Ketutar

Well... it was published 1918, so I suppose WWI was very much an issue... but Jane Eayre Fryer didn't quite... let Mary Frances grow. She got a baby doll “almost as big as she was”... and this was published 6 years after the Mary Frances Cook Book. In which Mary Frances was about... 8? At least deemed by the illustrations. Maybe 10? So she should be a teenager by now.
(Frankly, letting a child unsupervised in the kitchen with fire... er... What were you thinking, Jane?)
And Billy is playing with dolls, even though he is about the same age as Mary Frances.
But considering how fragile constitution their dad has... and mother, too... maybe the whole family is a bit... Except Mary Frances, who is a superwoman and manages to take care of the whole household at the age of 10 all by herself. And her fairy friends.
Geesh!

I am bothered by the attitudes of the people in these books.

Father is not a nice man. There was no need for him to be that nasty to the tramp.
Aunt whateverhernameis is not a nice woman.
Billy is selfcentered, Bob is nasty - frankly, he shouldn't have gotten any more cake after that nasty little poem of his. He should have been send home without anything, and learn to behave.
The kitchen people aren't that nice either. All the bickering and quarreling. :-(
And the attitudes! A good little woman, of course, because there are no other values in females. Learn to do your womanly chores as soon as possible, that's all you'll ever be good for, and doing those things well is just the least that can be expected of you.
Also, why didn't anyone tell her to mind the oven? That she can't leave the food on the stove? And why couldn't the pots and pans move when it was needed, while they were moving a lot when it wasn't needed? Good help that was.

So, no, I'm not too fond of these books.

I love the idea, though, of household implements teaching the girl to do all kinds of things. :-)

Oh, I forgot all about the Pickaninny fudge... until I read the Mary Frances Crocheting and Knitting book where they made a black nanny doll (Dinah Doll)
“Well,” said Mary Frances, “the first is ‘Pickaninny Fudge!' Isn't that just like Mother!—to call Chocolate Fudge that cute name!”
So... er... “cute”.

I only read Gustav III and I think it's pure crap.

Gustav III is a play about Gustav III and a conspiracy to take his life. It culminates at a masquerade party at Drottningholm, where he almost gets shut, but doesn't. So - nothing happens. A lot of people talk about things that are of no concern and no interest.

Firstly, one must know too much of the historical situation to understand anything of the play, and even though I know something, I know too little, which makes this play mostly incomprehensible. I don't understand the references, I don't understand the importance of the references, and I don't think I would need to study 18th century Swedish history to enjoy a play. I mean, I don't know much about the 15rh century England, but I can still enjoy Shakespeare's Tetralogy. This - nope.
Secondly, there's way too much people with no reason to be there. These people talk and talk and talk and say nothing. Most of them are impossible to separate from each other, or remember. And I don't understand who are the “good guys” and “bad guys”, and what is their relationship with each other. Ok, so Anckarström hates the king. The others? I don't know. Frankly, I don't care either.
The stage directions are unnecessary detailed. “Thereafter he stands devastated by the up stage doors and drums on the windowpanes, his back to the audience”
But, on the other hand, Ibsen is even worse with this, so perhaps it was how it was done then. I hate it, nevertheless.

“Yury Koval's novel Nedopesok (1979) about a young arctic fox that escapes from the fur farm and with the help of children heads for freedom, could be read as an allegory of an individual's struggle for freedom. The famous Russian poet Bela Akhmadulina recognized her own fate in the narration and after reading the book exclaimed: “Nedopesok – its me!”. “

Platinum foxes aren't really arctic foxes, but a color variant of the common red fox. I didn't know this. I thought all fur foxes are arctic foxes.

I like the unassuming writing style. It's also very Russian.

This is one of Finnish children's literature classics, and should really be translated to many languages, because it is a wonderful little fairytale about the Duke and Duchess of the “Hidden country” where donkeys, dogs and cats live; how the country was taken over by the evil mule magician and his fox minions, and how the Little Donkey (pikku aasi) saves everyone, with his friends.
It's full of magic and adventures, and if you like OZ books or Uspenski, you will love this one, too.

Kaari Utrio is a very popular author in Finland. She tells fascinating stories set in history, with nice details, and manages to create correct feeling (that's one of the reasons why I hate so much Diana Gabaldon's Outlander books. yuk She doesn't...)

This book rides very much on her popularity. I like the idea of the Cinderella story told from the stepsisters' point of view, and the idea that the stepsisters weren't the nasty ones, but the “Cinderella” herself... on the other hand, SHE is the stepsister of the main character, one of the so called stepsisters, who in turn is the REAL Cinderella... and that throws the book back into cliches.

