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Lindsay (1779 KP) rated Roma, Underground in Books
Aug 30, 2018 (Updated Apr 9, 2019)
Roma Underground is done well. The author start out with a woman we meet as Bianca N. We do learn a little about her past. Her name is mentioned, as Alabaster Black. You may think well, is that her real name or not? We also meet up with Dante, Alessandro, Farrugia and Gennaro. We also run into a few more people along the way.
What out a bit of a boring start with this story. It does get much better. Somehow this group gets involved with a smuggling artifact. Why is Bianca recruited by “Rendition”? Who are they, and what do they want?
Though you do not know how this group gets brought in to start a hoax? You will just be wandering in the world is going on and what it roughly about. Someone is stealing artifacts or art artifacts that have been going missing. The hoax is started by an idea that is shared by Dante.
You do go about learning about Roma Underground and what happens there along the history of Rome. I can not wait to find out what to happen next in the next book named “Wasp Nest.” This book is worth the reading and it offers so much more.
What out a bit of a boring start with this story. It does get much better. Somehow this group gets involved with a smuggling artifact. Why is Bianca recruited by “Rendition”? Who are they, and what do they want?
Though you do not know how this group gets brought in to start a hoax? You will just be wandering in the world is going on and what it roughly about. Someone is stealing artifacts or art artifacts that have been going missing. The hoax is started by an idea that is shared by Dante.
You do go about learning about Roma Underground and what happens there along the history of Rome. I can not wait to find out what to happen next in the next book named “Wasp Nest.” This book is worth the reading and it offers so much more.
Becs (244 KP) rated Dragon Wing in Books
Sep 10, 2018
The storyline. (1 more)
The descriptions.
Grammatical errors. (2 more)
More grammatical errors.
Missing character backgrounds.
A great read but also not a great read.
I received Dragon Wing by Rebecca Busch as a read and review copy from Austin Macauley Publishers for my full honest review.
I was really wanting to love this book and give a five-star rating, but there were so many grammatical errors that it honestly killed me at times to read. Don't get me wrong, the storyline was wonderful and I loved it but with the grammatical errors, the whole book was lacking and seemed like a Wattpad story. (Now there is nothing wrong with Wattpad stories. But when you get an actual physical copy or even digital copy of a book, you kind of hold it at a higher standard compared to reading a story that is only published online.) With that being said, I could only give this story a 3-star rating due to the lack of editing Dragon Wing went through. If it was edited properly, I would say this could have easily been a 4 to a 4.5 star read. But the errors take away from some of the plot, causing it to be boring and way too difficult to read.
I was really wanting to love this book and give a five-star rating, but there were so many grammatical errors that it honestly killed me at times to read. Don't get me wrong, the storyline was wonderful and I loved it but with the grammatical errors, the whole book was lacking and seemed like a Wattpad story. (Now there is nothing wrong with Wattpad stories. But when you get an actual physical copy or even digital copy of a book, you kind of hold it at a higher standard compared to reading a story that is only published online.) With that being said, I could only give this story a 3-star rating due to the lack of editing Dragon Wing went through. If it was edited properly, I would say this could have easily been a 4 to a 4.5 star read. But the errors take away from some of the plot, causing it to be boring and way too difficult to read.
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2450 KP) rated Designed for Haunting in Books
Oct 10, 2018
Designed for Your Halloween Reading Pleasure
It's a couple of weeks before Halloween, and Aurora “Rory” Anderson and the rest of her painting friends are working on the annual benefit they put on where they sell their work for charity. That changes when Rory gets an e-mail from Zelena, a friend in her painting group that says the e-mail is being sent to Rory because Zelena is missing. As Rory begins to investigate, she learns that no one has seen Zelena for several days. A dead body just increases the stakes. Can Rory figure out what is really happening?
This is a great mystery with several other mysterious happenings that help cloud the issue. Yet as Rory sorts through what applies to the main mystery, she leads us to a clear picture of what happened. It all comes together in a page turning climax. The characters are strong; the new characters do their job of keeping us wondering what is really happening while Rory and the other series regulars were a delight to be around. This book evoked a Southern California Halloween for me perfectly, complete with a potentially spooky sub-plot or two to add to the seasonal fun.
