Book Review: Dormeo by Reece Barden

 

Book Description

Spicy Demon Romance. Sleeping Beauty retelling with a devilish twist.

Ash, the incubus prince of hell, who can't seem to stay away from the sweet, if far too drowsy for his liking, Rose, who's entrusted to his care when her father offers her up as collateral in a deal with the devil.

My Review

Rose is brought to Hell by her father as a bargaining chip and collateral to be held in Hell until he can make good on his deal with the Devil. If her father cannot fulfill his deal in the time allotted, The Devil gets to keep Rose. The Devil assigns Rose to his son Ash, the Prince of Hell. And right away Ash knows there's something different about this human but he doesn't know what it is. 

Ash is much kinder than I thought he would be and he actually likes Rose which is why he takes his vow to keep her safe very seriously. So when lower level demons try to break into his room where Rose is staying, he lets them know in no uncertain terms that she is not to be touched. Not really smart of them to go against the Prince of Hell, when at some point he'll be the King of Hell when he takes over for the Devil.  All I can say is, don't mess with the Prince of Hell. 

For humans, being in Hell makes them lose some of their inhibitions (which is putting it mildly). The demons love it because they get to syphon power from the humans who are willingly having sex with them. But because Ash is taking his vow to keep Rose safe and unharmed, he is keeping himself from having sex with her. Instead he decides to meet her in her dreams since he can do that as a demon. There he is surprised to find that he is the figure that she's using to have steamy dreams. But since she's so innocent and untouched, she has no idea how to really steam things up, if you know what I mean. So Ash has no problem showing her things and really steaming up her imagination. Only Rose doesn't realize at first that Ash is really there in her dreams so she gives in to all sorts of naughty things and thinks it's her little secret. 

Ash is fun, the Hellhounds are great, the Gargoyles are protective and everyone seems to love Rose in the end. But when her father comes to get her after fulfilling his part of the deal with the Devil, a huge twist is thrown in and Rose has a big decision to make. This was such a fun read. I've loved all the books by Reece Barden that I've read so far and can't wait to see what other secrets Rose and Ash find out about in the next book. Because the Devil is keeping secrets not only about his newest guest but also about Rose. I can't wait to see where all these secrets lead. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

This book was part of the Fractured Fairytales books being given away by the authors on the Prolific Works website. I don't know if this book is still free, but you can check out the link to find out. 

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

We had some smoke in the area from the fire in California. Made the sunrise look orange for a few days.

Not a lot of clouds but the colors were still nice.

Falcor loves to get up early so at least I see the nice sunrises.

And then we had a few days of some clouds and the sunsets were nice because of it.

It made for nice sunset walks.

Lots of fiery colors in this sunset.

That one cloud lit up from underneath as the sun was setting combined with the smoke from the fires in the background made for a colorful sunset this night. 

Book Review: Beauty And Fanged Teeth by Julie Catherine

 

Book Description

Masquerade balls. Secret identities. Surviving the weekend? Not guaranteed.

When Lila Drake’s twin sister suggests the two women switch places for the Sundown Ball, it sounds delightful, and a little bit dangerous. For the first time in her life, rejected witch Lila enters the glittering world of the High Council coven. Everything’s magical, but she’s not the only one crashing the masquerade.

Haunted and handsome Wren commands the room. Everyone is afraid of the vicious vampire—but Lila finds herself drawn to the man in black in ways she can’t explain.

When she agrees to work in the vampire’s castle in exchange for her father’s freedom, danger lurks behind the job’s demands, and as the magical tasks turn deadly Lila realizes if she wants to survive the perilous deal she made, she’ll have to decide who to trust—and who to save—before it’s too late.

My Review

Lila and her twin sister switch places so Lila can go to a masquerade ball for the coven of witches that rejected her. But while there Wren, a vampire threatens the witches if they don't hand over a dreamcaster. Lila's father is a dreamcaster and was set to be given to Wren to help him but Lila who is also a dreamcaster, albeit a less powerful one volunteers herself in her fathers place. 

Wren and Lila leave and once back at his castle Wren tells her that he needs her to dream so she has visions of what he's going to be facing. A dreamcaster has visions while they dream and that's what Wren needs Lila to do so he can stop his brother from opening a demongate and letting demons loose on Earth. 

