Kdrama Review: 100 Days My Prince

Drama: 100 Days My Prince

Genre: Historical

Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

This is a little older drama (only a few years though) that I've heard so much about and have had on my list forever to watch and just now finally got to it. So glad I did! It's so good!

This one is about our crown prince... he's kind of mean-ish and ornery and not so very pleasant... but mostly because he is sick of trying to stay alive and keeping his spot to inherit the throne. He really really hates his wife who he refuses to be with and she is um... oops.. pregnant not by him of course, but she needs to make him think he is. Ha. 

So one day, he is on his way somewhere and is attacked and left for dead. Only he's not dead, but discovered by a local village dude who rescues and saves him. When he wakes up, he can't remember who he is, but still has some of his princely mannerisms. Which is  hilarious now that he is living with this dude and his family as a poor villager. 

And then he falls in love with his daughter. Oops again! And as time goes by, he gets more and more comfortable as a poor villager and quite takes to this life style. In fact, he is actually posing as her fiancé/husband since the prince (yes it was HIM) declared everyone had to get married. Anyway, he starts to come out of his soberness and starts opening up and smiling more. It's awesome. 

But then the palace people find him and he starts to get his memories back and now has to go back and be the prince again. After a nice sweet 100 days of "freedom."

However, he's still in love with the girl. So... what to do? Yeah. Big problem. And the girl, who has been separated from her brother since a rebellion event years ago, finds her brother and learns that the brother is working for the bad palace people. Another big problem. And he is also... well.... never mind... SPOILER!

Anyway. It's just fantastic as these historical dramas tend to be. I love them. 

Our crown prince is played by D.O. from EXO and he is the main reason everyone should watch this drama. His acting is spot on. He's fantastic! (How many times do you think I can say fantastic and SO GOOD in one review? A lot apparently.) Our girl is great too and a favorite from another drama I loved called Shopping King Louis. 

This trailer makes it looks pretty silly and funny, which it is, but there are plenty of serious and dramatic moments too for sure:

And a beautiful song sung by Chen aka. another member of EXO. 

And if you happen to be interested when I fell in love with D.O...it was when I discovered this song... a song he sung for a completely different drama years ago... the power of this song though.... WAH!

Book Review: Seven Deadly Shadows by Courtney Alameda and Valynne E. Maetani

Book: Seven Deadly Shadows by Courtney Alameda and Valynne E. Maetani

Genre: YA Fantasy

Rating: ★ ★ ★ 

This book was chosen for one of our book club reads this past summer, but I knew nothing about it at all except the authors are/were local. When I got it my hands I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was set in Japan and based on Japanese folklore. Cool!

And it was cool, mostly. But sometimes a bit hard to follow. I felt like the authors assumed that readers would have a base in Japanese culture to help them understand things, but if you are coming into it totally cold, you are going to be lost for sure.

It's about a girl whose family runs a shrine in Kyoto. A lot of the creatures that help them are mythological people, some good, some not so good. And most people can't see them, but of course, our girl can. 

So one day, some of the bad creatures attack the shrine and are after a relic that they need to take over the world. And Kira (our girl) needs to figure out how to stop this from happening. She, together with her friend (who is... a nine-tailed fox in the making! Ah, do you see a theme in the stuff I keep consuming here!) have to find seven death gods to help them. 

It gets pretty detailed and complicated, all the magic and craziness that happens. It's beautifully written and very lush and poetic and awesome. Just... as I said.. sometimes hard to follow and understand everything. But despite all that, I enjoyed it. It was quite the ride!

Book Review: My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows

 Book: My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows

Genre: YA fantasy

Rating: ★ ★ ★ 

Another fun one in the set of books these authors are doing that are basically retellings of famous Jane stories. This one is Jane Eyre's. And I loved that Charlotte Bronte and her brother are also characters in this story. Charlotte and Jane are friends at the boarding school and then Jane goes away to be governess. And there's a society that hunts ghosts and it appears that Jane is a great seer of ghosts (Helen Burns, a ghost, is her best friend and follows her everywhere) so the society is determined to get her to work for them. 

But in the meantime she has fallen in love with Rochester of course!

Anyway... the story is familiar and yet so many fun twists and turns to make it completely different. I really enjoy the creativity of all that. Sometimes the silliness of other things grates on me a bit, but not enough to not get a kick out of it all just have fun with it. 

Soon I'm sure you'll see me reading the story of the next Jane! (I think Calamity Jane is out now?)

 

Book Review: The Black Witch by Laurie Forest

Book: The Black Witch by Laurie Forest

Genre: YA Fantasy

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

In a world were lots of people have magic, our heroine girl does not. And she is a descendant of one of the most magical witches of all, so is very strange that she didn't inherit powers, just the looks of her grandma. 

This is a fascinating world, not only because of the magic, but because there are so many different kinds of people and creatures. Our girl has been raised in the Gardnerian society who has cause to hate a bunch of these other people because of what has happened in their history. But when she leaves her sheltered life and goes to school amongst all these people, she starts to find out that they all have something to contribute to society and that maybe the history she knows of her people isn't quite right. 

Because of her heritage, she has many hidden and unknown enemies and is constantly worrying about who might be trying to kill her. But she ends up creating a great group of diverse friends and they bond together to fight off the evil. 

It's a beautifully written fantasy with a fabulous world that's been created to show us how great diversity is. I really quite enjoyed it and plan to continue the series. 

Reading Recap: Summer 2021 (June, July, August)

 

Summer 2021!!

Books read in June:

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes: The story of a lady who rode a horse in the backwoods of Kentucky to deliver books to people.

You're My Star by Trish  Milburn: We start the journey of following a new kpop band in their journey for love. 

Books read in July:

Born a Crime by Noah Trevor: Just like the subtitle says "stories of a South African childhood" told with lots of candor and humor. 

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei: The story of George Takei's family's interment into camps of the Japanese during WWII, in a graphic novel form.

Somewhere Only We Know by Maurene Goo: A girl kpop star and a boy who wants to become a paparazzi dude randomly meet in Hong Kong and have an adventure.

Books read in August:

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: Our hero seems to be stuck living in some sort of huge palace building, and it's a mystery how he got there, or if he can (or wants to) get out.

The Black Witch by Laurie Forest: Our girl starts the story very prejudice against all the different races and peoples in her world, but learns that everyone has something to offer. 

My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand and others: A fun retelling of Jane Erye with the author (Charlotte Bronte) included as a character. 

Stay tuned for many review catch up posts and a Fall Books Read recap! Man how did I get so behind!

Kdrama Review: My Roommate is a Gumiho

 Drama: My Roommate is a Gumiho

Genre: Fantasy

Starring: Jang Ki Yong, Hyeri, Kang Han Na

Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

Once again, this one sounded dumb on first appearance but then everyone started hyping it up and I was all, okay. So there must be something cool about it! And then the more I heard, the more I knew I had to watch it. I can't even tell you how many times this has happened. SO MANY!

It's a delightful show where our guy is gumiho... or a nine-tailed fox from Korean folklore. He sucks the energy from people to stay alive and to progress toward the day when he can maybe become human. He's almost there when he meets our girl. 

It so happens that gumihos have this bead thing inside them that is a very important part of their souls. And when these two characters literally bump into each other... out pops his bead, and she swallows it. This is not a good. It creates some distressful things for her, and for him... well.. he just needs it back. 

He tells her he doesn't know how to get it back, but of course he does. He just wants her around a big longer, so he tells her he needs time to figure it out. In the meantime, maybe she should move in with him so he can protect her during this distressful time.

AH.. it sounds so silly in the summary of it.. .but it's so dang cute!! He's so... so.... completely... serious and sober and she is so fun and happy go lucky... and he is stricken with that! And soon, she also becomes taken with him. It's an absolutely lovely romance.

So adorable. The both of them!

Well, of course, all sorts of things get in the way of them figuring this all out and how he needs to become human and all. But of course, they must figure out a way!

Sigh. It's seriously the best. 

Here's a great look at what it's like:

And a song: