Reading Update: Page 1

 

I'm of the mind that every doggie deserves a crown, so I'm loving this cover. 

😍 

August is Manhattan's dog whisperer, if only she was so lucky with men. 

Keaton is her best friend's older brother and while she has a big crush on him, she still thinks he's a jerk. 

Now a widower and working on Wall Street, August knows he's only ever wanted a family. So when he begs for her help wrangling his sister's husky at a talent competition, she can't help but say yes. 

Y'all, not only is there a husky (we know huskies and their tantrums are going to provide some funny) but there's also only one bed! 

Confessions of a Canine Drama Queen by Stefanie London (Releases tomorrow!) purchase link

Shrimp Tostadas with Guacamole and Pico de Gallo recipe

I loved these, probably because I didn't lazy out and just buy guacamole and pico de gallo this time. 

Review: Forged by Blood

Forged by Blood by Ehigbor Okosun
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

Èrù jé ògá àjèji. Ó si leso aláimòkan èdá di ehànà. 

Fear is a strange master. It makes monsters from the simplest of men. 

The first in a duology, Forged by Blood is the first person pov story told by Dèmi, a girl living in Ifè (a fictional Nigeria created from a blend of fantasy, magic, and realism). The story starts off with an eight year old Dèmi helping her mother try and save a boy who has been poisoned. Dèmi and her mother are from the western land of Oyo and are considered Oluso, they have magical abilities. Currently, Oluso are hunted and enslaved because of a war that happened nine years ago and King Alistair Sorenson, from the northern land of Eingard, took power. The Aje, nonmagical people, fear the Oluso but they also come to them for help. So while it's dangerous for Dèmi's mother to help the poisoned boy, she does so but sets off a destiny changing chain reaction. 

The magic that sings through our veins and weaves its strings tightly around our hearts is the very reason violence seems to find us. My mother thought she could escape it if she put me in a cocoon, raising me with only little bits of knowledge about what I am. 

But I know better now. 

After a beginning that brought danger and emotion, the story then jumps ahead to Dèmi at age seventeen. I would consider this young/new adult as this felt more like that, Dèmi figuring out herself, a love triangle, and just overall fitting in that genre's general tone. Dèmi now lives with friends and family that have helped nurture her magical abilities and told her a little bit about her father but she still lives with wanting vengeance for what happened to her mother. When a Lord Ekwensi comes to her with a plan and blackmail, claiming that if he can be appointed regional lord of Oyo, he'll help the people, but he needs her to kidnap the King's nephew, Dèmi can't help but jump at the chance. Her friend Colin, who definitely has feelings for her, insists on coming with her and when Dèmi realizes who the nephew she is supposed to kidnap is, we have the start to the next step of Dèmi meeting her destiny. 

I know then, what Jonas is. 

I enjoyed the first half of this, with being brought into a world that weaved in Nigerian mythology and history (tree spirts, imperialism) and a girl with magical abilities and will to fight and change the system but then I thought the second half got a little haphazard with throwing in parentage reveals that I think were supposed to rock the boat but didn't seem to change much. I'm personally not a big fan of love triangles and because it was fairly weak and not too disruptive, it didn't feel needed here. The romance between Dèmi and Jonas (king's nephew) was YA toned, with fated mates and “I'm drawn to you” kisses. The latter half delivers a bit of action when Dèmi has a showdown fight and some magical reveals. 

I won't allow my fear to keep me from fighting. 

The setting was interesting and especially incorporating some Nigerian mythology but the magic and blood mates can be found all over in YA fantasy. This was also more sedately paced, which was good in some places to sink into some fantasy elements (when Dèmi and her friends stay with the tree spirits) but also muted some emotions of danger of urgency. Some of the reveals ended up feeling jumbled and not quite hitting their importance but there is obviously some magical ones that will probably play a bigger importance in the second book. This had Dèmi dealing with emotional upheavals, romance, learning how to control her magical abilities, and figuring out if and how she's going to fight for the world she wants to see. One enemy gets dealt with here but there's also a creation of another, with others possibly in the wings, as Dèmi and Jonas try to carve out their way. With the world building laid out here and Dèmi learning a possibly big secret about her birth and making a deal with the tree spirits, I expect the second to be full of more emotion and action.

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40%

I don't know why I'm explaining anything to him. Perhaps there's a part of me---a tiny, minuscule part---that wants to see him sorry. Have him apologize. But what would that really change? If he needs to see the beauty and diversity of our magic to consider us worthy of existing, what happens when we are imperfect? Blemished?

Reading Update: Page 1

 

I'm chip dipping and starting this new fantasy inspired by Nigerian mythology. 

🌞📖🗡 

Dèmi wants vengeance for her mother's murder but in a tyrannical society, she's also fighting for survival. 

