BOOK REVIEW: As Old As Time

Hello All,

This year I made a Good Reads goal of reading fifteen books over the next twelve months. And I am excited to be able to say that I have officially finished the first book! And since I love to share my opinions on books and movies on this lovely blog I decided I would review it!

The first book I read this year was the novel As Old As Time by Liz Braswell. Which is the third novel in Braswell's series A Twisted Tale. I have not read the first two books in this series though because I believe that they are all stand alone books that have the common theme of re-telling traditional Disney movies. 

In this case the book re-told the story of The Beauty and the Beast which is one of my all time favorite Disney movies. The twist in this novel is that the Enchantress who be-witches the Beast is actually Belle's mother. Together Belle and the Beast have to break the curse and try to uncover the mystery of the real reason the Enchantress cursed the beast. 

This novel is broken into three parts. The first part is written in Flashbacks where we see Maurice and Belle's mother meet and fall in love. But it also re-tells the first part of The Beauty and the Beast. The re-telling is pretty much exactly what we see in the animated classic. During this part I question whether I wanted to put it down and give up or continue on. 

When I got to the second part I was glad I did. This is when the novel starts to twist on the original story and bring life to a new story. I was also really excited for this part because I was hoping to get a better idea of why Belle and the Beast were such a perfect match (But more on that later). While at the same time keeping to the original story when we saw what Maurice was going through.

The final part of the novel was a little bit of a let down. By this point I had pretty much guessed why everything happened the way it had happened. And was even disappointed by the answer to one of the mysteries. The last chapter of the book made want a sequel though because Braswell left it open for Belle and the Beast to start a whole new adventure. But from what I've seen online there doesn't seem to be a sequel in the works. 

Now the piece of the book I was most excited about was to really get to see what made Belle and the Beast such an amazing couple. I mean in a book that is almost 500 pages long we had to get an in-depth look at the characters. But in that regards I was disappointed. I learned a little more about Belle as a person. And good amount more about the Beast's past. But I didn't romantically ship them. I didn't find myself hoping they'd get together...I would have been just as happy to see them shake hands and go there separate ways. That was something that disappointed me to no ends because they are such an iconic Disney couple. 

Overall I rated this book a 3.75 out of 5. It was very close to making it to 4 stars but the slow start and the lack of romantic connection between the leads did hurt it in my ratings. With that being said I know everyone has their own taste so I would recommend this book to people who like fantasy or fairy tale novels and someone with an open mind when it comes to telling the story in a different way. Although I WOULD NOT recommend this book to anyone who is a big fan of Disney's Beauty and the Beast and who wouldn't want to see the story change. 

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Have you read As Old as Time? If so, did you enjoy it? How would you rate it? Let me know in the comments down below. 

College Graduation

Hello All,

Guess what? I wrote this post almost a month ago and forgot to hit publish. LOL. But no seriously guess what!

I graduated college! After four and half years of college I have finally graduated! And it feel absolutely amazing! This last semester, especially, has been a lot of work but it'll be worth it. 

For those of you guys wondering I got a bachelor of science in Liberal Studies with concentrations in communication, media studies and creative writing. And no I'm not going into journalism or news production. I do have a future career in mind but since the career is in field that requires a lot of confidentially because of that I'm not comfortable discussing exactly what it is online.  I'm currently in the process of looking for a job and it may make it that I will be moving across the country which is really exciting. When I know where I'll be heading I'll let you guys know, at least a general location. 

As for the day itself it was so much fun. I started the day out by getting ready, to which I actually filmed my first Get Ready With Me video on my YouTube channel (You can check it out here). Then we headed to school and got a prime parking space. I gave Mama Judy directions to the theatre when graduation was taking place and then headed to the place where we line up.

I don't know if every school does it this way but my school has us line up by school but other then that its free range has to where you sit/stand. Right as I walked in I get a text message from my friend Chris asking me where I was and he told me where he was. I went up to where he was standing. I ended up lining up with the 3 other graduates from the Media Studies department, which was good because I had so much fun with them.

We headed into the theater right on time. I saw Mama Judy while I was walking in and she was already crying.

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We didn't have a lot of speakers at the graduation itself so it went by rather quickly. My favorite speech was done by the president of the university, where it talked about intental kindness when all around so much hate is happening. I think its an idea that we should all carry around with us.

