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Kristy H (1252 KP) rated I Found You in Books
Feb 13, 2018
Alice Lake is a frazzled single mother of three children. One day she spots a man on the beach; he is alone and getting drenched in the rain. Despite her better judgement, Alice goes to talk to him. He has no memory of who he is or where he came from. Alice is drawn to him, and she invites him to stay in the shed on her property. Her young daughter dubs him "Frank." Meanwhile, in Surrey, Lily reports her husband missing. Married for less than a month, Lily cannot believe that her husband would simply abandon her: they are madly in love. She hasn't been in the country for long, though, and soon Lily learns that the name on her husband's passport was fake: he never truly existed. Cut to more than twenty years ago: teenagers Gray and Kirsty are (reluctantly) on vacation with their parents. While on the beach, they meet a young man who clearly has eyes for fifteen-year-old Kirsty. He charms their parents, but quickly rubs Gray the wrong way. Together, these characters combine for Jewell's latest.
<i>This was a rather spellbinding novel for me, even if it requires you to sort of check your rational thought at the front door when beginning it.</i> Alice is a bit of an odd duck--a loner mom with three children by three different fathers who doesn't really play by the rules. The fact that she so easily invites a complete stranger, with no history or backstory, to stay with her family is rather bizarre. As is everyone's reluctance to not just report Frank missing (found?), to say, the police. But we're led to believe that this is rather par for the course for the eccentric Alice and if you can just go along with that, the story falls into place fairly easily. This novel probably came along at a good point for me: I'd just finished a big project at work and needed something for a quick escape. I FOUND YOU is perfect for that: I blew through it in about 24 hours and while I basically had things figured out, it kept me guessing the entire time, wondering if I was right.
I was never truly attached to any of Jewell's characters - Alice is a bit flighty, Lily a tad remote, and Gray and Kirsty a little young. If anything, I was almost more drawn to "Frank" and his predicament. Still, I enjoyed how the story unfolded in bits and pieces, slowly letting the reader in on the past, while still giving us points of view from Lily, Alice, and Frank in the present. As I said, I was never quite sure if I was on the right track with the story, which kept me compulsively reading. Many of the characters' decisions are a bit bizarre, but I still found this to be a fun, quick read for a bit of an escape. Overall, 3.5+ stars. Great for a vacation or an airplane ride.
You can read my reviews of two of Jewell's previous novels here: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27276357-the-girls-in-the-garden">THE GIRLS IN THE GARDEN</a> and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22430311-the-third-wife">THE THIRD WIFE</a>.
<center><a href="http://justacatandabookatherside.blogspot.com/">Blog</a>; ~ <a href="https://twitter.com/mwcmoto">Twitter</a>; ~ <a href="https://www.facebook.com/justacatandabook/">Facebook</a>; ~ <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+KristyHamiltonbooks">Google+</a></center>;
<i>This was a rather spellbinding novel for me, even if it requires you to sort of check your rational thought at the front door when beginning it.</i> Alice is a bit of an odd duck--a loner mom with three children by three different fathers who doesn't really play by the rules. The fact that she so easily invites a complete stranger, with no history or backstory, to stay with her family is rather bizarre. As is everyone's reluctance to not just report Frank missing (found?), to say, the police. But we're led to believe that this is rather par for the course for the eccentric Alice and if you can just go along with that, the story falls into place fairly easily. This novel probably came along at a good point for me: I'd just finished a big project at work and needed something for a quick escape. I FOUND YOU is perfect for that: I blew through it in about 24 hours and while I basically had things figured out, it kept me guessing the entire time, wondering if I was right.
I was never truly attached to any of Jewell's characters - Alice is a bit flighty, Lily a tad remote, and Gray and Kirsty a little young. If anything, I was almost more drawn to "Frank" and his predicament. Still, I enjoyed how the story unfolded in bits and pieces, slowly letting the reader in on the past, while still giving us points of view from Lily, Alice, and Frank in the present. As I said, I was never quite sure if I was on the right track with the story, which kept me compulsively reading. Many of the characters' decisions are a bit bizarre, but I still found this to be a fun, quick read for a bit of an escape. Overall, 3.5+ stars. Great for a vacation or an airplane ride.
You can read my reviews of two of Jewell's previous novels here: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27276357-the-girls-in-the-garden">THE GIRLS IN THE GARDEN</a> and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22430311-the-third-wife">THE THIRD WIFE</a>.
<center><a href="http://justacatandabookatherside.blogspot.com/">Blog</a>; ~ <a href="https://twitter.com/mwcmoto">Twitter</a>; ~ <a href="https://www.facebook.com/justacatandabook/">Facebook</a>; ~ <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+KristyHamiltonbooks">Google+</a></center>;
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BookInspector (124 KP) rated The Last Thing To Burn in Books
Jan 26, 2021
The protagonist in this novel is Jane (it is not her name, but I will use it to avoid the spoilers), and the story is told from her perspective. Jane lives with her husband in a countryside farm. There is nothing around her but fields, and she is being held captive in that farm for years now. Jane has learned during those 7 years, that her husband always gets what he wants, she learned to adapt to the situation, but she hates every single day of her life. I found Jane very strong, selfless, caring and incredibly absorbing. She has so much to share with the reader, and it is truly heart-breaking to read her story.
The narrative of this book is very well written and entwined with present and past lives, that Jane had. During her daily routine, she shares how she ended up where she is. Her feelings and thoughts are painful to read. She keeps clinging to anything to survive, and it is devastating. This book really made me think, what I would do in Jane’s situation? How would I try to survive… I really wanted to know, how Jane will escape all this, that is what kept me constantly going. I wanted more action and less routine and mentioning of “his mother’s things” next to everything. (I got the point that nothing belonged to her 😉 ) There are some great twists and turns in this book, that enriched the plot immensely. The topics discussed in this book were human trafficking, rape, mental and physical abuse, the strength of motherly love, trauma, hope and many more.
The writing style of this book is absolutely brilliant. It is very hard to believe that this book is written by a male because Jane’s feelings and thoughts were very detailed and very accurate. Well done to Will Dean for this! The author managed to pack so much in a book that is 250 pages long. The chapters of this book are pretty short, and every chapter finishes with kind of a cliff-hanger, so my curiosity was always driving me forward. 🙂 The ending was very satisfying, and I am incredibly proud of Jane. 🙂
So, to conclude, this story is filled with incredibly damaged characters, mentally and physically. The plot carries a lot of pain and horrifying experiences, but it also channels love, hope, strength and determination. This book is full of triggers, but if anyone is looking for an amazing psychological thriller, I would strongly recommend this book. It is needed in society, maybe it would help to save a life one day…
The narrative of this book is very well written and entwined with present and past lives, that Jane had. During her daily routine, she shares how she ended up where she is. Her feelings and thoughts are painful to read. She keeps clinging to anything to survive, and it is devastating. This book really made me think, what I would do in Jane’s situation? How would I try to survive… I really wanted to know, how Jane will escape all this, that is what kept me constantly going. I wanted more action and less routine and mentioning of “his mother’s things” next to everything. (I got the point that nothing belonged to her 😉 ) There are some great twists and turns in this book, that enriched the plot immensely. The topics discussed in this book were human trafficking, rape, mental and physical abuse, the strength of motherly love, trauma, hope and many more.
The writing style of this book is absolutely brilliant. It is very hard to believe that this book is written by a male because Jane’s feelings and thoughts were very detailed and very accurate. Well done to Will Dean for this! The author managed to pack so much in a book that is 250 pages long. The chapters of this book are pretty short, and every chapter finishes with kind of a cliff-hanger, so my curiosity was always driving me forward. 🙂 The ending was very satisfying, and I am incredibly proud of Jane. 🙂
So, to conclude, this story is filled with incredibly damaged characters, mentally and physically. The plot carries a lot of pain and horrifying experiences, but it also channels love, hope, strength and determination. This book is full of triggers, but if anyone is looking for an amazing psychological thriller, I would strongly recommend this book. It is needed in society, maybe it would help to save a life one day…
Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) rated Hello Again in Books
Dec 26, 2018 (Updated Dec 26, 2018)
Held my Interest (1 more)
Interesting Premise
Not enough character backstory (2 more)
Pacing all over the place
Not very paranormal
Not Very Paranormal
I love the premise of Hello Again by Stan Schatt. I'm very much into ghosts, so I knew I had to read this book. When it came up for review, I knew I had to read it. Unfortunately, this book was just okay, nothing special.
The plot for Hello Again sounded interesting enough. I loved the idea of a guy getting texts from his dead girlfriend. However, there just wasn't enough of the paranormal aspect for me which was disappointing. Personally, I wouldn't really label Hello Again as a paranormal read at all. It was fun to read about though. I kept trying to figure out who was sending the texts from Amber's phone after she died especially since they were coming from her apartment. I also found it interesting to read about Bill's cafe and how he was struggling to get the money to renew the lease. Anyway, the story did take awhile to get going before he meets his girlfriend, Amber Love, at a speed dating event. Amber is very mysterious and doesn't reveal too much of herself to Ben. I found their relationship to be a bit forced and stagnant myself. They hadn't even been on very many dates before she is blown up by a car bomb. What I found weird was that Ben never even googled Amber's name when he found out she had given him a false last name. If it were me, this day in age, I would have been googling her as soon as I had free time. I also felt like we need more information about how Ben found out about Amber's funeral. I will say that by the time this book ended, all of my questions were answered. There are no cliff hangers, and I felt like what was supposed to be the plot twist was too predictable.
I never really connected to any of the characters in Hello Again, and as much as I tried, I never really found myself caring for any of them. I would have liked a bit more backstory into Ben and Amber. I would have liked it if Ben and Amber's relationship had a chance to flourish instead of them just going on about 3 or 4 dates. I would have even liked more backstory for Josh, the psychic. It was hard to connect to these characters when I didn't know much about them. Oh, one of the characters is described as looking like a terrorist and of Middle Eastern descent. I found this to be stereotypical and thought that some readers may find this offensive.
The pacing for Hello Again starts out slow. About halfway through, the pacing does pick up, but I feel it does go too fast in many places which left scratching my head wondering what had happened. Sometimes, I had to go back to see if I missed anything which I didn't. The pacing just didn't flow very well in the second half. However, this book did hold my attention until the very end though, but I wasn't in a rush to finish it. Luckily, it's a short read.
Trigger warnings for Hello Again include some profanity, a couple of sex scenes although they aren't graphic, violence, murder, and alcoholic drinking.
All in all, Hello Again was an okay albeit disappointing read for me. I had been expecting more of a paranormal read which this really wasn't. I could never connect to the characters which left me feeling empty. However, I did find that this book held my attention on the plus side. Because it held my attention and was a short read, I would recommend Hello Again by Stan Schatt for those aged 18+ who are looking for a short read.
--
(A special thank you to Xpresso Book Tours for providing me with an eBook of Hello Again in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.)
The plot for Hello Again sounded interesting enough. I loved the idea of a guy getting texts from his dead girlfriend. However, there just wasn't enough of the paranormal aspect for me which was disappointing. Personally, I wouldn't really label Hello Again as a paranormal read at all. It was fun to read about though. I kept trying to figure out who was sending the texts from Amber's phone after she died especially since they were coming from her apartment. I also found it interesting to read about Bill's cafe and how he was struggling to get the money to renew the lease. Anyway, the story did take awhile to get going before he meets his girlfriend, Amber Love, at a speed dating event. Amber is very mysterious and doesn't reveal too much of herself to Ben. I found their relationship to be a bit forced and stagnant myself. They hadn't even been on very many dates before she is blown up by a car bomb. What I found weird was that Ben never even googled Amber's name when he found out she had given him a false last name. If it were me, this day in age, I would have been googling her as soon as I had free time. I also felt like we need more information about how Ben found out about Amber's funeral. I will say that by the time this book ended, all of my questions were answered. There are no cliff hangers, and I felt like what was supposed to be the plot twist was too predictable.
I never really connected to any of the characters in Hello Again, and as much as I tried, I never really found myself caring for any of them. I would have liked a bit more backstory into Ben and Amber. I would have liked it if Ben and Amber's relationship had a chance to flourish instead of them just going on about 3 or 4 dates. I would have even liked more backstory for Josh, the psychic. It was hard to connect to these characters when I didn't know much about them. Oh, one of the characters is described as looking like a terrorist and of Middle Eastern descent. I found this to be stereotypical and thought that some readers may find this offensive.
The pacing for Hello Again starts out slow. About halfway through, the pacing does pick up, but I feel it does go too fast in many places which left scratching my head wondering what had happened. Sometimes, I had to go back to see if I missed anything which I didn't. The pacing just didn't flow very well in the second half. However, this book did hold my attention until the very end though, but I wasn't in a rush to finish it. Luckily, it's a short read.
Trigger warnings for Hello Again include some profanity, a couple of sex scenes although they aren't graphic, violence, murder, and alcoholic drinking.
