Book Review: The Changeling With The Silver Hair by Anna Hammar

 

Book Description

Life for Princess Aoife Quinn had not been easy since the humans had attacked Changeling Court five years before. Branded with a magical seal, Aoife was stripped of her magic and married off to someone she didn’t know or like. During her wedding, however, humans once again attacked leading to Aoife being rescued by the dark haired King of the Elven Court. Agreeing to his marriage proposal, Aoife slowly learns about the occupants of Castle Gray and heals herself from the trajeties experienced during the human war. Only, not everyone from Changeling Court is happy with the marriage announcement, leading to an unexpected threat from someone she held dear.

My Review

Aoife is a changeling but when humans attack her people, she is branded with a magical seal that essentially seals her powers. Years later her father just wants to marry her off since women aren't really worth much else but making good treaties through marriage with neighboring courts or royals. But Aoife is against this marriage to a man she doesn't love. Once again during her wedding day humans attack and kill her intended but Lysander the King of the Elven Court spirits her away to keep her safe.

Elven Court is so different from what Aoife is used to but she finds herself there as she and Lysander become closer. Everyone in Elven Court is welcoming to her even if some of them don't trust her right away. 

Once the huge secrets are revealed, it all started to make more sense. I felt sorry for all she endured all because someone close to her was not right in the head. Lysander was one of the best hero's I've read in a long time. Gosh, I loved him. He is such a great character.  Aoife ends up being stronger than she ever thought possible and I loved that for her. The way she was brought up, she was supposed to be quiet and look nice. But Lysander shows her that she can be more and oh boy, she sure is. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Creatures

 

I had fun looking up AI generated creatures on Pixabay. All of these pictures are free to use. I could imagine creatures like this coming out to prowl around on Halloween. 

Apartment Life #339

 

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 25 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 25 years here in a weekly blog post.  

Another rooftop AC was installed onto the roof of the apartment complex across the street. That's the second one this year. I'm pretty sure it's pretty expensive to have these things installed too. 

I always watch just to make sure that something doesn't go wrong and those heavy AC's don't come crashing down on a car on the street. 

It went well. They had the old AC out and the new one in really fast, less than 20 minutes. 

---

A few days later the apartment building a couple of buildings down the street also had a rooftop AC replaced. 

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Of course we can't go one week without the police showing up. At first it was just this one police car.

The another showed up and they went into the apartments across the street.

They stayed about 30 minutes, came out, talked and left. No one was arrested so I guess that's good. 

The high this week was 100F/37C

The low this week was 66F/18C

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

An Amazing Ghostly Pirate Ship

 

I first found pictures of this amazing pirate ship sculpture over at my friend Infidel's blog page when he shared some images he found around the internet. I thought this would be perfect for Halloween month because just look at it. You can find more images of this incredible sculpture that took over 15 months to complete here. 

This sculpture is the work of Jason Stieva who is also a tattoo artist and has pictures on his Instagram of some incredible tattoos. There are some incredibly talented people in this world. 

Weird Things Around My Apartment

 I love these posts and you all seemed to like it as well so I thought I would do another one for October. Feel free to join in and do your own post.

 If you'd like to see the other posts I did about things around my apartment, I'll post links to them below.

Weird Things Around My Apartment 

Weird Things Around My Apartment

Things Around My Apartment- Inherited and Gifts

I like skulls and skeletons. I posted some pictures of other skulls in one of my other posts linked above. I have several little skull statues that only come out at Halloween but these all stay out all year long. The rose quartz skull is a favorite. 

My late husband drew and painted this and you might recognize it from my Sunday posts. Ken drew this for me because he knew I liked skulls.

My favorite Grim Reaper wall hanging.

Skull planter with an air plant.

And I have a skeleton pen. 

The three oldest books on my bookshelf. My grandma gave me the Black Magic, Satanism and Voodoo book when I was 12 years old. She used to take me to seances when I lived with her. 

I bought the Satanic Bible and the Necronomicon when I was a teenager. I was interested in the Satanic Church back when I was a teenager. I'm Agnostic now.

