Possible spoilers for those who have not seen series one - click here for my series one review.

I was told beforehand that this series was a lot less exciting than the first one, but I didn't believe what anyone else had to say and was fully expecting another ten episodes of pure mind-blowing awesomeness. Unfortunately, it turns out those people had been right and this series was a bit of a let down.

It's so hard to give a quick plot summary of this series because so much happens and if I'm perfectly honest, I don't think I understood it all. Key things going on in this series include: Joffrey continues to be King but different families from all over the country who believe they have a right to the throne are coming for him and war spreads all across the land. Joffrey's true and cruel nature becomes much more evident but Sansa is bound to be his wife and dutifully obeys him. Jaime Lannister has been captured by the Starks and remains their prisoner but Lady Stark wishes to trade him back to the Lannisters in exchange for her two daughters, Sansa and Arya, whom she believes to be held captive by them. Although Sansa is still at King's Landing, Arya managed to escape after her father's beheading. She is now pretending to be a young boy and travels with a group of young boys who are bound for the wall where she hopes to be reunited with her half brother Jon Snow. Jon is now a member of the Night's Watch and continues his duties at the Wall, eventually venturing over it where he runs into some trouble. Rob Stark has amassed an army of his father's followers and is planning to take back the crown and rescue his siblings. Bran and Rickton remain at Winterfell, but Bran has lost all feeling in his legs. Meanwhile in Qarth, Daenerys Targaryen is trying to find ships so that she can sail back to her 'homeland' and claim the throne with her three new dragon babies, but there are many things standing in her way. This is just a very brief outline of the key events happening in this series, but believe me, there's so much more going on and this doesn't even dent it.


I thought that this series was all a bit of a jumble and half the time I had absolutely no idea what was going on or who any of the characters were. I'm pretty sure I fazed out for just about the entirety of episode three because I was so confused and nothing exciting seemed to be happening. In the first series there were lots of different sub-plots going on in different parts of the world and that was really interesting, but what was less impressive, was that after the sub-plots all collided there still remained a distance between them all which made it so much harder to keep up with what was going on. I haven't read the books so I can't say whether or not this series has kept true to the original novels, but I would say that the producers are probably trying to cram a bit too much into the television series and they should either cut some parts of the plot, or increase the number of episodes per series (the latter, please). This series got a lot more exciting towards the end but the beginning and middle parts were a disappointment in my opinion.


The main thing that bothered me about series one, was that although The White Walkers were mentioned about every five seconds, no-one ever clarified who or what they were or what they did, despite the fact that the series both started and ended with them, implying they've got a really big role to play. Eventually I decided that this was okay because it had built up a sense of anticipation and suspense surrounding this strange and dangerous species and I was excited to find out more about them in series two. To my great disappointment, there is very little about the White Walkers in series two, that is, until the last three minutes of the last episode. Here, we find out what they look like but I'm still not really any clearer on how they came about or what their intentions are - suppose I'll have to wait for series three where I hope things will become clearer.

The acting remained just as impressive as in the first series with the majority of the cast remaining the same plus a few additions. The only character that started to annoy me towards the end of the series was Sansa, Ned Stark's eldest daughter, played by Sophie Turner. (Just checked her out on Wikipedia and she's only 16 - what?!) In this series Sansa remains at King's Landing with Joffrey, her future husband, and despite the fact that she's treated awfully by him she remains stoic and carries a blank expression on her face most of the time. In some ways I can see that this portrayal reflects the feelings of her character who is just pretending to be devoted to Joffrey, but mostly it's just irritating in my opinion. I'm probably still most impressed by the acting of the children in this series so Maisie Williams and Isaac Hempstead-Wright who play Arya and Bran Stark. Arya has quite a large role in the new series as she has been separated from her siblings and has is pretending to be a boy in order to protect herself. I think that this young actress is extraordinarily talented and I hope to see more of her work in the future. There is an incredibly large number of actors and actresses in this series so it would be impossible for me to comment on them all, but other notable actors for me included all the Lannister children: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey. All of these actors do evil and sentimental so well and they were the most memorable actors for me. Peter Dinklage's character, the 'Imp', becomes a lot more prominent in this series and he is probably my favourite character now. I enjoyed seeing his character develop further because there are just so many different sides to him which you can see for yourself when you watch this series!


