Search

Search only in certain items:

40x40

Sam (74 KP) rated Lyrebird in Books

Mar 27, 2019  
Lyrebird
Lyrebird
Cecelia Ahern | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.0 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is one of my favourite books of all time. I absolutely love this. SO MUCH.

The characters are so unique! Laura is brilliant. I did notice a character who was a bit like her in One Hundred Names and it made me wonder if the idea came from there. But wherever the idea came from, I just LOVED Laura. Her skills were one-of-a-kind and I had never seen a character like her and as unique as her in any book, ever.

I also loved Solomon and his compassionate and caring side. He was such a loving character and clearly never fitted in with the people who surrounded him. He was the one who cared and saw Laura as a real person rather than just an item for a money-making scheme.

I don’t think any book can ever live up to this one. The story about loving someone and never wanting them to change who they are really got to me. It was so emotional and had me gripped over the couple of days it took me to read it. I would definitely re-read this to death if I had the time.

I don’t even know how to say how much I love it. The story just fills my heart with so much love, and I think it’s a story about acceptance that every single person should read at some point in their life.
  
The Boy: Broussard and Fourcade Book 2
The Boy: Broussard and Fourcade Book 2
Tami Hoag | 2017 | Crime, Thriller
7
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
2nd novel in Tami Hoag's Broussard and Fourcade series
I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review.

The Boy by Tami Hoag is the 2nd novel in her series about Broussard and Fourcade, a husband and wife team who are detectives in Bayou Breaux, a little town in Louisiana. I often read detective fiction and enjoyed the pairing of Detectives Nick Fourcade and Annie Broussard. The novel focuses mostly on their police pairing but does have some sections about their home life. The dynamics of the relationships of the people surrounding the investigative team are well formed but not the main focus of the story. The boy is. Well, the murder of the boy is.

Hoag shows her characters' flaws but she does not make them the focus of the characters. Broussard and Fourcade are like every married couple and have difficult days. Again, Hoag does not make those days the focus of the story. The boy is. The story has twists and turns. Some of the reveals were expected but not all of them. Hoag surprised me with several details.

I have had Tami Hoag on my "want to read" list for years but never got around to reading any of her work. After reading The Boy, I am disappointed I have not read her sooner.

Review published on Philomathinphila.com on 3/27/19.
  
40x40

MelanieTheresa (997 KP) Mar 28, 2019

Great review! I've been reading Tami Hoag for years; hers are books I always look forward to. I feel like it took FOREVER for this one to come out. ?

40x40

Rodney Barnes (472 KP) rated King Kong (1933) in Movies

Apr 26, 2019 (Updated Apr 26, 2019)  
King Kong (1933)
King Kong (1933)
1933 | Adventure, Fantasy
Special affects for the time (0 more)
Original is always best
This is where I first fell in love with King Kong and the monster genre. This movie has Carl Denham, a movie producer that stops at nothing to try and get his blockbuster movie. Even at the expense of human life. Jack Discroll who was the other hero (besides Kong) who falls in love with Ann, the damsel in distress. Little did Jack know he would have competition in the form of King Kong. Kong protected Ann from the horrors of Skull Island while Jack was trying to project Ann from Kong. Kong left a trail of destruction from Skull Island to New York City. This was one of the movies that set the standard in special affects. Those of us who are Godzilla fans really have the team of Cooper and Wallace to thank. It was from this movie that Godzilla was inspired. Though this story has been done a couple of times...this one is still my favorite. There was a scene that was shot that we will unfortunately not get to see released for this movie. A sequence involving the crew of the Venture down in a ravine battling giant insects. It was considered to be outside of the censorship standards. Still in the end... it was because of the love from two men that Ann survives everything she went through....The love from Jack and the love from King Kong
  
40x40

Andy K (10823 KP) Apr 26, 2019

Amen

Finding Grace
Finding Grace
K.L. Slater | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry, Thriller
10
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

Finding Grace is an emotional thriller with twists along the way to keep you engaged and a fairly fast pace makes this almost unputdownable.
Lucie and Blake are a happy couple with two children, Grace is having her ninth birthday when we strat this journey and she is pushing the boundaries wanting to be able to walk home from her friends house just down the road by herself. After much persuasion she is allowed but even though safety measures have been put in place Grace disappears in thin air.

WOW!! I don't know where to start doing this one... I was utterly blown away with this. I went into this one thinking it was going to be a straight forward missing child story-line but this one was so much more than that. This has some wonderful twists and turns with this plot. I won't give any spoilers away on this.
This author is just amazing and her characters are so developed you just feel you are right there with them. The tension and plot just keeps building from the very beginning. This will definitely keep you wondering and guessing to the very end!

This is a superb psychological read that you won't want to miss!! I enjoyed this book from beginning to end and I thank Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
  
As Long as We Both Shall Live
As Long as We Both Shall Live
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
My wife! I think she’s dead!’ Matt frantically calls to park rangers, explaining that he and his wife, Marie, were out hiking when she stumbled on a cliff edge and fell into the raging river below. They start a search but aren’t hopeful: no one could have survived that fall.
It’s a tragic accident.
But when police discover Matt’s first wife also died in suspicious circumstances – a fire in their family home – they have a lot more questions for him.
Is Matt a grieving husband, or has he just killed his second wife? Detectives Loren and Spengler dig into the couple’s lives to see what they can unearth. And they find that love’s got teeth, it’s got claws, and once it hitches you to a person, it’s tough to rip yourself free.
So what happens when you’re done making it work?

Well this is one crazy warped marriage ride!
Seriously I found myself laughing at the antics and thoughts of these two at times; then on the flip side being gripped by the suspense.
I really enjoyed this one.
Read what happens when 20 years of marriage becomes a minefield of love/hate.
If you love psychological twisty thrillers as much as me then you need to read this one!
Recommend reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-book ARC to read and review. This is my honest voluntary review.
  
