Review: Breeder by Cara Bristol

Book Description

She was only meant to be the Alpha Commander's slave...but she became his everything.

High Commander Dak, a ruling Alpha of planet Parseon, purchases Omra strictly as a breeder slave. He intends to impregnate her, produce a son, and hand her off to his anointed beta partner, Corren. Any infractions of the rules by her will be harshly punished.

But as Dak and Omra discover a sexual bliss banned by law, Dak begins to question the traditions and ways of his people, causing him to jeopardize his command and endanger the life of the woman he has come to love.

Dak has enemies, men who will not hesitate to exploit his fondness for Omra, and use it to portray him as unfit to rule as Alpha. Can he expose the rampant cruelty and corruption in Parseon culture... or will the protocol he's spent his life defending, be the weapon used to destroy them and their love?

My Review 

Omra is given to Dax the Alpha as his breeder. A breeder is used to give the Alpha's offspring and when they get the number of children they want, they give the breeder to another. 

This world is brutal for females but Terrans (humans) have come in contact with this alien race and some of the cultural difference make for strange conversations between the men of this world. So when Dax brings her home and they start to spend time together, he starts to feel things for her that are against the rules of his world. He's not supposed to care for her, not supposed to care if she has pleasure during their coupling to make offspring but he does and she cares about him too. 

I went into this book with my eyes wide open knowing that females are treated horrendously in this world but that things are slowly changing for some of the people who don't think it's right anymore. I wasn't expecting to like Dax right away but it didn't take long to see that he was a good guy and was going to treat Omra fairly well. 

So while romance is hard to find at first, we do get it and I really liked the ending. This is a dark romance and the world is a bad place if you're a female but it seems that things might be changing and I liked that aspect of the story. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Falcor Photobombs My Pictures

When I'm trying to take pictures for the boxes and products I review, Falcor will sometimes stick his head into the picture right at the last second so he photobombs my pictures. You have no idea how many times I've had to take several pictures.

Just trying to take some pictures. 

When he sees that I have the camera out, he will come over to see what I'm doing. He's like a little kid. 

I got this dry erase board a while back an was trying to take pictures of it and he jumped up there as I was taking pictures. 

Ken was fixing the pipes under the sink and Falcor decided to come help. 

I got a box from Green Chef and was trying to take pictures of all that came in the box and he ran over and stood there. 

Upper right hand corner, there he is. He wanted the purple poof. He thought it was a toy.

He sat in front of the Bark Box until I opened it and he was so happy to find toys in it for him. 

He's always so happy when we get a box and he's always so curious about what's inside it. I always show him so he can sniff it and that seems to make him happy. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #200

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.

This week I spotted several police cars on my street, just one building down from me while I was out with Falcor. I found out that someone who lived in that building had died. I don't know if it was natural or suspicious. 

The ambulance came but left soon after.

Same for the fire truck. They came and left pretty quickly. The coroner came later and then everyone left when they took the body out. 

My daughter spotted broken glass near the laundry room. 

Looked up and saw that the window to the laundry room was broken. 

The apartment manager hasn't been here in weeks and so the laundry room has been locked as well. I don't know if someone got mad that the door was locked or they wanted to get in there and do some drugs which is why they started locking it in the first place. 

And I spotted a mattress in the rocks across from my apartment complex. A couple of the homeless people had been sleeping there at night. 

Life Update: 

Ken came home a couple of days ago and he's doing good. We have a house call doctor coming and physical therapy coming to the apartment every week. Our daughter is still doing well after her hospital stay and the allergy medicine seems to be working well since she's allergic to my dog. Oh and I talked her into blogging and her new blog is Lizzie's Enchantment if you'd like to visit. 

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

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.

A notepad and Nars samples of foundation in different shades. 

This is how many different shade samples they sent me. 

I like the Nars foundation. I might get a bottle of it. 

Did you get any freebies this week?

Review: Birchbox Subscription Box- April

Birchbox is a subscription box. It's only $14 a month and this month's box came with 6 products.

What was in this box?

IBY Beauty eyeshadow. 

NatureLab TOKYO Blowout lotion for hair. 

R+Co moisture and shine cream for hair. 

Sunday Riley Lactid Acid treatment for face. 

Wilma Schumann collagen eye pads. 

The collagen eye pads don't really do anything for me but they are soothing while on. The blowout cream and shine cream are mostly really good leave in treatments for hair. They smell good too. My hair was frizz free and shiny when I used these. The lactic acid treatment left my face a little red at first but it went away within 30 minutes and my face did feel smoother. 

