Book Review: Knight's Salvation by Sherilee Gray

 

Book Description

Demon hunter Zenon lives with a dark secret. When he escaped Hell, he didn’t leave alone—and he’ll do anything to keep the shameful reason hidden. But when an intoxicating demi-demon, new to her powers, has him breaking all his own rules just to be near her, he knows he’s in serious trouble.

Painfully aware of being different, Mia Westbrook has always kept herself apart from others. Yet her new demon life comes with strings attached, namely one scarred and broodingly seductive knight who storms into her world—and her heart—and may just be her perfect match.

But a formidable evil has been watching, and is determined to tear them apart. They want Zenon is back in Hell, with them, where he belongs…

My Review

Because some demons have mated with humans and had offspring, those children come into their demon powers when they get older. They are known as demi-demon. The Knight's are charged with keeping the demi-demons safe while they learn to control their powers and also keep other demons and shifters from kidnapping the demi's and enslaving them. 

Mia has known her entire life that she was a demi-demon. Her human mother and demon father cared about each other but her father left and never came back. Mia knew she was a demi and she thought her sister could help her get through it when she got her powers since her sister has already been through it but she called the Knight's for help when it became apparent that she was going to need more help than her sister could give her. 

When the Knight's show up she meets Zenon. The Knight's are half angel, half demon and charged with keeping the demi-demons safe. As Zenon's past is unfolded little by little, I felt so bad for him. He's not like the other KNight's and never felt like he was part of their family tight circle. He keeps to himself mostly and doesn't let anyone in. But he can't help the way he feels about Mia and he is heartbroken because he doesn't see a way that they can ever be together because he has a big secret. 

Mia was so good for Zenon. She kept at him no matter how many times he tries to push her away. The characters are awesome, the fight scenes are great, the romance made my heart hurt for them and the world building left me wanting to read more of this series. I'm definitely going to read more of this series now. I highly recommend this book, I can't say enough good things about this story.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

Here is a typical Summer sunrise here in Las Vegas. Not many clouds but this day had a few. 

The little bit of clouds we did have were in the right place to be in front of the sun as it came up and so I was able to get this picture without being blinded. lol 

Book Review: Kissed By Fire by Kimber White

 

Book Description

Billionaire dragon shifter, Xander Brandhart is running out of time. If he doesn't find a mate soon, his last shift will be permanent. He can already feel himself starting to lose control.

Shae MacKenna grew up alone, trying to survive on the streets of Chicago until a powerful mage took her in and gave her a home. But when a wolf pack kills her foster father, Shae doesn't know where to turn. She's a marked woman and knows not to trust even the hunky dragon shifter that just saved her life and swore to protect her.

Xander knows Shae's his fated mate. But no human has ever survived mating with a dragon. To break his curse, Shae must take his brand. But a dragon’s kiss comes with a deadly price. The trouble is, Shae loves the way he burns. Can she find a way to survive it for a chance at her happily ever after?

My Review

Xander is on the hunt for something rare when he's told by his mother to go to a shop to look for it. But when he gets there, wolf shifters have already broken in and are terrorizing Shae and her foster father. Xander is too late to save her foster father but he whisks Shae away and brings her back to his home where his brothers and mother are. But Shae isn't sure what's going on, she knows about shifters from her foster father since he was a powerful mage but Xander is something different, something that shouldn't exist. She's not sure how safe she'll be in a house full of dragon shifters but with the wolves still out to kill her, she doesn't have much choice but to stay with Xander. 

Xander can hardly believe it when he realizes that Shae is his fated mate. How could fate be that cruel. A human would never survive the mating or giving birth to a dragon baby so he has to find a way to stay away from her. Not that she's making that easy since she feels the mating pull as well. Shae is willing to risk it in order to be with him and he's doing everything in his power to keep her safe not only from the wolves but from himself as well. 

