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Merissa (12051 KP) rated The Gentle Wolf (Perth Shifters #2) in Books

Nov 16, 2020 (Updated Aug 14, 2023)  
The Gentle Wolf (Perth Shifters #2)
The Gentle Wolf (Perth Shifters #2)
Pia Foxhall | 2020 | LGBTQ+, Paranormal, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
THE GENTLE WOLF is the second book in the Blackwood series and, wow, I hope you're ready for a read that will knock your socks off.

Aodhan is Braden's best friend and a well-renowned chocolatier in his own right. Thomas is the curator/owner of a local museum. For the past two years, Thomas has gone to Aodhan's shop every Tuesday for a coffee. Both of these have their own issues to work out.

What an amazing story! This covers some serious issues like child abuse, emotional and mental abuse, demisexuality, depression, survivor's guilt, and a whole host of other things so please don't expect a light and fluffy read. Instead, what you get is a story full of depth and feeling without being depressing in and of itself.

The pacing is perfect for this story and there were no editing or grammatical errors that disrupted my enjoyment of the book. The characters are outstanding and now I really can't wait for Hunter's book. I don't actually know if he's got one but I sincerely hope he does. Braden and Coll from book one pop up now and again but you don't have to have read their book to get this one. Different settings, some different characters, all good.

Aodhan and Thomas make the perfect couple and I was with them every step of the way as they tried to work through turbulent pasts. One of the best bits for me was when Iona told Thomas something and he told her just exactly what she had done. I'm trying to be deliberately vague but, trust me, read the book and you'll know which part I'm talking about.

Blackwood was a great book that I thoroughly enjoyed. This one? Phenomenal! Absolutely and utterly 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!
Nov 16, 2020
  
Survive the Night
Survive the Night
Danielle Vega | 2015 | Paranormal, Thriller, Young Adult (YA)
5
6.3 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
Like a cheap horror movie (0 more)
More like a 5.5
I had expected something more from Vega since I've read two of her other books. I knew her writing style and knew what to expect, yet somewhere 2/3 through it went downhill. It felt like when you rent a movie from Red Box and you can tell this movie was something someone made in a month. You're all into it. The gore is amazing, the plot is actually kind of decent for a low budget fill, and you started to cheer for the main characters to live despite the fact you were okay with them all being slaughtered at the beginning because that's what horror movies are for. Then it's like whoever created it ran out of money so the end was glued together in an attempt to have something and hope it was good enough, but you're back wishing everyone got slashed.
  
1922 (2017)
1922 (2017)
2017 | Crime, Horror
Excellent screenplay from a great short story (1 more)
Thomas Jane is amazing
Just a good old fashioned ghost story
I try not to put too much stock in Netflix produced Horror Films. I Am The Pretty Thing... Was not so great, and prior King offering Gerald's Game could've been better.
But they got this one right. It was creepy as shit.
A true slow burn o a movie, it drags a little in the beginning, but the slow spiral downward in to true dread for Jane's character is felt by audience members.
A true story of a man's slow decent into insanity and desperation that makes only the most heartfelt viewer feels for poor ol' Wilf.
All in all, this is a good offering by Netflix. I hope they follow it up with something just as good.
Dread is as good as fear when it comes to the horror genre. And dread is what this makes you feel.
  
Legion  - Season 1
Legion - Season 1
2017 | Action, Sci-Fi
Pretty much everything. (0 more)
The season finale ending left me a bit...wtf. (0 more)
The Xmen related show I've been dying for.
Okay first things first I am HUGE fan of the unreliable narrative characteristic that I've been seeing pop up a lot more in the past two years or so and Legion really took that plot device and ran with it straight to the winners circle for me.

The characters are all just so damn interesting that I would watch a show based solely on each one of them because I just want to know so much more and because I just find them that damn interesting.


By far though my favorite thing is just how many genres they managed to shove into this show and not once did it feel like to much the horror aspect is what really got to me and I really hope they draw more from that in the next season.
  
Wonder Woman (2017)
Wonder Woman (2017)
2017 | Action, Fantasy, War
Strong female characters (3 more)
Love Interest without a "damsel in distress"
Not too dark, and not too happy either
The most cohesive DCEU film to date
Not the most fascinating story (0 more)
A Triumph for Women Everywhere (and the DCEU)
Gal Gadot is perfect. She kicks ass and looks great doing it, dominating every frame she inhabits. Thanks to Patty Jenkin's guiding hand, Gadot's iteration of Wonder Woman does so without becoming yet another one-dimensional sex symbol. The movie itself is the most cohesive and fun segment the DCEU has offered yet. Free of the glowering and overbearing lens Zack Snyder has placed over Superman and Batman, Wonder Woman touches on themes of hope and discovered humanity that were yet to be seen in DC's fledgling movie universe. Even if the story is a little basic, and a little reminiscent of Captain America: The First Avenger, it stands on its own two feet and puts up a good fight for two hours and twenty minutes.
  
