Sidebarred (A Legal Briefs Novella): The gang’s all back, and I couldn’t be happier (My thoughts on Book #3.5 in the Legal Briefs series)

Right off the bat, I have to say that as much as I loved Appealed, and while I thought that it was a fantastic ending to the Legal Briefs series, I still wasn’t quite ready for the series to end; mainly because I was loving the series so much. That’s definitely one of the main reasons why I was really excited when Emma Chase announced that she had written a novella for the Legal Briefs series. While I did think that Appealed was a great way to end the Legal Briefs series, I think that Sidebarred was an even better ending to the series.

Prior to Sidebarred’s release, I initially got the impression that Emma Chase had written the novella with the story shifting back and forth between each of the main characters from the series. It was only a few weeks before Sidebarred’s release that I found out that that wasn’t the case, and that Sidebarred was written solely from Jake’s point of view. Personally, as much as I love Stanton, Sofia and Brent, I think that Jake was definitely the perfect choice when it comes to which character from the series should be the protagonist of Sidebarred. At its core, the character development and internal conflict that Jake underwent throughout Sustained was all about wanting to be a part of Chelsea and the kids’ lives, while also thinking that he wasn’t capable of being a family man with a wife and kids.

Sustained pretty much ended with Jake realizing that he had become a family man without even realizing it, thanks largely in part to the “intervention” that Stanton, Sofia and Brent had for him. I love that we got a brief glimpse in one scene from Appealed of what Jake was like after he had embraced the idea of being a family man, with him acting like a protective father to one of the teenage girls in the family when she came to his work with him, and there was a boy there that could have easily made advances towards her. However, that whole scene was written from Brent’s point of view, so we didn’t get that much insight into what had happened with Jake, Chelsea and the kids after Sustained ended. That being said, Emma Chase did a fantastic job of really giving the readers of the Legal Briefs series an in depth look at Jake’s life as a husband to Chelsea, and a father figure to Chelsea’s nieces and nephews in Sidebarred.

When it comes to the plot of Sidebarred, while I’m not sure that the plot and the book as a whole would have worked as well had it been a full-length novel; I thought that it worked perfectly as a novella. The reason I say this is because while Jake and Chelsea do face various problems throughout the book that were genuinely interesting and got me completely invested in the story, the plot of the book and the conflict that Jake and Chelsea face in Sidebarred wasn’t big and dramatic enough to sustain a full-length novel, in my opinion. The plot of the book revolves primarily around the fact that Jake and Chelsea decide to have a baby after Chelsea had thought that she might be pregnant, only to discover that she wasn’t pregnant after all when she took a pregnancy test. I could be wrong about the exact timespan of the book, but Sidebarred takes place over the span of about a year and follows Jake and Chelsea as they try to get pregnant and then follows them through the pregnancy, while they also deal with problems involving the kids and their work. Nothing truly dramatic happens to them or any of the other characters throughout the book. Honestly, I’m perfectly okay with that because I think that the problems that Jake and Chelsea face both as a couple, as the problems that they deal with individually, while also raising Chelsea’s six nieces and nephews, are all very relatable. Plus, I’m really glad that Chase didn’t have Jake and Chelsea dealing with any major drama and angst in their marriage, such as having one of them cheat on the other, or at least be tempted to cheat.

Sleepy Hollow: Scoop on the season 3 premiere and more on season 3 from TVLine's Michael Ausiello

Here's some scoop on Sleepy Hollow from this week's (Posted on 8/2/15) Ask Ausiello column.

Question: SleepyHeads are dying for information about Sleepy Hollow Season 3. We are starving over here! —Regina
Ausiello: Feast on this: Season 3 picks up one year later and finds Abbie, having completed her training at Quantico, returning to Sleepy Hollow as a FBI agent. BONUS SCOOP: We will also see the return of Joe Corbin (Zach Appelman), who will team up with Jenny to aid Ichs and Abbs.

Question: Any more new faces coming to Sleepy Hollow? —Lil
Ausiello: Yeppers. Charlene Amoia — AKA longtime MacLaren’s waitress Wendy from How I Met Your Mother — will turn up in the Oct. 1 premiere as Susan James, a woman weighed down by her secret conspiracy to reveal corruption in her office.

