Search
Search results
graveyardgremlin (7194 KP) rated Mr. Impossible (Carsington Brothers, #2) in Books
Feb 15, 2019
I hate to say it but I just could not get into this at all. I tried numerous times (for many months) and finally had to call it quits on page 120. I really don't know what the problem is. This book had all the elements I enjoy: I really liked Loretta Chase's previous Carsington novel, Miss Wonderful, I loved the Mummy (and the Mummy Returns), not to mention anything that has to do with Egypt, archaeology, history, etc., I like strong female characters, but for some reason this book just fell flat. There's just something missing, maybe it was the two the leads; I didn't love 'em and I didn't hate 'em, they just weren't well-developed. I read the epilogue, which I was glad I did, because it gave a little info of the next book (although there's not much, but it was cute nonetheless). I'm sure there will be many people who will enjoy this even if it didn't mesh with me.
The Rest of Us Just Live Here
7.8
Rate It
Book
Award-winning writer Patrick Ness's bold and irreverent novel powerfully reminds us that there are...
Just Cause 3: WingSuit Experience
Games and Entertainment
App
** Please Note this app is not supported on iPhone 4 and 4S ** Download the Just Cause 3 - WingSuit...
Bookapotamus (289 KP) rated The Waiting Room in Books
Jun 11, 2018
Super Twister Turny!
Somebody get my Chiropractor on the line! I think I have whiplash from all the twists and turns! What a ride!
Emily Bleeker can consistently weave a story like nobody's business and The Waiting Room is no exception!
Just when you think you have it all figured out - WHAM! Whiplash. I cannot even explain my love for her writing, and the way she crafts these incredibly suspenseful stories. Knocked this one out of the park. Totally out of the park and past the parking lot, and across the highway... It's so hard to give any synopsis of the story without spoiling too much. It's just that good. There were about 4-5 scenarios I had going on i my head as to the direction this was going, and I was wrong about them all!
Just after children's book illustrator Veronica Shelton's daughter is born, tragedy strikes. Her loving, smart, funny, doting-father husband is killed and her entire life falls apart So, so badly. It's so bad that grieving Veronica can't even TOUCH her own baby daughter. She thinks she's a terrible mother, is now having her own mother taking over most of her child's duties, and is clinging onto hope she can somehow get over this through a new therapist, and very carefully, slow, tiny baby steps. But then strange things start to happen - a break-in, weird figures in her book illustrations, and then - the unthinkable. Her daughter goes missing.
Incompetent police seem to turn the tables on her and she begins to feel like a suspect. Targeted because of her fragile mental state since losing her beloved husband. Veronica decides she's going to finally be the mother that Sophie deserves, and go out and find her daughter on her own. With some strange new friends and the shreds of motherly instinct that remain inside her - she sets off to do just that.
....and cue the whiplash. Just when you think you've got it figured out. Nope, try again. That person's a good guy? Sorry - not the case! Everything going to be OK? Um... hahaaaaa! Nice try. And that ending.. PHEW! Shocker after insanely clever shocker!
Now, I like to think I'm not totally dim, and can be fairly clever at figuring things out. But Emily Bleeker is SO good at making you feel so silly for even thinking you had ANY idea what was going on. She's definitely one of my favorite authors and I was totally thinking about sending her my chiropractor bill, but it just didn't seem fair seeing as how fun the ride was :)
Emily Bleeker can consistently weave a story like nobody's business and The Waiting Room is no exception!
Just when you think you have it all figured out - WHAM! Whiplash. I cannot even explain my love for her writing, and the way she crafts these incredibly suspenseful stories. Knocked this one out of the park. Totally out of the park and past the parking lot, and across the highway... It's so hard to give any synopsis of the story without spoiling too much. It's just that good. There were about 4-5 scenarios I had going on i my head as to the direction this was going, and I was wrong about them all!
Just after children's book illustrator Veronica Shelton's daughter is born, tragedy strikes. Her loving, smart, funny, doting-father husband is killed and her entire life falls apart So, so badly. It's so bad that grieving Veronica can't even TOUCH her own baby daughter. She thinks she's a terrible mother, is now having her own mother taking over most of her child's duties, and is clinging onto hope she can somehow get over this through a new therapist, and very carefully, slow, tiny baby steps. But then strange things start to happen - a break-in, weird figures in her book illustrations, and then - the unthinkable. Her daughter goes missing.
