Author: cherylmahoney

I'm a book review blogger and writer. I have published four novels, The Wanderers; The Storyteller and Her Sisters; and The People the Fairies Forget; and The Lioness and the Spellspinners. All can be found on Amazon as an ebook and paperback. In my day job, I'm a Marketing Specialist. Find me on Twitter (@MarvelousTales) and GoodReads (MarvelousTales).

Blog Hop: Snack Time…

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop2 Comments

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’s Book Blogger Hop question is: Candy Corn, a chocolate bar, or Popcorn. Which of these snacks are your favorite to eat while reading?

Definitely popcorn.  Kettle corn specifically, which makes it much more like candy-like, I will admit.  Chocolate is of course wonderful, but I don’t often eat chocolate bars–Reeses cups, ice cream that involves chocolate, and one slightly infamous chocolate bunny (we got attached, so it didn’t get eaten for a long time…) have all come up recently, but I don’t often eat chocolate bars.  And I never liked candy corn.  I don’t hate it, but it’s just kind of tasteless, and more trouble than it seems worth to get out of my teeth!

What’s your favorite snack while reading?  Will you be eating it on Halloween? 🙂

Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy 2

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science Fiction2 Comments

I have a confession.  Despite proudly claiming the geek label, I am not a Marvel movie fan.  I’ve tried–I’ve seen the first installment in most of their hero franchises, and…never gotten into them.  Except: I enjoyed Dr. Strange, and I enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy.  I still never got to theaters for Guardians 2, and only finally saw it very recently.  But it was fun when I finally got to it!

The Guardians franchise seems to be a collection of B or C-level superheroes, and that’s part of why it works.  The misfit group includes “Star Lord” Peter Quill, Samora (played by the reliably awesome Zoe Saldana, formerly Pirates’ Anamaria and Star Trek‘s Uhura), big muscly social-filterless Drax, (sort of) raccoon Rocket and (sort of) tree Baby Groot.  Peter, who had a human mother, has always wondered about his possibly-alien father.  Well, while the gang is trying to escape the creepy gold soldiers of the Sovereign race, the mysterious Ego shows up to rescue them.  He reveals himself as Peter’s father and brings them to his planet…where things are a little too good, while being a little creepy too.

I feel like that’s a muddled and incomplete plot description, but the movie wasn’t really about the plot.  And this is why I liked Guardians better than the rest: I like the characters and the way they interact.  They’re a deeply dysfunctional family who bicker all the time, and yet still are firmly tied to each other.  There’s a poignant moment near the end when this comes home to Rocket (and the fact that they got a poignant moment about the feelings of a trigger-happy raccoon?  That’s skill.) Continue reading “Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy 2” →

Blog Hop: Scary on Screen

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop4 Comments

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’s Book Blogger Hop question is: Off the book topic – What is your favorite scary movie?

I would have to say Sweeney Todd, the Tim Burton film starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.  It’s the horror story of the demon barber of Fleet Street who murders his customers, who are then baked into meat pies by his landlord.  Sounds delightful, right?

It’s really a cathartic viewing experience–I feel everything.  It’s funny, romantic, horrifying, tragic, heart-breaking, terrible…and it’s all accompanied by a brilliant soundtrack.  As Andrew Lloyd Webber once said, musicals are for expressing emotions that are so intense that words are not enough–and so all those feelings in Sweeney Todd are more intense because of the music.

My other favorite scary movie is Secret Window, based on the Stephen King novella.  It has some of that creeping dread that I enjoy in Hitchcock movies, as events spiral more and more out of control, until a final climax that is even more horrifying for being psychological.  (Incidentally, it’s not a coincidence that my two favorite scary movies star Johnny Depp–I need a good incentive to watch a scary movie to begin with!)

Honorable mention to The Sixth Sense for being both brilliant and much scarier than either of the previous two, but not a favorite…because it’s so good at what it does that I will probably never watch it a second time!  Second honorable mention to the entire Hitchcock canon, with particular fondness for Rebbeca, Rope, Suspicion and Strangers on a Train.

What are your favorite scary movies?  Will you be watching any for Halloween?

Book Review: Carry On, Jeeves

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews3 Comments

I was scrolling my library’s digital audiobook collection, classics category, and came upon P. G. Wodehouse’s Carry On, Jeeves.  My main experience with this comes from a music medley show I once saw that included “By Jeeves” by Andrew Lloyd Webber–so, not much!  But I decided to give the book ago and it was delightfully fun.

A collection of short stories set in vaguely early 1900s England and New York, they center around wealthy Bertie Wooster and his invaluable manservant Jeeves.  Bertie is friendly, affable and idle, not as smart as he thinks, and gets into occasional social entanglements.  Jeeves is unflappable and brilliant.  The stories are delightfully funny if slightly formulaic–Bertie or a friend gets into a scrape, usually involving a love interest or an overbearing relative, and Jeeves calmly, discreetly orchestrates a masterful solution to sort everyone out.

These were so much fun to read, and so utterly British, to the point of parody.  I don’t know if Jeeves is tapping into the butler/manservant stereotype or if he actually set it, but he is the epitome of what you would expect in such a role.  He rarely betrays emotion, sets high standards regarding conduct and dress, and is discreetly helpful at all times.  He has impeccable taste and timing, and a trick of “projecting” himself into a room to appear exactly when needed. Continue reading “Book Review: Carry On, Jeeves” →

Blog Hop: Just a Little Suspense…

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop2 Comments

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’s Book Blogger Hop question is: Who is your favorite horror/suspense author and why?

I am not a reader or watcher of horror by and large–but sometimes I like a good suspense.  I enjoy Alfred Hitchcock (when he’s doing suspense more than horror) and my favorite suspense writer is Lois Duncan.  She writes young adult, sometimes with supernatural elements, but usually contemporary and mostly focused on the world as you and I know it.  And that’s the suspense I like best–stories where, on the surface, everything seems normal…but something very wrong is lurking beneath.

Duncan’s most famous book, I think, is I Know What You Did Last Summer, but, just for the record, the book apparently bears little resemblance to the movie of the same name (I’ve read the book, I’ve not watched the movie).  My favorite of her novels is Daughters of Eve, which very much is that surface-level calm with something else lurking…and it has the most chilling but very understated ending.  It’s masterful.

Do you distinguish between suspense and horror?  Who is your favorite author who writes either?