Link to the full article:Penny and Leonard in ‘Big Bang Theory’ Season 9 — Wedding, Married | TVLine

Tangled: Hey, Everybody! Do you want to read a story about two guys getting into a catfight over a woman? If you do, then this story is definitely for you (My thoughts on the short story “Holy Frigging Matrimony” by Emma Chase)

As I said in my review of Tied (My thoughts on Tied), that book really left a bad taste in my mouth to the point where it made me feel like I needed to take a break from reading the Tangled series before I would read and review “Holy Frigging Matrimony”. Honestly, I was originally going to wait a little while longer before I read and review this story. Pretty much the only reason that I decided to review it now is because I wanted to listen to something on my iPod while I vacuumed my basement the other day, so I figured that listening to “Holy Frigging Matrimony” would be a good choice since it’s a short story; that being said, here are my thoughts on the story.

Going into this story, I was really hoping that Emma Chase would be able to redeem both herself and Drew as a character at least a little bit after the extremely disappointing Tied. I recently discovered that Emma Chase has read the reviews that I’ve written for each book in the Tangled series, so I’ve honestly been very nervous to write this review. The reason why I’ve been pretty nervous to write this review is because unfortunately, I don’t think that there’s a lot to like about “Holy Frigging Matrimony”.

The story itself is rather pointless in my opinion. Drew, Kate and their friends are all going to a celebration for the second wedding that Matthew and Dee were having since they had eloped in Vegas at the end of Tamed, which had apparently devastated Matthew’s mother since she wasn’t able to see her only son get married. At the risk of sounding really shallow, my favorite part of the story was definitely the sex scene between Drew and Kate at the beginning of the story. Despite the fact that the Tangled series wouldn’t be considered erotica and the Fifty Shades trilogy is considered erotica, I honestly think that the sex scenes in the Tangled series are a lot steamier and written a lot better too.  Admittedly, I thought that Drew pouring his mimosa on Kate’s breasts was kind of hot. However, I thought the fact that he also poured some of his drink on Kate’s crotch during the sex scene was kind of gross though.

For the record, the sex scenes in the Tangled series aren’t the reason why I’ve read all of the books. The main reason why I decided to read and review each of the books in the Tangled series is because I’ve been a huge fan of romance novels and romantic comedies for many, many years. Plus, the fact that the Tangled series was written primarily from the guy’s point of view was really appealing to me as a reader since it’s something that I hadn’t seen before when it comes to romance novels. As much as I love romance novels, there’s no denying that it’s a genre that’s often full of clichés and severely lacking originality. By writing the series primarily from a guy’s point of view, I feel like Emma Chase has offered fans of romance novels something new with the Tangled series.

Tied: It’s a real shame that the cast of Bridesmaids never showed up, because that probably would have made this book A LOT better (My thoughts on Book #4 in the Tangled book series by Emma Chase)

 

As I said back in my review for Tangled (My thoughts on Tangled), that book and the way it was written reminded me a lot of How I Met Your Mother. If you read my review for Tangled, you might remember that I also said that I really hoped that when I eventually finished reading all of the books in the Tangled series, I wouldn’t be left feeling so disappointed by the ending of the series that I would be wishing that I had never taken time to read the entire series in the first place like the series finale of How I Met Your Mother left me feeling. Right off the bat, I’ll say that while I found myself being incredibly disappointed by Tied, it thankfully didn’t leave me feeling so upset by the way the series ended that I wish that I never invested my time in reading the entire Tangled series in the first place. However, I’ll say right now that in my opinion Tied is definitely the worst book in the series. That being said, I should probably mention that technically I still have to read the short story “Holy Frigging Matrimony”, but since this book is last book in the series and “Holy Frigging Matrimony” apparently goes back to an earlier point in Drew and Kate’s relationship, I’m going to consider Tied to be the end of series.

If had to say right off the bat what one of my biggest problems with Tied is, it probably would be that I feel like the overall plot of this book is very cliché and paper-thin, and it’s severely lacking conflict that’s genuinely interesting or entertaining. That’s a real shame, because one thing that I’ve always loved about the Tangled series is that it’s written almost entirely from a man’s point of view, which I’ve always felt helped put a fresh spin on a genre that’s often full of clichés and severely lacking in originality. Honestly, Tied reminded me a lot of the movie Bridesmaids when I was reading it given how the book focuses a lot on Drew and Kate’s bachelor and bachelorette parties, as well as their wedding, which takes place in the epilogue. Personally, I think the movie Bridesmaids is much more entertaining and funny than Tied is. Tied feels like more of a 256 pages long epilogue to the series than anything else, which I think is pretty weird given the fact that this book has an actual epilogue. However, the book also included some flashbacks to when James was a baby, and he’s two years old now, which allows the reader to see what Drew and Kate are like as parents.

