Review: Crazy for Love by Victoria Dahl @ Book Lovers INC

Just a short note that I posted my review of Crazy for Love by Victoria Dahl over at Book Lovers INC today.

Here a sneak peak at the review:

Crazy for Love is again one of Mrs. Dahl's laugh out loud books. Like her Tumble Creek series,Crazy for Love will strain your laugh muscles and sweeten your day.

There are a few reason why I enjoyed it so much....to read those come and join me over @Book Lovers INC here. 


Hope you all have a great day. 


And tomorrow is the last day to enter my Lara Adrian giveaway. Be sure to enter before you run out of time.

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Review: Exit Light by Megan Hart

Description:
Tovah Connelly would rather be asleep than awake. Since her accident, she’s become a shaper in the dream world, the Ephemeros, where she can manipulate places and people with just a thought. Tovah’s friends there, Ben and Spider, encourage Tovah to develop her skills, but the one ability she doesn’t want is to control the dreams of others— it’s a power she’s wary of, and a responsibility she’s not ready for.

Nobody can sleep all the time, though— not if they want a waking life that bears a semblance of normalcy. And Tovah’s waking life is vastly different from her dream life: she’s rebuilding and regaining her sanity after nearly losing it in the accident’s aftermath.

But when nightmares begin rocking the Ephemeros, Tovah’s two worlds begin to collide. As those she cares about are threatened, Tovah may discover that the one responsibility she doesn’t want is the only defense she has.

I received this book from netgalley.

Review:
Megan Hart did it again- she wrote a book I just can't stop thinking about. I finished it a few days ago and still my thoughts about it are all consuming and never seem to stop. Be happy that you aren't my BF cuz he has to live with the fact that every few hours I mention this book in some way. That makes reviewing this book even harder because each time I think I know what to write something else pops up in my head. I will start to sort my thoughts for you and I hope I will be able to show you why I adore this book.

Exit Light is a Paranormal Fiction Novel. Most of the last Megan Hart books I read were contemporary and I like this genre because of her. BUT my first big love is the Paranormal world, so that made this book even more special to me. The world we are thrown into is not so much different from the one we live in. To be exact the waking world is exactly like ours but we have the Ephemeros, the world of dreams, too. In this world we meet Tovah, a young woman in her prime walking and shaping this world of dreams. And yes with shaping I mean she can do what she wants in that world, if she would just practice enough. She can change her apperance and her surroundings with her own will and she isn't shy to use this gift. She enjoys herself here and does what she likes most- nothing holds her back, so she lives her life 100%. This part of her life is her anchor for the real world. It gives her hope and something to look forward to. She needs this badly cuz a few years ago she had a car accident which changed her life drastically. She nearly lost her life and mind, has to live with the physical consequences on her own now too because she lost the love of her ex-husband on her way of finding a sense for life again, too.. My heart bled for Tovah.She really has her own cross to carry in this world. She is strong and knows what she wants. She won't back down but that makes the whole situation not less hard to live with.

This book had a extraordinary charm in my eyes. I loved that we learned everything about the world and the characters bit by bit. I am usually annoyed by this but Mrs. Hart has a way of doing this which just enthralled me more. I needed to know more and it just made me lose all urges to put the book down. Her sidecharacters are mysterious at first and with each chapter we get more information and the huge puzzle begins to take shape. I loved Spider. He is a friend in the Ephemeros and the real world. His chosen appearance in the dream world is a spider and I found it highly fascinating how the other characters interacted with that "animal form". He was still able to speak and interact and that gave the story a nice fantasy twist.

I also love the mystery of discovering who everyone from the Ephemeros is in the real world. The ability to change your appearance there made me suspect everyone and I was wrong more than ones. The pacing of the story was perfect and the world building was cleverly done. It reminded me a bit of Sergei Lukyanenko's novels not because of a similar story but more of the writing style, pace and character development general. Oh I should mention that  love Lukyanenko.