Lila isn't completely truthful about her powers and Wren isn't completely honest at first about what he needs a Dreamcaster for but the more time they spend together getting to know one another and relying on each other for help, the more they come to care for each other. 

Lila gets a chance to prove that the coven shouldn't have rejected her and Wren shows her and the other witches that not all vampires are bad. This had a lot of action and the romance between Lila and Wren was a slow burn but I liked watching them get closer as the story of the demongate unfolded. It was a fun read. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

I got this book as part of the Fractured Fairytales books being given away on the Prolific Works website. I don't know if this is still available for download there at this time or not. 

Happy Raturday!

 

"We had to pack for this weekend's trip."

"We took a truck ride in the country."

"The we went and had Boba."

"And we had to stop at the store for some essentials."

"And we ended the day with a picnic."

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

Apartment Life #381

 

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.

This past Sunday morning I was across the street with Falcor and saw the ambulance driving up and down the street looking for an address. I realized that I got a pretty good shot of my apartment complex. All of those white buildings across the street are my apartment complex. There are actually 2 more buildings not in the picture. There are 88 apartments in my complex. 

The ambulance finally stopped and I was surprised to see it stop in front of my building. BB Gun Guy came out and flagged them down. They were there for his girlfriend who had fallen down and hit her head outside when she was beating on her car for some reason. 

She ended up having a wound in her head and a concussion. I think she was fighting with BB Gun Guy and that's why she was beating on her car but I'm not sure. Play crazy games, win stupid prizes I guess. 

---

Earlier that same day I heard from 2 neighbors in my courtyard that Crazy Guy from this post, was arrested again. He's the one who used to live with his friends in my courtyard but had a psychotic break and now has schizophrenia and is now homeless. Well this morning he was banging on two neighbor lady's bedroom windows, exposing himself and trying to peek in their apartments. So they called 911 and since the 911 operator heard him banging on her window and making noise while she was on the phone the police arrested him when they got here. That makes 4 arrests for this guy that I know of. There could be more that I don't know of. I don't have any police pictures because I didn't hear about it until after the fact. He was back out of jail 2 days later.

---

Monday morning I get up and see this.  If you look to the left of the fence you can see some fence poles sticking out. Someone must have drove by fast in their car sometime the night before and smacked into the fence and bent 3 of the poles. One is actually on the ground down further. On the left side of the fence is where I walk falcor and on the right side of the fence is my courtyard to my apartment.

Someone hit the fence and the fence poles so hard that they came right up out of the concrete. There was some weird parts on the sidewalk as well. I don't know what from though.

I have no idea what this part is from but it wasn't on the sidewalk the night before. Falcor is nosy.

You can see the poles bent away from the fence. 

---

I was outside on Friday when I saw the ambulance pull up and take the elderly man I know from across the street. I saw his wife outside and went to talk to her. She said her husband had a hip replacement not too long ago and it wasn't working right plus her husband wasn't feeling well and was having a hard time breathing. Hopefully he'll be alright. 

The high this week was 109F/42C

The low this week was 80F/26C

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

Saturday Vittles

 

My daughter found these low carb Spinach Herb Balance tortillas at the store so we decided to make chicken wraps for lunch with the chicken from the previous nights dinner. I baked a whole chicken in the oven and we had a lot of leftovers so this was a great idea. The tortillas are 70 calories and 18 carbs each. 

My daughter added some spanish rice and ranch in addition to the chicken and lettuce to hers. Mine just had chicken, tomato and lettuce. Those tortillas are so good. I like them better than the regular flour tortillas. Have you tried the low carb tortillas yet?

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. So 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 received:

Fast shampoo and conditioner samples. 

Gomacro macrobar oatmeal chocolate chip. 

I don't usually like the protein bars but this one was good. I would eat this again. 

The shampoo and conditioner works well. I would use them again. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Hero by Elsa Jade

 

Book Description

The mating moon is rising…

Maddie Joplin’s heart was broken by the small-town golden boy who took her virginity and left her behind. Now he’s back with secrets he won’t share and scars she doesn’t remember, and she wants just one chance to show him what he missed.

Kane Villalobos had one choice: abandon Maddie or reveal his dangerous life as a wolf shifter. But with the mating moon on the rise, Kane is bound to take a mate. And this time, Maddie refuses to let him walk away alone.