One thing that I loved about Tangled and the epilogue in Twisted was getting to read about Drew’s views on relationships, women and life in general. While Drew has definitely always had a tendency to be a bit of an asshole at times, he’s at least always been willing to admit that he can be an asshole at times, and I still thought that he was a very likable protagonist in Tangled and Twisted. However, I have to say that when I was reading Tied, I suddenly found myself frequently thinking that he wasn’t a likable asshole any more, he was just being an obnoxious asshole most of the time throughout the book.

Twisted: Reading this book makes me wonder if therapists should offer gift certificates for couples therapy (My thoughts on Book #2 in the Tangled book series by Emma Chase)

Since my review of the book Tangled by Emma Chase ended up getting a fair amount of traffic and I absolutely loved that book, I decided to review the second book in the series, Twisted. That being said, I’m going to come right out and say that while I did like this book, I thought that it was a rather disappointing follow-up to Tangled.

One of the reasons I gave Tangled such high praise in my review (My thoughts on Book #1 in the Tangled book series) was because I thought that Emma Chase did a great job of putting fresh spin on the romance novel genre by telling the story from Drew’s point of view since romance novels are typically told from the woman’s point of view. However, with the exception of the epilogue, which is told from Drew’s point of view, Twisted is told from Kate’s point of view. As a result, Twisted didn’t come across as being a book that put its own unique spin on the genre for the most part, and I also feel like waiting until the epilogue to shift the story to Drew’s point of view really caused the book to suffer as a whole, but I’ll explain why I feel this way later on in this review.

At the start of the book, it’s established that two years have passed since the end of Tangled. Kate and Drew seem very happy together, and the readers are treated to a rather steamy sex scene, which involves some anal sex. I don’t mean to over share here, but since this review is about my thoughts on the book, I’m just going to come right out and say that I’ve never thought of anal sex as being sexy, erotic, a turn-on or all that appealing, but I still thought the whole sex scene was rather hot despite my personal feelings regarding anal sex. The sex scenes in both this book and Tangled are definitely a lot steamier than the sex scenes in Fifty Shades of Grey, which pretty much all include the word “There” as a way to refer to various parts of Ana’s body WAY TOO MUCH! I especially enjoyed the part leading up to the anal sex where Kate handcuffed Drew to the bed before she went to the kitchen, only to have Drew somehow manage to free himself from the handcuffs and join her in the kitchen, which is where they ended up having sex.

As I said in my review of Tangled, I’m also in the process of reading Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James, and as I’ve been reading that book, it’s becoming increasingly clear to me that the amount of time that E.L. James devotes to rather mundane events in the book compared to things that the reader is most likely going to view as being a very important detail is rather disproportionate, causing the story as a whole to move very slowly. I’m mentioning this because I thought it was very refreshing read a book where the author (Emma Chase) dives right into the main action of the story. Although, I do think that this book still has some issues when it comes to how suddenly the overall conflict of the story comes about.

Tangled: Forget Fifty Shades of Grey. If you’re looking for a great steamy romance novel, read this book instead. (My thoughts on Book #1 in the Tangled book series by Emma Chase)

For the past several months I’ve been debating whether or not I should start reviewing books for my blog, and I’ve spent a lot of time in bookstores looking at various books to possibly review. Once I found several books that I’m interested in reading, Tangled by Emma Chase being one of them, I asked people both here on my main blog and on several of my Tumblr pages for their input, and I ultimately decided to read Tangled for my first foray into reviewing books on a potentially semi-regular, if not regular, basis after several people suggested that I read this book.

One thing that’s extremely important to note about Tangled is that the story for the most part has a rather nonlinear structure, and the book is written in the first person point of view with Drew basically telling us the story of how he fell in love Kate Brooks, a woman who also works at his dad’s investment banking firm. Also, I didn’t technically read the book; I listened to the audiobook version of it, which was flawlessly read by Sebastian York. This brings me to one of the few complaints that have about the book. While I ultimately came to view the nonlinear manner in which Drew tells the reader his story to be one of greatest strengths of the book, I was a little annoyed with it at the start of the book.

