Book Review: The Naga Outcast's Unwanted Mate by Robin O'connor

 

Book Description

I thought I was dead, but my pulse is racing when I see the beautiful, terrifying creature that woke me.

Vera

My family maneuvered me like a worthless pawn, then cast me away. I was supposed to be executed but even that didn’t go right. When I wake up, my whole world is tilted on its axis when I lock eyes with a monster.

He’s half snake, half man and somehow he’s the most alluring thing I’ve ever seen. When he touches me I can understand him and he says I’m his mate. But how’s that possible? I’ve never belonged anywhere.

When more of his kind chase us, cast us out, and try to do everything they can to keep us apart. I must fight for what I want, fight to keep the one place where I’m wanted. In the arms of my mate.

Zathar

Cast out by my own Clan, by my very mother the Queen. I am left adrift until a skyship falls from the heavens, carrying with it my mate.

She is curvy and soft, everything I never knew I wanted. She’s perfect, and I will give up anything, climb any mountain, even crawl through the haunted ancestral caves if it means I can keep her. If only she’ll believe me when I swear she’s my heart.

This is a standalone novel, and book one in the Serpents of Serant Series. This steamy sci-fi monster romance features one barbaric outcast Naga Prince, a human woman unwanted by her own kin, and a steamy HEA.

My Review

After being set up, found guilty and sentenced to death on Earth, Vera's last thought on Earth was that she through she was about to die as everything went dark. 

Vera wakes up in a stasis pod on an alien planet and comes face to face with a big, blue snake-man alien. I don't know about you, but I would be freaking out, and she did at first. Once vera takes in her surroundings she realizes that the stasis pod she was in was on a ship and there were other humans on the ship with her. Once she was able to speak to and understand the alien male, she told him that they had to free the other people on the ship before they left. 

Once safely off the ship and with Zathar and his friends, Vera and the other humans make their way back to the place where Zathar and his friends have been staying. All is well for a little while until Zathar's mother- The Queen comes for a visit. 

Zathar is an outcast and all he wants is for Vera to believe him when he tells her that she is his mate and he will take care of her for always. She's not buying it, at least not right away. He's going to have to be convincing to get her heart. But when Vera and the other humans are put in danger from the Queen, Zathar has to find a way to make things right. 

This book was definitely a fun read. I liked the world building and getting to know the snake-aliens a little more. 

I read another of this authors books last week and I liked it so much that I decided to read another one. I'm so glad I did because this was so much fun to read. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

*All pictures this week are courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #394

 

This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that have gone on in and around my apartment complex and in my neighborhood in the past 27 years that I've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 27 years here in a weekly blog post.

On Sunday afternoon, police showed up *Police car circled in blue* to do a welfare check on my neighbor who lives 2 doors away from me. I heard them knocking on his door so I opened my door and they asked me if I had seen him recently. I said I hadn't seen him for at least 2 weeks. I said he has a parking ticket on his car out front. So this police officer went and ran his plates. 

She looked at the parking ticket he had. 

Checked the inside of the car. Then asked me if I had the new apartment manager's phone number. So, I gave it to them. It was Sunday and maintenance would not come out but the manager sent a locksmith out to open his door. 

The locksmith got the lock opened fast. They went inside and checked to make sure he wasn't hurt or deceased inside. I asked the officer if he was inside and he told me no one was home. Not sure who called a welfare check on the guy or where he is but at least we know he didn't die inside his apartment.

On the 4th the manager put the first notice on his door for overdue rent. I'm starting to think this guy (Xavier)  might have died and he has no family or he's incapacitated in the hospital.  Why else would his car still be here and he has not paid rent? I've talked to him a few times in the past and know he works from home. If his rent doesn't get paid in the next couple of weeks, they'll be putting an eviction notice on his door and then trash all his belongings. I'll keep you updated as things unfold.

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On Monday there was a police officer making a homeless man move his belongings away from the electrical boxes to the right of the police truck. The belongings were mostly a bunch of large cardboard boxes that are hidden behind the power boxes. 

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Tuesday really early in the morning these two police cars were outside when I took Falcor for a walk. There was a lady yelling that someone hit her but that she didn't do anything. She was arrested, no idea why. The guy started walking down the street away from everyone. He was holding an ice pack to his face. I'm assuming she hit him and that's why she was arrested.

A little while later after the man returned from walking wherever he went, the ambulance arrived and he was taken to the ER. 

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These Chinook military helicopters have been flying around overhead quite a bit in the last couple of weeks. 

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The police were back on Friday with detectives and my new apartment manager for my missing neighbor (Xavier) that I told you about above. The manager let them into his apartment and the two detectives, and the police were here for a while searching his apartment. I still have no idea what's going on with the neighbor though. The police wouldn't say anything when they saw me outside, they asked me some questions but they wouldn't say what they were investigating. I just told them that I haven't seen him in 2 weeks but his car is still parked outside and I showed them his car. 

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Friday morning I spotted syringes in my courtyard. 

And right across from the first 3 I spotted, there was 1 more syringe. They look like the same kind I used to use to give myself insulin injections back when I had to do that. Now I can just take a pill. Maintenance picked them up and threw them away later that day. 

