Book Review: Alien Spare by Cara Bristol

 

Book Description

He’s the royal spare with a reputation. She’s the cosmic wild card he never saw coming.

Prince Falkor Rullok-Myka has spent his entire life in second place—second to his brother, second to his planet, and probably second in his parents’ hearts. So, why not lean into it? He’s got charm, status, and a reputation as Kaldor’s “Prince of Scandal.” If he can’t be their favorite, at least he can be unforgettable.

But his latest misadventure—where, for once, he’s actually innocent—lands him in hot water. To repair the damage, the king issues an ultimatum: marry the human woman caught in the middle of the mess…or else.

Karma Kennedy isn’t charmed. She came to Kaldor for a fresh start and spiritual clarity—not to marry an arrogant alien prince with perfect hair and a smirk she wants to wipe off his face. She doesn’t care that he’s royalty. She doesn’t care that he’s gorgeous. What she does care about is escaping this forced marriage and getting her life back.

The plan? Stay married just long enough to save face then go their separate ways.

But fate isn’t letting go that easily.

As the days pass, Karma’s tarot cards start predicting a future she refuses to believe. And Falkor? He’s seeing a woman who might finally put him first.

In a marriage neither of them wanted, they might just find the love they’ve both been searching for…if they stop fighting destiny long enough to let it happen.

My Review 

 Karma set her sister up on a dating site, Cosmic Dates where females from Earth sign up to find alien mates and now she's married to the prince on an alien planet.  Her sister is happy and she's happy for her but now Karma wishes she was as happy. One thing getting on her nerves is her new brother in law's brother, Prince Falkor. When they met there was a misunderstanding and they haven't gotten along since then.  

They actually find each other attractive and if they would just stop being so snarky to each other, they might find they like each other too. So when a lightning storm strands Karma at the same hotel Falkor is staying at, he offers to let her stay in his suite for the night. But the tabloids even on an alien planet are unscrupulous and start a scandal. So the King and Queen- his parents, take this opportunity to make them see that they are perfect for each other and orders them to get married. Karma and Falkor settle for a 1 year marriage and after that time they can divorce and go on about their lives, but after spending time together they find that spark that was there between them the entire time and fall hard for each other. 

Of course just when things are going well for them there's a betrayal and a misunderstanding that keeps them apart for a while. People jumped to the wrong conclusion really fast and it comes between Falkor and Karma. Will these two have a chance at a forever love and happiness? I liked the ending and thought this book and this romance was fun. 

I really enjoy all of the books I've read from Cara Bristol but I was really looking forward to this one when I found out the Prince's name was Falkor because my dog's name is Falcor! You know I just had to read this! I'm glad I did because it was a really good read. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

*Click on pictures to make them bigger*

We were changing the lightbulb in the porch light and spotted this little jumping spider. We just scooted him over so he was out of the way so the lightbulb could get changed. 

It's the buggie time of year. I noticed that the cicadas have climbed out of the ground and are shedding their skins on the trees across the street. This is just one side of one tree. There are dozens more on the other trees. 

We had a couple of really cloudy days and even had a little bit of rain come our way. 

The cloud cover was nice because the sun wasn't blasting down on us. 

This cloud was really bigger than it looks here. Those billowing puffy white clouds were so pretty.

Then at night as the sun was setting everything looked so blue.

The next day we got rain clouds. And we even got some rain from this as it came over us.

It started getting dark over us and me and Falcor went out for a walk before it started raining.

As this storm got closer I figured we would get a little rain from this one. I was standing in my alley so all of those things you see on the other side of the wall are in the parking lot for Cal Ranch. 

And I was right. It started raining and it rained on and off the rest of the night. This is my courtyard, it always floods a little when it rains. The gutters are always full since maintenance never cleans them and so the rain water builds up in places and floods the sidewalk. At least we got some rain.

Book Review: Master Descallia by Sylvia Black

 

Book Description

A purebred Vampire who leads with an iron fist.

A sassy detective who doesn’t play by the rules.

Will any chance at love survive the darkness of this world?

As Overmaster of the purebloods, I will do everything in my power to stop the rogues and syndicate from blaming the vampires for the disappearance of human women.

Even when my enemies enlist the help of rogue shifters and witches to keep me and the other vampire masters at bay, I will not be deterred.

Until the sassy young woman with psychic powers who may be the only chance for us to win the age-old battle is attacked.

