Phantom Death by Sadie Montgomery REVIEW

Phantom Death
Purchase Kindle Edition

My sister bought me the physical edition of #5 in this series for Christmas. Eager to eventually get through this series and continue my blog reviews I purchased #4 and and #6 in this series for my kindle (thanks again to my sweetheart for the greatest Christmas gift ever). I've been reading this book for awhile now using the kindle when I was on the bus or train and have finally finished it.

Ms. Montgomery has impressed me very much with this work. I enjoyed books 1 to 3, but I was starting to feel as if it were the same plot, Erik and Meg were in love, then separated somehow and reunited. This book in the series took a different turn and the author has done an excellent job with it.

Basically Erik's life in Rome is upturned and his peace is threatened when Carlotta comes to Rome, knowing that Erik is there and attempts to seek revenge for what has happened to her and Piangi. She singlehandedly threatens Erik's security and puts the life of him and his family in danger when she alerts Inspector Leroux, who has been hunting for Erik convinced he was still alive, to his existence in Rome.

After a bunch of tantrums from Carlotta, lots of action, and a chapter of horrific madness things wrap up quite nicely, my only gripe *QUICK SPOILER ALERT* is that Erik names one of his new children Raoul, I still detest that him and Raoul are friends, even though Raoul is kind of nice in this series, I just will forever hate his character. *SPOILER ENDS*

This book is worth the purchase if you are into Phan Phiction, I must say this six part series written by Sadie Montgomery is a much better sequel to the story then Love Never Dies, perhaps if ALW based his sequel off of Ms. Montgomery's books the phans would actually like it.

Just a quick extra note. This book review is also linked to new thousand book blog challenge I started. If you happen to be a curious phantom phan that also happens to be into books you can follow my reviews of 1,000 books that I will be reading to find some great books you may not have known about :)

HAPPY 23RD ANNIVERSARY PHANTOM OF THE OPERA BROADWAY!

The original Man, Michael Crawford as the Phantom and Sarah Brightman the original Christine! A Phantom Phan shared this with us on facebook! 23 years ago they kicked off the BEST broadway show, stemmed from the BEST story! 

23 years ago on January 26, 1988 the curtain rose on the Broadway premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Phantom of the Opera. I heard that some cast members were going to appear on the Rosie O'Donnell radio show, and I think tonight at the play (if it goes on because there's massive snow at the moment :/) there will be a special surprise curtain call. I'm not going tonight, I went last year for the 22nd anniversary but decided this year not to go for the 23rd, I'm kind of glad because although it is no phantom the snow outside would freak me out that the performance might be in danger of being cancelled and then I would cry. Instead PHellow PHans I am wearing my phantom earrings to work, I may wear one of my phan shirts later, and it's possible I will finish reading a piece of phantom literature or watch one of the movies to celebrate! Maybe I will get clever and make a cake although if I do it will just be Shawn, myself and his mommy eating some lol. So let me close this entry before I ramble on and on and on......Happy 23rd Broadway Anniversary PHANTOM! Today belongs to you...well doesn't every day belong to you when it comes to your phans!

Unmasqued by Colette Gale REVIEW

I have re-read this novel for the second...or third time with great pleasure ;) in order to bring you, my dear phan readers another review of PHan PHiction that may...or may not be worth the purchase, depending on my feelings towards the work. This work by the way is WORTH IT!

Unmasqued is an erotic novel of our PHavorite story. Erik lovers will be pleased with this story, Raoul lovers not so much. Colete Gale does a wonderful job incorporating erotic scenes into the novel without turning the work into smut that old ladies tend to read for excitement. She manages to make this work full of steamy scenes that satisfy virtually almost any sexual appetite but at the same time she brings a suspenseful, intriguing plot into the book as well. She also keeps true to the story of Phantom of the Opera and doesn't botch it up, or discredit it to make her work seem true (like Frederick Forsyth). Raoul manages to become a world class jerk by the end of the novel (kudos!), Christine is a semi-whorish whiner with no independence (but she makes Erik happy), and Erik well he can do no wrong! The only small problem, which is not bad at all was the biographer's afterward that the author included, it started off great considering what happened to Phillipe and how he ended up, but ended on a slightly campy note, it may have been better just to leave the novel off without the afterward, this book is still great though and has a happy ending, quite possibly in more ways then one ;)

WE Network Phantom of the Opera REVIEW!

I was very excited when someone at work told me that David Tutera was having a Phantom of the Opera themed network on his show My Fair Wedding! I thought I might watch it but wasn't sure, and I thought I had missed it because Shawn and I got back at around 10 from the No Pants Subway Ride and the show aired at 9. After quickly looking it up, I realized they were re-airing the show at 11 and Shawn put it on for me. I can't tell you how much of a disappointment and waste of time viewing this show turned out to be for me.

The aspect of David Tutera's show is that he takes the theme the bride wishes to go with and he re-plans the wedding, according to him he makes a better wedding. Truly I think he messes with the bride and ruins her plans.

The only education this guy has about Phantom of the Opera is obviously the 2004 movie. Way to go Andrew Lloyd Webber Jr. *sarcastic sneer* He insisted that the bride and bridesmaids be dressed as if they were going to the Opera or a ball, not as if they were in Phantom of the Opera, or the Masquerade scene from Phantom of the Opera which is probably what the bride wished to go for.

The ceremony was pretty standardized, bride in the white dress, groom looked like Raoul (GROSS!), some of the bride's maid dresses were black, some were gold, they all had red roses, which is one of the things Mr. Tutera partially got right, considering he messed everything up, and had no education of the story of Phantom whatsoever.

He did an alright job with the reception. Basically he had centerpieces on the table to looked like a crashed chandelier, the cake had gold and roses, roses were all over the place (he was in love with the roses), he had some lighting and a little bit of smoke, but no phantom music and the only masks anyone wore were masquerade masks. He took the whole unpleasant parts of phantom (i.e. the hideously disfigured genius we all love that's the main character of the story) and wiped it out of the entire reception. The only awesome thing he did was send the wedding couple on a honeymoon to Las Vegas to stay at the venetian and see The Phantom of the Opera.

So there's my bitterness, my upsetment and discontent. I needed rolaids from Shawn near the show's end because I was so sick to my stomach with it. Phans not worth the watch, you will only want to hurt this guy.

Phantom of the Opera for the Amazon Kindle...and other e-readers!

My love gave me a kindle for Christmas. I am enjoying it very much and I already have the original novel by Gaston Leroux (one is available for FREE) and two other phantom novels downloaded to it. I decided to do a quick search in amazon to find out which phantom of the opera novels were available for the kindle. There are 72 books available for the kindle, when I search the kindle store with the key words Phantom of the Opera.

If you have a nook by Barnes and Noble, these are the books available for your nook

If you have the sony e-reader available through borders, here are your choices for a phantom fix.

All three of these e-readers are also available through applications for your mobile phones, PCs, laptops....or your iphones, ipads or itouches if you have those devices. So you don't need to own the actual readers to view and read these fine pieces of phantom literature!

January's Sexy Phantom!

Brad Little in the role of the Phantom! 

Old Skool picture of my sister and I when we met Brad Little after seeing Phantom of the Opera!

New Year! New Month! Time for the monthly sexy phantom entry. The first sexy phantom for this year and for the month of January is Brad Little. I saw him play the phantom with Joanna, I think it was the twelfth time I went, and my friend Ben suggested that I see him. Well I absolutely loved his performance, I met him after the show with my sister and he was so nice, and signed my playbill which I now have framed in my SF music box frame. So Brad Little this month's for you, you've made the first sexy phantom of 2011.