And nearly forget the romance. Special twist here too. We are confronted with the big question: is love in the Ephemeros real or not? And if you have someone in the dream world is it betraying someone you have in the real world. How would you handle these 2 different worlds? It is after all the normal dream world we all visit every night only that Tovah knows how to form it with her will and can connect to other "dreamers" there. She was a bit torn with this question and I was too. She has some potential "lovers" in this book and I couldn't decide which one I like most for a long time.

I would recommend this book to every one who likes a good paranormal with an emotional twist and not only a focus on the action. Exit Light is heartbreakingly good like all of Mrs. Hart's novels.
  
To learn more about Megan Hart and her books please visit her website here.


You can read other review of Exit Light @goodreads and purchase the book @CarinaPress.

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I'm getting interviewed @ Stacy's Place on Earth

Hey everyone,

today I'm getting interviewed by Stacy aka treleina here.

I had so much fun answering her questions and you can learn one or two things about me there. 

Come on over and join the fun.

Hope you all have a great day!

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Science Fiction Hunks Reloaded- Star Trek

I'm surprisingly bored today and so I thought about the things I watched this week and remembered this feature I had on my blog some time ago. You still remember? So yep I will try to resume Science Fiction Hunks and I will try to get My Geeky Desires running again too. We will see how that works out.

So perhaps you ask yourself what revived my mood to do this post? The answer is easy: Star Trek. We finally got our DVD a few weeks back and we watched it. You have to understand that BF was not at all happy with this movie. The first thing he did after we left the movie theater back in 2009 was: He looked into my eyes and told me: "That was not Star Trek:" He changed his mind now but still is not the biggest fan of the new crew. Understandable for me, we get all the yummy guys and he got only Uhura. But that is all beside the point. YOu want hunky guys? Here you go.

First we will start with Chris Pine aka Captain James T. Kirk. In my opinion it totally suited him to be bloodied and bruised the whole movie. Okay perhaps that wouldn't be handy in real but he looked sooooo good- a real life bad boy. *purrrrrs*

Okay and here we have a wonderful pic of him with another cuty of the movie. Please welcome Zachary Quinto aka Lt. Cmdr. Spock:

And the wonderful? I'm really distracting myself here today.

Okay he deserves a bit solo time too, don't you think girls?

Next one my list is Karl Urban aka Dr. Leonard „Bones“ McCoy. I love this actor. I admired him in LotR and i loved him in this one, too. Exactly my kind of humor. His character was my fave in The Original Series and I think this won't change.

And last but absolute not least is Eric Bana aka Nero. I admit he is kind of scary and not so sexy in this movie but he is Eric Bana after all so I'm cheating a bit. ;)

I hope you feel better now!

Have a great weekend girls!

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Sharing the Lara Adrian Love Giveaway

Okay so now you all know how great my day with Lara Adrian was (if not look here).I thoiught perhaps I should give a bit of the love back to you. I have a few things I will giveaway. I will split this giveaway in 2 parts: a German and one for everyone else.

Für Deutschsprachige:

Ich hab ein signiertes Exemplar von Gezeichnete des Schicksals von Lara Adrian für einen glücklichen Gewinner. Es ist Buch 7 in Lara's Midnight Breed Serie.

Hier um was es in dem Buch geht:
Eine übermenschliche Kreatur richtet in der Wildnis von Alaska ein grauenhaftes Blutbad an. Bei der Pilotin Alexandra, die die Toten findet, ruft die Tat schreckliche Erinnerungen an ihre Kindheit wach. Bei der Untersuchung der Morde trifft sie auf den geheimnisvollen Vampirkrieger Kade, der eine ungeahnte Leidenschaft in ihr weckt. Gemeinsam machen sie sich auf die Suche nach dem Mörder. Doch um zu überleben, müssen sich beide den Geistern ihrer Vergangenheit stellen ...

"Erotisch und hochspannend … von Lara Adrians Vampiren kann man nicht genug bekommen." Romance Junkies

"Tauchen Sie ein in Lara Adrians Welt und lassen Sie sich verzaubern!" J. R. Ward

Um an der Verlosung teilzunehmen musst du einfach dieses Online Formular ausfüllen.

Ende der Verlosung ist Donnerstag, der 1. Juli den Gewinner werde ich am Freitag darauf bekannt geben.

