Book Review: Demon With Benefits by Aurora Ascher

 

Book Description

A hot-headed witch and a lovable bad-boy demon add up to a scorching enemies-to-lovers tale, in the latest spicy paranormal romance from instant New York Times bestselling author Aurora Ascher.

They can run from their demons . . .

The jokester of the demon brothers, Meph wears his grin like armor and uses humor as a mask. But lately, his composure has been slipping, especially around her. Iris. The blue-haired witch with a vicious temperament. Something about her soothes the darkness within him . . . but he’s not looking for a savior. There’s no such thing for someone like him.

But they can’t hide forever . . .

Bitter and haunted by her traumatic past, Iris Donovan isn’t keen on welcoming demons into her life—even if they’re her sister’s friends. Especially not teasing, tattooed, Meph, with his red eyes and devilish smile. After a toxic relationship, she’s sworn off commitment, and she’s not looking for another Mr. Damaged. Yet she can’t stop craving what she shouldn’t want.

To conquer this monster . . . they must tame it together.

With the return of a deadly enemy, the pain they’ve been suppressing is exposed, and Meph and Iris can no longer deny their feelings. Before Meph is swallowed by his darkness, Iris must overcome her fears and embrace that terrible part of him . . .

Or lose him forever.

My Review

This is the 3rd book in the Hell Bent series. I read the 1st book and now the 3rd but have to go back and read the 2nd book. I'm reading them out of order and that's ok. It read well as a standalone book. 

In this series mephistopheles/Meph, Belial, Mist, Ash/Asmodeus, and Raum consider themselves brothers and help each other escape hell. They are all demons but want to be good and not evil anymore. So they escaped Hell and came to Earth to live regular lives but some of them have some really big issues because of the horrible lives they've led. 

Meph's demon was tortured and enslaved by Valefor for hundreds of years. He did horrible things for the demon Valefor while he was in Hell, which is why he had a sigil tattooed on his skin to keep him from shifting into his demon half again. Meph's demon is like a separate entity because he split the two personalities in his mind so he wouldn't have to remember all the horrible things it did while it was in charge. 

Iris is a human who's twin sister Lily is the mate to one of the demons, Mist who escaped hell with the other demons. She has been antagonistic to Meph mostly because she finds him so attractive and that bothers her. When she tells Meph to leave her alone and stop flirting with her, he does just that but then she realizes that she misses the banter they had. So she apologizes only to find Meph right up in her space letting her know that if she doesn't back off, he's going to act on the lust he feels for her. Although he didn't put it in such pretty words. *Snicker*

Once these two finally give in to their lust for one another, they think they can keep things casual but feelings start to develop on Meph's part. For two people who have a hard time with feelings and emotional baggage, this brings a problem in between them for a time. But when Iris finds herself in danger, it's Meph and his demon half that she finds a safe place with surprisingly. 

Who knew that demons could be so sweet and romantic as well as deadly and primal at the same time. Whoa, when Meph's demon is released, he's scary even to higher level demons. This series is so good and has me drooling over demons! I need more demons in my life and I never thought I would say those words. Ha!

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars

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

Amazon

Book Review: Marked By The Panther by Zoey Indiana

 

Book Description

Disgraced from shifter black ops, Jaden struggles to find purpose. Especially after his battle buddy drops the perfect business endeavor he never wanted in his lap, and the first job goes awry. At the worst possible moment, his mate enters his life like a wrecking ball.

Despite founding Mateless Mates for human females, Piper feels like she'll never find her fated mate. Almost at her wit's end, she can't commit to either world. When she stumbles into a speed dating event, she throws caution to the wind and claims her mate. But did she make an awful mistake?

As a secret organization threatens to rip the shifter world apart, they join their friends in a struggle to survive.

Marked by the Panther is the first in a series of steamy, black ops bodyguard shifter romances. If you love daring adventures, bearded heroes, and fated mates, then you won't want to miss out on this… Read Marked by the Panther and claim your mate today!

***Marked by the Panther was previously released in the Sultry Shifter Nights Anthology***

Content Warning: 18+

This romance contains steamy consensual adult situations, fated mates, adult language, violence, flashbacks with off page references to child neglect, PTSD, a couple too stubborn to just accept each other without a little conflict, awakening emotions, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

My Review

Jaden and Felix set up a new security company using members of their old Special Ops squad. Piper is the founder of Mateless mates and her and her friends attend Paranormal Dating Service dating event where surprising to everyone there, the guys from Jaden and Felix's security company find their mates. This is strange since most shifters have a hard time finding their mates and the female mates are human which is also surprising. 

