Category Archives: Review

Mini Review – Beautifully Disney: Fantasy in Flight!

Posted in Make Up, New Products, Review, Shopping by

Disney Haul!
You may be wondering if such a thing exists. When you work for Disney and get 40% off stuff during the holidays….yes…Disney hauls DO exist. I personally didn’t walk away with too much stuff, however, I did come away with two products from the newest collection from “Beautifully Disney” cosmetics line. This newest collection is focused on Disney fairies. Personally I think they could’ve shown some of the other fairies. They skipped any and all fairy godmothers. The main faces are Tinker Bell (of course) from Peter Pan, and The Blue Fairy from Pinocchio. Anyways, I picked up the Fantasy in Flighty Eyeshadow Palette ($36.95) and the 4 Nail Polish Mini Set ($21.95). They also had a brush set that looked really nice, but I have a ton of brushes already and I wasn’t sure what their quality was. They also had some new blushes that were really pigmented, but they had faces of villains on the front, and I didn’t want that. So anyways, here’s the pictures and some thoughts on what I’ve got. Enjoy!

Thoughts:
Nail Polish: Upon reflection I have no idea why I bought these. I have 393838 bottles of nail polish, and I really don’t need any more. I was probably stoked because with the discount these were fairly cheap. I’m annoyed because the two gold colors are pretty similar, which would’ve dissuaded me from buying them if I’d thought about it a little more at the store. I’m interested to see how the bigger pieces of glitter will actually lay once applied to the nails. I can do a full review on these nail colors if anyone would like – let me know! I’m most excited  about the red color, which I believe is “Star Struck”. I’m  not pleased that the names of these colors are not labeled on the bottles or labeled in any obvious way. Based on the ingredients in the packaging this is what I’ve decided – “Spriteful” is the darker gold with bigger pieces of glitter because the packaging says it has Red Iron Oxide & Yellow #5 in it. I figured the Red Iron Oxide is what made it slightly darker…? “Wish Come True” is the softer gold color because it only has Yellow #5. “Star Struck” is the red because it has Red #7 in it. Finally, “Something Sassy” is the blue because it has Violet #2 in it. I feel like a really dumb scientist right now. I hope those are right… 😦 I apologize if I’m wrong, and if anyone knows  for sure the correct names I would really appreciate if you let me know!

Palette: I know this is not the same line of products as the Disney by Sephora collection but I feel like they’re about the same quality, so I pretty much bought this based on what the packaging looks like lol, just like I did with The Little Mermaid palette. As you can see from the swatches, the pigmentation is mixed. I passed my finger over the colors at a medium pressure, you could see where my finger had left a trace in the shadow, yet the colors were hit and miss in terms of pigment. Perhaps with a proper make up brush and technique the pigment will go on nicely if you apply it with a patting motion. I think the colors are nice. Again, no names for these colors which makes me unhappy, but oh well. They all have shimmer in them so be aware!I’m really looking forward to trying out the white as a highlight, the rose gold next to it as a lid shade, and the copper brown in the crease. Another option would be the same highlight/crease, but using the yellow as the lid shade. For a more dramatic look, I would again use the white as a highlight, the blue (above the yellow) as my lid shade, then put the dark blue/black (above the white) as my crease color. Just some ideas! Were you inspired by any of these shades, share your ideas with me!

Let me know what you think about these purchases in the comments and let me know if you’d like to see some looks created or full reviews 🙂 Please follow this blog & follow me on Instagram and Twitter @missal_leigh

Mani Monday!

Posted in Mani Monday, New Products, Review by

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Today’s Mani Monday is brought to you by Sinful Colors polish in the color “Mambo Melt”. It’s a very shiny purple, no shimmer, not metallic but it’s certainly not matte. I guess I’d call this a satin finish.

Honestly not sure where I picked this color up from. I’ve had it for awhile and never used it Bc of the finish, I generally prefer solid matte colors. However, this is what got picked out of the nail polish bin so that’s what I went with!

Quality wise, this isn’t great. The first coat was very streaky, a second coat was definitely necessary. I always use base, two coats of color, and a top coat, but something went awry this time. The second coat made the polish look thick and fully covered the nail, but when I applied the top coat, is stripped some of the color away! I tried to take a picture of this but it’s kind of hard to see…(see pic below) I definitely waited a looong time between color and top coat, so I know it was dry. I’m not sure why that happened, if it was the quality if the polish or something I did wrong..? Any thoughts please let me know!

I’m going to let this polish wear for the week and see what happens, but at this point I don’t feel a strong inclination to keep this in my polish bin especially when I have much better quality. We’ll see!

Have you ever used Sinful Colors or experienced the color stripping I experienced? Please let me know in the comments!

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Mani Monday!

Posted in Mani Monday, New Products, Review, Shopping by

20131209-122909.jpgToday’s Mani Monday is brought to you by Sephora by O.P.I. In the color “Break a Leg-warmer!” I believe this is one of the colors from the NY Ballet inspired line…which would make sense given the name.

Usually I don’t like square shaped brushes. I prefer the rounded brush like the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure. However, I didn’t want to stick to just one brand for the rest of my life so I picked up some Sephora colors during my Sephora haul that I blogged about in November.

This color is super rich and creamy, almost one coat is enough, but by default I did two, along with my normal base/top coat. I worry that this will leave my nails a little grey tinged when I take the polish off but hopefully the base coat stops that from happening.

Let me know your thoughts! Do you like this color? Do you like other Sephora by OPI colors? Other brands?

Movie Review – Delivery Man!

Posted in Movies, Review by

Last night I went to see Vince Vaughn’s new movie “Delivery Man”.

“Stats”: Opened on November 22nd to mostly mixed reviews. Notable cast includes Vince Vaughn, Chris Pratt, and Cobie Smulders. Here’s the trailer!

Plot: “Delivery Man” centers around a middle aged guy named David who discovers he’s the biological father of 533 children due to a mix up at a fertility clinic he donated sperm to in his 20’s. A group of the kids are suing David, contesting his right to remain anonymous. The film follows him in trying to figure out how to do the right thing for his current growing family and the kids who want to know their father. Along the way his journey is highlighted by picking out select profiles and meeting those kids and helping them in some way, while trying to remain anonymous. I think the trailer does a really good job of revealing the key plot points, while not giving too much away, so I won’t say too much more.

Thoughts: I thought this movie was a standard “drama-dy” (Drama/Comedy), but it was definitely NOT your typical Vince Vaughn movie…not necessarily a bad thing. “Delivery Man” had a good mix of sweet, funny moments, mixed in with some darker plot points.

Cons: This isn’t necessarily a con, but was something I found a little off. The “name brand” actors in this movie all played against type. I understand that’s not a horrible thing, but it was just so strange to see Chris Pratt, who I recognize from “The O.C”, playing a lawyer and father. Cobie Smulders, who normally plays Robin from “How I Met Your Mother”, was Vince Vaughn’s very serious/angry girlfriend with no sense of humor.

Pros: The highlights of the movie were definitely the stories when David interacted with his kids. I feel like the actors that played the kids in these “special” stories are on their way to big things, especially Dave Patten, Adam Chanler-Berat, and Jack Reynor.
Dave Patten plays Adam, one of David’s kids who is pretty much the ring leader of the lawsuit to find out his identity. He plays a musician in the film and in real life is a talented singer-songwriter-musician who plays multiple instruments. He’s also a published author. His novel “Run of the Mill” is definitely on my book list! Also I swear I recognize him from something non-media related but I can’t put my finger on what it is.
Adam Chanler-Berat plays Viggo, one of the kids involved in the lawsuit who figures out that David is actually his father. He uses this information to his advantage to kind of blackmail David into spending some one on one time with him. Chanler-Berat is notable to me because he’s also well known for playing Henry in the stage show “Next to Normal” and Boy/Peter in “Peter and the Starcatcher”. “Next to Normal” also features two other actors I’m extremely impressed with, Aaron Tevit, probably most well known for being in last year’s film “Les Mis” & Skylar Astin, from “Pitch Perfect.” I just saw “Peter and the Starcatcher” in S.F (review coming soon!) and it was awesome – so I’m automatically enthralled with anyone who’s been involved in the show.
Jack Reynor plays Josh, one of the first of David’s kids that he helps. I think he gave a really honest performance…and he looks like Jesse Spencer (Dr. Chase from House). Reynor can be seen soon in the next Transformer’s movie, a series I generally enjoy, so I thought that was pretty cool too.