My favorite thing in this box was the eyeshadow. I thought it was a really pretty color. 

Did you get this box? 

Falcor Stretches

I've posted about this before but it makes me laugh and I don't know why he does it so I thought I would share some more funny pictures of Falcor stretching out his legs behind him. 

He does it with both legs. He'll just stand there when we go for a walk and stretch his back legs out behind him and stand there. It looks so funny to me. 

He'll stand there looking around with one leg stretched out behind him. People ask if he's ok and I say yeah he's just stretching. lol 

Review: Forbidden Mate by Cecilia Lane

Book Description

An Alpha Bound by Duty

Bear shifter Callum Strathorn has a job to do. With his father’s health declining, it’s up to Callum to take over as Mayor of Bearden.

When Leah Arden crashes her car near Bearden, Callum leads the first responders. He pulls the lovely woman from the wreckage, but as her wits return, she sees things that humans should never see. Forbidden things, like a mysterious town and a man shifting into a bear.

Callum has no choice. To protect his town and his clan, he keeps Leah captive in Bearden while he figures out damage control. He soon finds himself with a fiery and furious female on his hands. And if things couldn’t get worse, the stubborn and aggravatingly sexy woman smells and tastes just like his fated mate.

A Woman on the Run

Leah Arden lives a life haunted by secrets. She can't stay in one place for long or her past will catch up with her. With nowhere to turn, she doesn’t trust anyone, not until she meets Bearden’s gruff but handsome mayor.

Callum’s slow, sexy smile and quiet strength make her yearn for more. But when he lays down the law and forces her to remain in Bearden, she grows desperate to find a way to escape. Even if that means betraying the one man who makes her want to put down roots.

