Apartment Life #103

This is a new weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 20 years that we've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 20 years here in a weekly blog post.

There's an old water valve cover that doesn't work anymore and the cover is all broken pieces of concrete. We've told the old manager a few times that it's an accident waiting to happen because that's my living room window right there and I've watched people trip over those broken pieces and almost fall right into my window. 

Here's a close up of it so you can see just how broken and dangerous this is. 

You have room to walk around it but you if aren't paying attention and trip over it, you could really get hurt. I would hate for someone to fall into my window and get cut up. The new manager says she's going to fill it in with concrete but we've already been waiting years for that to happen so we'll see. The water company won't come out and fix it (I already asked) because it's not a working valve anymore. They took the valve and pipes out and moved it out front years ago. 

****

She has plastic and tape in her passenger window right now. 

Here's a little update about last week's Apartment Life. The crazy woman who smashed in my neighbors window also smashed the neighbors car windshield and another neighbors side window. My daughter got pictures of both cars for me to post. I have no idea if the woman has been arrested or not for all the damage she did that day. 

****

This week another of my neighbors had his living room window smashed in. This one had nothing to do with the other one that happened last week, totally separate incident. 

My neighbor was walking by and told me he was looking for the new manager because she said his window was going to get replaced on the Monday after it was smashed but she had already left before it was fixed and he was pissed so I asked him what happened to his window. He told me that one of his brothers who is homeless and hangs around sometimes had come pounding on his door a few nights ago and demanded $20 and got mad when he wouldn't give it to him. So later that night the homeless brother came back and smashed his window in. He saw him running away when he looked out the door. The next day my neighbor went down to the courthouse and got a restraining order so the brother can't come within 500 feet of him now. So hopefully that takes care of the problem for now. 

I've seen the brother who's homeless behind the trash cans smoking meth a few times so I'm assuming that's why my neighbor doesn't have him living with him. 

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

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a "Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to great samples at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week I received:

Vichy Moisturizer
Heart Stickers
Kleenex Wipes sample
Codex eye cream
Nuria eye cream, moisturizer and serum

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Review: Becoming Dragon by Eve Langlais

Book Description

Brandon started out life as a simple gator shifter in the swamp. Now he’s a monster. And beasts don’t get fairy tale endings.

Apparently someone needs to explain that to Aimi. The woman with silver hair, and attitude, has this ridiculous notion that Brandon is something else. Something impossible.

I am not a dragon.

But dragons do exist. They live among the humans and shifters, hidden for the moment. His uncle Theo wants to change that and doesn’t care who he hurts along the way. Even family.

Can Brandon stop him before it’s too late?

My Review

Brandon finds out that his rich uncle Theo has kidnapped his sister and in order to keep her safe, Brandon agree's to be experimented on in Theo's lab. Brandon starts out as a gator shifter but after the experiments he thinks he's just a monster when he's actually a Dragon shifter who is stuck half way between forms. He escapes the lab and his uncle in order to find his sister and save her from Theo after Theo tells the world that shifters are real and have been living among humans for a long time. Aimi finds Brandon on a rooftop and claims him as her mate. At first he thinks she crazy since he doesn't believe in Dragons or the fact that she thinks he's handsome in his hybrid form. But he slowly starts to believe her and her family after they help him. 

Aimi's family is super funny, they get in her business all the time and the remarks between them made me laugh out loud several times. Aimi's family also helps Brandon find his sister but things aren't exactly the way that he thought they'd be. Uncle Theo is crazy, even more crazy than I first thought and there's more going on than we see in this book so I hope we get more information about Brandon's sister and what she's up to in the next book. 

This was a great first book to this series and made me intrigued for the next book and more of the story. I love Brandon and Aimi, their romance was a wild, fun one that had me laughing. When the humans find out about shifters, it does make it hard for shifters to live peacefully among them because some humans are paranoid and afraid. It doesn't help that videos are being released showing the bad side of shifters either. 

I've always loved this author's books but this is now one of my favorites. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Review: Birchbox- October

I signed up for a Birchbox subscription box. It's only $15 a month and this month's box came with 6 products.

What was in the box?

Lipstick Queen lipstick. 

MAC mascara. 

Lancome Makeup Primer. 

