Book Review: Polar Night + Movie Review

Polar Night Review

Polar Night by Julie Flanders is a supernatural thriller about a killer who abducts women who are unfortunate enough to resemble his one true love. But when they fail to "become" her, the women inevitably die. Until one gets away. This escapee convinces cop Danny that maybe the killer isn’t what he seems and she isn’t crazy for believing so.

Polar Night has a mellow start and makes you wonder where’s the mystery going to come from. You meet Aleksei and think “interesting.” Then you get to really know Danny, a cop on a track to ruin, who runs away to Alaska after the death of his wife, and you’re hooked on the story: Crazy killer and the alcoholic cop after him. What really grabs you is the dialog, which rings harshly real and makes you feel for the characters. And the story ends with a nice finishing touch.

In the author’s words:

I am a novelist and a freelance writer in Cincinnati, Ohio. A native Ohioan, I happily cheer for the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Cincinnati Reds.

My debut novel, the supernatural thriller Polar Night, was published by Ink Smith Publishing in February, 2013. My second novel, The Ghosts of Aquinnah, is a love story/ghost story/mystery that will be published by Ink Smith in December, 2013.

I am a life-long animal lover with a passion for writing about animals. I have written features about the joy of pets and the importance of animal rescue for several media outlets including Best Friends Animal Society, Cat Fancy, and Thrive in Life.

I share my home with my cat Nate and my dog Clancy, both of whom are rescues.

Purchase Polar Nights here.

Julie's webpage

Julie's blog

Movie Review: Lee Daniels' The Butler

From its premise – American history based on the viewpoint of a Black butler (Cecil Gaines) who served US Presidents from Eisenhower to Reagan – I was so looking forward to seeing Lee Daniels' The Butler. And the movie did not disappoint. It is a riveting story of not only rarely portrayed character aspects of the presidents, but is a dedication to Gaines’ amazing life and the struggles, triumphs and (yes, my favorite thing) transformations of his family. Oprah Winfrey is, of course, excellent in her portrayal of Gaines’ wife. The chemistry between Winfrey and Forest Whitaker is the core of what makes this movie exceptional.

Being one who rarely cries in movies, what does get me crying is when characters come to a breakthrough... and bust through it. So, yes I did unashamedly cry during the movie at one point. As I reviewed in Flixster, The Butler is an “EXCELLENT movie, worthy to be part of Black movie history.”

Now go on and see it for yourselves!

Celebrating a Great Week

This has been quite a good week, but one which has zapped my energy. In acknowledgement of the goodness of it, I have to do my part in VikLit’s weekly blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things.

• This week, I truly enjoyed the Anti-blogfest Gary Fest. It got my imagination going wild. And it was great to meet Gary this past week.
• It was nice to be tagged for The Next Best Thing again. Heads up! The magnificent Sheena-kay, who's so willing to help promote others, will be posting her Next Big Thing on Monday over at Queendsheena. Be sure to head over to her place to see what she’s up to.

• I’d done two more interviews. One will be aired next week, while the other one was live on a blog radio/tv show called X Zone out of Canada on topics like alien abductions and loch nest monsters. It was a fun interview. Being so tired while listening to it over, I truly don’t know if I made any sense. If you’re interested, here’s the podcast of the show: X Zone interview

• Lastly, I need help! I was so glad to assist a fellow blogger with her book promotion, and had added myself to her link to do so. She had emailed me the info, but I accidentally deleted it and can’t remember who it was for. If you know who it was, or if you are her, please email me again! I’m so sorry.

Happy celebrating. Be waiting for my visit over the weekend!