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Dead Set (Aspen Falls #2)
Dead Set (Aspen Falls #2)
Melissa Pearl, Anna Cruise | 2018 | Contemporary, Mystery, Romance
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Dead Set is the second book in the Aspen Falls series, and we reunite with Lucas, Blaine's friend who is no longer on the Police Force that we met in book one. I like Lucas, but he is a slob where paperwork is concerned. His office makes me cringe, so I was thankful when Alaina got stuck in. They come to an agreement that she will help Lucas if he helps her. Her brother has died, and it has been ruled a suicide. Alaina can't accept that, although that may be her guilt speaking. It seems straightforward to begin with, but it does become apparent that not all is as it seems. And I really did feel for Noah!

It was nice to see the connection between Lucas and Alaina grow as they worked together to find out the mystery behind Noah's death. It is a slow-burn romance, rather than insta-lust, but I think it works here. After all, if someone is working through the grief of a deceased family member, it would be rather strange to fall straight into bed with the P.I. involved.

This book had no editing or grammatical errors that spoilt my reading, and the storyline was easy to follow, even with all the mystery. We have Blaine and Rosie having small cameos in here, so it was nice to see that things are still going well for them. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I hope we will see them in future books so we know how they get along. I would recommend this book.

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and my comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Apr 20, 2018
  
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Merissa (12051 KP) rated Micah's Bride (All The King's Men #9) in Books

Feb 10, 2018 (Updated Jun 7, 2023)  
Micah's Bride (All The King's Men #9)
Micah's Bride (All The King's Men #9)
Donya Lynne | 2017 | Paranormal, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Micah's Bride (All The King's Men #9) by Donya Lynne
Are you sure that Micah's Bride is a novella?! I mean, sure, it's not a long book - but the sheer amount that Donya Lynne has managed to pack into those few pages is simply astounding! You get an update on Micah and how he is feeling about not being alone anymore. Bain and Cara. Sev and Ari (and I really, REALLY, can't wait to read more about them again!), Cordray and Trace, Sam, her parents - it's all here!!!

OK, so it's the ninth book in the series, so the characters are all well-known, but still - you get to see them more vulnerable than you've seen them before. I defy anyone to read sections of this without their allergies playing up. 😉 There is angst, and there is laughter here too. I loved the Twilight references, and how wonderful Micah was with Aiden. The ring-bear about did me in though. Trust me, read it for yourself and it will all become clear.

I could gush about various parts of this novella for another few pages, but instead, let me get technical. There were no editing or grammatical errors that disrupted my reading flow. The pacing was smooth, and the scenes flowed from one to the next. This novella picks up the story and moves it forward, it is not just a filler. It is a necessary addition to the series, and definitely not one to be missed. It's not very often that I give novellas 5-stars, but there is absolutely no justification for not doing so in this case. Sheer perfection, and absolutely recommended by me.

* Verified Purchase ~ December 2017 *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Feb 10, 2018
  
A Star Is Born (2018)
A Star Is Born (2018)
2018 | Drama, Romance
Story: A Star is Born starts when rock star Jackson (Cooper) looking for another drink stumbles into a drag bar, he sees working class woman Ally (Gaga) perform on stage, instantly he knows she has talent and learns more about her, bring her on stage for his latest show.

When Ally becomes an overnight success story the two-start performing together which only attractions more record labels who come calling to make Ally the next biggest star in the music world which soon sees her become more famous than Jack whose own problems could bring an end to his fame.

 

Thoughts on A Star is Born

 

Characters – Ally is a hotel worker that performers in a local drag bar after being rejected by record labels before. She meets rock star Jack who encourages to perform, first with him and soon the world wants to see her become the biggest star in the music industry. Ally must learn about the world around her, one she has never stepped foot in before or become consumed by it. Jack is the rock star who sees Ally believing she could become a star, he offers her a chance to perform which sets her on her way, Jack however has his own problems with drinks and drugs would could finish his own career just as Ally’s is about to take off. These two characters do take centre stage for the most part, we do see family that support as well as friends who see their friend get to levels of fame they never thought they could.

