Inkblots

How to train your dragon is a story about Hiccup, a kid who lives in a tribe who kills dragons everyday, and has to convince his tribe that they had it wrong all along, and that they could train their dragons.

Another family oriented film from dreamworks. Loved it so much because of Hiccup's wit, his sarcasm, his need to fit into his family when he was obviously an oddball and the way he tried to handle things his way (the stupid and crazy way).

I also loved the cuteness of Toothless, and though he was modelled off Stitch, from Chris Sander's previous works becuase they have the 'same personality flaws' I can't help but love toothless better.

And I really really love the sarcasm, did I mention I love the sarcasm? (And its execution).

Although based off a children's book, How to Train your Dragon has a lot of dissimilarities from the original, first off is the fact that in the book, the Dragons were being trained by the vikings in the first place, not being killed off. And that Hiccup's best friend is a guy named Fishlegs which was replaced by Astrid (voiced by America Ferrera, because obviously, you need a romantic interest in films for the grown ups and that's not quite necessary for a kid's book).

I'm going to buy the DVD as soon as it's out. Does anyone sell 3D DVDs now? haha

I was watching Firefly & Serenity this past two days, and (while crying my heart out) I realized that it would be interesting of Summer Glau played Jeannelle if there would be a movie on it. :p

Except that Jeanelle is blond.

Oh... or Dakota Fanning. When she was young. For Jeanelle. Perfect.

I liked the characters in this story, and it answers a what if... what if after the war, some angels were discontent with God's verdict? I think that's mainly what Remiel's character is, an answer to that question. Discontent with the way that God has sentenced those who sided with Morning Star, Remiel willingly fell into the Earth to be human and fell in love.

The story is told in parallel lines of the past and the present and what the fallen angel Remiel is feeling along with another possibility, what if other angels followed his suit.

Although I do like the characterization, the way the other biblical beings were brought in the story, I didn't like the way that the story was written. For me it was dry-cut, with too many novels already coming out about private investigators of the supernatural, for it to stand out, it had to bring something special other than a new character.

Emotionally, the book was beautiful, how does an immortal come to grips with the feeling of leaving someone behind? However, I didn't feel it. I read it in Sniegoski's writing but I wasn't able to feel it. Could be a lack in me, but something in me didn't resonate with the feelings the book wanted to convey.

I probably could have liked it before I read the humor of Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden. The book itself isn't bad, however, I honestly think that there are better books in the market.

And for the angelic world building, well I loved the first book of Sharon Shinn's Samaria series, Archangel, before all the mythos got caught up with its quasi futuristic building(so... only book one), and sometimes Georgina Kincaid, with all of its other denizens would be worth a look too, but that doesn't focus too much on Angels being central powers as say, Nalini Singh's Angels' Blood (romantic fantasy, which I'd rather not repeat, but had that feel) oh and of course, Thorn St. Croix by Faith Hunter. All angel community centered books with good world building.

This is about Allie, who opened a door to hell at the basement of a diner, and how she and a hunter protecting the door decide to save the world... 'nuff said.

When I started reading this book, I thought the lead, Allie, was a little bit too ditzy for my tastes. But she was a rich girl from a New York family and I thought, what the heck, I could deal with a bit of the airheadedness of her comments. Later on, I decided to keep reading because they mentioned the Filipino equivalent of a vampire mandurugo (roughly translated, 'Bleeder', 'the one who bleeds', more accurately, a ghoul which causes something else to bleed) it is a myth so completely out into a Filipino ghost story, so obscure that even some Filipino readers would need to be told what it was. SO I kept reading, and I found out that, yes, at some point in the story, Allie does get a mature voice to tell her tale... even if it comes a bit late.

The hells that were built for the world was complex but too rushed. The entire doors system and the apocalyptic scenarios are well thought of but lacks fleshing out of a multi-series. I fear that they info dumped the doors to me at first go. I thought it would have worked more if there were a few chapters more to it. not just jumping into the fray where everybody knows everybody else, and the beginning was six years pre-book... or maybe more slowly spaced for all of the revelations.


Romantic tension with Ryan is... expected, and flat, and predictable, but I guess I could settle for it, as even though it's largely marketed as a paranormal romance it feels more like urban fantasy anyway.

