Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (941)

Content

Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2206 KP) rated Curses, Boiled Again! (A Lobster Shack Mystery #1) in Books

Mar 9, 2018

Allie Larkin is back home in Mystic Bay, Connecticut, recuperating from a broken ankle and helping her aunt Gully with her new Lazy Mermaid Lobster Shack. Aunt Gully has only had her business open for a few months, but it’s attracted enough attention to land her a spot as a finalist in the YUM! Network’s lobster roll contest. However, after sampling the first contestant’s entry, the judges start to collapse. Someone poisoned the rolls, but who was the target? And why?

This book opens the morning of the contest, so things get off to a strong start. It does seem to slow down a little in the second quarter, but it picks up again as Allie tries to figure out who the target of the poison was. This added twist was very welcome and helps the book stand out. There is room for the characters to grow as the series progresses, but we get to know several of them well here. The suspects are great at keeping us guessing until the end.

NOTE: I received a copy of this book.

Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2018/01/book-review-curses-boiled-again-by.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.

Kudos

Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2206 KP) rated Hollywood Ending in Books

Aug 11, 2018

I Didn’t Want Hollywood Ending to End

It’s awards season in Hollywood and actress turned PI Day Anderson is celebrating when her boyfriend, Omari, is nomination for the Silver Sphere Award. However, after one of the parties he has to attend to mingle with the judges, Lily Davis is murdered. Lily was a publicist for the Silver Sphere Awards, and they have offered a reward for information leading to the arrest of her killer, so naturally Day jumps in to solve the case. This one seems much easier than her first murder case. Is she missing something?

Of course, she is, and the book soon involves plenty of complications that kept me reading as fast as I could. There are some fun twists before we reach the climax. Day and all her friends are back, and I loved spending more time with them and seeing how their relationships have changed. I also really enjoy the insider’s look at life in the Hollywood world. Everything is brought together by humor that had me laughing and smiling the entire way through the book. Those who loved the first book will be equally delighted with this one. And if you haven’t started this series yet, you need to do so today.

Kudos

David McK (3425 KP) rated Batman, Volume 1: The Court of Owls in Books

Jan 28, 2019

Batman, Volume 1: The Court of Owls

Scott Snyder | 2020 | Comics & Graphic Novels

8.1

(7 Ratings)

Book Rating

Unlike some of the more famous Batman stories ([b:the Dark Knight Returns|59960|Batman The Dark Knight Returns|Frank Miller|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327892039s/59960.jpg|1104159], say, or {book: The Killing Joke], The Court of Owls is not one that I was previously familiar with - or, for that matter, had even heard of - prior to this graphic novel.

Unlike those previously two mentioned, this is a more contemporary tale, with Batman at the height of his crime-fighting powers, unlike the aging Batman of [b:The Dark Knight Returns|59960|Batman The Dark Knight Returns|Frank Miller|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327892039s/59960.jpg|1104159], or the still-relatively-green of the majority of [b:The Killing Joke|96358|Batman The Killing Joke|Alan Moore|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1346331835s/96358.jpg|551787], and also has the wider Bat-family (that sounds awful, doesn't it?) of Nightwing, Robin and Red Robin all in it.

The Court of Owls itself is an urban legend from Gotham of a secret society that lives in the shadows and watches/judges all: like Batman, an urban legend that soon proves not to be such after all.

While I may read volume 2 in the future, it's also not one that I'd be hunting out for.