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Immortal Beloved (Immortal Beloved, #1)
Immortal Beloved (Immortal Beloved, #1)
Cate Tiernan | 2010 | Paranormal, Young Adult (YA)
8
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is another of those books where I've had it for years on my Kindle and just never had the urge to read it. So, yes, this is being used for another challenge on Goodreads. This one is another A-Z challenge but for Paranormal Romances and Urban Fantasy books.

I think one thing that put me off is this books lack of a proper description on Goodreads as seen above. You really do have no idea what it's going to be about. I have done a bit of searching and found a better more evolved description.

I assumed this would be about vampires with the name but it's not. Just people who live a really long time that call themselves Immortals. Nastasya - Nasty to her friends - comes to realise that she's hanging out with a bad crowd after her best friend of hundreds of years breaks a mans back for no reason. She seeks out a fellow Immortal she met about 50 years ago who offered to take her in and spends time at her sanctuary.

Nasty goes from being a careless party girl to someone who actually doesn't mind working and likes being busy. She begins to have proper friends and people who care about her and who she cares about. She feels like she has a purpose in life again.

I'll admit I liked this more than I thought I would. It dragged me in and I was intrigued by how Nasty and a certain blond Viking type Immortal, Reyn, knew each other. It took about 80% of the book to figure it out and then, though they knew they should hate each other, they were still drawn to each other. I am VERY interested in seeing what happens next with this lot.

I cannot wait to continue this series.
  
Midnight Sun (Twilight, #5)
Midnight Sun (Twilight, #5)
Stephenie Meyer | 2020 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
8
7.2 (6 Ratings)
Book Rating
Seeing the world through Edwards eyes. (1 more)
Even though you know the story, it's NOT like reading the same book twice.
Insight, it's a funny thing.
Contains spoilers, click to show
So, I hate to include spoilers in my reviews, HOWEVER as this is a story that has already been told (in both book and film) I don't really think it is one, but for the rare person out there unfamiliar with the twilight universe I've clicked contains spoilers.
So - lets start with the obvious, I really enjoyed it. I learnt things I didn't know from the first book, it was fascinating to watch the stories unfold from Edwards mind, it made the whole book feel so much different. For example, Despite Twilight being a relatively dark book (the fear, the mystery etc) I always had this sense of light in it, the excitement, love and hope Bella felt. This one is darker with the feeling of Edwards constant seesaw of emotions, his internal arguement as to whether or not he was doing the right thing being with Bella and fighting his natural instinct to kill her and want for her to have a normal human life. I also didn't know he had planned to leave her before New Moon, he was jist biding his time for it to come almost naturally rather than out of the blue.
Even though I know how the story ends, it was definitely an interesting read, learning something knew.
SPOILER sort of.
The way Edwards mind works in this is something you never see in the other books, he can tune into someones mind (other than Bella obvs) and hear the current thoughts but can also see what they see as they process it. This never occured to me before and was really cool to discover.
  
The Unhoneymooners
The Unhoneymooners
6
8.0 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
I picked this up a few months ago, not really knowing what it was about, but it was a steal at 99p and I've read books by this author before.

In this, Olive is chief bridesmaid at her sisters wedding. Ami has been a bit of a bridezilla but because of her love of competitions, everything has been free - more or less - at the wedding. Olive has been given a list of 50 things she has to check on the day of the wedding and one of them includes ordering a separate meal for herself (allergic to seafood) and the best man and her sworn enemy, Ethan, who has an aversion to buffet food. Turns out it's a good job she did as everyone falls ill after eating the seafood and she and Ethan end up going on the free honeymoon together. Once there, as they spend more time together, they realise that the other isn't as bad as they seem and they actually grow to like each other.

Hmm... I did like this but I wasn't fully into this. I didn't get butterflies reading of them falling in love. I wasn't sucked in to their love/hate relationship - it was a bit too tame for me in that regard. I think I snorted a handful of times at the things they said to each other or the situations they found themselves in while on the island of Maui but there's something I can't put my finger on. I was a little underwhelmed by the story.

One thing I was very gung ho about once the first little fibres started unravelling: Dane. There was just something about him. I'll let you figure out what when you read this.
  
