If you follow my blog regularly, then you would know that one of my favorite genres to read is Christian romances, preferably historical fiction set in the 1800s. In the past I've stayed away from any novels set during WWI or WWII as the plots never appealed to me; though I've broken that rule from time to time when the books featured Amish characters.

I'm sure many horror fans (me included) will be watching the season premiere of The Walking Dead this Sunday. And a few others will be patently waiting for Halloween Night for the first episode of Ash vs Evil Dead (which also includes me). I guess you can say that I like any television series that has a horror theme. Yes, that even means that I watched the short-lived Witches of East End!

I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't heard of the series before since in it aired on Lifetime. It loosely based on the books by by Melissa de la Cruz. The series debuted in the fall in 2013 and centered on Joanna Beauchamp (played by Julia Ormond) & her two daughters, Ingrid (played by Rachel Boston) and Freya (played by Jenna Dewan Tatum). Their lives are turned upside down when Joanna's sister Wendy (played by Mädchen Amick) arrives and forces Joanna to tell the girls the truth that they're immortal witches from Asgard.

Plus, a curse was played on Joanna and Wendy years ago. Wendy was cursed with nine lives, the ability to turn into a black cat and every time that she dies, she comes back to life within hours. Joanna was cursed with seeing her daughters die in their twenties and immediately becomes pregnant with them again. This cycle is repeated over and over, to the point where she had hid the girls' heritage from them.
 
The first season was basically a cheesy soap opera with love triangles, silly plots and so-so acting, but for some strange reason I still watched it. Oh, wait, it probably has to do with the fact that the all the actresses gorgeous.

Anyway, Season two debuted in the summer of 2014 with little advertisement from Lifetime. The first episode picks up shortly after the season one's finale, which showed what happens to Killian Gardiner (played by Daniel Di Tomasso). Meanwhile, his brother Dash (played Eric Winter) is experimenting with his new-found powers. Who are these guys? Well, Dash is Freya's ex-fiance and Killan is her soul mate. Remember, I said this was like a soap opera!

Tomorrowland
Director: Brad Bird
Cast: George Clooney. Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy and Hugh Laurie
Studio: Walt Disney Home Entertainment
Release Date: October 13, 2015
Retail: $39.99
ASIN: B00WAJ8OLG
Running Time: 130 minutes
Rating: PG
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

Arriving on DVD and Blu-ray this Tuesday from Walt Disney Home Entertainment is the fantasy-adventure Tomorrowland. Directed by Brad Bird (The Incredibles), the film stars George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy and Hugh Laurie. Bonus Features on the Blu-ray includes Remembering The Future: A Personal Journey Through Tomorrowland With Brad Bird, Animated Short: The Origins Of Plus Ultra, Casting Tomorrowland, A Great Big Beautiful Scoring Session, The World Of Tomorrow Science Hour - Hosted by Futurologist David Nix, Deleted Scenes, Brad Bird Production Diaries, Blast from the Past Commercial and 4 Easter Eggs.

Loosely inspired by the Disney theme parks' Tomorrowland attraction, the film centers on a Florida teenager, Casey Newton (played by Britt Robertson), who has a niche for technology and science. She also has a wild streak that gets her into trouble with the law, which doesn't sit well with her father (played by Tim McGraw), a  NASA engineer.

After being bailed out of jail, a police officer hands over Casey's belongings. She quickly notices that one thing isn't hers - a strange-looking pin that is embossed with a "T" symbol. When she touches the pin, she sees a glimpse of a futuristic world!

With a quick internet search, Casey finds no information on the pin, except that a Houston memorabilia store has been looking for it. She is determined to find out what the pin is and travels to Texas, but upon arriving she is attacked by robots. Luckily for her, she has a new-found friend - an Audio-Animatronic robot named Athena (played by Raffey Cassidy).

Now with more evil robots hot on the trail, Casey and Athena must seek out the inventor Frank Walker (played by George Clooney) to help them travel to Tomorrowland save it from extinction.

2. Enter the link to your terrifying tale in the haunting 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 a curse).

 

3. Visit other haunters in the list and comment on their posts. Try to spend some time on the blogs reading other posts and possible become a new creeper.  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.
 

Candy Corn!

