Tell Me Something Tuesday: Book Disappointments of 2017

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly discussion post on Rainy Day Ramblings where Rainy discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging. Weigh in and join the conversation by adding your thoughts in the comments. If you want to do your own post, grab the question and answer it on your blog.

Books Disappointments of 2017

The cover is so beautiful and it had an original plot. I was so intrigued, but I was so let down.  

Another one were it wasn't horrible. It was just meh. Some good parts, some horrible parts. I was really looking forward to this one and I ended up disappointed in the end.










This seemed like it would be a contender for Best Book of the Year, but alas, it fell horribly short. It had all the elements, but I think the author tried too much and it was boring. 

I had heard SO many amazing things about this one. When I finally found a copy I had jumped for joy, but alas....I ended up being highly disappointed. I feel like this was the biggest disappointment of the year for me. 

Blodeuedd's Monday Review: To Catch an Heiress by Julia Quinn

When Caroline Trent is kidnapped by Blake Ravenscroft, she doesn’t even try to elude this dangerously handsome agent of the crown. After all, she’s been running from unwanted marriage proposals. Yes, Blake believes she’s a notorious spy named Carlotta De Leon, but for six weeks until her twenty-first birthday, when she’ll gain control of her own fortune, hiding out in the titillating company of a mysterious captor is awfully convenient—and maybe just a little romantic, too.

Blake Ravenscroft’s mission is to bring “Carlotta” to justice, not to fall in love. His heart has been hardened by years of intrigue, but this little temptress proves oddly disarming and thoroughly kissable. And suddenly the unthinkable becomes possible—that this mismatched couple might be destined for love. 

Mass Market Paperback, 377 pages
Published July 30th 2002 by Avon Books (first published July 1st 1998)
Agents of the Crown #1
Historical romance
Library

My thoughts:

For some reason my library had two "new" Quinn books. They do not seem to know the order of things, sure this is book 1 but when I emailed and asked if they would get book 2 they said they had so many Quinn books. But hey I read one ;)

Anyway in the middle of the book it turned into an almost farce. Oh the things that happened, it made me lol. It was so silly, but fun.

Ugh, I am bad at reviewing today. Get it together gal!

Blake is an agent that needs to catch a spy. He does catch a woman. Idiot him thinks she is the spy even though she says he kidnapped her. Fun times! Obvi these two fall in love too. Oh and his fellow agent was fun, you know book n 2 that the library wont be getting cos they have so man Quinn books (totes out of order.)

Conclusion:

Rather silly and fun

Cover

Dull

Book Review: The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen by Collins Hemingway

Author: Collins Hemingway
Title: The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen (Volume1)
Genre: what-if, Historical Romance
Pages: ebook
Published: June 2015
Where I Got It: My shelf (Given to me by the author/publisher for my honest and unbiased opinion)

Tradition holds that Jane Austen lived a prim and proper life as a single woman. But what if she wed a man as passionate and intelligent as she—and the marriage remained secret for 200 years?


The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen is a trilogy that resolves the biggest mysteries of Austen’s life, the “lost years” of her twenties—a period of which historians know virtually nothing.

- Why the enduring rumors of a lost love or tragic affair? 

- Why, afterward, did the vivacious Jane Austen prematurely put on “the cap of middle age” and shut herself away to write her books? 

- Why, after her death, did her beloved sister destroy her letters, journals, and diaries from this period?


The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen trilogy presents an original love story, based on actual history, to put forth a believable, compelling, and plausible answer to Austen’s lost years.


Go with Jane Austen as this thinking woman, and sensitive soul, seizes the opportunity for meaningful love with a man who inspires her and understands her independent spirit—the one man worthy of her mind, heart, and soul.

I love what-if stories, but I hate them at the same time especially if I want it to be the real thing that happened. This is the case for this one. This story follows a Miss Jane Austen. Instead of dying a spinster, she gets to be married to a man who really loves her. It took a while for her to realize she is supposed to be with this gentleman, but it does happen. No spoilers here…it is in the title. LOL

But yes, this was short and sweet. I am curious to read the next book in the trilogy. The next books follows Jane and her hubbie as they work out as newlyweds. I really like her hubbie a lot. I wish he was a real guy. Sure he is based off a real person who did propose to Jane which didn’t fall through (as we all know). He was a sweetie and I feel like Jane was so mean to him unnecessarily so. You could tell he loved her from the moment he stumbled onto the page. 

This was light and fun. I really enjoyed how you could see bits and pieces of her books scattered around the pages. I loved how the author showed possibly where she could’ve gotten her inspirations for her stories. It was a nice touch. Some were obvious, but some were done in a way that could be missed. Loved it. 

There were some eye-rolling parts like the part with the balloon. The balloon-ride was fine, but the whole repercussion that Jane and Ashton had to deal with afterwards. Yes, I get the ton are jerks, but I really feel like everyone overreacted. Especially Jane’s parents. Sure, sure, I get that it was scary and balloons were a new thing, but really? Jane was with a family friend and an old French guy. I highly doubt anything scandalous happened there.

Jane bothered me sometimes. She was actually kind of mean. For example, Ashton had gotten a bundle of tickets (I guess it was cheaper to buy 10 then just 5 – I can’t remember) and he offered to take Jane and her sister. Jane was a jerk about it saying how she didn’t want to be in his debt. Like really? Just take the damn ticket woman. The ticket was basically free. Gah. It bothered me sometimes with how cold she acted towards people. 

I enjoyed the few pages of letter exchanges. Sometimes it bothers me, but it actually helped move the story along in a fun way. It also showed, slowly, how feelings were changing and morphing. It was fun to see how friendship turned to love. It was very nice. 

In the end, this was a short, light, and fun read. I loved the whole what-if Jane didn’t say no and actually got to get married to a man who really did love her. I highly recommend this if you even mildly like Jane Austen and her novels. I’ll stamp this with 4 stars. 
  

Movie Review: The LEGO Batman Movie (2017)

Film Title: The LEGO Batman Movie
Length: 1 hr and 44 mins
Released: 2017
Genre: Action, Adventure, & Comedy
Rating: PG
Where I Got It: Borrowed from the library


SUMMARY:
A cooler-than-ever Bruce Wayne must deal with the usual suspects as they plan to rule Gotham City, while discovering that he has accidentally adopted a teenage orphan who wishes to become his sidekick.

TRAILER:

Review:
The Lego movies are always fun. Lego plus a superhero? Bound to be a good one. 

I loved the whole premise of this that everyone needs family and friends. Of course, Batman is a loner and must learn this lesson the hard way. They made this usually over-used concept work and feel fresh and new. 

This was a fun watch and I was constantly laughing at the jokes and the references. I loved the Joker. He was the best. All he wants is Batman to admit that he is his Arch Nemesis but Batman won't. Poor Joker. I felt really bad for him...Batman broke is wee little heart. 

The characters were entertaining even the baddies. Sure, Batman was the main character, but the side characters all were complex and had their spotlight and part in the story. 

I'm not sure what else to say. This was a cute film and I enjoyed it. There were laughs and feels. The whole Lego art is fun and just adds to the humor. This was the best LEGO movie I have seen. I have watched a couple of others and they were not as good as this. For some reason, this just worked so well. 

The writing was great. I enjoyed the dialogue. The action was action-packed and I was glued to the TV. I had to know what was going to happen next. 

This is a good movie for the whole family and I highly recommend it.  Fun and entertaining. I'll give this 5 stars.