CONGRATULATIONS TAMIKA!
928038
Awesome & cute little story.  Continue to use your gifts...this  is a new beginning for you and the family...highly favored indeed! Tootsie
2189236
She was the cake topper at my daughters luau birthday party! I made her a little more colorful with nail polish- she's cute and well made! I would rather have gone to Hawaii toget her- but oh, well..;)
4040673
Okay, yes, I AM late to the Grisha party  5 years to be exact  but hey, so was Alina, and things worked out for her, right? Right? You guys??

For real though no one tell me. Its a miracle this series hasn't been spoiled for me yet, and I intend to keep it that way!

Before I start my review, I truly have to give a shout out to the GR community (where this was originally posted). This is one of those series that I meandered past in bookstores for YEARS never giving it any thought beyond: Oooh! Thats a cool cover...now wheres the book I came for? If not for the constant admiration on my feed, I honestly don't think I ever would have picked this up. And that would have been a shame because I thoroughly enjoyed Bardugos debut (I still cant believe that) novel.

In a page and a half, Bardugo had me smiling along with the girl who was different and knew it. The early bond with Alina coupled with my desire to understand the Grisha hierarchy and its role within the world of Ravka kept the pages turning. By the time the Darkling hit the scene, I was a goner.

"I doubt you have any idea what you are."

I cannot describe the effect that such a simple sentence had on my emotions. I was hooked! I craved the answers to the Darklings enigmatic statements. His scenes produced the most urgency within my reading and it honestly wasn't due to fangirling (read: it honestly wasn't entirely due to fangirling). I felt a lot of his contributions served as underlying foreshadowing for the series, and that intrigued me to no end.

The problem with wanting," he whispered, his mouth trailing along my jaw until it hovered over my lips, "is that it makes us weak.

At face value, sure this is just a swoon worthy passage. However, this quote, to me, reveals the biggest obstacle plaguing Alina and her powers: Mal.

SPOILERY ARGUMENT BELOW:

*If you choose not to read into spoiler territory, I apologize, but my review ends for you here!*

[Looking past the fact that Alinas true powers didn't emerge until she abandoned her feelings for Mal, its impossible not to correlate her gifts strength to their relationship. Now I know some of yall will INSTANTLY point out that her first glimpse of power appeared while trying to save Mal. However, thats simply not true. Her powers were there all along, and she actually suppressed them  even as a child  in order to stay with Mal. She accepted his presence in her life in lieu of her own health and well-being. A fact further illustrated not only by the reveal of how she received the scar branded across her palm, but also by her physical, mental, and emotional transformation after freeing her gift. I bring this to attention, because I believe its impossible to read the ending we received and not jump back to the Darklings haunting words. Alina is fresh from a rather traumatic incident and theres no way she walks away from that unchanged. The power will call to her on a different level after such exposure, and Im certain thats going to create future conflict. Will Alina continue to sacrifice her true self in order to belong to Mal? Will she forgo her responsibilities and curiosities to please the man that took so long to see her? Or will she have a newfound understanding of the Darkling and the life he laid out for her? Saints know I want those answers so onto Siege and Storm I go.
2768120
Firstly as far as I can tell, it's authentic (I couldn't find information of any attempts of counterfeiting for this one).

About the figure, buying this has completed my sub-fleet of the Kongou sisters! Like any proper Nendoroid, the attention to detail on this was awesome! I really like her facial plates because they have that semi-snaky look to then, which Hiei's personality kind of does,  I'm loving her plaid skirt too, very nice detailing

However, for it's price, she probably has the least amount of proper customization and overall "uniqueness" out of the four sisters, let me explain:
*  Kongou only has 2 face plates, but she comes with a "half-damaged" body and damaged main guns. She also comes with a dining chair and a tea cup and saucer.
* Haruna has 3 face plates and a docking station addon, a "hands together" arm and hand combo, and a tea-serving arm combo.
* Kirishima has 3 face plates, her own couch, a mic, a megaphone and a super punch arm. Overall She arguably has the most customization out of the 4!
* Hiei also has 3 face plates, and a "power up pose" arm and energy FX combo, and a table + pastry + serving food arm. The power up pose isn't really all that great... not to mention having her in the air for that is actually kind of hard because she's kind of heavy for the stand arm

