The Border: The Complete First Season
Starring: James McGowan, Graham Abbey, Jonas Chernick, Mark Wilson
Studio: Mill Creek Entertainment
Release Date: July 16, 2013
ASIN: B00CMDPT68
Retail: $14.98
Buy Link: Amazon.com
Running Time: 9 hours 43 minutes
Rating: TV-14

Review:

The Canadian drama The Border is finally available on DVD for the first time in the United States thanks to Mill Creek Entertainment releasing the complete first season on a three-disc set, which sent me a free copy of the DVD in exchange for my honest review.

The Border is a blend of NCIS and Law & Order, except the series focuses its attention on the fictional ICS (Immigration and Customs Security) agency as it protects the Canadian border from terrorist and smugglers. The agency is lead by Mike Kessler with Maggie Norton as his second-in-command, as they attempt to protect Canada from any threat.

The episodes are:

In this YA paranormal thriller, Pacey O'Brien's high school years haven't been easy thanks to her ex-friend, now enemy, Lexie Vega, aka the most popular girl in school, who also likes to get her hands on every new guy, including the new student, Dean Charleston. No matter what evil scheme Lexie has up her sleeves, Pacey can always rely on her Bad Girls Club lead by Rhiannon, which the club's main goal is take down the one and only Lexie Vega.

Pacey had no intention of getting herself a boyfriend, but it seems she is falling in love with Dean, who is finally getting over his ex-girlfriend. Life seemed to be going on the right path for her, and then strange things happen to her. Someone or something doesn't want Pacey to date Dean and whoever it is will kill to get them apart!

In a literary world over-ruled by Twilight, it is nice to see a young adult supernatural novel with an original plot; in this case it happens to be the mirror/body jumping demon Lilith. With a memorizing cover, I was eagerly looking forward to reading it. Maybe it is become I'm a male, but I couldn't connect with main character, Pacey, for the first half, which I felt was more in line with a Sweet Valley High novel than a supernatural one. I became interested in the plot when the strange things happen and when Pacey started to realize what was actually happening to her. The second half felt more like a 80s horror movie. A demon hopping around through mirrors has been done before, but the author uses it effectually to help enhance the fearfulness of Lilith. The second half felt more like a 80s horror movie; it even has a cliffhanger ending for a potential sequel, in which I hope the author switches the point-of-view to one of Pacey's friends or even her boyfriend, Dean.

Winter in Full Bloom
By Anita Higman
Publisher: River North Fiction (Moody Publishers)
Pub. Date: July 19, 2013
ISBN: 978-0802405807
Pages: 304
Buy Link: http://ow.ly/nIIcx
Blog Tour: http://litfusegroup.com/author/ahigman
 
Review:

Lily Winter returns home to visit her estranged mother in the attempt to get her mother to have some sort of relationship with her daughter, who's now in college. Lily's husband recently died of a heart-attack and to make matters worse she found evidence that he might have been cheating on her. With her daughter at college, she hopes reconnecting with her mother after a ten year estrangement would bring new joy in her life, but she isn't exactly welcomed by her mother, who happens to leaves her with a bombshell. Lily has a twin sister, Camilla, living in Australia!

Despite her fear of planes, Lily hops on a flight to Melbourne, Australia, in all hopes to meet the sister she never knew existed. Almost as soon as she arrives, she hits a brick wall, but her luck turn for the better as an Aussie, named Marcus, insists on helping her track down Camilla. Marcus use to be a bestselling author until a terrible accident shoved his life off course.

As Lily is finally reunited with her twin, sparks fly between Lily and Marcus, but their pasts may still haunt their future.

There's nothing like a quick bit of humor to brighten a dark day. Taking in a few funny quotes is a great way to get that daily dose of laughter. But good quotes can be hard to find; writing one is practically an art form. Famous comics and jokesters and wit-mongers have been thinking up pithy nuggets of quotable comedy for centuries. Not all of the best or funniest quotes, however, come from well-known figures. There are plenty of terrific quotes whose authors have been forgotten or maybe never really known. Here's a sample of some funny quotes that have come from anonymous minds.

Joking About Death

"When I die, I want to go peacefully like my grandfather did, in his sleep. Not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car." Jokes about aging and death are always easy to relate to. Death comes for everyone. There's not much to do but laugh about it. This joke has a funny and surprising turn at the end. The expectation is that the old grandfather was in bed when he died. But the unexpected pop of humor comes when it's revealed that he fell asleep at the wheel of his car and brought a few people down with him. Morbid? Yes. But that's life, and this anonymous author is trying to have a sense of humor about it.

