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.

With her dragon beside her, the princess slowly began to grow out of her shyness; at the age of twelve she took to the skies for the first time, and thereafter, though she remained a quiet girl, no one dared to call her timid.

page 56, Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin

  My Thoughts

Mill Creek Entertainment; AMAZON

I'm almost positive almost everyone has watched the 1984 classic The Karate Kid at least one time in their lifetime. It's an iconic underdog story that inspired many 80s kids to learn martial arts. And, of course, the film kicked off a franchise, which recently included the YouTube Red spinoff series Cobra Kai.

Now available on a Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment is the The Karate Kid III & The Next Karate Kid ($14.98). There are no special features or bonus extras.

Directed by John G. Avildsen, The Karate Kid III (1989; PG; 112 minutes) picks up several months after the second film with Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi (played by Ralph Macchio and Noriyuki "Pat" Morita) returning to Los Angeles after their trip to Japan. Upon their return, they learn that Daniel's mother has moved to New Jersey to take care of her sick uncle and their apartment building is being torn down, leaving Mr. Miyagi jobless and Daniel homeless. Well, not exactly homeless, as he ends moving into Mr. Miyagi's home.

Mr. Miyagi isn't unemployed for too long. Daniel uses his college fund to open a bonsai shop with him. Unknowingly to them, disgraced Cobra Kai sensei John Kreese (played by Martin Kove) teams up with Vietnam War buddy, Terry Silver (played by Thomas Ian Griffith), to seek revenge against Daniel for winning the All-Valley Karate Championships. They hire Mike Barnes (played by Sean Kanan) to bully Daniel and to challenge him to a fight at the next tournament.

Directed by Christopher Cain, The Next Karate Kid (1994; PG; 107 minutes) centers on Julie (played by Hilary Swank), a troubled teenager living with her grandmother in Boston. After meeting Mr. Miyagi at a commendation for Japanese-American soldiers, he talks the grandmother into taking a vacation to Los Angeles and he would stay in Boston to look after Julie. Of course, Mr. Miyagi has another reason for wanting to babysit a teenager. He wants to teach Julie how to control her anger issues that she has had ever since the death of her parents.

Final Thoughts

AMAZON

Yes, I'm well aware it's way past midnight, but since it has been a few weeks since I've reviewed a horror movie I thought I would go ahead and post this review as a Midnight Horror Review post; though technically I did watch a horror movie at around midnight.

The horror flick that I'd watched was the 2018 slasher Hell Fest, which just arrived on Blu-ray this week from Lionsgate Home Entertainment. It's also available on 4K Ulta HD, DVD, and Digital for those of you who need to know that bit of information. The only special feature is the 16-minute "Thrills and Kills: Making Hell Fest" and the Theatrical Trailer.

Directed by Gregory Plotkin, the film stars Amy Forsyth, Reign Edwards, Bex Taylor-Klaus, Matt Mercurio, Roby Attal, Stephen Conroy, and Tony Todd.

Hell Fest centers on a group of friends (Natalie, Brooke, Taylor, Asher, and Gavin) going to a horror-themed Halloween event at an amusement park, which is filled with games, mazes, and rides. This is the type of place were the workers (and probably a few volunteers) are dressed as zombies, ghosts, creatures, etc., anything that would scare someone to death. Everyone is having a blast except for Natalie, who believes a masked stranger "The Other" is stalking her.

Like all slashers go, one by one "The Other" preys on each teen in the group and he leaves a few other dead bodies in his path of destruction.

Amy Forsyth ("Natalie", left) and Reign Edwards ("Brooke", right) star in HELL FEST.

Bex Taylor-Klaus ("Taylor") stars in HELL FEST.

Final Thoughts

AMAZON

I very seldom seek out a novel unless I'm extremely interested in reading it, which happened to be the exact case with The Sinner by Petra Hammesfahr. It was first published in German as Die Sunderin in 1999 and was adapted into a limited series on USA that aired in 2017 starring Jessica Biel and Bill Pullman. I attempted to watch the series on Mediacom On Demand, but for some reason the cable company decided not to put up the final four episodes. I ended up buying the series on DVD around the same time I got the novel. Despite my eagerness to finish watching the series and then read the book, I never got around to doing either. I had forgotten about both until I stumbled upon season two's DVD last month, which I ended up buying. It seems the second season is an original story with Bill Pullman's detective character investigating another crime.

Anyways, I'd picked up the book, which was collecting dust on the coffee table, on Dec. 23rd. I had a few minutes to kill until Outlander started on STARZ, and I read a few pages with no real intent to actually reading it. I didn't open the book again until the end of last week and I finished reading it last night.