No doubt I still love her and am glad to have her on my fleet, but I wish she had more uniqueness to her.
941185
I love the fact that Taj and Lelee got the chance to show the naysayers that they were capable of doing lead vocals. With that being said, Coko proved how much of a vocal beast that she is... O Holy Night; enough said!
1429672
Hi! Guys i got already i'm so happy very beautiful! Thanks to all of you outhere. Hope to see next time once again. More power to your company and tonyou Guys. Have a nice Day!!!
1040122
This was a gift to a wonderful girl named Bella who just could not find one to fit her and definitely could not find Pink. When her mom and dad took it out of the bag she did the happy dance and was so happy to put this on and show it off to us.  I would say it was a great success.  Thank you for finally having something pretty for the XX-Large Ladies.
4694058
This was an excellent way to finish up a truly wonderful series!  While it was full of happy endings, there was enough "meat" in there to keep it from feeling like a fluffy and unsatisfying snack.  I'm still going to keep my fingers crossed for eventual spin-offs/prequels/ or anything else from this amazing world Ms. Host created; but, I feel like I can finish this story up with a big smile on my face even if it is the last I hear about Caszandra, Kaoren, and the rest of the crew. Thanks again to the author, can't wait to see what is next!
1228377
EVIDENCE that from BEYOND this limited world, the spirits of the best souls can bring us fireflies, or in this case, DYNAMITE using their awesome new energy on the next plane. LUX, thank you for helping this find us at last. Your kingdom lives on, the TIKI GODS are smiling, and I'm POSITIVE that IVY, your Queen, is doing her best MONTEZ today! RIP
3089917
I originally saw this decal on Pinterest and fell in love with it. When I found out I was expecting a baby girl I knew this was the design I wanted to go with. We ordered and received the decal quickly and I was completely blown away by how beautiful it was. The pictures really don't do it justice. The end result of our cherry blossom tree decal was PERFECT, and I was completely blown away by how beautiful it turned out. Undoubtedly tedious to put up, but worth it for the final result. Completely impressed. I was hesitant at first with the cost but I completely understand the cost now that we have the decal in our home and applied. Would 100% recommend to a friend!
3999400
Vol 5 is finally here after over 6 months! And the wait is worth it as Vol 5 is devoted entirely to Reiji and Naoya. This couple is faced with their biggest obstacle as they are forced apart. Shimizu's story telling skill is a marvel as she deeply explored this couple's love and need for each other. Their story started off so sweetly as we are given glimpses of Reiji and Naoya everyday life together and their growing love.  Then just as the reader is feeling warm and fuzzy, the mangaka hits us with a "bang" and forced them apart. From thereon all I could do is keep on turning the pages hoping for a happy end to Vol 5 and finally staring in disbelief at the last page. It is fine but sappy me would have preferred one more panel! Shimizu is a teaser in her Vol 5 ending as she is in the scenes when the lovers "partially" consummate their love.  Vol 5 is indeed a treasure as far as emotions, passion and angst go. There are some pretty funny moments too when Naoya takes Wataru under his wings, reminding us of just how deeply Reiji has left his imprint on Naoya.

And now to wait until Aug for Vol 6, for the final "love scene" for our favorite couple of course.
3024022
Tsubasa vol 28 comes as a shocking ending to the epic series.  Firstly the volume comes at a whopping 276 pages, virtually double sized.  I think including so many pages is a pretty decent trade off for the potential of colored pages (it would have been nice to have colored manga pages at least in this final volume) because the story is so nice.

