Review: The Vampire's Mail Order Bride by Kristen Painter

Book Description

Welcome to Nocturne Falls, the town that celebrates Halloween 365 days a year.

The tourists think it's all a show: the vampires, the werewolves, the witches, the occasional gargoyle flying through the sky. But the supernaturals populating the town know better.

Living in Nocturne Falls means being yourself. Fangs, fur, and all.

After seeing her maybe-mobster boss murder a guy, Delaney James assumes a new identity and pretends to be a mail order bride. She finds her groom-to-be living in a town that celebrates Halloween every day. Weird. But not as weird as what she doesn’t know. Her groom-to-be is a 400-year-old vampire.

Hugh Ellingham has only agreed to the arranged set up to make his overbearing grandmother happy. In thirty days, whatever bridezilla shows up at his door will be escorted right back out. His past means love is no longer an option. Not if the woman’s going to have a future. Except he never counted on Delaney and falling in love for real.

Too bad both of them are keeping some mighty big secrets...

My Review

Delaney is working at a place where she makes sweet treats and has fun doing it until she witnesses her boss shoot someone. She even records the shooting and then gets out of there real fast. She has no other choice than to change her name and sign up to be a mail order bride just so she can find a safe place to hide for a while. 

Hugh is a vampire and his grandmother signs him up to receive a potential wife from a mail order bride service. The only problem is he doesn't want to marry anyone and the woman who ended up coming isn't the woman he was matched with. Delaney found his file and decided to assume this woman's name and pretend to be her. Hugh thinks that she knows he's a vampire and is alright with it when in fact she knows nothing about that part of him. 

They actually seem to be getting along really well when someone comes to Hugh and lets him know that she isn't who she said she is. When the dust settles, Hugh decided to help Delaney instead of being mad at her. They get the werewolf Sheriff involved into making sure the proper authorities know about the murder she witnessed and they get back to getting to know the real people in front of them. When Delaney finds out that Hugh is a vampire, things go a little crazy for a minute because she doesn't believe him at first. After that she just needs a little time to wrap her head around it all. 

These two really fall hard for each other while Hugh is keeping her safe and he turns out to be a really sweet guy. This book had everything in it that I like about this kind of vampire romance. Delaney's cat, Captain Underpants endeared himself to the household by doing nothing more than winding himself around their feet and getting chubbier while eating whatever they gave him. I love when there's animals in the books even when they don't do anything but sit pretty and get petted. 

I will definitely be reading more of this series now. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, 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:

A sample of Estee Lauder face cream.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Review: Tempt by Marie Tuhart

Book Description

Wicked Sanctuary: surrender your inhibitions 

Escaping her ex-boyfriend’s horror-themed campout, Sierra Blake stumbles into a world she never imagined. Curious and spirited, but with a history of picking the wrong man, she must learn to trust her instincts and find her inner strength to become the woman she is meant to be. 

Max Preston has shut himself off from women, until Sierra crashes into his life. An intense attraction ignites inside him, and he’s determined to make her his. 

Discovering a new confidence under Max’s protection, Sierra finds herself falling for him. But when his too-perfect ex-wife triggers old insecurities, she runs--smack into her own past. Can she rise above old scars and fight for true love?

My Review

Sierra walks away from her idiot boyfriend when they go on a camping trip that turns out to be more than she bargained for. While walking away, she comes to Max's home and asks to use the phone so she call call a friend for a ride. But once Max see's the state she's in, his dominant personality takes over and he gets her warmed up and into some dry clothes while she waits for her friend to come pick her up. 

Max is a Dom and runs a BDSM club and even though he hasn't been in a relationship in a while, he feels something for Sierra right from the start. So he gives her his card with his phone number and asks her to call him. But when she doesn't, he doesn't let that stop him. 

When Sierra finds out that Max is a Dom and owns a club, she isn't sure what to think about him or his club but she takes a leap of faith and forges ahead. After she fills out the necessary forms and finds out what the club will be like, they go together so she can see for herself what a club like this is all about. They spend time together outside the club so they can get to know one another and I really think they were just made for each other.

Sierra has had some horrible things happen to her when she was younger and Max can see he needs to take his time with her so he doesn't scare her off. I loved how gentle, patient and caring he was with her. Max is one of my all time favorite characters that I've read in a long time. Sierra has bigger problems when her now ex, won't get a clue and leave her alone. The guy was so stalkerish it was cringe-worthy. I'm glad that Max was there to help her through that. 

This was such a fun book. I look forward to reading more. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

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

Favorite Picture of the Week

This is the walking path further down where I walk Falcor. I've shown this to you before. But at the end of this path is a street and if you cross the street there's something new I want to show you. 

At the end of the street is a metal tree and metal bench. I've shown that to you before. 

This is that same bench from across the street. 

