Tag Archives: reviews

Blood for Blood

Blood for BloodBlood for Blood by Ryan Graudin
on September 12, 2017
Genres: Young Adult Fiction, Action & Adventure, Survival Stories, Dystopian, Historical, Military & Wars, Europe, Romance, General, Family, Siblings
Pages: 592
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
four-half-stars

"Wild and gorgeous, vivid and consuming. I loved it! I can't wait for the sequel."--Laini Taylor, New York Times bestselling author of the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy, on Wolf by WolfThe action-packed, thrilling sequel to Ryan Graudin's Wolf by Wolf.For the resistance in 1950s Germany, the war may be over, but the fight has just begun.Death camp survivor Yael, who has the power to skinshift, is on the run: The world has just seen her shoot and kill Hitler. But the truth of what happened is far more complicated, and its consequences are deadly. Yael and her unlikely comrades dive into enemy territory to try to turn the tide against the New Order, and there is no alternative but to see their mission through to the end, whatever the cost.But in the midst of the chaos, Yael's past and future collide when she comes face-to-face with a ghost from her past, and a spark with a fellow rider begins to grow into something more. Dark secrets reveal dark truths, and one question hangs over them all--how far can you go for the ones you love?A gripping, thought-provoking conclusion to Wolf by Wolf that will grab readers by the throat with its cinematic writing, fast-paced action, and relentless twists. This paperback edition also includes Iron to Iron, a Wolf by Wolf series novella, in its entirety!

Hello!
Welcome back to the blog! I feel like it has been a bit since I have done a book review on here, though it may have only been a few weeks. I recently finished Blood for Blood by Ryan Graudin, the sequel to Wolf by Wolf. I was so excited to finish this duology an see what happened to Yael after she tried to complete her mission for the resistance. I was also interested to see what happened with the Wolfe family after everything that have done against the resistance.

I was not disappointed with the storyline. It was so good! The story picks up moments after the last book finishes and includes some surprises as well as twists and turns, which adds to the storyline. This book also gives a certain sadness vibes that goes with reading through certain incidents of World War II, but there are definitely moments of bravery and heroism. I enjoyed how the ending section of the book jumped a bit forwarded in the future to show how Yael dealt with the after effects of the war and coming to terms with who they are and what that means.

Let me know if you have read this book and what you thought of the duology. I also plan on reading the novella, which covers the Luka Lowe version of the Axis tour. I hope to be back soon with another review or an update.

four-half-stars

Review: Warehouse 13

Hey!

I’m back again with yet another review. Today is a tv show review. Matt & I have been binging quite a bit of tv shows, while in quarantine and I have done a few reviews. I generally prefer to do a review of a show that has been completed that way you can get a real feel for what the show is about and that way you can get a full perspective of the show. If you want a more up to date list of what I have been watching on a monthly list you should check out my monthly wrap-ups here.

Back to the review, Warehouse 13 is a SyFy show that ran from 2009 to 2014. There was officially 4.5 seasons, I would say 5, but technically there are only 6 episodes in the fifth season because the show was cancelled. Matt & I watched it on IMDB streaming, which is free (at the time of writing this), but comes with commercials , so be prepared. It is still pretty easy to binge. This show was mostly a rewatch for me aside from the final seasons, and a watch for Matt since he didn’t get a chance to watch in real time.

The premise of the show is that a group of “secret service” agents are tasked with investigating objects with historical value that have gone awry in the world and then bringing them back to a large storage container in South Dakota to be labelled and contain, so that they can’t cause any further damage in the world.

The show is full of witty one liner, comedic acting, as well as history and a touch of mystery. If you like all of these you should definitely give this show a shot. There are a couple of over arching story lines that bring the show back and forth from beginning to end, but overall most of the episodes are self contained to 45 minutes or so. If any of this intrigues you I would recommend that you give Warehouse 13 a watch.

If you have seen the show let me know your thought. If you have seen other shows on SyFy that you would recommend give them a shot out. I’d love to hear from you and I hope to see you in another post soon!

Review: Series of Unfortunate Events

Hey!
It has been a minute since I wrote a tv show review here. While in quarantine or this time of social distancing , I’ve had time to catch-up on shows and alleviate my Netflix queue of some of its burden or the older ones at least.

After I finished up all the seasons of NCIS on Netflix, I needed another show to binge. Matt & I agreed to binge Series of Unfortunate Events , since it had been a minute since we watched the series. The series is actually easier to understand if you binge it all at once. We ended up binging the whole series in roughly a week. While I never did end up finishing the book series though it is on my list to read through at some point I enjoyed the series thoroughly. I found that Netflix series was much better than the movie, don’t get me wrong Jim Carrey is a good actor, but Neil Patrick Harris did a far superb job playing Count Olaf. I did see the movie in theaters and while I thought it was good, it just didn’t do the books justice.

Daniel Handler, Lemony Snicket’s real life alias has been fortunate enough to get 2 iterations of his novels brought to life. Though each episode is an hour long I found that they covered most of the in depth detail the books cover making them loveable for both children and adults. I did read that the final episode of the Netflix series does change the ending versus the ending of the books, but that is fine with me.

If you haven’t already seen this series I would highly recommend that you watch it. If you have seen the series I would recommend that you give it a rewatch during this time, it is seriously so good. There are so many songs that will get stuck in your head. Also to note if you are one of the people that like to skip intros of shows because that is an option that Netflix gives you, I would recommend not skipping these intros because that give you small snippets of what will happen in the episode and a mini wrap up of what has happened also.

I hope to see you again soon in another post!

Review: How I met Your Mother

Hey!
I’m back today to do a review of a show I had to re-watch during Quarantine. I also wanted to take a moment to say that with all the craziness that have been going on in the world , please know that I will always try to keep this space about life and what’s happening. I’m still working on finding the words to address all that has been happening in the world, but please know that I am taking to educate myself in various ways on how to make the world a better place and where I stand in it all.

Now to the real reason why we are here, How I Met Your Mother. I won’t say that I was in on the fan base from the beginning of the show, but I will say that I did jump into watching the show toward the end of its run mostly because of my co-worker at the time.

If you haven’t heard of this show before here’s the premise of the show a guy named Ted Mosby is recanting to his children how he met their mother. In a rather long winded story that mostly involves the antics of him and his friends living in New York. In the final season of the show we finally are able to meet the mother and Ted explains that the whole story has been the little events that have been leading up to meeting this woman all along. His children have other thoughts as expressed in the last episode.

Arguably you can say that the final season and last episode are good or bad depending on which camp you fall in. Overall, I find the show to be culturally iconic. Barney’s single line comedy paired with the many jokes on Canada based on Robin’s country of origin, to the coupledom aspect of Lily and Marshall to Ted’s quirks. You will find yourself laughing at every episode and finding a reason to watch more.You will finding yourself wanting to watch specifically for one actor/ actress and yet continuing to come back to the series just to see the chemistry between all the actors over and over again.

So if you haven’t watch the whole series already I would highly recommend that you find sometime to binge the series. If you have already watched it, I would recommend watching it again. Besides that “Have you met Ted?” You will still find yourself quoting lines and making friends just based on your opinion of the show.

I hope that you enjoyed the review of this show and that you will continue to stick around for more reviews and thoughts from my brain. See you again soon!

My True Love Gave to Me

My True Love Gave to MeMy True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories by Stephanie Perkins, Holly Black, Ally Carter, Matt de la Pena, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Myra McEntire, Rainbow Rowell, Laini Taylor, Kiersten White, Jim Tierney
on October 14, 2014
Pages: 321
Goodreads
four-half-stars

If you love holiday stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV-holiday specials, holiday episodes of your favorite sitcoms and, especially, if you love holiday anthologies, you’re going to fall in love with My True Love Gave To Me: Twelve Holiday Stories by twelve bestselling young adult writers, edited by international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins. Whether you enjoy celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah, Winter Solstice or New Year's there's something here for everyone. So curl up by the fireplace and get cozy. You have twelve reasons this season to stay indoors and fall in love.

Hey!
I’m back with yet another book review. Yes, I know I should post more real life things, but at least I am catching up on my reading goals. This past week I was reading for the #Tistheseasonathon Reading Challenge, which I love and find it so fun to read holiday books during this time of year. This is actually the second book I finished for the week, but since the first book will actually come with a movie review that will come later. I loved this book for the most part. There were a few stories that I couldn’t get into, but I couldn’t stop turning pages and wanting to read more. An anthology like this is so great because it gives me a chance to try out new authors and find books that I might want to read in the future.

This is also the second book edited by Stephanie Perkins for the holidays the first one is Summer Days, and Summer Nights and you can read my review here. I kind of wish that there were more anthology books out there. Let me know if you have read this book or the other anthology edited by Stephanie Perkins and what you thought. I hope to see you soon in another post.

four-half-stars