Apartment Life: #276

 

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 go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 24 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 24 years here in a weekly blog post. 

I heard the police helicopter flying low around my apartment complex and looked outside and sure enough the police were on my block. The police had someone in handcuffs down the street who was arrested but I saw her back around here the next day. 

She had her boyfriend arrested for hitting her a couple of weeks ago and he was in jail for a week before getting back out. These two are always arguing and fighting around here. She would be better off leaving him but I don't see that happening any time soon. 

I did happen to get a blurry picture of the police helicopter that was flying around my apartment complex at the same time.

The high this week was 80F/26C

The low this week was 52F/11C

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

Review: Dove Body Polish

 

Every once in a while I come across a product that I like so much, I want to share it with you. This is not a paid ad, and I did not get this product for free. I paid for it myself. 

I have diabetes which causes my skin to be dry especially in the Winter time so I went looking for products that would keep my skin smooth and not dry. I use a lot of lotion but that only helps so much. I was reading that an exfoliating cream or cleanser might help, so I went looking for one and found this on Amazon. 

It's an exfoliating scrub you use in the shower. I just want to say how good this one smells. No, seriously. Dove needs to make an entire bath line with this scent. I'm not even kidding. Plus this really does make my skin feel smoother and softer after a shower.  I got the Crushed Macadamia & Rice Milk scent and it's so nice. 

This is what it looks like. It's so soft and feels so good on my skin. So if you're looking for a skin exfoliating cleanser, try this one and see if you like it. I'm actually surprised I loved the first one I tried. They also have other scents if this one isn't to your liking. 

Pomegranate Seeds & Shea Butter

Crushed Almond & Mango Butter

Colliodal Oatmeal and Calendula Oil

Brown Sugar & Coconut Butter

Have you tried this product? 

Freebie Friday!

 

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. 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 4 perfume samples from Macy. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Razr: A Demonica Underworld Novella by Larissa Ione

 

Book Description

A fallen angel with a secret.

An otherworldly elf with an insatiable hunger she doesn't understand.

An enchanted gem.

Meet mortal enemies Razr and Jedda...and the priceless diamond that threatens to destroy them both even as it bonds them together with sizzling passion.

Welcome back to the Demonica Underworld, where enemies find love...if they're strong enough to survive.

My Review

Razr is an angel who was cast from heaven to work for Azagoth in hell until he can find at least one of the gemstones that he lost when his charge was killed. And while he's looking for the gemstone he also gets *punished* every so often with 6 lashes from someone in hell who does not hold back. The harsher the punishment, the longer he can go without getting another one. 

Jedda is an Elf and has an affinity for gemstones and can find just about any of them. But she has a huge secret. So when Razr tracks her down and wants her to find at least one of the gemstones he's looking for that will get him back into heaven, she knows she can't give them to him but it takes a while for the *why* to come out. 

Watching Razr go through these punishments all the time because the effects don't last very long, was really rough. It's probably my least favorite part of this book because it was brutal. He passes out so many times from the pain but because he's an angel he heals incredibly fast. 

When Razr explains what the gemstones are and how he lost them, it was shocking to find out how Jedda was connected to the entire scenario. I wasn't sure how they were going to get through that but the fact that Razr was willing to just go about life as he had been to make sure she was safe melted my heart a bit. So I was happy to see how this book ended because it was great. If you've been reading this series you will want to read this novella as well. It was a great addition to the series. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

Last week we had a couple of days with some huge clouds. It was nice to have so much cloud cover and it even got dark for a while but we didn't get any rain. 

Book Review: The Cursed King by Abigail Owen

 

Book Description

Airk Azdajah, the rightful King of the White Clan of dragon shifters, spent half a millennium being tortured by the false High King Pytheios. The only reason he’s alive is a curse— the man to kill Airk will be consumed in his own fire. Which is why Pytheios kept Airk alive, barely, unable to shift in his prison cage, driving the creature half of him into madness. Airk escaped, but he'll never be truly free. What good is a king who can never let his feral dragon loose, never fly, and never lead his people? He's better off dead.

Angelika Amon is the last unmated phoenix. The problem? She has no powers. Zip. Zilch. Angelika hates being dormant, especially now that her three sisters are blissfully mated to powerful dragon shifter kings and are very much part of the fight to take down the rotting king Pytheios, their parents' killer. What good is a useless runt of a phoenix in a battle to save the dragon kingdom?

Desperate to find some way to help, she offers herself to Airk as a mate — just for political leverage. But a dormant phoenix is no damn use to him just like a dragon who can't shift is no use to her. Until Pytheios sets his sights on Angelika for himself...