As Leah’s secrets unravel, the danger grows, looming over her and all of Bearden. Callum's enemies are looking for weakness, and he handed them one on a silver platter. Can the town’s alpha keep his people safe, especially the woman who is fated to be his?

~~~

Step into the world of Shifting Destinies, where the men and women you meet might just be a little more than human. Their towns are protected by magic, and their hearts are open and ready for love. But watch your step - more than darkness lurks in the shadows.

My Review

Leah left her boyfriend who she got fed up with cheating on her. But before she left she took a map that she thought would lead her to some kind of treasure. She wasn't sure about the map until Jamin, her ex boyfriend came after her for the map. He had been stalking her movements and almost broke down her motel door at one point. He was angry and she wasn't sure just how far he and his cronies would go once they finally caught up to her so she had to keep moving. 

Callum was the leader of his town and was also a bear shifter. Humans weren't allowed in his town because humans could never learn of shifters, it would be too dangerous for his people. But when her car crashes and he pulls her from the crash, he has to bring her into town after one of his people shifts in front of her. 

Once she finds out what Callum and most of the town really is, Callum has no choice but to make her stay because a human can't be trusted not to tell everyone else that shifters exist. But Leah is running from her ex, who turns out to be worst than she imagined and brings all kinds of danger right to her doorstep. Callum knows that Leah is his mate so he wants to protect her as well as keep her but she's keeping so many secrets that it might be too dangerous for him and his people to keep her around. 

This story had a huge twist and I loved it, never saw that coming at all. This was such a fun read and I liked getting to know some of the secondary characters who I hope will pop up in this series because now I want to read more. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of me*

"You come back later, I'm taking a nap right now"

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #199

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.

Tuesday morning at nearly 1am, the lights and sirens from the police cars woke me up. I got up and looked out my bedroom window and saw there was at least 4 police cars on my street and several more were quickly driving down the street as well. 

My daughter went outside and got a couple of pictures of police on the street and one officer told her to go back inside because there was an active shooter somewhere in the neighborhood. So she came back inside after getting a couple more pictures. 

The police were on the side street, the alley, my street, the Cal Ranch parking lot and then the police helicopter started flying over. 

The police were on my street for almost 2 hours before they left. 

From the neighbors I heard the next day, it seems someone was shooting behind the Cal Ranch store in the parking lot and then ran off and they never caught whoever it was. I didn't see any news reports or anything about it so I'm not sure but the police said there was an active shooter in the area so that's enough to make me nervous. 

Life Update: 

Ken is doing good in physical therapy and might get to come home in a week or so. After that he'll be seeing an Oncologist to find out what all is going on and get treatment options. I really appreciate all the love, support and good thoughts everyone has been sending. It has really helped seeing so many positive comments and well wishes.

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

Sheets Masks- Congrats, You Look Ridiculous!

A few weeks ago I asked you guys in a post whether or not you'd like to see me do a sheet mask post where I make fun of them and myself and wear a few of them in a post. Well, you all said yes, so here you go! I think we all need something to laugh about right now.

Sheet masks are usually white cloths that have holes for eyes, nose and mouth and are soaked in some kind of liquid that's supposed to make your face feel softer, smoother, help with wrinkles ect. To me they are a waste of time because smoothing on a little moisturizer does the same thing without looking ridiculous.

On the back of the first sheet mask in the instructions was this, " Congratulations, you look ridiculous. Go with it." Ok, well here we go. 

This sheet mask obviously didn't have enough liquid in it to actually stick to my face. This is not how it's supposed to fit. 

This one had enough liquid on it and it did stick to my face. And yes, I look ridiculous. My dog was giving me weird looks and so was Ken. 

Sometimes the sheet masks are bright colors like this blue on that didn't have enough liquid on it to stick to my face. It kept falling off. A couple of my readers have said they've never seen a sheet mask, well now you have. I hope you enjoyed it. lol 

Now there's a look! While not a sheet mask these are supposed to soothe your face and lips. They are reusable too. You put them in the freezer or fridge for an hour before use and place them on your eyes and lips and it's supposed to help with eye puffiness. But for me, it really didn't do much for me. They did keep falling off though. They don't lay flat so it didn't help much. That's some look though. 

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.

This week I received:

Garnier Fructis hair mask.
Creme of Nature hair color.
3 greeting cards with envelopes.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Favorite Photo of the Week

We tried something new. A couple of months ago Ken picked up some purple potatoes. We'd never had them before, so I was excited to try them. I made mashed potatoes with them. This is what they look like on the inside before cooking them.

I made mashed potatoes, chicken gravy, sauteed carrots and smoked pork chops. The purple potatoes taste just like regular potatoes if you're wondering, but they're purple. It made for a colorful plate of food. Oh and smoked pork chops taste just like baked ham. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of Balei and Annette*

*Picture courtesy of Balei and Annette*

*Picture courtesy of Anisah Grace Hanna*

Because we all need something to smile about right now.

Apartment Life #198

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.

The picture is blurry because it was taken from about a block away. Two police cars had someone stopped in front of their car and ended up arresting him for some reason. Both police cars were there for well over an hour. 

