Melody
*sniff* This post shall be the last for my TX and MN series. Although my husband didn't have the time to visit all the lovely places in these two states (after all he was there for his business trip), still he had had a wonderful time exploring these places. He may have the chance to visit there again, I don't know, but I'm keeping fingers crossed that the next time around I'd be following him, if circumstances permit, that is.

I have no idea what pictures to post next for the Wordless Wednesday meme, perhaps I should go back to posting random pictures I took from my iPhone. Yeah!




Melody

Teaser Tuesdays

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
  • You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
  • Please avoid spoilers!

I have read a lot of rave reviews on Daphne du Maurier's books, in particularly to Jamaica Inn and this book I just started reading yesterday, Rebecca. Though I'm only on page 38, I could already feel the intrigue and the story slowly unfolding as the narrator related her tale about meeting Max de Winter, the man who owns Manderley, an isolated gray stone mane on the windswept Cornish coast. They said he couldn't get over his wife's death, and the narrator is about to find out the truth behind it.

~*~*~*~*~*

Rather forlorn, more than a little dissatisfied, I leant back in my chair and took up the book of poems. The volume was well-worn, well-thumbed, falling open automatically at what must be a much-frequented page.

"I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed slopes I sped
And shot, precipitated
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,
From those strong feet that followed, followed after."

I felt rather like someone peering through the keyhole of a locked door, and a little furtively I laid the book aside. What hound of heaven had driven him to the high hills this afternoon?

(Pg 32, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier)

Melody
ISBN-13: 9780345506900
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Publication date: June 2011
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 400 pgs
Source: Personal Library




It has been a long while since I read a romance suspense novel; I picked Linda Howard's Veil of Night because I enjoyed reading Linda's previous novels, plus the heroine in this story is a wedding planner and I was interested to know more about the profession through the story.

Jaclyn Wilde loves her job and she put in all her time and efforts in running her own events business, Premier. Together with her mother, they had built up Premier's name through their detailed and well organised planning and although their work is not entirely a bed of roses, Jaclyn and Madelyn always see through everything no matter how difficult the clients and/or the tasks at hand.

However, Carrie Edwards, her latest client has ways of irritating her and making things difficult not only to her and to the other vendors as well. She would decide to change the colour of the bridesmaids' wedding dresses at the last minute, or criticise that the food is not up to her taste and status, blah blah blah. As much as she is annoying and demanding, many people figured it wouldn't do them any good should they want to make a huge fuss over her unreasonable tantrums, considering that she is marrying the son of a senator.

Just as Jaclyn is trying to get over another one of Carrie's unreasonable demands and the slap she had given her, she is shocked to learn that Carrie was murdered after they had arranged to meet up to discuss more of the wedding details, together with the other vendors as well. Now everyone that is present during that meeting became a suspect and it doesn't put Jaclyn in a favourable spot as she had forgotten and left her briefcase where the crime scene is.

Detective Eric Wilder is assigned to the case, but he is in an awkward situation since he had had one passionate night with Jaclyn and although he is professional enough to not let his personal life mingle with his job, it bugs him as that means he has to lay his hands off of her and on top of that, Jaclyn is giving him a cold shoulder. Jaclyn knew he is doing his job, but she couldn't help feeling hurt and offended when Eric starts to question her.

What Jaclyn and Eric didn't know is while they are trying to sort out their situations the murderer has moved on to the next unaware target - Jaclyn.

I enjoyed reading Veil of Night and I think Jaclyn and Eric are both very likeable characters. While I think their chemistry and their exchanges are entertaining and add some spice to the story, however on the suspense front it lacks the punch. The whodunnit effect wasn't as great as what I had anticipated; I supposed I wanted a list of suspects for me to guess and to see if my hunch is correct. The real action only began towards the last quarter of the book and while I think there is nothing wrong with this approach, I have to say it somewhat took some of my patience away but suffice to say that the attraction between Jaclyn and Eric is enough to keep me occupied.

I have Linda Howard's latest release, Prey, in my TBR pile and I hope that it would be better on the suspense front.
Melody
Stillwater, Minnesota





Melody
I am sure many of you must have known the storyline and what happened in The Twilight Saga, thus I am not going to brief on the premise and instead share with you what I thought of the movie when we watched it a few days ago. Due to the school holidays, the cinema was quite packed but still Breaking Dawn: Part 1 would attract its fans everywhere no matter whatever the circumstances are.

Unlike the previous installments, Breaking Dawn: Part 1 covered more on the emotional than the action part as we see Bella and Edward got married and had their honeymoon at a beautiful exotic place in Brazil. There are many romantic scenes of the newlyweds being together and how Bella reacted in her new role as Edward's wife (and by the way, I loved her wedding dress!). In fact, I felt the first part of the movie was moving on quite slowly because it focus too much on the above.

The action (and drama) finally began in the second part where we see Bella having difficulty in her pregnancy stage and that her appearance and her overall health deteriorate. Bella looked frightening in her pregnancy stage as she always looked pale and haggard. Her body frame reminds me of those who are anorexic except that her protruding belly tells otherwise. And as for the birth scene, it wasn't horrendous as I had anticipated, but then considering that this movie is PG-13 I figured by showing traces of blood is suffice to tell the whole delivery process.

However, fret not if you think this movie is geared towards the sentimental as there is still a tad small of a fighting scene between the werewolves clan and also between the vampires and the werewolves as well. It is also interesting to see Jacob's struggle as he not only have to see his beloved Bella got married to his nemesis but also to stand by her throughout the overall series. Even if you don't belong to Team Jacob, you couldn't help but to feel sympathy with the poor guy who have sacrificed so much for the sake of seeing Bella's happiness.

So what did I think of this movie? It was pretty romantic (yep, I am still thinking of the place where Bella and Edward went for their honeymoon) and I am sure this installment would satisfy a lot of female audience (the wedding/honeymoon as well as the part where Jacob took off his shirt during the opening scene) but it also left me wonder what would be in store in the last part considering the big premise (the wedding and the delivery of the baby) were already shown in this first part. Of course there is the confrontation scene with the Volturi but other than that I couldn't think of anything major would happen. That said, I still look forward to Part 2 as it is a closure to this Saga.
Melody




Melody

Teaser Tuesdays

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
  • You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
  • Please avoid spoilers!

I meant to choose a thriller but after reading a few pages, I decided I wasn't really in the mood for it so I changed my mind. Since I haven't been reading romance suspense for a long while, Linda Howard's Veil of Night is it.

~*~*~*~*~*

Her free arm slipped inside his open jacket and she grabbed a handful of shirt fabric, holding on for dear life. The side of her arm brushed against something very hard, and there was a very brief glimpse of leather before she made the startled identification of holster, followed by gun, then cop.


(Pg 3, Veil of Night by Linda Howard)

Melody
ISBN-13: 9780762441174
Publisher: Running Press Book Publishers
Published: August 2011
Format: Paperback, 416pp
Source: Personal Library



Vampires. Werewolves. There are absolutely too many books on these mythical creatures out in the market and while I feel it is great to have a wide range to choose from, I don't want to feel like I am reading the same story over and over again thus I think I am pretty choosy when it comes to books that featured such themes.

I first stumbled upon Blood on the Moon on a blog (I couldn't remember who) and the blogger stated that she enjoyed reading it. Intrigued by her review and the blurb as well, I picked up the book and I was glad to say it didn't disappoint me.

Faith and Derek are best friends for years and it is no surprise that they enter into the same college. Derek has feelings towards Faith but she didn't want to accept his love considering that he has cheated on her once and she felt that she would feel more comfortable being friends.

Enter Lucas, a mysterious classmate who seem to have this strange yet dangerous vibe around him. He intrigues her, and needless to say they feel attracted towards each other. It turns out that he is a werewolf and his pack has this mission of eliminating the vampires whom they believe have murdered several girls around the campus.

To complicate matters and to heighten the climax, Lucas has to face his ex-good friend and namesis, Vincent, who is a vampire and they had this feud centuries ago. There is a little history about their feud so I am not going to elaborate on that here.

Faith vows to find out more about Lucas and the mystery surrounding the dead girls, but instead of finding answers she finds herself being caught in between the old feud between Lucas and Vincent. It is also up to her to save Derek's life as Vincent uses him as a pawn to lure Faith out so that he could use that advantage against Lucas, knowing that they have a thing for each other.

As mentioned before, I was glad that Blood on the Moon didn't disappoint me. Initially I was worried that it would bear some resemblance to the Twilight Saga, but after reading a few chapters I realised that my worry is superfluous. Although there is a romance drama (as expected), the heroine knows what she wants right from the beginning so this story is very much about the chemistry (and telepathy?) between Faith and Lucas, as well as the feud between Lucas and Vincent. Oh, there are also some intense moments about Derek being a pawn so all these add up to my reading pleasure.

As for the characterisations, I have to say they are well described but I regret to say that among all of the characters, only Lucas stood out from the rest in my opinion. Vincent makes a great villain, but his role is limited considering that there is a twist to the plot in which I wouldn't want to disclose it here. And as much as I liked Faith and think she is brave when confronting her personal demons, I think part of her weakness lies with Derek as she wouldn't want to end their friendship but yet she felt she couldn't trust him enough. A dilemma, indeed.