Trying to hide and learn to control her blood magic, she gets her chance when she's granted the opportunity to kidnap the Aje prince Jonas (nonmagical people who occupy her ancestral homeland) and use him to bargain for her remaining people, the Oluso. 

But deadly secrets arise and Dėmi, with her friend Colin, get tangled up in forbidden attraction and now a joint mission of changing a system designed to silence. 

Rebellion, redemption, race and class, love, trust, and betrayal. 

Whew, this is going to have it all! Also that cover, 😍 

Forged In Blood by Ehigbor Okosun preorder (Aug. 8th) link

Creamy Ranch Dip recipe

I use the Spicy Ranch seasoning for more of a kick

Review: Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop

Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

1.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

I'm going to give myself a fair amount of blame for not connecting with this one, I didn't realize it was a sequel to The Christmas Bookshop (my brain must have made the word sequel into series). I would say you absolutely have to read the first before starting this one, otherwise you'll feel as bewildered as I was reading it. 

She had lost Oke. And soon, she was going to lose her home. 

If you did read the first, you'll have already been introduced to these characters and all their relationships, family and friends that work on Victoria Street in Edinburgh. This starts off with Carmen still dating Oke (Obedience), her Quaker boyfriend from Brazil and going a little crazy that he doesn't want to have sex with her. This leads her to set-up a seduction that goes very badly and they end up breaking up, right when Oke gets the opportunity to go to the Amazon for a six months expedition. There's anger but also a little regret by Carmen at how she handled things while Oke also regrets his rejection but sees Carmen's anger and doesn't want to force his attention on her as he thinks she is firmly done with him. So, Oke takes off to the Amazon but not quite a full stage exit as we get povs from him as he battles his mother trying to set him up with a family friend and then a horrible case of malaria. Back in Edinburgh, Carmen's sister that she is staying with is going back to work and hiring a nanny, so Carmen needs to leave and find her own place to stay while also trying to keep her job and the bookshop she works at open and out of the clutches of the dastardly millionaire trying to buy up all the businesses on the street and turn them into cheesy survivor shops. 

And there was comfort in that, too: Make all your choices as well as you can; that is all you can do. 

One of the things that kind of threw me, was the numerous povs, even the family friend of Oke, Mary, is given a pov. The pov changes bleed into each other at times and that gave the story kind of a chaotic feel, even with Carmen the central character, this felt like a story of no one and everyone. There's dabbling into Carmen's sister Sofia and her stress at going back to work and her husband firmly on board with getting Carmen out, Carmen's boss Mr. McCredie wanting to go on an expedition to Antarctica at seventy-nine years old, and of course, Carmen trying to figure out her feelings on Oke, where to live, and how to keep the bookshop open. It's all dabbling though, and then we get numerous time jumps, the book takes place from summer to winter, and it all made for a story and characters that I never felt like I could get a solid grasp on. 

She was hungering for physical contact. Nobody touched her. She missed that. She had missed the very simplicity of being touched. She had been so lonely; so cold. 

The latter second half has Carmen leaving a phone message for Oke stating her feelings and readers see Oke telling his mother and Mary to contact Carmen and tell her he has malaria but with some schadenfreude, Oke and Carmen never learn what the other has to say. This leads to Carmen looking for love again and an almost bedroom scene with Rudi, Sofia's new nanny (Rudi was my favorite character and the one who brought the sweet, lightness, and heart that I want in holiday reads). It also led to a brief dark moment between Carmen and Sofia but that gets resolved fairly quickly. Carmen finds a way to save the store, get Mr. McCredie on his expedition, and see a new side to her Scrooge (shop buying millionaire) to give this a Christmas miracle ending. To really tie a bow on it, Oke comes back right before the end (they come face-to-face with about five percent left in book) and they get their happily for now. The ending felt really abrupt but there was happiness and a feeling of Carmen, seemingly, having figured it all out. If you read the first and want more of your favorite characters, you'd probably enjoy this but definitely don't try and just jump in here.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

More Holidays in July! 

🌞🎄🎅🌞 

We're in Edinburgh but even though it's summer, McCredie's little Old Town Bookshop is the perfect location for an American production company to film their Christmas movie. 

Carmen's reeling a little from a break-up but the extra money coming in will help her fend off a millionaire who wants to buy the bookshop. When the snow and lights start up, anything is possible, for the bookshop and Carmen! 

Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan preorder (Oct. 10th) link

Chipotle Lime Grilled Chicken with Mango Salsa recipe

Chipotle and mango are my peanut butter and jelly, this was so easy and so yummy. 

Review: Not That Duke

Not That Duke by Eloisa James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

“I will never marry Lady Stella.” 

