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BookwormMama14 (18 KP) rated The Elusive Miss Ellison (Regency Brides: A Legacy of Grace, #1) in Books
Jan 2, 2019
A beautiful setting and a heart touching tale of forgiveness and redemption. A very sweet story that had me falling in love with Gloucestershire and Beagle puppies! The Elusive Miss Ellison is Carolyn Miller's debut novel and I applaud her creativity and gift for story! The descriptions of the settings, homes, and gowns were so detailed that I can still see the images in my mind.
Miss Ellison and Lord Hawkesbury have so many challenges to overcome. In their personal lives as well as with their relationship with their families and each other. Learning to lay down their pride and lean on God for truth and guidance was a very encouraging thing to witness.
I did enjoy this story and I am very excited to continue the series. However, the flow of the story and some inconsistency in the characters had me confused on multiple occasions. Hence my rating. That being said, the words and language was elegant and soothing. I found it very fun to read terms used in Regency times that I had to look up. This aspect added an extra level of depth to the story. There are several acknowledgements to Pride & Prejudice, which is always a delight to find in books. I am eagerly looking forward to following the author's growth and progress in her books to come. If you enjoy Regency stories with romance and redemption, I suggest you give this one a try!
I received a complimentary copy of The Elusive Miss Ellison from Kregel Publications through NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.
Miss Ellison and Lord Hawkesbury have so many challenges to overcome. In their personal lives as well as with their relationship with their families and each other. Learning to lay down their pride and lean on God for truth and guidance was a very encouraging thing to witness.
I did enjoy this story and I am very excited to continue the series. However, the flow of the story and some inconsistency in the characters had me confused on multiple occasions. Hence my rating. That being said, the words and language was elegant and soothing. I found it very fun to read terms used in Regency times that I had to look up. This aspect added an extra level of depth to the story. There are several acknowledgements to Pride & Prejudice, which is always a delight to find in books. I am eagerly looking forward to following the author's growth and progress in her books to come. If you enjoy Regency stories with romance and redemption, I suggest you give this one a try!
I received a complimentary copy of The Elusive Miss Ellison from Kregel Publications through NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.
Bill Nighy recommended Mississippi Burning (1988) in Movies (curated)
Femlandia was an enjoyable, if rather frustrating read. The end of civilisation doesn’t come from a killer virus, zombies or climate disaster, but instead is caused by a total economic collapse. The world (particularly the USA) goes broke. Food becomes prohibitively expensive, services are shut off, people are made homeless: it’s every man/ woman for themselves. Except, as is often the case in these circumstances, it’s the women and children who suffer the most.
Miranda Reynolds is left to fend for herself and her teenage daughter when her husband literally drives himself off a cliff. She realises her only safe space is with the mother she hasn’t spoken to in a very long time, and the community that she has set up: Femlandia. It’s her last resort.
Now, if I were Miranda, I wouldn’t have prevaricated for so long - I would have turned up on Femlandia’s doorstep pretty fast. This is regardless of the fact that it’s nothing like the safe haven it has always sold itself as.
As I’ve said, this frustrated and gripped me in equal measure. There are plenty of things in this, that as a feminist, made my toes curl. But let’s face it: who wants to read a dystopian novel where everything is lovely, there are no problems, and everyone lives happily ever after? That’s like NO dystopia I’ve ever read about!
This looks at human nature in all it’s glory and ignominy. It looks at some uncomfortable subjects: abuse, control and prejudice (especially misandry and anti-trans). But do you know what? I raced through this, it gave me a lot to think about, and I think it’s well worth a read.
Miranda Reynolds is left to fend for herself and her teenage daughter when her husband literally drives himself off a cliff. She realises her only safe space is with the mother she hasn’t spoken to in a very long time, and the community that she has set up: Femlandia. It’s her last resort.
Now, if I were Miranda, I wouldn’t have prevaricated for so long - I would have turned up on Femlandia’s doorstep pretty fast. This is regardless of the fact that it’s nothing like the safe haven it has always sold itself as.
As I’ve said, this frustrated and gripped me in equal measure. There are plenty of things in this, that as a feminist, made my toes curl. But let’s face it: who wants to read a dystopian novel where everything is lovely, there are no problems, and everyone lives happily ever after? That’s like NO dystopia I’ve ever read about!
This looks at human nature in all it’s glory and ignominy. It looks at some uncomfortable subjects: abuse, control and prejudice (especially misandry and anti-trans). But do you know what? I raced through this, it gave me a lot to think about, and I think it’s well worth a read.
