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WEST SIDE STORY

16 Thursday Dec 2021

Posted by mlrover in Uncategorized

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Adam Driver, Ansel Elgort, duel, dueling, film, history, Jousting, Matt Damon, Medieval, movie review, musicals, Rita Moreno, West Side Story

Saw newest version of West Side Story and liked it. Different and grittier than the Robert Wise version, but Maria and Tony are wonderful—all of the characters more accessible. The dancing and choreography was not as sharp without Robbins at the helm, especially when it comes to Bernardo, David Alvarez, who has a great screen presence and remarkable eyes. But it’s cruel to compare any male dancer with the WWS ’61 fire eating Shark, George Chakiris.

The script is more attuned to reality, brutal at times, and the cinematography brilliant in some spots. I heard on NPR a LAT reviewer say he was not impressed with Ansel Elgort, but I thought he was wonderful. It was widely known that Wood hated Beymer, and I think that came through in the “61 version. Not so this time. The chemistry between Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler is sweet and charming, their times on the screen a necessary, stark contrast to the explosive violence of the gangs.

I did prefer the ’61 version of the Gee, Officer Krupke, which is my favorite song and showcased the incredible Russ Tamblyn. The LA reviewer didn’t sound that pleased about adding Moreno to the story but her character works well with the Spielberg vision of showing the futility inherent in racism and gang violence, which is celebrated more than decried in the ’61. The I Feel Pretty scene is better in this newer one, a larger group of women and a much better vocal rendition.

Speaking of grim and violent stories, I’ve included the review of The Last Duel, which was written while my laptop was in the shop getting upgraded.

THE LAST DUEL

Historians are not in agreement when it comes to the incredible story of Marguerite de Carrouges and neither is the content of this film, which is written in three different perspectives. Affleck, a writer of one of the chapters, commented that it wasn’t so much about historical accuracy as it was about the era. If you recall the story of Heloise and Peter Abelard, when they got caught she was sent off to a nunnery and he was castrated. How’s that for romance in the time of chivalry.

Rape was a serious business back then, and even though chivalry was touted, the practice of it was most likely different from the actuality. This was a brutal time, cruelty a way of life. This rendition takes the side of Marguerite, accepting her accusation as the truth. Her husband, De Garrouge, (Matt Damon) had an unpleasant, contentious personality. Her assailant, Jacques Le Gris, (Adam Driver) comes down through time as a burly, bullying egocentric adept at court politics. It was recorded that Le Gris protested his innocence on the field in front of many witnesses. This is no surprise. Consider the fact that he was Catholic. Some would suppose his firm belief in his innocence could be a sign of a clean soul. I keep in mind that according to his religion, all he had to do was confess to a priest and do his penance to be utterly cleansed of any wrongdoing.

About the movie, it’s never boring, even when the events are repeated. The two most dynamic events, the rape and the duel, are not accurately portrayed. The rape itself from court records was far more vicious and brutal than the screen version. Fine by me. What was filmed was violent enough.

There are witness accounts from attendees at the duel. The enactment as done in the film was INMH the best route to go. Jousting and hand-to-hand fighting with sword, ax, or any form of mace is dynamic and terrifying. Imagine the impact of that lance coming at you with the impetus of a charging horse trained for the task. The horse was not doing all the work. These combatants were scary tough. I’ve lifted chain mail. The one I picked up was 35 pounds. Medieval mail weight 45 to 50 pounds. Add plate armor on top of that from head to toe. Knights and other vassals fought with close to a 100 pounds of weight, a sword almost as long as their height, or some other form of mace, and a shield. If that wasn’t enough to handle, the crusaders had to endure desert heat baking inside a metal oven and did so for hours.

Conclusion: I really enjoyed this telling of a passion-wrought bit of history. But due to revisionism, especially in the church’s point of view, and the fact that there is little written for, by, and about women in that time period, history itself cannot provide a definitive recounting. This film leaves us to make up our minds about whose version is the truth. If you prefer less cerebral and more action, stay to the end for the duel. Brutal is nowhere near how combat was done in the not so romantic Dark Ages. Director Ridley Scott brought it back to the present.

