Book Review: Raised To Kill by Evangeline Anderson

 

Book Description

A Bride ordered to kill her Husband

Marries a Kindred Warrior who loves her.

Will she fulfill her mission to kill him?

Or lose her heart instead?

All her life, Allara Ke'ta'nu has been raised and trained with one purpose in mind--to kill a member of the Kindred High Council and avenge the Blood Feud which has raged between her people, the Q'ess, and the Kindred for generations. But in order to do that, she must first get close enough to kill. And what better way to get close than to marry the enemy?

Brand is a Beast Kindred who has just become a provisional member of the High Council. When the Q'ess announce they will end the Blood Feud with a marriage of one of their maidens to a Kindred warrior, he agrees to take her as a wife, since he is the only unmated member of the Council. What he doesn't expect is to fall in love...

Can Allara hold on to her sense of purpose and do her duty as mandated by her people? Or will she lose her heart to the gentle touch of her new husband?

You'll have to read Raised to Kill to find out...

My Review

Allara has known all her life that she was to marry one of the Kindred. Now the time has come and her new husband is nothing like the cruel, evil man that her aunt told her he would be. In fact, none of the people in her new life are as she thought they would be. She was supposed to avenge her ancestor who supposedly was kidnapped by the Kindred and never seen again. But things have a way of ending in a way that you didn't expect. 

Her aunt and her father raised her but it was mostly her aunt since raising kids is a woman's job in her society. Her aunt was not nice, not loving so Allara wasn't brought up knowing what a loving relationship looked like. But her new husband and his friends and family are completely different than she is used to. 

Brand is a beast Kindred and he is going into this marriage hoping that they will be happy together and will be able to meet in the middle about their differences. Brand doesn't know that Allara took an oath to kill him after they're married and have their wedding night. So when he sees how scared she is to have their wedding night, he assures her that he's not going to make her do anything for at least a month so they can do the courtship rituals and get to know each other better. This plan of his really throws a dagger in her plans to be intimate with him and kill him on their wedding night. But as they slowly get to know each other, Allara starts to feel things for him that she didn't think possible. 

In her society, women are not treated well. Daughters are sold on an auction block when they are marriage age and are taught to do as their husband's tell them to. She's not used to Brand at all and each week a new way of getting to know each other is brought about by him. The more she gets to know Brand, the less she wants to fulfill her oath to her people. She starts to think that they'll never be the wiser if she doesn't kill Brand and she's starts to be ok with that. 

Of course things get really rocky for them and I wasn't sure how they were going to work things out but they do and I loved the ending of this one. The world building was great. We really get to know both cultures while each of their stories unfold. 

The only thing that really bothered me about this story was how Brand would call Allara, "Baby, and Babe" all the time. So many times. That was a little irritating and could have been left out.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Book Review: Rage by Ava Benton

 

Book Description

What’s a mercenary dragon to do when he meets a woman who makes his body surge with an energy he’s never felt before?

Drake’s part of an elite group of dragon mercenaries. He’s a dragon for hire. Tara’s a senator’s daughter who’s been kidnapped and is being kept underground. Until a dragon shows up to rescue her.

A dragon!

Soon, one dragon turns into a baker’s dozen of dragons. And they’re living in a secret compound that’s more like a luxury hotel on the inside.

Then, one fight breaks out in the cafeteria and Tara learns she’s so much more than a kidnap victim. And it’s somehow tied into Drake, a guy that’s beyond hot.

My Review 

Tara is a senator's daughter so when she's kidnapped, she's sure it's so they can blackmail her father. The kidnappers don't talk to her, don't tell her anything but when she hears them talking amongst themselves about how they might have to hurt her, she starts to make a plan to escape.

Drake is a dragon shifter and part of a team of mercenaries that is hired to save Tara. But when Drake opens her door and she smacks him on the head with something she found in her tiny room, not knowing he's there to rescue her, things take a dramatic turn when he has to shift into his dragon form to fly her away from the scene. 

At first Tara doesn't know that Drake is part of the rescue team and she thinks what she saw wasn't real. Drake doesn't understand why he feels so protective of Tara or why he wants to be with her even knowing that dragon shifters aren't allowed to be with humans. There's a huge plot twist that made everything more fun to read about, but I won't spoil that surprise for you. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

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

Apartment Life #399

 

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.

Maintenance has been fixing the pipes around here where in the past we had raw sewage leaking from them. 

They dug out the old ones and are installing the new pipes.

Maintenance was right in front of my window here replacing the pipes. At least hopefully we won't have to deal with the raw sewage problem again.

