Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2

Once again the bibliophile has ventured out of the house and gone to the cinema exactly a month after the previous trip (to see About Time) but this time to see a kids' film with my kid sister as well as my best friend that I've known since I was a kid.  We went to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 directed by Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn and stars Bill Hader (Saturday Night Live, Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Anna Faris (What's Your Number?, Lost In Translation, Scary Movie), James Caan (The Godfather, A Bridge too Far), and Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother, Doogie Howser M.D.) to name a few of the stars.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 is the sequel to the 2009 film, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (referred to as Cloudy from here on out), which is the animated children's film that focuses on the town of Swallow Falls, a sardine fishing town, where Flint Lockwood (Hader), a young inventor, lives who creates the "Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator" AKA the FLDSNDFR which generates food out of the bottom once water has gone through the top.  When it initially fails in his lab, Flint tries to hook the FLDSMDFR up to the town's power supply but inadvertently sends it up into the stratosphere.  As the FLDSMDFR is flying around the town, it hits Sam Sparks (Faris), an intern from the weather channel who is on her first assignment for the channel, humiliating her on live television.  Just as Sam discovers Flint is the one who humiliated her, the FLDSMDFR begins to work leading to Flint's and the town's success with the help of Sam; unfortunately for the entire world, the FLDSMDFR starts to overmutate the food which begins to destroy the world so Flint has to stop his own creation and save the world.

Rating: 9

Recommended To: Animated film lovers

Favourite Characters: Sam; Steve; Barry

Favourite Part: Sam: A bully turned friend will be a friend to the end

Good Points: Recaps the first film; foodimals were interesting; sceneries are amazing; characters haven't changed drastically

Bad Points: Predictable story

Gena Showalter - Dark Beginnings: The Darkest Prison

So back to the Lords of the Underworld series and if you read one of my previous blogs, I am going to be alternating between this series (and I think a different one by Showalter) and other books from different authors for a bit.  Fortunately, this is only one of the short stories from the anthology, Dark Beginnings which contains The Darkest Fire and The Darkest Angel.

The Darkest Prison is the fifth story in the Lords of the Underworld from Gena Showalter which follows a group of immortal warriors; in the full length novels, the story revolves around the warriors who have hosted demons for centuries after opening Pandora's Box years ago and the short stories in Dark Beginnings, the stories revolve around different immortal warriors that are integral to the story but not part of the main group.

Rating: 9

Recommended To: Those that like paranormal books, though definitely for an adult audience

Favourite Characters: Nike - unlike the other women of the series

Favourite Part: Atlas, Titan god of Strength, stared down at the bane of his existence.  Nike, Greek goddess of Strength.  And Victory, he inwardly sneered.  She loved to remind him that many called her the goddess of Strength and Victory.  As if she were better than him.  In reality, she was his godly counterpart.  His equal.  His enemy  And an all-around grade-A bitch. - Page 92

Good Points: Seeing the Greek vs. the Titans; true love/hate relationship; twisting Greek mythology

Bad Points: Over too quickly

J.A. Konrath - Whiskey Sour

So a brand-spanking-new series that was recommended to me through Goodreads after reading a large number of Stephanie Plum books as well as murder mystery books.  I think I also chose this series because of its title and my fondness for the whiskey of the same name.

Whiskey Sour is the first novel of J.A. Konrath's series, Jack Daniels Mysteries, as well as his debut novel.  The Jack Daniels Mysteries series focuses on Lt. Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels, an insomniac Chicago cop, who works with Herb Benedict, her overweight partner, as she works a number of cases in the Violent Crimes unit which includes murder cases.  Also involved in Jack's world is Harry McGlade, a private investigator who used to be Jack's partner before she was a lieutenant.

Rating: 9

Recommended To: Murder mystery lovers; not a girly book at all, just has a female protagonist

Favourite Characters: Jack - great name, great character

Favourite Part: I brought up my knee, smacking him in the centre of his ugly face, and I couldn't resist grunting, "Eat this." - Page 86

Good Points: Point of view of the killer; proper murder mystery; male author/female protagonist

Bad Points: Sleazy PI was kind of pointless and just caused issues

Gena Showalter - The Darkest Pleasure

So now I've given up on the Stephanie Plum series for a little while, I'm going back to another series that I love but is more recent to my collection, having fallen in love with it after graduating university this year, Lords of the Underworld.  I've been anticipating this book for ages now because I really love Reyes, who is the focus of this book and have wanted to know what happens between him and Danika Ford ever since I started this series.

The Darkest Pleasure is the third full length novel in the Lords of the Underworld series from Gena Showalter which follows a group of immortal warriors who host various demons after opening Pandora's Box many years ago.  Each book in the series focuses on a different warrior; as well as the full length books, there are three (as of this moment) short stories that focus on various other warriors who are linked remotely to the demon possessed warriors.

Rating: 10

Recommended To: Those that like paranormal books, though definitely for an adult audience

Favourite Characters: Reyes - more to him than the self-harming warrior

Favourite Part: He'd been with a woman.  The knowledge was like being hit in the chest by a dozen arrows, all laced with poison.  She thought of the last time she'd slept with a man.  Sadly, she had to go back years.  Even more sad, it hadn't been that good.  Something had been missing.  Reyes's kiss had promised that something.  Or so she'd thought.  The urge to slam her palm into his nose, shoving cartilage into brain, filled her, but she managed to stop herself in time.  He'd like it. - Page 223

Good: Loyalty; love; Reyes and Danika's relationship; Danika's development

Bad: Sabin - didn't like him at all 

Janet Evanovich - Explosive Eighteen

As of October, this is my third and final review of the Stephanie Plum series as Notorious Nineteen isn't out in paperback as of yet and I'm not rushing out to buy it as I've become slightly disenchanted with the series.  While it is one of my favourite series still, the earlier books were much better and the new ones feel a bit repetitive.

Explosive Eighteen is the eighteenth full length novel from Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series which follows Stephanie Plum, a bail bonds agent who struggles to even complete a single capture without something going wrong, like her car being stolen repeatedly by a FTA for example.  Not only is her professional life chaotic, so is her love life; she is in an on-and-off relationship with Joe Morelli, a homicide detective, but also has an occasional fling with Ranger, her former bounty hunter mentor.  Stephanie is not alone when she bumbles her way through her FTAs as she has assistance in the form of Lola, an ex-hooker that Stephanie met during her first case.  It's not all bad for Stephanie though because she is still very close to her family, physically as well as emotionally, as she only lives ten minutes away from her parents' house in the 'Burg where she grew up.

Rating: 5

Recommended To: Chick lit lovers; crime readers

Favourite Characters: Morelli; Annie Hart

Favourite Part: Okay, so my family's a little dysfunctional.  It's not like they're dangerous.  At least we all sit down and have dinner together.  Plus, by Jersey standards, we're pretty much normal. - Page 87

Good Points: Steph is thinking about her love life more; humour; good old bonkers family

Bad Points: Wasted opportunity

Jojo Moyes - Silver Bay

So now for a normal book again, set in a different place from the UK or the States because they aren't the only places in the world.  Though I read other more normal books, like the Stephanie Plum series, they are still odd just from the events that happen, such as cars being destroyed in random ways which make no sense at all.

Silver Bay is a book by Jojo Moyes, an author my mother recommended to me.  I read another one of her books, Me Before You, which focussed on a young woman as she helps care for Will, a quadriplegic following a motorcycle accident.  This book was so sweet at points and also made me cry; it was an emotional rollercoaster and Silver Bay was the same but in a different way.

Rating: 8

Recommended To: Romance lovers

Favourite Characters: Mike - passionate, caring, adaptable

Favourite Part: So I leant forward, took Liza McCullen's exhausted, beautiful face in my hands and kissed her.  God only knows why.  The really surprising thing was that she kissed me back. - Page 142

Good Points: Interesting way of telling a quite mundane concept; a lot lighter than the other Moyes book I've read; sense of family

Bad Points: Lotte story seemed unnecessary; took forever for the truth to come out about Lotte

Meg Cabot - Awaken

Ever since my teens I have always loved Meg Cabot's more unusual books.  Don't get me wrong, Princess Diaries was a good read but I never really got into it because I never was into the girly books; I liked more action based books instead of girls swooning over the latest fella on the scene.  So I thought I'd share my love of Meg Cabot's books through my reviews with one of her more recent series which I started about a year ago and one of the latest editions to my bookshelf.

Awaken is the third and final book in Meg Cabot's Abandon series which is basically the Greek myth of Persephone being taken to the Underworld retold in the modern  day.  This series focuses on Pierce Olivieria who is brought back to life by the mysterious John Hayden.  When she tries to move on from this, she begins to see John everywhere and starts to fall for him as he falls for her.  Because Pierce has been revived thanks to John, she is a target for the Furies, unhappy souls who dislike their final resting place and possess weak willed people.  Furies want to throw the Underworld into chaos and targeting Pierce could do that because it would distract John so he takes her to the Underworld, at a price; she can no longer return home and has to stay with him forever as he sorts souls with his crew.

Rating: 7

Recommended To: Paranormal and/or myth lovers; good for holidays

Favourite Characters: John - formidable and strong; Reed - new, interesting

Favourite Part: When the lights flickered back on a second later, causing us all to blink, I saw that there was a tall figure, standing behind Seth who hadn't been there before. - Page 178-9

Good Points: Good rewrite of the myth; new characters; easy to get back into; symbolism

Bad Points: Too simply resolved; not exactly a good moral lesson; old characters seem forgotten

Michelle A. Valentine - Rock the Heart

So now for a new series and author altogether and a different story entirely for me which made it interesting for me because it was so unusual in context to other books.

Rock the Heart is the first book in Michelle A. Valentine's romance series, Black Falcon, which revolves around the band of the same name and their developing romantic relationships.  Each book, four full length books in total, focuses on one member in particular so that more time can be spent on each man and everything isn't told so rapidly.  This series appears to be self-published as which is impressive from my point of view as it is mostly well written.

Rating: 8

Recommended To: Adult audience

Favourite Characters: Riff - intriguing

Favourite Part: A tear rolls down my cheek, and I turn my head away from him.  "Please stop hurting me"  The words only come out as a whisper, but I know he hears them. - Page 268

Good Points: The way it was written; the concept; Noel; the ending

Bad Points: Typing errors; past could have been reflected on more