For the Rest:
Unfortunately I don't have another signed book to spare so I will give you the chance to win a bunch of swag. I have Midnight Breed bookmarks, postcards and some other goodies. *mysterious smile*
Just a small price but I wanted to share the love.

Just leave a comment on this post to get entered for the swag!

For each meaningful comment on the round-up post you will get an extra entry.

Both Giveaways end on Wednesday, July 1st and I will announce the winner on Friday.

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How I met your moth...ahem...Lara Adrian

Okay so here I am now trying to think of how to start. *ponders* Perhaps the beginning would be best?
I was born 25 years...sorry just kidding. Man I need more coffee. LOL

So on Monday was the BIG day for me. I was so nervous on Sunday and I tell you sleep was  nothing that came easily to me. I lay awake in bed with BF and we told us "important" things about vuvuzelas just so I could pretend that I'm not unable to sleep cuz of meeting an author the next day. But after hours of senseless discussions I found a bit of sleep that night but I was wide awake at 7AM or perhaps a bit earlier. I tried to be cool and took everything real slow but all in all I was late when I had to leave the apartment just to be too early at the train station. Don't ask me how that works but it does with me- go figure. I met another of the lucky winners there and together we took the 2 hour long train ride to Berlin.

We planned to read and listen to music the whole time but in real we sat there and talked about books and books and surprisingly more books. It was so good to finally find someone who shares my love for these novels in real life and luckily our humor fit so no one started to cry.

After the 2 hour book talk we finally arrived in Berlin and met with the third girl in our small fangirl group. We all clicked really fast and I'm so happy I met these 2 girls on twitter. We tried to find the meeting point for the boat trip and started walking. You could see and hear the group we were looking for really fast and everyone was really nice from the start. We got a pretty bag full of goodies with an audiobook(I got Jäger der Nacht (Visions of Heat) by Nalini Singh), the new book Gezeichnete des Schicksals (Shades of Midnight), a pen and the LoveLetter Magazine.

First thing we did was a group picture with Lara Adrian and all the winners from the audible.de giveaway. So that was my fist contact with an author and she knew who i was. *fangirl scream* I said:" Hi, I'm Susi. Nice to meet you." and she asked "Susi_Sunshine from twitter?" Isn't that awesome? I think I love Lara just for that alone. LOL So the photographer (later referred to as the Stalker) made a  million more pictures and the first hors d'oeuvre were served. We made a big picture of all the 20 winners and the team who organized it and directly went to our small little boat to start our 2,5 hours trip on the Spree.

We had a, lets call it enthusiastic tour guide and we could ask Lara everything we want. So as you can imagine that went rather slow at the beginning. Everyone was a bit awed and not many dared to do it. I think most of them didn''t speak much English which made the whole thing more complicated for them. But we tried to ask as much as we could think of. Although you couldn't ask much about the story cuz not many read the new book already cuz it was released in Germany on Monday and went directly to place 3 on the Spiegel Bestseller list. *woot* Congrats for that Lara!!!

Lara's husband John was there too and he was such a sweetheart. He asked which hero we liked most and he nearly made no mistake with naming them all. *g*
Okay here a few things I learned on the boat trip:

- Lara told us that she will write a total of 10 books in the Midnight Breed series and it will end with a big change in her world. After that she plans to write some spin-off books set in this "new" world and her old characters might get a reappearance in those.

- I thought it was really interesting to find out what a plotter Lara is. She spends most of her time plotting the whole book through- she knows what will happen in each chapter and when she is finished with that she starts to write like a maniac. Sometimes more than 16 hours a day. O_o My hands would fall of.

- Lara Adrian is not her real name but Tina St. John isn't either.

- Lara is half German and the last time she was in Berlin she was 7 years old.

- She's been happily married to John for 24 years now and says it feel more like 1 year.

- John helps her plot her books from time to time and there are times when they talk about it at the breakfast table.

So we had a nice chat, drank coffee, tried to ignore the Stalker snapping pictures the whole time and listened to what Lara had to say.