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)

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King Richard

26 Friday Nov 2021

Posted by mlrover in Uncategorized

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Aunjanue Ellis, film, inspiration, movie review, parenting, review, Serena William, Tennis, Venus Williams, Will Smith

As a movie goer, I get burnt out on the anti-hero themes and the constant push for inclusiveness for the sake of inclusiveness spurred by present popularity. Getting those story types crammed down my throat was blissfully absent in this film. It’s about family, hard times and good times, the ups and downs and tragedies of living on the financial edge and the battleground of East LA. The main take-away must be the refrain of not giving up on a dream and how dedicated parenting goes a long way to making a child’s dream become a reality. I know this because I had a mom who thought her kids were phenomenal. (Not all of us are but Mom never let that get in the way.)

Then there’s the acting. I doubt that I will ever forget the bleak misery in Will Smith’s eyes as he watched the TV news clip of Rodney King getting beaten by LA cops, a revisitation of his past, his terror of cowardly gang members threatening his daughter, the scarring of his life embittered by the brutality and viciousness of racisim. (It has been suggested that his own racist behavior was muted in this movie.)

I wish that the irony of how his hard-luck life strengthened his determination to see that his children would never suffer the same was more clearly articulated. It’s there, but I had to wonder if it ever crossed King’s mind that his plans and fathering habits were honed due to his travails at the hands of societal monsters.

Will Smith deserves every award nomination he will get for this film. Emmy award recipient Aunjanue Ellis deserves accolades as well. The young ladies (Demi Singleton and Saniyya Sideny) had not only to act but also play tennis well. The filming of the court action maintained a high level of tension. Most of all, I thoroughly enjoyed the steadfast love and family loyalty throughout. Some of us are starved for more of that, not the candy-coated slop of the fifties and sixties, but how families can overcome through love, faith, and a goal that reaches for the best in us. See the film. There is much to admire.

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)

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THE TOMORROW WAR

06 Tuesday Jul 2021

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film, films, movie review, movies

Better title: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. (Sorry about it being previously used but it fits.)

I’ve been a fan of Chris Pratt since he kicked and danced his way through the opening credits of Guardians of the Galaxy to Come and Get Your Love. This time, I suspect that he and his agent read the original screenplay and signed up. Then the producers and script writers got their fingers in the pie and made a mess.

The Good part is the alien confrontation/action. Lots of heart-pounding pacing, which serves to make glaring the the plodding, boring, angsty scenes even more obvious and painful. And there are way too many. The initial set up is so unnecessary to the story that it should never have been filmed. Or at least gotten edited out. (Don’t want to imagine what did get edited.)

The Bad is the stupid character choices syndrome, the ‘should we go look in the basement’ cliché. We won’t even go there just to avoid the spoiler-thing.

The Ugly has to do with plot holes big enough to fly the Enterprise through. The ‘ah-ha’ moments that are so not worth the pause for self-congratulation and buoyant hope such revelations are supposed to supply to the story.

When it all boils down to a gob of grease, re-watch World War Z to renew your faith in dystopian action-adventure flicks. Don’t waste your time streaming The Tomorrow War unless you’re in the mood for a laugh.

Better yet, go see 12 Mighty Orphans. It’s a true-to-life story about courage, honor and determination during a time when our country stood for those ideals. The 12’s ending credits are worth the ticket price just to read what those remarkable young men eventually accomplished with their lives.

So looking forward to Black Widow.

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)

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TWO MOVIES IN THREE DAYS

19 Monday Aug 2019

Posted by mlrover in Uncategorized

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Blanchett, blogging, books, Crudup, empowerment, film, humor, Icebergs, McCarthy, movies, reviews, Seattle, techie

No spoilers.

The Kitchen

Said it before, and just sayin’ again, anything with Melissa McCarthy and Margo Martindale, I will go see. On the other hand, I couldn’t help thinking as I watched that this is a movie seriously in want of a plot. OK, if you’re into crime flicks, this is a mild version compared to the over-the-top blood and gore in today’s films. It did have informative instructions on how to divest oneself of that pesky body recently made into a corpse.

By the time the movie was over, I had to wonder if all of these talented women signed on for this flick because it had a woman director, Andrea Berloff. And the directing was somewhat better than some of the stuff I’ve seen lately, but considering the female cast, what’s to direct? I liked Domhnall Gleeson’s Gabriel O’Malley, perhaps because Gabriel was the only guy character not a sexist jerk.

I’m all for empowerment themes but this one is forgettable. Unless you like the cast, I’d wait to see this when it comes out DVD.

Where’d You Go Bernadette

This has gotten some mixed reviews and I have to take a jab at one reviewer who complained that it was disappointing because the story couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be a drama or a comedy. Duh! That’s why it’s called a dramedy.

I really enjoyed this version of Maria Semple’s book and she was a coproducer . A lot of care went into the production work, especially the house in various stages of renovation, the tangle of invasive bushes, both representative of Bernadette’s fractured state. I found that fragile, broken part of her—and nothing else about Bernadette is fragile—a fitting metaphor for her inner struggle, the horror of recovering from having one’s art savaged, a vision torn to shreds. Where The Kitchen was supposed to be about empowerment, Bernadette was born empowered with the “e” in caps. It is also a cautionary tale about how we can get bumped off the tracks and what a tragedy it is when we can’t figure out how to get back on then stay off too long.

Must give points to Blanchett, who knows how to deliver a throwaway line and her complete insight into Bernadette, showing it quite simply when Bernadette is at her best with the grease under her nails. This was revealed at the appropriate time, when her creativity is set free from a mentally frozen world by geographic one.

Caveat: I’m not a cold weather lover but the grandeur of the icebergs in the pristine arctic seas broke my heart. All I could think about was how that majestic beauty is being ravaged by greedy, amoral politicians and businesses destroying our beautiful world—the opposite of Bernadette, who did her best to build green.

Stay for the credits to see the fascinating outcome of what applied genius is all about.

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)

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Three Movies in Four Days Part 2

03 Monday Jun 2019

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action movie, Angelica Huston, crime drama, dogs, film, Halle Berry, John Wick, Keanu Reeves, movie music, movie review, Nicole Kidman

John Wick 3 (no spoilers)

OK, so I’m just going to get it out of my system. We all have our favorites and Keanu Reeves has been one of mine since I first saw him as dopy Ted. Then came the conflicted Neo, and later my all-time fave movie of his, Destination Wedding. He flings himself into all sorts of career risks and all of them work in his favor. Because Reeves in person is so laid-back and gentlemanly, it’s easy to overlook his history, unless an avid fan. (Passivity is not in the lexicon or personality of anyone who yearned to play pro hockey.) The eclectic range of genres in his film history is all over the place. He personifies my personal adage of: If you can do comedy well, you can do anything. He swings from courtly aristocrat (Dangerous Liaisons) to deranged avenger (JW2) without a misstep.

Anyway, I liked JW3. I wasn’t too impressed with 2, as you can tell, but 3 has incorporated some very creative and outré enhancements to a genre I don’t usually pay to see. And it has Reeves in it, so off I went to the cinema, especially after seeing The Impossible Dream trailer.

What stood out:

Halle Berry. You have to see to believe the kick-ass-ness. And her dogs.

Next, fight scenes with numerous opponents attacking separately. What we are usually served is a situation where the hero/heroine is surrounded by assailants coming at them one at a time. Not in this flick. It’s all pile on the rabbit, if you remember that old Bugs Bunny cartoon.

Angelica Huston as a Russian mafia queen

Xbox addicts are going to mainline this puppy. Their fingers will twitch through all the shoot-em ups. I loved the unique use of music for the finale shoot-out underscored by Vivaldi. Classical music, for me, allowed for suspension of belief and enhancement of the choreography needed for sustained violence. After a while, constant glass breakage and auto weapon discharge sags into over-the-top sensory overload.

Much of what occurs in films of this genre has to be taken with a sense of humor or a chunk of salt. I mean, how many times can you get kicked in the head, ribs and chest and still function?

Worry about the story arc started to nag about halfway through. I know what I hoped to see and started to lose confidence in the plotline. The worries got resolved by the film’s end when I understood the reason for the red herrings.

Thumbs are up for JW3.

On CD: Destroyer

Nicole Kidman does a tour de force in this grim odyssey of a cop’s relentless pursuit of a stone cold criminal in order to expiate her mistakes of past and present. Kidman is remarkable and believable, almost unrecognizable. She would have benefited from a less heavy-handed makeup artist. That was overdone, and I think unfair to Kidman, and because of that bit of distraction, stole from her ability to relate all that the character was and going through, without slathering on the makeup with a density more appropriate for stage than screen. Kidman’s work in this film is a revelation. I got lost in her, not the story.