This is a great mystery with several other mysterious happenings that help cloud the issue. Yet as Rory sorts through what applies to the main mystery, she leads us to a clear picture of what happened. It all comes together in a page turning climax. The characters are strong; the new characters do their job of keeping us wondering what is really happening while Rory and the other series regulars were a delight to be around. This book evoked a Southern California Halloween for me perfectly, complete with a potentially spooky sub-plot or two to add to the seasonal fun.
Merissa (13489 KP) rated Accidentally on Purpose in Books
Nov 26, 2018
Accidentally on Purpose by J.M. Snyder
Accidentally on Purpose is the story of a fifty-something man, who has a teenage crush on a forty-something man. Alan spends all his time thinking of Jim, and trying to meet him whenever he can. Of course, Jim doesn't know Alan is meeting him, so doesn't turn up for half of the time. Alan's fourteen-year-old nephew, Brooks, gets involved, and that is when all the mischief and mayhem happens.
This was an amusing book, as the two grown men tried to figure out if they liked each other, and where to go next. It does take a serious turn as it nears the end, when Brooks goes missing. An entertaining read, this had no editing or grammatical errors that disrupted my reading, and I enjoyed every word of this page-turner.
If you are looking for a light-hearted romance featuring an 'older' generation, then I can definitely recommend this one.
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
* 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
This was an amusing book, as the two grown men tried to figure out if they liked each other, and where to go next. It does take a serious turn as it nears the end, when Brooks goes missing. An entertaining read, this had no editing or grammatical errors that disrupted my reading, and I enjoyed every word of this page-turner.
If you are looking for a light-hearted romance featuring an 'older' generation, then I can definitely recommend this one.
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
* 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
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated The Addams Family (1991) in Movies
Oct 15, 2019
Creepy, Kooky, Mysterious, Spooky and Ooky
"They're creepy and they're kooky
Mysterious and spooky
They're all together ooky
The Addams family
Their house is a museum
Where people come to see 'em
They really are a scream
The Addams family
Neat
Sweet
Petite
So get a witches shawl on
A broomstick you can crawl on
We're gonna pay a call on
The Addams family".
You got to love that theme song. Everybody remebers that theme song and the snapping.
This is such a underrated movie. It came many years after the tv series. I mean what a great cast, this film had.
The plot: When a man (Christopher Lloyd) claiming to be Fester, the missing brother of Gomez Addams (Raul Julia), arrives at the Addams' home, the family is thrilled. However, Morticia (Anjelica Huston) begins to suspect the man is a fraud, since he cannot recall details of Fester's life. With the help of lawyer Tully Alford (Dan Hedaya), Fester manages to get the Addams clan evicted from their home. Gomez realizes the two men are conspiring to swindle the Addams fortune and that he must challenge Fester.
It is such a great movie. Very funny, very spooky, very creepy, very mysterious, very ooky and very kooky. Got to love the addams family.
Mysterious and spooky
They're all together ooky
The Addams family
Their house is a museum
Where people come to see 'em
They really are a scream
The Addams family
Neat
Sweet
Petite
So get a witches shawl on
A broomstick you can crawl on
We're gonna pay a call on
The Addams family".
You got to love that theme song. Everybody remebers that theme song and the snapping.
This is such a underrated movie. It came many years after the tv series. I mean what a great cast, this film had.
The plot: When a man (Christopher Lloyd) claiming to be Fester, the missing brother of Gomez Addams (Raul Julia), arrives at the Addams' home, the family is thrilled. However, Morticia (Anjelica Huston) begins to suspect the man is a fraud, since he cannot recall details of Fester's life. With the help of lawyer Tully Alford (Dan Hedaya), Fester manages to get the Addams clan evicted from their home. Gomez realizes the two men are conspiring to swindle the Addams fortune and that he must challenge Fester.
It is such a great movie. Very funny, very spooky, very creepy, very mysterious, very ooky and very kooky. Got to love the addams family.
Rebecca Billcliff (2409 KP) rated How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019) in Movies
Nov 11, 2019
A great conclusion!
I fell in love with this franchise when I saw the first film in the cinema. I had a pass at the time, so watched it three times that week.
The second instalment tugged my heartstrings, and I was nervous to see what the third would do. Would it suffer from classic third fizzle syndrome? Will it have a satisfying conclusion? Will I like it? No, yes, and YES!
They managed to capture all the essence of the original, but made it enough of an evolution to realy show progress. So much character development and to come up with an end that says "Yes, this story is done" but also that they live on and it is the start of new things.
As someone who started in her late (very late) teens, watching a young Hiccup finding his feet, to grow with him and Toothless has been magical. I now have my own baby, and can not wait to share these films with him.
This trilogy is, I feel, the best thing to come out of DreamWorks, and while neither sequel is quite as strong as the first, they stand up as sone of the best in cinema!.
The second instalment tugged my heartstrings, and I was nervous to see what the third would do. Would it suffer from classic third fizzle syndrome? Will it have a satisfying conclusion? Will I like it? No, yes, and YES!
They managed to capture all the essence of the original, but made it enough of an evolution to realy show progress. So much character development and to come up with an end that says "Yes, this story is done" but also that they live on and it is the start of new things.
As someone who started in her late (very late) teens, watching a young Hiccup finding his feet, to grow with him and Toothless has been magical. I now have my own baby, and can not wait to share these films with him.
This trilogy is, I feel, the best thing to come out of DreamWorks, and while neither sequel is quite as strong as the first, they stand up as sone of the best in cinema!.
Phil Leader (619 KP) rated Tongues of Serpents (Temeraire #6) in Books
Nov 27, 2019
On paper this book ticks all the boxes for one that I should like: Alternate history, historical setting and dragons.
Unfortunately the reality for me fell well short fo what I felt could be acheived. This is the first book by Novik I have read and perhaps starting at number 6 means I am missing something, but this just failed to gel.
The concept of the dragons being a reality and influencing history was one that was easy to grasp but so very little was done with it. The dragons themselves are quite dull - far from the spectacular beast of legend they have little interesting to do and virtually no personality. There is also not a great deal of plot strung out very thinly involving a chase across Australia, but it takes so long to get going and the chase is repettitive and didn't capture my imagination.
There are some sparks of good ideas here - the smuggling, the political issues in Sydney (caused by the governer - a certain Captain Bligh) - but they end up undeveloped and drowned by the plodding narrative which doesn't seem to want to examine anything that doesn't involve the dragons.
The central idea may have promise in other books of the series, just not this one. Sorry Naomi
Unfortunately the reality for me fell well short fo what I felt could be acheived. This is the first book by Novik I have read and perhaps starting at number 6 means I am missing something, but this just failed to gel.
The concept of the dragons being a reality and influencing history was one that was easy to grasp but so very little was done with it. The dragons themselves are quite dull - far from the spectacular beast of legend they have little interesting to do and virtually no personality. There is also not a great deal of plot strung out very thinly involving a chase across Australia, but it takes so long to get going and the chase is repettitive and didn't capture my imagination.
There are some sparks of good ideas here - the smuggling, the political issues in Sydney (caused by the governer - a certain Captain Bligh) - but they end up undeveloped and drowned by the plodding narrative which doesn't seem to want to examine anything that doesn't involve the dragons.
The central idea may have promise in other books of the series, just not this one. Sorry Naomi
Kate (493 KP) rated Extinction Of All Children (Extinction Of All Children #1) in Books
Jan 22, 2020
I loved this book but didn't realise it was part of a series. I like to have a few books in the series so I can go straight onto the next book if I was as gripped as I was with this book.
I wouldn't normally read this genre but it sounded similar to the hunger games and I really enjoyed those films.
The book gripped me from the first chapter and it got better and better and I couldn't put this down. There were a few mistakes and a few lines that didn't make sense when read as a word was missing but it didn't affect the book at all.
This book made me really invest in the main character. I agreed with her at all stages in the book and I was so invested in her to succeed. I like a book where I am 'in' the book and actually feel like I am part of it.
In my opinion this book is aimed at late teenagers - early teens.
I can't wait to read the next book in the series.
I received a complimentary copy of the book from the author via Voracious Readers Only.