Performances – Bradley Cooper gives one of his best performances of his career here, not just on front of the camera, but behind it too. He manages to make us feel like his problems are real, which are problem many musicians could be facing. Lady Gaga was always going to be a wonderful choice for the singing side of the film, it was the acting side people wanted to see if she could handle, she does a good job through the film managing to show the bond the two have throughout the film. the supporting cast are good without needing to be challenged to reach the levels of the lead two actors.

Story – The story follows the rise of a musician after being discovered by an alcoholic rock star. We know this is a remake, so we know this had been modernised to tell an old story which deals with the modern problems of fame for musicians. We see how one side is taking every opportunity thrown her way and the other than has been watching his career fade away because of alcoholism and drug abuse. This is a great story of how important taking chances are and how success can ruin lives. The story does however become slightly slow paced because we just jump into a song to cover up anything that needs to be talked about more.

Music/Romance – The music in the film is good with songs that Gaga performs with ease. The romance between the two shows how they can support each other through the lives they didn’t know they would be going through.

Settings – The film uses the settings to show the journey that Ally takes from the small venue to awards ceremony showing here rise to fame.


Scene of the Movie – First song.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – The rise feels too fast.

Final Thoughts – This is a great look at how the fame can affect lives in the music industry, we get strong performances from Cooper and Gaga who both shine through the film.

 

Overall: Great Music based movie.

https://moviesreview101.com/2019/01/01/abc-film-challenge-best-of-2018-a-a-star-is-born-2018/
  
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Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated Marvel's Spider-Man in Video Games

Jan 15, 2019 (Updated Jan 15, 2019)  
Marvel's Spider-Man
Marvel's Spider-Man
2018 | Action/Adventure
The best web swinging has felt in any Spiderman game ever. (3 more)
Good presentation in all of the cutscenes.
Enjoyable orchestral backdrop to swing around Manhattan to.
The parts of Manhattan that are in the game look great.
A lot of Manhattan has been left out or vastly downsized. (2 more)
The other 4 boroughs have been ignored.
Although the presentation is great, the graphics are slightly sub par.
Thwip!
Marvel's Spider-man was one of the biggest games of last year. Developed by Insomniac and following an original story, not tied in to the recent MCU movie, this was the most exciting superhero game since the Arkham series for a lot of people. Thankfully, Insomniac did manage to deliver a brilliant game, but not a perfect one.

The game's opening fantastically sets up the tone and energy of what's to follow and it's probably one of the best video game opening's I have ever played in that respect. Once the rush and momentum of that first mission wears off, you are introduced to the open world that you will be exploring for the next 20 or so hours. Manhattan does look good here, possibly the best it ever has done in a game. Landmarks like the Empire State Building and Madison Square Garden are rendered extremely accurately to their real life counterparts.

The stuff that they chose to include in the game's version of Manhattan is great, but the issue is all of the parts that they left out. Battery Park is has halved in size, the One World Trade Centre has changed shape and everything above mid Harlem has vanished, making the district feel stumpy. Hopefully some of this stuff is amended for the sequel, along with the addition of at least a couple of the other boroughs.

Although the environment looks good graphically, as do Spidey's various suits that can be unlocked during the game, the human character models aren't the best and are fairly ugly when compared to character models in other 2018 games such as God of War, Red Dead 2 and Detroit: Become Human. Usually, in cutscenes etc, the game presents these character model well enough that it isn't too noticeable, but there were a good few times during gameplay that I would catch a glimpse of MJ's or Miles' weird faces and scratch my head wondering why they don't look better.

I have heard a few reviews moaning about the orchestral score that plays in the background as you swing around the city, but I personally really enjoyed it and it made me feel even more like a superhero than I already do when swinging through the middle of Times Square. I felt that all of the musical choices were well implemented and matched the story beats aptly to add impact in the right places.

