Movie Review: The Secret Life of Pets

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Main characters, humor early on

Cons: Change in tone made much of the movie only okay for me

The Bottom Line:

Pets in NYC

Cuteness in the early scenes

Mostly average

“I’m Never Eating a Pill Like That Again.  Unless It’s Covered in Peanut Butter Because, You Know, Peanut Butter.”

The Secret Life of Pets was one of those movies I never could quite decide on.  The previews made it look like it could be fun, but I was never completely certain what it was about.  I finally caught it on TV.  I wanted to like it more than I did.

Max’s (Louis C.K.) life is good.  He was adopted as a puppy by a wonderful woman whose only flaw is going to work each day.  He’s even made some friends with other pets in the neighborhood, although his favorite activity is sitting by the door waiting for his owner to return home.

One day, she returns home with a brother for Max – Duke (Eric Stonestreet).  Duke is a big dog, and Max doesn’t want to share his home with anyone, especially a big dog like Duke.  However, his attempt to get rid of Duke turns into a war with both of them being chased by New York City dog catchers.  Will they ever get home again?

Most of the scenes from the previews were in the first few minutes of the film.  That can be good because it doesn’t spoil any of the movie, but in this case, it left me with little idea what the film was going to be about.  I will say, I enjoyed these scenes.  In the context of the film, they were even funnier and heartwarming.  They are pure pet cuteness.

However, once the plot kicks in, we lose some of that cuteness.  The story definitely takes some interesting turns, and there are characters who are the opposite of cute.  In fact, a couple scenes might frighten more sensitive kids.

Personally, I didn’t care for those scenes either but for a different reason.  I didn’t find them funny.  In fact, I felt like the first 15 or 20 minutes of the film were from something completely different.  I get what was supposed to be funny in the rest of the film, but to me it wasn’t.  Instead of being more pulled into the film, I actually began to get tired of it.

Still, there were moments late in the film that I did enjoy, and one scene in particular near the end was extremely heartfelt.  I knew what was coming before it happened, but I was still affected by it.

Most kids will enjoy this film, and I can see why it proved popular enough for a sequel.  The change in tone didn’t quite work for me, however.  I wish The Secret Life of Pets had stayed cuter.

TV Show Review: Gotham Knights - Season 1

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Lots of twists and suspense with fun characters

Cons: A few things set up for a second season we will never get

The Bottom Line:

Murder of Batman

Can this group prove innocence?

Short show worth watching

“What Happened to Don’t Do Anything Stupid?”  “I’ve Never Been Good at Taking My Own Advice.”

I’ve been watching DC Comics shows on the CW for so long, that I really don’t pay too much attention to the premise of the shows any more.  I figured I’d at least give the first episode of Gotham Knights a try before I decided whether I’d watch any more or not.  By the end of that episode, I was hooked and I was along for the thirteen episode ride.

Yes, the show is set in Batman’s Gotham.  But the show opens with the murder of Bruce Wayne, which leaves his ward, Turner Hayes (Oscar Morgan) devastated.  He’s even more shocked when he learns that Bruce was also the vigilante known as Batman.  But things that a turn when evidence surfaces that shows Turner paid for Bruce’s murder.  Clearly, he is being framed.  And the assassins?  A fellow group of teens that include Duela (Olivia Rose Keegan), the daughter of The Joker, and twins Harper and Cullen Row (Fallon Smythe and Tyler DiChiara).  The four go on the run together in an effort to stay out of jail for a crime none of them committed.  Helping the fugitives are Turner’s friend Stephanie (Anna Lore), an expert hacker, and Carrie (Navia Ziraili Robinson), who was the current Robin.  Then there’s DA Harvey Dent (Misha Collins) who is unofficially trying to help the fugitives because something doesn’t seem right to him.  But Harvey has his own problems.

The group quickly uncovers a conspiracy involving a secret group that has really been running Gotham for decades.  But can they prove it?  Or will they be killed in the process?

As I said, I was quickly hooked, and I couldn’t wait for each episode to roll around so I could find out what was going to happen next.  The characters were great and the twists compelling.  The odds were always against our characters, and I just couldn’t see how they’d go about proving their innocence.  Good thing I’m not one of them, right?  And yet, we do get a satisfying resolution by the end.

Yes, I lead with that.  Going in, I suspected this was going to be a one and done series given the changes that we had at the CW and how many of their shows were being cancelled at the time.  It wasn’t too long into the series airing that we found out I was right.  Yes, the show leaves some things dangling in an attempt to set up a potential season two.  And, while I would love to know what happened next with those cliffhangers, the main driving story for this season is resolved, and I can live with how the series left things.

