Kim Harrison: Pale Demon

Book review, World of Books December 4, 2012 1 Comment

pale demonI don’t know when it happened, but Rachel is seriously starting to get on my nerves. I don’t know when it went from being understanding about her state of life to annoying the hell out of me.

I’ve been thinking about it and wondering what exactly is it that annoys me to such an extent. I believe it’s the fact that as a former IS runner she ought to have developed a good shield against her own naiveté. And after the stuff she went through from the beginning of the series, I know she should have grown as a person. And not get sidetracked in her mind by good looking guys. Yes, she’s in her 20s but she is not a child and she deals with life-threatening situations all the time.

And then when it suits Ms Harrison, Rachel is suddenly a smart runner seeing and figuring out everything. It doesn’t work like that. Either she’s smart and gets things or she’s naive and it takes her forever to figure out the motivation behind people.

I just can’t figure out what kind of character she is supposed to be and I no longer have much tolerance for it.

That said – the story actually held me to the end even though it was rather obvious from the beginning what Trent was doing. I guess that wasn’t supposed to be the thrilling part we wouldn’t guess – the Rachel part took that over. And here I really couldn’t even begin to fathom what might happen.

But the whole experience was punctuated by my rising frustration with Rachel. She would fit quite well with all the YA novels I read, the only problem being, she is actually an adult.

So before you all go away from this thinking I hate the Rachel Morgan series, I finished the book and started with the next one (which is also annoying the hell out of me but not as much).

I sincerely hope Rachel becomes a more homogenous character in the future – otherwise I will probably tear a page in frustration at some point – the horror!

Kresley Cole: Shadow’s Claim

Book review, World of Books December 3, 2012 1 Comment

shadowsAarrrggghh! I finished it! 😦 I always feel like that after finishing a KC book. And I completely fell in love with Bettina and Trehan. Their story I mean. 😉

I now completely understand people who said this was their favourite book. There seems to be more mellowness in this book. Not to be confused with non-agression and lack of brutality. I mean, the Accession is under way after all.

But both Trehan and Bettina are somehow very loving people, Bett is after all very young and didn’t have time to grow bitter and cold and Trehan has spent a cold long life of Dacian princehood practically alone so it seems logical he would appreciate love.

I absolutely loved the part where Lothaire is giving him advice and orders on how to deal with his love life! 🙂 Lothaire of all people.

My favourite moments of the book is when Trehan is called Mr. Dacia which instantly went to Mr. Darcy in my head, some very good steamy scenes that make you fan your cheeks, and the banter between the two of them:

“Look at me, Bett! Look at me!” He cupped her paling cheeks, making her face him. “Breathe. Inhale, exhale.”

She squeezed her yes shut, gripping his shoulders, digging her nails into the muscle. !I’m supposed to take breathing advice… from someone who didn’t use his lungs… for centuries?”

Trehan being a vampire and therefore not needing to breathe until being blooded by his Bride. You can guess who that is. 😉

So they help each other find love and battle their own fears and demons. In the meantime, we have lots of fun.

 

Now, for the most important question – when is the next book coming out?!

The Poison Rose – Paestum Rose by Eau d’Italie

Short perfume review, World of Perfume November 26, 2012 Comments: 13

I don’t remember the last time my perfume caused so many reactions, from “Please don’t wear it ever again as it’s making me sick” (coming from my boyfriend), to “It feels like entering a poison ivy cloud, it clears the sinuses” (by a colleague). The last one was actually meant in a positive way. 🙂

I read my old review of a sample of this perfume and here is where the whole dabbing vs. spraying a perfume make all the difference.

Spraying Paestum Rose gives you a day-long sillage you can smell. I’ve been smelling it for the whole day and enjoying myself – I really like this perfume even though it seems I will have to stop wearing it.

Notes: Davana, cinnamon, pink and rose pepper, coriander, blackcurrant buds, osmanthus,
peony, Turkish rose, tea, elemi, incense, myrrh, opoponax, cedarwood, papyrus,
patchouli, wenge, vetiver, musk, benzoin

Truth be told, there is an edge to this perfume. I think that is the reason why I love it so much, it seems to be the perfect blend of a well-formed and redolent rose in full bloom, but in this case the thorns have a smell and they warn you not to get too close. Taking apart this perfume by the notes you can smell, will not bring you close to picturing the smell in your mind – it is they type of perfume that gives you an aura. A poisonous one it seems, but I mean that in the best possible way.
I love feeling poisonous if it means I smell of Paestum Rose.

But I understand why other people might not be so happy about it…

I’m lost

I've been thinking, Perfume thoughts, World of Perfume November 20, 2012 Comments: 15

I believe it’s the case of as I know more the less I feel I know.
I am getting a bit lost among my perfumes (and perfumes in general).
Each morning I stand in front of my stash and I have no idea what to put on. I don’t seem to be able to see the trees in the proverbial forest (I’m getting it backwards). 😉
I can’t seem to figure out what exactly is it I want to wear. I like the choices I make, after all, there is a reason I own those decants and bottles but something is not clicking.
I am prone to blaming it on stress ( stress is such a great thing, you can blame it for everything) but I think it’s more likely the case of me not getting as familiar as I should with both my collection and the perfumes outside my ‘comfort’ zone. I realized yesterday I’m a bit stuck in the groups I like when I went to a little sniffing session in Flores here.
I decided to try CDG Daphne again and realized I now liked it. I tried it twice before and completely dismissed it.
I think that the fact so many perfumes go through my hands makes me lose focus of the things I love and enjoy and that is how I lost myself among the perfumes.