Divided into two parts, you'll notice if you read the second in the Would-Be Wallflowers series, that the first of this is happening concurrently with that one. I haven't read the second and didn't have a problem following along here but there was some displacement that I felt might not have happened if I'd had the other part of the story. Basically, Stella has a crush/feelings for Silvester but as a short, freckled, wearing spectacles, bluestocking, she doesn't get the attention of the beautiful en vogue Yasmin. Yasmin has caught the attention of the ton men and has Silvester thinking he could be in love with her as he's dazzled by her smile and how well they seem to get along. Silvester's friend Giles, seems like he'd be a good match for Stella but Stella has caught the looks between Giles and Yasmin and, rightly, thinks they'll be married by seasons end. This first part takes up the first half of the book, there's some time jumps as they just seem to go from party to event, Yasmin getting the attention, some mean girlness from the chorus, and Stella enjoying the friendship she has developed with Silvester but trying to not fall in love with him as the rumors are that he's going to propose to Yasmin at any moment. 

The very sad, very secret, truth was that she was captivated by a frivolous aristocrat. 

Like I said, I didn't feel lost in the first half but while I was getting to know Lady Stella, orphaned at eight and sent to live with her aunt and uncle, who while distantly caring never quite meshed with Stella, causing her to feel somewhat unlovable for who she is, Silvester, the Duke of Huntington, who never felt cardboard but also felt like a distant character, I felt I couldn't quite sink into his distant emotions. After the dolloped here and then there with some time jumps first half, the second half settled down and focused on Stella and Silvester. While we got some telling of Silvester visiting Stella a lot, Stella and her aunt felt it was in friendship, even brotherly, there's enough to allude to the reader that he is genuinely starting to develop feelings for Stella, though. It did still feel a little abrupt when he asks her to marry him (reading the second book could have helped here with more context) and we get a little time devoted to Stella not believing in any feelings he may have for her, allowing that he may feel lust for her, and then getting strong armed into accepting his proposal. 

For the rest of his life, Silvester never forgot the experience of desiring his new wife so desperately that his hands shook as he removed garment, after garment, after garment. 

From there, we get sexcapades for a while, which were satisfyingly steamy but even though we were 65% into the story, I still felt new to this couple because of how the first half went. Then the latter second half gave us different povs from a chorus character named Blanche and Silvester's mother. Both felt out of place and gave a disjointed feel to the story. Blanche's felt like a jammed in pov to make readers anticipate her book and while I, for the most part, liked Silvester's mother, the placement of her pov didn't quite fit right, especially since goodwill feelings for her started to whither with how self-assured she was with saying Silvester still loved Yasmin and the like, creating more problems for our couple where they weren't needed. 

“We can make this marriage work,” she whispered. 

Since I didn't read the second book, I didn't have any feelings toward Yasmin or Giles, one way or the other but oh boy is Yasmin discussed in this one; I wonder if her name appears more times than Stella's. While that couple is featured, you don't get to know them, thoughts or feelings, so by the last twenty percent, I was done with hearing about Yasmin. It came off a little forced with Stella still thinking so surely that Silvester still had feelings for Yasmin and the last dark moment felt more annoying with, aforementioned mom, and Stella blowing out of proportion how Silvester acted at a party that Yasmin showed up to. I know I'm reading outside and not “in it” as the characters and Thee Emotion and Drama plus Stella's insecurities and all, but Silvester was pretty clearly head-over-heels for his wife, so yeah, some annoying forced in for drama ending. 

He seemed to...to care too much for his wife. 

There were also a good amount of little historical additives that helped to, outwardly anyway, to give this a feeling of time and place. Overall, I did enjoy this one, there was something about the chemistry between Stella and Silvester that couldn't be denied. There was a quick ending speech, I think readers would have loved a more immediate public showing/grovel, from Silvester to finally convince Stella his love was true and we got our happily ever after with an epilogue to expand on it. If you read the second, you'd definitely have to continue with this one but don't be afraid to jump in here either as I did, Stella and Silvester were at turns friendship and bedroom goals.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

I can't quit staring at this model's hair 😍 Gorgeous!

I haven't read the other books in the series yet but I can only stay away from a series title "Would-Be Wallflowers" for so long, so I'm jumping in here. 

Y'all, buckle in. Lady Stella is "eccentric" and frowns at the Duke of Huntington over her spectacles. She's an heiress, he jokingly calls her "Specs", and they somehow end up married. 

The Duke is shocked he's in love with his wife, but she's laughing and claiming to be in love with someone else. 

I can't wait to dive in! 

Not That Duke by Eloisa James (Releases tomorrow!) purchase link

Buffalo Chickpea Meatballs recipe

I had problems getting these to stick together, if you couldn't tell by less than perfect ball shape lol. I really liked the flavoring, though. 

