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The Complete Short Stories: Volume 1 (The Complete Short Stories #1)
Book
First in a two volume collection of short stories by the acclaimed author of ‘Empire of the...
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Dark Legacy (Dark Legacy book 1) in Books
Nov 30, 2021
201 of 250
Kindle
Dark Legacy (Dark Legacy book 1)
By Margo Ryerkerk
Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments
On her eighteenth birthday, Sierra discovers her life is one big web of lies. Her father has kept her in the dark about her supernatural powers and the demanding destiny that awaits her. When he is brutally murdered, Sierra must leave behind her normal life and enter a world of magic where danger lurks around every corner and a friend can turn into a foe within a heartbeat.
To stand a chance of survival, Sierra must learn to control her new telekinetic powers before her father's killers find her. In Savannah, she meets magic-user Gavin, a man that is equal parts stubborn, handsome, and mysterious. After she convinces him to train her, they enter a shaky alliance, neither trusting the other fully.
Just as Sierra is coming to terms with her new life, corpses begin to show up all over Savannah. And Sierra fears she's next...
This was good for a first in the series. It built up well was fast paced without leaving details out. The characters were solid and I will say this writer is afraid to kill them off which is always a good sign for story development. Looking forward to more!
Kindle
Dark Legacy (Dark Legacy book 1)
By Margo Ryerkerk
Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments
On her eighteenth birthday, Sierra discovers her life is one big web of lies. Her father has kept her in the dark about her supernatural powers and the demanding destiny that awaits her. When he is brutally murdered, Sierra must leave behind her normal life and enter a world of magic where danger lurks around every corner and a friend can turn into a foe within a heartbeat.
To stand a chance of survival, Sierra must learn to control her new telekinetic powers before her father's killers find her. In Savannah, she meets magic-user Gavin, a man that is equal parts stubborn, handsome, and mysterious. After she convinces him to train her, they enter a shaky alliance, neither trusting the other fully.
Just as Sierra is coming to terms with her new life, corpses begin to show up all over Savannah. And Sierra fears she's next...
This was good for a first in the series. It built up well was fast paced without leaving details out. The characters were solid and I will say this writer is afraid to kill them off which is always a good sign for story development. Looking forward to more!
How to Book a Murder
7.0
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Book
Perfect for fans of Jenn McKinlay and Kate Carlisle, in Agatha award-winning author Cynthia Kuhn’s...
Murder Through the English Post
9.0
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Book
When a rash of poisoned pen letters envelops their sleepy English village, Beryl and Edwina, the...
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Down Down Deep in Books
May 17, 2024
98 of 220
Booksirens ARC
Down Down Deep
By Christina Delay
⭐️⭐️
Did I kill him?
Jesse David, professional travel writer, can’t shake the past she doesn’t remember. With her blackouts growing worse at the approach of her father’s death anniversary, she’s convinced that this trip is her last chance to find answers. But then Momma tags along and brings her special brand of abuse and a suitcase full of secrets.
Gabriel Gutierrez, cruise ship director, doesn’t perform the job—he is the job. For the past two decades, he has avoided his home and the destruction he brought upon his family, yet he cannot escape the heavy anchor of guilt. When Jesse steps on board, old shame renews and compounds as not one, but two deaths rise from troubled waters.
With a clock ticking and lives at stake, Jesse and Gabriel must decide whether the dangerous truth should rise to the surface or remain drowned in the deep.
I don’t know this started off as though I was going to really like it but then I really struggled with it half way through. The ending was ok but something about the whole book just irritated me a little. I’m quite an emotional reader and somehow just didnt evoke any.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Booksirens ARC
Down Down Deep
By Christina Delay
⭐️⭐️
Did I kill him?
Jesse David, professional travel writer, can’t shake the past she doesn’t remember. With her blackouts growing worse at the approach of her father’s death anniversary, she’s convinced that this trip is her last chance to find answers. But then Momma tags along and brings her special brand of abuse and a suitcase full of secrets.
Gabriel Gutierrez, cruise ship director, doesn’t perform the job—he is the job. For the past two decades, he has avoided his home and the destruction he brought upon his family, yet he cannot escape the heavy anchor of guilt. When Jesse steps on board, old shame renews and compounds as not one, but two deaths rise from troubled waters.
With a clock ticking and lives at stake, Jesse and Gabriel must decide whether the dangerous truth should rise to the surface or remain drowned in the deep.
I don’t know this started off as though I was going to really like it but then I really struggled with it half way through. The ending was ok but something about the whole book just irritated me a little. I’m quite an emotional reader and somehow just didnt evoke any.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Kristy H (1252 KP) rated The Witch Elm: A Novel in Books
Mar 18, 2019
Interesting but long and slow at times
Life has always been pretty easy for Toby--school, girls, job, etc. All that changes in an instant, however, after a night out with his two best friends. Upon arriving home, Toby surprises two burglars in his home. They beat him horribly, leaving him with terrible injuries that may impact his life forever. Unable to go back to work, Toby reluctantly heads to the Ivy House, his family home, where he spent many happy summers with his cousins. His Uncle Hugo is ill--with irreparable brain cancer--and Toby agrees to help care for him in his last few months. Then Toby's nephew discovers a skull in the backyard of Ivy House and everything changes again. Toby begins questioning everything he remembered about his happy childhood--and his own guilt and innocence.
This is the first "stand-alone" for Tana French, versus her group of loosely connected police procedural novels. For some reason, it wasn't quite what I was expecting, and I found myself sort of missing the detective side of things. As this is a typical Tana French novel, there are a lot of thoughts and feelings, with Toby explaining (a lot) about how he feels, how things affect him, etc. It's always something you just have to be prepared for and used to with her books. She's a wonderful writer, and the novel's setting unfolds so easily around you.
Of course, it also means that things can happen fairly slowly. The discovery of the skull, for instance, while heralded in the novel's description, doesn't happen until around 200 pages in. Those first 200 pages can be a bit slow. Things do pick up when they find the skull, but there is definitely a lot of character-driven angst that accompanied the mystery of what happened in the backyard of the Ivy House, and sometimes it was a bit much for me.
Toby has to grow on you, and the book is Toby central, with everything coming in from him and all his many ramblings. The other characters are a bit hard to like (with the exception, perhaps, of poor Hugo), which doesn't make things any easier. A lot of bickering unlikable relatives can only take you so far.
Still, I was intrigued as to what had gone down in the backyard to lead to a skull landing in a tree, and I cannot argue that French is just a lovely writer, who can weave a beautiful scene. This was an interesting novel and compelling at times, but it was a bit long, and it took me a over a week to finish, which is certainly longer than usual in my typical reading span. I never really felt excited to read it, though I often enjoyed it once I picked it up, if that makes any sense. I'll still be back to read whatever Tana French writes, of course.
This is the first "stand-alone" for Tana French, versus her group of loosely connected police procedural novels. For some reason, it wasn't quite what I was expecting, and I found myself sort of missing the detective side of things. As this is a typical Tana French novel, there are a lot of thoughts and feelings, with Toby explaining (a lot) about how he feels, how things affect him, etc. It's always something you just have to be prepared for and used to with her books. She's a wonderful writer, and the novel's setting unfolds so easily around you.
Of course, it also means that things can happen fairly slowly. The discovery of the skull, for instance, while heralded in the novel's description, doesn't happen until around 200 pages in. Those first 200 pages can be a bit slow. Things do pick up when they find the skull, but there is definitely a lot of character-driven angst that accompanied the mystery of what happened in the backyard of the Ivy House, and sometimes it was a bit much for me.
Toby has to grow on you, and the book is Toby central, with everything coming in from him and all his many ramblings. The other characters are a bit hard to like (with the exception, perhaps, of poor Hugo), which doesn't make things any easier. A lot of bickering unlikable relatives can only take you so far.
Still, I was intrigued as to what had gone down in the backyard to lead to a skull landing in a tree, and I cannot argue that French is just a lovely writer, who can weave a beautiful scene. This was an interesting novel and compelling at times, but it was a bit long, and it took me a over a week to finish, which is certainly longer than usual in my typical reading span. I never really felt excited to read it, though I often enjoyed it once I picked it up, if that makes any sense. I'll still be back to read whatever Tana French writes, of course.
Kyera (8 KP) rated Frozen (Heart of Dread, #1) in Books
Feb 1, 2018
The story Frozen, by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston, is a tale about a girl with powers who lives in a world unlike our own. In post-apocalyptic New Vegas, Nat fins the one object that might allow her to escape the frozen landscape. The map to help her find the Blue, a promised land untainted by the cold and destruction her world knows. A place that maybe she can live a good life and not spend each day fearful that she will be discovered.
For an established YA writer, this book is surprisingly wrought with errors and would make an English major cringe. It was a poorly written novel with a multitude of punctuation, grammar, and spelling errors. Those completely detracted from the book and made it difficult to read the novel fluidly. There was an overuse of commas, "For days upon days she had been left in the room, alone, in total silence, with little food and water, the weight of solitude becoming ever more oppressive, the silence a heaviness that she could not shake, punishment for refusing to do as she was told, punishment for being what she was." I ran out of breath just reading that incredibly long, run on sentence. It also illustrates another example, the banal repetitiveness. Some examples would be, "She walked down the road, the road that was smooth." Or "The fire that raged within her. The fire that destroyed and consumed. The fire that would destroy and consume her..." How many times does one need to write the fire? Many of the sentences are just reworded versions of the one that came before it. Unnecessarily repetitive and it makes the book sound like a novice writer threw it together in a slap-dash manner with no editor to speak of.
It also cannot decide what genre it wishes to fall under. The magical elements and new species lend itself to a label of fantasy, like books about faeries or nymphs. Paranormal romance perhaps, for the love story that blossoms over the course of the novel? Or the more recently popular zombie novels, with their diseases and alterations of the human dNA, like Forest of Teeth and Bones? Perhaps its a post-apocalyptic or dystopian style novel, akin to Divergent or the Hunger Games - with its frozen world, scarce resources, and tyrannical governments. Whatever it is, the fact that it cannot decide makes the book quite confusing. It does not flow well as a result of the colliding and conflicting worlds. There also is no world-building, which is incredibly important to me in a book. And character building, or even character personalities? Almost non-existent. I would recommend this book to young teen readers, but not anyone who finds themselves frequently noticing errors in novels (even minor ones)as this will drive you crazy. I almost didn't finish the first chapter because the book was so poorly written, but I wanted to see if it would improve.
For an established YA writer, this book is surprisingly wrought with errors and would make an English major cringe. It was a poorly written novel with a multitude of punctuation, grammar, and spelling errors. Those completely detracted from the book and made it difficult to read the novel fluidly. There was an overuse of commas, "For days upon days she had been left in the room, alone, in total silence, with little food and water, the weight of solitude becoming ever more oppressive, the silence a heaviness that she could not shake, punishment for refusing to do as she was told, punishment for being what she was." I ran out of breath just reading that incredibly long, run on sentence. It also illustrates another example, the banal repetitiveness. Some examples would be, "She walked down the road, the road that was smooth." Or "The fire that raged within her. The fire that destroyed and consumed. The fire that would destroy and consume her..." How many times does one need to write the fire? Many of the sentences are just reworded versions of the one that came before it. Unnecessarily repetitive and it makes the book sound like a novice writer threw it together in a slap-dash manner with no editor to speak of.
It also cannot decide what genre it wishes to fall under. The magical elements and new species lend itself to a label of fantasy, like books about faeries or nymphs. Paranormal romance perhaps, for the love story that blossoms over the course of the novel? Or the more recently popular zombie novels, with their diseases and alterations of the human dNA, like Forest of Teeth and Bones? Perhaps its a post-apocalyptic or dystopian style novel, akin to Divergent or the Hunger Games - with its frozen world, scarce resources, and tyrannical governments. Whatever it is, the fact that it cannot decide makes the book quite confusing. It does not flow well as a result of the colliding and conflicting worlds. There also is no world-building, which is incredibly important to me in a book. And character building, or even character personalities? Almost non-existent. I would recommend this book to young teen readers, but not anyone who finds themselves frequently noticing errors in novels (even minor ones)as this will drive you crazy. I almost didn't finish the first chapter because the book was so poorly written, but I wanted to see if it would improve.
The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes
10.0
Rate It
Book
The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle are the complete adventures of the...
Foul Play on Words
Book
Between a kidnapping, a double booking, and a crew of hapless volunteers, Charlee is worried the...
BankofMarquis (1832 KP) rated Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) in Movies
Sep 12, 2021
See Shang-Chi on the Big Screen
The new Marvel Super Hero film, SHANG-CHI and the LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS is the kind of film that deserves to be seen on the big screen and Writer/Director Destin Daniel Cretton (JUST MERCY) has crafted a film that earns that statement.
Based on the Marvel comic book character (of course), SHANG-CHI tells the tale of…well…Shang-Chi a financially struggling - but happy - Valet in San Francisco who has a family secret.
Writer/Director Cretton has crafted a whimsical, mythological, mystical and action packed film that settles in at the top end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe family of films.
At the center, newcomer Simu Liu (KIM’S CONVENIENCE) more than holds his own as the newest Super Hero in the MCU. He is grounded, centered and more sure than unsure as he discovers his abilities and his family’s secrets. He is a worthy addition to this world of Superheroes.
Joining him is the remarkable Awkwafina (CRAZY, RICH ASIANS) as his best friend, sidekick who handles the drama comedy and action with aplomb. This film makes some smart choices with this character and Awkwafina shines.
The rest of the cast/characters are equally as strong from Tony Chi-Wai Leung (as Shang-Chi’s father) to Meng’er Zhang (as Shang-Chi’s sister) and good ol’ Michelle Yeoh (as Shang-Chi’s Aunt) bring strong characters to life. They all shine.
This film also brings back a character from a previous MCU film that somewhat redeems the poorly conceived character from his earlier appearance. I won’t spoil it by saying who it is, but I liked what the MCU did with this character.
But, this being a Marvel movie, all of these performances anchor a bigger picture that is filled with action, action and more action - and something else, something mystical.
Here is where Director Cretton really shines. The action scenes are interestingly staged and choreographed well. The first fight (the bus fight that is shown in the trailer) and a fight on scaffolding both particularly work well.
This film does delve into the mystical in the last 1/3 and in Cretton’s hands, this ends up working well instead of being comical or inane. I bought what was going on and was rooting for our heroes to defeat the undefeatable, fantastical creatures.
To be honest, the “final battle” didn’t really live up to the rest of the film so that brings this film down a notch, but this movie did what it needed it to do, it opened up a whole new area of the Marvel Cinematic Universe - in both character and locations - and I am anxious to see where they go from here.
Try to see SHANG-CHI on the Big Screen, the visuals are worth it.
Letter Grade A- (the finale needed to be better)
8 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
Based on the Marvel comic book character (of course), SHANG-CHI tells the tale of…well…Shang-Chi a financially struggling - but happy - Valet in San Francisco who has a family secret.
Writer/Director Cretton has crafted a whimsical, mythological, mystical and action packed film that settles in at the top end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe family of films.
At the center, newcomer Simu Liu (KIM’S CONVENIENCE) more than holds his own as the newest Super Hero in the MCU. He is grounded, centered and more sure than unsure as he discovers his abilities and his family’s secrets. He is a worthy addition to this world of Superheroes.
Joining him is the remarkable Awkwafina (CRAZY, RICH ASIANS) as his best friend, sidekick who handles the drama comedy and action with aplomb. This film makes some smart choices with this character and Awkwafina shines.
The rest of the cast/characters are equally as strong from Tony Chi-Wai Leung (as Shang-Chi’s father) to Meng’er Zhang (as Shang-Chi’s sister) and good ol’ Michelle Yeoh (as Shang-Chi’s Aunt) bring strong characters to life. They all shine.
This film also brings back a character from a previous MCU film that somewhat redeems the poorly conceived character from his earlier appearance. I won’t spoil it by saying who it is, but I liked what the MCU did with this character.
But, this being a Marvel movie, all of these performances anchor a bigger picture that is filled with action, action and more action - and something else, something mystical.
Here is where Director Cretton really shines. The action scenes are interestingly staged and choreographed well. The first fight (the bus fight that is shown in the trailer) and a fight on scaffolding both particularly work well.
This film does delve into the mystical in the last 1/3 and in Cretton’s hands, this ends up working well instead of being comical or inane. I bought what was going on and was rooting for our heroes to defeat the undefeatable, fantastical creatures.
To be honest, the “final battle” didn’t really live up to the rest of the film so that brings this film down a notch, but this movie did what it needed it to do, it opened up a whole new area of the Marvel Cinematic Universe - in both character and locations - and I am anxious to see where they go from here.
Try to see SHANG-CHI on the Big Screen, the visuals are worth it.
Letter Grade A- (the finale needed to be better)
8 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)