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You Won't Know Her Name
9.0
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There lives a little girl whom you will never know the name of, and for her, a terrible storm is...
bullying sexual assualt middle school junior high
Once Upon a Dream (Mystic Beach #1) by Aislinn Archer
10.0
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Best friends in this life. Even more in her visions of a life before. Will his rockstar dreams tear...
Paranormal RockStar Romance
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated The Burning Girl ( Haunted Collection 5) in Books
Jul 10, 2023
91 of 235
Kindle
The Burning Girl (Haunted Collection 5)
By Ron Ripley
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Stefan Korzh’s desire to destroy the lives of everyone around him knows no bounds. Even as he’s hunted by enemies, Stefan shows no signs of slowing down. His deadly collection of antiques continues to spread and help his dreams become reality.
Meanwhile, Victor Daniels and Tom Crane have managed to build some resemblance of an ordinary life. They remain more determined than ever in their fight against Stefan, and will stop at nothing to put an end to the horrors of the Korzh collection. But life tends to take nasty turns when ghosts are involved.
Stefan’s latest threat is the fire-obsessed Molly, whose deadly ghost emerges from the pages of a novel. With the simple flick of a match, she satisfies her addiction for scorching buildings and burning flesh.
Victor and Tom quickly find themselves in the middle of a bloody trail of chaos, chasing after an enemy that will test the limits of their strength.
And they must hurry.
Because it doesn’t take long before Molly craves her next fiery fix…
This was one of my favourites so far! It was good catching up with Victor and Tom also finally seeing nasty Nicolas put in his place. I really enjoy this series of nasty little spirits and a vengeful man.
Kindle
The Burning Girl (Haunted Collection 5)
By Ron Ripley
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Stefan Korzh’s desire to destroy the lives of everyone around him knows no bounds. Even as he’s hunted by enemies, Stefan shows no signs of slowing down. His deadly collection of antiques continues to spread and help his dreams become reality.
Meanwhile, Victor Daniels and Tom Crane have managed to build some resemblance of an ordinary life. They remain more determined than ever in their fight against Stefan, and will stop at nothing to put an end to the horrors of the Korzh collection. But life tends to take nasty turns when ghosts are involved.
Stefan’s latest threat is the fire-obsessed Molly, whose deadly ghost emerges from the pages of a novel. With the simple flick of a match, she satisfies her addiction for scorching buildings and burning flesh.
Victor and Tom quickly find themselves in the middle of a bloody trail of chaos, chasing after an enemy that will test the limits of their strength.
And they must hurry.
Because it doesn’t take long before Molly craves her next fiery fix…
This was one of my favourites so far! It was good catching up with Victor and Tom also finally seeing nasty Nicolas put in his place. I really enjoy this series of nasty little spirits and a vengeful man.
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Legends & Lattes (book 1) in Books
Aug 3, 2023
100 of 235
Kindle
Legends & Lattes ( Book 1)
By Travis Baldree
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The much-beloved BookTok sensation, Travis Baldree's novel of high fantasy and low stakes.
*This new edition includes a very special, never-before-seen bonus story, 'Pages to Fill.'*
After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time.
The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success — not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.
If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won't be able to go it alone.
But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.
I was nervous starting this as I’d seen so much hype about it. It really didn’t disappoint I loved it!! Lighthearted, sweet and just what you need to make you smile. Definitely worth it even if your not a fantasy fan I can see it still being an entertaining read. Loved it!
Kindle
Legends & Lattes ( Book 1)
By Travis Baldree
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The much-beloved BookTok sensation, Travis Baldree's novel of high fantasy and low stakes.
*This new edition includes a very special, never-before-seen bonus story, 'Pages to Fill.'*
After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time.
The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success — not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.
If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won't be able to go it alone.
But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.
I was nervous starting this as I’d seen so much hype about it. It really didn’t disappoint I loved it!! Lighthearted, sweet and just what you need to make you smile. Definitely worth it even if your not a fantasy fan I can see it still being an entertaining read. Loved it!
Hazel (2934 KP) rated The Child Who Lived in Books
Aug 13, 2023
Although a work of fiction, The Child Who Lived is based on true events and tells a little told story of female prisoners within Mauthausen.
The book starts in the divorce courts in 1946 where Lore's husband is filing for divorce due to her 'unacceptable behaviour'. There, she tells the story of her remarkable life before and during the war.
Lore was a political prisoner initially interred in Ravensbrück but sent to Mauthausen with another group of women there to service the needs of the men. Lore and the other women soon become like family; looking out for and supporting each other whilst trying to survive the brutal regime inflicted by the SS. Against all the odds and rules, Lore finds love and unexpectedly becomes pregnant ... a death sentence for both mother and baby. How is she going to survive and save the life of her unborn child?
This is a story of bravery, strength, love and survival and although a work of fiction and therefore there is some 'artistic licence' and a suspension of reality at times, it is a story that hits all the emotions and the characters stay with you long after you finish.
Recommended to those who enjoy reading historical fiction from this era and thank you to the author, Bookouture and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of The Child Who Lived.
The book starts in the divorce courts in 1946 where Lore's husband is filing for divorce due to her 'unacceptable behaviour'. There, she tells the story of her remarkable life before and during the war.
Lore was a political prisoner initially interred in Ravensbrück but sent to Mauthausen with another group of women there to service the needs of the men. Lore and the other women soon become like family; looking out for and supporting each other whilst trying to survive the brutal regime inflicted by the SS. Against all the odds and rules, Lore finds love and unexpectedly becomes pregnant ... a death sentence for both mother and baby. How is she going to survive and save the life of her unborn child?
This is a story of bravery, strength, love and survival and although a work of fiction and therefore there is some 'artistic licence' and a suspension of reality at times, it is a story that hits all the emotions and the characters stay with you long after you finish.
Recommended to those who enjoy reading historical fiction from this era and thank you to the author, Bookouture and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of The Child Who Lived.
Secrets of a Scottish Isle
8.0
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Spirited American Jane Wunderly must investigate a secret society on an isolated isle off the...
ClareR (5674 KP) rated Hold Back the Night in Books
Jul 7, 2024
I’m still reeling from this book, and I read it about a month ago.
Hold Back the Night is set in 3 timelines:
1959, Annie and Ruth are training to be psychiatric nurses in an institution that believes they’re at the forefront of treatment. They learn to speed-shave and dress male patients, hold down women receiving ECT, and take part in conversion therapy for some male patients. “Conversion therapy” sounds pretty harmless, doesn’t it? In reality it wasn’t.
1983, Annie is widowed and bringing up her daughter, Rosie, alone. She meets a young man who is ill, and his friend. She learns that he has been evicted because he has HIV. Annie offers them a home and nursing care. Soon her home becomes a haven for infected, homeless, shunned boys. I think in the back of her mind, she knows she’s trying to make amends for her part in the conversion therapies she took part in.
Which brings us to the third timeline in 2020, and Covid.
There are some parallels to be drawn (uncertainty, fear), but this timeline wraps everything up together, and Annie faces up to her part in 1959.
I loved this book, and the way the timelines wove together really helped me to understand Annie and her reasons for doing just what she did - rightly or wrongly.
Definitely one of my books of the year.
Hold Back the Night is set in 3 timelines:
1959, Annie and Ruth are training to be psychiatric nurses in an institution that believes they’re at the forefront of treatment. They learn to speed-shave and dress male patients, hold down women receiving ECT, and take part in conversion therapy for some male patients. “Conversion therapy” sounds pretty harmless, doesn’t it? In reality it wasn’t.
1983, Annie is widowed and bringing up her daughter, Rosie, alone. She meets a young man who is ill, and his friend. She learns that he has been evicted because he has HIV. Annie offers them a home and nursing care. Soon her home becomes a haven for infected, homeless, shunned boys. I think in the back of her mind, she knows she’s trying to make amends for her part in the conversion therapies she took part in.
Which brings us to the third timeline in 2020, and Covid.
There are some parallels to be drawn (uncertainty, fear), but this timeline wraps everything up together, and Annie faces up to her part in 1959.
I loved this book, and the way the timelines wove together really helped me to understand Annie and her reasons for doing just what she did - rightly or wrongly.
Definitely one of my books of the year.
Paul Kellett (118 KP) rated This War of Mine: The Board Game in Tabletop Games
May 27, 2019
Very immersive experience (4 more)
Great solo game
Stands out as a piece of art
Great teaching tool
Great storytelling game
Brutally hard (1 more)
Adult and disturbing depictions of war
Brutal Survival game
This War of Mine is a game of civilians struggling to survive in the middle of a war. It is harsh, brutal and contains scenes that some players might find distressing.
It is gritty, realistic and very hard. It's a remarkable game that really makes you think and can stand as a piece of art, capable of teaching about the harsh realities of war and humanity.
You play as a group of 3 (or 4) civilians trying to survive. You have to rebuild your shelter to try and barricade against the cold and other raiding groups.
A fully cooperative game, no player controls a single character but takes turns deciding what the group will do and resolving situations.
Split into phases, you spend the day building up your shelter, adding beds, workshops and other items that might ease your struggles.
You will try different combinations of things to try and work out the most efficient and vital components to build first. Depending on the whim of the various encounter and event cards as to how well these things will work.
The night phase is the main part of the game. You need to send people out to scavenge the nearby ruined buildings, post a guard to protect your shelter and try to get some rest. This is a fine balancing act and you will be forced to push the survivors to breaking point in order to do any of these things.
Scavenging brings danger from snipers, soldiers and other aggressive survivors trying to defend their property.
You pick one of 3 locations to investigate and build an encounter deck. As you explore, you reveal cards, find valuable resources, food, medicine, bandages, weapons and parts crucial to building better items in your shelter.
While scavenging, you will be told to reference numbered paragraphs in the Book of Scripts. This tells the story of what and who you find and it is this that brings home the grim reality of what you are doing.
You will have to make some terrible decisions - do you return home empty handed and risk one of your group dying from hunger or illness or do you steal the supplies you need from the old couple you found hiding in the ruined apartment?
This game is definitely not for everyone but I firmly believe that everyone should experience it at least once.
I borrowed a copy from someone in my game group and played a couple of short games before handing it back but I found myself thinking about it a lot afterwards and ended up buying it myself.
This War of Mine is definitely much more than just a boardgame. It is art. It is a lesson in humanity and the harsh reality of war.
It is gritty, realistic and very hard. It's a remarkable game that really makes you think and can stand as a piece of art, capable of teaching about the harsh realities of war and humanity.
You play as a group of 3 (or 4) civilians trying to survive. You have to rebuild your shelter to try and barricade against the cold and other raiding groups.
A fully cooperative game, no player controls a single character but takes turns deciding what the group will do and resolving situations.
Split into phases, you spend the day building up your shelter, adding beds, workshops and other items that might ease your struggles.
You will try different combinations of things to try and work out the most efficient and vital components to build first. Depending on the whim of the various encounter and event cards as to how well these things will work.
The night phase is the main part of the game. You need to send people out to scavenge the nearby ruined buildings, post a guard to protect your shelter and try to get some rest. This is a fine balancing act and you will be forced to push the survivors to breaking point in order to do any of these things.
Scavenging brings danger from snipers, soldiers and other aggressive survivors trying to defend their property.
You pick one of 3 locations to investigate and build an encounter deck. As you explore, you reveal cards, find valuable resources, food, medicine, bandages, weapons and parts crucial to building better items in your shelter.
While scavenging, you will be told to reference numbered paragraphs in the Book of Scripts. This tells the story of what and who you find and it is this that brings home the grim reality of what you are doing.
You will have to make some terrible decisions - do you return home empty handed and risk one of your group dying from hunger or illness or do you steal the supplies you need from the old couple you found hiding in the ruined apartment?
This game is definitely not for everyone but I firmly believe that everyone should experience it at least once.
I borrowed a copy from someone in my game group and played a couple of short games before handing it back but I found myself thinking about it a lot afterwards and ended up buying it myself.
This War of Mine is definitely much more than just a boardgame. It is art. It is a lesson in humanity and the harsh reality of war.
Gareth von Kallenbach (977 KP) rated The Girl on the Train (2016) in Movies
Jun 19, 2019
Rachael (Emily Blunt) is a woman who has hit rock bottom. Her downward spiral has cost her a marriage, her career, and everything else she cherished and left her a severe alcoholic. Rachael is so far gone that she rides the commuter train into New York every day secretly drinking along the way. There is some method to this madness as the train goes by her former home and this allows Rachael a look in at the woman who replaced her and the new family her ex now enjoys.
In the new film “The Girl on the Train”, based on the book of the same name by Paula Hawkins, the locale has been changed from London to New York but much of the content has been left unchanged which should thrill fans of this highly popular novel.
Rachael has become fascinated with a couple two houses down from her old home and she watches and fantasizes about the perfect life she imagines they have.
The reality is that Megan (Haley Bennett) is living in a controlling and abusive relationship and holds a dark secret of her own which she reveals to her therapist as well as her desire to run away and also take him as a lover.
When Rachael sees Megan in an embrace with someone other than her husband one day, she decides to confront Megan and express her anger over her assumed infidelity even though Rachael has never met her much less learned her name and only knows of her from being in the same workout class and seeing her on the train.
Rachael awakens one morning covered in blood and in a have and is unable to remember what has happened. To make matters worse, Megan has gone missing and her husband is the primary suspect in the disappearance.
Despite being warned away numerous times by her ex Tom (Justin Theroux) and his wife Anna (Rebecca Ferguson), Rachael continues to regain her memories of what happened that evening even though she continues to have issues differentiating reality from fantasy in a situation with high stakes and dire consequences.
What follows is a compelling thriller that kept me interested even though I was able to unravel the mystery 30 minutes or so before the conclusion of the film. I had not read the book or much on the film going in as I wanted to try to crack the mystery without any additional help, but still found it an interesting and entertaining film. There was more eroticism than one may expect at first glance but the film weaves a great story of multiple characters all with various degrees of dysfunction.
The cast is very strong and take what could at first be a routine mystery and turned it into one of the best and most entertaining Dramas of the year.
http://sknr.net/2016/10/07/the-girl-on-the-train/
In the new film “The Girl on the Train”, based on the book of the same name by Paula Hawkins, the locale has been changed from London to New York but much of the content has been left unchanged which should thrill fans of this highly popular novel.
Rachael has become fascinated with a couple two houses down from her old home and she watches and fantasizes about the perfect life she imagines they have.
The reality is that Megan (Haley Bennett) is living in a controlling and abusive relationship and holds a dark secret of her own which she reveals to her therapist as well as her desire to run away and also take him as a lover.
When Rachael sees Megan in an embrace with someone other than her husband one day, she decides to confront Megan and express her anger over her assumed infidelity even though Rachael has never met her much less learned her name and only knows of her from being in the same workout class and seeing her on the train.
Rachael awakens one morning covered in blood and in a have and is unable to remember what has happened. To make matters worse, Megan has gone missing and her husband is the primary suspect in the disappearance.
Despite being warned away numerous times by her ex Tom (Justin Theroux) and his wife Anna (Rebecca Ferguson), Rachael continues to regain her memories of what happened that evening even though she continues to have issues differentiating reality from fantasy in a situation with high stakes and dire consequences.
What follows is a compelling thriller that kept me interested even though I was able to unravel the mystery 30 minutes or so before the conclusion of the film. I had not read the book or much on the film going in as I wanted to try to crack the mystery without any additional help, but still found it an interesting and entertaining film. There was more eroticism than one may expect at first glance but the film weaves a great story of multiple characters all with various degrees of dysfunction.
The cast is very strong and take what could at first be a routine mystery and turned it into one of the best and most entertaining Dramas of the year.
http://sknr.net/2016/10/07/the-girl-on-the-train/
Marylegs (44 KP) rated Oryx and Crake (Madd Addam #1) in Books
Aug 14, 2019
Oryx and Crake is a dystopian style post-apocalyptic novel which for the majority focuses on one character, Jimmy, otherwise known as Snowman. The book centres on his life before the fall of a modern civilisation as well as how he move through life afterwards. This world (before the fall) is a perverted but in my opinion not too farfetched realisation of our future. The rich live in compounds with access to all sorts of medications and rejuvenating procedures to lengthen youth and help them remain beautiful. The poor live in the pleeblands, which appears to be not to different from the world we live in now. Food production has been streamlined with scientists creating ‘chicken’ style life forms that have no head/legs as these are not necessary, they just exist in a basic form with no brain function other than to grow. Also in this would entertainment has taken a leap and reality style TV has been twisted so much that it is almost incomprehensible that anyone would watch these shows. It is on one of these shows that Jimmy and his friend Crake first come across Oryx as a young girl. Jimmy and Crake grow up, go to different Universities and begin very different careers. Crake is an enigma, never really part of the human race, although he really does seem to be Jimmy’s friend. He is a genius and begins to develop science in leaps and bounds that could be the end of everything.
This book really got my mind asking questions of myself and science. Often at times it also made me feel anxious and tense in a way not many books have. I don’t see this as a negative, on the contrary I believe it was a positive element to the book. I personally am not a fan of reality shows, and the way entertainment is shown in the book doesn’t seem like a far stretch from what we are currently doing anyway. How many people only watch these shows to see people come to blows? When something horrendous happens on the news, how many people go and try and watch the act online? I am not say in the next few years I expect to see live executions on the TV, but it doesn’t seem like it could never happen. Which is more than worrying. The animal/food production element also doesn’t seem too far off, we can already grow meat in a lab, so how long till we can produce a chicken style organism like in this book. How long till science tries to combine different genes from animals to create new ones.
This is one of the best books I have come across this year and I fully intend to carry on the series. Fully entertaining, fully engrossing, horrific in an addictive way. There is no way to read it without questioning it. I would highly recommend.
This book really got my mind asking questions of myself and science. Often at times it also made me feel anxious and tense in a way not many books have. I don’t see this as a negative, on the contrary I believe it was a positive element to the book. I personally am not a fan of reality shows, and the way entertainment is shown in the book doesn’t seem like a far stretch from what we are currently doing anyway. How many people only watch these shows to see people come to blows? When something horrendous happens on the news, how many people go and try and watch the act online? I am not say in the next few years I expect to see live executions on the TV, but it doesn’t seem like it could never happen. Which is more than worrying. The animal/food production element also doesn’t seem too far off, we can already grow meat in a lab, so how long till we can produce a chicken style organism like in this book. How long till science tries to combine different genes from animals to create new ones.
This is one of the best books I have come across this year and I fully intend to carry on the series. Fully entertaining, fully engrossing, horrific in an addictive way. There is no way to read it without questioning it. I would highly recommend.