When I first started listening to the book on my iPod, I found the way Chase jumped around from Drew lying in bed lamenting to the people reading the book about the fact that he had the flu and had been in bed for a week, but how he didn’t really have the flu, to talking about what events led to him being in bed with the flu rather discombobulating at first, which prompted me to listen to several different parts of the beginning of the book a second time. Drew telling the reader that he had “the flu” was basically his way of saying that he had been stuck in bed, hung up on Kate and the fact that he at the time believed that she had chosen to be with her high school sweetheart, Billy, who she was engaged to for a significant part of the book. Personally, if I were Emma Chase, I would have held off on jumping back and forth between the past and the present just a little bit longer than she did, simply so the reader can have the chance to get somewhat acclimated with the character Drew and what was going on with him at the start of the book.

However, the nonlinear nature of the book ultimately proves to be one of the greatest strengths of the book, if you ask me. Since Tangled is essentially Drew telling the reader the story of how he fell in love with Kate and won her heart, it makes a lot of sense to me that he would jump around a little bit as he’s telling the story. The way the book is written feels very true and natural to how a person would verbally tell someone a story in real life. After all, if a person is telling someone a story verbally in real life, the odds are that they won’t necessarily mention every person who’s involved in the story and every little detail they feel their audience needs to know in a sequential order. Maybe they might think you need to know about other people and details of story before they talk about a part of the story so that you’ll have a better understanding of the story as a whole. The other reason I think people do this is that a person’s memory isn’t perfect, so they aren’t necessarily going to be immediately reminded of something or someone, and for whatever reason they won’t mention it until a certain point where they have to backtrack in telling their story. 

Once Upon a Time: I may be losing interest in this show, but the creators sure do know how to convince me to keep watching (My thoughts on episode 3x21 “Snow Drifts” and episode 3x22 “There's No Place Like Home”)

I’ve wanted to write a review of the two-part season three finale, but for a variety of reasons, both in my control and out of my control, I’m just now getting around to it. That being said, here are my thoughts on the season three finale of Once Upon a Time.

As the title of this post suggest, I’m definitely starting to lose interest in the show, and not only am I starting to lose interest in the show, I’m also really starting to lose confidence in the writers. I’m starting to think that Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz don’t really have a long-term plan for the show, and perhaps they never have. The final scene of the season finale only added to my belief that Kitsis and Horowitz are just making stuff up as they go along. That’s something I don’t think that writers of a serialized show should be doing if they want people to view it as a good show, but I’ll talk about that more later.

Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz might not know how write the show in such a way that fills me with confidence in regards to their writing, but for the time being they sure do know how to keep me from giving up on watching the show completely. What’s kept me from giving up on the show completely at this point is the fact that there has been a lot of truly excellent material for Emma and Hook and the relationship between them this season in my humble opinion. Fortunately for me, both parts of the season finale revolved heavily around scenes between the two of them, with flashbacks of Emma’s past featured throughout both parts of the finale. Being someone who is a huge Captain Swan shipper, I absolutely loved that about the season finale.

At the beginning of the episode of the episode Emma was spending time with Mary Margaret, David and their new baby boy, who still didn’t have a name. Mary Margaret and David told Emma that they were planning to reveal his name at a makeshift coronation ceremony at Granny’s, saying that they would have had a coronation ceremony for Emma if they could have. Upon Henry showing up at Granny’s and accidentally spilling the beans to Mary Margaret and David that they are looking for an apartment in New York, Mary Margaret, David, Regina and Hook all stated their objections to the whole idea. Personally, I thought that Regina was a little out of line acting like the whole thing was her business. If I were Emma, I probably would have told Regina to piss off, but then again since she was the only mother Henry knew until he went and found Emma at the beginning of the series, it does make their whole family situation rather complicated. It’s especially complicated since Henry has said that he does still consider Regina to be his mom, or at least one of his moms now that he has been reunited with Emma.

How I Met Your Mother: Spoiler on the series finale (Episode 9x23 "Last Forever, Part 1" and Episode 9x24 "Last Forever, Part 2") from TVGuide's Natalie Abrams

Here's some scoop on How I Met Your Mother from TVGuide's Natalie Abrams' Mega Buzz column, which was posted on 3/25/14.

