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Elli H Burton (1288 KP) rated Mermaids Singing in Books
Nov 22, 2019
See below...
Contains spoilers, click to show
Okay so I finished this book a few nights back but it's taken me until now to be able to write my review down.
I really enjoyed it, couldn't put it down and it has good plot lines that make you NEED to know whats next. You really start to root for most characters and loathe the others. Theres plenty of twists that are completely unexpected, which in some cases you can see a twist coming a mile off so thats a plus.
The reason I put that this contains spoilers is because of how I felt at the end, resulting in my rating only being a 7.
The ending is frustrating!!! I know some writers write their books in sequences (Rosie Goodwin: Days of the week, Annie Murray: Birmingham, Narrowboat Girl etc) so when i reached the ending (AT 1AM BECAUSE I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN) I assumed it had a sequel. IT DOESNT. So many questions, so many plot lines left unfulfilled. For example, Bella was in love with her step son Edward but he is now married and his father dead. The new Lady Mableton wants to adopt Bellas daughter after discovering she cannot have children and wants an heir to the mableton estate, she will stop at nothing to get this child. Kitty tries her hardest to get hold of Bella after she ran off to be with a man she was sold to when she was younger whom she thought was awful (dont even get me started) you never find out if Bella gets contacted!! Her daughter is left with her mother who says she will not let Lady Mableton have her granddaughter under no circumstances. THATS THE END OF THE BLUMMIN BOOK?!! How do they stop this woman from getting the child? Does bella and her beau come back and save the day? Does Edward put a stop to it? Also will Bellas mother (who was known to not be a very nice woman) give the child over at a price, since it would be of character?
DILLY COURT - PLEASE WRITE A SEQUEL AAARGHHH.
I really enjoyed it, couldn't put it down and it has good plot lines that make you NEED to know whats next. You really start to root for most characters and loathe the others. Theres plenty of twists that are completely unexpected, which in some cases you can see a twist coming a mile off so thats a plus.
The reason I put that this contains spoilers is because of how I felt at the end, resulting in my rating only being a 7.
The ending is frustrating!!! I know some writers write their books in sequences (Rosie Goodwin: Days of the week, Annie Murray: Birmingham, Narrowboat Girl etc) so when i reached the ending (AT 1AM BECAUSE I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN) I assumed it had a sequel. IT DOESNT. So many questions, so many plot lines left unfulfilled. For example, Bella was in love with her step son Edward but he is now married and his father dead. The new Lady Mableton wants to adopt Bellas daughter after discovering she cannot have children and wants an heir to the mableton estate, she will stop at nothing to get this child. Kitty tries her hardest to get hold of Bella after she ran off to be with a man she was sold to when she was younger whom she thought was awful (dont even get me started) you never find out if Bella gets contacted!! Her daughter is left with her mother who says she will not let Lady Mableton have her granddaughter under no circumstances. THATS THE END OF THE BLUMMIN BOOK?!! How do they stop this woman from getting the child? Does bella and her beau come back and save the day? Does Edward put a stop to it? Also will Bellas mother (who was known to not be a very nice woman) give the child over at a price, since it would be of character?
DILLY COURT - PLEASE WRITE A SEQUEL AAARGHHH.
Dresden Marco Polo Spiral Guide
Book
For advice you can trust, look no further than Marco Polo. The Dresden Marco Polo Spiral Guide is a...
Marrakesh Marco Polo Spiral Guide
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For advice you can trust, look no further than Marco Polo. The Marrakesh Marco Polo Spiral Guide is...
Charlie Miller (881 KP) rated Fitbit Charge 3 in Tech
Oct 17, 2020
Fitbit changed my life(style)
First of all thanks to @smashbomb for the great giveaway of a Fitbit Inspire HR
The heading in this review might seem dramatic but it is no exaggeration.