And, I don't even want to talk about the ending, which is totally a cliffhanger! I tried to google for the sequel title and its release date but couldn't seem to find it but I am hoping that the wait wouldn't be long!
Melody



Related Post:
Melody

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week and explore great book blogs.

Here's what I received:

1) The Beach Trees by Karen White (from the publisher)

2) Silence (Hush, Hush Saga #3) by Becca Fitzpatrick (bought from The Book Depository)

What books came into your house last week?

Melody
Directed by: The Pang Brothers
Starring: Angelica Lee, Lawrence Chou, Siu-Ming Lau, Rain Li
Release: July 2006



As mentioned in my previous post, I had the intention of doing a mini-reviews post on In Time and Re-cycle but in the end I had written more than I had expected for In Time so I figured I may as well do an individual post for each film.

Re-cycle was released in 2006 and though it had intrigued me at that time, I didn't get to watch it in the cinema. And then the time just rolled and I had forgotten about this movie until last weekend, my husband asked if I am keen to watch this on screen so of course I said yes.

Author Ding Yan attains her fame through her debut romance novel and during a press conference one day, she stated that she would like to try her hands on writing a paranormal and she had even thought of the title. Her statement has intrigued the press as well as her readers and they believe that she would once again take the literary world by storm through her writing skills.

However, Ding Yan (played by Angelica Lee) faces difficulties when writing the story initially. To complicate matters, her ex-lover wants them to be together again and this further adds stress to her already chaotic mind. She tried several attempts in writing the story but most of the drafts ended up in the bin.

Then she began to sense something is not right at home; first she would see shadows late at night and thereafter, she would find strands of long hairs in the bathroom but the most terrifying experience is finding strange things began to happen as what she has written in her deleted drafts.

One night while taking the elevator, she encountered a mysterious old woman and a little girl. One thing leads to another and the next thing she knows, she finds herself in another dimension where the wasted lands are and the supernatural beings that roam there. While finding her way out of the ghoulish land, she finds her young daughter whom she had aborted eight years ago and through her assistance, she needs to find her way back to earth or risk stranded there forever.

While I think the premise is nothing new, what really made this movie stands out is the atmospheric setting and the stunning visual effects of the other dimensions (see below).




Personally, I feel many of the horror movies out there focus too much on the shocking effect (which I think is natural) and neglect to portray more of the messages (or morals) which may be hidden behind those effects. Re-cycle may seem to be a tad weak on the plot but the good thing is it gives the viewers something to ponder on the abortion and the environmental issues (hence the title?).

And finally, the ending may perplex some viewers but I have to say I quite liked the twist and that it stretch the imagination.
Melody
Minnehaha Falls is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota.



Melody
Directed by: Andrew Niccol
Starring: Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, Vincent Kartheiser
Release: October 2011



I watched In Time with my husband last week as part of his birthday celebration. Truth be told, In Time was our last minute decision as the time slots for other movies were either not right to our schedule or they were shown later in the evening. Nevertheless, it was an entertaining movie although I have to say the storyline seemed to be a little far-fetched to my liking.

It is Year 2161. Genetic alteration has allowed humans to stop aging at 25 years and in order to avoid the issue of over-populations, the state of currency is being replaced by a system they called 'living time'. Each individual has a running time line which is 'etched' onto their arms and in order to pay for their necessities as well as for survival, they have to earn more time through labour and/or other means (i.e. stealing time from others). The people are divided by social classes and the poor will live in the ghettos of Dayton while the rich will live in the luxurious New Greenwich.

28-year-old Will Salas (played by Justin Timberlake) lives with his 50-year-old mother in the ghettos. One day, he witnessed a gang fight in a bar which involved a mobster boss and a man named Henry Hamilton who has a hundred years on his clock. Will helps Henry in the escape and needless to say, he became the target of the gang too.

Henry later transfers all his remaining time line to Will before committing suicide. Unfortunately, Henry's suicide alerted the resident police force who called themselves the Timekeepers. And this begins a race between the Timekeepers and Will as the latter makes his way to New Greenwich, where he encounters a beautiful 27-year-old Sylvia Weis (played by Amanda Seyfried). Sylvia is the daughter to time-loaning businessman and she is attracted by the enigmatic Will after he has beaten her father at a poker game.

In order to crash the time line system and to bring a balance between the rich and the poor, Will and Sylvia began to rob the time banks and other time loaning branches so they can distribute the time capsules to the poor while they are being hunted by the Timekeepers.

