Iron Man II, Mercy Thompson, and other reviews

Oh, I have been so bad at keeping up with my blogging. Oops. Since I have a lot to blog I'll keep them all short.

Iron Man II was great! It's definitely summer movie time now that I've got my big blockbuster movie. I love how Robert Downey Jr. and Gwenyth Paltrow come across on screen. They're great together. Mickey Rourke is freaky looking on a good day, so with the addition of nasty teeth and a huge pile of tattoos he was positively nasty. AND there's actually a good plot! I liked the end of the first Iron Man film when Tony Stark admitted to being Iron Man instead of keeping a secret identity like all other super heroes. The plot is the fall-out of that scenario, which you could easily see happening. Definitely go see this one.

I also saw The Secret of the Kells, a beautifully animated Irish fairy tale about the creation of the book of Kells. It was nice break from the usual Pixar animation. I really enjoyed watching it and recommend that you give this one a try if you have the opportunity to see it.

I read the Mercy Thompson series and the Alpha & Omega series, both by Patricia Briggs, and loved them! Briggs creates a rich and wonderful world of supernaturals which primarily focuses on the werewolf pack in the area in which our heroine, Mercy Thompson, lives. Briggs also dabbles a little in the Fae's who are much more terrible than the humans think they are, and, of course, vampires who are mostly evil except for Mercy's friend Stefan who drives a VW bus tricked out to look like The Mystery Machine from the Scooby-Doo cartoons. Anyone who reads urban fantasy needs to read these book. They're definitely among my favorites.

I read the latest in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Lover Mine, by JR Ward. Great book from a great series. All you vampire fans need to read this series. I also read Dead in the Family, the latest Sookie Stackhouse book by Charlaine Harris. I thought this book was good but not great. Harris managed to work in a storyline that covered issues from the Fae, vampires, and weres, which is no small feat. I recommend this series for those looking for lighter "beach read" type books. And I just finished Burned, the latest in the House of Night series by PC Cast. This YA series is getting annoying to read. She is unnecessarily dragging out the storyline which is making the books boring and tedious to read. If you haven't started this series, don't. Save your time and your money.