I had a fitbit charge 3 before I won this giveaway. So I am going to repost this review on the charge 3 as well as here. As it is a review on both and I will compare them against each other. I will also post this review for the Fitbit app as both fitness trackers are used in conjunction with the app. I will score them all separately on what they offer.
I was never one to over worry about my appearance so I paid little attention to my weight and in fact have been slightly overweight most of my life. My change started a week or two before I decided to buy a Fitbit. My wife who is one to care about her appearance had recently successfully implemented her own diet and exercise plan using a Fitbit Charge 3 and the Fitbit app to monitor her calorie intake and her daily exercise.
She had recently put on a bit of weight and this had affected her confidence so she decided to change. As I have Lupus an autoimmune disease. I am classed as clinically vulnerable to Covid so we were shielding for 19 weeks. I was advised to go in a little earlier than the rest of the UK nation being locked down. Towards the end of lockdown we started to go for walks on our daily exercise. This was the beginning of the change.
One day I caught site of my reflection in the microwave of all places. It was a side profile of my stomach and my waist and I realised I had let my weight gain go too far.
So I decided to use our daily walks to try and push myself first by slowly increasing the distance walked then to trying to improve the pace and choosing different routes which would push me a bit more. For instance with steep inclines.
I noticed some benefits almost straight away. Being quite goal driven. I set myself a goal of weight loss of 1lb a week. I started using the Fitbit app to monitor my calorie intake alongside my daily exercise.
It has worked wonders. I was 15st 8lb (clinically obese) when I started. I am now 13st 10lb(still overweight) and counting. I walk at least 2 miles, 5 out of 7 days. Most weeks I walk 6 days and some weeks I walk every day.
My wife and I have also allowed ourselves cheat days. This is so we don't feel deprived so that if we really fancy a treat we can say we will have that on Friday or Saturday and it works. Although we have cheat days we always monitor our calorie intake. This is so we can see over a week or month we still have a healthy deficit.
Having the fitness tracker alongside the app has inspired my wife and I to make additional changes. We have implemented new habits due to the tips popping up on the app now and again. I used to drink tea all day. I have changed this to no added sugar dilute juice and now drink my daily recommended amount of water every day.
Another tip that popped up is to eat a high protein breakfast early in the day this gets your metabolism going early and stages of cravings for carbs and sweet things. Of the options recommended my wife and started making overnight fruit and oat jars. This has also worked. I eat much more salad and a lot less carbs and sugar.
The next habit I am going to try and implement is to not eat at least 2 hours before going to bed.
Overall these are great buys. I love the step counter/goal, distance counter/goal, the exercise tracker, the water intake monitor and the calorie intake/outgoing monitor.
It's not often that you can say a purchase actually has a positive effect on your lifestyle.
One gripe about all the products is you have to pay extra for premium content once you have forked out for the trackers.
The scores I have given are: Inspire HR 7
Fitbit app 9
Charge 3 9
After raving about them you might wonder why not 10's all round. I knocked 1 off the charge 3 and the app for the fact that there is additional content that doesn't come with the purchase of the tech.
The additional knock of a further 2 points is because the HR doesn't offer an altimeter and it doesn't have the advertised battery life of 5 days. It lasts just under that amount of time.
So either one of these would be a good investment for a fitness tracker on a budget. Personally I would fork out the extra £30 for the Charge 3. The altimeter and the extra battery is worth the little bit extra.
The heading in this review might seem dramatic but it is no exaggeration.
I had a fitbit charge 3 before I won this giveaway. So I am going to repost this review on the charge 3 as well as here. As it is a review on both and I will compare them against each other. I will also post this review for the Fitbit app as both fitness trackers are used in conjunction with the app. I will score them all separately on what they offer.
I was never one to over worry about my appearance so I paid little attention to my weight and in fact have been slightly overweight most of my life. My change started a week or two before I decided to buy a Fitbit. My wife who is one to care about her appearance had recently successfully implemented her own diet and exercise plan using a Fitbit Charge 3 and the Fitbit app to monitor her calorie intake and her daily exercise.
