A Red Herring Without Mustard (Flavia de Luce, #3)
7.3
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Award-winning author Alan Bradley returns with another beguiling novel starring the insidiously...
A Doctor on the Western Front: The Diary of Henry Owens 1914-1918
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Henry Owens Great War diary provides a vivid and complete narrative, seen from the perspective of an...
Missed Information: Better Information for Building a Wealthier, More Sustainable Future
David Sarokin and Jay Schulkin
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Information is power. It drives commerce, protects nations, and forms the backbone of systems that...
Before the Devil Breaks You: Diviners Series
9.3
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The Diviners are back in this thrilling and eerie third installment by #1 New York Times bestselling...
Fantasy Young Adults
In Five Years
8.0
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Perfect for fans of Me Before You and One Day, this heart-breaking story of love, loss and life will...
The Little Grave (Detective Amanda Steele #1)
7.0
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Detective Amanda Steele stops just inside the doorway, recognizing the victim’s face instantly. He...
Monster Inside (Shadow Pact #1) by River Starr
9.0
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Sometimes the most enchanting monsters are the ones you can’t see, only feel… I am a...
Adult Paranormal Romance
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated The Vine Witch in Books
Mar 6, 2023
Kindle
The Vine Witch ( book 1)
By Luanne G.Smith
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A young witch emerges from a curse to find her world upended in this gripping fantasy set in turn-of-the-century France.
For centuries, the vineyards at Château Renard have depended on the talent of their vine witches, whose spells help create the world-renowned wine of the Chanceaux Valley. Then the skill of divining harvests fell into ruin when sorcière Elena Boureanu was blindsided by a curse. Now, after breaking the spell that confined her to the shallows of a marshland and weakened her magic, Elena is struggling to return to her former life. And the vineyard she was destined to inherit is now in the possession of a handsome stranger.
Vigneron Jean-Paul Martel naively favors science over superstition, and he certainly doesn’t endorse the locals’ belief in witches. But Elena knows a hex when she sees one, and the vineyard is covered in them. To stay on and help the vines recover, she’ll have to hide her true identity, along with her plans for revenge against whoever stole seven winters of her life. And she won’t rest until she can defy the evil powers that are still a threat to herself, Jean-Paul, and the ancient vine-witch legacy in the rolling hills of the Chanceaux Valley.
I really liked it! The style was a little different compared to what I normally read and I love that she starts off as a frog. It moved quickly and was a really good story.
The characters were fun to get to know and it had a lovely romance blooming.
David McK (3169 KP) rated Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) in Movies
May 15, 2022
He's now appeared in six MCU movies, including this one (which is only his second solo outing). In order, they are:
Doctor Strange (2016)
Thor: Ragnorak (2017)
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
As well as that, he's also appeared in perhaps the best episode of Marvels animated 'What If ...' series, titled 'What if ... Doctor Strange lost his heart instead of his hands?@
The reason I mention the latter?
Because, roughly halfway through this, Dr Strange falls through the Multiverse (first shown on the big screen in No Way Home): one of which looks very much like the animation style used in said series.
The films also relies heavily on the aftermath from TVs WandaVision (although a brief reprise of that is given by Wanda herself, with Vision barely getting a mention), in that Wanda is now desperate to find her missing children and has the Darkhold in her possession.
She also goes on to show why she is one of - if not the - most powerful beings in the MCU, which is where a lot of the horror elements in this story come into play. It is a Sam Raimi film, so if you've seen The Evil Dead (or even the original Spider-man trilogy, in particular Spider-Man 2), you know the type of thing: crazy camera angles, unsettling imagery, zombies, the damned ....
Oh, and it also definitely - finally! - opens up the MCU for the inclusion of the X-Men or The Fantastic Four.
Nicole Hadley (380 KP) rated The Lost History of Stars in Books
Jun 16, 2018
The main character, Lettie, who is a thirteen year old Dutch-Africkaner girl comes from a poor farming family. She endures the loss of her home with her mother and two younger siblings when the scorched earth policy employed by the British during the Boer War burns their farm and forces them to leave in a wagon. Their African maid, Bina, tries to stay with the family, but is given no choice by the soldiers but to return to her people.
Lettie and her family are sent to a concentration camp where the conditions are awful. Her father, older brother, uncles, and grandfather are sent to fight the British with guerrilla tactics. Lettie worries and wonders about Bina and her family. Often Lettie remembers the songs and wisdom Bina shared during her childhood and the history of stars that Grandpa shared with her at night under the sparkling sky.
The story is told from Lettie's point of view. The reader learns of her experience in the concentration camp. Lettie attempt to find the good in small moments. Her more treasured possession is her English dictionary, which she reads for comfort to pass time.
The story switches between the present and past. This allows the reader to understand life before the war and during the war. It give the reader background information to understand the family dynamics.