Thursday, August 06, 2026
Book Review: Her Orc King: A Monster Fantasy Romance by Zoe Ashwood
Book Description
Captured by bandits, sold at auction to brutal orcs, and dragged halfway across the realm…
I never thought I’d say this, but being kidnapped by a band of pillaging bandits wasn’t the low point of my life.
No, that came when a massive, scarred orc king decided I was his mate and refused to let me leave his cave.
Orcs are a vile race without a shred of propriety, and their king is the worst of all - he expects me to accept their wicked ways and doesn’t understand that my thoughts scatter whenever he removes his shirt. He insists on taking care of me - both my body and soul - and won’t take no for an answer.
But trouble brews in this remote kingdom. The orcs are keeping secrets, and I want to learn the truth. And I’m no longer certain I want to return to the human world. Maybe I want to stay right here, in King Gorvor’s arms.
Her Orc King is an orc fantasy romance with a big, scarred hero who falls hard for the stubborn human heroine. You’ll love it if you enjoy your books with a hint of kidnapping, size difference issues, and lots of steamy scenes. This is the first book of a series of standalones - each book can be read separately and features a happily-ever-after ending for that couple.
My Review
Dawn is abducted and sold at an auction where she's bought by a couple of Orc's. She's taken back to the Orc's home where male Orc's sniff her to see if she might be the mate to anyone there. She's surprised when King Gorvor tells her that she is his mate and takes her back to his room.
Dawn is expecting the Orc's to be awful to her but they are all welcoming and Gorvor is gentle and so sweet with her. She's slow to trust all this but the longer she's there, the more she doesn't want to leave.
One thing is bothering her though, the Orc's seem to be keeping secrets from her and she won't let it go until Gorvor tells her what's going on. I loved Gorvor, he was so patient with Dawn. When Dawn finds herself in danger, we get to see just how much Gorvor will not tolerate anyone threatening his mate. The other characters in this book were great too, which makes me want to read more from this author.
When Gorvor tells Dawn about his childhood, she realizes that both of them were dealt a bad hand but they can make a better future for them and their children. This was such a good book.
I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.
Wednesday, August 05, 2026
Some of the other animals we've encountered in our neighborhood over the years
This is Falcor and Buddy. Buddy's owners would just open the door and let him outside all the time. Good thing he was friendly. He always went back home when he was done.
Falcor and a little white dog from the neighborhood. He lives right around the corner. They just open the door and let him out too. I don't understand people who do this. But I've seen this dog in the neighborhood for years. He'll play with Falcor but won't come up to me.
Back in 2019 we found this lost dog in our courtyard. Falcor does not get a long with big dogs so my daughter went outside and held the dog by the collar so I could take Falcor out. When I got back I called animal control to come get him since he had a collar and a tag on, they would have been able to contact the owner. But our shelters were so full that they could not send anyone out to get him and told me to instead to go to petdata.com and search out his tag number and see if the owner added a phone number that we could call. So I did that and no one answered so my daughter texted the number and sent a picture and the owner texted back and had to ride her bike here to get her dog.
The entire thing took about two hours. My daughter, grandson and a neighbor sat outside with the dog while we waited for the owner. We gave him water, snacks and my neighbor brought out a toy for him to play with. The owner rode her bike and got her dog. His name was Scrappy. My grandson didn't mind sitting outside and playing with him at all. 🤣
Back in 2015 this dog followed my daughter home. He was injured and very malnourished. So we called a rescue to come take him. Hopefully he healed and found a good home.
This cat was my neighbors at the time. He had 2 cats and would let them both out at night. They always came down to my door and meowed until I came outside and petted them. Then they would go home again.
This was his other cat.
This dog ran up to me when I was out checking the mail one day. She had a collar on thankfully and when I called the number on it, the woman said it was her ex husband's dog and she was surprised the phone number on the collar was hers. So she took my number down and called her ex who happened to live at the end of my block. He called me and he came to get his dog. Her name was Tiffy.