Linky List:

The Last Great Halloween
a Trudy McFarlan Novel
by Rootie Simms
Publisher: Wilder Things Publishing
Pub. Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1512287394
Pages: 186
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

While I was setting up the schedule for the Halloween Madness event, I received a press release about the new young adult book - The Last Great Halloween: a Trudy McFarlan Novel by Rootie Simms. After reading the synopsis, I knew I had to read the novel.

Set in 1960, The Last Great Halloween centers on Trudy McFarlan, a preteen who got to skip the six-grade along with her best friend Paige and jump right into Junior High (7th Grade). Her favorite holiday is Halloween. Trudy and Paige have been planning the greatest Halloween party since forever, but they've never gotten around to actually having it.

After Trudy's mother told her that she was too old to go trick-or-treating and if she wanted a costume, she would have to make it herself, the unthinkable finally happens - the Halloween party becomes a reality.

Paige's mother is letting them have a Halloween party. Trudy already has the perfect costume - a bat, but she needs to find all the materials to make it first. If she doesn't find what she wants in dusty attics, then she's going to have to buy it herself, which is difficult when she doesn't have an allowance to spend. Plus, the ten dollars her mother gave her is for party supplies.

Trudy's plans for a last great Halloween becomes in jeopardy when she has a falling out with her Paige, resulting in a separate party.

My favorite holiday is just around the corner - Halloween!

Ever since I was a young kid (which was in the '90s), I gave up trick-or-treating and started decorating the outside yard for Halloween Night. Now as an adult, I still decorate my yard; adding a few new scary props each and every year. The only problem for me is that I'm limited to Walmart and Dollar General in my town that both put out only a small Halloween section every year. The good news is that when I can't find anything in those stores (which is almost always), I can always look on the internet to find great Halloween props.

One of my favorite online stores to get Halloween goodies is Oriental Trading, which has a slew of items to choose from. I was sent a cool new tombstone to review especially for the post. It is the Day of the Dead Tombstone!

Made out of foam, the tombstone measures 12 1/2" x 22" and comes with two plastic stakes, which will secure it to the ground. Due to the fact that it's made from foam, tombstones can be damaged while being sent in the mail, but I'm glad to say that the Day of the Dead Tombstone (retails for $14.99) arrived in perfect condition. It features a creepy skeleton and the words "Dia de Los Muertos" (Day of the Dead) engraved on it.

Now this tombstone is going to look a little bare by itself, so it's going to need a companion, like a ground-breaker. Oriental Trading nicely sent me a cool Latex Zombie (retails for $25.99) ground-breaker (also known as a grave-breaker).

Return To Sender
Director: Fouad Mikati
Cast: Rosemund Pike, Shiloh Fernandez, Nick Nolte
Studio: RLJ Entertainment
Release Date: September 29, 2015
Retail: $12.99 (Best Buy Price)
Running Time: 95 minutes
Rating: Not Rated
Buy Link: Best Buy

Review:

Now available to own on DVD & Blu-ray (only at Best Buy) is the thriller Return To Sender. Directed by Fouad Mikati, the film stars Rosemund Pike (Gone Girl), Nick Nolte, Shiloh Fernandez and Camryn Manheim. There are no extras or special features on the Blu-ray.

Return To Sender centers on a dedicated nurse Miranda Wells (played by Rosemund Pike) living in  small town. She just finished her training to become a surgical nurse and she plans on buying a new house. For Miranda, her life was perfect, but her friends believe otherwise and they set her up on a blind date.

The unthinkable happens when a stranger, William Finn (played by Shiloh Fernandez), shows up at Miranda's doorsteps. She mistakes him for her blind date and lets him into her home, which turns out to the be the worst mistake of her life as Finn brutally assaults her. The real blind date eventually arrives, finds Miranda and call 911. Finn is quickly captured by the authorities and locked behind bars.


With her father (played by Nick Nolte) by her side, Miranda somewhat recovers from the attack and tries to pick up her life where she left off, but things aren't too simple. Due to the fact that the crime occurred in her home, selling her house becomes a major problem. Even worse, her dream of being a surgical nurse might come true as she her hands now shake when holding a scalpel.