Ya'll it was a full week of drama over here. 

The high this week was 83F/28C

The low this week was 55F/12C

So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.

Deviled Eggs

 

My Daughter and I are trying to eat healthier so I thought I would share some pictures on Saturdays of what we've made.

Deviled Eggs with Green Olives

What you'll need: 

1 Sandwich baggie

Toothpicks

4 eggs- boiled

1 TBSP Mayonnaise

1 Jar of Green Olives

1 TBSP Olive Juice

Dash of Salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and paprika. 

What to do: 

Boil eggs for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and place in cold water to cool them. Once cooled, remove shells, cut in half and remove the egg yolk. 

In a bowl place egg yolks, olive juice, mayo and spices. Mix well. Place mixture into sandwich baggie. Cut off a small piece of one corner of the baggie. Use baggie to pipe the egg yolk mixture into the egg white halves. Top with paprika and an olive. 

2 deviled eggs have 110 calories and 0 carbs. 

We used them as a side dish one night.

Freebie Friday!

 

Welcome to another weekly Freebie Friday post, where I tell you what free samples and full-sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a "Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things.  I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to great samples at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week I cashed out my points on Fetch for a $50 Amazon gift card. 

I found a brand new purse with the tag still on it!

I also received a few Macy's perfume samples.

I found the purse out in the rocks in front of my apartment complex. 🤣🤣🤣 I have a feeling one of the homeless people stole it, couldn't sell it to anyone and just threw it away on the ground. Lucky find for me. 

The perfume samples smell good.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: The Naga Hunters Lost Mate by Robin O'connor

 

Book Description

I am caught by a beast but the longer he has me, the more I lose the desire to escape.

Charlie

Everything is terrifying and strange on this alien planet I’ve crashlanded on. Especially the purple-scaled snakeman that ‘rescued’ me. When I run, he just follows me and I realize that maybe I don’t want to escape. How crazy is that?

When his Clan threatens me, we’re hunted, and there’s only one option. We run and surrender to the sizzling desire between us.

Mox

The scaleless female ignites my mating sigils. I catch her, never to let her go. She is curvy and tempting and when danger lurks I will do anything to keep her safe. Even if it means giving up all that I knew, even if it means abandoning my Clan.

For a chance at happiness in her arms? I would risk it all.

This is a standalone novella, prequel to the Serpents of Serant Series. This steamy sci-fi monster romance features one barbaric Naga, a savvy human woman, and a steamy HEA.

My Review

When Charlie wakes up on an alien planet. She has no idea how she got there. When she spots a stasis pod near her, she knows that it crash landed on this alien planet, and that's the only thing that saved her from dying when they crashed.

Mox was out hunting. When he came across Charlie, who was just trying to find a safe place. But Charlie came across another predator called a rakeworm and the rakeworm was about to eat her for dinner, So Mox did the only thing he could and saved her from it.

Mox saves her twice and at first they could not understand each other and then as long as they were touching each other they were able to understand each other and speak. Mox was some sort of alien human hybrid as he had a human torso but a snake body. Mox knew that Charlie was his mate because he was having mating signs in his body but Charlie wasn't understanding what he was talking about at first.

Mox wanted to keep Charlie safe and brought her back to his village. But then things go badly, and they ended up having to leave his village and try to live either with other outcasts or by themselves, either way was fine with them.

This was a quick read as it was only 80 pages long but it was a nice prequel to this series and I'll definitely be reading more of it.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Falcor and Friends

 

Falcor has some doggie friends in the neighborhood. Falcor and Lady. Lady always looks mad. 🤣🤣🤣

Falcor and Hope. Hope is 12 years old, just a year older than Falcor is. And yes, Hope and Lady are always off leash. (Smh)

Falcor and Lady again. Of course there's lots of butt sniffing. 🤣🤣🤣

I didn't get any pictures of Falcor with these 6 dogs because I needed both hands to make sure all of our leashes didn't get tangled while they were all saying hi to each other. You can see a couple of those dogs didn't want to leave. They weren't done saying hello. 🤣

Book Review: My Guardian Demon by A.D. Craig

 

Book Description

What happens when a demon gets assigned a guardian angel's job by mistake?

Wynn

I thought I was free.

After leaving my toxic ex-boyfriend and my old life behind, I moved to a new town, enrolled in a new school, and kept everything under wraps. No one knew where I was.

Turns out, I wasn’t as far away as I thought.

Onyx

When Wynn’s guardian angel retired, someone had to step in—but a clerical error landed me the job. A demon assigned to protect a human? That’s... new.

I’m stuck with this job until they sort it out, and honestly, I’m not sure how a demon is supposed to look after a human like Wynn.

I wonder how a guardian demon will work out for her?

My Review

Onyx is a demon so when he gets assigned as a guardian to Wynn when her guardian angel retires. It's a clerical error so Onyx thinks it will get fixed fast, but it doesn't. Wynn moves into a new apartment right next to Onyx. She's trying to get over leaving her abusive boyfriend and stay hidden from him. 