Joking About the Sexes

"Men have only two emotions: hungry and horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich." The differences between the sexes have been puzzling humankind since the dawn of time. In this little joke, the author draws on the old stereotype of men being very simple creatures who lack emotional nuance. Even if it's tough to buy this stereotype, it's such a common one that it's easy to exploit it for a quick chuckle

A Summoner's Tale
Order of the Black Swan, Book 3
By Victoria Danann
Publisher: 7th House 
Pub. Date: February 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-1933320809
ASIN: B00BC1SYKE
Buy Links: Paperback, Kindle 

DESCRIPTION: 

A secret society, a witch, a psychic, vampires, modern day knights, heroes, elves, fae, assassins from another dimension, and fairytales come together where emotions intersect. Two souls, joined by a mystical bond, separated by distance, must simultaneously struggle through pain and darkness in an ultimate confrontation with character and an ultimate struggle for life proving that true love waits patiently through lifetimes and finds courage to survive. Even in the strangest places. Even when you're least expecting it. Even when you're far, far from home.

Review:

Due to family crises, personal issues, and falling behind on my reading, my review for the third book in the Order of the Black Swan series got delayed and delayed. I apologize to the author for the review's lateness.

Welcome to the new Book Blogger Hop!

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If you want schedule next week's post, click here to find the next prompt question. To submit a question, fill out this form.

What to do:

1. Post on your blog answering this question:

This week's question submitted by Kero,

Were you a born bookworm or somebody got you into the habit of reading? 

2. Enter the link to your post in the linky list below (enter your Blog Name and the direct link to your post answering this week’s question. Failure to do so will result in removal of your link).


3. Visit other blogs in the list and comment on their posts. Try to spend some time on the blogs reading other posts and possible become a new follower.  The purpose of the hop is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog.

My Answer:

I think I was more of a born bookworm, though my mother did read to me when I was little until I could officially read a book myself. My grandmother would have a new Berenstain Bears picture book every Sunday for me to read. I looked forward going to library (which was a fifteen minute drive to the next town) and checking out many books. When I started school, my mom bought lots of books from the Scholastic flyers, which I quickly read each one. My school's library was extremely small, so I quickly read every book there too.

National Velvet
Director: Clarence Brown
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisps, Ann Revere, Angela Lansbury, Jackie Jenkins, Arthur Treacher
Studio: Warner Home Video
ASIN: B00004RFHN
Release Date: July 11, 2000
Running Time: 124 minutes
Rating: G

National Velvet was released to theaters back on December 14, 1944 and is based on the novel of the same name by Helen Deutsch. The movie is mostly set in Sewels, Sussex, England and stars a young Elizabeth Taylor as Velvet Brown who dreams of owning her own horse. On her way home from school, she meets a young drifter named Mi Taylor (played by Mickey Rooney) who looking for Velvet’s mother. He had found Mrs. Brown's name and address in his late father's possessions.

The Browns hire Mi to help out around their farm and at their store. They also allow him to sleep in the barn. Velvet and Mi become friends despite the fact that Mi hates horses as he use to be a jockey.

A local farmer is raffling his horse "Pirate", because the horse is wild. The horse likes to get jump the fence and create chaos throughout the small village, practically putting the owner in debt. Despite the Browns rejections, Mi buys several raffles and gives them to Velvet and her siblings. To her luck, she wins the horse that she renames Pie.

Velvet has great faith in Pie and wants to enter him into the Grand National. She talks Mi into helping her train Pie for the great race and her mother gives her 100 pounds to enter into the race.

I've never really cared for watching horse racing movies, or horse moves in general, but National Velvet was under five dollars and has a great cast (It even has the dog Daisy from the Blondie movies as the Browns' family dog.), so I decided to give it a try. Considering the age of the movie, the film looks great on DVD! Elizabeth Taylor gives a great performance as Velvet, the girl who loves horses, but my favorite character was Mi Taylor played by Mickey Rooney, as he is a flawed character. Several times he has a great amount of money in his hands, but he cares for the Browns and he doesn't want to disappoint them. The running time is a little over two hours, but I was so into the movie that it felt less than that. I recommend everyone to watch National Velvet.