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Darkest Fear (Myron Bolitar #7)
9.0
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Book
Life isn't going well for Myron Bolitar. His business is struggling, and his father, recently...
Ace of Aces: Handy Rotary Series
6.0
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Tabletop Game Watch
Ace of Aces is an innovative 1-on-1 combat game that simulates a dogfight between WWI aircraft. Each...
BoardGames 2playergames AirCombatGames
Trace of Doubt
10.0
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Book
Bestselling and award-winning author DiAnn Mills delivers a heart-stopping story of dark secrets,...
Mystery Thriller Romantic Suspense
The Watcher (2000)
7.0
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Movie
David Allen Griffin is a cool killer- time and time again, he chooses a female victim, studies her...
Shifter Woods: Growl (Esposito County Shifters #3)
8.7
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Book
I knew he was trouble from the first moment I saw him. But I couldn't resist trouble… Life in...
Paranormal Romance
Darren (1599 KP) rated Marauders (2016) in Movies
Jul 25, 2019
Story: Marauders starts when a bank robbery which leaves the bank manager executed, the president of the bank Hubert (Willis) has an excellent reputation and with the FBI investigating the robbery, Montgomery (Meloni) and his team Stockwell (Bautista) and newbie Wells (Grenier) try to put the clues together.
When the second heist happens, the fingers start pointing back at Hubert and a bigger conspiracy comes to the top with connection to a previous incident.
Thoughts on Marauders
Characters – Hubert is the bank president, he has always kept the face that the bank puts their customers first, but when his banks start getting robbed, he must deal with the fingers pointing back at him. Montgomery is the lead investigating from the FBI trying to get to the bottom of the heists, he has his own demons which haunt him everyday after the death of his wife and will not stop until he learns the truth. Stockwell is Montgomery’s trusted second, he is the tired cop figure, he is good at his job and hates people getting in his way. Wells is the rookie agent, with the qualifications to make him the best, he gets the jobs the others don’t want to do, while noticing things they miss.
Performances – The performances in the movie are mixed, we know that Bruce Willis is mostly mailing it in and it is a strange role for him. Christopher Meloni is the star of this movie, the determination and broken side of his character makes him stand out. Dave Bautista does get the funniest lines, some hit or than others, while Adrian Grenier starts strong but fades away in the biggest scenes of the middle of the movie.
Story – The story follows the effects of a brutal heist, the FBI must investigate the heist which brings us into the new web of conspiracies which could bring down a political powerhouse. This a story which does keep us guessing from start to finish, which is something I was surprised to see, as I thought this would be a lot messier. The positive of keeping us guessing, does leave the bigger question about just why the heists needed to be as brutal as they were because of certain injuries or deaths not needing to happen for the cause.
Action/Crime/Mystery – The action is brutal and often in your face when it comes to the gun sequences, the crime side of the film comes from the heists and just what they are aiming to achieve from the heists. The mystery is what draws us in because we don’t know what is happening which keeps us invested throughout.
Settings – The film is set in the city which shows how the panic of the robberies starts flying around we see how things get out of hand.
Scene of the Movie – The heists do feel very intense, which I did like.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The last sequence.
Final Thoughts – This was a surprisingly entertaining film, having no expectations going in, this did become intense and kept you guessing even if things unravel in the final scene.
Overall: Enjoyable crime thriller.
When the second heist happens, the fingers start pointing back at Hubert and a bigger conspiracy comes to the top with connection to a previous incident.
Thoughts on Marauders
Characters – Hubert is the bank president, he has always kept the face that the bank puts their customers first, but when his banks start getting robbed, he must deal with the fingers pointing back at him. Montgomery is the lead investigating from the FBI trying to get to the bottom of the heists, he has his own demons which haunt him everyday after the death of his wife and will not stop until he learns the truth. Stockwell is Montgomery’s trusted second, he is the tired cop figure, he is good at his job and hates people getting in his way. Wells is the rookie agent, with the qualifications to make him the best, he gets the jobs the others don’t want to do, while noticing things they miss.
Performances – The performances in the movie are mixed, we know that Bruce Willis is mostly mailing it in and it is a strange role for him. Christopher Meloni is the star of this movie, the determination and broken side of his character makes him stand out. Dave Bautista does get the funniest lines, some hit or than others, while Adrian Grenier starts strong but fades away in the biggest scenes of the middle of the movie.
