August 30th's Sunday/Monday Post

Welcome to this week's Sunday/Monday Post.  As usual, I will be linking up to:

Sunday Post
Sunday Salon
Stacking the Shelves
It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

It's been hot this week.  While we didn't get rain in my neck of So Cal, I know there were showers elsewhere.  We've had clouds several days.  Not that either have dropped the heat all.  But it is supposed to be down in the 80's this coming week.  Honestly, low 80's is my favorite temperature, so I won't be complaining.

Other than that, not too much else going on this week.  Had a draft for one of my fantasy football leagues on Thursday night.  Went out paddle boarding Saturday late morning.  I'd hoped to get out there earlier than I did, and the wind was beginning to pick up in the second part of my paddle, so I'm glad I got off when I did.  And yes, the new part for my air pump worked well for inflating my paddle board.

Thanks to our slightly off fiscal year, this accountant started third quarter close on Friday.  And several things went wrong.  But we got done what needed to be done on Friday.  I hope that's all the drama and nothing else is going to hit us this coming week.

Joke of the Week:

What’s orange and sounds like a parrot?

A carrot.

This Past Week on the Blog:

Sunday - Sunday/Monday Post

Monday - Movie Review: Saboteur

Tuesday - Book Review: Harrowed Heir by Sarah E. Burr

Wednesday - TV Show Review: The Brady Bunch - Season 3

Thursday - Book Review: Legally Blind Luck by James J. Cudney

Friday - Friday Post featuring Murders in the Marquee

Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

This Coming Week on the Blog:

Sunday - Sunday/Monday Post

Monday - August Reading Summary

Tuesday - Book Review: Murders in the Marquee by Dana Mentink

Wednesday - Book Review: Probable Caws by Donna Andrews

Thursday - Book Review: The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly

Friday - Friday Post

Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

Book Haul:

I've got three books to tell you about this week.

Up first is Holmes Away from Home by Samantha Larsen.  This is the first in a new series that's in the world of Sherlock Holmes.  I suspect how it might ties into the cannon, but I'll see when I read it.  I've enjoyed previous books from Samantha Larsen.  This one comes out October 6th, but I'll be reviewing it as part of a blog tour on September 22nd. So I'll be reading it soon.

I ordered the replacement nozzle for my air pump on Amazon.  I don't have Prime, so I had to order a bit more to get free shipping.  Oh darn.  Naturally, I ordered two books I've had my eye on.

Making Friends Can Be Murder caught my eye when it came out last summer.  It involves a group of women who share a name who band together when someone else who shares their name is murdered.   The premise is interesting enough that I want to give it a try.

The other book is also the first in a series, this time from Melissa Westemeier.  Old Habits Die Hard features a retired nun.  It sounds like a fun book, so hopefully, I'll enjoy it.

What I'm Currently Reading:

Last year, I spent quite a bit of time reading and enjoying Rosalie Spielman's Hometown Mysteries.  I made it up to book 4.  And I have yet to pick the next on up this year, so it was time to fix that.  As I'm typing this, I've just barely started Home Sweet Homicide, the fifth in the series.  I'm looking forward to revisiting the characters and finding out what happens to them next.  I'm sure this will carry me to Monday.

Have a great week, everyone.

August 29th's Weekly TV Thoughts

I'm a little surprised at just how much TV is on this list.  It's August!  Of course, a couple of these shows will drop off after this coming week.  Got to make room for the fall TV season.

Press Your Luck (8/20) – The winner was doing so well for so long without hitting a Whammie.  But once he found him at the end there, ouch!  I was afraid he might lose the game completely, but that prize at the end was huge!

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe (8/20) – So, we’ve got the peaceful savage destroyed by capitalism trope.  Yes, there were some good lines, but the overall message/lecture ruined this one for me.  I’d heard spoilers that there were no cameos, and I’m okay with that.  Makes it even easier to forget this one.

Anna Pigeon (8/21) – I wasn’t sure where they were going when I saw a church group featured prominently.  It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but still, why did they have to go there?  I mean, good twist from a mystery stand point, but still.  I did like the message about people being able to grow and leave the past behind.  That was very true.

The Librarians: The Next Chapter (8/23) – I was not expecting that.  Started out a little scary, and then the second half!  Wow, it was powerful.  Both of the characters who needed to learn something really touched me.  I was chocking up just watching.  Very good episode.  And how perfect was the actress playing Lysa’s mom?  They looked related for sure.

Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro – I think I’m officially rooting against AJ at this point.  He’s always rubbed me a little the wrong way with his arrogance, and it hit a new level for me with this episode.  I was afraid it was going to be Allan’s night to go home.  I’ve been rooting for him all season.

American Ninja Warrior – My only real thought is I am torn on Daniel Gill.  I don’t want to see him go out, but I also didn’t want him to take over Rob’s record.  Then again, if anyone was going to take over Rob’s record, I’d want it to be Daniel.  So yeah, I’m torn. 

The Librarians: The Next Chapter (8/24) – This wasn’t a great episode, especially after the last one.  Pretty predictable, and the creepy puppet thing has been done plenty.  They didn’t have anything to make it stand out. 

The Challenge – I’m really not sure what the strategy was during the game.  It certainly looked brutal.  And I’m sorry the one woman was disqualified because of her injury.  That bites.  Anyway, it seemed like an easy change to get Orange in the sand, but people got too paranoid.  Glad Blue pulled it out again.  And yes, I am over the soap opera of it all.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe – The cud thing was fun at first, but it went on too long.  Nice to see Raj again.  I figured he wasn’t really dead.  I’m not sure what we got out of this one.  I guess there was a little character development as Stuart accepted his mission.  But no real guidance on how to go about doing that.

Totally 90’s House – With the stars involved, I had to watch this show.  (Plus, it helps that they are going to be talking about it on Pod Meets Twirled.)  Some of those elements were dated.  Others didn’t feel quite so dated to me.  I mean, if you had cassette tapes, then you would want a player for them, right?  It will be interesting to see what they teams come up with.

August 28th's Friday Post

Welcome to Friday!  It's time for a Friday Post, where I will be linking up to:

Book Beginnings
First Line Friday
Friday 56
Book Blogger Hop

This week, my teasers for the first three will be coming from Murders in the Marquee by Dana Mentink.

This is the first in a new historical mystery series.  It's official release day is Tuesday, the 1st.  But I got an ARC, so I've already read it.

And here's how it begins:

Saul Niffler leaped out of the path of the Oldsmobile Runabout. The driver offered an apologetic honk on the bulb horn. From under the leather buggy top, his passenger, bonnet ribbons flying like sparrows, giggled as they sped by.

It might have helped that I already knew it was set in 1905, but somehow, that opening really put me in that time period.

Meanwhile, at 56% into the book, we find this quote:

She waved a piece of paper at them. “This is a breakthrough,” she said giddily. “It’s going to propel our case to its conclusion. I just know it.”

What is the clue?  Is it really important to the case?  Or is it a red herring?  I'll let you find out for yourself.

I completely enjoyed the book.  I hope you'll come back on Tuesday to see my full review.

Meanwhile, let's check in with this week's Book Blogger Hop.  The question of the week is:

What grabs you and keeps you hooked in a book?

For me, it's a combination of things.  The first is great characters.  Characters I enjoy spending time with will make me look forward to returning to the pages of a book.  And will make me pick up the next in the series.  But I also want a story that is moving forward.  It's a tricky balance, but if you've got characters I love with a well constructed plot, I will escape into the book for hours on end.

Have a great weekend!

Book Review: Legally Blind Luck by James J. Cudney (Braxton Campus Mysteries #7)

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Interesting plot that kept me engaged

Cons: Usual writing complaints

The Bottom Line:

A cursed talisman

Related to new murder?

Average entry

On the Trail of a Cursed Talisman

I haven’t been the biggest fan of the Braxton Campus Mysteries, but I’ve made it far enough I want to finish it.  After all, Legally Blind Luck is book seven, which means I now have one more book to go.

Our main character here is Kellan Ayrwick, who has moved back to his hometown in Pennsylvania.  His parents spent years working for Braxton College, and he’s now taken a job there as an associate professor.  His return home has coincided with a bunch of murders in the area, and Kellan has been involved in solving them.  Along the way, he’s started dating April Montague, the county sheriff.

The series has had some soap opera storylines along the way, and there are a lot of characters with so many interconnections it’s hard to keep them all straight.  There is a list of characters at the beginning, but even with that, it takes work to remember all the relationships.

As this book opens, summer is just starting, and in the break before Kellan starts to teach a summer course, he is helping with an exhibit of African artifacts that is setting up on campus temporarily.  However, moments before the official opening, Kellan stumbles on another dead body.  He’s also hearing about a talisman that might be cursed.  Is it on campus?  What does its legend have to do with the current murder?

Those who are reading the series might be wondering about the cliffhanger we got in the final pages of the previous book.  It isn’t too long before we find out what happened with that.  I’m not going to say more other than it does tie into this book.  I was rolling my eyes a bit when I realized that was going to be the case, but it mostly works.  I mean, it was still a bit too much to believe, but I’ll let that slide.  The soap opera of it all continues here, but I did mostly buy the climax when we got there.

The plot, as is often the case for this series, tries to do too much.  The author mostly pulls it off, but not without some long passages of exposition.  I admire the ambition, but I think the series would benefit from a little less of it.

I’ve complained in the past about how some of the characters interact, specifically how they treat Kellan.  That was toned down here, which was nice to see.  One of those characters had a minor roll, which helped.  The characters themselves could have been a little stronger, but that’s a result of the large cast.

One thing that didn’t change was the poor dialogue.  Even in the middle of a scene, we’d get some dialogue, then a summary of what the character said, then more dialogue.  Why?  This type of writing makes no sense to me and pushes me out of the scene.  Quite often, the entire (long) paragraph could have been the character talking and it wouldn’t have bothered me the way this approach does.

Also, some more attention to detail would have been nice.  I might have missed something, but I felt like the legend around the talisman changed part way through the book.  I’ll admit I didn’t go back to double check on that, so I could easily be wrong.  A few other inconsistencies bothered me as well.

Complaints aside, this wasn’t a bad book for the series.  But it has its issues for sure.  Those who have made it this far into the series will still want to read Legally Blind Luck.

Check out the rest of the Braxton Campus Mysteries.

TV Show Review: The Brady Bunch - Season 3

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Light, fun episodes

Cons: Only if you are looking for something serious

The Bottom Line:

Start with a road trip

Series continues to charm

Dated but still fun

“If Silence is Golden, This Must Be Worth a Fortune.”

I am now half way through the story, or at least the original story, of The Brady Bunch.  I guess technically, I crossed the half way point in season three.  If you’ve been enjoying the show so far, I’ve got great news – this season is more of the same.  Of course, if you don’t enjoy the show, that’s bad news for you.

The setup remains the same.  When Mike (Robert Reed) and Carol (Florence Henderson) get married, they each bring three kids to their second marriages.  This means that Mike’s three boys, Greg, Peter, and Bobby (Barry Williams, Christopher Knight, and Mike Lookinland) and Carol’s three girls, Marcia, Jan, and Cindy (Maureen McCormick, Eve Plumb, and Susan Olsen) suddenly have twice as many siblings.  Rounding out the cast (because we need one more character), we have Ann B. Davis as Alice, their live in house keeper.

Season three kicks off with an iconic road trip as the nine characters head off in a rented tent trailer to the Grand Canyon.  This three-part episode finds the Bradys trapped in a ghost town (by Jim Backus of Gilligan’s Island fame) and Bobby and Cindy lost at the bottom of the canyon.  While I know these episodes are well loved, I’m not the biggest fan of them.  They were more travel log than actual story, or at least they felt that way to me as I watched them again.  It also makes me wonder who I will feel when they go to Hawaii to start next season.

The good news is, the remaining 20 episodes this season were more like typical episodes of the show.  Among the most famous episodes from the season, Peter tries to develop a personality (leading him to mutter “Pork chops and applesauce”).  Jan, tired of being in the shadow of “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia,” tries out for the pom-pom squad.  Marcia promises to get Davy Jones to play for the school dance.  Cindy and Bobby set out to break the teeter totter record.  When Alice goes on vacation, her identical cousin Emma shows up with her drill sergeant ways.  And all the kids set out to record a song that Greg has written, only to learn that it might be “Time to Change” the song.

In earlier seasons, I’ve commented on the fact that each episode only has one storyline, with everyone getting involved in some way with whatever the story of the week is.  For the first time, we have a few sub-plots.  Most noticeably, the family is building a dunk tank in an early episode.  Of course, there are times that the two storylines merge, like when Greg gets a delivery job just as Bobby is upset about being small.  Only a hand full of episodes contain a subplot, but I thought it was interesting to note.

There’s nothing here that will change anyone’s mind about the show.  It’s still light entertainment.  And that includes the jokes, which aren’t as sharp as you’d prefer for a sitcom.  The conflicts are usually low stakes with a focus on the kids learning something at the end of the episode.  And yes, everyone is mostly well behaved and the situations is resolved happily at the end of the episode. 

But it works.  There’s a reason this show is still in pop culture almost 60 years later.  It’s comforting to imagine a world where everything works out each week.  The characters are good role models or, if misbehaving, learn something to improve their character.

And we are in peak 70’s here.  The use of slang is laughable at times, even for a show set back then.  Carol gets her iconic flip.  And the clothing styles are groovy.  It certainly was a memorable decade that way.

As I implied earlier, there are 23 episodes this season, down from the 24 we got in each of the first two seasons.  The DVD set I have preserves the episodes in their original full frame and mono sound.  The picture is a bit fuzzier than I remember them being in the first two seasons, but they are still watchable.

As I was watching, I discovered that music rights keep a few of the episodes from the season from being available for streaming.  I don’t remember seeing that with previous seasons, so I found this an interesting bit of trivia.  All the episodes are available on DVD, fortunately.

Season 3 of The Brady Bunch continues to charm and entertain.  The show isn’t for everyone, but if you find yourself craving comfort watching, you’ll enjoy it.

Book Review: Harrowed Heir by Sarah E. Burr (Court of Mystery #10)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Interesting mystery as Jax’s story moves forward

Cons: Suspects could be sharper; ongoing storylines that bug me

The Bottom Line:

Other claim on throne?

Jax faces danger again

In this next chapter

Will an Old Secret Foil Jax’s Ascension?

As I continue to work my way through the Court of Mystery series, I’m really wondering where things are going.  Which, I guess, is the point of a series, right?  But we’ve developed several strong ongoing storylines, and Harrowed Heir was another chance to see just how complicated Jax’s life has become.

If you are new to the series, you really do need to start with The Ducal Detective, the first story to feature Duchess Jacqueline Arienta Xavier, Jax to her friends.  She is the leader of a kingdom in a fictional realm.  Over the course of the series, she’s found herself involved in quite a few murders and started trying to reform life for everyone in not only her kingdom but the surrounding kingdoms as well.  That’s not sitting well with everyone, and Jax is now leading a coalition facing war.

As this book opens, Jax is barely healed from the wounds she received in the previous book, but she is setting out to the Dutchy of Hestes to claim the vacant throne.  When she arrives, Jax learns that the nearby Academy has just unearth a centuries old document that indicates that Hestes’s throne might belong to another.  Naturally, she goes to investigate, but things get complicated quickly when she arrives.  Who is behind the chaos?  What does the document mean?

Again, I can’t emphasize enough the need to read this series in order.  There are spoilers, plus you need the full background to fully appreciate everything going on here.  This is more of a serialized story that I was expecting when I started the series.  Not that I’m complaining, but it makes jumping in here hard.

As usual, the beginning of the book starts us off with some catch up, but it doesn’t drag on too long before Jax is off on her new adventure.  It helps that the political drama is as important as the mystery these days, so when we spend time dealing with that, it doesn’t feel like it is slowing us down getting to the main mystery.  And that main mystery?  It was good and kept me guessing all the way to the end.

There’s a large cast of characters by this point in the series, but some of them are just regulated to off page activities or cameos.  As much as I would like to see more of these characters, they would just have slowed things down.  The series regulars we get are entertaining.  It took quite a while for the new characters, aka the suspects, to stand out to me, but they got there.

At this point, there are a couple of ongoing threads I’m not a fan of.  I’m being vague to avoid spoilers for the series.  I thought we’d put one to bed in the last book, but it is still very much alive here.  It really needs to be resolved at this point, and the longer it does on, the more frustrated I get.  Jax is developing a bit of a character flaw as well, and I’m curious to see where that is going to wind up.  I think it could make for some explosive scenes in a few books and some great character growth, but I’m not sure if that is what we are going to get or not.  In the meantime, I really do want to talk some sense into Jax.

Harrowed Heir will entertain fans of this saga as they travel with political and mysterious road with Jax.  I’ll be back soon to see what happens next.

Enjoy the rest of the Court of Mystery novels.

Movie Review: Saboteur

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Good characters in an entertaining mystery

Cons: A few dated elements in the production

The Bottom Line:

Barry is accused

Goes on run to clear himself

Decent Hitchcock film

Trying to Clear His Name of Sabotage

It’s been a while since I watched any of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies. I think I’ve seen his most well regarded at this point, so I picked one of the DVDs I own I hadn’t watched yet. I’m glad I did because I found Saboteur enjoyable. 

The movie was released in 1942 and introduces us to Barry Kane (Robert Cummings), a young man doing his part of the war effort by working at a Los Angeles based airplane factory. In the middle of one of his shifts, a fire breaks out and his best friend winds up dying as he tries to fight the fire. Worse yet, the police quickly determine that the fire wasn’t an accident and think that Barry was responsible. 

