Reading Update: 40%

 

A quick meal and sneaking some reading in before the MN Twins playoff baseball game for me tonight! 

Losing his mother and then abandoned by father to an orphanage, an adult Gabriel finds out that he is actually the legitimate heir to a Dukedom. Making his own way in the world by winning a gaming hell, he's got fortune but not quite the social skills to survive the ton, he needs help and help for the six halfsisters that are now his responsibility. 

Vivienne is trying to help her wayward brother and protect the Inheritance he'll come into in three years from their stepfather. When Gabriel comes up with a deal for her to help him and his sisters learn the ways of the ton in exchange for forgetting her brother's debt to his club, Vivienne accepts. 

These two think it will be a simple business relationship but we readers know differently 😉 

I'm about halfway through and these two haven't spent much time together but I have hopes for the second half!

Dreaming of a Duke Like You by Sara Bennett (Oct.10th) purchase link

California Avocado Chicken recipe

Review: Woman On The Run

Woman On The Run by Lisa Marie Rice
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Reading Updates: 20% 

30% 

I'm glad this is tagged as erotic (and erotica but I think it's more the first) because that is what I was here for. The story is a dime a dozen in rom-suspense. Uptight book editor city gal Julia witnesses a murder committed by a mafia guy and has to go into witness protection. She gets sent to in the boonies small town Idaho and is given the cover as a school teacher(????). There she meets former Navy SEAL now turned rancher(LOVE it, lol) Cooper. He's the looming strong silent type who also comes from a cursed family, for generations women have either died or ran away from the ranch leaving their menfolk and one child they were only able to bear. There's also sinister povs of an assassin who is hunting Julia to kill her and collect on the $1 million (later bumped up to $2mil!) bounty on her head to stop her from testifying against mafia guy and povs from the US Marshall in charge of Julia's case. 

It's all a little suspenseful and a little predictable (this was published in 1999 and I think more modern readers are going to guess and spoil the supposed to be shock reveal of the assassin) but enjoyable typical rom-suspense. You even get an O.K. Corral like shooting ending. Fun! I'm getting impatient because I want to talk about what had me reading this book in one setting but there's some Julia finding her place and helping/becoming friends with townspeople for setting and her and Cooper do talk and bond, and when the Marshall's have a flub on their end, he gets to be take charge alpha man and protective of Julia. Per one of my updates, I also learned about the (maybe) fun fact about champagne glasses and Maria Antoinette's boobs and what a fern bar was (I was born in the 80s and must have missed this 70s phenomenon). All cool and will hopefully clench a bar trivia win for me someday. 

But honestly, just whatever to all that because, my friends, thank goodness this was tagged as erotic/a because that became what I was solely here for lol. 

He’s magnificent, was all Julia could think as Cooper approached her slowly, broad shoulders blocking out the rest of the room. Moisture—condensation? rain?—clung to his inky hair and Julia’s hands itched to run her fingers through the thick dark pelt. His expression was stern as always. She wanted to touch his face, see if she could make the frown lines go away, trace that hard, beautiful mouth with her finger. Cooper came up so close to her that she had to tilt her head. He looked down at her and his face had never seemed more harsh, more angular. 

“Come with me,” he said. “Now.” 

“Yes, Cooper,” Julia whispered, and put her curried drumstick down on the tablecloth, missing her plate by a good ten inches. Cooper grabbed her hand and dragged her through the door and towards a black pickup. “Where are we going?” Julia cried. 

Cooper practically threw her into the cab, got in and pulled away with a squeal of tires. “To your house,” he said tightly. “This time we’re going to get it right. We’re going to fuck all night.” 

The curried drumstick not only got put the f down, it didn't even make the plate!!!! Now, I know posting quotes like this out of context can sometimes seem cheesy but as a someone who more often than not loathes insta-lust, again, I was HERE for it. These two had chemistry and as I said in my first update, examples of why they were lusting, it didn't feel empty at all, that heat was there, present, and shown. When he dropped that last line, it was gawd damn! from me. This sweater set woman was clutching her pearls but that hand was SWEATY. I loved it how lusty she was for him and how it was written to deliver emotions and make me the reader believe in their lusty heat. 