When Jaden and Piper meet, they knew right away that they are mates and Piper rushes right in and claims Jaden not realizing that she can't treat Jaden like a human because he's not. Piper doesn't understand all the shifter culture or how Jaden is feeling since she doesn't know much about shifters but she knows she wants this to work so she keeps trying with him. 

So while Piper and Jaden are trying to work out how to have a relationship, there's a faction of people out there that want to make sure that shifters and humans don't mate. And they put both Jaden and Piper in danger. Jaden is in more danger because if he and Piper don't complete the mate bond soon, he might lose control of his animal. The danger ratchet's right up but Jaden isn't giving up on his mate that easily. The bad guys really shouldn't have messed with Special Ops shifters, they opened up a can of whoop ass and the guys are bringing the fight to them. 

The action, romance and characters really made this a fun book to read. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

Sunset one night this week. Not many clouds but it was still nice. It's monsoon season so I'm looking forward to more clouds.

The very next night at sunset there were a lot of storm clouds in my area. 

Sunrise the next morning, we still had some clouds in the area which was nice. It made for a nice sunrise and kept things a little cooler. 

The sun was a little brighter just a few minutes later coming up behind the mountains. 

Book Review: Cougar Hearts Wolf by V. Vaughn

 

Book Description

He’s good with his hands, but how will he handle her heart? Cougar shifter Shayna Weymouth is completely unimpressed with celebrity house flipper Mathew Adams. The wickedly hot wolf shifter might be good with his hands, but she’s not interested in a man who can’t take anything seriously. Her home renovation project means everything to her and she’s not about to let him mess it up. He can undress her with his eyes and whisper naughty things all he wants, but he’s never going to convince her to give him a chance. Wolf shifter Mathew Adams is convinced that fate is playing one heck of a joke on him. Even though his wolf insists Shayna is their mate, he can’t believe it. They’re complete opposites. She’s the most uptight, infuriating woman he’s ever met. But she’s also the challenge he’s yearned for his entire life. He’ll find a way to melt her icy heart one way or another because there’s no way he’ll ever walk away from his fated mate.

My Review

Shayna bought a house knowing it needed some work on it but she wasn't expecting it to need so much work. When people in the town she's moved to tell her Mathew is the man to ask to help her with the construction on her house, she's not sure he's the man she wants because of all the rumors circulating about him. But when she can't find anyone else to do the repairs she doesn't really have a choice but to ask him. 

The only problem is Shayna is a cougar shifter and Mathew is a wolf shifter and when they meet each other they realize not only are they total opposites but they are also mates. But because of the rumors, Shayna isn't willing to give Mathew a chance at first. 

Once Mathew starts working on her house, they spend more time together and get to know one another and things start to heat up until there's some miscommunication that throws a monkey wrench into how close they're getting. 

Poor Shayna has not had an easy life and she's not very trusting at all which makes it really hard to get close to her. But Mathew doesn't give up easily which is a good thing. 

It took a while for these two to trust each other enough to get really close but I liked the way things ended. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

"I can hardly wait to eat this delicious looking ice cream."

*All pictures today are courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #379

 

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 26 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 26 years here in a weekly blog post.

The high this week was 100F/37C

The low this week was 73F/22C

I've had a couple of bad weeks and I'm emotionally exhausted so I haven't been on the lookout for the police or any happenings around here lately. 

 Last month my brother found out he has early onset dementia. Right afterwards his girlfriend of 7 years broke up with him. A week later he tried to commit suicide.  911 was called but he used to work at the fire department so when they and the ambulance came and he refused to go to the ER they didn't make him because they knew him and used to work with him, even though they could clearly see he took 2 bottles of his narcotics and overdosed. I'm so mad. 

Then about a week later (A few days ago) he took a couple more bottles of narcotics. He gets prescription pain medications for his bad back and he took a bunch of them. He was found unconscious on the floor and 911 was called again. This time he was life flighted (helicopter) to the ER where he was given medications to counteract what he had taken.  He was put on a psychiatric hold and transferred to a psychiatric hospital when he was medically discharged from the ER. He's being treated on a psychiatric ward and hopefully gets the needed help he needs. 

During this time my daughter was diagnosed with Rheumatoid arthritis and she's being tested and treated. The hits, they just keep coming. I'm having some medical issues of my own right now but I'm putting them on the back burner for now. 

So that was my week, hopefully yours was better.

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

Saturday Vittles

 

My Daughter and I are trying to eat more healthy so I thought I would share some pictures on Saturday's of what we've made.

Y'all are going to think this one is crazy but my daughter saw it tending on TikTok sometime ago and wanted to try it. 

