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Ready Player One Tag

As with Grey’s Anatomy tag, I did a bit of a search to find one ready made. Alas, there wasn’t one to be found so I made one myself. It’s on the short side, but I find less is indeed more and people put more effort in to individual questions this way.

Describe your avatar from the Oasis
After many hours of going through handles that have already been taken I would probably go for something like H@nSolo My avatar would essentially have Faith from Buffy’s body, an elfin face and Ariel’s hair. She’d be dressed in clothes similar to Han Solo with Lando’s cape because you always need a cape.
Would you be a Gunter or would you be tempted to join the Sixers? Would you clan up?
I think I’d be a half arsed gunter. I’m really rubbish at puzzles and problems. I noticed as part of the promotion for the film there was an easter egg inside the trailer. I sent it to a friend after about 5 minutes because I just couldn’t do it.
I’m also not very good at computer games. I got a GameBoy when I was 12. I was told I had to complete the two games it came with before I got any more. I never got more games for it.
In my defence, one of those games was Super Mario Land and if you turned the thing off, you had to start all over again; there was no way to save. I got pretty far one Sunday afternoon while having the device plugged in; but 8 hours later I had a nasty headache and a nagging mum telling me to be more productive.
The other game was its sequel and while it did have a save option, it took me up until 2012 to get to the final of the game. That death match has still yet to be completed by me.
Last year, while dating a tech-imp he got me into Tomb Raider and I really got into that. Unfortunately, along with everything else, me playing the game lost its appeal to him and I didn’t get past the 25% mark after playing for about 14 hours off and on over 3 months. Plus, him shouting at me for being shit kind of spoilt the fun I was having.

Based upon all of the above, I doubt I’d ever be on IOI’s radar to be wooed into Sixer living. However, I wouldn’t do it even if they asked. I’d belong to a clan of people who knew me and liked be around for the company.
What sort of world would you most like to visit?
I feel like saying Pop Culture is too obvious as the book itself is a love letter to everything Pop Culture. However, a 90s pop culture ‘scape would be perfect. Get a coffee and hang out at Central Perk, Club Nights at the Bronze and have a book recommended to you by Rupert Giles.
There’d be an almost ‘Theme Hospital’ immersive game to play where you work alongside doctors from ER and Casualty.
If you want a change of pace, you can enrol in Starfleet before joining one of the three Captains that dominated the 90s: Picard, Sisco and Jayneway.
In the book, you have to become a character in a film. You have to be as word perfect as possible and gain bonus points for inflection. What film and character would you be most successful as?
I’m fairly certain I could be successful with any character in Kevin Smith’s Dogma, but for the inflections it would have to be Alan Rickman’s Metatron. That said, Alan Rickman in any of his roles would be quite fun to do. “because it would hurt more.”
The other film would be Jurassic Park and I’d happily take dealer’s choice as I’ve watched it so many times I subconsciously recite the lines now. “shoooowt her, shoooowt her.”
What five songs would you have ready to play while in the Oasis?
Aerosmith- Jaded
David Bowie- The Man Who Sold the World
Pink- Just Like Fire
Panic at the Disco- Victorious
Elle King- Good Girls

Ready Player One- 12A

I have now seen this film twice and I’m still struggling to write a review for it. Mainly because it’s so frigging awesome! Not very often (ever, if memory served) do I enjoy a book to film adaption this much. The key to this is possibly Spielberg’s diversions that allow readers of the book to experience the mystery and wonder from that first reading.
I went in very nervous. I even had a sneaky peak at a few reviews; that’s how nervous I was. My 8 year old self who found her love of films through Spielberg and Jurassic Park thought he was the perfect choice to make the film. However, present me who has witnessed a distinct change in his filmic style post Minority Report (This is where I first noticed the change) felt it needed someone like JJ Abrams or Jon Faveau to embrace the geeky fandom elements. I let my 8 year old win over in the end.
I’m glad I did and the second I saw that initial black screen, I knew the film was in safe hands.
As always, the casting is spot on. Spielberg has always had the ability to spot rising talent and featuring them with veteran actors from previous works. Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke and Lena Waithe are amazing in their roles within the High Five. However, for me it is Ben Mendelsohn and Speilberg’s current keystone Mark Rylance who steal the show playing Sorrento and Halliday respectively. Mendelsohn is a true delight as the head of the IOI.
It is the music that will win people over. Of course it doesn’t reach the highs of Guardians of the Galaxy in epic-ness for playlists, but it certainly does pack a punch. As music is a major player in Ernest Cline’s work (both RP1 and Armada), it’s good to see that it transfers over to the screen.
Spielberg has always been known for his trailblazing ways with graphics, and this lives up to that. The world of Oasis is stunning, breath taking and immersive. There are so many references within each scene that it just begs for repeated viewing.
As I mentioned before, the film diverts from the book quite a lot. It brings the real life counterparts together a lot earlier and this then enables both the Oasis and the real world to progress and give the film some momentum. It also changes the challenges. While some die hard fans may see this as sacrilege, I think it’s a stroke of genius. It removes any ‘they didn’t do this’, because recreations would never please everyone. Instead, what you get is the heart in mouth feeling of awe you got from reading the book the first time. I don’t want to spoil any of the tasks for anyone, but bloody hell that jade key task?! Gah! I loved every moment of it and Aech! Gah! Perfection.
The ending is very Goonies, right down to a in-car squabble between the defeated villians. It’s here more than anywhere I feel a little uneasy about the casting of Simon Pegg as Ogden. The scene loses a little of its power by having such obvious aging used on Pegg. It’s a shame as other sections were okay.
The only other missing piece from this almost perfect adaptation is the absence of Wil Wheaton as a nod to the fans of both the audio book and book proper.

