Sunday, We Salad! And Dessert!

The weather has been so beautiful where I'm at, it's a little hot but knowing what is just around the corner I'll take as much sun as I can. I think I'm going to make this the last Sunday Salad and go back to Soup in September :)

Strawberry Avocado Spinach Salad with Chicken

The recipe called for golden balsamic vinegar, Target didn't have it, so I just used the dark I had in the pantry. It probably made the taste stronger, but we loved it so, You're not the boss of me, recipe!

I let these babies soak for 2hrs because I had time and I like things with a stronger taste. Plus, I hate when my bath time gets cut short, so here's to you, chicken!

Well, here's to you until I fry you to death. Mwwwhahahahhahaha!

STRAWBERRIES! I love me some strawberries and avocado. The new peanut butter and jelly, I say!

I like silvered almonds better than sliced, so again, "I do what I want!". Feta cheese, I could sing odes to feta cheese on salads. A must!

Look at those beautiful bowls :)  This salad was so simple but I'm telling you, the taste combos, especially the seasoning on chicken, blended together so awesome. I loved this one and so did the bf. Yummy simplicity. 

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

If there any thing more fun than flouring a pan?! Probably.

Drink every time the wrapped sweet potato photo bombs!

Or my huge foot.

I haven't made a from scratch cake for a while, I forgot how long they take. They take a long time.

Bf went to the grocery store this time, he didn't get the light sour cream. On the outside, I frown. On the inside, I'm all a tingle. 

You will definitely need three lemons for this, 3 tablespoons of zest is no joke. 

Does anyone else feel kind of weird when you don't need the juice from a lemon, just zest, and leave a massacred, looks like a serial killer went at it, lemon on your counter top? I always do a quick, "Thank you for your noble sacrifice" and toss in trash.

Look at that lemon poppy seed popping cake!

Sometimes, I wish I didn't visually see what goes in my dessert. You get a stick of butter, you get a stick of butter, EVERYONE GETS A STICK OF BUTTER! 

Seriously though, don't add up the butter in this cake.

The frosting calls for a teaspoon of lemon juice. Get out of here with that nonsense I say! I added the whole lemon because lemon desserts are kind of my thing and I want NEED to taste that sweet sweet sour taste. Didn't make the icing too runny either. Bonus. 

The cake was nice and fluffy but the recipe suggests you put leftovers in the fridge. When I had a piece after refrigeration, it made it more sort of hard/dry than I like. If you can eat most of it before refrigerating, I suggest you do. Otherwise, my lemony icing was awesome and the cake part had a nice taste but it wasn't as strong or awe inspiring as I would have liked. A box mix would come kind of close to this and would save you a butt load of time. 

Show me your salads and desserts!

Reading Update: 50%

She had her own terrible secrets; she could leave him his, safe and somehow comforted with the knowledge that both of their souls were stained with sins.
Maybe they were both beyond forgiveness.
Maybe...they deserved each other.

Review: The Skilled Seduction

The Skilled Seduction by Tracy Goodwin
My rating: 2 of 5 stars



The general regency feel of this made it nothing special along with the incredibly stretched out "I love him! But now he wants to marry me because I'm compromised but I shall never marry him because I don't think he loves me!".
I think this was around 400pgs and yet we have:
- a huge backstory continuing from previous books in series where both family's fathers were abusive psychos
- a sister/sister-in-law who almost dies from some mysterious fever that keeps her hot and comatose for a couple days only to wake up and miraculously recover. Seriously, that's all we get about the fever
- a kidnapping, semi-forced elopement
- secret maybe, maybe not love child who brings along a last second villain
- a miscarriage
- a loooooooooong drawn out loved him forever, I'm not good enough for her

Every thing with the kitchen sink touched on but never delved deep to feel emotional. This was an emo drama lama

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Review: First Star I See Tonight

First Star I See Tonight by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I really wanted to love this one because Phillips is a favorite author but after I could feel myself pushing to enjoy it, I let go of expectations.

I felt like we never got to really delve into the hero's character and while I enjoyed the offbeat personality of the heroine, it felt forced. Their snarky dialogue felt stuttered, robotic, and didn't always flow for me. The emotion I typically love from Phillip's books was missing here for me. I've talked about loving some of her past books and looking back now and noticing some problematic issues, well, older me caught some slight things (heroine waking up to them having sex brought back This Heart of Mine big issue and kind of meshed together in my mind, rightly or wrongly, and gave me an icky feeling) that I wasn't able to ignore here.