Review: Bright Lights, Big Christmas

Bright Lights, Big Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

Tollivers had been growing this particular variety of Christmas tree, in this particular patch of farmland in the mountains of western North Carolina, for four generations. 

Kerry has recently moved back home after her agency merged with another, her job as art director became redundant, and her relationship of two years just drifted to an end. When her mother has to take care of her father, even though they've been exes for years, after he has a heart-attack, Kerry suddenly has to help out with her family's tree farm. When her parents got divorced, Kerry went to live with her mom and her older brother Murphy went to live with their dad but now she's going to have live in a small trailer, affectionately named Spammy, for a month in New York City while they work their tree stand and try to keep the family farm afloat. 

It dawned on her that in less than a month, these few crowded city blocks had become her home and these strangers now felt like neighbors. 

And one of those neighbors was . . . something more. 

Bright Lights, Big Christmas was a chik-lit story that was great at showcasing how close knit neighborhoods in big cities can be. Small towns seem to get more of a spotlight in holiday books and I loved how this delivered on the good feels of neighbors helping neighbors and that holiday community feel. Growing up and not having much to do with the farm, Kerry was a little bit fish out of water with knowing how to help and how much hard work goes into the tree stand and her older grumpy brother Murphy seems to harbor a little resentment that she's just showing up now to help. As they get to know each other more, Kerry learning that the farm is in financial trouble and Murphy acknowledging how Kerry's new ideas can bring in money, they start to thaw toward to one another. 

As Kerry works the tree stand, we get to know the people that live and work in the neighborhood, from Claudia that runs the restaurant where they can get occasional free food (and Murphy might have a crush on), to the new mother of twins that lets them shower and do laundry at her place, to the older gentleman named Heinz who wanders the neighborhood but no one seems to know much about, and to the newly single dad Patrick (who's allergic to pine!) that Kerry may have had a bad first impression with but now they both can't seem to keep their eyes off each other. 

There's some of that quirky Andrews-ness, the trailer Spammy has a personality all it's own and rival tree sellers provide some hijinks but there's also some cuteness, Patrick's son Austin, Murphy's dog, and the couples and families that we get little glimpses into their lives as they purchase trees. The romance between Kerry and Patrick was very thin, don't expect any depth, just a sudden kiss on the lips from Patrick to alert that he was liking her and then invites to dinner. Kerry is only running the tree stand for a month and before that time is even up, Patrick is telling her she can move in with him because he wants her to stay in the city, I guess he was really feeling the Christmas spirit. 

It was in the later second half when Heinz turns up missing and shifts to reveals about him. The reveals lead and provide for a happy ending for Kerry and Patrick, with this and another earlier happy happenstance involving an Instagram Influencer and the tree stand, it's a Merry Christmas for all. This was a little stark in the depth of emotion departments but if you want to read a cozy, bedroom door firmly shut, holiday story that was great at showcasing how big city neighborhoods care for each other, this would be one to pick up.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

It's July 22nd and I'm just getting to my first Holidays in July!? 

In my defense, I live in MN and when the weather is gorgeous, I've got to be outside when I can. But with next week hitting high 90s, time to cool off with a holiday book! 

Kerry is leaving her family's Christmas Tree farm to help out her older brother in New York City. A country girl in the city, she's adapting quickly and loving the neighbors. 

When an elderly neighbor goes missing, she has to help. And try to decide if her undeniable chemistry with Patrick, the hot single dad is worth taking a chance on. 

Bright lights, big Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews preorder (Sept. 26th) link

Grilled Salsa Verde Chicken with Pepper Jack recipe

Quick and tasty

Review: The Absolutes

The Absolutes by Molly Dektar
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

I looked for ways to be her dog. 

Told all from Nora's point-of-view, your enjoyment of The Absolutes is going to depend on how long you can swim around in lit fic with an “artist temperament” vibe for a little over three hundred pages. Nora has been sent to Turin, Italy by her parents to spend time with some cousins because at fifteen years old, she's been self-harming (cutting on her thigh) and seems to be in a general malaise. There, she grows an attachment to her cousin Federica and her emotions swirl around wanting to control, be controlled, and sexual attraction. There's some felt tension there between the girls and as we don't have Federica's pov, we never really know how much Nora is creating in her own mind or interpreting correctly. When Nora starts to have a panic attack on the slopes, a man comforts her out of it. Federica says the man's name is Nicola and he comes from one of the most dangerous families in Italy. 

Maybe he was creating the truth and then I had to live in it; we were opposites. 

