Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a sacred thing for me and the moment I found out that Michael Bay was producing a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, I was dreading it because Bay is known for immense action scenes filled with guns and massive explosions and I personally thought that this would detract from the pure Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles elements that those that grew up on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles loved.  However, I was encouraged by my mother to go and see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles because if I found it to be as bad as I was expecting it to be then it would bring some variety to my reviews as I have a tendency to pick books and films that I roughly know I will like and very rarely venture out of my comfort zone.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the 2014 science fiction action comedy based on the franchise of the same name directed by Jonathon Liebesman.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stars Megan Fox (Transformers), Alan Ritchson (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), Jeremy Howard (Mighty Med), Pete Ploszek (Parks and Recreation), Noel Fisher (The Twilight Saga - Breaking Dawn Part 2), Will Arnett (Arrested Development), Danny Woodburn (Bones), William Fichtner (Prison Break), Johnny Knoxville (Jackass), Tony Shalhoub (Cars), and Whoopi Goldberg (Sister Act).  A major selling point for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that they used for the marketing was Michael Bay acted as a producer which caused major panic across the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles loyalists.

Rating: 5

Recommended To: Bay fans - lots of visual bubblegum

Favourite Characters: Raphael - will always be my favourite

Favourite Part: Raphael: I just...uh, uh...if this is our last moment together, I just want you guys to know I'm sorry!  I'm sorry I was so hard on you!  Ugh.  Every time I pushed you, I...I threatened you, I yelled at you, I pushed you beyond your limits, it's because I believe in you!  I believe in each one of you!  I believe in you spirit and your intelligence and your potential!  And every time I talked about walking away it was because I was scared!  I just didn't think I was good enough to stand next to you and call you brothers, and say to you, I love you! I love you guys so much!

Good Points: The turtles; the introduction scenes; lots of action scenes

Bad Points: Too much focus on the human characters; Shredder; very little to the plot; NO CASEY JONES!!

Janet Evanovich & Dorien Kelly - The Husband List

So recently there's been a book that took me a month to read which really annoyed me because I would not be defeated by a book as well as another book that brings a series to an end; luckily, I enjoyed the latter thoroughly which cheered me up before I moved on to another book.  While this blog is under the 'historical' genre, it's probably not an accurate historical piece as it's just a light read and is just made up in the mind of the two authors and is a romanticised version of how society works at the time this book is set in.

The Husband List is the second novel from Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly which is the sequel (or more of a prequel to their first collaboration, Love in a Nutshell).  Janet Evanovich is known for her Stephanie Plum series which has spun off into the Wicked series which is a more paranormal series; Dorien Kelly is known for writing romantic comedy novels such as The Last Bride of Ballymuir as well as a number of others.  I really enjoyed the first book in this series, Love in a Nutshell, which followed Kate Appleton as she gets a job in a brewery, working for Matt Culhane undercover to spy on his employees to find out who is sabotaging his company.  The link between this series is that the one of the main characters, the man, is a member of the Culhane family who falls for the main female character as she falls for the Culhane.

Rating: 5

Recommended To: Evanovich fans; romance fans

Favourite Characters: Jack - still love the Irish; Flora - loved her

Favourite Part: "Mr. Edward Maxwell and Mr. John William Anthony Patrick Xavier Culhane," the butler announced to the other guests, who were readying to take their seats.
"He got it out in one breath," Jack said to Eddie as they stepped into the room.  "Impressive."
"Better than most," Eddie replied. - Page 125

Good Points: Easy read; finding out more background on the Culhane family; Caroline and Jack together

Bad Points: Secondary characters are very two dimensional; setting feels forced; predictable

Mark Twain - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Recently I bought this truly beautiful book which is a collection of Mark Twain stories because I've always wanted to read his work, any of it, so when I found this collection I got really excited and bought it because it was relatively cheap in comparison to the recommended retail price.  I decided to read one of the stories every so often because it's huge and there are five stories altogether.  This will also allow me to review the individual stories with more detail like Gena Showalter's Dark Beginnings anthology.

Mark Twain's novels are American Classics and are rooted in the South and a lot of his work is influenced by his experiences and where he has lived; Twain worked as a riverboat pilot which is said to be the influence behind The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as well his living in the town that these stories are set in.

Rating: 5

Recommended To: Classic lovers

Favourite Characters: Huckleberry Finn - more likeable out of him and Tom

Favourite Part: "Huckleberry Finn, indeed!  It ain't a name to open many doors, I judge!  But let him I, lads, and let's see what's the trouble."
"Please don't ever tell I told you," were Huck's first words when he got in.  "Please don't - I'd be killed, sure - but the widow's been good friends to me sometimes, and I want to tell - I will tell if you'll promise you won't ever say it was me."
"By George, he has got something to tell, or he wouldn't act so!" exclaimed the old man; "out with it and nobody here'll ever tell, lad." - Page 147-8 

Good Points: Tom's imagination; Tom is more than a mischievous kid

Bad Points: Seemed random at the beginning

Meg Cabot - Overbite

So I have mixed up the genre a little this time, though it is still paranormal, I haven't read one about vampires for a while.  This book took me forever to read (two week-ish) for a couple of reasons: one, I've been a bit busier than normal, and two, I just couldn't delve into this book like I usually do.

Overbite is the second book in Meg Cabot's Insatiable series, a vampire series which stands out against her Princess Diaries series.  Insatiable is told from the point of view of Meena Harper mostly, a young woman with the ability to see someone's death when she touches them.  It's obvious from the name Meena Harper that the Insatiable series is intended to be a modern retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula as well as the traditional "come and be my bride" from the vampire.  In the first book, Insatiable, Meena works as a writer from a TV show called Insatiable which is a fictional American Soap Opera with the standard insatiable women going about their everyday lives and cavorting with men.  Quite standard stuff until the network decides to mix it up by adding a vampire to the show to fit in with the influx in vampires in popular culture at the moment.  Meena then meets Lucien and she is delved into the supernatural world when she discovers that he is the son of Vlad the Impaler, also known as Dracula, and is destined to take over his father's dark empire.  It gets worse when Meena is approached by the Palantine, a subsidiary of the Vatican that want to eradicate Lucien's kind.

Rating: 5

Recommended To: Those looking for a holiday read

Favourite Characters: Jon - made me laugh; Alaric - strong and protective

Favourite Part: No.  It was his eyes.  There was no hint of that boyish mischievousness she was used to seeing in them.  For once, they weren't gleaming with deadly determination either.  She didn't recognize the look in them.
[...]
It was only then that she recognized the look in his eyes.  She'd seen it only once before: that night at St. George's, when Lucien Antonescu had almost killed them. - Page 112

Good Points: The concept; the themes of loyalty and with that, temptation; the inclusion of different cultures

Bad Points: Not as engaging as first; bits felt skipped over

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