Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Carnal Innocence by Nora Roberts 4.5/5*
Review: Carnal Innocence by Nora Roberts 4.5/5*
What: Carnal Innocence
Who: Nora Roberts
Stars: 4.5/5*
More info: goodreads.com
Buy it: Barnes and noble, amazon
Blurb: Nora Roberts, bestselling author of The Reef and Genuine Lies, mixes scorching passion with icy suspense in her classic novel of murder and infatuation in a southern town now available in hardcover for the first time.
In the small town of Innocence, Mississippi, days are long, nights are fragrant, and secrets are hard to keep. But when a brutal killer starts claiming the lives of the town's most attractive women, lifelong neighbors are forced to wonder if the culprit is a stranger lurking in the bayou...or someone right next door.
World-famous concert violinist Caroline Waverly knows nothing of the murders when she arrives in Innocence. Burned out from a childhood lost to endless rehearsals and an all-too-public breakup with the conductor who was her lover, Caroline is looking for a little peace and some time to think. She hopes that a stay at her late grandmother's house the one with a covered porch just made for soft summer nights will provide the tranquility she needs. But Innocence has something else to offer Caroline: a man named Tucker Longstreet.
Blessed with the Longstreet good looks, lazy charm, and family fortune, Tucker is a tall, cool drink of water and he knows it. He likes to keep his romances short and shallow. But one look at Caroline, and Tucker realizes that she is unlike any other woman he's met. Tightly coiled and coolly reserved, Caroline is determined to fight him off. She might be able to do a better job if she hadn't felt an unexpected thrill at his ardent advances...and if she hadn't been so scared after finding a third murder victim in the murky waters behind her home.
For Caroline Waverly, a beautiful summer interlude could turn into much more or could stir a killer's crazed dreams. Because there's just one small problem with her new romance: Tucker is the leading suspect in the killings
The Why: Awhile ago I was flipping though channels on TV trying to find something to watch and I happened across a series on Nora Roberts movies on Lifetime that were just starting. Seeing as there was nothing better to watch I started on the series that would introduce me to author that I believe will stick with me for a while. After watching the first movie, Carolina Moon, I was interested to see the new movie that was being advertised in the commercials. After returning home from work I sat down and watched Carnal Innocence. I knew as I was watching it that I would end up wanting to read the books, and I was a little worried that I was watching the movie first and that usually throws me off…
Who: Nora Roberts
Stars: 4.5/5*
More info: goodreads.com
Buy it: Barnes and noble, amazon
Blurb: Nora Roberts, bestselling author of The Reef and Genuine Lies, mixes scorching passion with icy suspense in her classic novel of murder and infatuation in a southern town now available in hardcover for the first time.
In the small town of Innocence, Mississippi, days are long, nights are fragrant, and secrets are hard to keep. But when a brutal killer starts claiming the lives of the town's most attractive women, lifelong neighbors are forced to wonder if the culprit is a stranger lurking in the bayou...or someone right next door.
World-famous concert violinist Caroline Waverly knows nothing of the murders when she arrives in Innocence. Burned out from a childhood lost to endless rehearsals and an all-too-public breakup with the conductor who was her lover, Caroline is looking for a little peace and some time to think. She hopes that a stay at her late grandmother's house the one with a covered porch just made for soft summer nights will provide the tranquility she needs. But Innocence has something else to offer Caroline: a man named Tucker Longstreet.
Blessed with the Longstreet good looks, lazy charm, and family fortune, Tucker is a tall, cool drink of water and he knows it. He likes to keep his romances short and shallow. But one look at Caroline, and Tucker realizes that she is unlike any other woman he's met. Tightly coiled and coolly reserved, Caroline is determined to fight him off. She might be able to do a better job if she hadn't felt an unexpected thrill at his ardent advances...and if she hadn't been so scared after finding a third murder victim in the murky waters behind her home.
For Caroline Waverly, a beautiful summer interlude could turn into much more or could stir a killer's crazed dreams. Because there's just one small problem with her new romance: Tucker is the leading suspect in the killings
The Why: Awhile ago I was flipping though channels on TV trying to find something to watch and I happened across a series on Nora Roberts movies on Lifetime that were just starting. Seeing as there was nothing better to watch I started on the series that would introduce me to author that I believe will stick with me for a while. After watching the first movie, Carolina Moon, I was interested to see the new movie that was being advertised in the commercials. After returning home from work I sat down and watched Carnal Innocence. I knew as I was watching it that I would end up wanting to read the books, and I was a little worried that I was watching the movie first and that usually throws me off…
My Thoughts: Again I’m going to give a disclaimer because the book wasn’t the last I read and isn’t completely fresh in my mind at the moment. What I’m writing now is from memory so it may be missing a point that could have been addressed. The way I see it now: the fact that these positive points stuck in my mind till now mean that it was a memorable book.
Perhaps one of the reasons I liked this book so much was the ease of reading it allowed me to fall into. Trying to go though my long-winded textbooks has left me with a level of scatterbrained I’ve never reached before, so being able to read something simple to follow is a nice was to relax. I keep wanting to describe the book in a category of mindless for the simple fact that reading doesn’t take much out of you, you’re not trying to constantly find foils, foreshadowing, symbols, and other literary devices as you might in other books. Perhaps you might say that this says something about me that I’m rating mindless books pretty high in my list, but that’s not really the case. It may be mindless but it’s still well written and very much a complete book
Roberts writing in Carnal Innocence is sweet to follow and draws me in like many books fail to do. The descriptions of everything are so complete that I can easily feel as if I’m standing next to a character and looking at the same thing they are, in the swamp fishing or out taking a walk in the oppressive heat of the summer day. The descriptions of characters, which I often find incomplete for a reason I can’t pin down, are full and allow for characterization in my mind that is as complete as a photograph.