Will more How I Met Your Mother guest stars return for the series finale? — Jessica
Save one brief cameo, the series finale will focus exclusively on the main five characters. However, the final scene of the show does not feature the Fab Five, according to series director Pam Fryman, who also teases that the hour's most emotional scene — which was the last scene filmed — comes early in the finale. "It packs a wallop, that is for sure," she says. "Not just because it was our last scene ever, but the weight of what's happening in it is so great."

Link to the full article:Mega Buzz: A Game of Thrones Wedding, a Mad Men Twist and a Once Romance - Today's News: Our Take | TVGuide.com

How I Met Your Mother: Scoop on the end of the series from TVGuide's Natalie Abrams

Here's some scoop on How I Met Your Mother from TVGuide's Natalie Abrams' Mega Buzz column, which was posted on 3/18/14.

Any How I Met Your Mother finale scoop? — Liam 
Fans shouldn't worry about a Sopranos-esque cut-to-black or otherwise ambiguous ending. Series director Pam Fryman tells us that the one-hour closer will wrap everything up in a nice, definitive bow, whether The Mother is dead or not. "You'll see what happens to everyone," she says. "We really tried to tie up every loose ending we could think of, answer every question we've asked and haven't answered. It's just very satisfying." Who's in the last scene? Fryman's lips are sealed, obviously, but she teases that "the last minute or so will really sit with you."

Link to the full article:Mega Buzz: An Orphan Black Resurrection, a Psych Breakup and HIMYM - Today's News: Our Take | TVGuide.com

How I Met Your Mother: Lily, Marshall and Ted related scoop and more on the series finale (Episode 9x23 "Last Forever, Part 1" and Episode 9x24 "Last Forever, Part 2") from TVLine's Michael Ausiello

Here's some scoop on How I Met Your Mother from this week's (Posted on 3/18/14) Ask Ausiello column.

Question: Can you please confirm or deny the theory that the Mother on How I Met Your Mother is actually dead or dying? —Kodie
Ausiello: Breaking: Future Ted is suffering from Alzheimer’s and he’s telling his kids the story before his memory vanishes. At least that’s Matt Mitovich’s not so far-fetched theory. Thoughts?!

Question: Any juicy tidbits about HIMYM‘s series finale? —Babar
Ausiello: There’s a curveball or two in store for Lily and Marshall. “There are a lot of answers to questions that you didn’t know you had — or never knew to ask,” previews Alyson Hannigan. “They really, definitely give the fans everything in the series finale.” Which character’s endgame surprised her the most? “Robin’s,” she responds. “Although I guess that’s not really a surprise, because it’s sort of been addressed in the past. You’ll see.” Hmmm….

Question: How about some late-breaking HIMYM finale scoop? —Alex
Ausiello: Josh Radnor’s one-word tease about Ted’s final scene ever? “Circle.” Josh Radnor’s 31-word critique of the finale as a whole? “It delivers everything that people love about the show. It roams all over time the way our show does. I think it’s a really great example of what we do best.” (For the record, Radnor cited Ted and Barney’s endgames as the ones that surprised him most.)

Link to the full article:‘How I Met Your Mother’ Series Finale Spoiler: Does Ted Have Alzheimer’s? - TVLine

How I Met Your Mother: Scoop on The Mother's fate from TVGuide's Natalie Abrams

Here's some scoop on How I Met Your Mother from TVGuide's Natalie Abrams' Mega Buzz column, which was posted on 3/11/14.

Please tell me The Mother is not dead on How I Met Your Mother. — Dina 
I can't do that, but I can let series director Pam Fryman tell you that none of the theories floating around online about the ending or The Mother's fate have hit the nail on the head. "People are so sure and they have such an opinion about what they think is going to happen, but nobody is 100 percent right," she says. "I think people will be happy with the way this plays out. It's a great ending." Surely no one would be happy with The Mother dying, right?

Link to the full article:Mega Buzz: HIMYM's Endgame, Thrones' New Threats and Good Wife's Scandal - Today's News: Our Take | TVGuide.com

How I Met Your Mother: Casting related scoop on Ted's kids in the series finale (Episode 9x23 "Last Forever, Part 1" and Episode 9x24 "Last Forever, Part 2") from E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos

Here's some scoop on How I Met Your Mother from Kristin Dos Santos' Spoiler Chat column, which was posted on 2/21/14.

