Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (629)

Content

Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Bloodlust (The Rise Of Iliri #1) in Books

Nov 11, 2019

Bloodlust (The Rise Of Iliri #1)

Auryn Hadley | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry, Horror, Paranormal, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)

5.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

Contains spoilers, click to show

When you were once a slave, freed only to become a ruthless warrior, "belonging" seems a trite concept. A pipe dream, the stuff of naive fairy tales. But not for Salryc Luxx. Private Luxx—Sal for short—is iliri, a member of an untamable race surreptitiously dubbed "their kind" by humans and bred thousands of years ago to protect them. Humans consider them expendable, barely more than animals. Freaks. But in a karmic twist of fate, they’re also one of mankind’s most feared predators. Abused and enslaved, the only control Sal has over her life is what military unit she serves with – if she's good enough to be accepted – and the only one to consider her is the best in the land, the Black Blades.

Everyone has secrets, and the Blades are no different. But acceptance into the Blades gives Sal something she never expected—the family she’s never had, and with it, the undying protection of seven of the greatest warriors the world has ever seen. It also gifts her a devoted line of potential mates. Many of her fellow warriors will submit to the bloodlust that overtakes her in the heat of battle and can only be quenched by rough, passionate lovemaking (making way for the steamiest of love scenes). Though it’s not all war and sex. Sal very gradually cultivates deeply loving, evolving relationships with each of the Black Blades, which morphs as a unit into a reverse harem as sweet as it is fierce, and as protective as it is impassioned.

But belonging has its own price. Each of the Blades would die to protect Sal. And it’s only a matter of time before the enemy moves to use this against her.

This series was recommended by a friend and I finally got round to starting it. So glad I did what a brilliant series full of action. The relationship dynamics are very well written and they don't have Sal casually sleeping around all of the men! I love how it's handled and written!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Kudos

Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) in Movies

Aug 6, 2019

Hotel Transylvania 2 is a new animated family film from Columbia Films, produced by Sony.

It has a huge voice cast, including stars Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, Fran Dresher, Molly Shannon, Megan Mullally, Dana Carvey, Mel Brooks & Jon Lovitz.

This movie was super cute. The adult audience, myself included, laughed out loud, a lot. The kids thought it was hilarious, too.

One thing I liked a lot is that NOT all the good parts are in the commercials and previews, which means there is still “movie left to see” when you get to actually see the film, which is frequently not the case with highly advertised films.

The movie picks up where the first one left off, showing the wedding of Drac’s daughter Mavis to human Jonathan, and quickly jumping from there to the birth of a child (a son! (Named Dennis)) and then to the boys fourth birthday.

When Dennis doesn’t show any signs of his vamp heritage, Drac feels he must step in and try to help the boy “find his fangs”. Jonathan’s parents are none too thrilled with this turn of events and protest in words and actions.

The overall tone of the movie is happy, and teaches a lesson of acceptance.

The chemistry that showed up in the first film, is back in force between Dracula and his hotel buddies, and causes the movie to flow along without any major hiccups.

The jokes are cute, and play to both the kids and to adult humor.

There wasn’t anything that I found to be so inappropriate that it made my grind my teeth, which was a nice change in a children’s film.

If I had to make a complaint, it would honestly be that the movie seemed to almost move TOO quickly and I could have sat through another 20 minutes at least. Even though it’s run time is 90 minutes, it doesn’t “feel like” it lasts that long, and even my 7 year old son said it was ‘a quick movie’.