The characters themselves seem whole; they have solid emotions and driving factors that lead them into understandable situations. Unlike other romance novels I love the main character Caroline because, as you learn her history, you learn she’s finally standing up for herself. Many leading women in romance novels are plain wimpy and rely too heavily on the men chasing them. Caroline actually stands her ground, which is part of why I like her.
All of the events that happen are interconnected, so everything fits and going over the events after the fact they seem to fit even better. From finding the first body to finding out whom the killer is there are many little details that make the story even better and fit together perfectly, better than puzzle pieces that might usually describe a murder mystery in a story.
The one thing that I found distracting from the story was the relations of many of the characters. While I can understand that the family relations are important and show how close the characters all are, I felt like I needed a family tree to keep track of all of the characters and keep them straight. The sheer number of characters doesn’t help either, there were just so many of them that were related to one character or another in some different way that I kept pausing while reading to try and figure some of the characters out.
I have a thing against rating whole numbers that I just noticed….
Samantha
*Hugs*
Monday, January 23, 2012
Getting on Track
Being really busy lately means pretty much forgetting about everything that wasn't directly related to school work, including books I wanted to read, art I wanted to do, and many things related to the web. But since I've managed to get in somewhat of a rhythm lately (and finished almost all of my work for the next few days) I decided it was time to try and revisit this place that I had such wonderful intentions for, mainly this place.
Since I've had a little more time I've been trying to get into everything again and the first thing I leapt back into was my netflix account, mainly for the purpose canceling it. Now I have my reasons including the fact that I don't watch enough things on it to keep paying for it, but mainly because I had finally talked my mother into getting one to go along with the new blue-ray player they bought for the household. I was smart about this though, I waited out my month so I wouldn't waste the one I had paid for and watched more movies to last out the month.
So the time had finally come to add the family account instead of the old one....... Now I see a problem that really should be addressed soon, and from what I'm reading it should be happening sometime.
My problem is this: there are four members in my immediate family who are going to be using the same netflix account and we each have our own preferences that aren't going to mix well together. My mother, who's the account holder, likes suspense and fairy-tales. My unemployed father likes to watch cooking and hunting while he's fixing something that isn't broken. Younger brother likes to watch stupid shows that he's not supposed to and comedy. While I enjoy horror, Disney, and big gay musicals (anyone who gets this references deserves a cookie). See my point? My mom already said she doesn't want a bunch of horror and bloody movies showing up every time she wants to look for something to watch, and I know her well enough to know she doesn't want to know about my love of gay love.
To try and find a way to solve all of the questions in my head that were wondering how I can fix this problem I did what many people do, I googled it.... To my surprise I thought I found something that would work.... but of course my dreams were crushed when I realized, of course, that the family sharing that used to exist was canceled and it seemed that I would be doomed to look for some movies online and not the convenient netflix... But further on down the page I found a more recent article that stated that netflix was planning on creating a way to make different profiles for members of a family sharing the same netflix account. My hopes are brought back!!
I'm hoping that this will be brought about soon, and have enough common sence to them that they are easy to use and will stay permanently as a tool for netflix users to make their viewing better. Hopefully making separate queues won't be all for this upgrade.
Hoping this get better soon,
Samantha
*Hugs*
Since I've had a little more time I've been trying to get into everything again and the first thing I leapt back into was my netflix account, mainly for the purpose canceling it. Now I have my reasons including the fact that I don't watch enough things on it to keep paying for it, but mainly because I had finally talked my mother into getting one to go along with the new blue-ray player they bought for the household. I was smart about this though, I waited out my month so I wouldn't waste the one I had paid for and watched more movies to last out the month.
So the time had finally come to add the family account instead of the old one....... Now I see a problem that really should be addressed soon, and from what I'm reading it should be happening sometime.
My problem is this: there are four members in my immediate family who are going to be using the same netflix account and we each have our own preferences that aren't going to mix well together. My mother, who's the account holder, likes suspense and fairy-tales. My unemployed father likes to watch cooking and hunting while he's fixing something that isn't broken. Younger brother likes to watch stupid shows that he's not supposed to and comedy. While I enjoy horror, Disney, and big gay musicals (anyone who gets this references deserves a cookie). See my point? My mom already said she doesn't want a bunch of horror and bloody movies showing up every time she wants to look for something to watch, and I know her well enough to know she doesn't want to know about my love of gay love.
To try and find a way to solve all of the questions in my head that were wondering how I can fix this problem I did what many people do, I googled it.... To my surprise I thought I found something that would work.... but of course my dreams were crushed when I realized, of course, that the family sharing that used to exist was canceled and it seemed that I would be doomed to look for some movies online and not the convenient netflix... But further on down the page I found a more recent article that stated that netflix was planning on creating a way to make different profiles for members of a family sharing the same netflix account. My hopes are brought back!!
I'm hoping that this will be brought about soon, and have enough common sence to them that they are easy to use and will stay permanently as a tool for netflix users to make their viewing better. Hopefully making separate queues won't be all for this upgrade.
Hoping this get better soon,
Samantha
*Hugs*
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