Search

Search only in certain items:

40x40

ClareR (5577 KP) rated A Single Thread in Books

Sep 12, 2019  
A Single Thread
A Single Thread
Tracy Chevalier | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry
10
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
A wonderful book!
A Single Thread is set in the period after World War 1, just before Hitler takes power in Germany. Violet Speedwell is a ‘surplus woman’, and so she is expected to live out her life caring for her ageing, cantankerous mother, and throwing herself on the mercy of her brother as she ages. However, Violet isn’t prepared to live her life like this. She manages to get a transfer from her job in Southampton to their Winchester offices. Life isn’t easy for Violet, and she lives off sandwiches and tea in her rented room. By chance, she finds herself in Winchester Cathedral on the day of the Society of Broderers service, where the embroidered kneelers and cushions are blessed and placed in the cathedral for the public to use. Violet finds herself drawn to the embroidery, and even though she has no experience, she becomes involved in the group.

I loved the descriptions of the embroidery: the different stitches, the colours, the camaraderie and friendships that Violet makes with Gilda and Miss Pesel (who incidentally, really existed - and what a life SHE had!). Who knew that embroidery and campanology (bell-ringing) could be so interesting?! Violet becomes very interested in bell-ringing - whether that’s because of the actual bell-ringing, or the fatherly Arthur who she falls in love with, I’m not quite sure.

I thought the social attitudes of the time were really well portrayed. ‘Spare women’ weren’t regarded very favourably, but this was something completely out of their control: so many young men had been killed during the war, that there just weren’t enough men to go round. And when some women found love with one another, they were ostracised and ridiculed. It’s good to see that we have moved on in some ways.

Anyway, I loved this book. It’s not just about embroidery and campanology, and I think that any reader will be pleasantly surprised at how interesting Tracy Chevalier makes these things! It’s a social commentary, a love story, a story about friendship and passion: of the man/ woman, woman/ woman and hobbies varieties. And I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.
  
G&
Gods & Monsters ( Book 1)
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
16 of 235
Kindle
Gods & Monsters ( Book 1)
By Janie Marie
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Monsters are real, legends are truth—and the man who saves Jane's life is an immortal knight. But it will be her secret past with the Angel of Death that changes everything.

Gods & Monsters - Book One
When the plague of all plagues begins its destruction, it isn't a miracle cure by scientists or even our military that saves us.
No, our saviors are monsters.

Jane appears to be nothing special. In fact, she's a sad sight to behold. Afflicted by the sorrow of her tragic past and failing marriage, the young mother of two is as terrified as every other soul when humanity faces doom. Yet, when hope seems lost, Jane does something even her estranged husband fails to--she fights. And she's not alone.

David and his companions are what our world has dismissed as mere legend. Their duty to the human race brings them across the country, and they all know it is no coincidence when they cross paths with Jane.

As it happens, Jane is special. She's destined to rid the world of darkness.

With monsters from every nightmare seeking her out, a noble immortal knight showing her what love truly feels like, a secret past that even Jane can't remember, and even more powerful beings wagering the fate of her soul, Jane will embark on an epic journey to save her family and the world.

So what will happen when they realize she's the greatest monster of them all?

Gods✔️ monsters ✔️ Arthur and his nights as immortals ✔️ what’s not to love right? Well I’m stuck as I wanted to give it 4 stars but there were a few draw backs for me the main one being it felt rushed in some places and sometimes abit over explained and slightly cheesy! But I absolutely love all the gods and mythology and all at war. All on sides you don’t expect I was enjoying the book then bam Hades and yea I’m a sucker for the God of the underworld!


Warnings: Triggers for abuse, sa, mental health disorders. Heavy violence, horror, strong language, emotional and controversial themes, sex, rape(not praised), will have multiple loves for the heroine.
  
