So it has been a while since we last went over Desire & Decorum, so I will do a quick brief.
I’m all ears
Choices is a video game that combines film and book storytelling with you making choices as to what will happen next. One of their newest releases was an Austenlike game Desire & Decorum.
In the last chapter your father accepted you as his child and heir, Lady Catherine of Edgewater! You are legally now part of the family. You also meet your evil stepmother, stepbrother, and stepbrother’s dotty fiancé. We have two men on the rise Mr. Sinclaire and Mr. Harper, horsekeeper.
But which man?
In this episode they have put together a sewing circle to out you in lady’s society. Will you hold your own? Or fall to ribbons.
I got my tea cup, I’m ready.
So at the sewing circle is your evil stepmother-who clearly makes her disdain for you. Also is your stepbrother’s fiance, the simple Miss Sutton who “unwittingly” (is she really as simple as she seems?) always insults you.
Hmmm…
There is also a Miss Parsons
She was your older brother’s fiancé, the one that passed away.
We all stitch together, my character is as pro as me.
There is also Donna Bowman, Miss Sutton’s friend who is reading a rather amazing book.
Some games have a secondary mission, things you need to acquire to unlock special scenes or something special at the end of the complete story, mine is to be a truly accomplished lady. In this Miss Parsons offered to teach me piano, my first in the challenge. I had enough diamonds to purchase it and gained the pianoforte.
Woojoo, now I rock!
Just kidding. I’m probably more on par with Emma.
So let’s take a look at that challenge list again:
There looks to be dancing shoes, a painter’s palette, and something round? Not sure what the last object is. Either way, I plan on getting each one.
After the sewing circle you take a walk reading and have the option to go on a horse ride with Mr. Harper. I refused as I did not have the diamonds for it.
My wallet to me…
At the end of the chapter you are approached by your father who has planned a garden party in your honor! And your grandmother, the Dowager Countess, informs you that Duke Tristan Richards of Karlington will be attending the party. What an honor. Really.
So as you all know I started a book club last year. I have fallen behind with my posts, but I was catching up. I am for sure only one behind now. 🙂
No I’m serious! This time I am really only one behind!
We’ll see.
Every month we read a book and I do a little post on the book we read and discussed. What can I say, I just love books.
There is no theme, other than with each month, a different member gets to pick a book, whichever one they want.
The Masterpiece by Francine Rivers
So Francine Rivers is a favorite author of mine. I’ve read everything of her Christian fiction, except one, The Last Sin Eater. So when the book club member suggested us reading it, I was totally down and excited.
Grace Moore has been through a lot in her life. A painful childhood, growing up with a cold and emotionally separated aunt. She put her dreams on hold for her husband, had a disastrous marriage, lost her job, and is now a single mom.
She was going to give her child up for adoption, living with the potential family but changed her mind. Now she is trying to figure out how to take care of her son and make enough money to move out as the family is trying to take her child. Everything seems to be a big no, until she finally gets a job as a assistant to temperamental artist Roman Velasco. He’s never been able to keep one as he is too out there and hard to work with, but Grace is hoping to stick it out until she can find something else.
Roman Velasco has his own hard life. He lost his mom years back, was put in foster care, and sent all over San Francisco as they just kept moving him on. He joins a gang as a runner but then becomes the tagger, graffitiing the gang everywhere. He ends up being sent to a ranch, but as soon as he is old enough takes off.
He has always been interested in painting and art, and ends up becoming a very rich and profitable one. But he has a secret. At night he runs around Los Angeles, creating graffiti art going under BRD-Billy Ray Dean, his real name. He also has been growing ill, and not feeling good-but keeps that and the BRD secret.
Grace is instantly attracted to him, but knows she needs to stay away as she has bad choices in men, he has a lot of issues, and is not a Christian.
Roman tries to leave Grace alone, but is attracted to her. He ends up letting her in more than any person in his life has been let in. But then something happens that changes their relationship forever. Will things work out or will this masterpiece go through several changes before it is completed?
This was a fantastic book and a real page turner. I never wanted to put it down, and just had to find out what happened next.
Defintely worth a read! Check it out today!
The cover of the book comes from a real graffiti painting. It is called Time Flies by artist Camer1. For more about it, check out Francine Rivers blog. Our book club member who chose the book actually was able to go to San Francisco and see it in person.
I love this movie so much! It is one of my favorite romantic films. I mean it has CARY GRANT in it, so already you know it is going to be wonderful.
Aw!
Now even if you haven’t seen it, this film may sound familiar to you. This is the film the Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks film thatSleepless in Seattleis based around. An Affair to Remember is the film that Meg Ryan’s character, Annie, and Rosie O’Donnell’s character, Becky, are crazy about. Even Tom Hanks character Sam’s sister Suzy, (played by Tom Hanks’ wife Rita Wilson) adores it. In fact if you haven’t seen either movie I recommend watching An Affair to Remember before Sleepless in Seattle. You just enjoy the movie on a deeper level that way.
An Affair to Remember is a remake of Love Affair starring Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne. As much as I like original films and Irene Dunne, I prefer An Affair to Remember because of Cary Grant. Like I said before, I’m a big fan.
An Affair to Remember is about two people who meet on a cruise and fall in love, although both’s affections are engaged elsewhere. Nickie Ferrante, (Cary Grant), is a playboy engaged to Lois Clark; while Terry McKay, (Deborah Kerr), is mistress to Kenneth Bradley. The two try to stay apart but spend dinners together, walks, Terry even meets Nick’s grandmother; and the two end up falling in love.
As both feel they are not good enough with the life styles they have been living, (both living off money provided from the people they are dating.) They agree to each live on their own and meet up in six months at the top of the Empire State Building. If the other doesn’t show up; the one waiting will know that they decided to go on with their life in the original direction planned.
In six months, Nickie is a painter and he eagerly rushes to the Empire State Building. Terry is a singer in a nightclub, and on her way to meet Nickie, she gets hit by a cab; paralyzed for the rest of her life. Nickie ends up waiting the whole night for her, but she never comes.
It’s so Sad!
Terry tells Nickie nothing about the accident, feeling that she is not worthwhile being paralyzed. She is too proud to go to him, and too scared. The two cross paths at a concert, and Nickie sees her with her old boyfriend, hurt and betrayed at what he thinks she did.
Will they be reunited or is this affair over for good?
Most Romantic Moment: Reunited Lovers
This romantic moment comes at the very end. It is the most romantic and I am so sorry I don’t have a video to show you, but I couldn’t find one.
It is Christmas day and Terry has decided to spend it home alone, when Nickie shows up, angry, bitter and hurt; but determined to give her the shawl that his grandmother left Terry when she died.
He tells her he painted a picture of her, and didn’t sell it. Instead a woman in a wheelchair wanted it, and didn’t have enough money so he had his dealer give it to her.
“Nickie Ferrante: You know, l painted you like that, with the shawl. l wish you could have seen it. Courbet said it was one of my best. l didn’t think l could ever part with it, but there was no reason to keep it any longer. l couldn’t take money for it because, well, you know…So Courbet told me a young woman came into the gallery and… she liked it. She saw in it what l’d hoped you’d see, so… l told Courbet to give it to her. Because he said she didn’t have any money, and not only that, she was…Anyway, l told him to give it to her…”
At first he is angry that she is so indifferent to him, and never even gets up to greet him just laying on the couch; but as he is talking he starts thinking about the woman in the wheelchair and Terry’s actions. Could they be the same person?
Nickie looks around, and then he sees it. THE PAINTING!
He runs to her and holds her in his arms.
This is the part everyone starts weeping at, bawling. Who can blame them? It is such a sweet moment, the two reunited.
“Terry McKay: Darling, don’t look at me like that.
Nickie Ferrante: Why didn’t you tell me? If it had to happen to one of us, why did it have to be you?
Terry McKay: It was nobody’s fault but my own. l was looking up. It was the nearest thing to heaven. You were there.
Nickie Ferrante: Oh, darling.
Terry McKay: Don’t worry, darling. If you can paint, l can walk. Anything can happen, don’t you think?
Nickie Ferrante: Yes, darling.
Terry McKay: Yes, darling.”
So romantic
So in Sleepless in Seattle, you get some great scenes of the women talking about this moment.
One of the best scenes is in the beginning when Becky and Annie are watching An Affair to Remember. I love this scene because it is the kind of conversations I have with my friends after I watch a great movie. I am always Annie in these scenarios.
“Annie Reed: Now those were the days when people knew how to be in love.
Becky: You’re a basket case.
Annie Reed:They knew it. Time, distance, nothing could separate them, because they knew it was right. It was real. It was…
Becky: A movie. That’s your problem. You don’t want to be in love. You want to be in love in a movie.
And then one of my favorite scenes is when Suzy shares the story of An Affair to Remember with her brother Sam and husband. The guys make fun of her, but I love this scene because when I bring up the story of An Affair to Remember I tell it in the exact same way Suzy does.
I love this scene because I can see myself having the reaction of Annie or Becky.
And in the end Annie and Sam get the romantic ending that Terry and Nickie never got.
janeaustenrunsmylife 