Ketutar

I'm sorry, but this just isn't good.

I wanted to read this book for two reasons.
1) the author has the same last name as I do. Later I found out that it was nom de plum. He just admired the German Nobel prize winner Friedrich Bergius. :-(

2) The premise of the book was fascinating. A young couple was engaged and to celebrate the event they went shopping for some little memento, and found an ancient, Egyptian scarab pendant. And they felt they had seen it before. And it turned out that they had. Their souls had been living many lives before. First in Egypt the man had given the scarab to his love, but their lives didn't turn out well, they died, and were condemned to try again. In Rome during Nero, in Spain during Spanish inquisition, in France during the revolution... and the scarab is there every time.
It's about rebirth and eternal love and soul lessons or something like that.

It could have been amazing.

It wasn't. :-(

Now... he TRIES to stay true to the history he writes about, but I don't think he manages well. Of course, one cannot say how the Egyptian people would have been, because there aren't many novels from Ancient Egypt saved to this day :-D There's more information about the Romans, even more about 16th century Spain and 18th century France, but I don't think C.C. or Egon-Maria Zimmer, as was the author's real name, had the ability to adjust his writing enough to make his characters live in real events. I didn't get attached to the characters and didn't think their choices and actions and thoughts or even the events were believable. At first I “listened” with lukewarm interest, but it cooled very quickly, and the Spain segment of the story froze it. I had to force myself to wade through the France part. And it didn't even end satisfactorily.
You see, the author had made the male lead skeptical about reincarnation, but Christian, so the female lead could tell him “You can't prove God exists, and I can't prove reincarnation is real, same thing”. And the male lead agreed with her. And that's where they dropped it. We won't find out if they manage to live their lives this time according to the “higher expectations” which they failed in previous lives. It doesn't look good. But - I don't like these people. There's only two characters I find in some way interesting, and that was a side character in the Spain story, and then Raimond's character arc was interesting, he seemed to be evolving into a very interesting person.

But - frankly, all I get from this book is that I want to rewrite the story and do it better.

Another cute Christmas romance :-)

So, yes, she's a masquerade costume:
“The vivid purple cloak she wore, embroidered along the edge with gold thread, stood out from those wearing less vibrant colors. A red and gold paisley scarf encircled her neck. Rich, black hair spilled in finger-tempting waves over her shoulders, although a braided band of hair encircled the front of her head like a crown. A crown seemed fitting for an enthralling gypsy queen. Silver hoops swung enticingly from her ears. When she lifted a hand and placed it on the old woman's shoulder, silver and gold bracelets tinkled around her wrist and slid down her forearm.
The rich hues of her crimson and gold striped skirt topped with a dark green blouse put him in mind of a fancy hotel lobby he once walked through. A wide, heavy belt cinched her narrow waist, accentuating a bounty of curves above and below the band of leather.”

I'm not too fond of the “my father was a drunk and thief and he sold me to my husband who was abusive and tried to sell me as a whore” story either. It would be nice you kept your fingers out of other cultures if you cannot write but racist caricatures.
But - other than that, I liked this book.

Hard to believe this was published 2017...
“The Prince's Captive Virgin”.
A little island kingdom in Aegean Sea.
Prince Adam (wink wink) has been in a horrific traffic accident where he was disfuígured and his pregnant wife killed. Caused by the paparazzi.
Belle's (wink wink) father is a paparazzo and Belle thinks it's all right. Celebrities WANT to be photographed. If they didn't, they'd protect themselves better. If a person can walk in to your home and take photos of you, you obviously wanted that to happen, and selling these photos is “innocuous”.
The prince doesn't think this is OK.
So, Belle's father flies from LA to Mediterranean, walks in to the prince's home, takes photos of him and sends them to LA. The prince is angry and arrests the guy, for breaking and entering, and violating his privacy.
Belle, a college student, studying English literature (of course), finds money somewhere to pay for a plane ticket from LA to a small island in the Aegean Sea, and comes to rescue her dad from the awful monster, because dad is obviously deadly sick and in need of treatment, and that was why he came to take photos of this prince - to earn money to pay for the treatment.
Belle doesn't understand the concept of people getting imprisoned for breaking the law, especially when she doesn't think the crime should be a crime, and the criminal is sick and her dad. No, arresting criminals is “destructive revenge”.
So she suggests that the monster exchanges his prisoner to her instead. After all, her education is just a piece of paper to her, and she can easily sacrifice that to save her father's life.
Except that when the prince takes her offer she doesn't know what to do, because obviously the right thing would have been to give this entitled stupid American college student what she wants and ignore the law, so she will probably whine about how unfair it is through the book until she falls in love with the monster.
And, Belle has intimacy issues, because her mom left the family when Belle was 4. She doesn't want to become a “tempestuous, selfish creature driven by passions of flesh” like her mother, and also she is “accustomed with her space and independence”. She is still a virgin (of course she is) and has had only one boyfriend in her life (the current one), and he doesn't know she is in Europe.
Apparently, the prince doesn't give a crap about law either, because he accepts her offer. She is “uncommonly beautiful”, and he needs a pretty girlfriend, now when he has decided to become a real king, after having been recovering from the accident and loss of his wife and child for three years.

Anyway, just like in the movie, she is supposed to dine with him and she refuses, because “she finds him uncivilized”. And continues being a total a-hole, moping about him having taken her offer, because obviously she didn't really mean anything with it.
It is interesting how common this is in different The Beauty and the Beast retellings.
NOBODY forced your dad to commit a crime. He's a prisoner because he broke the law and got caught.
NOBODY asked you to offer to switch places. What somebody is asking is for you to honor the agreement YOU proposed.
YOU should have considered your precious freedom before you so callously offered to give it away. It wasn't he who took it away, it was you who gave it away. And now you want it back. Apparently your father's life isn't worth that.

I just wished he had told her
“Miss Chamberlain. I agreed to your request - and remember it was your request - because of two reasons. Firstly, your father is ill and in need of treatment, which he and his doctors have arranged to begin soon in America. Secondly, because I need a pretty girl on my side when I make my comeback to the publicity. If you fail in this job, you will not be a sufficient replacement to your father, and I will get him back. Make no mistake about that. But if you do your job well, there will be benefits for you. If you manage to convince the world of that you love me, and not just my status and money, I will see that your father's treatment is paid and that your education is paid. If you play your part badly, I won't be playing my part either.
What comes to you being my mistress in real life, you don't need to worry. I am still very much in love with my wife your father's colleagues took from me. You are beautiful, but she was beautiful, intelligent, kind, funny, she loved me, she made me laugh and she made an unfillable impression in my bed. I will be holding you as if I loved you, kissing you as if I loved you, flirting with you and giving you gifts, the way I have treated all my previous girlfriends, in public, but in private I doubt there will even be much interaction between us, and considering your attitude, I doubt there's even any wish for that. It might be rather lonely for you, but if you are interested in reading, I have a large library, and I can see you'll get a tutor so that you won't miss much of your lessons while you are paying for your father's crime.”

Oh, and she' 5'3 and he's 6'6 at least, and really muscular. A bit like Emilia Clarke and Jason Momoa. So... whose that slim, undamaged, 5'6 guy in the cover?

Er... all this build up and then... uh. What? Sorry, but... leprosy isn't... if he killed himself because he couldn't stand the pain... suffering... having the disease, what ever, then there shouldn't be any reason for him to stay, and... uh. And the way it was revealed was... stupid.
Just stupid.
But two stars because there were some bright spots in the story. He is a good writer.

A harmless little story for Christmas :-)
Easy, quick read, looking forward to the rest of the series :-)

I like the concept of 12 brides of Christmas, and post-order brides, but
- this is too modern in mindset. She should have tried to write like Louisa May Alcott and Laura Ingalls Wilder. As she chose not to, I don't quite believe these people

- Most post-order brides were rather desperate to get married and determined to make the best of what they got, and they didn't have much expectations. Basically just to get married, and hopefully the husband to be was a good man. These “ladies” behave like brats.

