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Pink Lemonade Cake Murder
Pink Lemonade Cake Murder
Joanne Fluke | 2023 | Mystery
3
3.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Three Strikes, You’re Dead
Summer has come to Lake Eden, and Hannah is excited to be hosting the snack booth at the baseball tournament in Lake Eden, debuting her new pink lemonade themed desserts. One of the celebrity participants is Bernie “No-No” Fulton, a local who pitch part of a season for the Twins. But when Hannah’s mother finds No-No’s body under the bleachers, Hannah has a new mystery to solve. After all, Delores had a reason to dislike the man, so Hannah’s mother is a suspect. Can Hannah figure out who wanted him out permanently?

Once again, fans of the series will know what to expect. The mystery is decent, but the story is padded with lots of talk about food, even for a culinary cozy. And the sub-plot involving Mike slows down the beginning of the story. I also had a hard time buying how the police deal with Hannah’s sleuthing in this book. And yet, I still do like checking in on the characters, and the recipes sound delicious as always. The cliffhanger makes it obvious we are back in the soap opera territory I had hoped we’d left behind. If you are curious about the series, start with the early books to see why so many people read it.
  
    By Degrees

    By Degrees

    JB McDonald

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    Book

    Con’s a firefighter; he knows a burning flame when he sees one. But as things heat up between him...

105 of 220
Book
Reread
Fantasy Lover ( Dark Hunter 1)
By Sherrilyn Kenyon
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It might sound like a man's favorite fantasy - to live forever, destined to be the lover of thousands of women. But for Julian of Macedon, it's a nightmare. Once he was a proud Spartan general; now he's a love-slave, his essence magically held captive in a book, cursed to spend all eternity pleasing women. Then, one day, Grace Alexander summons Julian to fulfill her passionate dreams - and sees beyond the fantasy to the man himself.

Long years as a sex therapist, listening to other people's bedroom problems, have taken a lot of the fun out of the physical side of love for Grace. But with or without sex, the rules of the enchantment cannot be changed - Julian is hers for the next month. And, as their time together slips by, Julian and Grace find more to share than sympathy and conversation and they begin to wonder if love might be within their grasp. That leaves only one question. Is love enough to break a 2,000-year-old curse?

This is a reread for me and one of my favourites. The Dark Hunter series has to be one of the best fantasy series out there. I love the Greek gods and everything these books bring.
  
The Flash (2023)
The Flash (2023)
2023 | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
8
7.2 (11 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The Best DCEU Film Since the original WONDER WOMAN
At this point in time, the average movie-going public is suffering from “Super-Hero” fatigue, and (more than likely) “multi-verse” fatigue because the latest entries in this genre all are tapping the same type of experience (in order to pull in properties/characters from other films). It’s a smart strategy from a Movie Executive point-of-view as they can bring in other, generally liked/loved characters from previous films/entities.

Sometimes it works Excellently (SPIDER-MAN ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE), sometimes it works “Well Enough” (DR. STRANGE IN THE MULTI-VERSE OF MADNESS) and sometimes it is just plain boring (the latest ANT-MAN movie), so expectation is that the DCEU will find a way to screw this up and make dull and boring a premise (and characters) that should be exciting and fun.

And…with THE FLASH, the DCEU got it right (for once) and it is the most fun DCEU film since the first WONDER WOMAN film.

Based on the FLASHPOINT comics series and Directed by Andy Muschietti (IT and IT, Part II), THE FLASH Isn’t (really) a “multi-verse” story, it’s a time travel tale (that causes multi-verses). An important distinction for the Fanboy - but rather unimportant to the regular movie-going person. This tale brings a bunch of fun (and humor!) to the DCEU as well as touching on the fondness nerve for by-gone characters (and the actors who portrayed them).

Central to this film is, of course, THE FLASH, played by Ezra Miller. Your enjoyment of this film will swing on whether you find Miller’s performance “fun” or “annoying” for it strides that line between the two. For the BankofMarquis, Miller’s performance was a ton of fun - which added to the enjoyment rather than taking away from it.

He is joined by a bevy of cameo appearances - to name any would be to spoil them - but (since it is in the trailer), Miller does spend much of this film interacting with his younger self and he succeeds (more than he fails) during this part of the film. The 2 Millers are also joined by Michael Keaton, reprising his role as Batman from the 1980’s (again…not a spoiler - he’s in the trailer). Keaton brings starpower - and star energy - to this film and he lifts the middle portion of this movie.

Muschietti conducts this orchestra of multiple-cameos, multiple versions of the same character and multiple special effects professionally and cleanly, never letting the audience get lost and (most certainly) never letting the camera (or the film) linger too long on any plot device (which hides the holes that, inevitably, show up).

A fun, enough, installment in the DCEU - with some heart and a large portion of nostalgia - THE FLASH is a positive way to say goodbye to the DCEU.

Letter Grade: B+

7 1/2 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
  
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
2014 | Action, Sci-Fi
Life for Peter Parker, (Andrew Garfield), has become interesting to say the least. He is juggling the delicate and complex balance of being Spider-man as well as a high school senior and boyfriend to Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone).

His enthusiasm for his wall crawling alter ego is evident from the start as he still is as fast with a quip as he is with his webs and fists when taking down the bad guys of New York.

 

A chance encounter with an ultra nerdy yet brilliant Oscorp employee named Max (Jaime Foxx), puts a series of events into motion that will put the city and Spider-man on a collision with a severe danger.

When a freak accident transforms Max into a being capable of becoming and discharging pure electricity, the passive aggressive Max has an outlet for his pent up anger and hero worship and sets to make all those who ignored him pay.

At the same time, internal politics have left Oscorp in the hands of young Harry who learns he has limited time to solidify his position and legacy.

 

All of this would be enough for anyone to deal with but Peter is conflicted by his love for Gwen and his promise to her late father to stay away from her for her own safety.

Peter also has to content with his Aunt May (Sally Field) and unlocking the mystery of his parents who left him with his Aunt and Uncle years earlier never to return.

If this sounds a bit heady for a comic book based movie then you will not be surprised with the first ¾ of the film. It does contain some great 3D moments of Spider-man slinging his way around the city and some good moments of action but mostly the audience gets character introductions and plot expositions.

 

When it does get to the action, it does so in a very sleek and stylish way but one that is so obviously CGI created that it plays more like a video game.

For me the liberties taking with the characters and the history of the series were a bit much at first as what they came up with for Electro is not even close to the way he is portrayed in the comics.

Thankfully the final act of the film delivers and sets up future films in grand style even though the trailers tease content that is barely in the film and would have made for a great addition to the film.

Garfield and Stone have great chemistry with one another, and Foxx does his best despite in my opinion being very miscast for the role.

 

Director Marc Webb is clearly a fan of the source material and I am eager to see what he comes up with for future installments.

As it stands, “The Amazing Spider-man 2”, is an enjoyable summer film but not as good as the film that preceded it and could have been so much more.

http://sknr.net/2014/05/02/amazing-spider-man-2/