This was broken into three parts, the first with Nora in Italy and giving readers a look at how her submissive tendencies were taking form and how she imprinted on Nicola. There's some time jump with Nicola in college and then seeing Nicola again at a party, only strengthening her obsession with him as he seems like such an unknown quantity. The second half has Nora aged up to twenty-eight and now working for a friend named Patrick, who also happens to know Nicola, and living with a man named Leif. The second half delivers on the predictable dancing around if Nora and Nicola are going to have an affair but tries to make it interesting by cloaking it in Nora's artist temperament and dangerous undertones of Nicola's relationship with his father and the unsaid fact that they are mafia. 

I wondered as I did so often whether he was finding me or inventing me. 

I felt this was too long, I drowned in the lit fic-ness of it all and the “Nora is so Different than all other plebs”. It really is a story of a young girl that book clubs could argue about if she has mental health issues that need to be helped with or if she is someone who has a very submissive personality and needs and craves that kind of handling. Even though we never get Nicola's thoughts, I could see book clubs discussing if he was manipulating Nora, by acting out what he thinks she wanted or if he really was the personality that meshed with Nora. If some of the long winding self-indulgent passages had been edited, this could have come across sharper. The third part shed some light on the truth of the manipulation for me and an ending with the road Nora seems to be firmly on. Nora was an interesting character but adding in some of the mafia plot with Nicola and wallowing in how everyone else as too blah made the story drag.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Sunday delights! 

Frozen s'mores and a seductive, psychological thriller. 

Nora is an anxious withdrawn American teen who goes to live with relatives in Italy. There she meets Nicola, a son of the most powerful aristocrat family in the country. When he helps her through a panic attack, Nora develops blind trust and desire for him. 

When they reconnect years later in New York, they start an affair and Nora finds herself drawn into a revenge plot that has her trust and desire warring. 

This sound deliciously intriguing 

The Absolutes by Molly Dektar (July 11th) purchase link

Frozen S'mores recipe

So good! Fun summer treat and pretty easy to make

Review: A Rogue at Stonecliffe

A Rogue at Stonecliffe by Candace Camp
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.3 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

To save the woman he loved, he would have to give her up. 

A Rogue at Stonecliffe stars two characters that were introduced in the first of the series, An Affair at Stonecliffe. While you'd be a little lost understanding some family and friendship dynamics, I do think you could jump into the series here. Annabeth and Sloane were two characters that instantly caught my attention when I was reading the first. Annabeth the quieter friend and Sloane the black sheep cousin, and when it was hinted at that these two had a past, I was highly anticipating their book. I was locked into the beginning of this with a prologue that showed these two madly in love, only to have it come to a screeching halt when Sloane is approached by a spymaster for England's foreign office and blackmailed to become a spy and smuggler. Turns out that Annabeth's father has been dealing with his own blackmail and is in danger of being outed as a turncoat, giving English secrets to the French. Sloane, not wanting Annabeth to have to reap the emotional and societal repercussions of having her father revealed as a traitor, breaks off their engagement and leaves to go be a spy in the war. 

“I didn't lie to you.” His eyes burned into hers, and he moved closer. 

Twelve years go by and Sloane's looked down in society as a smuggler and traitor to England, so even though the war is over and he's made money, he still stays away from Annabeth. If you read the first, you'll remember that Annabeth finally agreed to become engaged to her childhood friend Nathan when he was on his deathbed. When she starts cleaning out the home her father left her in his will for them to move into after they're married, it stirs up a hornet's nest. Like I said, I loved the beginning of this, with seeing how happy and in love Annabeth and Sloane were to the heartbreaking decision Sloane had to make to not tell Annabeth why he was abruptly leaving her. When these two finally talked after the twelve years separation, you could feel the love and hurt. It was teeth gritting emotion that I anticipated burning up the pages but the story took a little bit of a pivot with concentrating more on the spy mystery. 

He'd been chasing the wrong villain. 

Annabeth gets kidnapped with her maid and when Nathan goes to Sloane, thinking he's behind it, it alerts Sloane to the danger Annabeth is now in. Sloane realizes that Annabeth's maid is really an old spy buddy he worked with during the war, Verity. Verity was hired by a P.I. to find a document that was supposedly written by Annabeth's father outing, not only himself as a traitor, but the person that blackmailed him into committing his acts and is a traitor themselves and one the foreign office has been searching for. The plot pulls in the spymaster Sloane and Verity worked for and some of Annabeth's family and friends as they become redherrings, along with Annabeth's grandmother and her not to be messed with pug readers will remember from the first. The mystery plot gets a bit loose with having to search out puzzle boxes Annabeth's father made and hoping the document is in one of them and they begin to travel around sort of searching for them. Really though, it's to deliver the forced proximity for our second chance couple. 

Was it because she wanted to prove that she could resist Sloane? Or because she wanted to give into the temptation? 

