{TV Series Review} Witches of East End, Season 1 Episode 2: "Marilyn Fenwick, R.I.P."

Before I (Mandy) get into the review of this week's episode, let's do a quick recap:

Joanna Beauchamp (lady in the middle of the picture above): A witch, the mother of Freya and Ingrid, and sister to Wendy. She made the decision to hide Freya's and Ingrid's witchy talents from them hoping to give them a longer lifespan this time around. What she doesn't know is that there is a shifter who looks just like her going around killing people and letting trapped people loose to reign terror on the family. At the end of the first episode, Joanna has to tell Ingrid that they're all witches and then the police come to haul her off to jail for the murders she supposedly committed.

Ingrid Beauchamp (lady to the right of Joanna): The oldest daughter of Joanna Beauchamp's. Ingrid is an introvert and shy, a perfect personality for the town's librarian. Adam, the local law enforcement officer, is interested in Ingrid romantically, but she mistakenly thought he just wanted to be friends. She's beginning to understand that he was serious. Before Joanna tells her that she's a witch, Ingrid begins to suspect as much when a fertility spell she performs over a close friend works.

Freya Beauchamp (lady to the left of Joanna): The youngest daughter of Joanna Beauchamp's. Freya is engaged to Dash (gentleman to the left of her). The night before her engagement party, Freya has a dream about a guy she cannot stay away from. At the engagement party, the dream-man walks in and Freya finds out later that her dream-man is Dash's younger brother Killian (gentleman to the right of Ingrid). A few nights later as Freya's working, Killian comes in and talks her into agreeing to be friends. As she's in the bathroom calming down her emotions, a guy walks in and makes Freya chant a spell that draws both of them into a picture where, if he's able to kill her, she'll die forever and not come back in another life. What Freya doesn't remember is that this guy is seeking retaliation for Freya locking him into a desert painting years ago.

And now for this week's episodic review ...

Freya was able to leave the painting before she caught fire inside of the picture. While we're talking about this part of the episode, let me just say that the whole hot girl breathy hyperventilating sounds while trying to get out of a tough situation has been done ... and Jenna Dewan-Tatum doing this while trying to escape her apparently loose wrist binds was over-the-top. I am not a fan of any overacting. Anyhow, her captor and ex-boyfriend from a former life also escaped the painting. Eventually he's found and dealt with.

Freya learns in this episode that she's a witch, too. Ingrid, surprisingly, seems more acceptable of this fact than Freya, which I'm a little confused about because Freya's the one who always thought she was psychic. Based on that, I would have thought that Freya would be more accepting, and excited, about being a witch.

The action was a little more spread out in this episode and didn't move quite as fast as the first one, which I'm grateful for. We, the viewers, are getting a chance to actually learn and know the characters. Aside from Jenna's overacting at the beginning of this episode, I did enjoy this episode and am eagerly anticipating next week's episode, "Today I am a Witch."

{2013 TBR Pile Challenge Review} 11/22/63 by Stephen King

ISBN #: 978-1451627282

Page Count: 849

Copyright: November 8, 2011

Publisher: Scribner

Book Summary:

(Taken from Amazon)

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? Stephen King’s heart-stoppingly dramatic new novel is about a man who travels back in time to prevent the JFK assassination—a thousand page tour de force.

Following his massively successful novel Under the Dome, King sweeps readers back in time to another moment—a real life moment—when everything went wrong: the JFK assassination. And he introduces readers to a character who has the power to change the course of history.

Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.

Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.

Kathy's Review:

(Reprinted with permission from Kathy's person blog, Grown Up Book Reports)

Simply put: the best Stephen King I’ve read.

I have wanted to read 11/22/63 ever since the book debuted in 2011. A story about a man traveling back in time to try to stop the JFK assassination, AND it’s written by Stephen King? It sounded like a winning combination to me. I have been an on-and-off King fan since junior high, when I hungrily tore through chillers like Christine, The Shining, and It alongside my Sweet Valley High collection. For a while, I thought I would like to become the next Stephen King. My junior high/early high school writing borders on the macabre.