If you're a fan of series one then this is a must watch; however, don't expect this series to be of the same calibre as the premiere series or you will you sorely disappointed. I can only say that I hope series three will bring more clarity and excitement to our screens in March 2013. Although this series wasn't as great as the first series, it is still a much better series than most other television shows so Game of Thrones remains one of my all time favourite programmes.

P.S. Happy New Year everyone!

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.

Title: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
Author: Rachel Cohn, David Levithan
Genre: Young Adult, Romance
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: October 26th 2010
Goodreads Summary: “I’ve left some clues for you.
If you want them, turn the page.
If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.”

So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the bestselling authors of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?

Rachel Cohn and David Levithan have written a love story that will have readers perusing bookstore shelves, looking and longing for a love (and a red notebook) of their own.

{ Review }

Apologies, again, for my long absence - it's a busy time but I'm trying :(

I've been wanting to read this for a long time now, the cover is just too cute to resist! It couldn't be more appropriate that I decided to pick this book up again at Christmas time because that's exactly when it's set. If you're inspired by my review to read this fab book, then now, like right now, is definitely the time to do it! I have heap of revision to be doing, but I just couldn't stop reading this book. (I think this sentence may quite possibly have made its way into just about every review I've written) In fact, I've been going to bed at around 3:30 a.m. every night because I just can't stop reading and as a result I am now extremely ill, but - it was worth it.

So apart from the uber cute cover, I was also drawn into the unique plot line. This didn't seem like your average teen romance, and I was right. Dash and Lily's story begins when Dash stumbles across Lily's notebook, wedged on a shelf at his favourite bookstore, next to his favourite book. Inside, he finds a list of things to do, if he dares, which of course, he does, and so their special correspondence begins. I suppose its a bit idealistic to think that if you left a notebook hanging around with a list of things to do inside it that the perfect guy for you would stumble across it, but somehow this story seems like it could be real.

The other great thing about this book is that it's quite relateable, I would say, to the average reader of this review. Both Lily and Dash are misfits who are much more comfortable with writing things down rather than saying things out loud and that just makes everything between them seem much more real, despite the fact that this story is really quite unrealistic (picture a dog running into a pram, a baby flying into the air, a teenage girl leaping for (and catching) the baby, and then a few hours spent in a jail cell).

This wasn't one of those teenage stories where you fall in love with the protagonist because he sounds so dreamy and hot, it's one where you learn to love and appreciate every single character because they've all got a part to play. That's not to say that I didn't think that Dash sounded dreamy and hot - because he did. You find out a lot about the main characters through their exchanges in the notebook and whilst they don't actually meet each other until about three quarters of the way through the book, you can feel the connection between the two. I love the realism that both characters had. Neither of them were the swooning romantic sort, but the practical and thoughtful sort who understood that at the end of the day, it was just a notebook full of dares and perhaps there was nothing more to it.

I think that the main reason that I enjoyed this book so much is that I'm secretly waiting for something exciting like this to happen to me. I wish that my parents would leave me alone for a week over the Christmas holidays, leaving me to do whatever the hell I want, when I want, including secret rendez-vous with mysterious bookshop boys. Alas, I don't think this will ever happen to me.

This story makes you think about what you're really looking for in that special someone and warns you not to get too caught up in the idea of someone, which, in my opinion, is a very important lesson. Whilst this book was exciting and daring, it was also calming. Now that I've finished reading it, I feel like a sort of serene peace has settled over me which is strange. (It also cured me of my review-writers block which is another plus). So all in all, this was an absolutely fantastic Christmas-New Years read that I'd recommend for any teenage girl, I guarantee that you'll fall in love with this story!

Bel Ami.

