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6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
<i>Many thanks to the author Chrys Cymri for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review</i>

Original review can be found on my blog Raptureinbooks <a href="http://wp.me/p5y0lX-1Js">here</a href>

I was kindly offered this book by the author in exchange for an honest review and my initial impressions were "yeah this sounds like my kinda thing. Here there be dragons" ya know? Only to get more fully immersed in the book and find that I was a touch disappointed.

<i>The Temptation of Dragons</i> follows Reverend Penny White as she becomes the Vicar General of an alternate world called Lloegyr - please note that there is a heavy Welsh influence in this book coupled with an enormous religious influence - where dragons, unicorns, gryphons and more reside and coexist in relative peace.

The book starts with Penny White coming home slightly intoxicated and thinking she's going mad when she comes across a dying dragon. In true priestly form Penny gets out of her car and performs the last rites of absolution to what turns out to be a real dragon!

From that moment on Penny's life changes in so many ways - dragons exist, unicorns are real, snail sharks get drunk and gryphons are eating her garden birds. Penny is soon tasked to become the Vicar General to the citizens of Lloegyr and that includes all manner of supernatural beasties. Though expected as the main character is a priest, I didn't expect there to be such a heavy religious influence all throughout with literal verses from the Bible quoted on a regular.

Please understand that this is <b>not</b> anything against the book or against the writer and is merely my thoughts on what I considered an overly religious-toned story set in the wrong time period and the wrong world. I honestly found that the hardest part of reading this book but there were parts that I enjoyed for example: Penny White has what amounts to an obsession with sci-fi/fantasy and occult TV and movies, a lot of which were quite obscure for me (not really a TV and movie person *gasp*) I didn't get several of the references - particularly the Doctor Who ones.

Out of all of the characters my favourite had to be Moriarty - shortened to Morey for some reason - a 47-year-old gryphon with no filter. My favourite quote was from Penny about Morey:
<blockquote>"You've sent me a blue tit murdering creationist with sarcasm management issues."

"Correction. Today he's killing a starling."</blockquote>

The sarcasm and humour was rife throughout this book which was brilliant and gave it a nice light undertone to the ultimate seriousness of the book as a whole.

There was one character I didn't like and that was her brother James- I'm not 100% sure why but something about him rubbed me the wrong way. He's a free loading, insensitive toss pot and possibly a pod person.

However, despite my dislike of the heavy religious overtone and of James, I really, really liked <i>how</i> Chrys wrote the dragons and unicorns and all the other supernatural creatures and they had enough of a description without giving away too much important information; but also, on the flip side, there were away lot of unanswered questions such as how <i>exactly</i> does a unicorn use a telephone?

In all, it was a well written book with an interesting concept and some good characters and prose, dialogue was perfectly modern for Penny and a touch Olde World for a lot of the Lloegyr residents.
  
Story: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny starts 18-years after Yu (Yeoh) saw her love die returns to safeguard the sword of destiny, after a warlord Hades Dai (Lee) goes in search for the sword believing it will give him the power to conquer the land.

Needing to protect the sword, Yu puts out a call for warriors to come and help defend it, which sees Silent Wolf (Yen) put together a five-person army, while Yu takes on a new student Snow Vase (Bordizzo) with skills advanced of her age.

 

Thoughts on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny

 

Characters – Yu has returned from her isolation and mourning after 18-years away only to stumble into the next attempt to steal the Sword of Destiny, here she must learn who to trust, reunite with an old ally and put herself in the teaching position. Silent Wolf has lived a life in isolation, where his loved ones believed him to be dead, he returns to help defend the sword for the greatest honour in his life. Wei Fang is a young warrior that is being forced into stealing the sword to protect his master, he learns about his past and along with Snow Vase who also has a decision of her own to make, provide the unsure future for Yu on who to trust. Snow Vase is the talented young fighter knowing skills beyond her age, she askes to be taught even if she isn’t as disciplined as she should be.

Performances – Michelle Yeoh returns to this role, she brings the fight skills that made the first one fantastic and must play the role with an emotionless feeling of being broken, which she does with ease. Donnie Yen takes up the mysterious fighter role which is a role that he could take any day and never look out of place. it is the new comers that impress in the fighting side of things, where they struggle in places with the emotional factors at play in their characters.

Story – The story here returns Yu back to the land she once fought for, where she must defend it from a new warlord that wants the sword which could bring power to control the land. This is a sequel that does well to return one of the favourites which also dives into her past to bring a new character, while also offer people that could become the new leads if the series was going to continue. When we break down the story it does play into tradition of being loyal and honour. It would have been nice to see more from the villain which only has a few moments which are just generic villain style, without seeing him do anything truly villainous.

Action/Fantasy – The action in the film is the martial arts material we have enjoyed for years, we have the weightless effects which were famous from the first which add the style required to be unique. This does play into the fantasy of the action which goes against the physics of fighting.

Settings – The film brings back the settings we knew and still look fantastic, with the final showdown being in a new location which is used to add to the fight.

Special Effects – The effects are used to make the fights feel like they could be real, the weightless style is the best part of the fights.


Scene of the Movie – Final fight.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Certain moments of the Wei Fang and Snow Vase does drag at times.

Final Thoughts – This is a fun sequel to a much more superior original, it will entertain without being anywhere near the level original.

 

Overall: Entertaining for the fans.
  
Seduced by Fire (Dragons of Bloodfire #3)
Seduced by Fire (Dragons of Bloodfire #3)
Erin Kellison | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Seduced by Fire (Dragons of Bloodfire #3) by Erin Kellison
Seduced by Fire is the third book in the Dragons of Bloodfire series. In this book our two main characters are both dragons, and both have secrets to keep. Ryder, also known as Professor Ted, has managed to live amongst the humans, working as a professor. Everything he has worked for, and lived with, becomes a moot point when he crosses paths with a Tempus during one of his lectures. He is exposed to the human world, and has decisions to make. Aura is a Sun Dragon, and you don't really know much about her to begin with, except that her and Ryder have a history. As the story progresses you find out more about both our main characters, and the story itself. We reunite with Warrick and Samantha from book 2, whilst Thane from book 1 is only spoken about.

Something was missing from this book for me, and I'll be damned if I can figure out what it was. I love Erin Kellison's work, and this, by technical standards, is the same high quality as you would expect, with no editing or grammatical errors that I could see. However, I just didn't feel like I connected with the characters or the story as much as the others, especially book 1. I am sure that this will only be my opinion in amongst the rest, as it is more than usual to get lost in the worlds that Erin Kellison produces.

So, for me, this book was good and I did enjoy it. It just didn't wow me like others have in the past. I would still recommend both this book, and others by this author, to anyone who loves paranormal romance.

* 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!
  
Big Hero 6 (2014)
Big Hero 6 (2014)
2014 | Animation, Family
Based on a short lived and obscure Marvel comic book series of the same name, Big Hero 6 was an attempt by Disney to develop a Disney feature from their newly acquired catalogue of Marvel properties after Disney's Marvel buy-out in 2010.

Popular though this movie is, I find it to be a little slow, plodding, patronising and trying too hard to evoke an emotional reaction from its audience. Focusing on Hiro, an orphan who's older brother is also killed in an accident, he ends up creating a team of superheroes from a group of geeks and his late brother's medical robot, B-Max.

Big Hero 6 was an attempt at blending Disney's brand of sentimental animation with that of Pixar's more imaginative stylised family action, The Incredibles springs to mind, along with Marvel's more family friendly action romps which make up the Avenger's franchise.

The result? Well, not so good. Entertaining? Sort of. Interesting? Okay if not derivative and what about innovative? No.

The 3-D was deep but also flat and uninteresting as was the story and the plodding pacing. The ideas were there but the execution was weak, with 2-D characters to make up a confused team. Was it supposed to be the X-Men or The Avengers? I believe that the Comic book the team was started not by Hiro but by an X-Man in the source material and the tone did lean towards X-Men: First Class (2010) at times, but overall, I found this to tick all the boxes in order to meet the expectation of fans of both superhero and Disney films.

As Hiro and B-Max fly across the city of San Fransokyo, I thought that I was watching How To Train Your Dragon (2010)! This borrows too much and offers too little to impress me and it was a shame as the notion of Disney producing an action hero movie is interesting but the results are nothing short of disappointing.
  
I will be the first to admit that I have not read all of the Song of Ice and Fire books. I just haven't done it. I have, however, watched all the episodes multiple times. So this book was still relevant to me.

I really really enjoyed this book. I love getting to see into the minds of the author's for the worlds they create. This is no different. Martin and his co authors did a fantastic job creating this world and giving real depth to it. I loved all the history of the seven kingdoms and all of Essos. It was phenomenal to see how far back they were willing to write. I think by having read this, I can understand the characters and their reasons for doing what they do by knowing their house backgrounds. We even get to know some of the history of Robert's Rebellion we don't get to see in the show.

I love the history of the Targaryens. They are my house, because dragons. I think my favorite member of the house is Danae (not only because she has the same name as me, I promise). She is a badass warrior princess who rode her dragon into battle and defied her brother husband because she wanted to be free. She is a force to be reckoned with and I would love to be her. Well, minus the brother husband thing because that is gross.

The art work in this book is gorgeous. I cannot get enough of it. I am definitely going to look to see if I can possibly buy some prints of the art because my walls are severely lacking Game of Thrones right now.