She had recently put on a bit of weight and this had affected her confidence so she decided to change. As I have Lupus an autoimmune disease. I am classed as clinically vulnerable to Covid so we were shielding for 19 weeks. I was advised to go in a little earlier than the rest of the UK nation being locked down. Towards the end of lockdown we started to go for walks on our daily exercise. This was the beginning of the change.
One day I caught site of my reflection in the microwave of all places. It was a side profile of my stomach and my waist and I realised I had let my weight gain go too far.
So I decided to use our daily walks to try and push myself first by slowly increasing the distance walked then to trying to improve the pace and choosing different routes which would push me a bit more. For instance with steep inclines.
I noticed some benefits almost straight away. Being quite goal driven. I set myself a goal of weight loss of 1lb a week. I started using the Fitbit app to monitor my calorie intake alongside my daily exercise.
It has worked wonders. I was 15st 8lb (clinically obese) when I started. I am now 13st 10lb(still overweight) and counting. I walk at least 2 miles, 5 out of 7 days. Most weeks I walk 6 days and some weeks I walk every day.
My wife and I have also allowed ourselves cheat days. This is so we don't feel deprived so that if we really fancy a treat we can say we will have that on Friday or Saturday and it works. Although we have cheat days we always monitor our calorie intake. This is so we can see over a week or month we still have a healthy deficit.
Having the fitness tracker alongside the app has inspired my wife and I to make additional changes. We have implemented new habits due to the tips popping up on the app now and again. I used to drink tea all day. I have changed this to no added sugar dilute juice and now drink my daily recommended amount of water every day.
Another tip that popped up is to eat a high protein breakfast early in the day this gets your metabolism going early and stages of cravings for carbs and sweet things. Of the options recommended my wife and started making overnight fruit and oat jars. This has also worked. I eat much more salad and a lot less carbs and sugar.
The next habit I am going to try and implement is to not eat at least 2 hours before going to bed.
Overall these are great buys. I love the step counter/goal, distance counter/goal, the exercise tracker, the water intake monitor and the calorie intake/outgoing monitor.
It's not often that you can say a purchase actually has a positive effect on your lifestyle.
One gripe about all the products is you have to pay extra for premium content once you have forked out for the trackers.
The scores I have given are: Inspire HR 7
Fitbit app 9
Charge 3 9
After raving about them you might wonder why not 10's all round. I knocked 1 off the charge 3 and the app for the fact that there is additional content that doesn't come with the purchase of the tech.
The additional knock of a further 2 points is because the HR doesn't offer an altimeter and it doesn't have the advertised battery life of 5 days. It lasts just under that amount of time.
So either one of these would be a good investment for a fitness tracker on a budget. Personally I would fork out the extra £30 for the Charge 3. The altimeter and the extra battery is worth the little bit extra.
Erika (17788 KP) rated ESPN in Apps
Apr 18, 2021
I have ESPN+ because of the bundle I purchased from Disney+ that included ESPN and Hulu. Initially, I thought I would not watch ESPN+ at all, but it's the service I watch the most due to it having a plethora of European Football games on every weekend.
The app is a POS. It is so absolutely terrible. It's slow, it's counter-intuitive, and overall, just a boondoggled mess. There need to be more options such as filtering out the sports you don't want to watch, i.e. MLB, and any US college sports. Seriously, I watch the Masters over those boring af sports. There also needs to be an option to set alerts when there are games you want to watch, because I missed the live Hibernian game this morning because they buried it at the end of the list behind college basketball games that wouldn't be on for another 5 hours.
Another annoyance concerning this app is organization. It knows I have an ESPN+ subscription, and not the actual channels. Why show me games that I want to watch, only for them to be blocked because I don't buy the channels??? Don't tempt me with FIFA World Cup Qualifiers that I want to watch, then I find out they're not available??
The good thing is that they seem to be attempting to improve it, but it's still unbearable some days.
