Favorite Song of the Week

 

Marilyn Manson- As Sick As The Secrets Within

I've said before how much I like Manson so when I heard this song and loved it. I knew I had to share it. I hope you enjoy. 

My first AI Pictures

 

Earlier this month I was on Instagram and when I went to upload a picture I was given a chance to create an avatar. My daughter tried to do this but so far I've only seen it available while using my laptop. So I played around with it and came up with these. 

You just type a few words into the box for custom avatar and it generates a pictures from your description. This one had the words, demons and rats, purple and horns. 

This one I typed, demon, fairy, dogs, rats, horns, long hair. 

The little white dog came out looking like a hybrid rat/dog that looks kinda like Falcor. lol 

These rat/dogs made me laugh because they really looked like little Falcor's if he was part rat. How cute are they? I love the dresses that these pictures generated. 

I typed in, mage, dragons, purple and glowing eyes. 

I love the little dragons. 

So these were my first attempt at any kind of AI pictures. That was fun to do. 

Thank you for 100,000 comments!

 

So yesterday I refreshed the Blogger editor page and Boom! I just surpassed 100,000 comments on my blog. I'm not sure exactly who it was because they don't let you see exactly which comment it was but these three comments were the last three before it switched to 100K. So thank you all for all the comments you have posted on my blog over the last 19 years. 

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

I found this picture on my tablet so I'm not sure if I shared this one or not. lol I liked the halo around the sun as it was coming up around sunrise. I thought it was a pretty picture.

Just a little while later the sun was behind the clouds.

We have had some clouds this week but not a bit of rain. 

Book Review: Fated To The Alien Warrior by Erin Hale

 

Book Description

London

Life has sure kicked me in the teeth. After I’m arrested for stealing, I’m given two choices: prison or get shipped to the human settlement on the planet Tavikh. Since orange isn’t my color, I guess off-planet it is.

Except when our ship lands we’re attacked by vicious aliens no one warned us about. I’m suddenly rethinking my decision. Just as I swear I’m about to die, a towering alien with long, flowing golden hair and muscles rippling beneath gorgeous purple skin saves me.

When the battle is over and the good guys seem to have won, my savior tells me I’m his fated mate.

I hate to break it to him, but I don’t believe in fate.

Zander

As shefir of the Tavikhi, it’s my duty to lead our tribe and fight against the Krijese. When word comes that another Terran ship has arrived, we rush to defend them against our brutal enemies.

I’m unprepared, though, for my mating marks to burn and brighten in color when I rescue one of the human females. Is it truly possible that the goddess, Deeka, has chosen her as my keeshla—my fated mate?

Despite her continued denial of the mate bond, the attraction between us flares hotter than our sun. I must do everything to convince her that we are fated to be together. Even seduce her.

My Review

After London gets caught stealing, she's given a choice to go to a human settlement on an alien planet or go to prison. Who wouldn't take the chance to move to an alien planet? But the humans who are sent there aren't told that aliens are already living there or that there's another warring alien race of beasts that are killing and taking some of the humans for whatever reason. So when London's ship arrives, she and her new friends from the ship are attacked right away but thankfully Zander and his people are there to lend a helping hand with the beasts and save most of the new people. 

Planet Tavikhi is not the peaceful planet that London thought it would be. She doesn't even get a small house to live in, she is given a tent to set up. Life is nothing like what she thought it would be and there's no going back to Earth. 

After Zander who is the leader of the village of aliens who saved the humans, meets London he knows she is his mate because his mate markings light up. He wasn't expecting his mate to be a human but he's not opposed to the idea either. Now if he could only make her believe that she's his mate so he can keep her safe and make her happy. 

After the beasts attack the human settlement once again, Zander knows he has to help them and offers to teach them how to fight to keep themselves safe. He also offers sanctuary to anyone who wants to come back to his village to live. 

I loved Zander, he was so sweet and so patient with London as she came to grips with her new reality and love interest. Not only is Zander muscled, tall and purple, he has a tail! If you've read any alien romance where the male has a tail, you already know why that's fun. *smirk* I'm looking forward to reading more of this series now.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

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

Apartment Life #332

 

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 25 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 25 years here in a weekly blog post.  

Unbelievably I had more problems with my AC. This time it was dripping inside the wall right underneath the AC. Inside the wall... I knew this because the water was coming out the bottom of the wall under the baseboards. I had a large 12x12 area of my carpet that was soaked. I put the work order in on Saturday. Maintenance finally came Monday at 5PM after I called to put in another work order for it that day. He was just going to stick a screw in the drain hole outside but I heard him on the ladder so I opened the door and told him my carpet was all wet. 

