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ArecRain (8 KP) rated Masks in Books

Jan 18, 2018  
M
Masks
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I know I recently did a review for another one of Anderson’s novel, but I was able to download this for free and it was a quick read.

I still don’t know how I feel about this novel. I felt like the sex scenes in Claimed were much hotter, but Masks didn’t lack heat. However, she jumped into bed with him so quickly that it was mind-boggling. I am not saying anything against anonymous sex, but it seemed out of character for her. The author spends so many pages enforcing what a mouse she was, and then she has sex with him almost immediately. Honestly, I skipped most of the beginning because it was just Zoe and Chloe interacting, and it wasn’t very interesting, nor progressive to the storyline.

The synopsis make the novel out to be BDSM erotica, but the closest it comes to BDSM is he ties her to a St Andrew’s Cross (only to immediately untie her) and leather everywhere. I am not saying it shouldn’t be classified as BDSM. Just don’t expect any more than some light bondage.

Not to mention I was annoyed with Zoe. She is a horrible sister and I would furious with her.

All in all, it wasn’t terrible. It came nowhere near the level that Claimed was. Like I said, it was a quick read with a realistic ending that I appreciated.
  
Wicked Soul (Ancient Blood #1)
Wicked Soul (Ancient Blood #1)
Nora Ash | 2018 | Paranormal
6
6.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
did not like Liv!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

I have *issues* with this book.

Aside from the fact its single person point of view and blah blah blah of course I wanted to hear from Warin, Olivia has to be the single most annoying main character I have ever come across and I cannot,for the life of me figure out why I kept reading!!

She whines and moans and has the mental age of a teenager, I wasn't actually sure how old she was supposed to be til she and Warin are talking about how old he is.

Clearly, the British vampire Night Lord who's name escapes me already, is playing on a much bigger playground than just Chicago. And Warin's brother, Aleric, is part of that playground judging by the epilogue, but I can't see what game he is playing.

The book is reasonably well written, with some sexy scenes and some violence, but nothing too explicit or graphic. I saw no spelling or editing errors.

Will I read book two? Depends on who has the majority voice in that one. If it's Aleric? Possibly.

I just did not like Olivia!

But I did finish it, so for that reason...

3 stars

 Sorry this is short, but I find the 3 star ones for meh books the hardest to write.

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
  
The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)
The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)
2018 | Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
After losing both parents in a car accident, Lewis travels to New Zebedee, Michigan to live with his uncle Jonathan (Jack Black) in his large, creepy house. Jonathan's neighbour, Florence Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett) seems to spend most of her time there too as they are old friends. The house is full of clocks and, as you've probably guessed from the title of the movie, an even more mysterious clock lies hidden somewhere within its walls. Lewis discovers that Johnathan is a warlock, Florence is a good witch and that the house once belonged to a powerful warlock, who intended to use the clock as part of a catastrophic evil plan.

Directed by Eli Roth, the movie oozes style and creepiness. It has scares that will terrify younger children, but entertain the parents and it has a good amount of humour throughout. For me though, it felt like all style and not much substance. Despite being based on the first in a series of 12 books, with this first story being published in 1973, the movie version just feels like an amalgamation of things we've seen many times before in recent years. Harry Potter, Miss Peregrine, even the trailer made me think of the Goosebumps movie.

I'm probably being a little harsh, and the latter third of the movie did turn out to be a lot more enjoyable than the first two. I guess I was just hoping for something a bit more.
  
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AT (1676 KP) rated A Simple Favor in Books

Jan 3, 2019 (Updated Jan 3, 2019)  
A Simple Favor
A Simple Favor
Darcey Bell | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry, Mystery
6
5.3 (8 Ratings)
Book Rating
I received this book from one of the Smashbomb giveaways in exchange for my review. I didn't think I'd like it very much because the movie trailer looked kind of stupid, but it was still exciting to see the package in the mail! (I haven't seen the movie yet, and don't know if I will.) I began the book not expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised. It read very smoothly, and had just enough tension at the beginning to keep me coming back. I enjoyed the story for quite awhile. Then the plot found its way into a weird twist. Not that I didn't expect some sort of twist. I just didn't expect the one character to be...like she was. For the rest of the novel, I wasn't sure how strange the plot was going to get. The story was tolerable for the most part and I was going to give it a higher rating, but I am not a fan of the ending. While I wasn't surprised by it, I wished that it would have ended in a different manner. Therefore, I'm a bit torn over my review. I didn't hate the story, itself, for a fictional escape, but the ending sunk the whole thing for me. I'd say that it's a decent beach read, if you're looking for something with a little suspense and mystery. I wouldn't recommend it to any deep-thinking book clubs, though.
  