The app is a POS. It is so absolutely terrible. It's slow, it's counter-intuitive, and overall, just a boondoggled mess. There need to be more options such as filtering out the sports you don't want to watch, i.e. MLB, and any US college sports. Seriously, I watch the Masters over those boring af sports. There also needs to be an option to set alerts when there are games you want to watch, because I missed the live Hibernian game this morning because they buried it at the end of the list behind college basketball games that wouldn't be on for another 5 hours.
Another annoyance concerning this app is organization. It knows I have an ESPN+ subscription, and not the actual channels. Why show me games that I want to watch, only for them to be blocked because I don't buy the channels??? Don't tempt me with FIFA World Cup Qualifiers that I want to watch, then I find out they're not available??
The good thing is that they seem to be attempting to improve it, but it's still unbearable some days.
BUDGT - monthly finances, day by day
Finance and Productivity
App
BUDGT will help you keep track of your Expenses in a very simple way and tell you how much money you...
Hazel (2934 KP) rated The Choice in Books
Aug 29, 2020
My exact words when I finished this book ... "Wow - that was good!"
This is sold as being "The gripping new thriller you won’t be able to put down!" and I am going to have to agree ... I wasn't able to put it down and read it way too late into the night but it was worth it. From the very first to the very last page, there is no let up and it grabs you, throws you around and doesn't let go.
I loved everything about it - the characters, the plot, the pace, the writing style - everything and it's not often I say that. The only "complaint" I have is that it is so good, I found myself reading it faster and faster because I was desperate to find out where the next twist and turn would take me so I ended up finishing it way too quickly and felt sad when it had ended.
I have read a couple of books by Alex Lake previously "Seven Days" and "Copy Cat" and this is by far the best one yet and I very much look forward to reading the next which is due out in 2021 - a sneak peak of which I found at the end of The Choice.
Thanks must go to HarperCollinsUK, HarperFiction via NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest, unbiased and unedited review.
This is sold as being "The gripping new thriller you won’t be able to put down!" and I am going to have to agree ... I wasn't able to put it down and read it way too late into the night but it was worth it. From the very first to the very last page, there is no let up and it grabs you, throws you around and doesn't let go.
I loved everything about it - the characters, the plot, the pace, the writing style - everything and it's not often I say that. The only "complaint" I have is that it is so good, I found myself reading it faster and faster because I was desperate to find out where the next twist and turn would take me so I ended up finishing it way too quickly and felt sad when it had ended.
I have read a couple of books by Alex Lake previously "Seven Days" and "Copy Cat" and this is by far the best one yet and I very much look forward to reading the next which is due out in 2021 - a sneak peak of which I found at the end of The Choice.
Thanks must go to HarperCollinsUK, HarperFiction via NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest, unbiased and unedited review.
Rozen Maiden
5.5
Rate It
TV Show
Traumatized by school, Jun Sakurada spends his days at home as a shut-in, purchasing things online,...
Magic Seinen
Billie Wichkan (118 KP) rated Nothing to Lose (Ziba MacKenzie, #2) in Books
May 22, 2019
Hes looking for his next victim. She looks just like his last.
Primrose Hill, London. Offender Profiler Ziba MacKenzie arrives at the scene of a gruesome murder with a disturbing sense of déjà vu. Nine days earlier, another womans body was found: same location, same MO, same physical appearance. For the police, its clear a new serial killer is on the loose. But for Ziba, its even more sinisterbecause the victims look just like her.
Ziba has been the focus of a killers interest before, and knows that if she gets too close again this case could be her last. Still, shes not one to play by the rulesespecially when her secret investigation into her husbands murder begins to attract unwanted attention.
With someone watching her every step, can Ziba uncover what connects the two victims before she becomes one herself?
This the second novel of Ziba MacKenzie and a novel I highly recommend.
Ziba Mackenzie is a freelance profiler who is called in when a woman is murder who resemble her what shocking a early murder of a different woman resemble her to.
