Halloween Time

September 1st is the start of Halloween around here. So we've been decorating. If you're new, we do this every year. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you might spot a few new pieces of decorations. This is in the kitchen.

This is also in the kitchen.

The thing hanging is a plastic spider web and dozens of little spiders are hanging down from it. The shelf has a lot of little Halloween knick Knacks.

Crypt Keeper clock and some Halloween horror action figures.

A closer look at some of what's on the living room shelf.

Lots of ghosts.

It's hard to get good pictures of my living room window because of the sun glare. But this skeleton is in the middle.

Some fun Frankenstein gnomes in the window.

Of course we have rats. lol 

A mummy gnome.

Another bigger rat.

On one side of the window is dracula.

On the other side is a werewolf.

This is the window lit up at night.

Back inside we hung a bat from the ceiling. 

The bathroom and bed room door both have these purple spiders hanging over the door.

Oogie Boogie!

The living room shelf again.

There's a skeleton on the door.

The living room wall. 

Here's a better look at the 3 Grim Reapers on the wall.

The little Halloween Tree.

Another Halloween tree.

Here is my Camp Crystal Lake and Jason Voorhees figurines from the Friday The 13th Movies. The cabin used to have lighted windows but the bulb just blew out and I need to order a new one.

This is what it looks like with the lights on though. Picture from last year.

My daughters Living Dead Doll. I got this for her 16th birthday and she loves it.

The corner shelf. I made the Pumpkin Tree on top.

The spider hanging over the bathroom door.

And of course my daughter added a little touch of Halloween to the garden. The pumpkin with the big eyes is solar powered and at night the eyes light up. 

Nanananana Bat Dog. Falcor wearing his Bat Wings. 

We haven't gotten any Trick Or Treaters in years but we still like to decorate. 

Do you decorate for Halloween?

Book Review: The Minotaur's Motivation by Safia Nyx

 

Book Description

I won’t allow myself to fall in love with a monster criminal, even if they are my “fated mate”.

Cerys

I haven’t felt safe since… well lets just say, for a long time.

Now I’m working in this grimy, maze of a prison as a therapist, with no idea how to escape. I’m just as trapped as the prisoners.

On top of everything I’ve just been assigned this huge Minotaur hybrid. The biggest and most aggressive client I’ve had yet. A murderer. I hope I can handle him.

Cam

There’s no redemption for monsters like me.

Hybrid. Outcast. Killer.

I gave up on hope a long time ago. I want to do my time in peace and stay in control of my Minotaur side. But when I see her, one word resounds in my mind.

MINE.

Now she is all that matters. I won’t let anyone hurt her. Not the past that haunts her, the monster hating guards or the other inmates. Even if that means letting the worst side of myself out to play.

Fated Inmates is a series of novellas about morally grey monsters with dark pasts and the human women they are fated to claim. Each book can be read alone, but they happen in the same time frame, in the same prison. So you will get the best experience if you read them all in order.

My Review

Cerys had her life upended when a seer came to her school when she was younger and told her that she was fated to be mated to a monster. Her life took a horrid turn after that because the purist townspeople of her town thought she must be part monster to be a mate to one. Now she's a therapist in a monster prison until the day she meets her fated mate and they can leave to be together. 

Cam is part minotaur and part bat. He's the biggest prisoner in the prison where Cerys works and he's been assigned to her. Cerys doesn't want to meet her mate and doesn't want to be mated to a monster because of the trouble it caused her in her past. But when she meets Cam things change because he knows right away that she's his mate. She feels a pull towards to him but fights it at first. But these two can't fight the pull between them for long.

I hope we get to see more of the shadow demon prisoner because he seems really interesting. 

Some of the male guards don't like the male prisoners and treat them badly because they don't like the fact that the female therapists are supposed to meet their monster fated mates here. So when a huge fight breaks out in the prison, Cam has to do what he can to keep Cerys safe. I liked the ending and seeing what happened to them. I'll definitely be reading more of this series.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

The clouds put out a drizzle of rain but not enough for me to bring along my umbrella.

 

We had a few cloudy days and we even got a little bit of rain. The sun was hitting the top of this white cloud just right for it to be lit up bright white.

