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Black Butler, Vol. 24 (Black Butler, #24)
Book
A mysterious cult mesmerises legions of spectators with glorious rituals of song and dance. But the...
The Night Country (The Hazel Wood #2)
7.0
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Book
An addictive thriller crossed with the darkest of fairytales that's guaranteed to keep you up all...
Perfect Death
7.5
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Book
There’s no easy way to die… Unknown to DI Luc Callanach and the newly promoted DCI Ava...
Dragons of Autumn Twilight: Chronicles, Volume One (Dragonlance Chronicles Book 1)
Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis
8.0
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Book
Lifelong friends, they went their separate ways. Now they are together again, though each holds...
Blazing Minds (92 KP) rated It (2017) in Movies
Nov 1, 2021 (Updated Nov 3, 2021)
My Blazing Minds review : The first thing that came to my mind while watching IT is that the movie is beautifully shot, the set pieces are framed very well in the 2.35:1 ratio screen, the colour used throughout the movie is also nicely done, especially when we see the vibrancy of Pennywise’s red balloons, dark scenes are well lit and even the terror of the old abandoned, spooky, house is nicely done with a nicely subdued colour palette. The use of the lighting and shadows to put you in a sense of insecurity works like a charm to give you those, “is something about to happen” moments.
Black Thorn
8.0
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Book
Blackthorn Ashes was meant to be their forever home. For the first six families moving into the...
Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated To Seduce a Witch's Heart (Love and Magic, #1) in Books
Jan 11, 2021
3.5 stars.
I've avoided paranormal romances for quite a while as I don't always want the romance to be the main part of my paranormal reads. This one, however, focused more on the romance between our witch, Merle, and our demon, Rhun. Note: I didn't realise this was a paranormal romance when I downloaded it.
It starts with Merle summoning Rhun from the Shadows - a land full of shadows, obviously - where he has been kept prisoner for the last twenty years. He comes back starving for the three things his demon needs - pleasure, pain and blood. He's very good at the charm and persuades Merle to give him two of three before finding out why she'd summoned him. Her sister, Maeve, has been taken by another demon of his kind and she is frantic to find her as she is the only remaining relative of hers.
I liked that the sexual tension between our characters happened from pretty much the first chapter. It was instant physical attraction but done well, in my opinion. He was just using her, initially, to get his powers back and she wasn't willing to let him go after anyone else when she'd been the one to summon him and feelings began to emerge the more they got to know each other/spent time together.
I did feel like the book was a tad overly long. They spent more time in bed together than they did searching for her sister - which made me get a little fed up at times, and also why it's taken me about a week to read this. Don't get me wrong, though. I did enjoy the interactions between our two characters. They had a lovely camaraderie once they got to know each other and I grew to really like them both.
Considering how I wasn't entirely invested in the story, I found myself getting a little emotional towards the end of this. I actually shed a tear when Rhun was forced back into the Shadows. It was so unfair. Of course, it would be a crappy ending to the book if they didn't get their HEA and of course they do (thank God!).
I've avoided paranormal romances for quite a while as I don't always want the romance to be the main part of my paranormal reads. This one, however, focused more on the romance between our witch, Merle, and our demon, Rhun. Note: I didn't realise this was a paranormal romance when I downloaded it.
It starts with Merle summoning Rhun from the Shadows - a land full of shadows, obviously - where he has been kept prisoner for the last twenty years. He comes back starving for the three things his demon needs - pleasure, pain and blood. He's very good at the charm and persuades Merle to give him two of three before finding out why she'd summoned him. Her sister, Maeve, has been taken by another demon of his kind and she is frantic to find her as she is the only remaining relative of hers.
I liked that the sexual tension between our characters happened from pretty much the first chapter. It was instant physical attraction but done well, in my opinion. He was just using her, initially, to get his powers back and she wasn't willing to let him go after anyone else when she'd been the one to summon him and feelings began to emerge the more they got to know each other/spent time together.
I did feel like the book was a tad overly long. They spent more time in bed together than they did searching for her sister - which made me get a little fed up at times, and also why it's taken me about a week to read this. Don't get me wrong, though. I did enjoy the interactions between our two characters. They had a lovely camaraderie once they got to know each other and I grew to really like them both.
Considering how I wasn't entirely invested in the story, I found myself getting a little emotional towards the end of this. I actually shed a tear when Rhun was forced back into the Shadows. It was so unfair. Of course, it would be a crappy ending to the book if they didn't get their HEA and of course they do (thank God!).
Paul Kellett (118 KP) rated Shadows of Malice in Tabletop Games
May 8, 2019
Great framework for narrating an adventure (2 more)
Good solo game
Interesting mechanisms
A lot of fiddly tokens (1 more)
Slightly heavy rules
A different take on the adventure board game
Shadows of Malice is an interesting take on the adventure game. Aside from the introduction explaining that you are heroes on a quest to find and activate mystical light wells and defeat the demon and his shadows before they can break through from the shadow realm and capture the wells for evil, there is no fancy artwork, immersive flavour text or even the well known fantasy monsters.
Instead, you get plain cards with simple line art and either just an icon/dice modifier or a short line of text explaining the effect. These cards are items of armour, weapons or other loot, potions, skill masteries, fate effects or abilities. A selection of these make up your character. Again, there are no defined heroes, you can be whatever you fancy being.