Sinner by Christopher Graves

Sinner by Christopher Graves
It does take a while for the book to settle and reveal its protagonists. That’s no bad thing, as it gives you a solid foundation in which you meet your two main players; Zeke and Dani.
Dani is a brilliant character to be ‘trapped’ with; she’s the strong willed trainee you would normally expect to find in these novels. You see enough of her relationships outside of the main section of the narrative to empathise with her and will her success.
Zeke is scary. Petrifyingly so. Even though you perhaps get more of his inner thinking than you would perhaps in another novel, it doesn’t detract from the chilling fear you feel. In fact, it increases it and he’ll haunt you long after the book has finished.
Plot
The plot is a refreshing change to what could have easily been a detective crime thriller. Instead we’re taken behind enemy lines and look at the lives of the predator and prey; a man from what can only be described as a tormented cult-like upbringing, turned into a serial killer and justifying his actions through scripture.
Then we have a woman who has uprooted her life after a relationship breakdown, trapped inside a house with little or no chance of escape. Your heart will be in your mouth during those chapters. I will never read detective novels in the same way again.
Writing
The writing is good, clear and able to present two distinct voices. There’s sections that are little rough; there’s a flashback sequence that to some might feel a little choppy and too simplistic. However, the rough and rawness of the sequence is actually what makes it so realistic.
The writing brings the tone of fear down heavy on you; I felt it creep up on me slowly, then all at once you know you can’t put the book down. I raced to the finish, my breath catching as I knew the battery was going to die and I didn’t want to leave Dani alone.

Tomb Raider – 12A

Release Date- 16.3.2018
Run Time- 118 minutes

Trailer

About
Lara Croft is the fiercely independent daughter of an eccentric adventurer who vanished years earlier. Hoping to solve the mystery of her father’s disappearance, Croft embarks on a perilous journey to his last-known destination — a fabled tomb on a mythical island that might be somewhere off the coast of Japan. The stakes couldn’t be higher as Lara must rely on her sharp mind, blind faith and stubborn spirit to venture into the unknown.

The Good
Alicia Vikander is the perfect fit for the rebooted game. Not only for a modern audience wanting a hint of realism to their movies, but in terms of being the perfect incarnation of the 2013 game reboot that the movie is based upon.
It’s unfair to compare Vikander to Angelina Jolie, but you will be forgiven for doing so. Making her younger and removing the inheritance was a brilliant move. Showing her strength and friendships also make her more sympathetic.

The Bad
The plot was frustrating for me. I can’t put my finger on it, but it felt a little choppy. The game-play sequences certainly were the best parts, but the plot was almost shoe horned around it. The lack of friends joining her on the mission to find her father is also a misstep. To spend all that time setting up her current lifestyle and social circle, to drop it completely for the second act makes me feel like it was time wasted.

The Ugly
So, I have many problems with this film. It ranges from the tone of the movie to the characterisations.