I’ve rambled enough…would I recommend this movie? Sure, I guess. I’m mostly enthusiastic about it for the performances from Vaughn and the above mentioned actors. The plot was iffy for me because it was all these kids complaining about how they didn’t know their dad so they don’t know who they are and they feel a part of them is missing. I was raised by a single mom, I don’t know my dad, and I don’t feel that way, so it was hard for me to connect with that part of the plot. Overall I’d give this film a B rating. Give it a go if you’re interested in seeing some new talent and a different side of Vince Vaughn. 

If you’ve seen the film, what did you think? Are you interested in seeing it? Let me know!

Mini review – Disney Ariel Storylook Palette!

Posted in Ebay, Make Up, New Products, Review, Shopping by

FINALLY!!!!!! I wasn’t really too excited about Sephora’s collaboration with Disney for the Disney Princess Collection’s because I simply didn’t care about the princesses they chose. I was gifted the Cinderella travel sized perfume & the packaging was really pretty & was excited to add it to my perfume bottle collection – until the lettering started to chip off 😦 I was disappointed by the quality, so I vowed not to buy anymore products…until they picked Ariel, the Little Mermaid! She’s my number two princess,  & if they make a Belle Collection, I’ll camp out in front of Sephora to get my hands on that stuff! But supposedly they aren’t making anymore Collections 😦
I was frantically trying to buy it from Sephora, even had the palette in my cart on Sephora.com, only to have them pull it and sell it to someone else while I was browsing. :(( I had given up hope on ever getting the palette from Sephora because they kept selling out, so I resigned myself to the jacked up prices on Ebay. I somehow managed to win my first auction & only ended up paying about $10 more than what it was selling for in stores – so I’m pretty pleased!
The packaging is SO beautiful, it’s going to be really lovely to use as house decoration after the shadows are used up. One gripe…the shadows are housed INSIDE the main packaging and it’s kind of difficult to open. Here’s some photos of the packaging and swatches…mini review throughout and a final word about the palette at the end…

Outer Packaging

Outer Packaging

Back side; outer packaging

Back side; outer packaging

Back side; outer packaging

Back side; outer packaging

Close up of the back of the packaging

Close up of the back of the packaging

Actual palette

Actual palette

Palette Cover and Palette side by side

Palette Cover and Palette side by side

Cropped close up on shadows

Cropped close up on shadows

Cropped close up, row 1, from left to right, Blue Lagoon, Scuttle, Flounder, Sebastian, Flotsam

Row 1, Blue Lagoon, Scuttle, Flounder, Sebastian, Flotsam - uhmm where's the pigment!?

Row 1, Blue Lagoon, Scuttle, Flounder, Sebastian, Flotsam – uhmm where’s the pigment!?

Row 2, l to r, Sea Shells, Les Poissons, Caspian Sea, Your Voice, Unfortunate Souls

Row 2, l to r, Sea Shells, Les Poissons, Caspian Sea, Your Voice, Unfortunate Souls

Row 2, l to r, Sea Shells, Les Poissons, Caspian Sea, Your Voice, Unfortunate Souls - the shimmers have much better pigment than the row above, but still not great, & Unfortunate Souls hardly shows up at all...

Row 2, l to r, Sea Shells, Les Poissons, Caspian Sea, Your Voice, Unfortunate Souls – the shimmers have much better pigment than the row above, but still not great, & Unfortunate Souls hardly shows at all…

Row 3, l to r, Atlantica, Fins, Sick of Swimming, Ursula, Sha La La

Row 3, l to r, Atlantica, Fins, Sick of Swimming, Ursula, Sha La La

Row 3, l to r, Atlantica, Fins, Sick of Swimmin', Ursula, Sha La La

Row 3, l to r, Atlantica, Fins, Sick of Swimmin’, Ursula, Sha La La – They pigment keeps improving – so that’s a good sign!

Row 4, l to r, Triton, Wanderin' Free, Jetsam, Sea Witch, Treasures Untold

Row 4, l to r, Triton, Wanderin’ Free, Jetsam, Sea Witch, Treasures Untold

Row 4, l to r, Triton, Wanderin' Free, Jetsam, Sea Witch, Treasures Untold - Like I said, the pigment just keeps getting better, very shimmery but beautiful shades

Row 4, l to r, Triton, Wanderin’ Free, Jetsam, Sea Witch, Treasures Untold – Like I said, the pigment just keeps getting better, very shimmery but beautiful shades

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is not the best quality eyeshadow I’ve ever owned. I’m not surprised though. I think Disney/Sephora saw a good market, mid 20’s women who grew up with Disney, now wanting adult products & willing to shell out the money, no matter what the product really consists of. The colors are mostly super shimmery, not very pigmented, but there’s definitely a way to incorporate them into a look – you just have to figure how how to suit your style. For me, I’ll probably use these as highlight or lid shades for everyday use, for a night out/special occasion, I could probably be persuaded to use the darker shimmery shades as a crease color with really heavy blending. I’ll have to play around with it. You will definitely need a good eye shadow base/primer!
The packaging is awesome. Upon further investigation I found there’s a way to completely remove the eyeshadow tray and use the velvet box and “Dare to Dream” cover as a jewelry box or simple bookshelf decoration – I’ll probably end up doing that.
I do not regret this purchase at all, although it was fairly expensive and the shadows aren’t really colors I’ll reach for on a daily basis, I’m an early 20’s girl that grew up with the Disney Princesses & I want my adult merchandise & I’m willing to pay for it no matter what it consists of!!! Now seriously…where’s the Belle Collection? I’m waiting Sephora…

CONCERT REVIEW! Fall Out Boy @ America’s Cup Pavilion, S.F. 9/21/13

Posted in Music, Review by

When Fall Out Boy came onto the mainstream scene with their album From Under the Cork Tree & “Sugar We’re Going Down” became a huge hit, I bought their older albums/EP’s & became a huge fan. I was later disappointed by their follow up albums (Infinity on High was just okay, let’s not even get started on Folie a Deux – which I don’t even own) I was about 15 when I became a FOB fan and their perfect mix of dance-y music and angst-y lyrics filled a spot in my heart that was disappointingly starting to fade…but then…Save Rock and Roll was released earlier this year and luckily my roommate at the time was also a huge FOB fan so when she bought the CD the day it came out, I was able to get a listen of the new music, happily rediscover my passion for the band, even getting tickets (FRONT ROW) for The Conan Show when FOB was performing, then going to an autograph signing on Hollywood and Highland the next day! I was beyond happy when I heard FOB was touring again, having NEVER seen them in concert even though I’ve been dreaming of it since I was 15 – so this concert meant a lot to me, a bucket list item 8 YEARS in the making! The concert in SoCal sold out in minutes, so I had to make a trip to my hometown and see the boys in San Francisco. Here’s my recap…

“Pre-Opener”: 21 Pilots
Dear sweet baby Jesus, if I never hear another song from 21 Pilots…I’ll be good. The actual music itself was not bad, but the singer and his lyrics were SO SPASTIC!!!!! The songs were so long you couldn’t tell if it was still the same song or if he’d flowed into something different, one second he’s be singing, then screaming and flailing around, then he’d sound like he was just talking. My head was spinning. He performed this song called “Car Radio”…check out the YouTube video…this is a mild, watered down version of what he actually did… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92XVwY54h5k

“Opener”: Panic! At The Disco
I was 2% excited for PATD, simply because I’m only familiar with about a handful of their songs but having the chance to see them was a tiny side bonus. However, I was again pretty disappointed. I didn’t realize how much I DIDN’T know their music, so I was mostly waiting for them to finish so FOB could come on. Although, I am now obsessed with one of their newer songs, here’s the YouTube…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGE381tbQa8
*Please note musical similarities to FOB’s My Songs… & Alone Together. Iiiinteresting 🙂

***Also, the crowd at this point was getting really out of control. I was separated from my friend & pushed to the front…well, pushed to the front, back, down to ground, lifted back up, etc lol, I understand that’s part of going to shows, & I find that somewhat fun, but the crowd at this show was VERY rude. I don’t know if it was because a majority of the crowd seemed to be high school-ers, or if they were just inexperienced concert goers. People were yelling at each other and purposely attacking people that been pushed against them – hello! The crowd is pushing EVERYONE, I’m not trying to shove you or elbow you, it’s just happening, it’s the nature of the “mosh pit” beast – if you don’t like it -go sit in the bleachers!  It got so bad that when FOB came out they stopped after the first song & made people step back & help people up that had been trampled/passed out etc, & said for safety reasons we had to be more chill or they’d keep stopping the show. Yikes.

Main Event: FALL OUT BOY!
Seriously…good, but underwhelming. Maybe I had the event built up too high in my head, maybe I was just expecting more after seeing them live on Conan, maybe because I met them face to face I’d already experienced the main highlight of band worship…? All these things are definitely explanations I’m considering for my lack of supreme joy that I thought I was going to feel upon finally realizing a dream 8 years in the making. I seriously thought I was going to openly weep, but no. Not one tear, didn’t even feel emotional enough to cry, not even during my favorite songs, that usually make me feel so much I tear up singing along in my car. (Other people have that happen to them too, yes? …Dear God, what have I just revealed about myself?!) Anyways, it was just…good.
They had no real set pieces to speak of, they played video behind them on a big screen – woo hoo – they have all the money in the world, and those tickets were not cheap, they could’ve had some special effects! Maybe they were thinking special effects would distract from the experience, but they’re a really good live performance band, so fortunately/unfortunately when they perform live, they sound very similar, if not exactly the same, as the CD tracks. I felt like they needed something to spice things up and make me feel like I wasn’t just listening to the CD among sweaty, pushy, teenagers. That made me sound really old.
Another possibility I thought of was that maybe I’m just not a “scene kid” or whatever these kids consider themselves. I usually go to Rocket Summer shows, which are MUCH more underground and it’s a VERY different experience, one that I always enjoy to the highest degree. I’ve made friends at Rocket Summer shows that I still keep in contact with through FB on a semi-regular basis. It was disappointing to not have that kind of camaraderie among the fans at last nights show, but I guess it’s a different environment when you see a mainstream band.

Overall opinion: Commenting only on FOB, if you have the chance to see them sometime – go! It’s a good show, you’ll have fun, live music is pretty much always an awesome experience. For me, now that I’ve seen them once, I don’t know that I would go back to any of their future shows. It depends on how much the tickets are and how much of an effort I’d have to put out to get to it. Despite my lackluster review, it was a good experience that I’m glad I was able to FINALLY partake in. Here are some video clips of my favorite songs and select photos…

Opening song “The Phoenix”
“Alone Together”
“Sugar, We’re Going Down”
“Young Volcanoes”
“Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy”
“My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)”
“Save Rock & Roll”

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Pete waving the white flag during “The Phoenix”

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Patrick Stump.

Patrick Stump.

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Joe Trohman

Joe Trohman

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Book Review! The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

Posted in Book Review, Books, Review, Sunday Book Club by
Courtesy of goodreads.com

Courtesy of goodreads.com

As a huge Harry Potter fan, I was nervous yet excited to read other J.K. Rowling novels. I was a bit disappointed that this was so far down on my reading list, but fate stepped in & a family friend gave it to me to borrow, so that immediately bumped it to next on the list! I had somewhat high expectations but I didn’t know exactly what I was expecting, after all, this couldn’t be another Harry Potter, but I figured the writing would still be excellent, despite hearing from my mom, the person that lent me the book, and another family friend, that this novel was complete and utter rubbish. Without further ado…

Plot: No spoilers here. To spoil this book would take a post that would undo the fabric of the internet because it would be so long. There are about 8 million characters in this book, and they can be hard to keep track of. I ended the book only mixing up two couples still, which I think is pretty good, as I had everyone else, their looks and their backstory, pretty much nailed down.
At its core, the book revolves around a small town, the people that inhabit it, and what happens to them when a major member of their community suddenly passes away. This book deals with sex, drugs, death, professional malpractice, and all sorts of other sordid, depressing topics and only ends semi-happily. The stories revolve around teenagers, their parents, and their grandparents, but there are no real main characters. Each character bounces from page to page, sometimes Rowling wouldn’t full on reveal that the characters were interacting, she’d be telling the story of one character & say, for example, “A small boy watched from the corner of the room, frowning”, then in another chapter she’d say, “Robbie stood in corner, frowing” & it was up to you to realize, “Ooohh hey! He’s the small boy from that other chapter!” Not all of these references mattered, but it just solidified that they were from the same town and in each others lives, even if THEY didn’t realize it.

Thoughts: The idea that the people in the town didn’t really realize they were all connected brings me right into what I thought about the story. I think that’s really the message Rowling was trying to tell, that we’re all connected and everything we do touches the people in our community. One action or non action creates a string of events that can help or hurt someone further down the line. These people were mostly busy trying to tear each other down, they didn’t see how they were hurting their children, so the kids acted out, and didn’t realize how their actions would change the course of the futures around them. I think most of the characters thought they were doing the right thing. No one was particularly despicable to me or particularly likeable, they all just seemed like really real people. Stupid teens, gossipy old ladies, victims of unhappy lives. There were a few characters to root for, but you knew it was either going to end sadly, or way too bubble gum happy, neither a very satisfying ending, but for me, I’d choose realism any day.

One important topic I’d like to touch on was brought up by someone that read the book before me and referred to it as “pornographic” and thought the Rowling was trying WAY too hard to make the book adult, to the point that the material was disgusting & the reader could barely get through the book. Hmm…I’m not sure what other books this person is reading, but I have to disagree wholeheartedly! Yes, there’s sex, but it’s barely graphic! At most it’s like, “He got on top of her and the bed began creaking”, there’s no description of the acts or anything!
This book kept me thoroughly entertained, I couldn’t put it down. I stayed up most of a night trying to figure out what madness would happen next and what would happen to these characters. They characters themselves don’t really touch a place in my heart that made me care for them, but I guess I was looking at it from more of a writer’s perspective, like, where would Rowling take these stories next!? Yes, this is much different from Harry Potter, there is no magic here, only the cruel real world, but there is light at the end of this tunnel too. Despite the death and destruction caused by these characters, Rowling manages to show that there is good in everyone, we just have to look for it, and sometimes, help bring it out.
One other thing, the way this book is written is very visual to me, I could definitely see this as a movie & with Rowling’s history, that’s a very big possibility. It was funny though because I kept imagining certain characters as the Dursleys or students of Hogwarts, as portrayed in the Harry Potter films. Guess my imagination wasn’t working too hard on this one :/

Overall rating: B.

Book Review! Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale by Carolyn Turgeon

Posted in Book Review, Books, Disney, Review, Sunday Book Club by
Courtesy of Goodreads.com

Courtesy of Goodreads.com

I’ve already read another of this author’s novels, “Godmother. The Secret Cinderella Story”, which focuses on the fairy godmother from “Cinderella”. That book is DARK & I LOVE it! I generally always enjoy grown up books about fairy tales, “Beastly” & “Wicked” come to mind, but “Godmother…” is just beyond excellent. Not for the faint of heart, it’s pretty dark and sometimes confusing, but definitely worth reading. I loved “Godmother…” so much, I immediately put most of Turgeon’s other books on my list of books to read. “Mermaid…” intrigued me because I’ve always been fascinated by mermaid lore, and Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” is one of my favorite movies, Ariel is my 2nd favorite princess 🙂 (Belle is the first!) I started this book with really high expectations, but sadly they weren’t quite met…