When it was time to get the degrees we again were called by school with the school of arts and sciences going last. When the finally called us we all whooped and "got lit" as the kid in front of me said. As each person went up they got whoops from the different people in the audience who knew them. When they finally declared us college graduation we whooped and went wild.

After graduation finished I met my parents outside to take pictures. And I made Mama Judy be an Instagram Mama while I posed for some Instagram worthy pictures. If you're interested in following me on Instagram you can by searching @judy_judy94.

When we finished taking pictures I went to say good-bye to my boss. I don't think I ever mentioed it on my blog but for the past year and half I have worked as a student employee in my college's residence life department. I wanted to stop and say good-bye to my boss because she had such an impact on my last couple of years.

After saying good-bye to my boss we headed back to my hometown where we had dinner with some of our close family and friends. It was so much fun celebrating with some really important people in my life. Plus it was at one of my favorite restaurant where the staff knows us by name which made it extra special.

Graduation was such an amazing day and I am so grateful for all the people who have supported me over the past four and half years. And for anyone who has read my college adventures which I have been sharing since the end of my freshmen year thank you. I can't wait to share the next chapter with you guys.

I also want to give a special shout to Natalie, who was my first blogging friend all the way back during the first summer of the World According to Emma. Natalie and I had actually went to the same college and both graduated this December. Congrats Natalie! You can check out her blog by clicking here.

A now enjoy all the awesome pictures and a video snap that I'm adding in.

Me with my degree folder

One of my Instagram inspired pictures even if it hasn't been shared yet

And Instagram picture 

My cap, shout out to Mama Judy for helping decorating it 

My dad and I

Mama Judy and I

MOVIE REVIEW: The Girl on the Train

Hello All,

I went to the movies this weekend (now its a few weekends ago...completely forgot to edit this) and I want to tell you all about it because I went to see The Girl on the Train. Below is the trailer for those of you who haven't seen it.

This movie is based on the novel, The Girl on the Train, written by Paula Hawkins. I haven't read the book although now I'm thinking about downloading the audio book and listening to it in the morning when I'm getting ready, but I'll explain more on that later. Anyways the minute I saw the trailer for this movie I knew I had to see it because it had a very Gone Girl vibe, which is you remember about 2 years ago I went and saw that movie and loved it. (Review here). 

Rachel (Blunt)
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This movie starts out by introducing you to the three main women in the movie, Rachel (Emily Blunt), Megan (Haley Bennet) and Anna (Rebecca Ferguson). Right off the back we learn that Rachel is dealing with some alcohol abuse problems. Everyday she rides the train into Manhatten and passes by the street she once lived on wit her ex-husband, Tom (Justin Theroux). From the train she can see into her and Tom's old house which Tom still lives in with his new wife, Anna. And their neighbors home owned by Megan and her husband, Scott (Luke Evans). Rachel becomes obsessed with their lives and even more so when she sees Megan kiss a man who is not her husband. On that night she drunkly goes to confront Megan because she knows what its like to have a spouse cheat on her. The next day Megan goes missing and Rachel has to piece together what happened that night in order to clear her own name. 

Rachel (Blunt)
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I loved this movie, it kept me guessing the whole time. I think that at different points throughout the movie I thought each of the characters were the primary criminal of the story because they all had such great motives. In a way I felt like the actual kidnapper and their motives were a little cliche but I think the way the story unraveled made up for it. Like I mentioned before I really want to read the book because there is one part of the reveal that left me with a few questions that I'm hoping maybe the book could answer.

Anna (Ferguson)
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As for performance I feel like the whole cast was phenomenal. But the one who stood out the most to me was Emily Blunt. She portrayed this character so well. At different times through out the movie I pitted her, hated her, felt protective over her and sympathized with her. I felt all those emotions in the course of two hours and it was all because of Blunt's performance. 

Detective Riley (Allison Janney)
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One thing I noticed, although I'm not sure if it was done on purpose was that all of the male characters looked a lot at alike. For the story it made sense because it made it that while Rachel was drunk she'd have a hard time telling them apart. But as an audience member it was confusing at times but also helped me relate better to Rachel's state of mind. So now that I've written a whole paragraph I've decided that I do love that they all looked a like. 

Tom (Theroux)
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I rarely write about editing when I write these posts mainly because I don't feel like I know enough about it to write about it in an educated manner. I will say however that in this movie the editing was done perfectly. It flashed around and there were a lot of jump cuts that came very quickly, adding to the confusion and chaos going on in Rachel's head. Something that as a movie nerd I loved to see. I actually have a class this semester where were looking at movies and if this movie was out on DVD I'd probably used it so I could talk about those aspects. 

LtoR: Tom (Theroux) & Rachel (Blunt)
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So, in case you're still wondering I would recommend this movie to almost everyone. The people who I would say shouldn't watch this movie is people who get squeamish easily. There are a few scenes where there is a good about of blood. But for everyone else, please go see it and see the awesome movies for yourself. 

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Have you seen Girl on the Train? If you have what are your opinions? Let me know in the comments below. 

Somewhere Else to Find Me

Hey Guys,

This is going to be a quick, non-edited post. I just wanted to let you know that if you're interested I wrote an article for my campus' chapter of Her Campus. If you'd like you can read it by clicking here. Okay that's it! I'll be back with a real post soon. xoxo.

TRAVEL THURSDAY: The Islands We'll Visit

Hello All,

Happy Travel Thursday!

It makes me so incredibly happy and inspired to be writing Travel Thursday posts again, they are probably my favorite posts to write and I feel like when I start to plan them out I'm brimming with ideas. Is brimming the right word? I'm not sure. Anyways this weekend Mama Judy and I did a lot of vacay planning activities, okay let's be honest she did the work, I just reminded her it was time. One thing we did was book our hotel for the two nights before the cruise and we booked our two excursions for our cruise! I will be doing more detail posts about our actual excursions in the coming weeks but I wanted to share the destinations we'll get to visit. 

So, let's get started. The specific cruise that Mama Judy and I are going on is Disney Cruise Line's 7-Day Western Caribbean, I can't link the cruise without giving away the dates were going. Either way most 7-Day Western Caribbean cruises go to the same locations so hopefully you'll learn something from this post. 

I'm listing our ports of calls in no specific order, I'm not sure what order we go to them in. 

One of the ports of call we land in is Falmouth, Jamaica. Jamaica is a place I've never been and never really researched going to but there are some really cool excursions on the Disney Cruise websites, I'm actually really excited about the one Mama Judy and I are planning to do. They offer things from tours to beach days, all of which seem super exciting.

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The destination that I am personally most excited about is Cozumel, Mexico. I'm low key a little bit of a history nerd. If I go into a room and someone is watching a documentary on History Channel I'll probably sit down and get engrossed. Since Cozumel is famously known for it ruins I've always wanted to go. If you aren't as much of a nerd as I am they do have excursions that are more water based or beach based. 

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We will also be stopping on the Grand Cayman Island. I'll be honest with you guys this is the destination that we don't have any excursions booked. Mama Judy and I both went through the list of options and didn't see any that really caught our eye. There are a lot snorkeling or scuba diving ones which just doesn't intrigue either of us. I'm not saying that there is no way we'll get off the boat, there is a chance we'll get off the boat and explore on our own but we aren't booking anything.

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The final destination is Disney Castaway Cay, which I know does have excursions but Mama Judy and I prefer to just lay on the beach and read or swim in the ocean. I'm not going to lie I'm pretty excited for this destination on this cruise because I will be over 21 and can drink on the beach for the first time. Castaway Cay is beyond gorgeous and I'm alway happy to sit on the beach there.

May 2015

May 2015

May 2015

And those are the islands that we will be visiting on our January 2017 cruise. I know I didn't go into too much detail about each island for Jamaica and Cozumel I will be doing a slightly more in depth posts about the exact excursions we will be doing. But if you guys have any questions about planning cruise excursions let me know in the comments and I'll try to answer them.

-P.S. For all of you effected by Hurricane Matthew I hope that you are safe and you didn't experience too much damage.  

TRAVEL THURSDAY: Flashbacks of Cruise Past

Hello All,

Happy Travel Thursday!

So, I am back once again to talk about my upcoming trip, for those of you who missed the announcement you can read it by clicking on that link. I'm not going to lie I'm pretty excited now that I'm in the double digit countdown. Plus there is so much going on between now and 93 days from now that I know the time is just going to fly by.

So, if you were around these parts a few years ago when I was getting ready for my cruise in 2015 and you have super amazing memory you may remember I did a post very similar to the one I'm about to do. I just wanted to give a flashback to past cruises because one I think its fun to see how different I look but also because it helps to past the time.