Also, I hate the fact that the male lead was called “Larry”... His real name was Laurent, but he wasn't called Lauri - which is a common name in Finland, and Laurie-version is used of Lawrence in UK as well... NO-ONE is called “Larry” in Finland, and most certainly wasn't in Finland, in the mid 19th century when the book is supposed to happen. Perhaps “Lars” or “Lasse” in Swedish... But “Larry”. OMG!

I also hate the flat ending. The nasty stepsister makes a turn on a sixpence... In five minutes she turns from a shallow, stupid, egotistic and mean girl who cares only about clothes and gossip, getting married and getting high status into a feminist who comforts herself when thinking about her future that at least she isn't owned by any man... sigh
And her groom... When his daddy and the family lawyer discuss about giving away his bride's money, he just sighs and says there's nothing to do about it, 10 minutes later he throws his daddy out of the house. Had he done it 10 minutes earlier, he'd be happily married to the pretty and rich girl and live the rest of his life happy and rich. >:->

What made me give this lovely little story 5 stars was the author's notes at the end of the story.
The “liberties” she took with Hank and Bear, as “seeing-eye dogs” weren't really a thing that early in the history - liberties I think she handled very well and believably,
and choosing Jolie as her heroine, and how she handled her profession very tastefully and sensitively, making this a book for everyone to read. Or, at least anyone who felt able to read any other Brides of Noelle books - the cathouse does play a big role in all of them, and the physical relationship between men and women isn't unspoken of.

Jag är ledsen, Tina, men jag kan inte läsa den här boken. Jag har inte längre en aning om när det här händer, och jag orkar inte bry mig heller.

During the first 24 pages, we had visited the MC's time as a prisoner and his wife possibly dead, to his time as a boy carefully peaking at the girl he was in love with to their wedding night to her being the mother of three to her being pregnant with the first one. Within the first 50 pages, we had been in Sweden and Germany, at least 4 different places, and got the POV of four different characters, about different things from tapestries to silk ribbons, from Catholicism vs. Protestantism, maids and young houligans making the town dangerous... I just can't keep up!

“Twelve days, twelve gifts. Hey, somebody ought to write a song about that.”
Haha. Very funny.
The Twelve Days of Christmas was first published 1780, as “The Twelve Days of Christmas sung at King Pepin's Ball”.

No, I didn't like this book much, because I, frankly, hate Penny. I hate heroines who whine about everything being their fault. Accidents happen. No, it's her cursed luck!
She slips like everyone else. No, it's her cursed luck!
People get sick and die. No, it's her cursed luck!
What ever happens, it's somehow her fault. I can't stand that attitude!

And I'm rather upset right now, because this book series started so well! Still at #8 I was prepared to read the next book series about brides of Noelle, but after this one... not so sure.

This is just stupid.
Ok, it's not just stupid, but there's too much stupid things to destroy my enjoyment of the story.
But - in all, this 12 books series about Noelle's mail-order brides and a couple of others, is a lovely treat to enjoy during Christmas time. Even this was a nice, easy read, and the irritating details are probably easy to overlook for others. They are after all little side notes, not part of the main things, and the main things are all sound and solid :-)

Not as good as the previous one. It's still delightful and cute, but...

There are things here that are just too stupid. The scene at the post office, Bernadette's situation, sewing dresses (no, you do not sew a 1876 dress in a day), her running in the forest in a 1876 dress - we are talking about a bustle dress, with a tight bodice and corset and a skirt with several layers, not much movement allowed in front, the bustle at back, these skirts are long and heavy and layered and about the most restrictive fashion since 17th century. But I suppose the authors of this otherwise delightful series are imagining stereotypes and basing their ideas of how these people dress in Western movies and masquerade costumes. I suppose they imagine Pearl strutting around wearing a “saloon girl” costume. Fishnets and a corset. She probably has her hair collected on top of her head in curls and wears an ostrich feather, too.

There's too much stuff happening that isn't right.
It starts with bullying, and ends with murder. But, it's OK! It wasn't anyone important who died. Merry Christmas.
1) bullying. Really bad. Enough to make me want to stop reading this book. It doesn't matter that they become friends in the end.Because THAT doesn't happen in real life. Bullying does.2) codependency. "Wishes come true, but only if you REALLY wish it, only the RIGHT wish"3) Breaking and entering, kidnapping people, and murdering people is totally fine. 4) "Your dinosaur kills your uncle the second day of its life! Merry Christmas!"5) "You helped kill a man, you're off the naughty list!". Yay?6) He banishes a good boy from North Pole because he loved his brother, and only lets him back in when his brother is dead, never mind that the brothers haven't had any contact for decades. That's not right. 7) "Oh, my brother is dead. Who cares, let's celebrate Christmas!"8) "Oh, my parents divorced a year ago, and now my mom is dancing with the dad of the boy I hated just yesterday, this is the best Christmas ever!"