Gabby: Any How I Met Your Mother finale scoop?
Get ready to meet the kids…at a different age! We'll see Son (David Henrie) and Daughter (Lyndsy Fonseca) at ages 4 and 6, respectively. Maybe they'll meet the mama?

Link to the full article:Spoiler Chat: Scoop on How I Met Your Mother, Scandal, Reign and More! | E! Online

How I Met Your Mother: Scoop on the series finale (Episode 9x23 "Last Forever, Part 1" and Episode 9x24 "Last Forever, Part 2") from TVGuide's Natalie Abrams

Here's some scoop on How I Met Your Mother from TVGuide's Natalie Abrams' Mega Buzz column, which was posted on 2/11/14.

Any How I Met Your Mother scoop? — Gabi
How about who gets the last line? Co-creator Craig Thomas says that although many aspects of the finale had been decided years ago, they recently decided to give the last line to "someone you don't expect -- maybe someone you haven't even met yet." Lest we forget, the finale will show the gang past 2030.

Link to the full article:Mega Buzz: Sexy Americans, New Grey's Drama and HIMYM's Finale - Today's News: Our Take | TVGuide.com

How I Met Your Mother: Carl the Bartender related scoop from E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos

Here's some scoop on How I Met Your Mother from Kristin Dos Santos' Spoiler Chat column, which was posted on 2/7/14.

Kevin: Please give me something to ease the pain over losing How I Met Your Mother.
Kev—can we call you Kev?—get ready to meet Carl the Bartender's son. Just like his papa he'll have a strong New York accent.

Link to the full article:Spoiler Chat: Donal Logue Stirs Up Law & Order: SVU Trouble, Veep's New (Familiar) Face and More | E! Online

How I Met Your Mother: Scoop on the series finale from TVGuide's Natalie Abrams

Here's some scoop on How I Met Your Mother from TVGuide's Natalie Abrams' Mega Buzz column, which was posted on 1/21/14.

Any How I Met Your Mother scoop? —Katia
The series finale is titled "Last Forever," which, like most HIMYM episodes, will fiddle with the timeline. "We're a very time-jumpy show, so you will see a lot of the future and where everyone is in the end," HIMYM boss Craig Thomas says. But when is the end -- like past 2030? "Well, that is the future!" he says with a wink. Thomas admits that he and co-creator Carter Bays haven't written the finale yet, but "we know what the last minute or two is like."

Link to the full article:Mega Buzz: Scandal's MIA Gladiator, HIMYM's Time Jump, Once's Death - Today's News: Our Take | TVGuide.com

How I Met Your Mother: Scoop on the 200th episode (Episode 9x16 "How Your Mother Met Me"), Robin related scoop and more from TVLine's Matt Webb Mitovich

Here's some scoop on How I Met Your Mother from this week's (Posted on 1/16/14) Matt's Inside Line column.

Please share any spoilers you have from How I Met Your Mother‘s 200th episode celebrations. – Babar
Episode 200 aka “How Your Mother Met Me” will show what Cristin Milioti’s character has been up to all these years, “intersecting” her path at times with familiar past storylines. “It’s a fun little ‘Disneyland tour’ through the series, from the perspective of someone outside the group,” EP Carter Bays shared at the CBS sitcom’s final TCA panel. “It’s very emotional, and we could not have done this with any other actress.” (Carter also said that “some fun trickery” was used to drop The Mother into past episodes.)

Do you have any spoilers for How I Met Your Mother? –Shari
“There’s an episode coming up about the fact that Robin’s mom hasn’t come to the wedding — and Lily really, really wants Robin to be upset about it,” EP Craig Thomas shares. “Lily thinks Robin needs this emotional catharsis about this fact.” And speaking of mothers: By the series’ end, we will learn that there is a specific reason why Adult Ted chose the time he did to tell the kids about how he met you-know-who.

Since The Mother is played by Tony nominee Cristin Milioti, any chance we’ll hear her sing on HIMYM? Especially given that she is the lead singer of the wedding band. –Vanessa
“There’s a lot of live music coming up,” is all EP Bays would say on that topic. Added Thomas: “Stay tuned!”

Link to the full article:‘How I Met Your Mother’ Series Finale Spoilers — ‘NCIS’ ‘Bones’ ‘Castle’ - TVLine

How I Met Your Mother: Scoop on Barney and Robin's wedding from E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos

Here's some scoop on How I Met Your Mother from Kristin Dos Santos' Spoiler Chat column, which was posted on 12/18/13.

