A Simple Favor

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Hey!

I’m back once again with yet another book review. It might actually surprise you to know that I actually finished this book a few weeks ago according to my Goodreads nearly two weeks ago, but never got around to writing the review. I’ve been struggling writing reviews and doing things lately, but perhaps I’ll save that for another post.

Today’s post will be a review on Darcy Bell’s A Simple Favor. The book was recently turned into a movie that stars Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively. I still haven’t seen it in theater, which it is now probably out of theaters since it has been a few minutes. I’m sure that if you give it 6 months you can catch it on Redbox or something.

I read the book through the Nook app on my phone. The story is essentially split into two parts Emily and Stephanie. Stephanie is a stay at home mom that runs a parenting blog and also carries some dark secrets. Emily is a high powered executive secretary at a PR firm in the city. There two worlds crash because their sons become fast friends at school and also because Emily is quietly developing a scheme to never work again. A few months after Emily and Stephanie become friends, Emily take a trip and ends up being away longer than expected. Stephanie panics and reaches out to the internet for advice which ends up on a search for Emily finding a dead body and declaring her dead. This is where all the mystery begins or so Stephanie thinks.

As always I promise not to spoil the ending of the book for you, but I will say that the book takes some pretty interesting twists and turns as you start to read Emily’s section of the book. Overall though I will admit that I found the book rather slow in the beginning and nearly put it down , but thankfully or unthankfully I flipped to a different section to read ahead to see if it got better and it did. I wasn’t impressed by any of the writing of the book and though I liked it and found the first part slow. I probably won’t end up reading it again and would recommend that you borrow it from the library rather than own it.

Let me know what you have been reading lately. Have you read this book? Did you see the movie? Let me know your thoughts.

I’ll be back soon in another post.

LipStick Jungle

9 / 27 / 181 / 29 / 19

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Hey!

What?!? I’m back with another book review, even though I told you guys that I was in a slump just one post ago. It’s true, I did finish another book. This time it was another book that has been sitting on my bookshelf for WAY too long and became part of this year’s clear the shelf project. This project is really gaining some momentum this year. This review is going to be Candace Bushnell’s Lipstick Jungle. If you were in your 20s or early 30s in the early 2000s you will know that Candace Bushnell is the author behind the book that the series Sex in the City was based on. It was a great HBO show for all the right reasons, not to mention that it had 2 movies that let us catch up with the characters a few years down the road. Well, also trying to capitalize on the success of that show Candace Bushnell also gave over the rights to another one of her novels Lipstick Jungle. Needless to say it was a short-lived show on the mainstream network starring Brooke Shields. I kind of wish that it had worked out. 🙁 For a couple of years you were able to watch the whole series on Netflix , but I’m not sure where it has gone to now.

Let’s get to the book review portion of this post. The book starts off during New York September Fashion week in which, Victory Ford, one the main characters is debuting her latest venture. Her two best friends, Nico O’ Neilly and Wendy Healy both top business executives in their own right show up to support her. Needless to say, Victory’s September fashion line is a flop and the lives of the three women ravel and unravel from there.

I will say that the tv show took a few liberties from the book and changed the plot lines in hoping to better suit audiences. Personally , I like the book’s plot lines for the characters a bit better because it shows the women taking control and being in charge of their own lives while acting like they have it all. Having it all can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people, but this book showed people that women could have it all.

Let me know if you have read the book or remember watching the show and what you thought. I’ll see you soon in another post soon.

Girl, wash your face

9 / 25 / 181 / 29 / 19

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Hey!

I know that it’s been a minute since I’ve been here, but it’s mostly because I’ve been in a slump with reading and finding motivation to do things. I’m not sure if it is because those moments between summer and fall where the weather gets WAY too hot here, or because it’s the few months before the holiday slide. Whatever it is, I have it bad. I’m slowly forcing my way through it and I suppose it has been working.

I recently finished Girl, wash your face by Rachel Hollis. I had this recommended and quoted by so many people I follow that I probably genuinely lost count. I got this in ebook form on my Nook app for my phone because somehow in the last year I’ve become embarrassed by all the self help, encouraging book that I’ve been reading.

The basic rundown of this book is that Rachel Hollis a Christian author and motivational speaker goes through several lies that people and mainly women tell themselves on a daily basis. Or even worse yet, lies that we have been told and help perpetuate through the years. She gives stories from her point of view and things she did to help get rid of that lie in her life.

I’m not going to lie and say that this book wasn’t motivational and highly encouraging. It really genuinely was! I even copied a dozen or so quotes from it into my journal as notes for future reference. I really will go back through the journal and read all the notes from the book and try to gain a bit more encouragement or possibly even re-read the book again. I do have to warn readers though that because Rachel Hollis is a Christian some of her motivation and encouragement comes from that background and side of the street. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is something worth noting for those who aren’t religious.

