May 2021 – Page 2 – wings and fables

Top 5 Tuesday: Adaptations I Liked Better Than the Book

May 18, 2021May 22, 2021by wren @ wingsandfables6 Comments

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Bionic Book Worm and is now hosted by Meeghan Reads. This week’s topic is Top 5 Adaptations You Liked Better Than the Book.

1. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I feel like this is a very obvious answer. Rosamund Pike’s portrayal of Amy completely stole my heart. I did enjoy the book, of course, but I really loved the film. Everyone knows the iconic monologue of Amy when she explains how she pulled off her own disappearance and the way Rosamund reads it truly brings a whole new vibe to the storyline. I love the twisted ending and the final shots of Amy laying with her head on Nick’s stomach which parallels a frame of her doing it earlier in the film, bringing the story full circle. It has great cinematography and didn’t take too many liberties from the book which I enjoyed.

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Reviews

ARC Review: Project Personality by Lynn Rush & Kelly Anne Blount

May 15, 2021May 22, 2021by wren @ wingsandfablesLeave a Comment

it was like he was a hydrogen molecule and i was the oxygen. i was drawn to him. we completed each other.
lynn rush & kelly anne blount

Series: Twin River High #2

Release Date: May 17th 2021

Publisher: Entangled Publishing LLC

Genre: Young Adult Fiction | Contemporary | Romance

Page Count: 274

Source: I received an advance reader’s copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Thank you!

Goodreads Summary: Hope Chambers has a major problem. She’s spent the entirety of her four years of high school focusing on being perfect—perfect grades, perfect extracurriculars, perfect essays—to the point that she forgot to get a life. And now she’s perfectly boring. She’s got exactly two weeks before her admissions interview for MIT to spice up her life and get a personality, dammit. And she knows exactly who can help her: soccer star and Mr. Popularity himself, Landon Watkins. But how does a nerdy, socially awkward girl ask the most charismatic guy in school to help her become interesting? Saving his life in the school cafeteria is a pretty good start. No one is more surprised than Hope when Landon agrees to help her. But what he proposes they do takes her so far out of her shell, she’s practically in a different ocean. And when she starts falling for the last guy she ever expected to, it has her second-guessing every decision she’s ever made…

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Discussions, Let's Talk Bookish

Let’s Talk Bookish: Books Based on Games/Shows/Movies/Comics

May 14, 2021May 22, 2021by wren @ wingsandfables8 Comments

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly series hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books and Dani @ Literary Lion. This week’s topic was suggested by Dani and is Books Based on Games/Movies/Shows/Comics.

“The book is better” is a common outcry amongst book worms, because the book came first…but what about when it didn’t? How do you feel about book adaptations of movies? Books based on video game worlds? Books that tell alternate stories from television worlds? Or even books featuring your favorite superheroes? Do you have any favorites in these genres? Is the book still better?

I had to really think about this week’s topic and consider if I’ve ever actually read a book based off of something else already created in the media. I have read a few and all of them are books based off of movies. In my limited experience so far, I’ve found that these books often follow very closely to their original basis compared to their counterparts. We’re all very familiar with movies and television shows taking creative liberties for various reasons whether it be to make them more appealing to the general population, to make them more relevant to the gen pop, or to make them more “interesting” and more marketable, but it’s rare that we ever see a movie/television show that actually follows closely to its book basis. But when it’s a book based off of a movie, it’s nearly identical to its source material which is interesting.

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Tours

Blog Tour: Shadow and Bone & Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo | Netflix Tie-In Editions (+ book-inspired playlists!)

May 12, 2021May 22, 2021by wren @ wingsandfables7 Comments

Hey, everyone! I’m super excited to be a part of this tour hosted by Terminal Tours for the release of the new Netflix Tie-In Edition covers of Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows. Each of us on the tour has chosen a creative post to celebrate these special cover releases so please check out all of the amazing content here. I’ll be sharing a playlist for each book curated by me with songs I feel fit the vibe of the stories. I hope you enjoy them!

Read the books that started a worldwide phenomenon and inspired the Netflix original series, Shadow and Bone. These paperback editions of Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows feature exclusive cover art from the show.

Synopsis: Soldier. Summoner. Saint. Orphaned and expendable, Alina Starkov is a soldier who knows she may not survive her first trek across the Shadow Fold—a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters. But when her regiment is attacked, Alina unleashes dormant magic not even she knew she possessed. Now Alina will enter a lavish world of royalty and intrigue as she trains with the Grisha, her country’s magical military elite—and falls under the spell of their notorious leader, the Darkling. He believes Alina can summon a force capable of destroying the Shadow Fold and reuniting their war-ravaged country, but only if she can master her untamed gift. As the threat to the kingdom mounts and Alina unlocks the secrets of her past, she will make a dangerous discovery that could threaten all she loves and the very future of a nation.