Given that this is set in the Batman world, that means the show is dark.  Not too dark, but darker than some of the stuff I normally watch.  Know this, and you’ll be fine.

Also, this was a 2023 CW show.  That means we have a large group of LGBTQ+ characters in the main cast.  I was rolling my eyes as that was introduced in the pilot since it was not only predictable but felt forced.  But I’m glad I didn’t let that turn me off.  Yes, some of those themes were explored, but given the plot driven story, we weren’t given that much time to be lectured.

The cast is fabulous at bringing their characters to life each week and making us care about the story and the outcome.  I have to give a special shout out to Olivia Rose Keegan who is delightful as Duela.  Her character gets some of the best lines and she nails them each time.

If you passed on Gotham Knights, you really missed out.  It is worth tracking down the show and enjoying these delightful thirteen episodes wherever you can.

December 27th's Friday Post

Happy Friday!  I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with many great presents (of course, I mean books) if you were celebrating.  I did.

Time now, for a Friday Post, where I will be linking up to:

Book Beginnings
First Line Friday
Friday 56
Book Blogger Hop

My teaser for the first three will be coming from Gilt Trip, the fourteenth Samantha Kidd Mystery from Diane Vallere.

It's been a while since I read a book in this series since I was working on some of the author's other series, so it's been nice to revisit Samantha.  Here's how this book begins:

“This isn’t working,” I said.
“Come on,” Nick replied. “You can’t give up so soon. There’s a lot of good here.”

Meanwhile, at 56% into the Kindle version, we find this:

“I’d love to hear your theory,” I said politely, “but I need to make the rounds first. In the meantime, hang tight. We had to sacrifice dinner because the food sat out too long, but the pastry chef is assembling desserts as we speak.”
“About time,” Senior said.

Good thing dessert was saved, right?

I've been enjoying this one.  My full review will be my first review of 2025 (got to get used to typing that), so come back Thursday to see what I thought.

Meanwhile, let's close things out with this weeks Book Blogger Hop.

Do you have any reading goals for the new year?

Trying to figure out how to balance reading and my blog with other things.  Which is hard because I don't want to give up getting all the books read that I have on my to be read pile.  But I also want to have time to maybe reread an old favorite.  Or be more spontaneous with my free time.  But I haven't figured out how to balance that well.  So if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Have a great weekend!

Book Review: Irish Soda Bread Murder by Carlene O’Connor, Peggy Ehrhart, and Liz Ireland

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Three engaging mysteries set around St. Patrick’s Day

Cons: All three have pacing issues

The Bottom Line:

Deadly soda bread

In these three fun novellas

With Irish theming

These Loaves of Bread Aren’t Deadly to Your Waistline.  They’re Just Deadly

The world of publishing has to try to get seasonal books out ahead of time so readers have them on hand to read at the right time of year.  It makes the publishing schedules a bit weird, however.  For example, we have Irish Soda Bread Murder, a St. Patrick’s Day themed novella anthology, coming out on Christmas Eve.  Yes, I waited to read it until I was done with my Christmas cozies for the year, but then I dove in.

The title story comes from Carlene O’Connor and once again features the characters from her short-lived Home to Ireland series.  It’s just a week before St. Patrick’s Day, and Tara Meehan’s uncle Johnny is hosting a local psychic fair and bake sale to raise money for charity. Unfortunately, one of the psychic’s drops dead after eating from a tin of the Irish soda bread that Uncle Johnny made for the sale. Can Tara find the pattern to catch the killer. 

This is now my third novella with these characters, and I found it fun to be back with them. I did find the suspects a little hard to keep straight, mainly who had which psychic specialty, but I was still able to follow the story okay. The climax was fun and wrapped things up well. There is a timeline issue in the story, but it doesn’t impact the mystery at all. We also get a recipe for Irish soda bread at the end. Overall, this is a fun story to kick off the collection and a nice chance to catch up with these characters. 

Next up, Peggy Ehrhart presents An Irish Recipe for Murder, a story featuring the characters from her Knits and Nibble Mysteries.  This St. Patrick’s Day, the Arborville Advocate is sponsoring an Irish soda bread baking contest.  The judge is a councilman, but shortly after he samples the first bread, he dies.  Since Pamela Paterson’s friend and neighbor, Bettina, came up with this idea, she feels responsible.  So, Pamela begins to dig in.  Can she figure out what happened?

