Title: A Good Psycho is Hard to Find Author: Will Ludwigsen In: Blood Lite (Kevin J. Anderson) Rating Out of 5: 3.5 (Liked this) My Bookshelves:Comedy, Horror Pace: Fast Format: Short story Publisher: Pocket Books Year: 2008 5th sentence, 74th page: We wiped down the chainsaw and tossed it in the Dumpster.
It can be hard to find the right amount of passion in a relationship… but for this young couple, things are about to take a sinister turn.
Well. This took an unexpected turn. Like really unexpected. And more than a little creepy. And just… yeah, not really quite right there.
It can be difficult to be passionate with your significant other when life gets in the way. And for the couple in this tale, they are certainly finding it hard to rekindle their first flames. That is, until they realise that they just need a good dose of adrenaline to throw them into each others’ arms. It’s more so where they get this adrenaline from that is unexpected. And in so many ways, not okay…
Title: The Chimes Author: Charles Dickens In: A Christmas Carol and Other Holiday Treasures (Charles Dickens) Rating Out of 5: 3.5 (Liked this) My Bookshelves:Christmas, Classics Pace: Slow Format: Novella Publisher: Word Cloud Classics Year: 1844 5th sentence, 74th page: So may each year be happier than the last, and not the meanest of our brethren or sisterhood debarred their rightful share, in what our Great Creator formed them to enjoy.
“The Chimes” is Charles Dickens 1844 novella that concerns the disillusionment of Toby “Trotty” Veck, a poor working-class man. When Trotty has lost his faith in Humanity and believes that his poverty is the result of his unworthiness he is visited on New Year’s Eve by spirits to help restore his faith and show him that nobody is born evil, but rather that crime and poverty are things created by man.
It took me a little more to get into this than A Christmas Carol. Probably because A Christmas Carol is a story that I already know and love from the many different adaptations that I’ve watched. The Chimes on the other hand isn’t a storyline that I’ve ever read before or heard of.
Another reason I struggled to get into this story was because of the way that Toby is shamed in the first quarter for being poor. Although this is a technique utilised to highlight the Christmas spirit amongst the bells and chimes later, I found it a little hard to swallow. Until the last quarter, then I loved the way that the spirits and chimes all worked together to remind us of the Christmas spirit.
The Chimes works as a great way to remind us that it is the spirit of giving and love that is what should truly define the holiday season. Not how much money you have and what you can give people.
Title: Numismatics in the Reigns of Naranh and Viu Author: Alex Dally MacFarlane In: The Mammoth Book of Steampunk (Sean Wallace) Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!) My Bookshelves:Steampunk Pace: Slow Format: Short story Publisher: Robinson Year: 2012 5th sentence, 74th page: Gradually she learned what she had expected: most leaders resented King Naranh’s refusal to share the methodologies and the full benefits of his steamworks.
Naranh and Viu are brother and sisters monarchs. They use the coins and the people around them to validate their reigns in this story of constant tug and pull between two individuals.
I thoroughly enjoyed this short story. Not just the quick, sharp, fast pace. But the uniqueness of the storyline and the way that it drew me in from the very beginning. The way that the story was broken up into almost mini-chapters helped to lend this fast-paced feeling to the story and moved it forward beautifully.
The idea of coins being used to establish the reign and validity of rulership was something that I haven’t encountered before. And I found that I really enjoyed this. Something about coin collectors and the stories that they tell certainly came to mind while I was reading this. Each small part of the story tells of a new coin, a new mint and a new step in Viu’s plan to create her own rule of fairness and equality.
It’s the time of year when dreams come true, miracles happen every day, and love is the greatest gift of all. The holidays always seem to bring out the best in everyone, with heartfelt hugs for long-missed friends, sincere smiles in the spirit of the season, and a feeling of magic in the air…
This scintillating collection of paranormal romances celebrates the holidays as never before. From a shape-shifting leopardess who wants a packmate to be her soul mate to a sudden snow-storm that brings a surprise gift, these four tales by Nalini Singh, Maggie Shayne, Erin McCarthy, and Jean Johnson will stir your spirit in all the right places.
Naw. This collection left me with such happy, Christmassy, gooey feelings. All four of these novellas are simple, cute and incredibly sweet. They encompass the feelings of love and giving that to me is the true spirit of Christmas. After finishing every single one of these novellas, I not only bought something by each of the authors, but I just sat there with a feeling of bliss and happiness that there is still goodness in the world.
I know that the storyline is really good and sweet when it makes me tear up a bit. The fact that every single story in this collection did that to me is a fantastic indication of just how special this entire collection is. If you need something feel good and beautiful, this is certainly a reflection worth reading!
Leo has powerful family magic, but the magic of Christmas is about to show him that maybe there is another kind of magic that he needs to consider.
Christmas time has always meant family to me. But, sometimes that closeness and beautifulness of family can become a little too overwhelming. Sometimes becoming an adult means that the tightness of familial ties needs to be stretched and loosened. Hoffmanexplores this perfectly in this intriguingly different short story.
Instead of featuring a close knit family that is happy,healthy and merry – Close Knit features one that is inherently broken. All three generations that are featured. The fact that there is a magical that acts like a web between members just furthers the idea that not all relationships are healthy, and sometimes we need to work on things. Being close isn’t necessarily a good thing.
It took me a while to get used to a slightly open-ended ending in most short stories. They leave so much left unsaid, but, in the cases of tales like this, I love it. There is a sense of a great future ahead of Leo’s family, but also a sense of a lot of work left undone and a lot on the horizon.
All Rachel wants to do is join local magical enforcement. But her brother has other ideas for her. When a séance to find out their father’s wishes goes wrong, all hell is about to break loose…
I read this because it was in a Christmas collection and I really wanted to get into the Christmas spirit. Yet, I’m still completely unaware as to what this has to do with Christmas. Other than the fact that all of the action takes place on the solstice.
Regardless of the fact that I specifically wanted a Christmas story, and didn’t get one… I thoroughly enjoyed this novella. And can’t wait to discover more of The Hollows series. Rachel is an independent and strong woman. But in a way that is completely different to every other strong woman I’ve read about. Normally they are physically able, and can kick box and karate or whatever form of self defence… but Rachel is actually incredibly physically weak. Yet, this is what lends her so much strength and power. And makes you root for her as she rushes around the city, after a ghost, trying to find a missing girl and a creepy, demented vampire.
New Orleans is filled with vampires, both the temporary and permanent kind. So what happens when two of them meet?
I wasn’t expecting a story like this in a collection of vampire romance short stories. For starters, even though a vampire was in it, it wasn’t really about vampires. And for another thing, it wasn’t really all that romantic.
Although the storyline and the characters in this story
didn’t really draw me in… the setting did. There is something about New Orleans
that has always fascinated me. To the point that it’s probably the only American
city that I’m really interested in visiting. And the fact that a vampire story is
based there seems somehow… right.
If I had my way, every idiot who goes around with Merry Christmas on his lips, would be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. Merry Christmas? Bah humbug!’
To bitter, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, Christmas is just another day. But all that changes when the ghost of his long-dead business partner appears, warning Scrooge to change his ways before it’s too late.
I have watched The Muppet’s Christmas Carol every Christmas Eve since I was in high school. I’ve just never managed to get around to reading the story. Until this year. And now I just can’t believe that I took so damn long to get to it!
A Christmas Carol is a great reminder of everything that Christmas is supposed to be about. Community, spirit, love and caring for one another. It’s a reminder that you should not only keep the spirit over the Christmas period, but also all year long. Giving, caring and treasuring those that you love. And honestly, this year, with everything that has been happening… I’ve kind of needed that reminder and the purity of this story.
I love the lyrical way in which Dickens writes. A Christmas Carol is actually my first ever Charles Dickens story and, again, I’m wondering why it took me so long to pick up his work. It was glorious and easy. Sweet and intriguing. And I loved the way that the words not only tripped off your tongue, but also drew you in so completely.
For those grinches, normal and people who are obsessed with Christmas, this is the perfect novella to read when you just want to feel that spirit of Christmas again. Just like when you were a child…
Avril is on her way to meet the man she married when she was five years-old. Luckily, for her, he might be the man of her dreams, not so luckily, there are deadly politics of play as she holds court with Mary, Queen of the Scots.
I was honestly annoyed at the beginning of this story. Avril was married to a man ten years her senior when she was five years-old. Now, as an adult she is returning to his estate and taking her place as a wife. And he’s quite rude from the very beginning – leaving her waiting, assuming that he gets his “husbandly rights”… he’s kind of a douche. But, he gets better, and even though I don’t actually like him at the end of the story, I do like their relationship.
It took me a little longer than I would have liked to realise that this story featured Queen Mary of the Scots (or something like that), the woman who was imprisoned and executed in England after being one of Henry’s infamous wives (I believe). Even this, I’m not 100% sure of. But I loved the way in which a touch of the “other” (in the form of the Sight), works its way seamlessly into the machinations of a political court that was completely real.
The marrying of real life political intrigue and events with a fantastical romance worked really well here. I loved being able to imagine that this actually did happen way back when… that Avril’s descendants are happy and healthy somewhere in the world.
Title: Practical Magic Author: Alice Hoffman Series: Practical Magic #2 Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect), 5 (I will read this again and again and again) My Bookshelves:Chic lit, Magic, Romance, Witches Pace: Medium Format: Novel Publisher: Scribner Year: 1995 5th sentence, 74th page: The rings around the moon are now so bright Sally’s convinced everyone in the neighbourhood will be awake before long.
As children, sisters Gillian and Sally were forever outsiders in their small New England town, teased, taunted and shunned for the sense of magic that seemed to hang in the air around them. All Gillian and Sally ever wanted was to get away.
Years later, tragedy brings the sisters back together. They’ll find that no matter what else may happen, they’ll always have each other.
An enchanting tale of love, forgiveness and family, Practical Magic is one of Alice Hoffman’s best loved novels and the basis of the classic movie.
I literally bought this because I saw the book in a bookstore a few days after I’d watched the movie (I was on a Sandra Bullock binge-watch). Prior to seeing it, I actually had no idea that Practical Magic was even based on a book. This seems to be happening a lot to me at the moment to be fair…
Although I loved this book, I need to start this review with the fact that the book is really nothing like the movie. I was expecting a feel-good, sisterly tale that focused on the strong bond between the two. And this story does do that. But it’s also focusing on the flawed way that we as humans, sisters and family interact with each other. As someone who has a sister, I can tell you, this novel felt far more realistic and non-sugar-coated than the movie. Both are amazing, but this had a completely different flavour and tone than what I was expecting.
Other than the obvious connection between the three generations of sisters and a great, contemporary look at family ties, I really loved this style of writing. As I previously mentioned, it was nothing like I expected. And it really wasn’t anything like what I’ve experienced before. There was something completely unique about the style of writing that drew me in. A sense of darkness and doom that managed to sit within the pages, but not overbear them. Probably mostly due to the excellent use of foreshadowing that Hoffman employs. In most stories you can kind of guess something is going to go wrong (that’s generally the catalyst for the storyline, and who wants to read a story where everything goes right?). Yet, the slight sense of foreshadowing and the wording used in this makes everything all the more sinister and intense. Something that I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed.
