Lego The Knight Bus 75957

 It is a very long time since I have built with Lego but seeing as the chances of getting even a mini-break in 2020 are slim to none I made the decision to splurge what we would likely have spent on going away on some fun hobby stuff.  I am still overly obsessed with Harry Potter and this kit has been catching my eye at local stores and online for about 18 months now.

Yes, the price seems high but when you look at the quality of a Lego set you start to understand why.  Not only is the engineering behind the design impeccable but the bricks themselves slot together securely, are richly coloured and have limitless uses.

Building itself is a great deal of fun and the instructions are in a handy booklet with step by step images.  The bricks come in numbered bags which correspond to each step in the booklet so you don't have 400+ pieces scattered around whilst you build.  This also makes it much easier to segregate the pieces by type and colour and there is a large amount of variation in the pieces needed to create the Knight Bus.

There is a large amount of play value with this set.  The most impressive thing for me was the way one side of the bus itself is hinged so you can open it up and access the inside to place your figures.  The roof of the bus also lifts off to give access to the top deck.  Stability overall was very good, I did play with it for a little while and didn't have issues with pieces dropping off as I played.  This is probably due to the fairly basic rectangular structure but that is ultimately what a bus is.

The only thing is I would have liked it to be maybe a little wider as it is a little "snug" to get the figures in.

Total Pieces: 403

Approximate Cost per piece: £0.09

Build Time: 1.5 Hours

 

Lego Hogwarts Express 75955

 I was really taken aback by this kit.  I knew the box photo looked good but somehow it doesn't do the actual product justice and, to be honest, neither do my photos.  The little details are what makes this set and, despite being a grown adult, I spent an overly long time playing with Platform 93/4 after building the station platform.  The wall is on a "swing" so you can actually push the included luggage through the wall and it gave me an inordinate amount of pleasure.

The build itself was incredibly fun and gave me so much pleasure.  I am a bit of a train fan in general so the tie in for me with Harry Potter was a no brainer but I was pleasantly surprised at how detailed the Hogwarts Express itself is.  It really does look like a steam engine and I loved the little dial decals for the engine - really did look similar to the inside of the engine cabs I have at The National Railway Museum.

For me this is one of the best value Lego kits currently out there.  It works well as a display item and the play value is enormous if you are purchasing for a younger person (or an older one like me that embraces the sheer fun of make believe.

Number Of Pieces: 801

Approximate Price Per Piece: £0.09

Build Time:
Station - 1 Hour
Train - 2 Hours

 

Shopaholic Ties The Knot by Sophie Kinsella

What is it with Becky Bloomwood and completely unrealistic scenarios?  I desperately want to slap her and bring her screaming in to reality and at points in this book I thought Luke or her Best Friend (who's name somehow has escaped me right now) were actually going to sit down with her and get her to face up to reality.  Her fantastical appraisals of each event used to amuse me, they are now beginning to grate as it is no longer just a fun and frivolous take on how life is treating you.  Becky has serious mental health issues that need addressing and they are starting to impinge on the joy of the story.  I know, I know this is fiction and fiction of a certain genre but SERIOUSLY?  Nobody who claims to love this woman would allow her to exist within this dangerous fantasy would they?

Becky's materialism really gets a work out in this book once Luke proposes to her.  So much so that where it was quite adorable and, to some extent, relatable her shop, shop, attitude did entertain.  During certain sections of the book it becomes actively uncomfortable as you watch the greed swell within her.  Then she will go and do something charmingly Becky for someone and you forget about her monstrous side.

The main plot point of the book settles around the Wedding Preparations and where it will be held.  Naturally, her family want her to marry in England and even offer to host the ceremony in their garden.  Becky is thrilled by this idea and so her parents start preparations - including what sound like major house renovations.  Then Becky gets the opportunity of all opportunities - a top Manhattan Wedding Planner and the Plaza Hotel as the venue.  Who could resist?  Certainly not Becky and she leaps at that option too.

Basically the rest of the book is all about the scrapes she gets into trying to decide which to go for in the end - yes, she plumps for the one you expect her too right from the start.  There is a decent amount of humour but mostly about Bridezilla behaviour so it feels more than a scad uncomfortable.

My real problem with this book is how unlikeable Becky is becoming and how narcissistic her character suddenly seems to me.  Even worse, I have the rest of the series already purchased and I am NOT looking forward to reading them if they are going to infuriate me this much. 

