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I HAD TO SHARE THIS ONE… IT’S SO FUNNY. FROM 1950.
(Cover copied from Amazon)
BOOK REVIEW
BEAUTIFUL BROKEN (UNIVERSITY OF BRANTON, BOOK 2)
By Nazarea Andrews
*This review was not solicited by the author.*
4 of 5 Stars
I must admit that enjoyed this book more than the first book, This Love. You can definitely see the writer’s writing skills were progressing and her ability to write her characters doing more than one thing and there’s definitely more action in the book. (Of course, she’s been very busy writing since This Love was published and I’m sure we’ll see more blooming as we read along.)
Beautiful Broken, despite that I felt there was a wee bit too much sex in the book, or well… – but hey, I’m too old to remember my 20s, maybe it was like that for me too at some point – I really loved the depth of the story in this novel. So many things were touched upon: rape, alcohol, drugs, sexual promiscuity, emotional disorders, sobriety challenges and so much more. This book also moves at a nice pace with the exception of the very end. I’ll get to that.
The main characters in this story, Dane and Scout, were my favorites of book one. For me, they were most interesting and genuine characters in book 1. In Beautiful Broken, they’re believable, real and definitely struggling with real human problems and emotions. I see these two among my friends from my youth.
Youths struggle with so many issues. Not just today, but when I was young, and when my grandmother was young. Even as adults, we all live in our own drama every day. There’s the side the public sees, the side our friends see, the side we really have which only one or two people actually see and understand.
POSSIBLE SPOIL! The only problem I had was with the ending. Slam. The door shut. I think there could have been a couple pages more to slow that down. It wrecked the wonderful pace of the book for me. It ends with sex. How long was Scout out of the hospital? I’m not totally sure, but I think it may have been too soon to have sex after all that happened to her at the end. I, personally, would have preferred a more romantic ending like sharing a bowl of ice cream in a candle lit room. But that’s just me.
I really enjoyed the book as a whole despite my opinion of the ending.
Last, but never, ever least, Melissa Stevens once again did an excellent job on cover design. It definitely reflects the storyline, characters and the season.
Thanks for reading!
Here is the link to my review for THIS LOVE
Painted whiskey illustration
From moraswines.com
ex-wives ex-lives
neatly fit in
square bottles
decanted
three fingers
three rocks
at a time
charred oak
amber despair
sharp cut
vitreous lead
crystal sorrows
refract in their
fireglass tumbled
kaleidoscope sins
cold companions
that splendidly
burn off regrets
to make room
for the shame
I fall in love with you
again every day.
You are my life’s blessing
always true and by my side.
I fall in love with you
again every day
and would not have it
any other way.
Remember Hong Kong Phooey?… They ran on Saturdays, a total of 31 shorts, from Sept. 7, 1974 – Dec. 21, 1974.
I don’t believe I’ve shared this one previously. After writing this, I wrote a short story based on the same theme called, The Doughnut Murders. It’s a tad over 14,000 words, or I’d post it here on the blog. Of course, if anyone would enjoy reading it, just let me know and I can post it later this week. I figured this is a good Halloween-themed poem. 😉
HAUNTED, POISONED DOUGHNUT
Oh haunted, poisoned doughnut
You have found me at last.
You first went through all my friends
One by one by one
Until there were none
First you started with dizzy Fizzy
Oh how she was such a thin-lizzy
Prim and proper
And such a show stopper
Next there was business woman, Rita,
Who acted like such a Lolita
With her red stripper heels
And all those scandalous deals
Third there was Rose
Who thought she was so good at writing prose
Turns out it was her husband
Who wrote all those
One by one by one
You poisoned them
Then caught me in the end
I should have known better
Than to eat a doughnut
That appeared out of nowhere
And moved around from here to there
When there was no one else near
It was Vickie
Who killed us
Out of some sort of revenge
Just because we poisoned her
With a doughnut so round
We killed her dead
By a doughnut
Riddled with arsenic
Put up with her
We did
Until we could no longer
Stand her
Though our finicky
Friend Vickie
Did seek out revenge
Testing our strength
Against a doughnut
Sound round
With icing glistening
Sweetly sugared orb so fine
She stole our husbands
Then our boyfriends
Even our children
Seemed her to defend
We got tired of her wicked games
So we poisoned her with a sweet eat
And OMG! It was so neat
When she ate that poisoned doughnut
Then fell head over feet
Onto the floor of my very home
Throw her in a bag did we
And deliver her to a watery new home
But alas did she get her payback
By placing one lone doughnut in a Dunkin Donuts sack
And placing it ‘round the house
When to eat, there was nothing else ‘round about.
Copyright 2014 Wanda S. Paryla
I don’t recall if I’ve ever posted this on my blog before, but thought it’s a fitting time to share.
DANCE OF THE SEASONS
Seasons change, bringing anew
The turning tides ring of truth
Times come and they go
Return and leave like the life of a rose
In the beginning of a season
Living life without reason
We feel totally robust
Then fall down and bust
Life, full of too much excitement,
Eventually brings tired days well spent
Whether it’s raking leaves
Or shoveling snow; hanging wreaths
Eventually the season ends
And before we know it, tends
To enter another season, yet again
A never-ending cycle upon which we depend
And as we dance in spring showers
And keep watch over growing flowers
The sun in the sky rises higher
As the days grow longer and lighter
The outdoors begs us, come
Time to begin outdoor fun
And next thing we know
Tulips smell fine and gone is the snow
As the roses rise high
Toward the big blue sky
Turning their faces aloft
We look ahead to summers so soft
Full of hot days and warm nights
We’ll lie on our backs; watch the skies for lights
Barbecues will be lit
With charcoal in their pits
And in the last days of summer
We’ll stand outside and act all the dumber
While pretending not to know
That soon enough, there’ll be snow
We’ll toast the long days
As we nod to changing ways
As fall chases summer away
And lessens our time of play
Ushering in things anew
Yet that seem old too
And soon the raking of leaves
Give way to the hanging of wreathes
Again we’ll sit ‘round hearth fires
Discussing days gone by with desire
And we sit with our cookies and coffees
Dreaming of summer and big Slurpees
It’s the dance of the seasons
It happens without reason
Round and round it goes
And where it’ll stop, everyone knows.
Copyright 2014 Wanda S. Paryla
Smudging the lines between mortals, magic, and monsters.
Exploring the World of Writing
Fantasy Author
Finding Hope Through Hardship
“All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
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