My main issue, though, I just didn't feel the emotional connection and missed the growth of the hero and heroine's relationship; they just kind of verbally spar back and forth and then suddenly they are in love.

This just, sadly, wasn't for me.

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July Reading Roundup

Summer is still here and I am still here for it! It has been a steady 80 degs and I actually have some color to my whitewalker skin (speaking of which, was anyone else like dude, Bran, No? Who says that?!). I greatly enjoyed my recommendations month and once again a hearty thank-you to Quirky Omega; Shannon Burke; Anne; Lover of Romance; Belinda; and Becca for their recs. Those selection books will be denoted with ***book cover***. I love how books I may not necessarily pick out for myself can appear on this list and expand my reading. August is Kindle Freebie month and I love how wild card these picks can be. I'm not always judicious about downloading freebies :)

*Click on book cover to be taken to my review or if I didn't write one, the book's Goodreads page

5 stars

4 stars

3.5 stars

  ******  ******

3.2 stars

******

3 stars

2.5 stars

  

2.3 stars

******

2 stars

******  

1.5 star

  ******

1 star

13 books in all, not a bad month. I'm loving how varied my ratings were and there were only two books I didn't end up writing a review or post comments about! I'm counting this as one of my most successful themed months; variety and words, woo-hoo! Also, can't forget I got my first full 5 star read of the month, Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai. LOVED. Hoping August feels even half as great as this reading month did.

How many books did you all get to read this month and did you enjoy your reading month as much as I did?

Review: Again, My Lord

Again, My Lord by Katharine Ashe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars

Thank you to Becca for the great recommendation :)

I loved this hero with his introverted, slightly awkward, wit, and gentleness.

She teased him again, and again he did not always know what to say in return.
She drove him a little mad.
A lot.

Hero was so patient and caring and oh I just fell in love with him but the format of the story kind of kept him more to the side than I wanted. It was mostly from the heroine's pov and with the Groundhog Day theme, we get the same day over and over with slight variations as the heroine learns and reacts to things differently. Now, tidbits about the hero are given but I wanted to "see" when the hero and heroine stay up talking in the church pew, I wanted to "hear" him talking to her, not just her second hand account. We get to see the heroine's growth but we don't really get to see the hero and heroine grow together because of the nature of the story. I missed seeing and experiencing that.

I thought two or three repeated days could have been cut out as the middle started to drag a tiny bit for me but overall, this was a fun and different read. I really appreciated how the author tried something different and did a pretty good job pulling it off. There is an ease to Ashe's writing that have her being one of my favorites and she's one of those authors that can get my eyes watering out of nowhere with a simple line:
Tacitus thought of his father's adoration of a woman with rotted teeth who could barely walk.
The hero thinks back to how much his father loved his mother even though someone looking from the outside would have some doubts why. It's a wonderful line stating about how love is love and how imperfect people can be perfect. Beautiful.

If you're looking for something fun and different, you'll want to give this one a shot. The first in the series (you can start with book 2 like I did, no confusion) is already on my tbr and I almost shed another tear when I saw the book 3, who I hope stars Evie (heroine's sister) and Mallory (hero's friend), isn't out yet. I really want their book :)



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New Releases August

New releases I'm reviewing and excited to read!

1st

Title:  Beauty Like the Night

Series:  Spymasters #6

Author:  Joanna Bourne

Format:  Paperback & eBook, 303pgs

Published:  August 1, 2017 by Berkley

ASIN: B01N3L1957

Links: Goodreads Amazon B&N

In the newest Spymaster novel, “master of romance and suspense”* Joanna Bourne offers a stirring tale of intrigue, espionage, and attraction.
 
Sèverine de Cabrillac, orphan of the French revolution and sometime British intelligence agent, has tried to leave spying behind her. Now she devotes herself to investigating crimes in London and finding justice for the wrongly accused.
 
Raoul Deverney, an enigmatic half-Spaniard with enough secrets to earn even a spy's respect, is at her door demanding help. She's the only one who can find the killer of his long-estranged wife and rescue her missing fourteen-year-old daughter.
 
Sèverine reluctantly agrees to aid him, even though she knows the growing attraction between them makes it more than unwise. Their desperate search for the girl ​unleashes treason and murder. . . and offers a last chance for two strong, wounded people to find love.