Phillip McSween (751 KP) rated Overlord (2018) in Movies
Feb 3, 2019
Crazy Insane
When a team of American troops take on a routine mission in Nazi-occupied France during World War II, they stumble upon something abnormal and horrifying that they weren’t expecting.
Acting: 10
Beginning: 10
Characters: 10
Cinematography/Visuals: 10
Conflict: 10
From it’s heartpounding beginning to crazy conclusion, you’re put right in front of consistent action. They are the kind of scenes that leave you wanting more. Intensity awaits at every turn with gun battles, explosions, and crazy zombie(esque) fights. The action was managed perfectly, not overdone in anyway.
Genre: 7
Memorability: 8
I remember jumping quite a few times while watching Overlord. It’s one of those movies where you, as an audience member, recognize something is wrong, but the characters don’t seem to pick up on it until it’s too late. Some of the things you see are quite unsettling and hard to get out of your memory.
Pace: 8
Overlord moves at a steady speed, although not perfect. I would prefer “breakneck” with a movie like this, but instead you get “just over the speed limit”. Fortunately there are only a handful of lulls, but they seem to come at the worst times right when you expect the train to keep rolling.
Plot: 7
Resolution: 10
I won’t give anything away, but the ending left me both satisfied and hoping for more. There is definitely room for some kind of a sequel here if they wanted to go that route. All the loose ends that needed to be tied up were taken care of.
Overall: 90
I can’t stress enough that I appreciate when certain genres get reused for the sake of being spun in a different fashion. Sometimes it’s a big miss (insert Pride and Prejudice and Zombies here). Other times, a film succeeds with a big swing. Overlord hits a home run.
Acting: 10
Beginning: 10
Characters: 10
Cinematography/Visuals: 10
Conflict: 10
From it’s heartpounding beginning to crazy conclusion, you’re put right in front of consistent action. They are the kind of scenes that leave you wanting more. Intensity awaits at every turn with gun battles, explosions, and crazy zombie(esque) fights. The action was managed perfectly, not overdone in anyway.
Genre: 7
Memorability: 8
I remember jumping quite a few times while watching Overlord. It’s one of those movies where you, as an audience member, recognize something is wrong, but the characters don’t seem to pick up on it until it’s too late. Some of the things you see are quite unsettling and hard to get out of your memory.
Pace: 8
Overlord moves at a steady speed, although not perfect. I would prefer “breakneck” with a movie like this, but instead you get “just over the speed limit”. Fortunately there are only a handful of lulls, but they seem to come at the worst times right when you expect the train to keep rolling.
Plot: 7
Resolution: 10
I won’t give anything away, but the ending left me both satisfied and hoping for more. There is definitely room for some kind of a sequel here if they wanted to go that route. All the loose ends that needed to be tied up were taken care of.
Overall: 90
I can’t stress enough that I appreciate when certain genres get reused for the sake of being spun in a different fashion. Sometimes it’s a big miss (insert Pride and Prejudice and Zombies here). Other times, a film succeeds with a big swing. Overlord hits a home run.
Marylegs (44 KP) rated Bridget Jones's Diary in Books
Aug 14, 2019
I can’t begin to imagine why it has taken me so very long to get round to reading this book. Of course I was in my mid-teens when the film came out. Obviously I have seen the film, it happens to be one of my favourite chick flick films to curl up under tons of covers to. Maybe that’s why it has taken me so long to get round to….
So unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past 10 years, most people have a rough idea what Bridget Jones’s Diary is all about.
I found Bridget less frumpy then the film portrayed her and I think she is much stronger than she believes she is. Although she was at times pretty self-centred… but this is her diary… everyone thinks about themselves when they talk to their diary and are less concerned with other people.
I could whole heartedly relate to Bridget’s constant dilemma about dieting and trying to lose weight…. And often failing due to food tasting so damn good. On the whole it was as I imagined it would be. I particularly liked the parts where Bridget makes references to fancying Mr. Darcy (ie Colin Firth) from Pride and Prejudice. Never expecting that he would one day turn out to be her Darcy in the film.
If you liked/loved the film and haven’t read the book, I would recommend it. Don’t expect anything more than the film, but you definitely don’t get less. I will read two following books as I am sure there are many other deep thoughts Bridget needs to share with me and it was a fun easy read.
So unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past 10 years, most people have a rough idea what Bridget Jones’s Diary is all about.
I found Bridget less frumpy then the film portrayed her and I think she is much stronger than she believes she is. Although she was at times pretty self-centred… but this is her diary… everyone thinks about themselves when they talk to their diary and are less concerned with other people.