Surely the time was over fast and we drove to the next part of the day- BBQ on a roof-deck of audible.de. That was so awesome. We were welcomed with a bit of sparkling wine and yummy food and got the time to chat a bit more. We also took a tour through the building and it was so interesting to see how they make the audio-books. Fascinating how much work that is and to hear how many ppl are actually involved in this process. I also saw a German actor, Helmut Kraus, who you won't know but everyone here does. He was recording an audio-book at the moment and I was thrilled to see him. He's the neighbor of Peter Lustig in a German tv show for kids and it was a childhood dream come true, kind of. LOL

So after everyone was done with eating Irina von Bentheim, the German voice of Carrie Bradshaw, started a short Q&A with Lara and Simon Jäger who's reading her books in the German Audiobooks. He's also the voice of Josh Hartnett and Heath Ledger. *swoon* I have to say he is rather funny and I had to laugh out loud more than ones. Especially when he was asked how it is to read the more erotic parts of Lara's books. And I swear you could see a small blush. I thought that Mrs. von Bentheim wasn't the best choice to translate what Lara said but luckily I understood everything in English and  I didn't need her translations.

Around 8 PM we started to go to the Quatsch Comedy Club where the actual reading took place. We all took a  seat in this nice little theatre and listened to Lara and Simon reading from Shades of Midnight. Lara's voice was a bit strained but I loved every second of it. Simon is soooo good I tell you. I think I need the German audiobooks just to listen to his voice. Very HOT!! We had to leave relative quick after to get the last train but I will never forget this day.

I wanted to thank audible.de, Egmont-Lyx, LoveLetter Magazin and LovelyBooks who made this day possible. You are the bestest ever.

And tomorrow I will have a small surprise I brought home from the signing so stay tuned. =)

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And the winners are...

Okay Leute ihr habt mich total geschockt. Ich hatte Angst das ich die 2 Bücher überhaupt  loswerde und auf einmal waren es so viele. Ein echt suppi Überraschung und ich weiß Das sich Elizabeth Amber auch sehr über das rege Interesse freut. Danke an all die mitgemacht haben.

Ich war da mal bei random.org und habe jetzt die ehre 2 glückliche Gewinner zu verkünden.
Die neuen Besitzer von je einem signierten Exemplar von Der Kuss des Satyrs von Elizabeth Amber sind

Cornelia Bruno


Nina Fleischmann

Gratulation!
Ich werde euch beiden jetzt eine Email schicken!
Hoffe ihr alle hattet ein schönes Wochenende.

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Wahooooooooo I won!!!

Okay not sure if I told everyone already but  I won something wonderful this week. The fantastic Lara Adrian will be in Germany next week and I was one of lucky gals who won a Fan Ticket to meet her before her signing in Berlin on Monday.

Woot woot woot!

*jumps through the room and screams like a crazy*

Okay cooling down now. We will meet with everyone at 1PM on Monday and make a boat trip on the Spree and after that there will be a BBQ before the actual signing. All with LARA ADRIAN! I'm so thrilled and can't say often enough how happy I am about this.

BUT I already imagined all the ways I can embarrass myself and I really hope I won't. Reading and writing in English is something totally different. What if I always pronounced the words wrong in my head and no one understands me. I hope I won't sound like a complete dork. And me being shy and all I'm also so grateful that I found a girl on twitter who will go to the event with me. She lives here too and we will share a train ticket and hopefully sooth the nerves of each other. I will make a full report about everything here or perhaps not if I died of embarrassment. LOL

In other news I just came back from the wedding of my baby cousin. She now is officially married and it was a wonderful ceremony. The weather was gorgeous and the party was perfect. We had so much fun. The only thing my gran didn't find good was me failing in catching the bridal bouquet. The brides sister caught it and the groan my aunt and uncle made was deafening. LOL These 2 girls will ruin them financially.

I also set a new record: I killed my shoes after 45 minutes but luckily I had "dancing shoes" in our bag so could wear something on my feet. And yep the sole is broken and I nearly lost it while leaving the city hall after the ceremony.

Book and blogging-wise this week was a complete fail. Didn't read much and didn't blog much either.

How was your week? Any great news you can share with us?

Hope you all have a great weekend.

