Talkie Tuesday: Hallowe'en Party

"Old sins cast long shadows, Madame."

Hello everyone!

One day before Halloween evening on the 31st, and a big, big holiday in my country which has nothing to do with Halloween and everything with the Reformation period in Europe, and here I am with a VERY witchy, Halloween-y movie review. 

I think the only thing that could be more on-point would be the Addams Family.

As it happens, however, I have quite the fondness for a certain Belgian detective.

Yes, he's BELGIAN people, he's NOT French!

And of course Agatha Christie was more than kind to focus one of her books right around the time of Halloween and the festive period.

Then it got adapted and the marvelous David Suchet portrayed the detective in question, so what more could you ask for at this time of year?

Let's dig our teeth right into Poirot's Hallowe'en Party!

Saturday Snippet: Baldwin

Let's take a proper look at the "I'm the annoyed older brother" figure.

xx

*screencaps mine

Tome Thursday: The Book of Life

Hello everyone!

I'm here with the final installment in the witchy-vampire-y trilogy!

Alright that made almost zero sense, but you'll see what I mean as soon as you start reading the actual blog post, I promise.

Two weeks ago I decided to read and review the first of Deborah Harkness' worldwide bestselling All Souls trilogy, A Discovery of Witches, and then of course I couldn't just put the book down and let the other two rest.

I can do that with certain other series, but this one made it virtually impossible.

There's something about these characters and the world that sucks you right in, which means you're unlikely to resurface before you've made it all the way through and it spits you out the other side.

I did take my time and made it a weekly thing per book, however, otherwise my eyes (and probably my brain) would have gone on strike and fritzed out. But I'm finally finished with the original trilogy now!

So without further ado, let's dive right into The Book of Life.

Talkie Tuesday: Good Witch Tale of Two Hearts

"True love always finds a way."

Hello everyone!

Finally, the wait is over, and I can honestly say this was probably one of my most anticipated Hallmark productions yet - mostly because I fell in love with Cassie ten years or so ago when she first moved to Middleton and made everybody think she rode in on a broomstick. 

I kid you not.

Anyway, Good Witch as a series is better suited for audiences than the long movies that only air once a year or so (but they're still pretty awesome to watch!), and I can't WAIT for the actual season.

This was just a taste of things to come and an interesting preview, not to mention, hello, who can do Halloween better than a witch?

Or, a couple of witches, actually, or a trio, depending, since you have Cassie, Grace AND Abigail on the job.

A Tale of Two Hearts is full of Halloween magic, some mystery, and happily ever after for some.

Sunday: Reunion

xx

*image not mine

Tome Thursday: Shadow of Night

Hello everyone!

I'm continuing my witchy trilogy this Thursday, and remember how I always say the second part in any trilogy whatsoever is always the weakest? 

Basically, it's not an introduction, and it's not the finale, so it's just a bridge leading from one to the other, and as such it will inevitably suffer from writer ennui or something of the sort while readers try to plod on.

Well, not THIS book.

Seriously, when I started reading A Discovery of Witches, I thought I'd seen it all and that nothing could top it. Especially in a trilogy, you have to be extra careful because you go in with such high expectations for the second and third books, and sometimes (a lot of times) they fall flat on their faces like pancakes dropped from high above.

So I honestly opened the second book up with trepidation and a little flutter of hope somewhere.

I needn't have bothered.

Shadow of Night not only meets its predecessor, but it surpasses it with flying colours.

Talkie Tuesday: The Perfect Bride Wedding Bells

"Who's ready to get married in six weeks?"

Hello everyone!

It's time for another movie review and YES, I know, I know, this one isn't very autumnal either, but it connects back to last week's and I couldn't just do one without the other, right? 

Right.

In any event, Hallmark has pretty much been showing all the extra special fall movies that will apparently more or less wrap up with the Good Witch Halloween Special (which I am VERY excited for!), and then it's off to count down until December.

Yes, that's also super fast, but it's Hallmark. 

Back to the topic at hand, however, this is going to be one of those wedding movies again, but I'm telling you it's probably one of the stronger sequels I had the chance to watch.

Normally, second movies are the weakest link. The Perfect Bride: Wedding Bells, while not a masterpiece, certainly wasn't bad, either.

Sunday

xx

*image not mine

Tome Thursday: A Discovery of Witches

Hello everyone!

Once again, I'm late to this bandwagon.

I swear I get this feeling that I'm ETERNALLY late to everything when it comes to fans and fandoms and stuff.

But anyway.

I discovered this particular book series through sheer accident - aka I saw a post on Instagram in which Matthew Goode was sitting on a big black horse and Teresa Palmer was beside him on a gray one.

My interest sat up with a vengeance.

Firstly, Teresa Palmer is a bae and I've loved her in pretty much everything. Secondly, Matthew Goode is notoriously underappreciated. Which means I was obviously paying attention to the #ADiscoveryofWitches tag anywhere I could get it, as the show loomed near.

Meanwhile, in the BOOK version of A Discovery of Witches ...

Talkie Tuesday: The Perfect Bride

"There's no such thing."

Hello everyone!

So while our powerplant is sending out smoke signals into outer space - because why the heck else wold there be such a big cone of smoke there? - I'm sitting here watching the monstrosity and typing up my blog post. 

As it's October, I figured I could probably do something autumn-related, but instead I found this cutesy movie review I'd done a little bit ago.

I'll be doing a Halloween themed post, I promise, but I'm waiting for the premiere of Good Witch for that one.

In the meantime, though, Hallmark does indeed provide a viewer with HEAPS to watch even when you think there may be nothing.

You may think so, but they'll prove you wrong.

As they did with The Perfect Bride.

Saturday Snippet: Matthew Clairmont

There comes a time when danger wears a face.

xx

*image not mine

Tome Thursday: The Kane Chronicles

Hello everyone!

As we cheerfully start our way into October and the first week of it is drawing to a close, I figured I could probably dust off some oldie-goldies when it came to books.

Let's face it, there are some that you pick up and read again and again.

If they include hilarious teenage-god encounters, that happens even more often!

The only thing better now would be to have Lucifer on speed-dial for the sarcastic remarks, but I suppose if you can't get him then any old god will do.

In this post, I continue my trek through Rick Riordan's books, as I tend to do every once in a while when I'm feeling especially down about something, because inevitably it'll be one of his deity representations that makes me giggle like a lunatic and feel better.

Tonight, that honour falls to Horus & Co.

Please turn your pages to The Kane Chronicles.

Talkie Tuesday: A Summer to Remember

"A new lease on life."

Hello everyone!

Well, that's it. Summer as officially said goodbye, because on the TV this morning, we could already see that some higher-lying cities in Austria have been graced with snow. 

Some cameras were completely snowed-in!

As far as that goes, I'm quite happy to live in a place where we can have a bit more of autumn before we transition to winter again, but that being said, I thought I'd celebrate with a really summer-y movie review just because.

It's one of those things I plucked off a list of Hallmark movies and ended up enjoying, despite the fact that I don't really see myself watching it again this season. Maybe next year, but by then I'm sure there'll be a long list of other summer movies to watch!

The movie I'm talking about is aptly named A Summer to Remember and stars Catherine Bell and Cameron Mathison.