Book Review: The Princess and the Snowbird by Mette Ivie Harrison

This is the third book in Mette's series. This one follows the story of the daughter of Richon and Chala as she follows in her father's footsteps to fight the magic-sucking forces in the world. Liva has a ton of magic - she can change into an form she wants, except a Snowbird, which is a little baffling to her. She meets Jens early on in the book and is surprised by his total lack of magic, but also his complete acceptance and love of all things magical. They stick together to fight against the Hunter, who wants to make all humans unmagical like himself.

I liked this book because Mette continued to have a wonderful tone, and the emotion she gets into her novels is pretty impressive. I think she rushed through some scenes that should have been drawn out a bit, but I highly recommend this (clean) novel.

Also, when I met her (!) she told me she has a fourth book for this series but it's only offered electronically. Hopefully I'll get a chance to read it...

Happy Reading!

One Day, I'll Tweet This

There was a writing symposium at UVU this past weekend. I was only able to go to some of the workshops on Thursday, but I loved every minute of it. I took one of my YA books, The Princess and the Hound, to get signed by the author, Mette Harrison. Since it was the actual book signing time, I only took that one instead of all three that I own by her. I went up to her after the Vampires are NOT Your Boyfriend panel, and with sweaty hands and a racing heart, I asked her to sign my book. She was very nice and wrote a cute little message. Day made.

But there's more! The next day, my beautiful roommate went to more When she went to get them signed Mette asked what name to put. My roommate explained that she was actually getting them signed for her roommate who had asked Mette to sign a book the day before. Well then Mette smiled and said something along the lines of, "Oh, I remember her. I Tweeted about her yesterday." So my fantastic roommate came home with my two other books signed, and found Mette's Tweet. She showed me when I got home and I was on cloud nine! I WAS TWEETED ABOUT BY AN AUTHOR! So incredibly cool. And, look! I have the proof! I am the woman mentioned in the first full Tweet on her feed.

Yeah, that's what's up. :D

Movie Sort-of Review: Breaking Dawn Part One

(I'm writing this as if my audience has already seen the movie.)

I finally went to see the new Twilight movie last night at the dollar theater. It was kind of what I expected: more mediocre acting, some good special effects wolf-wise, and a lot teenage angst. I feel like they could have easily made the last book into just one movie; splitting it into two just drug out the movie to the point where it felt tedious. I thought the flash-backs, dreams, and weird internal-transitioning parts were over-the-top and didn't fit too well. Bella's first dream, about the wedding, seemed a little too gory to me, especially for the target teenage girl audience.

The wolf story line was very well done. They way they do the wolves is spectacular, but this time around, I thought their canine teeth were too saber-tooth tiger - way too long for the size of their mouths. I love the fight scenes with the wolves. Even in human form, I thought they were fantastic. Leah did a great job, and Seth was darling. Jacob, of course, is always great. The log/coast bit was good but I think they tried to make Jacob's defying Sam part too dramatic and it ended up being confusing.

Bella spent too much time in too little clothing. Her wedding dress was not flattering. I was impressed with the way they made her look so sickly; she looked skeletal, and it was amazing. Her body popping back to health at the end was a little strange though. Poor Jasper only got one measly line, and Emmett looked...off. Not sure how, but he looked different. I always love Charlie and I especially liked the bit in the Cullen's house when he noticed the graduation caps. That was a clever touch. Alice's hair (especially at the wedding) was my favorite. It was so classy.

Overall, it was okay. The movies are slowly improving, and I do like the special effects. I think that for this movie, it'd be better to read the book or the wolf story line, imprinting, and the maid's freak-out may be confusing. There was (finally) a fight scene in this movie, and that was exciting, even if it was brief. Hopefully the next movie will be the best.