Incompetent police seem to turn the tables on her and she begins to feel like a suspect. Targeted because of her fragile mental state since losing her beloved husband. Veronica decides she's going to finally be the mother that Sophie deserves, and go out and find her daughter on her own. With some strange new friends and the shreds of motherly instinct that remain inside her - she sets off to do just that.
....and cue the whiplash. Just when you think you've got it figured out. Nope, try again. That person's a good guy? Sorry - not the case! Everything going to be OK? Um... hahaaaaa! Nice try. And that ending.. PHEW! Shocker after insanely clever shocker!
Now, I like to think I'm not totally dim, and can be fairly clever at figuring things out. But Emily Bleeker is SO good at making you feel so silly for even thinking you had ANY idea what was going on. She's definitely one of my favorite authors and I was totally thinking about sending her my chiropractor bill, but it just didn't seem fair seeing as how fun the ride was :)
Haley Mathiot (9 KP) rated It's Not Summer Without You (Summer, #2) in Books
Apr 27, 2018
Everything changed after Susannah died. Her two sons, both of whom Belly loves in different ways, have changed. Jeremiah is older. Conrad is empty. Belly's mother is different. And Belly is different, too. After her painful break-up with Conrad, she isn't expecting to enjoy summer, she just wants to get through it. But when Jeremiah calls her and tells her that Conrad has vanished from summer school, she goes with him to find him… and try to make things write. But Conrad has his own agenda, and his own idea of what is right. Belly has to decide if she's willing to let her heart get torn and healed by Conrad's ever-changing emotions in relation to her—as changing as the sea at her summer house—or if she's ready to let go.
After having just finished It's Not Summer Without You, I'm not sure if I feel like smiling, or if I feel smug, or if I want to kill Conrad—or at least hit him—or maybe I want to kill Jeremiah, or maybe I want to cry. I think I feel like Belly. I feel sorry for her, that's for sure.
It's Not Summer Without You is beautiful in a painful kind of way. I loved the way the story was woven, but I'm not sure I liked the way it turned out. It's the kind of story that starts looking scary, because you know that in the end everyone is going to get hurt, and that someone is going to have to choose between two good things, and you'll never be completely satisfied with the choice. But then, maybe that's the way it is in the real world. That's what makes this story good: it's real.
I read it in one sitting, on the same day I got it, and I couldn't put it down. Just like The Summer I Turned Pretty, the main aspect of the book is the characters. They are what keep you reading, they are what makes you care about the book. I care about Belly, I care about Conrad, I care about Jeremiah. I just don't care about them in the same ways I used to.
The writing felt smooth, poetic, and lyric, but the entire book had a negative energy to it. It felt depressing to read. I don't feel like I just read a summer romance, I feel like I just read a sad book and I need a light summer romance to cheer me up. That's not to say I didn't like it, but it was rather depressing to read.
The whole thing, from start to finish, felt like a lost cause with a possible hopeful end—meaning Belly and Conrad would never be together again, everything is falling apart after Susannah's death, and nothing will ever be good again…unless, unless, unless—and I'm not quite sure if it had that end. It wasn't enough of an ending for me. There wasn't enough closure between the characters, I'm still not exactly sure what happened and where everyone stands, and the epilogue wasn't enough to decode what was being said. Hopefully, more was added to the epilogue in the finished copy of the book. That's the only reason I gave it four stars and not five: I didn't enjoy it enough. It was good, it was just hard to read and hard to enjoy.
All in all, I did like it, I liked most of what happened, and I liked how real it was. It's Not Summer Without You evokes real emotions because it plays out in the real world.
Content: Some language
Recommendation: Ages 16+
After having just finished It's Not Summer Without You, I'm not sure if I feel like smiling, or if I feel smug, or if I want to kill Conrad—or at least hit him—or maybe I want to kill Jeremiah, or maybe I want to cry. I think I feel like Belly. I feel sorry for her, that's for sure.
It's Not Summer Without You is beautiful in a painful kind of way. I loved the way the story was woven, but I'm not sure I liked the way it turned out. It's the kind of story that starts looking scary, because you know that in the end everyone is going to get hurt, and that someone is going to have to choose between two good things, and you'll never be completely satisfied with the choice. But then, maybe that's the way it is in the real world. That's what makes this story good: it's real.
