Search

Search only in certain items:

Snow White with the Red Hair, Vol. 1
Snow White with the Red Hair, Vol. 1
Sorata Akiduki | 2019 | Comics & Graphic Novels
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The first volume of Snow White with the Red Hair was just okay. It wasn't awful, but it didn't exactly pull me in. It started getting slightly more interesting around halfway through the book. It had a few cute moments, but it seemed like it should have almost been a series targeted for the junior reading age group. However, the subject matter is geared toward the young adult audience. It's just one of those odd stories that hangs in limbo between reading audiences. Also, being a retelling of a classic tale, I must say that it only seemed that way for the first handful of pages, at most. Then it was like every other manga series with the theme that it follows.
  
Since this is the second in the series and emphasizes the story from the first part, I will include my review from that.

This is supposed to be a Snow White retelling but I really couldn’t see it. Regardless, it’s an erotic fairytale retelling which is right up my alley. It’s heavy on the erotica while still having enough plot to push the story forward. Normally I would be aggravated that this story is divided into three parts but I knew that going in and already had the rest of the story so I didn’t have to wait for the rest.

I love friends to lovers stories, especially childhood friends. I would like to say I enjoyed the premise to this story but honestly I thought it was stupid. I wish I had better word but there it is. Now you may be saying “but you knew that going in!” Honestly, I was hoping it was going to be a ménage. I guess it was just wishful thinking, because what I got instead was the age old “hey let me ask my male friend how to seduce this other male but wait my friend wants me” trope.

As the second in the series, Snow’s Submission continues with the heat and erotic scenes. However, I found myself disenchanted with Snow. I felt like she could have been a stronger lead and I wasn’t happy with how she handled the situation. At the same time, I understand the predicament she was in and furious with those who put her there.

That being said, I won’t ruin anything for you.
  
40x40

Ross (3282 KP) rated The Last Wish in Books

Apr 13, 2018  
The Last Wish
The Last Wish
Andrzej Sapkowski | 2008 | Fiction & Poetry
7
8.5 (14 Ratings)
Book Rating
Well written but didn't exactly hook me
I've read collections of short stories before but never have I cared less about what happened in them than I did here. The stories are loosely collated with an overall additional story over the top of them. The stories have something of a fairytale feel to them (one an alternate telling of Beauty and the Beast, another like Snow White gone bad, yet another has a tough of Rumpelstiltskin to it), but most invariably include some heaving cleavages and women that throw themselves at the hero.
The stories are well enough told but it may be the translation that left me struggling to concentrate on the story and my attention wandered. A very short book, this took me longer to read than it should have.
  
Owl Be Home for Christmas
Owl Be Home for Christmas
Donna Andrews | 2019 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
White Christmas? Check! But Will Snow and a Killer Keep Meg from Being Home for Christmas?
It’s a few days before Christmas and Meg Langslow and much of her family are at the Caerphilly Inn for Owl Fest 2019, a conference being put on by Meg’s grandfather. Unfortunately, the worst winter storm in decades has also decided to visit, trapping the attendees in the hotel and possibly keeping them from going home for Christmas. As the snow continues to fall, tempers continue to rise. Owls are not without their controversy, but Dr. Frogmore seems to be at the center of much of the arguments breaking out. No one much likes him, but for some, the problems with him go much deeper. However, when Dr. Frogmore drops dead, Meg’s father suspects that it wasn’t natural causes. Are they trapped at the inn with a killer? Can Meg figure out what is really happening before the snow ends so the conference attendees fly home?

This novel uses a classic mystery trope – everyone trapped someplace with a killer. I’m a little disappointed since it’s been used twice in a row in the series now, and the result was me beginning to feel a bit claustrophobic while I was reading. The mystery itself was solid. It’s obvious early on who the victim will be, and we learn about motives and suspects even before he drops dead. The further complications after the murder takes place kept me guessing until the end. As much as I enjoy spending time with Meg’s family, they aren’t as funny as they used to be. The new characters do provide some laughs, but there are some serious issues in the book that dampen some of the humor. All told, this is still a fun entry to the series that will please Meg’s many fans.
  
Since this is the third in the series and emphasizes the story from previous two, I will include my original review.

This is supposed to be a Snow White retelling but I really couldn’t see it. Regardless, it’s an erotic fairytale retelling which is right up my alley. It’s heavy on the erotica while still having enough plot to push the story forward. Normally I would be aggravated that this story is divided into three parts but I knew that going in and already had the rest of the story so I didn’t have to wait for the rest.

