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Picture Perfect
Picture Perfect
Jodi Picoult | 1995 | Fiction & Poetry
9
7.0 (7 Ratings)
Book Rating
Beautiful. That's it.

A sad story so beautifully told is the key to break my heart. It did exactly that. I say it's sad because it really is but it does have some incredibly romantic scenes too which not only melt your heart but make you fall in love with the book its characters.

The tender theme of abuse was used with the utmost sensitivity, the only way I can describe it, is that it's told in such a sickly sweet way that it just hits you. Hard. I struggled to read the novel just because it genuinely broke my heart to see this perfectly capable beautiful and smart lady, Cassie, just break in half.

I love Cassie's character! So bright, sweet, smart and elegant. She is so very lovable which makes her story so utterly moving. I liked that she was quite quirky and wouldn't usually fall for the Alex Rivers type which made her falling in love wonderfully romantic and charming. I feel bad for saying it but I even liked Alex Rivers, underneath he is just a damaged man with a shattered heart. I liked that he was charming and obviously attractive even if he knew it. While he wasn't necessarily a nice man he was more than appealing and incredibly romantic. He just got it wrong, very wrong and on this occasion it wasn't okay and couldn't be fixed.

I loved the kind of twist to the story and how you remember along with Cassie, it's like a journey. I also really like the unusual nature of the how the story is told, the fact that she can't remember is definitely the hook to find out more. I loved all of the characters as each seemed to have direct impact on Cassie herself, making it just that little bit more compelling.

I know this review kind of skips around the point but I don't want to spoil anything.

Like I said... Beautiful.
  
The Westing Game
The Westing Game
Ellen Raskin | 2004 | Fiction & Poetry, Mystery, Young Adult (YA)
10
8.1 (7 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Westing Game enthralled me from the very first page and I had a hard time putting the book down from that point on. Full of atmosphere, Ms. Raskin wrote a smart, clever, and intriguing story that had my mind striving to figure out the mystery within. A short book (my copy was 182 pages), the author nevertheless managed to capture the characters, the settings, and everything really, with a skillful ease. Written for children, I think I'd be bereft in mentioning that it is much more mature than a typical "kid's book" and I imagine many adults would enjoy this if they're into well-executed mysteries. I appreciated the "epilogue," of sorts, although felt a few things were too pat, but overall it was a near perfect story. Though I never quite unraveled the whole puzzle, the journey alone was worth the enjoyment I got out of this book.
4.5 stars
  
The Perfect Mother
The Perfect Mother
Aimee Molloy | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry, Thriller
8
8.0 (8 Ratings)
Book Rating
I honestly wasn’t sure how much I would like this one since I am not yet a mother, so I can’t relate to all the things these new mothers are going through. However, once I started reading it was pretty difficult to stop! There are a lot of real issues that new mothers go through from wanting to appear perfect to feeling like they aren’t good enough. Then there’s a baby that goes missing, a baby from a mommy group the main characters are a part of, and there’s a ton of whodunnit, crime blog searching, amateur detective work going on. You don’t know who is telling the truth or even whose perspective you are reading from. I thought I knew what was going on and thought I was so smart having figured it all out but I was definitely wrong (about pretty much everything!). This was a good, quick read and actually had an ending that is satisfying and doesn’t feel rushed.
  
40x40

Awix (3310 KP) rated Moxie (2021) in Movies

Mar 28, 2021  
Moxie (2021)
Moxie (2021)
2021 | Comedy, Drama, Music
8
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Superior Netflix high-school comedy-drama. A teenage girl is provoked into starting a feminist club at her high school and resist the double-standards she sees everywhere. (There are jokes, too.)

Sounds like another crashingly didactic piece of post-Weinstein agitprop, but director Amy Poehler is smart enough to mix a little more grit and nuance into the formula. There are still things about the movie which grate slightly - the female principal of the school is almost comically indifferent, there's a rather-too-glib piece of plotting about a rape, and the demonisation of white men is surely problematic - but this is subtle and funny and occasionally sweet and tender, and you do care about the characters and their situations. The film is insightful enough to imply that even if an injustice is brazen and obvious, it doesn't necessarily follow that the solution to it is straightforward. This is an openly feminist film with an axe to grind, but still an accessible piece of entertainment.
  
Lash (The Skulls, #1)
Lash (The Skulls, #1)
2
2.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
DNF @27%

Yeah, I've decided I don't like MC (motocycle club) books too much. I don't get the concept of them and some of their rules just pee me off.

What the hell's up with this one?

A guy who--in her own words--says 'she didn't realise he had ever noticed her' suddenly goes all dark and brooding on her one night, drags her upstairs and starts kissing/touching her and she just lets him? When she's a virgin? Really? Cos I'm not buying it.

He then orders her to come to terms with his interest in her and that she's now his and she just rolls with it?

If I'm going to read and enjoy a MC book I need a kick arse, smart-alec who gives as good as she gets and I'm sorry but--I can't even remember the main characters name :/--she wasn't that for me.

Will not be reading the next books.