Showing posts with label Irish Immigration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Irish Immigration. Show all posts

Saturday, December 15, 2018

100. Roomies by Christina Lauren

listened on Audible
2017, Gallery Books
368 pgs.
Adult Romance
Finished 12/15/18
Goodreads rating: 3.91 - 17,321 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting: contemporary New York City

First line/s:  "According to family legend, I was born on the floor of a taxi."

My comments:  It was fun to listen to this sweet, entertaining love story. I particularly enjoyed the Irishness of the male protagonist, Calvin. No surprises but fun to anticipate when and how everything was going to work out.

Goodreads synopsis:  From subway to Broadway to happily ever after. Modern love in all its thrill, hilarity, and uncertainty has never been so compulsively readable as in New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren’s romantic novel.
          Marriages of convenience are so...inconvenient. 
          For months Holland Bakker has invented excuses to descend into the subway station near her apartment, drawn to the captivating music performed by her street musician crush. Lacking the nerve to actually talk to the gorgeous stranger, fate steps in one night in the form of a drunken attacker. Calvin Mcloughlin rescues her, but quickly disappears when the police start asking questions.
          Using the only resource she has to pay the brilliant musician back, Holland gets Calvin an audition with her uncle, Broadway’s hottest musical director. When the tryout goes better than even Holland could have imagined, Calvin is set for a great entry into Broadway—until his reason for disappearing earlier becomes clear: he’s in the country illegally, his student visa having expired years ago.
          Seeing that her uncle needs Calvin as much as Calvin needs him, a wild idea takes hold of her. Impulsively, she marries the Irishman, her infatuation a secret only to him. As their relationship evolves and Calvin becomes the darling of Broadway—in the middle of the theatrics and the acting-not-acting—will Holland and Calvin to realize that they both stopped pretending a long time ago?

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

MOVIE - Brooklyn

PG-13 (1:51)
Limited release 11/4/15
Viewed Tuesday, 1/12/16 at ElCon
RT Critic:  98  Audience:  90
Critic's Consensus:   Brooklyn buttresses outstanding performances from Saoirse Ronan and Emory Cohen with a rich period drama that tugs at the heartstrings as deftly as it satisfies the mind.
Cag:  5.5 Just loved it, top quality, too...
Directed by John Crowley
Written by Nick Hornby
Fox Searchlight

Saoirse Ronan - who was absolutely wonderful!

My comments: A period story, (early 1950s) with excellent acting, lots of giggles, a few tiny sniffles, and wonderful costuming and hairstyles.  The storytelling was superb, not sappy, thoughtful, with a lovely, perfect ending.

RT Summary:  Eilis Lacey followed her sister, Rose's, plan to leave Ireland and find a better future and job in the US. She departs terribly, enduring seasickness and a terrible relationship with her cabin mates. A kind traveler gives her advice to live in Brooklyn, where many Irish immigrants live. Eilis settles in Brooklyn and becomes close to Father Flood, a Catholic priest. She gets a job in a department store and falls in love with an Italian boy named Tony. News from home sends Eilis back to Ireland, away from Tony.