Jessica Wakefield's Blog

Reading Wrap Up 2023

Well it’s that time of year where I announce my book of the year and what other books I enjoyed.

So I read 32 books this year. I average about 22, so this was a big step up for me. In between writing, and all the admin, social media stuff that writers have to do, I’m really happy that I squeezed in ten more books this year. As a result I’ve been able to give regular book recommendations to my newsletter subscribers. If you want to be part of my newsletter family, join here.

Book of the Year:

 

My Phony Valentine by Courtney Walsh

 

 

This was a book I didn’t know I needed until I started reading it. I had come out of a very intense time personally and I was exhausted and maybe even  a little burnt out. My stress levels were high and I was laying low, not really sure what to do or even read. But then I saw the blurb of this book and I just had to dive in.

A chance meeting. A hunky hockey player. A fake romance.
Hardly an ordinary day in the life of Poppy Hart.

Poppy Hart is just an ordinary girl trying to escape the social clutches of the grown up mean girl from high school. And she grabs the nearest guy and pretends he’s her boyfriend to save face with said mean girl. That guy happens to be hockey bad boy, Dallas Burke. Funny hijinks ensue, but so does emotional depth and hilarity. I literally smiled like a girl walking on cloud nice after her crush said hello to her, the whole way through this book. It was that good! The book helped pull me through my stressful and anxious slump. It was a much needed dose of laughter, romance and heart.

Other Fav Books This Year:These Three Stole my Heart as Well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What can I say? I’m a romance girl at heart.

The Beacon Street Bookshop by Carla Laureano doesn’t disappoint. It’s the second book in a series, but it is easily read as a stand alone. This book is clean romance, with a slightly higher heat level, but still clean. The book is wonderfully written with Carla’s knack for heart, humour and depth. I read this one in 24hrs guys, it’s been a long time since I’ve done that.

It’s Your Love by Rachel D. Russell was such a treasure! For Susan May Warren fans, who love her Deep Haven books, Rachel takes you back to Deep Haven. Plus there’s horses, a high school crush becoming more and a wonderfully woven theme about trusting God when things get tough. Oh and a swoony cowboy.

 

A Cross-Country Christmas by Courtney Walsh. This book is funny and emotional. It’s a great ride from LA to Chicago. Will, the hero, is so smooth and witty, but with a heart of gold underneath. Lauren is super cool and uptight and their banter is off the charts flirty and fun! Courtney Walsh is knocking it out of the park! I love her rom coms.

 

This year I tried new authors and read some favourite authors. An author I’ve read so much of in the past has sparked a special category:

Most Talked About Book:

The Last Exchange By Charles Martin. This man is a superb writer. I love so many of his books. Now this book wasn’t bad, but when I talked about it with others, opinion was very divided on aspects of the book and many people have come out with either I love it, or I hate it. For me, I wish some parts had been left out. But his writing is still top notch, even if the story didn’t grab me as deeply as others have.

 

 

 

I hope you’ve enjoyed my reading wrap of 2023. I’m looking forward to reading more and writing more books next year.

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Why I Went Indie

For as long as I can remember, when I thought about being a published writer, I always wanted to be traditionally published. And for much of my life, that was the only option available to me. That option meant getting an agent and then that agent being able to sell my book to a publisher. It was the right of passage almost. And still is for many of us.

But then with the emergence of the internet and Amazon years ago, self publishing, also known as, independent publishing, became a viable and legitimate option for authors to pursue their dreams of being published. For the last ten years or so, as I spent more time in the writing world, I wanted to become hybrid author, which means being both traditionally published and independently published.

And I thought I would do that by getting trad published first.

 

That was my plan.

 

 

Well you know how plans like to go out the window and often become something you never planned? I began the long and patience learning road of pitching to agents, (I managed with God’s help to attend the ACFW conference in St. Louis in 2022 in person and pitch to agents, and you know, plus meet awesome authors and make a ton of new friends), it was scary, but awesome, even if both agents said no. I also had other agents say no. And the key was it wasn’t because of my writing.

By this time in my career and that’s what I’m calling it, I had finialed and placed in several writing competitions. I wasn’t getting picked up by agents because I was a poor writer, it could have been and probably was numerous reasons. Such as, they already have another writer they represent that has a similar voice to me, my book might not be what the market is looking for right now, my social media numbers aren’t high enough etc. Do I hold it against them? Not at all. Like me, they also need to make a living.