I could whole heartedly relate to Bridget’s constant dilemma about dieting and trying to lose weight…. And often failing due to food tasting so damn good. On the whole it was as I imagined it would be. I particularly liked the parts where Bridget makes references to fancying Mr. Darcy (ie Colin Firth) from Pride and Prejudice. Never expecting that he would one day turn out to be her Darcy in the film.
If you liked/loved the film and haven’t read the book, I would recommend it. Don’t expect anything more than the film, but you definitely don’t get less. I will read two following books as I am sure there are many other deep thoughts Bridget needs to share with me and it was a fun easy read.
Charlie Cobra Reviews (1840 KP) rated Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) in Movies
Jul 7, 2020 (Updated Oct 29, 2020)
Unexpected and Inventive Mix of Drama and Zombie
Contains spoilers, click to show
This movie was surprisingly decent even with all the cheesy love drama and relationship plot mixed in from Pride and Prejudice. I liked the background for the alternate 19th century London and how it came to be full of zombies. I also really liked how the father of this family had his daughters train in Chinese martial arts and was more concerned with their immediate safety and how the mother was more concerned with them marrying. I was a little disappointed in how not all the sisters where featured prominently enough into the plot/story. I liked Lena Headey's character too but felt she was underutilized as well. The zombies in this movie were pretty unique. It said that they were zombies but they could still talk quite intelligently and also craved human brains and if they didn't eat brains then they wouldn't turn into full zombies. The full zombies were far more aggressive and faster. I also liked how the character Darcy was in charge of investigating possible zombie cases and wish they could have delved more into that part of the characters story. The action also surprised me for being a PG-13 movie there was quite a bit of blood and violence. There were some nice headshot scenes where the zombies heads were blown clean off their bodies. The fight scenes were pretty well choreographed and the girls kicked a lot more butt than most of the guys. Even the plot with the cheesy love triangle had me trying to guess which guy was going to get with which girl and kept the plot interesting enough inbetween the action. I give this movie a 6/10 and say it's an above average zombie movie.
Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post
Oct 16, 2021
I absolutely loved Kerry Daynes’s first book, so when I was given the chance by NetGalley to read and review this book I knew that I was in for a treat.
Kerry Daynes gives us an insight into the world of forensic psychology and the different settings that she has worked in, from hospitals to her own private practice to a mother-and-baby unit. Her job is so varied and she talks about a wide range of characters that she has met throughout her career.
Kerry Daynes doesn’t pretend to be a robot and is the first to admit that sometimes her prejudice or feelings do appear during sessions with some of her patients. She says the most important thing is to realise this and to try to put them to one side at that moment in time. I have always been interested in psychology and it is the career I want to go into in the near future, and this book has ignited that passion even further but also put some of my doubts to bed.
I really did enjoy this book, and while I know that statistics and studies are important to back up facts in the book, I did feel that at some points the references and statistics were a bit too heavy, especially if you are not someone who likes to go away and read up on them afterwards. While they didn’t bother me too much, I did sometimes find I was skimming over them a little, so I wonder what people who don’t have any experience of psychology would think of these parts.
Overall, I really did enjoy the book and I enjoyed reading about the patients that Kerry Daynes included and felt satisfied when we found out what happened to them afterwards.
Kerry Daynes gives us an insight into the world of forensic psychology and the different settings that she has worked in, from hospitals to her own private practice to a mother-and-baby unit. Her job is so varied and she talks about a wide range of characters that she has met throughout her career.
Kerry Daynes doesn’t pretend to be a robot and is the first to admit that sometimes her prejudice or feelings do appear during sessions with some of her patients. She says the most important thing is to realise this and to try to put them to one side at that moment in time. I have always been interested in psychology and it is the career I want to go into in the near future, and this book has ignited that passion even further but also put some of my doubts to bed.
I really did enjoy this book, and while I know that statistics and studies are important to back up facts in the book, I did feel that at some points the references and statistics were a bit too heavy, especially if you are not someone who likes to go away and read up on them afterwards. While they didn’t bother me too much, I did sometimes find I was skimming over them a little, so I wonder what people who don’t have any experience of psychology would think of these parts.
Overall, I really did enjoy the book and I enjoyed reading about the patients that Kerry Daynes included and felt satisfied when we found out what happened to them afterwards.
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic in Books
Jan 12, 2018
This book is FANTASTIC. I was enthralled from start to finish, and frantically looked up the author to make sure she is writing a sequel. (She is, thank goodness!) I absolutely loved the main character, Nora, and the acerbic magician Aruendiel. Even while cheering for the opposite side, I even enjoyed reading about Raclin and Ilissa, the villains of the novel.