All in all, Hello Again was an okay albeit disappointing read for me. I had been expecting more of a paranormal read which this really wasn't. I could never connect to the characters which left me feeling empty. However, I did find that this book held my attention on the plus side. Because it held my attention and was a short read, I would recommend Hello Again by Stan Schatt for those aged 18+ who are looking for a short read.
--
(A special thank you to Xpresso Book Tours for providing me with an eBook of Hello Again in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.)
Sophia (Bookwyrming Thoughts) (530 KP) rated Morrigan in Books
Jan 23, 2020
Original Review Posted on <a href="http://bookwyrming-thoughts.blogspot.com/2013/02/blog-tour-morrigan-by-laura-deluca-review-and-guest-post.html">Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>.
Note: Formatting has been lost due to copy and pasting.
<i><b>Disclaimer:</b> I received this book from YANR Blog Tours for free in exchange for an honest for the blog tour. This does not influence my review in any way.</i>
I think 3 words grabbed my attention: Tir na NOg. Only because the place was familiar from another series (I'll leave it for you guys to ponder on that). Okay, not just Tir na NOg. The blurb grabbed me as well. *o* So with that concept, I thought it might have something to do with faeries and would you be glad to know I was wrong.
I haven't read anything about Celtic mythology, or any books about it (I usually stick to Greek and Roman myths...), so Morrigan was made much more interesting to read knowing that fact. I love the fact that the author placed a glossary at the very beginning of the book - it was very helpful (hey, I'm pretty sure I'll be pronouncing everything foreign-like wrong in the end anyways, regardless of glossary there or not. But I'm sure it'll be helpful for the majority of us).
Here, we have a girl named Morrigan, who's an orphan and moving from home to home constantly. Until one day, she finds out her world isn't what it seems... AND she's different than what she thought she was. She can control fire, read the future (at least a glimpse), and move things... with her mind.
I find Morrigan an enchanting read. Like any fantasy book, we enter a different world that's "parallel" to our modern day world. I love the way Tiarn reacts to Morrigan's technological knowledge/use of modern items in Tir na NOg. However, I did find some things a bit confusing and didn't really make sense. I also loved the choice of words, especially in transitions.
I also loved the way the villains are formed. The author is descriptive and detailed with them (trust me... I had the shudders. No Nightmares though). Just when you think someone is a villain, it ends up being another... (which is a good thing, in my humble opinion). I'm also curious if there's going to be a sequel... due to the way the book ends. ;)
By the way, just because there's a werewolf, does not mean this story is going to be Twilight fashioned. It's not. ;)
Note: Formatting has been lost due to copy and pasting.
<i><b>Disclaimer:</b> I received this book from YANR Blog Tours for free in exchange for an honest for the blog tour. This does not influence my review in any way.</i>
I think 3 words grabbed my attention: Tir na NOg. Only because the place was familiar from another series (I'll leave it for you guys to ponder on that). Okay, not just Tir na NOg. The blurb grabbed me as well. *o* So with that concept, I thought it might have something to do with faeries and would you be glad to know I was wrong.
I haven't read anything about Celtic mythology, or any books about it (I usually stick to Greek and Roman myths...), so Morrigan was made much more interesting to read knowing that fact. I love the fact that the author placed a glossary at the very beginning of the book - it was very helpful (hey, I'm pretty sure I'll be pronouncing everything foreign-like wrong in the end anyways, regardless of glossary there or not. But I'm sure it'll be helpful for the majority of us).
Here, we have a girl named Morrigan, who's an orphan and moving from home to home constantly. Until one day, she finds out her world isn't what it seems... AND she's different than what she thought she was. She can control fire, read the future (at least a glimpse), and move things... with her mind.
I find Morrigan an enchanting read. Like any fantasy book, we enter a different world that's "parallel" to our modern day world. I love the way Tiarn reacts to Morrigan's technological knowledge/use of modern items in Tir na NOg. However, I did find some things a bit confusing and didn't really make sense. I also loved the choice of words, especially in transitions.
I also loved the way the villains are formed. The author is descriptive and detailed with them (trust me... I had the shudders. No Nightmares though). Just when you think someone is a villain, it ends up being another... (which is a good thing, in my humble opinion). I'm also curious if there's going to be a sequel... due to the way the book ends. ;)
By the way, just because there's a werewolf, does not mean this story is going to be Twilight fashioned. It's not. ;)
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Jesters_folly (230 KP) rated Mortal Kombat (2021) in Movies
May 23, 2021
Contains spoilers, click to show
Mortal Kombat is one of those films that doesn't seem to know what story it wants to tell, it starts with a grudge battle between a proto Sub Zero and Proto Scorpion then jumps to the modern times with Sub-Zero hunting a young fighter, Cole Young. Then it (kind of) switches back to the Scorpion/Sub-Zero grudge match.
