Search

Search only in certain items:

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When I was offered this it was described as being like 50 Shades of Grey and the Crossfire series. Having liked both of these I thought I’d give it a go. In a way it was like them: young girl meets wealthy business man and can’t deny the sexual attraction. Unfortunately for me, it didn’t quite measure up. It didn’t draw me in straight away.

In fact, it took me a while to get into it. That might have been down to Gustav’s attitude and the fact he wasn’t very good at explaining what he wanted. It put me off a bit, I guess, and I couldn’t always understand the attraction. Serena, too, was a bit of a puzzle. The way she reacted sometimes; though that could probably be put down to her age.

After finishing the story I’ve been left with some questions. Why wouldn’t Gustav kiss her until near the end? Why did he with-hold from having sex with her for so long? What sort of lifestyle were Gustav and his wife involved with before? And why were Serena’s “parents” so horrible to her?

I suppose since this is the first in the trilogy that we will get answers to some of these in the following books. If I’m honest, I’m not sure if I’d be interested in continuing the series, though that ending has most definitely whetted my appetite.

Overall it was a god story that kept me wondering where it was heading but for me, having read 50 Shades and the Crossfire series, it just didn’t quite do it for me.

That being said, don’t dismiss a book without at least trying it for yourself first.
  
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)
2018 | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
What did I just watch?
I love Terry Gilliam but I'm really not too sure what to make of this film and whether it was really worth the 25 year wait it's taken to get this to the big screen.

This has a great cast, notably Jonathan Pryce who is absolutely wonderful as Don Quixote. And surprisingly Adam Driver. I really don't like him as Kylo Ren but it appears it may be that particular character letting him down as I've loved him in everything else I've seen him in and especially this. He's a hoot. Sadly though I think the rest of the cast may be let down by the sheer wackiness and confusion of it all. And that's the main issue I had with this film, it's absolutely crazy and I didn't have a clue what on earth was going on for the most part. There are the odd funny quips and scenes (one with Oscar Jaenada dressed in a cupid outfit whilst brief gave me the biggest laugh of all), but for me these are few and far between and not enough. The ending is rather silly and fitting and the film overall looks good (even if some of it is in a cheap Monty Python-esque way), but I spent the rest of the film nearly pulling my hair out in frustration as to what the heck was going on and some of the dodgy weird camera angles didn't help. And that's not really something you want to feel while watching a film.

There's a scene towards the end of this film where someone says "try to keep up with the plot" and Adam Driver's character replies with "There's a plot?" - this exchange literally sums up the way I feel about this entire film.
  
TM
The Merciless
Danielle Vega | 2014 | Fiction & Poetry
4
6.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Also read my review here: http://bookbum.weebly.com/book-reviews/the-merciless-by-danielle-vega

<b><i>Forgive us, Father, for we have sinned.</b></i>

Well, well, well, what can I say? This thoroughly disappointed me, after giving it some more thought, I’ve taken this down to 2 stars.

So we have 3 beautiful and popular God-fearing girls who adopt the new girl into their secretive little gang and warn her against demon-possessed Brooklyn. To cure Brooklyn of her devilish ways they decide to kidnap her, stick her in a basement and torture her, or “exorcise her”… Sound like I’m giving too much away? Well yes, I probably am, but the blurb tells you the exact same thing, making the whole suspense element of this book completely useless and a waste of the author's time. <b>Don’t try to keep us on our toes when you’ve already told us what’s going to happen.</b>

Due to this being a novel aimed at Young Adult readers, the language, for me, felt simple and lack lustre. I can only read so much before it becomes laughable for me, and laughable it became. All the characters speech was so unrealistic and straightforward it was almost impossible to believe anyone would actually talk like that. This unrealistic speech really made it difficult to connect to any of the characters on a deeper level so I had no empathy for any of them.

The plot, overall, is just a little bit… completely… ridiculous and nonsensical. The blandness of the characters, scenes and speech make the whole thing feel like a pretty demented, but dumb dream. <spoiler>If Brooklyn had just been evil in a normal teenage girl way and didn’t rip out Riley’s fucking heart, maybe it would have been a better book</spoiler> I didn’t find myself shocked, scared or creeped out at any point in the entire book because it was all so juvenile and cheesy. The reasons the girls did what they did was childish and cringy and it just wouldn’t happen in the way Vega wrote it down. And let’s not get me started on all the loose ends...

Anyone up for reading one of the most predictable endings ever? My God, what an unexciting end to a pretty unexciting novel - at least it was consistent.

I did read this over the period of just one day, so it had me wanting to finish it, but not for any of the right reasons. I wasn’t reading it quickly because I wanted to know what was going to happen next, I was reading it quickly because it was getting stupider and stupider and I wanted to get it over and done with. Do I want to put myself through reading the second book in the series? I don’t know… I’ll give it some time first.