Book Review: Fallen King by Kenzie Skye

 

Book Description

He might be king of the damned, but he'll be damned if he lets anything get in the way of his obsession...

Fallen king. That’s what they call me, even though I was once the most powerful celestial in the realm. I was wronged, my kingdom ruthlessly stolen from me by my own brother, but I can restore it.

She is the key to restoring it. I’ve watched over her all her life, waiting for the moment I could swoop in and claim her.

And now that it’s finally here, nothing will stop me. And if I’m being totally honest, I want her as more than just a key. She’s become my obsession, and she will be my bride.

Nothing will stop me.

Nothing but a new revelation that could rip all my years of planning to shreds.

My Review

Amelia is an orphan and has no idea that she is the key to Julian getting his kingdom back from his brother. Julian has been watching, directing and meddling in Amelia's life since her birth because he knew he could use her once she turned 18 years old. 

So Julian pretty much kidnaps her before anyone else can get their hands on her and brings her back to the underworld to keep her safe and explain things to her. The only problem? The more time Julian spends with Amelia, the more he grows to care for her, so much so that he's beginning to think that she might be more important than just using her as the key to get his kingdom back. 

These two fell for each other hard and Julian wasn't expecting to have as strong of feelings for her as he did. Amelia finally feels like she has the family that she's always missed having being an orphan. When her ancestry secrets are finally revealed, it was a great twist. 

This was a quick read but the story was so good!

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Halloween Costume?

 

I tried finding a picture of the Halloween costume I used to wear when I was a kid, this is the closest I could find. *back in the early 70's* And I say THE costume because I only had one! I wore the same costume for years because my parents didn't believe in buying a new costume each year when the old one would fit. This witch costume is the closest to the one that I used to wear that I could find.

 I remember when I first got it, it was huge on me and my mom took a belt to tie it up around my waist so I wasn't tripping over my feet. She got a big one so I wouldn't out grow it for a few years and I remember the last time I wore it I was 10 years old and must have worn it for at least 4 years. It had holes in the vinyl poncho and the mask that used to have a rubber band on it was held on with a blue ribbon that my mom tied the mask to my head with. That thing was completely falling apart but I didn't care.. I got to go Trick or Treating and came back with a huge amount of candy. *That my mom and dad raided*

So did you have a favorite Halloween costume when you were a kid?

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. 

---

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