Favorite Picture of the Week

 

We had some cloudy days this week.

And then this day as the sun was setting it just looked so blue.

The blue was so pretty. 

But when the sun started setting behind the clouds, some of the blue turned red and it was so pretty. 

Book Review: Creatus by Carmen Desousa

 

Book Description

Derrick's desire to save one human girl will ignite a war...

For four thousand years, creatus have concealed themselves from the humans who hunted them almost to extinction. Unwittingly, one creatus will endanger them all...

As with most of his family, Derrick Ashton knows his future and what position he's destined to fill within his unique society. Everything changes, however, when he breaks one of his family's strictest laws and falls in love -- with a human.

In his quest to protect the woman he can never have, a twist of fate propels him into a new role that will cause dissension among his family and endanger the anonymity that they've spent thousands of years protecting.

Now, he will risk everything to save the girl from humans and his own kind. The one thing he can't save her from, however...is herself.

The Creatus series is not your normal paranormal story...it's a realistic supernatural romantic suspense based on the myths you've heard your entire life. Prepare to believe...

My Review

I love a good vampire story and this turned out to be one of the best ones I've read in quite a while. 

Kristina's life has been hard, like really hard but she believes she has a guardian angel. Only he's no angel at all. He's a vampire, one that has no business falling for a human. Vampires have kept themselves hidden from humans because they don't trust humans and know they would probably hunt them to extinction, but he can't help falling for Kristina. 

When Kristina does something to draw Derrick out, both her and Derrick's life take on a totally different twist because they shouldn't be together, it's forbidden but that isn't going to stop either of them in the end. Derrick already knows her because he's been watching out for her for a long time. He seemed a little like a stalker at first to me. 

I really liked the world building and some back story, it made this story easier to read. The characters were great. I am looking forward to seeing what happens to all of them in the next book because I will definitely be reading more of this series at some point. 

This was seriously so entertaining to read and I loved the romance between them. I can't wait to read more now. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

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

Apartment Life #408

 

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.

An ambulance showed up for someone in the building next to me. No cops showed up so I'm thinking it was a medical emergency. 

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This is what my old Air Conditioner looked like. I asked the manager for a new one because this thing was soooo noisy last year. It squeaked, clanged and froze up all the time. And it leaked water into the wall that spilled out and soaked my carpet twice last year. Plus the maintenance man who put this is, secured around it with ugly tape. lol It was terrible. 

So on Thursday maintenance came out and removed the old AC, boarded up the hole that was left there. Spackled it, so it looked like the hole was never there. 

And installed one of the new, quiet AC's. Oh, this thing makes no noise in my apartment because the motor is on the roof. Another blogger told me this was called a Mini-split AC, Thank you for letting me know what this was called. I love the new AC. 

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I told you a couple of weeks ago that maintenance started installing nighttime lights all over the property, so that it would discourage any drug activity and anyone from sleeping around the property at night.  So I took some night pictures to show you the difference after the lights were up. It's pretty dark around the complex.

Down the street.

My complex is on the right. The street lights light it up some but not a lot. 

This is what it looks like now with all the lights on. It's very bright out around my complex now. 

The lights are spaced out about every 20 feet. All the way down the street.

It's not dark anymore. Some of the crackheads across the street are already saying how they are going to break some of the lights.

Well, as fast as they are doing things around here, I bet they fix any broken lights fast.

Maintenance hasn't completed any of the things they are doing right now except for the lights. They are still putting in new decorative rocks, painting the buildings, filling in the pool with dirt and doing maintenance. Hopefully their bosses let them finish some of these things before telling them to change something else. But the lights aren't all that bad. If it discourages people from doing drugs in the dark around here and sleeping in the corners, I guess that's a good thing. 

The high this week was 69F/20C

The low this week was 47F/8C

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 healthier, so I am sharing some of the dishes that we are eating each week. 

Tilapia, Green Beans and Salad

We like seafood and found that the pre-portioned frozen Tilapia is only 100 calories for a small fillet. So that's what we used for this dinner. My daughter used some tarter sauce with hers, my plate didn't have the tarter sauce on it. You don't realize how many calories that condiments have until you start counting calories. I used no-calorie cooking spray to cook the Tilapia with. Season your fish however you like. I used Old Bay, smoked paprika, McCormick Mesquite seasoning and lemon juice.

