From Books to the Big Screen!

There’s been a lot of activity lately with books being made into TV series or movies, or in some cases there’s been talk about some books being made or hopefully being made. So I wanted to feature some of my favorites! I was especially inspired for this with the very exciting recent release (which I’ll mention below!).

So to start, here are some of my favorites that are already out – this is a mix of recent and not so recent but some of these are absolute favorites that I’ll watch over and over again

Ella Enchanted – I read this book a LOOONG time ago, back in middle school I think. And the movie version they made with Annie Hathaway was so great, it was funny and cute and had great music. Love this one!
Crazy Rich Asians – I almost skipped this one because to be honest I haven’t read the book yet but the movie was just so good. The production of that movie was fantastic and the scenery and outfits were stunning.
Gone Girl – I know some people don’t like this story line but the movie was so true to the book and I really love the plot twist.
Pride and Prejudice (the one with Kiera Knightley) – I love this movie! The music and imagery is so soothing to me, I find it so calming. And obviously its a great romance!
Austenland – For anyone who hasn’t seen this movie, go watch it now! It is adorable and I love pretty much everything about it – the music and the dresses and the story overall. Really cute movie.
Last but not least! The recently released Bridgerton show! It’s definitely different from the novel so prepare yourself for that but it was still really good. I can’t wait for season 2! (Though it seems like I’m going to have to since I don’t think season 2 is coming out until 2022)

There are also a few movies that I’ve either heard are in production currently or were optioned but no word on a release yet – and I can not wait to see how these translate to the screen.

The Hating Game – I just read this book this month and LOVED it. I know they’re currently wrapping up production on this one, though I don’t know if there’s a release date yet. I can’t wait to see this one and I hope they stay pretty true to the book.
The Selection series – I’ll have to read this series before it comes out but I can’t wait to see what they do with this one. I think they’re making it into a Netflix movie.
The Kiss Quotient – I think this one would be interesting to see how it translates to the screen, especially with one of the characters being autistic. Not sure if this will end up happening but I’m excited by the idea.
Wicked – I CAN’T WAIT for this one. I did read the book and didn’t necessarily love it but I did LOVE the musical so I’m hoping the basically produce the musical. I’d watch it every day.

As I was compiling the other lists I realized there were so many books that I’d really want to become movies too. These ones I haven’t heard anything about them potentially become movies/TV shows but a girl can dream!

The Winternight Trilogy – I think that if this one is done correctly it could be fascinating. There is so much that could be done with this one with the right special effects.
The Evil Queen – I think it might be a little difficult with such a variety of mythical creatures – but again with the right special effects I think this could be a great film. I love fairy-tale retellings and others seem to love them as well.
My Lady’s Choosing with the choose your adventure option – I heard about something like this being done on a Netflix show where they made it so it was like a choose your own adventure novel – you select the option you want next and Netflix plays that scene. I thought this would be a great grown-up version of that!
One to Watch – I think this would be a great one to translate to the screen, especially since the dating shows are all so popular on TV. I loved this story and would love to see it made into a movie!

What about you all out there? What are some of your favorite book to movie/TV adaptations? Any amazing ones I missed?

18Jan2021

2021 Book #6 – The Perfect Wife by JP Delaney

Posted in Book Genre, Book reviews, Books made into movies, Fiction, Women's fiction by rebeccabook17

Title: The Perfect Wife
Author: JP Delaney
Date finished: 1/12/21
Genre: Thriller, suspense
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: August 6, 2019
Pages in book: 413
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley
NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Abbie awakens in a daze with no memory of who she is or how she landed in this unsettling condition. The man by her side claims to be her husband. He’s a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley’s most innovative start-ups. He tells Abbie that she is a gifted artist, an avid surfer, a loving mother to their young son, and the perfect wife. He says she had a terrible accident five years ago and that, through a huge technological breakthrough, she has been brought back from the abyss.

She is a miracle of science.

But as Abbie pieces together memories of her marriage, she begins to question her husband’s motives—and his version of events. Can she trust him when he says he wants them to be together forever? And what really happened to her, half a decade ago?

Beware the man who calls you . . .

