July 29, 2014

Experiencing technical difficulties

Having a frustrating afternoon as I'm trying to get the Related Posts widget all sorted out.  Can't seem to get it working to my satisfaction, so I'm sorry, but for the moment you'll just have to bear with me while I work this out - or get totally frustrated with it and remove it completely!  :-[

If anyone knows how to centre, and reposition the widget so it ends up between above the 'be sure to leave a comment' banner, could you let me know how to fix it?

Pretty please! ;-D

Update - since posting the above, I've removed the widget (once I found it in the code) after I got the irrits with it.  Problem now solved ;-D




Review: The Big Over Easy

The Big Over Easy
A Nursery Crime, Book 1
Jasper Fforde

Published: 6 January, 2006 (this copy)

Thorndike Press, Large Type Hardcover, 594p.
ISBN: 0-7862-8233-9

Meet Detective Inspector Jack Spratt, family mand and head of the Nursery Crime Division, long suffering under the shadow of the flashy Detective Friedland Chymes with his astonishing number of published cases in Amazing Crime Stories.  Spratt is fresh from a spectacular failure to see three wily pigs convicted for the murder of a certain wolf.  The media and tide of public opinion are set squarely against him.  Now, new trouble is brewing.  It's Easter in Reading - a bad time for eggs - and no one can remember the last sunny day.  Ovoid D-class nursery celebrity Humpty Dumpty, minor baronet, lover of women, ex-convict, and former millionaire philanthropist, is found shattered to death. . . 

 

Like The Eyre Affair, The Big Over Easy was a very imaginative and unique way to start a series.  The world building is so well done that you don't even question the differences between the realities, and you would think that having characters from nursery rhymes would jar you out of the reading experience, but Fforde has merged the two so seemlessly that having Humpty Dumpty fall off his wall doesn't seem out of the ordinary.

The characters were well developed.  Jack Spratt is ameniable, yet has some stored anger towards the obnoxious, egotistical and self-righteous Friedland Chymes.  Mary Mary (quite contrary ;-P ) is the new cop on the beat.  Her almost teenage level of adoration of the great Detective Chymes makes you want to slap her at times, but in all Mary is a likeable character and comes through for Jack Spratt in the end.

It is the murder of Humpty that stumped me.  There were theories, plots and subplots that just seemed to keep coming.  Just as Det. Spratt thought he had unmasked the identity of the killer... poof!  New evidence turned up.  Usually I have an idea - or at least a suspect - in mind as to the motive and identity of the killer, but in The Big Over Easy I wasn't even in the ball park!  A great twist at the end turns the entire investigation on it's head.

I won't go into other character summaries as it may spoil your reading experience, but I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by this book.  As an avid reader I still can't believe that it has taken me this long to find Jasper Fforde - thank you YouTube - but I will now be making a space on my bookshelves for the Thursday Next, and now Nursery Crime series.




 

July 27, 2014

Scary blogger moment

While fiddling around with my Google+ settings I thought I'd accidentally deleted all the photos in the albums for my blog!  OMG!  What the heck did I just do?!  So in panic mode, I started googling to see if there was anything I could do - otherwise it would take months to find all the old photos and upload them again!

After about 15 minutes of shock, it turns out that I had just changed the privacy settings.  An absolute relief, but I'm still slightly shaky now when I think about it.  So if you want to avoid having a truly scary blogger moment - don't touch the privacy settings in Google+ 's Photo albums!




 

Review: Dark Wolf

Dark Wolf
A Carpathian Novel, Book #25
Christine Feehan

Published: 2014

Piatkus, Hardcover, 358p.
ISBN: 978-0-349-40216-1

Skyler Daratrazanoff always recognised the miracle that was Mimitri Tirunul, a man beyond any dream that had ever engaged her nigths.  But she is human.  Vulnerable.  He is Carpathian.  Nearly immortal.  She is nineteen.  He is an ancient.  Yet she holds half of his soul, the light to his darkness.  Without her, he will not survive.  Caught between the two arring species, Dimitri has spent centuries fighting to keep his people free and humans safe.  He has survived honourably when others have chosen to give up their souls.  Now, marked for extermination by the Lycans, Dimitri finds himself alone, and fearing for his life.  But salvation is coming . . .

No Lycan would ever suspect someone like Skyler to mount a secret rescue operation.  A teenage girl.  A human of untested abilities.  But she has something no one else has.  She is predestined for Dimitri - as he is for her.  And there is nothing stronger for Skyler than her desire to see her life-dream come true.  However dangerous it might be . . .