I read it in one sitting, on the same day I got it, and I couldn't put it down. Just like The Summer I Turned Pretty, the main aspect of the book is the characters. They are what keep you reading, they are what makes you care about the book. I care about Belly, I care about Conrad, I care about Jeremiah. I just don't care about them in the same ways I used to.
The writing felt smooth, poetic, and lyric, but the entire book had a negative energy to it. It felt depressing to read. I don't feel like I just read a summer romance, I feel like I just read a sad book and I need a light summer romance to cheer me up. That's not to say I didn't like it, but it was rather depressing to read.
The whole thing, from start to finish, felt like a lost cause with a possible hopeful end—meaning Belly and Conrad would never be together again, everything is falling apart after Susannah's death, and nothing will ever be good again…unless, unless, unless—and I'm not quite sure if it had that end. It wasn't enough of an ending for me. There wasn't enough closure between the characters, I'm still not exactly sure what happened and where everyone stands, and the epilogue wasn't enough to decode what was being said. Hopefully, more was added to the epilogue in the finished copy of the book. That's the only reason I gave it four stars and not five: I didn't enjoy it enough. It was good, it was just hard to read and hard to enjoy.
All in all, I did like it, I liked most of what happened, and I liked how real it was. It's Not Summer Without You evokes real emotions because it plays out in the real world.
Content: Some language
Recommendation: Ages 16+
Rob P (30 KP) rated Dog Soldiers (2002) in Movies
Jan 23, 2019
Great British cast (3 more)
Black/dark humour throughout
Great one liners
One of the last films I remember to use makeup, costumes, and what looks like actual sausages for special effects and gore.
There is no Spoon
Contains spoilers, click to show
This is just one of those films from my youth that will never look back on with anything but pure joy.
The plot has already been laid out here, the reasons to watch this movie aren't really based around storyline. It's more that a group of "everyman" type British soldiers are thrust into a bat sh*t crazy situation, fighting off seven foot werewolves inside an abandoned farmhouse in the Scottish highlands. Comedy is of course going to come with that.
If the premise doesn't grab you, come for Liam Cunningham (AKA Ser Davos Seaworth) playing a bad guy, it's such a brilliant thing to see his range. If that doesn't do it, come to hear Sean Pertwee say "We are now up against live, hostile targets. So, if Little Red Riding Hood should show up with a bazooka and a bad attitude, I expect you to chin the bitch."
The jokes and quotables are thick and fast, the makeup and costumes of the werewolves is still analogue, and the work put into them must have been immense. They are genuinely menacing, and it's nice to remind yourself that not everything needs to be computer generated to have impact.
As a last point, Id like to point out that besides the great cast, the comedy, and the quotes, this isn't really jump scare, or torture p*rn, it's just an old fashioned run and gun, action comedy horror. It also ends in a way I just haven't seen before, with the use of photographs in a particular "action shot" kind of way, set up during the movie. Excellent.
- Rob
The plot has already been laid out here, the reasons to watch this movie aren't really based around storyline. It's more that a group of "everyman" type British soldiers are thrust into a bat sh*t crazy situation, fighting off seven foot werewolves inside an abandoned farmhouse in the Scottish highlands. Comedy is of course going to come with that.
If the premise doesn't grab you, come for Liam Cunningham (AKA Ser Davos Seaworth) playing a bad guy, it's such a brilliant thing to see his range. If that doesn't do it, come to hear Sean Pertwee say "We are now up against live, hostile targets. So, if Little Red Riding Hood should show up with a bazooka and a bad attitude, I expect you to chin the bitch."
The jokes and quotables are thick and fast, the makeup and costumes of the werewolves is still analogue, and the work put into them must have been immense. They are genuinely menacing, and it's nice to remind yourself that not everything needs to be computer generated to have impact.
As a last point, Id like to point out that besides the great cast, the comedy, and the quotes, this isn't really jump scare, or torture p*rn, it's just an old fashioned run and gun, action comedy horror. It also ends in a way I just haven't seen before, with the use of photographs in a particular "action shot" kind of way, set up during the movie. Excellent.