The sunrises this week were so nice. The clouds made it look extra nice. And it was cooler. This was a few minutes after I took the last picture. The sun was trying to peek out from behind the clouds.

The next day more clouds and more rain off in the distance.

A few minutes later from the last picture as we were walking home.

That night the rain clouds moved in and I spotted this small shaft of sunlight beaming down from the clouds. It rained for all of 5 minutes. 

Book Review: Fang by Demelza Carlton

 

Book Description

When vampire dentist Dr Fang (yes, really) gets invited to go to the Intergalactic Dating Agency’s speed dating event as his friend’s wingman, he can’t refuse. He isn’t looking for love, let alone his fated mate, but one taste of the pretty young human girl Dani, and he’s hooked.

Dani isn’t sure what frightens her more: aliens, vampires or dentists. Only to discover that there are much more dangerous beings in the Colony…and the hot alien vampire dentist might be the exact hero she needs right now. Maybe even forever…

My Review

Dani first meets Dr. Fang when she goes to him as a dentist. Her wisdom teeth have to come out and he uses his vampire venom to keep the procedure pain free. All the biting and kissing they had to do for him to give her his venom brings feelings from both of them, but they were going to keep things strictly business until they meet again, this time at the Intergalactic Dating Agency's speed dating event. 

Once there, Dr. Fang spots Dani being threatened by another male, he steps in to make her life easier. She's there to fulfill her contract, she has to find an alien on this planet to have four babies with, spend ten years on the farm and then her life will be her own. The females are there to help repopulate the planet and so their contract states they have to have four babies with some aliens. Dr. Fang is more than willing to help her out. 

But the woman who is in charge of the farm and the women there and their contracts, is selling these women and their contracts to the highest bidder so she can make some money. So when Dani becomes pregnant with Dr. Fang's baby, something that should not be possible, Dani is scared because now her baby's life is in danger. But as soon as Dr. Fang finds out about the baby he's going to do whatever he has to make sure she she and their baby is safe. 

I loved Dr. Fang. This is the first book in the Intergalactic Dating Agency series. I would have liked a little more world building so we know what caused the Earth women to sign these contracts in order to come to this alien planet, and while we get a little information, it wasn't enough. I did like the ending though. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

"I has a hamburger."

*All pictures today are courtesy of Rat Logic and martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #386

 

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.

I've noticed a lot of the homeless people out and about walking through the courtyards across the street into the alley over there. Me being the curious, nosy neighbor that I am, I decided to take a stroll and watch where they were going. The fence you see in the background back there had been repaired and you might be able to see some of the new fence slats that haven't been stained yet. Well that house is empty and so the homeless people pried off the new slats so they could go through the back yard and break into the house and quat there. The police come, make them leave, never arrest them and the next day they are right back again. 

You might be able to see the hole in the fence a little better here. There's another vacant house a few doors down from this one that the homeless people break into the stay as well.

I've seen Jessica (The mayor of Tunnel Town) bringing men from my courtyard to one of the vacant houses late at night. I'm only guessing what she's doing there but I have a good idea. 

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The window towards the right, next to the wall AC was broken out of one of my neighbors apartments. A homeless lady pushing a cart walked by and for no apparent reason punched a hole in their window and kept walking. No idea why she did it. But the guy who has been following Jessica to the vacant houses late at night lives there 

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On Wednesday we all got notices that our apartments were being inspected again for bank purposes, whatever that means. So on Thursday I was up early and they came by before noon. There were 13 people walking around going into the apartments. I took a picture of some of them outside the apartment across from me. The other half was inside that apartment. They only stayed for a minute, literally and then moved on to the next apartment. They came in looked under the sink, in the bathroom and took pictures of the AC. That was it. So weird.

About 2 hours later I'm in my bedroom reading and I hear what sounds like someone running back and forth on the roof and then there's a scraping noise near my bedroom window. I pulled up my camera and this guy (One of the inspectors) was right at my window. So I opened my window and asked if I could help him with something. He said no, he was just looking at the paint that was peeling off the wall. He said wasn't this recently painted? I said yeah less than 2 years ago. He said, Oh that's not good. lol 

The high this week was 96F/35C

The low this week was 71F/21C

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