Across the street is a little bench area. It has a couple of bench seats and a cover where you can sit and relax on your walk. I though that was kinda cool. 

Review: The Rancher's Best Gift by Stella Bagwell

Book Description

An ordinary cowboy?

Or the love of a lifetime?

Matthew Waggoner and Camille Hollister may have known each other for years, but nothing prepares them for the sudden flare of attraction that hits when Camille lets Matthew stay with her while the foreman is doing out-of-town work for her family’s ranch. But with Christmas just around the corner, it’ll take a holiday miracle to make these two patched-up hearts see past their differences and risk loving again…

My review

Matthew was sent to the ranch to help with the new cows that needed to be vaccinated and tagged. He had two weeks to get everything in order and then he'd be headed back to his own home. Camille's brother who owns and runs the ranch sent Matthew there and made arrangements for the foreman to stay in the house while he's there. But Matthew has feelings for Camille so that's awkward. 

Camille works as the cook in a diner and she likes her job to the point that she wants to buy the diner. When Matthew gets in late at night after a long day of ranching, Camille cooks dinner for him as well as dessert. They end up talking at night when he gets in and they find that they have a lot in common including both of them having had bad experiences with relationships. 

They both feel the mutual attraction and act on it. They both figure that it's a one time thing since Matthew has to get back to his life at the end of two weeks but things don't always go as planned. 

These two were really sweet and so was the romance between them. This isn't my normal type of book but I won this in a blog giveaway and decided to give it a read. I'm glad I did because it was a good read and a nice romance. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of me* 

"Thanks for the cookie. No, you may not have a bite."

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #202

This is a new weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 20 years that we'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 20 years here in a weekly blog post.

If you follow my daughter's blog, you might have already seen this but for those of you who don't, here ya go. This is the door to the old maintenance shop. Maintenance stopped using it because the homeless drug addicts kept breaking into it and sleeping in there. They keep breaking the door open and maintenance keeps nailing the door shut. This week my daughter took these pictures when she saw the door was off the hinges. 

They brought in some chairs or couches and left their McDonald's trash all over the place.

Right here you can see the wall leading to the laundry room has a hole in it and the wall on the right also has a hole in it. The wall on the right leads to a vacant apartment and they slowly broke into that apartment as well. The maintenance man called the police earlier this week when he thought the homeless were in the vacant apartment but by the time the cops got here, the people had left. The police have not been back all week but the people have been going in and out of the old shop so I know they are in the vacant apartment too.

Right directly behind that wall straight ahead is the laundry room. Well, I guess they really wanted to wash some clothes because they busted through the wall with a hole large enough to crawl through into the laundry room. 

Through the hole you can see one of the washers. I told you a while back that there's been no apartment manager on site for months now and the laundry room has been locked the whole time. Well, now there's a back entrance to it. 

The is the hole in the wall leading to the vacant apartment. They're slowly picking away at that wall and I am guessing will be able to get through those wooden beams soon and make their way into the apartment. They made the hole big enough to get into the vacant apartment the very next day after this picture was taken.

---

Life Update:

Ken has an appointment with the Oncologist this week so I'm hoping for some good news.

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

Review: The Demon's Possession by Kiersten Fay

Book Description

This is a scifi paranormal romance with high heat.

A devilishly passionate tale of a fierce demon captain and the mysterious young princess he vows to protect. Their passion will ignite the stars.

As captain of the merchant ship Marada, Sebastian has been commissioned to deliver a curious parcel to a ruthless pirate named Ethanule. But when a bewitching young woman mysteriously appears on his ship, he finds it impossible to focus on the job...and to keep his hands off her.

Held captive most of her life, Analia makes a desperate bid for freedom and escapes onto a craft led by a fearsome demon who sparks her desire, but her secrets are more dangerous than she knows. If she is to maintain her freedom, she must gain Sebastian's trust while concealing her true nature.

My Review

Analia has been a slave all her life but after being sexually abused by the man who owns her, she escapes and takes refuge on a ship of demons. 

Sebastian isn't sure he can trust Analia when he finds her on his ship but they fall for each other and he knows he has to try and keep her safe. 

Analia is a strong character but she's had to be with the way her life has been. But even after being sexually abused by her owner, when she gets to know Sebastian, she feels something for him. I think it's because he treated her kindly and was nice to her. I really liked these two together. I liked how wonderful he is with her and how we see her excitement at times when she experiences something new. Her being a slave her entire life and her secret abilities made her owner Darius want to get her back and it also showed just how sheltered she had been kept. 

I really liked the secondary characters that were aboard the ship and I look forward to getting to know them more in future books. I've read this author before and liked her books so I thought I would give this one a try and I'm glad I did. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

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

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, 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:

3 more free greeting cards and envelopes.

A sample La Roche Posay Vitamin C Serum.

I won 3 ebooks from Goodreads this week.