My Review

Airk spent 500 years locked in a dungeon being tortured and wasn't able to shift into his dragon. But now that he's been rescued and is a prisoner no more, his dragon is feral and dangerous so he can't shift and let the monster out even now. Airk is the rightful king of the white dragon clan but most people are either scared of him, don't believe he is who he says he is or won't go against Pytheios. 

Angelika is a phoenix shifter like her sisters but she isn't able to shift and has no powers so she offers to mate Airk out of a sense of duty so Airk would have some leverage to get people to follow him. Airk says no though and even though Angelika has feelings for him, she doesn't let that stop her from trying to change his mind.

Because Airk feels like he's dangerous and can't shift, he doesn't plan to take on a mate but Angelika is persistent and they both have feelings for each other. Because she doesn't give up trying to help him and wanting to show others that she can be of use as well, they are thrown together on many occasions, getting to know each other better. Airk has feelings for her but is afraid his dragon will take over and hurt or kill her even though his dragon feels protective and content around her. 

Airk was frustrating at times though because he said no to her so many times so I was happy that she didn't give up and kept going after what she wanted. So Airk tries to talk some of the white clan into turning their support away from Pytheios and Angelika helps him. It was nice to watch them get closer and it was wonderful to see the characters from the other books make an appearance in this one as well. 

This is the 4th book in the Inferno Rising series and I would definitely suggest you read this series in order for it to make more sense. This book also wraps up this series in such a magnificent way even though I was sad to see it come to an end.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

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

Happy Raturday!

 

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

Apartment Life #275

 

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 go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 24 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 24 years here in a weekly blog post. 

I saw an ambulance come for one of my neighbors across from me. She has congestive heart failure and was feeling bad and just wanted the paramedics to come and evaluate her. She didn't end up going to the hospital that day, even though they were trying to talk her into going.

---

Police were blocking off my street on Friday at almost 9PM. I only saw one cop car when I took the dog out so I thought it was kinda safe to go out since there weren't that many police outside. But after I got out there more cops showed up and as I'm walking back to my apartment one of the cops comes across the street and chased me back inside because they said there was an active shooter in the area. The police helicopter was flying circles over my apartment building for a while and I got a very short video since the pictures wouldn't come out very well. 

A few minutes after I took this, I watched 6 police cars speed down my street lights and sirens going and the police helicopter went about a block away and started circling overhead there as well. 

My daughter sent me this video when she was walking home from work that night about an hour after the police left my street. They were 1 street over from me and had most of the street blocked off.  I am guessing that they caught whoever they were looking for.

The high this week was 80F/26C

The Low this week was 58F/14C

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

Book Review: Who Could Have Imagined . . . Change Your Perspective, Transform Your Destiny by Aliette St. Hilaire

 

Book Review

It’s Not How You Start…

It’s How You Finish

Before moving to the States, Aliette enjoyed an idyllic childhood in the Bahamas. But life changed abruptly when she became pregnant at twelve and married at thirteen. Written off as a teenage mom and high school dropout, Aliette made a discovery that would change her life again: faith.

With God—along with the power of prayer—Aliette surmounted obstacles that would have imprisoned her in poverty and ignorance. She worked hard for an education, ultimately building a successful career in medicine. She worked hard on her marriage, today celebrating over thirty years together while raising three terrific sons. And she continues to work hard, every day, for the betterment of the world around her.

For Aliette, a change in perspective transformed her destiny through faith in God and oneself.

My Review

Let me start by saying that I'm not religious at all so while I don't agree with everything she said, it's her memoir and her thoughts and it was written really well so I enjoyed reading this quite a lot. I was unprepared for the beauty in this book as well as the heartache she went through because of the loss of her innocence and childhood. It's a sad story, but also offers a look at the joys that come with parenthood and fighting for a better life. While this isn't my usual type of read, I found myself unable to put this book down as I was reading because her life was just so heartbreaking.

This book made me feel so many things, including not really understanding why she stayed with her husband after he got her pregnant at such a young age and how she explained how he acted on several occasions. But also understanding that she was young and even though he was twice her age, he was also very immature and they seemed to grow a lot as they got older.

This book took me on an emotional roller coaster. It's written eloquently in a simple and direct way that ends up pulling you right into the story. It's a very plainly spoken account of her life as a child getting pregnant, and then married to a man who I'm not sure I would have had the strength to stay with. Her life was a difficult one but she managed to get through it and find the will not only to come out the other side intact but find a faith that helped her better herself and become a nurse. This author has a talent for describing the things that happened in a very relatable way, so that you can really connect with them. There's a lot of pain in this book, but there's also love, hope, faith and the fight to be better.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for inspiration for a change inside themselves.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Freebie Friday!