My Review

When Kane comes back to town, Maddie doesn't want to be emotionally hurt by him again but the attraction that's always been there between them flares bright again. Kane didn't want to leave her and hurt her back when they were together but if he had stayed, the fact that he was a wolf shifter would have come out and that's not a secret that he could let slip. Plus his father who was alpha of their pack wouldn't let their relationship happen. But now he's back and he's the alpha of the pack since his father died and he wants Maddie. 

It's getting harder to stay away from Maddie because of the mating moon but her letting him get close is putting her in a dangerous situation and she doesn't even realize it. Kane is fighting with himself to let Maddie go but she isn't about to let him get away a second time. There are hunters that know about wolf shifters and want to kill all of them so that puts everyone involved in a dangerous situation.

I liked the story but the ending was abrupt and Maddie took learning about him being a wolf shifter too easily and quickly for it to be believable. 

I give this book 3 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.

Kimberly

When I was 5 years old there was a little girl named Kimberly that lived right next door to me. We were best friends and she was the same age I was. My house had a fenced in yard so her mother used to let her come over and play in my yard with me. The street we lived on was a main, busy street right across the street from a park. My brother and I always wanted to go to the park but my mom never let us cross the street by ourselves because there was always so much traffic on the street. 

One day I was playing in my yard and I saw Kimberly crossing the street by herself to get to the park. In an instant, she was hit by a large, red pickup truck. I remember hearing the squealing of the tires as the truck stopped but the truck hit her before it could stop. We lived by the fire station, it was only about 3 houses down the street and I remember this guy yelling for someone to go down there. He ended up running down to the fire department himself. 

All that time, I remember just standing in my front yard. Not yelling, not crying, not turning around and running to get my mom. I just stood there at the fence line waiting for my friend to get back up. But she never did. My mom and Kimberly's parents didn't even know anything happened until the fire truck pulled up in front of our houses and had their siren on for a minute. 

I remember seeing Kimberly's mom run out of her house next door screaming and crying and then my mom came outside and came to the fence line with me and asked me what happened. But I just stood there. I remember wanting to talk, wanting to move but I couldn't. It wasn't until my mom picked me up and put me in the house with my brother that I started crying. I know my mom went back outside and came back home a few minutes later. My mom called her mother because I still wasn't talking. I just sat in the rocking chair in my room and cried. I wasn't sure what happened to Kimberly but I heard my mom tell my grandma on the phone that she had died when the truck hit her. I remember not really understanding what that meant but I knew that my friend was hurt and I was upset by what I saw.

Kimberly's parents moved away soon after that. 

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

Book Review: JoAquin by Charmaine Ross

 

Book Description

When my car broke down in the middle of nowhere, I knew I’d be in trouble. I just didn’t imagine it would be this kind of trouble.

I’ve been abducted by aliens. Not the hot, sexy kind those romance novels like you to believe. The aliens that abducted me are terrifying. There’s something in my blood they want, and they stop at nothing to take it from me.

Then I’m rescued by the sexiest man I’ve ever laid eyes on only to learn he’s an alien and his rescue attempt went wrong. Very wrong. I’m not on Earth anymore and the Reptiles are after us on an alien planet. We’ve been taken prisoner by the planet’s natives and an old shaman woman tells me I’m the key to freeing thousands of mind-enslaved.

My rescuer is cold and aloof and should be off-limits but there’s something about the way he touches me that sets my skin on fire and sparks flowing through my veins. I’ve been through enough heartache to last a lifetime and now my soft heart is at risk again. I’m not the saviour everyone wants me to be and if I don’t resist his touches I’ll lose more than just my heart. The whole universe will be at risk.

My Review

Lauren's car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and she thinks that's bad but then she's abducted by reptilian aliens and she knows they don't have good intentions. But commander JoAquin and his people rescue her, the only problem is they don't quite make it back to his ship before they are thrown through a wormhole and land on an unknown planet. JoAquin (Jo) is hurt and so is Lauren so they can't fight off the aliens on the planet that 'save' them. 

