
Sue (5 KP) rated Cards From Khloe's Flower Shop in Books
Aug 13, 2018
Connie Albright is a bit of a frumpy office mouse that is endlessly teased by the mean girls she works with. She creates an imaginary boyfriend that sends her flowers weekly from Khloe’s flower shop. When she finds discovers Walt and a possible happy ending, does her lies make her lose her prince charming?
Gabby Lewis is a recently widowed senior. She is trying to get over the loss of the love of her life and her friends convince her to sign up for a dating website for senior citizens. She is soon matched up with Harry an energetic widower. Can he help to ease Gabby’s grief and make her realize she can have another chance at love?
This is a wonderfully touching story about new love, second chances, and opening your heart to romance. Each character is wonderfully developed (with flaws and all) and has you rooting for a happy ending.

Rachel Unthank recommended How Sad, How Lovely by Connie Converse in Music (curated)

David McK (3600 KP) rated Gladiator 2 (2024) in Movies
Dec 6, 2024 (Updated Dec 6, 2024)
In this, which plays a heavy debt to that earlier film, Paul Mescal stars as Hanno who, it turns out, also played a pivotal role in that earlier film (I don't want to give too much away, other than to say he's playing the same character circa 20 years later) and who, like Maximus before him, ends up fighting for his life in the Roman Arena for the amusement of the Roman mob.
Denzel Washington, this time, plays a role somewhat similar to Oliver Reed did in the first film, with - here - 2 Emperors instead of 1 (Commodus) in the persons of the twins Geta and Caracella - and with able support provided by the likes of Pedro Pascal (whom the trailers will make you think has a bigger role than he does) and Connie Nielsen.
Good, yes, but not up to the standards of the first.

Ross (3284 KP) rated The Shadow Man in Books
Feb 19, 2021 (Updated Feb 19, 2021)
Connie is a fairly stereotypical academic, clinical type as she has virtually no people skills on the surface, issuing demands and attacking conversations head-on in a very un-British way. And yet when we see her interviewing witnesses, such as a young girl who saw a schoolmate be abducted, she is suddenly very tactful and sensitive. In this way, she is both an interesting, complex character, but also a much seen cliched one. She has a tendency to do an awful lot of telling during interviews, explaining to all in the room the theory of her approach to the interview. While this was interesting, it took me right out of the book as something completely unnatural, and read more as a brain dump of the author's research for the book. A little more show, less tell as usual would have worked well here.
Baarda is similarly familiar, a dedicated career cop with marital problems (his wife having an open affair with another officer).
Together, the pair piece together few clues and start to evolve something of a profile for the man who has been kidnapping people. However, I felt this aspect didn't yield results until quite late on, all progress up to that point (next to none) was through standard police work/luck.
The antagonist here was interesting, but nowhere near as dark and mysterious as the blurb makes him sound. We're not talking Hannibal Lecter here, just a confused man with a fairly typical upbringing. Fields essentially cottoned on to an interesting medical/psychological condition and pieced together a plot based on it. While this was enjoyable, it made it somewhat crime-by-numbers.
A good book, but left me longing for Ava Turner's more likable policing style.
Advance reading copy received from the publishers and netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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