 

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. 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:

A bathroom shower curtain and rug set courtesy of Walmart Spark Reviewer.

Oribe perfume samples. 

Estee Lauder Foundation samples. 

Vichy face serum. 

Mylanta Gas relief samples. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Bond of Destiny by Larissa Ione

 

Book Description

Sold into slavery mere hours after his birth to werewolf parents, Tracker spent decades in service to cruel underworlders. Then the fallen angel Harvester transferred his ownership to a human woman who gave him as much freedom as the unbreakable bond would allow. Still, thanks to his traumatic past, he’s afraid to trust, let alone feel love. But when an acquaintance shows up at his door, injured and in need of help, he finds himself longing for a connection. For someone to touch. For someone to care.

Stacey Markham has had it bad for Tracker since the day her best friend, Jillian, was forced to hold his unbreakable slave bond. At first, the fact that he’s a werewolf seemed weird to Stacey, but hey, her best friend was married to one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, so weird is definitely a matter of perspective. Stacey knows the depths of Tracker’s trauma, and she longs to help him even as he helps her, but breaking through his walls isn’t easy. And it only gets harder when the only blood family he has, the pack that gave him away, lays claim to him…and everything he loves.

My Review

Tracker has been a slave his entire life because he was given away as soon as he was born. He's a werewolf shifter and his new master, Jillian is the nicest person he's ever known. She doesn't want to be his master but it can't be helped. So she and her mate have given him as much freedom as they can. He lives alone in a cabin built for him and watches over Jillian's cabin while she and her mate are away.

Stacey is Jillian's best friend so when she was in an accident on an icy road, she walked to Jillian's cabin but Tracker found her half frozen in the snow and brought her inside his cabin and warmer her up. Now they are stuck, snowed in together in his cabin and making the best of it. 

Stacey is exactly what Tracker needed. He's not fast to trust people because being a slave he's been treated incredibly bad his entire life. Some of the flashbacks of his life made me cringe and I felt really bad for him. It took a little time for him to warm up to Stacey but she's so full of life so it's hard not to feel good around her. 

These two are snowed in and even though the phone service goes in and out during the time they are together so they are able to talk to Jillian and let her know what's going on, Jillian is not happy that they are stuck together and let's Stacey know that Tracker is off limits to her for some reason. But that doesn't stop Stacey from kissing Tracker until he finds out that Jillian told her he was off limits. Being that Jillian is Tracker's master, he cannot go against her wishes. But Jillian gives her permission after Stacey makes her realize that she really does care about him and isn't there to play with his feelings. 

Things look like they are going well between them until a couple of guys from his families pack come to talk to him and ask him for something. When he refuses to give them what they want, all hell breaks loose. I liked that we got to see Harvester again because she's changed and I really like her. I really liked how the action really notched up towards the end of this book and how it had such a great ending. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

This one of my neighbors. He's a singer and makes his own clothes. He was wearing this outfit and had another neighbor taking pictures and video of him to use on the cover for one of his songs. I don't understand the hat because the rest of his clothes don't really match that Egyptian-looking hat and his song didn't sound Egyptian either, but he was happy with it. At least he was having fun with it.

Happy Raturday!

 

 

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

Apartment Life #274

 

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 go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 24 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 24 years here in a weekly blog post. 

With our rents increasing, I guess management decided to do some beautifying of the property. So they trimmed the trees and bushes and removed a dead tree. When I first moved here 24 years ago, there were so many nice looking bushes and trees but so many have died and been removed because there's no sprinkler system in place to water any of the vegetation. So everything eventually dies, like this Pine Tree did. 

When I was taking pictures of the mess they made taking the tree down, I noticed that there was a couple of carts on the other side of the chain link fence at the end of my courtyard. 

I wanted to show you exactly where this is. So this cart is on the walking path that I walk Falcor on. To the far left hand hand side you can see the tall sound wall. Directly on the other side of that wall is the freeway. That's how close we are to the freeway.

It looked like this guy had a very large speaker on his cart. Maybe he was going to sell it?

The same day the tree was cut down, the landscapers trimmed the palm trees. Palm fronds scattered the sidewalks all day.

The palm trees had been really full but these guys left like 4 palm fronds on top. They look naked now.