Prophesy (The King & Alpha, #1)
Prophesy (The King & Alpha, #1)
A.E. Via | 2017 | LGBTQ+, Paranormal, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Prophesy (The King & Alpha Series #1) by A.E. Via
Prophesy is the first book in The King & Alpha series, and we start off with Justice and Wick. Justice is the Alpha Zenith, the biggest, baddest wolf shifter of them all. He is fated with Wick, the Vampire King. Both of these know the difficulties in ruling, the decisions that have to be made. One decision that was taken out of Justice's hand was that of a mate. He never imagined he would end up with a vampire, and he paid the price for his pride.

I wouldn't call this an enemy to lover story, as it is their RACES that are at war, not each other. Yes, they have a misunderstanding, but nothing that isn't easily resolved. I enjoyed seeing how they both knew what punishments would work best for their own, and they weren't afraid to punish those responsible. This is the first book, so there is a lot of world-building, and a hint of more story to come (crazy human scientists).

This was an easy read, with it being well-written and evenly paced. There are some steamy moments in there, and the hint of more than one story yet to come. A great start to the series, and definitely recommended by me.

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
  
Fae: The Wild Hunt (The Ryvern Wyrd Saga #1)
Fae: The Wild Hunt (The Ryvern Wyrd Saga #1)
Graham Austin-King | 2014 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
36 of 250
Kindle
Fae: The Wild Hunt ( The Riven Wyrde saga book 1)
By Graham Austin-King

Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments

Sometimes the faerie tales are a warning. Sometimes they are true.

The Fae were banished so long ago they have become a myth, but the ancient barriers are failing. They are returning, and vengeance is within their grasp.

Klöss wants nothing more than to pass the trials and join the ranks of the Bjornmen raiders, following in the footsteps of his forefathers. But times are changing in the Barren Isles. Coastal plunder is making way for outright conquest, and the threat of war is looming.

Found abandoned in the forest, Devin leads a simple life. But fate, it seems, has other plans.
As his sleepy village transforms in the face of foreign invaders, whispered rumours tell of creatures in the moonlight, shadowy figures with eyes of amber flame. The Fae were banished so long ago they have become a myth, but the ancient barriers are failing. They are returning, and vengeance is within their grasp.

As the first battles rage, only one man seems to know the truth about the Fae, but can Devin or Klöss convince anyone before it is too late?
It was ok a lot of character and world building with action towards the end. Some interesting characters I did get a little bit bored in some parts but I can see what is trying to be achieved so worth sticking with at the moment.
  
D(
Divine ( The Revelations 2)
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
2 of 220
Kindle
Divine ( The revelations 2)
By Leanne Rathbone
⭐️⭐️⭐️

What do you do when you discover that your entire life has been a lie, that you were living solely to serve the purpose of another?Seventeen year old Grace Ayre is heartbroken. She's still reeling from the devastating loss of two people whom she loved and the realisation that her life has never really been her own.Lies and deceptions are all she's ever known but now the truth is out. The world she thought she knew is only half the story, and the more she hears from the other side, the more she realises she is nothing more than a clueless little girl. She must reach her eighteenth birthday in order to fulfil a prophecy and end a war that has raged since the dawn of time. There's just one problem...the Guardians are standing in her way. As a band of despicable assassins without conscience, they will stop at nothing to end Grace's life and prevent the prophecy from being realised.If she thought falling hard for a demon was her biggest problem then she was sadly mistaken.Turning eighteen has never been so important.

This was the second in the series and while I did enjoy it and we learned a lot more about Grace and what she has to face I wasnt as gripped as I was with book 1. I can’t exactly pinpoint why though and that is so annoying I just found myself pushing through this one.
  
Love, Death & Robots
Love, Death & Robots
2019 | Action, Animation, Comedy
Unique And Visceral Experience
Love, Death, & Robots is an adult animated anthology tv series on Netflix. The series is produced by Joshua Donen, David Fincher, Jennifer Miller, and Tim Miller. Each of the 18 episodes released on the first season was animated by different crews from a range of countries. It's also a re-imagining of 1981 animated sci-fi film Heavy Metal. Starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Topher Grace, Gary Cole, Samira Wiley, and Stefan Kapicic.


