Review: Conquer The Darkness by Alexandra Ivy

Book Description

As allegiances shift and new powers align for Alexandra Ivy’s Guardians of Eternity, one immortal defender knows the sweep of change brings danger—and possibility . . .

On the edge of the Mojave desert, out of the lights of Las Vegas, even a werewolf can expect a share of peace and solitude. For Ulric, the last surviving member of a pack hunted through centuries, it’s one of few places he’s willing to drop his guard. Until he spots Brigette, a beautiful wolf-woman he thought dead long ago. When he gives chase, he loses her—and discovers he’s being followed himself.

His pursuer is a zephyr sprite, Rainn, on the trail of a frightening prophecy she can’t predict or understand. All she knows is that Ulric is at its center. If he’s determined to find Brigette, she’ll do what she must to keep him with her.

When the search leads them to a place where Ulric’s ghosts and Rainn’s portents intertwine, a lurking evil waits to swallow them both. But as they fight for survival, their need for each other will become impossible to deny . . .

My Review

Ulric thinks he's the last of his pack until he sees a cousin that he thought long dead. His entire pack had been slaughtered over 500 years ago but there was no mistaking the females scent, she smelled like pack...his pack. But she vanishes almost as soon as he finds her and tells Ulric to forget he's seen her that it's too dangerous. There's no way he'll stop looking for her now that he knows she's alive though. 

Rainn is a rare Zephyr Sprite that also works in the place that Ulric works. She was watching the cameras and saw the supposed cousin wait to get Ulric's attention before running outside and disappearing. Rainn thinks it's a trap for him, knowing that he'll go after her but he has to find out what's going on even if it is a trap. So Rainn and Ulric team up and go after the cousin and find out what's going on. But they are confronted with danger at every turn in their search and as the danger gets worst, the mystery around the missing cousin gets real interesting.

While Rainn and Ulric are trying to figure out what the evil is and how to get rid of it, they find themselves owning up to their feelings, feelings they've had for each other for years but never acted on it because they've had bad things happen to them and have closed themselves off. But they can't lie to themselves any longer.

I think it's better to read this series in order to know who all of these characters are but I've only read two books so far and I think I caught up pretty good so it can be read out of order if you wish to. I really liked seeing some of the other characters from the other book that I read appear in this one. It's always nice to see characters that you know come back so you can see what they've been up to.

I liked how this book wrapped everything up at the end and how some hard truths and secrets came to light. I had a good time with this story. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

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

Favorite Picture of the Week

Tumbleweeds?

It was windy a few days ago and I spotted this rolling across the parking lot and stop right here. It's pretty big and Falcor wouldn't get anywhere near it. 

Review: Beyond The Darkness by Katie Reus

Book Description

Now that she has her freedom, she’s not giving it up.

Dragon shifter Keelin Petronilla spent centuries in forced hibernation dreaming of one thing: freedom. Now she’s living life on her terms—she’s ditched her clan for an unruly wolf pack, she tends bar for a half-demon, and she’s loving it…until a powerful supernatural being targets her. She intends to handle the mysterious attacks on her own…without the help of dragon Alpha Bran Devlin. Sure, he’s sexy in that hot, scowling possessive way, but Keelin wants to live her own life in her own way.

Now that he’s found his mate, he’s not letting her go.

Former black ops agent Bran Devlin is a born dragon Alpha and leader of a fierce clan. Getting mated was never part of his plan—until a feisty dragon princess gets under his skin in a big way. But she doesn’t want a mate; she just wants to have a good time. He plays along, but when a dark and powerful being marks her for death, he’s determined to stay by her side in spite of her protests. Now that he’s found his mate, he means to keep her safe no matter what the cost…even if he has to risk it all.

My Review

Bran was there for Keelin when she was attacked a while back and he hasn't been able to stop thinking about her since. He's back in town on a mission but the fire between them is not stopping. They're both dragon shifters and he wants to make her his mate but she doesn't want that because she thinks she'll lose her freedom if she has a mate. So they just get to know one another slowly and the sexual tension was real. Even though they started out a little slowly with their first meeting when they meet a second time weeks later, they can't deny the sexual chemistry is there.

