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Deborah (162 KP) rated Wicked Under the Covers (Carlisle Family, #1) in Books
Dec 21, 2018
This was my first book by this author, as well as being the first in her Carlisle Family series.
Although enjoyable, it's not a story I would be likely to pick up again. Early on in the book, the hero sees the heroine meet her mother in a restaurant - historical blunder there, as that type of establishment didn't exisit in that period.
I did like the hero, but felt that the ending was unsatisfactory. There were plenty of loose threads to tie up, but I felt it could have been handled better; I wanted to revel in the satisfaction of the villain and villainess getting their comeuppance but didn't quite get that, and the reunion of the hero and heroine pretty much decended into farce! It was too much.
Enjoyable enough, but I'm not tempted enough to pick up the sequel.
Although enjoyable, it's not a story I would be likely to pick up again. Early on in the book, the hero sees the heroine meet her mother in a restaurant - historical blunder there, as that type of establishment didn't exisit in that period.
I did like the hero, but felt that the ending was unsatisfactory. There were plenty of loose threads to tie up, but I felt it could have been handled better; I wanted to revel in the satisfaction of the villain and villainess getting their comeuppance but didn't quite get that, and the reunion of the hero and heroine pretty much decended into farce! It was too much.
Enjoyable enough, but I'm not tempted enough to pick up the sequel.
Deborah (162 KP) rated The Roots of Betrayal (Clarenceux, #2) in Books
Dec 21, 2018
The Roots of Betrayal carries on where Forrester's first novel, Sacred Treason, left off. Really you need to have read the first book before this as it will make much more sense.
It is a real page turner, but on reflection, the plot itself is almost a sideline to the characters and scenes of fighting, torture, etc going on around them! Plenty of blood is spilled during the novel, so not one for the faint hearted!
Forrester homself, alias historian Ian Mortimer, may rail against the description of his novels as historically accurate, but there is certainly a good period feel in the novel, although I'm not sure I'd be hopping in the TARDIS just yet to pay a visit to William Harley if these novels are an example of an average day at the office for him!
It is a real page turner, but on reflection, the plot itself is almost a sideline to the characters and scenes of fighting, torture, etc going on around them! Plenty of blood is spilled during the novel, so not one for the faint hearted!
Forrester homself, alias historian Ian Mortimer, may rail against the description of his novels as historically accurate, but there is certainly a good period feel in the novel, although I'm not sure I'd be hopping in the TARDIS just yet to pay a visit to William Harley if these novels are an example of an average day at the office for him!
Awix (3310 KP) rated Tell It to the Bees (2019) in Movies
Jul 24, 2019 (Updated Jul 25, 2019)
Well-staged hats-and-ciggies period drama struggles to find anything new to say, or indeed to surprise or engage in any way. Much-put-upon single mum (Grainger) meets newly-arrived town doctor (Paquin) in a laborious cute-meet; what follows you can probably write for yourself, with the exception of a really weird climax involving bees (the bees are a sort of motif throughout, but it's still weird).
Reasonably good acting, although Paquin's attempt at a Scottish accent is not particularly easy on the ear. The problem is that the film is deeply predictable and not especially subtle (the girl-on-girl stuff is classily handled, though). I found it quite heavy going; the bit with the magic bees is a genuine 'You WHAT?' moment bafflingly at odds with the dour realism of much of the rest of the film.
Reasonably good acting, although Paquin's attempt at a Scottish accent is not particularly easy on the ear. The problem is that the film is deeply predictable and not especially subtle (the girl-on-girl stuff is classily handled, though). I found it quite heavy going; the bit with the magic bees is a genuine 'You WHAT?' moment bafflingly at odds with the dour realism of much of the rest of the film.
Eilidh G Clark (177 KP) rated Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in Books
Jul 2, 2019
A good book for its time
It takes a while to get into this book mostly because of the narrative voice. It is the narrative voice that makes the book as good as it is. Written in 1st person, the unreliable narrator fools the reader into just how uneducated he is (he did write a book after all). Huck has bags of common sense but relies on Tom for silliness. There is however, a lot of innocence in Huckleberry and a huge desire for freedom but I do think he secretly wants to civilised. The last few chapters of the book are more like a children's adventure story showing the child like Huckleberry compared to the innocent and uncivilised boy at the start of the book. I liked this. I enjoyed the ending very much.
David McK (3854 KP) rated Highwayman: War's End in Books
Mar 29, 2020
The third of the - so far - three Highwayman novellas, each following the escapades of Samson Lyle, the former Roundhead who is now a notorious Highwayman during the period of Cromwell's protectorate.
In this one, Lyle finds himself hunting down a stolen possession, in a bid to return it to its rightful owner who has taken hostage of the son of an old friend, with that owner believing that said son had stolen it (he hasn't).
With only - roughly - five chapters, each chapter is given over to one day in the week of Lyle's efforts to retrieve the item, culminating in a fight on Portsmouth Point and with key recurring players from the previous two novellas also getting an appearance.
Of necessity (because of the length), there's therefore not much room for plot in this one: It's a pretty straightforward tale of derring do!
In this one, Lyle finds himself hunting down a stolen possession, in a bid to return it to its rightful owner who has taken hostage of the son of an old friend, with that owner believing that said son had stolen it (he hasn't).
With only - roughly - five chapters, each chapter is given over to one day in the week of Lyle's efforts to retrieve the item, culminating in a fight on Portsmouth Point and with key recurring players from the previous two novellas also getting an appearance.
Of necessity (because of the length), there's therefore not much room for plot in this one: It's a pretty straightforward tale of derring do!
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