The new Ghostbusters

NOTE: Will do my best to avoid any spoilers 🙂

So I saw the new Ghostbusters film. Actually I asked my Dad if he wanted to go see it on my birthday as I had taken the day off (Dad and I often go on movie dates), Mum decided to come along too which was great.

I had heard a lot of hate about the movie and therefore was not going in with really high hopes. And well… wow you guys.

I totally loved it. I laughed so much.

They basically completely ignored the existence of the other films, but still paid homage to them which I thought was great and there were all these little references to look out for.

I adored the female characters. They were so vibrant and funny and intelligent and awkward and I loved it. I have spent time thinking about why I enjoyed them so much since and I feel like this movie could be quite ground breaking.

The thing is that this movie does not walk around boasting about girl power or anything of the sort. What it does do is present 4 complex female characters who are intelligent in different ways, incredibly unique and I must say incredibly geeky. Not once do any of these characters waste time thinking they are losers or not good enough. They are completely unapologetic about who they are and they kick ass and invent incredible things and hire a dumb male secretary because they feel bad for him and he looks good. There is also ZERO relationship drama and not one of them is wearing skin tight body suits or short skirts or plunging tops.

Some seriously kick ass women in this film.

I NEEDED this movie as a teenager. Hell I NEEDED this movie now. If I ever have a daughter this will be mandatory viewing.

Each one of the actresses was amazing in their roles. They work so well together and obviously feed off of each other. I would love to know how much of this was off script 🙂 Chris Hemsworth was so good in this role. I think working with these ladies brought the best out of him as far as comedic timing goes. He was just so good in this role!

Can’t wait to purchase this when it comes out on DVD so I can watch it again. Mum and I have already declared a movie night for when it does 🙂

Seriously awesome!!!

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Star Wars display

We had been pushing for a Star Wars display at work, one of the ladies husbands is a huge fan and she populated 3 cases with items from the past movies. Unfortunately we do not seem to have many Star Wars fans at my work because the ladies that do social media were like, ‘oh I never thought of promoting that’. I was kind of shocked, firstly because we should be promoting absolutely everything we do. Secondly we are the only people in the region doing any kind of Star Wars display… the people need to know!

I think it is a great display. I kind of wish we could have done even more, but space is an issue 🙂

Here are some pics of our Star Wars display:

Have you guys seen any great Star Wars displays leading up to the release of “The Force Awakens”?

It’s okay to be me

This post was inspired by WordPress’ Daily Prompt ‘It Builds Character’.

I have already accidentally deleted this entire post twice because of strange things that the new interface does. I am unimpressed to say the least. So I will now write this in Word and copy paste 🙂

When I think back on characters that have had an effect on me, there is one in particular which stands out as being integral to the person I have become.

When I was young (prepubescent young), I was already aware that I was different from most of the other girls in the class. Whilst they were obsessed with ‘The Baby Sitters Club’ and ‘Sweet Valley High’ (both of which I read and enjoyed, but mainly they just gave me numbers for the read-a-thon each year) I was off reading ‘Matilda’ and authors like R.L Stine (not the Goosebumps books, the advanced stuff) and Tamora Pierce. I had great access to YA novels because my Mum was a Teacher Librarian at a High School.

Other girls my age wanted to play makeovers and weddings and I wanted to ride bikes and run through the bush. The girls I knew made games of imagining their weddings to a member of the Backstreet Boys or Hanson whilst I danced about the house singing to the score of ‘The Pirates of Penzance’.

Jo March from ‘Little Women’ was a trailblazer, in a time where it wasn’t proper for women to run through the woods, traipse about through brooks without shoes, yell out to or play with boys or write epic novels she did it all and everyone who mattered accepted her and loved her for who she was. Everything about this girl/woman appealed to me. It would be fair to say that as a young girl my biggest dream was to grow up to be Jo March. She was a hero to me. To this day she remains one of my favourite literary characters. In fact Jo March is probably the reason I have the guts to write online.