So what caused me to go indie? Nothing earth shattering. I figured it was just time. And I knew by releasing my book The Christmas Box, it was the perfect book to start this journey.  And I’m having so much fun learning the indie ropes. I sill have so much to learn about writing, but as a writer, we are always learning. I want to keep improving my craft and writing stories that make people laugh, sigh and be entertained for a while. And I’m looking forward to some day in the future resuming my search for an agent.

 

But the important thing is I’m having fun!

 

If you want to read more from me (free cute, short story) and get a monthly (mostly) newsletter about my writing life, early bird info just for subscribers sign up using the link below:

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Adventures: Scary and Amazing

When it comes to travel, these last almost three years, we’ve all had to put those dreams on hold and take a collective deep breath, waiting to see how the world unfolds. And the world is still transforming. But I love that God is still in control. That’s such a comfort to me in these turbulent times.

Now back to travel. In Australia, not being able to travel is like being locked in an enormous, really amazing house, but no matter how great the house is, you still yearn to see a world that, for us, is very far away.

Aussies love to travel and for us, the cost of travel is not just in prices, but in hours. To reach London from Sydney is honestly anywhere between 24 46hours (depending on your flights and length of stopovers). It’s 13 hours straight on a plane just to reach Los Angeles. So, when an Aussie gets to travel, we make it for a good chunk of time, as who knows when we’ll get to go back again.

In one week, I’m heading to the USA to attend the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) Conference! This has been a dream of mine ever since I discovered Christian Fiction (CF) in 2009 and started writing it not long after. Being able to go means being able to pitch to agents in person, meet authors, and attend classes. Virtual conferences are great and I’ll never get enough of them being so far on the other side of the world. But when I got the chance to go in person—I jumped on it!

The ACFW Conference is in St Louis this year.

Achieving dreams is both a wonderful and scary thing all at once. It’s scary because something you’ve longed for is finally coming true and what if it’s not all it’s cracked up to be? It probably won’t be. But it will be better than what you thought it was going to be—even if it doesn’t look how you imagined it.

For me, going to the ACFW Conference is taking a big step towards becoming a traditionally published author. Surrounding myself with others who love to write in the area I write in will be great. Writers write alone, but hanging out with others just like me, who all have imaginary friends, is a balm to the soul. I can’t wait!

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Persuasion: A Review

It’s time to put down on paper my feelings about Persuasion, the Netflix adaptation. I won’t call it an adaptation, that would be an insult to Jane Austen. Let’s call it a movie that features the same names and the occasional similarity to a book written by Jane Austen. And if you can put aside the source material and take it as a Regency love story, you might actually enjoy this—I could not.

And thus, I did not enjoy this movie. But first, what did I like about it? Well, I did love the costumes. They were vibrant and stunning—literally appealing to the eyes. I wanted to wear one. I wanted my friends to wear the dresses. Maybe I wanted us all to do a better job of turning the book into a movie than this production did. But I digress. I loved the cinematography. Amazing. The world was brought to life with color—from well-lit ballrooms, lush green grass, and estate homes that were warm and welcoming with light and heart. It was a pleasure to watch.

That was it folks for the positives. Well except for Henry Golding—he was smashing in his role and is well suited to regency attire.

And now what I didn’t like about it. Truthfully, I don’t quite know where to start. Well, I do. Anne Elliot is played by Dakota Fanning. I’ve never seen Dakota is anything—I refuse to watch or read Fifty Shades of Gray—and she’s not a bad actress. It’s not her fault that the writer’s replaced the personality of Anne Elliot with a cross between Bridget Jones (the movie was awesome) and possibly Elizabeth Bennet (who is a fantastic heroine.)

Anne Elliot is a quiet, wallflower. She doesn’t like to make waves and she wants her family to remain respectable without the embarrassing airs and graces they put on (they can’t manage that bit) and she regrets being persuaded to walk away from the man she loved—still loves.

And because of this, Anne is a hard character to bring to life on screen. Coupled with that is that the book has lots of internal thoughts from Anne about how she feels, and what she thinks of herself and others. So, I understand getting the character to break the fourth wall and talk to the camera—it’s a way to get inside Anne’s head. It also got very irritating, very quickly.