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Dianne Robbins (1738 KP) Jan 4, 2019

By the third chapter, I have a feeling how this book is going to go and I'll be very surprised if it turns out otherwise. I, too, won it from Smashbomb and was looking forward to reading it, but the reviews seem lackluster so I'm not expecting much. The author is a preschool teacher and I have found that teachers, whether preschool, college, or anywhere in between don't make the best authors. They tend to find themselves too clever and make bad decisions with their plotlines.

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AT (1676 KP) Jan 4, 2019

It may or may not end the way you think it will, but since you're already not jumping for joy, no. You probably won't be wowed. Lol I definitely know the feeling!

Deadpool 2 (2018)
Deadpool 2 (2018)
2018 | Action, Comedy
Deadpool 2 sits firmly and comfortably somewhere between 'good' and 'average'.
The main problem is that it's not as funny as it thinks it is. The first 30 minutes or so just seem like a constant barrage of recycled jokes from the superior first film, and a lot of the jokes don't land that well.
That being said, there are some genuinely laugh out loud moments when the film eventually finds it feet, but it does feel like the writers just threw everything toward the audience to see what would stick.

Humour is only one element of Deadpool though.
The action exceeds the first film in every way, and the movie really shines in this aspect when Cable is introduced. Josh Brolins portrayal of the badass mutant from the future is pretty engaging. His serious nature gels fantastically with Ryan Reynolds quippy Deadpool.
It's nice to see Domino turn up for the ride as well. Everyone else is (quite literally) pretty disposable, but the inclusion of X-Force gives us a fantastic blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo.

The narrative leans towards a message of accepting people for who they are, which is a nice spin in a superhero blockbuster, and of course keeps the R rating good and present with some stupidly violent moments.

Overall, Deadpool 2 is a perfect example of more not always meaning better, but is still an enjoyable ride.
  
TD
The Daughter of Time (Inspector Alan Grant, #5)
Josephine Tey | 1951 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
I've read this several times before, but it has been a while and I'd forgotten just how good a book this is! It's really almost like a play in some ways, as the action takes place entirely in one location - a hospital ward. Mentally of course, the reader follows Inspector Grant's mind as he finds an intellectual exercise that ends up absorbing him and taking him right out of the hospital bed!

Josephine Tey may have been writing in the golden age of detective fiction, but she's didn't stick to the accustomed 'rules' and went her own way, making for some very interesting books. The Daughter of Time is probably her best known book. It's a book that works on more than one level as it's about what it's ostensibly about, but I also see it as a comment on the meaning of Truth (The Daughter of time of the title) and of course, Tonypandy! In our modern age with 24 hour news, social media, 'fake' news, I'd say this book is more relevant than ever!

It's just a very well written book and I'll finish with one bit that really came out to me this time as simply a fantastic thought, beautifully put: "...perhaps a series of small satisfactions scattered like sequins over the texture of everyday life was of greater worth than the academic satisfaction of owning a collection of fine objects at the back of a drawer."
  
After reading this book all my head wants to say is WOW...

I have not previously read any books by Roseanna M. White and I am now scratching my head wondering how I could have missed her? This book On Wings of Devotion is actually the second book in her Codebreaker series. However, I was not lost at all just jumping into this one (I will definitely be going back and reading the first one though).