- there's a bit too much diversity in this group of women.
A traveler woman in the 19th century would not end up among “lost sheep” to go and marry some anybody out there. Her family would take very good care of her. If she wanted to hide her heritage and pretend to not be a traveler, she wouldn't dress “like a gypsy”, what ever that means. I imagine a masquerade costume.
And of course there would be a Latina to marry the Latino. We couldn't possibly marry a good white girl to “Nacho”, now, could we?
And probably the Chinese man will marry the Chinese girl, in spite of everything :-D Let's see what happens here.
Interesting that they didn't put in black people as well... perhaps she thought that would be too difficult to handle.

- the language is a bit... problematic.
A 19th century lady wouldn't need to mind her words, because she didn't have any inappropriate words in her vocabulary. I find this so surprising with people, 19th century ladies didn't need to be careful about not swearing, because they wouldn't ever swear, because they didn't have the need to swear nor the habit. They dealt with situations with other words - or without words.

I like this one, too :-)
Good surprises all the way around, enough with excitement and scary events, very happy ending :-)
I love romance novels like this, feel good stuff :-)
EXCEPT THAT in 1876 it would be VERY inappropriate to arrange marriages between different races. A “half-breed” would not be allowed to marry a white woman.

It's a short book, but rather exciting. I was really intrigued and anxious about the things that happened in it.
Basically, two young women first find each other, and then they find this mysterious Chinese puzzle box they can't open. It turns out that there are a lot of other people after the box. Whom can they trust? Will they survive, get hurt? Will the dog survive?

I was bothered by how badly trained the dog was. Basically doing anything it wanted most of the time, and not especially obedient. Also, the idea of it being an English Sheepdog didn't fit the image I got while reading. I thought of it more like a border collie or some sort of a terrier. But - what evs.

Also, the ending was happy. :-D

Absolutely delightful little read. (Very short, though, as you can see.)

Also, someone said it's racist. I can see why. So if you are bothered by such, be warned.

It's very hard to rate...

Her advice is very good, it's easy to read, she writes well, BUT

her description of an alpha female reminds me of the dogs Cesar Millan (The Dog Whisperer) is called to help. Not alphas, but people who desperately want to have an alpha in their lives, but don't have one, and therefore are doing their very best to be that, and fail miserable, are miserable doing it, and make everyone else miserable as well. Being bossy, dominant and dictatorial aren't the same as being a born leader.

Feminism isn't what she thinks it is, and she can't stop herself from jabbing at it. It's exhausting and irritating.

If you are a Conservative, read this book. It will make your life and marriage a lot better.
If you aren't... read it anyway, and try to find the core of what she says, and ignore all the BS she sprinkles over it. The core is sound and wise. It's just the wrapping that stinks. And it's really short, so you'll read it very quickly.

My advice for a happy marriage (and I have been happily married for over 20 years)
- Marry your best friend, or the person who would be your best friend if you weren't sexually attracted to him/her. The lust phase will pass, but friendship never ends. A good marriage is basically two best friends sharing a home.
- Divorce is not an option. Agree on this before you get married. If you think you can always divorce if it doesn't work out, don't get married. Work out all the wrinkles. Talk.
- Respect each other. Listen to each other.
- Express your love to each other as often as possible. Be starry-eyed and silly. Kiss, hug, cuddle often. Sex is not necessary, TLC, kindness and intimacy is.
- It's ok to argue, quarrel, fight, get mad at each other, but talk it over until you understand each other and where you come from. It's ok to disagree, but you need to understand each other.
- Marriage is not “happily ever after”. You will be quite unhappy every now and then. Every now and then you will be sick and tired of your marriage. It doesn't matter. You will be sick and tired of your hair, eye color, clothes, work and everything else in your life as well. It's still good enough.
- Don't think you'll change him/her. The only person you can change is yourself.

I really didn't like this book. I want my Fantasy to have happy ending. This one doesn't.

Peter Pan really is all the bad things people say he is, selfish, cowardly, mean psychopath. And, kid, you are on your own, and frankly, when you are like 10-12, you aren't much to have. How ever heroic and courageous you are. So just give up, nothing's going to save you. Do yourself a favor and just accept everything is crap, and the best you can expect of life is more crap. Everything is grey, everything stinks, life is boring and then you die.

Pidin kirjasta kovasti.

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They're there to stop the other people.”

Mutta... en pitänyt hänen vaimostaan yhtään.

Siis elokuussa 2007 mies saa tietää, että hänellä on syöpä ja 3-6 kuukautta elinaikaa.
Hän ja hänen perheensä muuttavat lähelle vaimon sukua.
Hän haluaa pitää jäähyväisluennon, jossa sanoisi lapsilleen kaiken sen, mitä haluaisi sanoa, mutta ei tule olemaan hengissä sanoakseen sen.
Vaimo sanoo “ei!”. Vaimo tahtoo, että hän auttaa laittamaan uutta kotia kuntoon, ja että hän viettää kaiken aikansa perheensä kanssa.
Lopulta vaimo kuitenkin suostuu, mutta murjottaa asiaa jatkuvasti, vaikka mies ottaakin aikaa luennon kirjoittamisesta ollakseen perheensä kanssa.
Esitelmä on syyskuussa, päivää vaimon syntymäpäivän jälkeen. Miehen pitää lähteä yliopistolle päivää ennen luentoa ollakseen valmis. Hän pyytää vaimoa lähtemään mukaan. Vaimo sanoo “ei”, koska hänen pitää laittaa kotia kuntoon muuton jälkeen, mutta sanoo tulevansa kuuntelemaan luentoa seuraavana päivänä.

Mitä tapahtui sille että vaimo halusi että mies viettäisi hänen kanssaan mahdollisimman paljon aikaa?
Mitäs jos olisivat syöneet romanttisen illallisen vaimon syntymäpäivän kunniaksi heidän entisessä kotikaupungissaan ihan kahden kesken? Lapset ovat 5, 3 ja 1.
Elikkä kuinka paljon hän nyt sitten halusi viettää aikaa kuolevan miehensä kanssa?
Juttuun kuuluu vielä, että miehellä oli ollut solumyrkkyhoito juuri “muutama päivä aikaisemmin”, ja he olivat juhlineet vaimon syntymäpäivää päivää aikaisemmin varsinaista syntymäpäivää, jotta mies saattoi olla paikalla.
Minä olisin lentänyt mieheni kanssa ja auttanut häntä luennon valmistelemisessa, koska tietäisin, että hän olisi hyvin väsynyt ja pahoinvoiva solumyrkkyjen takia.
Mutta ei...

Paska vaimo.

It was very confusing.
Nobody has been the least concerned about people's reputation, courting, chaperoning and all that, but suddenly they all get so very concerned now, when it's two people nobody in the town knows anything about.
I don't get what's so funny.
I hate the “oh, you're just a little woman, you need a man to protect you”. She came to the town all by herself, didn't she, has been taking care of herself all by herself for over a year now, but now she can't possibly travel alone or take care of herself. And that's supposed to be romantic? No. Condescending crap, that's what it is.
And then suddenly 180 degree turn for no reason at all.
Uh. Ei ole päätä eikä häntää tässä tarinassa.
But - end well, all well. It was OK, and I even kind of like it. At least I didn't want to hurt anyone reading this one.

I love this book.
I like his advice, I like his anecdotes, I like the tips and hints and ideas. It's a short book and a quick read, which makes it even better.