I guess what shocked me most was that they didn’t just make Anne more confident and vocal—which might have been fine if they’d handled that right. Not all wallflowers will let people walk all over them. Just because you’re quiet doesn’t mean your weak. But they made Anne silly, a closet alcoholic, immature, not wise or calm—all the things she’s meant to be. In fact, when Captain Wentworth exclaims how calm and wise Anne is, I had to pause the movie and yell at the TV:

‘You can’t say she’s calm or wise when she hasn’t shown any of those qualities! That’s called lazy writing.’

Yes, I yelled at the TV and I kept watching. They changed the core of Anne’s character so much that she was not just unrecognizable, she wasn’t Anne at all. And when the movie rests on this character, there’s nowhere else but down to go.

Briefly, the actor playing Captain Wentworth, Cosmo Jarvis was fine. Good looking enough, but again it was the writing that let him down. Captain Wentworth didn’t have much to do or say—he was boring. The chemistry between him and Anne was lackluster. I didn’t care what happened to them—that’s a really bad sign in a romance movie when talking about the main couple.

The rest of the cast was fine. Amusing in some ways, irritating in others.

Would I watch this again?

No, not unless I’m interested in a regency Bridget Jones’ Diary—and I’m not.

 

 

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Top Gun: Maverick Review

So, I finally got to see Top Gun: Maverick. I was prepared to go on my own, but in the end, my friend came with me as she wanted to see it again. I’d been keen to watch it for ages because I’d heard so many great things about it.

And you know what? It lived up to the hype! It was a great movie. A really great movie. It’s just what the world needs right now. It’s a movie where the lines between good and bad are clear, the action was engaging and fun, there was some light humor, and it was a simply engaging film that even brought a tear to my eye at the end. The flight scenes are totally amazing too.

It is the perfect movie for a world still reeling from the upheaval of 2020.

Tom Cruise is back as Maverick. He’s been a test pilot for the Navy for some time and he’s still ruffling feathers and pushing the limits of what he can and can’t do. He’s sent back to Top Gun school, at the orders of Val Kilmer’s Iceman, to teach the top pilots an impossible mission. One of those pilots is Rooster, the son of Goose, Maverick’s wingman from the first movie. And there is plenty of anger from Rooster towards Maverick, for several good reasons. And Maverick holds plenty of guilt himself. The two are forced to work together and overcome their differences as Maverick pushes all the pilots to their limits.

Jennifer Connoly features also in the film as an old girlfriend of Mavericks. Their scenes are funny and sweet. It feels like nostalgia without the disappointment that almost always follows when encountering these types of movies. You want to love them, and part of you does, the young you, the one that loved it as a kid, but seen through the eyes of an adult, it’s simply not that good. There is a reason that we can’t recapture our youth, it’s simply not possible. But Top Gun: Maverick gives us the nostalgia we crave but reminds us that we can’t capture our youth or our past. We can learn from it and do better.

Although I’m not sure Tom Cruise’s Maverick will ever really learn. His need for speed will always outrun his desire to stay inside the lines.

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More than Enough

I have known all my life that I was special. I have known all my life that God wanted me and had a purpose for me. I’ve been told by many people over the years that God has big plans for me.

My birthday is September 1, 1983.

My due date was December 17, 1983.

16 days old.

I weighed one pound and ten ounces. I fitted in the palm of my Dad’s hand.

Mum was in her 25th week of pregnancy when a kidney infection started early labor. Our little home had no telephone, so my mum went next door to the butcher and asked them to call the hospital.

“You can’t be in labor,” the butcher said.

She looked at them. “Well, I am.”

Once she arrived at the hospital in our little town, they tried to stop the labor. To no avail. The doctors called the bigger hospital an hour away to ask for advice. The reply was short.

“Babies born that early can’t be saved.”

They put me in a kidney dish and placed a towel placed over me. The nurse was instructed to take me away into another room so that my mother wouldn’t be distressed at my passing.

The nurse pulled back the towel and found my big brown eyes staring up at her. I was kicking.

An hour passes and I’m still kicking. The nurse asks the doctor if she can put me in a humidity crib. He agrees.

Another hour passes and I’m still kicking.

Finally, someone calls a hospital in Sydney and explains the situation.

They say emphatically. “We can help her.”

