Decent Book and Movie

Goddess of the Sea by P.C. Cast was a pretty good read. I like her overall style. Her heroines always are well-fleshed out, and are refreshingly practical, take charge kind of people. And she doesn't shy away from the weird stuff, i.e. the beast stays a beast, and the mer-people stay mer-people, even during sex. But it's done tastefully. I wasn't quite as enamored of this book I was of Goddess of the Rose and Goddess of Spring, for two reasons.

First of all, I found the whole church keeping the women down and stripping them of their power thing a bit too heavy-handed. And there was too much of it. All the stuff with the abbott and the knight took time away from the love story. I felt that the romance in this book was much less fleshed out. In the other two books, I felt that the love story was based upon a deep friendship between the h/h, whereas this was more of a love at first sight, instant soulmates thing. And unfortunately, as a woman of a certain age, this will always be Dylan to me:Dylan and Brenda 4-eva!. I know that Dylan is a Welsh name, and most of this book took place in Medieval Wales, but it was jarring to me, especially with all of the mythological names floating around. Overall, a good read, though I'd reccommend one of the other two titles over this one.

Also saw King Kong. A little too long, I started wanting to fast forward, but good. Peter Jackson is an excellent filmmaker with a strong vision. Is it wrong that I found the relationship between King Kong and Naomi Watts to be stronger than the one with Adrien Brody, the supposed love interest?

Tale as old as time...

song as old as rhyme,Beeyoooty and the Beeeast.

Damn, that song gets into my head. With that creaky Angela Lansbury voice. So I read Goddess of the Rose by P.C. Cast. Loved it. This was my second book by Cast, (the first being Goddess of Spring) and I think that she is a very bold and original storyteller. She's not afraid to tell an unusual story, and thinks enough of the intelligence of romance readers that she doesn't take the easy way out. This book was dedicated to all those who were disappointed when the beast turned into the handsome prince. Or something very close to that, I'm feeling too lazy to get my butt up and get the book. As I state ad nauseum, I love dark and tormented heroes, and this book just takes it further. The hero, Asterius, is dark and tormented, and not human. And not a sexy vampire, but a half-man, half-beast. All the time, not like a sexy werewolf/shapeshifter thing. And it was cool. Actually it was pretty hot. And I liked the heroine, Mikki. More on the practical and nurturing end of the spectrum than the whiny and whimpy. I just loved that it was about loving and accepting somebody for who they are, because I totally HATE stories where the dark, tormented, tortured hero either changes himself or is changed by the heroine, to become socially adjusted, charming guy, all of a sudden. You want the hero to keep a bit of the beast, y'know? This wasn't perfect: the beginning was a bit slow, and Cast was heavy handed with her repeated assertions that men are patronizing and don't really want to listen to women. But muscles. Horns. Hooves. Swear to God, some sexy shit, I don't care how it sounds. And it was sweet and awwww, too. Anyway, it's well worth a read.