Next up: Rocketman

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)

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Three Movies in Four Days

02 Sunday Jun 2019

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ballet, dance, Dinklage, Fiennes, film, film review, Harve Villechaize, Jamie Dornan, movies, Music, Nureyev, Oleg Ivenko, Tattoo

Part 1: The White Crow

Overall, the time and money spent on this film was well worth it. If you love the ballet, it should not be missed. Since the primary subject, Rudolph Nureyev, was not a pleasant person, the emphasis on controlling an artist’s artistic freedom became an important, if not imperative, subplot. No apologies were made for the less attractive aspects Nureyev’s personality. He was what he was and no attempts were made to mask that aspect of the man.

Not many actors can be as gifted a director as they are as an actor. Fiennes is marvelous as Nureyev’s dance instructor but not quite there when in come to direction. Or maybe he needed a better editor. There were moments when the story came to a halt in the attempt to mine a juicy dramatic scene, especially when Nureyev (Oleg Ivenko) slogs through the decision to defect. The agonizing internalization goes on too long. Care with this kind of scene needs to be carefully considered and rendered. When emotions don’t translate across the screen, an actor can look constipated instead of in dire emotional turmoil.

On the other hand, the dancing is absolutely brilliant, exhilarating. Ivenko is splendid, a joy to watch. Nureyev had an aggressive presence on stage but Ivenko has the grace and beauty. I did appreciate the attempt to ease viewer transition from original fifties footage to present day cinematography. That was cleverly done. The production departments caught the era and settings effortlessly, from the brutal poverty in Russia to Parisian elegance and self-satisfied sophistication. Nureyev’s absolute arrogance combined with his thirst for art in all its forms must have confused Parisians, perhaps as much as his hunger for the arts fascinated and made for appreciation. This is a must-see film for anyone interested in dance.

Finally got to watch: My Dinner with Harvé

Before Tyrion, there were so many other roles Dinklage performed that I am always in search for his works. It was well publicized that he was interested in Villechaize, who led an extraordinary and wretched life. As a person, Villechaize was ruthlessly objectified, misunderstood, and ridiculed. In doing so, the public never got to know an intelligent, well-educated and talented man.

Since I never watched Fantasy Island, I had no interest in Tattoo and knew little about him. Thanks to this HBO film, I learned that Villechaize was also a gifted painter. That was an upside, and the rest of his life, largely horrific. He did have a marvelous father, but no matter how he searched, he never found emotional relief for his mother’s disdain and disappointment, but he never let that or anything else stop him. Per Villechaize,“Just because a man is small he doesn’t have to act it.” He was proof that big brains can come in small packages.

This film is worth seeing for its touching performances and its backstage eye-opener about Fantasy Island. Dinklage and Jamie Dornan, as Sacha Gervasi, director and writer of the biopic, are excellent in their individual roles. It’s not a happy film, especially due to Harvé’s eventual end, probably due to his ironical conclusion that people are the same “addicted to the fantasy that something or someone would take away the pain of life.” He resorted to pain relief with a gun.

Next up: John Wick 3 (no spoilers)

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)

Follow on Twitter @RigdonML

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GOING TO THE DOGS

10 Monday Sep 2018

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attitude, dogs, film, movie, pets, review, robot, snark, stereotype, teen

But with another kind of inference. If you’re a dog lover, one of the following films is for you—the other, avoid.

So, Alpha. It starts off slow and doesn’t take off until the wolves enter. There are a few content issues that make no sense, holes you could drive the proverbial truck through, but the most glaring is how the men trudge off for days and days to hunt bison. History and logic say that people are nomadic or prefer to live near food sources. At any rate, who would want to trudge miles and miles, get the meat and skins, then schlepp them all the way home for days and days. The visuals are lovely, the costuming, strange. The men’s leather coats looked like WWII bomber jackets. I can suspend reality but that was a bit jarring. The best part was the wolf-bonding thing and the interesting bit where the wolf teaches the boy how to hunt as a team. Wolves do have that down to a science. The best part was the surprise ending that made me tear up. If you love dogs, you’ll like this film, especially if you’re overloaded with vacuous digital mayhem.