This planet is over run by the evil reptilian aliens so hiding is essential to stay alive. But the reptilians have done something to Lauren and it's only a matter of time before things are going to take a very bad turn. The old Shaman woman that heals them both tells Lauren she's the key to saving the others enslaved by the reptilians but it's not going to be an easy thing to do. What she has to do is hard for her and Lauren to come to grips with but in the end it was the right choice.

All the while Lauren and Jo are fighting the attraction they feel for one another as they find a way to fight the evil reptiles. This was a slow burn romance and I really liked that these two took their time getting to know one another as they dealt with everything that was going on around them. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

"I think I got brain freeze."

"I'm on my way to your house, you better have snacks."

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

Apartment Life #380

 

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 26 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 26 years here in a weekly blog post.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a homeless man out by the garbage can when I was taking the garbage out. He was bent over a little and was doing something to his pants. I didn't really look too closely at what he was doing until I realized what he was doing and then I was just shocked because he had a large hole in his pants right below the zipper and all of his dangly bits were hanging out the hole. He had a string or ribbon or something and he was vigorously wrapping it around his genitals. (I'm trying to use wording that won't get me flagged/banned whatever). I walked up to the trash can because at this point I was committed and wasn't going to turn tail and run away like a girl. lol 

He stood up straight, everything sticking out the hole in his pants, and he asks me if there's anything in my 2 garbage bags that's worth salvaging. I looked him in the eyes (Because I'm trying not to look anywhere else) and just said no, it's all trash. He said thanks, saves me from having to look through it and then he went back to tying/wrapping whatever it was he had around his genitals. I just turned around and walked back to my apartment. Was he high? Probably. 

---

On Sunday I was out at 8PM with Falcor and called my daughter and told her she should come outside because there was a cloud of Dragonfly's flying around me and there were about a dozen bats flying higher in the sky above them. She came out and some of the dragonfly's and bats had already left but there was still a bunch of them out there. So we just stood there watching them. lol I've never seen that many dragonfly's in one place before. I was kinda cool.

---

On Wednesday my neighbor must have called the ambulance for himself because I saw him slowly walking with a paramedic out to the ambulance and he went to the ER. Hopefully he's alright, because I haven't seen him since. 

---

Thursday night around 9PM I heard several gunshots and they sounded like they came from the same idiot who always shoots his gun off at night across the street. Within a few minutes, the police were here patrolling around, parked at the end of my street and in the alley across the street. They found nothing and left. 

The high this week was 105F/40C

The low this week was 78F/25C

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

Weird Things Around My Apartment

 

You guys seemed to like the Weird Things Around My Apartment posts so I thought I would give you another one since my daughter has added a few oddities to her collection. My brother found a dead kitten in his shed and brought the skull to my daughter in a plastic bag. She cleaned it, soaked it in peroxide for weeks to get it clean and white. She now has 2 cat skulls on her shelf. 

My daughter also found this mug and spoon set with Baphomet on it that she now has. 

My daughter brought home a container of lady bugs for her garden. She put the container outside like it said to but some of the ladybugs were dead.

So now she has a small glass jar of dead ladybugs. If you've read my other posts you know how much she likes to collect dead bugs.

Our neighbor called my daughter one morning because her cat had caught a lizard in her apartment and killed it unfortunately. My daughter put the dead lizard in a jar of silicone for a few weeks and dried it out. Now she has a dehydrated lizard on her shelf.

She recently bought a starfish in a jar (Not alive) from a store. 

I'm not sure what they have it preserved in but it looks very interesting. 

A while back my daughter bought me two string dolls that I have hanging in my bedroom. They are supposed to be keychains but I like them hanging in my room. This is the green one. Reminds me of a zombie or voodoo doll. 

And this is Pumpkinhead. O.o I love it. 

Do you like dolls or do you find them creepy? This is a Living Dead Doll. I bought her for my daughter when she was 16 years old, she's now 34. If you've been around for my Halloween pictures, you have probably seen this doll since my daughter puts her out on display every Halloween. 

Now while this might not fall into the category of 'weird', but they aren't something that I would have bought for myself. This was my mom's collection of dolls. I inherited them after my mom passed away in 2011. While they aren't something that I would have bought for myself, I don't want to get rid of them because they were my moms and my daughter wants to inherit them after I'm gone. Although, that one doll sitting on the table in front, is kinda creepy and weird. o.O

They're still in the same small cabinet my mom had them in so I took them all out to get a picture of them. I guess they could have been in a "What's In Your Cabinet' post too. 

