Strawberry Shortcake: Berry Best in Show
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Release Date: May 12, 2015
Retail: $14.98
ASIN: B00UKSXM7A
Running Time: 67 minutes
Rating: Not Rated
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

Wow! It's hard to believe Strawberry Shortcake is celebrating her 35th birthday this year. Who knew that a character on a greeting card would become so popular! Now available to own on DVD from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is Strawberry Shortcake: Berry Best in Show, featuring three exciting episodes. As an added bonus, there is a printable coloring pages and a Perfect Puppy digital story book to download.

The episodes on the single-disc set are:

"A Boy and His Dogs" - Huckleberry Pie gets stranded in Berry Bitty City and it is up to Strawberry Shortcake and her pals to help him find families for orphan puppies.

"Partners in Crime" - Blueberry and Huckleberry join forces to write a short story for an online magazine.

"The Mystery of the Disappearing Dog Show" - To help Huckleberry start a dog shelter, Strawberry Shortcake and her pals put together a dog show.

The Evil of Oz
by Ryan Fuller
Illustrator: Sanjana Baijnath
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Pub. Date: April 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-1493517046
Pages: 108
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

Since The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was first published in 1900, people of all ages have been fascinated with the Oz world. Though L. Frank Baum only published 14 Oz titles before his death, there have been several other authors that continued to write more installments over the years. Recently, the Oz has been published as comic books and graphic novels.

A few weeks ago, I was sent a copy of the graphic novel The Evil of Oz, which is written by Ryan Fuller with illustrations by Sanjana Baijnath. No, this isn't another sequel written for kids, but instead it's a dark and twisted sequel written for adults.

The Evil of Oz finds young Dorothy Gale coming home to find her uncle and aunt murdered. The police thinks they were killed by a random intruder, but Dorothy knows otherwise. If she hadn't worn the silver slippers when she went out, the murderer could have taken the shoes. She grabs the bloody ax that killed her family and she returns to Oz on a quest for revenge!

Oz isn't the wonderful place that she remembered. As soon as she arrives she encounters zombie munchkins, a heart ripper Tin Man and a bloody thirsty Beast King. Not even Oz himself can prepare Dorothy for the horrors that awaits her.

Even if you're not a horror film fan, you've probably heard of the movie "Hellraiser" and it's eight sequels, which seven of the films featured Doug Bradley as the demonic villain Pinhead. The first film was based on the 1986 novella "The Hellbound Heart" by Clive Barker, whom also directed the original film.

There has been talk for years about Barker's upcoming anthology The Scarlet Gospels, which would feature Pinhead vs Harry D'Armour, another popular character from Barker's works, in one of the stories. Eventually, the unrelated stories were shoved aside and Barker expanded "The Hellbound Heart" sequel into a full novel.

The Scarlet Gospels is finally arriving in bookstores today. Luckily, I received an advanced review copy several weeks ago, so I could have this post published on the release day. While I had never read "Everville" or any of the short stories that featured Harry D'Armour, I have seen the Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions film, so I had a bit of an idea of what the character was about.

The plot involves the blind medium Norma Paine (a recurring Barker character) being contacted the newly deceased Carston Goode, a lawyer who dabbled with black magic, whom demands to hire the private detective Harry D'Armour to cleanup his dark hobby before his wife and kids learn about his habits. It seems like an easy case for Harry, well, until he stumbles upon the Lament Configuration puzzle box and steps into the pathway of Pinhead and the Cenobites.

14th Deadly Sin
Women's Murder Club, book 14
by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Pub. Date: May 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-0316407021
Pages: 384
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

I was introduced to the Women's Murder Club by my late grandmother about ten years ago when she wanted me to read 1st to Die. A few chapters into the book, I realized that I had seen the television movie version back in 2003. Since then, I've been a fan of the book series. I even watched the bad short-lived ABC television series in 2007.

Now a mother and a wife, Lindsay Boxer is looking forward to spending a night out with her friends (Yuki Castellano and Cindy Thomas) to celebrate Claire Washburn's (the San Francisco medial examiner) birthday, but a homicide detective can never have a break. She's quickly called away from the party to investigate a gruesome crime scene of a woman who was murdered in broad daylight.

Oddly, this is the third year in a row that a homicide has occurred on Claire's birthday. Coincidence?

Lindsay might have to put the murder on the back-burner as another case is assigned to her. There is video footage of a group of masked men wearing SFPD jackets looting businesses and killing bystanders. Did these men steal the jackets? Or are these men actually cops that she works with?

Strange Magic
Director: Gary Rydstrom
Voice Cast: Alan Cumming, Evan Rachel Wood, Kristin Chenoweth, Maya Rudolph and Alfred Molina
Studio: Touchstone / Lucasfilm
Release Date: May 19, 2015
Retail: $29.99
ASIN: B00UO6IEUI
Running Time: 99 minutes
Rating: PG
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

Arriving on Blu-ray and DVD this week from Lucasfilm is computer-animated musical Strange Magic. Directed by Gary Rydstrom and produced by George Lucas, the film features the voice cast of Alan Cumming, Evan Rachel Wood, Kristin Chenoweth, Maya Rudolph and Alfred Molina. Bonus Extras for the DVD include Magical Mash Up - outtakes, tests and melodies and Creating The Magic - meet the cast and filmmakers.

Inspired by William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Strange Magic takes place in a world that is divided by two realms - the land of light, where the fairies live and the dark forest, where the evil bog creatures live. This tale centers on Marianne (voiced by Evan Rachel Woods), the Fairy Kingdom princess, who leaves her groom, Roland (voiced by Sam Palladio), at the alter after she catches him cheating with another fairy.

Heartbroken, she has vowed never to fall in love in again; resulting in her rebelling. Marianne is determined not to attend the Spring Ball, though her sister, Dawn (voiced by Meredith Anne Bull), begs her to attend. She makes an appearance at the Ball, but so does Roland, which leads to an awkward situation.

Sunny, the elf, has a big crush a big crush on Dawn and ventures into the dark forest to find the Sugar Plum Fairy (voiced by Kristin Chenoweth), so she can make a magic love potion for him.  After an encounter with the Bog King (voiced by Alan Cumming), Sunny barely makes it out of the dark forest with the love potion, but he is unaware what that he may in fact have started a war between the Fairies and the Bogs.

A Heart's Danger
Journey of the Heart, book 3
by Colleen Coble
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Pub. Date: May 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-0718031664
Pages: 101
Buy Link: http://bit.ly/1G01e4s
Blog Tour: http://litfusegroup.com/author/ccoble

Review:

Every since I started blogging, I have been exposed to many new and great authors, including Christian author Colleen Coble. This year, Thomas Nelson has been releasing her six-part Journey of the Heart series. I loved reading the first books in the series, A Heart's Disguise and A Heart's Obsession, so I was eagerly excited to read the third installment A Heart's Danger this morning.

Let me give you a quick update from the previous books. Sarah Montgomery had been raising her younger brother Joel and taking care of their ill father. She was in a relationship with Rand Campbell, but he was presumed dead during the Civil War. Eventually, she promised to marry Ben Croftner, but it turns out that Ben had lied about Rand being dead, so of course she dumped him. Rand returns to marry Sarah and take her with him to Wyoming, but Sarah won't leave her father's side, so Rand leaves her.

After her father's death, Sarah fears what life would be like for Joel in the hands of their older brother. She packs their bags and takes Joel to Fort Laramie, where Rand is stationed. To her surprise, Rand is already engaged to Jessica. To make things worse, Ben follows her to the fort.

A Heart's Danger finds Sarah's Indian friend, Morning Star, leaving the Fort and rejoining her people. Sarah tries to live a new life without Rand, but she cannot deny her feelings for him.