This is my second time visiting these characters, and I enjoyed getting to spend more time with them.  I did feel like some of the theming got in the way of the mystery, but maybe I would feel differently if I were interested in the craft and history of needlework.  As far as regular characters go, we really only spent time with Pamela and Bettina, and I enjoyed both of them, and the suspects were good.  We get a couple of recipes and a crafting project at the end, as well.  I’m still interested in trying this series, but I feel like the series fans will be most interested in this story than readers who don’t yet know the characters.

Finally, comes the reason I picked up this book – Liz Ireland’s entry.  Mrs. Claus and the Sinister Soda Bread Man features characters we love from her Mrs. Claus Mysteries but in a different setting.  April Claus has received news that her inn back home in Oregon has flooded thanks to a burst pipe.  Since she can’t reach her caretaker, she travels down from Santaland with three elf friends.  They arrive just a few days before St. Patrick’s Day, and the elves are quickly recruited to become leprechauns during the festivities, designed to draw tourists during what is typically the off season.  But it’s the inn that has April most concerned.  Yes, there is flooding, but there’s also a strange smell, weird sounds, and when her caretaker shows up, he’s acting bizarre.  All that’s before she returns to find a dead body on the premises.  Can she figure out what is going on?

Since I love this series, I was really looking forward to this story.  I feel like it tried to do too much.  As a result, the mystery felt under developed.  It took a while to really get going only to have a rushed ending.  However, I was still having plenty of fun.  Watching the elves react to the human world made me laugh out loud multiple times.  Another subplot was lots of fun as well. Unlike the first two novellas, there are no extras here, which is fine since what we got is fun.  Fans will enjoy seeing what happens when these characters leave their usual North Pole setting.

Each of these stories is a little over 100 pages, so they are fairly quick reads if you are looking for something to read in a sitting or two, but when you combine all of them together, you get the equivalent of a full book.

Reading these novellas has worked.  I’m hoping to give the other two authors a try.  If you are curious about any of these series, this is a fun way to get a sample of what they are like.  And the authors do a good job of setting up the characters in the story so you can jump in here if this is your introduction.

Whether you devour this book now or wait to savor it in March, you’ll find plenty of fun and mayhem in Irish Soda Bread Murder with these three stories.

Enjoy more fun with the rest of the Mrs. Claus Mysteries.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.

Merry Christmas!

As usual, I don't have a review for you today.  I'm spending Christmas day with my family, and I hope you are having a wonderful holiday with yours as well.  I'll be back with another holiday book review tomorrow.  But not Christmas.  Intrigued?  Hope you'll stop by.

Ornament Review: Noelle T. Klaus - Snowtop Lodge #20 - 2024 Hallmark Release

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Great Santa themed snowperson ornament

Cons: Does tip forward slightly

The Bottom Line:

Santa snowwoman

Festive series addition

Is stocking for you?

Santa Visits Snowtop Lodge

Hallmark’s Snowtop Lodge ornament series has reached twenty ornaments.  The series has mixed Christmas themes with winter themes (and some other fun ones thrown in).  So I was a little surprised to realize that the series hasn’t really gone full Santa.  That is until this year with Noelle T. Klaus.

Yes, as the name implies, this year’s Snowperson is playing Santa.  Noelle has a red Santa hat on her head.  In her arms, she’s holding a red stocking.  Out the top of it we can see a present (wrapped in green paper), a candy cane, and a snow doll.  As usual, the bottom third of the snowperson has a scene on it.  In this case, the scene involves snowpeople exchanging presents.  Or, I guess I should say stockings.  But we can see presents under the decorated trees.

As always with this series, the ornament is porcelain.  Well, except for Noelle’s hat, which is made from fabric.  As a result, you’ll want to be extra careful with this one, and be sure to display it in someplace where it will be safe.

The ornament itself looks nice and festive.  As I’ve said, this series isn’t always Christmas themed.  I usually enjoy them regardless, but I especially enjoy the ones that are Christmas themed, so I like this one.  The scene at the bottom is fun as well.

Since this is a snowwoman, she has a nice flat base, so you could set these ornaments out to be displayed in a scene if you so desired.  The series marker is paint on the bottom.

Hallmark actually includes a ribbon to hang this ornament on your tree.  When you go to do that, you’ll find that the ornament tips forward slightly.  That’s a common issue with the ornaments in this series.  Honestly, it’s not that big a deal by the time you get a few tree branches around it.

Noelle T. Klaus is a festive addition to the Snowtop Lodge series.  If you’ve been collection this series, you’ll be happy to add it to your collection.  Anyone who likes snowpeople in general will like this ornament and series.