I actually watched Bel Ami a long, long time ago when it was first released in the UK, but I rewatched it today in prep for university interviews. The first time I watched it, I thought it was an excellent film, albeit with some moments with dodgy acting and raunchy sex scenes. After a while; however, I began to think that it really wasn't a very good film at all and that I had simply been caught up in the moment. Now, after watching it for the second time, I'm back to thinking that it's not that bad a film at all.


Bel Ami is an adaption of the novel of the same title by Guy de Maupassant. I can't say whether the film sticks to the original story or not, but with most films that answer is usually no. Bel Ami follows the story of George Duroy and his rise to power in Paris by manipulating the wives of the most influential men in the city.

Sinister...

At first I thought that Robert Pattinson was doing an excellent job and his acting was great, however, it soon became a source of much hilarity. Pattinson really does the 'tortured' face well and he basically had that look plastered on his face for this entire movie. In fact, it was pretty much identical to the face he pulls whenever Edward Cullen can smell human blood. Suffice to say, Robert Pattinson will never be anything more than the sparkly vampire from those teen movies. The other actors, however, were superb. The three main women were portrayed by Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Christina Ricci and they all had very different characters that were pulled off equally well. Had these three women not done such a brilliant job I think I would've just rolled around laughing for the majority of the film. Each of these women has an incredibly compelling character, each affected by some sort of demon. Appearances were very important in nineteenth century France so these actresses were essentially playing two women.

I was quite disappointed that the director didn't make more a point that this story is set in Paris as I could've easily mistaken it for London. There are no distinctively French features, in my opinion, which is a great shame because this is seen to be one of the greatest pieces of French literature. I think that the 'French'ness of the story was definitely lost, but it was interesting nevertheless. I was inspired by this film to research more into the novel of this film and other works by French writers in the nineteenth century as it seemed to be a thoroughly intriguing period of history. This film has an excellent soundtrack and the music really adds to the atmosphere of the story. The same piece of music is used throughout to create an ominous and tense feeling, but it works very well.

All in all, I suppose I would recomend this film because it's a really good story; however, if you're watching it on the merit of Robert Pattinson's acting then you will sorely disappointed. Watch this film for the women, not for the men, as ultimately they are they most powerful women in this film.

I picked this film up at the school library because I recognised the title as a famous French play and the main actor, Gerard Depardieu. On the back of the DVD cover there are several extremely flattering quotes such as: "one of the most successful French films ever made"  and "a cinematic triumph" but unfortunately I have to disagree with those. Certainly, it was a good film, but I don't think it was great.

Cyrano de Bergerac revolves around the main character, unspurpisingly, Cyrano, and his love for his cousin (it wasn't creepy in those days), Roxane. The problem is, Roxane is really beautiful and Cyrano has an unnaturally large nose which he is very ashamed of. He is afraid to confess his feelings to Roxane because of his nose and so he remains silent. Then, a handsome young man, Christian, arrives on the scene and Roxane falls for him. Christian wishes to woo Roxane and although he's got the good looks, he does not have the poetic flair needed to write the love letters Roxane so desires and so Cyrano offers to write them for him.
Th acting in this film is brilliant. The main characters are played by Gerard Depardieu, Anne Brochet and Vincent Perez, all of whom are very talented. The acting is real and didn't waver for even a moment. The story is heartbreaking and Gerard Depardieu does a marvellous job of transitioning between grouchy soldier to love poet. This is a really great love story which is quite easy to get wrong but these guys do it perfectly. The plot itself is also really good and though I can't say whether or not it is true to the play, the script is really well written. The costumes and general atmosphere of the film seem to fit in nicely with the setting of the seventeenth century and nothing looked fake which I'm quite surprised at. Even Cyrano's nose is perfectly fitted as had I not known better, I would've thought that it was Depardieu's real nose!
The only thing that was actually wrong with this film was its length. The running time for this film is approximately two hours and twenty minutes and I'm certain that the story could've been told just as well in a much shorter time. I've already sat through two hours of Asterix and Obelix today (see review here) and so I wasn't really in the mood to sit through another extremely long and drawn out film. There are several pieces of the film that could've been cut or shortened, I noticed that the film's beginning took around twenty five minutes which was simply too long. It's not that I don't have a very good concentration span because I've sat through plenty of two to three hour films before, it's just not a lot actually happened in this film and it was fairly predictable. You could argue that it had to be that long because it's an adaption of the play, but I'm sure there were moments of fighting or scenic shots that could've been slightly shortened.
All in all this is a good film, but not a great one, as the running time let it down. It ticks all the other boxes though: good acting, check; good plot, check; swashbuckling action, check. I would recommend this to fans of the three musketeers and those sort of dramas and even good old romantic people because this is a beautiful story.

