Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer

Saturday, November 30, 2019

DVD Review - Angela's Christmas

*This is a sponsored post with affiliate links. All opinions are 100% mine.

Angela's Christmas

Netflix's animated holiday special "Angela's Christmas" is now available to own on DVD & Digital HD from Mill Creek Entertainment.

Angela's Christmas is based on the children's book "Angela and the Baby Jesus" by Frank McCourt (Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Angela's Ashes"). Directed by Brian Gleeson, the 30-minute story features the talented voices of Oscar nominee Ruth Negga (2016, Best Actress - Loving), Lucy O'Connell (Song of the Sea), and Brian Gleeson. The animated Christmas tale features the original song "Angela's Song" performed by the late singer Dolores O'Riordan (lead singer of The Crannberries).

Special Features include:

The Making of Angela's Christmas

La Navidad de Angela - Spanish Version

Scene Selection

Trailer

Where to Purchase?

Holiday Gift Guide 2019: Ripley's Believe It or Not!: Beyond the Bizarre!

Billy Burgess Holiday Gift Guide 2019 ,

*This is a sponsored post with affiliate links. All opinions are 100% mine.

Ripley's Believe It or Not!: Beyond the Bizarre!

Believe it or not, Ripley's Publishing recently released their 16th annual hardcover, Ripley's Believe It or Not! Beyond the Bizarre!, featuring thousands of all-true amazing facts, incredible stories, and stunning photos.

Read about a cat with 28 toes, a man living in a sand castle, a toad museum, and many other unbelievable but true facts!

Where to Purchase?

Book Blogger Hop: November 29th - December 5th

Billy Burgess book blogger hop ,

Book Blogger Hop

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

Welcome to the Book Blogger Hop!

If you want to schedule next week's post, click here to find the next prompt question. To submit a question, fill out this form.

The Book Blogger Hop now has its own Facebook Group! Please join the group to get all the newest Book Blogger Hop updates. Also, you can communicate with your fellow book bloggers in the group.

What To Do

1. Post on your blog answering this question:

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

2. Enter the link to your post in the linky list below. Please enter your Name/Nickname @ Blog Name and the direct link to your post answering this week’s question. Here's an example: Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer

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

Review - Phantom Audition by Simon Dillon

Billy Burgess books , fiction

*This is a sponsored review. All opinions are 100% mine.

Available to Buy on AMAZON!

What's "Phantom Audition" About?

Small-time actress Mia Yardley, recently widowed wife of renowned actor Steven Yardley, discovers her late husband’s secret acting diary. The diary details appointments made with a psychic medium, who advised Steven on which roles to take. It also raises questions about his mysterious and inexplicable suicide. Seeking answers, Mia speaks to the medium, but in doing so is drawn into an ever- deepening mystery about what happened to her husband during the final days of his life. Eventually, she is forced to ask the terrible question: was Steven Yardley murdered by a vengeful evil from beyond the grave?

Review

I'm a sucker for any book with a creepy mansion on the cover, which is the #1 reason why I wanted to read Phantom Audition to begin with. At just under 300 pages, I quickly read through it yesterday morning before I finished one cup of coffee.

The very beginning of the novel somewhat reminds me of the classic Twilight Zone episode "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine," though the two have completely different plots. With both tales, I was under the assumption they were going to be simple haunted house stories but neither one went that route.

Mia Yardley is a fairly interesting main character for the most part. I struggled to connect with her for several chapters but eventually something snapped and I became intrigued with her quest to unravel the mystery behind her husband's questionable suicide.

The author's writing style is pretty good and I got a "Gothic" vibe all through the novel. All of the dialogue is well-written and the descriptions are very detailed.

Overall, despite a slow beginning, Phantom Audition turned out to be an entertaining read.

About the Author

The spirit of Simon Dillon took human form in 1975, in accordance with The Prophecy. He kept a low profile during his formative years, living the first twenty or so of them in Oxford, before attending University in Southampton, and shortly afterwards hiding undercover in a television job. In the intervening years, he honed his writing skills and has now been unleashed on the world, deploying various short stories and novels to deliberately and ruthlessly entertain his readers. He presently lives in the South-West of England with his wife and two children, busily brainwashing the latter with the books he loved growing up.

Learn more about Simon at: simondillonbooks.wordpress.com

Follow Simon on Twitter and Facebook.

Monday Morning Madness: Phantom Audition, The Testaments, and Santa With Muscles

Billy Burgess Monday Morning Madness ,

Good Morning, Everyone!

Once again, I'm combining this week's Sunday Post (hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer) with today's It's Monday! What Are You Reading (hosted by The Book Date).

What Am I Currently Reading?

I'll start reading Phantom Audition by Simon Dillon sometime today. My review will be posted on Wednesday.

Recent Reviews

SAF3 2: Under Pressure

(DVD Review)

Canadian Dreadful

(Fall Reads)

PanAm: The Complete Series

(DVD Review)

The Swan Princess: 25th Anniversary

(Blu-ray Review)

What's in the Mail?

DVD Review: SAF3 2: Under Pressure

Billy Burgess movies ,

*This is a sponsored review. All opinions are 100% mine.

Mill Creek Entertainment; AMAZON

Last month, I received a few titles from Mill Creek Entertainment to review on this blog. One of those titles was SAF3 2: Under Pressure DVD starring Dolph Lundgren. I was under the impression the film was a sequel to one of his many direct-to-video action flicks. However, that isn't exactly the case there. Yes, it's a sequel to SAF3, which was released on DVD in 2018 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, but the 83-minute movie is the edited version of several episodes from the 2013-2014 short-lived syndicated action series, SAF3. Yeah, instead of releasing the entire series to DVD, ITN Distribution decided to combine several episodes together in the attempt to make people believe this is a new movie.

Gary Capo and Phil Scarpaci are credited as the directors for SAF3 2: Under Pressure. Along with Dolph Lundgren, the film (or series) also stars J.R. Martinez, Lydia Hull, Texas Battle, Jocelyn Osorino, Travis Burns, Katie Meehan, and Danielle Anderson.

Dolph Lundgren stars as John Eriksson, a leader of the Sea, Air, and Fire divisions of the Malibu Fire Department, which is "under pressure" after a fire lead to a firefighter, Alfonso Rivera (played by J.R. Martinez), being seriously severely burned.

Final Thoughts

Fall Reads: Canadian Dreadful: An Anthology

Billy Burgess Fall Reads ,

*This is a sponsored review. All opinions are 100% mine.

AMAZON; GOODREADS

I spent this afternoon reading the new horror anthology Canadian Dreadful, which is published by Dark Dragon Publishing and edited by David Tocher.

As you can probably guess by the title, all of the stories (14 total) are set in or near Canada. There are a wide range of horror tales in this collection featuring sacrifices, cannibalism, ghosts, and mystical forests.

The story titles and authors are: