Audiobook Review: Silence Fallen by Patricia Briggs

Author: Patricia Briggs

Narrator: Lorelei King & George Newbern

Title: Silence Fallen

Series: Mercy Thompson #10, Mercy Thompson World #14

Genre: UF, Fantasy, Paranormal Romance

Format: Audiobook

Published: March 7, 2017

Where I got It: Borrowed from library

Summary: 

Mercy Thompson has found her voice in the werewolf pack. But when Mercy’s bond with the pack—and her mate—is broken, she’ll learn what it truly means to be alone...

 

Attacked and abducted in her home territory, Mercy finds herself in the clutches of the most powerful vampire in the world, taken as a weapon to use against alpha werewolf Adam and the ruler of the Tri-Cities vampires. In coyote form, Mercy escapes—only to find herself without money, without clothing, and alone in the heart of Europe...

 

Unable to contact Adam and the rest of the pack, Mercy has allies to find and enemies to fight, and she needs to figure out which is which. Ancient powers stir, and Mercy must be her agile best to avoid causing a war between vampires and werewolves, and between werewolves and werewolves. And in the heart of the ancient city of Prague, old ghosts rise...

Review:

This series is so addicting. Every time I say I'm going to take a break and focus on something else...I end up starting the next one. I love this world and these characters. 

Poor Mercy has the worse luck. She is attacked and abducted from her home territory while on a quick errand. She finds herself in the clutches of the most powerful vampire in the world. She is taken as a weapon to use against the alpha werewolf and the ruler of the Tri-Cities vampires. Mercy happens to escape but finds herself without money, clothing, and utterly alone in the heart of Europe. Being this far she can't connect with her pack. On the other side, is Adam the alpha werewolf and Mercy's mate. His mate is gone and he can't reach her. Teaming up with some unlikely allies, they fly to Europe to find Mercy and meet face-to-face with a deadly foe. 

This was a different format than the others but it still was fun and worked. Here Adam actually gets some narrative and we get to see things from his POV. We even got to have another narrator step in for Adam's POVs. 

Mercy has the worst luck, but also the best. She is able to escape without much injury.  Buuuuut she has no money or clothing. She can't even fully connect with her pack or mate. She is alone navigating and trying to find her way home or safety. Poor Mercy, but it was nice seeing Mercy on her own in a different setting. It was refreshing. I also loved getting some one-on-one time with Adam. We got to learn a little more about him and see him deal with the baddies.

The ending did drag on a tiny bit. I just wanted everyone to resolve the issue and reunite. 

The duo narrators were a little jarring for me at first. I am so used to Lorelei King being the voice for everyone and I loveeeeeeeeee her narration. The additional one was a male and he was good, but it took a moment to warm up to him voicing Adam's part and a lot of the cast. Different for sure, but I enjoyed the change.

But yes, this was fun! Refreshing in a lot of ways. We got to see more of Adam and see a different setting. The baddie was good and fun. My only issue was that the ending seemed to drag on a tiny bit, but other than that I enjoyed this one quite a bit. Can't wait to read more. 4 stars from me. 

 

Challenge(s):
- #61 for Audiobook challenge

Movie Review: The Devil's Mistress (2016)

Film Title: The Devil's Mistress "Lída Baarová"

Length: 1h 40 min 
Released: 2016
Genre:   Biography, Drama, History
Rating: TV-14
Where I Got It: Netflix

SUMMARY:
A film about the black-and-white era actress Lída Baarová and her doomed love affair.

TRAILER:

REVIEW:
I had this on my list of movies to watch. Decided to give it a go. 

Oh boy. Where do I start? 

Well...the story follows Lída Baarová who was an actress back in the day. We get to see her rise in fame and then meeting Joseph Goebbels and falling "in love". Things don't go well because he is married and a Nazi. She is just a Czech-Austrian actress. Hitler forbids them to be together because Joseph Goebbel must have the perfect German family and having a mistress isn't good for the reputation. 

I was super intrigued the moment I turned on the movie. I was curious to see this all play out. However, things got....weird and awkward really quick. 

First, I didn't see the chemistry between the two so it made it awkward. 

