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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1YAhyU6-tA?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=281]
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Ivan the Heartless – Megan Derr
Forced to find shelter from foul weather, Ivan and his bodyguard stop at an inn only to find they have interrupted a wedding celebration. Invited to join them, Ivan contributes to the celebration by way of a story about things being more than they seem …
I enjoyed this retelling of Russian folktales. I heard it’s close to the original with some light m/m action added.
Rating:
3 Stars – not exactly setting my world on fire but I liked itSoundtrack: The Dreamers
Artist: Klaxons
Album: Love Frequency(source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17009297-ivan-the-heartless)
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I like colorful tales with black beginnings and stormy middles and cloudless blue-sky endings. But any story will do.
Katherine Applegate -
[spotify id=”spotify%3Atrack%3A1hkRy3hHd9KFeSSxz0mDoe&view=coverart” width=”540″ height=”620″ /]Soundtrack to Ivan the Heartless by Megan Derr
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Datte, Oishii no ga Warui – Takanashi Morimichi
Suzuki, who wakes up as usual, comes face to face with a stranger who says “I was just eating your dream”. This man, who shows up from time to time, now makes him crazy disgusting coffee. But being told his dreams are beautiful and delicious, Suzuki’s heart melts bit by bit.
A collection of beautifully drawn stories with the best one in the blurb above.
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Unhinge the Universe – Aleksandr Voinov & L.A. Witt
SS Lieutenant Hagen Friedrichs is the sole survivor of a party sent to retrieve his brother—and the highly sensitive information he’s carrying—from behind enemy lines. But his daring rescue attempt fails, and Hagen becomes the prisoner.
Allied command has ordered Captain John Nicholls to extract critical intelligence from their new Nazi POW. His secrets could turn the tide of the war, but are they real? John is determined to find out … and to shatter the prisoner who killed his lover during the attack on their tiny base. The deeper he digs, though, the more he realizes that the soldier under the SS uniform is just like him: a scared, exhausted young man who’s lost loved ones and just wants to go home.
As captor and captive form an unexpected bond, the lines quickly blur between enemy, friend, and lover. And as horrifying rumors spread from the front lines and American soldiers turn their sights on the SS for vengeance, John may be Hagen’s only hope for survival.
I’m a science major but for me, the most important thing I learned from my university is not quantum mechanics or any major science stuff but perspective. From whose perspective is a piece written? For whom it it written? This is what particularly attracts me to Aleksandr Voinov’s works set in WWII. Germans were the bad guys at that time as everybody knows so to have the point of view of Nazi soldiers from a German writer is definitely something. It is also an added bonus that Voinov is a great writer. I totally loved Witches of London – Eagles Shadow and Skybound was beautiful so I was excited to read Unhinge the Universe.
This is an enemies-to-lovers story revolving around Hagen an SS officer and John an American military captain who interrogates him. And the story is really just the two of them with barely any memorable secondary characters (Siegfried and Michael don’t count because they were just there to make these people feel something).
I was disappointed with Hagen. After what John was saying about the SS being the worst type of prisoner, I expected Hagen to be all subtle menace and mind games (ala Hans Landa) but heck, he squealed at the slightest provocation. Even after John felt the predator/prey relationship seemed reversed, I didn’t feel any danger. Ok, maybe I should give the guy a break, he had a rough day and also maybe that was the point, that he was not a monster but I couldn’t help feeling let down after all that build up. I was also looking forward to John being a terror of an interrogator but meh, he was too nice. He was stroking the prisoner’s head tenderly for crying out loud. Ok, this is my fault for approaching a book the wrong way and watching too many Tarantino movies.
There were some pretty tight, intense scenes in the book especially those involving razors. The hospital scene was pure fluff <3 But sometimes I wondered if they became attracted to each other only because they discovered they were both men who notice men. If they met at a different time and place, would they be together?
Overall, points for the history and backdrop but story-wise, the book didn’t really unhinge anything.
Rating:
3 Stars – not exactly setting my world on fire but I liked it
Soundtrack: Superhumans
Artist: The Flaming Lips
Album: Transmissions from a Satellite Heart(source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31133156-unhinge-the-universe)
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When all you have to look at is white, given time you will see a symphony in shades of pale.
Mark Lawrence -
[spotify id=”spotify%3Atrack%3A4NIVH91yWJBxxDkct2zKSP&view=coverart” width=”540″ height=”620″ /]Soundtrack to Unhinge the Universe by Aleksandr Voinov & L.A. Witt
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Nakanai Hotaru – Ichikawa Kokoro
“I’ve hurt many people and ran back here.” Taishi who has been living in the countryside once again meets his childhood friend Ayase. Moving away when he was an elementary school student, Ayase returned back during the summer in order to look after his grandmother’s home. His childhood friend who was a crybaby when they were younger, has grown into a mature adult. However, once in while a troubled and pained expression appears on his face. With Ayase like this Taishi can’t leave him alone…
I have no idea why the title is such. Not really outstanding in anyway but if you like childhood friends to lovers stories, this could be for you.
