Search

Search only in certain items:

Royally Arranged (The Royal Series #2)
Royally Arranged (The Royal Series #2)
Amber Malloy | 2024 | Contemporary, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
sometimes, you need to see whats coming at ya!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

This is book 2 in the Royal Series. I have not read book one, Royally Screwed and a quick read of that blurb tells me you don't need to read that one before this. Those characters do not appear in this book. It's also the first book I've read of Mallory's. I'll come back to that.

Rafe needs a wife, a temporary arrangement, while his twin brother, his ELDER twin, gets a clean bill of health. A business arrangement which Astoria enters, with a shelf life to the arrangement. At least it started as such.

I liked this. It follows a proven track: an arranged marriage; they have sex (which wasn't part of the arrangement) there is a major fall out, and then a make up, and all is happy in the world. And sometimes you need to see what's coming at ya, like a freight train, and ain't nothin' you can do to stop it. And I LIKED that in this book!

It's steamy in places, but I didn't find it overly heavy on the smexy times. I didn't find it particularly emotional, either. Rafe lost his wife and son, but you don't FEEL that pain from him.

I think that is what I missed the most in the book: emotional connection. Yes, they have smex and do all the things they are supposed to, but I didn't find an EMOTIONAL connection between them. They do say those three little words, but again, I didn't FEEL the love between them.

As I said, my first book by Mallory. I'd like to delve into the backlist of this author to see if I can find that connection. Might just be how the author writes, is all.

So, because I felt that was missing, I gave this book

4 stars

*same worded review will appear elsewhere
  
40x40

Aurora recommended track Born Slippy by Underworld in Trainspotting by Underworld in Music (curated)

 
Trainspotting by Underworld
Trainspotting by Underworld
1996 | Dance
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

Born Slippy by Underworld

(0 Ratings)

Track

"I was driving through Iceland listening to this song and it’s just really gorgeous. I think this is how people feel when they take drugs - they begin on this floating cloud and then it becomes a bit chaotic at the end. “It sounds like they were on drugs when they made it, but it doesn’t make me sad when I think about it, there’s something with it, it’s positive without making me vomit, which I really enjoy. Sometimes happier music is hard to listen to, because you can question as to why you aren’t as happy as the people in the song, but I like this song. “I discovered this song much later, after ‘Rez’. When I hear one song I don’t automatically go and find the whole album, I kind of stop and just have fun with that song for months - I get really patient with songs and I can listen to them for months. I saw that ‘Born Slippy’ was on the same album as ‘Rez’ and now of course I have the whole album and I have rave parties for myself, just me. “I also love to listen to this song whilst I paint, when I paint something without meaning. I’m full of opposites or coherent contrasts, one day I like to be at rave parties and then I like to be in forests. I like to see what the world has to offer me.”"

Source
  
Goodreads: Book Reviews
Goodreads: Book Reviews
Book, Social Networking
9
8.8 (453 Ratings)
App Rating
I love using Goodreads. It helps me keep track of all of my reading year by year. I like being able to see my yearly progress and compare it to previous reading years. You can follow other users and keep updated on what they are reading and thinking about a book. Along those lines Goodreads is a great way to keep up to date with your favourite authors, publications dates, cover releases. Basically anything you could want. The app is very easy to navigate and simple to use. The website has more options. For example stats, giveaways, finding book groups. Goodreads do lots of book giveaways for free. No review needed to win.
 My only gripe is you can only rate a book up to 5 stars. This doesn’t give you a lot of leeway. For example I recently read a book that was not as bad as others I had rated 3 stars but not as good as my 4 star ratings. So what should I do? That is just me being picky. Goodreads is a fantastic way to keep track of you reading and if you are an avid reader I would highly recommend using Goodreads.
  
Secret Admirer Pact
Secret Admirer Pact
Bernadette Marie | 2024 | Contemporary, Romance
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
kinda cute
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarain, I was gifted my copy of this book.

I liked this book, but I didn't love it. Why?? I dunno, but book feelings are strong about this and ya'll know I need to share the book feelings!

It's a fun read, about friends who never really saw each other as anything other than best friends, until the thought of losing each other looms. And it's all laid out for you!

While there is romance here, there is no smexy times. I think that might be my biggest issue. I like my books smexy and I wanted Monique and Will to get their freak on, and they don't. At least, not on page. There's just some kissing.

It's painfully obvious who the secret admirers are, other than Will and Monique, but I didn't see the twist to Monique's boss' situation! So that was a great twist.

It's billed as a comedy romance. Now, I dunno if it was me, but I didn't get much comedy, at all!

It was a nice read (you know I don't like to use that word, but I can't find another one to fit!) one you can just fall into and wile away a couple hours, or less. Took me 90 mins.

I'd like to read something esle by this author, I haven't read her work before, but a longer work.

3 good stars

*same worded review will appear elsewhere
  
Furthermore (Furthermore, #1)
Furthermore (Furthermore, #1)
Tahereh Mafi | 2016 | Children, Fiction & Poetry
6
7.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
"I don't hate it, I don't love it. I don't like the writing style, I don't dislike the writing style. I'm not sure if I like it, but I can't seem to stop reading it. I'm very confused. Also, this book is giving me huge 'Alice in Wonderland' vibes!"

As you can see from the update I have copied and pasted, I wasn't quite sure what to think of Furthermore. In fact, I felt a bit like Alice, lost and confused, a bit stiff in what I like to read. I'm not certain if I should give Furthermore 3 stars or 4 stars; then again, I also wonder if I should give it 2 stars. I have never, in all my life, been so confounded. Even now, after having finished it and trying to come up with a review three days later, I'm left speechless. It wasn't "edge of your seat" exciting or "page turning" mysterious, but there's just something about the story that makes me refuse to say I didn't like it - even if I'm not quite sure I did. The story as a whole was pretty entertaining, though there moments I felt just as confused as Alice was and I didn't quite appreciate that (of course, that was most likely Tahereh's point). I would promise myself to stop at the next chapter, because as I read it, I wanted to stop. Yet, when the next chapter would come, I found myself unable to quit. I suppose you could say the magic of Furthermore wrapped itself around me and compelled me to finish the book.
Because I have never had such a reaction to a book before - and because I was actually excited at the prospect that there may be another book, what with the way this one ended - I think I'm going to give it a 3.5 rating. Because of my doubt, uncertainty, and unwillingness to decide if I truly liked it or not, I can't give it 4 stars. So, there you have it. Do what you can with the mess that lives inside my brain whenever I try to figure Furthermore out.
  
An amazing recreation of Harlan Ellison's ORIGINAL screenplay for City on the Edge of Forever, regarded to this day as one of Star Trek's best stories. And while the differences are fairly major, the character of the piece remains, a timeless love story set against a ticking clock, a death that must happen or all of history will be erased. The script is good, (but sorry, Harlan, it is un-filmable in this form, at least as a Trek episode. There are simply too many small bits--like the portrayal of Spock--that just don't line up with what the show had set forth previously. But there are other moments, like the steely resolve of Yeoman Rand that I desperately wish had made the cut.)

Scott and David Tipton are no strangers to Trek, and they have adapted the screenplay masterfully. J.K. Woodward, who's watercolor paintings I did not like in the Doctor Who Trek crossover, work fantastically here for this story, and the art really helps capture the look and feel of 1930s. Outstanding all the way around and well worth your time, no matter how familiar you are with the source material, or the episode that it became.
  
    Youmiam

    Youmiam

    Food & Drink and Social Networking

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    ***** BEST OF 2014 and 2015 on the App Store ***** Cook what you love or crave for and enjoy doing...

Y Bardd Anfarwol by The Gentle Good
Y Bardd Anfarwol by The Gentle Good
2013 | Folk
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I'd gotten into The Gentle Good after hearing his previous record, which was called Tethered For The Storm, which was lent to me by one of my neighbours back in Cardiff. That's how I switched onto him. I still love the accidental way you sometimes just get into music. He made this record when he took a trip to China because he'd become obsessed with the story of a Chinese poet called Li Bai. So Y Bardd Anfarwol is the immortal poet, basically; he has that west Walian edge to his music. He is a folk musician, even if I don't know if he'd like to be described as such, and this album has lots of Chinese musicians on it and it really is dealing with the myth and reality of this poet, and when he becomes a hermit. There's songs on there which are absolutely lovely. I like it when someone buys into a record; they jump into it, and they travel to another country, and they think: "I have to do this. I have to follow the path of this record." I'm not a great lover of world music - I'm not a great authority on it - but this was sometimes I could buy into; it was a smash-up which was enchanting. I love the fact he went from The Gathering Storm to this; it was a lovely seamless step that he made, and it's that kind of thing where I'm so entranced with this album, and it is a record that relaxes me, which is rare for me. I'm intrigued to see where he goes next, and that's lovely - it's the feeling you had when you're 15, and you go out and buy a third album from an artist and as soon as you finish digesting it you think, "God, I wonder what they're gonna do next." I kind of have that feeling with this guy."

Source