The bulk of the movie follows Cole as he joins up with Sonya Blade to find a group of 'Earths Champions' in an attempt to stop a secret invasion from Outworld. The hero's are, of course various characters from the 'Mortal Kombat' video games and a lot of the film is just looking for excuses to for the characters to shout out one liners from the games.
This isn't to say that Mortal Kombat is a bad movie, it has good fight scenes and the relationship between Sonia and Kano lead to some of the funniest moments of the movie. In fact I would go as far as saying that Kano is the best character of the film, a tough job seeing as he seems to be there for the comic relief.
There is a lot of time put into the put into the human characters but almost nothing to the villains, the most we find out about them is that Kabal seems to be a human and that Kano put him in his suit, there is no back story to this, no information a to how he ended up on outworld and, puzzlingly he seems to want to Kano to join up with his team.
I felt that there was something disappointing about the ending (HERE BE SPOILERS)..... All through the film we are told that Cole is the last of Hanzo Hasashi's (Scorpion) blood line (even though Cole has a daughter so she should be the last), he's given Hanzo's weapon and is being set up to become Scorpion. Then suddenly Hanzo is back, as Scorpion and all but saves the day. I know the film has the law of the games to follow but building one character up and then just re introducing someone else to all but take his place just feels like a cheat, especially as most of the film is about finding the power within and using it to win.
Saying all that Mortal Kombat is a good film, it has action and humour and some quite graphic 'Brutalities'. I think part of the problem is the 1995 Mortal Kombat film which feels a lot more fun, it doesn't have all the blood but it has a simple story, the villains seem slightly more rounded and the soundtrack just works. Also, and I know there is a big push to have actors of the 'correct' ethnicity I really do think that Christopher Lambert was a better 'Lord Rayden', Tadanobu Asano, who plays the character in this version seems bland and emotionless. I think that even an elder god would get worked up if evil forces were trying to invade his realm, especially if the invaders were breaking the rules.
The effects are good although some charters seem to have more attention than others (Sub-Zero, I'm looking at you) and there could have been more attention spent to the 'Evil' characters but, over all the film works with few problems.
The bulk of the movie follows Cole as he joins up with Sonya Blade to find a group of 'Earths Champions' in an attempt to stop a secret invasion from Outworld. The hero's are, of course various characters from the 'Mortal Kombat' video games and a lot of the film is just looking for excuses to for the characters to shout out one liners from the games.
This isn't to say that Mortal Kombat is a bad movie, it has good fight scenes and the relationship between Sonia and Kano lead to some of the funniest moments of the movie. In fact I would go as far as saying that Kano is the best character of the film, a tough job seeing as he seems to be there for the comic relief.
There is a lot of time put into the put into the human characters but almost nothing to the villains, the most we find out about them is that Kabal seems to be a human and that Kano put him in his suit, there is no back story to this, no information a to how he ended up on outworld and, puzzlingly he seems to want to Kano to join up with his team.
I felt that there was something disappointing about the ending (HERE BE SPOILERS)..... All through the film we are told that Cole is the last of Hanzo Hasashi's (Scorpion) blood line (even though Cole has a daughter so she should be the last), he's given Hanzo's weapon and is being set up to become Scorpion. Then suddenly Hanzo is back, as Scorpion and all but saves the day. I know the film has the law of the games to follow but building one character up and then just re introducing someone else to all but take his place just feels like a cheat, especially as most of the film is about finding the power within and using it to win.
Saying all that Mortal Kombat is a good film, it has action and humour and some quite graphic 'Brutalities'. I think part of the problem is the 1995 Mortal Kombat film which feels a lot more fun, it doesn't have all the blood but it has a simple story, the villains seem slightly more rounded and the soundtrack just works. Also, and I know there is a big push to have actors of the 'correct' ethnicity I really do think that Christopher Lambert was a better 'Lord Rayden', Tadanobu Asano, who plays the character in this version seems bland and emotionless. I think that even an elder god would get worked up if evil forces were trying to invade his realm, especially if the invaders were breaking the rules.
The effects are good although some charters seem to have more attention than others (Sub-Zero, I'm looking at you) and there could have been more attention spent to the 'Evil' characters but, over all the film works with few problems.