Let's finish on a positive, the web swinging mechanic in this game is extremely satisfying and comes out on top of any other Spider-man game's web swinging system. Again, it's not flawless, there are moments that it will frustrate you and you will web to the opposite side of what you were aiming for. Also, for some reason the wall crawling mechanic is really slow and finicky and can often break the fast paced momentum of the web swinging/zipping/wall running combo that you have going. Most of the time though, it works fantastically and feels extremely fluid and immersive and it is probably one of the most satisfying game mechanics of 2018, along with Kratos' axe in GOW.

Overall, Marvel's Spider-man is great, but not perfect. There is definitely room for improvement, but this could be the start of a potentially incredible series of Marvel superhero games and hopefully the sequel, (that Insomniac is undoubtedly working on,) can improve on some of the flaws present in this game and deliver something incredible.
  
    NHL

    NHL

    Sports and Entertainment

    8.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    The official NHL® app is the best place to keep up with live hockey on your iPhone and iPad. Stay...

Azul
Azul
2017 | Abstract Strategy
We are late to the game. Almost always. I mean, we BUY new games. We watch videos on them to learn. We then digest the rulebook and teach it to whomever is interested in playing with us. Then we play. Sometimes we can only get a few games in and we have to decide their fate in our collection after just a play or two or three. But then there are games that our wives buy us for Christmas that wasn’t even on our list, but she was on the publisher’s website buying a different game that WAS on our list, but thought this game was pretty so she decided to buy it for us (as well as the cute little expansion) and then decides she wants to play it and it turns out to be a really great game that we enjoy playing a whole bunch.

Uh. Sometimes I get too excited introducing a game. We are talking about Azul. O.G. Azul.

Ok, so you are supposed to be building a fancy tiled wall in Portugal. I think. The game comes with these fancy Starburst (not a sponsor) looking bakelite pieces – if you have played Hive you know the ones – and they are very colorful and cute. Everyone gets their own player board and score tracking cube. Then the game is afoot.

The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. Standard. I’m not going to go into the entirety of a rules explanation. Instead, I’m going to give you my review.

After having played it a dozen times or more, I absolutely love it. It is by far my favorite abstract strategy game that I have played. The components are fun to play with, the rules are light – most players can grasp the concept and gameplay – and it’s quick enough that you can play multiple games in a row if you so choose.

That said, we at Purple Phoenix Games give it a 24 / 24.

https://purplephoenixgames.wordpress.com/2018/11/30/azul-review/
  
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The Marinated Meeple (1848 KP) Jun 12, 2019

Love it, keep the reviews coming, I got kudos to give boardgamers

Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
1985 | Comedy, Drama, Romance
8
6.7 (6 Ratings)
Movie Rating
80's Classic
It's back to the 80's again with Desperately Seeking Susan, a fun film fit for its time. The movie isn't perfect. In fact it breaks one of my Cardinal Sins of Film: Inserting parts for the sake of advancing the plot. In all thing's 80's, however, you have to remember the one rule of thumb: Fun is the word. It can be cheesy, it can be unbelievable, but the audience must have fun. It's hard to hate a film that makes fun its primary goal. Probably a good reason why the 80's and I have gotten along really well so far in my Movie-a-Day quest for 2018.

Roberta Glass (Rosanna Arquette), bored with her life, starts to get obsessive over the personal ads (remember those?) and begins to follow Susan (Madonna) around to live through her. After a bump on the head, Roberta thinks she is Susan and reinvigorates herself with a new life. Roberta is the source of a number of my favorite films throughout the film. She's trying to find her way without being too crazy in the process. One of my favorite scenes involves her hilarious magic act she gets throw into as a stand-in. This, for me, turned the tides from the film being "just ok" to "memorable 80's classic".