We cheated a little bit and used canned green beans because the store I went to didn't have fresh green beans but the can of green beans was only 20 calories for 1/2 cup. sounded good to me. Then we made salad to go with it. The salad had cucumbers, sliced mushrooms, avocado, and I used my fat free Ranch that only has 35 calories for 2 TBSP serving. 

This dinner was 200 calories and 10 carbs. 

Do you like avocado in your salad?

Freebie Friday! And Happy Friday the 13th

 

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.  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:

2 Men's cologne samples from Macy's. They smelled good.

I received a free Healthy Snack Box- I commented on one of their posts on Fb and won a free box from them. They give away 100 free boxes a day to people who comment. 

In the box was: 

Belvita bites

Nature Valley granola bar

Nutri grain bar

Special K strawberry pastry crisps

Pirates Booty white cheddar popcorn

Simply Cheetos white cheddar

Planters nuts

Snyder's pretzels

There were so many good snacks in the box. My daughter and grandson enjoyed them too.

I also received this whimsical candle and spinning butterfly top from a FB group where I won a contest and this was my mystery prize.

Falcor received 3 different Blue Buffalo treats from Ripple Street for free. He liked all the treats.

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Happy Friday the 13th and the day before Valentine's Day

Since my daughter and I are both single we decided to exchange Valentine's baskets with each other. The basket I made and gave her is on the left and the one she made and gave me is on the right. This was fun. We plan on doing it again next year. 

Book Review: Fairest by Mairi MacMillan

 

Book Description

A dark mafia retelling of Snow White. Perfect for fans of H D Carlton, Emily McIntire and Penelope Douglas.

RED AS BLOOD

I never wanted to be part of his life. I am the law, and he is everything I’ve vowed against.

But every time I see him, I can’t help but imagine what I want him to do to me.

He has a reputation. A dark possessive side.

I know he’d hurt me. But maybe that’s what I want…

WHITE AS SNOW

I never wanted to hurt her. She should’ve known to stay away from me.

But there’s something about her innocence that I desire.

She’s everything my fiancée is not.

But my fiancée is a jealous woman. She’s also powerful.

I know where my loyalties should lie, but the taste of purity is too tempting. Just one drop and I promise, that’ll be enough…

My Review

Cillian wants to be King but in order to do that he has to marry the right woman, a Kinfolk woman. So he decides to marry Vittoria. She's kind of ruthless and I had my eye on her right from the start because there was something not right about her. Cillian is a Hunter for the Unseelie Court and he administers the courts justice. When the court decides someone must die, they send a Hunter. 

Cillian has a sister named Rose and Niamh is Rose's best friend, but Niamh is human and doesn't know anything about the Kinfolk. Cillian wants to try and get to the bottom of the Blight that is infecting more of the Kinfolk underworld but in order to do more, he has to become King. 

The Blight is infecting a lot, something infected the Tree of Life hundreds of years ago and now the Blight is spreading, rapidly. The Tree of Life is long dead, only some roots remain. It kills and destroys everything it touches and nothing destroys it or gets rid of it. Kinfolk and humans live together in this world but most humans don't know about the Kinfolk. Kinfolk are supernatural's of a sort. There are also Unseelie and the Unseelie court which was a surprise to me since the description of this book didn't sound like this was going to include the Fae.

Cillian lusts after Niamh and feels a strong pull towards her so he stays away from her as much as he can. When Niamh and Rose are at a club dancing, they both get drugged and kidnapped. But Niamh is able to send a distress text to Cillian before she passes out and he comes before the men can be off with both girls. Only problem is that Niamh picks up a knife and kills one of the Kinfolk that drugged her and tried to kidnap her before she passes completely out. Vittoria and Cillian see this and know what's about to happen because it's a crime for a human to kill any Kinfolk, no matter the reason. So when the hunt is ordered and Cillian is supposed to hunt and kill Niamh, he can hardly bring himself to do it. 

He gives her a chance to run in the woods and reach sanctuary but along the way during the Hunt they both find out things aren't as they may seem. There are secrets that come to light and that makes the end of this story twist in a way that I didn't see coming. 

When I picked this book I was expecting a dark mafia romance and this is not that! Not even close. It's more about the Unseelie Court, secrets and the Kinfolk.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

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

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

This week while out with Falcor I saw this rider, riding his horse down my street. First time in 27 years I've seen a horse on my street. lol At least it was something fun to see. 

