Alec Knight, the smooth-talking rakehell in One Night of Sin may not come across as a likely Knight in shining armour to damsel-in-distress and key witness to a murder, Becky Ward, but he sure had a few surprises that help acquit him well in the end and won him the true love that he has been searching all his life.

One Night of Sin is the sizzling 6th instalment in the Knight Miscellany series by Gaelen Foley, a rare storyteller who captivates romance readers with emotional tales that touch the heart and soul. I have been following the series after reading an earlier novel of hers, ‘Prince Charming’.

From her first story about the oldest Knight brothers, Robert Knight, the Duke of Hawkscliffe – The Duke, I was hooked on the adventures of this family of variously sired siblings, modelled after notorious Lady Oxford’s ‘Harleian Miscellany’.

Speaking of movie adaptations of books, the 4th instalment of Harry Potter on the big screen was immensely more enjoyable than the previous films.

I brought the kids to the cinema over the weekend to catch ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ as a treat to my daughter — I still owe her two Enid Blyton books for her fantastic results in school — and we all had a great time. This 4th movie was spookier and darker than the previous ones, but I guess this is in keeping with the book, as it marks the transition of the three protagonists to adolescence. It seems to appeal to teens more, but I was rather surprised that my daughter enjoyed it far more than the first two movies. I was in fact worried that she’d be spooked out, as she was by the ‘Prisoner of Azkaban’. But she took it quite well … I think it may have been because she caught this during the day.

Well, it looks like I need not wait much longer!

P&P3 will be screening in local cinemas from 8 December, and here is the local promotional website.

Now isn’t that marvellous news for local Austen fans?

I couldn’t help surfing the web for more news of the ‘Pride & Prejudice’ movie, which has been receiving mixed reviews.

For example, here’s a pretty good plug on P&P3 by film critic John Hartl on MSNBC:

so this ‘Pride and Prejudice’ has a shot at becoming the most successful theatrical version in 65 years. It’s far from definitive, and Austen fans may quibble with the speed with which it deals with Elizabeth’s sisters. But thanks to Macfadyen and Knightley, the love story clicks.

Over at the Austen Blog, the Editrix has mixed feelings about P&P3 though:

We came to the conclusion that it wasn’t too bad as long as they stuck to Jane’s words –even with the necessary plot contractions. But as soon as they put in someone else’s words, it became trite, insipid, cringe-worthy. Several important, emotional scenes were utterly ruined for us by these digressions.

 

I stumbled across this delightful news quite by accident 3 days ago. The newest version of one of the most adapted novels by Jane Austen has premierred in London already!! I’m in a bit of a huff because the promotional machine for the latest ‘Pride & Prejudice’ movie starring the lovely Keira Knightley (I love her performance in ‘Bend It Like Beckham’) and Matthew Macfadyen, directed by Joe Wright, has not gone full steam in this part of Asia yet. But I’ve already caught the fever.

You may groan at yet another adaptation of Austen’s most loved novel of Elizabeth Bennet’s journey to love, but the BBC series starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle received very favourable reviews. I was introduced to Colin Firth through that show and had been following most of his films. He was absolutely brilliant as Mr Darcy in that series … just check out the cover of the dvd.

Had to curb myself from embarking on a book buying spree when I walked past a book fair last Sunday. It’s one of the temptations I face every weekend after dropping the kids off to their art classes. And I’m not only talking about shopping ! The urge to borrow more books than I can possibly finish within a 3-week period from the local library is even greater than shopping for new clothes.

I have to always check myself by conjuring an image of my bookshelf cramped with the many unread books I’ve acquired in the last six months. (And that’s one of the reasons why I started bookcrossing … to make space on my bookshelf for newer books.) But I could never help hearing a little whisper in my heart telling me to ‘go get them’ whenever I see a book by a favourite author.

So on Sunday, I ended up offering congratulations to myself on acquiring these gems at the fair:
Madam, Will You Talk by Mary Stewart
Moonlight Becomes You by Mary Higgins Clark
I Thee Wed by Amanda Quick

and two others on my reading list rented from a second hand bookshop: Some Enchanted Evening and My Fair Temptress, both by Christina Dodd.

Well, as Mary Stewart has so wisely said,

It is harder to kill a whisper than even a shouted calumny.

So, why do I even try to resist? When it comes to books, I’m putty in the hands of booksellers and publishers. Until the next post then.