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His Lordship's Master (His Lordship’s Mysteries #2)
His Lordship's Master (His Lordship’s Mysteries #2)
Samantha SoRelle | 2020 | LGBTQ+, Mystery, Romance
8
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I could see that things were really not as they were portrayed to be.
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

This is book 2 in the His Lordship's Mysteries series, and while this can be read as a stand alone, I really think you SHOULD read book one, His Lordship's Secret before this one. Lots happened in that book that is referenced here, but not fully explained. You could probably piece things together, but I think to get the full effect of Alfie and Dominick, you need to read that book first.

Still recovering from what happened in London, Alfie and Dominick retreat to his family house in Scotland. And find themselves in the middle of an age-old mystery. What with ghosts and missing people and now a dead butler, Alfie and Dominick jump headlong into another caper!

I really was enjoying this a bit more than book one, but something triggered with me, and I found myself thinking about another book. With another ago-old mystery, with another painting, in another castle. And I'm stumped as to which book it was, but after that point, I found I didn't enjoy it quite so much.

Oh don't get me wrong, please. It's really well written, from both Alfie and Dominick's point of view. There are more things revealed about both Alfie and Dom's lives in the time they were apart. There is much love here, even if they sometimes forget that.

I again quote my review for Secret:

I loved that the whodunnit was so NOT who I was expecting, nor was it WHY! I love being kept on my toes!

Because I really did not see that one coming at me. But the whole Wicked Master thing? I could see that coming at me, even before the point I mentioned before. I could see that things were really not as they were portrayed to be.

There are almost two stories going on here. The missing woman and the dead butler, then the Wicked Master thing. I liked that, along with the growing deepening connection between Alfie and Dom, which evokes some mighty powerful feelings here!

So, even though things were a little blurry, I did enjoy it and I'll still give it. . .

4 solid stars

*same worded review will appear elsewhere
  
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Tom Chaplin recommended Melody A.M. by Royksopp in Music (curated)

 
Melody A.M. by Royksopp
Melody A.M. by Royksopp
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"It was great times, I was living in London. Actually, I should probably temper that. It was shit times, but there were one or two great times, it would have been like 2001, living London, having no money. I was working in shitty, office temping jobs, typing numbers in to computers, it was soul destroying and, in the evenings, we’d rehearse but I lived for the weekend. I remember that album came out and there hadn’t been any albums that had come out that had grabbed me that had the combination of being real songs that you could dance to, almost like house music dancing. Around that time, I was taking so much ecstasy and every weekend I’d take a couple of pills and go dancing. That album was a perfect companion for those times. I remember going to see them on my birthday at the Astoria or somewhere like that, and just having such a wicked time. These days I just don’t have the energy to go out dancing, but I loved it, it was truly brilliant. For me it’s still the greatest dance record that I know of."

Source
  
Wicked Nobles (Nocturnal Academy #1)
Wicked Nobles (Nocturnal Academy #1)
Holly Hook, Margo Ryerkerk | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry, Young Adult (YA)
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
202
Kindle
Wicked Nobles ( Nocturnal Academy book 1)
By Margo Ryerkerk and Holly Hook

In a world ruled by vamps, being half fae and magicless sucks.
You know what’s even worse? Being sold into slavery by your own mother.

I am Onyx Logan, and my mother condemned me when she sent me to Nocturnal Academy. If I get lucky, the academy will mold me into a servant for rich vampires. If I’m not, I’ll become a courtesan.

But if the vamps think I’ll take this lying down like a good little bitch, they’re wrong. I don’t have the means to escape Nocturnal Academy, but I have my eyes set on someone who does.

Prince Preston Kallan, a handsome, pureblood fae teacher from the Summer Court, doesn’t know who I am yet, but he will soon. At least that was the plan. Because as it turns out, nothing goes the way I expect.


This is wasn’t bad at all! Written well and shows so much promise! I was torn between 3 and 4 stars. It’s an interesting story and a take on vampires and far I’ve not seen before. Quite a short books so im looking forward to reading more.
  
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LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Friend Request (2016) in Movies

Oct 6, 2020 (Updated Oct 6, 2020)  
Friend Request (2016)
Friend Request (2016)
2016 | Horror, International, Mystery
*decline*. Jesus, I usually have a wicked high tolerance for these Gen-Z-catered idiotic mainstream horror flicks but this was abysmal. I'm offended that this could even be uttered within the same sentence as the rip-roaring, unnerving, and highly idiosyncratic 𝘜𝘯𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥 films which - at least for a time - were required to shit on because at the time Facebook was still this relatively new and trendy thing that kids liked... but now that it's dying can we finally admit those were actually both genius *and* truly scary? Especially after this absolutely formless drivel. Flimsily acted even by these movies' low standards, and its depiction of mental illness can be generously described as execrable - it initially begins as a sort of interesting dissection of social media etiquette and the very narrow view of what we consider to be 'weird' by its standards... but then it reveals its true colors by demonizing these very real conditions/behaviors by way of shoddy technophobic bullshit. The thing is, this actually has some good horror movie imagery in it too - a fair amount - but it's made in such a repellent way that I also don't really care. Plus it's overcut to hell.
  
The Haunted Palace (1963)
The Haunted Palace (1963)
1963 | Horror
7
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Vincent Price (0 more)
Something Wicked
The Haunted Palace- is anethor Poe, Price and Corrman film. But Although marketed as "Edgar Allan Poe's The Haunted Palace", the film actually derives its plot from The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, a novella by H. P. Lovecraft. The title The Haunted Palace is borrowed from the 6-stanza poem by Poe, published in 1839 (which was later incorporated into Poe's horror short story "The Fall of the House of Usher"), and the film uses eight lines from the poem within the framing of the story. So in reality its a H.P. Lovecraft story and a Poe title.

The plot: Condemned warlock Joseph Curwen (Vincent Price) curses a New England village just before being burned alive. More than a century later, Curwen's kindly great-great grandson Charles Ward (also Price) arrives in town and moves into Curwen's old mansion. Caretaker Simon Orne (Lon Chaney Jr.) helps Charles and his wife Ann (Debra Paget) adjust to their new home. The ancient curse, however, takes hold of Joseph, awakening inside him a long-dormant evil passed on through blood.

Its a decent film.