I am loving getting these free greeting cards. I've used the vitamin c serum before and thought it was a good moisturizer. I'm looking forward to having the time to read the books.


Did you get any freebies this week?

I have been without internet since Monday so I haven't been around to any blogs or responded to comments. Bare with me, I'll make my way to all your blogs and respond to all the comments in the next couple of days. 

Review: Line of Fyre by Cara Bristol

Book Description

You know things are bad on Earth when you’re the president’s daughter and becoming a concubine to an alien dragon shifter seems like your best option…

Helena Marshfield made a big mistake. But making it right puts her life in danger. She’s forced to flee and become the concubine of the Draconian prince. She never expects to be attracted to the "dragon man," and has no intention of making the relationship real.

Prince T’mar has no wish to consort with a human. Unfortunately, his father, the king, decrees he must accept her, his dragon mistakes her for their mate, and worse, the flame-haired female stirs his desires. Still, he intends to deposit her at the palace and fly away.

But when powers on Earth draw them into the line of fire, will their unexpected, unwanted burning attraction be the one thing that can save them?

My Review

Helena feels really bad about what she did to her best friend but she really had no choice. Bigg's, the guy working with her father left her no choice but she did her best to let her best friend know what was going on. Now Helena is sending herself to be a concubine for an alien prince in order to escape Bigg's grasp. 

Prince T'mar doesn't want a human concubine but his father, the King left him no choice. His brother now has a human mate and seems happy enough but he doesn't even like the humans. His dragon on the other hand seems to know that their mate is close and T'mar won't give her a chance once he meets her. 

Helena runs when she's threatened by someone her father works with and knows that the safest place for her is somewhere other than Earth. So she makes her way to another planet and meets with prince T'mar who she is to be a concubine for. T'mar might not like humans all that much but the more he gets to know Helena the more he likes her and when his dragon side says insists that she's their mate, he doesn't want to believe it at first. 

Because T'mar already has several concubines and the people around him know of his disdain for humans so a few of his people don't treat her right when she gets there which causes real problems and a lot of drama.

Earth and Draco are at odds over who is going to get the planet Elementa which is causing all kinds of problems between the two people. Helena's father is the president and his advised, Bigg's is trying to take over which would not be good. When Helena escapes, two of her father's employee's escape with her after they are fired. 

Helena is able to see Rhianna finally after betraying her (which happened in the first book) and even though things between them are strained, it's a beginning. 

I really liked T'mar and Helena which I was surprised at because I had an awful picture of Helena because of what she did in the first book but now I understand she really had no choice and she did try to get a message to Rhianna so she could stop what was about to happen. So she really changed my opinion of her by the end of this book and I think she's exactly what T'mar needed. I'm really enjoying this series so far and plan to keep reading it. This book was so good. I highly recommend this series. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Favorite Photo of the Week

Back in March my son in law and grandson went for a walk to get out of the house. People here in Las Vegas like to walk down into the tunnels and washes where the water runs when it rains here. This picture above is the entrance into one of the tunnels. The tunnels are where a lot of the homeless population lives but they didn't see anyone down here on their walk. 

Once you get past the dark tunnels some of the washes open up like this. They also had Princess the dog with them on their walk. 

My grandson seems to be enjoying himself.  As long as you don't go on a day when it's supposed to rain, the tunnels are dry and you aren't likely to run into other people unless it's one of the homeless people that live in the covered dark tunnels. But people come down to the tunnels to walk all the time. I remember 10 years ago Ken and out daughter along with a few of her friends went hiking in the tunnels. They brought along flashlights and headlamps because some of the longer, darker tunnels are very dark.

Review: Greta and the Gargoyle by Honey Phillips

Book Description

A condemned woman. An alien guard.

Sentenced to death for killing her alien master, Greta’s only hope is a compassionate guard. Despite his frightening appearance, she is drawn to the massive alien - but is what she feels only gratitude?

Mikaroz has been waiting his whole life for the perfect mate but he never expected her to be a condemned prisoner, let alone a small human female. He cannot allow her to die for defending her honor, no matter what he has to do to save her.

With their lives on the line, can Greta risk trusting him—with her life, and her heart?

A standalone romance set in the Alien Abduction universe, the events in this story overlap the events at the end of Cam and the Conqueror. For mature readers only.

My Review

Greta was kidnapped from home and sold into slavery. Now living on a ship awaiting her death sentence for killing her master, she encounters Mikaroz who is one of the guards. 

Mikaroz encounters Grace aboard the ship she's being held on awaiting her sentencing for killing her master. He finds her intriguing and wants to try and help her but he's not sure about how to do that. 

Mikaroz uses his own credits to get Greta something to eat but so far she's refused anything and he doesn't understand why. So he tries to give her a translator so they can communicate but that doesn't go as planned at first because after all she's been through, she doesn't trust anyone. But once he is able to talk to her and find out what kind of foods she will eat, they talk more and his feelings get deeper for her. 

When a dangerous situation arises aboard the ship, Mikaroz decides to help Greta escape her fate and he's hoping she'll stay with him once she's free. If she were able to get back home I'm not sure she would have stayed with him but she sees that he really cares for her and in truth she starts to have strong feelings for him when he puts his life on the line for her. 

I haven't read this series so I wasn't sure I wouldn't be completely lost while reading this but I wasn't. I won this book back when Amazon was still doing the giveaways and figured I'd give it a read at some point. It was a short novella length story and I really liked these two. 

Mikaroz found his mate in the feisty Greta and she found a gargoyle alien to love after having gone through a terrible ordeal. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #201

This is a new weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 20 years that we'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 20 years here in a weekly blog post.

On Monday the police pulled up really fast in front of this car that's in this driveway across the street. They told them to get out with their hands up one at a time and they handcuffed them. 

I know the pictures aren't great because they were taken out of my bedroom window but you can see the police, police car and the guys getting handcuffed.

As this was happening the people in that courtyard started coming out giving the police a hard time but the police yelled at them to go back in their apartment's but they refused. I'm surprised that these people weren't arrested for refusing to go back inside.

But only these two guys were arrested.

The police searched the car they were in and put stuff in a paper bag and took it with them when they left with the two men. 

------

It was Midnight on Sunday and there were 3 police cars out there along with a fire truck. They were there for about an hour. The whole time they had their lights on which are really bright and it was shining in my bedroom. Hard to sleep when there are bright lights in the room. 

-----

Life Update: 

Ken is home and doing well. The physical therapy people are coming and working with him to get his left side working right again. We have an appointment with the Oncologist in 2 weeks so we should know more then. My daughter however went back in the hospital Monday evening because she had another asthma attack and had a really hard time breathing. They found that her hemoglobin levels were really low and had to give her a blood transfusion. But she's now back home with a new inhaler that seems to be working well.

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 edition of Freebie Friday, 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:

A box from Pinchme that contained Beechnut toddler food and toddler snacks. Nail stickers, SlimFast bar sample, Compeed blister bandages, Glad trash bag.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Review: Breeder by Cara Bristol

Book Description

She was only meant to be the Alpha Commander's slave...but she became his everything.

High Commander Dak, a ruling Alpha of planet Parseon, purchases Omra strictly as a breeder slave. He intends to impregnate her, produce a son, and hand her off to his anointed beta partner, Corren. Any infractions of the rules by her will be harshly punished.

But as Dak and Omra discover a sexual bliss banned by law, Dak begins to question the traditions and ways of his people, causing him to jeopardize his command and endanger the life of the woman he has come to love.

Dak has enemies, men who will not hesitate to exploit his fondness for Omra, and use it to portray him as unfit to rule as Alpha. Can he expose the rampant cruelty and corruption in Parseon culture... or will the protocol he's spent his life defending, be the weapon used to destroy them and their love?

My Review 

Omra is given to Dax the Alpha as his breeder. A breeder is used to give the Alpha's offspring and when they get the number of children they want, they give the breeder to another. 

This world is brutal for females but Terrans (humans) have come in contact with this alien race and some of the cultural difference make for strange conversations between the men of this world. So when Dax brings her home and they start to spend time together, he starts to feel things for her that are against the rules of his world. He's not supposed to care for her, not supposed to care if she has pleasure during their coupling to make offspring but he does and she cares about him too. 

I went into this book with my eyes wide open knowing that females are treated horrendously in this world but that things are slowly changing for some of the people who don't think it's right anymore. I wasn't expecting to like Dax right away but it didn't take long to see that he was a good guy and was going to treat Omra fairly well. 

So while romance is hard to find at first, we do get it and I really liked the ending. This is a dark romance and the world is a bad place if you're a female but it seems that things might be changing and I liked that aspect of the story. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Falcor Photobombs My Pictures

When I'm trying to take pictures for the boxes and products I review, Falcor will sometimes stick his head into the picture right at the last second so he photobombs my pictures. You have no idea how many times I've had to take several pictures.

Just trying to take some pictures. 

When he sees that I have the camera out, he will come over to see what I'm doing. He's like a little kid. 

I got this dry erase board a while back an was trying to take pictures of it and he jumped up there as I was taking pictures. 

Ken was fixing the pipes under the sink and Falcor decided to come help. 

I got a box from Green Chef and was trying to take pictures of all that came in the box and he ran over and stood there. 

Upper right hand corner, there he is. He wanted the purple poof. He thought it was a toy.

He sat in front of the Bark Box until I opened it and he was so happy to find toys in it for him. 

He's always so happy when we get a box and he's always so curious about what's inside it. I always show him so he can sniff it and that seems to make him happy. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*