One day years ago this little rabbit hopped right up to my late husband, Ken while he was standing in the alley. He let Ken pick him up and bring him inside. There used to be a wild rabbit problem where dozens of rabbits were living right outside the library down the street. That's where we think this one came from. He was so friendly!
We were going to keep him but my daughter ended up being really badly allergic to him. So we found a family who had 2 other rabbits and a big back yard and two big rabbit hutches for them and gave the rabbit to them. He was happy because he had a big yard to play in with 2 other rabbits.
The dog on the couch with my late husband, Ken was another neighbors dog that would be let out and forgotten because the owner was on heroine (she told me herself) and she would fall asleep. So if we saw the dog outside we would bring her inside until the owner came looking for her. This dog wanted nothing to do with Falcor. 🤣🤣
We've brought in other dogs over the years when idiotic neighbors left them outside. This is Jessica and Falcor. She would get let outside and they would call for her a little while later but if she didn't come back right away and they had somewhere to go, they would just leave her outside and leave. We ended up bringing her inside several times when they were gone for a long time until they came back.
I saw this little dog standing outside in the heat one day after new people moved in. She was really friendly but she walked slowly and has that older dog look in her eyes. At first I thought she was a stray because she didn't look groomed at all. But when we let her outside to go to the bathroom she went right over to my new neighbors door. We knocked on his door for over an hour while keeping the dog in our place and when he finally opened the door he said she wasn't his dog it was his wife's and he didn't even know she was outside. After that I had her in my apartment at least a dozen times and I've had her in my apartment one other time when he forgot she was outside and went to sleep. This guy was a total ass. The wife seems to care for her dog but he watches the dogs during the day while she's at work and too often he forgets she was outside. I told the wife twice and she thanked us for bringing the dog inside until she could get it. I felt bad for this dog. The wife loved her but the husband was an ass.
Jessica was over at our apartment another time when her owners just left her outside. She would bark at our door to come in until her owners got back. She kept going over to Falcor's bowl and eating his food. This is the look he gave her after I filled his bowl back up. 🤣🤣 This was right after we got Falcor because his gate was still up in the kitchen. He was so used to having his bed inside the gate that we set it up until he got used to having his bed outside the gate.
The cat on Falcor's bed was my daughter's cat, Lucifer.
Years ago when my daughter moved into her own apartment, this cat just walked in her apartment and made himself at home. He had been a stray or maybe the owners just left him outside when they moved, we were never sure. But he was really friendly, he didn't even care that Falcor was trying to lay in the bed with him. Not long after my daughter decided to keep him, she had him checked out and he didn't have a microchip or anything but he did have cancer. He lived a little less than a year after he picked my daughter to live with. There was nothing she could do for him except keep him comfortable and give him love. He was a really friendly cat. He would sit in my daughter's lap when she got home from work and go to sleep.
She ended up naming him Lucifer because he would spread all the trash from the trash can all over the floor when he was alone. 🤣🤣🤣
My brother also brought his potbelly pig, Wilbur over for a visit one time when he came into town. Pigs are loud. 🤣🤣
I nicknamed this guy, "The guy with the 6 dogs" Original, I know. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
They were all really friendly and would play with Falcor when we encountered them. 3 of his dogs were 14 years old. They would get so excited when they saw Falcor though.
This is Falcor and Hope. Hope is 13 years old and belongs to an older lady who used to be homeless. She said that after she got Hope, the dog gave her the reason she needed to get herself together and she did. She's been living in an apartment down the street for a few years now.
Falcor and Lady. Lady was sick of Falcor sniffing her butt right here and had just snapped at him. That's why she looked miffed. 🤣🤣🤣
A couple of years ago I rescued this pigeon who was having trouble flying. I had him sitting in a little box on my desk and waited for Animal Control to come and get him. He drank some water from me and even ate some oats from my hand while we waited. The lady that came to get him said he might just be dehydrated and overheated and if that was the case, they would able to release him later.