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L.James.

Title: Fifty Shades of Grey (Fifty Shades #1)
Author: E.L. James
Publisher: Vintage Books
Publication Date: May 26th 2011
Goodreads Summary: When literature student Anastasia Steele is drafted to interview the successful young entrepreneur Christian Grey for her campus magazine, she finds him attractive, enigmatic and intimidating. Convinced their meeting went badly, she tries to put Grey out of her mind - until he happens to turn up at the out-of-town hardware store where she works part-time.

The unworldly, innocent Ana is shocked to realize she wants this man, and when he warns her to keep her distance it only makes her more desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her - but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey's singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success – his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving adoptive family – Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a passionate, physical and daring affair, Ana learns more about her own dark desires, as well as the Christian Grey hidden away from public scrutiny.

Can their relationship transcend physical passion? Will Ana find it in herself to submit to the self-indulgent Master? And if she does, will she still love what she finds?

Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.

{ Review }

Calm your heckling. I know what you're all thinking, and yes, I am ashamed - I succumbed to Fifty Shades of Grey. I am a firm believer that one should dismiss a book because it is deemed to be 'low', I mean, this is the series that has outsold Harry Potter on Amazon, there must be something special about it. Surely one should judge a book by whether or not it has fulfilled its purpose, and arguable, Fifty Shades of Grey has fulfilled it's purpose by making its way into the handbags of just about every teenage to middle aged woman. I recently attended a debate entitled: 'This House would choose Fifty Shades over Shakespeare' which was fascinating because it reaffirmed my beliefs that one shouldn't dismiss books such as this and also brought up so interesting ideas about what you can learn from books such as this. One side argued that by including sentences such as: 'I must be the color of the communist manifesto', E.L.James has just encouraged millions of curious women to research what exactly the communist manifesto is, which is intriguing.  

So just in case you don't already know - Fifty Shades of Grey is about a college student Anastasia Steel who gets reeled into interviewing the incredibly hot young entrepreneur, Christian Grey. There is an immediate attraction between the two of them and Christian asks Anna out for coffee. Later that week, Anna gets extremely drunk and ends up drunk dialing Christian who comes to pick her up immediately. The next morning in the hotel room, Christian tells Anna that he would like to have sex with her and their very strange relationship kicks off.

For some reason, I've always imagined Fifty Shades of Grey to be a young adult book, but I can assure you - it is not. In fact, at one point whilst reading this I had to get out of my bed and go and sit in the bathroom to read this because I felt so uncomfortable sitting next to my mother reading that sort of fiction. I wasn't that disturbed by the content of this book, I just found some of the things that Christian and Anna did thoroughly bizarre and weird. For starters, E.L.James dedicates a whole ten pages outlining Christian's contract (yep, there's a contract) with Anna including numerous terms that I had never heard of before, and trust me, I've heard of most things.

I'm glad that I've taken some time before writing this review because I've had a bit of time to reflect on how good the book really was. After I had just finished reading it I thought it was a rather good book despite the slightly disturbing content. However, after further reflection I can now remember the awful 'seductive' imagery and writing. The writing is really quite bad, but then people don't read Fifty Shades for the poetic prose or anything like that. The plot is a bit cyclical and repetitive and I can already see how this series is going to end as well as what's going to happen along the way. Nevertheless, Anastasia does say a lot of things that the average girl/woman will be able to relate to and I liked that about her. I definitely fell in love with the character of Christian Grey. Yes, he has some freaky sex tendencies but it's all because of his messed up past and so you can't help but fall for him. I liked the characters in this book a lot more than I've liked the characters in many 'classic' novels and I think it's because they're quite easy to relate to, even if you don't want to admit it.