I love friends to lovers stories, especially childhood friends. I would like to say I enjoyed the premise to this story but honestly I thought it was stupid. I wish I had better word but there it is. Now you may be saying “but you knew that going in!” Honestly, I was hoping it was going to be a ménage. I guess it was just wishful thinking, because what I got instead was the age old “hey let me ask my male friend how to seduce this other male but wait my friend wants me” trope.

The final in the series is everything you need and more. Even from someone who is bitter that this wasn’t the ménage she was looking for. I couldn’t have been happier with the ending if I wrote it myself. That being said, there were still many things I was aggravated with. There were few ties to Snow White, little shifter elements, and the story was split in three when it could have easily been one whole story.

Overall, the story was enjoyable if you are looking for a friends-to-lovers erotica.
  
The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
1940 | Action, Family, Sci-Fi
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"The beautiful music by Miklós Rózsa (the first film score ever released as a recording), the photography by Georges Périnal, the production design by Vincent Korda, and the performances by the Indian child star Sabu, Conrad Veidt, and the entire cast make it the most beautiful fantasy film I’ve ever seen. Like Snow White and The Wizard of Oz from the same period, this type of fairy tale depends on an innocence that has long since vanished, but I think it still works its magic today and is better than all the computer-generated children’s films of the last twenty years combined. Michael Powell, who was only one of many directors who made different sections of the film, attributes its true authorship to the genius of Sabu and the vision of its great producer, Alexander Korda."

Source
  
Prue and Ophelia take on jobs as maids to the Coops, Americans who are traveling to their castle in Germany’s black forest. Almost as soon as they’ve arrived, a cottage is discovered on the property that looks like a dwarf cottage, and fairytale experts are brought in. The next day, Mr. Coop is poisoned with an apple. What have Prue and Ophelia gotten themselves into?

I love fairytales and fairytale reimaginings, so I had to give this cozy mystery series a try. It was so much fun. The story was fast paced, and the fairytale aspect provided a nice twist to the cozy formula. The characters were sharp as well, and the author made perfect use of a multiple viewpoint story. Can’t wait for the sequel.

Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2015/06/book-review-snow-white-red-handed-by.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
  
Dumbo (1941)
Dumbo (1941)
1941 | Animation, Classics, Family
The cartoon returns...
Contains spoilers, click to show
I was never the biggest fan of this one, having seen it to death as a child. "Dumbo" was in many ways regarded as a lesser Disney classic, never really treated with the same regard as "Pinocchio", "Snow White" or "Bambi". But as I continue to work my way through this studio's classics, I am more than pleasantly surprised to rediscover this gem.

With a short running time of 64 minutes, which must barely qualify as film, this was the most cartoonish Disney feature of this era that I had seen, definitely not to the same higher brow animation standards of the afore-mentioned, but funnier and more enjoyable, without a doubt.

The little engine that could humour and the overall concept, being more zany that its counterparts help this stand out and being a much more entertaining piece of cinema than I had originally given it credit for. Not the greatest animation in history, but fun none the less.
  
HS
Hospital Sketches
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
It was a good thing to have read but it strongly underscored a painfully ignorant romanticized view of war that Americans are so fond of. She did not see children shot on the road in cold blood, she did not see officers give their men permission to rape any woman who disrespected them. She did not see the pow camps, did not see grandmothers and babies dead of exposure in the snow. She did not see the factory worker women (largely woc) kidnapped, raped over many days, and then abandoned hundreds of miles from home with nothing. There were no “white saviors” here or anywhere. War is not Romantic. Even the “Just Cause” lies on a bed of sending boys with little (if any) stake in the disagreement to maim and kill and torture other boys like themselves because old men can’t be bothered to work out their disputes at a table and instead delight in laying waste to their Nation’s youth.
  
Fables: Volume 1: Legends in Exile
Fables: Volume 1: Legends in Exile
Bill Willingham | 2002 | Comics & Graphic Novels
9
7.3 (13 Ratings)
Book Rating
An interesting take on fairy tales!
I kept seeing this series being recommended, and I eventually managed to convince my husband to buy it for me for Christmas. I'm glad he did - I loved it!
The Adversary has forced the Fairy Tales out of their homelands and those who have survived now live in New York. They have their own government, and they are hiding from the general population in plain sight.
We join the Big Bad Wolf (who looks human - of course) as he investigates the murder of Rose Red. Other fairytale characters are featured during the course of Wolf's investigation: Snow White, Prince Charming (who is a sleaze ball!), Jack and loads of other characters. I can see the basis of the other comics emerging in this first one, and I really liked the bits at the end: short cartoons and stories about the battles with the Adversary and the Fairytales' escapes. Really good stuff!!