So, it’s in keeping with the rebooted games; darker with hint of realism. Unfortunately, the tone makes it take itself a little too seriously. It makes some of the outlandish and mystical elements clash with the overall film.
Walter Goggins’ badguy, Mathius.
1. Twice he mentions how he’s alone on the island and has been for 7 years. Okay, so the henchmen and slaves don’t count?!
1. What is his motivation? The final act has him telling the Crofts that they are wrong in what they believe is buried. However, if he’s so sceptical, why is he there? I get that it’s to make money for the company, but I’d like to have seen what he was actually looking for.
1. When you first meet Mathius, he makes it clear he has no hesitation to kill people. Yet from that scene onwards, he struggles to kill other people.
1. There’s no development of the character to make me believe that he was someone the company would send to the island.
It was very much an origins movie through and through; the final 20 minutes was a blatant set up for film number 2.

I, Tonya – 15

Release date: 16 February 2018
Running Time: 118m

About
In 1991, talented figure skater Tonya Harding becomes the first American woman to complete a triple axel during a competition. In 1994, her world comes crashing down when her ex-husband conspires to injure Nancy Kerrigan, a fellow Olympic hopeful, in a poorly conceived attack that forces the young woman to withdraw from the national championship. Harding’s life and legacy instantly become tarnished as she’s forever associated with one of the most infamous scandals in sports history.

Trailer

Oscars
Allison Janney won Best Female support

The Good
It’s a good movie that keeps its pace and takes on an almost meta quality. It doesn’t claim to be telling the truth, but many interpretations of the truth. There’s a lot more humor to it than the trailer gives credit.
The nostalgia for the 90s is very real in this movie and gives the whole tone a gritty edge that I hope to see in more. I just wish this was part of the ’88 Winter Olympics; you’d then have a trilogy of films to watch.

We can’t leave the good without talking about the amazing Allison Janney. West Wing alumni deserved every single win during awards season. She is brilliant in everything she does and I, Tonya is no exception. She’s on point with her characterisation of Mrs Harding and the depiction of what I believe is COPD.

The Bad
I obvioiusly don’t know Tonya Harding personally, but the end of the movie shows, as many biopics do, clips of the real life counter parts. Based upon the clips seen, Margot Robbie plays Tonya a little too hard. In the clips and from other footage I’ve seen, there was a softer side to her. I would have liked to have seen that represented.

The Ugly
That ‘tache! Poor Sebastian Stan did not make that facial fuzz look good.

As always with biopics of this nature, they are uncomfortable to watch. The violence, the anger and the damage makes for an entertaining movie. However, it does pull you out when you remember it is someone’s life unfolding before you.

Almost Love by @oneilllo

Synopsis: When Sarah falls for Matthew, she falls hard.
So it doesn’t matter that he’s twenty years older. That he sees her only in secret. That, slowly but surely, she’s sacrificing everything else in her life to be with him.
Sarah’s friends are worried. Her father can’t understand how she could allow herself to be used like this. And she’s on the verge of losing her job.
But Sarah can’t help it. She is addicted to being desired by Matthew.
And love is supposed to hurt.
Isn’t it?

Characters

Sarah isn’t a likeable character, in the sense that she represents those parts of myself I don’t like. She is incredibly, heart breakingly relatable, and anyone who disagrees has never been told by a friend that they are being selfish.
It’s an incredibly raw insight that Sarah has. It’s grounded, fueled by pain and unapologetic. Even when Sarah convinces herself of things that will come to pass with her relationship with Matthew, there’s part of her that knows that she is kidding herself.
While I didn’t like Sarah I’m aware that what I don’t like is part of the situation she’s in, so I loved her as I would a friend. I’d be there for her and help her through her pain… If she’d let me.

Matthew on the other hand is almost a shadow character; we don’t get to know much about him. This gives this character a two-fold purpose; it represents the shallowness of his intentions with Sarah, but more importantly, Matthew is a symbol for anyone who has been treated in this way and the wonderful thing about this novel; I no longer feel alone in it.

Plot

The narrative is this wonderful non-linear exploration of Sarah’s life with, and after Matthew. It gives a real sense of PTSD from the almost sociopathic relationship Sarah found herself in.
The resolution won’t a satisfying end for some people, but believe me, it’s so very real that it will haunt you for days after you finish the book. It’s not the ending anyone would want, especially Sarah. But as a reader, we have to remember, it’s not the end. It’s just the conclusion of this part of Sarah’s journey.

The Writing

Louise O’Neill doesn’t give us the books we want, she never has. O’Neill gives us the stories we need, and she does it so well that you will almost forget that the subjects in which she writes about would feel like a chore under anyone else’s penmanship.

With Almost Love, O’Neill gives us a strong voice that struggles to keep to social expectations and provides us with a look into a world some of us would never venture into without detracting from the narrative.

