'KILLING ME SOFTLY'.....ONE BAD NIGHT AND THIS COUPLE'S GOT BIG TROUBLES......

  Killing Me Softly by Sandie Jones (2026)

     Oh, what a tangled web this married young couple (and dedicated unreliable narrators) lead.....

     Did I mention unreliable? If my house was flooded and floating down the street I still wouldn't believe these two if they told me it was raining..

     We see them first as perfectly beautiful, golden rising stars. Michael's a superb new Master Chef, working for and being mentored by an even more famous Chef-Restauranteur. Freya, a tireless humanitarian for worthy causes, manages non-profit charities.. Well on their way to fulfilling lives and careers, one horrible night sends them spiraling into chaos.......gripping them with guilt, anxiety, growing suspicion of each other and the dread of criminal prosecution. These two suddenly find themselves awash in a sea of troubles, with no life preservers in sight.

     For thriller fans, here's where the real nasty fun kicks off. Michael and Freya's alternating narratives lead them to deconstruct their marriage, both asking themselves the same question......"Who really IS this person I thought I fell head over heels for?" And throughout the length of the book, strewn with more upsetting baffling incidents and encounters, readers will want to ponder this confounding riddle right along with them.

     I'll freely admit, I didn't know what to make of Michael and Freya until the twists and reveals  start piling up in the final chapters like a chain reaction multiple vehicle highway accident. Though the plotting's overly cluttered and stretches believability, anyone who savors a malicious Sundae with a poison cherry on top, will want to dig right in to this one.

      4 stars (****).

'REMINDERS OF HIM'......REMAINDERS OF COLLEEN HOOVER.....

 Reminders of Him (2026)

      For those who've spent the last few years in their Panic Rooms or homemade bomb shelters (or who've blocked out the perpetual bleat of pop culture) let us speak of author Colleen Hoover.

        (Or as she's known by her legions of loyal readers...CoHo.)

         CoHo's relentless output of overheated romantic melodramas (and her sales numbers) finally caught Hollywood's attention......much in the same way it devoted itself to adapting the heartfelt, slow burn redemptive romances of Nicholas Sparks. ("A Walk to Remember", "The Notebook").

         And the CoHo movie machine revved up its engines, starting with 2024's domestic abuse hand-wringer "It Ends With Us" (a big hit for sure, but now notorious for the eternal toxic legal warfare between its star Blake Lively and co-star/director Justin Baldoni) In our 08/19/24 review, we noted how Lively and Baldoni delivered the drama well enough, even as the film suffered from overlength and painfully slow pacing.

         Second one up was 2025's 'Regretting You', reviewed by us 11/13/25, a tangled middling soapy mess shot like a TV movie.....the kind of movie you could easily forget 10 minutes after you saw it. And the cast did little or nothing for it. 

        So now let us plunge into the latest CoHo Movie Show.......

         Unlike Nicholas Sparks, who'd start his tearjerkers at a slow boil and gradually work his way up to those open-your-tear-ducts moments, CoHo hurls you directly into the tragedy, pain and fractured family dynamics of 'Reminders of Him'. 

         Recently released from a seven year prison stint for Vehicular Homicide, Kenna (horror movie scream queen Maika Monroe) heads back to her little Wyoming town put the pieces of her shattered life back together. 

        When out for a fun drive with her beloved fiance Scotty Landry(Rudy Pankow of "Outer Banks") she swerved to avoid hitting a large rock, crashing the car. Rudy's dead and nobody believes her story of staggering down the highway trying to flag down help. 

       Apparently saddled with the worst public defender in the Wyoming justice department, Kenna pleads guilty to.....vehicular homicide?? Really?  Like she deliberately tried to kill him?  With what proof? What motive?  Anybody in Wyoming (or CoHo for that matter) ever hear of the phrase, 'manslaughter'??  Nobody wanted to look it up?

        But we digress.....but there's more. While in prison, Kenna gives birth to her and Scotty's baby girl, who is promptly wrenched away from her and given over to the custody. Scotty parents Grace and Patrick (Lauren Graham, Bradley Whitford). 

        (This all sounds like CoHo's legal research came mostly out of Charles Dickens novels.....)

         Kenna's aching to see her little daughter Diem now a toddler, but the Landrys, who fervently believe the 'homicide' part of Kenna's conviction, treat her like the devil incarnate come to snatch away their beloved granddaughter.  They file a restraining order against Kenna and they're aided in blocking Kenna's access to Diem by their young handsome neighbor Ledger (Tyriq Withers), who's become a loving uncle figure to the little girl. 

       Ah, but guess who falls in love?  Anybody want to guess Kenna and Ledger? Anybody? Anybody?  Don't all raise your hands at once.....

        So sorry, but anyone hoping for a good old fashioned guilty pleasure ugly cry won't get it from this movie. Outside of her comfort zone of horror, Maika Monroe appears lost, distracted and barely committed to the role. Lauren Graham does manage to work in a few emotional close-ups, but the rest of the cast just punches the clock (the exception of Down Syndrome actress Monika Myers as Monroe's feisty apartment complex neighbor) 

      If it's tears you hope to shed, the film won't come anywhere near that moment you want until its very final minutes.....that is, if you're still interested by that time.

        Strictly for CoHo die-hards...and even they probably won't appreciate all the stuff left out of the book. A waste of time for everyone else. 2 stars (**).

       (And maybe CoHo should read more John Grisham novels or watch more 'Law and Order' episodes for her legal background........)

       

          

WEEKEND MADNESS WRAP-UP.....SPECIAL 'PARTICIPATION TROPHY!' EDITION......

 Squeaker of the House Mike Johnson awards Trump his very own 'American First' award.....

Melania appears with humanoid robot.....the robot's the one on the left....Melania reportedly programmed to robot to replace her at certain events and moments, programming it to say, "Not this year, Donald....I have a headache..."

And now....it's off to more madness....and our glorious 'excursion

Special reminder to all "But I didn't vote for THIS"  Trump voters, don't forget to demand this with whatever brain cells you still have functioning.....

Wonderful weekend to BQ visitors.....see you next week.

'PROJECT HAIL MARY'.....'BARBENHEIMER' ALL BY ITSELF.....FILLING UP GRATEFUL THEATERS AS WE SPEAK.......

 Project Hail Mary (2026)

     So this is what it's come to......

     Multiplexes gasping for box office bucks as their many auditoriums remain empty for months at a time....their screens playing movies that nobody wants to move off their couch to go out and see and everybody prefers to wait until the films migrate over to the streaming services......

       Like exhausted sunstroke victims crawling through a desert, theater owners wait for Hollywood to finally, finally slake their thirst with a bona fide popcorn blockbuster.....at long last a movie that everybody can't wait to enjoy on the big screen, in big stereo, with a big bag of popcorn that could easily feed a third world nation for year......

        Believe us when we tell you that once upon a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Hollywood studios use to produce such films on a regular basis.  And we all crowded into theaters to let them envelop us on a huge screen with Dolby wraparound stereo loud enough to shake our teeth loose. 

      Remember the summer of 2023, the summer of 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer'?  Seems like ancient history now......

      Now, after a long drought, comes Amazon-MGM to catch the lightning-in-a-bottle required to lure huge crowds back into those multiplex seats...... with its 200 million dollar budgeted 'Project Hail Mary', a refreshing, funny, exciting, suspenseful eye-popping, heart rending popcorn thrill ride.....the kind of all ages appealing film that studios seem capable of producing only sporadically.

          Based on 'The Martian' novelist Andy Weir's bestseller, it presents us with our most endearing movie star Ryan Gosling as Ryland Grace, one of the most flawed but sympathetic characters who's ever fronted a major film.

            Ryland, a disgraced, molecular biology PhD  and now a beloved middle school science teacher, finds himself recruited and tasked with no less than saving the universe as we know it from sun-devouring microbes. Stuck on a spaceship with a dead crew and not a clue, Grace strikes up a classic buddy relationship with his most surprising ally.....a spider-like alien made of rocks who's been sent on the same mission to save his home planet too.