Marcelle eyeliner. 

EYEKO Brow Liner. 

Makeup Eraser- sample towel. 

I've tried the Makeup Eraser towel before and think it's amazing that it will take off makeup even waterproof mascara with just water and the towel. 

The eyeliner, mascara, brow liner and lipstick are all great colors and work really nicely. I've only used the makeup primer once but am still on the fence about it. I usually use a silicone based primer and it dries down feeling powdery while this one feels a little tacky but my foundation still worked well with it. I'm just not sure I like the feel of it. 

Have you signed up for this box?

Review: Ipsy Glam Bag- October

Ipsy is a monthly subscription box that sends you 5 sample size makeup or beauty products. You can customize what they send you by filling out the personal surveys. I love the bright pink package they send it in. There's no mistaking who that's from when you see it in your mailbox. These bags are $10 each. I used my points from writing reviews on their site for the products I've received that I turned in for a 6th product. 

What did I get?

Benefit Cosmetics They're Real Mascara. 

Betty Boop Powder Blush. 

Crown Brush crease brush. 

Jumiso Have A Good Cream moisturizer- Snail and Centella. 

Kismet Buff Sugar Lip Scrub. 

Let's talk about the Jumiso Have A Good Cream, first. I went to the website and found it said, "With snail secretion filtrate to keep your skin moisturized and improve skin elasticity." The card that came with the bag said the star ingredient is Snail Mucin which fades acne scars and hypermigmentation and firms skin.

I don't know about you but I don't want to put snail slime on my face. I have to draw the line somewhere and snail slime seems like a good place to draw it. I don't really care how well it's supposed to work...nope, nope, nope. It's made in Korea so I guess they don't mind putting snail secretion on their face but I won't be doing that.

I really like the mascara and the crease brush though. The blush is a really cute light color so I liked that as well. 

Did you sign up and get this bag?

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #102

This is a new weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 20 years that we've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 20 years here in a weekly blog post.

This week we heard the fire truck drive by our window early in the morning and I got my camera and took a picture of it parked around the corner. We heard a lot of yelling coming from over there a little while later but no idea why the fire truck was there.

*****

On Wednesday a woman went to my neighbors door and started kicking the screen door in and smashed in the window all because the woman's brother was put in jail last week by the wife who lives here and the wife wouldn't help the sister get in touch with her brother or help her find out where her brother was. The sister then went out to the alley and busted out the windshield of the wife's car and later that night the sister came back and busted out the side window of the wife's friends car because she told the police when they showed up that she was a witness to her smashing the window and screen. I heard what the fight was about because they stood outside screaming at each other about it. 

The window was broken as well as the screen door but I didn't get a picture of the screen door. 

*****

This week another one of my neighbors was evicted. Evictions take a little while, they are given a 30 day notice, then a 5 day notice and then a 24 hour notice. When they are given a 24 hour notice, the Constable comes when the 24 hours are up and has the maintenance guy change the locks and they make the residents leave. Then the Constable puts a yellow sticker on the door that says no entry. That way if the residents are caught breaking back into the apartment, they can be arrested. The manager usually gives people who have been evicted 7 days to make arrangements to come back and get the rest of their belongings if they left anything in the apartment. After 7 days everything left in the apartment gets thrown in the trash or sometimes the manager will let other residents go in the apartment to see if there's anything they want. 

Oh and the manager got fired. The new manager came by on Friday while she was handing out a paper to everyone to fill out and bring to the office. Just regular info that should be on all our leases like name, apartment number, vehicle registration and license numbers, how many people n the apartment and emergency contact numbers. All of that info should already be on file so I'm confused as to why they want it again.

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

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 did I get in this box?

Rise Brewing Co - Nitro Cold Brew Coffee Classic Latte-  I like iced coffee so I tried this and it has a nice strong taste to it. I don't drink a lot of coffee but I do like cold coffee and this was pretty good. 

Heat Holders - Thermal Socks- My feet get cold in the Winter and I usually wear socks to bed as well because my feet are always cold. These are so comfortable, so soft and so warm. I love these and know they will come in handy this Winter. 

RawRev - Glo Birthday Cake- I don't like any kind of protein bars but Ken does so he got this one and said it was pretty good for a bar. 

Greenshield Organic - Lavender Organic Laundry Detergent- I used this to wash a load of laundry and think it works as good as what I usually use and it does smell good. It works and it smells good so it's a win for me. 

Green Goo - All Natural Deodorant- I wasn't sure that apricot and lemongrass would smell good together but it does and it's a good deodorant. I've used it for the last 4 days and have nothing bad to say about it. 

The Original MakeUp Eraser - Sample Pack- I've actually tried this product before. I received a sample from them a few months ago and loved it. It's a big enough sample to really try it out and it's amazing how well it works. I can take all my makeup off using nothing but this cloth and water. Simply amazing.

Essence of Vali - Sleep Mini Vials- To me this smells like lavender so if you already like that scent then you might like this. I put one drop on my corner of my pillow like it said to and it gave off a slight lavender scent which was nice to drift off to sleep to. 

Real Chemistry - Environmental Rescue Essential Day Cream- This is a great moisturizing cream for this time of year. My skin dries out so easily this time of year and this cream really helped. I'm sure I'll be using this cream up before Winter is over. 

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.

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a "Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to great samples at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

What did I get this week?

A coupon for a free StarKist tuna product.
2 samples of Heinz ketchup.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Review: Ipsy Glam Bag - September

Ipsy is a monthly subscription box that sends you 5 sample size makeup or beauty products. You can customize what they send you by filling out the personal surveys. I love the bright pink package they send it in. There's no mistaking who that's from when you see it in your mailbox. These bags are $10 each. I used my points from writing reviews on their site for the products I've received that I turned in for a 6th product. 

What did I get?

Benefit Cosmetics Gimme Brow+ Voluming Eyebrow Gel- Neutral Deep Brown. 

F.A.R.A.H Brushes Contour brush.

IBOM Lemon Verbena Clay Mask. 

OFRA Cosmetics OFRA X Madison Smiley For Ryleigh Lip Gloss. 

TOO Faced Damn Girl Cream Mousse Mascara. 

A makeup bag.

You might have noticed that I'm a bit late getting this review done. But I was busy for a few days last month and it threw everything off for me. So this is the Ipsy bag I received last month. 

I don't contour but it's a good brush for blush. The lip gloss has way too much glitter in it. I might save that for special occasions or something because it's just too much for everyday. I love the mascara. It really does make my lashes longer. It's a great mascara. 

A clay mask. That's different. LOL All these beauty boxes do love to send out masks in all their forms. 

My favorite thing in the box was the Benefit Cosmetics Gimme Brow gel. It has a tiny spoolie on it that easily brushes through my eyebrow hairs without getting on the skin under them. If you've been here a while you have probably heard me say that I don't fill in my eyebrows but I brushed this through my eyebrow hairs and it made them darker, thicker and nicer looking. I will actually use this because I like it and it works. 

Did you get this box?

Favorite Picture of the Week

So I've showed you this sound wall. It was put there because the freeway is right on the other side of that wall and it's supposed to cut down on some of the noise of the freeway. 

My apartment complex is straight ahead and I walk the dog right here on this sidewalk next to the sound wall. It's a really tall wall but what I've never showed you is the other side of the wall. 

Someone took this picture when a truck overheated and the engine caught fire, everyone got out of the tuck fine though. But in this picture you can see the other side of the sound wall and how it's painted. Like I said, the freeway is directly on the other side of the wall.

Review: Rescued By Bears by Skye MacKinnon

Book Description

Can she tame her bear shifters or will she be their dinner?

Alone, frozen, and far from home, Isla finds herself in the care of four frustratingly sexy bear shifters. They soon end up on a Scottish island, trying to survive the disasters of a failing world.

With new relationships unfolding, Isla has to make the decision between her humanity and the bears protecting her.

Will winter drive them apart or can Isla claim her bears?

Rescued by Bears is a full-length reverse harem novel featuring one sassy heroine and four sexy bear shifters (including a polar bear!). Prepare for strong alpha males with a trace of vulnerability, an epic quest, Viking beards, very steamy scenes, Scottish landscapes, Celtic mythology and a post-apocalyptic setting.