Jo also appealed to me because of her love of the written word and her strength of character and independence. You have probably noticed from my reviews of my books for 52 Books in 52 Weeks that I have a thing for strong female characters that shuck the norm and stereotypes. I still believe that this love of certain qualities in this character made me try to develop those characteristics in myself. As soon as I was old enough to work (14) I got an after school job. This made me feel amazing because I didn’t have to ask my mother to buy me things like deodorant and tampons (you have no idea how amazing it was as a 14 year old to not rely on someone else for your tampon stash!), this was my first step to real independence and I liked it. I saved my money from my job and when I graduated I paid my own way on a holiday with my friends, that is a pretty huge thing for an 18 year old to be able to do. Then when I was 19 I moved interstate to the desert, yup I moved to Ayers Rock, it was arid, hot, confronting and I was pretty innocent at the time (I hardened up quick though – read more about that here), I had no safety net there. I knew no one. It was the bravest and most awesome thing I think I have done. It was an amazing experience and I am so glad I did it to this day!

I believe I have a lot to thank Jo March for. I have previously written about my love of both the book and movie and after reading back over this post I realise how big an impact my love of this character has had on me. As far as role models go I am pretty proud that she has been and continues to be mine.

 

Movie review: Mad Max: Fury Road

WARNING: Some Spoilers 🙂

The other night Mr. T. and I decided we would head off to the movies. The original plan was to see Avengers: Age of Ultron, but when we got to the cinemas there was approximately 30 10-year-olds there for someone’s birthday screaming, “ULTRON! ULTRON! ULTRON!” and running around the place like maniacs wrestling each other and climbing over things. There weren’t many parents there, maybe 1 to every 5-6 kids and it was pandemonium. Seriously it was as if they were trying to control the dwarf army from the Hobbit, just not going to happen!

So we did what any sane person would do, we went for a walk for half an hour and saw Mad Max: Fury Road instead 🙂

Movie poster wikipedia.com

As a proud Aussie I am all about supporting Australian cinema… even if it by definition sucks hahaha. Luckily this did not. I have always wanted to see the orginal movies in the series, but the opportunity has just never come up. Can you believe it has been 30 years since the last installment? I am so glad they didn’t try to bring ole Mel back.

Going into this I honestly didn’t know too much about the plot. From the trailer I gathered there was a dude named Max who had something to do with Charlize Theron and there would be a LOT of explosions. Turns out I was right, but there was a lot more to it than that obviously.

Let’s talk about performances first.

Max is played by Tom Hardy who I haven’t encountered a lot for one reason or another. He does a great job as the character of Max, I know I said before that I haven’t seen the other movies, but he kind of embodies what I imagine Mel would have done with the role with the obligatory head cocks and the “Mmm”‘s 🙂 Physically he is very capable in the role and I must apologise to him because I said to Mr. T. that if they wanted to get any more Mad Max movies out of him they would have to hurry up or he would get on in age, because of the grittiness of the movie I took him to be mid-forties when the poor sot is only 37… sorry buddy… can I blame it on all the dirt and mud?

Charlize as Imperator Furiosa just kicks some serious ass. She was a perfect choice for this role and for me physically was reminiscent of Ripley circa Alien 3 with some of the amazeballs moves from Alien Resurrection. If I looked that badass in a grease paint mask I would rock it everyday 🙂 (I did think that if you really put that on your head and face and went into the desert you would probably get some serious burns, but it’s a fashion choice hahaha). Man this lady is great with showing emotion in every little part of her face and body. Loved her performance.

Nicholas Hoult was a nice surprise I didn’t anticipate as the war boy Nux, I was reminded a little of his portrayal of “R” from “Warm Bodies”, but a lot of that could have been the make up. I really liked this character and his development throughout the film, he was probably the character who experienced the most change within the actual time space of the film and it was very interesting to watch. The war boys are some crazy characters that is for sure.