David: HIMYM me, my scoop gods!
Gods? Stop, you're making us blush! But back to the scoop at hand: Robin and Barney's wedding may be under attack. By a ghost. It seems the Farhampton Inn has itself a bit of a ghost problem, in the form of a peg-legged and hook-handed pirate.

Link to the full article:Scandal's New Enemy, Revenge's Romance Shakeup, HIMYM's Wedding Crasher and More Spoiler Chat Scoop | E! Online

How I Met Your Mother: Scoop on the potential spin-off, scoop on the 200th episode (Episode 9x16 "How Your Mother Met Me") and Lily and Marshall related scoop from E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos

Here's some scoop on How I Met Your Mother from Kristin Dos Santos' Spoiler Chat column, which was posted on 12/9/13.

Kacee: I don't ask for much this time of year. Maybe just some How I Met Your Mother scoop?
Happy holidays! We've got scoop straight from the cast when we visited the set recently. Cristin Milioti, aka The Mother, put rumors to rest and confirmed that she will definitely not be in the spinoff. However Josh Radnor said that you "probably" won't see Ted in the spinoff, which means there is a chance Mr. Mosby could pop up. And if you've been missing the Mother lately, do not miss the 200th episode, which Milioti said will "fill in the mother stuff." Bonus scoopy tidbit: Jason Segel revealed that soon we will find out who wins the battle over where Marshall and Lily are going to live.

Link to the full article:Spoiler Chat: Nashville's Shocking Death, Scoop on How I Met Your Mother's Spinoff and More! | E! Online

How I Met Your Mother: Lily and Marshall related scoop and The Mother related scoop on the 200th episode (Episode 9x16 "How Your Mother Met Me") from Entertainment Weekly's Sandra Gonzalez

Here's some scoop on How I Met Your Mother from Entertainment Weekly's Sandra Gonzalez's The Spoiler Room column, which was posted on 12/6/13.

‘HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER’: WHAT’S NEXT FOR LILY AND MARSHALL? PLUS, MOTHER SCOOPAGE
 
As Lily has indicated in the past few episodes of this season, she’s less than happy about Marshall’s secret-keeping ways, and when his road journey finally brings him to the Inn, there will be blood. Kidding. But there will certainly be some “twists and surprises,” as executive producer Craig Thomas teases.

“This season — especially the second half of it — is largely about showing where our characters will be heading in the future, so the debate of who will get to pursue their dream, Marshall or Lily, is a big one in determining their next life chapter,” he says. “And it’s such a real issue in any couple: Who’s gonna get what they want and who’s gonna sacrifice?. … The way it plays out contains some pretty big twists and surprises.”

So when WILL Marshall finally get to the Inn? You’ll see, but Thomas promises, “We will get to this issue sooner than later in the second half of the season.”

Lastly, while I’m sure you all have heard, episode 200 is very much Mother-centric and something EP Carter Bays called “a really different, strange episode” that will cover eight years of the Mother’s Life. What you may not know? “We were all fighting tears by the end of [the run-through],” Bays says, “and that’s a credit to Cristin [Milioti].” Thomas adds: “It’s a new trick. We’re showing a new trick in episode 200 that we never could have done in any other season. And to me, more than anything else, episode 200 is why we did season 9. If you were going to epitomize it in one 21-minute capsule, this is why we did season 9. And you’ll see what I mean when you see it.”

Link to the full article:'Sleepy Hollow,' 'HIMYM,' 'Supernatural' scoop in Spoiler Room! | Inside TV | EW.com

How I Met Your Mother: Scoop on episode 9x15 "Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slapmarra" from TVLine's Michael Ausiello

Here's some scoop on How I Met Your Mother from this week's (Posted on 12/3/13) Ask Ausiello column.

Question: Any scoop on the conclusion of How I Met Your Mother‘s slap-bet saga? —Troy
Ausiello: The penultimate slap will rain down on Barney’s face in “Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slapmarra” (airing in early 2014), and Jason Segel offered up this cryptic tease: “I’ll just say two words, and you can take them any way you want: Hillary. Clinton.” Thoughts, theories, role playing?!

Link to the full article:‘Glee’ Season 5 100th Episode: Dianna Agron Returning as Quinn? - TVLine