He doesn't speak much English so I had to make him come inside so I could show him the water coming out from the baseboards and my soaked carpet. He looked stunned like I hadn't put all that in both work orders. It's in writing and I'm sure the person who sent him out told him. So he un-taped the AC, unscrewed some of the boards holding it up there, put a piece of wood under the front of the AC so it angled it down outside so all the condensation inside would drip to the outside.

He put the boards back up and taped it back up.

I have to say I'm surprised he did as much as he did because this is the same guy, Juan that just wanted me to turn it off for 2 hours the last time he came out and I argued with him about it. But he seems to have fixed the problem this time. At least I hope he did.

It's all boarded in and taped up again and dripping to the outside. Then he even got the Wet/Vac and vacuumed up as much of the water as he could. Gotta say, I was surprised he did all that. The only thing I'm worried about is the fact that water was dripping inside the wall for 3 days and it's probably pretty wet in there. We've been leaving the door open in the morning and late at night when it's a little cooler but still hot enough to dry the carpet and the wall. I don't want black mold growing from all this. 

I would get a carpet shampooer but I think if I did that this 20 year old carpet would tear up and probably fall apart. I don't want to risk it unless it starts smelling musty which it isn't yet because we are drying it out as best we can. Oh the joys of apartment living. Cross your fingers that this is the last time I have to call them out for the AC.

The high this week was 103F/39C

The low this week was 79F/26C

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

Favorite Song of the Week

 

SKYND - 'Violets are Blue'

I only saw a small clip of this song on TikTok and had to find the rest so I did. I loved the video but when she's singing, she has such a lovely voice. I was surprised I liked the song as much as I did. I hope you enjoy. 

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 coupon for a free Yogi tea. 

Several packets of Sunday Riley Good Genes Lactic Acid Treatment for the face. 

3 Initio Unisex perfumes. 

3 small perfume samples. 

Kind Kids chocolate chip bar. 

I'll get the tea next time I'm in the store. 

The lactic acid treatments really haven't done anything to my face. 

The perfume smelled good. The chocolate chip bar was good. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Demon Mine by Marina Simcoe

 

Book Description

They are big, strong and silent. Their faces are hidden behind masks and their bodies are enclosed in armor suits. They took me from my home in the middle of the night and have been holding me in isolation for months.

I don't fully understand the purpose of my captivity. No one explains anything to me. No one even talks to me. Nearly driven to madness with no more hope for freedom, I no longer care if I live or die.

And then, he speaks to me. Just a few words . . . He throws me a lifeline and helps me find my way back to sanity. He becomes my only companion. My light in the darkness.

I suspect they may not be entirely human. What's worse is that he may be one of them.

________________

Demon Mine is a Paranormal Romance with dark elements. It contains sexual situations, graphic descriptions of intimacy, and potential triggers.

Intended for mature readers

My Review

Let me start off by saying this is a dark romance and has some major triggers such as kidnapping, sexual assault, and mental breakdowns. But if you like dark romance then this was a really good one. 

Alyssa was kidnapped because unbeknownst to her, the human government has a peace treaty with the Incubus demons that they are given several women at a time so the Incubus can feed off their sexual energy and not a have war between the two races. 

Alyssa is kept in a small cell, fed and given clean clothes but each night she is taken to a room where she is bound and forced into sexual situations so the demons in the room can feed off her sexual energy. Each of the women captives are treated the same way. The demons don't talk with any of the human females, they wear face masks and body armor so the females can't even see their faces or touch them without gloves on. Most of the Incubus demons are in a deep sleep because there aren't enough human females to go around to keep them fed with their positive emotions. So it's really just the top tier Incubus demons who get fed well. 

Sytrius is Alyssa's handler, he's an incubus demon and he is the one who interacts with her. He's not allowed to talk to her but he listens to her when she talks to him and asks for things during the day and at the end of the night when he brings her back to her cell. He starts to feel sorry for her and have feelings for her and knows he can't leave her there to die when his boss is about to kill her. So without really thinking about it, he helps her escape the facility and they are on the run. 

With the help of one of Sytrius's demon friends they are going to try and change the laws surrounding how the human women are treated because they know this isn't right. Sytrius and the other Incubus are led to believe that they aren't capable of love but Alyssa and Sytrius change some of their minds. 

