Book Review: Midnight Sun (Book #5 in the Twilight Saga) by Stephenie Meyer

Right off the bat, I have to admit that Midnight Sun is definitely a very tricky book for me to review; mainly because I’ve always had very complicated feelings about Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga. Plus, while I don’t think that Midnight Sun itself is perfect, I still loved this book in a guilty pleasure sense; and this book, and the Twilight Saga as a whole, definitely puts the “guilty” in “guilty pleasure”. I have to admit that a part of me had definitely given up hope years ago that Stephenie Meyer would ever finish writing Midnight Sun and publish it; so, I was very surprised when it was announced that not only had she finished writing it, she was also announcing the book’s release date (8/4/20). That being said, after having actually read Midnight Sun, I definitely think that this book was worth the wait.

 

While it has been, I honestly don’t even know how many years, since the last time I read Twilight (The Book), I did read Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined when the tenth anniversary edition of Twilight was released in 2015; so, I’m not entirely sure how much Midnight Sun compares to Twilight in terms of plot details and character development. That being said, I still thought that Meyer did a great job of adding new material and insight into all of the characters; especially when it came to Edward, and the other members of the Cullen family. Even for supporting characters, I’ve always thought that Edward’s family members were underdeveloped and underutilized characters in the main part of the Twilight Saga. That being said, I really felt like Meyer did a great job of using Midnight Sun as an opportunity to give the Cullen family some more character development, and offered the readers some more insight into them as characters. It was definitely a lot of fun to see a lot of interactions between Edward and the other members of the Cullen family in this book. Admittedly, I had been kind of worried that Midnight Sun would end up being a major rehash of Twilight, only written from Edward’s point of view. Thankfully, I ultimately don’t think that was the case. Meyer definitely did a great job of providing longtime fans of the Twilight series new insight into the events that take place in the first book in the series, as well as some great new insight into Edward as a character.

Frozen 2: Official Trailer #2

Here's the second official trailer for Frozen 2. Frozen 2 looks like it's going to be a truly awesome movie, and the more previews that I see for it, the more and more I get excited to see it! :)

Frozen 2: Official Trailer

Here's the official trailer for Frozen 2. I absolutely loved Frozen, but based on both the teaser trailer and the official trailer for Frozen 2, I really think that Frozen 2 is already showing a lot of potential to end up being even better than the first movie. It really looks like Frozen 2 is going to be absolutely awesome and amazing! ☺️

Frozen 2: Official Teaser Trailer

Here's the official teaser trailer for Frozen 2. Even though I can't really tell what's going to happen in the movie based on this teaser trailer, I still think that it looks like Frozen 2 is going to be a really interesting and awesome movie. :)

Book Review: Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst (An OwlCrate book of the month)

Before I get into my review of Audrey Coulthurst’s book, Of Fire and Stars I’d like to start off by briefly talking about how I found out about this book. I originally heard about this book from various people on BookTube (YouTube), and I even pre-ordered it on Amazon at one point. However, I ultimately got my copy of Of Fire and Stars in the December 2016 OwlCrate box. In case you don’t know what OwlCrate is, it’s a monthly YA book box. There’s a different theme for the box each month; for example, the theme for the December box was “Epic”. Each month the box includes a recently released hardback YA book, along with a letter from the author, a signed bookplate (The author’s autograph), as well as three to five items centered around the theme for that month. Here’s a picture of everything that came in the December 2016 box that I posted on Instagram to give people an idea of what kind of things they include in the boxes each month.

A post shared by Taylor Glissman (@tmswriter6) on Dec 19, 2016 at 6:12pm PST

Plans start at $29.99, plus shipping. The people who run OwlCrate are all very nice, and they’re really great at answering any questions that people may have about OwlCrate on Twitter, or via email. I highly recommend subscribing to OwlCrate, especially if you’re a fan of YA books. If you’re interested in learning more about OwlCrate, or subscribing to it, you can check out their website here. For the record, I wasn’t asked by the owners of OwlCrate to promote their business on my blog; I’m only mentioning OwlCrate here because I really love OwlCrate a lot, especially now that I’m basically focusing on only reviewing books for my blog instead of TV shows. In case you’re unaware, I reviewed Jeff Zentner’s debut novel, The Serpent King, which was OwlCrate’s book of the month for March of last year when the theme was Writer’s Block. I’ve also reviewed Kasie West’s book, P.S. I Like You, which was the August 2016 book of the month. With all that said, here are my thoughts on Audrey Coulthurst’s book, Of Fire and Stars.

