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: 

A meat chopper from Walmart Spark Reviewer. 

Dental chews for Falcor. 

Calming chews for Falcor. 

I've seen these being used in videos but never bought one before. I think it works pretty well when you need meat like hamburger in small pieces. 

Falcor received more than I did this week. lol The calming chews didn't really calm him down but this boy has so much energy, it's hard to tell sometimes. He did like the dental chews though.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

Big rainy, dark clouds is what we had one day. This was in the middle of the day so you can imagine how dark it was in person. Very little rain from this though.

Book Review: Owl Be Bear For You By DJ Jennings

 

Book Description

Hot summer fun where you’ll change…in more ways than one.

Librarian Mara Scioto lives a nice, neat, orderly existence—except when she’s being attacked by uncontrolled male shifters who need to mate.

Pesky little detail, right?

Raised by a grandmother who hates all shifters, she has one wish: to make it past the age of twenty-five without experiencing The Morph that tells you you’re one of them.

And then the letter from Camp Shifter arrives with her name on it...

Orthopedic surgeon in training Jack Karsten is waiting to see if he’ll follow in his shifter brother’s footsteps. Being a shifter won’t be so bad, if that’s his destiny, but when he meets Mara, he realizes that fate and love don’t always align.

But love always wins.

It can be a bear of an ordeal sorting it all out, but if anyone can help, it’s the staff at Camp Shifter. While they’ll train Jack and Mara on the ways of shifter life, there’s one thing they can’t teach them:

How to get out of their own way and let love leave them changed.

Forever.

My Review

In this story shifters are a known thing because some humans shift by their 25th birthday. If you can make it past your 25th birthday then you are safe from shifting and becoming a shifter. Mara is a librarian and doesn't like shifters ever since she was attacked by a newly shifted bear shifter and badly hurt. Once a human shifts, if they aren't quickly picked up by the authorities and taken to shifter camp to learn to deal with their new existence, they can turn on any humans that are around them. The animal part takes over and they want to mate right away and if they can't, they get aggressive and can even attack and really hurt or even kill a human. Some humans know they are about to shift and they voluntarily go to camp shifter before they shift for the first time so they don't accidentally hurt someone. 

Jack is an Orthopedic surgeon and asks Mara out. But while they're out on a date something bad almost happens and Jack is taken away to camp shifter. Mara gets a letter soon after and she is to report to camp shifter before her next birthday because she's going to shift but she doesn't understand how they could possibly know that. She thinks the grandmother who raised her is going to hate her because she hates shifters. But when she tells her grandmother about the letter, long lost family secrets rise to the surface. 

At first I thought I was going to enjoy this book and then the whole story took a huge turn and everything was about sex. The story and storyline that had been interesting and the budding relationship between Mara and Jack turned into a lust-fest because if shifters don't have enough sex they can't control their animals. Newly turned males will attack any female that happens to be around them in order to get sex because the drive to mate is so strong they can't control themselves which is why Mara had been attacked. You would think if this is the case that every male who is about to turn 25 would have to he held behind bars just in case they turn to save other humans from being mauled but that isn't the case. 

Camp shifter is all about teaching new shifters to have lots of sex. It seemed like the storyline just disappeared once there and the overwhelming urge to mate was all that mattered and that bothered me. I don't mind an insta-lust type romance storyline but there has to be more than the urge to mate that makes two people fall for each other in order for me to feel like the romance was worth reading. 

This was not for me. 

I give this book 2 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. 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.

Trigger Warning: Domestic Abuse, Child Abuse, Threats of suicide, gun violence.

Why I lived With My Grandma For A Year

When my parents divorced in 1981, I was 11 years old and my brother was 8. My mom started seeing Larry right away. I actually think she was seeing him before she left my dad. But my dad was not a nice person. He beat my mom up all the time and hit us kids but so did my mom. There were a couple of times I got beat so bad with a belt that I couldn't walk for a few days and my mom told her parents that I had the flu instead of telling them the truth so she wouldn't have to open the door and no one would see me. My little brother got beat by my dad more than I did though so when my mom started dating Larry who also hit my mom, she told him that I never got beaten as bad as my brother. For some reason that made Larry dislike me a lot. So when he and my mom told me that they were moving to Fresno, Ca to live with his parents, Larry took me aside later and told me that I should stay with my grandma because it was my brothers time to be treated good instead of me. Because he thought my dad loved me more and didn't beat me as much. So I ended up moving in with my grandma (my moms mother) while my brother went with my mom and Larry. I didn't want to be around him anyway because he hit my mom all the time and they drank and were drunk all the time. 

While living with my grandma, I only saw my dad maybe twice. He was off living his life and didn't want to be bothered with his kids. I lived with my grandma from 1981 to the beginning of 1982. It was the entire school year for my 5th grade. In that time I only saw my mom once when she had me come to her house on a Greyhound bus for my 12th birthday. Larry seemed to be on his best behavior and he even made me a cake. But nothing had changed and I hated being there. I was glad to go back to my grandma's house at the end of it. 

At the end of the school year, Larry, my mom and brother showed up with a couple of Larry's family members and sprung on me that I would be moving back to Fresno with them. That was a nightmare for me and I put up a fight but my grandparents told me I had to go. Larry's parents didn't like me because of what I had said about Larry Sr. the year before. So Larry's mom, Thelma made me sleep outside in the yard on a cot. My mom said nothing. Thankfully we only stayed there for a few weeks and then we took off on a vacation to see The Grand Canyon, Moro Rock, Sequoia National Park, Crystal Cave in Sequoia, Big Bear, Las Vegas and The Petrified Forest for the Summer. 

We spent most of the Summer traveling and visiting all these places but because they were drinking so much and he was still hitting my mom and hated me, it was a nightmare of a trip. The worst was when we visited Las Vegas though. My mom and Larry spent all their time gambling and left my brother and I in our hotel room by ourselves. I was 12 and my brother was 9. They left us money to eat and I would take my brother to go get fast food. Sometimes they would be gone for a couple of days at a time. Larry won a bunch of money and then lost a bunch of money. After he lost a bunch of money and was banned from going back inside one of the Casino's for some reason, he took my mom's gun and locked himself in our motel room's bathroom and drank until he passed out. He had been threatening to shoot himself but my mom and brother were able to push the door open after he passed out and get the gun.

We all (including Larry) ended up moving back in with my grandpa after that instead of going back to Larry's parents house. My mom and Larry started working at my grandpa's welding shop again as well. I called my dad and let him know where we were after that because my mom hadn't let me call him the whole Summer. My dad was carrying around a gun in his car and had threatened to kill my mom if he saw her but I told him what went on all Summer and asked him not to do anything like that so we could see him and he promised me. So he was allowed to come and see us a bit later. My dad was a jerk but he was still my dad and I missed him.

Things were kinda normal for a little while....

Links to past stories. 

January 2023

February 2023

March 2023

April 2023

Happy Raturday!

 

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

Apartment Life #364

 

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 go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 25 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 25 years here in a weekly blog post. 

Last Sunday morning I got up and walked Falcor only to see blood all over the sidewalk out front. Crazily it didn't lead back to drug dealer's apartment but rather into the pool courtyard and up the steps. I saw a guy cleaning all the blood off the steps and from in front of his door. And no, I didn't call the police, I'm not getting involved in that mess. I know you can't see it too well but all of those spots on the walkway are blood.

The high this week was 94F/34C

The low this week was 59F/15C

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

Favorite Song of the Week

 

Steelheart- She's Gone

This isn't a new song but if you've never heard Steelheart I think you've been missing out. The man can sing, no doubt about that. He has such an impressive voice and I love this song. I hope you enjoy. 

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 was perfume week apparently. lol 

I received 2 Little Freebies Boxes from Bloomingdales.

What did I receive?

Hermes Un Jardin A Cythere Eau De Toilette

Cle De Peau Beaute UV Protection cream spf 50

Acqua Di Parma Colonia Eau De Cologne

Parfums De Marly Valaya  Eau De Parfum

Caroline Herrera Good Girl perfume

MCM perfume spray

Mugler Alien Goddess perfume

Narciso Rodriguez For Her perfume

Prada Paradoxe perfume

Valentino Donna Born In Roma perfume

Valentino Rosso Valentino Satin Lipstick shade 217 A (red)

Viktok &Rolf Good Fortune perfume

They all smell really good but Mugler is my favorite from the ones I got this week. Mugler always smells so good. The Cle De Peau Beaute SPF 50 sunscreen is really good too. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Review: Ghostly Game by Christine Feehan

 

Book Description

It’s fight or flight in this sultry, suspenseful GhostWalker novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan.

Gideon “Eagle” Carpenter is used to rolling with the punches life has thrown at him. It’s the only thing that’s kept him alive. He and his team of GhostWalkers have seen and experienced it all. He does his best to live with all the sins written on his soul. Then he hears the laughter of a woman with the ability to erase—even for a few previous moments—the darkness of his past.

Laurel “Rory” Chappel has always been a nomad. She’s accustomed to taking care of herself, despite the physical challenges she lives with. She thinks she’s too weak to find real love, but that doesn’t stop her interest in Gideon from turning into a full-on addiction. He’s all rough edges and danger contrasted with a tenderness that makes her feel safe. Still, after a life spent in motion, she’s not sure she knows how to stay in one place.

Gideon hopes he can persuade Rory to take a chance on him with every electric touch. But soon, life conspires against him, forcing the GhostWalker to risk everything to protect the woman he loves....

My Review

Rory and Gideon meet while she's working as a bartender in a pub. She keeps to herself, doesn't go out with anyone and has a few close friends she hangs out with. Gideon is a GhostWalker, these people have psychic abilities and have been enhanced with other abilities so they can go on special assignments, but he's also a really nice guy. When they first meet, Gideon is still recovering from some gunshot wounds he got while on a mission and Rory can tell he's in pain but she figures he's been in a car accident or something. These two start talking after Gideon comes to the pub she works at and he asks her out and surprisingly she says yes. 

Rory hasn't been getting close to a lot of people and doesn't lay down ties for too long. Once she gets bored in a place or feels the need to move on, she does. She's been moving from place to place for years. But the place she's in now almost feels like home to her. She likes her job, her friends and feels good where she's at. 

When Rory realizes that she feels safe with Gideon and they seem to like some of the same things, she agrees to go on another date but Gideon's teammates show up and let him know she might be in danger, which puts him on edge. Gideon is a GhostWalker and so is his team mates. He had a rough childhood but now he and his team help people. Rory doesn't seem like a GhostWalker but because he's so instantly attracted to her and they seem to click together so fast, he's wary that she either is a spy or doesn't know she's a GhostWalker. 

When it looks like someone is after Rory, Gideon and his team investigate it and find out who is putting her in danger. Secrets start to unravel and come to light. I didn't guess who the bad guys were until it was revealed so it was a surprise to me which was great. I felt bad for Rory as things started to make more sense and the secrets were revealed. But Gideon and his team were right there with her to help which was great. I've loved this series but I think this book is actually one of my favorites so far. Gideon and Rory's romance was a slow burn even though they felt an instant attraction, they took things slow because neither one of them trusted that the other was as good as they seemed. This was great fun. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

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

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

 I wanted to show you how fast the sky changed one day. It was so bright blue and the white, puffy clouds were just everywhere. But this one small dark cloud started over the mountains and quickly made its way near where I live. 

The sky changed to these dark clouds within 20 minutes of the first picture. I didn't get any rain from this but the more it moved to the East the darker it got. It was dark clouds by me the rest of the day. 

Book Review: The Loner by Diana Palmer

 

Book Description

Tanner Everett spends most of his time jet-setting around the world. But that hasn’t stopped innocent Stasie Bolton, the daughter of a neighboring rancher, from falling head-over-heels for the jet-setting playboy. So Stasie is secretly thrilled when both her father proposes linking the properties in matrimony…which means Tanner will be hers, for good.

Despite his globetrotting ways, Tanner can’t help but be enthralled by the quiet girl next door. But as the embers between the two are fanned into flames, Tanner wonders if he’s found forever in the last place he ever expected.

My Review

Tanner is a jerk. Gosh, I really started off disliking this guy a lot. He showed a few soft moments like when Stasie's mother died and he came to comfort her. But when Stasie's father changes his will so that she and Tanner have to marry in order for Stasie's ranch not to get sold to a developer who could build something right next door to Tanner's ranch which would ruin his ranch and cause havoc to his cattle, he's just mad he's been backed into a corner. But Tanner is used to jet setting around the world, having a woman who is not naïve and unsophisticated so he's really mad he has to marry Stasie even though he knows she loves him. 

