Pirate Queens: #9 of 10: Winnie Flapjack

Pirate Queens: #9 of 10

Winnie Flapjack

The main character, of course, of Random Magic, and a fictional pirate - at least, a girl of distinctly piratical disposition; she’s feisty,

resourceful, inventive, and a scrapper.

Orphaned at birth, with a secretly tender heart and boundless loyalty,

she’s a born fighter and doesn’t hesitate to kill to protect anything

or anyone she cares about.

She’s inclined to use her head to think her way out of tricky

situations, but if wit and cunning fail, she’s not at all averse to

using her fists.

In Random Magic, she encounters a

bloodthirsty crew of pirates and bests them with magic.

Fate - and even that cheerful companion of Death, Baron Samedi, whom

we also meet in the book, clearly mean her to die - but Winnie has

other plans.

Written by her own hand, her true fate is to survive and eventually

win her own place on the Seven Seas…

You can see a wonderful art doll design of Winne Flapjack and other pirate queens at Liana's Paper Doll Blog
as part of the Queens of the Sea series during Random Magic Tour: Pirates! in an art gallery of designs
based on the life stories of famous pirate queens.

You can find all the in-depth Pirate Queens bios (10 of them), and
find the matching design doll for each pirate queen, in the Queens of
the Sea series, listed on the tour schedule.

You can also win one of the Queens of the Sea doll designs, dated and
signed by the artist. You can play to win HERE
and good luck!

Meet more dastardly pirates in Random Magic! (More)

Shown above: Book trailer for Random Magic

Pirate quote from Random Magic:

No one was spared. Not Pitchfork Pat. Not Blackheart Mary. Not the 

parrot. (More)

Browse or buy: Print edition | Kindle

Thanks for stopping by, hope you had fun reading about this amazing
pirate queen. Here's another
interesting tour feature you might also enjoy:

The main Rum + Plunder treasure hunt is open internationally!

Here’s a fun way to win something piratey and cool:

Browse prizes or join the hunt…

(Click on the coin)

AND

Bonus: Find even more pirate plunder with Little Pirate Prizes.

The Little Pirate Prizes are cute and cool -- but they're not marked,

so they could be ANYWHERE on the tour.

You're welcome to find some buried treasure, if you like: Follow the tour HERE.

Have fun and good luck!

You can read my review of Random Magic HERE.

Random Magic by Sasha Soren

SUMMARY (by the publisher): When absent-minded Professor Random misplaces the main character from Alice in Wonderland, young Henry Witherspoon must book-jump to fetch Alice before chaos theory kicks in and the world vanishes. Along the way he meets Winnie Flapjack, a wit-cracking doodle witch with nothing to her name but a magic feather and a plan. Such as it is. Henry and Winnie brave the Dark Queen, whatwolves, pirates, Struths, and fluttersmoths, Priscilla and Charybdis, obnoxiously cheerful vampires, Baron Samedi, a nine-dimensional cat, and one perpetually inebriated Muse to rescue Alice and save the world by tea time.

MY OPINION:

Random Magic is unlike anything I have ever read. It is an adventure story full of magic. The way it is put together is magical in itself.

I really loved the writing and the language in Random Magic. It is witty, humorous and sarcastic. Its beauty lies in its unusualness. Random Magic is a kaleidoscope of references to basically everything from strict or absent-minded teachers, mythology, literature, history and science, to sports, technology and modern world’s every day life of ordinary people.

Henry is an average boy with a sound, although sometimes slow, sense of logic. He is not particularly good or bad at school; he gets bored during classes, struggles with some subjects, sneaks out of his room in the middle of the night, likes some teachers and fears the others. He is moderately adventurous, but his natural curiosity draws him into the adventure of his life. He is good-natured and always willing to help, but a little clumsy and sometimes too slow to react or too quick to speak, which often gets him into trouble.