The fire department showed up at 11PM one night. Their lights were so bright all you can see is the lights from the truck. lol There was no fire and they didn't stay long so I have no idea why they were called. I do know from experience that when someone falls down in their home that you can call for an assist to get help back up from the fire department. I had to do that a couple of times when my late husband was on home hospice and he fell and I couldn't pick him up by myself. So when I see them stay for just a couple of minutes that's what I think it might be. But who knows. 

It was a very quiet week. 

The high this week was 71F/21C

The low this week was 47F/8C

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

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.

I cashed out my points on a survey site for a $10 Amazon gift card. 

I'm saving all my Amazon gift cards for Christmas next year. lol That worked out well for me this year so I'm doing it again. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Queen Takes Knights by Joely Sue Burkhart

 

Book Description

A lost virgin vampire queen. Two vampire knights sworn to protect her. It’s about to get very hot… and bloody…

Ever since her mother was murdered by monsters five years ago, Shara Isador has been on the run. Alone, scared, and exhausted, she’s finally cornered in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Out of hope with nowhere else to turn, she’s ready to end it all when two men come to her rescue.

They say she’s a lost queen descended from Isis, and they’re her Blood, vampire knights sworn to protect her. It all seems like a crazy nightmare, until the alpha offers his blood. Then she realizes she’s never wanted anything more. Except maybe his body… and his friend’s, too.

But they’re not the only ones searching for a lost queen. Shara must learn how to wield her new powers quickly and conquer her fears if she intends to keep them all alive.

My Review

Shara has been on the run ever since her parents were murdered. Her mother had a secret though and she never shared it with her daughter before she died. Now Shara comes face to face with Daire and Alrik who are her vampire knights because she's their vampire queen. They save her from being killed by the monster who's been tracking her for years. The Knights want to become her "Blood", being blooded to a queen means they are loyal only to her and will protect and serve her, when they exchange blood between them they all become more powerful as time goes on. 

Shara isn't sure what to believe at first but everything Alrik and Daire are telling her, seems to make sense in some way. They are all attracted to each other right from the very first touch. She trusts them when her brain is telling her to be wary of them because she's been on her own and running for such a long time. I don't mind insta-love in vampire stories like this when the storyline calls for it and it makes sense. 

There's a lot of vampire and Queen politics going on in the background and Shara has to be brought up to speed as to why she would need to bring more Blood into her nest so she and her Blood aren't absorbed into another Queens nest and maybe killed so there's no competition. 

Now Shara and her Blood have to become more powerful as to stay alive because the other vampire Queens and the vampire council are going to be out to probably kill her because in the end, she's the daughter of Isis and because of that, very powerful. 

The three of them together are really hot, these three fall hard for each other fast. I really liked that. But there's a lot of blood talk because they're vampires. They're biting each other, drinking each other's blood, spilling blood...a lot of blood on these pages. If that bothers you, this might not be the book for you. I liked the book and am looking forward to reading more of this series. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

We had a really nice sunset this week. 

Book Review: Quarantined With The Beast by C. Sunrise

 

Book Description

What would you do if the beasts you wrote about were real? If they were knocking at your door, would you let them in?

During a pandemic, Gracie is told to quarantine herself for two weeks.

She thought spending her quarantine time out at her cabin, alone in the middle of nowhere, would be just the break she needed to get her steamy werewolf novel written.

But Gracie might not be as alone as she thought.

Will Gracie and her sanity survive two weeks at the cabin? Will she fall prey to the beasts scratching at her door? Will they stake their claim on her body, mind, and soul?

My Review

Gracie is a writer, so when she is told she has to quarantine for two weeks she goes to her cabin in the woods. She inherited the cabin from her best friend before she passed away. So, this place means a lot to her. Gracie plans to write the rest of her steamy werewolf book while she's at the cabin. But when she starts to see a wolf who seems to want to spend time with her, transform into a man, she's sure she caught a virus and is now hallucinating. 

But is she? Hunter knows right away that Gracie is his fated mate. He's a wolf shifter but he has secrets and might be in danger because he's not part of a pack. There's a reason for that and when Gracie finds out all his secrets, she's in for some surprises to say the least. 

While I liked both Hunter and Gracie, they really didn't get to know each other at all before they were sleeping together. I get the whole fated mates, insta-love scenario but they didn't know each other at all. Then all at once he just ups and leaves. He made me so mad and then when he comes back, he doesn't explain anything to her. This story felt like it was missing a lot of the plot and storyline. It was a novella but this needed more to flesh out the storyline and make it cohesive. 

I give this book 2 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

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

Apartment Life #398

 

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.

Last year in this post, I told you how my apartment complex installed Electric Vehicle charging stations. And then just a little while later in this post I told you how the hose on one of them had been cut off. Well, new management took them out completely. Just the cement block one of them was sitting on is there now. 