So, my first cruise was in like 2005 with my mom, which I don't have any pictures for because I'm at school. I remember having a lot of fun during my first cruise, which I went on with my mom. We went on a three day cruise that docked in Nassau and Castaway Cay, as well as having a day at sea. On this particular cruise we went on one excursion which was in Nassau, we got to play with dolphins, which was an awesome experience.

Our second cruise was in 2011, we went on the same cruise with the three days stopping at Nassau and Castaway Cay. This time we didn't do any excursions and said on the boat with the exception of when we were docked on Castaway. This was the first time I felt like we didn't have enough time to everything I really wished it was longer. I'm going to throw a few pictures in here.

My mom and I

Pluto and me

My most recent cruise I wrote about for this blog. This cruise took place in 2014 and I wrote a lot about it afterwards (The first post). This cruise I went on with aunt Marianne and Emily, my Uncle Chad, my grandma and little cousin. We did a seven day cruise that stopped at St. Marteen, St.Thomas/St. John and Castaway Cay. This wa an awesome trip filled with great memories. I'm once again going to add some pictures in.

St. Thomas water

Me in St. Thomas

One of my favorite pictures

Me at Castaway Cay

Me and Princess Tiana

Me and Chip and Dale.

Those are the cruises are the ones I've been on in the past. I have a lot of more posts for planning coming up. See you next week with the next post. 

3 Fictional Characters

Hello All,

Have you guys seen the newest social media trend where people are supposed to chose 3 fictional characters that they feel like are most like them or they relate to the most? Well it inspired me to write a blog post so here I am writing a blog post for all you lovely people out there in internet land. 

First I'll start by being honest, when I first saw this trend I had a really hard time picking out which characters I related to the most. I couldn't think of any characters that held all the aspects of me and my identity. After I thought more about it and remembered that I could chose 3 very different characters that each showed the different aspects of who I am/who I hope to be. 

Recently I've been re-watching the Canadian hit show, Degrassi. The first time I watched Degrassi I probably would have felt that I connected most with Clare or even Imogen and don't get me wrong I still see myself in those characters but the character on that show I connect with the most is Holly J Sinclair who is played by the amazing Charlotte Arnold.  

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For those of you who have never seen the show Holly J starts out a very intense character (*cough Bitch *cough cough***) who is  use to getting her own way.  Which I don't connect with necessarily (Some may beg to differ 😉). But as the series went on she grew into a softer and more lovable character. I connect with her because much like her I live an insanely crazy schedule where many times I feel like I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off, hence the lack of post. But that's not the only reason, much like Holly J I have a very type A personality where I like to do my best and get my work done. My favorite part about Holly J is that  she is just as powerful when she has a man in her life as when doesn't. And I like to believe that I have the same power in my life, well if I ever found a boy worth spending my time on, lol.

Fun fact at one of my pervious jobs they use to call me Emma J and I low key always felt like Holly J.

Now I'm not always so tightly wound so next I wanted to think of someone goofier. I started thinking of some of my favorite sitcoms and I came up with New Girl. Originally I thought about saying  I was most like Jessica Day, I can be quirky. But then I was like nah that doesn't sound right. Then it hit me, I am most like Winston who is played by Lamorne Morris.

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Much like Winston I can be pretty socially awkward, especially when it comes to dating. I don't know how to properly approach dating and finding someone who thinks I'm as adorable as I think I am. Winston also has a weird connection with his cat which if we're being honest will be me one day when I have my puppy dog. Unlike Winston I'm not as dependent on other people as Winston is on his roommates. But I do agree with him Saturday is the day of sleeping. I can't come up with more reason know but if we're being honest when I watch New Girl on Netflix I often think to my "Wow that's me" with half the stunts Winston pulls.

The final character I felt a connection with was a no brainer even though she wasn't the first person I thought of. That would be the one and only Brooke Davis played by the amazing Sophia Bush.

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Brooke Davis a gorgeous girl who still went through her ups and downs but handled it with grace, something I strive to do. I connect with Brooke because she is a hard worker and built a whole empire because its what she wanted. I've never built an empire but I have the drive to follow my dreams. As the seasons go on we see what a great friend Brooke is, yes she didn't want to be Peyton's friend but she felt betrayed so I don't blame her. For the most part, she was always there for the people she loved and at the end of the day she did help Peyton kick psycho Derrick's ass so there's that. In the end the reason I feel so connected to her because she has such a big a heart and so do I (at least in my opinion).

So those are the 3 fictional characters I feel most connected with. What 3 fictional characters do you connect with the most? Let me know in the comments below.