There's another secondary romance going on between Nyx and Bo. He's the owner of the bar she works at and is a half demon but doesn't originally know what kind of shifter Nyx is which made the mystery interesting. 

Watching these couples get to know one another was so much fun but Bran and Keelin were the hero and heroine of this story so we saw more of them than the other two. But there's danger right around the corner for Keelin which has Bran feeling all kinds of protective for her and trying to keep her safe even though she doesn't think that she really needs his help sometimes. So when she runs off to figure things out with her family and doesn't tell him where she's going, his dragon goes crazy and stops at nothing to make sure she's safe. Seeing his animal side come out like that was sexy as hell.

The bad guys are bad, like really bad. There's kidnapping, torture and murder going on and when we find out what the bad guy is and why he's after Keelin it really ratchet's up the danger in the story. I loved the world building as well as all the different paranormal creatures that were in this book and how we know things are going to get interesting for Nyx in the future.

While this book started off a little slow for me, it sure did pick up and the story stayed crazy and engaging until the end once it pace picked up. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Disclosure: I was given an ARC via NetGalley but all opinions and thoughts are my own. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"Can't talk right now, has mouth full."

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"I eatin' sketti."

Apartment Life #110

This is a new weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 20 years that we'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 20 years here in a weekly blog post.

A couple of weeks ago I told you guys about the woman and her adult son being evicted from these apartments right across from me. Well, she moved on to her section 8 apartment but not before she saw this last week being done.  Last week she knocked on my door and was fuming because she said she had been complaining about her air conditioner not working right for over a year and the manager wouldn't do anything about it because he said it worked, just not as well as she wanted. So when she saw that a new central air conditioner was being installed for the apartment she just got kicked out of she was so mad. They waited until she was evicted and then they put in a new air conditioner. 

I don't blame her for being mad, I would have been mad too but I really think she needs to move on from this. She needs to stop gambling her money away and get her shit together. She's almost 70 years old and her son is a meth addict so I think she'll have more problems since he moved in with her. 

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

Review: Daily Goodie Box - December

The Daily Goodie Box has been around since about July of 2016. I signed up for an account right after I heard about them. They are 100% free, you don't even have to pay for shipping. And for a free box it's a nice sampler box of products.

What did I get in this box?

BodyBio - E-Lyte Electrolyte Concentrate-  I tried this and it wasn't bad tasting or anything but I'm not sure it did anything for me either. This is probably meant for someone that is athletic and needs to replace their electrolytes. 

Aprati Foods - Mocati™ Hard Candy Assortments- I actually just bought a bag of coffee flavored hard candy because I love coffee flavored candy. This tasted really good. I liked the mint/coffee flavor the most. 

Lock Laces® - Elastic No-Tie Shoelaces- I wear slip on sandals mostly so I didn't have shoes for this but I gave them to my daughter and she loved them. She wears tennis shoes to work all the time so she was able to use these and she said they work really well. 

Michael's® Naturopathic Programs - Adrenal Xtra ENERGY Support™- Ken tried this one day when he was tired and he said that it did give him a small boost of energy. So he is going to keep these and use them again because he said they worked for him. 

Chocolat Frey® - Crunchy Nut Bars- This candy bar was one of my favorite things in this box. The chocolate was so smooth and delicious and the nuts were crunchy and plentiful. This was a delicious candy bar. 

Dalmatia® - Fruit Spreads- I got the quince spread and I had just tried quince fruit last year for the first time. I liked it. It's sweet and had a nice flavor to it. This was great and it tastes a lot like apple. 

Enzymedica - Heartburn Relief- Ken and I both tried this since we both get heartburn often and I don't think it worked quite as well as Tums that I usually use but it did help a little. 

NibMor - Daily Dose Chocolate Bars- Definitely my favorite thing in the box. If you like dark chocolate and I definitely so then you will love this. The cherry flavor was strong, it almost tastes like you were biting right into a cherry covered in dark chocolate. 

All they ask you to do is try the products and leave reviews for the products you got in order to be eligible for more Free Goodie Boxes. As you guys already know, I'm a fan of all these types of boxes. I love all the different subscription boxes and it's really nice to be able to try new to me products for free. This is a great box to try for.

Oh and one more thing, if you visit their FB Page, they give away Goodie Boxes to people who interact with their posts. So if you've tried before and weren't able to get a Goodie Box, there's even more ways to get one now.

