There have been many big-budget box-office flops this summer and the few successful ones, like Man of Steel, weren't exactly a critical success. Hopefully, the movies being released this fall will do better. The big three films everyone is waiting for is Thor: The Dark World, Ender's Game, and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. The Daily Rehash gave their take on the fall movies in a recent episode, so I decided to give my own thoughts.

Ender's Game is based on the science fiction novel of the same name by Orson Scott Card and is directed by the same guy who brought us X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which gives us a major clue that the movie won't go by the book. Harrison Ford is also in the movie and he has already had two flops for 2013 (42 and Paranoia). Why not make it a third?

After the lackluster 2011's Thor and the overrated Avengers flick, Chris Hemsworth returns as the hammer carrying prince of Asgard in the sequel Thor: The Dark World. I thought the first film was a complete waste of time, but the sequel trailer looks like a major improvement. Let's cross our fingers and hope Loki finally bites the dust.

Heart of the Country
Directed by: John Ward
Starring: Jana Kramer, Randy Wayne, Shaun Sipos, Anne Hawthorne, Gerald McRaney
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Release Date: August 20, 2013
Running Time: 89 minutes
Rating: PG

Review:

Arriving exclusively to Walmart stores is the movie Heart of the Country starring the 2012 Academy of Country Music Best New Female Vocalist Jana Kramer (One Tree Hill) as Faith Carraday, an aspiring singer, New York socialite, and the prodigal daughter, who is now returning to home to her Southern roots after her husband, Luke, is arrested for fraud.

Faith's father, Calvin (played by Gerald McRaney), welcomes her back home to the family farm, despite the fact she hasn't spoken to her family in four years. Calvin is a retired widower, who is now making it his duty to help guide his daughter back to grace. Her sister, Olivia, is not as welcoming as their father is about her return.

Music was once her passion, but she has lost that creative spark due to her troubling marriage, but after reuniting with an old friend, Lee, who is now a doctor, the old spark returns.

When you are doing yard landscaping, you can think of yourself as an artist. Your medium is all of the elements that you can use to create a beautiful landscape. The elements might be water features, soil, rocks, grass, trees, plants, shrubs, flowers, pathways, gazebos, furniture, wind features, and many other things. The elements you choose and the way they are used depends on the yard you are working with, your budget, and your imagination.

Water and Soil

Water features can be pools, ponds, lakes, waterfalls, streams, and fountains. These elements can be very small or very large. Most of them will require a pump to circulate the water to keep it from getting stagnant and smelly. Some water features include live fish and water plants that have to be monitored and kept healthy. A pool for swimming gets a little more complicated and will need to be maintained on a daily basis to keep it clean and healthy for swimmers. Soil is the foundation for most landscapes and should be conducive to growing healthy grass, trees, and plants. If the soil you are working with is lacking in the proper nutrients, you may have to add them into the soil before you begin putting things on top of or into it. A local nursery may have the ability to conduct soil tests, but it they don’t, contact another local entity that specializes in soil testing.

Before I go into tips on writing a realistic romantic plot, let me start by telling my readers… and fellow writers… that life is much more interesting than fiction. Realism in fiction is relative to the characters in the book.

The Border: The Complete First Season
Starring: James McGowan, Graham Abbey, Jonas Chernick, Mark Wilson
Studio: Mill Creek Entertainment
Release Date: July 16, 2013
ASIN: B00CMDPT68
Retail: $14.98
Buy Link: Amazon.com
Running Time: 9 hours 43 minutes
Rating: TV-14

Review:

The Canadian drama The Border is finally available on DVD for the first time in the United States thanks to Mill Creek Entertainment releasing the complete first season on a three-disc set, which sent me a free copy of the DVD in exchange for my honest review.

The Border is a blend of NCIS and Law & Order, except the series focuses its attention on the fictional ICS (Immigration and Customs Security) agency as it protects the Canadian border from terrorist and smugglers. The agency is lead by Mike Kessler with Maggie Norton as his second-in-command, as they attempt to protect Canada from any threat.

The episodes are:

In this YA paranormal thriller, Pacey O'Brien's high school years haven't been easy thanks to her ex-friend, now enemy, Lexie Vega, aka the most popular girl in school, who also likes to get her hands on every new guy, including the new student, Dean Charleston. No matter what evil scheme Lexie has up her sleeves, Pacey can always rely on her Bad Girls Club lead by Rhiannon, which the club's main goal is take down the one and only Lexie Vega.

Pacey had no intention of getting herself a boyfriend, but it seems she is falling in love with Dean, who is finally getting over his ex-girlfriend. Life seemed to be going on the right path for her, and then strange things happen to her. Someone or something doesn't want Pacey to date Dean and whoever it is will kill to get them apart!

In a literary world over-ruled by Twilight, it is nice to see a young adult supernatural novel with an original plot; in this case it happens to be the mirror/body jumping demon Lilith. With a memorizing cover, I was eagerly looking forward to reading it. Maybe it is become I'm a male, but I couldn't connect with main character, Pacey, for the first half, which I felt was more in line with a Sweet Valley High novel than a supernatural one. I became interested in the plot when the strange things happen and when Pacey started to realize what was actually happening to her. The second half felt more like a 80s horror movie. A demon hopping around through mirrors has been done before, but the author uses it effectually to help enhance the fearfulness of Lilith. The second half felt more like a 80s horror movie; it even has a cliffhanger ending for a potential sequel, in which I hope the author switches the point-of-view to one of Pacey's friends or even her boyfriend, Dean.

Winter in Full Bloom
By Anita Higman
Publisher: River North Fiction (Moody Publishers)
Pub. Date: July 19, 2013
ISBN: 978-0802405807
Pages: 304
Buy Link: http://ow.ly/nIIcx
Blog Tour: http://litfusegroup.com/author/ahigman
 
Review:

Lily Winter returns home to visit her estranged mother in the attempt to get her mother to have some sort of relationship with her daughter, who's now in college. Lily's husband recently died of a heart-attack and to make matters worse she found evidence that he might have been cheating on her. With her daughter at college, she hopes reconnecting with her mother after a ten year estrangement would bring new joy in her life, but she isn't exactly welcomed by her mother, who happens to leaves her with a bombshell. Lily has a twin sister, Camilla, living in Australia!

Despite her fear of planes, Lily hops on a flight to Melbourne, Australia, in all hopes to meet the sister she never knew existed. Almost as soon as she arrives, she hits a brick wall, but her luck turn for the better as an Aussie, named Marcus, insists on helping her track down Camilla. Marcus use to be a bestselling author until a terrible accident shoved his life off course.

As Lily is finally reunited with her twin, sparks fly between Lily and Marcus, but their pasts may still haunt their future.