My favorite coffin earrings just in time for Halloween.

They open up and have tiny skeletons inside the coffins. 

So there you have it, some weird things around my apartment. 

Book Review: C791 (Cyborgs: More Than Machines) by Eve Langlais

 

Book Description

Machines aren’t supposed to feel, but this cyborg can’t help falling in love.

Assigned as a specimen collector for a captured cyborg, Chloe is intrigued by the machine disguised as a man. Kidnapped during his daring escape, he shows her that despite the chip in his brain, his humanity is not completely lost.

Formerly known as unit X109GI, Joe is on a quest to discover his origin. While he doesn’t find the answers he’s looking for, he does discover that affection and lust aren’t just for humans. But when it comes to a battle between logic and love, which side will the cybernetic organism—once a man—choose?

My Review

The cyborg now known as Joe is being held hostage by the same humans that made him and the other cyborgs. After he malfunctioned and started to have feelings and became self aware, he overheard that the humans were going to destroy the cyborg's including himself so he fought back and helped his other cyborg's to do the same. 

Now Chloe is assigned to try to take some samples from Joe as he's being held captive. The humans don't think that he can do anything to hurt them as long as he's secured but Chloe doesn't like what's happening to him. So when he does escape, he takes her with him and shows her that the cyborg's aren't as bad as her colleagues made her think they were. 

As time goes on and secrets are revealed, they find out some things that really twist this story in a new direction. The humans/scientists who are behind making the cyborg's are worst than anything they made up about the cyborg's who were just trying to survive. Since these cyborg's started off as humans, it only stands to reason that there might be some of their humanity left after the augmentation into a cyborg. To think that all humanity would be erased was dumb on the part of the scientists. 

This story made me tear up a time or two at everything that was done to the different cyborg's and all they went through at the hands of the humans. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Ghostly Images For Halloween

 

I don't believe in ghosts, I've never seen one but if I had to imagine a ghost, it would be something like these images. So enjoy some spooky ghostly images for Halloween Month.

Haunted swamp?

Haunted pirate ship?

Ghostly fairy? 

Do you like ghostly images?

Book Review: Caught By the Dark by Alexa Michaels

 

Book Description

At Blackwater Manor, there's only one rule: Stay inside after sunset.

No matter what noises you hear. No matter how the beast beckons. No matter how tempting his offer.

It should be simple. Stay indoors.

Of course, I’m not always the best listener.

Especially when I see myself out there. It would be ungrateful to ignore Fate’s visions. I’m psychic after all, and breaking the rules to explore my visions is what I do best.

Besides...I'm drawn to the beast lurking in the dark. Others might see him as a monstrous being. But to me, he's been nothing but protective, caring, and maybe a little sweet. Although he'd never admit it. Neither will his other half, the man I'm fake mated to when the sunshine is out.

If I'm going to break the curse, save both man and beast, it's time to venture outside and let the dark catch me!

A spicy, fake-relationship tale, this stand-alone paranormal romance raises the question: what prowls through the shadows? If you like a fearsome, growling hero, a sharp, witty leading-lady, and a beauty & the beast style romance, then grab a copy and snuggle up with Caught By The Dark today!

My Review

Addi is a psychic so when Miro's brother, the pack alpha comes through her bedroom window to kidnap her to help his brother, she's already packed and ready to go. I found the banter between Addi and the alpha so funny because he thought she would be putting up a fight but all he had to do was ask, she was ready and willing to help. 

Miro is a wolf shifter but he was cursed over a century ago so his wolf is a bloodthirsty killer. Miro's two halves can talk to each other when the other is in control but they mostly just yell and talk down to each other.  At night his beast is in control and during the day Miro's human half is in charge. Miro is not able to leave his land at night when the beast is in control because the beast has no problem killing anyone. 

Miro's brother finds Addi and brings her back to Miro's house because they all think she is the key to breaking the curse. Since she is psychic, she's seen herself helping but Miro has some rules. He wants her to stay in the house and away from the beast at night. He can't get into the house because of magic so she's safe as long as she stays inside. Miro cannot control the beast and is scared he will kill her but when they meet, he's sarcastic and threatening because he doesn't want the curse broken obviously but he doesn't hurt her. Seeing Addi and the beast together made me smile more than once. 

