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review 2022-01-15 21:48
Audiobook Review: My Famous Frenemy (The Greene Family #6) by: Piper Rayne, Narrated by Ava Lucas and Nelson Hobbs
My Famous Frenemy (The Greene Family #6) - Piper Rayne

 

 

 

My Famous Frenemy by Piper Rayne

My rating: 5 of 5 stars




I have never fell so hard, so fast. Posey is a hot mess. Gavin is running scared. The residents of Sunrise Bay are in for quite a show. My Famous Frenemy is a laugh out loud, irresistible, edge of your heart kind of romance. Piper Rayne does over the top like never before. With a little help from the larger than life personality of Ava Lucas and the sultry, narrative stylings of Nelson Hobbs, crazy in love takes on a whole new meaning. Famous Frenemy is heart music that refuses to be ignored.



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review 2019-09-20 07:48
The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene
The Power and the Glory - Graham Greene

This was a bit of a struggle, being twice as long as its limited ambition requires - that ambition being to illustrate the weakness, fallability and moral confusion of a Catholic priest, tempered by a hint of hope. At least this was acheived.

 

The setting is a Southern State of Mexico where a deadly Catholic purge has been underway for ten years. The churches have burned and the priests have fled, or been killed, or renounced their vocations - except for one. Quite how such a stupid, vacilating character managed to evade capture for so long is beyond comprehension, but nevermind - even more frustrating is that the situation is never explained. Why is the purge happening? Why is it State-wide but not Nation-wide? What year is it, anyway? Why are distilled spirits and wine illegal when beer is legal? I don't know if ignoring all this was meant to make the story more like a parable or if Greene's obsession with Catholic angst just rendered all context unimportant to him, but for me it was a missed opportunity.

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review 2019-08-11 18:17
Beautifully written short(ish) thrillers
The Third Man and The Fallen Idol - Graham Greene

This book contains two of Graham Greene's short(ish) stories that were made into films. The first is set in post-war Vienna occupied by Britain, the US, France and Russia. It is a satisfying thriller, although the surprise twist wasn't so surprising, most of the interest (both drama and humour) comes from the conflicted Rollo Martins. Although it was written simply as a stepping stone towards a screenplay, there is some wonderful imagery.

"... bowing her head against the wind, a dark question mark on the snow." How gorgeous is that?

There are a number of humorous moments, revolving around a case of mistaken identity (in a rather Shakespearean farce) and in the interactions between the military police of the four powers.

" American chivalry is always, it seems to me, carefully canalized - one still awaits the American saint who will kiss a leper's sores."

Of the two stories I preferred the second - The Fallen Idol - told from the perspective of a young boy who is left in the care of two servants (married to each other), one of whom the boy loves and the other he hates. He is caught in the middle of an intrigue and feels crushed by the secrets he's asked to keep.

My favourite passages are -

"[S]he was darkness when the night-light went out in a draught; she was the frozen blocks of earth he had seen one winter in a graveyard when someone said, 'They need an electric drill'; she was the flowers gone bad and smelling in the little closet at Penstanley. There was nothing to laugh about. You had to endure her when she was there and forget about her quickly when she was away,"

"There had been things between them, but he laid them low, as a retreating army cuts the wires, destroys the bridges."

It's always a pleasure to read effective prose, and the second story also provides plenty of tension.

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review 2019-05-30 20:07
Ways of Escape
Ways Of Escape (Vintage Classics) - Graham Greene

I miss reading Greene. I miss discovering his stories for the first time. He's still one of my favourite authors - not because I loved all of his books without fail and without criticism, but because his writing has a quality to it that is just beautiful while still being totally on point.

 

So, when I picked up Ways of Escape, I hoped to reconnect with that wonder of entering Greeneland, a term Greene used himself (as I found out in this book). 

To some extent this was successful. Ways of Escape is one of Greene's autobiographical books (there are several volumes) in which he explores, in parts, his biography, and in parts his own works. 

While the biographical background was interesting (his travel experiences were fascinating, his deliberations about Catholicism not so much), his analysis of his own works largely left me wishing I hadn't read them. This isn't because they were disappointing - they weren't!

 

But when the magician discloses the workings of his tricks, some of the magic gets lost.

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review 2019-05-26 03:36
BOOK REVIEW: CARESSED by a CRIMSON MOON by AMANDA J. GREENE @AmandaJGreene1 #Paranormalromance
Caressed by a Crimson Moon - Amanda J. Greene
Caressed by A Crimson Moon is the third book in the Rulers of Darkness series. It tells the story of Eva a half-breed shifter and Hadrian Lucretius, the mad vampire king of the Validus Clan.
 
Eva is considered an abomination to her pack because of her half-breed nature. She lived in the world of humans until the death of her mom when her father took her to live with his pack. Eva’s treatment by the pack was unpleasant. Unable to take animal form or have children her pack treated her like a pariah. The pack had an agreement with the vampire clan, where the alpha would send one of his daughters to be a ward to the vampire king. Because of the madness that had consumed the king the alpha decided Eva would be the perfect candidate, believing the vampire king would have her destroyed.
 
Hadrian is known as the beast among vampires, the mad king. Haunted by a past riddled with torture, death and blood-lust he descended into a state of madness, which saw him renouncing his throne. 
He has returned to claim it after 350 years of self-imposed exile, thus triggering the death curse. A curse which would eventually kill him should he not find his mate. 
 
From the moment Eva and Hadrian met, sparks flew. Eva had difficulty keeping her distance despite humorous warnings from Falcon, Hadrian’s second in command. Hadrian tried resisting the attraction out of fear and he did not desire to disrespect her pack. She is his ward and therefore under his protection, but when information regarding Eva’s heritage became known the excuse of her being his ward went out the door.
 
I understood Hadrian’s hesitance to get close to Eva, but after sometime his push and pull, actions became annoying. Despite this, I enjoyed seeing them together. What I loved about their relationship was how they helped each other grow.  They became each other’s saviour.
 
Eva saw herself as being unworthy and I understood why, given the abuse she had endured but the constant belittling of her worth became tiresome. Thankfully, she outgrew this phase and became the voice of reason for Hadrian. 
 
I enjoyed learning about Eva’s true heritage, but I would have been nice to see her father’s reaction now that the truth came to light. In addition, it would have been good to know how he took the news that the daughter he saw as an abomination was the mate of a powerful vampire king. I am curious as to the reason Eva’s father took her live with the pack knowing they considered her an abomination. What did he hope to achieve? 
 
This is an engaging and fun story with interesting characters and great world building. It was great reuniting with the characters from the previous installment.
 
Conclusion/Recommendation
Another great addition to the series. I would recommend this series to fans of paranormal romance. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
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