When I stepped out my door I saw that my neighbor's homeless brother was sleeping in the chair by his door again. He was bent forward so that's the top of his head you're seeing. He and his brother got into a shouting match a couple of weeks ago and I didn't see him sleeping outside for a couple of nights but he's back. The guy who lives there told me that his brother is a meth addict and he steals from him so that's why he doesn't let him inside his apartment but let's him sleep in a chair by the door so he has a safe place to sleep and he brings food out to him too. So that's what's I've been talking about for a while when I mention the brother who sleeps outside his brother's door. 

There's been quite an increase in homeless people hanging around my apartment building lately and I've been seeing more of these signs on the sidewalk. 

Life Update: 

Ken was transferred to rehab/physical therapy to see if he can strengthen his leg and arm enough to safely come home. I don't know how long he'll be there. The hospital said he has to see an oncologist outpatient when he comes home for any treatment they want to give him. So I've been calling different places to get some sort of transportation set up for him to go to doctor appointments. 

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

Review: Fantastic Hope by Laurell K. Hamilton

Book Description

A collection of sixteen sci-fi and fantasy stories edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton and author William McCaskey.

A child’s wish for her father comes true. The end of the world has never been so much fun. Conquering personal demons becomes all too real. It’s not always about winning; sometimes it’s about showing up for the fight. It’s about loving your life’s work, and jobs that make you question everything.

In this anthology, seventeen authors have woven together brand-new stories that speak to the darkness and despair that life brings while reminding us that good deeds, humor, love, sacrifice, dedication, and following our joy can ignite a light that burns so bright the darkness cannot last.

Laurell K. Hamilton and William McCaskey are joined by Kevin J. Anderson, Griffin Barber, Patricia Briggs, Larry Correia, Kacey Ezell, Monalisa Foster, Robert E. Hampson, John G. Hartness, Jonathan Maberry, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., Jessica Schlenker, Sharon Shinn, M. C. Sumner, Patrick M. Tracy, and Michael Z. Williamson in this collection.

My Review

This is an anthology so I am going to do a mini review for each story. 

Twilight Falls by Johnathon Mayberry

When a plane is spotted flying over several villages and then people are found dead, the people in charge think someone is spraying chemicals over them. Turns out that the people in the plane weren't the problem, they were actually trying to help but other bad guys got wind of what they were doing and decided to stop them. It was a fun quick story. 

Not In This Lifetime by Sharon Shinn

What if you were to remember all of your past lives and the same guy kills you in each of your lives? That's what happens to Sasha in this story. Sasha remembers some of the people who have been in her life during her past lives and she's friends with them in this life. So when she spots the man who kills her and she knows will kill her in this life, she goes about trying to change the outcome this time.

Mr. Positive, The Eternal Optimist by Larry Correia

Chris is from the future and is sent to do things. Like if you could go back in time and kill Hilter, would you? So Chris has a mission to shoot Stanley in the heart for some reason but Stanley puts up a good fight and Chris ends up liking him but still he needs to finish his mission. This one had an ending that went in a way I wasn't expecting. Interesting idea. 

No Greater Love by Kacey Ezell

Jennilee and Anna were forced to stay in a cave Dalton left and pushed carts through the snow with their meager belongings on them but Jennilee's father had told Anna who was about to give birth, he would be back. Anna was married to Jennilee's father. When Anna dies after giving birth, Jennilee knows she can't stay there so she follows the trail her father is on only to get hurt. A woman comes to her rescue but things are not right or normal with this woman but she is able to save them both but not in a normal way. This was a really fun story. Not what I was expecting at all. 

Broken Son by Griffin Barber

Sent to a space station penal colony for a few years, Borges makes the best of his time in the mines. He must be wealthy because he is given special treatment and one of the other inmates who they refer to as the broken says he can hear a song coming from somewhere else. So when a scientist comes aboard to check something out, he introduces her to the broken and the broken makes contact with another life form who informs them what happen to them. 

Heart of Clay by Kevin J. Anderson

A dragon with a gambling problem lost the Excalibur sword in a gambling bet and now there's a bunch of supernaturals looking for it. Someone was also killing Golems and they couldn't seem to figure out why until the end of the story. With so many different supernatural creatures in this story it was fun to see what would happen next. 

Reprise by John G. Hartness

Quincy, the son of dracula watches a group of young people trying to summon a demon and spots a young woman who looks like the woman he loved and lost. He's taken with her and watches her and even talks with her. When he finds out what she and the others are up to it's almost too late to send the demon back to hell before it gets out and kills indiscriminately. But he's the son of dracula so thankfully things work out. 

Asil and the Not-Date by Patricia Briggs 

Asil was a wolf shifter and he knew that at some point his wolf was going to get free and probably kill someone. He was depressed but when the emails about going on dates started to anonymously come to him, it peeked his interest so he kept going on dates. Asil liked Tami even when he found out she was a white witch. A witch had killed his mate so his crabby wolf wasn't too happy about her being around him. Tami and Asil helped one of her clients when they found themselves in danger but then there's a big twist to this one and I liked it. 

In The Dust by Robert E. Hampson

This story took place throughout a couple's journey first as kids, then teens and then as adults with their own kids. I never knew where this story was headed until the very end which was nice. I liked this one and liked how I had to read the story and pick up on little things in order to see where this one would end up. 

Fallen by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