I read this for [b:The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter 34728925 The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter Theodora Goss https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1490794116s/34728925.jpg 45924715]Giovanni was an arse. He could have lived with sweet, poisonous Beatrice, Dr Rappaccini gave his daughter the gift of a husband and lover, and everyone would have been happy, had it not been the idiot telling Beatrice he thought she was disgusting. I hope he drank the antidose as well. Arse.

It's not about SM, it's not erotic, there's nothing romantic in any of this, and no “tongue in cheek”. The abuse is totally non-consensual. The abuser is proud of being a domestic abuser. Of course, they don't use that word. The court would. If these “concerned husbands” would do the same to anyone else, it would be called what it is - abuse.
Every “hero” is a spineless, selfcentered asshole who likes to hit people who are weaker than they are. They were probably bullies - or a bully's entourage - in school. It's not only an excuse of domestic abuse, it's praise for domestic abuse.

I really don't care that Leah Kelley got aroused when she was spanked by her dad when she was little, and is now writing her sexual fantasies. Frankly, that just makes this crap worse. (Why? It's promoting sadomasochistic incest. Especially considering that some of the victims of the domestic abuse going on in this book are teen-aged girls.

This book is definitely on the “if you like this book - or even think it's OK - stay away from me.”

The author says : “I love to create stories with strong heroes teaching and leading their feminine heroines as set up in the Bible”, but I say a person who beats a person weaker than him is not a “strong hero”. On the contrary. Abusive bullies are the weakest people I know. If you can't discuss with your spouse about how things happen in your household, without taking on violence, you are a worthless piece of shit. Leah Kelley and her ilk are raising weaklings who cannot talk about any issues, because they are used to using violence to shut up any opposition.

In one of the stories the woman happened upon a feminist meeting. She was a little curious, but she didn't find anything interesting there and wouldn't go again. Curiosity satisfied, nothing changed. BUT when her asshole husband finds out, he beats her black and blue and then anally rapes her. The author describes her thoughts during the abuse, and she is scared to death of her husband, doesn't expect anything but pain and abuse from him, thinks she's the worst human being alive who doesn't deserve anything but abuse, and pities her husband who just have to hurt her so badly. She is begging for mercy, begging for forgiveness, begging for her life, and believes to have received it because she's still alive after it all. That the mere thought of her husband reduces her into a sobbing ball of fear and makes her vomit, is nothing to worry about, that's just a totally normal way a good Christian woman to react to the man she loves.

“The hero has that “edge” but it is tempered with the knowledge that he loves the heroine and wants only what is best for her.”
Those monsters don't even know what love is, and the only “best” they are interested in is best for themselves.

Nacho's Tacos. sigh Fine dining. Sure. As far as I know tacos are street food. Not restaurant food. And what is a Mexican doing starting a restaurant in a Coloradoan mining town? It is of course possible, but not very likely.

“La Maison des Chats.
Josefina frowned. She didn't know much French, but she was fluent in Spanish and the similarities between the two were enough to make her question what kind of accommodations the Reverend offered them.”
La casa de los gatos? How is that even close?

Also, how do all these ladies know the slang term cathouse? I don't. But not even one makes fun of the literal meaning. I would have. “House of cats? How sweet! How can you have cats enough to fill a house and a house this magnificent?” Or perhaps “I thought a house of cats would have more cats in it... like engravings and paintings and decorations...“

WHY WOULD SHE TAKE THE RECIPE BOOK WITH HER AND LEAVE IT UNCOVERED, UNPROTECTED IN AN OPEN WAGON IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WINTER? WTH?

Why would she trust the Madame?

Such crap... I mean... there aren't words enough to say how much I hate this book.

This is written to make Jude look like a good guy.
The first half of the book was written to justify Jude's kidnapping Alexa, and showing how much worse a cage she could be in. In reality, she wouldn't have needed to be in any kind of cage. Had Jude not kidnapped her, none of this would have happened.

No, I hate this book, and as so many people have said they only got the second to find out what happened, I am going to tell you the “answer” right away so that you don't need to read this piece of crap. There's a secret organization who infect teenagers with this thing that makes them see into the future, and they do this to be able to sell the services of these kids to highest bidders to be used as weapons or what ever.
Yeah. That's it. Now you know.