14th

Title:  Royally Endowed

Series:  Royally #3

Author:  Emma Chase

Format:  Paperback & eBook, 275pgs

Published:  August 14, 2017 by Emma Chase

ASIN:  B01M99L1VL

Links: Goodreads Amazon B&N

Logan St. James is a smoldering, sexy beast. Sure, he can be a little broody at times—but Ellie Hammond’s willing to overlook that. Because, have you seen him?? 

Sexy. As. Hell. 

And Ellie’s perky enough for both of them.

For years, she’s had a crush on the intense, gorgeous royal security guard—but she doesn’t think he ever saw her, not really. 

To Logan, Ellie was just part of the job—a relative of the royal family he’d sworn to protect. Now, at 22 years old and fresh out of college, she’s determined to put aside her X-rated dreams of pat-downs and pillow talk, and find a real life happily ever after. 

The Queen of Wessco encourages Ellie to follow in her sister’s footsteps and settle down with a prince of her own. Or a duke, a marquis…a viscount would also do nicely. 

But in the pursuit of a fairy tale ending, Ellie learns that the sweetest crushes can be the hardest to let go.
***
Logan St. James grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, in a family on the wrong side of the law. But these days, he covers his tattoos and scars with a respectable suit. He’s handsome, loyal, brave, skilled with his hands and…other body parts. 

Any woman would be proud to call him hers. 

But there’s only one woman he wants. 

For years he’s watched over her, protected her, held her hair back when she was sick, taught her how to throw a punch, and spot a liar.

He dreams of her. Would lay down his life for her. 

But beautiful Ellie Hammond’s off-limits. 

Everybody knows the bodyguard rules: Never lose focus, never let them out of your sight, and never, ever fall in love.

22nd

Title:  The Duchess Deal

Series:  Girl Meets Duke #1

Author:  Tessa Dare

Format:  Paperback & eBook, 384 pgs

Published:  August 22, 2017 by Avon

ASIN: B01N5BWIBA

Links: Goodreads Amazon B&N

When girl meets Duke, their marriage breaks all the rules… 

Since his return from war, the Duke of Ashbury’s to-do list has been short and anything but sweet: brooding, glowering, menacing London ne’er-do-wells by night. Now there’s a new item on the list. He needs an heir—which means he needs a wife. When Emma Gladstone, a vicar’s daughter turned seamstress, appears in his library wearing a wedding gown, he decides on the spot that she’ll do.

His terms are simple:
- They will be husband and wife by night only.
- No lights, no kissing. 
- No questions about his battle scars.
- Last, and most importantly… Once she’s pregnant with his heir, they need never share a bed again.

But Emma is no pushover. She has a few rules of her own:
- They will have dinner together every evening.
- With conversation.
- And unlimited teasing.
- Last, and most importantly… Once she’s seen the man beneath the scars, he can’t stop her from falling in love…

29th

Title:  Once a Rebel

Series:  Rogues Redeemed #2

Author:  Mary Jo Putney

Format:  Paperback & eBook, 384pgs

Published:  August 29, 2017 by Zebra

ASIN: B01N8ZCNEF

Links: Goodreads Amazon B&N

A ROGUE REDEEMED

As Washington burns, Callista Brooke is trapped in the battle between her native England and her adopted homeland. She is on the verge of losing everything, including her life, when a handsome Englishman cuts through the violent crowd to claim that she is his. Callie falls into her protector’s arms, recognizing that he is no stranger, but the boy she’d once loved, a lifetime ago.

Lord George Gordon Audley had been Callie’s best friend, and it was to Gordon she turned in desperation to avoid a loathsome arranged marriage. But the repercussions of his gallant attempt to rescue her sent Callie packing to Jamaica, and Gordon on a one way trip to the penal colony of Australia.

Against all odds, Gordon survived. Finding Callie is like reclaiming his tarnished soul, and once again he vows to do whatever is necessary to protect her and those she loves. But the innocent friendship they shared as children has become a dangerous passion that may save or destroy them when they challenge the aristocratic society that exiled them both…

Title:  Dirty Dancing at Devil’s Leap

Series:  Hellcat Canyon  #3

Author:  Julie Anne Long

Format:  Paperback & eBook, 384 pgs

Published:  August 29, 2017 by Avon

ASIN: B01NCI4YEB

Links: Goodreads Amazon B&N

She was a naive country girl. He was a billionaire's spoiled son. He was her first crush, her first heartbreak...and now her sworn enemy.