THE PERFECT WIFE

My rating: 3.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I’ve enjoyed other books that I’ve read by Delaney and was intrigued to read this one too. It turned out to be not quite what I expected but was very interesting. The main narrator is an artificial intelligence robot and it was really compelling how human like her character and her voice was even though she was a robot. There was a weird ending though that I didn’t expect and that I didn’t quite follow how it came about. There were some good twists and turns along the way and the book took an interesting psychological look at Tim’s obsession with women. Overall this was a really engaging read and I enjoyed it – I didn’t want to put it down because I wanted to find out what happened. It was a good book but some of the ending didn’t click for me so I wouldn’t say I thought it was great. I still think it’s worth a read though!

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

25Apr2016

2016 Book #38 – White Hot by Sandra Brown — PLUS Movie Review!!

Posted in 2016, Book reviews, Book Riot Read Harder Reading Challenge 2016, Books made into movies, Fiction, Reading Challenges, Romantic suspense, Thriller by rebeccabook17

Title: White Hot
Author: Sandra Brown
Date finished: 4/23/16
Genre: Fiction, romantic suspense
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: 2004
Pages in book: 419
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: Amazon – purchased

Blurb from the cover:

When she hears that her younger brother Danny has committed suicide, Sayre Lynch relents from a vow never to return to Destiny, her small Louisiana hometown. Planning to leave immediately after the funeral, Sayre instead finds herself drawn into the web cast by Huff Hoyle, her controlling and tyrannical father, who owns the town’s sole industry and, with her older brother, runs the lives of everyone who lives there. But underneath the Hoyles’ rigid control, trouble is brewing. Old hatreds foster plans for revenge, past crimes resurface, and a maverick deputy sheriff determines that Danny’s death was not suicide. Tensions mount, threatening to ignite a powder keg of long-held hostility.

My rating: 4.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book will count towards my Book Riot 2016 Read Harder reading challenge, marking off the “read a book that was adapted into a movie, then watch the movie and debate which was better” since that is exactly what I did. So if you read my blog you know that overall I am definitely a fan of Sandra Brown. Her novels are always enthralling, drawing me in from the first page. I try to only read her books on my days off or vacation days because I know once I start reading it I won’t be able to put it down. So when I saw that one of her books was being made into a movie on the Hallmark channel, well my gosh I was ecstatic. Unfortunately I don’t get the specific channel on my house that it was being aired on, but luckily my mom does and was nice enough to tape it for me! I finished the book Saturday and then watched the movie. The book (and the movie) are about the Hoyle family and all their drama. The book is full of revenge, deception, murder, and ultimately some romance.
Overall I liked this book a lot. I don’t think it was one of my favorites of Brown’s but as always she crafts a masterful story. There aren’t many authors that I read where there are plot twists that I don’t see coming but Brown always seems to catch me unaware. While I really liked the book, the movie just did not hold up to what I expected after reading the book. There were so many plot points from the book that didn’t make it into the movie that it almost would have been better had I watched the movie without ever reading the book. It was pretty much 2 different stories. I was really disappointed how different Sayre was in the book and the movie. In the book she was portrayed as this bad-ass red head who had survived a lot to become the successful person she was today. But the Sayre from the movie pretty much just cried all the whole time, it was awful. I was so much looking forward to the movie version of a good book but I ended up just being disappointed.

The bottom line: This was a great read. There were definitely some plot twists I did not see coming and the ending was what I wanted though it was slightly abrupt. The movie honestly was such a let down. It was almost nothing like the book, while most of the words were similar they were told in a different location and in a different order and some of the plot points are just completely skewed and half of them are missing. I would recommend the book definitely but would probably say skip the movie.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

10Nov2015

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Book to Movie Adaptations

Posted in Book memes, For the love of books, Top Ten Tuesday by rebeccabook17

toptentuesday2

Top Ten Tuesday is a book meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every Tuesday there is a different bookish topic and bloggers are asked to post their own top ten list based on the topic. This week is a listing of the Top Ten Book to Movie Adaptations. The specific topic was ones you are looking forward to but I only have a couple of those since I’m not exactly in the “know” about these kinds of things so I’m doing a few sub-lists of Book to Movie Adaptations.

Books I’ve Read That Became Movies I LOVE

Practical Magic
While the movie adaptation for this was not what I would call “Faithful” to the story, this is overall one of my all time favorite reads and one of my favorite movies as well. The book honestly has like 2 extra story lines going on that the movie just didn’t have time for, but even without it the movie is just great!