Winnie is an atypical girl, with a strong common sense. She is resourceful, smart, helpful and fearless. She is a girl who never gives up and finds a way out of every predicament. She makes Henry and the reader see things in a new light. She breaks down stereotypes and prejudice. Winnie is the driving force of Random Magic and even though Henry just seems to tag along, together they make an invincible team. Winnie is a strong person, because she is hardened from always being alone, so she finds it hard to show weakness. She is open-minded, loyal, generous and ready to open her heart to those who deserve it. She shows the reader the worth of making sacrifices to achieve our goals and help people we love.    

Random Magic is an exceptional book in every aspect. It demands a lot of focus while reading, but the effort is well rewarded. It makes you laugh and cry, but most of all reminds you not to ever give up love and most of all hope. 

RECOMMENDATION: Random Magic is a complex, beautifully written book with an amazing plotline and characters which re-teaches a few forgotten life lessons and enchants the reader with the forgotten wonders of the world. 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you had fun reading this review. Here's another

interesting tour feature you might also enjoy:

The main Rum + Plunder treasure hunt is open internationally!

Here’s a fun way to win something piratey and cool:

Browse prizes or join the hunt…

(Click on the coin)

AND

Bonus: Find even more pirate plunder with Little Pirate Prizes.

The Little Pirate Prizes are cute and cool -- but they're not marked,

so they could be ANYWHERE on the tour.

You're welcome to find some buried treasure, if you like: Follow the

tour HERE.

Have fun and good luck!

Cat Diary (3)

This is an occasional Sunday feature where my cat, pardon, Her Majesty the Cat, offers her more or less gracious insight into our lives. 

 What a fortnight! Sorry I’d missed last weekend, but it’s been hectic around here, you wouldn't believe.

There were all kinds of workmen, painters, contractors and everyone about the place and I had to watch very carefully what they were doing around, in case they had some bad intentions. No worry. I guess spring finally kicked in with the humans too, so they decided to make the surroundings of the palace all pretty. I liked that.

I didn’t like having to wait for the workers to take a break or finish the job for the day to be able to go out. Sure, my maid, aka Pepca, thought we could go out with the workers there, anyway. I persuaded her about the opposite, of course. Doesn’t she know strangers of any kind equal visitors and I hate being around either one of them? Also, they were making all kinds of awful noise which scare me.

The weekend was rainy, so I took some extra beauty sleep and left my maid to her reading, although I suspect she had been actually watching TV instead. She uses poor light as an excuse for not reading. What do we have electricity for, too dark to hit the switch, huh? And then she reads when sun is shining and complains how she doesn’t have time to go out. 

Well, Pepca did finally took some time for outside work and planted some inedible grass (read: flowers) in the patio. Now she’s all happy and smiling about how pretty it looks. I don’t se what’s the fuss. What I can’t eat and/or play with doesn’t do anything for me.

Until next time,

Dead to the World (Sookie Stackhouse #4) by Charlaine Harris

SUMMARY (from Goodreads): When cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse sees a naked man on the side of the road, she doesn't just drive on by. Turns out the poor thing hasn't a clue who he is, but Sookie does. It's Eric the vampire – but now he's a kinder, gentler Eric. And a scared Eric, because whoever took his memory now wants his life.

MY OPINION:

There are two mysteries in this book that keep the book fast paced. The culprit for Eric’s amnesia and the solution of the problem is quickly known but it takes the whole book to resolve. Another, even more efficient attention keeper is a mysterious disappearance of Sookie’s brother Jason, which has a surprising explanation in the end.

It is enjoyable to observe the new, fragile and frightened Eric. His usual and his new personalities are well combined. The relationship between Sookie and Eric turns a new page and I am already looking forward to its development further in the series.

I find two things somewhat annoying in this book. Firstly, Sookie gets a little too repetitive with her oh-I’m-poor-uneducated-telepathic waitress who wants to avoid danger and be a good Christian girl but can’t really do anything about it. Certainly, she can not avoid everything that happens to her, but she could change some things, otherwise she should stop complaining.