They wrapped me in aluminum foil and flew me to Sydney where I spent the next three months. By early December, about the time I was supposed to be born, I was home with my family.

 

One month old

 

 

Almost two months old. With my mum and sister Helen.

 

 

During those three months in hospital, my parents drove the six hours to Sydney every single weekend.

Growing up, people at church would always ask “Where is the miracle baby?” People (strangers to me) would come up and pinch my cheeks, tell me they prayed for me.

I didn’t truly understand the situation until I became an adult and a mother myself.

I vividly recall a time I was visiting my Dad in hospital. At the time I was a twenty-something adult. A nurse walked into the room, looked between me and my sister, Helen, and asked, “Which one is Jessica?”

“I am.”

She smiled and said, “There is not a premature baby that is born in this hospital where your story isn’t mentioned.”

All my life I’ve known that God has a plan for me. A big plan. Why else would he save me so amazingly?

It’s something I’ve lived with since I can remember. I’m so grateful that God loves and saved me. I’m so grateful for the nurse who advocated for me and for the nurses and doctors who cared for me all those months in Sydney. I’m so grateful for the prayers that went around the world for me.

But there was a disquiet in me that was growing slowly as the years went by. I was saved for a purpose. So then, what is my purpose?

I’m not doing anything spectacular with my life. I lead a quiet life loving my husband, our kids, being involved in our church, hanging out with friends. Trying to exercise more, learning to be a more patient person (Mum always said I was in a hurry).

Where is the spectacular? Where is this “amazing purpose” God has for me?

Anyone who knows me knows I love reading and that I’m on a journey to becoming a published author. I love romance books and my favorite genre is contemporary Christian fiction romance.

Some people feel God speaks to them through these books. That doesn’t happen for me and I’m okay with that. I read for pure enjoyment.

Then I came along Stay with Me by Becky Wade. And for the first time, I felt God speaking to me through a Christian fiction romance novel.

The book is about Gen, who along with four others was miraculously saved as a young teen. Due to the miraculous saving, Gen felt she owed God for saving her. This drove her to live a larger-than-life Christian life.

We meet Gen when her perfect life is unraveling and it’s then she meets Sam, the hero of the story.

I was struck by the thought that Gen owed God for the way he saved her. I have never personally felt I owed God, but I have felt that because I was not doing amazing things for him, that I was somehow lacking. That I had missed my purpose.

When I read this part of the book, I realized that yes, God has a plan for me, but he has a plan for ALL of us. I also realized that God saved me because he loves me. I – me –  alone was enough of a reason to save me. I don’t have to do amazing things in order to justify my miraculous birth. Jesus loves me and that was enough. I am enough.

December 3rd. Back at home. Dad with big sis looking on.

 

December 4. First time at church.

 

We live in a world that tells us we have to be better, thinner, always achieving something in order to be worthy. Don’t get me wrong, God wants us to walk closer with him and that changes us when we let him in. But he doesn’t want us to owe him, or try so hard to please him that we forget why we love him: Because he first loved us.

I hope you read this and remember that you are worthy of God’s love simply because he made you and chose you.

I am enough for God.

You are enough for God.

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2020 Reading Wrap Up

So 2020 was the year I had so many plans and like the rest of us, those plans went askew and then most of those plans simply went away, never to be seen again.

I did get to do a couple of things on my list and one of them was being intentional about reading new to me authors. And some of them were debut authors and some have got wonderfully long backlists. I’m happy to say that I have found new favorite authors to add to my favorite author’s list! Oh, the fun!

Here is the new to me authors I read this year:

Carrie Stuart ParksMelissa FergusonCarla LaureanoRachel HaukKatherine ReayT.I. LoweMelissa TaggTari FarisSuzanne Woods FisherTerri BlackstockBethany Turner

I was plenty busy making new fictional friends this year and to help add some fun to what has been a crazy year, I decided to make a little summary of the best books I read this year and please note that the books in this list are not solely based on the new to me authors this year. It’s based on all the Christian Fiction books I’ve read this 2020.

The Most Swoon-Worthy Book:

This is such a hard category but there are two books that were tied in their swoon-worthiness.

Autumn Skies by Denise Hunter features Grace and Wyatt. Grace the inn owner falls for secret service agent Wyatt and boy are their sparks!