I thought this couple had the chemistry in the beginning and the potential for amazing explosive emotion to revel in throughout the story and when they were together and focusing on their issues, I did feel pulled back in but the mystery just takes over too much in the second half. It gave the story kind of an uneven pace, heating up when Annabeth and Sloane focus on them and then slowing when the mystery plot dragged out too much with it's going in circles. There was also too much stagnated repetitiveness with some of the relationship, I wanted Annabeth and Sloane to get into it earlier and develop from there instead of saying some of the same stuff over and over. 

Sloane was not the boy she had loved. But she had the uneasy feeling that she was falling in love with the man he'd become. 

I did enjoy how Annabeth's character did show some growth, she realizes that she has just been letting other people dictate her life, she didn't fight for Sloane when he first left her. I liked how this had Annabeth taking more agency at the end and fired up her character. I'm not sure I saw the same in Sloane, he has some of that self-righteousness attitude, saying he left and took all the blame when he was trying to protect Annabeth but gets called out on it some when it becomes clear he never truly felt good enough for her and was always waiting for the other shoe to drop in their beginning relationship. I would have liked Sloane to show more actionable want for Annabeth at the end, that we got glimpses of in the beginning. 

A groan sounded deep in his throat and he turned, setting her on the dresser, sweeping away the objects atop it and sending them tumbling to the floor. 

The ending reveal of who was behind the traitorous deeds was somewhat predictable but delivered with some last second danger. I was a little disappointed in how quickly and a bit ho-hum, with the oft used, “she almost died!” so now I'm going to go for her declaration of love we got from Sloane at the very end. I wanted a bit more of the beginning's teeth gritting emotion instead of the focus on the spy mystery but I still think this was a couple that people will enjoy reading about.

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50%

He started to leave, but at the door, he turned back and said, "There's a lock on the door." He pointed to the key sitting in the keyhole.

"I told you, I'm not afraid of you, Sloane," she said tartly.

"No, you wouldn't be." He looked at her for a long moment, then gave her a sardonic smile. "Maybe it's me that's afraid."

Reading Update: Page 1

 

Y'all. I knew it. Last year's winner for my favorite secondary character was Sloane Rutherford, the hero of this book. 

I'm 15% in and this man is already hanging on by thread. He and Annabeth were madly in love but he was blackmailed to keep it a secret that her father was a traitor and because of the spying he then had to do, hasn't seen her in 12yrs. 

First time he talks with her? Already having to grit those teeth Hard to not spill the beans why he left. He can't even make it 10mins 😭 

He's got an enemy though and thinks Annabeth might be in danger, I think I sense some forced proximity in his future 😈 

A Rogue at Stonecliffe by Candace Camp purchase link

Thai Sweet Chili Turkey Meatballs recipe

Pretty easy to make and liked the flavoring

Review: The Wall of Winnipeg and Me

The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

He didn’t have pictures of family or friends anywhere in the house. His entire life revolved around football. It was the center of his universe. 

For the last two years, Vanessa has been the personal assistant for Aiden “The Wall of Winnipeg” Graves, a professional defensive football player. Finally saving up enough money to make a go at her personal graphic design business, she works up the courage to tell Aiden she's quitting. Aiden's never been a very communicative guy, if at all, but she expected a little disappoint and asking for her to stay on for how well she's gotten his life running and stayed out of his way. However, a few weeks later he shows up and asks her to come back to work and when she refuses, he claims he needs her help to even stay in the country, as he's Canadian and his visa is expiring. 

“Marry me.” 

At almost five hundred pages, this was a bit longer than typical contemporary romances but even told all from Vanessa's point-of-view and spending a lot of time in her head, this had that devour quickly readability. There's a few things you're going to have to go along with, the whole marriage of convenience trope usage, because there were no later reveals as to a different reasoning or sly maneuvering by Aiden, after I finished the story it was pretty hard to think back on this professional football player needing to marry to stay in the country. He's coming off an injury that tries to make it seem like his career could be in jeopardy but that never really materializes into any felt danger for him. For the main plot point to keep these two together, it felt like it held up as well as cotton candy does in the rain. The other main thing you're going to have to not get too worked up about is Aiden's character. He comes off as a jerk, explained away by his singular focus on his football career and with this all from Vanessa's pov, well, he's a bit of cardboard cutout depth. The latter second half had him wising up to how to invest more energy into treating Vanessa better and we get some background on how his childhood shaped him (abusive father, later raised by grandparents) but while the focus on Vanessa's side of the romance is always throughout, Aiden's character was pretty shallow. 

Everything I thought I knew seemed to spiral out of control. He was messing with me. Flirting with me. Aiden Graves. What was this? 

