Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

So REIGN has been picked up for a full season. You know what that means, more shenanigans at the court of Henri II like these last two episodes.  Sorry I'm late with the recaps but last weekend was the 50th Anniversary of Dr. Who so Mary, Queen of Scots fell by the wayside.   Bash looking soulful, probably thinking about Mary! - Mary and Francis are so cute together you guys! They spend the first part of the episode snuggling and making out. I sure hope nothing comes between these two crazy kids! - Uh oh, some blonde chick named Olivia shows up at court after almost getting killed in the Dark Forest. It turns out that she and Francis used to play 'doctor' in the boathouse until they got caught. She was whisked away to marry to someone else but it fell through because of that whole not being a virgin thing. - Mary decides to be nice to Olivia instead of ripping her hair out until Olivia admits that she's back to steal Francis. - Mary decides to that Olivi...

Normally I feature just one book that I feel that readers would enjoy but this month we have a plethora of really cool books. Title:   Writers Between the Covers Authors: Shannon McKennon Schmidt & Joni Rendon Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: Plume (October 29, 2013) Why did Norman Mailer stab his second wife at a party?  Who was Edith Wharton’s secret transatlantic lover? What motivated Anaïs Nin to become a bigamist? Writers Between the Covers rips the sheets off these and other real-life love stories of the literati—some with fairy tale endings and others that resulted in break-ups, breakdowns, and brawls. Among the writers laid bare are Agatha Christie, who sparked the largest-ever manhunt in England as her marriage fell apart; Arthur Miller, whose jaw-dropping pairing with Marilyn Monroe proved that opposites attract, at least initially; and T.S. Eliot, who slept in a deckchair on his disastrous honeymoon. From the best break-up letters to the stor...

Just caught up with REIGN this morning. OMG you guys, so much drama! Archery contests, whipping boys, ghosts, intrigue, romance. Where do I begin? - Tomas and Francis competed in an archery contest because a joust would have been too exciting I guess. Tomas cheated, and then gave Mary a favor of a pink rose. In front of everyone! - Mary's uncle Claude de Guise showed up again to basically tell her stuff. This time it was to tell her that King Henri wasn't yet willing to end her betrothal to Francis. - Catherine de Medici admitted to Mary that she wanted her gone, gone, gone. - Francis, now that Mary was about to get engaged to another man, got all handsy and jealous. - Lola flirted with a wounded Bash. - Tomas showed his true colors by telling Mary every time she disobeyed him, Miguel the whipping boy, would be punished. - Simon, Lord Westbrook, was accused of being a spy for the English and almost executed in the middle of a masquerade ball. -...

The theme behind Scandalous Women is that well-behaved women don’t make history. Unfortunately, the entertainment business is another story. Though history is rife with women who have performed unheroic actions in order to further a cause they believed was right, it seems novels, television, and film have been slow to understand these qualities in women. The entertainment world is buzzing with the onslaught of anti-hero men; consider Breaking Bad’s Walter White, and Dexter’s Dexter, who are two of the most recent additions to the “dangerous men” club that began with Tony Soprano. Like Tony, these are men who make purposefully evil choices for what they believe is a pure-hearted cause. Walter White, after all, becomes a drug lord for the sake of his family. Not to say we haven’t had our fair share of “evil” or “naughty” women, but in most cases, that’s all they are. Women in popular literature, on TV, and in movies are more likely to be found portraying “good girls,” who, even if t...

  I finally got a chance to watch last week's episode of REIGN. OMG, you guy, so much happened to our girl Mary this week. - England sent troops to the Scottish border which sent Mary into a tizzy when her cousin Claude de Guise showed up to tell her. (Given how long it took news to arrive, are we to assume that the English troops just camped out on the border hoping for a fight?) - She asked King Henri for troops to help Scotland and he said 'no way.' - She kicked a ball around with Prince Charles. - She climbed a tree and then got stuck. - She met Tomas, the sexy illegitimate son of the King of Portugal. - She broke the girl code, spending time with Tomas, even though she knew Greer liked him. - She offered to sell Tomas timber in exchange for troops. Instead he wanted to marry her. Something about her 'wildness' appealed to him. - She did a sexy dance with Tomas at a ball, which consisted of a lot of dipping and lifting, wearing a dress that look...