So, yeah, I finally have an insta-lust story to recommend :) 

Also, ol' Coop wasn't just raging hormones: The only other time in his life in which his hand trembled had been the first time with her. Sally Anderson was slowly undoing him. Then putting him back together. A better man. 

Sally is Julia's witness protection alias

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30%

All of a sudden he could see that the old saying—a woman’s breast should fit into a champagne glass—was absolutely true. And here he’d gone for women whose breasts would fit into the ice bucket.

"the old saying" ???????????

 

*so another instance of a romance book furthering my education. This has to do with Marie Antoinette and rumorish historical "fact" that champagne glasses (not the tall flute, small margarita like champagne ones, I was confused asf lol) are the size they are because they were measured by the queen's breast. I can't believe I didn't already know this. ME. Historical fun fact has taken 1st in bar trivia ME. Lost my mind. 

This was, easily, an hour worth of conversation in casa Whiskey.

Reading Update: 20%

Up to now, she would have sworn that all her sex hormones were in her head. Her three affairs had started because she’d found that the man shared her taste in literature or had interesting reasons why not, or because he was a witty conversationalist or because he made her laugh. Definitely not because his large, strong hands, which had a light dusting of black hairs on the backs, rested with easy, elegant competence on the wheel, or because the muscles in his forearm did a fascinating dance every time he shifted gears or because when he popped the clutch, thick muscles played under the jeans from his knees to his groin… Julia whipped her head around and stared blindly out the window.

Ok, I think it's been fairly well established that I have a problem with insta-lust, I get nothing from reading it. But I would also make the argument that I usually don't get anything from it is because usually I feel like it is written so empty. 

This passage right here, I believe in this lust. Maybe because I also have had lip biting moments watching a man drive but it's also due to this writing. This couple is insta-lust but wooooo boy am I not only believing in it because of this, example if you will, but am feeling very invested in this heating up romance. 

Review: Sweetpea

Sweetpea by C.J. Skuse
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 

I wanted to murder the world. 

When Rhiannon was six years old, her childminder and all five of the other kids were murdered by the estranged husband, who committed suicide after. Rhiannon was hit in the head by the husband with a hammer, but survived, laying underneath the decapitated childminder for hours before they were discovered. The hit to her ventromedial prefrontal cortex was severe and caused her to have to relearn everything, talking, walking. It also gave her a little bit of celebrity, with going on tv to do interviews all over and money from people that felt bad. Also, it's caused Rhiannon to have murderous rage, that she acts on. 

Half the time, I admit, I crave normality, domesticity: a family, other heartbeats around, a comfy sofa of an evening and little pots of floral happiness growing silently on the balcony. The other half of the time, I want nothing more than to kill. To watch. 

Told from Rhiannon's point-of-view from what are supposed to be her inner musings laid out like diary entries, Sweetpea was a long read into a Dexter like character. Having read How to Kill Men and Get Away with It by Katy Brent recently before this, I think some of my enjoyment was dampened a little because of how similar the characters and story were. Rhiannon, with her past, had more of a rounded out explanation than the Brent lead but at four hundred and seventy-two pages, this simply went on too long. The middle definitely sagged as Rhiannon's opinions about PICSOs (People I Can't Shake Off, friends she needs to appear “normal”) and every inconvenience or grievance she had in life was repeated, easily two hundred pages of this could have been cut out. 

It was all so forced, like when I had to give my mum a cuddle as a kid or when I was expected to cry but it just felt like rain trickling down a window. Someone else's window. 

Each chapter started with a kill list and the beginning will have you locked in as you get to know Rhiannon and question if she is just completely honest in her diary about her feelings or if she acts on them, that question does get answered fairly quickly and strongly when it becomes apparent that she has kidnapped an old school bully. The story then had some good reveals, how she witnessed her father joining in vigilante justice and beating up a pedophile and how this probably leads to her creating a set of killing rules, men who hurt women/kids and no one innocent. As the story goes on, it's revealed when and why Rhiannon has killed and readers might even start to side with her but the latter second half shows some cracks in her rules. How her not getting a promotion at work she thought she deserved, finding out her boyfriend of four years is cheating on her with a coworker, Rhiannon sleeping with someone at work to help her own cause, and all around self-serving actions that she does to “fit-in” and not cause suspicion her way. 

If only they all knew what this quiet little sweetpea could do. 

Even though this was nearly five hundred pages, it ends with a cliffhanger and I found it a bit maddening. It almost felt forced to create the series but I will also admit it did follow the unraveling of Rhiannon's sanity, it just was a very slow journey to it. Something Rhiannon set-up in the beginning (there are clues to what she is doing) comes back to bite her and the happy ending she seemed on track for, gets washed away and a possible new reporter that took Rhiannon's promotion could be on to her. If you like reading crass, honest with how she hates the world and people in it, splatter murdering, getting you to think about nature versus nurture, and necrophilia, the Sweetpea series would be for you.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Carrying on the murder mayhem from September, starting Sweetpea today 

🔪🎃🔪 

Sweetpea hasn't killed anyone in three years but, oops, a relapse...and she liked it. 

Rhinannon had a little bit of fame from her childhood and a famous crime but now lives a normal life with her boyfriend and dog. But does she? 

All I'm saying is don't cut her off while driving. 

Sweetpea by C.J. Skuse (repub Oct. 31st) purchase link

Slowcooker Shredded BBQ Chicken recipe

Review: Squelch

Squelch by John Halkin
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

After all, it was only a moth: wasn’t it? 

This starts off with a twelve year old breaking into a research facility and stealing a box of caterpillars to later take back and impress his friends. But alas, crime doesn't pay and when a caterpillar breaks out of the box and starts biting him, he falls down screaming in pain. It's a free for all then as the other caterpillars attack and start burrowing into the little boy. Back at the facility they notice someone broke in but a cat gets blamed when it's dead body is found broken on the caterpillar cage. A kid and an animal dying in the prologue?? I thought I was in for a squelchy good time but the story then jumps a few months, have to give time for the caterpillars to become moth airborne killers, and then we meet, Ginny. She just quit her job as a director on a soap opera series, broken up with her boyfriend of three years, and going to try and find herself in the outskirts of London in a little cottage. 

Normally she didn’t like creepie-crawlies, yet here she was now – completely calm, for all the world as though she were receiving visitors. 

Ginny encounters a moth at the cottage right away but there's this almost bond between them as she doesn't kill it but gently brings it back outside to fly away. Readers see a different side of the moths as the ex-bf that helped her move in is attacked when he's driving as the moths seem to try to kill him. This starts the murderous little cut scenes as caterpillars and moths attack people who are alone or only in groups of two while we always come back to Ginny and her desire to bang her brother-in-law. 

Her body lay twisted unnaturally on the grass with fat green caterpillars – six at least – gorging themselves on her. 

Ginny's cottage is by her sister Lesley and her doctor husband Bernie. Lesley gets bitten by one of the caterpillars and ends up in the hospital. But don't worry, Ginny realizes that sleeping with her sister's husband while in she's in the hospital would not be the thing. They wait until the caterpillars and moths start attacking larger groups of people and people start running scared. Lesley takes her kids and goes a few towns over. Ginny and Bernie bang that night. In Lesley's home. In Lesley's bed. The story then takes a disaster movie turn and it's carnage, the caterpillars and moths are slaughtering a hundred people at fêtes and church get togethers. They're making their way to London! 

Calmly she went about the task of slaughtering those moths one by one, bringing the hoe blade sharply down on each to sever the wings and crush the body. 