In Under Scottish Stars, by Carla Laureano, Malcolm and Serena also have sparks that just bounce off the page. And it’s set in Scotland–seriously, you can’t get any better than that!

Both are the swooniest books for 2020. And I’m pretty sure they will remain high on my all-time favorites list for a long time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Funniest Book

Bethany Turner, a new to me author this year had me chuckling along most of the way through this smart, sassy, funny book. The Hugh Grant reference early in the piece reeled me in and kept me glued to the story!

 

 

The Book that Made the Biggest Impact on Me

Stay With Me by Becky Wade, stayed with me for months. I don’t normally find that God meets me in books, but he met me in this one. This powerful story of repentance, forgiveness, and what it means to be a Christian really captured me and forced me to look inwards. Oh and the romance (it’s pretty swoon-worthy as well folks) was the icing on the cake!

 

 

 

 

The Solid Ground Coffee Company was impactful for very different reasons. See my review when you click on the title link. But this book had me crying for something I didn’t know was missing in my life – seeing my cultural heritage in a fictional character in a book.

 

 

 

 

 

Most Intense Book

There were a few books I read this year that could have got this title, but this series just kept me glued to the pages. I read all three books in about 2 days! It was one, wild ride that I could not put down. If you like the Fugitive movie, you’ll like this series!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best Book of 2020

This was the hardest book to pick, but I loved Brunch at Bittersweet Cafe from the first line to the very end! It was also my first Carla Laureano book and I mean you can’t go wrong with a pastry chef, a pilot, a solid conflict with no easy resolution, characters of depth, and romance to make your heart flutter!

 

Finally, I get to finish two book series I started this year as all the books have come in. It’s time for a Susan May Warren book binge. I can’t think of a better way to end the reading year! If you haven’t picked up the Montana Marshall Series or the Global Search and Rescue Series, don’t waste time. The books I’ve read in each series so far have been great!

How has your reading year been? What’s your favorite book this year?

 

 

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Joey and Pacey: Why They Matter

A handful of years ago (okay, more than a handful, but I don’t want to think about that) there was a little show on TV called Dawson’s Creek. For those not familiar with the iconic show, it centers around four fifteen years olds in the fictional town of Capeside. With Dawson Leery being the central character. It also features his two best friends, Pacey and Joey, and newcomer to town Jen. The show follows the characters’ trials in love, life, and everything in between. I was fifteen when the show aired, the same age as these characters. It made an impression, unrealistic dialogue, and sappy storylines and all. This is probably why I love this so as much as I do.

But there is another, and that reason is Joey and Pacey.

Spoiler Alert: Do not read on if you don’t want to know what happens. 

This was, in the end, the relationship that defined the show. The final six episodes of Season 3 are still as emotionally satisfying now as they were all those years ago.

Why the emotional payoff is so strong with Pacey and Joey:

Pacey loves Joey for who she is.Pacey challenges Joey to confront her fears.Pacey encourages Joey to chase her dreams.Pacey is willing to let Joey go for the sake of her happiness.

How does this relate to your writing? When we are reading, we want to feel connected to our characters. We want to laugh with them, cry with them, cringe with them, and we want them to succeed. As a writer, you want to create this. You want to create characters that live long in the memories of your readers.

How do you do this? One way is through pacing. In Dawson’s Creek, we had an entire season that showed Pacey’s growing feelings for Joey, with her totally unaware. Then when the truth finally came out, the writers gave their audience something to tune into each week. We go to see Pacey, slowly and lovingly show Joey how much he loved her and how much he knew her. These two were connected. We felt what they felt. Over six episodes, we were totally invested in the outcome of this love triangle. The writers took the time to draw out the conflict and romance. They made sure we cared about the outcome of these two characters.

And the other way to keep your characters in the memory of your readers is by giving them something they could not do at the beginning, but they can do at the end. In this case, it was Joey choosing Pacey over Dawson. It was Joey being brave enough to jump into a future with Pacey. Joey was scared. She had never done this before, but she also felt excited and free. Still, watching her run to the dock to find Pacey before he gets on the boat makes me cheer for her. Joey grew as a character. She changed in a good way and we loved it.

Ask yourself characters questions about their fears, what they want to achieve, and then ask them what they can’t do, and what they want to do. Then take them on the journey of change and growth. Your readers will thank you for it!

What’s your favorite TV show?