Some of my new readers might not know how we ended up with Falcor. Back in 2014 my apartment manager was moving away and she didn't want to take Falcor with her. He was 5 months old at the time. She said he was too energetic but after we agreed to take him, we realized that he had been abused. He was scared of everything, had a broken tail, would run and hide if we were too loud, was not potty trained, didn't know how to walk on a leash and had spent all of his first few months in a dog run in her kitchen.
This is the dog run/gate that the manager gave us for Falcor. She had kept him in this 24/7 for the few months that she had him. It was very apparent that she and her husband had hit Falcor because he would start screaming and yelping when he saw a broom, belt, or shoe. So we set this gate up in the kitchen and left the door unlocked so he could come and go as he wanted. It took a year to get him used to us, a year to get him used to walking on a leash, a year to get him potty trained, a year before he stopped screaming every time he saw a shoe, belt or broom. We had to be incredibly patient with him that first year but he's happy now and doesn't get scared like he used to. He'll still go and hide if you raise your voice though.
All of this has showed me that there are some people that should never ever have an animal of any kind.
Tuesday, August 04, 2026
Book Review: Her Lumberjack Bear Mate by Arizona Tape
Book Description
City girl Ella prides herself in going above and beyond when it comes to crafting bespoke furniture pieces for her high end clients. Even if that means leaving the comforts of the city and handpicking the tree needed for her latest project.
Bear shifter and lumberjack Darcy often gets underestimated because of her small size but there hasn't been a tree in Bearton she can't fell. When she gets a demanding order from a beautiful furniture maker who insists on seeing the tree she’s buying before it’s cut, she agrees to take her to her family cabin in the forest. A decision she quickly comes to regret.
An unfortunate incident leads them to share a single bed and the forced proximity sparks plenty of frustrations but is that the only reason for the growing tension between them?
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Her Lumberjack Bear Mate is a paranormal fated mates romance featuring a bear shifter and her mate. It includes a standalone opposites-attract romance and a dash of steamy goodness. It is part of the Crescent Lake Bears series.
My Review
Ella makes custom made furniture for her clients. She's hired to make a chair from one large piece of wood for her client's husband. But the client wants her to personally go out to the business who supplies the wood and watch the tree be cut down. So she calls and the guy who usually helps her isn't available, instead she gets his sister, Darcy who is too upbeat, sarcastic and funny for Ella to take seriously.
Ella is surprised when it's Darcy who is going to take her to find the right tree and cut it down for her. Darcy's joking and upbeat personality slowly starts to thaw Ella's very grumpy nature. Darcy is a bear shifter and even though Ella knows that, it's a little shocking to see the other woman in her bear form at first. The fact that darcy keeps making flirty jokes and wiggling her eyebrows at Ella, starts to thaw the other woman.
When a thunderstorm moves in and Darcy loses her keys by accident, they have to spend the night in the family cabin. While there the sparks fly between the two women.
This was a short, fun novella. These two are polar opposites but somehow made a great couple.
I give this book 3 out of 5 stars.
Monday, August 03, 2026
Everyone Has A Story, Here's One Of Mine
I've been thinking of writing an autobiography or memoir, but it just never comes together for me, but I figured if I write one story at a time and post it on my blog maybe once a month, I can do that. Maybe one day I'll pull all the stories together and put them in a book but for now I'll just share some stories with you about my childhood and into adulthood. Some of the stories will be happy, some sad and some horrific because that was my childhood. But they will all be real, things that actually happened. If it seems like something that people enjoy reading maybe, I'll keep it going. These stories will not be in any kind of order; I'll just write them as they come to me.
