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The Sign of the Serpent (The Adventures of Marisol Holmes #2)
Book
Meet Marisol Holmes: High School Student, jaguar shifter, and great granddaughter of Sherlock...
Paranormal Young Adult
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated The First Shot ( Last Mrs Parish book 0.5) in Books
Feb 10, 2022
25 of 230
Kindle
The First Shot ( Last Mrs Parish 0.5)
By Liv Constantine
In this gripping prequel to the blockbuster best seller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick The Last Mrs. Parrish, listeners will discover exactly how Amber Patterson transformed from small-town girl to master manipulator - after all, practice makes perfect.
Amber Patterson has many secrets. This much is clear when she sneaks out of her home in the dead of night and hitchhikes across state lines to meet up with a man she hasn’t seen or spoken to since high school graduation. So begins her desperate attempt to leave her old life behind, and she’ll use everything and everyone at her disposal, from social media stalking to the kindness of unsuspecting strangers, to get where she needs to go. It’s not long before she’s ready for the main event: armed with a new identity and a new purpose, she heads to Gunnison, Colorado, preparing herself to meet her future husband among the wealthy vacationers.
Even the smallest misstep could derail this carefully-laid plan, and in the end, can you ever truly outrun your past? The First Shot is an absorbing, binge-able thriller that shows just how far some will go to build the lives they want.
This is the prequel to The Last Mrs Parish and I absolutely loved that book. This was very good too getting a bit on how Lana/ Amber started and her first victim! I really love Liv. Constantine’s writing style.
Kindle
The First Shot ( Last Mrs Parish 0.5)
By Liv Constantine
In this gripping prequel to the blockbuster best seller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick The Last Mrs. Parrish, listeners will discover exactly how Amber Patterson transformed from small-town girl to master manipulator - after all, practice makes perfect.
Amber Patterson has many secrets. This much is clear when she sneaks out of her home in the dead of night and hitchhikes across state lines to meet up with a man she hasn’t seen or spoken to since high school graduation. So begins her desperate attempt to leave her old life behind, and she’ll use everything and everyone at her disposal, from social media stalking to the kindness of unsuspecting strangers, to get where she needs to go. It’s not long before she’s ready for the main event: armed with a new identity and a new purpose, she heads to Gunnison, Colorado, preparing herself to meet her future husband among the wealthy vacationers.
Even the smallest misstep could derail this carefully-laid plan, and in the end, can you ever truly outrun your past? The First Shot is an absorbing, binge-able thriller that shows just how far some will go to build the lives they want.
This is the prequel to The Last Mrs Parish and I absolutely loved that book. This was very good too getting a bit on how Lana/ Amber started and her first victim! I really love Liv. Constantine’s writing style.
Thorn of Secrets (My Darkest Secret #2)
6.0
Rate It
Book
In love with the same face that haunts me…. The falling leaves of autumn are like the deceit in...
Young Adult Romance Urban
Divided Road (The Road to Rocktoberfest 2024)
7.0
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Book
The chance of a lifetime or their final performance? Owen Stanton has been a member of the Kiwi...
Contemporary MM Romance Rock Band Small Town Romance
Chris Sawin (602 KP) rated All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006) in Movies
Jun 18, 2019
Mandy Lane (Amber Heard) becomes the most desirable girl in high school over one fateful summer; she's definitely not like the other girls her age though. While most guys want to do everything imaginable to her, she's turned them all down. The only guy she really gives the time of day is her best friend, Emmet (Michael Welch). That is until a certain incident at a pool party comes between them. Now nine months later, Mandy has distanced herself from Emmet and has a group of new friends. These friends have decided to invite Mandy to a ranch out in the middle of nowhere for a few days and the guys who tag along hope to accomplish what, up to this point, has been impossible. But when people begin to turn up missing, they soon realize that they're not alone and someone is taking their obsession with Mandy Lane a little too far.
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane was like an urban myth for the longest period of time. The film debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2006 and released in the UK in 2008. It seemed to be released in every country other than the US shortly thereafter and it took another excruciating five years since it didn’t debut stateside until October of 2013. For a film that was originally shot in 2006, taking seven years to finally see distribution is bizarre and disheartening. The horror film originally caught the eye of The Weinstein Company immediately after debuting at TIFF, but the Weinstein brothers couldn’t come to a decision regarding its release (Harvey wanted a wide theatrical distribution while Bob thought the “artsy” film deserved more of a limited release). Rights to the film were eventually sold to a German company called Senator Entertainment US, who released the film in Germany and Austria and had the intention of premiering the film in the US. But the US branch of Senator Entertainment US went under in 2009 and rights to the film were dead in the water until The Weinstein Company reacquired distribution rights in 2013. The film was released on demand on September 6th with a limited theatrical run October 11th the same year.