Having read the Twilight Saga numerous times myself, I can tell you that it is so obvious that is Twilight fan fiction. I distinctly remember something about Christian Grey's eyes turning black near the beginning of the book which obviously just isn't possible for a normal human being. I would've thought that after editing the story for print that E.L.James could have perhaps removed or tweaked these sections so as to make the connection between the two novels slightly less obvious.

All in all, I'd say that Fifty Shades is worth a read just so you can see what the hype is about and it's not that bad a story really. If you're easily offended by sexual content then obviously this isn't the book for you, but in our liberal society I'd say that most people would be okay with reading this stuff (just not on public transport). I'm actually looking forward to reading the next two books even though I know what's going to happen because it's just an easy read with interesting characters. My final comment would be, don't judge a book before you've read it.

Fun fact: Universal Studios is suing a porn film for use of characters from Fifty Shades when Fifty Shades is itself based on the Twilight Saga?

Asterix et Obelix contre Cesar (Asterix and Obelix Take on Cesar).

Asterix and Obelix seems to be something that every French person has either read or watched (probably both) so I thought it was about time I had a watch myself. This was the first on-screen adaption of the famous French comic and it was reportedly the most expensive French Film of the 20th century to produce.
For those of you that have read the comics, this film takes elements from Asterix the Gaul, Asterix and the Soothsayer, Asterix and the Goths, Asterix the Legionary and Asterix the Gladiator. The story is set in 50 B.C. and Asterix and Obelix are happily living in a village in Gaul where the townsfolk are turned into mighty soldiers by a magic potion brewed by the Druids. When Cesar and his Roman troops are travelling through Gaul to get to the English Channel, they discover the secret of this potion and take the Druid leader who knows the formula captive. Asterix and Obelix set off to rescue the Druid leader and face a number of challenging situations.
I expected this movie to be a really lighthearted film that would be full of funny gimmicks bordering on slapstick style comedy and that's exactly what it was. The film started out great with vibrant sounds, colours and magnificent scenic views. The acting was as I had expected and was all very over the top with ridiculous accents and costumes. Whilst I was really engaged in the movie for the first half an hour or so, I soon became quite bored with it as it was simply too long. This film lasts, in total, around one hour and forty five minutes which is too long for myself to be engaged in the novelty and hilarity of this sort of film. The CGI effects of this film are absolutely awful at times, though extremely funny, so I'm really surprised that this was the most expensive French-language film production of the twentieth century. Perhaps the effects were considered very good at the time, I'm not sure, but certainly for the modern viewer who is used to seeing films such as Avatar and Inception, this just wasn't very impressive (though this ad
ded to the hilarity). In many ways I'm glad that the CGI wasn't perfect because it matched very well with the general ridiculous atmosphere of the film.
The actors were all excellent. With this sort of film it's quite easy to go overboard and be a bit too silly, but I think these actors carried it off perfectly. Gerard Depardieu seems to be in just about every French film in existence and the vast range that his acting ability covers is quite impressive. I was slightly confused by the Italian accents in this film as no subtitles, plus funny French equals a very confused me. I didn't always understand what the charatcters were saying because of the lack of subtitles, but it didn't really make much difference to be honest because the acting is pretty self explanatory.
You just can't help but smile whilst watching this film; however, I don't think I would recommend it simply because it is far too long and I can imagine most people would get bored very quickly. There are five more Asterix and Obelix films that have been produced since 1999 including one that was released this year. I haven't seen any of them but I imagine that they're a lot better than this debut film and so if you're interested in this sort of genre or this film series, I'd start with the latest ones. (Also the new one stars Edouard Baer as Asterix and he's rather dishy in my opinion so check it out!)