Plot w/SPOILERS!:
Lenia, our little mermaid that longs to be part of the human world and have a soul. Unfortunately, she’s not even allowed to be on the surface, except on her 18th birthday. She breaks all the rules and saves a handsome sailor from drowning and of course, falls in love. She brings him to shore, but realizes that without legs, there’s not a whole heck of a lot she can do. Fortunately…or unfortunately, Lenia is able to mentally connect with a nearby girl and tells her to save the man. Lenia leaves, all the while thinking of ways to get back to her love.
Margrethe is the other woman, Princess of the North, keeping a secret identity and being hidden at a convent due to threats of war from the South Kingdom. After hearing Lenia’s mental message, she saves the man, who is revealed to be the Prince of the SOUTH, but oh well, she’s already in love with him.
Lenia, meanwhile, makes a deal with a sea witch…I’m sure you’ve heard this before…trading her fins and voice for legs. She must marry the prince because then he’ll give her part of his soul and she’ll become human. If he marries someone else, Lenia dies. She swims back to shore, the princes finds her and pretty quickly they become…uhm…close. This is where the book starts to take a more adult turn, womanhood’s being broken, sticky wet sheets, that sort of thing. The sex isn’t graphic, but you definitely know it happened. Lenia is stoked because her mom never warned her that nobody buys the cow when they can get the milk for free so she thinks sex means love/marriage, but the rest of the court is giggling because they know there’s no way the prince is gonna marry some random mute.
Margrethe, meanwhile, is also plotting how to get back to her love. She decides the best way to do that is to arrange a marriage with his family, thereby forcing their love and peace between the kingdoms – a true politician!
The prince is pissed that his father agrees to the marriage especially because LENIA IS PREGNANT! Margrethe has moved into the South Kingdom, and at first doesn’t recognize Lenia but finally does after spying on her while she talks to her mermaid sisters who have worked with the sea witch to come up with a plan to make Lenia a mermaid again. All she has to do is spill the Prince’s blood on her legs and she’ll be able to come home, good as new. Of course, Lenia refuses. With the wedding day upon her, Lenia is desperate to have her child see the light of day so she forces an early labor then heads to the ocean to die. Margrethe is horrified at the consequences of her actions and in an act of pure genius, spills SOME of her blood on Lenia’s legs because now that she and the prince are married, their blood and souls are connected. Lenia turns back into a mermaid, able to rejoin her family, while Christopher and Margrethe raise her daughter, start their own family and live happily ever after. THE END.

Thoughts:
While I loved the way this book was written, this story just didn’t get as dark as I wanted it to. I think if I had read this first then followed with “Godmother…” I would have thought this was an excellent book, but because I was comparing the two, “Mermaid…” was just good. This book was more true to the “twist on the classic” format. It simply told the original Hans Christian Andersen version of “The Little Mermaid”, but with Turgeon’s spin, as opposed to “Godmother…” which told the story of completely different characters and changed pretty much everything except the basic idea of “Cinderella”. I plowed through this book waiting for her to reveal that the story was really set in modern times, or Margrethe and Lenia were the same person or something dark and twisted! Sadly, no. Don’t get me wrong, great story, great writing, just not what I was expecting.

Lenia was a sad character. She’s that dumb friend that has sex on every first date she goes on and can’t understand why she doesn’t have a boyfriend. However, the prince WAS sending her some pretty mixed signals. At first he’s like “You’re fine – let’s do this. Hey btw, there’s this other girl, she saved me, I dunno who she is, but I love her. You’re cool with that right?” but then almost overnight he started telling her he loved her and wanted to marry her, but oh whoopsie, his father won’t allow that. I’m not sure the prince was really outraged by his arranged marriage because he wanted to marry Lenia instead, or because he didn’t want to be told what to do. Also, I generally dislike when characters fall in love at first sight, especially if it’s one sided, but hey! – that’s fairy tales!

One of my favorite parts was when Margrethe has realized who Lenia is and she kind of confronts her about being in love with the prince. All along Margrethe thought Lenia brought the prince to her, as some sort of gift, or sign from God that she should love him and bring peace to the kingdom, so she doesn’t understand why Lenia is pregnant with his kid. I LOVED that Lenia quickly puts an end to that delusion and straight up just shakes her head in confusion like “Uh, no, I never said any of that, you were just supposed to save him because you had legs, then leave him alone”. Naturally, this makes Margrethe feel like a complete idiot because now she’s broken up this relationship and condemned her friend to death. I feel like in a typical story, Lenia would have been really self sacrificing and demure and said something like, “Oh yes, of course sweetie, I only wanted the best for you”, while holding back tears because she’s about to die because this other girl got the message wrong. Nothing I like better than characters who respond like real people!

The ending of this book was kind of disappointing because it ended with happiness (I know that sounds bizarre, but I was expecting it to be darker), but I did enjoy that Margrethe solved my ago old irritation with the plan that turns the Little Mermaid back into a mermaid by spilling the prince’s blood. Why does everyone always think it has to be ALL the blood? Perhaps in the original version she’s told she must “KILL the prince”? I’m not 100%, but I’ve always wondered why she couldn’t just take a little blood, which is exactly what Margrethe does, despite the fact that marriage in no way connects two people’s blood, but I understand it’s symbolism being taken literally.