He treats her badly, making her think that they might get along after their marriage night and then he leaves to be with his mistress. He was a total jerk. So I totally understood why his family cut him off after a tragic event happens and Stasie decides to find a way out of the marriage and divorce him. He has to find a way to make it on his own and grow up. 

Fast forward a few years and Stasie and Tanner meet again and neither of them are the same people they were. Watching these two have a second chance with each other was nice but I'm not sure I would have been able to forgive him like she did. But of course she still loved him and probably always would. 

You always know what you're going to get with a Diana Palmer cowboy romance and I love that about this author. When I want a story like this, she is the author I always come back to because I know what kind of story I'm going to get and I almost always like them. 

I give this book 5 stars. 

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

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

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

Apartment Life #363

 

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 go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 25 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 25 years here in a weekly blog post. 

That dark car in front of the white unmarked police car has been sitting there for a few days. It belongs to a couple in my building. They got a ticket that was left under the wiper blades a few days ago but didn't get it and it was still there when this officer pulled up to check out the car again. 

This time the cop put an orange sticker on the drivers side window to either move the car in 24 hours or it was going to be towed. About an hour after this the couple from my building came out and saw the ticket and orange sticker. I watched the male take the license plates off the car and then move it into the alley of my apartment complex. I wonder why he took the plates off the car...

Other than that, it was a quiet week.

The high this week was 90F/32C

The low this week was 49F/9C

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

Favorite Song of the Week

 

Hollywood Undead- Salvation

I know I've shared Hollywood Undead before but they just keep coming out with great songs so I wanted to share this one as well. I hope you enjoy.

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:

I won a $5 Amazon gift card from a blog contest. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Possessed By The Alien King by Krista Luna

 

Book Description

My fated mate is my enemy. Yet nothing will stop me from claiming her.

DEIRDRE

I made a horrible mistake. Under orders, I created a virus to drive the Varool from humanity’s new planet. It mutated, killing all of the alien women and our men.

Now, the fate of both our species rests on my shoulders—and between my thighs. To ease my guilt and broker peace, I’ll marry one of the fierce alien warriors and bear his children. All while hiding who I really am.

Their brute of a king claims me, his gigantic body inflaming my desire. Storr’s piercing gaze makes me shiver. If he ever finds out the part I played in all of this, crash landing on the planet will be the least of my worries.

STORR

Humans seized the planet I need for my people. As negotiations deteriorated, varoolian women died. I long for retribution. If I ever find the person responsible—

No. I must set aside my fury to secure my people’s future. Survival demands we reproduce with the enemy.

Although I have no plans to be first, a sweet, musky scent ensnares my senses. Deirdre is my fated mate. I must claim her. She is mine.

Yet consummation does not equal trust. As we battle our way across the untamed planet, suspicions mount. All humans are liars, but Deirdre’s lies may end us both.

Possessed by the Alien King is a steamy enemies-to-lovers romance featuring a growly alien hero, a smart heroine, and plenty of adventure with a guaranteed HEA.

My Review

Deirdre is a virologist who helped create the virus that killed off all the Varool women and then the human men. It was a complete accident that never should have happened. The virus should only have made the Varool sick so they would leave the planet and leave Earth alone. But now Earth women and Varool men are voluntarily mating in order to have offspring so both of their species may live on. Deirdre is the first human female to be mated with a Varool male and she thinks she is going to be mated to the Prince but once his brother the King sees her and realizes that his second heart has started beating, signaling that he has met his destined mate, he has no choice but to claim Deirdre himself. 

Deirdre isn't happy about the change in plans since it seems Storr isn't even happy about mating her and she isn't sure why he's claiming her instead of letting his brother who seems more friendly be her mate. Much to her dismay, Storr wants to mate right away and she decides to just get it over with. They start to feel attracted to each other right away but it's just the mating frenzy which bothered me. He never would have picked her to be his mate without his body signaling that she was his destined mate. He doesn't even like humans so this romance was off to a rocky start right from the beginning. 

