Looking for a roarmantic read?

Or okay, in regular terms, a romantic read?

I suggest Beastly by Alex Flinn. It's a modernized retelling of Beauty and the Beast. In it, the popular, gorgeous, and pretty darn mean Kyle Kingsbury is transformed into a beast by a witch. Because of his one act of kindness, he is given a chance to escape the curse: he has two years to kiss someone and have it be true love. This is pretty difficult, seeing as he's monstrous looking and can't even leave the house. That is, until he discovers a way to have Lindy, a sweet, plain scholarship student Kyle once would've overlooked, stay with him...The book is cute and romantic. It was a touch predictable, but it had enough to make it unique. For example, I loved all the transfiguration chatroom stuff. This book even made me cry a little bit, though I don't guarantee you the same results; I can be pretty sappy. If you do decide to give Beastly a try, bear with Kyle in the beginning, since he's a major jerk. Trust me, though, he has a very rewarding transformation.

Other people must have seen what I saw in the book, since it's being turned into a movie, due out in 2010. I'm so excited about Neil Patrick Harris's involvement; he'll be playing Kyle's blind tutor Will. Knowing Neil Patrick Harris, he'll be perfect at the part. Playing Kyle is Alex Pettyfer. He was in the Alex Rider movie, if anyone's seen that. He's pretty gorgeous, so I see that working, though I'm not too sure about his acting ability yet. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I am a bit worried, however, about the picture I've found of him in presumably his beast state, which I've included in the post. It doesn't strike me as quite beastly enough. The author describes him as having hair all over and looking less human. I pictured him looking a bit more werewolf like. Anyway, Mary Kate Olsen is also in the movie, playing the witch. The person that gives me most pause is Vanessa Hudgens as Lindy. I'm not a huge Vanessa fan, and I can't picture her as the character at all. In the book, Lindy is a plain and sweet rehead.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see, right? With most of these movie adaptions, you have to accept the movie as a seperate entity from the book, which reminds me, I'm off to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince for the second time today. WOOO!

My poor, poor books...

I think I'm going to change Cover Love Tuesday to just Cover Love Weekly or something, because, um, I'm apparently very horrible at doing things regularly on regular days and the like. So instead of having this feature, I'm instead going to talk about book abuse and deal breakers.

Now, as a high school student, I like to carry whatever book I'm currently reading around with me; that way, when class gets boring, I can open up the book and get some reading done. This means my books get hauled class to class and from home to school and back in my backpack. And...well, I'm not a particularly careful person. I guess you could say I neglect my books more than I abuse them. It's not that I purposely get pencil marks on them or bend the edges and smudge the covers. It just happens. Anybody have the same problem?

As for deal breakers, I just finished reading a YA novel with some romance. I had a bit of trouble with the main character's romantic interest, however, because some of his immoral actions. There are some things, when reading romance, that are just deal breakers to me with guys. I may enjoy the book, but if a guy is stealing or something, I'm not going to want him with the girl. I'm trying to think of some more deal breakers....just, in general, I am not into the bad boy thing at all. What can I say? I like my nice guys. Deal breakers for others out there?

He's Just Not That Into You

Just a few hours ago, I got back from seeing the movie He's Just Not That Into You, which stars big name celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johannson, Drew Barrymore, and Ben Affleck. If you haven't seen the previews, it's basically a movie about the ensemble's intertwining love lives. One of the main characters, Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin), is a bit unlucky in the love department. Some of the guys she goes after are, as you'd guess, just not that into her.

Someone not returning someone else's feelings is always an interesting topic, whether it be in film or in books. In some of my manuscripts, there are guys who are just not that into the main character. For example, in my YA novel A REAL FIRST KISS, one of Lara's crushes flirts with, her hoping to use her for help with math. He readily admits to his friends that he has no interest in her whatsoever. In one of my middle grade works-in-progress, a girl named Farren has a crush on a guy who has fallen for a popular, pretty girl rather than her nerdy self.

I'm starting to notice something: most of the guys who don't reciprocate my main characters' feelings come off as jerks at some point. Maybe I do this subconciously since I like my main characters so much and can't imagine guys they like not liking them unless they have some kind of character defect. I don't want to make it sound as if I have guys just throwing themselves at my main characters, because it's not like that either...I guess it's just, in writing, I usually like to focus on burgeoning relationships rather than dead-end ones. After all, that's when the romance really comes in, and I love me some romance.

Anyway, He's Just Not That Into You was super cute. A great chick flick! Go see it if you're in the mood for some romance, some awws, a couple of laughs, and maybe even a few tears.