Secondly, the writing is not really good from time to time. I am speculating Harris may do this intentionally since she is writing from Sookie’s first person P. O. V., because some places are really well written and funny. However, in some places descriptions get in the way of the action. Additionally, the use of personal pronouns is sometimes confusing. Harris talks about one person in one sentence and about another person in the following sentence, using the same pronoun in both sentences, which makes it hard to figure out who she means. This slows reading down.

Overall, apart from the above, Dead to the World is a fast, entertaining read. It provides mystery, romance and some new data about supernatural world. It ends perfectly, inviting you to grab the next book in the series as fast as you can.

RECOMMENDATION: Dead to the World continues Sookie Stackhouse series in an expected style together with plenty of suspense and novelties. If you are looking for a relaxing and gripping paranormal read, this is the kind of book you would like to read. 

Book Blogger Hop, May 20 – 23, 2011

Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Jennifer at Crazy-for-Books. It is a great way of discovering new blogs and meeting fellow book bloggers, talking about books and authors, and sharing our love for literature.

This week’s question is: “If you were given the chance to spend one day in a fictional world (from a book), which book would it be from and what would that place be?”

MY ANSWER:

There was a similar question on the Hop, I think, not so long ago, and my answer is similar, too. I know I’m being repetitive, but there just isn’t any other answer.

If I could spend a day in a fictional world it would be in the world of The Lord of the Rings. There are a lot of places in that world I’d like to visit (and some I’d definitely wouldn’t) but since there is one day limitation, I think a tour of Minas Tirith would be a great experience. I'd love to see the unique and magnificent setting and architecture of that beautiful city.  

Teaser Tuesday (May 17, 2011)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

MY TEASERS: 

"I whirled, expecting an attack. Nothing that alarming happened, but what I saw was almost as disturbing as what I'd imagined." 

Dead to the World (Sookie Stackhouse #4) by Charlaine Harris, p. 100.

Red Riding Hood (2011)

SUMMARY (from IMDB): Valerie (Seyfried) is a beautiful young woman torn between two men. She is in love with a brooding outsider, Peter (Fernandez), but her parents have arranged for her to marry the wealthy Henry (Irons). Unwilling to lose each other, Valerie and Peter are planning to run away together when they learn that Valerie's older sister has been killed by the werewolf that prowls the dark forest surrounding their village. For years, the people have maintained an uneasy truce with the beast, offering the creature a monthly animal sacrifice. But under a blood red moon, the wolf has upped the stakes by taking a human life. Hungry for revenge, the people call on famed werewolf hunter, Father Solomon (Oldman), to help them kill the wolf. But Solomon's arrival brings unintended consequences as he warns that the wolf, who takes human form by day, could be any one of them. As the death toll rises with each moon, Valerie begins to suspect that the werewolf could be someone she loves. As panic grips the town, Valerie discovers that she has a unique connection to the beast--one that inexorably draws them together, making her both suspect...and bait.

DIRECTOR: Catherine Hardwicke; CAST: Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Billy Burke

MY OPINION:

The start of the film is a little tepid, at first it just looks like another of thousand-and-one werewolf versions. However, it later proves to be more than that.

The plot is loosely following the well-known fairytale but is really in many aspects a severe expression of social criticism. It portrays how people prefer burying their heads in the sand to facing the horrifying truth. It is easier to find a scapegoat outside than to admit the real problem lies within the village. The village can easily be related not only to the USA but to any other country or society in the world. I can, for instance, without difficulty mirror it to the current situation in Slovenia.

Father Solomon represents the Church going on a witch-hunt against evil where there is none in order to prove its case at any cost. His character states something like that the means for achieving good do not need always to be good, which on my opinion tells everything about his/the Church’s hypocrisy. So does his secret lusting after Valerie whereas he condemns her in front of others, which is clearly a criticism of sexual abuse from the part of the clergy.