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A Most Important Book: The Solid Grounds Coffee Company by Carla Laureano.

This is not a traditional book review. I’m not going to sit here and talk about the plot, etc.

I’m talking about The Solid Grounds Coffee Company by Carla Laureano because for me this is an important book and it is a great book as well.

Why is this book important to me?

Well, the heroine in this book is Ana. Analyn Sanchez and she’s Filipina. I am Australian, and I’m half-Filipina.

I’ve been a voracious reader my whole life and I never once cared if a character in a book or movie for that matter, looked like me or came from my Asian cultural side. Not once. I didn’t care what anyone looked like – all I cared about was good writing,  a plot that drew me in and characters I could love. 

I suppose there are a few reasons for my not caring and I suspect the biggest one might simply be because I know Jesus loves and cares for me, that who I am as a person is cemented in him. I know I am wanted because of Jesus Christ.

I think other reasons are related to my upbringing in a rural town in NSW. There were a handful of us half-Asian kids running around, but most of my friends – and everyone else in town, were white Aussies.

Another reason is I’ve never cared about reading multicultural characters is I don’t look Asian. Most people just look at me and get this look in their eyes. They can see I look a bit different and are wondering where I’m from, but they don’t automatically see the Asian. It doesn’t bother me when people ask where I’m from unless they phrase it in a way that it meant to hurt – but that’s a different story.

So when I saw that The Solid Grounds Coffee Company featured a Filipina heroine I was sold. I was curious and excited to read it.

It shocked me when I started crying throughout this book. For the first time in my life, I was reading about a character whom I understood – in looks, in demeanor, in cultural references, in faith and, in family dynamics. I wasn’t prepared for the emotions that would hit me. The book has stayed with me since I finished the last word.

I started this book at the right time too. As an aspiring author who has always written white characters (which is also a direct reflection of my upbringing – hello, small-town rural Australia), I am finally writing about a character who is half-Filipina. It’s scary for me.

The Solid Grounds Coffee Company has given me the courage to step out of my comfort zone and embrace the other side of my world. And yes, for me and many others out there who are mixed-race, sometimes it feels like we never fit in anywhere. Too white for one culture, and too Asian for the other.

I am so pleased I found this book because not only did it touch my heart, but I found a new author for me to read and that’s the best part!

If you like authentic characters, realistic character development, a great romance, and coffee… lots of coffee, then this book is for you.

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Movie Review: Little Women

I thought I’d kick 2020 off with a movie review. Here in Australia we are in the middle of summer and going taking shelter in a cool, air-conditioned cinema is one of the best ways to pass the hot days.

We are having more than just hot days right now though. Australia is currently experiencing severe bush fires, affecting thousands of people ranging from constant smoky skies to burnt settlements, evacuated towns, thousands of animals killed and millions of acres of bushland burnt out and it’s still going. Prayers for our nation would be much appreciated.

The Review

I have loved the novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott since I was a young girl. Jo March is one of my literary heroes. The first adaption I watched was the 1949 Little Women, starring June Allyson and Peter Lawford. It has been the gold standard for me in terms of movie adaptions of the novel. June Allyson is perfectly cast as Jo March.

So every time I see another adaption, I inevitably compare it to that 1949 version. The 2019 adaption is worthy of high praise. It is very clear that the director, Greta Gerwig, loves the novel. She has included all my favorite parts of the book and brought them to life – Amy drawing the caricature of her teacher, Beth playing the piano at Mr. Lawrence’s house, Amy obsessing about her nose, Meg at the ball, Jo cutting her hair and the girl’s camaraderie in general, plus too many others to name!

It is a movie that captures the spirit and heart of the book while adding some modern ideas that it doesn’t detract from the experience. The end of the movie is a new addition and as a writer, I could not help but love it.

The girls we well cast, I thought. I find it hard to get a good Jo and Saoirse Ronan did a great job. She captured the playful, spirited, tomboy that is Jo’s trademark with the go-get -it attitude that Jo puts into everything. It was lovely to see.

Final thoughts on the never-ending debate about whether Jo should have married Laurie. I swing between the debate, really. I enjoy watching how each film adaption interprets this part of the novel. This version had closure on all sides, with everyone living happily ever after. It was a fitting end to a beautiful and timeless story.

What did you think of the movie? If you haven’t seen it, will you go and watch it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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