'Come Dine With Me'). There's a lavender chicken recipe that is just delicious; it was worth buying the book for it's loveliness alone. And don't get me started on the créme caramel.

So culinary people: you want this book on your shelf. It's pretty, the illustrations are adorable and the food is awesome. What more can you ask for?

Misery. Terribleness. And Bad Weather

Today has been dreadful.

I woke up to discover two things. One: it was raining so much, the sky appeared to be crying. Two: I had left my USB in the laptop overnight, so to punish me it overheated and is basically dead. The tech analyst person in college couldn't save it. The man in the computer shop told me to just get a new one. Even my mum couldn't fix it, and we all know that if your mum can't fix something it's, in a word, screwed.

It's bad enough that the USB died. It was shaped like a surfboard and I can't get the same one anywhere. What's worse is, the final draft of my research project was saved onto it and I had stupidly forgotten to back it up on the laptop. So I lost over a thousand words that had to be re-done this morning during the free time I was supposed to be giving myself to watch my DVR'ed Vampire Diaries. Trust me, I could really have done with a Stefan and Damon fix this morning. But no. There was re-typing to be done.

That done, I had to leave my house at three pm in a torrential downpour for my one and only remaining class. On at 5pm, in the dreariest room you ever saw, where only half the lights work. On the way to the bus stop, my umbrella blew out of my hand and flew all the way across the field and I was too depressed and wet to chase it. So by the time I arrived on campus, I was even wetter, freezing to death, developing pneumonia and five euros poorer because I had to buy a new umbrella.

I ended up, in spite of all this, having a few free minutes before class. So I did what I always do with free time and went into the bookstore. And guess what I found there? A whole six days early? Drumroll please...When You Were Mine by Rebecca Serle. I did a little dance and the very hot grad student who works behind the counter looked at me like I was insane. Was I bothered? Was I heck. The book just about made up for all the crappy things that happened today.

Sadly, I cannot begin to read my lovely book yet as I have too much to do. All is not lost though. I finally got to watch Vampire Diaries when I was eating dinner and Damon and Elena...well, I won't give it away, but I did another little dance and my mum gave me a funny look.

Can't wait for college to be over...

Desperately Seeking: An Explanation

Dear Everybody,

Once again, I am left feeling terminally out of the loop? Why? There is a literary phenomenon happening and I missed it. Missed it! Someone must pay.

What is this phenomenon, I hear you cry? Why, it is something called the Fifty Shades trilogy, and all of a sudden it is clogging up my Amazon homepage while I am in the midst of trying to order things. Important things. But I digress.

Everyone is reading these books. My nan. The security woman at work. Someone in college (who should be too busy to read at this time of year!). And you know what else? Apparently these are DIRTY books! Ooooh!

I don't know if I want to read dirty books, especially as my nan is also reading them. That's a bit odd. But I am curious. Has anyone read them? Or been bothered to Google them? Seeking explanations below...

Grrrr!

Grr. Yes, Grrrrrrrr! Angry face. Why angry face? I am busy. Too busy. College has moved into that hysterical it's-it's-nearly-the-end-of-the-semester fever pitch and work is just mental! I'm doing all these extra hours because too many people are getting married.I HAVE NO TIME TO READ! Sniff. Cry. Sniff, again.

This is doubly tragic, because I got some amazing books in the post this week (two of which I forgot I ordered...bad). These were:

Heist Society by Ally Carter
Starters by Lissa Price
Shine by Lauren Myracle
Psych Major Syndrome by Alicia Johnson
The Espressologist by Kristina Springer

What was I thinking? Have I forgotten that I am in my last semester as an undergraduate and THAT I HAVE NO TIME TO BREATHE LET ALONE READ/???!!

And then I get an email from the Book Depository, telling me books I preordered months ago, have been released. The postman is now calling for me to be committed to a home for the terminally insane and obsessed.

It's not my fault. Between work and college I haven't really done anything or gone anywhere in months. Instead, I order books. Sue me, it's not a hobby but what's a girl to do?

Sweetly

Book: Sweetly
Author: Jackson Pearce
Publisher: Hodder
Covetability: Get. It. Now!

I love fairy tale retellings. Love them. I even enjoyed the movie version of Beastly, for which my friends deemed me a massive loser and refused to go to the cinema with me ever again. Well, for about a week anyway. Where am I going with this? Sweetly, my friends, Sweetly.

Hands up who loves Jackson Pearce? Lots of you? Good. She is all kinds of awesome. I have had her upcoming contemporary novel Purity in my Amazon wishlist forever. I also adored Sisters Red, but you know what? I think I love Sweetly more.

That said, if you have read Sisters Red you have a bit of a leg up, because though it’s not a straight sequel, Sweetly is a companion novel and uses the same mythology. Not that you can’t completely love Sweetly on its own merits because it is just fantastic.

The central character, Gretchen, hasn’t had it easy. Her twin sister disappeared when both girls were little, after they were chased in the woods by something very unseen and very creepy. Now, twelve years later, Gretchen and her brother Ansel have been thrown out by their nasty stepmother and are forced to hit the road. When their truck breaks down in a tiny, one-horse town they are taken in by the mysterious Sophia Kelly, who the townspeople are all terrified of. Sophia runs a chocolate shop, but nobody ever seems to visit it. Then Gretchen meets this mysterious local called Samuel, who warns her to get away from Sophia while she and Ansel still can.

Can you see where this is going? Can you guess what fairy tale it’s based on? Doesn’t matter if you can-I’ll bet the ending while surprise you anyway. I loved, loved, loved this book. It may well have been one of my fave picks of 2011, and I loved everything I read last year, by and large. It’s Lola good, and I don’t say that lightly.

Rating: 10/10

I love Hunger Games!

More books arrived this week.

My postman now thinks I am an absolute nut of the first water; not my problem. Had I been American, I’d be able to buy these in a bookshop but I live in Ireland, so they must come in the post.

So this week, I was on the receiving end of:

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Scarlet by AC Gaughen

The Disenchantments by Nina LeCour

I haven’t read any of them yet. Oh no. I chose this week to discover the Hunger Games instead.

Now, I know I have moaned about missing things in the past. I didn’t miss the Hunger Games; I just never got around to them. But then I started the first book because I was seeing the movie and well…no college work done. Friends neglected. Dog ignored. Whole series finished in two days. Felt like a complete idiot for not reading them before now, and like an even bigger idiot for not savouring them, seeing as there won’t be another book. They were beyond brilliant…if I was being picky I wasn’t overjoyed by the ending but the first book especially was just fantastic.

And the movie? I was really impressed. I hate it when films deviate too much from the book (like when it was implied that Hogwarts had a rowing club in the last Harry Potter movie I was not a happy bunny) but this movie was soooo faithful to the book; it all looked exactly how I imagined it, or pretty close.  Also, Liam Hemsworth? Hello. There is some ridiculous DNA in that whole family. I thought Jennifer Lawrence was a great Katniss and the scene with Roo was heartbreaking. I’m going to see it again with a Hunger Games obsessive this week and I bet she’s going to love it too.  

Oh, and the soundtrack! The Civil Wars, who I adore, have a great song on it with Taylor Swift called 'Safe and Sound'. Hearing it was the closest my heartless little self has come to crying in forever. There's also songs by Maroon 5 as you've never heard them before and a boatload of other awesome people. Go and see it now, regardless of whether you've read the books or not. It won't disappoint fans but is a great standalone film in its own right.