Second, the sex scene was even more awkward and weird. I get she is "playing with fire" but do you really need to have her staring into the fire and have their sex faces be there??? 

Third, how could she love him especially after a certain scene?! He is obviously a monster and you are not German so where is the even slightest amount of fear!!?? Yes, yes, the whole thing she LOVES him even though he's a baddie. But there should be some sort of emotion of fear...self-doubt....something. 

Fourth, the ending scene. Ugh. I can't say it without spoilers but it was baaaddddd.

Why did I continue this film? It was like a car accident and you can't help but watch. I wanted to know what would happen next. I wanted to see her "love" turn into hate for the man. But nope. She still loved him. 

In the end, this was not the film for me. SOOOO MANY AWKWARD SCENES! Ugh! I'll stamp this with 1 star. 

Book Review: The Night Circus

Author: Erin Morgenstern
Title: The Night Circus
Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy 
Pages: 387
First Published: September 13th, 2011
Where I Got It: Borrowed from library

"The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. 

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance."

Wherever do I begin?

Well, this was another read for the book club I'm in with my pallios. I probably wouldn't have picked this up on my on. I would contemplate it, but I would probably bypass this. Who knows though?

Mmmmm....this was certainly an adventure and I was highly addicted to it. I could barely put it down. I would find myself reading oddly fast for myself. *shrugs* Perhaps it was due to the fact that I wanted to find out what happened next, because it was killing me how Marco and Celia gets out of this "game". I don't know time seemed to get away from me.

SPEAKING OF the "GAME". That was stupid....annoying....and boring. I was expecting at some point they would have to battle or something. Or a threat that loomed over them. No, no. This was a competition of who can endure longer and these two endured for nearly 30 years. MEEEEEEEEEH! This "game" was the boredness of two sociopaths who liked playing with people's lives and they didn't care about anything, but trying to prove each other's method of "teaching" and "magic" was wrong. >_>

Honestly...I was more involved with the Murray twin's and Bailey's story. I didn't like or trust Marco for many reasons. Especially how he went about with the whole Isobel situation. He was a jerk, but what do you honestly expect from a boy that was raised by one of the sociopaths, Mr. Grey (that is my name for him). Mr. Grey wears only grey and his heart is that color....if he has a heart at all. Celia? Mmmmm, she was alright. She was defiantly the stronger and better of the two and if they didn't "fall in love" she would've kicked Marco's butt. THAT, though, would have defeated the whole story. They were "destined" to be in love.

Why does this book's message seem familiar to me?

"All magic comes with a price."

HAHA! Rumple indeed rules the world.

The price of the two men teaching these kids magic is that they can not escape the game until someone dies and a victor is declared. Love is the price they may have to pay if they can not get out of this "game". I will not give any spoilers, but the ending surprised me. OKAY, one baby spoiler: *SPOILER ALERT* there is a huge loophole where no one technically has to "die". This loophole is haunting the book and no one thinks of it until the end and that is what causes the "game" to end. *END OF SPOILER* See? A baby one.

I have a lot of mix feelings for this book. It certainly was an adventure and I'm glad I gave it a chance. The ending was totally worth it. I must give some kuddos to the author for the twist at the end. I certainly didn't expect that. She didn't take the easy way out. *cough* look at spoiler *cough*. 

In the end, it was a good ride and even though I couldn't help but glare at the text sometimes, it was an interesting book. I certainly would recommend it to those that like magic and human drama. This was certainly human drama-filled. In the end, I shall stamp this with 4 stars. It is more like 3.5, but I don't give decimals, so I rounded. 

Favorite Character(s): Poppet, Widget, Bailey, Isobel, & Celia

Not-so Favorite Character(s): Alexander (sociopath #1), Hector (sociopath #2), and Marco (total jerk). 

P.S - This was nagging me until now. Both Alexander and Hector both never disclosed their real names (that we know of), but they just picked names they liked. They both picked these names - why? What do they mean? I finally realized it as I typed there names down up above...from Greek mythology! Alexander the Great and Prince Hector of Troy. It may not be right, but it's interesting and there are a lot of old references (like Billy Shakespeare references). Haha! Sorry for my ramble