Insurgent (2015)
Insurgent (2015)
2015 | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
Not as decent as 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘻𝘦 𝘙𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳, not as horrendous as 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴, on nearly exactly the same level as the first 𝘋𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘵. I'm still shocked these still manage to be kind of entertaining even in spite of telling one of the dumbest stories to ever be translated to screen. At least half the cast just seems bored, but Jai Courtney and Daniel Dae Kim shine in supporting roles - which isn't all too hard to do here actually considering these two lead characters are inexplicably even *more* lifeless than they were in the first one. Great, we get to see more of this mid-2010s "trauma romance" crap - but at least they have the common decency to make the action sorta fun (the shameful choice to exchange Burger's visual panache [and... actual color] for this ugly ash-gray palette notwithstanding). And I'll always give credit to this one for being a lot ballsier than most of these YA copies-of-each-other - it's pretty violent and a fair amount of people get shot in the head, we even see more blood than just a nosebleed for once! Makes no human sense but that's also what makes it kind of enjoyable tbh. The Woodley character is the weakest link: emulating every overdramatic shithead teenager who thinks they're a revolutionary for making a Tweet about how much they hate 5th period geometry doesn't really help the cringe factor any (the 'dramatic haircut' smash cut into the flock of crows flying through the forest to triumphant music is one of the worst things ever). If this were made today Tris would be trying to cancel Kate Winslet's character for using the term "spirit animal" 11 years ago.
  
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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Feb 12, 2021  
Check out this awesome playlist (and the sweet inspiration for it) for the cozy mystery GRAND OPENINGS CAN BE MURDER by Amber Royer Author on my blog. Come view the book trailer, and enter the giveaway to win a signed copy of the book as well as a $25 gift card to Dandelion Chocolate!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2021/02/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-grand.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
Felicity Koerber has had a rough year. She's moving back to Galveston Island and opening a bean to bar chocolate factory, fulfilling a dream she and her late husband, Kevin, had shared. Craft chocolate means a chance to travel the world, meeting with farmers and bringing back beans she can turn into little blocks of happiness, right close to home and family. She thinks trouble has walked into her carefully re-built world when puddle-jump pilot Logan Hanlon shows up at her grand opening to order custom chocolates. Then one of her employees drops dead at the party, and Felicity's one-who-got-away ex-boyfriend - who's now a cop - thinks Felicity is a suspect.

As the murder victim's life becomes more and more of a mystery, Felicity realizes that if she's going to clear her name in time to save her business, she might need Logan's help. Though she's not sure if she's ready to let anyone into her life - even if it is to protect her from being the killer's next victim. For Felicity, Galveston is all about history, and a love-hate relationship with the ocean, which keeps threatening to deliver another hurricane - right into the middle of her investigation. Can she figure it out before all the clues get washed away? FIRST IN A NEW SERIES!
     
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Rat Scabies recommended Dummy by Portishead in Music (curated)

 
Dummy by Portishead
Dummy by Portishead
1994 | Rock
9.3 (6 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"It's an unstoppable record. I nicked my copy so I never had a sleeve for it, so I never got any of the song titles or anything like that. But again it's a very complete record. It's one of the few albums that I can just leave on and it can play all the way through and you don't go oh, not this track again, I hate this song. Everything on it sounds like it was recorded in somebody's bedroom. I've never even looked up how they actually did do it, but I just love that the machines and the loops they used were pretty much standard for the dance crowd, and things like where I would have said oh, not that beat again, everybody's heard that loop, you know, actually they turned round and said ah, but if we do it like this it sounds really good. And the production on it is amazing. Some of the things that are going on with the timings on the compressors and the noise gates, on that level there's plenty to listen to, as well as the songs being great. The dynamics and the editing in and out and the mixes are really quite something else. I wonder sometimes if it's only because I've made records myself that I get how much work must've gone into that to make it happen. But at the same time it still sounds like it was done in a bedroom. But again, they're very minimalist in what they use. They pick their shots. When they do something they make sure it's in the right way and in the right place. There's nothing in there that clouds the water or gets in the way of the vocals or loses the bass. It's always relevant."

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