Fire & Air

This is the story of Tess, a country girl that when she was 16 years old she was seduced by a man and she ended up loosing her husband and her life for that 'sin'. This sounds a simple story, but Thomas Hardy is an amazingly gifted writer and he manages to turn this melodrama into a real classic.Tess is beautiful and innocente and she remains to the end of the book. Tess' character is based on a contradiction. She is not stupid, on the contrary she is intelligent and she has great insticts, she dislikes Alec d'Urbevilles from the start, and she is quite educated for a poor country girl and as the writer says she could have been a teacher if her father hasn't been informed of his great lineage. However, she sometimes acts like a very silly girl and I do not mean that she let her self be seduced, on the contrary she tried really hard to avoid it, but of the blind affection and devotion to her unworthy husband. I like Tess, although sometimes I wanted to bitch slap her...

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber My rating: 2 of 5 stars The Crimson petal an the white tells the story of a 19 year od prostitute named Sugar in Victorian London.I was interested and intrigued by its story plus I had already watch the adaptation of the nove; starring Romola Garai and I decided to add it to my reading list, but I am afraid it did not live up to my expectations. I seriously do not mind a big book -and that one is really big- as long as it's interesting, but the moment I start to skip reading lines I know it no good.I do not know excactly what is wrong with this book, I mean the story is interesting and so are the characters and the are also well developed and very real. I mean they are like real humans you love them, you hate them, you feel sorry for them and and then you love them again. The writer obviously had done its research as far as Victorian London is concerned. He reminded me a little of Dickens in the way he made me picture the London st...

Inés of My Soul by Isabel Allende My rating: 2 of 5 stars I do love an Isabel Allende book and this story is interesting and fascinating but somehow it doesn't live up to her previous book. Isabel has a soft spot for well developped female characters and it's something that makes me like her even more but I think that this time she over did it. The only fully developed character it the leading one, dona Ines Suarez and its not fully unexpected since this is supposed to be a memoir but I would like to have some more developped characters even if they were female. This book feels like Ines is the one real thing and everyone else it doesn't matter, they are simply shadows that pass through her life/story. At least Ines was a hell of a woman. Ohh, and the Felipe storyline is absolutely predictable up to acertain point. I mean I knew from the moment I first read i that he had something to do with a certain incident in Santiago. View all my reviews

Dracula in Love by Karen Essex My rating: 3 of 5 stars I really enjoy reading this one. I liked the portrait of the characters, especially Mina whom I have to admit I never liked very much I always had a thing for Lucy. The story and especially how K.Essex told it was interesting and it adds new angles to the story of Dracula. I did also enjoy the fact that Dracula is not supposed to be the rencarnation of everything evil and wrong and immoral and that for a change humans were the bad guys. However, I didn't like the ending. Why stick to the original or why not so us some years ahead... If you read the novel you'll know that she could have satisfied us with ahappy ending eventually. You can always imagined it, but I would wish to see it written as well. If you like Dracula I think you will find this a rather interesting reading. View all my reviews

Marc Warren, Sophia Myles, David Suchet My rating: 1 of 5 stars Plot Summary: In this version the plot centers around Lord Arthur Holmwood (Dans Stevens), who after his engagement to the beautiful Lucy Westenra (Sophia Myles), discover that his father immoral, lustful life has given him syphilis (he contacted the illeness in his bieth and so did his mother who as we are informed killed herself). He neither wishes to expose Lucy to the deadly decease nor break up their engangement and so he joines a weird, obscur cult who promises that can give him a cure if he brings Dracula to England. The latest production of Dracula is or had the potential of being a very interesting take on the very well none story of Count Dracula, but it failes miserably. I mean he had the actors, the costumes, the amazing settings and a good story, but somehow they managed to destroy everything. I do not care that they have altered the original story. I actually though that concetrating on Arthur and Lu...

My rating: 0 of 5 stars Seriously, with this one I do not know where to start. Well, if you love the book of A.Dumas and if you where anxious to see a decente adaptation of if it DO NOT watch this movie. Absolutely not. I mean seriously I have seen bad adaptations before, but this one is way worst from anything that comes to mind. If you haven't seen the movie you should be wondering what is wrong with it. Well let's start with the title. Why is it called "The three musketeers" I have absolutely no idea. Not only the plot and the characters have nothing in common with the story of Dumas -nothing but the names of course- but the whole idea of the musketeers and France at this era has been utterly changed and tranformed into something alien and kitsch. Apart from the fact that they used the popularity of Duma's novel to sell tickets, this movie is very but on it's one. The plot is too loose, the story is not interesting enough, the characters are non-exist...