So... how is it any different from Jude?
Jude “loves” her.
How do we know? He SAYS so! So it must be true! I mean... he wouldn't want to have sex with this hot 17 years old otherwise, would he? I mean... all the other guys do, but Jude isn't like the other guys. Because... er... He is GENUINELY concerned! One can SEE it in his EYES! Yeah. Sure. Of course he is. Let's just ignore all the other things he said. And especially all the things he did. Like promising he won't hurt her and his goons won't hurt her, but telling her that if she leaves, he'll kill her parents, but, sure, it's her choice, and she's totally free to go at any time. Watching live video on one of the goons beating the shit out of her and dragging her of her hair, not stopping it, and then just finish the guy off. When she begs him not to (because it's her fault. How the f is it her fault?) he tells her that HE won't kill the guy. His goons do. Big difference. And, just see, he tells Ronan to hurt Lexi in this book. Not just not interfering, actually telling her to hurt her. And she's "Oh, that makes sense, of course it's totally fine! I can see why he had to beat me up!" No, it doesn't make any f-ing sense! She's supposed to be a valuable research subject and future money cow. If he beats her into brain injury, how are they going to use her? If they make her fear them, how could they ever trust her to do her job and not trying to find how to run away?Or the beating up the driver because he smiled at Lexi's comment. Oh, sure, he's such a nice, loving and caring guy. Of course he is. Brrr...And, also all those things he made her do under the threat of him doing something to hurt her parents and best friend? All kinds of unnecessary, humiliating things she didn't want to do. Like that crap about the boyfriend. Of course she wouldn't tell him she has a boyfriend, he would go and kill him! Geesh!"Nobody is going to hurt you", he says, and the next day his goon beats her up."I'm not going to kill him", he says. His employers do that."Nothing bad will happen to you as long as you do what I say". She gets kidnapped, abused, humiliated, almost raped, in spite of doing what he said."I promise your parents will be safe". They get killed.And in the end of this book, Lexi is 18 and not married. Somehow I highly doubt she's still a virgin. And she is living in his house, he's supporting her, he follows her to her work, is in the actual room with FBI or what ever, and he is still a crime boss. Yeah. He hasn't stopped his criminal activities, and FBI (or what ever it is) is totally fine for him being in the room when they "interrogate" other criminals. She's totally under his control. And about this control?“The first thing I noticed about you were your eyes. They're incredible.” Jude mumbles irately from where he's standing. Irately... he's angry because a guy gave Lexi a complement. Whom is he going to beat up for that? Nick or Lexi? Or both? He is probably going to accuse her of flirting with other guys. Brrr...(Also, enter Nick. She kidnaps him and Jude threatens to kill him or injure him FOR NO REASON AT ALL. But it's all OK, because... ? Apparently it's OK to capture people and threaten them to answer your questions, because you just need to know!)“A mobster with morals.” The moment the words are out, I instantly regret them. He's always kept that side of him away from me . . . except the time with the driver. . . . and what I see in the visions. (And when he kidnapped you, and when he ordered the execution of his employer for having abused you, and when... *sigh*)“While I'm here, I'm just Jude,” he says not at all fazed by what I said. But I know I shouldn't have said it. “I'm sorry,” I whisper my apology. “I shouldn't have said that about you.” He never apologises to her about anything.

So, at one point the author forgets totally that her “hero” is supposed to be this sadistic criminal who enjoys the power he has over people, who enjoys people being afraid of him. No, she makes them as a normal couple of 17yo girl/25 yo boy. They tease each other, they joke around, they have a relationship with Frank as if Frank was Jude's dad or something like that.
Why? Why the fuck is she treating him as if he was just a guy she's having a crush on? He is no different from Enzo, except that he's young and pretty. He will be Enzo when he's 60. Enzo probably is his grandfather or something.

Also that scene where Lexi teaches Jude some common decency and manners, even when in the first book Margaret made a point of showing how kind and polite Jude was to Frank to show how “good guy” he “really” is.

Just look up checklists on abusive, toxic relationships and “relationship red-flags”.

One can wonder if these authors writing heroines falling in love with abusive, dominating, violent, aggressive, jealous bastards get commission from real life psychopaths for grooming stupid girls into thinking this is romantic and sweet and something to swoon over.