Produced by different casts and crews, and consisting of 18 stand-alone episodes, each under 20 minutes, the title of the series refers to the recurring themes of love, death, and robots in each episode. Full of terrifying creatures, wicked surprises and dark comedy, it's a collection of animated short stories spanning several genres like horror, comedy, fantasy, and science fiction. Captivating stories come to life with world-class animation in a plethora of tales unlike anything else.


This series was wicked awesome. Reminded me of some of the other animated anthologies I've seen such as The Animatrix and Batman: Gotham Knight, except quite a bit more NSFW. This series also gave me a Twilight Zone vibe but bit darker. More blood and guts and highly sexual. Even though it's pretty graphic, I really liked a lot of the stories they told and the twists that most had in the end as well. Some are kind of hit or miss or just better than others but I think that there is definitely something for everyone despite the gore and nudity and language. I especially enjoyed the following episodes, 1. Sonnie's Edge, 8. Good Hunting, 10. Shape-Shifters, 13. Lucky 13, and 18. Secret War. The way they went about the story telling and world building in each episode was phenomenal. I really feel that some of these episodes deserve their own individual films or series to do them better justice. I mean some were just so good and less than 20 minutes felt like not enough or that they could have been even better. I give the entire series overall a 9/10.
  
40x40

Charlie Cobra Reviews (1840 KP) rated Train to Busan (2016) in Movies

Jul 7, 2020 (Updated Oct 22, 2020)  
Train to Busan (2016)
Train to Busan (2016)
2016 | Action, Drama, Horror
Thrillingly Unique and Entertaining Addition to the Zombie Film
Contains spoilers, click to show
This movie was great and the unique concept of having the survivors on a train was different from any zombie I've ever seen. Seok-woo is a divorced business man who never has time for his daughter, whose only wish for her birthday is to see her mother. After reluctantly agreeing to take her by train a zombie apocalypse occurs and they have to survive on the train. The scenes on the train were pretty amazing and really intense. Having to fight zombies in close quarters at times with no weapons made them incredibly tense, especially the ones where they had to sneak past them in the dark. As I said before a big thing that bothered me was that in certain scenes it appeared as if the zombies didn't actually attack the people to eat them but just bite them spreading the virus like World War Z. This was a serious let down for me in World War Z and the only reason I didn't make a bigger deal about it in this one is because there were scenes where a zombie was scene eating someone one that's already on the ground and also where they swarm someone who was already bitten, more than likely eating them. See to me the two greatest reasons why zombie are scary and so popular is because they combine two big fears that people have on a primal way. 1 is the fear of death and the dead, people don't want to die of course, but people are also afraid of dead things, dead people, animals etc.. And then 2 being eaten alive. That I think is something nobody would even wish on their worst enemy, so that's why zombies are such a scary movie monster. But when you change them to being infected instead of reanimated corpses and instead of eating the living they are trying to spread a disease by biting people and not eating them, it takes away from the horror part of it. I really liked the scene where the man with the pregnant wife, Seok-woo and the young baseball player gear up to make their way to the back cars to save their family members. I also liked the special effects used, everything except that deer in the beginning of the movie, which wasn't that terrible in the big scope of things but it reminded me of that prairie dog in the beginning of Crystal Skull (which was big red flag for that film). I have to say that this was really one of the better zombie films out there and I hear there is an animated prequel that was realized a month later and now talks about a sequel. I give this movie a 7/10.