Shout out to some other characters:

Josh Helman as Slit was unrecognisable, I seriously did not recognise him at all.
I rated Nathan Jones as Rictus Erectus (seriously what is with the character names) – I liked that they didn’t make his character all about bashing and wrestling – I mean there was plenty of that, but there was more to the character as well.
I loved Zoë Kravitz in this movie, but then I am just a fan of hers in general so what can I say 🙂
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley was great, took me a little while to recognise her as being from Transformers, but give me a break people this thing was super fast paced! Numerous times in the film Riley Keough reminded me of a young Drew Barrymore, Mr. T. agreed, but maybe it was just us. Abbey Lee, hmm… to be honest this character annoyed me until right at the end, she sounded like when people overact pretending to be bogan. Courtney Eaton, where did you come from? I have never heard of her and here she is a main character in a major movie?! Wow, you go girl.
John Howard… oh John Howard… how could you?! I am a fan of John, but I was so distracted by the fact his nipples were showing and had a chain running between them to notice his acting whenever he was on screen, it didn’t help that he often stroked them too *shudders* bad Johnny!

The explosions were awesome, the frankenstein-like vehicles were amazeballs. The effects were really great and the pace was cheetah fast, but along with all the action there were some seriously emotional and poignant moments which didn’t at all feel out of place so I was impressed. I found it interesting that considering it was a “Mad Max” film his involvement was secondary to the film, in fact the majority of what occured in the movie would have happened even if he was never in it (except right towards the end). For the first 20+ minutes of the movie he is basically a background character which I found very different and interesting. I also liked that an explosive smash and grab had at the core of it a feminist theme, I found that quite cool and completely unexpected.

Now for some negative points…

What the hell was with the random war boy playing war guitar on the front of a rig? No wonder they have no resources if they waste half their war party on an entourage!

I also had a major issue with the fact that the characters on the rigs were climbing all over the place hugging and holding onto air exhausts etc. Oh, and the fact that they were doing repairs whilst driving? To the engine? Umm, no! I do also wish more of it could have been filmed in Oz like the originals, but apparently our desert is too green now or something?

Netflix

So I am feeling a lot better and went back to work today. Still a bit tender in the sinus area and the area has heat coming out of it, but I am much better than I was that is for sure!

Over this period of illness I have learnt some things. I have learnt that I like to be left completely alone most of the time I am sick and I have learnt that my personality changes when I am sick and apparently my sick personality has weaknesses when it comes to addiction…

Here’s how my Netflix experience went over the course of my sickness…

Step 1: Thursday morning:

Step 2: Thursday afternoon:

Step 3: Friday…

Step 4: Saturday…

Netflix is a wonderful and dangerous invention… beware 🙂 The funny thing was that I wasn’t even that interested in the show, infact there were times it annoyed the hell out of me, but every time an episode ended the next one just automatically began. IT JUST BEGAN argh!! It was interesting to see actors I knew (including some Aussie ones) pop up during some episodes. Who knew that Stephen Amell (AKA Oliver Queen in The Arrow series) was once a wannabe alpha wolf named Brady? I think I am making excuses now. Sigh… it’s trying to suck me back in.

One thing I will say I have been loving Netflix for is the ability to turn on what you want for the kiddies. My nieces and nephews drop over all the time with their parents and it is nice to be able to flick it on and find a movie or TV show within minutes that you are happy for them to watch and click play. Seriously it’s a lifesaver sometimes 🙂

Tell me of your worst Netflix binge 🙂

52 Books in 52 weeks – August

This month I read quite a bit actually, three books over my quota. Certainly not complaining though as it has been nice to immerse myself in reading 🙂

Here is the list 🙂

Number	Title	Author
32 – Aug 4-10	Good Omens	Pratchett, Terry & Gaiman, Neil
33 – Aug 11-17	The Last Book in the Universe	Philbrick, Rodman
34 – Aug 18-24	“Fallen”, “Torment” & “Passion”	Kate, Lauren
35 – Aug 25-31	Splintered The Giver	Howard, A.G. Lowry, Lois

I had the BEST month of reading!!!

Good Omens – Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

I actually started this book last month, I struggled to really get into the text and I am not sure why. It was more towards Pratchett’s way of writing which is right up my alley, but then you could see Gaiman’s style coming through too. To be honest I think the two together for me personally did not work. I did love the characters of Crowley and Aziraphale; their interactions were (for me) the best parts of the book. Really I should have loved this book and I can’t understand why I found myself disinterested, skimming and reading another book then coming back to it.

I feel that this book would be loved by someone who clicked with the writing, unfortunately it didn’t work for me which was quite sad because I do love Terry Pratchett’s other works.

The last book in the Universe – Rodman Philbrick

This book, wow. I found this book at a book sale, it was the end of the day and they were selling you a box for 50cents – you got to fill it with as many books as you could manage (I know, heaven right?!). This was one of the books I grabbed, it looked like the cover had never been cracked and read as though it would be a good book for young male adults. I am always on the lookout for books like this because some of the stuff out there for guys is garbage and I like to have a few ideas on what to suggest for clients.

I was so surprised by this book, the setting is in a post-disaster (of some kind of earthquake I think – let’s blame climate change) city, the protagonist is a teenage boy they call Spaz. One of the interesting things about this book is that this society basically does not read, quite a few of them do not even talk, this whole society basically learns and is educated by either observing or (if they talk) being told. The language that they do have is incredible literal, for example; Spaz is named thus because he has epilepsy, but all the others know is that he ‘spazzes out’. The city is called the “Urb” as in suburb. It is quite fascinating to see how this society functions, also interesting is the idea of “Eden” being a paradise where the “Proovs” (improved or genetically altered humans) live.

I quite enjoyed it, if you have a young man that you are trying to get to read maybe try him on this. It is not magic and broomsticks like Harry Potter, but it has great grit and I think young males will enjoy the language.

“Fallen”, “Torment” & “Passion” – Lauren Kate

Yeah I got a bit carried away here and read three of them haha. I did not really enjoy the first book until the last couple of chapters; there were quite a few times where I felt the characters were acting about 14 years old instead of the age they were supposed to be acting. Oh god dammit I have just read they are making a movie of this for 2015 release, sigh, I have never heard of the actors they have cast (even though I have seen some of the movies/shows they are apparently in) though one is an Aussie who looks like a member of One Direction so it will probably be a huge hit 🙂

The epilogue of the first book intrigued me so much that I went to get no. 2 (Torment) from the Library. This novel was much better than the first, I would still like to slap the female protagonist around because she is completely stupid at some points and is obviously nowhere near finishing puberty. I really liked the school Shoreline and the new characters that were introduced, I thought her roommate and new male friend were great characters. Ending was a solid-ish lead into no. 3.

Book 3: I really, really, really liked this book. I loved that there were these pinpoint references in time that the geek in me easily recognised like the fire at the Globe theatre and the Aztecs etc. It was pretty cool, teenage history buffs are going to be all over this one. It was the best of the series so far, so good that I am scared to read any more of them hahaha.

Splintered – A. G. Howard

Hilariously, I picked this book up because it had a pretty cover. Little did I know that I was about to discover this crazy amazing, slightly nightmarish hat-tip to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa’s family can trace their lineage all the way back to Alice Liddell, the inspiration for the tale. I read this story in a day you guys! I was that swept away by it. I loved the characters, I adored the spin on the classic characters from Carroll’s book. Morpheus was an amazing character (my favourite), whilst reading I often pictured him somewhat similar to Adam Lambert dressed in costume as Starchild, kinda sexy, kinda scary, very trendy and kinda steampunk.

The Giver – Lois Lowry

I have had this on my “to read” list for a while now. I thought it was good, but to be honest I kind of felt like the story didn’t start until Jonas left the village and then the book ended just as I felt something was about to happen. This book really didn’t fit the norm when it comes to overcoming trials and adventures, very interesting. I liked the idea about a supposedly Utopian society and how the “sameness” slowly loses its appeal and the society is suddenly viewed as a Dystopia, to me it says a lot in relation to points of view. A lot is left up to your own interpretation of how something is possible which I suppose makes sense when you are reading it, but is still an odd thing for a young adult novel.

Oh my gosh I just read the cast list for the movie! This is going to be a money-maker guys! Seriously! We have Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Alexander Skarsgård, Katie Holmes and Aussie Brenton Thwaites as Jonas, I haven’t seen much of him, but I hear good things. I have seen Odeya Rush in films before and quite enjoyed her so that’s a good pick too. My only casting question is, what the hell were they thinking casting Taylor Swift?

And so we go into September… so many books… so little time.

Robin Williams – the Master of Smiles

I am speechless, stunned and deeply saddened.

Today, Earth is a little less bright.

GIF source: http://www.gifmania.co.uk

 

I have adored the mastery that is Robin Williams body of work since I was a small child. He was a precious light of acting and comedic brilliance in a world that is often shadowed in trouble. I am not ashamed to say I have suffered from depression and being able to watch Robin’s work often brought a smile to my face.

Image source: http://www.quoteswave.com

He was a great gift to this world, much like the real Patch Adams, Robin’s gift to the world was laughter and joy. In my mind his amazing talent has no equal, he was the master. To paraphrase Shakespeare – Robin William’s was the stage [the lights, the whole theatre really] and all of us merely players.

Image source: http://www.fanpop.com

 

He may have left us too soon, but his legend will live on.

What was your favourite piece of Robin’s work?

52 Books in 52 weeks – July

I had a great time reading this month. I actually think I read more books than this, but writing this up now I cannot remember them so they could not have been that good I guess.

Here is the list 🙂

Number	Title	Author
27 – Jun 30 – Jul 6	The Scorch Trials	Dashner, James
28 – Jul 7-13	Death Cure	Dashner, James
29 – Jul 14-20	Rebound	Mathis Thompson, Nikki
30 – Jul 21-27	Resilient	Mathis Thompson, Nikki
31 – Jul 28 – Aug 3	The Fault in our Stars	Green, John

I had the BEST month of reading!!!

The Scorch Trials – James Dashner

YAY it came into the Library finally! I liked this sequel, but nowhere near as much as the original. I am not sure why to be honest, but I just didn’t feel the same about the story, I felt like the person in charge of WICKED must be losing their mind because the trials were a monstrous thing to do to people. Don’t get me wrong guys I still loved it, but just not as much as the original J Also I think Theresa is a crazy person!  

 

 

 

 

Death Cure – James Dashner

Here we go, this was much better than the Scorch Trials. Like the first book I devoured these pages very quickly and never felt like I was skimming the pages. The story was meaty and had twists and turns, everything about the struggle and the craziness going on felt right – even the horrible twists that occurred I thought to myself, ‘Yes, if this was a reality this would probably happen, people would behave like this’. I did love the whole monitoring behaviours etc. part of WICKED, but hated psycho Ratman, still hate Theresa, couldn’t warm up to her. I liked the ending.

 

 

Rebound – Nikki Mathis Thompson

This book was recommended to me by an awesome blogger Cellulitelooksbettertan in her post ‘Of Foodgasms and Muff-Fro’s’ check it out and her out because she is awesome, please make sure to give her great comment 🙂 !

This book, what can I say about it, I just loved it. The name of the Heroine bothered me for like 2 pages (mainly because I have a thing about weird names where the protagonist has to remind people how to say them, it annoys me. This quite possibly has everything to do with the fact I have spent my life telling people my name is not Cath, or Cathy it is CAT! Like Dog, people!), but I got over it quickly. I loved her friends, this is totally what me and my girlfriend are like and how I love to be with people (when they are not prudes) so I thought it was fantastic. The ending was great, it has been a long time since I was satisfied and at the same time pleasantly surprised by an ending. It is all about her, I don’t want to write about it too much because I try to avoid spoilers so you can go and see for yourselves. 

 

Resilient – Nikki Mathis Thompson

YAY! A number two! The characters were just as full and vibrant as the first book. There were some good times and bad had by all. In the sequel the author manages to add in a lot more interaction with old characters and new without unnecessarily overcrowding the plot which is a difficult thing to do (if you’re interested in other authors that are awesome at this check out Fiona McIntosh and Anne Rice!). I really enjoyed the protagonists personal journey, I loved that when a character f’d up the reactions and fall out were pretty much what you would expect in real life.

I think one reason I loved these books and the protagonist in particular is what the character terms her “inner dialogue” where she talks to herself or has arguments to herself in her head. I do this ALL THE TIME! It was seriously awesome to have someone write a character that does that because it made me feel that perhaps the author herself or someone she knows does it and therefore I am not alone 🙂

The first book and this sequel are totally worth your time check them out!

 

The Fault in our Stars – John Green

I love, love, loved this book, by now you would likely know that I have a thing about reading a book before watching the movie and I am SO glad that I read this book first. I have not seen the movie, but there is just no way it could live up to the book!

I loved that the teens in this movie weren’t typical, I particularly liked the part where they discussed Hazel’s ‘this is not a pipe’ shirt and ‘cancer perks’. There was a lot of depth to these characters, even the ones that weren’t really supposed to have it. There is so much I want to say about how much I liked this book, it was a brilliant surprise for me and I cannot recommend it enough, it is just awesome. I literally could not put it down, I read it within 24 hours and 8.5 of those hours I was working, plus there was some sleep in there somewhere.

And so we go into August… so many books… so little time.

Please feel free to discuss the books below if you have read them. 

Also if you have any recommendations I would be happy to check them out 🙂

Oh the horror… the horror!!!

A brief recount of numerous times I have been freaked out by movies 🙂

When I was a little girl (around 9 or 10) I stupidly convinced my babysitter that I was allowed to watch Stephen King’s It, at the time I loved all books by R. L. Stine and all things horror and it never occurred to me that perhaps this was the reason that I had night terrors (yes I was a moron haha).

Needless to say it terrified me and ever since I have hated clowns, I have never watched that movie again, but now I wonder whether me today would have any problem with it. It is a wonder that I became a Librarian when I think back on the blood balloons scene.

I probably shouldn’t even mention when my brothers and I convinced another babysitter we could watch jaws and then were scared to go to the toilet or have a bath for two weeks. My littlest brother was terrified of water for a year, to be fair he was 7 years old at the time.

And Village of the Damned, holy crap! Village of the Damned is scary to a (then) 14 year old, my brothers and I loved Superman and Look Who’s Talking so we figured a movie with Christopher Reeve and Kirstie Alley in it would be stellar – nope, nope, nope. It was freaky and these crazy children were running around making people give themselves autopsies while they were still alive… eff that for a joke. Really I was the oldest, I feel like I led my brothers astray somewhat 🙂

A couple of years ago I had a movie night with a friend, she had picked Saw number something or other, I had never seen any of the Saw movies so figured what the hell it can’t be worse than Norbit (the first movie we watched). So she turns it on… Some dude is strung up with rings through numerous parts of his body (including his jaw) and if he wants to live he has to pull himself off the rings tearing through muscle, ligament, flesh and (in the case of his jaw) bone to break free.

[I posted the above because there is no way in hell that I was posting a video of that scene and I am going to see Queen ft Adam Lambert in a month so am devouring all the Queen I can 🙂 ]

I got through two, maybe three rings and that was it, I declared, “I’m out!” grabbed the popcorn bowl and walked out. She asked me what was wrong and I said there was no way I was going to watch people mutilate themselves or be mutilated. Ugh *shudders* never again Saw movies, never again. 

Meanwhile, have you guys seen Drag me to Hell? There are some jumpy bits in it and all and the story was pretty decent for a supernatural thriller/horror, but more than anything I got the serious icks from it! Just saying you guys, if you don’t want to see formaldehyde pouring out of a very dead person’s mouth onto a very alive person then skip this film. Decent acting though! 

Daily Prompt Can’t watch this

 

52 Books in 52 weeks – June

Some different books this month including one I was quite surprised to like.

Here is the list 🙂

Number	Title	Author
23 – Jun 2-8	False Impressions Stamping Sisters mystery #3	Thayer, Terri
24 – Jun 9-15	City of Dark Magic	Flyte, Magnus
25 – Jun 16-22	City of Lost Dreams	Flyte, Magnus
26 – Jun 23-29	Darkfever	Moning, Karen Marie

 

Continuing on my path of aiming to read books I wouldn’t normally I went to the Library and grabbed a couple of books by authors I had never read – I will neither confirm or deny that part of my choice was based on alluring covers 🙂

False Impressions: Stamping Sisters mystery #3 – Terri Thayer

This was an oops, I didn’t realise it was number three until I got it home… damn fine print 🙂 Luckily this series is one of those that does not have to be read sequentially so we got along fine. I found the characters interesting and the story overall was quite good. I liked that the book was different from your typical mystery and there were character/economic points that I felt really fit with real life situations, for example the main character April has to live in her fathers restored barn with his partners parents because she does historical stamping for restoration projects for a living and there is not much call for that so she has no money – so there are those kind of side stories that make the characters more “real” and relatable which is great. I am definitely considering going back to read the other two – although I am hoping the villain is better hidden because I figured out who it was really quickly and everything after that just confirmed my thoughts until the big reveal and I was kind of sitting there going, ‘oh come one April, you are not this stupid!’

 

 

City of Dark Magic – Magnus Flyte

This book held surprise for me, here I was thinking I was getting a paranormal suspense novel with a female protagonist (Sarah Weston) who is a music student working a summer at Prague Castle Cataloguing Beethoven’s manuscripts (hello! I am a Librarian and a muso – like that wasn’t going to catch my attention haha). What I wasn’t expecting was a sexual element – which at first was really strange and to be honest whilst I now understand why she had a high libido I am not entirely sure it needed to be talked about so much, but I suppose danger, magic and sex kind of go hand in hand. Once the sexual element came in I really wasn’t expecting to like the book, I admit… I judged. I figured it was going to be literary porn masked as a serious novel, but I was pleasantly surprised and indeed rather swept away with the twists and turns in the book. It hooked me and I really, really enjoyed it – it certainly was not porn and as you got into the story you came to understand what that first shock had been about. There is a book two and I am hot on the trail to finding it 🙂

 

 

City of Lost Dreams – Magnus Flyte

I found book two! 🙂 Hooray! I do hate when you start reading a series and have to wait forever for the next book *cough cough* George R. R. Martin *cough*. Slight spoilers, but not really.

This book did have a different feel from the first one, the story was split between Prague and Venice so whilst the main protagonist was still Sarah you spent more time than in the previous book seeing the story unfold from others points of view. I really enjoyed these books for their uniqueness, it was a really different concept that not only challenged the way you looked at the world, but also in the end looked at how people choose to spend their lives. Two different immortals; one who spent their life trying to achieve and brought science and medicine forward in leaps and bounds and one who spent their time frivolously searching for a way to end it all – don’t worry they are not Vampires 🙂 Just humans.

 

 

Darkfever  – Karen Marie Moning – SOME SPOILERS

This one I just grabbed from Overdrive because I had nothing to read and it sounded interesting and had a pretty cover. Turns out I was right with my earlier assumption… danger and magic mean that at some point or other in a book you’re going to end up with sex… why is that? Whilst the whole book was not a sexual tone the couple of times it was it was kind of a shock.

I found the story okay, you have no clue who is bad and who isn’t for the entire book. The female protagonist kind of grows on you, but she spends a lot of the book insisting she is not a bimbo, but whining about her looks and nail polish… I get the impression that the fact is at the beginning she WAS a shallow bimbo, but she is supposed to be slowly changing into someone of depth due to what is happening around her. I have no clue what is going on with the character of Barrons, if I was living in that place I would be spending my days (when he is not around) going through his house from top to bottom searching for ways to protect myself from him – he seems like a psycho and throws Mac around – it’s very strange!!!

One thing that really annoyed me was that I didn’t feel like the ending was an ending, I thought it was the end of the chapter, turned the page and there was the glossary… umm wtf? I google the title… dammit it is a series and nowhere has the second book, this annoyed me because the book had no kind of conclusion, seriously… the narration is done from some point in the future as though she is telling the story of how she got there… naturally I figured the end of the book would at least get me to the point the narrator was up to, but no… nothing. It was really weird, but it also drew you in so I kind of want to read the others, although admittedly that could be my love of closure 🙂 Don’t even get me started on how Mac magically transformed into Buffy TVS after one lesson on where to stick the pointy end… just… don’t.

And so we go into July… so many books… so little time. What are you reading at the moment? I am open to suggestions 🙂