Isn't it so handy that Jude didn't need to kill off her parents, that Enzo did it. How do we know this? Lexi had a vision of what she was supposed to see. How does she know Enzo and Jude don't work together? What if Enzo is Jude's grandfather? He's French. (What would a Frenchman do with an Italian first name, though?) We know Jude's father and mother were killed, but we know nothing about his grandparents. Do we? And how do we know Enzo is dead? Did Lexi actually see Jude kill him, or just put his gun to his head? Like when Ronan said Jude was shot and she just assumed he was dead.
We know this because Jude said so... and we know he isn't lying, because? Mafia bosses don't lie? Jude wouldn't lie to this 17yo he wants to use for his own benefit so much so that he kidnapped her and didn't even try to win her over, like - he could be courting her and ask her to help him as her actual girlfriend, seduce her into it slowly, because if she was his girlfriend she would quickly approve his criminal activities. He really didn't need to kidnap her or threaten anyone, he could have dated her quite openly, and won her over in a totally peaceful manner and get her to help him because they love each other. I mean... just imagine “I'm so grateful to you, you saved my life. Could I offer you a dinner to express my gratitude?” and then he asks her for dates, because she's cute, and because he's pretty and kind and rich generous, she falls for him, and they become a couple, and THEN all this crap happens... can you see how different that would be? Especially if he refuses to use her power for his own benefit, because he's genuinely worried about her, but of course she will.
It would be even better if he was a cop, and in the end of the book she would be studying to become an FBI agent, like he is, and she would be using her powers to help him in his work? Can you just imagine how good this book could have been?

Also, what's this crap about her being a weapon? How the heck would you be able to use a person who can see random event happening a couple of hours before it happens as a weapon? Uh, logic, life is too short to be bothered by such negativity.

How do all these people know about her abilities? How many people would have known if Jude didn't kidnap her and tried to use her?

Even though this crime boss kidnapped [what ever her best friend's name is], she was allowed to go to school unprotected so that Jude could meet her in the toilet and arrange the meeting with Lexi. And everyone was totally fine with that. I have to say that if a disgusting, scary crime boss had abducted me, kept me in a cage and there were a bunch of disgusting, sleazy guys drooling over me, touching me, hurting me and threatening me, I would not be going to school for the rest of the semester, perhaps never. I wouldn't be OK meeting my best friends kidnapper in the school and happily follow him to a rendezvous with my best friend. But no, her friend is totally OK with everything and totally normal bubbly happy go lucky herself. No worries. Geesh.

This girl believes everything, except then suddenly she doesn't. And then she does.
Nobody tells her anything, and she's more or less ok with it, until to the end of the book. Sure, she whines about it, but goes along.
I hate it when the author's need to play have things happen to fit the story, throws out all logic, credibility and continuity.

She keeps whining about everything being her fault. That attitude is so f-ing self-centered AND stupid. Yeah, sure, you are a superhero, but the world doesn't revolve around you. A crime boss has enemies. It's not your fault. People try to kill a crime boss. It's not your fault. He's been killing a lot of people during his short life, some of them might have family and friends who try to pay him back in kind. Every thought of that? No... you have been in his life a month, it's ALL BECAUSE OF YOU.

There's so much gratuitous violence.
Excuse me, Margaret, but PEOPLE CAN DIE OF BEING SMACKED AROUND. They can suffer brain damage.
Concussion shouldn't be used as a handy plot device to get your characters out of the way for the time you need. BEING UNCONSCIOUS FOR MORE THAN A MINUTE IS MOST LIKELY SIGN OF SOMETHING SERIOUSLY WRONG GOING ON. You NEED medical attention, and IT WILL TAKE AT LEAST A MONTH TO RECOVER FROM THAT KIND OF INJURIES.

In the beginning of the first book, she was in an emergency surgery due to a ruptured appendix. That is very, very dangerous, and takes a long time to recover from. AT LEAST A MONTH.
THEN we add the very bad car accident to this, where she got a whiplash injury AND a bad concussion - she smacked her head so hard to the window that she lost consciousness. But did she have even a headache when she woke up? Nope. Apparently her brain is made of rubber.
During these two books, which describe the events of about a month, she was being heavily abused several times, had her nose broken (the doctor did something and it was ok. She didn't even need to wear a bandage on it), was smacked unconscious once more... all the bruises went away in a couple of days. Apparently they didn't just give her the ability to see in the future, but also superquick healing ability. She'll probably live forever. Maybe, if Margaret decides to write more books about her, she'll grow wolverine claws.

And then the last scene of her reading the senator... yeah... senator's wives usually fill the dishwasher themselves. And burning a photo of you having sex with someone absolutely destroys all evidence. Because whoever sent the photo to your wife doesn't have the digital file on their computer, doesn't have several photos of the same event, and cannot possibly print out as many photos as they want to. And strangling your wife with your bare hands doesn't leave any traces for the forensics to find. Absolutely none what so ever.And the scene itself... sure, the 18 years old girl shakes your hand and then turns to the investigator telling him exactly what you did and where they will find evidence and all that... sure. Yeah. That's probably how it would happen.
Uh. It's just so stupid!