Edrie Elen

This is a folk story retelling with such beautiful artwork that I could stare at it for hours. Seems to be for early elementary age children, but is both told and illustrated in such a way that I think both younger and older children would enjoy it.

Book received as part of LibraryThing's Early Reviewers group.

~Full review on The Bent Bookworm!~All the Hercule Poirot novels can, in my opinion, be read as standalones. That said, this is considered (at least by GoodReads) to be the 20th Hercule Poirot novel. As such it definitely will appeal MORE to those who have already become attached to the little Belgian detective. To my knowledge he is the only repeat character in this book.As the title would lead you to expect, the plot centers around Christmas. A crotchety but very rich old man “invites” all of his children to attend him during the holiday, and as so often does during family gatherings, tempers flair. As Hercule Poirot observes,“Families who have been separated throughout the year assemble once more together. Now under these conditions, my friend, you must admit that there will occur a great amount of strain. People who do not feel amiable are putting great pressure on themselves to appear amiable! There is at Christmas time a great deal of hypocrisy, honorable hypocrisy, hypocrisy undertaken pour le bon motif, c'est entendu, but nevertheless hypocrisy!”So it is, and in typical Christie fashion from the very beginning of the writing we are unsure who we can trust and therefore suspect everyone except Hercule Poirot himself. In the very beginning, the hairs start to raise on the back of the reader's neck as various characters make very suspect statements. Everyone seems to incriminate themselves somehow. Add to that certain people start quoting Lady Macbeth and suddenly it's not just the reader who doesn't trust anyone!Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him? – MacbethFor such a short book, the characters are remarkably drawn out. None of them are flat, though some are recognizable as types from Christie's other books. Even the side characters and ones that we suspect, have a vulnerable side that makes the reader second-guess any suspicions.He said, “I see.”She said sharply: “What do you see?”He answered: “I see that you have had to be a mother to your husband when you would have preferred to be a wife.”The hair-raising feeling does die down about two-thirds of the way through the book. I'm guessing perhaps Christie didn't want to make a holiday book TOO terribly bloody and creepy, perhaps? Really though I was just SO CONFUSED I didn't know what to think, right up until the end. And then of course once the reveal happened, everything had been staring me right in the face.Overall, 4/5 stars. I would have liked a bit more of the skin-crawling, hair-raising bit, but it was still a fantastic book!Blog Twitter Bloglovin Instagram

~Check out my blog, The Bent Bookworm!~A little girl who loves the woods, books, and animals? Yes please! This was a super cute story about a little girl who wants nothing so much as to give a bear a hug. She has woodland animals friends that she can play with, but she just REALLY wants to meet that bear! She decides to try to catch one using whatever means she can think of, with little success. Then one day, she leaves her precious book in the forest...I loved the bright cheerfulness of the illustrations in this book. They really made the woods come alive in the best possible way, and will hopefully encourage more children to think of the woods as happy, welcoming places, not a place to be feared. Best line: “But she couldn't leave without her book...” And every booklover ever can relate. Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review!Blog Twitter Bloglovin Instagram Google+

This book was an immensely enjoyable read. It's well written, witty, and overall well researched and put together. The characters are believable and fleshed out. Believable? With an 11-year-old chemist for a protagonist? Yes. Yes, indeed. I was surprised, because I when I read the premise I thought it would be a rare writer that could pull it off. Bradley manages it. Here's why.

As someone who was - not meaning to toot my own horn here - a very precocious child myself, with interests far outside of most of my peers, and very, very lonely until I gave up on the idea of having real friends and devoted myself to books until people grew up enough (yes, I distinctly remember having thoughts, at about Flavia's age, that no one except a rare adult or two understood me at all but maybe when my “friends” grew up they might) - I found her to be not only believable but immensely charming. There, was that sentence long enough? I wish I had known someone like Flavia as a child. I'm sure my parents are grateful I didn't. I didn't ever have the brazenness she exhibits, probably because my parents were not eccentric explorers or gentry like hers. Also she was growing up in the 50s, when it was generally much safer than the 90s to allow your children to run all over town and not worry about them until dinner. I would also have been much better off if I had been able to come to her conclusion about the rest of the world at an earlier age, but, c'est la vie.

I was me. I was Flavia. And I loved myself, even if no one else did.