I would be really interested to know if Turgeon believes the things she writes about marriage based on personal or religious beliefs, or if she just thought the idea of souls/blood connecting when two people are married sounded romantic. I appreciated that the daughter ended up being the soul that Lenia wanted so badly, referencing the idea that children we leave behind will always be a piece of us and therefore we live forever in our bloodlines. She may not have gotten that soul that would let her live forever in Heaven, but now she’ll always have a bloodline out there somewhere, children that will always have a connection to the sea, long after Lenia herself becomes part of it. DEEP. Hopefully that’s the idea I was supposed to take away from the story.

Overall rating: B

Book Review! Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

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Twelfth Night Oh Shakespeare, what can I say about you? First off, let me say, if you’ve seen the Amanda Bynes movie “She’s the Man”, you have seen a modern adaptation of “Twelfth Night”…and one of Channing Tatum’s first films. Congrats! But moving on…”Twelfth Night” is a gender bender star crossed lovers type story, basically the Shakespeare comedy format.
SPOILERS!
Olivia is a Countess who is in mourning over the deaths of her father and brother, leaving her in charge of her own destiny…and fortune and land and all that good stuff. Everyone is trying to get a piece of her, but she doesn’t want anyone…until she meets Cesario, who she believes to be a messenger from one of her admirers Duke (or Count) Orsino. What Olivia doesn’t know is…Cesario is really a young woman named Viola who happens to secretly be in love with Orsino. Viola has been separated from her twin brother Sebastian in a shipwreck, both believes the other is probably dead. She dresses as a man to gain employment from Orsino, but unfortunately falls in love with him and has to help him scheme for ways to win over Olivia.
There’s a side story involving some other characters, most recognizably Malvolio, that involves the characters playing a prank on Malvolio that ends with him being considered insane and getting locked up. Don’t fret, that ends well eventually.
The story wraps up rather quickly when Sebastian finds himself in the same town as Viola and Oliva mistakes him for Cesario. She proposes an engagement, which he agrees to despite the fact that he’s NEVER MET HER, guess she’s just THAT good looking. After a rather awkward encounter when Viola and Sebastian meet up again and everyone is confused as all hell, Viola explains that she’s a lady and in love with Orsino. They decide the best thing to do would be to have a joint wedding. The End.

Thoughts:
Typical rom-com shenanigans. No one is impressed. Didn’t hate this book, didn’t love it, read it just to cross it off my list of classics to read and I wanted to see how it compared to the movie. Honestly seeing the movie kind of helped me keep track of the characters because I assigned faces to them, yes, my imagination could’ve helped me with that too, but the movie characters took over. I was really depressed at the way the couples so easily agreed to switch partners. I can understand Viola and Orsino ending up together because at least they were confidantes/close friends, now it’s even better because he’s allowed to touch her junk! On the other hand, Olivia and Sebastian ending up together…what?! Come on, they’d literally never met. I don’t like it. Alright, overall rating – C.

Book Review! The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro by Beaumarchais

Posted in Book Review, Books, Review, Sunday Book Club by

One day I swear I’ll post stuff on this blog in a timely manner.

Courtesy of Amazon

Courtesy of Amazon

This book came to me in the form of a Penguins Classic set, two stories, one book – couldn’t be more convenient! I didn’t really know too much about the story of “The Marriage of Figaro” other than that it was an opera, but “The Barber of Seville” is what “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” is based on, so that’s what drew me to the first story since “Sweeney Todd…” is one of my favorite movies.

“The Barber of Seville”, hereafter known as The Barber, was really easy to get into. The similarities popped off the page for anyone who’s ever seen “Sweeney Todd…” It was pretty much like following along with the movie. Nasty old man wants to marry his beautiful young ward – she loves someone more age appropriate. Through elaborate schemes and plots the two young people get together and live happily ever after. Imagine that. There’s humor and some weirdness throughout the story, I can see why it makes a good, albeit, elaborate!, opera. See the movie as well if you really want to connect to this. Overall rating – C.

“The Marriage of Figaro”, a different story altogether. While I mean that literally, I also mean, it just simply wasn’t as entertaining as The Barber. The basic plot revolves around more schemes from Figaro and his impending marriage. I sped read through this just because I wanted to get it over with and move on to the next book on my book list.
Overall rating – D.

All in all, pick up this combo if you 1) have seen the stage shows of either of these stories or 2) are interested in classic literature. Otherwise, there’s really no value here for you.