Initially I gave this book 3 Stars when I finished it back on the 12th April.  Now I've sat down to actually review it and started to think about the characters I have downgraded it to a 2 Star.  Mainly because the only things that have stuck with me are everything that was bad about the book and little about what was good.  Yes, I am thinking about a fictional character in situations that are egregiously overstated for literary effect far too deeply.

The Outsider by Stephen King

I was pleasantly surprised by this book.  It is quite some time since I last read a recent Stephen King release so I was a little bit worried how this would go.  On starting the book I initially wished that I hadn't bothered as this marks a foray in to a more typical Thriller / Procedural genre rather than the out and out horror I have come to expect from the author.  After I didn't get along with his Dark Tower series and his foray in to Fantasy I was worried about this for obvious reasons.  Still, I'd parted with my hard earned so might as well give it a shot.

I am genuinely glad I did!

In true King style it is needlessly verbose in places, descriptions can stretch for a page or more when half the space would have done the job just as well.  To be honest, I think there is something about the sheer volume of words and the hubris needed to say "No, 50 words is necessary not the 10 that would do the job" that really appeals to me.  His characterisations are also well developed with plenty of depth to each person in the tale and, again, another of his trademarks, locations that seem to have has much personality and individuality as the people.

The basic plot is laid out in the very brief Publisher's blurb.  A young boy is found dead and mutilated and eyewitness accounts place local Coach and all around good guy Terry Maitland soundly in the frame.  Unfortunately for all concerned not only does Mr Maitland have a solid alibi it is caught on local news footage as well.  Having not done their due diligence the town's DA pushes for an arrest with no prior suspect interview and as the scope of the alibi is revealed everything begins to fall apart.

To be entirely honest the inclusion of a Supernatural Element to the tale is a bit of a let down.  It feels almost glued on as a sop to the Horror Fans; a reason for them to buy the book and keep reading.  Without that this could have been an incredibly strong piece of procedural fiction.  That said, as soon as Holly Gibney is introduced and her Finders Keepers Agency it became apparent to me that Mr King has a track record for the supernatural procedural book - The Bill Hodges Trilogy.  So, maybe it isn't just a cop out to mix the otherworldly in.  Until I've read them I couldn't comment and I WILL be reading them - this book has seen to that.

Thorn by Intisar Khanani

          3.5 Stars

This is one of those books you need to free up a good hour or so to start reading it as it takes a while to warm up and draw you in.  Pretty much your standard Fantasy fare initially - vaguely Medieval in format and appearance society where Magic exists and everyone is aware of it.  Abused daughter of the family is in a precarious situation (in this case it is the daughter of the King) and has to sacrifice herself for the good of the family even though they treat her worse than one of their servants.  Although you know that Alyrra is going to come out on top it is actually quite fun getting there and I did enjoy reading the book.

There are some bits that really don't seem to belong and it gets a bit bogged down in its own rhetoric from time to time.  However, the whole idea behind what happens to Alyrra on her way to this neighbouring land to be married off to their Prince is well thought through and gives her a genuine chance to escape from her previous life.  I'm still not sure why the main device to assist her is a talking horse - I kept singing the Mr Ed theme music whenever he took centre stage which spoilt it somewhat for me.

Each interaction with The Lady gets progressively odder and what was initially suspenseful becomes a little bit bland by the time we get to the ultimate Showdown.  The end just felt very rushed somehow and it isn't given anywhere near as much space to develop as the ancillary storylines.  This is a shame as from what we do learn of The Lady and her relationship to the Royal Family you can understand her behaviour towards them and why her Magical Garden has become her place of solace.  However, from Kestrin's reactions to what subsequently occurs I don't think I really understand The Lady's reaction and not enough time is given to extrapolating.  Every other interaction gets plenty of space to breathe and live on the page (sometimes for far too long) so it seems strange this is so truncated.

Other than that it is a pretty standard Medievalish Fantasy Romp that does keep the reader entertained and engaged enough to WANT to read on.
       

Only You by Kate Eberlen

          I struggled with this book, in all honesty I am struggling with reading in general at the moment and it has to be something exceptional to really grab and hold my interest.  Unfortunately this just didn't do that until Part Two rolled around and then it all faded away from me again.  Normally, I would have trusted my judgement and given this a lower rating than I have.  However, because I am aware that I am struggling with my attention span I have bumped this to 3 Stars.