But there’s a softer side to King, apparent in stories like The Body (which became the movie Stand by Me) and it shines here in 11/22/63. Because this story, in its 800+ pages, is about so much more than the assassination. There’s a great love story in these pages, of course told in only the way King could tell it. There’s roadblocks and obstacles for protagonist Jake to overcome as he forges toward altering the past. “The past is obdurate,” Jake repeats many, many times. As this word was not in my vocabulary, I learned that “obdurate” means “unwilling to change.” Indeed, the past tries to swallow Jake up in his quest to get to 11/22/63.

Is the past worth changing? Or will it so greatly alter the future that it’s best to leave it alone without meddling? That is the larger question at hand in this book. The sacrifices that must be made in order to stop a huge historical event might not be ultimately worth the price.

This book would appeal to so many people for so many different reasons. Anyone with a remote interest in the JFK assassination may enjoy the fictionalization of Lee Harvey Oswald, and the way Jake is able to observe Oswald’s home life. For those interested in this period in American history, King also paints a very vivid picture of life in the late 50s/early 60s, along with people’s attitudes and beliefs back then. Extensive research must have gone into writing this book, not only about Kennedy, but about clothing, cars, the medical care available in the day, and more. It is surely one of King’s masterpieces.

I chose to read this for the TBR pile challenge but I was planning on reading it no matter what. It may be one that I read again in a few years.

{Review} Graveminder by Melissa Marr

ISBN #: 978-0061826870

Page Count: 336

Copyright: May 17, 2011

Publisher: William Morrow

Book Summary:

(Taken from dustjacket flap)

Rebekkah Barrow never forgot the attention her grandmother Maylene bestowed upon the dead of Claysville, the small town where Bek spent her adolescence. There wasn't a funeral that Maylene didn't attend, and at each one Rebekkah watched as Maylene performed the same unusual ritual: She took three sips from a silver flask and spoke the words "Sleep well, and stay where I put you."

Now Maylene is dead, and Bek must go back to the place she left a decade earlier. She soon discovers that Claysville is not just the sleepy town she remembers, and that Maylene had good reason for her odd traditions. It turns out that in Claysville the worlds of the living and the dead are dangerously connected; beneath the town lies a shadowy, lawless land ruled by the enigmatic Charles, aka Mr. D. If the dead are not properly cared for, they will come back to satiate themselves with food, drink, and stories from the land of the living. Only the Graveminder, by tradition a Barrow woman, and her Undertaker - in this case Byron Montgomery, with whom Bek shares a complicated past - can set things right once the dead begin to walk.

Although she is still grieving for Maylene, Rebekkah will soon find that she has more than a funeral to attend to in Claysville, and that what awaits her may be far worse: dark secrets, a centuries-old bargain, a romance that still haunts her, and a frightening new responsibility - to stop a monster and put the dead to rest where they belong.

Mandy's Review:

This is one of those instances where I was walking through my local major-chain bookstore's clearance section and saw this book. The cover drew me in, but what really got me hooked was the tagline on the front cover: "Sleep well, and stay where I put you." The implications of that sentence sparked my imagination right away. Even though I had never heard of Melissa Marr before, I decided to give this novel a chance.

I'm not going to rehash the summary for you. I will tell you that this is truly an original story idea ... and I loved it. Okay, maybe not loved, but I liked it a lot! The play on words and double-meanings are genius: Graveminder, Undertaker, Walking Dead, and Hungry Dead. There was some romantic tension in the novel, but it mostly focused on the Graveminder's and Undertaker's roles and duties. The romanticism was sort of a back-burner storyline, which I appreciated.

I did have one question, though, and this may spoil a little bit of the story for you: If the Graveminder couldn't leave Claysville, whatever happened to all of Rebekkah's stuff in San Diego?

Please take my advice and pick up a copy of this novel, especially if you're looking for a quick Halloween read.