A Pickle Sandwich

You will need: 

2 whole dill pickles

1 tomato-sliced

4 slices of cheddar cheese

2 leafs of lettuce

8 slices of ham lunchmeat

What to do: 

Cut each pickle in half, lengthwise. Take a spoon and scoop out as much of the inside as you can, leaving only a thin amount of pickle left over. You can save the pickle guts for another dish if you wish to. 

Layer on your lunchmeat, cheese, tomato and lettuce and enjoy. You can add mayo, mustard or any dressing you like but we were trying to keep it low calorie so we didn't. If you like pickles, you might like this. If you don't then this probably isn't for you. It wasn't bad at all. 

This makes 2 pickle sandwiches. Each pickle sandwich has about 350 calories and about 5 carbs. (Depending on what and how much cheese and lunchmeat you use.)

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 Little Freebies Box from Bloomingdales.

A sample of foundation and 5 beauty sponges from a focus group that I did. I just had to take a few surveys to tell them how I liked the foundation. They don't tell you what the foundation brand is but I'm guessing it was IL Makiage since I got a $100 gift code for that site after I was done with the focus group.

With the giftcard I was able to get an IL Makiage brow pen, eyeliner and mascara. I got the giftcard a couple of weeks ago but wanted to wait to post about it until I got my package. The first package was never delivered to me so I contacted customer service and they sent another package out that I did get. Their makeup is expensive. 

The Bloomingdales box had several mens colognes and they all smell pretty good. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Master of the Hunt by Lisa Blackwood

 

Book Description

In a land of three warring kingdoms, a centaur huntsman and a warrior priestess might be the only hope for peace. If the two enemies don’t kill each other first, they might even find love.

Seira of Blackstone has fought in many border skirmishes against the centaurs of the lowlands, but when she comes upon a massacre, it’s soon apparent the centaur and human dead weren’t fighting each other. They were fighting together against a third, unknown foe.

Toryn, a centaur huntsman, is following the trail of a group of soul-mages when he encounters Seira, the most exquisite female he’s ever beheld. She’s majestic, battle-hardened, strong-willed, and her sharp tongue fires his blood more than any other female he’s ever met.

While Seira’s natural instinct is to kill the horseman, she’s also swift to see they have a better chance of success if they work together. But there is more danger than just an unknown enemy. As they come to depend on each other, Seira secretly admits she has growing feelings for her centaur partner.

That’s a problem. As a warrior-priestess of the Moon Goddess, Seira has sworn vows of obedience, loyalty, and chastity in exchange for her magic. As such, her body, heart, and soul can never be shared with another. Not even a noble centaur with equal parts desire and tender longing in his eyes.

But centaurs are renowned for their stubborn natures, and Toryn plans to claim Seira’s heart even if he risks having the warrior-priestess bury one of her blades in his chest for his troubles.

A fantasy romance.

Author’s Note: The Huntress vs Huntsman world is a fantasy romance series. If romance of the fantasy variety isn’t your thing, avoid like the plague.

My Review

Seira and Toryn have been hunting and avoiding each other for years and while they can appreciate each other, neither really wants to give up their lives in order to settle down. So they keep playing games with each other by raiding each others camp and stealing small things from each other. Toryn is a Centaur and Seira is a witch/warrior priestess. 

Seira's family expects her to capture or be captured by Toryn or another Centaur so she can have children and carry on the traditions on her people. Toryn's people also expect him to capture a woman and bring her back to the clan in order to carry on their traditions and have children. Which ever one captures the other means the one captured has to give up their way of life and live with the other's people. Neither want to do that even though this is the way it's always been done for both of their people. So they play these games in the mean time until one of them gives in. 

Toryn is attracted to Seira but doesn't have the heart to capture her and bring her back to his clan and Seira feels the same way about him. But things change when an old foe comes forward and puts both of their peoples in danger. Now they have to find a way to work together all the while stopping each others people from capturing the other and making them submit to the traditions of the clans. 

In order for this to work they have to trust each other, which isn't easy but there's no other way to make sure they can defeat the ones who have come to kill them all. 

Watching these two come to grips with how much they actually like each other while they are out hunting a foe who is coming to kill both of their peoples, was a lot of fun. The ending was so great and I loved how they decided they were going to start new traditions and not give in to what everyone else wanted. This was such a fun read. The banter between these two just made their interactions so much more fun. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

Monsoon season is officially upon us in Las Vegas. Monsoon season is from June to September and anytime during those months we can have clouds, storms, flash floods and rain. This week we had a couple of days of clouds and a little rain. This sunset was so pretty. 

This cloud was so big and came by so fast bringing with it a short storm where we got some rain. 

