Book Review: Rasputin’s Supernatural Dating Service
Katie 
Rasputin was one of my favorite people to learn about in History class, so when I saw that this book was about him, I had to check it out! It ended up being one of the strangest books I think I have ever read. For me, it kind of missed the mark, I think that the humor was a bit off – maybe over my head? But if you’re looking for a quick really weird read about Frankenstein and Werewolves and all other sort of mystical and sci-fi characters, then this would be the book for you!
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.
About the Book
Monsters, ghosts, dead, undead, and Frankensteins still unsure if they’re depressed because they’re abominations against existence or if it’s just been forever since they’ve been laid, all can find love with Rasputin’s Supernatural Dating Service!
Eli Kowalski has seen his share of freaks as a Certifier for Rasputin’s Supernatural Dating Service. It’s his job to weed out the real monsters from the weirdos with too much black lipstick. While on a routine certification, he comes across the Tablet of Nicaea. A powerful witch and self-proclaimed “Men’s Rights Activist” wants to steal the tablet and use it to kill all supernatural creatures so that “nice guys” like him can have a better chance with women. Eli must unite with the supernatural policing agency, the witch’s ex-girlfriend, and the constantly-naked Rasputin to save supernatural creatures in the name of love. He’ll probably excuse himself from Rasputin’s victory orgy, though.
Rasputin’s Supernatural Dating Service casts a humorous, silly light on romance in the paranormal community. Fans of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens and Christopher Moore’s A Dirty Job will find similarities in the book’s comedic treatment of the supernatural.
I love architecture and books that include lots and lots of pictures of really cool architecture are some of my favorites. This book features WPA Buildings – buildings that were funded by the Works Progress Administration. I’ve seen some buildings in this style before, so it was nice to learn some more about them and how they came about and some of the murals and details inside of them.
One More Kiss is the first book in a new “Band on the Run” series, so I am pretty excited after reading this first one that it will be continuing. One More Kiss is about Matt (or “Matty”) Reed who was in a band and decided to take some time off from the band to do a Broadway show but when things didn’t go according to plan he ended up laying low in his home town while waiting for someone else to become the next scandal. Matt moves in with his best friend Aaron and his sister Vivienne is moving in to the guest house. The two once shared a kiss but both seem to be not wanting to bring it up and wondering if each other even remembers. When Aaron has to head off to London, it leaves Matt and Vivienne alone together. Things start off friendly but end up turning into something more between them. While the story did have some closure, it also left it open ended with a few storylines that need to be more explained as well opening it up for the rest of the books in the series. I am not sure if they will continue to follow Matt and Vivienne in Matt’s next career move or if they may follow some of the other members in the band but I am looking forward to finding out and will for sure be keeping an eye out for when Book #2 is released.
I was pretty pumped to read “I Love My Computer Because My Friends Live In It” because I could totally relate to the title. Unfortunately I was expecting more about the friends in the computer than I got, although I could totally relate to almost everything the author was writing about since she is only a few years older than me. Replace her Bette Midler online chat rooms with Hanson and you’ve got me. She even went to Oklahoma to meet up with someone she had met online – I do that yearly. The book became more about her life and how technology played a big part in it than what I was expecting with more about the relationships and friendships she had made through the internet. Jess is funny though, so I really enjoyed her dissection of twitter, facebook, instagram, etc. We are both from Connecticut and both have engineers for Dads so when my friend thought that perhaps I wrote this book, she really wasn’t too far off. The only difference is she is married and met her wife on match.com, and while I’m not looking for a wife I have tended to shy away from dating sites. The rest of our lives do seem to parallel though so maybe I should give it a try….
When I started reading Encore I had the feeling that I had already read it. It turns out this is a second book in a a series and I had previously read 
Gone is the second book in a series. I had not read the first, but it didn’t seem to make a difference. From what I can tell, each book in the series seems to focus on a different set of characters that are all somewhat connected.
Red-Blooded American Male is a book of photographs taken by Robert Trachtenberg. The opening of the book notes that “American” may be a bit misleading and that it actually means all of North America (since it includes some Canadians) but also some Brits are included as well. As the majority of this book are photos, I’m not sure really how to review it, but the beginning of the book has an interview with Robert and some of the photos have captions which explain how and why the photos and their poses came to be. A very large (and heavy!) coffee table book filled with great photos.
Dream Big is basically my motto in life. So of course I had to check out this children’s book of the same name. There are a lot of animals and they are all making wishes of their wildest dreams. The baboon thinks that these things can never come true, but one by one they start happening for the animals because they are wishing and believing that they can do anything. This is a great message and the animals in the book are really cute 🙂
I don’t think I have ever felt more OLD reading a book. Keke Palmer’s “I Don’t Belong To You” is an autobiography and also an inspirational and potentially “self help” book. However, I couldn’t get past all the use of “lol” and hashtags throughout the text. Maybe if I was about 10 years younger I would find it appropriate – but it was written more like she was writing you an email than an actual book – which maybe was the point, but again, I’m just realizing that at 32 I am old. Watch out, or I may bust out a “kids these days”.
Everybody Curses, I Swear is by Carrie Keagan. I recognize her from VH1 Morning Buzz Live but you may recognize her from her YouTube videos. The beginning of this book warns that if you offended by curse words (and at about 2 paragraphs in, she has already used a LOT) then you should pick out a different book to read. A couple of paragraphs below that she lists 80 curse words – since the average person swears 80 times a day! The list is in alphabetical order and some of these I don’t even consider to be swears so I would venture to guess I’m well above average in the “Daily Cursing” department!