I wouldn't normally read this genre but it sounded similar to the hunger games and I really enjoyed those films.
The book gripped me from the first chapter and it got better and better and I couldn't put this down. There were a few mistakes and a few lines that didn't make sense when read as a word was missing but it didn't affect the book at all.
This book made me really invest in the main character. I agreed with her at all stages in the book and I was so invested in her to succeed. I like a book where I am 'in' the book and actually feel like I am part of it.
In my opinion this book is aimed at late teenagers - early teens.
I can't wait to read the next book in the series.
I received a complimentary copy of the book from the author via Voracious Readers Only.
Lindsay (1779 KP) rated The Missing Planets in Books
Jan 25, 2020
In Book 2, “The Missing Planets”, We land inside a planet called Terato. We meet a new young man named Ek to all his friends and family. Though is full name is Eklam.
This story continues a story plot of a different kind of war but one that affects all the planets in the Solaris world. If you recall the first book is called “The Belikovat Events” well, it mentioned and referenced throughout the book. This is when it connects the two books.
Does Terato have a history of invaders of their own in their history of life? This one likes to attack planets and destroy life and create extinction? They seem to want to help make sure that Earth or to them Eorthe. The planet they so want to warn and need the help of is called “Eorthe-Lanartan”.
This story is well written. I enjoyed the way it is different. It a way to connect the first book to the second. Though it mostly takes place on Terato and with the help of Korvo. Though Korvo does not much he seems to help Ek with what going on and also helps with guiding him and his planet, He does not overstep. He lets Ek lead his teams and make decisions.
This story continues a story plot of a different kind of war but one that affects all the planets in the Solaris world. If you recall the first book is called “The Belikovat Events” well, it mentioned and referenced throughout the book. This is when it connects the two books.
Does Terato have a history of invaders of their own in their history of life? This one likes to attack planets and destroy life and create extinction? They seem to want to help make sure that Earth or to them Eorthe. The planet they so want to warn and need the help of is called “Eorthe-Lanartan”.
This story is well written. I enjoyed the way it is different. It a way to connect the first book to the second. Though it mostly takes place on Terato and with the help of Korvo. Though Korvo does not much he seems to help Ek with what going on and also helps with guiding him and his planet, He does not overstep. He lets Ek lead his teams and make decisions.
Lee KM Pallatina (951 KP) rated The Lion King (2019) in Movies
Jan 3, 2020
Disney+ (Ha, get it)
Although this contains spoilers, its doesn't differ much from the original plot (like at all).
In a tradition that we have now become accustomed to when it comes to disney, this live action adaptation seemingly fails to hit home like the original animated classic.
Parts of the songs were missing, beyonce as nala felt empty in some parts.
This movie sticks to the original story & some great voice overs in most cases.
Although it's something I'd happily watch again, I'd rather wait 20 mins for my vhs tape to rewind and sit through the trailers (and that's after I've gone through the trouble of setting up my vcr) and watch the animated version.
I know that a live action adaptation is suppose to go for the realistic look, but would it really be that bad to have made the characters look exactly like their animated counterparts?? Make the bird blue, give scar a black mane etc.
Absolutely loved the timon and pumba scenes. (Definitely wanna see a live action lion king 3: Hakuna Mutata and maybe Robin hood (fox version lol) )
Overall a 7/10 (ish)
In a tradition that we have now become accustomed to when it comes to disney, this live action adaptation seemingly fails to hit home like the original animated classic.
Parts of the songs were missing, beyonce as nala felt empty in some parts.
This movie sticks to the original story & some great voice overs in most cases.
Although it's something I'd happily watch again, I'd rather wait 20 mins for my vhs tape to rewind and sit through the trailers (and that's after I've gone through the trouble of setting up my vcr) and watch the animated version.
I know that a live action adaptation is suppose to go for the realistic look, but would it really be that bad to have made the characters look exactly like their animated counterparts?? Make the bird blue, give scar a black mane etc.
Absolutely loved the timon and pumba scenes. (Definitely wanna see a live action lion king 3: Hakuna Mutata and maybe Robin hood (fox version lol) )
Overall a 7/10 (ish)