My Review

Isla lives with her uncle whom she isn't close to at all. After her parents died she became his responsibility and in the society they live in after the flooding that happened and wiped out a lot of the land in this world, men hold all the power in her village. She was studying to be the healer of her village but her uncle has other plans and tells her she is to marry a man she despises because he was abusive to another woman who escaped. She's locked in a room until the marriage can take place but she escapes and gets off the island she's been on her whole life. 

She doesn't know where she's going and there's ice and snow covering the ground, she gets too tired to go on and almost dies out in the elements. She's found by one of the bear shifters and brought back to their cabin where they warm her up. She finds out about the 4 of them when she overhears them talking and confronts them pretty early on about being bear shifters. She's kinda naive, and does something dumb which is when she gets hurt but the guys bring her back and she gets to know them. She finds herself attracted to the alpha, their leader the most at first but by the end of the story she's the mate to all of them. This is a reverse harem story, so because of that I already knew that she was going to end up with more than one mate. 

I really didn't like how idiotic Isla acts at times. I know she's been sheltered and is naive but she does stupid things and acts dumb at times. Isla has been bullied by her uncle, pushed around, told what to do and then she has to deal with Alis who pretty much does the same thing to her. I hated Alis's character and if you read this you'll see why and who she is, I'm not giving that away. The guys were pretty interesting characters, I hope that we get to know them all a little better in the series though because I didn't really feel like I knew them too well. 

I enjoyed this book but I think the characters need to be developed a bit more and we need a little more information on how the flood happened, what caused it ect. I would also like more info on the shifter mythology because the rules for these guys were a little different from other shifter books I've read. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of me*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #101

This is a new weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 20 years that we've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 20 years here in a weekly blog post.

This week the fire department showed up for someone across the street. The fire truck was out on the street for about an hour but no one was taken out on a stretcher and no ambulance showed up so I have no idea what they were there for. 

****

10pm on Sunday night some woman was banging on my neighbors door so loud I thought she was going to break it in. The man who I found out later is her brother came to the door and she started smacking the hell out of him. Screaming at him to give her back her money. She said she paid their rent and he needs to give her back her bread. The screaming went on for 30 minutes before they left to find the wife who I saw pack a few bags and leave earlier that day. Monday morning I noticed part of his screen door was smashed in. That lady told another neighbor that when her husband found her, she called the police on him because he was driving drunk...he was arrested for DUI which broke his probation so he's in jail for a while.

Monday morning that same lady who's husband is now in jail...the lady who likes to stand outside naked was just walking around and standing outside in her underwear and a shirt so see through that it left NOTHING to the imagination. LOL

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

Recipe: Vegetarian Pulled Pork Sandwiches using Jackfruit

 I first heard of jackfruit in a blog post over at Herding Cats & Burning Soup blog, and ever since seeing that recipe, I've been wanting to try it. Yeah, it took me a while to get around to it and to talk Ken into trying it but I finally did. The recipe is pretty easy but I changed a couple of things mostly because I don't like garlic or ginger so I didn't use either of those things. But I did use some garlic powder since I can handle the taste of that and don't find it over powering. 

I watched a couple of Youtube videos about preparing jackfruit so I rinsed the jackfruit, squeezed out the seeds and cut off the core ( hard part of jackfruit) and then shredded the rest of it with my fingers. It shreds really easily. 

Then I added the onion to the pan and sauteed it until the onions were sufficiently cooked, about 10 minutes. 

Then I added the bbq seasoning, garlic powder and bbq sauce. Turned the heat down to low and let it simmer for 5 minutes. 

I made coleslaw with it and added a little to my sandwich along with the bbq,  jackfruit mixture. Ken and our daughter ate this for dinner as well and it was good.  I'm surprised I got them both to try it but they both liked it. 

Recipe

You will need:

2- 14 oz cans young green jackfruit

1/2 medium sweet yellow onion- diced

2 tbsp bbq seasoning

3/4 cup bbq sauce

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Directions

Drain and rinse the jackfruit. Cut off hard core part and remove any seeds you find.

Shred the jackfruit with your fingers.

Add jackfruit and diced onion to pan and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes or until onions are cooked through.

Add bbq sauce, garlic powder and bbq seasoning mix. Simmer over low heat for another 5 minutes and serve on a bun. 

