Booklog 30/2018 - Ella Quinn: When a Marquis Chooses a Bride - Worthingtons #2

I somehow missed this when reading the Worthingtons books in order. It's the story of how Dottie Stern cracks through the polished finish of Dominic, Marquis of Merton. Dottie is best friends with Charlotte, Grace's sister. Merton is Matt's stuffy overbearing cousin whom no one likes. He was brought up by an uncle who left him with rigid ideas of what was proper and dutiful. Falling in love is not one of his ambitions. Falling for Dottie is definitely not on Merton's agenda… yet… And as for Dottie, well, she quite likes him if only he wasn't so hidebound, but maybe there's more to him than meets the eye. With the help of the chaotic Worthington clan (Matt and Grace and all the children, not to metion the dogs) and Dom's mother, Dottie succeeds in humanizing Merton. We knew that's what would happen, but it's the journey that's the thing. Mission accomplished with the help of a sack full of kittens, a mysterious waif and an evil brothel-keeper.

Booklog 31/2018 - Rod Duncan: Unseemly Science - Fall of the gas-Lit Empire #2

I read the first Elizabeth Barnabus book some time ago, but I was surprised how much of it I'd retained in my mind when I started in on the sequel. Post revolution the country is split into two, roughly north and south with the south ruled by aristocrats, and the repressed north very puritan-like. Elizabeth Barnabus, brought up in a travelling circus in the south, has fled to the north to escape being sold to the Duke of Northampton. Women have no standing in northern society, so - a mistress of disguise - she leads a double life, as both herself and her own invented brother, taking commissions as a private detective. In this book she's running from the law as the north and south prepare to sign an extradition treaty and begin to round up all the exiles in preparation for sending them home, something likely to be the death of most of them. Elizabeth gets mixed up with a charity that hides secrets, follows the trail of ice thieves and ends up discovering a world of bodysnatching and unseemly experimentation. I enjoyed this enough to go straight on to the third book in the series: The Custodian of Marvels.

Movie of the Week: Deadpool 2

I enjoyed both Deadpool movies, despoite thinging that I really shouldn't. Deadpool (Wade Wilson, played by an almost unrecognisable Ryan Reynolds) is wisecracking pottymouth superhero with a disfigured face. In Deadpool 2 his girlfriend (Morena Baccarin) is killed and Wade blames himself. He tries to commit suicide, but he's not so easy to kill and he's rescued by X-Man Colossus and conscripted to the X-Men. When sent to resolve a stanbdoff between young mutant Russel )Firefist) he ends up taking the kid's side. There's prison, a warrior from the future, a sacrifice and - in case you were thinking of leaving you have to stick around for the end credits scene if you want to see how it really ends.