
Debbiereadsbook (1487 KP) rated Behind the Iron Cross in Books
Dec 27, 2018
A sensual heiress, a wounded playboy and the soldier who will serve them both.
Oh I liked this one, I liked it a LOT!!!
Meet Kat, a wealthy business woman trying to help expand her company and repair a very damaged Germany after WW1. Meet Sam, Kat's best friend, fiancee, and her dead brother's lover. And Friedrich, a decommissioned soldier forced to sell his body to keep his widowed sister-in-law and her baby fed.
Like I said, liked it A LOT!
The scene is set with Friedrich going to the club Kat and Sam frequent for the first time. There is am immediate connection between the three, and it burns bright through the whole book. I didn't find it as explicit as some BDSM or menage books, but that might be just me. It IS sexy, oh yes, don't think that it isn't, and what is here is very well written. Maybe it's because a lot of words used were from that time, and not today's words for things. I didn't mind that I didn't find it as explicit, I just needed to mention it!
I LOVED how it all worked though! Kat is a Dom; Sam, a confirmed homosexual (but he can be with women, should he and Kat actually get married and need to produce an heir!) and Friedrich is the glue that binds all three of them together. Kat shows him all kinds of things that he didn't even know existed and Sam shows him just how good it is to be with a man.
I liked the business espionage line, wasn't sure how that was gonna go and I do so love being kept on my toes!
And I absolutely LOVED the solution that Sam comes up with to get Friedrich, Elise and Rudi out of Germany; to give Kat a husband; to give Sam a wife AND heir and for the three of them to be together back in the States. I was reading when Sam was talking and I'm thinking "What the bloody hell is he going on about?" And then, ping! Light bulb moment just a fraction of a sentence before Sam laid it out! Loved it!
First I've read of this author, unless there is something tucked away in a bo x set I might have read. I'd like to read more!
You know what?? I wrote 4.5 stars at the top pf the page when I sat down to write this up, but now? I can't think why I did that, or what to take the half star off for, so . . . .
5 full stars!
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**

Bonita Avenue
Book
A darkly hilarious tale of a model family's disintegration. Professor Siem Sigerius - maths genius,...

Kayleigh (12 KP) rated To Kill a Mockingbird in Books
Jan 2, 2019
The story is set in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s, and is written from the perspective of Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch, who is between six and eight years old as the story progresses. The start of the book does an effective job of introducing us to all the characters. Scout lives with her widowed father, Atticus, a lawyer, her brother Jem (who is 4 years older than her) and Calpurnia, a black woman who acts as a type of mother figure. A friend, Dill, also joins them in the summer. The three children are intrigued by Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley, who lives in the house on the corner but is never seen outside. I really enjoyed this part of the story; it set the scene brilliantly, as well as helping me reminisce about my own childhood. Even if there is no ‘haunted’ house, children will always make one – at least, my brother and I did! With the limitless amounts of imagination children have, there will always be adventures to be had and ‘monsters’ to escape from. There was one particular house, when we were around the same age as Jem and Scout, where they had a doorbell you pulled, like a cord. My brother Josh said it was a doorbell that made you scream every time you pulled it, so we obviously had great fun in pulling it, screaming, and running away. If by some fluke the person living there is reading this, I’m really sorry, but it still makes me laugh! There was also every Christmas, when we went carol singing. We had decided that the houses beyond the wood were richer than the others, and every year would link arms, lighting matches to try and find our way in the dark and telling ghost stories the whole time.
Once everything has been established, the book moves on to a case Atticus is defending. A black man, Tom, has been accused of raping Mayella Ewell, part of a trashy white family with very poor education and even less money. This is where the casual prejudice of the time is evident – Jem and Scout have to put up with people calling their family a “nigger-lover” (sorry if that language offends, it is a direct quote and I mean no harm); Atticus faces repercussions for his whole-hearted attempt to save Tom; and many of the Maycomb women look down on the black community. However, there’s still a touch of hope – the way Atticus defends Tom’s case makes everybody think, a great feat in the setting where black and white people are in completely different classes. In this part of the story, I really looked up to Atticus, in his seemingly-infinite wisdom.
In the final part of the story, Jem and Scout finally get to meet Boo Radley, and it is here that the title of the book becomes apparent. In the middle of the book, after Jem and Scout get air-rifles, it is said:
<blockquote>When he gave us our air-rifles Atticus wouldn’t teach us to shoot. Uncle Jack instructed us in the rudiments thereof; he said Atticus wasn’t interested in guns. Atticus said to Jem one day, “I’d rather you shoot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.
“Your father’s right,” she said. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”</blockquote>
Obviously, not knowing what was coming, I thought the story must eventually be about the children shooting a mockingbird. The last page of the book, though, I realised that it was a lot more subtle and symbolic than that. The mockingjay is Boo Radley, the man who gives when he can and causes no harm.
I really wish I’d read this story as a child, to see what sort of perspective I’d have had back then. Reading as an adult means that, while Scout was a brilliant perspective, I was almost reading as an outsider. I could see her maturing, slowly fitting the pieces together to start acting like an adult, but at the same time it was an undeniably adult reading. I really really enjoyed the book, but I have a feeling it’s one of those multi-faceted ones where you read something different every time. I can’t help thinking that reading it as a child would have been a lot more powerful.
This review is also on my <a href="http://awowords.wordpress.com">blog</a> - if you liked it, please check it out!

Queer Saint: The Cultured Life of Peter Watson
Adrian Clark and Jeremy Dronfield
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When Peter Watson was murdered in his bath by a jealous boyfriend in 1956, the art world lost one of...

The Story of Sex: From Apes to Robots
Philippe Brenot, Laetitia Coryn and Will McMorran
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*The French Best-seller* 'The book France won't stop talking about...undoubtedly a lovely Christmas...

Andrew Carnegie
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Celebrated historian David Nasaw, whom The New York Times Book Review has called "a meticulous...

Elfin (Eflin Series Book 1)
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Before tonight Cassie Tate’s biggest concerns were whether she could pass Algebra and how she was...

Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Breathless ( Scarlet Suffragette book 2) in Books
Mar 29, 2022
Kindle
Breathless (Scarlet Suffragette book 2)
By Nicola Claire
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Nicola Claire's captivating new Gothic romance series continues with a dark and sinister London City at the end of the nineteenth century - brightened by a fearless and talented heroine and a loyal and secretive police inspector...
Determined doctor? Interfering busybody? Fearless fighter?
The London of Anna Cassidy's memories is not the London she faces today. Having proved her worth as a physician, Dr Cassidy finds herself pitted against the stolid attitude of a male-dominated society.
But it's not only society she has to contend with.
A criminal mastermind has set themselves up in London, England; chosen the dirty streets of Whitechapel and Lambeth as their stage. Competing against a devious and cunning opponent sets Anna and her closest friends off on a dire adventure, which could culminate in a loss so great Anna may never recover again.
Steadfast police inspector? Loyal guardian? Caring lover?
Anna, however, is not alone. Or, at least, she won't be once Inspector Kelly finds her. Facing the ghosts of his past, Andrew Kelly rushes to face Anna's enemies and protect the woman he loves.
But Anna is not unable to defend herself.
Proving she needs him is a task Inspector Kelly would gladly undertake. But the city of Andrew's birth is more in the grip of evil machinations than it has ever been, bringing to mind memories of a dark London, ripped to within an inch of its life by a devil known to most simply as Jack.
Andrew knows otherwise. For his secrets are unravelling and within their shadowed corners lies a murderer, a poisoner, and a villain so deceitful that nothing is what it appears to be.
A gritty, twisted, and authentic Victorian romantic suspense, sure to rip you apart... just like old Jack.
Read preview >
This was so good I love the era and the references to Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes. It has fabulous characters both good and bad. The story kept you wanting to read more. I’m not one for huge relationship storylines but this I loved. Highly recommended if you like murder mystery set in a gothic Victorian era.