Overall, I thought this was a cool, in depth experience of the World of Ice and Fire. If you are a fan of the series (either book or television) you should check this out.
  
The Rogue King (Inferno Rising #1)
The Rogue King (Inferno Rising #1)
Abigail Owen | 2019 | Paranormal, Romance
10
10.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED book two, yesterday!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

Jumping straight in here, cos ooooooeeeee I did LOVE this book!!

Brand is a rogue dragon, without a clan. Kasia, a Phoenix without a family. A Phoenix is the only one who can mate with the High King of ALL the dragons, and the makes her valuable. Brand is tasked with delivering Kasia to the Blood King, to his only friend from childhood. But Kasia ignites something in Brand, and he knows he cannot give up his mate.

This was, quite possibly, my favourite read this month! I mean, I had a lie in, read a few pages before you have to dig yourself out your pit, and before you know it, 3 hours has past and you've about flung your kindle (but not quite!) at the wall, cos now you NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED book two, yesterday!

Everyone, and I mean everyone IMPORTANT has a say: Kasia, Brand, and all those trying to get Kasia (but not saying who!)

Not everything is immediately clear, and you put things together all kinds of wrong before things are cleared up. And I LOVE being kept on my toes!

It's different, and I LOVE different, with the Phoenix being the key to High King status. With female born dragons being unable to bare children. With Kasia and her sisters having hidden for so long, and Kasia not doing so well hiding herself anymore.

There is an ongoing story arc, that makes you NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED book two, yesterday, to see what happens to Kasia's sisters. You can't see what's going to happen, not in the long term, but a massive clue screams at you for one sister, and there is another, much less subtle clue, for another. Whether that pans out how I see it, remains to be seen, but I WILL be reading these books!

Thank you, Ms Owen, for proper making my day!

5 bright and shiny stars

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
  
The Killing Fog (The Grave Kingdom, #1)
The Killing Fog (The Grave Kingdom, #1)
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Thanks to NetGalley and 47North for letting me read and review this incredible story. I'm already anxiously awaiting the next book in this series! I love and have read most of Jeff Wheeler's works and he never disappoints with his stories full of adventure, intrigue, romance, life lessons and so much more. It's always one wild rollercoaster ride with my emotions when I read one of his books, but I always learn or take away something and enjoy the stories immensely.
I always find myself easily lost and immersed in the worlds he creates and invested in the characters and the stories they have to tell. This story is very unique and different from others that Jeff Wheeler has written and just as amazing and engrossing as the others I have read.
In this story, we find ourselves following along with this story of an orphaned girl named Bingmei, who is with a group of mercenaries that serve a local ruler. They are sent on a mission to find and retrieve what treasures they can that are in a lost palace buried and preserved in ice. But when they get there, they find more than they bargained for and when they upset the tomb, they unknowingly cause havoc.
Bingmei unknowingly brings Echion, Dragon of the Night back to life, waking him from his tomb and now is meant to fulfill her part in the legendary prophecy. She has to destroy Echion before he takes over all the kingdoms and he has to stop her from destroying him. Bingmei knows what she has to do, but she doesn't know if she can do it.
This is in a world of ancient myth, legend, magic and is a story about love, loss, grief, balance, duty, honor and what people do when faced with difficult choices in heart-rending situations and so much more. You definitely want to have this one on your list, preorder it and read it as soon as you can.
  
Coliseum Arcanist (Frith Chronicles #3)
Coliseum Arcanist (Frith Chronicles #3)
Shami Stovall | 2020 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Okay, so this book has the capability to break me! Coliseum Arcanist is the third book in the Frith Chronicles and we return once more to Volke, Illia, and the rest.

Gille is working hard to find a cure for the plague and is accompanied by the Frith Guild to see the queen. Only, they get more excitement than they bargained for when they find out there will be a tournament for a new sovereign dragon arcanist. Illia is still dead set on revenge on Calisto but the others are excited to participate.

Wow, so much happens here! This is a long book but not a single word is wasted. So many new characters to meet and old ones to reacquaint with. Volke is, of course, the star of the show but he doesn't hog all the limelight. Through his eyes, you see the others and how they change and grow. Zaxis is still obnoxious but I'm also hoping he will calm down and become a better man. He is still young after all.

The ending of this book, the last few chapters, are absolutely action-packed. There is never a dull moment and I will admit to my eyes leaking too. I had a suspicion about the outcome of the last match when I read the description given in Volke's book but how it was written was just amazing. The rest of it came as a surprise and I couldn't read fast enough to find out what happened next.

With a cliffhanger you have to read to believe, I seriously can NOT wait for the next book in the series. You definitely have to read all of them in order to get the full experience but what an experience it is. I really can't recommend this series, or this book, highly enough.

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

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
  
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    Games and Entertainment

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