Then we come to AXL. What a mess. If I hadn’t planned on doing a “dog” blog thingie, I would have gotten up and walked out. Oye, the stereotyping is criminal. The storyline is idiotic, as if written by a ten-year-old. I take that back. Make it younger. The poor dog robot changes size about ten times and every trite and overused idea that can be crammed into a story is there, including making teens look like idiots. I was young and dumb, but these kids are like the ones in the commercial hiding in a shed with the dangling chainsaws. And I resent that the young protagonist thought it was OK to rip off an ATM just because computer wonder dog AXL programmed it to spew money. My grandson would have immediately reported the problem and turned in the cash. I guess that’s what irked me most, the way teens were trashed, the military to look asinine, and the bad guy of Middle Eastern descent. The only positive about movie is that actors got paid (presumably) and kept their SAG membership active.

In Alpha, there is much to be admired in the young man struggling to survive and get home to his parents. There is much to despise in a film like AXL that insults our youth and audience intelligence. I see the fun in B-type movie genres, but AXL is cruel and unusual.

Sorry this was kind of crabby and I miss my dogs and horses. And have been reading Dorothy Parker poems and quotes.

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)

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IGNORANCE, INNOCENCE AND LOST OPPORTUNITY

26 Monday Feb 2018

Posted by mlrover in Uncategorized

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Barnum, film, Hollywood, Hugh Jackman, Jenny Lind, movie review, movies, musical, opera, oratorio, soprano, stage, The Greatest Showman

In some ways it’s understandable that the film producers of the LA studios thought that a flick about the best hype man who ever lived would make a good movie. Perhaps it would have been, if done with accuracy, class, and a modicum of understanding of what is entailed in the musical genre. The Greatest Showman has too many glaring problems.

I suspect that the creators of this fiasco hoped to appeal to a younger crowd, and probably sold the treatment as High School Musical- goes-to-the-circus. Uh, check out the aging cast, which means they missed their targeted demographic and are left with baby boomers weaned in the glory daze of Broadway musicals. If asked their opinion, the post-war babies would most likely say with a pained smile that it was merely entertaining. Ow, the dreaded E-word.

Glaring problems are overwhelming in this silly film, especially the cramped choreography better served on a proscenium stage. Costuming was a mess. The gowns from no era in particular. Then there was the alarming shock of no chest and armpit hair for the neatly hirsute bearded lady. (Apologies to Miss Keala Settle, who other than Jackman, did the best singing.)

That’s another thing. These are recording artists, not true vocalists, and there is a huge difference. Other than Settle and Jackman, they have voices ill-equipped for the stage unless a mic is taped to their heads. Many recording artists today share the annoying asthmatic style made popular by Michael Jackson. The problem with that has to do with Jackson being a genius in the industry and others trying to use a style he (IMHO) had to fall back on when his voice started to give out. I learned the inside story about that when I studied with Mia Phoebus in LA in the 70s. Jackson took lessons from her competitor, Seth Riggs, whom Jackson went to see about singing the pharyngeal style. (It’s the reason babies can scream for hours and not get hoarse.) It must not have worked for him because he went on to a breathy style and used a mic.

Then we have my biggest gripe, the bashing of Jenny Lind, who during her time was the most famed and respected singer in the world. Think on that. Engaging the entire world without any form of today’s technology and media coverage. Famous composers and performers drooled over her but she never veered from asserting her prim reputation. There was no reason to smear her legacy and too much delight in the doing of it on the screen. This is another example of Hollywood’s cultural ignorance and lost opportunity. Lind had listeners in tears and swooning in their seats. Tickets to hear her scalped for huge prices. Entire portions of cities needed to be blocked off when she came to town.

I’m not sure if the writers can be faulted. Often what they put on the page is different when producers meddle. Take the otherwise perfection of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing. The opening song is The Last Rose of Summer, one of Lind’s signature pieces, which was sung by Fleming’s heavy dramatic soprano style. It’s a song meant for a lyric or coloratura, to be light and haunting. The song is supposed to evoke the pain of grief and isolation, which would have set up the film perfectly, but Fleming’s rendition had all the light, airiness of sludge.

Coming back to the original point. There is a reason the High School Musical films work. They aren’t movies that hold my attention but they are perfect for their targeted audience and great fun for them. Watching the brilliant Hugh Jackman in The Greatest Showman slog through and do his very best with material that is mediocre at best was painful, but it proves that he is a great showman.