Enjoy the rest of the Snowtop Lodge series.

Book Review: I’ll Bee Home for Christmas by Cathy Wiley (Fatal Food Festival Mysteries #4)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Character growth and a good mystery

Cons: Food talk slows down the mystery of the middle

The Bottom Line:

Honey at Christmas

Trying to clear friend’s sister

Another fun book

Murder is Never Sweet, Especially at Christmas

I am completely enjoying Cathy Wiley’s Fatal Food Festival Mysteries. So I was thrilled when I saw that she was slipping in a Christmas mystery this year. Naturally, I made time to read I’ll Bee Home for Christmas before the holiday. 

The series features Jackie Norwood, a former celebrity chef who lost her TV show when her drinking got out of control. Now, she’s trying to mount a comeback by being a guest judge at food festivals across the country. Sadly, she seems to find herself involved in murders at each festival she visits. 

It’s the second week of December, and Jackie and her friends are descending on Oklahoma for a honey festival. Jackie’s cameraman, Greg, connected her to the judging gig since his sister, Emily, is putting everything together. Jackie arrives a couple of days early to get acclimated and help set things up. Part of that is going with Emily while she visits her beehives. 

However, at one of their stops, they discover the dead body of Emily’s ex-husband. He was obviously in the process of stealing her hives, which gives her a motive. As Jackie jumps in, she finds plenty of others who hated the man. But can she find the killer?

As I said earlier, I’m really loving the characters and their growing relationships. There are some continuations of these arcs from the earlier books, especially the previous one. As a result, I recommend you read these books in order. 

And if you have been, you’ll be happy with what happens here. I’m already looking forward to seeing how these events impact the characters going forward. And the new characters we met along the way were also great. 

Authors who write cozies have a balancing act trying to bring in the theme while also keeping the mystery moving forward. I felt like this book missed the mark in the middle, looking at bit more at the festival and the contests that Jackie is judging. As a result, I felt like a couple things were rushed story wise. That’s not to say that the climax didn’t make sense. It logically followed the clues that Jackie and the rest had uncovered. 

Part of the reason I love this series is the humor. Yes, there is one character who loves his puns, which I appreciate. But there are some other great laughs from the characters and their relationships. 

The book does have lots of food talk with some very delicious sounding recipes featuring honey. We get a lot of recipes at the end, and all the best sounding dishes in the story are included. By my count, we have a total of seven recipes at the end. 

And yes, there are also some fun nods to Christmas over the course of the book, as well.

All told, I’ll Bee Home for Christmas is a sweet addition to the series. Fans will be thankful for it. If you haven’t started it yet, I definitely recommend you do so today.

Travel to the rest of the Fatal Food Festival Mysteries.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book. 

Book Review: Unraveled by Shannon Messenger (Keeper of the Lost Cities #9.5)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Interesting revelations and character development

Cons: Pacing. For some parents, two unnamed characters

The Bottom Line:

Focus is on Keefe

See what he learned from humans

Has pacing issues

Keefe’s Adventures in the Human World

Keepers of the Lost Cities fans have learned that the story has plenty of twists and turns. And some of those include the way the books are released. In order to fully tell the story, author Shannon Messenger realized she needed to tell the story of the time that Keefe spent in the human world during the first part of Stellalune, book nine in the series. And so we got Unraveled, book 9.5 in the series. 

It goes without saying that if you haven’t started this series yet, don’t jump in here. Not only are there massive spoilers, but you’ll be very confused. But you’ll enjoy the journey along the way, so definitely pick up these books. 

This book picks up where book 8.5 ended. (Told you there were lots of twists and turns in the series itself.) In order to protect his friends from his new abilities, Keefe leaves the Elfin world behind to hide out among the humans. While his first attempts are rocky, he soon finds a way to survive. And then he hits on an idea to not only figure out how to control his new abilities but also to figure out some things from his past. Will he succeed at either?

Yes, I’m being vague here. Remember what I said about spoilers. Although, anyone who has read Stellalune can pretty much guess the setup of this book. The important thing would be the details along the way. 

This book in the series is only 400 pages. Compared to some of the volumes we’ve gotten, it’s practically novella length. Even so, I felt like some things could have been cut. Yes, I get what they were supposed to be showing, but I felt like it took us longer than it needed to to get to the meat of the story. 

But once we got there, yes, we got some interesting developments. Things we didn’t know yet. And I’m very curious to see how everything is going to come into play for the rest of the series. 