Although my feelings toward the storyline is lukewarm (I just couldn't picture a human's life being calculated and controlled by the time line), however I have to say this movie featuring the dystopian future is refreshing and thought-provoking at times (i.e. a reminder that time is precious and to make full good use of it, etc). Personally, I think the chemistry between Justin and Amanda was great, and although I am not a huge fan of Justin, I have to say he had grabbed my attention through his performance (he must be physically fit for this role as he always seemed to be on the run in this movie most of the times) and not to mention his cool, chiselled looks (I have to check out his previous movie, The Social Network that talk about the founding of Facebook and the resulting lawsuits).

On the other end, as much as I was taken in by Amanda's portrayal of a spoiled rich girl, truth be told I just had this mixed feelings about her robbing her father's bank though I know her and Will's intentions were good (I suppose I shouldn't connect her robbing as being unfilial towards her father and instead think of the deeds she has done as a whole).

I may not give this movie a 5-star rating, but it interested me enough that I wouldn't mind watching it again on video the next time around.

(Note: Initially I had wanted to do a mini reivews of two movies I watched lately - this together with a chinese horror, Re-cycle but it turned out that I'd written long enough for In Time to be considered as a mini review. Thus my review on Re-cycle will have to wait for another day. What movies did you watch lately?)
Melody

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week and explore great book blogs.

Here's what I bought and received from The Book Depository:

1) 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (Can't wait to dive into this! I know it'll take me a long while to finish reading it since it's a chunkster!)

2) Bunheads by Sophie Flack

What books came into your house last week?

Melody
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Melody

Teaser Tuesdays

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
  • You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
  • Please avoid spoilers!


I watched his face, set into an oddly attractive scowl, his eyes as dark as ever. They flickered to mine for just a moment, and in that moment, they were silver.


(Pg 35, Blood on the Moon by Jennifer Knight)

Melody
ISBN-13: 9789881753267
Publisher: 天苑文化
Published: 2008
Format: Paperback, 228pp
Source: Author



《在晴朗的日子分手》除了讲述男女之间的爱情故事以外,其实它也包含了亲情,以及一个关于气味和味道的故事。

女主角蓝莉喜欢穿Lolita style的服饰;为了喜爱的服饰她在一家化妆品牌柜台当推销员。除了推销产品,她的梦想就是到英国念化妆课程。自小她就恋上了一种气味; 这个气味使她联想到父亲的气味。虽然她不知道她的亲生父亲是谁,但是她在母亲接客的大多数男人中都嗅到了这个气味,所以就认定了它就是父亲的味道。

另一位女主角尤儿则喜欢吃蛋糕和甜点。除了爱吃,她更喜欢做甜点。自小因一场无情的车祸而丧失了母亲;她最难忘的事情便是当天和母亲到一家酒店品尝一块蛋糕。对她来说,那是件最幸福不过的事。从此她就一直在寻找记忆中那幸福的味道。

男主角林正 (注: 因为是繁体版,读者不知怎么拼男主角的名字。既然他的名字有个‘正’字在下,所以就干脆叫他‘林正’了。) 的职业是名小提琴和钢琴教师。为了这份工作,他不惜劳累奔波到学生们的住家教课。他在一次偶然中遇见了蓝莉,而蓝莉因他的气味而恋上了他。两人就这样顺其自然地走在一起。

尤儿为了自力更生而搬离住家出来租房子。可以说是种缘分吧,尤儿看了蓝莉的租赁广告后就这样地搬进了蓝莉家,成了她的室友。两人的感情本来融洽,但慢慢地她们的感情因林正而起了变化。爱情可以令热恋中的情侣快乐,但它其实也可以带给一对恋人痛苦,例如说对爱情的不安和缺乏信任。而蓝莉就是这个例子。但一个人很爱一个人时,自然而然地他/她很在乎对方,有时候甚至超乎了极限。要取得平衡,谈何容易。

林正本来对尤儿没什么特别的感觉,但他发现和尤儿在一起的时候那种感觉很自在,没有一点儿的压迫感。而且,尤儿对以后的事不抱太多的假想,一切凭感觉和自己快乐而去做每件事。但这并不意味着她对林正的感觉是草率的。她其实也对这份感情付出过的。

三人的感情纠纷,就围绕在寻找气味和味道之间。爱情是什么?幸福又是什么?我想,我在读完这本书后已大概有了答案。与其说是答案,不如说我对爱情和幸福有了更深一层的了解;原来这两者并不是我们想象中的那么复杂和难以追寻。

It has been a while since I read a Chinese novel, thus when the author contacted me and asked if I wanted to do a review for her two books, I said yes and on top of that, I was intrigued by the blurbs.