Daily Goodie Box. It's more than just Free Samples!

Have you signed up? Have you received one of these boxes?

I'm a fan of subscription boxes and love trying new products for free so this was a huge hit with me. New products+free box = Fabulous!

Disclosure: I was given and free box in exchange for a review but all opinions are my own.

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, 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. So 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.

What did I get this week?

From Generation Good I received the diapers and baby wipes.
I also received a sample of Perfect Smooth shampoo and condition.

I gave the diapers and wipes to the lady in my courtyard with the baby.

The shampoo and conditioner was actually really good. First time that I've tried this one too.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Favorite Picture of the Week

Last week on November 28th, I took this picture. The snow was coming down in the mountains and you could barely see most of the mountains that day. It rained most of the day where I was.

The very next day I took this picture of that mountain range and quite a bit of snow had fallen. It was still cloudy but the rain was gone.

There's snow on the mountains. I just thought it was pretty. 

Review: Mastered By Her Mates by Grace Goodwin

Book Description

Amanda Bryant has been a spy for five long years, but when aliens suddenly appear claiming a deadly enemy threatens Earth's very survival, Amanda is asked by her superiors to accept the most dangerous mission of her life...volunteer to be an alien's bride, to share the strange warrior's bed and then betray him.

Accepting the assignment, Amanda is processed as the first Interstellar Bride and transported halfway across the galaxy to her new mate's battleship where she awakens to discover she has been matched to not just one huge Prillon warrior, but two.

Shocked by her craving for the touch of two dominant alpha males, Amanda attempts to hide her body's immediate reaction to Commander Grigg and his second, Rav. Resistance is futile as her new mates expect to control every aspect of her life, and her pleasure, and neither will hesitate to deliver a thorough and embarrassing spanking should she disobey their sensual commands, or resist a complex and deeply arousing series of medical exams designed to ensure her sexual readiness for their claiming.

Seduced and cherished by two alpha alien warriors who hide nothing from her, Amanda quickly comes to realize that the threat to Earth is very real. When she witnesses a battle with the enemy and the resulting death of a highly respected warrior, she knows she must tell her mates the truth and hope they can forgive her for her duplicity before it's too late.

Loyalties will be tested as Amanda fights the most important battle of her life. How can she protect the warriors she has grown to love and save the people of Earth from making a terrible mistake? Will her human contacts believe her when, with every touch, every look, they will see just how thoroughly she has been mastered by her mates?

Publisher's Note: Mastered by Her Mates is a stand-alone prequel novel set in the same world as Assigned a Mate, Mated to the Warriors, Claimed by Her Mates, Taken by Her Mates, and Mated to the Beast. It is an erotic romance novel that includes sexual scenes, spankings and more and is intended for an adult audience. If such material offends you, please do not buy this book. 

My Review

Amanda volunteers for the Interstellar Bride Program after aliens come to Earth and pretty much take over, saying that they are here to keep us safe. She's a spy and her mission is to gather as much intelligence as possible for a couple of years and then leave her 'mate' and come back to Earth to fill in her superiors. But she's 'mated' with two Prillon warriors who make her feel like their relationship could work. 

Amanda's superiors back on Earth are also sending some soldier's who are spies as well because her superiors don't believe the coalition about the big bad aliens that are out to kill people of Earth and other planets. The Hive are the big bad and when they are described it made me think of The Borg on the Star Trek series. They kidnap people and implant them with biosynthetic machines that turn them into fighters for The Hive, much like The Borg did. 

When Amanda can see for herself that The Hive is real and not just something the coalition made up to take over Earth, she knows that she was lied to by her superiors. But this is first and foremost a love story. Rav and Grigg fall head over hills in love with her and want nothing more than to keep her with them. Their culture is a little different from that of Earth but they made it work as she got to know them. I won't downplay the amount of sex in this book because there is a lot but I think it really fit with the story. What didn't fit for me was that she was supposed to be a spy. I don't really think she came off as a spy, it just didn't fit how she acted or what she did at all. 

This is the 6th book in the Interstellar Brides series but it's the first book that I've read. I didn't feel like I was missing a lot of information or confused at all because I read this out of order. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*