We start off meeting Letty and Alf at an Italian language class in Rome on their first day.  The wider cast of characters in the class is briefly introduced but they are very much minor characters - most of them little more than a name or a brief description.  This means you are intensely focused on these two and if you happen not to take a shine to them then the enjoyment of the book is going to be a real problem.

Letty is very much like Marmite and I found myself vacillating between wanting to slap her and being really bored with her bits and then starting to actually quite like her.  Alf I took to straight away, then again I'm a Northern Lass and my heart belongs to Blackpool so that could explain it.  the real problem with both characters is that they are both kind of "simpering" and don't seem to experience strong emotional reactions, everything is so understated to the point of blandness.

Part One of the novel deals with the burgeoning friendship between Letty and Alf and it all becomes very repetitive very quickly - Italian Class, casual meet up, bit of sightseeing, tram home and lots of meaningful eye contact.  I genuinely started getting really bored as it was Groundhog Day with amended scenery. 

Fortunately, Part Two rescues the book.  This mainly deals with Letty and Alf's respective pasts and familial relationships.  Safe to say they both made ridiculous mistakes as teenagers and only Letty's rings even halfway plausible.  Although I did question her Oxford years somewhat (if you read it you will know EXACTLY what my bone of contention is but to spell it out here would ruin one of the pivotal set pieces).  The only downside is the proliferation of a character, Stuart, that becomes relevant to both Letty and Alf and he is so ridiculously overblown and stereotyped I can't even begin to dissect everything about him that annoyed me without giving much of the plot away.

Part Three settles in to severe Romantic Comedy pastures and became as "samey" and "boring" as Part One.

Generally none of the characters are particularly believable and some of the situations are ridiculously unlikely.  It passes the time in a generally unoffensive manner but it didn't grab me at all.

THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE NOVEL SUPPLIED BY READERS FIRST.
       

Seven Will Out by JoAnn Spears

I seem to be going through a Tudor phase that is lasting several years and figured something "light and frothy" would be a nice change.  Whilst this is certainly that I'm not too sure how nice a change it was. 

Let me start by saying that one of the three stars given to this book is solely for the descriptions of the fashion of the time - from the wonderfully named Farthingale through to the undergown and exceedingly opulent overgown.  The clothing descriptions were sumptuous and never felt extraneous to the tale, they even managed to give a fairly realistic interpretation of the perils of dressing in Tudor times if you were of the nobility and had certain Courtly Standards to meet.

Unfortunately, this means that the story itself only gets two stars.  Here's why:

The modern day instance of our heroine (whose name I cannot remember but seeing as I finished the book 7 weeks ago it's to be expected) just had nothing going for her.  I really couldn't get my head around who she was supposed to be - yes, I get she was a History Professor but her polymath husband got in the way at every turn.  The ludicrous conceit of her doing the presentation in her academic gown with nothing underneath almost made me stop reading right then and there.  I was already becoming infuriated by every "close relative" being named after a Tudor and startlingly sharing their broadest personality traits as passed to us through historical documents (not entirely to be trusted but all we have).

Oh, was she called Kat?  I want to say she was called Kat - I could be wrong and I can't honestly be bothered checking the blurb to find out.

My second sticking point came with the Shakesperian stuff.

When the first revelation comes that some of Shakespeare's plays were written by this person of the Tudor Nobility I sort of went with it (I think the first one was Lady Jane Grey).  However, as the book progresses and more and more of the women take responsibility for writing some of the plays it began to really niggle with me.  Especially as in the timeline of the book some of these plays were gifted to Shakespeare to pass as his own after the death of Elizabeth I and yet they were reputedly played at court in front of her.  It also became extremely repetitive and boring with only the name of the play and the chosen quotes altering - virtually every interaction between our heroine and a new Tudor Noble Woman went the same way with "Oh, I wrote X of the Shakespeare Plays", "No, really.  Well I suppose that makes sense knowing what happened in your life" and then proceeding to use cherry picked quotes to prove the relevance of those plays to that persons life.

Honestly drove me round the twist and I was so glad when morning came and she had to return to real life - as unrealistic as her life actually is.

In fact, looking back on the 9th April when I completed this book I think 3 Stars is overly generous.  The distaste I can feel as I recall the events in the book makes me think 2 Stars would be much fairer - and that includes the 1 Star for the clothing!