An Overwhelmed Creative

  I saw this book at Costco and I had to have it because The Woman in Cabin 10 is one of my favorite thrillers of all time. Unfortunately, unlike The Woman in Cabin 10 , The It Girl was super slow burn. It is a long book, and about 3/4ths of the book is exposition. There are too many details of the past, and although it did help me understand the big reveal in the end, I was so close to quitting the book several times. In fact, I began skimming, and skipping whole pages at times because there was nothing that interested me about the story.  The ending was good—not great. And I did not guess who the killer was until the author spelled it out for me. And then, suddenly, all of these hints made sense after all this new information about this character came to light. I don't know how to feel about it to this day. The one thing I can say about this book was the language. The prose is superb, and something I should aspire to as an author. The words, the way the sentences were const...

  Before I start this review, I need to say that, apart from everything I may have to say about this game, this is one of the most EPIC endings in video game history. I mean, WOW. I finished this game in 16+ hours, which is not that much compared to the average 100 hours I spend playing games like Witcher , Horizon Zero Dawn , Assassin's Creed , Skyrim , etc. One thing that may have led to such a short time, is that I started this game on the normal difficulty level and soon got frustrated by it. Like some games I've played recently, the "normal" level is pretty advanced. In the case of Jedi Fallen Order , I would need to move along a ways before finding a saving point. So it would turn 15 minutes of journey into an almost one hour if I died right before I reached the new saving point. I understand I was able to move that setting. Well, if that's true, I didn't. Soon in the game, I moved the difficulty to easy (Story Mode). It was okay, not SUPER easy, but at ...

  Games I'm Looking Forward to Playing in 2023 Hello, and welcome to my first edition of Ramblings from a Gamer Mom. I wanted to make a post series about gaming and another one about writing, but as I was rolling in bed at 6am, I couldn't keep videogames out of my mind. This morning, I will continue playing Spiderman: Miles Morales , and the game may take me to the end of the year. I am not only a mom, but a wife to the most incredible man (and gamer, modder, and programmer). My husband used to play videogames a a child, but stopped in his teens. It wasn't until we were married with children that I bought Skyrim while looking for another game that felt like Zelda that he started playing. And then modding. And the rest is history. My favorite games are the Zelda series (including Breath of the Wild, Twilight Princess, Wind Waker , and Ocarina of Time ). But now I am also in love with Witcher 3, Skyrim , the Uncharted and Tomb Raider , and God of War —to mention a few. Befor...

  I loved this book! I know Stephanie Garber, the author, from the Caraval trilogy. I loved Caraval because it was so unpredictable. Different, if you know what I mean. That drew me to the book. The unexpected happened. Believe it or not, Once Upon a Broken Heart is even MORE unpredictable. Many times I thought I knew where the story was going, and it turns out the book was going in a totally different direction. Now, it is a bit of a sequel to the Caraval trilogy, but this time it follows Jacks (the fate) and what happens to him after the events of the Caraval story. Not only that, once I started making predictions about who the "bad" guy was, it turned out it wasn't that character, but someone else... or was it?  This book just kept me guessing and loving everything that kept happening. It also ends in a cliffhanger, but it's totally okay by me, because I preordered the signed copy of the next book, The Ballad of Never After , and it will be waiting for me once ...