I say that because the film gets off to a very slow start. I spent the first fifteen minutes trying to understand what the connection was going to be between Roberta and Susan. I imagine a trailer would have told me everything I needed to know, but I'm judging the film purely off of what happened from start to finish.

Desperately Seeking Susan is a pretty fun comedy-mystery film despite there being a lack of real stakes. You never really worry about the characters' safety and that's fine. If you can give in to the ridiculousness of the movie as a whole, it's really quite fun. I'm giving it an 82.
  
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T.N. Nova (30 KP) rated Why I Trust You in Books

Jun 24, 2018 (Updated Jun 24, 2018)  
Why I Trust You
Why I Trust You
Colette Davison | 2018 | LGBTQ+, Romance
10
7.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Why I Trust You by Colette Davison is the third book in the Why I series. You can find our reviews for Why I Left You and Why I Need You by following the links. Each one can be read as a stand-alone and is loosely tied together by recurring characters.

I started reading the Why I series from the very beginning and have followed Colette throughout the series. I fell in love with her writing from the first page. Each book is an amazing work of art and her latest release - Why I Trust You - did not disappoint. In fact, while I love the first two books, this book goes above and beyond. It has to be my absolute favorite - and that says quite a bit.

Martin is a computer developer who is on a mission to find the best graphic artist for his latest game that he’s crating. An overachiever who turns everything he makes into gold has quite the high standards for the person he hires. Ryan is an artist who is in an abusive relationship but wants to get out of it. He wows Martin with his art designs for the game that’s being developed. Both men have trust issues from their past.

There is so much I can say about this book. It’s sweet, sexy, hot and loving. So many feelings that this story draws out of you! There are times when I actually found myself laughing out loud and other times when I wanted to beat the living daylights out of Ryan’s ex, Zane. The story grabs you by the arm, draws you right in, and refuses to let you go until the very last sentence.It’s a must-read for anyone who loves a good romance with characters who are working toward bettering themselves and overcoming obstacles.


I’m a complete and total #TeamMartin and #TeamRyan fan! Thank you Colette! (less) [edit]
Mar 31, 2018 [edi
  
Lie to Me (Rising Star#1)
Lie to Me (Rising Star#1)
Lee Piper | 2018 | Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
You need this book now!!!
Please go to: http://ramblingbookaddict.blogspot.com/2018/07/lie-to-me-lee-piper.html : transfer goodreads loses editing in transfer.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THIS BOOK!!!!



So this book ya'll *note to those of you not from the south* *ya'll, you'ins, you people, yo everybody fool is the same thang.* This has been a PSA from the Book Addict. You're welcome.



I'm perfectly aware I stopped mid-sentence to give you a PSA, that's the definition of a PSA. Ahem.



Now that we have that over with, my sarcasm aside, LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THIS BOOK, I REPEAT. Are you looking for a gorgeous bad boy drummer and a friggin' amazing female MC that isn't a damsel in distress!?
THIS IS THE BOOK YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN LOOKING FOR.



Okay so this dang book (not an insult at all), made me laugh so much throughout it, and it also made me love the sweet moments between Shiloh and Reid.



Reid, oh dear sweet heaven, is the best kind of bad boy. He seems so rough and bad but ddddddddddang boy got deep. hehe.



Where can I get one and STAT!
Movinggggggggggggggg OOOOOON!



Sooo we will talk about Shiloh, she has been like my favorite female main character I have read about in a long, LONG time. She wasn't weak even though she did have some problems, that did not make her weak. A mental health condition, it does not make someone weak! I love that the author went this route and made a strong female character, who was brave and faced her fears! Coming from someone that struggles with strong anxiety and depression, I loved getting to read about a strong, funny and beautiful female main character!



So with that, I end my review! I give Lie to Me 5 out of 5 stars. or should say 5 out of 5 Rising Stars??


Maddy
Aka - The Ramblings of a Book Addict