  
Guardians (2017)
Guardians (2017)
2017 | Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
9
6.8 (5 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Listed as Russia's Avengers, Guardians is a fun superhero film.
During the cold war a secret Russian organisation called Patriot performed a number of illegal experiments, with both machines and humans. Patriot was shut down due the actions of a rouge scientist who was trying to create module 1 a device that can control any vehicle remotely. Now, a number of experimental tanks have been stolen so Patriot is reopened and a number of the human experiments are found to combat their old creator.
4 hero's are found; Ler, who can control rocks and use them as weapons and armour, Khan, a super speed ninja, Kseniya, who can turn invisible (when wet) and doesn't feel temperature and Arsus, a were-bear with a Gatling gun.
Like many other hero's the hero's of Guardians have their own problems and their reasons for not wanting to be found but these are only touched upon as the film concentrates on bringing the team together and then fighting the enemy whilst showing off their powers and, lets face it, that's what most of us want from a super hero movie.
The plot is simple, the evil Avgust Kuratov wants to take over all the machines of the world and the Guardians are formed to stop him. The effects and CGI aren't bad and we even get a couple transformation scenes with the were-bear. There are funny moments and tragic back stories and action, really most things you would want in a super hero film.
There is a hint of a sequel, both at the end of the film and a scene during the credits which also promises more hero's but, unfortunately,I don't think it's been made.
  
125 of 230
Kindle
The Valkyrie’s Bond ( Half-Blood Rising book 1)
By Lucy Roy
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As a rare halfblood among a race of witches and shifters, Freya has enjoyed living a quiet life away from the royal court of Lindoroth and among those who know little about her. She’s had the freedom to make her own choices, and fighting alongside the local marshals is just an added bonus.

When obligation arrives on her doorstep to remind her of promises made long ago, her quiet life comes to an end. With hardly time to say goodbye, Freya is whisked off to the capital city of Iladel to attend a prestigious royal academy with her peers, where appearances can be deceiving and connections are everything. While there, she’ll be reunited with her childhood friend, Prince Aerelius, and begin to experience life at the royal court in ways she never did as a girl.

As Freya and the prince dive into old routines and explore new feelings, they uncover the secrets and schemes that lurk below the court’s surface. When a secret is unveiled that changes everything, they must do whatever is necessary to ensure the safety of their kingdom. If they fail, long-held alliances will shatter and war will come to the shores of their land, threatening all they hold dear.

I adore this author and this didn’t disappoint. I love the world and character builds and the story came to so well. I love the idea of the Valkyries they are fascinating. If I had one thing that maybe stopped it being a 5⭐️ was that it waited till the last 4 chapters before the action kicked in. Although the build up was still enough to make me want more.
  
Paper Girls: Volume 1
Paper Girls: Volume 1
8
8.4 (11 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is really tricky to review as I don't want to give too much away, but I want people to read it because I found it good but also at the same time, I am not 100% sure what I just read.

I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did, it was weird but in a good way. I haven't read a graphic novel for a while and this just appealed to me... especially as it's written by the same author as Saga.

It all starts with four 12-year-old girls in 1988 doing their paper rounds on the aftermath of Halloween, they get caught up in a war of the worlds, time traveling galactic war between monsters, demons, aliens and a godlike man. With everybody vanishing, the presence of pterodactyls and not knowing who to trust or which way to turn,will they survive?

There are a lot of things that I enjoyed about this graphic novel, first off I shall start with the artwork the palette mostly consists of purples,pinks and blues and the drawings fit in with the 80's theme. I loved that it was set in the 80's and that the girls were doing paper rounds on their bikes and had cassette tapes, I really just like anything set in this era. The characters are all very different and each have their own personalities, they are sassy, have attitude and funny at the same time.

There are some things that let this down for me, not many but I think are quite important. First off there was not much background stories to the girls or character development. There is also the fact that the things they encounter are not fully explained or where they actually come from. The plot also can be a bit jumpy in parts and can be slightly confusing. I am hoping that the second volume gives us more of an understanding as to where the characters are coming from, what they are fighting and more world/character building.

This is the is a bind up of issues 1-5 and I will definitely be reading the second volume as I have a feeling this is just going to get better and better. Even though this is a story of four 12 year olds girls there is strong language and violence so not suitable for children or the easily offended.

Overall I rated this 4 out of 5 stars

**I received a copy of this graphic novel from Netgalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review**