This book starts out so sad and I didn't like Sytrius much but I came to see that he was lied to his entire life and made to believe things that weren't true. The lower level Incubus are not treated well and are left pretty much starving so that they have to put themselves into a deep, painful sleep so that they don't go insane from the hunger. 

It's obvious that the way they're living isn't working for anyone but the people in charge of things need to change. I ended up feeling sorry for the demons as well as the human females that were given away like they meant nothing by their own people. But the romance was everything you'd want in a romance even though it starts off very dark. I very much enjoyed this book. I look forward to reading more and seeing what changes are made to the Incubus laws in the future. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

Las Vegas Sunrise on a cloudy day.

Las Vegas sunrise on a cloudy day.

Book Review and Blog Tour: Betrayal Road by Christine Feehan

 

Welcome to my stop on this blog tour celebrating Betrayal Road by Christine Feehan. This blog tour is sponsored by Penguin Random House.

Book Description

The stranger frequenting Azelie Vargas’s local coffee shop is a sight to behold. He’s tall, dark, muscular, and a complete distraction. She’s worried one look from his striking silver eyes will have her acting a fool. But it’s not a look that sets Azelie aflame—it’s the way he boldly tells her every dark, dirty thing he’d like to do to her. She should be scandalized. Instead, all she wants to do is say yes.

Andrii “Maestro” Federoff is in San Francisco on club business. Torpedo Ink needs information to bust up a human trafficking ring, and Maestro has found his mark. After weeks of stealthy observation, he’s not sure if Azelie is involved directly, or if she’s just working for some bad people. What he does know is that he needs to get close to her fast, and soon he can’t get enough.  

What began as a setup quickly turns real. But no matter how hot they burn, Maestro’s betrayal could leave their hearts smoldering in the ashes.…

My Review

Azelie works for a bad guy who she's been doing the books for since she was 16 years old. She's really good with numbers and is able to cook the books for her boss. He's a really bad guy though and because of that Maestro (Andrii) and the rest of Torpedo Ink are investigating him for human trafficking. Azelie doesn't know about that though, she's been kept in the dark about just how bad her boss is. 

At first Andrii gets close to her so he can find out if she knows more about what her boss is into but when he realizes that she doesn't, he realizes that he really likes her and spends more time with her getting to know her. Because of his abusive upbringing he doesn't get close to women so this is new for him. 

It was nice seeing some of the other members of the team in this book and seeing how they are doing. I've been reading this series since the beginning and always like seeing other couples from previous books make an appearance.

As he and the rest of Torpedo Ink investigate the bad guy and get a line on where some kidnapped women are being held so they can rescue them, Azelie and Andrii are trying to get to know one another enough to start a relationship. But there are many obstacles in their way including her boss and his secrets. And he has one heck of a secret that gets revealed. It was nice to see Maestro find someone that made him happy and I loved how sweet he was with her. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

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

Photo Credit Michael Greene

About the Author

Christine Feehan is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Carpathian series, the GhostWalker series, the Leopard series, the Shadow Riders series, and the Sea Haven novels, including the Drake Sisters series and the Sisters of the Heart series. She also writes stand-alone contemporary romantic suspense set in the California backcountry. Learn more online at www.christinefeehan.com.

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

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

Apartment Life #331

 

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 25 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 25 years here in a weekly blog post.

One of the vacant apartments in my apartment complex had the bedroom window busted out and the homeless people were coming and going from the bedroom of the apartment all weekend. 

---

Last week I was talking to one of my neighbors (Preacher) that has a little dog and walks her early in the morning like I do Falcor. I usually get up between 4AM and 6AM to take him for a longer walk before it gets really hot in the Summer time. Preacher told me that he was out walking his dog at 2:30AM and when he got back to his apartment, 7 teenagers between 16-19 years old, bum rushed him, pushed him inside his apartment, knocked him down and started kicking him in the head, and the ribs. Then they ransacked his apartment looking for anything valuable and ran out. 

 He's an ordained minister which is why people call him Preacher. He's one of the nicest guys around here. 

He also has a store in his apartment where he sells things that a convenience store would have like soda, snacks, cigars, candy ect. He also designs clothes and sells them.  He showed me his ribs and he was all bruised up.

I carry a tazer but I doubt that would do me any good against half a dozen guys beating on me. They thought he was an easy mark and thought they would get something but he said they didn't get anything of value. He called a neighbor to take him to the hospital when they left.

The very next day one of the homeless guys that always says hi to us told us that he got jumped by some teenagers and they took all his stuff. He's homeless, he has no stuff to take! That's sad.  

This neighborhood is getting bad.

---

On Tuesday my daughter's ex-boyfriend showed up in our courtyard after he found out that she was talking to another guy in our courtyard. 

He was on Tiktok live as he yelled for the guy to come out of his apartment and face him. When he wouldn't the ex started banging on this guys security screen and broke it. He took off soon after. Thankfully the guy who lives here had the sense to stay inside his apartment and not come out and confront the ex.

The police showed up but they said they couldn't do anything because the ex didn't hit the other guy. I would have thought they could at least get him for destruction of private property but I guess not.

But they said the neighbor should go down to the local police station and make a report in case anything else happens. Then they left. My daughter is thinking of getting a restraining order. 

  

The high this week was 106F/41C

The low this week was 80F/26C

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

Favorite Video of the Week

 

Ateez- Halazia

Just like last week I'm sharing a KPOP song that I really like. Ateez is another of those KPOP groups that I really like. I don't even care that I don't know what they're saying because their voices are so nice. These guys can really sing. I hope you enjoy. 

Sky Pictures

 

These were all taken last Saturday when we had a bunch of clouds and a chance of rain. 

With all the big clouds that got dark, I thought for sure we would have a little rain but we didn't. 

But the clouds made for pretty pictures.

It didn't cool anything down either because it was still 108F/42C

Book Review: Big Girls Bite Back by Lissa Lynn Thomas

 

Book Description

A vampire, a werewolf, and a demon all walk into a bar...

Sounds like the start of a bad joke. Want another? Alright, how’s this?

They bring with them a greater demon and the most powerful vampire in all of NYC. One wants my help, the other wants me dead.

Hysterical. Too bad it’s not a joke—just a typical Saturday night for me.

I guess the upside is having sex with me hasn’t sent any of these smexy troublemakers to the hospital... yet...

Frackin’ fudge fluffers...

Contains mm interactions, bi & pansexual characters, lots of humor and sexy scenes.

My Review

Elora goes to her friend with a slight problem. Anytime she sleeps with a guy, he ends up needing the ER because she has drained him of energy and she doesn't know how or why. Her father just wants her to find a nice witch/warlock in their coven and settle down and she just wants to live her life. So when she asks her friend to make her a spell to only attract men who can handle the energy she pulls from them, the men come out of the shadows looking for her. 4 men, shifter, demon, vampire and human come looking for her when they feel a pull towards their mate. 

They all have their own problems and the guys have to get used to Elora having more than one mate which some of them don't like but they make it work for the most part eventually. 

They have to deal with a crazy bad guy coming after them so they have to run. All of them have to come to terms with the arrangement they have if they all want to have a relationship with her. They get to know each other better while on the run from a bad guy which was fun as well. It was a good story and the action was great, their relationship is complicated at times but incredibly spicy. This was a fun read. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

Summer Sunrise in Vegas.

Summer Sunset in Vegas. 

My camera stopped working so I'm back to taking pictures with my phone or tablet for now. So pictures going forward might be a little blurry. Sigh.

Book Review: Alpha's Choice by Julie Ranseth

 

Book Description

Some choices are worth the risk

When Emma Chambers finds herself falling for Alpha Tobias Parker, she can't help but feel a little unsure. Werewolves take mates seriously and, as a human, she doesn’t know if she's ready for the challenge.

As their bond strengthens and love blooms between them, danger lurks nearby. An unknown creature is hunting human females, and now Emma and Tobias must protect their love and the pack.

Can their newfound bond withstand the test of time, or will they succumb to the dangers of the unknown?

My Review

When Emma's mother finds her wolf shifter mate, Emma finds out about shifters and moves with her mother and stepfather to his pack. Emma is young and Tobias the pack alpha is young so of course they act like 20-something young adults would and make mistakes along the way. But because they are so young I had a hard time relating to them at all. Emma acted childish a few times and I had a hard time liking her. When Tobias realizes that she is his mate, for a wolf shifter it's instantaneous and expects her to act like a shifter would and just accept that they are mates, but she's human. 

There are some misunderstandings and a creature hunting females that put them all in danger. I liked the drama, danger and action but could have done without all the angst in their relationship because she's so young and in her first ever relationship. I might keep reading this series just to see if it gets any better. I did like the ending of this book though. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

"I got a new backpack for back to school."

"I found a Cheerio."

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