I am now hoping that by trying to smell my samples and getting to know better all I have, I will regain my focus and enjoy wearing the perfumes I have much more than now.

I do not plan on adding anything to my collection until I get a handle on what I have. Swapmania withstanding as I’m getting some lovelies through that. 🙂

Ok now that I’ve rambled through this post, I should say it was prompted by smelling Amouage Opus III.

I like it even though it’s not my kind of perfume but I can’t figure out whether I would wear it or not. Even though it reminds me of the dentist’s office for some reason.
Does this happen to anyone else? Something similar maybe?

Sample of the day: Ambrarem by Histoires de Parfums

Sample of the day, World of Perfume November 14, 2012 Comments: 7

I’ve been smelling this sample for over a week now and each time I smell it, I have something else to say about it. I find it extremely strange and I don’t think I could wear it but I am strangely attracted first to its brooding peculiar smell and then to its ambiental nature. It would be the perfume for a strange, dark sexy, ambivalently good hero of the Northern sea-dwelling people. 🙂 I have no idea where that came from but that’s how it made me feel this time around.

Top Note: Pink Peppercorn, Elemi
Heart Note: Iris Absolute, Oud, Saffron
Base Note: Castoreum Absolute, Bourbon Vanilla, Sandalwood, Amber

In the beginning, I thought of it as an herbal amber, leathery, slightly green (as in shrubbery green) and lightly smoky. Now I smell the light pepperiness, leatheriness and smokiness rising from my arm and feel the connection to the rest of the Histoires de Parfums collection (there is something in there that makes you connect the dots to the rest of the collection).

But after I got the impression of my dark hero, later on, I smell the place he lives. It smells like dark, weedy sea at the beginning of a stormy night and the oud definitely adds to that idea. Really ambiental. And the image makes me go weak at the knees.

I sincerely appreciate the strangeness that is this perfume.

The notes work in synergy to bring to life this transporting perfume – those that I can smell not being the whole of what I smell (peppercorn, elemi, oud, hints of sandalwood and ambery saltiness in the drydown).

 

My sample was made by the lovely people at Jovoy while in Paris.

P.S. Aragorn was the closest to my sexy imagined dark lord I could find.

Running

I've been thinking November 12, 2012 Comments: 12

That seems to be the theme of my life these days. Not only do I go running regularly, I also seem to have a lot of things that need doing so I’m running around trying to finish them all.

I have no idea how that happened and when I look back, I cannot pinpoint a moment where I lost control and running (around) became the theme of my life. The good thing about it though, is that I also seem to be getting a lot more accomplished this way.

Yesterday I ran my second half-marathon. I still have a hard time believing I started running and 21km later I stopped. OK, so it lasts much longer for me than it does for many others but I get there in the end (and not as the last person). At what point did my idea to do something for my general fitness rampantly run away and made me a person who can run a half-marathon? I have no idea. I just know I love it. (I don’t love the fact that I have a hard time walking today as my muscles ache somewhat incredibly)

But I believe in there lies the reason why I can run around these days and get a lot done. Even when I don’t feel like I have enough energy, it’s there and I go through my chores and still have time to read more than several months ago.

I understand now how people get hooked on running and never give it up. I sincerely hope I never give it up either as it brought me nothing but good. Ok, except for when I get so hungry I feel I could eat a horse and then I proceed to eat a lot. 🙂

I realize I’ve been rambling in this post but I wanted to share my love of running with you and since I am still tired from yesterday, I can’t get my thoughts to follow a coherent pattern.

In the end, I decided to share the photo of me before the finish line even though running photos generally make you look like you are suffering in hell. 🙂

Btw, I should add here I feel very lucky that the next half-marathon our school is wanting us to go to, is in spring. 😉

 

Pic taken by Zvonimir Mikasek of www.3sporta.com

 

Kim Newman: Anno Dracula

Book review, World of Books November 8, 2012 1 Comment

Ha! I’ve been writing this review for several days now and now that it’s done, it’s Bram Stoker’s 165. birthday anniversary. so, I’m right on time. 🙂

Let me start by warning you that when the cover says savage new world, you can take that literally. It is a really cruel depiction of Victorian England, or what Mr. Newman imagines it would look like if Vlad Tepes/Count Dracula made Queen Victoria a vampire and married her. I shudder just thinking about it.

That said, the book is actually fun to read. 🙂 It’s not funny though. It’s cruel and depicts a dictatorial system where vampires are taking more and more power unto themselves (in England).

There is a whole bunch of famous people appearing or being mentioned in the novel, some who were real, some who are only famous through their own books (like the Holmes brothers, Jack the Ripper, Van Helsing and so on).