Beautiful Creatures
Loved this whole series and I didn’t even know about the books until I saw the movie first and loved it. I wish they would keep going with the series with movie adaptations though!!!

Gone Girl
I decided to read the book once I knew the movie was coming out. I’m really glad that I read the book first because I feel like the twist is more dramatic when you’re reading the book. Honestly though this is one of the best movie adaptations I’ve seen only because they stayed so close to the actual book. The movie only missed 2 small plot items in my opinion but other than that it was like line for line what was in the book, which you don’t always find with movie adaptations.

Hunger Games
While I have to be honest and say I was anti-Hunger Games when I first heard about the books, I saw movies 1-3part1 and finally this past summer decided to read the books. They were great books and honestly I think part of me died at the end of the third book and I’m going to bawl my eyes out when I watch it this winter but at the same time I am so psyched to see it. Great series in both book and especially movie form.

Movies I LOVE That I Haven’t Read The Book Yet

Sherlock Holmes
I just love Robert Downey Jr in this movie, and the Game of Shadows. I haven’t gotten around to reading any Sherlock Holmes books yet but I plan to.

Austenland
I thought this was just about the cutest movie. I loved the music and the costumes and the story line was sweet and funny. When I found out it was a book (and I guess that there is a second book as well) I was so psyched and got it from Book Outlet immediately.

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2
Honestly I feel like this movie is almost like a guilty-pleasure of mine. I don’t necessarily want to be one of the crowd and be in love with Twilight but this last movie honestly was just really kick ass and is more of like a vampire battle movie than a love story (though be warned there are sappy moments). I’ve never read any of the Twilight books and I’m not sure if I ever will be I really enjoy this movie.

Movie Adaptations That I’m Looking Forward to in 2016 and Beyond

The Red Queen: Release Date Unknown
Just read this book this past summer and loved it, I am so excited for The Glass Sword to come out in February and I am really excited to hear that this might be made into a movie!

The Royal We: Release Date Unknown
Great book! Just read this one this past June and am so excited to hear that they are planning to make it into a movie! Not sure when or really if it will come out yet but I can’t wait!

The Rosie Project: Release Date Unkown
We will be reading this one in my book club in 2016. I suggested it since I thought it would be a good one to read with the movie coming out in 2016. I’ve heard a lot of good things about the book and I am excited to finally get around to reading it and then hopefully go see the movie.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children: Release Date December 25, 2016
Obviously this one is popular. And I don’t think it is all that widely known that it is being made into a movie yet. I feel like it is going to be a creepy movie. I will definitely be reading the book since I bought it on Block Island in September but I’m not a huge scary movie fan so haven’t fully decided if I will see this movie or not. Even if I don’t though I’m excited they decided to make it into a movie.

21Oct2014

Gone Girl Movie!!

Posted in Books made into movies, For the love of books by rebeccabook17

So last week I went to see the Gone Girl movie that came out based on the book and I have to say, it was SUCH a great movie! Movies many time will miss parts of a book that readers find essential, mostly because it is just impossible to include everything from an almost 400 page book into a movie that’s approximately 2 hours. Luckily the magic movie makers for this film only left out really 2 non-essential plot items (the Desi’s mother gets involved at the end and that Tanner Bolt’s wife gets involved in prepping Nick for the interview) that I’m pretty sure they skipped only to avoid introducing more characters into an already full screenplay.

Other than that the movie followed the book almost to a T. I loved it. The whole movie I was sitting there thinking, this is exactly like the book, its just so perfect. And I have to say, I don’t think they could’ve picked a better actor for the role of Nick. Ben Affleck was just superb in the role of an arrogant and slightly creepy jerk. Really all the casting was so well done, Amy’s role was perfect and Margo’s was very good and Desi’s role was well cast too. I don’t think I could’ve asked for a more well-suited cast.

Anyone who read this book and at least somewhat liked it, I would definitely recommend seeing the movie! Just a warning though a few of the scenes are pretty graphic (sex and violence). Nothing too crazy, though I have to say the scene towards the end involves a lot of blood so if you’re squeamish I would close your eyes for that one. I thought it was a great movie though and a pretty much perfect adaptation of the book.

Link to trailer: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi78622489/imdb/embed?autoplay=false&width=480

Link to my review for the Gone Girl book: https://rebeccabookreview.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/2014-book-78/

Link to Gone Girl movie IMDB site: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2267998/