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A Review and a Cover Post

Again Monday is my Book Lovers Inc day and I got 2 post up there today:

1. Review: Shades of Gray by Caitlin Kittredge & Jackie Kessler
I really adore this book and it's even better than Black & White. Check out my review here.

2. The Good, the Bad and the Are-You-Kidding-Me?
Together with the wonderful pattepoilue I talked about my cover obsession. We chat about our favorite covers for the first 2 books in Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling Series. Join the discussion here.

I hope you all has a great Monday.

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Sunny weekend and a Winner

Finally the summer reached Germany, too and I'm sitting in my shorts and with my sunglasses on the balcony. The weather is so wonderful and I missed the sun so much. Unfortunately it will be a work weekend but I have the afternoons free so I can at lest enjoy it a bit.

Next week is the wedding of my "baby" cousin. *sigh* Okay she is no baby, she's 21 but in my heart she will always be the small 6 year old who doesn't want to go to school. She will move to North Ireland this summer so her wedding is kind of last minute. She told us 3 weeks ago. O_o I will really miss her but finally I got a reason to go to North Ireland. I already got a dress, okay I admit it it's only a blouse and a skirt, but I still have to go to the hairdresser. I have no idea what I want. Sometimes I really wonder if there is any person on this planet who is more unable to make a decision. But we will see. I will go on Wednesday and hope I know what I want till then.

Today I had a small meet and greet with Mr. Random.org again and he agrees the weather rocks. It was hard to concentrate for both of us but after a bit of persuasion on my part he agreed to work a bit  for us and played with his numbers.

So the lucky winner of a copy of Dear Sir, I'm Yours or an ARC of The Bloodgate Guardian  by Joely Sue Burkhart is.....

~*~*~drumroll~*~*~

katsrus

Congrats! I will Email you now.

Hope everyone else has a great weekend.

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Review: Edge of Moonlight by Stephanie Julian

Description:
Book Three in the Lucani Lovers series.

Etruscan wolf shifter Kaine Giliati has longed for John Simmons since he willingly agreed to wipe all memory of her from his mind. The pain in her heart is only magnified by terror—the inability to call her wolf appears to have deserted her, as well.

For months after he and his sister escaped a crazed kidnapper, John has been dreaming about a beautiful woman he’s never met but who seems so familiar. A woman he’s shocked to find in a dark bar one night. A woman who agrees to come back to his apartment for raw, passionate sex.

One erotic, stolen night reopens old wounds, uncovers buried memories and sets Kaine and John on a path filled with danger, magic and potential heartbreak.

Review:
I received this book as a review copy from Stephanie and I knew the moment I finished the last book, Midnight Menage, that I would love this book. I really like that Mrs. Julian's stories are so directly connected and you can immediately get back into the mood of her stories. Her writing just flows exactly right for me and I loved every second of the dive into her world.

This story is about Kaine who we already met in the last book. She completely fell in love with John in Moonlight Menage and my heart broke for her when he decided to forget everything about her. I can't start to imagine how that must have felt but it's not the only thing that is messed up in her life: she just can't shift and that scares her half to death. What good is a professional assassin without this ability not even to mention what the guys will say when they learn that the only girl in their group can't even do that. She is shattered and helpless in her current situation. You know these characters in books you like ASAP and you know that you would totally get friends with them- Kaine is one of those characters for me. I liked her attitude and the way she handled her life. I saw myself in her liking to be with the guys and she really fit into the story.

John is a wonderful person. He is strong, an alpha at heart but also very caring and just all in all a lovely person. He wouldn't like to hear that but I like him. He wants nothing more than his little sister being safe, okay perhaps there is one thing. *wink* After losing his memories of the lucani in the last book he is not as clueless as we all thought. He dreams about Kaine and when he meets the group again he feels like he knows them. He is a rather hands on, believe only what you see kind of man and it is hard for him to grasp the whole magic world at first but he tries his best. He knows how the odds are and he is not too stupid to accept help when he gets an offer. He is also highly attracted to Kaine and OMG every girl should have her own John. Good for your ego.

These two just belong to each other. The attraction is sizzling form the start and I begged for them to just give this thing a chance. They are so good together, and yes every pun intended. I loved the way they talked and all the other things they did, too. Mrs. Julian's sex scenes are wonderfully written. I love the way she makes them work- very erotic and romantic at onces.