The twist at the end of this book was so good! I love how they ended this. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Undeliverable Mail, Auctioned Mail and Lost & Found

 

I was wondering what would happen if I wrote the wrong address on a letter and forgot to add my return address to the envelope. So I went in search of answers...

If you Google what happens to undeliverable mail, this is what pops up. 

"The Mail Recovery Center (MRC) is the U.S. Postal Service's official "lost and found" department for undeliverable and non-returnable mail. Undeliverable mailpieces are letters, flats or parcels that cannot be delivered as addressed nor returned to the sender."

And if you go to the "What is the USPS Mail Recovery Center" page. It says this...

*Click on image to enlarge*

So apparently if they can't deliver the mail for whatever reason they open it to see if the contents are worth more than $25.00 ($20.00 for mailpieces containing cash), and they hold it for 30-60 days. If no one claims it within that time, they sometimes auction off the contents of lost mail, donate it or just throw it away. You can find the auctioned items for sale at the United States Postal Service Auctions page. 

I didn't even know this was a thing! They have all kinds of products available to buy. 

So if you're wondering how to file a missing mail request or if you could just go to the post office and have them look for a piece of mail that was missing. Well, they make it very hard to file a request if you're missing a piece of mail. I know, because I've done this several times before with no results. The way I was told to do it was to make an Informed Delivery account on the USPS website, click on 'support' and then on the right hand side click on 'missing mail' and fill out the missing mail report form.

 I've done this several times because my mail has gone missing more times than I care to admit. Either the mailperson puts it into someone else's mailbox slot, doesn't deliver it at all or it goes missing. And since mail carriers have been caught on video disposing of large amounts of mail into dumpsters behind company buildings, it could have ended up in a dumpster for all I know. 

Each time I waited 2-3 months for them to write me back, just to tell me that the 'missing mail'  was not found and the report was now closed. Yep, very helpful, not!

So if you've ever wondered about what happens to missing mail, undeliverable mail or lost mail, now you know. 

Apartment Life #373

 

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.

On Monday while I was out walking Falcor first thing in the morning I saw a lady that used to be homeless in the neighborhood that goes by "Chocolate" slap david (Chicken Wing) across the face. He lives in our pool courtyard. He turned to leave and walked into the alley across the street and I heard her screaming at him. As they came back onto the street I was on, Chocolate saw some of the other homeless people and started screaming for someone to call the police that he robbed her and took her money. But by that time Chicken Wing was standing with Long haired guy, dreads, creepy guy and crazy guy. So I'm not sure who she was talking about but most likely it was chicken wing since she slapped him across the face. The guys started walking into our alley and she followed them screaming to call the police that he stole her money. She has a phone, she could have called the police but she didn't. 

The very next morning, I found out that Chocolate had died from a drug overdose. My daughter talked to Chocolate's sister who lives in my courtyard and they think it was foul play because she had gotten her life together recently. She had a house, was seeing a probation officer, and was wearing an ankle monitor. She was being drug tested so she wasn't doing drugs.  I talked to several homeless people in the neighborhood and they said she was found in her home with 2 drug needles in her arm. Her sister confirmed that and that the police think someone did this to her deliberately. I talked to Chocolate's mom (Who used to be my neighbor) and she thinks someone killed her deliberately too. I seriously doubt she did that to herself. The coroner is doing an autopsy and they are doing a drug analysis. I'm just guessing but I bet it was Fentanyl. 

If you've been reading my weekly posts for a while you know I told you that several homeless people have died from drug overdoses in my neighborhood in this post. 

---

Monday afternoon screamer lady was out walking up and down the sidewalk in front of my apartment building with a cart. As I've told you before, she is not homeless, she just has a lot of mental problems. She walks up and down the street just screaming nonsense. She was here 26 years ago when we first moved here but back then she was the neighborhood prostitute. She propositioned Ken multiple times and she was mad that he kept turning her down. lol

Mostly everyone just ignores her and lets her do her screaming. But Monday night at 9PM I had gone to bed early and all of the sudden this woman was standing right in front of my bedroom window screaming. When I say right in front of my bedroom window, I mean she was about a foot away from my window, facing my window. Why the hell are you screaming into my bedroom window, lady? She woke Falcor and me up and I was pissed. So I threw open my bedroom window and yelled at her to go somewhere else. I shut the window and thought that was the end of it. 

