Game Night – Rowboat

by Carol6 Comments
Rowboat Manufacturer: Moosetache Games Year: 2010 Players: 2 - 4 Time: 60 minutes Ages: 13 and up Ah, summer's over here in eastern Ohio. The temperature has been in the sixties and low seventies for a while now. I love autumn, but I kinda miss summer too. However, this winter when I'm longing for the beach, for warm weather, I can at least pull out Rowboat, a very pretty trick-taking card game. These are some of the "face" cards, but there are also the standard 2-10 of the four suits, shells, waves, oars and maps. Isn't the nautical theme beautifully done? The game play itself is reminiscent of several other card games, but put together in a unique way. The dealer lays cards out on the table face up until all four suits are showing. This is called the Tide. The number of the cards varies each game. Each card in the deal represents a round and is the card that controls trump for that round....
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The Princess and the Frog

by Carol4 Comments
The Princess and the Frog I'm a slight Fairy Tale Friday failure this week. I haven't watched any fairy tale flicks lately, so I'm going back to one we saw in December last year in the theater, but it is out on DVD now and it's one I would definitely recommend. It's a twist on the traditional Grimm tale, "The Frog Prince." Hardworking New Orleans waitress Tiana hopes to one day fulfill the dream of her father  and own her own restaurant. But the plan isn’t going so well until she meets Prince Naveen—who doesn’t exactly sweep her off her feet in the traditional sense. He’s been turned into a frog thanks to a curse from the nefarious voodoo doctor. When frog Naveen sees Tania dressed in a ball gown he thinks she’s a princess, and her kiss might break his curse. Instead the kiss turns Tiana into a frog as well, and ...
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Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel

by Carol11 Comments
Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel Reading this, I got caught up in its spell. It's not a perfect novel, but the story of obsession, loss and searching transfixed me. Lilia was kidnapped by her father when she was young and has been constantly traveling since then, eventually leaving behind everyone everyone she meets, including those who care about her, like Eli her lover in New York. She just can't stay. Forever is the most dizzying word in the English language. The idea of staying in one place forever was like standing at the border of a foreign country, peering over the fence and trying to imagine what life might be like on the other side, and life on the other side was frankly unimaginable. Eli heads to Montreal in pursuit of her and meets Michaela, a young woman who says she knows how to contact Lilia. The basic story revolves around these three, their feelings for...
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The Ace of Spades by K. H. Koehler

by Carol7 Comments
Black Jack Derringer Book I: The Ace of Spades by K. H. Koehler I don't know quite how to describe this one. Cyberpunky, post-apocalyptic western? Pure fun if you like an old-fashioned shoot-em-up and muto horses with bulletproof hides. "Wild" Alice West is a bounty hunter in the vast desert known as the Skillet, an area with an Old West feel, but she's barely hanging on in a culture where a woman doing a man's job gets no respect. In a saloon, she meets Mr. Treen, an albino card shark who she thinks would be the perfect front man for her. Of course, Mr. Treen has surprising talents and scary secrets of his own. The Skillet is a rough, dangerous place, no doubt about it. And Alice gets in more than her fair share of scrapes, but doesn't seem to regret anything. She does what she has to do. She's got guts, I'll give her that. I'm not sure who or what Mr....
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A Medieval Mystery

by Carol13 Comments
Now wide-eyed and fully awake, Crispin measured his predicament. Dead of night, floating in the Thames, and bound. (pg. 96, Veil of Lies by Jeri Westerson) I'm about halfway through this mystery and really enjoying it. It's a dark, gritty version of 14th century England, not romanticized. I can't really say if it's historically accurate, but it's very readable. Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Play along. The rules are easy and I only cheated a little. Grab your current read, open to a random page, and give us two teaser sentences. Remember, no spoilers. I borrowed my copy from the library and the above is my honest opinion. I am an Amazon associate....
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