Right off the bat, I have to say that Of Fire and Stars is a book that I was highly anticipating prior to its release for a lot of reasons. Being bisexual myself, reviewing books that feature LGBT characters is something that I’ve really wanted to do with my blog, so I was very intrigued and excited to read a YA book that not only featured LGBT characters, but was first and foremost focused on a same-sex romance, rather than have the LGBT characters be regulated to simply being supporting characters in the book. Plus, I’m just a huge fan of books that are either a part of the romance genre, or books where romance is simply a big part of the plot in general. I also love science fiction and fantasy books, so the fantasy elements that are featured in this book were definitely another thing that really drew me to Of Fire and Stars. While I ultimately didn’t think that Of Fire and Stars was perfect, for the most part, this book totally delivered in terms of what I wanted to get out of it; and at times it even exceeded my expectations.

Frozen 2: Goofy ideas for the plot of the movie

Let me start out by saying that I'm really excited about the announcement that they are going to be making a sequel to Frozen, because I absolutely love that movie. That being said, I'm really excited to see what they'll do for Frozen 2, because I thought that Frozen had the perfect ending. I have a couple possible, yet pretty much entirely sarcastic ideas for the plot of the movie though.

Maybe Elsa could have been dating some guy from another village since Frozen ended, he dumps her, she goes all "crazy ex-girlfriend" on him and freezes his entire village and the whole "love will thaw" thing doesn't work this time, so they would have to find another way to reverse Elsa's magic. Another idea that I have is perhaps they could make Frozen 2 a total soap opera. Anna cheats on Kristoff with Elsa's boyfriend, Anna finds out that she's pregnant, but she doesn't know if the father of her baby is Kristoff or Elsa's boyfriend, Elsa finds out about the whole thing and goes on a total freezing rampage, while Kristoff becomes suicidal. If they go that route, I really think they should have Maury Povich be a part of the cast for Frozen 2 and they could all go on Maury to do a paternity test to find out who the father of Anna's baby is. Just a thought.

In all seriousness though, I'm honestly not sure what they could do for the plot of Frozen 2 without potentially kind of ruining the ending of Frozen. I thought that the ending of Frozen was pretty much perfect, and I love how it was the sisterly love that Anna and Elsa had for each other that saved Anna's life instead having Hans or Kristoff be the one who saved Anna's life in the end. Plus, I love that they figured out that the key to Elsa being able to control her powers was love. Since a big part of the movie was Elsa's inability to control her powers and they figured out how Elsa could control her powers at the end of the movie, I'm just not sure that there's really anything left for them to work with for a good idea for the plot of Frozen 2.

Glee: Season 6 Promo (HD)

Here's a promo for season 6 of Glee.

Once Upon a Time: Episode 4x11 "Heroes and Villains" Promo (HD) (Winter Finale)

Here's a promo for next week's winter finale, episode 4x11 "Heroes and Villains". I have to say that even after watching this promo, I'm still not all that excited about the storyline for the second half of season 4. I'm going to try my best to keep an open mind about it though.

Once Upon a Time: Episode 4x10 "Shattered Sight" Promo (HD)

Here's a promo for next week's episode, episode 4x10 "Shattered Sight". It looks like this is going to be another awesome episode. :)

Once Upon a Time: Scoop on the Spell of Shattered Sight from Entertainment Weekly's Natalie Abrams

Here's some scoop on Once Upon a Time from Entertainment Weekly's Natalie Abrams' The Spoiler Room column, which was posted on 11/28/14.

Do you have any info on Once Upon a Time’s Spell of Shattered Sight? — Frederick
Once it hits the town, it will bring out the absolute worst in people, especially Regina, who will revert back to her Evil Queen days. “She has a run in first with Elsa and Emma,” Lana Parrilla teases. “All these years, she’s really be controlling her temper and has not been so impulsive when it comes to Emma for Henry’s sake. In this instance, Emma pays a visit to Regina’s vault and it doesn’t turn out well. She starts throwing fire balls. She wants to kill Emma and she’s been waiting a long time to do this, so it’s her lucky day.”

Link to the full article:Spoiler Room: Scoop on 'Sleepy Hollow,' 'Once,' 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' and more | Inside TV | EW.com

Once Upon a Time: Episode 4x09 "Fall" Promo (HD)

Here's a promo for the next episode, episode 4x09 "Fall". It looks like this is going to be a very interesting episode. :)

Once Upon a Time: Scoop on episode 4x08 "Smash the Mirror" from Entertainment Weekly's Natalie Abrams

Here's some scoop on Once Upon a Time from Entertainment Weekly's Natalie Abrams' The Spoiler Room column, which was posted on 11/14/14.