It's a fact of life that a girl can tell in a flash if another girl likes her...With a boy you can never know whether he's smitten or gagging, but with a girl you can tell in the first three seconds.

“I was hardly surprised to read that he (Flavia's father) had named his first two offspring after a Shakespearean hysteric and a Greek pincushion.”

~Full review here on The Bent Bookworm!~Fluffy. A little bit funny, a lot ridiculous. Requires much more suspension of disbelief than my usual picks, but even still it was entertaining enough to finish. The title feels a bit misleading, as Thea never really seems to run away...she just sort of flounces off and disappears for a few days but doesn't really go far. But anyway...The plot is a bit...farfetched. Hence the required suspension of disbelief. The locale is obviously based on England, but the author has invented another country (I suppose so no one can say she's dissing the actual British royal family?) and culture. Said country and culture is pretty much England...except England is also mentioned. Color me confused, for the first few chapters until I gave up trying to understand and just rolled with it. Then there is the issue of Princess Thea's fiance' abandoning her at the altar, and all the other super-secret-squirrel-stuff...and then there's the other guy, who, yes, sounds hot, but in a very generic sense. Oh well, it was still cute.I struggled a bit to really connect with and feel for the characters. Both Thea and Nick are just kind of...flat. Not in an annoying way, there just didn't seem to be a lot there other than Nick's oh-so-attractive-secretiveness about his past life and Thea's terribly, exhausting choices between family duty and her heart's desires. Oooookay, first world problems much? That is, at least, pointed out in the book. Thea needed a backbone. Nick needed to think more with his big head instead of his little one, all James Bond style.The end was a little rushed, but it tied up all the loose ends nicely. All in all The Royal Runaway was a light, quick and easy read but without a whole lot of substance – which sometimes is exactly what is needed.Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.Blog Twitter Bloglovin Instagram Google+

This review appeared on The Bent Bookworm!

WARNING: Possible spoilers for the FIRST book!

The girl whose gift is chaos. Death is her burden. Wherever she goes, it follows. They say she can either save the world or end it.

“I will worship thee.”

“A dictionary. Is that a type of dessert?”

“I admit to being somewhat unclear on the function of human tears. So we're sad about this? Should I menace someone?”

Kiaran smiles, that beautiful false smile that makes my heart ache. His face is a mask, flawless and immaculate, no hint of passion or emotion. Even statues have more life.

“You think I can't bear to look at them [Aileana's scars], that I believe these mean you're weak.” Karan's fingers are at my pulse now, thumb sliding down to my collarbone. “That couldn't be farther from the truth....I want it to be me, not you.”

“Why didn't you just tell me?”

“Because I'm still learning,” he says quietly.

“Learning what?”

“How to feel.”

Derrick is quiet for the longest time, wings fanning softly. His golden glow is slowly returning. “I see the way he looks at you.”

I swallow, afraid of his answer. “And how is that?”

“Like he wishes he was mortal.”

