Sunday, October 7, 2018

Sunday Post: October 7th, 2018

Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @  Caffeinated Book Reviewer!


Good Morning, Everyone!


For those of you who don't already follow my blog, let me introduce myself. My name is Billy (AKA - Coffee Addicted Writer or also known as coffeeramblings) and this is my first week participating in the Sunday Post meme. I've been blogging and reviewing books for over nine years. 


My Current Reads


I started reading A Willing Murder by Jude Deveraux yesterday and if everything goes as planned, I should finish it today. However, there are will be two distractions for me -  the season premieres of Doctor Who and The Walking Dead


Last Week's Reviews
Goosebumps: Haunted Halloween - Movie Novel by R.L. Stine (book)

The Promise of Breeze Hill by Pam Hillman (book)

The Gifted: The Complete First Season (DVD)

9-1-1: The Complete Season One (DVD)



In The Mail

Books


Escaping From Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco arrived in the mail on Friday, courtesy of Little, Brown and Company. I'll be reviewing the book on October 20th, which will be the 2nd day of my 13 Days of Halloween event!

DVDs / Blu-rays


For those of you who don't already know, besides from books, I also review DVDs and Blu-rays. And I received quite a few this week. 

From Mill Creek Entertainment, I received Strait-Jacket / Berserk!: Double Pyscho Biddy Feature (Blu-ray), Metropolis (Blu-ray + DVD Steelbook), Born Free: The Complete Collection DVD, and Buffalo Girls DVD, which the latter is based on the novel by Larry McMurtry. 

I received Ash vs. Evil Dead: The Complete Series Blu-ray on Monday from Lionsgate Home Entertainment. It will be released on October 16th. I should have my review posted in a few days.

RLJE Films sent me the Sleep No More DVD, which I just watched last night. I should have my review for it posted sometime today. 

Lastly, I received The Resident: The Complete Season One DVD from Fox Home Entertainment on Friday. I've never seen the series before, so I don't know what to expect from it.

Great Finds

Saturday, October 6, 2018

DVD Review: 9-1-1: The Complete Season One


Fox; Not Rated; 437 mins; Amazon

Now available from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is 9-1-1: The Complete Season One, featuring all ten episodes. There are no special features or bonus extras on the 3-disc set.

Created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear (American Horror Story), the series stars Angela Bassett, Peter Krause, Connie Britton, Oliver Stark, Aisha Hinds, Kenneth Choi, and Rockmond Dunbar.

9-1-1 centers around the lives of Los Angeles police officers, paramedics, firefighters, and 911 operators. An 911 operator named Abigail "Abby" Clark (played by Connie Britton) must find a way to take care her mother, who has dementia, along with dealing with the daily stress that comes with her job.

 LAPD patrol sergeant Athena Grant who is one of the first to arrive at an emergency. Despite the chaos of her job, Athena's home life is a complete mess, especially after husband, Michael (played by Rockmond Dunbar), announces that he's always been gay, even before they were married. To make her life even worse, her daughter tries to commit suicide.

Robert "Bobby" Nash (played by Peter Krause), the LAFD station 118 captain, is probably the most stressed of the first responders. With every 911 call, he makes it a personal mission to save everyone. However, this isn't an easy thing to do when he doesn't have faith in his firefighters, especially when cocky Evan "Buck" Buckley (Oliver Stark) has his mind getting laid instead of saving people's lives.

Episodes on the DVD set include
  • Pilot
  • Let Go
  • Next of Kin
  • Worst Day Ever
  • Point of Origin
  • Heartbreaker
  • Full Moon (Creepy AF)
  • Karma's a Bith
  • Trapped
  • A Whole New Year



Final Thoughts

Friday, October 5, 2018

Book Blogger Hop: Halloween Edition! - October 5th - 11th




Instructions: Select all code above, copy it and paste it inside your blog post as HTML



Welcome Ghouls and Goblins
to the
Book Blogger Hop: Halloween Edition!
  
If you want schedule next week's thrilling question, click here to find the next prompt fright-fest. 
To submit a question, fill out this form.

How to participate in this week's creepy meme:


1. Post on your blog answering this haunt:

  It's getting close to Halloween. If you HAD to read one of these two genres, which would you prefer -- urban fantasy, or horror, and why?


(This week's question is submitted by Maria @ A Night's Dream of Books.)

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.
 

Billy's Answer!

I would rather read a good old fashioned horror novel in the vein of Stephen King or John Saul. Horror is scarier than urban fantasy.





Linky List:

The Friday 56: A Willing Murder by Jude Deveraux


Rules:
  • Grab a book, any book.
  • Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader.
  • Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it).
  • Post it.
  •  Add your (url) post below in the Linky at: www.fredasvoice.com
  • Add the post url, not your blog url.



Thursday, October 4, 2018

A Thursday Rambling: Harlequin Books & Adult Dating



*This is sponsored post. All opinions are 100% mine.
 
Many people will probably find it a bit weird for a man to like reading Harlequin-type novels, as romance novels are targeted towards women and not men. Personally, I do like reading romance novels, which was a habit I picked up during my teenage years. Growing up in a small town with very tiny library/city hall with 30+ year-old reject books, I didn't have much to read unless I went to the next town's library. I had already read most of the books in my school's library, so I eventually started reading the romance books (Jude Deveraux, Johanna Lindsey, etc.) that my mother owned. Yes, some of those books were a little erotic, but to me a book was a book.

Anyhow, I was around 19 or 20 years-old when I stumbled upon a thrift store, where I found $.10 Harlequin paperbacks and, of course, I purchased many of them. The those type of books are fast-paced, guilty pleasure reads. Some of them are written really well, while others aren't very good. Nevertheless, I was crazy about them at that point in my life.

Over the years, I have continued to read a few Harlequin novels here and there, though not as many as I did when I was younger. My reading tastes have expanded, so I now read other genres, such as Amish fiction, crime novels, supernatural romances, mysteries, etc..

Honestly, I don't know why romances appeal to me. Maybe it's because I like the thought of romance in general. Well, at least in the last year or so romance has been on my thoughts. Being single at 37 is not a fun thing. If you are a follower of this blog, then you would already know about my thoughts on online dating. I still haven't actually gotten the nerve to join a dating site yet due to my fear of being rejected.

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Fall Reads: The Promise Of Breeze Hill


Tyndale Fiction; 408 pages; $14.99; Amazon
I believe The Promise Of Breeze Hill has been sitting on a shelf for nearly year before I finally got around to reading it. It's was published by Tyndale and written by Pam Hillman. I'm not for sure it's book one in a series or not, but the "A Natchez Trace Novel" on the cover makes me believe that it's part of a series.

Set in Natchez near the Mississippi River in 1791, the novel centers around Isabella Bartholomew, a young woman who has taken the responsibility of rebuilding her family's home, Breeze Hill Plantation. A fire had destroyed their crops, damaged their home, and killed loved ones. With her father not in good health, Isabella is given the task of recruiting a carpenter to help rebuild their home and their lives.

That carpenter happens to be Connor O'Shea, a man who had came to America to work as a carpenter for Master Benson for seven years without wages in exchange for his four brothers passage from Ireland. The work was hard, but the thought of being reunited with his family kept him going. However, things don't go as planned when Master Benson dies and Connor is put up on the auction block. This is when he meets Isabella, who buys him at the auction. In exchange for rebuilding the Breeze Hill Plantation, Isabella promises him her family will pay for his brothers' passage to America.

Thanks to the fire that almost destroyed the plantation, the Bartholomew family is in dire need of money. They are barely scrapping by as it is when Connor takes it upon himself to hire a man, his pregnant wife, and their many many children. Despite not being able to give them anything but a roof over the heads and a little food, Isabella's father approves of the decision, as the man and his children can help in the fields.

Isabella must find a way to save Breeze Hill Plantation, but it's a little difficult to do when someone is threatening them. And this someone might be responsible for starting the fire that took her brother's life.


Final Thoughts

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Back to School Reads - Goosebumps: Haunted Halloween - Movie Novel


Scholastic; 154 pages; $6.99; Amazon
For the last "Back to School Reads" post this year, I'm featuring Goosebumps: Haunted Halloween - Movie Novel, which was recently released by Scholastic. It's the novelization of the upcoming movie Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, which will be released to theaters on October 12th. The movie is a sequel to 2015 horror-comedy Goosebumps, which was inspired by a series of books of the same name by bestselling author R.L. Stine. I'm not for sure who wrote the sequel novelization, but it's based on the screenplay by Rob Lieber. R.L. Stine edited the book and wrote the introduction.

Set in Wardenclyffe, New York, Goosebumps: Haunted Halloween centers around two seventh-graders, Sonny Quinn and Sam Carter, who are starting their own business called Junk Bros. After being hired to clean out an old abandoned house, they stumble upon an old locked book and the key to go with it. The kids unlock the book, which unleashes the ventriloquist dummy, Slappy.

That was their first mistake. The second mistake was reciting the words "Karru Marri Odonna Loma Molonu Karrano" that were written on a scrap of paper that was poked in the dummy's mouth. What they don't know is the words are magical and they just brought Slappy to life!

The only person who can help them is Sonny's older sister, Sarah. On Halloween Night, Slappy uses his magical words to bring to life all the Halloween decorations in town, which includes zombies, jack-o-lanterns, gnomes, witches, and the Headless Horseman. Sarah, Sonny, and Sam must work together (along with a little help from R.L. Stine himself) to find a way to stop Slappy from taking over the entire town.


Final Thoughts