1. A Review of ‘The Heir’ by Kiera Cass

    May 22, 2015 ♥ Posted in: Books, Kristina Reviews Things, YouTube videos by Kristina Horner

    Here’s my review of ‘The Heir’ by Kiera Cass. It’s a big long… but I had a lot to say. Thanks to my good friend Jenn for both buddy-reading ‘The Heir’ with me, and for agreeing to be in this video!

    And trust me, we didn’t hold back. This is less of a review and more of a rant, but what can I say? The Selection was a lot of fun, and I think this book had a lot to live up to. I don’t really think it succeeded.

    What did you think of ‘The Heir’? Will you be reading the next book in the series?

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  2. Atlantia by Ally Condie – Review!

    November 10, 2014 ♥ Posted in: Books, Kristina Reviews Things, YouTube videos by Kristina Horner

     

    I’m a big fan of Ally Condie’s Matched trilogy, so when her new book Atlantia came out, I was first in line to read it. I was pleasantly surprised by this dystopian novel that breaks many rules, doesn’t have a love triangle, and really made me think. Watch my video above for my full review!

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  3. Scary Book/Movie Reviews!

    October 28, 2014 ♥ Posted in: Books, Kristina Reviews Things, YouTube videos by Kristina Horner


    For some reason, I got really into the horror genre this year. So much so that I made it my goal to read and watch as many scary things as possible during the month of October.

    I’d never really been very into scary books or movies before this year, but due to a combination of a newer friend introducing me to some of her favorite scary movies and attending a really great panel on females and the horror genre at Geek Girl Con, it just really piqued my interest this season.

    This video is a wrap up and review of everything I read and watched, if you’re interested!

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  4. Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld – Review!

    October 17, 2014 ♥ Posted in: Books, Kristina Reviews Things, Writing, YouTube videos by Kristina Horner


     

    This video is a week or two old, but I wanted to give people a chance to get out and grab this book before posting my review here. I’m talking of course of Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld, a really unique new book that centers around both a girl name Darcy and the character she creates named Lizzie. This book really spoke to me because she wrote her first novel in 30 days, in November, which many will recognize to be NaNoWriMo. I loved reading about someone else’s experience with the project, and I had a lot to say about the book!

    Have you read Afterworlds yet? Do you participate in NaNoWriMo? Please leave me comments and let me know your thoughts!

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  5. 8 New Games I Learned on Tabletop Day

    April 7, 2014 ♥ Posted in: Geek Events, Kristina Reviews Things, Nerd Topics by Kristina Horner

    That’s right – from someone who hates the act of learning a new game (“it’s so clunk and tedious, let’s play one we already know”) I went into Tabletop Day 2014 with only one rule:

    We can only play new games.

    I assumed this meant we would spend the day learning two or three, then spend the rest of the time hanging out, meeting people, making videos, etc. This is not what happened. What happened was that over the course of the day, across two different game stores and an attached bar, I learn EIGHT NEW GAMES. I still can’t believe it. And the best part was – I actually really enjoyed every single new game I learned!

    So for this blog post, I’m going to very briefly summarize and review the games in case you want to try them out for yourself.

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    1. Click Clack Lumberjack (played at 11:30am)

    This game was awesome, and an absurdly simple game to start the day off with. It was explained to me as “reverse Jenga”, where you use the above hatchet to attempt to only remove the bark from the tree (which, really, seems like ineffective logging to me). The bark gains you points, but the inner circles (the tree’s guts) lose you 5 points if you accidentally knock them down. It was a silly, fun, and a good ice breaker. I played mostly with complete strangers.

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    2. Locke & Key (played at 12pm)

    This was a hand management style card game based on a graphic novel I haven’t read, but it looked awesome. You work with the other players to face “horrors” and collect keys that give you special abilities to open new gameplay options as the game goes on. I’ve played a few of these style games recently, and I think this one is my current favorite. It made me want to check out the graphic novel, so it’s doing something right!

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    3. String Railway (played at 1:30pm)

    I LOVED this game. I’ve never played anything like it before – the game consists of a bunch of pieces of different colored string, and you place them down on a map according to various “train station” cards you draw at the start of your turn. It sounds simple but gets impressively complicated as your world map fills up with string-trains. I think this was my favorite game of the day.

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    4. Steam Park (played at 3pm)

    This game was much more fun than I ever imagined it could be. I saw something about it online a few weeks ago, and read that it was “if Roller Coaster Tycoon was a board game”. That game was my jam as a kid, so I was totally on board for this. The premise is that you’re building a theme park for robots and you have to clear away the dust that accumulates as you’re building things. The art was adorable, it was a quick learn, and I’m hugely excited to add this to my personal game collection.