This Dracula is the one from the Bram Stoker’s novel, only this time there is no novel and Bram Stoker is gone with the Dracula in power – this Dracula has no romantic connotations we might imagine from the original story, all bets are off in this world, and you better relocate to some other country if you want to live your life to old age.

We follow the story of several political (and criminal) factions trying to discover who is killing the vampire whores (Silver Knife renamed by newspapers into Jack the Ripper). That is how we meet both Genevieve (the vampire) and Charles Beauregard (human) trying to discover who that person is. You, as the reader, follow several characters’ minds and know quite early on who is the killer, but that doesn’t detract from the story.

I must say I didn’t see the ending happening in the way it did, but it was good.

I have no idea how this series flew under my vampire books radar for so long but I’m glad I know of them now and the next one is already on my TBR pile.

Sample of the day: Bond no. 9 So New York

Sample of the day, World of Perfume November 7, 2012 Comments: 10

Ok, who puts these notes as the main notes of a perfume?! Mirabelle, espresso accord and cocoa powder? (Btw, I had to google Mirabelle, I didn’t know that was a plum)

I mean, I find it a bit stupid as I was smelling it without checking the notes and at some point I was wondering if what I was smelling was flowers – rose and peony and a little more googling turned out Aus Liebe zum Duft and their more real list: bergamot, warm milk?!, patchouli, lily of the valley, peony, musk and precious woods.

Although honestly, the notes didn’t help much.

My initial thought was that it smelled a bit like Chinatown (the sweet fruity warm opening) and Lexington Avenue (the nutty sweet coffee and I thought I detected some smoke) but in a more subdued fashion. Could be the fact that I dabbed this and not sprayed it like I do with the other two but it still struck me as a lighter combination of these two.

Which brings me to the question – does New York smell of sweet fruit, coffee and cigarette smoke? As those seem to be a recurring theme in Bond’s NY perfumes.

I already described practically the whole opening, but if I were to ignore my associations, I’d say it smells like plums dipped in chocolate with some booziness added to that chocolate. Yummy!

 After some time the florals take over. I still can’t believe I pegged peony without looking at the notes. 🙂 Although lily of the valley completely escaped me before and after knowing the notes. The whole perfume is  kind of a strange mix of the notes I described, which work together rather well until the drydown and the musk. Unfortunately, it’s the kind of synthetic musk I think of as the clean musk that overtakes my nose and won’t let me smell anything and that is what happened here.

I know many people enjoy that type of smell but for me it ruined this perfume. I was bound to love a light type of mix of two of my favourite Bonds.

 

Pic taken from Bond No. 9 site.

Sample of the day: MPG Ambre Précieux

Sample of the day, World of Perfume November 6, 2012 Comments: 7

Like I mentioned yesterday, I want to try and review, even if it sometimes ends up being two sentences, all the samples in my collection. Now that I said that, I don’t think that will ever be possible due to their immensity, but you never know. How many I manage to get through will be great.

So, notes from Luckyscent say: myrtle, lavender, amber, vanilla, nutmeg, ambergris, peru balsam, tolu.

Luckyscent also sets this on their scale as beginning masculine which upset me to no end when I saw it. 🙂 But I admit now they were correct. Which does not mean I don’t plan on wearing it.

The thing is, if you went by the notes, you might think this was going to be a sweet amber (with all the vanilla type notes). But it’s not. Which is kind of strange as I find it very intoxicating and can imagine that a man smelling like Ambre Precieux would turn female heads just by the fact that he’s wearing that perfume.

It starts of with an alcoholic amber opening, and when I say alcoholic, I don’t mean in it in the booze type of smell but more of the vintage variety where you can sometimes smell the fact that perfumes are mainly alcohol (the very good kind). 🙂

In the opening there is a lightly sweet note of the typical amber kind lightly combined in my opinion with something incensey (although that note isn’t listed). I thought I might be mistaking lavender and the spiciness in the beginning for incense (once I saw lavender note, it became clear I was smelling it) but later on I kept thinking I caught whiffs of it as the perfume loses that little sweetness it had and heads into dry amber with hints of salty skin territory.

Even though I love ambers and always smell any kind of perfume even hinting at amber, this one smelled original to me. Possibly because of all my ambers I never came across one that I would admit to being more masculine than feminine (I somehow always think ambers are feminine – they smell seductive to me).

It makes perfect sense though to create one seductive amber for guys to wear then. And Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier did just that.

 

Going back to my samples (of the day)

I've been thinking, Sample of the day November 5, 2012 Comments: 6

I used to do this in the beginning of my blog but for several reasons (life usually happens), I stopped with those reviews and never picked them up again.

Now my sample stash has grown into a jungle, overtaking a lot of free space around me, I feel it’s time to put this back into motion and work my way through them. I wonder how long that will take…

Anyway, it probably won’t be an every day occurrence, but I’ll try and smell one each day I don’t have a regular review planned (or anything else).

Knowing my posting habits, that seems rather optimistic and ambitious but one should never be modest in what one wishes for. 😉

We’ll see how it goes… Hopefully now I’ve made it public, I’ll try and stick to my words. 🙂