Thanks so much for featuring us on Fresh Fiction! We love your blog and are so excited to have the opportunity to talk about our sweet YA romance, IN THE PENALTY BOX! Before we get started on our post, don’t forget to enter the giveaway! Details are at the bottom of the post. Below we’ve shared our top five movies for Brodie and Willow’s characters. Do you have a favorite movie? If so, leave it in a comment below! Brodie’s got quite a list, and as he and Willow get to know each other, he realizes they have a few in common! Which makes her all that more irresistible. 1–Fast and Furious 8: The Fate of the Furious. I mean a sub crashing through the ice? That’s just plain rad. 2–Young Blood: Best hockey movie ever…even if it’s from a hundred years ago. 3–The Avengers – all of them. No way can I choose just one. 4–The Terminator Series: Yep, even the non-Arnold ones. 5–Elf: Who wouldn’t like a movie that has the longest belch ever recorded? Willow loves streaming movies! After tearing her Achilles tendon while figure skating, Willow had loads of rehab time, which meant hours on end…

It’s the holiday season, yes I know that here in the States, Thanksgiving is still three weeks away, but we’re already doing the holiday shuffle. We have two birthday parties, one to attend and one to throw. We’re hosting the family for Turkey Day or in our case, Honeybaked Ham Day. There are school projects and writer’s conferences, a book release and school vacation, not to mention a panel on vampires, a tea, a readers group, NaNoWriMo – okay, I’m getting tired just thinking about it. But beyond all the things to do and the places to go, the holiday season is about downtime too. Down time where we get to watch movies, such as our annual viewing of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, a holiday classic when decorating the tree. Holiday Top Flicks It’s a time to revisit some of the best holiday and romantic holiday movies perfect for viewing anytime between Thanksgiving and Christmas. My daughter has so many favorites now that we literally have to stack the decks with the films so that everyone gets to watch the ones they want to see before the big C day when we watch the parades, open presents and kick…

If you follow my contributions to this blog you know that I often get my inspiration from one of my many yahoo groups. Thanks to one of those groups I have my idea for this week…. what is your opinion of books made into movies? The book being discussed is The Secret Life of Bees, which I personally have not read. I have not seen the movie either, but am being led to believe it shall soon be available on DVD. So the dilemma is…do I read the book first or watch the movie first? What would you do? What about when you have already read a book, such as when I had already read The Pelican Brief by John Grisham, and then it was turned into a movie. Naturally I had to see the movie, and I felt very satisfied that the movie followed the book. However, when I read The Client (my personal favorite Grisham book) I was disappointed when I saw the movie because I didn’t think it followed the book well at all. This leads to the idea of Harry Potter…the books versus the movies. Naturally they can’t put everything from such a large book into…

2009 is going to be my year! I’ve set my goals, realistically of course, and already brainstormed how this is going to happen. I’m looking forward to it no longer being 2008, one of the most difficult and stressful years of my young life, however I’m more looking forward to 2009 being the year of Gwen. I’m ready to leave my comfortable shelter and venture out into the big, bad world. But honestly before I start anything crazy or at least different, I still have some beefs to address. Yes, one of my goals this year is to stop getting dramatic over silly things (like celebrity gossip and my imaginary boyfriends), but that does not mean I can stop giving my opinion about bad movies and the ever overhyped “Awards Season.” I say that with very dramatic air quotes. So far only the Golden Globes and a handful of Critics Associations have doled out their opinions and awards. The only one that matters to me is Independent Spirit Awards. You were thinking I was going to say the Oscars, but after watching half of the movies up for consideration, I vote no for the Oscars in 2009. I enjoyed THE…

This weekend I went to see P.S. I Love You starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler based on the book by Cecelia Ahern. I prepared myself all week for a tearjerker, and that is definitely what I got. However, I never expected to spend the entire length of the film crying. And when I say crying, I mean, having to bite my lip to keep myself from sobbing uncontrollably in a theater full of people I did not know. Not that I like to cry in theaters full of people I do know, but that is beside the point. This movie was overwhelmingly sad; and however enjoyable, put me in a somber mood for the rest of the day. Now, I’m normally one for a good melodrama, because honestly there is nothing better than hugging a pillow and a box of Puffs while watching Lana Turner or Bette Davis crumple into balls of insecurity and heartbreak to make you feel better about your own life and romantic situation. But today, P.S. I Love You just tore out my soul. The film revolves around Holly Kennedy (Swank) as she receives letters from her husband (Butler) throughout the first year of his…