Time for a re-read!——–Full review and links found on The Bent Bookworm!Usually, the desire to fangirl over a book turns me into a heart-fluttering, obsessive mess. However, the fangirl aroused by THIS book, was inspired by much deeper feelings. Feelings that just left me staring off into space and generally just trying to process. This book, you guys. This. Book. (WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST BOOK)“I've been all over the world. More than one country for every year that I'm alive...I'm not saying that to show off. I'm just saying it because I'm trying to understand how I could have been so many places and yet this is the only place that feels like home. This is the only place I belong. And because I'm trying to understand how, if I belong here, it...”” — hurts so much,” Blue finished.And that is how I feel about my lovely home in Virginia (I swear Maggie Stiefvater patterned Henrietta after my adopted hometown). Because even though I don't live there now, and won't for who knows how long (if ever)...I'm pretty sure it will always, always feel like home. It hurts, because it doesn't make the most sense for me to live there, because there are part of it that make me angry and sad, and yet...this. So much this. That someone understands all the deep, intense emotions I have about home is so rare, and then to find it in a book...I'm pretty sure that The Raven Cycle is going to be one of my all time favorites.It was a massive old forest, oaks and sycamores pushing up through the cold mountains soil. Leaves skittered in the breeze. Ronan could feel the size of the mountain under his feet. The oldness of it. Far below there was a heartbeat that wrapped around the world, slower and stronger and more inexorable than Ronan's own.For beautiful, heartfelt, feel-it-in-your-blood prose like this.Anywho. Gansey, who actually plays less a part in this one, nevertheless starts off with a bang as he spouts off one of the most hilariously quotable lines in the book (I'm practically stalking for an opening in a conversation so I can use it):“So what you're saying is you can't explain it.”“I did explain it.”“No, you used nouns and verbs together in a pleasing but illogical format.”Bahahahahahaha. Ahem.[b:The Dream Thieves 17347389 The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle, #2) Maggie Stiefvater https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1477103777s/17347389.jpg 21598446] continues the story of the Raven Boys and Blue Sargent as they search for the Glendower, the long lost king of Wales. This second of four books focuses more on Ronan Lynch than the first, and he is arguably the MC/POV but all the others still figure well into the story. For myself, I kept wishing we would see more of Maura and the Gray Man, but then the book would probably have been too long...ah well, maybe in the next one.Ronan is still a complete and total dick. No worries, guys, your daredevil bad boy isn't going anywhere. He just proves to a be a badass with a soft spot for home, and family, and the balls to go with his sharp tongue. He's the emo, complicated boy type at its finest. With a couple of twists. Like the whole dreaming deal he has going on. I'm trying reeeeeeeally hard not to give actual spoilers but...yeah. Oh, and Ronan also has an extremely quotable line (I've already used this one, and I want the fucking t-shirt, damn it):“I am being perfectly fucking civil.”His depth of love and commitment to his family is his most redeeming quality. Ronan is so far from perfect...but the Raven Boys and Blue need him. They need him as the avenging angel that will sacrifice himself to do whatever is needed to protect them. Ronan has pretty much given up his right (and let's be honest...he gets off on the thrill so it hasn't been THAT hard for him) to an easy conscience. He still doesn't do anything SO bad...but he will protect his own, no matter what it costs him. We still get to see a softer, more vulnerable side sometimes – with his brother Matthew, and with Chainsaw. Who knew a raven could be cute?There's a lot of development of the other characters as well, almost to the detriment of the overall plot. I suppose that's a point against, but I didn't actually mind it, I was so interested in seeing more of Ronan's family, and Blue's 300 Fox Way family.For Blue, there was family – which had never been about blood relation at 300 Fox Way – and then there was everyone else.I adore Blue...she's some awesome combination of spunky and unsure and sweet...someone I'd want for a friend. Her killer kiss curse isn't quite so much in the forefront in this book, which I liked. This one just overall felt less like high school. They were focused on more important things in general, even though there's still a bit of tension of love/like between them. There's one part in particular where Blue and Noah – Noah, of all people! – almost broke my face in half, I was grinning so hard at their awkward adorableness – totally non-romantic, but adorable. I loved that we saw more of Maura, and that she was more than just Blue's mom. That's something so often left out of YA novels, it was very refreshing. Especially as an older reader, I felt like I could relate to her.The appetizers were delicious, not because of the kitchen, but because all food eaten in anticipation of a kiss is delicious.^The waiting, yo, the waiting.Last but not at all least, there is Adam. To me Adam has always been a sympathetic character and one I could identify with, for several reasons. I guess in the first book he sometimes seemed a bit whiny, but really...his backbone, ability to pick himself up again and again, and his work ethic won me over. His pride, which so often gets in the way of others helping him, is so much a part of him that no one really wants him to get rid of it. In this book he's struggling with the parts of him he's inherited from his father, struggling with being able to express himself without being cut down (either literally or figuratively) for it – and guess what? He's a teenage boy. With issues. It's hard. He makes mistakes. But he's just...he's such a sweetheart. And the fact that, of all the Raven Boys, he feels the most alone...it just breaks my little heart. I wanted to make him hot chocolate and tuck him in bed, to make him feel safe and cared for.If he had no one to wrap their arms around him when he was sad, could he be forgiven for letting his anger lead him?I really hope that Adam finds some real happiness in the next two books. If he doesn't, I swear...I'll be reduced to writing fanfic to give him some.I gave this book 5/5 stars, which surprised me, especially since the first one was only 3.5/5! I just loved it so freaking much, for so many reasons. I really fell in love with all the characters in this one, much more than in the first. I'm still very intrigued in the Glendower part of the story (especially with the complete realization of Ronan's ability to dream things into being), but right now I would follow these characters anywhere.