Going To Our School's Open House as a Kid
I've shared this picture of me and my younger brother when we were teenagers. It was around this time when I was between 14-16 and he was between 12-14 years old that we would go to each other's Open House at our schools. Our parents were divorced by this time and we only saw our dad every other weekend when he would come to get us sometimes. Our mom was too busy with her boyfriends and drugs to go to our schools for anything. So we went to each other's open house and saw the art or whatever the teacher had set out for us to share during it. My brother came to my open house and looked at whatever my teacher had us make to put on the wall for our parents to see when they got there. Then we went to my brother's school.
My brother's school had a carnival during his open house and he got a bunch of tokens for doing good in school that he could use at different booths. They had games, food, and one booth had a bracelet engraving thing going on. My brother took some of his tokens and instead of using them on himself for games or food, he used them to have my name engraved on this bracelet.
The engraving is pretty faint now all these years later, but I still have it. It meant so much to me that he would spend his hard-earned tokens on me for something like this.
Not too long after this my brother and I both ended up in 2 different psychiatric hospitals for suicide attemps. I was 18 and he was 15. So I was in an adult hospital and he was in a youth hospital. One day I signed up for a day pass to take the bus down the street and go see my brother when he was able to have visitors.
He had made this leather bracelet for me during one of their arts and crafts classes they had for the teenagers at the psychiatric hospital he was in. I wore it for a long time until it got too tight on my wrist. But I kept it all these years. It meant a lot to me that he made this for me.
Links to past stories
2023
2024
Sunday, August 02, 2026
Apartment Life #431
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 28 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 28 years here in a weekly blog post.
*Life Update*
I have some good news and some not so good news to share. After my daughter had 2 different mammograms, the doctor said it's not cancer. Just some fibrous tissue. But they are having her come back in 6 months for another mammogram just to make sure nothing has grown.
My grandson has been diagnosed with POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) He's been almost fainting and getting really dizzy so they took him to the doctor. He also has hyperlordosis which is an inward curvature of the spine and he has to see a specialist to see what can be done for that.
The doctors office referral department still hasn't called my daughter with a referral for pain management or a new cardiologist. Good thing the infusions are working and she's not having much pain now. She even did their job and found the pain management that her insurance would take and gave them the address, phone number everything. But they still haven't called her. And they don't answer the phone when you try to call the referral department. So crazy. She sees that doctor in a week and I told her to raise hell about the referrals because that's ridiculous.
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I was taking Falcor out and saw this police car sitting on the corner of the street across the street. Not sure if he had just come from somewhere over there or if he was running the plates on the car in front of him. While I was outside (5 minutes) he drove off. I take Falcor for quick 5 minute potty breaks right here when it's really hot out like it is right now.
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On Thursday, the police helicopter was flying right over my apartment complex and over the other side of the sound wall so I went outside to see if any police were outside. There were none. I took a short video of the police helicopter flying around.
Later that day my neighbor came over and told us that right around the cover from us, less than a block away on the other side of the soundwall the police were all over the street, had the street blocked off and had the police tape up.
I found out the next day on the Nextdoor App...
A lady had been selling flowers on the corner and some guy tried to rob her. A good Samaritan stopped his car and got out to help her and the robber shot him. The good Samaritan got back in his car and tried to drive off but crashed his car into a tree. Police said he later died at the hospital. Here's the news story about it.
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Yesterday *Saturday* I noticed police at the end of my street and there was crime scene tape going from the upstairs all the way to the bottom stairs. I don't know if I got out there after everything happened, but I didn't see any ambulance or coroner, or anything pull up.
The 3 police cars that were down there, stayed down there for quite a while though. I still have no idea what happened.
The high this week was 115F/46C
The low this week was 88F/31C
So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.
Saturday, August 01, 2026
Saturday Vittles
Sugar Free Pudding and Berries
You will need:
1 package Jello Sugar Free Instant Pudding
2% milk
Berries or fruit of your choice
What to do:
Make the pudding according to the package direction. I used 2% milk to keep the calories lower but you can use whatever milk you like.
I used 1/2 cup of the pudding and a hand full of the strawberries and blueberries.
Total calories for this desert is about 50 calories.