For some info about Lind:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=jenny+lind&view=detail&mid=3A6D4BF115313B7F863D3A6D4BF115313B7F863D&FORM=VIRE

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)
Follow on Twitter @RigdonML
Blog: https://historyfanforever.wordpress.com/
Website http://www.MLRigdon.com
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/julia-donner
https://www.facebook.com/Julia-Donner-697165363688218/timeline

3 Films in 3 Days

22 Sunday Oct 2017

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acting, Blade Runner, Brit, film, inspiration, movie review, new releases, pet peeves, spirituality, survival, The Mountain Between Us, Victoria & Abdul

Ok, I admit it. I’m a movie junkie. There’s very little that I don’t like when it comes to films. I wish I could watch horror flicks, but the chicken-factor in me is off the chart in a darkened room. Out in the light or in real life, not so much. In real-time, it takes a lot to shake me up. This means I miss out on a lot of good stuff. Years after Jaws came out, I got up the courage to watch it and loved its humor. But I’ve strayed a bit. Back to the 3 day event.

Monday, The Mountain Between Us. Hadn’t planned to see this flick but went with a group of once-a-week movie buddies, and so glad I did. Some would say it was another bi-racial hook-up thing, but I didn’t get that anywhere in the story. Excellent script and screenplay. Superb and subtle acting. Magnificent scenic views of the remote majesty of winter-clad mountains in contrast to a profoundly intimate struggle for survival. This was a study in interior and exterior battles—two gifted people who are forced to change everything they thought they knew about themselves, to endure in the face of impossible odds. This film was so much more that I expected, and it has a wonderful dog!

Tuesday, Blade Runner 2049. Who hasn’t seen the original? Hold up your hands, I mean, hand. (I loved the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip Dick) There is no way to NOT contrast the former movie from this one. This version is more atmospheric, more artsy and stylish, but there is none of the personal investment in the story. I didn’t connect with anyone, nothing like the first one with its eerie tension and fear for the fate of the original Rachel. This second version has gorgeous art production and lighting but lacks momentum. The slow pacing allows time to enjoy the brilliant artistry but gets a bit too slow in too many spots. The only character I could connect with was the police captain, Joshi, (Robin Wright), who balances her career, professional intentions, and an inappropriate attraction for her Blade Runner. Sykvia Hoeks “Luv” was scary but not as terrifying as Rutger Hauer’s relentless desperation to live. But in this one, the seasoned actor in Ford expressed volumes when he simply and brilliantly said, “Her eyes were green.” The unfortunate sountrack was repetitive, distracting and too loud in spots. Finally, certain aspects of the story were unnecessarily obscure and the ending unsatisfying.

Wednesday, Victoria & Abdul. We automatically expect fine acting in Brit films that are perfectly casted like this one is. No need to go there. Production-wise, the weird contrasts of the austerity and abundance of the Victorian/Edwardian eras are bluntly typified, especially the nasty racial-verses-aristocratic attitudes. Edward, eventual king, was accurately portrayed as the sleaze he was, absolutely no tribute to his amazing parents. Some have labeled this as another Mrs. Brown romance, but I didn’t see that. Victoria uses Abdul to uplift her loneliness, revive her flagging spirits, but she views him as a son. What mother wouldn’t with a schlub like Bertie for a first-born.

Ergo, my first pick would be The Mountain Between Us. Second comes Victoria & Abdul, and third, Blade Runner, which is really kind of sad since I’d had such hopes for it.

Feebies on Kindle:

Prophecy Denied (free 10-22 thru 10-24) Book One of the Seasons of Time fantasy:

https://www.amazon.com/PROPHECY-DENIED-Seasons-Time-Book-ebook/dp/B004S7EQ92/ref=sr_1_3_twi_kin_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508707823&sr=1-3&keywords=m.l.rigdon

The Rake and the Bishop’s Daughter (free 10-24 thru 10-28) historical regency

https://www.amazon.com/RAKE-BISHOPS-DAUGHTER-Friendship-Book-ebook/dp/B00LWQAY8O/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508707650&sr=1-4&keywords=julia+donner

Newest Julia Donner release on November 1st, Avenue to Heaven, first book in the Westward Bound series about adventurous women heading west to realize their dreams. On pre-sale now:

https://www.amazon.com/Avenue-Heaven-Westward-Bound-Book-ebook/dp/B076HVGS98/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508708009&sr=1-1&keywords=avenue+to+heaven

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)

Follow on Twitter @RigdonML