         Together, Grace and 'Rocky' take us on a journey leaving us breathless, stunned, elated, heartbroken, tearful, cheering and at times, laughing out loud for joy. Is it any wonder moviegoers are lining up for this? 

         Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (of "The Lego Movie" and "Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse") work real wonders here and Gosling deploys his killer deadpan charm at its most charismatic. Another bonus MVP: actress Sandra Huller (of "The Zone of Interest" and "Anatomy of a Fall") as Gosling's iron-willed superior (and one hell of a karaoke belter).

         And a special standing ovation to composer  Daniel Pemberton for a rich symphonic score as wildly eclectic as the film itself.....overpowering, majestic, pulse-racing, and even playful and witty. 

          Having heaped all this praise on the film, we don't pretend to know what formula exists to make a popcorn blockbuster like 'Hail Mary'.   As celebrated screenwriter William Goldman once said of the powers-that-be in Hollywood, "Nobody knows anything".  In short, maybe it's pure serendipity when the right actors, the right story and the right filmmakers all come together....hitting the Zeitgeist pop culture sweet spot to birth a massive hit. 

       (Keep in mind, we had similar opinions about "The Fall Guy", another Ryan Gosling romp also designed to be a sure fire crowd pleaser. We loved it, but nobody showed up. The answer?  Well....William Goldman said it all....who knows?)

        We do know 'Project Hail Mary' is more than worth parking yourself into one of those nice reclining multiplex seats and let it work its magic on you. As Rocky the alien frequently cries out, "Amaze, amaze, amaze!"

          5 stars (*****).

        

'THE SURVIVOR'.....A SUBWAY PASSENGER AND HIS TORMENTOR.....BOTH GONE OFF THE RAILS......

  The Survivor by Andrew Reid (2026)

     Hold to those overhead straps or wrap your arms tight around those support poles.........get ready for the most hazardous-to-your-health New York subway ride since 'The Taking of Pelham One, Two Three'. Next stop......either 181st st or death, whichever comes first.

     You'd think the day couldn't get any worse for young Ben Cross, freshly fired on the first day of his brand new job and escorted out by security. But once on the NYC subway, he's in for the ride of his life......for as long as it lasts.. Which judging from the attitude of the anonymous messages that start popping up on his phone, Ben's life expectancy can be counted off in minutes. Somebody's got it in for him real, real bad....and they know who he really is.

     This threatening somebody not only knows Ben's darkest secrets, , they're given to forcing Ben to isolate certain passengers on the train who've been targeted to die horribly when they get off at their stops.....and then they immediately do. The die horribly part.

     The rather bizarre spectacular murders bring in Homeland Security, the FBI and recently disgraced and demoted New York Detective Kelly Hendricks. Being the first one on the scene, Detective Hendricks ends up boarding the train and tasked with unraveling the many mysteries of Ben Cross and his unknown tormentor. And she'd better figure it out fast, since the mastermind may have packed the train with explosives and has demanded the train go barreling toward the deepest station in the subway system.....but to what purpose?

     The clock's ticking, the train's racing and the bits and pieces of the Ben Cross puzzle begin to assemble into a backstory of gut wrenching tragedy and horror beyond belief, ...with more surprises yet ahead.

     If you can't tell from my description that 'The Survivor' is one terrific thrill ride (and a whammer of a beach read), the four star rating should sum it up nicely.. All aboard for this one.

.

     4 stars (****)

'ROBBIE MCNEIL'S HIT LIST'.....KILLERS, KARAOKE.....AND LET'S PUT ON A SHOW!

 Robbie McNeil's Hit List by Brianna Heath (2026)

     It's never easy when you're stuck with competing, divided opinions about a book......delighted with all the stuff in it you like and frustrated and perplexed by all the things that most definitely left you cold.

     So it was with this book, which swings back and forth between charming, witty and twisty enough in its plot.....but carries with it a cruel amoral undertone even as it tirelessly generates and begs for sympathy for its characters..