So Barry does the only thing he can in this situation - he goes on the run to try to find the man he thinks is responsible in order to clear his name. Along the way, he meets up with Patricia Martin (Priscilla Lane), who doesn’t quite believe in his innocence. Can he figure out a way to bring the real saboteur to justice?

This is a classic Hitchcock innocent man story. Barry and Patricia wind up encountering several complications on their road trip to clear Barry’s name. Patricia’s loyalty switches, but all of these switches are believable based on what she’s just seen. This is definitely the kind of story you’ll only find in Hollywood. I mean, we meet circus performers at one point and the climax is over the top in a way only Hitchcock could pull off. 

There are a few times that the movie makes a leap and expects us to keep up. While I was able to do that, a line or two explaining what had happened off screen would have been nice. I have a feeling this is a case of dated story telling. 

Also dated was the acting. It is in keeping with the times but it was still a bit bigger than we are used to seeing these days. Nothing against the actors, who are all fine. As I said, it was the style of the day. 

Speaking of things like that, this is a black and white movie. 

Given all the talk these days about female characters, I couldn’t help but notice how Patricia came across. She starts out strongly of one opinion, but we see her struggle with that as the story goes along. The end of the movie is as much as result to her actions as it is Barry’s, and yet she was never doing anything that didn’t feel realistic for a woman. Both of them contribute significantly, and positively, to the resolution. It’s the result of their character growth over the course of the film. It’s so different from how characters fare in modern movies, and, frankly, it was refreshing. Okay, so their romance felt a little forced to me, but that’s a minor complaint overall. 

Those looking for some of Hitchcock’s thrills will be disappointed. This is more mystery than suspense although there are still a few moments that will draw you in. 

No, this isn’t the best movie Hitchcock ever made. But it is still entertaining. Sit down to watch Saboteur and you’ll find yourself entertained. 

August 23rd's Sunday/Monday Post

Time for this week's Sunday/Monday Post.  I'll be linking up to:

Sunday Post
Sunday Salon
Stacking the Shelves
It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

I've got the new part for my pump coming, but it hasn't arrived yet, so no paddle boarding for me this week.  (And yes, my paddle board is inflatable.)

On the one hand, it is too bad since we are back up to the upper 90's or low 100's.  We are right on that boarder, and different places are giving different temps.  So let's just say we are at 100.  That's what August is supposed to be.  And also when I want to be out on my paddle board.  Oh well.  Next week.

And I've been busy when I would normally go.  Thursday night, I went to see Beauty and the Beast.  The touring company is back in LA, and I went with a friend.  It was a great production.  We both loved it.  It's one of my favorite movies, so it would be hard for the play to miss.  I did notice they've taken a couple of songs out of the show.  Neither is a huge loss, especially the one they nixed from act 2.

Saturday, I headed to the beach.  That's one way to cool off from the heat.  I went with a friend, and we weren't lonely.  Plenty of people were there escaping the weather.  I need to go to the beach more often.  I'm about an hour away from several, so it's not like I have to travel far.

Pun-Official Holiday of the Week:

August 26 – Paw-lease go mutts with pup-lifting festivities for Dog Day!

This Past Week on the Blog:

Sunday - Sunday/Monday Post

Monday - Movie Review: Superman IV - The Quest for Peace

Tuesday - Book Review: Two Truths and a Murder by Colleen Cambridge

Wednesday - TV Show Review: Dark Winds - Season 1

Thursday - Book Review: City of Promises by Victoria Thompson with Ellen Thompson

Friday - Friday Post featuring Harrowed Heir

Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

This Coming Week on the Blog:

Sunday - Sunday/Monday Post

Monday - Movie Review: Saboteur

Tuesday - Book Review: Harrowed Heir by Sarah E. Burr

Wednesday - TV Show Review: The Brady Bunch - Season 3

Thursday - Book Review: Legally Blind Luck by James J. Cudney

Friday - Friday Post featuring Murders in the Marquee

Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

Book Haul:

Thanks to a late breaking ARC, I have three books to tell you about this week.

The first is a pre-order that arrived a little late.  But that's okay.  The book is Murder at the Agency by Kylie Forsythe.  Kylie is a debut author, and I've been hearing some good things about it, so I'm looking forward to diving in.

And the late breaking ARC?  It's Death in Luxor by M.A. Monnin.  This is book four in her Intrepid Traveler Mysteries.  I've really enjoyed this series, so I'm looking forward to reading the latest installment.  It actually just came out, but I signed up for a spot in the blog tour happening in October, so I'll be reading it in a few weeks.