Friday, July 31, 2026
What It's Like To Have a Psychotic Episode
*Picture courtesy of Pixabay*
So earlier this week I had a psychotic episode.
I've talked about my mental health problems before but I thought this would be a good time to revisit that subject. I think that talking about it, and removing the stigma tied to mental health is a good way for people to feel comfortable to seek help when they need it.
I have been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, PTSD, agoraphobia, Schizoaffective disorder and schizotypal personality disorder. If you look up any of these that you don't know, it will give you a better understanding of what I deal with. I don't have many psychotic episodes but they do happen.
I hear voices/whispering and have hallucinations most days. But I usually know that they aren't real and I can ignore them. Yes, I'm taking an anti-psychotic medication but it's a low dose because I still want to be able to function during the day. But it does help.
On Sunday I started hearing really loud voices. There were 2 of them at first. One was a menacing man's voice cackling at me telling me that he was a demon and was going to possess my mind and body and there was nothing I could do to stop him.
My daughter was sleeping on the couch and I was moving around the living room trying to figure out what was possessed. My daughter woke up and asked me what was wrong. Then a 3rd voice emerged and I thought I could hear my daughter's thoughts.
The other loud voice was a woman who was telling me that I needed to find the possessed object and destroy it. I could hear them clearly and they didn't stop shouting at me. I searched for the possessed object and the closer I got to my bedroom the louder the voices got. I picked up a few books on my bookcase and listened but they weren't the possessed object. It wasn't until I found a different book and picked it up that the female voice started screaming for me to destroy it. I had to light it on fire and burn it until I saw the blue flames, she told me. This was my grandsons book, I don't even remember seeing it on my bookshelf before this. So I picked up the book and my matches and took it to the sink where I was going to burn it.
My daughter took the book and matches away from me and wouldn't give them back, all the while she was texting a neighbor to come over. The neighbor also has some mental health problems and she works with people with disabilities, so she knew what I was going through, kinda.
I yelled at my daughter and told her that I could hear her thoughts and that I knew she wanted to put a whole stick of butter in the rice in order to get my gratitude journal. But I was mad because I said there was no reason to waste that much butter in order to take my gratitude journal. *I don't have a gratitude journal* My thoughts were clearly all over the place.
My daughter told me I should go get some fresh air and take the dog for a walk. She didn't know what to do. So I did. But as we came home, I saw blue flames sprouting from Falcor's paws so I picked him up and brought him inside. I was going to wash his feet off so he wouldn't burn but my daughter and neighbor told me the flames were gone and he was ok.
My neighbor took the book and told me that she would light it on fire for me in her bbq outside so the demon would be expelled. That calmed down the female's voice a little. But then I saw blue flames through the walls of my apartment and told my daughter that it was so hot because there were blue flames in the walls and we had to destroy the book right away. My neighbor took the book out to her bbq and burned the book, I went outside to make sure and as she was lighting it on fire, she turned it over to get the rest of the pages. Right on the back cover was what looked like to me a ghost with blue flames. It was a R.L. Stine Goosebumps book. I'm guessing it was this image.
Looks like a blue flame ghost to me. 🤣🤣🤣👻👻And since the blue flames were burned everything was ok again.
I calmed down once the book was destroyed and the voices started to go away. But it took about 3 hours before I realized that what I had been hearing and seeing wasn't actually real.
Thursday, July 30, 2026
Book Review: Her Alien Hoarder by Nessa Claugh
Book Description
Humans hoard cats. Kytol hoards raccoons. I’m just the animal control officer trying to get a leash on the situation.
Earth’s Wildlife and You: A Primer should be required reading for aliens. Unfortunately it isn’t, and now I’m stuck in the unenviable position of explaining to green-skinned Kytol that no, raccoons aren’t pets. A case involving animal hoarding is one of the fastest ways to get me angry, but Kytol’s menagerie of rescued raccoons is happy, healthy, and quells my initial reaction in a way I’m afraid to put my finger on. Shutting his little operation down is the last thing I want to do, but laws are laws, and I’m going to have to choose whether to break the law or my heart.
Earth is the Dila Cluster’s newest vacation hotspot. Deserts, oceans, crazy animals, unique human events; it has everything a curious alien could ask for. Humanity is still trying to play catch-up with that fact. All Dilaverse stories are cozy, low-stakes HEA/HFN romances where aliens come to Earth looking for fun times and end up getting more than they bargained for. Each Dilaverse story is in the wider multi-author Alien Quickies line, which means hot alien reads in under 30 minutes.
My Review
Brenda is an animal control officer and gets a tip that there's an animal hoarder feeding raccoons cat food so she has to go check it out. But things aren't as she thought they would be once she gets there. In this book, aliens are known and they are on Earth so seeing Kytol answer the door might have been a bit of a shock because he's an alien, but the humans know that aliens exist here.
Brenda is just trying to do her job and Kytol isn't about to let a nosy human stop him from taking care of the injured and abandoned raccoons that he's helping. Once Brenda finds out the truth of what he's doing, she decides to help him because he's not doing anything wrong. I liked that about this story.
The alien anatomy was a little strange, but they made it work when they decided to become intimate. This was a quick, fun novella.
I give this book 3 out of 5 stars.
Wednesday, July 29, 2026
Favorite Picture of the Week!
*Click on any images to make them bigger*
I wanted to share with you a craft project that my daughter did with the half moon shelves that I gave her for her birthday last month.
Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Book Review: Hellhounds and Angel Cakes by Zoe Chant
Book Description
He’s supposed to be a rough, tough, terrifying hellhound. That's hard when you're covered in chihuahuas.
Henry’s used to everyone being afraid of him – being a hellhound has that effect on people. What he’s not used to is having every animal within a four-mile radius suddenly wanting to be his best friend. Pigeons roosting on your shoulder: annoying, but mostly harmless. The local moose population stampeding toward you in the hopes of a hug: somewhat more worrying.
There’s nothing for it but to escape to the mountains, where he can use his hellhound form to intimidate the local wildlife into leaving him alone. But a stop for one last piece of cake before heading into the wilderness leads him straight to his fated mate. He's over the moon... but how can he court her when every animal in town is trying to leap into his arms?
Travel journalist Luna was looking forward to this assignment: covering the first annual Girdwood Springs Food Festival, along with her trademark: Fillmore, the world's ugliest dog. Specifically, she was looking forward to sampling all the amazing, mouth-watering local delicacies.
But there's other delights to sample in Girdwood Springs – such as the mind-bogglingly gorgeous, hunky man who is now covered in cake, thanks to Fillmore. And who seems to be strangely popular with the local animal population.
Suddenly, writing her article is the last thing on her mind…
Hellhounds and Angel Cakes is a short and sweet standalone shifter romance, full of warmth and humor, and is the fourth in the Shifters and Sweets series. One-click now for a cute, quirky read with a guaranteed HEA!
My Review
Henry is a hellhound shifter with a bad sweet tooth. His Hellhound is always shaming him for wanting cake, but he can't help himself. So, Henry comes to the town of Girdwood to have a little peace and quiet in the woods, but the town is having a Spring Foods Festival. Henry can't stop himself from stopping at a bakery because the cakes smell so good. But while there Luna's dog, Fillmore jumps on Henry, spilling the cakes all over him.
Henry is also plagued with a curse that makes animals love him. He can't stay in one place too long or all kinds of wild animals come to greet him, which would raise a lot of questions he's not ready to answer.
When Luna finds her dog and sees what he's caused, she offers to let Henry come back to her place so she can wash his clothes and he can get cleaned up. While there they find they are very attracted to each other.
This book made me laugh too many times to count. Henry might be a hellhound but he's not a bad guy at all. The banter between Luna and Henry was great and let's not forget Fillmore the dog, he was hilarious. This was such a fun read.
I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.
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