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Merissa (13878 KP) rated The Complication (Executive Suite Secrets #2) in Books
May 26, 2025
THE COMPLICATION is the second book in the Executive Suite Secrets series, and although you don't have to read Book 1 (Sebastian and Byron), I would definitely recommend it simply because it's a brilliant story!!
This time we meet Declan and Parker, an opposites attract, grumpy/sunshine pairing that is just a way for them to get their rocks off initially. They have been meeting most weekends for a year now, but Parker's life changes in BIG ways all at the same time, which understandably leaves him floundering. While his family are there for him, the one who steps up the most is Declan.
I loved their story! How protective Declan was over Parker, and how it was reciprocated, too. There are moments of realism (Joy's diaper!) and moments of sheer romanticism that made my heart flutter. Parker's mum made me a little grumpy, even though her heart was in the right place, but it all worked out in the end.
A fantastic story with amazing supporting characters and a world I can't wait to return to. Absolutely brilliant and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by me.
** Same worded review will appear elsewhere. **
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
May 26, 2025
This time we meet Declan and Parker, an opposites attract, grumpy/sunshine pairing that is just a way for them to get their rocks off initially. They have been meeting most weekends for a year now, but Parker's life changes in BIG ways all at the same time, which understandably leaves him floundering. While his family are there for him, the one who steps up the most is Declan.
I loved their story! How protective Declan was over Parker, and how it was reciprocated, too. There are moments of realism (Joy's diaper!) and moments of sheer romanticism that made my heart flutter. Parker's mum made me a little grumpy, even though her heart was in the right place, but it all worked out in the end.
A fantastic story with amazing supporting characters and a world I can't wait to return to. Absolutely brilliant and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by me.
** Same worded review will appear elsewhere. **
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
May 26, 2025
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Leatherheads (2008) in Movies
Aug 14, 2019
The movie opens with John Krasinski’s character, “Carter Rutherford”, playing college-level football for Princeton at a bleacher-groaning, over-packed game chock full of screaming patrons and die-hard fans. The kid is a golden-child, a war hero, and the nation’s most promising young athlete in the good old year of 1925. Carter is dynamic, attractive, and exactly what the country needs at a time of World War I. It is little wonder his face plasters billboards across town, that his name is uttered with awe and adoration. In truth, how could you not? The kid had, after all, single-handedly forced a contingent of German soldiers to surrender without even shooting one bullet.
Cut to George Clooney’s character, the aging “Dodge Connelly”, playing pro-football in mire-like conditions; his audience a tangle of bored fans and uninspired locals. It is a far cry from the opulent circumstance of college-level football. Men, bedraggled and sweating under the promise of returning to work at the mines and fields if their football dreams go under, play with reckless abandon and forgotten morals in hopes of winning that next game. Yet, as fate will go, the Bulldogs lose their sponsorship and the team goes under, forcing men to return to their day-jobs and leaving Dodge without a future. The man has no marketable skills, no trade. He is a football player and is determined to see his team back in the game.
Of course, that isn’t the only bit of chaos. There has to be a girl; there is always a girl involved in stories like these. Enter Renée Zellweger’s character, the vivacious and equally tenacious “Lexie Littleton” – a news reporter for the Tribune. Lexie is on a mission to expose Carter Rutherford and get to the bottom of his infamous war story. It comes to no surprise that when Lexie and Dodge meet in a hotel lobby awaiting the arrival of Carter Rutherford and his manager, “CC Frazier” (played by Jonathan Pryce), that sparks immediately fly between them. Dodge has a proposal for CC and Carter: have Carter take a leave of absence from Princeton to play pro-football for the Bulldogs, thus saving pro-football and paying Carter for his efforts. Naturally, CC wants a cut from the profits and finds a way to do so to accommodate his own needs. Dodge, without any other alternative, agrees.
Meanwhile, Lexie is working her magic on Carter to try and weasel the true story out of him as best she can. Try as she might she cannot ignore Dodge, no matter how acid her tongue wags in his direction. In the end, Lexie gets her story yet realizes she must decide between exposing the truth or letting America bask in the glory of its self-proclaimed war-hero.
In review, there is a true chemistry between all of the main characters and both Zellweger and Clooney do a good job of conveying the vehement (and callous) emotion between Lexie and Dodge. However, no matter how funny the banter becomes between these three main characters or how well the scene plugs along, in the end the movie comes off as a passable but by no means memorable. Betimes it seems to stretch on and on and more then once I found myself looking at my clock. In truth, the movie didn’t need to be nearly two hours long. It felt two hours long which is never a good thing, especially when we’re talking about theatre seats.
