book review: revel

Revel by Maurissa Guibord

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

3.5 stars for the sea monsters!

This book was unexpected in many ways. The beautiful watery cover and cheesy back cover blurb warning of the dangers of Trespass Island didn’t prepare me for what I found in this book: a creepy adventure with sea monsters galore!

When Delia attempts to leave home in search of the grandmother she’s never met, she doesn’t expect Trespass Island. First of all, it’s not on any maps or ferry routes. When she finally arrives, she’s met with Wicker Man-like creepy natives, warning her: “we don’t have visitors on the island”. The first mention of something dangerous and not-quite-right quickly hinted to me that this wasn’t going to be the mermaid book I was sort of expecting. With interest, I discovered that the dangers of Trespass Island lay in the age-old pact the islanders had with the First Ones, descendants of Poseidon and the like.

Delia is then thrown into the islanders’ secluded lifestyle, and she slowly comes to discover the truth about the First Ones. There is, of course, a sort of love-triangle, or at least two possible love interests for Delia. I have to admit- I’m all about Jax all the way. Human-like sea god, with gills and all- I still found him infinitely more interesting than the other boy, who made such a little impression on me that I can’t remember his name. (Sean?)

The surprising truth about the Revel ‘festival’ is also slowly revealed, and then the book quickly spirals into some battles, a kidnapping, another battle, and some intrigue. The ending felt a bit abrupt to me, and I see there’s no mention of a sequel, which I find a bit puzzling. Certain interesting developments don’t occur until almost the very end of the book, and I was expecting a “to be continued” or something, hinting that we’d get more information in a forthcoming sequel. As is, the story kept me interested, and made me much less likely to swim in any open water in the near future! It wasn’t amazing by any means, but it’s a fairly enjoyable summer-ish read.

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spring/summer

Something that I love about my job is that I work in a small town, and at lunch I love going to the park downtown, which is by the water, and sitting outside for a lunchtime picnic. The library is a minute’s walk from the park, so I can pick up some reading material, and enjoy the sunshine.

We’ve had quite a mixture of weather in the last couple of weeks; going from extremely cool to very hot and humid. These photos are from some of the warmer, sunnier days.

summer, i heart you

Hi! I can’t believe it’s the second week of July already…! I had the greatest long weekend for Canada Day: 4 days off in a row (this so rarely happens, I can count on one hand), and lovely activities including nature hike, fishing (I watched), picnicking, beach day, and reading magazines outside on a blanket in the park.

Himself and I, walking around the lovely gardens downtown & enjoying the sun!

Some lovely flowers in a summery combination of purple & yellow.

We’re having an extreme heat wave right now, but it’s actually kind of nice after the random cool weather at the start of the summer. At least I work in an air conditioned building, and our apartment is staying pretty cool as well. And, any excuse to wear flirty summer sundresses is welcome!

The only problem I’ve been having is dealing with my hair: it’s so long that I have to wear it up every day, and usually I even have to wear it up to bed. Here’s a picture of how I wore my hair today:

I pinned random sections with bobby pins and threw a mini-claw clip in for good measure. Surprisingly, since my hair still had some hairspray in it from yesterday, it actually stayed up all day and I didn’t even have to adjust it! Yay for good hair luck.

Anyways, I’m watching “House”, which I never usually watch, but the first few minutes hooked me (this man was in his kitchen , his five coffee makers disappeared when he went to the cupboard; then when he turned around it went from morning to 4:30 in the afternoon and he couldn’t remember any time passing. Turns out he may be on drugs… but now I’m watching to find out the rest of the story).

Take care!

summer’s here

… and we need to install our air conditioner. Although, rumour has it that the upcoming week will be cool and rainy. We shall see.

PS: listen to this (click on the text at the centre of the page to play.)

snuggle up

The 5 skeins of Cascade Pima Tencel turned out to be just the right amount to make a cushion cover.

Here it is, enjoying its spot beside my cabled knit pillow. The back of the pillowcase is just a section of a thrift-store sweater (in a lovely pale teal blue), and I had to do some pretty creative joining as a result of the non-straight-edged shape that came when I joined five rows of hexagons together.

I do quite love it, actually. My other ongoing project is what I’m hoping will be a lap blanket or throw:

Those are Summer Garden granny squares from the pattern on Attic 24. I accidentally joined one wrong-side-up, and was too lazy to undo it. It’s now snugged in the middle of a row, with another two rows blocking it in for good measure, so I figure I’ll just leave it and no one will likely notice. I’m using Patons Grace for this blanket, eleven balls of which were gifted to me by my lovely mum. Even if I have to buy more to make it truly blanket-sized, it will still be a super bargain.

The warmer spring/summer weather has really been prompting me to use cotton yarn, and somehow crocheting is less warming than knitting. Something about how you never have a whole line of stitches on your hook, I guess. Or I’m just randomly enjoying a crochet spell. Tant pis.

On a completely different note– ever been to this site? Well I have. I love how, despite the fact that it’s meant for the most part to be satire and tongue-in-cheek, it is nevertheless quite true. Peacoats? I have one. Vespas? Sure want one. Grammar? Grammar?? I hardly think this one needs mentioning. But the point of this random subject change was to mention that Wes Anderson movies appears in the top ten things. (It is in fact, #10 itself). And in the past few weeks, I have watched no fewer than 4 of his movies.

We started with The Royal Tenenbaums, which I had never previously seen. Enjoyment of this prompted Himself to remark that we should also watch: The Darjeeling Limited, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and most recently, Rushmore. And what the hell? I liked them all! I also have a newfound respect for Owen Wilson’s acting (having previously associated him with the “Shanghai Noon”/ “Shanghai Twelve-Thirty” gems, to what I now realize is his great discredit). Also- Bill Murray? Still very very funny. And now forever associated in my mind with Jacques Cousteau.