The criticism in the film is conveyed so subtly that the viewers can choose to see or ignore it, which is in itself another way of reflecting people having a choice between facing the difficulties and turning away from them.

The acting is good; especially Oldman excels in his role. Burke is convincing in the role of Valerie’s father. Fernandez and Irons are not the brawliest among the guys competing for one girl, but they put up a solid show. The love trio is satisfactory, although they could use some more chemistry.

Seyfried at first appears as a pretty doll. The first impression of her character seems to be one of a spoiled brat who unwittingly provokes disaster. However, Valerie comes out a great heroine. Although supposed to be corrupted, Valerie is actually the person who is morally sound and I liked her at the end of the film.

Visually, the film is beautiful with its medieval setting, costumes and natural scenery. The script keeps you guessing until the end. The horror is there as well as the thrill. The film makes the viewers flinch a couple of times and cross their fingers for the outcome. The violent scenes are done just as I like - they are not too gruesome, since the scary parts are rather only hinted at than shown, which makes the horror even more real. The ending of the film is, on my opinion, perfect, although different from what you might expect.  

RECOMMENDATION: This is a grown-up version of what Red Riding Hood could be about. It is socially critical, morally challenging and romantic at the same time. I think everyone who likes some thrill together with a few life lessons and good visualisation would enjoy this film.  

Club Dead (Sookie Stackhouse #3) by Charlaine Harris

SUMMARY (from Goodreads): Things between cocktail waitress Sookie and her vampire boyfriend Bill seem to be going excellently (apart from the small matter of him being undead) until he leaves town for a while. A long while. Bill's sinister boss Eric has an idea of where to find him, whisking her off to Jackson, Mississippi to mingle with the under-underworld at Club Dead. When she finally catches up with the errant vampire, he is in big trouble and caught in an act of serious betrayal. This raises serious doubts as to whether she should save him or start sharpening a few stakes of her own.

MY OPINION:

Club Dead is exactly what I expected it to be. It is an action packed mix of suspense, paranormal and romance. It is an easy and fast attention keeping read.

It has been over a year since I read the preceding book in the series, Living Dead in Dallas, so I liked that there was just enough recapping in to remind the reader of some facts and events from the previous two novels in the series but not too much to be over repetitive. The writing is undemanding with some flaws that bothered me, but includes some witty humour which I like.

Sookie is still the same Southern girl trying to stick to her beliefs and follow the moral code she has been brought up in, though this is hard to do when she is dragged into supernatural world. Nevertheless, she is not a girl who would easily become unscrupulous and I like that her conscience always has a more or less strong voice.

The one thing I dislike about Sookie is that she is portrayed somewhat stereotypically – a religiously brought up undereducated orphan, who has to struggle on the edge of poverty but is trying to educate herself through reading romance and mystery and expanding her vocabulary by a-word-a-day method. Regardless, she is such a warm-hearted and honest-bordering-naivety person I have to like her. Also, it is sad how she longs for a “normal” life away from the supernatural world, knowing she can’t have it because of her very nature.

The usual dangerous meddling with the business of supernatural creatures, which keeps popping up with new complications, makes the reader wonder how much bad luck a person can really have and how many injuries in a given amount of time a person can still handle.

Besides the action, Club Dead adds new aspects to the love triangle between Bill, Sookie and Eric. While the relationship between Sookie and Bill begins to crumple, Eric slowly starts to show himself in a different light. He is kinder and less bossy and frightening, so he becomes quite likable.

Overall, Club Dead is familiar in style but suspenseful and surprising in plot and characters development. I am already looking forward to the next book, Dead to the World.

RECOMMENDATION: This is a gripping paranormal novel, suspenseful from the first to the last page, with just the right quantity of romance. If you want something to relax and enjoy the plot and the characters, pick up Club Dead.