When you encounter a monster you roll 3d6 against a chart which will define the creature's species and its strength. Creature types are things like "Avian" and "Reptilian" so you can imagine fighting a dinosaur, a giant eagle or whatever fantastic creature you desire.
This makes the game a great framework to roleplay in. You are never stuck encountering the same things again and again. On the minus side, if you don't have a good imagination, it boils down to just rolling dice and beating target numbers. If you want a game to give you a story to follow, SoM is not that game.
The rules are good, if a little heavy but after a game or two it should soon click and it's mostly straight forward. The designer has recently just uploaded a revised rulebook to BGG which streamlines a number of things.
SoM comes with 4 large landscape hex tiles plus a shadow realm tile and you can choose any number of tiles to arrange in any position around the shadow realm tile. Each tile is divided into a number of smaller hexes with varying terrain and locations printed on them. This is the world you will be exploring and, despite being tiny compared to other game boards, each tile adds about an hour to the play time.
Gameplay involves exploring the land fighting creatures, gaining loot, visiting cities to trade goods or mystic seers to buy potions while searching for the special light wells that you must take control of.
In between player turns, the shadows act. They begin confined to the shadow realm but as the rounds progress, barriers fall and the shadows are more likely to find a way out to manifest in the land. Once there they start searching for the light wells and it's game over if they get to them first .
This makes for a tense cat and mouse with your heroes racing to either get to a well or intercept the demons on route.
Instead, you get plain cards with simple line art and either just an icon/dice modifier or a short line of text explaining the effect. These cards are items of armour, weapons or other loot, potions, skill masteries, fate effects or abilities. A selection of these make up your character. Again, there are no defined heroes, you can be whatever you fancy being.
When you encounter a monster you roll 3d6 against a chart which will define the creature's species and its strength. Creature types are things like "Avian" and "Reptilian" so you can imagine fighting a dinosaur, a giant eagle or whatever fantastic creature you desire.
This makes the game a great framework to roleplay in. You are never stuck encountering the same things again and again. On the minus side, if you don't have a good imagination, it boils down to just rolling dice and beating target numbers. If you want a game to give you a story to follow, SoM is not that game.
The rules are good, if a little heavy but after a game or two it should soon click and it's mostly straight forward. The designer has recently just uploaded a revised rulebook to BGG which streamlines a number of things.
SoM comes with 4 large landscape hex tiles plus a shadow realm tile and you can choose any number of tiles to arrange in any position around the shadow realm tile. Each tile is divided into a number of smaller hexes with varying terrain and locations printed on them. This is the world you will be exploring and, despite being tiny compared to other game boards, each tile adds about an hour to the play time.
Gameplay involves exploring the land fighting creatures, gaining loot, visiting cities to trade goods or mystic seers to buy potions while searching for the special light wells that you must take control of.
In between player turns, the shadows act. They begin confined to the shadow realm but as the rounds progress, barriers fall and the shadows are more likely to find a way out to manifest in the land. Once there they start searching for the light wells and it's game over if they get to them first .
This makes for a tense cat and mouse with your heroes racing to either get to a well or intercept the demons on route.
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Girl in the Shadows (Cirque American) in Books
Nov 16, 2019
Eighteen-year-old Moira Mitchell grew up in the shadows of Vegas's stage lights while her father's career as a magician soared. More than anything, Moira wants to be a magician too, but her father is dead set against her pursuing magic.
When an invitation to join the Cirque American mistakenly falls into Moira's possession, she takes action. Instead of giving the highly coveted invitation to its intended recipient, Raleigh, her father's handsome and worldly former apprentice, Moira takes off to join the Cirque. If she can perform alongside its world-famous acts, she knows she'll be able to convince her dad that magic is her future.
But when Moira arrives, things take on an intensity she can't control as her stage magic suddenly feels like...real magic. To further distract her, Raleigh shows up none too pleased at Moira's presence, all while the Cirque's cocky and intriguing knife thrower, Dez, seems to have it out for her. As tensions mount and Moira's abilities come into question, she must decide what's real and what's an illusion. If she doesn't sort it out in time, she may forever remain a girl in the shadows.
I forgot how much I had enjoyed the first book. So this book was like slipping back into that world. Was lovely to see old characters and meet the new. Also seeing the history and journey of this magical coin. Gwenda Bond brings us magic you could believe existed.
Recommended
⭐⭐
When an invitation to join the Cirque American mistakenly falls into Moira's possession, she takes action. Instead of giving the highly coveted invitation to its intended recipient, Raleigh, her father's handsome and worldly former apprentice, Moira takes off to join the Cirque. If she can perform alongside its world-famous acts, she knows she'll be able to convince her dad that magic is her future.
But when Moira arrives, things take on an intensity she can't control as her stage magic suddenly feels like...real magic. To further distract her, Raleigh shows up none too pleased at Moira's presence, all while the Cirque's cocky and intriguing knife thrower, Dez, seems to have it out for her. As tensions mount and Moira's abilities come into question, she must decide what's real and what's an illusion. If she doesn't sort it out in time, she may forever remain a girl in the shadows.
I forgot how much I had enjoyed the first book. So this book was like slipping back into that world. Was lovely to see old characters and meet the new. Also seeing the history and journey of this magical coin. Gwenda Bond brings us magic you could believe existed.
Recommended
⭐⭐