The plot in this installment was thrilling and suspenseful. I was gripped by the story nearly from the start and all the humor and wit on the way made this read more than just enjoyable. It is exactly the right mix of fun, emotion, smex and action. At some points the world was still a bit confusing for me but thanks to the glossary I wasn't lost long. This world is highly fascinating so I really didn't mind that at all.

Highly recommended shifter series and I have to say I can't wait for the next book.
 

To learn more about Stephanie and her books please visit her website here. 

The Lucani Lovers Series: 
1. Kiss of Moonlight: reviews @goodreads, buy @Ellora's Cave
2. Moonlight Ménage: reviews @goodreads, buy @Ellora's Cave
3. Edge of Moonlight: reviews @goodreads, buy @Ellora's Cave

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My May Reads

May was a great month reading wise. I had a bit of stress but that's seems to get pretty normal for me. I read some really great books and I achieved some things besides that, too.
Here's what I read:

1. Crazy for Love by Victoria Dahl

Like every book I read from Mrs. Dahl I laughed so hard in this one. Max is just wonderful and hilarious. Still pampering the review but I will get it done.

2. Vision in White (Bride Quartet, #1) by Nora Roberts

I was so curious about the Nora Roberts phenomena that I just had to buy one of her books. I loved it. It's a fast and entertaining read that made me crave more. So I bought the rest of the books in this series.

3. Bound to Please by Lilli Feisty

I bought this one after reading some reviews on other blogs and I enjoyed it. It's really hot and wicked. I didn't really connect with Ruby but I liked the book nonetheless.

4. No Longer Mine by Shiloh Walker (my review)

This book was a total tearjerker for me, in a good way. I so felt for the characters and the whole story just drew me in. I have to read more of Shiloh's books, they have the potential to become a new addiction of mine.

5. Pleasure and Purpose (Order of Solace. #1) by Megan Hart

No month without a Megan Hart book for me. This series is not contemporary like the rest I read from Megan Hart. I enjoyed this change but I have to say so far the contemps are my favorite. I loved that this book is actually three connected stories and again I noticed that I'm not much into the girl being the Dom. Does that make me a bad girl?

6. Blood Born by Linda Howard & Linda Jones (my review)

I started reading this book with thinking it would be PNR but it was more an urban fantasy. Again I had a problem with the much changing POV but all in all it was a nice book. The last 100pages really grabbed and I can't wait to read book 2 cuz it will be about Sorin. *swoon*

7. Unholy Ghosts (Downside, #1) by Stacia Kane (my review)

This book was just wow. I tried to ignore any snippets and info about this book before starting to read it. I wanted the whole impact and it totally blew me away. Stacia's style is unique: her characters are special and the world she created was something new. Much recommended read.
 

8. Midnight's Ghost (Star Runner, #1) by Sara Brookes (my review)

I love science fiction and in a mix with romance it makes me in to a puddle of awe. I enjoyed Sara'S first scifi opera and can't wait to get my hands on book 2 in this series.

9. Moon Sworn (Riley Jenson Guardian, #9) by Keri Arthur (my review)

This was one of the best ends in a series I have ever read. Enough closure for my taste and the HEA is wonderfully done. The book grabbed me from the start and I couldn't put it down. I so have to read the six books I'm still missing in the middle. Great book.

10. The Bloodgate Guardian by Joely Sue Burkhart

A book about Mayan history and archeologist? I'm so in for that. I devoured the pages and enjoyed every second of it. I plan to write the full review today so it will be up this week.

11. Magic Bleeds (Kate Daniels, #4) by Ilona Andrews

OMFG I completely adore this book. Can I marry it? Wonderful pace, so much fun, Currun smex and a gripping story. Nothing to not love. It went directly on my all time favorite pile and it's high on my re-read list, too.
You all have to read this series- it's made of awesome.

12. Crazy in Love by Ashley Ladd

This was a real short read and it confused me a bit. It's a mix of contemporary with paranormal elements and I had some problem with it. I will write the review today, too.

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