I do want to discuss one aspect of the book that is causing controversy in the reviews I’ve seen. In the course of his travels, Keefe meets a couple of characters who are gay or lesbian. They are so unimportant that they don’t even get names, although Keefe does think it is nice that they can live their lives as they see fit. These references take up maybe two pages of the entire book, so clearly they are extremely minor. But that also makes them feel a little forced into the universe that’s been created. Do I wish they were not there? Absolutely. As an adult reading the books, they are easy to tune out. But parents will want to know it is there is they want to talk them over with their kids. 

Let’s move on, shall we? 

Over the course of the book, Keefe travels all over the globe. While some of these scenes are the ones that slowed down the plot, I did find some of them fun watching Keefe’s reaction to what we take for granted as humans. 

And yes, we also got some nice character development. We also got a couple scenes from Stellalune from Keefe’s point of view, which was really interesting given all that had come in this book. 

While Unraveled isn’t as action packed as I would have liked, it will still prove to be important going forward. Fans of the series will be glad they picked it up. 

Check out the rest of the Keeper of the Lost Cities books. 

December 21st's Weekly TV Thoughts

Wipeout – My TV claimed that episode was new, but it clearly wasn’t.  The obstacles were all old school, and a reference was made to 2022 (or was it 2023).  Either way, it does prove my point last week that the final course used to be harder.

Poppa’s House – Once again, the first scene is the funniest (it often is, but not always).  Some of those scenes were just painful as he was trying too hard.  I will give them this, the wigs looked great and were funny.

Night Court – So I was wrong two weeks ago when I thought we were breaking until the new year.  We had this Christmas episode still to go.  And what a fun episode it was.  Ridiculous, over the top (in the best way) and fun.  If the writers can go back to this more often, the season will be top notch.

LegoMasters – When I heard fire hydrant, I wasn’t that impressed.  I guessed what they were going for stability wise, but they really brought the character.  That was a clear winner.  All the scenes in the second hour turned out well.  And the stories were great.  Sorry to see the fun ending already.  The new regular season can’t come soon enough.

Survivor – They had four hours, yet they still barely had any time for a real reunion.  I want that!  Give me more of that!  With the entire cast from the season!  Not too surprised that Rachel won.  I felt sorry for Sue since it was obvious she was going to be ignored based on the questions she wasn’t getting.  But to go out and do that at 59?  I’m impressed.  I couldn’t do that at my age.  And Sam staying until the end despite the odds against him.  Three great finalists.

The Challenge – I’m glad Tori had to go into an elimination.  Would have been nice if she had lost, but at least she had to do one.  Has everyone been in at this point?  I’ve lost track.  What an elimination, too.  I would have been okay until the arms had to come out.  Very curious to see what the elements of the elimination are and how the voting is going to impact things.

Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking – I think I was expecting the other team to win.  Not that either team was bad.  Just going in, I felt like the other team was stronger.  But both of those show pieces were amazing.  This series has been fun.

December 20th's Friday Post

'Twas the Friday before Christmas, and here on the blog, it's time for a Friday Post.  (Sorry, I'm not a poet, at least a rhyming one.)  I'll be linking up to:

Book Beginnings
First Line Friday
Friday 56
Book Blogger Hop

I've got another Christmas cozy for you this week.  This time, it's I'll Bee Home for Christmas, the fourth Fatal Food Festival Mystery from Cathy Wiley.

These books are always fun, and this book was no exception.  And it pulls you in from the beginning:

I’ve done many crazy things in my lifetime. This one might take the cake.

Just what is the main character up to?  You'll have to pick up the book.  Meanwhile, here's this quote from 56% into the book.

“Where’s Emily?” Anna Brooks asked. “And your niece, April?”
I winced, realizing no one had told her about the murder. I bit the bullet. “Emily was talking to the police.”
“The police!” She repeated shrilly. “What’s going on now?”

This is a mystery, so I bet you can guess what's going on.

My full review will be up on Monday, so I hope you'll come back then.

Meanwhile, let's take a look at this week's Book Blogger Hop.

In December, many people like snuggling up with a nice book and a warm beverage. What kind of reading environment do you prefer during the winter?

During December, I enjoy reading with my Christmas trees twinkling.  But I continue to read anywhere I can.  I read in my car at lunch time on days when I have to work in the office, and I park on the top of the garage so my car isn't too cold.  A perk of living in So Cal is that this is even an option for me, right?  The rest of the year, I park on lower levels where I get the shade to keep it cooler.

Hope you have a great weekend!