An Amish Christmas Gift
by Amy Clipston, Ruth Reid & Kelly Irvin
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Pub. Date: October 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-0718039653
Pages: 416
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

I'm normally not in the mood to read holiday theme novels until after Thanksgiving, but I'm a big fan of Amish fiction, so I jumped right into reading An Amish Christmas Gift when I received it last week. There are three different novellas in this title - Naomi’s Gift by Amy Clipston, An Unexpected Joy by Ruth Reid and A Christmas Visitor by Kelly Irvin.


Naomi’s Gift centers on Caleb, a widower that is traveling with his young daughter, Susie, to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to visit his sister's family for Christmas. Along the way, Susie spots a farmer's market. She begs Caleb to stop there and find a gift for Aeti Sadie, which he eventually agrees to. Being a kid, Susie gets distracted and walks away fro Caleb's sight at the market, but luckily she comes across a quilt booth where Naomi King happens to be. Naomi is a 24-year-old woman, who is lost all hope of finding love, well, that is until she meets Caleb and sparks fly between the two. Unfortunately, Caleb still isn't ready to let someone near his heart as he lost his wife on Christmas Eve two years ago.

An Unexpected Gift is set in St. Joseph County, Michigan and centers on Abigail Kemp, a 22-year-old woman who decided just a year ago that she would never find love. With no future husband in sight, Abigail has been saving every cent that she earns from selling baked goods and quilted potholders, all so she can one day buy a horse. Despite being busy making sweets for the holiday season, Abigail agrees to help look after Micah Zook's grandmother, which the elderly woman makes it her mission to set the two up before Christmas comes around.

I'm sure everyone will be busy this month buying candy for trick-or-treaters, decorating the yard for Halloween Night and searching for the perfect costume either for your kids or for yourself, but don't forget that October is a great time to make nifty crafts!

Oriental Trading has many different crafts for kids, including the Peanuts Halloween Stickers Scenes ($5.99 retail). It contains 12 - 11" x 8 1/2" paper backgrounds that resembles the pumpkin patch from the classic Halloween Special - It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!, along with 12 - 11" x 8 1/2" sticker sheets.

I received the Peanuts Halloween Stickers Scenes along with a two other crafts (I'll get to those later in this post) from Oriental Trading back in late August. I couldn't wait until Halloween, so I eagerly opened the package and made the cute Peanuts scene (see below for the photo). It's simple to put together. All you have to do is peel whatever stickers you want and place them on the paper background.

I'm sure almost everyone has seen the Charlie Brown Halloween Special, so I'm sure this sticker scenes set will appeal to both children and adults.

The countdown to Halloween Night has officially begun, meaning there are only a few weeks to buy candy and other goodies for the this year's trick-or-treaters.

Depending on the weather, there are between 120 to 145 trick-or-treaters that show up at my doorstep on Halloween Night. Instead of giving out a few pieces a candy to each kid, each and every year, I put together a little treat bags full of a variety of candies.

In the past, I bought a package of 40 paper treat bags around a $1, but it seems the bags have been discontinued as I can no longer find them anywhere. The only bags that I can find in the stores are in packages of 10 to 20 and costs between $2 to $4 per package. I don't care for the bags as they are way too tall and require twist ties.

Luckily for me, Oriental Trading has a big selection of goody bags to choose from, including the Mini Jack-O'-Lantern Drawstring Goody Bags. The 4-inch tall plastic bags retail for $11.99 per unit (144 bags), but is currently on sale for $7.78. The bags feature a printed Jack-O'-Lantern in the front, while the rest of the bag is see-through.


Now, you can't just give away an empty goody bag on Halloween Night or your house will be egged, so naturally I'm going to put several different sweets in it. I'm sure many of you have already seen gobs of Halloween candy in the stores. I don't just buy any candy as I want to make sure it has the right amount pieces (100 & up), so I'll have plenty to go into each treat bag.

Oriental Trading carries many bulk assortments of name brand candy. And I mean huge bags (1,000 pieces)! For this year, I was looking for something new that would standout to the trick-or-treaters and I found to different ones - Zombie PartyButtermints ($6.50 per unit/108 pieces) and Eyeball Sweet Creams ($6.50 per unit/108 pieces).