Bob Mann (459 KP) rated The Last Letter from Your Lover (2021) in Movies
Aug 9, 2021
Positives:
- "They don't make them like this any more" the saying goes. This is a love story cum melodrama that is well told by director Augustine Frizzell, in only her second feature. The film zips backwards and forwards between different time periods, trusting the audience to keep up with where we are. The dialogue is suitably soupy for a film of this type, based on a Jojo Moyes book (who wrote "Me Before You", also well-filmed). I've seen a critic review in "The Times" where they mocked the sentimentality of the love letters: but part of me would love to say "OK - let's hear what you would have written"!
- The story ticks all the boxes to keep you engaged. Although never moved to tears, a scene towards the end of the movie certainly generated a lump in the throat.
- All the leads are great. Shailene Woodley has been a personal favourite actress since her amazing turn in "The Descendants". And she certainly doesn't disappoint here.
- The production design is lush, particularly with the 60's scenes of London and the Riviera (reminiscent for me of the recent remake of "Rebecca"). This is nicely brought out by the cinematography (by George Steel), with some of the scenes being 'hang on the wall' beautiful to look at.
- It's wonderful to see the late Ben Cross in the movie, and he gives an excellent and touching performance. Cross died of cancer in August 2020 at the age of just 72. This is probably not his last movie, since he was in another - "The Devil's Light" - currently in post-production. Such a sad loss to the industry.
Negatives:
- The movie tries to construct a love story in the 60's and one in the present day 2020's, contrasting the different rules and values at play. The 60's one works; the 20's one really didn't for me. Ellie comes across as a very unlikeable person. The contrast between the lack of communications in the 60's (waiting at a station, not sure if someone will turn up or not) and today's chat/SMS rich 'always on' world could perhaps have been brought out more. With my Dr Bob directorial hat on, I would have ditched the present-day love story entirely and focused in on two professional detectives uncovering the past together: not everything needs to involve love and sex.
- The film has a couple of rain sequences that are highly unconvincing. One Riviera in-car scene particularly made me chuckle. "TURN FIRE HOSE ON!" You can almost see the blue sky and people cavorting on the beach behind them!
Summary Thoughts on "The Last Letter from Your Lover": There are actually few films around these days that feature love stories outside the teenage years. This is an 'old-fashioned' film that will appeal to an older age group, looking for style, romance and escapism. It reminded me in turns of movies like "The Two Faces of January" and "The Age of Adeline" in its mood and presentation. I'm probably not the target audience for this movie and I really enjoyed it. But the illustrious Mrs Movie Man probably is. And she declared that she absolutely loved it!
Ignore the sniffy newspaper and ex-newspaper critics. I'd declare this to be a "recommended".
(For the full graphical review, please check out One Mann's Movies on the web, Facebook or Tiktok. Thanks.)

Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated The Girl on the Train (2016) in Movies
Jun 19, 2019
In the new film “The Girl on the Train”, based on the book of the same name by Paula Hawkins, the locale has been changed from London to New York but much of the content has been left unchanged which should thrill fans of this highly popular novel.
Rachael has become fascinated with a couple two houses down from her old home and she watches and fantasizes about the perfect life she imagines they have.
The reality is that Megan (Haley Bennett) is living in a controlling and abusive relationship and holds a dark secret of her own which she reveals to her therapist as well as her desire to run away and also take him as a lover.
When Rachael sees Megan in an embrace with someone other than her husband one day, she decides to confront Megan and express her anger over her assumed infidelity even though Rachael has never met her much less learned her name and only knows of her from being in the same workout class and seeing her on the train.
Rachael awakens one morning covered in blood and in a have and is unable to remember what has happened. To make matters worse, Megan has gone missing and her husband is the primary suspect in the disappearance.
Despite being warned away numerous times by her ex Tom (Justin Theroux) and his wife Anna (Rebecca Ferguson), Rachael continues to regain her memories of what happened that evening even though she continues to have issues differentiating reality from fantasy in a situation with high stakes and dire consequences.
What follows is a compelling thriller that kept me interested even though I was able to unravel the mystery 30 minutes or so before the conclusion of the film. I had not read the book or much on the film going in as I wanted to try to crack the mystery without any additional help, but still found it an interesting and entertaining film. There was more eroticism than one may expect at first glance but the film weaves a great story of multiple characters all with various degrees of dysfunction.
The cast is very strong and take what could at first be a routine mystery and turned it into one of the best and most entertaining Dramas of the year.
http://sknr.net/2016/10/07/the-girl-on-the-train/