Its a wonderful third novel from the talented writer and while I will always wait impatiently for her next offering; I can’t deny that they are always worth that painful wait.

Mom and Dad (18) #MomAndDad

Trailer

Synopsis

A teenage girl and her little brother try to survive a wild 24 hours during which a mass hysteria of unknown origins causes parents to turn violently on their own children.

The Good

Selma Blair is incredible as the titled ‘Mom’. Her character evolves in so many ways, and it is through artful subtleties that her character is able to catch you off guard and provide an anchor for Nicolas Cages’ ‘Dad’.

The entire cast is game in this wacky and near the knuckle blood fest. From the opening scene to the final blood splattered words, you will be on the edge of your seat in awe-inspiring disbelief.

The music in the film is also stunning. It is reminiscent of the 70s and 80s movie that Stranger Things has brought into the homes of every hipster. Only with Mom and Dad, it’s not ‘cool’ and ‘hip’, it’s chilling and atmospheric.

The Mad

Nicolas Cage. Damn, no one else could have fitted the role of ‘Dad’ better. This is the Nic Cage we have all been waiting for, even if we didn’t know we needed it. If there’s a line between caged animal and insanity, Nic flirts with it, buys it dinner and mounts it like he’s on heat. It’s a glorious sight; Nic Cage in full feral mode screaming ‘mother fucker’ as if he’s invented the word.

The plot that develops around his character is charmingly deep and rooted in adult fears. It’s easy to carve Nic’s performance out as a wacky comedic nut job trying to end the lives of his beloved children, but behind all the anger that exists before the epidemic starts is the heartbreaking truth behind the human condition; what happens when our dreams don’t come true?! Then of course he sings the Hokey Cokey…

The Ugly

This movie does not pull any punches with its gore. Think of all the things that Walking Dead and and Game of Thrones have backed down on (yep! Judith, I’m looking at you kid) and this film goes there.

In a role reversal almost- homage of the magnificent 1976 Spanish horror movie ‘Who Can Kill a Child?’, Mom and Dad retains all of the gore, all of the shock and all of the diabolical deaths.

The Greatest Showman (PG)

The Greatest Showman (PG)
DVD release date: 14 May 2018
Run Time: 105 minutes

The Greatest Showman is a bold and original musical that celebrates the birth of show business and the sense of wonder we feel when dreams come to life. Inspired by the ambition and imagination of P.T. Barnum, starring Hugh Jackman, The Greatest Showman tells the story of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a mesmerising spectacle that became a worldwide sensation.

The Good

From the opening cheers of ‘The Greatest Show’ to the encore of ‘Million Dreams’ this film hooks you in and invites you on a beautiful journey of love, inspiration, ambition and joy. It’s a perfect fairy tale with a brilliant, happy ending.

The cast is amazing, each wonderful choice works well on their own. However, the true beauty is in the way in which the cast work together. Hugh Jackman is proving that men do indeed age like a fine wine; his voice and presence are the perfect fit for the real life figure P T Barnum. He holds his own and reveals a motivation behind his fantastic visions. He is a true joy to watch. However, put him on the screen with Zac Effron and the audience are shown something so extraordinary that you’ll be wishing that they had more songs together.

The Bad

Some of the graphics look a little ropey and take you out of the film. It’s something that is not exclusive to this film and is becoming a regular occurrence.

I found some of the themes in which PT became almost ashamed of his Circus crew a little out of character, but it did add to the dramatic pull of the move and brought about the wonderful, and award winning, ‘This is Me’.

The Ugly

I didn’t half ugly cry. It wasn’t necessarily that it was sad, in fact it was the exact opposite. It was such an overwhelming uplifting movie that I couldn’t cope.

Bring me Back by @BAParisAuthor

From GoodReads:

A young British couple are driving through France on vacation when they stop at a service station. He runs in to use the restroom, she stays in the car. When he returns, her car door has been left open, but she’s not inside. No one ever sees her again.
Ten years later he’s engaged to be married; he’s happy, and his past is only a tiny part of his life now. Until he comes home from work one day and finds his new fiancée sitting on their sofa turning something over in her fingers, holding it up to the light. Something that would have no worth to anyone else, something only he and she would know about, because his wife-to-be is the sister of his missing first love.
As more and more questions are raised, their relationship becomes strained. Has his first love somehow come back to him after all this time? Or is the person who took her playing games with his mind?