To address some of the 1-2 star reviews...
1) I didn't find him obnoxious or full of himself, but - hey, chemistry. People like different people.
2) No, he doesn't teach you any one language, he talks about his method of learning languages. It's a good one.
3) Yes, mnemonics. Yes, it works. If you know how to use it. If not - of course it won't “work”. :-D But mnemonics is how Timothy Doner learns languages, so - good enough for me.

Hands down, one of the worst books I've EVER read. This book was like a nightmare. I have never in my life wanted to go and just bash a book character's head in, but Norah...

I suppose the best thing one can say about this is that I have read worse writing. Technically it's not too bad. Not good either, but not too bad. The story, on the other hand... that's where the biggest weaknesses are. The story stinks. People make decisions I don't think any decent person would. The author plays god to fill up the plot holes. The original idea was good, but the books is bad. The worst part of it is Norah herself.

I hate Norah. This is the first fictional character I have wanted to kill. I wanted to strangle her and smash her head repeatedly against something hard until it breaks. And then probably stomp on her brain as if it was... slug or fly larvae or something else disgusting and nasty, because that's what it is to me. She's a nasty piece of crap and she doesn't deserve to stay in Noelle and be happy with Seamus, but Seamus does, so I'll let it pass, but if I was there, I would sure beat some sense to her wooden head, even if it broke in the process. STUPID SELFISH BITCH! But, of course... she's so stupid nothing would get more sense into that head. I feel like I'm having a nightmare.
But I really want to do bad things to her. I want to strangle her and bang her head against the wall or floor or some other hard place until it breaks open.

It helped writing an alternative ending to this book, where Seamus kills himself when he finds Norah's room empty. All the life and will to live and ambitions just drain out of him, because she was the only reason for him to do anything and with her gone there was nothing left for him. And he was blaming himself for not being good enough, not having done enough, having done too little too late... Being catholic divorce was not an option, so he decided to condemn himself to hell to release Norah and give her a chance to find happiness and a man she deserved and to get the life she deserved. So he goes down and asks Nacho to take care of the food at the party, writes a will where he lefts all he has to Norah after his debt to the people of the town has been paid, vanishes into the night, goes to the forest, digs himself a grave, goes to lay down there and shoots himself.

Felice happens to hear the shoot and goes to investigate, and finds Seamus. Then she comes to the party and accuses Norah of his death, saying that Seamus wasn't rich enough for her, and leaves the town, because she refuses to live in a town where a whore is the only one mourning the death of a good man, and where the town supports his murderer.

Norah's friends try to support her, but no man wants to marry her because they believe she was the reason why Seamus is dead, and as Seamus didn't have much property, as he had been sending all he could to Norah, Norah doesn't have much. The saloon and Seamus' room is given to the next man Charlie hires to keep the saloon, and Norah must live in the corners of her friends, who don't like that at all, as they don't have much room themselves. Norah can't afford to leave the town, and doesn't have any place to go either, and she can't do anything...
I mean... seriously. Nothing. She isn't good at anything, she's pretty but every woman in that town is pretty and most prettier than Norah. She isn't smart, witty, strong, capable, or gifted. She isn't even good at normal womanly household chores and such. Her only good quality is that her husband loves her.
Oh, and her grandfather had a magic “whisky” recipe. I call it whicky, because you make it in a couple of days with not special equipment.
The good Christian women start whispering about what to do with the widow, and decide to make her the mistress of the mission house.

Also, Amanda McIntyre managed to make me hate Reverend Hammond. She makes him conniving, selfish, self-centered, better-than-though, overbearing oaf.

I hate this book.

Pure crap.

This is disgusting. The “hero” is disgusting. It's disgusting that the girl drools all over him.
Also, these people's actions make no sense. The dialogue stinks. There are some bright spots, but it's like berries swimming in a bowl of puke, so... that kind of makes even the bright spots disgusting.

Yeah, he's really hot and gives you a golden cage, but he's still a disgusting piece of shit and the cage is still a cage. Stockholm Syndrome is not a joke, and not romantic.