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Midnight Sun (2018)
Midnight Sun (2018)
2018 | Drama, Romance
Acting (0 more)
Tissues definitely needed
Contains spoilers, click to show
The story follows 17 year old Katie as she battles with a life threatening illness Xeroderma pigmentosum. XP means she can not be exposed to sunlight or it can be fatal.
Growing up, Katie falls in love with a boy called Charlie who would pass by her house every day and one day whilst playing a song at the train station they finally meet face to face and hit off straight away.
The story revolves around teenage love whilst battling this disease, but after staying out with Charlie until early hours in the morning and becoming exposed to the slightest bit of sunlight, Katie's health begins to deteriorate until she eventually passes away.
As a lover of romantic movies I really enjoyed this movie. Cried like a baby at the end though, so I definitely recommend being prepared with tissues at the ready.
  
    The Kid

    The Kid

    Dan Savage

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    Book

    Dan Savage's nationally syndicated sex advice column, Savage Love, enrages and excites more than...

The White City
The White City
Grace Hitchcock | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry, Religion, Romance
9
9.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Characters (3 more)
The Plot Line
True Crime Elements
Writing Style
Fantastic Debut!
I am a lover of true crime, historical fiction, suspense and romance. I mean a huge lover of all of them. So, when I saw that this was the best of all of those worlds, I was ecstatic. This is a debut novel from Grace Hitchcock and let me tell you what. The detail she includes in this story, made me feel like I was right there in the center of the World’s Fair, following these awesome characters, and reaching an ending that left me wanting another story just like it.


Winnie and Jude’s characters are wonderful! I loved them so good. The detail with which Hitchcock created the scenes that Winnie saw, and went through, and how Jude fell for her, was awesome. I felt like I became Winnie and fell for Jude instantly. Jude was a sweet soul and Winnie was absolutely full of spunk and sass!

The real life serial killer aspect woven into the story was incredible. I had no idea about that time period having someone like that, and it really made the story that much more captivating. The twists and turns of the roller coaster story, seeing Winnie going “undercover” to prove to her Police Chief father that she was right, was fantastic and had me reading this book and finishing it in a 24 hour period.

If you love historical novels, love the thrills of a great suspense story, and enjoy reading a God-filled romance book, then look no further than this 4 star debut. Ms. Hitchcock has extreme talent and is sure to be on the best sellers list before long! I sing the praises of this story loudly and can’t wait for the next book from this talented author, as well as another incredible installment in this new series from Barbour!

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Barbour Publishing and was under no obligation to post a review, positive or negative.*
  
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
N.K. Jemisin | 2000 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
9
8.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Worldbuilding (1 more)
Thoughtful and Engaging Characters
Tight, compelling story set in an amazing fantasy world
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms has the kind of engaging plot and clear prose that makes it easy to get lost in. Jemisin's debut novel crafts a complex world that fans of traditional fantasy will love, while still being incredibly fresh and thoughtful. The worldbuilding engages in the complexities of colonialism and cultural difference in a way that makes the world feel alive and thrumming with conflict.

Yeine is a compelling protagonist and Nahadoth, her romantic interest, is sexy, dark, and tortured (like all good love interests should be.) It's 410 pages of pure fantasy fun.

The only nitpick I have is that I wish there was more of it. Seriously. The advice to writers is to start as late in the story as possible, but I wish more time had been spent building up Yeine's world and her relationship with her mother (who's death is pivotal to the plot), and with her own Kingdom of Darre. Instead the reader enters the story with Yeine already making her way to the city of Sky. This, for me, lessened the emotional impact of later reveals.
  
This is the first book in this series that I have read and I hope that after going back and reading the others in this series, that I can enjoy this one more. That said, this was not a bad book. Ms. Newport chisels her characters well, and the backdrop of the story is vividly created. Susanna and Adam’s characters really tugged at my heart, but I just couldn’t get as deep into the story as I would have liked to have gotten. 

Something was missing. Or, perhaps, it was because I haven’t read the other books in this series and I just couldn’t fully grasp the entire setting. With that said, however, I still give this book 3.5 stars. Ms. Newport’s talent does shine through, and her characters do pull at your heart. I will be going back and reading the other books in this series then I will pick this one back up and try again. 

I do encourage you to give this book a try, if you’ve read Ms. Newports other books in the series. You may fall in love with these sweet characters quicker that I did and you may love the story line.
  
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BTPBookclub (18 KP) rated Still Me in Books

May 11, 2019  
Still Me
Still Me
Jojo Moyes | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry, Romance
10
8.7 (31 Ratings)
Book Rating
Had me feeling a range of emotions throughout.
Yay. Feels like I have waited forever for this book! Finally. What a brilliant book! It was so good to be back in Lou’s crazy world, she is one of those characters you just cant help falling in love with. She yet again faces every challenge she can think of in this story but in the big city New York, making it even more daunting. However, Lou makes it through, she always does.

Still Me is a lovely book to read with a hidden message for all us readers within the story – BE YOU. Don’t be who others want/need you to be. I found it an easy read, fast paced and to round it up with that beautiful ending! Perfect. I would say read these books in order though as it does make references to the previous books and characters. If you enjoyed Me Before You or After You then you will love Still Me. I would highly recommend this story to you all, a well deserved five stars.

Still Me will have you feeling all the emotions. Happy, sad, upset, laughing out loud, regret and anger. Brilliant!
  
The Perfection (2019)
The Perfection (2019)
2019 | Drama, Horror, Thriller
The performances, the story & the effects. (0 more)
The very last scene...sort of (0 more)
Chello there!
I love stumbling on little treats like this. Had heard nothing about, hadn't seen the trailer, read the blurb and thought why not - and I'm glad I did. Story starts with a former chello child prodigy who had given up chances of fame etc to take care of her sick mother. When her mother dies she returns to her old life and meets her schools new prodigy and the quickly form a friendship and decide to go on a trip together. What follows is a cracking story of love, betrayal, abuse, jealousy & revenge done really really well with some good gore and plenty of twists. The only down I had was the very last scene so it left me with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Without giving too much away the scene itself is really good but I thought 'oh my God that's cool, that's even cooler - but wait - why wud they do that?'. But apart from that its amazingly good and totally worth a watch!
  
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David McK (3600 KP) rated Dracula in Books

Jan 30, 2019 (Updated Aug 14, 2019)  
Dracula
Dracula
Bram Stoker, Ang Lee | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
6
8.1 (46 Ratings)
Book Rating
I first read Dracula as part of a film and fiction course at University: read the book; watch the film. It is, of course, the most famous of all vampire stories.

Unlike the movie version, the story is told from the point of view of the various secondary characters (who are all writing in their diaries or memoirs): Dracula, himself, is never at the forefront. Rather, he is an ominous shadowy presence in the background throughout. This is actually quite effective: by disassociating the reader from the villain, Stoker manages to both convey the deadly mysteriousness of the Count, and side-steps the danger of the reader sympathizing too much with Dracula, while that character is also able to be abroad during the day-time; just not with the powers he has at night.

Finally, and unlike the film version which bears the same name, in the book Dracula is not given the same back-story: Mina, for instance, is never described as being his long-lost love! In this sense, the film is much more of a Gothic love-story than the original source material!