While I had only seen 4 episodes of the USA series, I could clearly tell many differences between the series and the book. For starters, the book is set in Germany and many of the character's names have been changed. In the book the main character is named Cora Bender, but in the television series her name is Cora Tannetti. Her husband Gereon was changed to Mason and police commissioner Rudolf Grovian was changed to Detective Harry Ambrose.

The novel centers around a very troubled twenty-four-year-old Cora Bender. Sure, on the outside she looks like a loving wife and mother to a little boy, but she actually has a deranged past that she can no longer run from anymore. On a nice day at the lake, Cora jumps in the water for a quick swim, well at least that's what she told her husband. However, she had all intentions of drowning herself, but she doesn't go through with it. She returns to her husband and son at their picnic spot. Nearby, two couples are having a bit of fun listening to a radio cassette player. After one of the couples begins making out, Cora snaps, picks up the knife that she had just used to cut her son a piece of apple, and charges at the couple. She attacks the man, Georg Frankenberg, and stabs him to death!

To everyone else, Cora is a cold-blooded killer, but Rudolf Grovian, the police commissioner, suspects Cora somehow knew the victim. He takes it upon himself to investigate a connection between the two, but in order to find out the truth, Cora must unravel her own dark, twisted past!

Final Thoughts

I'm still reading the same book that I started two weeks ago - The Sinner by Petra Hammesfahr. Due to the holidays, I didn't have very much time read until late last week when I started reading more of The Sinner. I'm currently on page 224 and I plan on reading some more of it right after this post is published. 

My original plan was to read Who I Am with You by Robin Lee Hatcher next, but I've changed my mind. Instead I'm going to read Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin, which I had checked out at the library last week.

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

What am I currently reading?

I'm currently on page 218 of The Sinner by Petra Hammesfahr. I'll finish reading it sometime tomorrow. Then I'll probably start reading Who I am with You by Robin Lee Hatcher.

Last Week's Reviews

His Promise

(Winter Reads)

In the Mail

Once again, there were no books in the mail this week. Actually, the only thing I received was The Oath DVD from Lionsgate, which I haven't watched yet. I believe the movie is being released on Tuesday.

New On My Bookshelf

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.

She imagined a man, wearing a work shirt and overalls and sporting a neatly trimmed beard, seated at a desk lamplight spilling onto the open book as he wrote in it.

page 56, Who I Am With You by Robin Lee Hatcher

  My Thoughts

AMAZON

Yes, I'm well aware that is Christmas is officially over. So why I am reviewing a Christmas themed romance novel?

Well, I actually read this book a few weeks ago and my originally attention was to have my review posted on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Things didn't go as planned, but nevertheless, here I am writing my review for it.

His Promise (Avon Inspire; 352 pages; $7.99) is the sixth installment in the In Hart County series by Shelley Shepard Gray, who has written many novels set in the Amish world, which is one of my favorite genres to read.

The novel is centered around Grace King, a young woman who finds herself pet-sitting a dachshund named Snooze for two weeks near Christmastime. Coincidentally, John Michael Miller happens to live next door, a fireman who had courted and broke her older sister's heart five years ago. As guess you can say Grace is pretty upset with John for what he did to her sister. However, Grace doesn't know that John broke up with her sister because he had realized he was actually in love with her.

Several suspicious fires occur across the county and John is determined to keep Grace safe, even if she doesn't want his protection.

Final Thoughts

I hope everyone is doing well in 2019!

Like many people, I have many New Year's Resolutions this year, which includes writing a new post series called "In the GYM!", which I will be chronicling my workouts to help me stay on track. I might even review a few fitness products on here as well.

One of my resolutions is to get into shape this year. 2018 was a horrible year for me and I ended up gaining around 20 pounds from lack of exercising, a bad diet (including Diet Coke), and a lot of stress. (FYI: I currently weigh 218.4 lbs.) After eating lots of candy around Christmas, I made the decision to change the way I eat. No, I'm not on a diet, as diets never work for me. I'm just making a lifestyle change, which began on Dec. 31st.

In addition to my diet, I started the weight lifting program called Body Beast from Beachbody, which I have owned on DVD for several years. I'm doing the "lean" version of the program as my two main goals are to gain strength and lose body fat.

Monday's workout was "Build: Chest/Tris." It's a 49-minute workout using dumbbells and a bench. I don't have very many dumbbells. I own pairs of 10 lbs, 15 lbs, 20 lbs, and 25 lbs. I know these weights might not seem very heavy, but it's been awhile since I've exercised, so these light weights were perfect for  me. Well, at least for the time being. I would love to purchase heavier dumbbells or adjustable dumbbells, but they can be quite expensive and money is a little tight for me right now. (Hey, if a company wants to be to review a pair of dumbbells, please send me an email!)