Nope. She moved to the street and screamed some more. So I opened the bedroom window again and screamed back at her. I said, "Shut the f*ck up, people are trying to sleep. Don't make me come out there. I can scream too." 

She screamed once more and moved on. But by that time I was too riled up to go back to sleep. I opened my bedroom door to tell my daughter I was fine and she was laughing because I don't get mad too often. Yeah, don't wake me up and I won't get mad. 

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This was spray painted on the other side my my alleys wall. So I Googled WSL 13 and found this means West Side Locos- A street gang from California- it's gang graffiti. That's my apartment complex behind the wall this is painted on. Isn't that wonderful? I know there are gangs in the area because I see graffiti all over the place. It gets painted over all the time but I got a picture before maintenance painted over it this time. 

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Last week I told you my locks got changed because the office didn't have a key. This week everyone had notices on their doors that on Thursday Maintenance and the manager would be coming through to check and make sure they had keys to everyone's door. But why did they put the notice on my door too? They just changed the locks. Idiots. It was the same maintenance guy who changed my locks who was putting out notices. So he knew. 

And then the next day, Thursday when they were supposed to show up for the lock inspection..they never showed up. lol But on Friday they were walking around knocking on certain doors. They never knocked on mine (Why did I get a notice?) 9 Times out of 10 they never show up for whatever 'inspections' they are doing on the day they say they are going to do it. 

Since it's not the first time that has happened, it didn't even surprise me. This happens almost every single time they say they are going to come and inspect something. The AC inspection came 2 months after they sent me an email that they were doing it that week. 

The high this week was 108F/42C

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.

One Pan Roasted Chicken and Vegies

You will need: 

1/2 bell pepper- chopped

1/2 yellow onion- chopped

2 carrots- chopped

1 cup broccoli florets

1 chicken breast

1/2 tsp. Chili powder

1/2 Cumin

1/2 tsp. McCormick Mesquite seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

No calorie cooking spray

What to do: 

Spray a baking sheet with No calorie cooking spray.

Add all the vegetables and chicken breast to the pan. Spray everything with more of the No calorie cooking spray. Add spices to the chicken and vegetables and bake in a 400F oven for 30 minutes. 

My daughter and I halved the chicken breast because it was a big one.

This made two servings. Each serving was 300 calories and 15 carbs. 

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 was sent the Arctic Air Pocket Personal Air Cooler- from Life Hack Collective. 

I like the little rechargeable fan. You can fill a small well with water and have a mister with it as well. It works pretty well. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Kiran by Kenzie Kelly

 

Book Description

Go to space, they said. It’ll be an adventure, they said. They had no idea.

Cora’s boring job as a lab tech on board the space station Shangris is interrupted when two ships fall out of hyperspace and put Earth smack in the middle of an intergalactic war. She’s not sure which side she should be on, but the built-like-a-brick-house blue warrior who rescues her from the crumbling station could be more evil than Hannibal Lecter and she might not care. Especially if he’s in to eating people. But not in the creepy way.

The Talia’s captain ordered Kiran and his team to search the damaged station for survivors, and kill any Scozid he might find. The squid-like humanoids were known for using more primitive races for barbaric experiments. The Talia was tailing this particular ship when they jumped blindly into an unknown sector of the galaxy. With Ka’atari mates being as rare as a three-headed givuthde, he never dreamed his would be one of the survivors.

Things get even more complicated when another hyperspace jump, an unruly alien pet, and politicians get involved.