The sister finds out about the affair, a slap to the face, and then a couple more months go by where the caterpillars are doing their thing until they turn into moths and Ginny has convinced herself still sleeping with her sister's husband will be ok (at one point she wonders if Lesley won't mind sharing???). A renegade pilot enters the picture, he has the hots for Ginny (I forgot to mention the seventy year old Reverend that also had the hots for Ginny) but when the caterpillars/moths make their murderous return he's fighting along side Ginny and others to save people. The government wants to try and keep things hush-hush (???) about the murderous rampage making it's way to London but ol' renegade pilot gets on to something and he renegades, by bringing in a plane full of monitor lizards from Africa. Just as the caterpillars/moths are doing their charge he comes back, crashes the plane and releases the monitor lizards! The lizards gorge and save the day. Bernie dies. England advises people to keep monitor lizards as pets from here on out. 

Or did they get them all? The ending has Ginny in her cottage communing with a moth. (there was also Ginny writing a movie script about the whole thing and the renegade pilot shipping it to friends in America and her possibly getting a movie deal for a true author wish fulfillment ending)

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10%

 

A moth? He almost laughed, relieved that at least it wasn’t dangerous. 

Oh buddy, you in the wrong story 

Suddenly he was blinded when a moth on his face succeeded in blotting out everything with its spreading wings. And squealing in triumph. 

See, told you. 

But also, "squealing in triumph" 😂

Reading Update: Page 1

Sometimes Halloween Bingo takes me places I don't typically go in the literary world (movie world, I live there).

Behold, the read I'm starting tonight:

 for the square   

Who wants to take bets I wake up in the middle of the night thinking something is crawling on me?? 

Review: Things to See in Arizona

Things to See in Arizona by Mary Vensel White
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.3 stars 

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

Growing up also means feeling a little reckless and ready to be seen. 

Tuesday has graduated highschool and wants to leave Scottsdale for Flagstaff to go to college, but even that is too far for her nervous mother. She only has ten days before the deadline to commit to Northern Arizona University but with her dad suddenly leaving a, somewhat, cryptic letter saying he needs a break and time to himself in Albuquerque, she finds herself with a whole new set of worries. Tuesday's trying to find not only her dad on this last second road trip but explore a possible relationship with her bestfriend's brother, understand her family more, but also find herself as she encounters adulthood. 

I need to find out where he is and get him back home as soon as possible. 

Things to See in Arizona is tagged a young adult story and with an eighteen year old character telling the story all from her point-of-view, I can see the argument for it but the tone read more contemporary adult looking back/nostalgia fiction, with some literary vibes. The writing style had a tendency to meander off into overly descriptive literary fiction with Tuesday adding flowy and colorful adjectives to such things as relatives clothing as she reminisced in flashbacks. I thought the main plot was going to be her looking for her father but the story was more about Tuesday being upset that her family, friends, and especially mother worried about and only thought of her in terms of a condition she was recently diagnosed with, Retinitis Pigmentosa. Tuesday thinks about how it isn't curable but might not even progress to blindness while also trying to work through how it feels like a looming guillotine above her. 

“[...] As you get older, Tuesday; you'll find that much of life is wasted in the space where we don't say what we're feeling.” 

A little romance arc gets thrown in when her bestfriend's brother ends up going on the road trip with her to look for her dad in Albuquerque. They end up going to locations off a Weird Places in Arizona and New Mexico map and another little small arc about how her grandmother saw auroras and how Tuesday has “sightings” where she can see flashes of how a person looked in their past and future, with some feelings of pain they might be having or had. It's small enough that I wouldn't give this a supernatural tag, which is how a lot of this story felt, a few small enough additions that never quite felt filled out enough and mashed together in kind of an unfitting collage. The dad storyline ended up feeling disappointing to me as he was found very easily and then we only spent about three pages with him. The story then veered to Tuesday's romance, bestfriend's romance with a band member, and them going to a concert. 

Family dramas and history, growing up learning how to fit in your family, and beginning to find yourself, with a light romance arc, this felt more like literary adult fiction about a YA character and a handful of little additive threads that never quite flowed together right for me.

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