That said, I thought the movie was a cute and enjoyable comedy. It won’t crack your funny bone but it will certainly tickle it more then once. All in all I give it 3.5 out of 5. It succeeded in making me laugh and did keep me entertained. Above all, I’m sure many will find it enjoyable to some extent.
Cut to George Clooney’s character, the aging “Dodge Connelly”, playing pro-football in mire-like conditions; his audience a tangle of bored fans and uninspired locals. It is a far cry from the opulent circumstance of college-level football. Men, bedraggled and sweating under the promise of returning to work at the mines and fields if their football dreams go under, play with reckless abandon and forgotten morals in hopes of winning that next game. Yet, as fate will go, the Bulldogs lose their sponsorship and the team goes under, forcing men to return to their day-jobs and leaving Dodge without a future. The man has no marketable skills, no trade. He is a football player and is determined to see his team back in the game.
Of course, that isn’t the only bit of chaos. There has to be a girl; there is always a girl involved in stories like these. Enter Renée Zellweger’s character, the vivacious and equally tenacious “Lexie Littleton” – a news reporter for the Tribune. Lexie is on a mission to expose Carter Rutherford and get to the bottom of his infamous war story. It comes to no surprise that when Lexie and Dodge meet in a hotel lobby awaiting the arrival of Carter Rutherford and his manager, “CC Frazier” (played by Jonathan Pryce), that sparks immediately fly between them. Dodge has a proposal for CC and Carter: have Carter take a leave of absence from Princeton to play pro-football for the Bulldogs, thus saving pro-football and paying Carter for his efforts. Naturally, CC wants a cut from the profits and finds a way to do so to accommodate his own needs. Dodge, without any other alternative, agrees.
Meanwhile, Lexie is working her magic on Carter to try and weasel the true story out of him as best she can. Try as she might she cannot ignore Dodge, no matter how acid her tongue wags in his direction. In the end, Lexie gets her story yet realizes she must decide between exposing the truth or letting America bask in the glory of its self-proclaimed war-hero.
In review, there is a true chemistry between all of the main characters and both Zellweger and Clooney do a good job of conveying the vehement (and callous) emotion between Lexie and Dodge. However, no matter how funny the banter becomes between these three main characters or how well the scene plugs along, in the end the movie comes off as a passable but by no means memorable. Betimes it seems to stretch on and on and more then once I found myself looking at my clock. In truth, the movie didn’t need to be nearly two hours long. It felt two hours long which is never a good thing, especially when we’re talking about theatre seats.
That said, I thought the movie was a cute and enjoyable comedy. It won’t crack your funny bone but it will certainly tickle it more then once. All in all I give it 3.5 out of 5. It succeeded in making me laugh and did keep me entertained. Above all, I’m sure many will find it enjoyable to some extent.
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated A Blade So Black in Books
Mar 21, 2019
I've seen the point brought up that so many fantasy protagonists have really neglectful parents. Who lets their kid be gone for an unknown amount of time doing something "important" that their kid refuses to tell them about because it's a "secret"? This book makes a point of how NOT neglectful Alice's mother is. The blurb calls her overprotective, but really it's just normal protective. Alice's mom just wants to know her daughter hasn't been shot by the police when she's gone for 24 hours and not answering her phone, that seems normal to me! I actually enjoyed how that was different than a lot of fantasy YA, even if it's really a small sideplot.
In the main plot, Alice is a Dreamwalker, wielding Figment Blades and her own Muchness to kill the Nightmares that try to cross from Wonderland to our world. Her mentor is Addison Hatta, an exile from Wonderland who's been charged to guard his Gateway and train new Dreamwalkers. Along the way we meet two more Dreamwalkers, more exiled Wonderlanders, and learn a bit about the war in Wonderland and why they're exiled but still charged with such an important mission as guiding the Gateways between our world and theirs.
About the only thing I didn't like about this book was how it left so many questions unanswered at the end. We got a cliffhanger to lead us into the sequel, A Dream So Dark, but it isn't due out until September! I'm also wondering where the Cheshire Cat is - he's too instrumental a character to leave out, I would think - but I have a few possible ideas about where the author is going with that, so I'm anxious for the sequel, to see if I'm right.