The illustrations in this book are lovely. The white/black/gray of everything except what is near Vincent, or the people he cares about, really emphasizes how gloomy and lonely he feels in the city with his Aunt Mimi. Soon he meets Toma, and the very first day they play together they take some odd “dirt balls” that Vincent's Aunt Mimi asked them to get rid of, and toss them over the wall into a vacant lot. From then on the boys are fast friends, and the weeks speed by. Then one day, their neighbor notices something in the vacant lot...their dirt balls are growing! Children will enjoy this book for the developing friendships, and it's a lovely way to bring a little plant life into the city.Blog Twitter Bloglovin Instagram

Acing the Game had me thoroughly invested in Shep and Elmer's story and Shep in particular. He was just the best and sweetest cinnamon roll of cinnamon rolls and I wanted to hug him for basically the entire book. Shep is undoubtedly the best part of the story! I loved that he managed to be true to himself even while living in a small, backward kind of town that can't wrap its head around queer people, let alone trans people. It starts off a bit slow as we go through Shep and Elmer's back stories in some detail, from their finding of their identities, to their first romantic and sexual explorations as teenagers/young adults, through loss and finding new love. It really picks up after they've been together for awhile and Shep is running his restaurant – which, please, someone take me to this place, I NEED to try all these delicious meals. Eventually though, as often happens after relationships have been established for awhile, issues arise, insecurities crop up, and we try to deal with them in ways that may or may not be successful or healthy. Shep attempts to do this in dealing with his asexuality and Elmer's desires for more sexual exploration, and...well. The results are a bit sticky.

Overall the story has a very melancholy flavor and while I loved getting to see the journey of a trans person through finding themselves and finding love, I was disappointed in the ending between Shep, Elmer, and Willow. As a polyamorous person myself, I was so hopeful that it was going to be excellent representation for not only queer and trans people but polyamorous people too. Unfortunately that was not the case and I feel the treatment of polyamory was not well done. Sadly accurate, to the extent that people often dive into “trying out” polyamory without doing much research or introspection, but this was a trainwreck of an attempt at non-monogamy and not a good representation of it.

TL;DR Review: Cute, quirky, with a memorable and interesting cast of characters. Plot was pretty predictable, kept expecting the stakes to go higher but they never did. Added a full star for the excellent portrayal of a narcissistic mother and the personal growth required to set boundaries. Will continue with the next book in the series.

Audiobook Notes: Listened on 1.2x speed. I enjoyed most of the narrator's style. I wasn't a huge fan of the voice/accent she used for Oz, but got used to it after a bit. It just wasn't sexy, to me, and he was definitely supposed to be. She did an amazing job of Mom Spark's voice though. Grating, pushy, can't be ignored! Just like the character.

Longer Review: Mariel is an endearing character and I loved her cast of supportive girlfriends. Glimmer Falls itself is a campy sort of cozy paranormal town, and many of the other characters (like the mothers in this book) are very stereotypical of their type. I was immediately sympathetic with Mariel's feelings as the disappointing daughter, and wanted to see how she would deal with her “inability” to do magic – since it was obvious in the first chapter that would be the focus of the story. I do love the grumpy/sunshine trope so as soon as Oz was on the page I was at least somewhat invested.

The 3 stars are based solely on the intent behind the written word of this book. I know Erin (I took Pilates classes from her a few years ago), and this book does not do her justice at all. No offense to her or her co-authors/editors, but this book (at least the edition I bought) needs some SERIOUS editing help. OMG. The English major in me literally sat down and cried.

The heart of the book though, is of her drive to not only be one of the first women to conquer the Continental Divide Mountain Bike Trail, but to overcome her own hangups due to a smothering and restrictive upbringing. Her descriptions of her groups struggles on the trail, both with the weather and terrain and each other, strike a chord with me. Also, having met Erin about 10 years after the events in this book, I find it amazing that she could ever have been the reticent woman portrayed in the book. What a journey.