I will avoid spoilers but this volume certainly wrapped up hanging plot points and finally clarified the motives and purposes for some of the characters.  The action was as amazing as it has been from recent volumes in terms of the magic usage.  I also think that the translator, who has been here for all of the volumes, William Flanagan did an excellent job at making it clear and helping to sort out who was speaking, with the "images" of two characters and such.  He also left a potentially heartfelt message at the end of the volume, it almost feels as if he was there with us the whole time through these many years of reading the series.

This volume had me a bit emotional and teary eyed with joy because the two characters finally admitted their feelings for one another; simply beautiful. This is a thrilling and truly amazing conclusion for the series and makes me want to reread it from start to finish.
4235423
I know from experience that an expensive Tamiya kit is going to be something special and this one didn't disappoint. It's engineered extremely well for a big (24") model, with screws for major assembly points, metal landing gear, etc.  Excellent detail, parts are so cleanly injected they almost look like they were pre-prepped for assembly- tons of parts, I don't plan to finish for maybe a year at my pace. My only disappointment was by comparison:  Tamiya's 1:32 Zero has far more moving parts, removable parts and clear parts than this model, but the Zero was a real work of art (and it also took me a year to finish).  Great work!
1659747
I bought this book in order to support the cause, and I just wanted to let people know that they will get their money's worth!  Plenty of great recipes for all tastes.  Thanks to Tami and her crew for all of their efforts!  Job well done!
3705077
Hawaiian Silver Jewelry did a GREAT job with this beautiful Kanji character. It gracefully embodies the brush stroke feel of Edo-era Japanese calligraphy, in all its symmetrical beauty. I can't wait to see my wife wearing it!
2135274
I have been waiting for this for YEARS!!!!!! I am super excited to finally have this released in English.  I attempted to read these online and all I got was a computer virus :(  If you have watched the OVA, you have already seen the artwork of the artist.  The story is more juvenile, but still enjoyable.  I like that there are little snippets about the art and story from the artist throughout the book.  I can't wait for the next 2 to be released!
1806521
This is a really cool version of Toralei. I was able to order this on Target.com for $19.99 plus tax. Although all the previous power ghouls have been heroes....Toralei plays the dastardly villain "Catastrophe". The back of the box features a mini story about how "Catastrophe" ruined a SKRM match by deploying rotten gargoyle eggs into the arena along iwth a goregeous full color comic style picture of Toralei. I love the hair on this doll. It is very long which we have previously not seen on Toralei. The hair at the crown of her head is a lighter orange color with the rest of her hair being a darker reddish russet shade. Her hair is pulled into a high ponytail. The front of her hair has no stripes, but starting from where it is pulled into a ponytail has some black stripes running down the center and down the back. She wears a molded black plastic mask which comes up into cat ear points at the top and has three molded whiskers coming down over her cheeks. Her lips are painted are very dark pink with a reddish tint to it. Her eyeshadow is purple on her eyelid and russet from the crease up to her browbone. She wears a long sleeve bodysuit that has red orange and a black and grey fishnet print stripes. There is a black collar at the V-neck of the bodysuit. She wears very tall red boots with a tiger stripe print molded into them and thick black soles and heels. Her hands are done with the regular Toralei glove mold, with the gloves being painted black. The best part of this doll to me is her accessories. In her left ear she has a black pyramid stud and a black hoop, and her right ear features a black pyramid stud. Her red necklace is mad to look like a cat collar with a small skullette in the center and studs running around it. Her plastic belt is metallic silver and has an adorable kitty cat face in the center. There is a molded pouch on the side that has a two orange plastic feathers hanging down from it. On her right wrist is a metallic silver long cuff bracelet. On her left wrist is an amazing bracelet that is a new mold. It is a shorter metallic silver cuff with studs on the bottom and the most adorable mouse on the top. Even his little tail can be seen!! She also comes with never style stand with the black skullette base and a clear bar that comes up between the dolls legs instead of around the waist. She also comes with a brush and a comic book. Overall I love this Toralei and I hope we see more releases of her especially with the long hair!!