Though Breaking Up on a Sunny Day is a romance, there is also a theme between a mother and daughter relationship, and a story about scent and taste (read further and you’ll know why).

Lan Li has a passion for Lolita fashion. In fact, she loves them so much so that she joined a cosmetics brand which has the same style for their uniforms. Aside from this passion, her dream is to visit England and to pursue studies on makeup and cosmetics there. Since she was a child, she had a liking for one particular scent; this scent reminds her of her father though she has no idea who her father is. Many men who came to look for her mother shared this same scent and thereafter she would link this scent to her father as it always make her think about him.

You Er, on the other hand, has a passion for cakes and desserts. Not only she has a passion for those, but she loves making cakes and desserts too. One of her most unforgettable moments from childhood is having tea at a hotel with her mother and they were both sharing a pot of tea and a slice of cake. Unfortunately, her mother died in an automobile accident right after they left the hotel. Her mother’s death shattered her and through memories she vows to find that happiness she had had with her mother.

Lin Zheng, the hero in this story, is a teacher who teaches violin and piano. He would travel around Hong Kong to conduct lessons at his students’ home and though the job is hectic at times, he is quite satisfied and happy with his life. He and Lan Li met each other during a chance encounter and it is through him that Lan Li has found the scent that she has been looking for all this while (Lin Zheng would help out at his father’s barber’s shop at times). Needless to say, they fell in love shortly after.

You Er moved out from her father’s house to find freedom and independence. Through an advertisement, she rented a room from Lan Li and they became good friends. However, their relationship changed after You Er met Lin Zheng .

You Er didn’t mean to fall in love with Lin Zheng initially, and likewise Lin Zheng has no special feelings towards You Er, but after the time they have been together as friends their relationship started to blossom. Although Lin Zheng loves Lan Li, he finds he is more at ease with You Er as compared to the woman whom he thinks he is in love with.

Breaking Up on a Sunny Day tells a bittersweet love story between three people and lead readers to wonder about the complexity (and simplicity?) of love. Through the thoughts and behaviours of these three characters, this story highlighted the feelings and the dilemmas many couples face when they are in a relationship, e.g. if you love a person, how do you ensure that the love and attention you are giving to the other party is just right and not overwhelming? Is it even possible to create a balance and find the happiness that you want? Perhaps. But I have to say I have a better understanding of love and happiness after reading this book, and I think maybe those two aren’t as complicated and hard to achieve as we have thought.
Melody
Minneapolis, Minnesota



Melody

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week and explore great book blogs. This month's Mailbox Monday is hosted by Savvy Verse & Wit.

Here's what I bought and received from The Book Depository:

1) Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

2) Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Volume 2 by Stephenie Meyer, Young Kim (Artist)

What books came into your house last week?

Melody
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, Minnesota




Related post
Melody
ISBN-13: 9780451233288
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Published: July 2011
Format: Paperback, 400pp
Source: Publisher



Set in North Carolina during the 1800s, Shadow of a Quarter Moon tells the story of Jacy Lane, a young woman living in a plantation and how her life changed after her father's death and discovering that she is actually the offspring of a dalliance between her father and a slave.

Added to the complexity is her engagement to Garrison Yob, a middle-aged man who is known to be ruthless and a chauvinist, and most of all finding out that her biological mother and brother are still working in their plantation.

As much as she is shocked and couldn't accept the revelation that she is the daughter of a slave, she gradually accepts her fate and seek to know more about her biological mother and brother. With the assistance of Rafe, a horse trainer whom she is attracted to, they plan to flee from the plantation and to find a life of their own.

Filled with rich Southern atmosphere and an emotional-driven plot to boot, author Eileen Clymer Schwab weaves a story of a spirited young woman finding her identity and all the challenges she has to face for freedom and all.

What I liked about this story is it somewhat has a 'coming-of-age' edge to it as we see Jacy's transformation from a rich white girl to a matured young lady who would travel to all lengths for the sake of love and freedom. The characterisations of Jacy's biological mother and half-brother, Jerlinda and Axel, as well as Rafe made this story more interesting to read through their insights along with their actions.

Another thing is, Shadow of a Quarter Moon not only touches on relationship between mother and daughter but also on the hardships of the slaves faced during the 1800s. After reading the author's notes and the readers guide, I learnt that the author had also researched for the history of the Underground Railroad in North Carolina as well as the Great Dismal, in which they are being mentioned during Jacy's treacherous journey as she seek for freedom.

A story of courage and history, Shadow of a Quarter Moon will inspire readers through Jacy's treacherous journey and also as a remembrance of the past as the time goes by.