I also decided it was time for another audio book.  I'm back to Michael Connelly in my audio book rotation, specifically, The Dark Hours.  This one features his long running character Harry Bosch and the newer character Renee Ballard.

What I'm Currently Reading:

As I'm typing this, I've already started listening to The Dark Hours.  I'm really enjoying it so far.  My guess is I will wind up finishing it Sunday, but if not, I'll definitely finish it Monday.

I'm also currently half way through Probably Caws, the newest Meg Langslow Mystery from Donna Andrews.  It just came out at the beginning of the month, but I had other books I wanted to get through first.  I'm enjoying it as always.

I have a feeling I will be done with it before Monday.  So, when Monday rolls around, I will actually be reading Belinda Blake and the Wolf in Sheep's Clothing by Heather Day Gilbert.  This is book two in the Exotic Pet-Sitter Mysteries.  I just read the first one a couple of months ago.  Since it's just a three book series, I decided to try to finish it up this year.  We'll see if I can work book three in or not over the next few months.

Have a great week!

August 22nd's Weekly TV Thoughts

The list is a little short this week.  I didn't get to everything I would normally watch, but I'll catch them this coming week.

The Librarians: The Next Chapter (8/16) – The character development here wasn’t quite as blatant this time around.  Yeah, it was still fairly obvious to figure out where the arc was going to go, but it wasn’t as in your face.  Or may I just like it because it was something different.  It is heart breaking to think of them having to stay single.  And I did like Robert when he was normal.  Maybe that’s why.  If I hadn’t liked the guy, maybe I wouldn’t care as much.  So kudos to the actor for bringing him to life so well.

Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro – Two days to teach a new dance to someone?  That seems impossible.  They don’t have deadlines like that on the main show.  I’m still very impressed with what the pros came up with.  I get that I’m not a judge, but it looked very good to me.

American Ninja Warrior – I’m glad Nick was okay.  I’m sure that cramp was painful, so I’m amazed he kept going.  Other than that, not sure I have too much else to comment on.  Lots of good races.  Hard to see James McGrath go home.  Very few of the old guard can keep up with these races now, it seems like.

The Quiz with Balls – They had some really tough questions in this episode.  There were several I had no clue about.  I was feeling pretty good about the questions in the bonus round, however, and knew the one that ended the game.  Curious if I could have made it to the end or not.

The Librarians: The Next Chapter (8/17) – I really like it when the entire team gets to shine.  And they were having fun playing each other, although I couldn’t always track who was whom even by the performances.  Still, it was fun.  And again, didn’t feel like it was a heavy-handed character development.  Plus, we got to see Merlin again.  I was wondering when he was going to pop up.

The Challenge – Cara Maria, they are asking legitimate questions.  Do you want to be there?  Because, your performance so far says no.  I get you have history on the show.  But that doesn’t matter.  What you are doing this season is what matters.  Step up your game!  Having said that, I’m happy to see Blue full off a win.  Finally.  Will be interesting to see if that momentum can continue next week.

August 21st's Friday Post

It's Friday!  Time for this week's Friday Post, where I will be linking up to:

Book Beginnings
First Line Friday
Friday 56
Book Blogger Hop

My teasers for the first three will be coming from Harrowed Heir by Sarah E. Burr.

This is book 10 in her Court of Mystery series.  It's set in a fictional continent and politics is ramping up, adding to the mystery in each book.

Here's how this book begins:

A knock on the door interrupted Duchess Jacqueline Arienta Xavier’s trance, forcing her to look up from the stack of papers she’d been attempting to sort before her departure.

Meanwhile, we find ourselves in a bit of a fight at 56% into the ebook:

“Don’t think you can use my own words against me, husband.” Jax kept her voice even, but her gaze lanced Perry to his seat. “It is unbecoming to use my ideals to justify what you have done.“

I enjoyed this book.  My review will be up on Tuesday, so I hope you'll come back then to read it.

Meanwhile, let's move over to this week's Book Blogger Hop.  Here's this week's question:

Do you follow book trends and bestsellers, or do you prefer hunting down lesser-known titles?

The answer is yes.  I do read some best sellers; I'm reading two right now.  I don't follow trends to follow trends, but if something sounds fun, I'll pick it up.  But, like the book I'm highlighting this week, I also like to read the lesser known authors and put a spotlight on them.  Again, if the author or book catches my interest, I'll read it.

Have a great weekend!