All in all, still worth reading, but not worth spending my money on. Unless of course... I want to encourage people who mentions anything remotely Filipino in their books.

Quotable quotes:

I think it’s really cool that you guys are so into protecting humanity—which you clearly all hate and disrespect all the time.

I prefer ‘significant other’,” he says seriously. “ ‘Boyfriend’ is so trite.”

Do you or don’t you? What sort of person are you? What’s more important: your heart’s desire, or your desire’s heart?”

I have had the same love-hate relationship with Meredith Gentry ever since Mistral's Kiss. After I read chapter 1 I thought it would be in keeping with the old times, an old crime scene, and some investigations. I should have known better.

One of the things I hate about the writing style is that it assumes I am an idiot. For example, in one sentence Merry uses the term "The Summerland", who anybody with a fair hand of knowing myths knows would be equal to Paradise in terms of fae language. Disregarding that, I thought context clues were enough to point it out that way. But no. Ms. Hamilton has to have a specific sentence saying: "The Summerlands was one of our words for Heaven." And I think that sums up why I hate the book. It assumes that one doesn't, or can't think. I think that's the reason why for EVERY new book in this series the author wants to recap everything from book 1 with things like: "I've only remembered the queen doing this and that..." which happened in the series... and yes, the author doesn't even remember half of the things that happens in her own books. (As numerous errata abound in a lot of books are seen, and even a duplicate "tattooing" happened in two different books).

Another thing I find annoying is the way the author explains away during her sex scenes. I'm not bothered by all of the sex in Meredith Gentry, but I am bothered with the way it is written. It's conversation in between. And though the author tries her hand at BDSM it feels like she's done all research at it, but haven't actually seen how a scene like that is played out. Meredith might be a pain whore, but she's certainly picky about it. It's like the author tries to curtail to BDSM but tries to limit the savagery of it for her more conservative readers.

Or stating the obvious like this scene:
"What's wrong with him?"
"Wizard's Bane."
"Oh,” Sholto said.
“What?” I asked.
“It’s an old term for wizards who overextend themselves. I figured it was a quicker explanation to Sholto.”
“Which I’ve just made longer,”

Or sometimes when another character asks "what did you say?" someone would repeat the entire line. Not just write down "Rhys repeated his words in controlled anger." So you're reading the same useless script. It gets BORING after eight books of that type of writing style.

So I think, in a rather round about way, I am hating the fact that instead of trying to write the story, the author is trying to explain the story through conversations. And it drives me insane, because half way trough, you already understood. You don't need the character to explain the scene that just happened. Know-it-all characters. It wastes half of the book!

I am even starting to hate the goddess appearing out of the blue. I was okay with Rhys but, Ivi and Brii had me banging my head against the computer desk.

I also thought... and this is somewhat a spoiler here. That they went with TOO MANY MEN for the final battle in this book when one assassin and one pretend guard could have done the work. And I thin their oppenents were too complacent during their final face off. No one who killed off that number of fae could have been that ... stupid.

The only other thing I liked about this is the way Doyle and Frost are playing out. And for some perverse reason, I enjoy the entire Doyle and Barnithus arguments. But when it does get to the crime scene *sigh* it does get a bit better. It seems like this book would have been better with the crime scene and the paparazzi more and less of the goddess. Which is rather, teh point of this series, bring magic back to the fae... but honestly? Once at the climax or once at the falling action would have been nicer for me than the way they did it here, making it look like a filler. (I'd much rather look at the "communing" Rhys was doing with the sithen rather than some of the other fillers I was reading."


But *sigh* even if Doyle and Frost get a lot of time in this book, and Doyle gets name dropped a lot, (even when he isn't in the room Merry manages to think of him or tell something about him), nothing new is in that corner except for a smallish bit of information.

WHY then am I still reading the series? Because I like some of the characters if not the writing style. I like the idea if not the whole book. I like myths and fae even if the way they handled this was not as well as I would have liked.

So yes. Here's to another round of waiting.