So this place can't manage to install a sprinkler system but the water spigots get turned on and left dripping all the time from the homeless people. This is just one of them. There are 7 spigots along the front, back and sides of each apartment building. I have no problem with the homeless people being able to have access to water but maintenance is aware that some of the spigots are broken and leaking and haven't bothered to fix the leaks in over 2 years, so they sit there and drip 24/7. This wall is the outside of someone's bedroom and with the water soaking into the wall like it does for 2 years...I have no doubt there's water damage to the inside of the wall and and is probably growing black mold. Not that management will do anything about it. But by all means, make the palm trees look nice. 

There's so much water dripping by this wall that plants and moss have started growing there. It's irritating because now we have to pay an extra $40 each month for water but they can't fix these kinds of issues.

The high this week was 80F/26C

The low this week was 47F/8C

I started adding our low temperature as well since it does get cold here in the Winter time.

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 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. 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 a free, homemade lasagna from We are Lasagna Love FB page. 

They are an organization where if you are in need, you can sign up to receive a homemade lasagna from someone in your area. It took a little more than a month but I received a fresh, homemade lasagna this week. They are absolute angels to do things like this.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

This week we had a couple of days where it rained just a little. Some clouds rolled off the mountains and I thought it looked really nice.

Review: Daily Goodie Box - October

 

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 was in the box?

Heat Holders - Thermal Socks I've had these before and I really like them since my feet get cold in the Winter and these keep my feet warm.

Essential Elements - Hydration Mix I wasn't a fan of this. It was the taste that I didn't care for.

Tiesta Tea - Pomegranatopia I like trying new kinds of teas and this was a good tasting one.

Kirks Soap - Gentle Castile Bar Soap This smells so good. I like this a lot. 

Aroma Naturals - Lavender Hand Sanitizer Gel I can always use another hand sanitizer and this one works as well as the others that I have tried.

Zint Nutrition - Collagen Powder I would have tried more of this but the taste was not good.

Zolli Candy - Zolli Ball Popz I really like these. I've tried other Zolli candy and they have all been good.

Little Secrets Chocolate - Peanut Butter in Dark Chocolate Crispy Wafers This was by far my favorite thing in the box. Peanut butter and dark chocolate, yes. This tasted so good too.

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.

Happy Raturday!

 

"Time to get the shopping done"

"Cereal and soda are essential"

"Don't forget the fruit"

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

Apartment Life #273

 

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 go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 24 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 24 years here in a weekly blog post. 

My neighbor was yelling at someone down the street. Before I started recording, she went back into her apartment and brought out a bat and was swinging it around. She has it in her hand and you can hear it drop on the ground at one point. Nothing else happened and she went back inside soon after I stopped recording. But she sure was mad about something. I couldn't really understand what she was saying but if you turn your sound up you can hear her yelling and cussing. The sound goes in and out a little because the wind was blowing. The weird bright line is because I was facing the sun and it was reflecting off of the metal part of my window frame. There was nothing I could do about it.

---

Rental costs have gone through the rook here lately. I looked around at apartments to see if there are any in my price range but the prices have jumped pretty high. They are asking $800-$900 for a studio and 1 bdrm apartments are even more. That's even in bad neighborhoods. The prices are even higher right now because so many renters didn't pay their rent last year because of Covid and the eviction moratorium so when the moratorium was lifted, people just moved out and didn't pay their back owed rent and landlords are trying to recoup all those costs by raising everyone else's rent. My rent just increased from $625 a month to $890 a month. Thankfully I can still pay it but that's a huge jump and rental prices are high everywhere I look. It's kinda mean spirited to punish those of us who paid their rent each month last year by increasing it so much. But that's just my opinion. 

*This was just one news headline this week. Rents soared here*

I would move after this increase but it's still hard for find an apartment cheaper than this one and I would just be moving into another bad neighborhood for rent around the same amount. So I am signing another 1 year lease.

---

On Tuesday I received a notice and a warning on my door from management that my satellite dish was going to be removed. I've never had a satellite dish so I called the office and she fixed the warning on my account. I worried about it because after 3 warnings for breaking the lease rules they evict you. Just more BS to deal with. But next week all of the satellite dishes are being removed from the property because they are damaging the roofs. It's in our leases that we are not allowed to have satellite dishes so they can't do anything about them being removed.

The high this week was 90F/32C

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

Book Review: Wildfire Phoenix by Zoe Chant

 

Book Description

His touch makes her burn.

And that's the one thing she must never do...

Blaise can’t afford to lose control. She can’t let her inner monster rise. Not ever again.

Even if that means denying her own feelings… and her fated mate.

But that’s okay. She’s used to repressing her animal, and her desires. She can keep her distance from him, no matter what her friends think.

Nothing has to change. After all, he can’t possibly feel the same instant, soul-deep connection. Despite the way his dark eyes seem to look straight into her heart, seeing everything she tries to hide… he’s not a shifter.

At least, not anymore.

With his own animal dead, he never needs to know that she’s his mate...

Right?

My Review

Zephyr was thought to have perished when the Thunderbird set fire to his home when he was a kid but that's not what happened at all. Zephyr became one with the Thunderbird and has been lost to it because he performed the ritual without having an anchor to call him back. When his mom and sister perished in the fire, his uncle Buck thought he had perished as well but he's been around all along. 

Blaise is a black phoenix shifter but she can never let her control slip for a moment and let her animal take control. If that happens, her father who is also a phoenix, would die because there can only be one phoenix. 

Buck finally puts two and two together and realizes who the Thunderbird is, so he shoots it with a tranq full of something that should suppress the animal and bring Zephyr back to him but Zephyr sleeps in a coma for several months before waking up. Blaise is there when he wakes up and she knows right away that they are mates but it takes Zephyr a little longer to put the pieces together. As Blaise tries to keep control of her animal, she and Zephyr get to know one another and she learns more about him. Zephyr has learned how to slip into people's dreams and Blaise comes along with him several times which was fun because they see things they probably shouldn't but also get to know one another better.

This series is a spin off from the Fire & Rescue Shifters series, so in the Wildfire Crew we see the Firefighter's kids making a name for themselves as a hotshot firefighting team. So it was a lot of fun to see the parents show up in this book since I had read that series first. When Uncegila, the serpent queen who has been fighting them and sending monsters at them in the previous books, finally makes an appearance and possesses one of their own, they all work together to get rid of her.

While this story starts out a little slowly, it picks up really quickly and the action and story just get better.

But the best part of this book was the ending. That ending made me laugh out loud. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Freebie Friday!

 

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. 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: 

I cashed out my points on Thrifty Pig for a $5 Amazon gift card. 

I cashed out my points on Crowdtap for a $15 Amazon gift card. 

I didn't receive any free samples this week. It's been a slow freebies week. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Recipe: Snickerdoodle Cookies

 

Snickerdoodle Recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs 

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

For Cinnamon/Sugar Coating:

1/4 cup white sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix the oil, sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. Add the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, then mix everything together to form the dough. 

Form the dough into 2 inch balls and roll each ball in the cinnamon/sugar coating.

Place cookies a few inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet, flattening them slightly if desired. 

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until slightly brown on the bottom. Do not overcook them or they will be really hard. 

I know a lot of recipes call for Cream of Tartar but I don't like that taste or tanginess so I omit it. 

Book Review: Walking In A Witchy Wonderland by Juliette Cross

 

Book Description

Getting hexy for the holidays!

Mischief and mayhem dominate the holiday season for the Savoie sisters of New Orleans. Five sexy stories set in the STAY A SPELL world you don’t want to miss.

Bewitch You A Merry Christmas: Always the peacemaker, Evie conjures Christmas magic between a hexed hottie and his witchy neighbor, while Mateo and Alpha plan to do whatever it takes to get some alone time with their girl.

Rockin’ Around The Hexmas Tree: A Dirty Santa gift with a very special hex boosts Devraj and Isadora’s sex life from sizzling hot to scorching.

Jingle Bell Jock: On New Year’s Eve, a new man puts the moves on Charlie. Tired of pining for his best friend, he’s ready to move on. Fortunately, JJ’s jealousy is just the right ingredient to move them well out of the friend zone.

You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grim: Her first glimpse of grim reaper Gareth Blackwater evokes a major case of insta-hate in Lavinia. In that same moment, Gareth is hit with insta-lust. Fate is playing with them both, and neither one is happy about it.

Jingle Spells: Nico and Violet laugh their way through their first babysitting adventure. But laughter turns to lust when Nico’s “dad” vibes tug on Violet’s maternal heartstrings.

My Review

This book is a holiday anthology in the *Stay A Spell* series. So it would be best to read these books in order and to read this after you've read the first few. This is essentially a small continuation of the characters and couples lives that we've read about in the books already in this series. 

Getting a little look into what's been happening with the Savoie sisters as well as their friends and people they know. There are 5 short novellas in this anthology that let us check in with characters and couples we already know, couples we have been wanting to know more about and a new couple who it looks like will get their own book, hopefully next. 

I already love this series so reading this and seeing characters that I have grown to love was so much fun. Getting new love interests and seeing how the sisters are doing in their relationships was so much fun. I'm definitely looking forward to the next book now. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

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