The character interactions in this book are the best I have read in a while. They banter back and forth so much, and you just can’t help but smile or laugh, through it all. They did have their ups and downs, but I was amazed by Ara’s absolute faith in the face of everything that happened. Yes, she had doubts but they never lasted for long. That is what I personally strive to do even though it doesn’t always work out as well as in this book. Camden was also a great character who I enjoyed getting to know. He was the picture of a flamboyant flyboy with a teddy bear heart underneath. So much mystery surrounds him, and we get fed little bits of his true character throughout the book. It was like getting to know someone in real life, you slowly get to know them over time.

The storyline in this book was riveting like it literally sucked me in (Laundry did not get done that day
  
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Frank Black recommended The Last Post by Carbon/Silicon in Music (curated)

 
The Last Post by Carbon/Silicon
The Last Post by Carbon/Silicon
2007 | Pop
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"It would be easy to say I’m massively into Big Audio Dynamite - which I am - but it’s like, here’s Mick Jones, holed up in his little London studio, quietly making these records for digital download. He makes these really long songs sometimes. They’re really minimalist records. They have that kind of hi-fi, sampled guitar riff kind of aesthetic that Mick Jones is so well known for. They’re really solid records. 'The News', the opening song on this record is really great and it doesn’t really have any end. It’s like: “You know what, I’m alive and I’m really going to kick it. I got me a little song I’m going to sing.” It’s not trying to be heavy or anything: the sun is shining and everything’s groovy. He gets away with it. He gets plenty heavy in other songs. He has 11 minute songs and retells sci-fi novels! I just love those Carbon/Silicon records. He’s not shoving it down my throat or trying to have a career. He just knows how to play the guitar really fucking good and his vocals are so great. It’s not about having a great voice, it’s all what the fuck you do with it. His vocals are casual but he chooses to do that. Mick Jones is so fucking casual man. With Mick Jones there’s nuance, you either get it or you don’t."

Source
  
Judgment Night by Faith No More
Judgment Night by Faith No More
1993 | Hip-hop, Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This was something of an anomaly in Faith No More’s catalogue, from a film made in the early ‘90s called Judgement Night. The soundtrack was a sort of experiment where they would get bands - white people, essentially - and they would couple them with hip-hop groups and see what happened. This was one of my first introductions to hip-hop to be honest and it wasn’t even ‘proper’ hip-hop, it was bands playing with rapping over the top. “I just thought it was absolutely amazing and I couldn’t get enough of it, this worn-out tape. ‘Another Body Murdered’ was one of the best tracks on it and it ended up introducing me to loads of bands and loads of rappers and this wasn’t like nu-metal, it was mostly edgy rappers. But then there was also a track ‘Fallin’ with Teenage Fanclub featuring De La Soul, things like that. It gave me a really broad introduction via a medium I already understood, which was bands. “But because it was a faceless tape, I didn’t really know who everyone was or who was doing what on each track. I didn’t realise then what cultural lines might have been crossed, because it was all just blurred into one: here’s the guitar, here’s somebody rapping. It didn’t matter to me at all and I think that was a healthy way to discover that sort of music."

Source
  
The Wife Between Us
The Wife Between Us
Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen | 2018 | Mystery, Thriller
2
8.1 (37 Ratings)
Book Rating
I first picked up The Wife Between Us for my Thriller book club and it seemed like something I would have been generally excited to read. I was intrigued by the synopsis as soon as I read it and was captivated by the plot line that the synopsis kind of gave away. But as I read, I was growing more and more disappointed.

The first 30 pages were interesting enough to keep me wanting to read The Wife Between Us, but as I drew closer and closer to about the 70 page mark I kept losing interest, falling asleep, and just finding anything and everything to do besides reading this horrid of a novel. The story became confusing and I’m generally not a person that tends to really get confused or lost within a novel.

Reasons why I rated it 1 star:
1. The story became boring very fast.
2. The story was confusing and seemed like the author just threw snip-its of ideas together.
3. There was a plot and then in a matter of 70 pages, there seemed to not be a plot.
4. I became generally frustrated with all of the characters. They lacked depth and meaning.

“This could be the case in every relationship, that we think we’ve entered into a union with another person when, in fact, we’ve formed a triangle with one point anchored by a silent but all-seeing judge, the arbiter of reality.”