I had a hard time figuring this one out at times. It was hard to tell where Estafen was, where he had been and what was going on. He wanted to change the way things were where he was but everyone and everything around him was making that difficult. When I was done, I finally figured out that this was a religious piece and that's probably why I had a hard time deciphering it for it to make sense to me.

Working Conditions by Patrick M. Tracy

Sam had recently been turned into a vampire and Delia owned the convenience store he worked at. She was a little afraid of him but he was just a lonely, young man that she was still friends with. When he bit her to save her life from terminal cancer, she knew he was one of the good guys and she made sure he had a place to work. This was a short, sweet story. 

Last Contact by M.C. Sumner

When an alien ships hovers over a city, a detective shows up and tells Samuel that they want him to meet with them. Samuel is a paleoichthyologist or someone that studies extinct fish. He was taken to where the ship was a a kind of transport box was there to take him to the ship where he met and talked with the alien. The alien talked and answered questions and then had a question for him. This was interesting and thought provoking. Definitely one of my favorites. 

Ronin by William McCaskey

This story is told from the vantage point of a stuffed teddy bear. I liked this story. The bear had fun with a boy that grew up to have a child of his own but the man had a lot of problems that the bear really couldn't understand. The bear can enter dreams and see what their nightmares are and help them through their fears. This story broke my heart but it was really good. 

Skjoldmodir by Michael Z. Williamson and Jessica Schlenker

A mother of a son who was born not quite right, living in a village where the villages grew to fear and ultimately hate Grendel, the son, the monster as he was called after he got older. A mother who could do nothing but move on after her husband was killed in battle and try to keep her son safe even though nothing could keep them safe from the hateful villagers. This was such a sad tale. 

Bonds of Love and Duty by Monalisa Foster

The Donai were genetically engineered soldiers but in her lab they were just children or soon to be children in the gestation pods. She escaped with Andret, the oldest Donai soldier and some of the babies still in tubes. They landed on a far away planet and he kept the tubes filled with his kind safe until other Donai came looking for him. 

Zombie Dearest by Laurell K. Hamilton

Anita Blake was in her office when a man and woman walked in and accused her of getting their daughter pregnant. Turned out a zombie that Anita raised had sex with their daughter and when she put him back in the ground, the woman found out she was pregnant some time later. She gave birth to a normal baby but now she was laying in a hospital room dying from something the doctors couldn't figure out. So Anita finds out what's was wrong with the young woman and goes about fixing it. This is actually the story that I was most wanting to read. I got the book because of this author and am glad that I read this and the other stories. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

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

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of Balei and Annette*

"Why you wake me up? Was having good dream."

*Picture courtesy of Mary Kirkland*

"My arm might be missing but I'm still faster than you." 

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Because we all need something to smile about right now.

Apartment Life #197

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.

There are about 6 homeless people that are constantly at the drug dealers apartment in my courtyard. During the day they set up camp with their cart, chairs, blue tarp and signs right near the McDonald's or Del Taco. This day they were parked directly behind one of the 4 wheeler trucks that was parked in the parking lot. But with the Coronavirus outbreaks and social distancing taking place right now, my apartment manager posted a letter on the office door that the office will be closed until further notice and no manager will be on property until further notice. 

Well these homeless people decided to break into the old maintenance shop that's right around the corner from my apartment. My daughter saw it busted open first and later when I walked by it was wide open and there were two mattresses on the floor. Wednesday night I saw a couple of them pulling their carts in with them and shutting the door. There's nothing in the old shop which is why it was nailed shut. There's an email we can use if we have emergency maintenance problems but I was having a problem setting up my resident portal so I could pay my rent online and they never responded to my email. But I got it figured out. I'm not saying a thing to them about the people in the shop. They should have had someone on property to make sure things like this didn't happen. I'm a little irritated and just can't bring myself to give two sh!ts about it. 

Then I saw a police car across the street. I have no idea what went on since I'm not getting close enough to anyone to find out. lol 

On my walk with Falcor, I saw that someone had deposited a used tire in the rocks. How does that happen. They pulled over right here, put a spare on and left the flat here? Who knows but I wasn't expecting to see an old tire right here. 

----

I didn't get this picture posted in time last week since the police showed up twice late Saturday night last week. The police helicopter was up as well. The police were in this spot twice, 4 police cars in all and arrested 2 different people. My daughter took this picture with her new phone but it came out blurry too. 

---

I woke Ken up at 3am on Tuesday because I heard something weird like far off gunshots. He assured me it wasn't gunshots. So when I go out this morning with the dog...paintball platters all over the metal tree, rocks and wall right next to our apartment complex. Now I know what that noise was. Paintball gun.

I hope no one was outside when they did this. They might have gotten hit too.

__

Life Update:

Tuesday morning my daughter went to the ER for a severe asthma attack. Later that day I had to call 911 for Ken when he had a seizure. My daughter came back home Friday night and is ok now.

Ken is still in the hospital. You might have seen my post a few days ago about all of this. Well as of today they told Ken that he has Metastic brain cancer. Meaning the cancer started somewhere else, most likely the lungs and has traveled to other parts of his body including his brain. They are still testing to see where the cancer is but it looks like it's all over. They haven't discussed any treatment options yet so it's just wait and one day at a time for now. 

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