- Rob
Awix (3310 KP) rated Dark Star (1974) in Movies
May 31, 2018
Massively influential spoof of overly-solemn and pretentious 60s sci-fi movies looks like what it is - a student movie blown up to feature proportions. John Carpenter was known to comment that the world's greatest student movie would still only be a pretty unimpressive 'real' film and there is an element of truth in this, for Dark Star is often slightly primitive, especially in its visual effects.
But never mind that, just enjoy the way it deconstructs the likes of 2001 and their philosophical concerns - 'never mind all that intelligent life crap, just give me something I can blow up,' snaps the commander early on. Classical music is eschewed for a jaunty country tune, and so on.
Most significant is way the pristine interiors of other films' spacecraft are replaced by the squalid, utilitarian quarters of the Dark Star's crew - this is space bereft of novelty and glamour, it's just a boring and dangerous place to work. You can see the 'used universe' aesthetic of the late 70s SF boom and beyond being invented here. Plus this is the movie that directly led to Alien. Not the biggest or best SF movie of the 70s, but still one of the most significant in the history of the genre.
But never mind that, just enjoy the way it deconstructs the likes of 2001 and their philosophical concerns - 'never mind all that intelligent life crap, just give me something I can blow up,' snaps the commander early on. Classical music is eschewed for a jaunty country tune, and so on.
Most significant is way the pristine interiors of other films' spacecraft are replaced by the squalid, utilitarian quarters of the Dark Star's crew - this is space bereft of novelty and glamour, it's just a boring and dangerous place to work. You can see the 'used universe' aesthetic of the late 70s SF boom and beyond being invented here. Plus this is the movie that directly led to Alien. Not the biggest or best SF movie of the 70s, but still one of the most significant in the history of the genre.
Tammy (5 KP) rated The Husband's Secret in Books
Aug 16, 2018 (Updated Aug 16, 2018)
Gritty, gripping with a perfect plot
I've read big little lies and knew how Liane Moriarty liked to base the plot around a number of strong female characters that captivate and draw you fully into the story. 'My husband's secret' was no different! This book kept me hooked from start to finish, I literally couldn't put it down at times and spent a couple of nights without much sleep as I kept saying 'one more chapter'. It took me three days to read this spell bounding novel. When I had to function in the real world, I found that I was thinking about what could possibly happen next in the book. I'm not going to give anything Away with 'spoilers' but let's just say that if you like a dark and gritty book full of twists and turns, strong relatable characters with passionate backgrounds, then this is the book for you. I've just started 'truly, madly, guilty' written by Liane Moriarty and I'm hoping it's going to be just as good. I have found a new great author!
Hazel (2934 KP) rated Dog Rose Dirt in Books
Jul 25, 2021
This is an interesting mystery/thriller that's pretty dark and creepy with some scenes that some may find disturbing.
I'm finding this a difficult one to review because whilst overall, I think I enjoyed it, it did seem to take a long time to get there and there were times when I said to myself "oh, just get on with it!"
The plot of the book is intriguing and the tension is a constant throughout but it just seemed to be dragged out a little; it started great and I was hooked, the middle was slow and the ending was fast paced if a little OTT. The characters are well developed and interesting but Heather was a little tedious at times and I didn't really become invested in her much; some of her actions also seemed implausible to me.
The parts I did like were the "before" sections, the links to the Grimm Brothers stories, the scenes when Heather went to see Michael in prison and the general creepiness that was ever present but there was just something that I can't put my finger on properly that resulted in me not loving it.
Thank you to HarperCollins UK / HarperFiction and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest, unbiased and unedited review.
I'm finding this a difficult one to review because whilst overall, I think I enjoyed it, it did seem to take a long time to get there and there were times when I said to myself "oh, just get on with it!"
The plot of the book is intriguing and the tension is a constant throughout but it just seemed to be dragged out a little; it started great and I was hooked, the middle was slow and the ending was fast paced if a little OTT. The characters are well developed and interesting but Heather was a little tedious at times and I didn't really become invested in her much; some of her actions also seemed implausible to me.
The parts I did like were the "before" sections, the links to the Grimm Brothers stories, the scenes when Heather went to see Michael in prison and the general creepiness that was ever present but there was just something that I can't put my finger on properly that resulted in me not loving it.
Thank you to HarperCollins UK / HarperFiction and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest, unbiased and unedited review.
Always(Always series book #1)
10.0
Rate It
Book
Josie: Forbidden love… I guess that’s what you’d call what we have. But to me, it’s just...