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Kristin (149 KP) rated Vengeance in the Valencian Water in Books

Dec 7, 2018

Disclaimer: I received an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Luna and Cayetano are doing well, finally coming to terns with all she uncovered in "Valencian Soil." However, now there's a new issue surrounding them: There are other bodies buried at Escondrijo besides those of their relatives. What should they do? Cayetano wants Luna to let it go and give them so peace, seeing as they are to be married soon, but she can't just leave these people here, knowing how she felt looking for her grandfather. Also, Cayetano's family starts to come down on her based on her previous exploits, and Jose especially seems like he has a few secrets to hide. Will Luna be able to cope with this, as well as a multitude of other things thrown her way over the course of this story?

We've picked up right where we left off in "Valencian Soil," and the story flows just as well from first to second installment. This time, instead of regressing back to the 30s, we go back to 1957, a time when Jose was an officer with big aspirations of one day having a farm for his family. To get there, he has to make some rough decisions, and those choices and actions drastically change his life. It coincides perfectly with Luna's discovery at Escondrijo, and the reader knows how it all ties together and go along with Luna and Jose as they butt heads over her choices. Will he ever accept Luna as part of his family? Will any of them, or will she be doomed to live as the outcast foreigner forever?

4 1/2 stars

Kudos

Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2269 KP) rated Wicked Harvest in Books

Oct 18, 2019

Who is Wicked Enough to Kill?

The town of Buttercup, Texas, has decided to host an Oktoberfest event this year. Naturally, farmer Lucy Resnick will have a booth selling wares from her farm, but the kickoff event is at the Sweetwater Brewery, and Lucy is going to be there as just a guest. The brewery is planning to reveal a new recipe at the event, but that reveal doesn’t quite go as planned. However, things take an even worse turn a little while later when Lucy and her boyfriend, Tobias, start to take a brewery tour and instead find a dead body. It is pretty obvious that it was murder, but who did it?

Not only do we have the murder, but we have several sub-plots, so this book is constantly moving and kept my attention the entire time. Things come together for a logical and satisfying conclusion. This series has always had a bit of a paranormal element to it, but it is much stronger here, and I felt the book was a bit weaker since it relied on that more to drive the plot. There’s also a major editing issue, with a scene with Lucy going over clues with a friend before she’s received them. The characters are wonderful as always. Since this is a quick read, we didn’t get a lot of new character development, but I still enjoyed the time with them I had, and the suspects are strong enough to keep us guessing. There are six recipes at the end that sound delicious, too. Fans of the series will enjoy this latest outing.

Kudos

Sarah (7799 KP) rated Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken (2017) in Movies

Mar 23, 2020

Interesting but possibly contradictory

I loved the first Super Size Me, it may not have put me off McDonald's for life but it really made me think and really highlighted a point with how bad fast food is for you. I was intrigued to see what Morgan Spurlock had come with up next, but I found it a little lacking.

The concept behind this documentary is Morgan opening his own fast food chicken restaurant, and shows him from the beginnings of owning his own chicken farm to the restaurants grand opening. It really opene my eyes to what does into chicken farming and production (at least in the US) and it really is a disturbing watch at times. Some of the things that chicken companies are allowed to do and label food is crazy and the way they treat their chicken farmer is awful. Spurlock doesn’t shy away from showing all of these bad bits and because of this it’s an intriguing and interesting watch, even if it’s a little difficult to stomach. My problem is that by the end, whilst I can understand why Spurlock wanted to open his own chicken restaurant to highlight the major issues with this type of food and production, it seemed a little bit lacking in direction and rather pointless - regardless of his message, it almost seemed to me like he was contributing to the problem and encouraging people to eat this chicken, even if he was showing them the truth behind it at the same time. Maybe I’m just being a biased and stuck up vegetarian, but it seemed a little contradictory to me.