The rest of the day we had clouds.

The sky at noon was so dark.

But the clouds gave us another nice sunset.

Friday it looked stormy but we only got a few sprinkles later that day. Some parts of the valley it poured though.

This was right over me but no rain. At least it blocked the sun for a while.

Book Review: Ancient Warlord by Katie Reus

 

Book Description

She’s making a new life for herself in a realm full of shifters…

Mia knew about the things that go bump in the night long before the world fell into chaos. As a human artist living in a world full of dragons, she should feel out of place. But she’s never felt more at home here—until an obnoxious, bossy dragon shifter makes it clear she doesn’t belong. His cruel words dredge up memories she’s determined to forget.

And turned a grumpy dragon’s world upside down.

As a former warlord turned assassin, dragon shifter Tiber has never been great with women—and the moment he meets his mate, he sticks his foot in his mouth in the worst way. Now she hates him, and he has no idea how to make things right—especially since every time he opens his mouth, he makes things worse. But when it’s clear that someone wants to get rid of his feisty human, he dedicates his life to keeping her safe. If anyone wants to get to her, they’ll have to go through him—and he’s made a living out of destroying his enemies. Whether Mia likes it or not, she’s his to protect and this grumpy dragon will do whatever it takes to prove they’re fated to be together.

Author note: this book is a stand-alone in the Ancients Rising series, complete with HEA and no cliffhanger.

My Review

Mia left the territory she had been living in after she broke things off with the vampire she had been seeing. But the vampire was controlling and didn't like the fact that she broke up with him, he wasn't about to let her get away with it. So after things start to go wrong, Mia knows it's her ex who is causing the problems so she moves to a new territory where she feels safer. 

Mia is an artist and people love her art. At showings her art is always bought fast. Everyone is warm and welcoming except for the large, grumpy dragon, Tiber. He doesn't like humans much and she knows this for sure after hearing him say just that. What she doesn't know is that Tiber is her fated mate and now she has the wrong impression of him. Mia tries to steer clear of him but he seems to be everywhere she is so when he is tasked with making sure she has everything she needs, he takes his job more seriously when he smells her fear. 

At first she is closed off about what is bothering her but when he gives her no choice but to be around him and shows her that she can trust him, that he's not as bad as she first thought, she opens up to him. He just wants to keep her safe and does just that. When her vampire ex shows up as a guest, that causes some drama but Tiber isn't about to let anything or anyone hurt his mate.

The more Mia and Tiber are around each other, the more their chemistry pulls them together until Tiber shows her that he very much doesn't hate her. These two are complete opposites but you know that old saying that opposites attract is right. This was a great story. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

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

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

"We had a busy weekend. First we had a picnic."

"Then we set the tent up in the woods for the night."

"A hot air balloon ride the next morning."

"And then dropped by the Farmers market to pick up some fresh fruit and vegetables."

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

Apartment Life #378

 

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 26 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 26 years here in a weekly blog post.

Last week I saw this guy giving out drinks to the other homeless people in the area. Which I thought was nice of him. He's homeless as well. But then after watching for a minute, I noticed after he poured the red drink in their cups, he added something else from a small jar. He picked it out with his finger and added it to the drink and swirled the drink a little. The people saw what he was doing so they knew. I figured it was drugs.

I've never seen this woman before but she didn't look homeless. I haven't seen her since. She got one of the drinks though. 

A few minutes later Jessica (The Mayor of Tunnel Town) Yes, she's actually known as the mayor down in the tunnels. She took over the cart that had the drinks and cups in it and poured a few more drinks and added the (special) something that was being added to it. 

Sure enough a little while later I walked outside with Falcor and one of the homeless people was passed out on the sidewalk. I knew her and she was trying to stay upright but was wobbling back and forth. I asked her if she was ok but she just stared blankly at me and went back to sleep on the sidewalk. I've called the ambulance on people when I've seen them like this but the only thing they do is make them get up and leave or leave them there to sleep it off so I didn't bother but an hour later she was gone from the spot. 

---

See how dark it is on the ground right up against the fence line? Someone set fire to the pine needles and trash that was there. Real smart. This is at the end of my apartment building. Thankfully it looks like they put it out before the fire spread anywhere else.

Seeing that there was a fire really close to my apartment building was scary though because fire moves fast. 

On Thursday I spotted the police across the street from where I was standing with Falcor. They were at the apartment complex next to mine. No idea why.

I spotted this in front of someone's door a few doors from mine. Is this funny or a warning to guests?