A Blade So Black is a very unique take on Wonderland by a POC author, starring a POC heroine. There's also an adorable lesbian couple as side characters. With minority racial representation, a fairy tale base, and a splash of LGBT+ rep, this book checked a lot of the boxes I look for in my fantasy. It wasn't the best YA fantasy that I've read in the last year, but it was definitely fun!
You can read all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
In the main plot, Alice is a Dreamwalker, wielding Figment Blades and her own Muchness to kill the Nightmares that try to cross from Wonderland to our world. Her mentor is Addison Hatta, an exile from Wonderland who's been charged to guard his Gateway and train new Dreamwalkers. Along the way we meet two more Dreamwalkers, more exiled Wonderlanders, and learn a bit about the war in Wonderland and why they're exiled but still charged with such an important mission as guiding the Gateways between our world and theirs.
About the only thing I didn't like about this book was how it left so many questions unanswered at the end. We got a cliffhanger to lead us into the sequel, A Dream So Dark, but it isn't due out until September! I'm also wondering where the Cheshire Cat is - he's too instrumental a character to leave out, I would think - but I have a few possible ideas about where the author is going with that, so I'm anxious for the sequel, to see if I'm right.
A Blade So Black is a very unique take on Wonderland by a POC author, starring a POC heroine. There's also an adorable lesbian couple as side characters. With minority racial representation, a fairy tale base, and a splash of LGBT+ rep, this book checked a lot of the boxes I look for in my fantasy. It wasn't the best YA fantasy that I've read in the last year, but it was definitely fun!
You can read all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
Merissa (13878 KP) rated Heart of the Fae (The Otherworld #1) in Books
Dec 8, 2017
Heart of the Fae (The Otherworld #1) by Emma Hamm
Heart of the Fae is the first book in The Otherworld series, and we find a world full of Irish Celtic mythology, plus fantasy, which equals a novel of superb quality in my opinion. Sorcha's mother was burnt at the stake for being a witch. Sorcha herself is a midwife, although she longs to be a full-blown healer. She was brought up to respect the Old Ways and the Fae, and follows those teachings to the best of her ability. She lives with her sisters and her father, in the brothel they own. Unfortunately, a plague has swept the land, and has afflicted her father. The good doctor's won't listen to her because she is a woman, even though she has had success in treating the plague and stopping it from spreading. She makes a desperate plea, and is heard, which in turn leads her to cross the sea in search of an island only visible every seven years.
This is an excellent story that grips you from the start. The descriptions of the blood beetle are enough to curl your toes, and therefore it becomes just as important to the reader that Sorcha finds a cure. The author has certainly done her research with regards to Irish mythology, and it certainly shows in this story. Yes, it is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but to be honest, that was second to the mythology that I was reading. Descriptive and smoothly paced, this story is full of Fae (both Seelie and UnSeelie), old legends and new stories. There is never a dull moment in this story, and the scenes flowed from one to the next. The characters are all fully developed, and I can't wait to read more about them. I love how they are 'complicated', there isn't a single one that is just "good" or "bad". If I had to say one bad thing about this book, it's that I was NOT ready for it to end. However, it did *sigh* and now I must wait impatiently for book 2!
A fantastic Fantasy that I highly recommend.
* 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!
This is an excellent story that grips you from the start. The descriptions of the blood beetle are enough to curl your toes, and therefore it becomes just as important to the reader that Sorcha finds a cure. The author has certainly done her research with regards to Irish mythology, and it certainly shows in this story. Yes, it is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but to be honest, that was second to the mythology that I was reading. Descriptive and smoothly paced, this story is full of Fae (both Seelie and UnSeelie), old legends and new stories. There is never a dull moment in this story, and the scenes flowed from one to the next. The characters are all fully developed, and I can't wait to read more about them. I love how they are 'complicated', there isn't a single one that is just "good" or "bad". If I had to say one bad thing about this book, it's that I was NOT ready for it to end. However, it did *sigh* and now I must wait impatiently for book 2!
A fantastic Fantasy that I highly recommend.
* 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!
Samurai Spirit
4.0
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You and your fellow samurai companions are the only standing obstacle between one frightened village...
Smoke on the Water (Mystic Beach, #3)
10.0
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The sea is vast, full of legends and mystery. Under its surface hide both beautiful treasures and...
Paranormal Rockstar Romance
Stable Isotope Forensics: Methods and Forensic Applications of Stable Isotope Analysis
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The number-one guide, internationally, to all aspects of forensic isotope analysis, thoroughly...