Excellent compilation of a variety of work on the Celtic goddess figure. Historical scholarly articles, re-tellings, poems, a book review on a related fiction book, poems, songs (with music), there's a little bit of everything. I've had a very hard time finding more than a paragraph or two on Blodeuwedd so I was delighted with this little gem and it answered a lot of the questions I had about her and her story. I really should probably go read The Mabinogion for myself, but it's one of those books that I've meant to read forever and never seem to get around to reading.

3.5 stars. This is a good jumping-off point for crystal study, I think, and I love that it touches on possible scientific explanations for the reasons we react to crystals in certain ways...but it's SO short! Only a few resources are listed in the back (perhaps because this isn't a well-documented field), and I would just really have liked to have more detail about everything. It IS the best book I've found for explanations of the how-to for crystals grids, if you're already convinced that they are a valid practice. There is a list of several intentions along with suggested crystals and layouts.

95/222 pages read, and DNFed.

Feels: Annoyance and disappointment.


Characters: Flat. Irritating. Helpless. Our heroine is supposed to be calculating (she's about to make an advantageous political marriage BY HER CHOICE), but then her only recourse is to pretend to be “insane” when confronted with the situation she finds herself in? Ok. I can deal with that, to a point (let's just ignore how the fact that she's PRETENDING is going to cast doubt on all the other people who are genuinely mentally disturbed and need help). After ensuring her own “safety” in a rest home, however, our lovely little Isabelle remains just as helpless. Let's pretend to faint to get away from the annoying other women, shall we? Oh, and then look! It's a (very obvious) Prince Charming whose thighs she can't help but admire.

Description/Worldbuilding: For a historical novel, this book is painfully short on detail. I expect more research to be put into even a historical fiction book. At points I couldn't tell if they were in the 1870s or the 1910s. Granted, my degree is in English, not history, but the educated reader should be able to make a good guess on the decade of the book setting.

~Full review here on The Bent Bookworm!~“Good luck is rather particular who she rides with, and mostly prefers those who have got common sense and a good heart.”Black Beauty is a book of anthropomorphic animals. Highly intelligent animals. While told in the language of its time (roughly the 1870s-1880s), it still has an appeal to anyone with a love of animals and an even slight interest in history. The details included are absolutely fascinating and paint a exquisite picture of England and London at that time. I love books that give such perfect, clear pictures of their time – without it feeling like an info dump. Of course, we can only hope that the author gave accurate descriptions, but even today the world Black Beauty lives in feels very real.“Do you know why this world is as bad as it is? Because people won't trouble to stand up for the oppressed.”Some words are as true today as over 100 years ago. This book is 20 times better than the last anthropomorphic animal book I tried ([b:Smoky the Cowhorse 2705881 Smoky the Cowhorse Will James https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1349016540s/2705881.jpg 2914785]...which earned a BIG FAT NO). The animals are all different, with their own experiences and personalities – and so are the humans! Of course the reader's first loyalties lie with Black Beauty and his friends, but he has some genuinely kind, good owners that are good characters in their own right. Ginger, another horse with whom he becomes friends early on, truly stole my heart.There are some beautiful quotes, even if the prose occasionally descends to a bit of a preachy tone when it comes to how we treat animals and our fellow man. That is my only real complaint about this lovely story, which, despite having a few notes of sadness (as any good story ought, in my opinion), is a completely worthy addition to any reading program or library.“Don't you know that [ignorance] is the worst thing in the world, next to wickedness?”Blog Twitter Bloglovin Instagram Google+

