When I discovered Lisa Kleypas historicals I started searching them out. I have read the entire Hathaway series and am working through the Wallflower series. I somehow wound up reading the series from newest to oldest, but whatever.
Janet Evanovich, found her by accident. Started at one and worked my way up to eight before I was current. They are now making a movie One For the Money due out this summer.
Jennifer Crusie, introduced to me by a friend, Fast Women was my first book and I've read every single book by her that I could get my hands on. Even the ones that weren't so good. Not that there are many.
James Patterson & Maxine Paetro, love the Women's Murder Club books. I was so excited when they announced that there was going to be a television series. Then they announced the cast. Anyone else read these books? Angie Harmon was cast as Lindsay Boxer. Rob Estes was cast as her captain/ex-husband. Who is that??? Lindsay Boxer isn't divorced. Is she? Did I miss that in the books? Claire's husband was in a wheelchair. Was that in the books? I'm seriously asking. I don't remember that. The show was so awful that it didn't survive a whole season, only 13 episodes. They took a great series of books and messed it up so they could put it on TV where it bombed. In my opinion it would have had more viewers if they'd just written it as it was.
Stephanie Bond. She is my new addiction. She writes the Body Mover series. The series starts out as follows:
Okay, so Carlotta Wren’s life hasn’t turned out as she’d planned. She didn’t plan for her parents to skip bail for a white collar crime, leaving her to raise her younger brother. She didn’t plan on having the silver spoon ripped out of her mouth and forgoing college to work retail. She didn’t plan on her blue blood fiancé dumping her like last year’s designer bag. And she didn’t plan for, ten years later, to still be single (with no prospects), working at Neiman Marcus, with no idea where her fugitive parents are. But she’s coping, sort of. Until…
…her lovable brother is arrested and his loan sharks come calling.
…the hunky cop who arrested her brother reopens her parents’ case.
…her brother becomes a body mover, transporting corpses from crime scenes.
…her former fiancé’s wife (a good customer) is murdered, fingering Carlotta.
…her brother’s sexy boss pulls her into the bizarre world of body moving.
Suddenly Carlotta realizes that she has to bag a murderer to keep her own well-dressed body from being next on the list!
I loved the first book and quickly moved on to the second and third installments and have the fourth lined up and the fifth and sixth on hold. Coming close to the end of the series I headed over to her website to find out when the seventh book was coming out. Imagine my surprise to find out that no other books are pending. Her publisher hasn't purchased any additional books for this series, but they are considering a television series. *groan* See the above reference to the WMC as a TV series. ACK! I hope that they do something spectacular with these books if they are going to make it into a series. These are awesome books. If you love Bobbie Faye or Stephanie Plum you're going to love Carlotta Wren.
Have you ever had a favorite book turned into a movie or television series that just sucked? If so, which one and why didn't you like it?
One of my favorite books is The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans. If you've read the book and haven't seen the movie yet, DON'T. One of my other favorite books is The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller. If you haven't seen the movie you are missing out. The movie rocks!
Hey, Erika :) I, too, go through author's backlists if I discover them and like them. I think Jennifer Crusie, Linda Howard, Susan Elizabeth Phillips were some of my latest 'must read' addictions. And I always watch for when they have something new out.
ReplyDeleteAs for movie/TV - yes, to Bridges of Madison County, they did an amazing job. Hated The Horse Whisperer so I never watched the movie (the ending nearly made me throw the book across the room). I think they've done an OK job with Kathy Reichs series "Bones" - but she's part of the production team, so they couldn't stray too far. It's more comedy than I found in the books.
Oh, and I always read the book first before I see the movie.
Thought of another one - Atonement - great book, great movie :)
Hey Janet, thanks for stopping by. If you didn't like the ending of the book The Horse Whisperer, you might love the movie. Robert Redford re-wrote the entire second half of the book.
ReplyDeleteI've started watching Bones on Netflix. My family & I are enjoying it, but I've never read the series. I also LOVE The Vampire Diaries, but again, never read the books.
I think it's a tough call as to whether or not to make books into movies. For example, I don't think the BDB should EVER be made into a series and/or movie. I love it too much.
Happy Friday.
OH, there are just tooooo many books I hope NEVER to see on TV to list.
ReplyDeleteI will say, they did a pretty good job with the Sword of Truth series (though I know you didn't see it) The books started making the MC preachy and it was annoying but they did a really good job adapting the books to a series, taking bits and pieces for all of the 9 (or so) books and mish-mashing them together, not always in order. Normally I would HATE such a thing but in this case it worked. Like on Bones (my sister has read all the books) they took the characters from the books and used them as templates for the series. Sometimes that just works.
Janet - I can't read a book first if I know there is or is going to be a movie - I have learned the hard way ... I will HATE the movie. On the other hand, if I like the movie enough, I will often pick up the book for more depth. I have no trouble replacing characters/actors in my head.
Ban, I'm with you. I know there is going to be a movie of a book, I'll wait, see the movie first and then read the book if I'm still interested.
ReplyDeleteI do have one exception to that rule. Harry Potter. I've read all the HP books and I make sure I do so BEFORE I see any of the movies. For me, the books bring depth to the movies. Both are awesome though.