I'm taking a wild guess that almost every horror fan has heard or seen the 1968 classic Rosemary's Baby starring Mia Farrow, which is one of the scariest films ever made. The movie is an adaptation of the 1967 novel of the same name by Ira Levin.

I had stumbled up on Rosemary's Baby while searching for a novel to read for a book report for an English class during my freshman year of high school in the mid-1990s. Originally, the book belonged to my grandmother, who had moved away after the death of my grandfather, and most of her books were being stored at my parent's house. It was a first-print hardback edition minus the original cover jacket. I still have this book as well as "The Stephen King Horror Library" edition.

Shortly after reading the book, the movie adaptation aired on TNT late at night. I recorded it on a VHS (Remember those?) and I later watched it. It's one of the best book-to-film adaptations ever produced as it goes exactly by Ira Levin's original story.

Rosemary's Baby is a psychological horror tale centered around Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse, a newly married Manhattan couple who move into a new apartment building, the Bramford, which has a deadly past involving witchcraft and murder. Usually, this would be a turn off for just about anybody else but Guy and Rosemary don't believe in superstitious. Shortly after moving into the apartment, they meet their odd elderly neighbors - Roman and Minnie Castevet.

While not planned, Rosemary becomes pregnant after having a bizarre nightmare involving a satanic ritual. Being young and naive, she takes advice from the Castevets and uses their doctor - Dr. Abraham Sapirstein, who insists she should drink homemade "health" drinks made by Minnie instead of taking prenatal vitamins. Let's just say the next few months aren't very good experiences for Rosemary. Instead of gaining pounds like all expecting mother's do, she quickly loses weight near to the point that she almost resembles a skeleton. Plus, she has a horrible pain coming from her womb. Over time, the pain magically disappears and she puts on baby weight.

With her due date just around the corner, Rosemary learns her neighbors are not who they say they are and that her unborn child is in danger.

Final Thoughts

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This week's question is submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer.

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AMAZON

Typically in the autumn months, I tend to read only horror or Halloween themed novels but here I am writing a review for the Amish romance "Summer's Promise" by Barbara Cameron, which was just released last month from Gilead Publishing. I've read a few other books by the author so I naturally wanted to read this one as well.

The novel centers around Summer Carson (Yep! That's a name!), a young woman who's trying to get her degree in agricultural science so she can follow in her late father's footsteps to help work with the local farmers. When Summer's not taking care of her mother, she's working part-time at the county agricultural office, a place where she occasionally has to socialize with Amish farmers. Her knowledge of Pennsylvania Deitsch is very limited.

This is a romance novel, so of course there is a suitor for Summer - Abram Yoder, a young Amish man who catches Summer's eye fairly quickly upon meeting. Despite being worlds apart, her being Englisch and him being Amish, sparks fly between the two but Summer's love for her Englisch lifestyle could be a bit of problem for them.

Final Thoughts

Yes, I know I'm probably late in the game to be planning a Holiday Gift Guide for 2019. As many of you know, it's been stressful year for me, so stressful that I almost decided not to do a gift guide this year. However, I do enjoy putting together the gift guide posts/reviews each and every year, and at the last minute, I decided to do a Holiday Gift Guide (Nov. 29th to Dec. 23rd) for 2019.

Now I can't put together a gift guide by myself as I will need a bit of help from sponsors. As always my Holiday Gift Guide will showcase different brands, products and services.

Before emailing me, please read over the details on how to participate in the Holiday Gift Guide.

Holiday Gift Guide Details

Review Only: 

• Reviews are free.
• Each review will contain a picture of the product.
• Each review will contain a purchase link.
• Each review link will be posted on my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
• A link will be featured on the Holiday Gift Guide 2019 landing page.

• To Hell and Back: The Making of 3 From Hell
(Blu-ray Only - 4-Part Documentary)

Final Thoughts

AMAZON

I wasn't even aware there was such as thing as "Amish romances" or an "Amish genre" until I read The Covenant by Beverly Lewis (a.k.a. the first book in the Abram's Daughters series) in either 2002 or 2003. Since then, I've read many Amish stories by many authors but my favorite happens to be Beverly Lewis. That being said, I've fallen a bit behind with the author's recent releases. However, I was able to do a bit of  reading catch up in September, which is when I finally got around to reading the author's 2018 novel The Road Home (320 pages; Bethany House).

Set in 1977, the novel centers around Lena Rose Schwartz, a young Amish woman from Michigan who's forced to move to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to live with a new family after the death of her parents. Lena wanted to take care of her nine siblings but the bishop disagreed and sent all of them to different families. Adjusting to a new settlement has been a huge challenge, especially since she has been separated from her siblings and left behind her beau, Hans Bontrager.

Final Thoughts