The crew for the film consisted of college students freshly graduated from the American Film Institute. Producer Chad Feehan had the film as his thesis during college as work on the project initially began in 2003. Written by Jacob Forman and directed by Jonathan Levine (50/50, Warm Bodies), the film garnered an unbelievable amount of positive buzz online that accumulated into this massive pile of insurmountable expectations. Reading about the film for so long and hearing about how good it was from the biggest of horror sites probably inadvertently hurt the film more than it escalated interest for it.
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane takes a Dazed and Confused approach to the first half of the film. Similar to how Wolf Creek had you swimming through 45-minutes of character development before the actual horror began (or how Hatchet was silly for the same amount of time before diving into awesome practical gore effects), All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is mostly high school kids getting into typical teenager shenanigans; drinking alcohol, doing drugs, and having sex. The second half of the film is pure horror and is essentially a slasher film. The horror is teased at first with little glimpses of terror before diving right back into high school mode, but the film is able to intensify its sense of dread to the point where it’s eventually beautifully horrific in every scene.
For a film that is made by first time filmmakers for less than $1 million, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane has beautiful cinematography. Vivid colors jump off the screen and seem even lusher once the film begins to cover itself in mud and dirt. Cinematographer Darren Genet has an eye for dynamic angles and utilizing when to focus and blur menacing figures in the background (or foreground) for maximum impact. The film also has a tendency to overlap shots in order to create an entirely new, which can probably be contributed to the talent of film editor Josh Noyes (The Wackness). These impressive filming techniques shine brightest when Bird (Edwin Hodge) is on-screen; when he goes to start the generator after the power goes out, when he confronts the killer, and the car chase. Like other successful film genres, horror can often become formulaic not only when it comes to its writing or how its acted but how it’s shot. It’s always a breath of fresh air when you can say a film is unique in some capacity; especially horror.
With Michael Welch mostly being associated with portraying popular high school student Mike Newton in the Twilight franchise, your expectations for a memorable performance from Welch in All the Boys Love Mandy Lane are probably fairly low. Around the time Mandy Lane was in peak hype mode, Welch was in the abysmal Day of the Dead remake. Directed by Steve Miner (Halloween H20) and also starring Nick Cannon, Day of the Dead is an atrocious remake (but maybe 2018’s remake Day of the Dead: Bloodline is worse). However, Welch’s portrayal of Emmet in Mandy Lane is exceptional. His performance, especially during the closing moments of the film, is captivating. He has this American Psycho quality to his psychotic behavior that is hauntingly mesmerizing.
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane puts a different spin on the slasher film that would have had way more of an impact had it originally been released ten years ago instead of five. The film does require patience from the audience as the film takes a slow and steady approach to its eventual slasher nature. While the outcome is likely fairly predictable, watching how everything unfolds in Mandy Lane is where it shines. The ending is the film’s crown jewel and even though the killer is revealed its open ending suits the film’s already ambiguous nature. Now that All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is readily available at your fingertips, its originality seemed much more promising when it felt like it was the holy grail of horror films (kind of like The Poughkeepsie Tapes). The film’s consistency to offer a slasher that cuts in a different direction than most horror films along with Michael Welch’s brilliantly unbalanced performance makes All the Boys Love Mandy Lane a worthwhile experience.
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is currently free to stream on Amazon if you have Starz with Prime Video Channels. It’s also currently available to rent via Amazon Video ($2.99), Vudu ($2.99), and iTunes ($3.99). The film is can be purchased on DVD ($9.91) and Multi-Format Blu-ray ($12.99) on Amazon and is even cheaper on eBay (the Blu-ray is available for $8.99 and the DVD is $7.98, both have free shipping).
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane was like an urban myth for the longest period of time. The film debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2006 and released in the UK in 2008. It seemed to be released in every country other than the US shortly thereafter and it took another excruciating five years since it didn’t debut stateside until October of 2013. For a film that was originally shot in 2006, taking seven years to finally see distribution is bizarre and disheartening. The horror film originally caught the eye of The Weinstein Company immediately after debuting at TIFF, but the Weinstein brothers couldn’t come to a decision regarding its release (Harvey wanted a wide theatrical distribution while Bob thought the “artsy” film deserved more of a limited release). Rights to the film were eventually sold to a German company called Senator Entertainment US, who released the film in Germany and Austria and had the intention of premiering the film in the US. But the US branch of Senator Entertainment US went under in 2009 and rights to the film were dead in the water until The Weinstein Company reacquired distribution rights in 2013. The film was released on demand on September 6th with a limited theatrical run October 11th the same year.