Any scoop on the two-hour episode of Once Upon a Time? — Farah
Remember the Snow Queen’s yellow ribbons? You should definitely be worried about them because they’ll come back into play in a very major way. (Hint: I may have spotted certain people wearing them while I was on set.)

Link to the full article:Spoiler Room: Scoop on 'Blacklist,' 'Mentalist,' 'Grey's' and more | Inside TV | EW.com

Once Upon a Time: Elsa, Anna and the Snow Queen related scoop on episode 4x08 "Smash the Mirror" from TVGuide's Adam Bryant

Here's some scoop on Once Upon a Time from TVGuide's Adam Bryant's Mega Buzz column, which was posted on 11/11/14.

Any scoop on Sunday's two-hour episode of Once Upon a Time? — Deirdre
Here's a tidbit: "Elsa and Anna get to work together back in Arendelle," Elizabeth Lail reveals. "So we get to see the two sisters become a team and formulate a plan." That's definitely bad news for the Snow Queen, who will learn that her plan to pit Elsa against Anna won't be easy.

Link to the full article:Mega Buzz: Parenthood's End, More Frozen on Once and Loyalty on Walking Dead - Today's News: Our Take | TVGuide.com

Once Upon a Time: Episode 4x08 "Smash the Mirror" Promo (HD) (2-Hour Episode)

Here's a promo for next week's 2-hour episode, episode 4x08 "Smash the Mirror". It looks like this is going to be another great episode. :)

Once Upon a Time: Episode 4x07 "The Snow Queen" Promo (HD)

Here's a promo for next week's episode, episode 4x07 "The Snow Queen". It looks like this is going to be another awesome episode. :)

Once Upon a Time: Scoop on the possibility of Emma joining Operation Mongoose and scoop on Snow and Charming from TVLine's Michael Ausiello

Here's some scoop on Once Upon a Time from this week's (Posted on 10/29/14) Ask Ausiello column.

Question: On Once Upon a Time, is Emma going to help out Henry and Regina with Operation Mongoose? —Dee
Ausiello: Probably not until the 12-episode Frozen arc is over, at earliest. As Jennifer Morrison shared during our set visit, “I’m sure we’ll get around to it eventually, but that storyline right now is separate from ours [and] there’s only so much overlap that can happen before there’s just too much going on. But I’m sure that in the second half of the season, we’ll all have some kind of participation in that.”

Question: Any twists and turns coming up for the Charmings (apart from the baby) on OUAT? —Jenny
Ausiello: There’s a “pretty nasty” development coming, one with far-reaching consequences, teases Josh Dallas, who adds, “There’s something on its way that definitely affects everyone in Storybrooke — and the Charmings, for sure. It creates some weird things within their relationship. I can’t tell you any more.” No worries, JD. You’ve already told us more than enough.

Link to the full article:‘Castle’ Season 7 Spoilers: Ted McGinley Cast in Episode 9 — Ask Ausiello | TVLine

Once Upon a Time: Episode 4x06 "Family Business" Promo (HD)

Here's a promo for next week's episode, episode 4x06 "Family Business". It looks like this is going to be another great episode. :)

Once Upon a Time: Episode 4x05 "Breaking Glass" Promo (HD)

Here's a promo for next week's episode, episode 4x05 "Breaking Glass". It looks like this is going to be a very interesting episode. :)

Once Upon a Time: Episode 4x03 "Rocky Road" Promo (HD) (ft. Elizabeth Mitchell)

Here's a promo for next week's episode, episode 4x03 "Rocky Road". It looks like this is going to be an another awesome episode. :)

Once Upon a Time: Scoop on The Snow Queen from Entertainment Weekly's Natalie Abrams

Here's some scoop on Once Upon a Time from Entertainment Weekly's Natalie Abrams' The Spoiler Room column, which was posted on 10/3/14.

How soon until we see Elizabeth Mitchell on Once Upon a Time? — Rene
You won’t have to wait much longer, but you may be surprised to hear that the Snow Queen isn’t necessarily focused on Elsa. “The Snow Queen definitely has her sights on Emma for a particular reasons,” Jennifer Morrison teases. Speaking of icy new characters, Ginnifer Goodwin reveals that Snow will share a connection with Elsa. “We do cross paths, and Elsa does provide some solace in some ways,” the actress says. “She and Snow are able to relate about some things down the line in the season that I found to be surprising and powerful.”

Link to the full article:Spoiler Room: Scoop on 'Walking Dead,' 'Gotham,' 'Originals' and more | Inside TV | EW.com