So there ya go. There's some of the weird things you might find around my apartment. 

Do you have anything in your home that would surprise someone?

If you want to see the other posts I've done about Weird Things Around My Apartment, I will link them below. 

Weird Things Around My Apartment- 2017

Things Around My House- Inherited and Gifts- 2018

Weird Things Around My Apartment- 2024

Weird Things Around My Apartment-April 2025

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. So 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.

What I received this week: 

This week I received a pack of Wheat Thins and a Daily Goodie Box. 

The Daily Goodie Box had in it... 

Fruit by the Foot

Fruit Roll Up

Cheez Its

Oreo Cookies

Goldfish cracker

Gummy Bears

Cheez Doodles

Lance Peanut Butter crackers

This was the best Daily Goodie Box that I've gotten so far. It had all kinds of great snacks in it. 

If you'd like to win a Daily Goodie Box, just comment on their posts on their FB page. They give away 100 boxes a day. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Demon With Benefits by Aurora Ascher

 

Book Description

A hot-headed witch and a lovable bad-boy demon add up to a scorching enemies-to-lovers tale, in the latest spicy paranormal romance from instant New York Times bestselling author Aurora Ascher.

They can run from their demons . . .

The jokester of the demon brothers, Meph wears his grin like armor and uses humor as a mask. But lately, his composure has been slipping, especially around her. Iris. The blue-haired witch with a vicious temperament. Something about her soothes the darkness within him . . . but he’s not looking for a savior. There’s no such thing for someone like him.

But they can’t hide forever . . .

Bitter and haunted by her traumatic past, Iris Donovan isn’t keen on welcoming demons into her life—even if they’re her sister’s friends. Especially not teasing, tattooed, Meph, with his red eyes and devilish smile. After a toxic relationship, she’s sworn off commitment, and she’s not looking for another Mr. Damaged. Yet she can’t stop craving what she shouldn’t want.

To conquer this monster . . . they must tame it together.

With the return of a deadly enemy, the pain they’ve been suppressing is exposed, and Meph and Iris can no longer deny their feelings. Before Meph is swallowed by his darkness, Iris must overcome her fears and embrace that terrible part of him . . .

Or lose him forever.

My Review

This is the 3rd book in the Hell Bent series. I read the 1st book and now the 3rd but have to go back and read the 2nd book. I'm reading them out of order and that's ok. It read well as a standalone book. 

In this series mephistopheles/Meph, Belial, Mist, Ash/Asmodeus, and Raum consider themselves brothers and help each other escape hell. They are all demons but want to be good and not evil anymore. So they escaped Hell and came to Earth to live regular lives but some of them have some really big issues because of the horrible lives they've led. 

Meph's demon was tortured and enslaved by Valefor for hundreds of years. He did horrible things for the demon Valefor while he was in Hell, which is why he had a sigil tattooed on his skin to keep him from shifting into his demon half again. Meph's demon is like a separate entity because he split the two personalities in his mind so he wouldn't have to remember all the horrible things it did while it was in charge. 

Iris is a human who's twin sister Lily is the mate to one of the demons, Mist who escaped hell with the other demons. She has been antagonistic to Meph mostly because she finds him so attractive and that bothers her. When she tells Meph to leave her alone and stop flirting with her, he does just that but then she realizes that she misses the banter they had. So she apologizes only to find Meph right up in her space letting her know that if she doesn't back off, he's going to act on the lust he feels for her. Although he didn't put it in such pretty words. *Snicker*

Once these two finally give in to their lust for one another, they think they can keep things casual but feelings start to develop on Meph's part. For two people who have a hard time with feelings and emotional baggage, this brings a problem in between them for a time. But when Iris finds herself in danger, it's Meph and his demon half that she finds a safe place with surprisingly. 

Who knew that demons could be so sweet and romantic as well as deadly and primal at the same time. Whoa, when Meph's demon is released, he's scary even to higher level demons. This series is so good and has me drooling over demons! I need more demons in my life and I never thought I would say those words. Ha!

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars

Disclosure: I was given an E-ARC of this book via NetGalley but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Amazon