     Which is why, for the first time, I find myself having to round a 3 star review upward to 3..5. because I do not feel comfortable giving 'Robbie' a full 4 stars.

     First off, if we're to believe novelists and screenwriters of thrillers, the number of killers-for-hire running around far exceeds that of healthcare , food service and government employees. No wonder I can't find a doctor and have to wait so long for my fries.......they've all switched to more profitable careers of bumping off people.

       And that brings us to Robbie McNeil and Dee Machado, a queerplatonic couple who own and operate a popular lesbian Karaoke bar.......as well as accept lucrative contracts to eliminate people whom other people have decided should push up daisies. Dee's an quick, efficient sniper on his assignments while Robbie painstakingly stalks her potential victims so as to arrange meticulous 'accidental' deaths.

     Robbie's latest dead-man-walking, an elusive, mysterious young fellow, manages to simply disappear on her. And this puts Robbie in the unforgiving crosshairs of the equally mysterious (and extra creepy) guy who hired her for the kill. This alarming development comes just as Robbie and Dee are trying to mount their amateur Broadway-style musical in a huge historic theater graciously rented to them by a wealthy politician-powerbroker. And wouldn't you know it.......the tangled, twisted backstory of Robbie's missing hit-target crosses paths with all the crisis-a-day, show-bizzy chaos of putting on a musical.

     Robbie and Dee are presented to us as a loving, sharp-witted ride-or=die duo, so I guess we're supposed to root for them and not give too much thought to their resume strewn with dead bodies. (You see my problem here.). Also, the pacing of the book goes slack and inert for long stretches, with the narrative coasting on its charm and attempts at dark gallows humor.. But I did enjoy the grand finale, which to me played almost like a spoof of a cornball, feel-good 1930's musical. Well, yeah.....it was fun and made me feel good.

     A mixed bag, indeed......so I'm sticking with the 3 & 1/2 stars (***1/2).

'MOST LIKELY TO MURDER'......WHO'LL SURVIVE THE YEARBOOK KILLER AND LIVE TO GRADUATE?

 Most Likely to Murder by Lish McBride (2026)

      As derivative and obvious as it is, I couldn't resist having myself a cheerful time with this one, a breezy one day read that flies by. Yes, it's that reliable surefire crowd pleaser......a disparate group of teens who band together to find the serial killer who's methodically polishing them off, one by one.

     This killer's something of a cruel joker with a twisted sense of humor.........altering a page in the high school yearbook to pre-assign a particular group of students their own special, horrible fates, with, the manner of each death printed underneath their photo.. But why them? And why did the killer start off the murder spree with offing one of their faculty counselors?

      Front and center in this group are high school outcasts Rick and Martina, both from financially struggling families and fierce BFFs forever. Their quick-witted byplay is a constant delight to read all throughout the book While the cool and witty Martina has her eye on a girl she's fallen for, she keeps encouraging the shy Rick to finally speak to pretty, studious Nika, the equally shy girl on whom he's been nursing a powerful crush. (And it's pretty obvious that for Nika, the feeling's mutual

      But our unfriendly neighborhood killer has begun to make good on those nasty yearbook predictions. The ever growing sweet and adorable Rick-Nika romance can only proceed slowly while the body count rises. And the teens team up to desperately figure out the who and the why of the murders before their numbers diminish any further.

      Loads of snarky sarcastic (but deeply affectionate) back-and-forth between Rick and Martina and as I've already pointed out, the slow burn crushes of Rick and Nika are enormous fun to watch come to fruition.. The pacing zips along but leaves little time to grieve for those unfortunates who don't make it to the end of the book. (In that regard, similar to slasher movies.)

      The only thing author Lish McBride doesn't quite land - the killer reveal. It feels like it came out of nowhere and the motives sound far fetched and contrived at the last minute. This is one book where you'll end up far more entertained by 90 per cent of the story rather than the last 10 percent spent on its conclusion.. But for me, it didn't stop 'Most Likely...' from being a lively, captivating read overall.

      4 stars (****).