Patrick Sheane Duncan

This has been my all-time favourite film for at least a decade.

Mr Holland’s Opus is a wonderful, ‘feel-good’ story about a young man who wants to compose music… but takes a job teaching music in a school to provide a reliable income. It’s only ever going to be temporary, or so he thinks at first. But the years roll by, and he finds himself more and more drawn into the life of the school, making an incredible difference to many of the students.

There’s a whole other storyline involving Mr Holland’s wife and son, which is incredibly moving, and brings tears to the eyes at times even seeing it for the second or third time.

If you like films with fast car chases, great excitement, sex and violence, then don’t bother. But for those who like a slower pace of life, who are interested in schools, or music, or great characterisation, I would highly recommend this. Mr Holland is played brilliantly by Richard Dreyfuss, as realistic at sixty as he is at the start of the film.

Most recent longer review here: https://suesdvdreviews.blogspot.com/2019/11/mr-hollands-opus-richard-dreyfuss.ht...… (meer)

This book has a great hook! Con artist, Pru, has a website to set up "dates" when she gets to their hotel room she slips them a roofie and robs them blind. But she's the heroine! One date turns out to be a serial killer with his own bad intentions. She is able to get the upper hand but he won't let it go and the chase is on. I love the premise of this book, the thought that went into these two main characters and Pru's mentor, and the action sequences. There are some seriously gory portions, which I don't mind.

There's one character, Pru's Russian fence, who is difficult to read; the author attempts to recreate his accent with his street-wise slang way of talking and it's just an mess. Thankfully he plays a small role. What I could have done without was the last chapter. It's three sentences, adds nothing to story and it refers to a minor detail earlier in the book (granted half-a-dozen sentences earlier but one of those things you don't even waste time on). I literally did a word search on my book to find out what she was talking about.

Many thanks to #NetGalley and Crossroad Press for providing me with a free copy of #TheHoneyTrap in exchange for an honest review.… (meer)

Thanks goes to Netgalley for the Arc!

Full disclosure: I imagined that I was going to be reading a humorous horror based on the title alone, as if it was one very long and humorous joke, but what I got instead was a serious and well thought-out exploration of the times precisely 50 years after the accounts of the original [b:Dracula|17245|Dracula|Bram Stoker|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387151694s/17245.jpg|3165724], written in much the same style and even including a very old Van Helsing, his granddaughter, and even the inclusion of Harker's grandson, too.

These are not affected. These flow naturally into the tale, because, after all, some evils are worse than others. Dracula was originally a freedom fighter, after all, and now his homeland has just been invaded by the German War Machine. Enemy of my enemy.

After what I thought was a slow start relying overmuch on real times and places and not quite getting into the good stuff early enough, I was soon transported and delighted into the fullness of the tale, and I loved the interesting and realistic fascination between the tragic hero of Dracula and Van Helsing's granddaughter, who is a pretty fantastic and interesting character in her own right.

Did I fail to mention that this is also a pretty cool romance?

The writing is very good, too, epistolary in the same nature as the original Dracula, but it goes on with much, much better action scenes. :) I loved the Nazis and their attempt to harness the power of vampirism. :)

I repeat, this is NOT a throwaway cash-in or a humorous joke. The novel is serious and a lot more complex than I believed could be possible, full of history and deep characterizations and real love for story.

I totally recommend this! :)… (meer)