Story – The story follows the effects of a brutal heist, the FBI must investigate the heist which brings us into the new web of conspiracies which could bring down a political powerhouse. This a story which does keep us guessing from start to finish, which is something I was surprised to see, as I thought this would be a lot messier. The positive of keeping us guessing, does leave the bigger question about just why the heists needed to be as brutal as they were because of certain injuries or deaths not needing to happen for the cause.
Action/Crime/Mystery – The action is brutal and often in your face when it comes to the gun sequences, the crime side of the film comes from the heists and just what they are aiming to achieve from the heists. The mystery is what draws us in because we don’t know what is happening which keeps us invested throughout.
Settings – The film is set in the city which shows how the panic of the robberies starts flying around we see how things get out of hand.
Scene of the Movie – The heists do feel very intense, which I did like.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The last sequence.
Final Thoughts – This was a surprisingly entertaining film, having no expectations going in, this did become intense and kept you guessing even if things unravel in the final scene.
Overall: Enjoyable crime thriller.
Whatchareadin (174 KP) rated Emma in the Night in Books
Apr 9, 2019
Cass and Emma are sisters. And like most sisters, some days they are best friends and some days they just aren't. But one thing that keeps them tethered to each other is their shared love/hate relationship with their mother. She is a narcissist and only praise of the utmost will allow her to bring her children any joy. Then the girls disappear and three years later Cass shows up at her mother's doorstep, demanding that they find Emma. Cass describes the place they had been living for the past three years and hopes that the FBI and investigators are able to find this mysterious island and Emma.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.
This book started off a little slow for me. Hearing the background information about what happened before the disappearance, intertwined with what was going on now to describe the place the girls were being held, took up the first half of the book. Told from the perspective of Cass, the youngest daughter and Dr. Winter the FBI Psychiatrist who did the initial investigation. After that, the reading went by much faster when the twists and turns started to take place.
Cass and Emma have a mother who constantly needs to be told how beautiful she is and how good of a mother she is. The only problem is that she's not. But hearing these things make her feel good about herself and keep her children on her good side. When things don't go the way she wants, she punishes the girls in unspeakable manners. Buying one a gift the other wanted, favoring one child and ignoring the other. This is a family that has a lot of issues going on inside of their home. They way things are handled are completely out of spite for another member of the family. Although this book had a slow start, it really had a great ending. So stick with it if you have to and it will be well worth it.
Wendy Walker also wrote, All is Not Forgotten which was also a great book released last year. I look forward to what else Ms. Walker has in store.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.
This book started off a little slow for me. Hearing the background information about what happened before the disappearance, intertwined with what was going on now to describe the place the girls were being held, took up the first half of the book. Told from the perspective of Cass, the youngest daughter and Dr. Winter the FBI Psychiatrist who did the initial investigation. After that, the reading went by much faster when the twists and turns started to take place.
Cass and Emma have a mother who constantly needs to be told how beautiful she is and how good of a mother she is. The only problem is that she's not. But hearing these things make her feel good about herself and keep her children on her good side. When things don't go the way she wants, she punishes the girls in unspeakable manners. Buying one a gift the other wanted, favoring one child and ignoring the other. This is a family that has a lot of issues going on inside of their home. They way things are handled are completely out of spite for another member of the family. Although this book had a slow start, it really had a great ending. So stick with it if you have to and it will be well worth it.
Wendy Walker also wrote, All is Not Forgotten which was also a great book released last year. I look forward to what else Ms. Walker has in store.
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2353 KP) rated The Big Kahuna in Books
Jun 5, 2019
The Big Letdown
Unlikely duo FBI agent Kate O’Hare and former (maybe) conman Nick Fox have been asked to look for a tech billionaire known to pretty much everyone as The Big Kahuna. He disappeared a few days ago, but Kate and Nick are shocked to find that both his wife and his business partner are already hoping to have him declared dead. Kate and Nick aren’t willing to declare him dead yet; they think he might be hiding out in Hawaii. With Kate’s father and Cosmo, another FBI agent, tagging along, they set out to see if they can find him. However, it appears someone wants The Big Kahuna dead. Can they find him in time? Or will they lead the killers right to him?
The last book in this series was three years and a different co-author ago, and it shows. Nick and Kate are shadows of themselves, with Kate going to Nick for plans on everything instead of them working as partners. Their romantic relationship has gone back several books, too, and yet they don’t appear to be hiding the fact that they work together professionally. Kate’s dad is just a caricature now, and the new characters are one note jokes, per se, which makes spending so much time with them painful. While the plot does include a couple of small cons, it is nowhere near as elaborate and therefore fun as the previous books. Really, any group of characters could have been the stars of this plot. The pacing is uneven, especially early on when we get travelogues of Hawaii. We could have easily cut 30 pages without noticing at all, and in a book that already reads short, that is saying something. I did get hooked as I went along, but I think the flaws would have been more frustrating if I hadn’t been able to knock the book out in a couple of days. I borrowed this book from my local library, but I’m not sure even that price (free) will be enough to get me to come back if Nick and Kate have any more adventures.
The last book in this series was three years and a different co-author ago, and it shows. Nick and Kate are shadows of themselves, with Kate going to Nick for plans on everything instead of them working as partners. Their romantic relationship has gone back several books, too, and yet they don’t appear to be hiding the fact that they work together professionally. Kate’s dad is just a caricature now, and the new characters are one note jokes, per se, which makes spending so much time with them painful. While the plot does include a couple of small cons, it is nowhere near as elaborate and therefore fun as the previous books. Really, any group of characters could have been the stars of this plot. The pacing is uneven, especially early on when we get travelogues of Hawaii. We could have easily cut 30 pages without noticing at all, and in a book that already reads short, that is saying something. I did get hooked as I went along, but I think the flaws would have been more frustrating if I hadn’t been able to knock the book out in a couple of days. I borrowed this book from my local library, but I’m not sure even that price (free) will be enough to get me to come back if Nick and Kate have any more adventures.
Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Greenfield in Books
Feb 13, 2018
Jack Clayton is retiring from the police force and dreaming about a calm life in retirement. All that changes when he meets Officer Yolanda Tilden, a young hotshot officer on the force he's just left. Once a prospective FBI Detective, Yolanda had to leave the FBI after getting injured and she's not happy about it. Jack's former boss, Chief Varner, convinces (tricks?) Jack into coming back for a special assignment to work with Yolanda for thirty days as a mentor. At first, the set-in-his-ways Jack and the angry Yolanda clash, but eventually the two work together on a drug case and start forming a true partnership.
Full disclosure - I only read this book because the author is a friend of a friend, and my friend bought the book for me. I knew the author wrote the book in his spare time, so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect.
The first part of the book wasn't my favorite. It lagged and was totally unrealistic (let's completely solve the drug wars in 48 hours!), but did a good job of setting up Jack and Yolanda's friendship and partnership. The writing can be a little stilted at times (must Yolanda say Jack's name every time she speaks to him?), with a few typos. Still, as I thought about it, the plot certainly wasn't any more outlandish than the New Adult romances that are all the rage right now.
Things certainly improved with Part 2, and I found myself staying up late to find out what happened. Part 2 sets up what appears to the "Cold Case Series" that Krammes writes (he has several books after this one). I really enjoyed Part 2 and found the plot to be engaging and interesting. While Jack and Yolanda's relationship is still a little far-fetched, the two are rather endearing at times, and amusing. The mystery portion was interesting and very solid. Overall, it was a fun book and Part 2 probably pulled it to a solid 3 to 3.5 stars. I look forward to reading the next one, since it's basically set in my hometown!
Full disclosure - I only read this book because the author is a friend of a friend, and my friend bought the book for me. I knew the author wrote the book in his spare time, so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect.
The first part of the book wasn't my favorite. It lagged and was totally unrealistic (let's completely solve the drug wars in 48 hours!), but did a good job of setting up Jack and Yolanda's friendship and partnership. The writing can be a little stilted at times (must Yolanda say Jack's name every time she speaks to him?), with a few typos. Still, as I thought about it, the plot certainly wasn't any more outlandish than the New Adult romances that are all the rage right now.
Things certainly improved with Part 2, and I found myself staying up late to find out what happened. Part 2 sets up what appears to the "Cold Case Series" that Krammes writes (he has several books after this one). I really enjoyed Part 2 and found the plot to be engaging and interesting. While Jack and Yolanda's relationship is still a little far-fetched, the two are rather endearing at times, and amusing. The mystery portion was interesting and very solid. Overall, it was a fun book and Part 2 probably pulled it to a solid 3 to 3.5 stars. I look forward to reading the next one, since it's basically set in my hometown!