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a "Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to great samples at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

What did I get this week?

I received two Garnier SkinActive sheet face masks.
A coupon for a free toothbrush.
A free Nature Valley Wafer Granola Bar.
I won a mirror from an Amazon Giveaway.

Oh joy, not 1 but 2 more sheet masks. lol Just what I wanted.

The nature Valley Wafer bar was really good.

Did you received any freebies this week?

Review: Blood In Shadow by Nicki Ruth

Book Description

Has the master of shadow finally met his match?

Amir lives for the hunt. The vampire assassin stalks his prey from within the shadows, never hesitating to kill those who stand in his way or threaten his new Queen. His new mission: find the human scientist who holds the key to an antidote that could save his people. But the woman he takes refuses to cower, refuses his demands, and confuses him with new desires that leave him aching to hear her moans as he sinks his fangs into her soft flesh.

Bodi can’t believe her life! Kidnapped by a vampire psychopath, she’s tasked with decoding the mysteries surrounding her father’s toxin. But she has bigger problems. She should be trying to escape the assassin, instead, she dreams of escaping to his bed, of having his lips tease her in ways that leave her gasping. His sexy smiles prove more dangerous to her than his hidden blades and veiled threats.

But Amir isn’t the only one who covets Bodi. Skilled mercenaries have snuck into his territory to find the scientist, and his possessive claim to her means he won’t hand her over without a fight. Yet, Bodi can’t remain his prisoner forever, and soon he’ll need to make a decision. But can he let her go?

Amir and Bodi continue this sexy, sci-fi/paranormal fantasy series. Read in order, or as a standalone. Like the others, Book 5 includes characters from preceding installments, as well as scenes for mature audiences, violence, and lots of fun.

My Review

Amir has no choice but to kidnap the scientist and make her create an antidote for the toxin her father made. Bodi doesn't act exactly the way Amir thought she would once he kidnaps her and tells her what he wants her to do and she's attractive which adds another level of complications he wasn't expecting.

These two go back and forth as enemies and then friendly at times while she is working on finding an antidote but Amir's mood swings because of his family problems got tedious fast. This guy brings his bad moods to Bodi all the time and takes his bad moods out on her when she's doing her best to find what he wants. She has feelings for him at times when he's not acting like an ass and is actually being nice to her and then gets her feelings hurt when he's a moody, brooding, bad tempered vampire and starts shouting at her. Amir's personality and maturity does grow as the story went on which was nice to see because I didn't like him that much at first. 

There's also another group of people searching for Bodi for some reason so Amir keeps taking her to new safe houses in order to keep her safe while she tries to make the antidote for him. He's got a lot of family problems going on while all this is going on which just added to the drama of this story. The romance between Amir and Bodi actually goes back and forth over a long period of time because Amir doesn't know what he wants. But I really like how this story ended so I was happy to see how things concluded even though I didn't see some of the things that happened coming until they actually happened. It was nice to be surprised by some of the turns this story took.

This is book 5 in the Damurios Vampire Series but it said it could be read as a standalone so I read it and I didn't feel lost or confused at all. So it can be read as a standalone. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

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

Review: War of Hearts by S. Young

Book Description

New York Times Bestselling author Samantha Young writing as S. Young!

Thea Quinn has no idea what she is. All she knows is that her abilities have been a plague upon her life since she was a child. After years of suffering at the hands of a megalomaniac, Thea escaped and has been on the run ever since.

The leadership and protection of his pack are of the utmost importance to Conall MacLennan, Alpha and Chief of Clan MacLennan, the last werewolf pack in Scotland. Which is why watching his sister slowly die of a lycanthropic disease is emotional torture. When Conall is approached by a businessman who offers a cure for his sister in exchange for the use of Conall’s rare tracking ability, Conall forges an unbreakable contract with him. He has to find and retrieve the key to the cure: dangerous murderer, Thea Quinn.

Thea’s attempts to evade the ruthless werewolf are not only thwarted by the Alpha, but by outside dangers. With no choice but to rely on one another for survival, truths are revealed, intensifying a passionate connection they both fight to resist. At war with themselves and each other, Conall and Thea’s journey to Scotland forces them to face a heartrending choice between love and betrayal.