I thoroughly enjoyed Nothing to Lose which is an exciting thriller with two strong plot lines.
I found it a gripping read from start to finish.
The characters were believable and well developed, as well as the story.
The plot in this book was really good. It was very cleverly thought out and had me guessing right up to the end.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for an advance copy of Nothing to Lose.
Primrose Hill, London. Offender Profiler Ziba MacKenzie arrives at the scene of a gruesome murder with a disturbing sense of déjà vu. Nine days earlier, another womans body was found: same location, same MO, same physical appearance. For the police, its clear a new serial killer is on the loose. But for Ziba, its even more sinisterbecause the victims look just like her.
Ziba has been the focus of a killers interest before, and knows that if she gets too close again this case could be her last. Still, shes not one to play by the rulesespecially when her secret investigation into her husbands murder begins to attract unwanted attention.
With someone watching her every step, can Ziba uncover what connects the two victims before she becomes one herself?
This the second novel of Ziba MacKenzie and a novel I highly recommend.
Ziba Mackenzie is a freelance profiler who is called in when a woman is murder who resemble her what shocking a early murder of a different woman resemble her to.
I thoroughly enjoyed Nothing to Lose which is an exciting thriller with two strong plot lines.
I found it a gripping read from start to finish.
The characters were believable and well developed, as well as the story.
The plot in this book was really good. It was very cleverly thought out and had me guessing right up to the end.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for an advance copy of Nothing to Lose.
ClareR (5681 KP) rated The Scribe in Books
Jul 8, 2019
I’ve vacillated between 5 and 6/10, and decided on 6.
I liked this novel about a serial killer who murders female lawyers and butchers them in a most unusual way. It kept me guessing at the identity of the killer until the end, and threw some red herrings in along the way.
What I wasn’t so keen on, was the way in which DCI Jake Carver was portrayed: not very quick on the uptake, relying heavily on the brains of Madeline Kramer who went to the Bloomsbury Academy of Law with the victims. I have no problems with Maddy being involved with solving the crimes, but at the expense of Carvers ability - not so keen.
I do feel that the story was rushed, but this may have been an effect of the serialisation on The Pigeonhole (the book was split into 10 parts over 10 days). If I’d had the actual book, I would have read it in 2 or 3 sittings.
What I didn’t like at all was the general bitchiness of the female characters towards one another. Frankly, the murdered women deserved their grisly ends. Are women who work in high profile jobs in the City really like this? If they are, I’m glad I don’t work there!
In conclusion, this is a fun, quick read, a bit irreverent in places (women in their 60’s are referred to as elderly - err, I have friends in their late 50s, and they’re anything BUT elderly!), but good for a debut novel. I wish the author good luck with her next book, and many thanks to The Pigeonhole for choosing another great book.
I liked this novel about a serial killer who murders female lawyers and butchers them in a most unusual way. It kept me guessing at the identity of the killer until the end, and threw some red herrings in along the way.
What I wasn’t so keen on, was the way in which DCI Jake Carver was portrayed: not very quick on the uptake, relying heavily on the brains of Madeline Kramer who went to the Bloomsbury Academy of Law with the victims. I have no problems with Maddy being involved with solving the crimes, but at the expense of Carvers ability - not so keen.
I do feel that the story was rushed, but this may have been an effect of the serialisation on The Pigeonhole (the book was split into 10 parts over 10 days). If I’d had the actual book, I would have read it in 2 or 3 sittings.
What I didn’t like at all was the general bitchiness of the female characters towards one another. Frankly, the murdered women deserved their grisly ends. Are women who work in high profile jobs in the City really like this? If they are, I’m glad I don’t work there!
In conclusion, this is a fun, quick read, a bit irreverent in places (women in their 60’s are referred to as elderly - err, I have friends in their late 50s, and they’re anything BUT elderly!), but good for a debut novel. I wish the author good luck with her next book, and many thanks to The Pigeonhole for choosing another great book.