The modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice, it’s about the five Bennett sisters and their pushy mom – who is dismayed that none of her five daughters are married and their dad – who I don’t even think knows he exists. The Bennett parents live in their house in Ohio with their three youngest daughters – Mary, Kitty and Lydia. Mr. Bennett has a heart attack, prompting the two oldest daughters, Mary and Liz,  who live in New York to head home to help tend to their dad.

With all of them together under one roof, their mom wastes no time in matchmaking by inviting them to a neighborhood barbecue to meet Chip Bingley who was a suitor on Eligible, a The Bachelor-type show. He has his friend Fitzwilliam Darcy in tow and the rest makes up this hot garbage of a book.

You guys, I HATED this book. Like…

Number of pages: 368

Number of times read (including the time before this review): 1

Rating (out of five stars): 2

Release Date: February 12^th, 2019

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy in exchange for a review. My opinions are honest and my own.

This book broke the streak of good luck I’ve been having with ARCs lately, and I’m so sad. I’ve been trying to read more historical fiction because while historical fiction is probably my second favorite genre, I don’t tend to reach for it. I’ve had a lot of luck with historical murder mystery type books in the past, but there were a couple things that made Spectacle just not work for me.

I do this weird thing where I write my review in my head as I read, so I can tell you that Spectacle was originally going…

The blessings of birds are many from their importance to ecosystems to the joys they bring with their songs. Here is another installment of photographs to help cheer your day. As always I am grateful to Kathy Marche, the photographer and the soul with a big heart. Thanks again, Kathy.

If you ever visit the province of Newfoundland & Labrador you…

King of Scars

By: Leigh Bardugo

Grade: A

King of Scars was in my top three most anticipated books of 2019 and it didn’t let me down! Though that ending…

Just a warning there are spoilers in here for the Shadow and Bone trilogy and for Six of Crows (especially in terms of fatalities in those books.) So if you were planning on reading them and don’t want to be spoiled don’t read this.

I also think you probably should read, at least the Shadow and Bone books, if you want to to get the full feeling of King of Scars.

 When I looked back on my blog to find out what today’s TBT film was I audibly groaned. I’ve never wanted to see this film again. Especially now I’ve seen the amazing stage production. That was genuinely an emotional triumph and a beautiful adaptation of a (frankly) stupid story. Stupid because, for me, the story of an animal’s journey through World War 1 is never going to compare to that of a human’s in terms of emotional resonance. 2018 was the centenary of the end of World War 1 and Peter Jackson’s They Shall Not Grow Old was a film experience I’ll never forget. During the run-up to the actual centenary I got annoyed by the knowledge that an animal charity had designed their own purple poppy badge in memory of the animals who died in warfare. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love animals and think remembering their sacrifice…

Winter can seem so unbearably long, especially when the temperatures dip to -40 Celsius and sometimes lower in this neck of the woods. In the early morn it can be as cold as -50s with the windchill factored in. It has not been fun driving to work in an ice haze, which is similar to a thick fog. Added to this is the frozen exhaust fumes from vehicles in front of me as I drove white-knuckled to work. These cold snaps do not last long – usually not more than a few days.

I joke that I cannot think straight because I am experiencing brain freeze (is that really a thing? It feels like it might be). At any rate, my friend Kathy enjoys winter. She is an avid skier and an outdoor enthusiast through all the seasons. Her collection of winter nature photos are every bit as wonderful as…

Thank you to: @jamescudney4 @Shalini_G26 for this opportunity to be involved with the reveal for this new book, available on Amazon. Here’s the synopsis:

At a masquerade ball to raise money for renovations to Memorial Library, Kellan finds a dead body dressed in a Dr. Evil costume.
Did one of Maggie’s sisters kill the annoying guest who’d been staying at the Roarke and Daughters Inn, or does the victim have a closer connection to someone else at Braxton College?
As Kellan helps school president Ursula bury a secret from her past and discover the identity of her stalker, he unexpectedly encounters a missing member of his family. Everything seems to trace back to the Stoddards: a new family who recently moved in.
Between the murder, a special flower exhibit and strange postcards arriving each week, Kellan can’t decide which mystery in his life should take priority. But unfortunately, the biggest…