Then they get stuck on a planet together and can't contact their people. Once they have to rely on one another and start to get to know each other more, they find they actually like each other but it still felt like the mating frenzy was behind all the feelings they had for each other. Now don't get me wrong, I read a lot of other genres with destined mates and mating frenzies in them and I don't mind that at all. But they just didn't match and the feelings all seemed hormone induced, like none of their feelings were actually real. They as a couple just didn't work for me at all. Plus the fact that she lied about being a virologist and having worked on the virus that decimated both of their peoples, just made it harder for me to like either one of them. 

The one good thing about this book towards the end there was a big twist and I really liked that. But for most of this book, I didn't like what was going on. 

I give this book 2 out of 5 stars.  

Amazon

Favorite picture of the week

 

We had a couple of days where the sky was bright blue and there were all of these bright white, puffy clouds. This is looking down my street.

And this is looking down the street one street over from mine. It was nice outside too, around 60F/15C

Book Review: The Pact by Delta James

 

Book Description

Gavan Drummond is the most powerful man in Scotland, he is neither pure nor innocent. Can I trust him to save my company?

My family has been making single malt whiskey for centuries and has a world-renowned reputation. A rival has been trying to put us out of business and acquire both our distilling methods and our land. In an effort to save me from a forced marriage, my grandfather leaves Drummond 51 percent of the business to hold in trust until I marry.

Now my grandfather is dead and I am left to deal with the distillery, the rival family wanting me dead, and Drummond - the black tiger. But I don’t know where else to turn to for help.

Gavan offers me a Pact ... submit for a year or lose my legacy. If I accept, will I be sharing the bed of a man or a beast?

The Pact is a dark mafia romance in the Syndicate Masters series. If you like intrigue, men determined to possess their women, and the strong intelligent women who stand up to them, then you’ll love Delta James’ newest Kindle melting paranormal romance.

My Review

Gavan is a mob boss, a Dom and a black tiger shifter. He's had a thing for Blaise for a long time but has never acted on it. But now that her grandfather is sick and dying and wants him to keep his granddaughter safe, he's not holding back any longer. 

Blaise is a submissive but only plays with guys who know she'll never be collared by them and they have no chance at ever being her full time Dom. She likes her freedom and has a business to run. When her grandfather dies, and bad things start happening at her distillery, she finds herself in danger and the one man who she wants nothing to do with is there all the time because her grandfather left him 51% of her business. 

Gavan knows that it is more than bothering Blaise that he now owns the controlling percentage of her distillery. So he let's her know that he wants to be her Dom even though she doesn't seem to be interested at first. He's very manipulative, controlling and I didn't like that. Right away he starts telling her he wants her to stop cussing and tells her she's earning spankings for cussing even though she hasn't agreed to be his sub, hasn't signed a contract with him and he's not her Dom. That entire setup was wrong to me. 

Then when he finds out he owns controlling interest in her distillery after her grandfather dies, he tells her he will give her back controlling interest if she agrees to be his sub for a year. I found this to be underhanded, manipulative and wrong. This is not how you build a D/s relationship and I feel bad for anyone reading this who thinks that would be ok.

To say the least I did not like Gavan at all. His initial behavior set the tone for this book and even though he cared for her in his own way, I never cared for him at all. It's hard to like a book when you don't like the hero. Plus the fact that him being a black tiger shifter really only played a insignificant part in this book left me wanting more of that aspect. I don't mind a dark romance at all but Gavan's personality and the way he handled their relationship just left a lot to be desired in this story. 

I give this book 2 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

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

Apartment Life #362

 

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 go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 25 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 25 years here in a weekly blog post. 

I've spotted this AMR non-emergency medical transport ambulance on my street a few times. It's good that whoever is needing this type of transportation has it available to them. At first I thought it was a regular ambulance until I read the back and sides of it. 

I spotted the police down at the end of my block where some of the meth-heads were sitting behind the big rocks. The police made them all get up and stand in front of the police car. They were probably searching them and running their ID's. 

A few minutes later a second police car pulled up behind the first one. The sun was setting which is why the flashing lights look so bright. One guy was arrested, probably had drugs on him and the rest walked away. 

---

Friday morning on an early morning walk with Falcor, I found a $5 dollar bill. That was a nice start to the day.

The high this week was 95F/35C

The low this week was 49F/9C

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