That pipe by the fence is usually in that hole in the middle right there. But someone pulled it out. The city workers came by and replaced the pipe a few days later. I bet someone was trying to get their car on this path and wouldn't fit with the pole there so they took it out. 

I noticed these pretty flowers next door so stopped to get a picture of them.

This guy has a bakery van! He comes through the neighborhood every so often selling Mexican sweet breads and other Mexican bakery items. I watched this guy buy a huge bag of Mexican sweet breads. You can tell he's coming because he plays music from his van really loudly like an Ice Cream Truck would. And no, I haven't bought anything...yet. 

---

Monday night 2 hours before my daughter and I took Falcor for a walk and took this picture, there was a homeless person inside this box and they were chucking rocks at people and cars going by close enough for them to hit. So my daughter went with me on our walk in case they were still winging rocks at people. Nope, instead the box was filled with a bunch of junk. 

Beside the box there was more junk. No idea who put this here or where it came from but Falcor was interested in the kiddie pool filled with tiny Styrofoam balls. My daughter felt down inside the pool to make sure that was all that was in there before we let Falcor sniff them. 

He was interested in them and curious why the tiny Styrofoam balls kept sticking to his nose. lol

Later the wind picked up and blew the tiny balls all over the street and neighborhood. They are absolutely everywhere now. 

---

After almost 2 weeks of the homeless people breaking into Xavier's (Missing man) apartment, 5 calls to the security, 1 call to the police, several emails to the manager and 1 call to the apartment manager's office number...maintenance finally came out and boarded up that apartment's door and living room window. The bedroom window was already boarded up. I emailed the office, then called the office when they didn't respond. That got them all down here with the security company and maintenance and now the apartment is finally secured. It should never have taken this long and so many times me emailing and calling. You're the manager, do your damn job. 

And just when you think the Xavier (missing man's) apartment saga is over...it's not!

Thursday morning at 7:30 am I was walking Falcor and noticed the homeless people had once again broken into his apartment. Took the board right off the window and broke the window in order to get in. I emailed the office once more and at 8:30am maintenance was out boarding up the window again but this time used a bunch of screws instead of nails. Hopefully this will be the last of the drama. I still have no idea what happened to Xavier but I think at this point it's pretty obvious that he probably passed away, which is very sad. 

Anyone want to take a guess as to what happened Thursday night into Friday morning? 

If you guessed that Xavier's apartment was broken into again, you are correct!

11pm Thursday night I took Falcor out and watched as a pair of legs crawled into the apartment window behind the board they had pulled away from the wall enough to get in. So I called security. They didn't come though. Big surprise, right?

The board that had been on the window was leaning on the wall next to the bushes. 

At midnight, a neighbor texted my daughter and said that they just got home and saw homeless people going in and out of the window so they called security. At 1am security finally shows up and starts banging on the boarded up door telling them to come out. They go to the bedroom window, and they have a German Sheppard with them who is barking his head off at 1:30am. So me and Falcor are now up. I'm watching through my window camera but my AC sticking out the window blocks me from seeing much but I can sure hear them. They get the board off the window and make them come out. I hear them saying to get up against the wall and then security calls the police. The homeless people were arrested early Friday morning. But I bet they won't be in jail for long, they never are. 

This was the window Friday morning.

The person who was arrested was Jeff and his girlfriend. Long time readers might remember the apartment fire directly across from me 3 years ago? Jeff used to be my neighbor and his apartment caught fire after something he had attached to a battery blew up, at least that's what he said. You can click on the link and read about that fire if you want to see what happened back then. 

Friday morning I went down to the office and talked to Virginia, one of the apartment managers. Boy did she give me an ear full. 

First she thanked me for calling security and said maintenance was boarding up the windows from the inside with wood and screws. 

I said I saw the homeless people get arrested last night and she said yes, they did but they got out early this morning and were right back here at 7AM! Someone called security again and they made them leave. But the cops weren't called since they spend less than 4 hours in jail. I told her that Jeff the guy who keeps breaking in used to live here and told her about the fire in his apartment. She had no idea. 

Then I asked if anyone knew what happened to Xavier. She said the detectives have no idea where he is. His family keeps calling the office asking if he's turned up and his family have called all the hospitals, jails ect. No one has any idea where the man is. He's a missing person and Detectives still have his case open.

Then she told me that the first time his family called in a welfare check and the police came she looked in the apartment and all of Xavier's electronics, keys to his car, laptop, tablet ect were still in the apartment. 

When the homeless people (Jeff) started breaking in, his car keys, and all his electronics disappeared. She thinks Jeff and his girlfriend found his car keys, stole his car and sold or pawned all his electronics. Xavier's family has no plans to come and get any of his belongings. 

I wonder what the heck happened to Xavier?

The high this week was 63F/17C

The low this week was 40F/4C

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