{Review} To Probe a Beating Heart by John B. Wren

ISBN #: 978-0988937109

Page Count: 302

Copyright: March 1, 2013

Publisher: John B. Wren; 2nd Edition

Book Summary:

(Taken from back cover)

In the autumn of 1991, a young girl disappears from a Cleveland Heights, Ohio neighborhood. She was last seen talking to a man as the clouds opened and a rain began. The only witness is an elderly woman whose description of the possible kidnapper could fit any number of people. As police, friends and family search the immediate area for Annette, she is taken farther away and becomes one of the predator's early victims.

Over the course of the next several years, along the interstate 90 corridor between Toledo, Ohio, and Albany, New York, a number of young girls disappear without a trace. Jim McLarry, Annette's cousin and a rookie cop with the Cleveland Heights police force, pursues his own investigation of the missing girls in hopes of finding his cousin. As he feeds information to the detectives assigned to the case, McLarry demonstrates his ability as an investigator.

Years earlier, a boy, born and raised in difficult circumstances, determined that he will kill his adoptive mother and sister. Each summer a new victim is another rehearsal for his intended goal. As he plans and executes his annual killings, he leaves virtually no clues. Only little mistakes, the dogged determination of the Cleveland Heights cop and the intervention of Annette's extended family, the Clan, lead to Averell's downfall.

To Probe a Beating Heart is a fictional, but realistic study in the creation of a killer. The monster that Averell has become must be stopped and if the authorities cannot make that happen, the Clan will.

Mandy's Review:

Some serial killers come into existence because of a bad childhood. They're rejected by their family. They're emotionally, and sometimes physically, abused. They're people who tend to hold in their anger promising themselves they'll get back at their tormentors someday. Perhaps they begin hearing a voice or voices in their head telling them what to do. Some begin by torturing small animals becoming satisfied by the control they have over the animal's fear. Over time, they seek larger prey, often basing their choice of prey on their tormentor's characteristics. All of these descriptions match Averell's situation and personality.

Averell was adopted because his parents couldn't have children. They chose him from a children's home in Romania. After the novelty of having a child wore off, Averell was ignored and often left alone. Surprisingly, Averell's mother did become pregnant and had a girl. Averell's sister was treated much better than he was. The treatment he underwent finally manifested itself by turning Averell into a serial killer. One of his victims was a member of the Clan's family.

The Clan is an Irish family. They're known for taking care of problems the law does not have enough evidence to handle. When their little cousin was abducted, the Clan members came out in full force and did not give up until they found the man who took her, Averell.

To Probe a Beating Heart was disturbing and gruesome. I did appreciate that it was able to affect me, to the point that I wondered about the author's own sanity. What I didn't really care for was the writing-style. Within the same chapter, I'd be reading about Averell and then the next paragraph would have a scene and character change with no separation indicating the change. It was a bit mind-jarring. Also, towards the end, when the police first met Averell and were asking him where he was at on a certain date, I didn't find it a very believable scenario. They didn't ask for any information that they could confirm. They just took him at his word. As a potential suspect, I would've thought they would've asked him for the phone number of where he was at, who he spoke with, and the nature of his business with said person. You know, information they could confirm. But they didn't.

Overall, this novel would appeal to many mystery/thriller readers yet, while I did enjoy the majority of the story, I probably won't be reading it again.


*A paperback copy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

{Meme} Book Blogger Hop: Halloween Edition

Well, we're two weeks in to the 31 Days of Halloween event and it's time for another Book Blogger Hop: Halloween Edition question, hosted by Billy from Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.

This week's question:

What scary book would you like turned into a feature film?

Mandy's Response:

My favoritest scary book, It by Stephen King, has already been turned into a television movie ... which sucked, so I would love to see what the CGI experts of today could do with this story. I've heard rumors that this movie is currently being worked on and that it will be in two parts, with movie one being when the group of friends are younger and the second movie being when the group of friends are adults. I hope this is true. I would love to see it/them.

The other book I'd be interested to see turned into a feature film is The Shadow Man by Mark Murphy. I reviewed this book last October and I still love the story. It was one of the best thrilling and suspenseful books I've read that wasn't written by a New York Times bestselling author (yet!).