Characters
Finn! I don’t get what it is about Finn. I love him and hate him in equal measure which makes for the perfect protagonist. His quest to discover the truth brings in characters from his past; his ex-Ruby and his friend Harry. Both of whom are well rounded, if not a little stupid for giving Finn the time of day.
Ellen is the strangest character of all, and I spent the whole book trying to figure her out. She’s bordering on a Stepford-wife. I find myself itching to get inside her head to find out why she is with her sister’s boyfriend.
Plot
The plot grips you from the very first page and the reader it sent through a rollercoaster of past and present mystery that does not hold back. You can feel Finn’s conflict of emotions as he receives an item that makes him believe his girlfriend who went missing years earlier was back.
I want to tell you just quite amazing how the second half of the book is, but I can’t without giving away some aspects that came as a shock to me. The second half leads to such an amazing reveal that I want my memory wiped so I can read it again.

Writing
The narration is atmospheric and all consuming. I was at London Bridge reading one evening. Before I knew it, I was over halfway through the book, missed a ton of notifications on my phone and missed my friend arrive. Not many books have that power over me, and it’s all to do with B A Paris’ writing. It feels like you’re being let in on a confession and that if you break away, even for a second, the person talking to you will falter. A dare anyone picking up this book not to read it in one sitting; I predict it is impossible.

Orphan Monster Spy Blog Tour: Matt Killeen’s female hero ‪@by_Matt_Killeen ‬ ‪@Usborne ‬

Matt Killeen stops by Queens of Geekdom to celebrate female heroes in literature.

Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games

Contains Spoilers

Katniss Everdeen is a hero. It seems too obvious to mention. So successful has this character been in book and film form, so universal and ubiquitous has her effect been, that this blog might seem redundant. But leaving aside her personal influence on me – I’m a big fan, the kind of fan who collects dolls and first editions – she’s really a much more complex character than many “strong female” archetypes. Yes, she is strong and smart and gutsy but it is the root nature of that heroism that is worthy of note.

For a trilogy about a revolution, Katniss begins with no interest in starting one. That was never her intention. She was angry about lots of things, but the focus of that rage lay elsewhere. She was angry with her mother’s mental collapse, rather than explicitly angry at the system that allowed her father’s death. She has no love for the Hunger Games, but her only wish is to run away from it.

All Katniss wants to do is protect her sister, her de facto child. She doesn’t volunteer as Tribute with a view to winning or surviving. She believes that she is ending her life to save Prim’s. She isn’t aware of the power of her single-mindedness, or that her skill with the bow is a potential game-changer. The Tributes from District 12 die every single year – with one exception in 74 years, long before Katniss was born. Not for nothing is Haymitch an alcoholic mess. He’s helped send forty-six children to their deaths.

It isn’t that she doesn’t have a rebellious streak. The arrow aimed at the judges during training is a huge overreaction to being ignored. It isn’t a piece of calculation to up her score, although that is its effect. She snaps, as she does outside the hospital in District 8 before delivering a plot defining speech. But this anger is swiftly channelled into a will to survive. To get back to Prim.

She doesn’t begin to hate the Capitol, I mean really loathe its raison d’etre, until Rue is killed. Again, it’s her instinct to nurture – a traditionally “feminine” trait – that leads her to risk a loss. Rue is a surrogate for Prim and the Tribute’s murder is her sister’s death writ large. The funeral flowers are a direct act of rebellion, a funeral rite that interrupts the process of the games – her body cannot be collected while Katniss is there. This isn’t to bring down the Capitol, it’s to reassert some humanity. That, of course, is what makes it so dangerous. It’s interesting that the film chooses that moment to show a riot in District 11, the moment that she herself has crossed the Rubicon and become a threat.

The very second that she believes that both she and Peter can be saved she seeks him out, even though that makes her more vulnerable. She risks death again to get his medicine. Even the final moment with the nightlock, the moment that is the beginning of the end of Snow and the Capitol, does not come from a place of rebellion. She is not willing to kill, or have Peter die for her and he will not do the killing. The trick with the berries is just a way of saving both of them. The act of defiance that it represents is incidental.

When she meets the revolution – District 13 and its conspirators – she is suspicious from the off. For a start, it failed to protect all those she cared for. She suspects that, like every rebellion since the dawn of man, it will end in bloodshed and she’s right.

She only agrees to become the Mockingjay in return for promises of safety and rescue for those same people…and her sister’s cat.

The horrible irony by the end is that despite beginning the journey to save her sister, Prim dies as a result of rebel action. It isn’t that the Capitol – the Nazis or the Empire or whoever – shouldn’t be resisted, it’s just that warfare without compassion is temptingly effective and its cost cannot be calculated. Prioritising the ends, no matter the means, just proves President Snow right. This is a reality about conflict that is as true of World War Two as it is of the rebellion against the Capitol.