The decision is easy—give her immortality in exchange for a life of servitude to the vampires for eternity.

And to me, a dark souled vampire who wants no part of love, forever.

Master Descalliais the explosive first book in the Masters of the Consulate series by International Best-Selling Author, Sylvia Black. It is a deliciously dark, enemies to lovers, fated mates, vampire romance. You will love these novels where the passion is fiery, the loyalty is fierce, and the stakes are high. Each novel in this twelve-book series features a different couple with a guaranteed happily ever after.

My Review

A dark vampire romance with a guy who looks like that on the cover? Yes please. lol This sounded like my kind of book and boy was I right. Master Descallia or Salvatore as Luciana calls him is a pure blood vampire and overmaster of the purebloods. Meaning he's in charge and he knows it. Everyone knows it and if they try to pull one over on him, he takes care of them one way or another. This man doesn't mess around. 

So when he finds out that women are going missing and someone is making it look like the vampires are to blame, he has to get help which is when he meets Luciana. She's a human police detective and agrees to help him investigate who is kidnapping the women. But very quickly she gets badly hurt and she's not going to make it. So Salvatore asks her permission to turn her into a vampire, he's hoping she will accept because he feels a pull towards her like he would for a mate, but his mate was lost to him long ago. 

Luciana accepts being turned and thus she is thrown into his life and now that she's a vampire, he expects her to bend to his will like all the other vampires do. Well, he has another thing coming if he thinks she's just going to do whatever he says. Luciana is sassy, sarcastic and headstrong which not only turns Salvatore on, but makes him crazy because he's so used to everyone bending to his will and she doesn't like being told what to do. So the arguments these two have are really funny. 

These two were so fun to watch. There was some BDSM and Dom/sub interactions since Master Descallia owns a BDSM club but there was nothing non-consensual or outlandishly harsh. It was all pretty subdued in my opinion. 

I really liked the reasons that came to light as to why these two felt such a strong pull towards each other. That was a sweet storyline. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

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

Apartment Life #387

 

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.

A couple of different days the police helicopter was flying right over my apartment complex. I went outside to see if anything was going on but I didn't see any police cars or anything either day. 

Tuesday night around 10PM 2 police cars showed up from an apartment across the street. They stayed for a few minutes then came back outside and left. I guess it's good no one needed more help and no one got arrested. No idea why the police were there in the first place. It had rained a few minutes and that's why my window is so blurry. 

I spotted one of these cars driving down my street. I think these cars are so ugly.

On Friday and Saturday the building inspector was here inspecting the roofs for leaks after the rain. Saturday afternoon I found his badge in the rocks in front of my place. So I called the number on it (I blurred it out for privacy) and let him know I found his badge. He was happy that I found it and said I saved him a mess of hassle. He said he has back to back inspections this weekend so he asked if he could come by on Monday morning to pick it up. I said no problem. So he's coming tomorrow to get it. 

The high this week was 96F/35C

The low this week was 72F/22C

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

Saturday Vittles

 

My Daughter and I are trying to eat more healthy so I thought I would share some pictures on Saturday's of what we've made.

Baked Zucchini Rounds with a zucchini cheese sauce

You will need:

1 Large zucchini - cut so you have round pieces

1/4 cup of cheddar cheese

1/2 tsp. McCormick Chipotle & Herb seasoning

1/2 tsp. McCormick Garlic & Herb seasoning

1/2 cup chicken broth

2 TBSP oil

Salt and pepper to taste

What to do: 

Remove all of the inside of the zucchini rounds, leaving just a 1/2 inch inside. Set aside. 

Place zucchini rounds on a baking sheet, drizzle 1 TBSP of the oil on them and toss to coat. Sprinkle with the seasonings and bake in a 350F oven for 30 minutes, turning them over halfway. 

In a sauce pan add the middle parts of the zucchini and saute with the other 1 TBSP of oil until it is very soft and mushy. Break up any larger pieces with a fork. Add chicken broth, cheese and sprinkle in some of the spices. Cook over medium heat until sauce has reduced a little and is thicker. 

Drizzle sauce over the baked zucchini rounds. We served ours with baked chicken, tomatoes and celery.

This makes two servings of zucchini rounds. Each serving is 150 calories and 5 carbs.  (If you use 2 TBSP of the sauce)

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?