Welcome to Ravka . . . a world of science and superstition where nothing is what it seems.

My Book-Inspired Playlist:

Listen to the full playlist on Spotify here!

Black Sea by Natasha Blume
Flames by Tedy
Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing by Set It Off
Pieces by Emily Vaughn
Ordinary Fools by Somme
Safe by Daya
Couple of Kids by Maggie Lindemann
Circus Freak by xoxomayah
Gasoline by Halsey
Dodged a Bullet by Greg Laswell

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Lists, Top 5 Tuesday

Top 5 Tuesday: Books I Wish Had TV Adaptations

May 11, 2021May 25, 2021by wren @ wingsandfables10 Comments

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Bionic Book Worm and is now hosted by Meeghan Reads. This week’s topic is Top 5 Books I Wish Had TV Adaptations.

This week’s prompt was a bit more challenging for me this week because so many books I would put on this list are actually becoming TV series already! I’m so happy that many more young adult books are being adapted to screen nowadays. Even if they’re not perfectly true to their source material, I’m happy that more authors are getting an opportunity to see their creations come alive in a different way.

1. Christy Miller series by Robin Jones Gunn

This series defines my teenage years and I have such a deep connection with the books. It’s a Christian young adult series that follows a Wisconsin girl who spends the summer with her aunt and uncle in Newport Beach, California. She falls in love with one of the surfers and he introduces her to the concept of having a real relationship with Jesus, not just an I-attend-church type of vibe. The original series has 12 books and the author has gone on to write the characters through their college lives, their marriage, and her newest books focus on them becoming parents. There are so many ups and downs in the series from Christy’s family moving across the U.S. to the love interest, Todd, cutting off their relationship at times to Christy selecting a life path only to find out that it really isn’t for her. There’s loads of material that could be used in a TV show adaptation and a few of Gunn’s books have already made it to the screen on the Hallmark channel. I’d love to see Christy Miller take a spot as well.

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Reviews

ARC Review: Words Composed of Sea and Sky by Erica George

May 10, 2021May 22, 2021by wren @ wingsandfables2 Comments

“i hope that when people look for something that is left of me, all they’ll find is you.”
erica george

Series: Standalone

Release Date: May 25th 2021

Publisher: Running Press Kids

Genre: Young Adult Fiction | Contemporary | Historical Fiction | Romance

Page Count: 368

Source: I received an advance reader’s copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Thank you!

Goodreads Summary: This modern summer romance set on Cape Cod features two young adult poets divided by centuries.

Michaela Dunn, living on present day Cape Cod, dreams of getting into an art school, something her family just doesn’t understand. When her stepfather refuses to fund a trip for a poetry workshop, Michaela finds the answer in a local contest searching for a poet to write the dedication plaque for a statue honoring Captain Benjamin Churchill, a whaler who died at sea 100 years ago. She struggles to understand why her town venerates Churchill, an almost mythical figure whose name adorns the school team and various tourist traps. When she discovers the 1862 diary of Leta Townsend, however, she gets a glimpse of Churchill that she didn’t quite anticipate. In 1862, Leta Townsend writes poetry under the name Benjamin Churchill, a boy who left for sea to hunt whales. Leta is astonished when Captain Churchill returns after his rumored death. She quickly falls for him. But is she falling for the actual captain or the boy she constructed in her imagination?

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Reviews

ARC Review: Gutter Girl by Lynn Rush & Kelly Anne Blount

May 9, 2021May 22, 2021by wren @ wingsandfables5 Comments

this is why people always act so ridiculous in the movies when they’re getting swept off their feet by their crush. he kissed the english language right out of my brain, yet again.
lynn rush & kelly anne blount

Series: Twin River High #1

Release Date: May 10th 2021

Publisher: Entangled Publishing LLC

Genre: Young Adult Fiction | Contemporary | Romance

Page Count: 294

Source: I received an advance reader’s copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Thank you!

Goodreads Summary: Star football player Jace Rovers has a secret. And not just any secret—a shocking secret… He writes romance. The kind with swords. And dresses. And kissing. Nobody knows. Not the other kids at Twin River High. Not his overbearing parents. And certainly not the millions of fans who’ve read his book on the writing platform Scribbles. And that’s the way he plans to keep it. Except suddenly one of the other football players grabs his notebook in jest and starts reading a kissing scene out loud…and Jace knows he’s busted. But then McKenna Storm, resident goth girl who avoids the spotlight like a virus, snatches up the notebook and tells everyone she’s the author. And lucky for Jace, she later agrees to continue the ruse…for a price. Heck, he’d give her anything not to reveal his secret. But when they start to fall for each other, he knows he’ll have to keep the biggest secret of all—his darkest character is based on her…

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