While there was nothing about this book that made it special and I found the "Seven Deadly Sins" theme cliche, it was a pleasure to read. This is the kind of romance novel that makes you sigh with happiness when you finish the last page, the type of novel that is truly a delight to fans of romance. The couple doesn't argue the entire time. In fact, the only arguing was the female protagonist's, Ivy's, arguing with herself and her emotions. This is quite refreshing among the endless stream of novels where the couples are always butting heads and arguing to the point that I want to rip my hair out.

The only problem I had was Ivy's behavior. I have read so many historical novels where the women act as free as the women today. It's irritating. If those women really acted that way, then they would be complete outcasts of society no matter what their status or money. I am also sure that the menfolk would simply not allow such behavior.

The male protagonist, Dominic Sheridan, stole my heart away. He was sweet and endearing to Ivy, that it grabbed my heart strings. At first, it was amusing to watch the two's playful banter, and then watch how their behavior changed so subtly when the two began to fall in love. It was cute.

I actually liked the light-hearted feel of this novel so much, I rented the other two currently published.
  
40x40

ArecRain (8 KP) rated After the Hurt in Books

Jan 18, 2018  
AT
After the Hurt
Shana Gray | 2016
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

This story had two things going for it for me. 1) It was written dual POV which I love. I love being able to be inside the hero’s head as well as the heroine’s. 2) It was a second chance love story.

Normally I would love a second chance romance, but I tend to enjoy the ones where the couple is starting with someone new, not someone they have already been and screwed up with. If it were different circumstance, I could understand. However, I felt Pepper was a very selfish person and I was often annoyed by her behavior. Tank wasn’t much better but he was far more patient with Pepper than I could have been. I understand that sometimes people need change or “to get away”, but I felt Pepper went about it completely the wrong way,

I was also annoyed that there didn’t seem to be much interaction between the two. Inner monologues are something I like limited in my stories. They tend to tell more than they show so there is little plot progression. If there is too much of it, I tend to find myself skipping over it especially if it doesn’t progress the story line (which inner monologues rarely do.)

I felt like this is a story I could have enjoyed had I liked the characters better.
  
WT
Wine, Tarts, & Sex
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I knew I wouldn't like this novel when the lead couple was an ex-super model and a chef. Or maybe it was that sex was actually in the title of the novel. Or maybe it was because it lacked any form of romance or fantasy which was not made up for with the ridiculous sex scenes.

And ridiculous they were.

I say it once; I will say it a thousand times. When the man calls the woman "baby", the book should be burned. It's not sexy; it's trashy and annoying, especially when they don't even know each other. Now, I do love when my boyfriend calls me baby. But when you an erection on legs going after the hottest piece of tale near?

That was the first thing that ruined this book for me. Apparently the leads were just so horny that they jumped the first attractive opposite sex they met. And it was the greatest sex they have ever had. So much so, that they become addicted to having a sex with each other. I guess that must be the recipe for love because that's what ended up happening.

The other thing that annoyed me was the characters' bipolar behavior. One minute they were having delicious great sex, the next she was trying to kick him out. I feel like I may have massively missed something, like a few pages, because I was so confused by the change, I still have whiplash.
  
40x40

Tamsin Clark (15 KP) rated Pixel Puzzles in Video Games

Jan 23, 2018 (Updated Jan 23, 2018)  
Pixel Puzzles
Pixel Puzzles
2016 | Casual, Puzzle & Cards
Over 1000 achievements to boost Steam (2 more)
Lots of variously themed puzzle packs
Lots of customisation
The goddamn music (2 more)
Packs need to be bought
Time sink
Surprisingly addictive
I actually ended up with Pixel Puzzles from a G2A random game pack and left it in my Steam library for almost a year until I saw someone mention it again recently. I expected poor quality but actually, this is a really fun jigsaw puzzle game. There's a ton of achievements to be gained and by doing puzzles you 'earn' tokens that you can buy things within the in-game shop that you can customise your game with (backgrounds, music, cursors, even extra puzzles). The puzzles come in various piece amounts from 60 into the hundreds, and they are often created in various styles so it's not just the same old jigsaw pieces with different images.

The game is a time sink; before you know it you've spent 2 hrs on a puzzle or 3. There's so much in there and considering you can get packs for a couple of pounds in various places, it's a really fun thing to have in your library. However once you're through those cheap packs the new ones can cost a fortune, which is where this game loses points. Personally, I expect to be able to buy the game with all the puzzles, not have to fork out more and more money just to get new images.
  
Love, Simon (2018)
Love, Simon (2018)
2018 | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Nick Robinson (3 more)
Tony Hale
Plot/premise
Subject matter well handled
70% into film briefly divergent from the book (0 more)
So close to 10 out of 10
This was a beautiful stunning film. If you like Rom coms or teenage films then this is a must see.

Nick Robinson not only does Simon justice. He is truely captivating at holding each and every scene. His character and presence is remarkable. I truely believe he is a superstar on the rise.


Every cast member in this film was good and some really suprised me. I Think the most surprising for me was Tony Hale preformance as the vice principal in the book this is a character I have very little emotion or love for on screen he makes the characharacter cter vibrant.


I have read the book and so went into this film with certain expectations. Whilst I understand you will never get an exact book to screen represetation (more the pity) I do get annoyed if film makers throw premise out of the window or do what I call hollywoodising it to make it dramtic for rating. Until this film was nearly finished I was sat going oh my god they done a brilliant representation then an event happens and for a couple of scence I though it lost it way but unlike most films. This film brought it back to premise and story and had a great ending.