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    5. Shadows of Brimstone (played at 5:30pm)

    This is a game that a few of my friends and I kickstarted together a few months ago, and it’s not out yet. This was actually the first demo of the game ever, which is a big reason we chose Card Kingdom as our game store of choice for most of Tabletop Day. It’s a wild west, dice rolling dungeon crawl made by the same people who made Last Night on Earth, another favorite of mine. The game is huge – there are tons of miniatures that go along with it, the game board pieces are amazing and I really love that every character you can play comes in male and female. We demoed the game with one of the creators, which was a crazy awesome experience, though some of the cards were still hand-drawn. It kind of added to the thrill of playing it early! I can’t wait until this game is out for real and I can play at home.

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    6. Donkey (played at 9pm)

    After our Shadows of Brimstone demo (which took quite a long time) Joe and I packed up and headed over to Uncle’s Games in Bellevue for a change of scenery. Immediately we were pulled into a game of “Donkey”, a musical chairs or spoons inspired card game where you had to grab the puck in the middle as fast as you could when certain things happened on the cards in your hand. I’m particularly good at these sorts of games, so I had a blast with it.

    62078W7. Castle Blast (played at 10:30pm)

    This is a game that was set up behind up on a demo table, right outside the children’s games section. This game is meant for kids, but I had a really great time playing. You set up a castle made of blocks and then use the included wrecking ball to knock it down to steal a princess, dragon and treasure chest from inside. It was cute, and surprisingly difficult.

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    8. Avengers vs. X-Men Dice Masters (played at 11pm)

    At this point in the night I was ready to call it and go home to my warm snuggly bed (playing games all day really takes it out of you!) but Joe convinced me to try one last game. I’m super glad I did, because Dice Masters was fantastic. Imagine a deck-building game, but instead of cards you’re using dice. And all the characters and abilities are from the Marvel universe. It was easy enough to learn, and while the game isn’t quite out yet (it comes out next month), I heard it’s going to be dirt cheap, which is nice for a game that encourages buying more dice to build your ideal “deck”. Looking forward to it!

    Did you learn any new games for Tabletop Day, or did you stick to old favorites? What was your favorite game of the day? Let me know in the comments!

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  6. Ipsy Glam Bag Review: October!

    October 23, 2013 ♥ Posted in: Fashion/Beauty, Kristina Reviews Things by Kristina Horner

    I’m just gonna put it out there… this month’s Ipsy bag was kind of lame. There’s nothing particularly wrong with any of the products, but I kind of feel like it was a lazy month. Hardly any of it is even makeup, and what I like most is seeing the different products my friends and I get based on our preferences and skin tones and whatnot – but the bags my roommate Eia and I got this month were identical, down to the very last item. I’m still obviously going to review everything; I was just sort of disappointed.IMG_5366

    Starting at the top left…

    Nourish Organic Coconut & Argan body lotion: Always a fan of body lotion, but I’m not too sure about the coconut scent. It sort of reminds me of sunscreen, which is confusing when you live in the Pacific Northwest and it’s currently fall. My hands smell like it’s time to go to the beach, but my sweater and leg warmers say otherwise.

    Zoya nail polish in ‘Giovanna’: I did really like this polish. It lasted at least a couple days without chipping (which is sayin’ something on these hands) and the color is a gorgeous emerald green color. It’s actually perfect for the Narcissa costume I am putting together, as I don’t actually own any green polish quite like this.

    Big Sexy Hair Blow Dry Volumizing Gel: I’m not the biggest fan of lower-end hair products – my hair tends toward the greasy side already, so unless I’m using really great products, anything I put on it sort of just weighs it down or quickens the already fast-moving process toward oiliness. This product was just meh – my hair blow dried a bit straighter than normal, but it feels heavier rather than voluminous.

    LA Fresh Oil-Free Face Cleanser: I am a stickler about washing my face every night before bed, but every once in awhile there’s that lazy night… for me, it was when I watched American Horror Story after dark and was too afraid to go into my bathroom alone. Haha. I grabbed one of these cleansing wipes, and while I definitely wouldn’t resort to these every night, they do work in a pinch! They smell lovely and get rid of a fair amount of your makeup, which is a plus. They’re also biodegradable and compostable, which rocks.

    Starlooks lip liner in ‘Tickle Me Pink’: I’ll be honest – this is my very first lip liner. I’ve never used one before! I have no basis for comparison! It seems good, it’s a nice muted rose color, and I’m excited to get used to it!

    Let me know if you subscribe to ipsy and if you use these products, or if you’ve tried them on your own. And as always, if you want to sign up, you can do that here (subscribing through my link gets me ipsy points I can use toward free gifts!).

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