I have no idea what this plant is but it's tall. You can see the roof of the house behind the wall on the left and this is several feet taller than that roof. It's along the path that I walk Falcor. Never paid it much attention but thought it looked interesting. They are tall enough to touch the telephone lines. It's hard to tell just how tall these are but they're big. 

My grandson, Logan turned 13 on January 31st. 

The birds were sitting on this gate just staring at me. lol 

Book Review: Heartsong by S.E. Wendel

 

Book Description

A gargoyle warrior unprepared for the modern world…

Fifteen hundred years ago, Frey and all his kind were cursed by the vicious fae queen, their magick stolen and their bodies rendered stone. It has been a hellish existence, frozen in time as the world changes around them. A proud warrior, Frey rages against his stone prison, but with every year that passes, hope slips away that the curse can ever be broken.

That is, until he and some of his kin are placed in an odd little museum. And she walks through the door.

A modern woman not ready for a medieval male…

Anna Kincaid has struggled most of her life, but she’s finally landed a job that will help her get ahead. It feels too good to be true—full healthcare and helping manage a museum full of exquisite artifacts? Her heart and history degree are thrilled, but something about the museum is….strange. The owners are a mysterious couple who call the collection the clan. And the collection is…well, monstrous. Huge, savage-looking statues from the late-Celtic period.

Magick stolen can be reclaimed, and curses cast can be broken…

When the museum is stormed by masked commandos one night, it isn’t even the weirdest thing to happen. No, that has to be when one of the statues comes alive to save her. Or when he flies off with her. Or when he tucks her into his big body and growlsmate. 

My Review

Anna works at a museum that features savage looking artifacts and statues that look like gargoyles. But she's happy because it comes with healthcare and a pretty good salary. Anna has migraines so her new healthcare benefits help her to get the medicine she needs to manage her migraines. 

All the safety, security and normalcy comes to an end when she touches one of the stone statues during a robbery and the gargoyle statue comes to life, saving her. He flies her back to her apartment where he stay with her for a time. Because really, where else is a giant gargoyle that turns to stone during the day going to stay?

Frey, the gargoyle has been cursed and locked into stone for over a thousand years. In that time he and the others cursed to stone have been picking up bits and pieces of the modern world which is probably why he's able to acclimate so easily while at Anna's apartment. Frey tries to convince Anna that they are mates, that she is his Heartsong but she isn't having it. She's keeping her heart very guarded, to the point that it became irritating to me. Frey is showing her what a good guy he is, practically turning into a domesticated house husband and she's keeping him at arms length for most of the book, even though she starts t have feelings for him. 

At one point Anna knows she's being followed, is in danger and she doesn't tell the huge Gargoyle that's right there living with her so he can't protect her. She puts her life in danger too many times for my liking. 

Anna's migraines play a huge part in her life and while that made her relatable, it also made her very repetitive. Because we don't get to see who the bad guys are and what they want until pretty much the end of the book, things dragged on for most of the book for me. I like for a story to keep moving along and this one seemed to stay stagnant in one place for too long. I did like the outcome and the ending but found the book a little too long. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars.

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

Amazon

Apartment Life #407

 

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.

Just when I thought things around here couldn't get any worse...

So, this is what my apartment complex looked like last week. It was white with black trim. It looked nice. The colors complimented each other, and it just got painted recently before it was sold to the new owner.

This is what it looks like now! I now live in the Clown Motel. So white, grey and ORANGE? Omg, I hate it. Looks like a clown should live here. 

So I made a meme using an actual picture of the new paint job, because of course I did. 

This place will henceforth be referred to as, The Clown Motel, because, Orange? Really?

This is what my courtyard used to look like last week. 

This is what it looks like today. Orange under the overhangs and mud grey walls. I hate it. No one asked me, I just live here. 0.O

Everyone around here hates the colors.

On Friday they painted all the doors white. The 24 hour notice said they would be doing the doors on Thursday but never showed up until Friday. At least the doors aren't orange.

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Oh, and they are still replacing the decorative rock all over the property too. This huge truck came by and dumped a huge pile of rock in the alley. They really should let them finish one thing before giving them something else to do. 

The high this week was 75F/23C

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.