HO
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Jamie Ford | 2009
8
8.7 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
First off the title of this book is entirely fitting!! The end was a bittersweet pill to swallow... it was the perfect ending to the story and yet so frustrating to have it end so abruptly!!
The story itself took me awhile to really get in to, but it is a fascinating story. One that is not touched on much in any WWII fiction.... that of the Japanese internment camps in the US. It focuses on 2 elementary students who are supposedly on opposite sides of the war in the pacific despite being classmates & born in America.
It had all the components of hope and heartbreak, putting you in the story & making you feel like you were there. I just didn't like how slow moving the plot was but what redeemed it was the colorful characters & the fact that it was well written. Being realistic fiction it is hard to make it too fast paced & believable at the same time.
  
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Alison Pink (7 KP) rated The Hidden in Books

Jan 15, 2018  
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The Hidden
Jo Chumas | 2013
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Well you have to love it when you win a Goodreads giveaway, get sent the wrong book, read it, & are pleasantly surprised at your luck. That's just what happened to me with this book. I won another book called Hidden but was sent this 1 by mistake. It was better than the book I really won!
This book alternates between Egypt in the 1920s & Egypt at the turn of the century. It is told alternately from the perspective of Aimee & a journal written by Hezba a few decades before.
It wasn't hard to figure out the plot, but I am happy to say that it didn't make the book any less engaging even after I had its number. The story is very well written even though I wish I hadn't figured it out as soon as I did. The characters are fascinating & the plot moves along at a nice clip with just the right number of twists & turns. I hope Chumas continues writing like she did here.
  
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Alison Pink (7 KP) rated Iron House in Books

Jan 15, 2018  
IH
Iron House
John Hart | 2012
10
10.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
First off I have to admit that I wasn't at all sure whether or not to read this book. I read Hart's The Lost Child. I thought it was just okay, but not exactly my thing. A friend won Iron House on Goodreads & offered me the book when she'd finished it. I can now say that I am VERY glad she did!
  This book was much more satisfying than The Lost Child! The characters were very well developed & seemed to me to be much deeper & less predictable. The plot was still very dark which seems to be a Hart trademark, but the story was engrossing. It tore at your heart, but managed to gross you out & keep you on the edge of you seat at the same time. All the hallmarks of a great book in my eyes.
  I don't know what the future will bring, but for me I sure hope John Hart continues writing in the style of Iron House. It was a winner!!!
  
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Paige (428 KP) rated The Art Book in Books

Jul 28, 2017  
The Art Book
The Art Book
Phaidon Editors | 2016 | Art, Photography & Fashion
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The best "jumping off point" for anyone interested (0 more)
Some of the pictures are less exemplary of the artist than one would hope. (0 more)
Great for beginners and fledgling art history buffs.
So this book has artist in alphabetical order, one per page. On each page, there is an example of their work and a small snippet of biography and explanation of the piece.

Simple idea, brilliant entrance to art for someone who doesn't know where to begin.

This helped me study it in a general way as a teen. I got familiar with some of what I liked. It made me comfortable with art in a lot of ways. It expanded my horizons and made me less intimidated by the vastness of all I had to learn.

There is a series of these- The 20th Century Art Book, The Photography Book, and The American Art Book (for some reason they changed the format on this particular one and made it sort of useless)
  
Pioneering incredible book about autism written by a young boy
This book is both controversial, yet pioneering. Pioneering because a 13-year-old boy with autism has found a way of communicating coherently through a computer. Controversial, because many claim it could be fraudulent and other so-called experts have debunked the severity of his autism. I am no expert, but I hope that it is real, because it's moving and wonderful to hear how helpless the condition can be from his perspective. And it's true that he probably shouldn't have used the royal 'We' to describe people with autism to all have the same reasons for symptoms. But he is just a young boy trying to help if that's the case. The translation from Japanese has been very much westernised using English colloquialisms, but it helps gauge western audiences. However it's incredible to hear how disconnected senses can become with autism, no sense of linear time, touch or taste, even words. Remarkable book.