As Avalon Harwood's fortunes soared, Maximilian “Mac” Coltrane's plummeted, and he had to fight his way back to where they both began: Hellcat Canyon. Now Mac and Avalon will play dirty—in more ways than one—to get what they each want: the glorious old abandoned Coltrane mansion. But when Avalon snaps the house up at auction, she discovers there's something awfully familiar about the extremely hot caretaker...

Mac might have a heart of stone, and the abs to match, but Avalon—the dazzling girl whose heart was always too big and too reckless for her own good—was always his Kryptonite. And just like that, the stakes change: suddenly they're fighting not just for a house, but for a magic they tasted only once before and never since—long ago, with each other, at Devil's Leap.

Title:  Hard Justice

Series:  Alpha Security  #3

Author:  April Hunt

Format:  Paperback & eBook, 352 pgs

Published:  August 29, 2017 by Forever

ASIN: B01NCIFDYP

Links: Goodreads Amazon B&N

A DATE WITH DANGER

As the first female operative at Alpha Security, Charlotte "Charlie" Sparks has her work cut out for her. Sure, she can wrestle a man to the ground and hit a target at 200 yards with the best of them. But sometimes, being surrounded by all that testosterone can drive a woman to distraction-especially when that distraction is six-and-a-half feet of cocky, confident, Alpha-trained muscle.

Ex-SEAL commander Vince Franklin has been on some of the most dangerous missions in the world. But pretending to be Charlie's fiancé on their latest assignment in Miami is his toughest challenge yet. Vince and Charlie are like oil and water; they just don't mix. And when their fake romance generates some all-too-real heat, Vince learns that Charlie is more than just arm candy. She's the real deal-and she's ready for some serious action.

What August new releases are you looking forward to?

Review: Paxton Pride

Paxton Pride by Kerry Newcomb
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

1.5 stars

I just want to say, even if I don't end up liking/enjoying the books you all recommend to me, I always get something out of them. I greatly appreciate the time and effort you all take to think of me.
Thank you to Belinda for the recommendation.

Part 1 comments

Part 2 comments

Part 3 was were I kicked my skim reading into gear. I just couldn't, y'all. The almost raped yet once again heroine scene after scene had me exhausted. To say this story is problematic would be sugar coating it. The third part the hero and heroine hardly spend any time together as hero has run away to get over his blaming of the heroine for losing their child. Heroine miraculously sheds her city persona and becomes Annie Oakley and takes to running the ranch. Men love her for it and of course, women are jealous of her. The men loving, women hating is so extreme in this, bleh.

Heroine ends up getting kidnapped by villain, lives under constant threat of rape from him, another glorious scene where villains sexual aggressiveness starts to turn her on, a very woman's no can easily be turned into a I really want it yes. An almost gang rape scene, heroine gets tossed and stripped in a circle of men before they are interrupted.
I just don't know how I could stand the romance of it all!!!!

These older, longer saga romance reads typically would do a great job with incorporating historical detail and creating a very clear setting, this one is no exception; I enjoyed the western setting. The sexism and racism just ended up ruining it for me.

She was much woman, this one. There was much spirit in her---a real woman's spirit. Not like the temperamental Marcelina. The little one knew how to please a man, knew instinctively and exquisitely where and how to touch him, how to move. But such a girl was for a moment and no longer. There were many more like her. The woman at the fire was one of strength, of character as strong as the hills and rocks themselves. A man who was blessed with the love of such a senorita would need no other woman except occasionally, for the sake of diversion.

Because of course, the Latina SIXTEEN year old girl is just a natural sexual being, while the white woman only encapsulates the highest virtues. Which, I have to say, home girl only started to lose her spoiled ass attitude only about three chapters back, so singing her virtues seems a bit premature. Also, because I simply can't keep the horror to myself, the sixteen year old and villain end up being brother and sister. Which turns out the villain knew. He knew he was banging his sister. Yep, this was a two for one, dad and brother incest!!!!
The bonus line of men being blessed with a good woman so they only have to sleep with other women occasionally for sake of diversion, had me feeling spoiled.

So, I won't be continuing on with the series.

A huge thank-you to previous generations of women who worked and work to clear this type of grossness from my younger generation eyes. I only hope to do the same for the next.



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