Wynn can hear when Onyx has a guest over since the walls are so thin and she jokingly tells him to keep it down from now on. That's all it takes to get these two talking and joking around with one another through the wall. Wynn has no idea what Onyx looks like so when he knocks on her door and she finally meets him in person, she can hardly believe how handsome he is. 

When Wynn tells Onyx about her abusive ex and how she fears he might find her, he does what any guardian demon would do, he shows her how to protect herself. Not exactly the same way a guardian angel would keep her safe but he's a demon, so he does what demons do in order to get the job done. 

We find out that when Wynn is hearing what she thinks is Onyx having a good time next door through the walls, he's actually torturing evil souls because that's his job. But a filter lets everyone around him hear something else, so he doesn't have to explain the screaming to anyone. The torture scene descriptions were a bit graphic but he's a demon after all, so I understood it. That fact that Wynn was ok with it when she finally finds out the truth, was a bit hard to fathom though. It's definitely a bit of a dark paranormal romance, which is fine if you like that sort of thing, which I do. 

I liked the secondary characters as well, I hope we get to know more about Osian in the next book. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Everyone Has a story, Here's One of Mine

 

I've been thinking of writing an autobiography or memoir but it just never comes together for me but I figured if I write one story at a time and post it on my blog maybe once a month, I can do that. Maybe one day I'll pull all the stories together and put them in a book but for now I'll just share some stories with you about my childhood and into adulthood. Some of the stories will be happy, some sad and some horrific because that was my childhood. But they will all be real, things that actually happened. If it seems like something that people enjoy reading maybe I'll keep it going. These stories will not be in any kind of order, I'll just write them as they come to me.

Perry Park

I might have mentioned that when I was little, the house I grew up in was directly across the street from Perry Park. My brother and I loved going over there because not only was there a park there was also a small room where this lady would lend out toys for a week. It was the coolest thing for kids. Your parent had to bring you and sign out the toy you wanted for the week, and you had to bring it back on time. She had great toys that we didn't have. 

I remember being able to get a Big Wheel, Legos, Baby Alive, Barbies, So many baby dolls, 8 track cassette player and the 8 track cartridges, a doll house with miniatures and tiny dolls, Play Doh, and so many Barbie things. I loved going over there to get toys. My brother always got some sort of trucks or cars. I've never heard of another toy lending closet, but it was such a good idea. 

The park was also where my brother played baseball. His team was the Blue Jays. My dad signed him up but then never went to any of his games. I went to all of them. He was even in the parade that went down our street. 

All kinds of things happened at the park like Easter egg hunts, Christmas toy hunts, 4th of July fireworks and the Fire Department would be there since their station was at the end of our block. 

One of the most memorable days was when a hot air balloon and a Sikorsky helicopter was on display at the park. They let adults and kids inside the helicopter and air balloon. My brother was trying to get inside the hot air balloon when the wind made it shoot up into the air and then all at once it came down hard and bounced on the ground while my brother was in the basket with some other people. The person piloting the balloon finally got it down for good, but my mom was freaking out because we were little kids both under 10 years old. 

I've looked on Google Maps recently and the park is still there, but it's named something else now and looks different as well.  We kids sure had a good time there while we were younger. 

Links to past stories

2023

January 2023

February 2023

March 2023

April 2023

May 2023

June 2023

July 2023

August 2023

September 2023

October 2023

November 2023

December

2024

January 2024

February 2024

March 2024

April 2024

May 2024

June 2024

July 2024

August 2024

September 2024

October 2024

November 2024

December 2024

2025

January

February 2025

March 2025

April 2025

May 2025

June 2025

July 2025

August 2025

September 2025 

October 2025

Apartment Life #393

 

This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that have gone on in and around my apartment complex and in my neighborhood in the past 27 years that I've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 27 years here in a weekly blog post.

My daughter's best friend moved into my courtyard a while back. Well the friend's girlfriend is very crafty and so talented. She painted a couple of rocks for my daughter's garden. Here's one from Friday the 13th. 

And IT. How nice was that?

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Speaking of the Garden...The new landscapers came on Tuesday. He was blowing all the Pine needles away. Cool. Then I watched him because I don't trust anyone and sure enough this idiot sticks the leaf blower right down into my daughter's garden. By the time I get to the door after snapping a picture I see him bent over the garden and he's pulling up plants IN The Garden. I yelled at him to stop. He turned around *Speaks no English* And said sorry sorry, then keeps blowing the dust around away from the garden. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this small part is gated off and shouldn't be touched! Seriously!?

She takes care of her garden, there was no reason to turn the leaf blower on it full blast the way he did. And I know damn well if I complain to the new manager that they'll say it all has to be pulled up because it shouldn't be there in the first place. So I'm not saying anything. 

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I was dog sitting this little French Bull Dog for my neighbor this weekend. Her name is Sahara and very cute. She's built like a tank though and muscled her way out the front door when I went inside. Thankfully she came right back to me when I called her to me. Catastrophe averted!

The high this week was 83F/28C

The low this week was 57F/13C

So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.