Yes, the Divine Misdemeanors preview is out. It looks to be as promising as the first book in the series. There's murder, and there's an investigation... both of which drew me to Merry Gentry in the first place. I still think the way Laurell Hamilton writes the sentences in Merry Gentry is unnatural, but that may be because she's trying to emulate 1800's speech in 21st century... although I don't get quite the same feel from say vampire books or other immortal stories. At the same time, I *still* don't get the fact why she recaps her stories by repeating the exact same line with teh exact same feel as previous books. Redundancy is... old. Although Divine Misdemeanors is better than Swallowing Darkness in the way that the entire first chapter was not a rehash of the entire series. So far.

But as most addictions, yes, I will still probably be buying the book. T_T.

A new book from Rob Turman [author of the Leandros Series]. Although I am a fan of Cal, I am finding that I might not be too much into Trick of Light. I was strangely disoriented with the setting of this one, although yes, it does have Robin Goodfellow mentioned once or twice, it is a completely different place from Cal's.

There are a group of characters whom I like. Trixia whom I can't decide if she's plain psychic or just a collector of lost souls, Leo the ever present friend, Zeke and Griffin who are both the most GAY couple I've ever seen {yes, Ms. Thurman seems to write things that make male bonding look gay to me}, and even Whisper. I like the cast of characters but they seem a little too much to handle for the first book, like they came all of a sudden not a gradual introduction. And yes, I even like Solomon, even if he does remind me of Jaf. I think reading Jaf (although I honestly can't read that book ever again) has spoiled me for any other demon creature ever written. Especially when he talked about the fall.

And for some reason almost every boo in existence that has angels on them make angels out as self righteous pricks. The only Exception to that is Rachelle Mead's Georgina Kincaid series.

I am not sure what to make of the objective of the entire series. But yes, there is backstory to it, about Trixia's brother and what happened that fateful day when he no longer walks the earth, which is what motivates Trixia.

And yes, the twist in the end. I didn't guess it. It wasn't obvious, at least to me. (I always love trying to guess twists). Okay there were one or two things that were glaring, like....

( glaring spoilers )

...

and goodness.... I thought the entire Cal Leandros series was over, but roadkill is up next.

All in all I liked this book, but I'd rather read about Cal.

Quotes:
Either you're playing games and you might die because of it, or you're not playing games ----and you will die because of it.

... Well, what can I say about this book? I was looking for a good chick lit read, something similar to Sophie Kinsella and better than Jane Greene and I ended up picking this book out of curiosity, because of the amnesia. (And I love amnesia stories), but then it wasn't so much an amnesia story as much as a finding yourself. It's a non-linear story about what Anna and her guy go through the entire year or so together and what she must go through after her accident.

There are three parts to the book, and lest I spoil anything (because the twist in the first part was obvious, but the twist in the second part had me slack jawed), it was a really good read. But I must say I put this book down several times becuase though the feelings were intense, and the love palpable (or maybe it WAS becuase of those things) that I had to put it down. It's a sad book, more about picking yourself up, and a strong love that endures.

There were lots of happy times in the book too, but it was an emotional roller coaster, that I'd really recommend to anybody, but am havinga difficult time re-reading again simply because of all of the sadness. It does end up on a lighter note and makes me want to search for more books byt Keyes.

One of the best chick-lit/romance I've read in a long while, if you don't mind being bruised through the reading

Yes, Apparently. :) Joined Book Mooch, and am giving away these books:



Trade your books at BookMooch.com

And have this as my Wish list. Am excited about the entire mooching prospect :)



Swap books at BookMooch.com

Oh my GOD! I now understand why the entire Shadow Queen was a little bit left hanging (or maybe, due to fan clamor, Shalador's Lady was born... BUT!!! I am eagerly awaiting the release of Shalador's Lady next YEAR, and am hoping that by this time next year, I would have been able to buy the book.

I also thing that Anne Bishop needed the break between the two books so that Gray could mature off reader's closely scrutinizing eyes.

I have read reviews in the past that said that they thought that Jeannelle and Daemon's story detracted from Cassidy's story, but HONESTLY, I will repeat again, I NEVER thought so. I thought that this eas Cassidy's and Gray's story BUT, I am HAPPY that I still get news of Daemon and Jeanelle because they are my one TRUE pair. haha.