Hunka hunka blue alien love, action packed, steamy sci-fi romance fun!

This novella is the first in the Ka'atari Warriors series and has a guaranteed happily ever after and no cliffhangers.

My Review

Cora works in a lab on a space station and things are going alright when all at once two spaceships appear and are fighting. The good aliens are fighting against the bad aliens who want to take over other alien planets. Cora's space station gets caught up in the fight and is about to be destroyed when aliens from one of the ships come to rescue her and the other survivors. She's not trusting him at first but they know the space station is about to be destroyed and he won't leave the humans there to die so he doesn't give Cora or the others a choice. 

Once back on Kiran's ship though, something happens so that the ship they're on slips into a worm hole of sorts and they move quickly away from Earth and not sure if they'll be able to get back. Cora and the other females quickly find out that they are mates to some of the aliens on the ship so that makes things interesting. The mating heat affects some of them to the point that they can't stop themselves from mating with the aliens, not that they mind since they are big, strong, gorgeous and nice to them. 

I really liked Kiren and the other aliens on the ship. There were different aliens all working together against the bad aliens that were trying to take over planets. 

The different characters in this book made it so much fun to read including a sentient animal that befriends Cora to the horror or Kiran and some of the others on the ship. Everyone was scared of this animal and Cora is able to telepathically talk to her which helped make them fast friends. 

The non stop adventure, the fighting the bad aliens and romance made this such a fun book to read. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

For a few days this week we had mostly 90F/32C instead of the higher temps I was expecting. I think it was mostly because of all the clouds we had this week. Monday we didn't have rain but the clouds were nice. 

I like seeing the big white puffy clouds against the bright blue sky.

So many clouds. No rain though.

While we didn't get any rain on Tuesday, it was nice to see. 

This was a huge dark cloud Wednesday evening.

The light hitting this made it look so ethereal. 

And then Thursday the darker clouds moved in.

A little later on Thursday I saw darker clouds moving my way and saw some rain coming down out of them off in the distance. Right here by the dumpster/fence is where we had the small fire I talked about of Sunday. 

Around 2:30PM on Thursday this huge black cloud slowly came over my area and I figured we would get some rain out of it so I took Falcor out before it rained. This is behind my apartment complex and I walked out front to take another picture of the other side of the cloud because it was so big.

This is the cloud from the street side of my complex. 

And it did indeed rain for about 20 minutes. At least it was a bit cooler for a few days.

Book Review: Kai by Luna Hunter

 

Book Description

General Kai cannot believe the naivety of the humans. From his cloaked ship the Dragan Warlord watches them walk straight into a trap — but when he sees there are females among their numbers, his throat tightens with anger.

Females should be protected. Treasured. Worshiped.

Especially one as beautiful as her. The one with the red-hair and the green eyes. Her human physique — so different from what he is used to, so soft and curvy — awakens strange, new feelings inside the powerful warrior.

Forbidden feelings.

The Emperor forbids taking a non-Dragan as a pleasure-mate.

And yet, this human female needs Kai’s protection… and Kai needs her touch more than he’s ever needed anything in his life.

Can the alien general truly risk everything for this human female?

…

Frek the Emperor and his rules.

General Kai’s taking her. And he’s not just making her his pleasure-mate, either.

The human female shall be his wife.

My Review

Kai is a Dragan warlord and commander of his ship. When he spots a human vessel head straight for disaster he's not sure he should step in until he notices that there are women in trouble and then he can't help but lend a hand. 

The humans are off course and stuck in some sort of spatial anomaly and so are the other ships in this area. But when he meets Astra, he feels a pull towards her even though his emperor would forbid their relationship. 

There's a great twist in what's causing the spatial anomaly and how they have to work together with the enemy in order to get free. Oh and don't get me started on the huge, evil, flesh eating, alien spiders! I don't mind the thought of aliens visiting Earth but they better not come looking like enormous insects. 

I really liked the ending and how things worked out. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon