logo
Wrong email address or username
Wrong email address or username
Incorrect verification code
back to top
Search tags: convoluted-embroilment-aka-soapish
Load new posts () and activity
Like Reblog Comment
show activity (+)
review 2020-04-23 21:44
The GRAND Sophy
The Grand Sophy - Georgette Heyer

(seriously, I don't have a pithy summary for a review better that it's own title)

 

I had a total blast.

 

I love Heyer's harebrained MC's, and Sophy is an order of magnitude on any of hers I've read. I had so much fun with the way she's completely on top of all the chaos she sows around while working to set things as they should go, and I knew the ride I was setting myself to as soon as she appears, but even more when her friends start popping up and you realize they like her, respect her, will help her, but pray not to be the focus of her arrangements.

 

I also love all her side characters in all their glorious follies. I even enjoyed Eugenia, because she was such a perfect foil.

 

It's not that the end is in any way unexpected, but the getting there was hilarious and entertaining. I totally get why it's a favourite Heyer now. It's certainly elbowing up there in the podium.

Like Reblog Comment
review 2018-10-23 11:06
Funny and annoying
The Circular Staircase - Mary R Rinehart,Otto Penzler

I'm not much for cozy mysteries. The vaguely acerbic nosy middle aged men and women that populate them tend to annoy me. As do the comedy of errors that people being secretive cause. I get it, the very human petty selfishness that makes one try to keep hidden personal peccadilloes even in the face of serious matters and even possible danger to loved ones. Doesn't mean I enjoy reading about it, or stop me from wishing to strangle the character even if I'm enjoying it.

 

With all those caveats, where this one wins is in the humour department. People are ridiculous and inconsistent, and the amount of bits I saved where Ray observes it plainly (and when in her, somewhat obliquely) are legion, and made me laugh quite a bit.

 

I still think the Innes family took a trip down blanket stupidity where useful communication was concerned.

What did the kids plan to do if Ray had decided to leave the house?

Keeping the room secret for the day for effect was the height of hubris

Louise... just... Louise

(spoiler show)

The casual oh-so-benevolent racism also made me cringe so hard.

 

I own another of Rinehart's novels, so I might revisit. This not being my genre at all, the tone was fun.

 

And there goes my 4th Bingo. Now for black-out.

Like Reblog Comment
show activity (+)
review 2018-09-23 08:21
Worst best luck and a tourist
The Color of Magic - Terry Pratchett

This is my first Pratchett, and I had so much fun.

 

It was all the elements: the zanny world, all the stabs at our world's and several sub-types of fantasies usual conventions, Rincewind's quality of "Luck's *shhhhhhhh!* The Lady's plaything" and Twoflower's perfect embodiment of the "too oblivious and exited to get it" tourist. And the luggage. The luggage was awesome, and the way it kept coming back the gift that kept on giving.

 

It ends in a cliff-hanger, but I'm not too anxious over it, because I was on the ride for the humour more than closure.

 

And apparently, this is not the best to be had in the Discworld... Sold on the author.

 

Like Reblog Comment
review 2017-09-28 23:01
Malay flavored YA
The Ghost Bride: A Novel - Yangsze Choo

Ghostly, entertaining jaunt. Foreign setting, lots of fantasy, family intrigues and romance. Teens and young adults would be a good audience for this one.

 

I liked it well enough, though I wanted to thump some sense into Li Lan several times. And she does the distressed damsel quite a bit. And some issues are managed in somewhat simplistic ways. But it was a speedy read, and I had a good time.

 

 

Like Reblog Comment
review 2017-06-09 07:05
Fun applying a bit of the Bellisario's Maxim
The Pelican Brief - John Grisham

There are a lot of movies based on Grisham books. I decided to check some out when I found about them. Never watched this movie but kept hearing about it, so I had it my tbr pile ready for the game square.

The idea is that in a country filled with lawyers to the gills (it's a factor that's gone over a lot through the pages), a shot in a million had a lot of chances of happening: some busy-body would stumble into the right theory. The bad luck comes in when the brief is picked up as a way to needle back in a quarrel between agencies. No one takes it seriously, but a lot of noise is made. And it just happens to be right. A lot of pettiness that results in a murder fest.

 

The good guys win. Or at least they get to the end of the book alive. Let's not think about the trial. I don't much like their chances of lasting up to it in a real life scenario. After all, the small fishes pay, the rest keep swimming. We know how long those types of cases takes, and how often the big weights actually go to jail: One patsy every age.

(spoiler show)


It's an entertaining thriller (and depressing if you have your brain-cells firing too much). I'm still likely to read The Firm at some point (the movie that first got me interested in these books)

 

More posts
Your Dashboard view:
Need help?