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Our Life on Ice: The Autobiography
Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean
Book
When Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean collapsed to the ice at the climax of their routine to...
Athens, Rome, and England: America's Constitutional Heritage
Book
Uncovering the Roots of the U.S. ConstitutionAmerica s Constitution did not spring up suddenly in...
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Seashells , Spells and Caramels in Books
Mar 21, 2021
40 of 250
Kindle
Seashells,Spells& Caramels ( Spells & Caramels book 1)
By Erin Johnson
Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments
A magical French island. A dead contestant. An aspiring baker must clear her name before she gets burned.
Imogen Banks has dreamed her entire life of opening her own bakery in Seattle. But when she accidentally sets fire to her apartment and loses all her possessions, her dreams get toasted. Still coping with her loss, she receives a cryptic invitation she can't possibly refuse: entry into a mysterious baking competition on a beautiful French island.
When Imogen realizes the island village is magical and the bake-off’s participants are witches and wizards, she’s not sure her fledgling powers will be enough to win the coveted contest. In the midst of trying to cast her very first spell, a competitor drops dead and Imogen finds the psychic judges' mystical fingers all pointing at her. Can Imogen unlock her own magic and stop the killer from coming back for seconds or will she jump straight from the frying pan and into the fire?
This was a bit predictable but an easy pleasant read! She has a very entertaining relationship with a living flame and budding sweet friendship with a baking witch. This is British bake off with princes, villains and lots of magic!
Kindle
Seashells,Spells& Caramels ( Spells & Caramels book 1)
By Erin Johnson
Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments
A magical French island. A dead contestant. An aspiring baker must clear her name before she gets burned.
Imogen Banks has dreamed her entire life of opening her own bakery in Seattle. But when she accidentally sets fire to her apartment and loses all her possessions, her dreams get toasted. Still coping with her loss, she receives a cryptic invitation she can't possibly refuse: entry into a mysterious baking competition on a beautiful French island.
When Imogen realizes the island village is magical and the bake-off’s participants are witches and wizards, she’s not sure her fledgling powers will be enough to win the coveted contest. In the midst of trying to cast her very first spell, a competitor drops dead and Imogen finds the psychic judges' mystical fingers all pointing at her. Can Imogen unlock her own magic and stop the killer from coming back for seconds or will she jump straight from the frying pan and into the fire?
This was a bit predictable but an easy pleasant read! She has a very entertaining relationship with a living flame and budding sweet friendship with a baking witch. This is British bake off with princes, villains and lots of magic!
Andy K (10821 KP) rated The Conspirator (2011) in Movies
Sep 1, 2019
Love me a good true historical drama
Director Robert Redford delves into a story everyone knows, but doesn't really know.
After the assassination of our 16th and very popular president, Abraham Lincoln, the conspirators are shot and/or caught to face an outraged and shocked nation right at the end of the Civil War. Among the accused is Mary Surratt who is on trial for her involvement in aiding, lodging and collaborating with those accused. The entire nation wants justice however they can get it, so her circumstance seems dire without a lot of reprieve.
Enter her reluctant defense attorney who doesn't really want the job of defending a woman everyone wants to see brought to justice. Her trial seems one-sided at best with witnesses changing their stories and the judges not allowing much argument against the accused.
Mary herself seems she has given up hope with little regard for her own life.
Redford manages to build the tension slowly as the evidence becomes increasingly bleak for the defendant and everyone's eyes on the trial's outcome. Stellar performance by the always interesting James McAvoy. He wrestles with his own emotions and the growing prejudice the trial has brought upon him and his family to persevere and provide ample defense for his client.
After the assassination of our 16th and very popular president, Abraham Lincoln, the conspirators are shot and/or caught to face an outraged and shocked nation right at the end of the Civil War. Among the accused is Mary Surratt who is on trial for her involvement in aiding, lodging and collaborating with those accused. The entire nation wants justice however they can get it, so her circumstance seems dire without a lot of reprieve.
Enter her reluctant defense attorney who doesn't really want the job of defending a woman everyone wants to see brought to justice. Her trial seems one-sided at best with witnesses changing their stories and the judges not allowing much argument against the accused.
Mary herself seems she has given up hope with little regard for her own life.
Redford manages to build the tension slowly as the evidence becomes increasingly bleak for the defendant and everyone's eyes on the trial's outcome. Stellar performance by the always interesting James McAvoy. He wrestles with his own emotions and the growing prejudice the trial has brought upon him and his family to persevere and provide ample defense for his client.
Seashells , Spells and Caramels
7.0
Rate It
Book
A magical French island. A dead contestant. An aspiring baker must clear her name before she gets...
The Great Witches Baking Show (Great Witches Baking Show #1)
Book
A baker with secrets Witches in trouble The cameras are rolling Ready, set, die. Poppy...
culinary cozy mystery
Boy Banned
10.0
Rate It
Book
When the only way to win is to hide who you are, how far are you prepared to go? Reuben...
Contemporary MM Romance
The Illustrated Guide to Judaism: A Comprehensive History of Jewish Religion and Philosophy, Its Traditions and Practices, Magnificently Illustrated with Over 500 Photographs and Paintings
Book
This is a comprehensive history of Jewish religion and philosophy, its traditions and practices,...
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Zoom in Barcelona in Tabletop Games
Jan 5, 2022
Barcelona! One of my favorite cities I have ever visited. I have sweet memories and also sour memories of this wonderful place. I have walked the streets, tipped the street performers, performed at the Universitat de Barcelona, but I also have mistakenly happened upon a brothel at night and had my debit card stolen by the hotel maintenance staff while visiting. So there’s a wide range of experiences I’ve had in Spain. That said, as this game is set in Barcelona, I knew I just had to get it to the table ASAP, and I found a gem for my collection.
In Zoom in Barcelona, players are photographers competing in a local photography contest. Judges will dictate the preferred sites, and the contest will have an over-arching theme, while players also race to take shots at the most opportune moment with the sunlight over the city. There are multiple ways to score points, and collecting a diverse portfolio of shots from the day will win a prize for the best photographer!
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. -T
To setup, follow the instructions in the rulebook; there are just too many to list here. However, the starting state of the board should look something similar to the photo below. The major components are the board, the Landmark photo cards, the Transport cards, Natural Light track, Themes tokens, and of course: the Dragon token.
NOTE: This review includes all rules found in the rulebook. For lighter games, players may omit certain rule options.
Turns are very simple in Zoom in Barcelona and consist of two phases – Move and Perform One Action. Players may move up to two connected spaces by walking, or more spaces by playing and discarding one of their Transport cards (shown above in hand). Players will be moving around the board like crazy attempting to arrive at certain locations so that they may take one action from the following: take one photo, visit an Information Point, or take the Metro.
Should the active player choose to take one photo, they must be currently at a location that matches one of the Landmark cards currently residing in the Judges’ Picks area (northeast corner of the board). To take a photo here, the player simply collects the card from the board and replaces it with another from the deck. Collecting Judges’ Picks cards is nice, but if players neglect to advance themselves along the Natural Light Track (southeast corner of the board), these cards will not score. Players will need to take photos at the leftmost location to be able to score two Landmark cards, with each subsequent Natural Light card allowing an additional two cards to be scored, up to a maximum of eight total cards scored. Players may also take photos of portions of the Barcelona Skyline by arriving at the corresponding Skyline Viewpoint spots on the board and collecting the token present (in a two player game, there is only one token at each spot, so the race is on!). These Skyline tokens can be combined at the end of the game for bonus points if combined in a specific order per the individual City Skyline Tokens dealt at the beginning of the game. Finally, players may take a photo of the Dragon in its current Lair by arriving on the Dragon’s location and choosing this action. By taking its photo, the Dragon allows players to freely take one of the Judges’ Picks Landmark cards from those on display, collect any Skyline building token from the board, advance the player’s token on the Natural Light Tracker, OR refresh all the Landmark cards on the Judges’ Pick area. In all of my plays, I abuse the Dragon to advance my token on the Natural Light Track primarily.
The player may instead visit an Information Point on the board in order to draw more or completely refresh their hand of Transport cards. Perhaps the player has a value 3 card, discards it, and draws three more cards offering higher value transports.
Finally, a player may instead choose to Take the Metro by visiting a red M spot and virtually teleporting to any other red M Metro spot on the board. This makes for quick travel across the city.
Play continues in this fashion until one player collects their eighth Landmark photo. The game then immediately ends and scores are counted per the rulebook. The photographer with the highest score wins the competition!
Components. This game has a lot of different types of components; the box is stuffed! All of the cards are nice, the cardboard components are great, and the wooden tokens are just okay. I would prefer more custom wooden components, as the game ships with just entry level pawn tokens and matching colored cubes. Something a bit more jazzed up would be appreciated here. Otherwise, the art is wonderful, the board is beautiful, and everything just looks really interesting when all setup. Per usual, Blue Orange has given us a beautiful game. (*Just bling out the wooden bits in your copy – I plan to with mine)
So wow, there are so many choices to be made in this game. Firstly, it’s a mad dash to collect that eighth Landmark card, but you just can’t ignore the Natural Light Track (if you play with it), because having eight cards but only able to score two or four is just like shooting yourself in the foot for no good reason. Zooming around town (I know, I had to) is so satisfying, like a board game treasure hunt, and snapping all these photos of memorable places just hits the spot for me. Yes, I am probably biased because of the setting and my fondness for it, but even if this were set in another location where I had no experience, I would still very much enjoy it.
I’ll tell you one thing. I feel bad every time I play this because I feel like a lazy one-trick pony chasing around the Dragon to exploit its power, and MAYBE grabbing a shot along the way. The Dragon is very powerful and allows players to do really helpful things throughout.
Yes, there are some minor rules I left out, but I think you all get the idea behind this game. I am absolutely in love with this one, and I am so glad it was suggested to me to try, and even more lucky that Blue Orange sent me a copy to review! Officially, Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a 5 / 6 for its beauty, fun mechanics, and incredible array of choices to be made along the way. I can see this one inching its way toward my Top 10 Games of All Time, but I suppose time will tell. If you are a fan of ours, and your tastes typically line up with mine, then please do yourself a solid and grab a copy of this one right away. It may be daunting to learn at first, but once it all clicks, I can guarantee you will see the cohesiveness and beauty of Zoom in Barcelona.
Oh, and if anyone finds my debit card, please return it. I “lost” it there in the Summer of 2000. Thanks.
In Zoom in Barcelona, players are photographers competing in a local photography contest. Judges will dictate the preferred sites, and the contest will have an over-arching theme, while players also race to take shots at the most opportune moment with the sunlight over the city. There are multiple ways to score points, and collecting a diverse portfolio of shots from the day will win a prize for the best photographer!
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. -T
To setup, follow the instructions in the rulebook; there are just too many to list here. However, the starting state of the board should look something similar to the photo below. The major components are the board, the Landmark photo cards, the Transport cards, Natural Light track, Themes tokens, and of course: the Dragon token.
NOTE: This review includes all rules found in the rulebook. For lighter games, players may omit certain rule options.
Turns are very simple in Zoom in Barcelona and consist of two phases – Move and Perform One Action. Players may move up to two connected spaces by walking, or more spaces by playing and discarding one of their Transport cards (shown above in hand). Players will be moving around the board like crazy attempting to arrive at certain locations so that they may take one action from the following: take one photo, visit an Information Point, or take the Metro.
Should the active player choose to take one photo, they must be currently at a location that matches one of the Landmark cards currently residing in the Judges’ Picks area (northeast corner of the board). To take a photo here, the player simply collects the card from the board and replaces it with another from the deck. Collecting Judges’ Picks cards is nice, but if players neglect to advance themselves along the Natural Light Track (southeast corner of the board), these cards will not score. Players will need to take photos at the leftmost location to be able to score two Landmark cards, with each subsequent Natural Light card allowing an additional two cards to be scored, up to a maximum of eight total cards scored. Players may also take photos of portions of the Barcelona Skyline by arriving at the corresponding Skyline Viewpoint spots on the board and collecting the token present (in a two player game, there is only one token at each spot, so the race is on!). These Skyline tokens can be combined at the end of the game for bonus points if combined in a specific order per the individual City Skyline Tokens dealt at the beginning of the game. Finally, players may take a photo of the Dragon in its current Lair by arriving on the Dragon’s location and choosing this action. By taking its photo, the Dragon allows players to freely take one of the Judges’ Picks Landmark cards from those on display, collect any Skyline building token from the board, advance the player’s token on the Natural Light Tracker, OR refresh all the Landmark cards on the Judges’ Pick area. In all of my plays, I abuse the Dragon to advance my token on the Natural Light Track primarily.
The player may instead visit an Information Point on the board in order to draw more or completely refresh their hand of Transport cards. Perhaps the player has a value 3 card, discards it, and draws three more cards offering higher value transports.
Finally, a player may instead choose to Take the Metro by visiting a red M spot and virtually teleporting to any other red M Metro spot on the board. This makes for quick travel across the city.
Play continues in this fashion until one player collects their eighth Landmark photo. The game then immediately ends and scores are counted per the rulebook. The photographer with the highest score wins the competition!
Components. This game has a lot of different types of components; the box is stuffed! All of the cards are nice, the cardboard components are great, and the wooden tokens are just okay. I would prefer more custom wooden components, as the game ships with just entry level pawn tokens and matching colored cubes. Something a bit more jazzed up would be appreciated here. Otherwise, the art is wonderful, the board is beautiful, and everything just looks really interesting when all setup. Per usual, Blue Orange has given us a beautiful game. (*Just bling out the wooden bits in your copy – I plan to with mine)
So wow, there are so many choices to be made in this game. Firstly, it’s a mad dash to collect that eighth Landmark card, but you just can’t ignore the Natural Light Track (if you play with it), because having eight cards but only able to score two or four is just like shooting yourself in the foot for no good reason. Zooming around town (I know, I had to) is so satisfying, like a board game treasure hunt, and snapping all these photos of memorable places just hits the spot for me. Yes, I am probably biased because of the setting and my fondness for it, but even if this were set in another location where I had no experience, I would still very much enjoy it.
I’ll tell you one thing. I feel bad every time I play this because I feel like a lazy one-trick pony chasing around the Dragon to exploit its power, and MAYBE grabbing a shot along the way. The Dragon is very powerful and allows players to do really helpful things throughout.
Yes, there are some minor rules I left out, but I think you all get the idea behind this game. I am absolutely in love with this one, and I am so glad it was suggested to me to try, and even more lucky that Blue Orange sent me a copy to review! Officially, Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a 5 / 6 for its beauty, fun mechanics, and incredible array of choices to be made along the way. I can see this one inching its way toward my Top 10 Games of All Time, but I suppose time will tell. If you are a fan of ours, and your tastes typically line up with mine, then please do yourself a solid and grab a copy of this one right away. It may be daunting to learn at first, but once it all clicks, I can guarantee you will see the cohesiveness and beauty of Zoom in Barcelona.
Oh, and if anyone finds my debit card, please return it. I “lost” it there in the Summer of 2000. Thanks.