---

You remember that beanbag bed/chair that the homeless man was laying on last week with his pants down around his ankles? Well this is what's left of it. It turned out to have shredded memory foam inside it, not beans. Someone had been sleeping on it in our alley and then someone tore it open and left all the shredded memory foam in a pile in the alley.

What happened to all the shredded memory foam? Well we had a windy day because of the storms in the area and it blew all over the neighborhood. All those light colored pieces you see all over the ground right here are shredded memory foam. It was everywhere but the wind blew it away. 

The high this week was 110F/43C

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.

Saturday Vittles

 

My Daughter and I are trying to eat more healthy so I thought I would share some pictures on Saturday's of what we've made.

Strawberry Pomegranate Salad

You will need: 

10 strawberries- sliced

1 cup Pomegranate seeds

1/2 cup purple cabbage- shredded

1/4 cup walnut pieces

1/2 cucumber- diced

2 cups romaine lettuce-sliced

What to do: 

Add all the ingredients to a large salad bowl and combine. You can add a dressing to this but we didn't. I don't usually like fruit in my salad but my daughter wanted to try this recipe she found and I actually liked this. 

This makes 2 large salads. Each salad is 325 calories and 30 carbs without dressing. 

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 sample of Erborian Eye cream. 

A sample of Chanel perfume. 

A 4.5lb bag of Edgard Cooper dog food from Ripple Street. 

The perfume smells really good. The eye cream didn't do anything for me that I could tell. 

Falcor made out well again this week with more free dog food that he liked. It didn't upset his stomach either so that was a plus for me. 

Did you receive any samples this week?

Book Review: Malsum Pass by Kimberly Forrest

 

Book Description

The quaint town of Malsum Pass has secrets, but perhaps it also holds the key to her heart…

Eager to connect with family she never knew she had, Tara Mason journeys to the small town of Malsum Pass. The town seems idyllic despite the townspeople’s odd habit of staring and… sniffing? And while Tara’s new neighbor, Riley Cooper looks like he could have been conjured from one of her fantasies, there is definitely more going on here than meets the eye. Tara is determined to uncover the secrets of Malsum Pass, but along the way, she also discovers things she never knew about herself.

Riley Cooper is a wolf shifter, just like everyone else in Malsum Pass, including his attractive new neighbor. The weird thing is, she doesn’t seem to know it. How that was possible, he had no idea, but he was certainly looking forward to unraveling all of this she-wolf’s mysteries.

My Review

Before Tara was born her mother fled Malsum Pass- the town she grew up in and never looked back. Her mother was pregnant with her but the father had no clue since the father's dad was the one who made her leave and never come back. Her mother's father was the only one who knew about Tara but her mother never saw her father again before she tragically died and left a lot of questions for Tara. So once Tara finds out about her grandfather she makes the decision to visit him and let him know that her mother passed away. 

Once in the town though, the rumor mill picks up fast when Tara comes to town. The townspeople all know each other because they are all wolf shifters but Tara doesn't know anything about that. Her mother kept that secret to herself as well as a few others. 

Tara is quickly loved by her grandfather and his wife as well as some of the other townspeople. Almost everyone is very nice to her except for Riley, the gorgeous Sheriff that is rude and nosy at the same time. She's not sure what to make of Riley but when the secrets of her past and future come to light, she looks to Riley to help her through it all. 

Finding out your mother lied to you your whole life and that you're actually a wolf shifter would be hard enough. But to also find out that your father never knew about you and would have loved you would make me really mad. I can understand why her mother left the town and never looked back when it comes to light how bad she was treated by some of the people in this town but it was still wrong. 

I really liked Tara's grandfather and his wife as well as most of the other townspeople. It was fun watching Riley and Tara gravitate towards one another and fall for each other over time. This was a fun read. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

Tuesday and Wednesday this week we had a little bit of rain and dark clouds. It cooled things off a bit but the humidity increased to 30%. I don't like the humidity. lol 

Not a great shot but you can see we still had some really dark clouds around sunset. The sun was trying to peek through those dark clouds but it was a losing battle. 

More dark clouds. We also had some really strong winds and a dust storm this past week. The winds got so bad and strong that it cause more than 50 power poles to fall over all over Las Vegas, knocking power out all over the city. Thankfully my power stayed on but we did have a few brown outs where everything blinked like we were going to lose power. If you would like to see the news footage of the downed power poles you can find that here. 

The yellow flowers across the street were in full bloom.

My daughter was packing her suitcase for a small trip with her friend who came to town for her birthday a couple of weeks ago. Falcor jumped in the suitcase and tried making his bed there. "Where do you think you're going?" lol 

While my daughter was gone I made some chocolate chip cookies. Every once in a while I have to ignore the diet and have a treat. Cookies!