~Full review notes on The Bent Bookworm!~Feels:The Peculiar Miracles of Antoinette Martin is a sweet, homey book that easily transported me back to my childhood and teen years growing up in Ohio. I immediately loved the sisters Rose and Lily and TOTALLY identified with Rose's stubbornness and heartache in not calling her sister years earlier. Antoinette is clearly a difficult but lovable child and so many times I just wanted to scoop her up and hug her. The slow, off-the-main-plot romance was also sweet...even if I wasn't particularly fond of how this grown-up version of a love triangle was handled, in the end.Characters:The sisters Rose and Lily along with Rose's daughter Antoinette, are the key players in this story. The story is told in turns from the POV of Lily, Antoinette, and Rose's diary. It works really well – I was surprised! Antoinette's father disappeared before she was born and Rose has devoted herself entirely to her daughter. Lily hasn't had a serious relationship since the-boy-next-door, Seth, broke up with her years before. Even if her best friend is a guy and they've been through a lot together. The other side characters that populate small town Kentucky are so real they almost walk out of the pages. I love them all. I wish I could be the sister's neighbor.Antoinette is a dear thing, even if I can imagine how frustrating and difficult it would be to try to be her mother or guardian. Her autism is one that baffles even the doctors, as she both shows signs of severe autism and breaks all the “rules” regarding it.Plot:Rose is dying. As a last resort, she calls her estranged sister and begs her to come home and help care for Antoinette and their family's flower farm in Kentucky.The story centers on Antoinette, even though she never says a word. Her sections of the book are VERY well done. Of course we don't know for sure how a non-verbal child would describe the world around them, Knipper's depiction is vivid and sharp without being condescending. Her personal experience with special needs children is evident. Antoinette never feels “wrong,” or like someone to be pitied. She just is, and as she is, she has a lot to offer the world if only people would look past their first impression.Now, here's where I have a slight issue. When I requested this book, I guessed it would be magical realism. Which was spot on. However, I'm not really okay with Antoinette's disabilities being written off as a side effect to her magical ability to heal. At times it seemed like it was more “in addition to” her autism, she could heal things – which is fine and creative and all that. But at other times it seemed like she was different because she could heal things. The difference is small but it's a lot in terms of how you look at people with impairments. The overall tone is one of deepest respect and love for Antoinette (and by extension, anyone with differences), as well as understanding of and for her, but that point bothered me a little.I really liked that Lily also has signs of a disorder – she's very high-functioning, so as an adult she copes and hides it well – but it's there all the same and as a child she was always the odd one. I loved that so much. I love that it gave her a means to connect with Antoinette, I love that she didn't grow out of it or magically become cured by coming home.Anyway, as far as the story arch goes...it was a beautiful story. It's not very fast-paced (very in line with small town Kentucky), but it's lovely. I felt like I was walking the rows of flowers with the characters, and I was sure I could smell lavender bread at one point. The resolution was NOT what I expected though...and I really wasn't pleased with it. I understand that the book is centered around the idea of unexplained abilities, but up until the very end it was still very believable. The ending was just too convenient for my taste, but if you like happy endings you will enjoy it immensely.There is a little bit of romance – even a grown-up, mellow version of a love triangle – but it works. It's sweet and a fireflies-in-July type of warm and fuzzy. It's believable and not over the top. I didn't like the way it was wrapped up, particularly...well, I was happy with who ended up together but not how it ALL ended.Setting/Description:I grew up in Ohio/Virginia. This little town, the farm, and the people, are as familiar to me as my own name. Stephanie Knipper has done an amazing job last bringing this little place to life. I really felt very, very homesick as I read.Rating/Thoughts:I'm giving 4/5 stars. Overall this is a lovely story that I would highly recommend for a rainy afternoon and evening while drinking a cup of tea. There's nothing drastic in it, nothing scary...it's a very cozy book, but it still managed to rend my heart. I hope Stephanie Knipper writes more books, I would definitely give anything she wrote a chance. I'm actually very surprised this book doesn't have more reviews!Many thanks to the publisher and LibraryThing for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!Blog Twitter Bloglovin Instagram Google+

I've read this entire series by audiobook, and while I enjoyed it, I really think I need to go back and read them as books. Sometimes I would have gaps of days in between my listening within a book, and gaps of weeks or even months between the books themselves, so I got a little confused. The whole series seems a bit un-explained, to me, and I'm really kind of perplexed that I couldn't get as into it as so many other people. I didn't like the way the point of view jumped back and forth between the Drew kids and Will, I didn't like the way the “magic” was never fully explained (at least not to my satisfaction), and I didn't like the characters themselves much! I was especially affronted by how the female characters are either air headed (Jane) or magical. Why is this series considered to be so brilliant? I really feel like I'm missing something.

Despite that, I stuck it out for the entire series and was fascinated by the setting of Wales and England. I think that, given how short the books are, I will go back and re-read them at some point. I think maybe all my gaps in reading effected my comprehension of the plot. I really don't think anything can rescue the characters though.
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Wait WHAT. That was NOT an acceptable ending, AT ALL!! sniff