The crew for the film consisted of college students freshly graduated from the American Film Institute. Producer Chad Feehan had the film as his thesis during college as work on the project initially began in 2003. Written by Jacob Forman and directed by Jonathan Levine (50/50, Warm Bodies), the film garnered an unbelievable amount of positive buzz online that accumulated into this massive pile of insurmountable expectations. Reading about the film for so long and hearing about how good it was from the biggest of horror sites probably inadvertently hurt the film more than it escalated interest for it.
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane takes a Dazed and Confused approach to the first half of the film. Similar to how Wolf Creek had you swimming through 45-minutes of character development before the actual horror began (or how Hatchet was silly for the same amount of time before diving into awesome practical gore effects), All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is mostly high school kids getting into typical teenager shenanigans; drinking alcohol, doing drugs, and having sex. The second half of the film is pure horror and is essentially a slasher film. The horror is teased at first with little glimpses of terror before diving right back into high school mode, but the film is able to intensify its sense of dread to the point where it’s eventually beautifully horrific in every scene.
For a film that is made by first time filmmakers for less than $1 million, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane has beautiful cinematography. Vivid colors jump off the screen and seem even lusher once the film begins to cover itself in mud and dirt. Cinematographer Darren Genet has an eye for dynamic angles and utilizing when to focus and blur menacing figures in the background (or foreground) for maximum impact. The film also has a tendency to overlap shots in order to create an entirely new, which can probably be contributed to the talent of film editor Josh Noyes (The Wackness). These impressive filming techniques shine brightest when Bird (Edwin Hodge) is on-screen; when he goes to start the generator after the power goes out, when he confronts the killer, and the car chase. Like other successful film genres, horror can often become formulaic not only when it comes to its writing or how its acted but how it’s shot. It’s always a breath of fresh air when you can say a film is unique in some capacity; especially horror.
With Michael Welch mostly being associated with portraying popular high school student Mike Newton in the Twilight franchise, your expectations for a memorable performance from Welch in All the Boys Love Mandy Lane are probably fairly low. Around the time Mandy Lane was in peak hype mode, Welch was in the abysmal Day of the Dead remake. Directed by Steve Miner (Halloween H20) and also starring Nick Cannon, Day of the Dead is an atrocious remake (but maybe 2018’s remake Day of the Dead: Bloodline is worse). However, Welch’s portrayal of Emmet in Mandy Lane is exceptional. His performance, especially during the closing moments of the film, is captivating. He has this American Psycho quality to his psychotic behavior that is hauntingly mesmerizing.
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane puts a different spin on the slasher film that would have had way more of an impact had it originally been released ten years ago instead of five. The film does require patience from the audience as the film takes a slow and steady approach to its eventual slasher nature. While the outcome is likely fairly predictable, watching how everything unfolds in Mandy Lane is where it shines. The ending is the film’s crown jewel and even though the killer is revealed its open ending suits the film’s already ambiguous nature. Now that All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is readily available at your fingertips, its originality seemed much more promising when it felt like it was the holy grail of horror films (kind of like The Poughkeepsie Tapes). The film’s consistency to offer a slasher that cuts in a different direction than most horror films along with Michael Welch’s brilliantly unbalanced performance makes All the Boys Love Mandy Lane a worthwhile experience.
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is currently free to stream on Amazon if you have Starz with Prime Video Channels. It’s also currently available to rent via Amazon Video ($2.99), Vudu ($2.99), and iTunes ($3.99). The film is can be purchased on DVD ($9.91) and Multi-Format Blu-ray ($12.99) on Amazon and is even cheaper on eBay (the Blu-ray is available for $8.99 and the DVD is $7.98, both have free shipping).
Whatchareadin (174 KP) rated Never Let You Go in Books
Apr 9, 2019
Lindsey and Sophie are mother and daughter. They live together in Dogswood Bay. Sophie is in here senior year in high school and Lindsey owns her own cleaning company. When Lindsey finds out that her ex-husband, Andrew is about to be released from prison after 10 years, she goes on the alert. He was very abusive and manipulative towards Lindsey, but Sophie wants her dad to be a part of her life. When things start to happen that can only be explained by Andrews controlling behavior, the pair try to hide from him in any way they can. Will they be able to stay away from him, or will he try to hurt Lindsey again?
First of all thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for the ability to read this book before it is released. Another book that had me on the edge of my seat and at the end, my heart was beating out of my chest, I was so excited to figure out what was going to happen next. Lindsey is a character that you can see as the lady next door or one of your friends. Trying to rebuild her life after being in an abusive relationship and trying to build a life for her young daughter to look up to. When she finds out that her ex is not only being released from prison after 10 years, but that he will also be moving to the same town, she is instantly on high alert. How can she keep herself and her daughter safe? Not sure of who to turn to and who to trust, she may see things in a clouded light.
I really felt for Lindsey and I could feel her fear. You are really drawn into this story and you want to help Lindsey and Sophie get out of their tough circumstances. I have read nearly all of Chevy Stevens books and I have not been disappointed by one yet. This book had a twist that you could see coming, but the culprit was hard to figure out. A few times, I thought I knew what was going to happen and I was shocked by the final outcome. This is a book you will not want to put down and will not want to read if you have a bad heart. Loved it!!!
First of all thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for the ability to read this book before it is released. Another book that had me on the edge of my seat and at the end, my heart was beating out of my chest, I was so excited to figure out what was going to happen next. Lindsey is a character that you can see as the lady next door or one of your friends. Trying to rebuild her life after being in an abusive relationship and trying to build a life for her young daughter to look up to. When she finds out that her ex is not only being released from prison after 10 years, but that he will also be moving to the same town, she is instantly on high alert. How can she keep herself and her daughter safe? Not sure of who to turn to and who to trust, she may see things in a clouded light.
I really felt for Lindsey and I could feel her fear. You are really drawn into this story and you want to help Lindsey and Sophie get out of their tough circumstances. I have read nearly all of Chevy Stevens books and I have not been disappointed by one yet. This book had a twist that you could see coming, but the culprit was hard to figure out. A few times, I thought I knew what was going to happen and I was shocked by the final outcome. This is a book you will not want to put down and will not want to read if you have a bad heart. Loved it!!!
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated the PC version of FIFA 14 in Video Games
Jun 19, 2019
With the worldwide impact of FIFA at an all-time high, EA Sports has captured the majesty of the sport of Soccer with the amazing FIFA 14. The game is available for the PC, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360 systems and is due soon for the next generation consoles.
While I played Soccer in High School I will admit that my knowledge of the professional game is limited as names such as Pele, Beckham, and Donovan are the players that I would be able to identify the easiest. Regardless of your level of skill and experience, FIFA 14 has something for you from eye-popping graphics to the most realistic action and player options of any soccer game to date.
Some of the best changes are in the A.I. of your players as they now make much smarter and more tactical runs that allow players far more options when devising their tactics. Players also have better options to accelerate and shield the ball which is very good as the defense has improved and players will have to make sure to put some thought into their attacks and passing and not rely simply on blasting as many shots as they can on goal.
On the subject of passing this is my biggest frustration with the game as I found it often hard to be accurate and that passes were often slow which allowed defenders to get back in time to thwart my strategies.
Thankfully the improved shooting mechanics that allow players to adjust stride, approach, and angle combined with improved ball physics and you have far more options than before on how to attack the goal and in time, get your shots in the back of the net.
As in the real sport, the refs can be a pain as they can really raise your ire by calling fouls in a questionable fashion but that is simply part of the game.
Players can match up against another players online via the Seasons Mode or Custom Match to allow players to test their skills against other players online.
While fans are always going to find something to complain about or nit-pick in every sporting simulation, FIFA 14 is a step forward for the franchise and is well worth adding to your collection.
http://sknr.net/2013/11/05/fifa-14/
While I played Soccer in High School I will admit that my knowledge of the professional game is limited as names such as Pele, Beckham, and Donovan are the players that I would be able to identify the easiest. Regardless of your level of skill and experience, FIFA 14 has something for you from eye-popping graphics to the most realistic action and player options of any soccer game to date.
Some of the best changes are in the A.I. of your players as they now make much smarter and more tactical runs that allow players far more options when devising their tactics. Players also have better options to accelerate and shield the ball which is very good as the defense has improved and players will have to make sure to put some thought into their attacks and passing and not rely simply on blasting as many shots as they can on goal.
On the subject of passing this is my biggest frustration with the game as I found it often hard to be accurate and that passes were often slow which allowed defenders to get back in time to thwart my strategies.
Thankfully the improved shooting mechanics that allow players to adjust stride, approach, and angle combined with improved ball physics and you have far more options than before on how to attack the goal and in time, get your shots in the back of the net.
As in the real sport, the refs can be a pain as they can really raise your ire by calling fouls in a questionable fashion but that is simply part of the game.
Players can match up against another players online via the Seasons Mode or Custom Match to allow players to test their skills against other players online.
While fans are always going to find something to complain about or nit-pick in every sporting simulation, FIFA 14 is a step forward for the franchise and is well worth adding to your collection.
http://sknr.net/2013/11/05/fifa-14/
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
Book
In Hooked, Nir Eyal reveals how successful companies create products people can't put down - and how...
Race Car Driving Simulator: City Driving Test 3D
Games and Entertainment
App
Race Car Driving Simulator 3D it the best car simulator of 2017, thanks to its advanced realistic...
Athletics Meet Manager
Sports and Productivity
App
Manage any Track & Field Athletics Competition effortlessly right from your iPad or iPhone. ...