While I missed some depth from Aiden's character, there were a couple serotonin hits from this couple, Aiden obviously wanting Vanessa in his jersey instead of his roommate and became Vanessa's friend, Zac, two times he showed up big for her, and when he said “wife”. These were pure sugary goodness that make you want to squeal in delight but, again, like cotton candy, after I finished, I couldn't help wondering where the substance was. This almost had a women's fiction vibe with how much we get of Vanessa and life and struggles. How horrible her home life was growing up, the accident that left her with knee issues, the bullying she endured from her sisters, and how she eventually went to live in foster care. Her younger brother makes an appearance and her bestfriend from childhood, Diana, adds an emotional storyline dealing with domestic abuse to help fill out the longer page count. 

“I pay attention,” the Wall of Winnipeg stated. I was starting to think he was right. 

I really enjoyed the friendship Vanessa had with Zac and for awhile there, I almost thought they were going to end up in the romance but before the halfway mark, Vanessa and Aiden are in their marriage of convenience. This was a very slow burn romance, it wasn't until the latter second half that they really start to come together and we get more little touches that finally evolved into an open door ending scene, which ended up kind of feeling tagged on to me. The epilogue jumped a couple years into the future and delivered more of that sugary sweet. If there had been more of a revealing or acknowledging that Aiden manipulated the need to marry for his visa, I would have finished this and felt more like I'd not only seen more depth to his character but also not look back on that plot point with so much side-eye. Readability and delivering some of those well known romance moment hits had me flying through this but after I was done, I couldn't help but look back and miss some substance. If you want a football romance (J.J. Watt fans need apply here) without much actual sports integration, touching on serious issues like physical abuse, romance serotonin hit moments, a very slow burn, and spun like cotton candy, this would be a great pickup.

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Reading Update: 70%

 

🎆Happy 4th of July!🎆 

These little ice cream cone cupcakes turned out so cute, I had to get festive 😋 😍 

Big guy, just tell her you love her already!!! 

I'm about 70% through this and these two need to just admit they want each other! 

And yes, friends, I'm finally reading the book you've all been recommending me for a while now. 

There's been some laugh out loud moments (Vanessa wearing Zac's jersey to the game 🤣) but mostly I'm anticipating the moment when these two slow burn fools finally burn up the sheets! 

The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata

I used this cupcake recipe - Chocolate Cupcakes 

and this frosting recipe - Wedding Cupcake Buttercream

I'm going to want to make these every year because of how cute they turned out!

Review: Buffalo Girl

Buffalo Girl by Jessica Q. Stark
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

When I began isn't clear, but isn't it obvious that                          we always had a knack 

for stories about little girls in danger? 

Buffalo Girl was the exploring and working through emotions and traumas caused by sexism, racism, war, losing cultural connections, and a mother and daughter relationship in poetic prose. The book was divided into three sections that dealt with the effects of relationships, mother and daughter, mother and father, and outside influences, background on mother's lived experience, and finally the jarring experience of leaving Vietnam and living in America. 

Let's find a way out of here 

let's take apart the woods 

While the prose was poetry, there was also a telling of story through the lens of the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. The author draws from the lesson of little girls needing to be wary of wolves and applied it to the dangers her mother faced in Vietnam. While the book mainly deals with the lived experiences of the author and her mother, there was also some historical cultural tie-ins with mentions of the Trung Sisters, Trần Lệ Xuân, and Triệu Thị Trinh (Buffalo Girl), relating to the shared experience of these women throughout the times, the type of violence women experience. 

If she couldn't become a new dawn, she'd settle for a buffalo. 

Throughout the book there was also collage pictures, made up of the author's mother's old photographs taken, the author's photos of plants and flowers, and drawings of Little Red Riding Hood. I thought the applying of the Little Red fairy tale was an interesting way to explore and comment on societal acceptance and ignoring of violence woman are subjected to and how indoctrination works. My favorite poem was The Furies and a few poem lines about how they were living in America after the Vietnam War and how her mother saw men who would be considered war criminals in Vietnam, being lauded and celebrated as heroes. The anger and pain came through at points, for what the mother lived through and how it caused the author to lose important cultural ties but also the endurance and strength of the author, her mother (her sense of humor), and women in general. Overall, this was an effective artistic expression of loss, pain, anger but also strength and endurance.

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Reading Update: Page 1

Having a quiet Sunday afternoon with lunch and some poetry. 

Jessica Q. Stark explores her mother's fraught immigration to the United States from Vietnam at the end of the war. 

I've read couple poems and added with the gorgeous photos taken by Stark's mother, this is turning out to be an emotional and personal look at a life fiercely led. 

It's also using the tale of Little Red Riding Hood to frame and call out sexism and racism. 

Buffalo Girl by Jessica Q. Stark purchase link

Sweet and Spicy Sesame Chicken Meatballs recipe

This had a little too much sesame oil used in it for me

Review: The Happiness Plan

The Happiness Plan by Susan Mallery
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

Featuring characters that appeared in the Blackberry Island series, The Happiness Plan follows three friends, Heather, Tori, and Daphne and the three brothers, Campbell, Grant, and Brody that are the connection links in their friend group. Written with all the friends' lives and stories intermingling, this was a good women's fiction beach read that offered emotional highs and lows. Told from only the women's point-of-views, the focus was more on their character make-ups and development, the men were pretty distant and came off as stilted characters to me. From emotional affairs, miscarriages, finding a biological father, and realizing you're in love with your bestfriend, each woman's story offered a different emotional struggle. 

Taking a chance on giving her heart was beyond impossible. There was too much risk and not enough reward. But that didn't mean she didn't miss him. 

Readers of the Blackberry series will remember Heather and the fear of her falling in love with Campbell. When Campbell pushed for more of a solid commitment from Heather, she broke up with him but now that he is seeing someone else, Heather can't get rid of the pang in her heart. Heather probably got more of the page count and had the most to work through. Growing up with an emotionally manipulative mother has made her fear love as she can't trust the other person won't demand and drag her down like her mother tried. She also learns who her biological father is through an ancestry site and tentatively starts to have a relationship with him, his wife, and their two daughters. 

I thought some of the actions by Heather's father and wife felt a bit forced, getting Heather's character to grow in leaps and bounds in regards to learning to accept and give love but at least her character did show and give growth. Her romance with Campbell was probably the most absent, as he's dating someone else the vast majority, but they do get their HEA because of the aforementioned growth by Heather. I felt the most satisfaction when Heather finally took a stand with her horrible mother. 

She was lucky when it came to her friends. Less lucky when it came to men. 

Tori works with Heather and has a “non-couple” friendship with Campbell's brother Grant, an ER doctor. Tori and Grant live across the hall from each other and with him working nights and her working days, they take care of each other's animals. Tori hates change and loves their routine but when the condos get severe water damage, they end up renting a place together, and Tori is confronted with the fact that Grant has decided to start dating. Losing her mother young and distant from the sister that hadn't wanted to take on the responsibility of raising her, their little friend group is all the family she has. Seeing how Heather has been pushed out a little as she's no longer dating Campbell and he's bringing his new girlfriend around, Tori's scared to admit to even herself that she has more than friend feelings with Grant. 

This was probably the lightest story as Tori and Grant didn't have quite as much baggage as the other two couples. We get a good amount of backstory on Tori and her issues of fear of change and not wanting to rock the boat with her great friendship with Grant but Grant was pretty much a couple of pencil marks on a page. Their friendship and little touches obviously pointed to more and when Grant sees Tori in a towel, they're suddenly jumping into bed, but there wasn't really any emotional depth from Grant or to their romance. They get their HEA because Tori admits she's in real love with Grant and he just comes to the realization that yeah, he loves her too. 

How had this all happened? she thought, wiping her cheeks as her breath came in choking sobs. How had they lost their way? 

Daphne and Brody, probably because they are already married, felt the most heavy emotion story. They're newlyweds and Brody has accused Daphne of cheating on him when he discovers a partner at the law firm she works at sent her flowers. Daphne goes to lunch with Miguel and while recognizes he's sexy, she feels that there is nothing wrong with their working friendship. With Daphne's seventy hour work weeks, and Brody's three children from a previous marriage suddenly spending more time at their house, these two have lost time to connect. Daphne's also hurt that when she brought up wanting to try for a baby, Brody told her the timing wasn't good yet, so now she thinks he just using made up anger about Miguel to distract from the fact that he doesn't ever want a baby with her. 

Like with Tori and Grant, we get way more from Daphne and Brody remained more of an outline of a hurt, angry husband. The majority of the time was spent with Daphne not wanting to acknowledge that she was having an emotional affair and therefore keeping Brody from being able to move on. With them growing more distant, Daphne also finds out she's pregnant and is scared Brody won't believe the baby is his. Not really knowing Brody had me kind of aghast at how he treated Daphne. He makes breakfast for himself and the kids but doesn't give Daphne any, when he sees Daphne smiling while reading an email (it had to do with a possible house for them to stay at for vacation) he nastily asks if it's an email from Miguel, and Daphne thinking her husband wouldn't believe her baby was his, had his petty attitude, from who is supposed to be an adult and love this woman, really souring me on him. For how deep some of their issues were, their story wrapped up fairly quickly when Daphne admitted she could see she had an emotional affair and Brody suddenly was fine with everything. 

The three stories intertwined to give fairly deep looks at different emotional issues from all three women, the men characters were kind of left to the side. If you're looking for a beach read with some variety of relationship issues, animals like cute kittens and dogs getting screen time, found family vibes, and headed by three woman trying to work out their love lives, then this would be on to pick up.

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