In Nora Fischer, we have a modern, independent, feminist woman transported to a place and time where women are inferior (by nature, most think.) There are even linguistic influences that make them inferior; women speak with a lot of "um" and "well" type words in their speech, while men don't. When Nora protests that this makes women's speech sound weaker, she's told that that's "just how women speak." Seeing her confronted with the sexism ingrained within the medieval style culture, and seeing her confront Aruendiel with how sexist it actually is, was a wonderful sub-plot of the book.
The main plot was well-paced and interesting - after being kidnapped by Ilissa at the beginning of the book, and enchanted into being a beautiful, love-struck little ninny, Nora recovers herself with the help of Aruendiel, and spends the rest of the book evading re-capture and finding her place in this new world. The descriptions are colorful, the characters are deep and fascinating, and the land and culture itself shows just how much thought went into creating this world. This is an absolutely spectacular debut novel, in my opinion, and I cannot WAIT for the sequel, since Barker did leave a few questions unanswered at the end of the book. I really can't rave about this book enough. If you like fantasy, (or Pride and Prejudice, since this book, while not attempting to be a retelling or anything, had a lot of the same feel) you should really pick this one up.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
In Nora Fischer, we have a modern, independent, feminist woman transported to a place and time where women are inferior (by nature, most think.) There are even linguistic influences that make them inferior; women speak with a lot of "um" and "well" type words in their speech, while men don't. When Nora protests that this makes women's speech sound weaker, she's told that that's "just how women speak." Seeing her confronted with the sexism ingrained within the medieval style culture, and seeing her confront Aruendiel with how sexist it actually is, was a wonderful sub-plot of the book.
The main plot was well-paced and interesting - after being kidnapped by Ilissa at the beginning of the book, and enchanted into being a beautiful, love-struck little ninny, Nora recovers herself with the help of Aruendiel, and spends the rest of the book evading re-capture and finding her place in this new world. The descriptions are colorful, the characters are deep and fascinating, and the land and culture itself shows just how much thought went into creating this world. This is an absolutely spectacular debut novel, in my opinion, and I cannot WAIT for the sequel, since Barker did leave a few questions unanswered at the end of the book. I really can't rave about this book enough. If you like fantasy, (or Pride and Prejudice, since this book, while not attempting to be a retelling or anything, had a lot of the same feel) you should really pick this one up.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Empress of All Seasons in Books
Mar 20, 2019
Characters (2 more)
World-building
Japanese mythology
I am so torn on this book. I'm really tired of the trope of "batch of girls competing to win a dude" that seems to be so popular lately. But this is an Asian take on the trope, so I don't want to come down too hard on it for that. I attended a panel at the last Baltimore Book Festival about old tropes being resurrected by minority authors, and I agree that just because a trope might seem old and played out, putting a new spin on it with minority characters and themes deserves its own time. That is definitely valid. But they were talking about tropes like vampires and zombies and retold classics like Pride and Prejudice and Alice in Wonderland. I'm not sure the trope of "girls competing to win a dude" deserves more time in any form. (To be fair, I kind of equally hate guys competing to win the hand of the princess. No one should be obligated to marry someone just because they won an arbitrary competition. There are all kinds of consent issues there.)
Despite that, I really enjoyed this book. I loved the characters, the variety of yõkai, the bits of myth interspersed throughout the book. I do question Akira being trained to be a master of shuriken in a matter of days - like, really? And I wish instead of summarizing a ton in the epilogue, she'd just written a sequel, because I think there's enough material to do it. You'd think, with so much I didn't like about the book, that my overall opinion would be negative - but it's not. Even with all of those bad points, this book was enthralling and kept me reading right to the end.
Empress of all Seasons is a great Japanese-inspired fantasy that relies a little too much on old tropes. Set your inner critic to the side and just enjoy the ride, because the story is fantastic.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
Despite that, I really enjoyed this book. I loved the characters, the variety of yõkai, the bits of myth interspersed throughout the book. I do question Akira being trained to be a master of shuriken in a matter of days - like, really? And I wish instead of summarizing a ton in the epilogue, she'd just written a sequel, because I think there's enough material to do it. You'd think, with so much I didn't like about the book, that my overall opinion would be negative - but it's not. Even with all of those bad points, this book was enthralling and kept me reading right to the end.
Empress of all Seasons is a great Japanese-inspired fantasy that relies a little too much on old tropes. Set your inner critic to the side and just enjoy the ride, because the story is fantastic.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com