This book has elements of Beauty and the Beast as well as Jekyll and Hyde and kept me engaged right from the very beginning. Addi is funny, strong and sometimes reckless but I loved that about her. Miro is strong, so alpha and scared of his other half until they start working together to make sure that Addi is safe. I love a Beauty and the Beast retelling so seeing his other half as a real beast to be scared of was fun because you never knew what to expect from him. 

Breaking the curse is not the only thing that's going on, there's also someone trying to cause problems and causes there to be more danger brought to their doorstep as well as someone else trying to bring Miro down. I loved the mystery surrounding all of this. This ended up being one of the best wolf shifter stories I've read this year. I absolutely recommend this book if you like this kind of story. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Halloween Recipe: Spider Cookies

 

Photo and Recipe Credit- Cooking with my kids

INGREDIENTS

  

100 g (1/2 cup) butter, softened

125 g (2/3 cup) golden caster sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg beaten

150 g (1 1/8 cup) self-raising flour

100 g (1/2 cup) plain chocolate chips

To decorate

Chocolate chips

Black writing icing

Preheat your oven to 375F and line 3 baking trays with baking parchment/paper.

Measure butter and pop it into a large mixing bowl or freestanding mixer. Measure the sugar and add to the mixing bowl.

Mix the butter and sugar together until they are evenly blended.

Add the vanilla extract and egg.

Add the flour.

 Finally add the chocolate chips and give it one final mix.

Make the cookies

Spoon large teaspoons of the cookie mixture on to your prepared baking trays. Make sure you leave enough room for them to spread.

Bake in the oven for about 8-10 minutes. They’re ready when they are turning golden. I like them a little gooey in the middle still.

Decorate the cookies

Remove the cookies from the oven and carefully place them on to a wire rack. Place a few chocolate chips on them while they are still warm. These will form the spider’s bodies.

Leave them to cool a bit more and then pipe the black icing on to create the legs.

Enjoy! The cookies will keep for a few days in an air tight container.

Aren't these the cutest?

Apartment Life # 338

 

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 25 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 25 years here in a weekly blog post.  

This is a vacant apartment in my complex. Maintenance had the living room window boarded up to keep the homeless out but they just busted out the bedroom window and were even crawling in through the empty air conditioner can. So maintenance boarded up the AC can from the inside and secured the door and the bedroom window better. 

I didn't post this last week when it happened because I wanted to see if I could find anything in the news about it first but I couldn't find anything. So, Last Friday I noticed this officer looking at the sidewalk and into the windows of my building. You can see him looking at my window right here. A moment later he knocked on my door and asked if the video camera I have in my window records, I told him no, it's live only, no recording. He said thanks and left. He asked several other neighbors the same thing who also have video cameras in their windows.

An unmarked police car showed up and this detective got out and was using his flashlight to look at the sidewalk along my building. My daughter and I were curious about what was going on so we watched him on the cameras. 

We saw him come into our courtyard and was still searching the sidewalks with his flashlight. 

So my daughter was texting a neighbor letting her know what was going on and they both decided to go outside and see if they could talk to him. He ended up being a Homicide Detective looking for evidence of a stabbing. 

They both asked him what happened and he told them that someone had gotten stabbed on my street earlier that day. A witness saw the person running down my street in front of my building. The stab victim unfortunately died. This homicide Detective said that this was the 5th homicide in my neighborhood just this week that this neighborhood is getting bad and he told both of them they should arm themselves with guns. 

More unmarked cars showed up and more detectives were walking around. 

You can't see it well but there are three detectives down near the garbage can on the other side of the fence. I went down there the next day to see if I could spot anything on the ground but there was nothing that I could see. 

I wanted to see if I could find anymore info about 5 homicides in my neighborhood in the past week but there is not one word about it in the news that I could find. 

The high this week was 92F/33C

The low this week was 65F/18C

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