Let me know if you have read this book and what you thought of it. Are there any other self-help, motivational books that you would recommend reading? I think I’m really on a kick lately.

I’ll see you soon in another post.

The Lovely Bones

9 / 6 / 181 / 29 / 19

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Hey!
More book reviews you are thinking?!, well why yes! This is actually the book that I started and never finished during the Creating & Co TBR throwdown, a bit back. You can read more about the TBR Throwdown books that I actually finished during that week.

Well in case you missed the title of this post, this is going to be a review on The Lovely Bones by Alice Seabold and will also include a mini review on the movie at the end. This is actually a book that I have had on my bookshelf for a while. Thankfully, I was able to buy it at a used bookstore so I didn’t have to pay full price. I had bought the book when I found out the movie was coming out and it has often been a habit of mine to read the book right around the time I see the movie, so I can give it a good comparison. Sadly enough, I didn’t manage to do either until recently. I will tell you that I tried to start this book several years ago and honestly it is a bit of a slow start and it will take you a good 100 or more pages to really get into this book.

In case you haven’t heard of this book or the movie before here’s a quick synopsis. Susie Salmon, who is the narrator of the book is a 14 year old girl, who is raped and killed by a man in her neighborhood. She and everyone else at the time doesn’t know it, but the man, George Harvey had a habit of raping and killing young girls throughout the area she lived in. After Susie’s death/disappearance, her family falls apart in various stages of grief. Her father goes crazy trying to find the killer, her mother feels abandoned and alone, her sister struggles to move on but does, and her little brother for a long time is still able to sense her being around. Susie spends a great deal of the book watching from the in-between and heaven the activities of her family and neighbors.

I can’t spoil the whole book for you because otherwise there would really be no point in you reading it now would there. There are a few twists and turns in the book that are abbreviated in the movie, but it still makes the book worth reading.

Here’s the mini review of the movie: The movie while obviously you can’t include everything from the book, shows Susie’s body hanging around longer at George Harvey’s house, in the book he disposes of it within the week and also dumps her bracelet pulling off the Pennsylvania charm to keep for himself for a while. In the movie it also shows Lindsey, Susie’s sister, figuring out that George Harvey is a killer much sooner and that includes George Harvey leaving town. As you can tell most of the differences from the book and movie mainly have to do with how fast they happen.

I would recommend that you give the book a read or watch the movie, but I’ll warn you that the book is slightly more graphic than the movie about the rape and the killing of the other girls. If you have read this book or seen the movie feel free to let me know what you thought about it. I’ve got so many more reviews coming for you. If you follow me anywhere on social media and see something that I talk about there that I haven’t talked about here feel free to let me know.

I’ll see you soon!

Movie Review: To all the boys I’ve loved before

9 / 4 / 189 / 4 / 18

Hey!
Wow, I know so many posts in the past short while, but I live in Hawaii and I had to deal with a hurricane threat a couple of weeks ago. In case you haven’t ever dealt with a hurricane threat before that means; after all the preparation to make sure that your house is safe and secure, you have an evacuation plan, and you have food and water. Well, let’s just say it’s a lot of waiting around and watching the news and what not to see what happens. It actually is REALLY boring in that sense. Image result for to all the boys i loved before
Seriously though let’s get back to the real reason that you are here. After finishing reading the To all the Boys I’ve loved before series. You can read my reviewsTo All the Boys I’ve loved before, PS I still love you, and Always & Forever Lara Jean. It was announced that Netflix is coming out with a movie based on the first book! Yes, like the crazy woman who fell so hard for Lara Jean in the first book I was screaming and overjoyed. I also hoped that it was everything of my dreams. When it was released on August 17th, I didn’t immediately jump to watch it, I mean why flood Netflix and then get the constant error message. It’s the worst! Netflix save us from error messages! I can safely say that I watched it this weekend and at the time of writing this post have watched it twice!

It mainly follows the story of the first book pretty dead on aside from the fact that there is less baking, no Stormi and Peter drives a Jeep in the movie. Can we get the guy an Audi because honestly that is such a hotter car than a Jeep?! Other than that it’s pretty spot on. I laughed, I cried a bunch, it was beautiful and moving just like a teen romance movie should be. Think John Hughes movie except for this half of the century. I know that John Hughes movies aren’t that old, but to every teenager out there, they are pretty old. Funny part though, they even reference the John Hughes movie Sixteen Candles in one scene. I would definitely recommend you see this movie! Oh yeah, the cliffhanger ending in the mid-credits scene means that Netflix should be giving us a sequel right? I mean the book series was three books long, give us at least another movie!!!!

The trailer will be below if you haven’t already watched the movie 😉 Let me know your thoughts when you get the chance. See you soon!