Katniss is a hero that changes her world because she cares, because she has an instinct to nurture. The skill with the bow, the determination, the righteous anger – attributes that could be described as male or masculine – are secondary. It is compassion that is the root of everything she does. It is why she is powerful.

Her final act – killing Coin – comes from that same place. She gives everything up at that moment, she can expect nothing but death. But there will be no more Hunger Games. The children of Panem, all of them, will be safe. It is the same deal that she made at the very start.

Book Review: Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killen

Plot:

Sarah has played many roles. Dutiful daughter. Talented gymnast. Persecuted Jew. Lost orphan. But now she faces her most challenging role of all. Now she must become the very thing she hates. For the only way she can survive as a spy at a boarding school for the cream of Nazi society is to become a monster like them. A monster who can destroy them.

Discover the girl who can beat Bond and Bourne at their own game, in this utterly addictive thriller from a jaw-dropping new talent.

Characters
Sarah and the Captain are two strong figures within this novel. Sarah has a flawed balance between bravery and naivety that could only be brought about from the time in which the book is set. There’s an empathy readers will have with the orphaned teen in a war-torn Berlin.
Sarah is given a new name and a new role to play, which allows her to come into contact with enemies of her own age. There are a number of characters readers will meet during Sarah’s mission, but it will be Mouse that you will take to your heart.
The Captain does take a back seat for most of the story, but he is an interesting character that I wish I’d gotten to know more. He has a mystery surrounding his character that will leave any reader begging for a sequel.
Plot
I cannot do the plot justice without spoiling it. So, all I will say is that it is a well written historical war story that will not let you catch your breath for a second. The second act takes place in a boarding school setting, that will forever change your ideologies of an education away from home.
The ending is haunting is the current climate. It doesn’t shy away from the brutalities of life outside of the war and the pressures of family. It seeps through slowly, but the reveal still hits you like a brick.
Writing
I have so much respect for Matt Killen. He has written such a strong female protagonist that is flawed and impassioned; layered within a story that it firmly placed within a researched history. Matt proves, with this one novel, that you don’t always have to stay within your comfort zone and write what you know.
It a compelling and emotion-fuelled read, that works well as a standalone. However, I’m hoping Matt has at least another story waiting for fans who will be undoubtedly begging once they read that final chapter.

The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare

When I had the offer of reading a Mills and Boon novel I was flooded with so many emotions. I honestly didn’t know what to expect other than my own ideas I’d built up. I saw them as the romantic, adult version of Point Horror that I was reading as my nan raced through novel after novel. She borrowed from her local library and had a little symbol she would put on the inside back cover so she would never take the same book twice. It wasn’t only her; the books where covered in a variety of tag marks from literary borrowers.
I also knew my mum to partake from time to time; choosing to own hers outright. I’m gutted to say that I didn’t give them a second thought before passing them to a charity shop when she died a decade ago. The remorse has come from reading this novel, The Duchess Deal. A well written, passionate story with some wonderful characters.

Characters
Emma is an independent character who is living below her social class through mysterious circumstances. She is able to hold her own and is perfect agreement, on the most part, with her playmate, Ash. While I struggle to empathise with such a character and am jealous of her being swept off her feet, I did enjoy her spirit and fire when it came to dealing with her husband of convenience.
Ash, on the other hand, I fell in love with him right away. Self-loathing nobleman, a bit of gruff with a dash of elegance. I could see why Emma only needed a little nudging to agree to the match. It’s hard not to like this sort of character who seems to have everything, but is humbled through circumstance. Move over Mr Darcy and Mr Grey, there’s a new swoon worthy man on the shelf.

Plot
A plot such as this; a marriage of convenience may come across as farfetched in less abled writer’s hands, this plot is wonderfully fun and light-hearted. The time in which it has been set helps to establish the motives behind the convenience and the isolated insights into the couple’s thinking gives the romance its spring.
Obviously, there are obstacles the characters have to overcome as well as ensuring we see that there is chemistry between the two. It’s all done with precision and epic timing. I did find the ending a little rushed, but that is only my own sadness that the story had to end.

Writing
Tessa has a charm that brings this tale to life. She is able to pass between the Duke and Duchess’ view point with a delicate ease. The intimate sections of the story never feel forced or gratuitous; instead they flow organically into the plot and allow for comfortable, enjoyable reading.