My Review

Thea isn't human but she doesn't know what she is. She's strong, fast, can take a bullet without hardly flinching and has been on the run for a long time since she escaped the man who experimented and tortured her but is still searching for her and wants to get her back.

Conall is hired to find Thea and he is led to believe she's a cold hearted killer. But he wants to save his sister's life and the guy that hired him says that Thea is the key to the cure. 

Conall is an alpha werewolf and he has a crazy good tracking ability once he gets someone's scent. So he's able to find Thea quite fast and that's when the fun begins because Thea has a few incredible abilities of her own. Once Thea realizes that she can't get away from Conall because of his tracking ability, she stays with him and even helps him a few times so he starts to believe that what he's been told about her is not the truth. Little by little the truth comes out and it's horrible. The guy who hired Conall to find Thea is a horrible person who tortured her and she's going to do whatever she has to in order not to be his prisoner again and she can only hope that Conall will come to believe her and not hand her over to him. 

At first all he wants to do is get her to the guy who hired him and get the cure for his sister but things change pretty fast and all his well thought out plans go out the window. There's more than one guy interested in Thea though and when they start to face danger everywhere they turn, Connal knows that someone is telling the bad guys where they're at and where to find them since they can't seem to escape them for long. There are so many twists and turns in this story it was hard to know who to trust or believe but the truth of what Thea is comes out eventually and all the lies that have followed her also get set straight. I was completely invested in this story, I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what else would happen or what new element would be introduced into the story. 

Seeing Connal and Thea get closer, find the truth and realize they can trust each other was great along with the mystery surrounding what she is and why her supposed adopted father wanted her back in his care. There were little clues as to what she was and I've read enough paranormal romance books to have an idea what she was and I was right but it was fun to watch it unfold. I loved that Conall was Scottish and has a sexy Scottish accent and used words like, "Lass" all the time. Be still my heart but I do love a Scottish accent, even if I'm just reading it. 

This was such a fun book. There was enough mystery, adventure, romance and twists to make this a very engaging read that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I give this 5 out of 5 stars. 

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

Review: Bring Me To Life by Scarlett Parrish

Book Description

Nathan Stephenson died seventy years ago and he’d like the world—or at least one person—to think he stayed that way.

In 1940s London, Sergeant Nathan Stephenson ignored his rank and the expectation that he’d wait for the war to be over and find a nice girl to settle down with, and took a lover. Not only was Cian Ambrose unashamed of his bisexuality, he was also proud to be a vampire. Back then, he was certain that his and Nathan’s relationship would last forever, refusing to take no for an answer.

One evening, Cian went too far in his attempts to persuade Nathan to become a vampire and left a mutual acquaintance, Jonathan Cutler, to deal with the aftermath. What Cian doesn’t know is that Nathan didn’t die—Jonathan brought him back to life, agreeing to keep Nathan’s continued existence a secret.

It’s now the twenty-first century and Jonathan’s back to call in the favor. Nathan’s an honorable man and can’t say no, but the trouble is, wherever Jonathan goes, Cian Ambrose can’t be far behind…

My Review

When Nathan died and became a vampire, he didn't want Cian to know he was still alive...or undead. Cian said he loved Nathan but Nathan wasn't sure he wanted to become a vampire but Cian took the choice out of Nathan's hands and bit him anyway. So for seventy years, Nathan hid from Cian, always looking over his shoulder just in case the boogyman from his real life nightmare ever found him. 

All the hiding comes to a crashing halt when Jonathan calls on Nathan to do him a favor and because he owes Jonathan for saving his life, he can't say no. Jonathan and Mallory from the first book, "A Little Death" make an appearance in this book asking a favor from Nathan. He's shocked to see them but he helps them and then goes searching for Cian. Humans know about vampires in the world this author created, so it was interesting to see vampire friendly bars and other places that were for vampires.

This book takes places in two time periods, the present and also seventy years before when Nathan was still human and had first met Cian. When I first met Cian in the first book, I gotta say I didn't like him one bit. He was scary, selfish, rude and a bit of a jerk. But I found him to be interesting and wondered why he was such an ass at times. This book helped explain why he was such a goober for the most part and I almost, almost ended up feeling sorry for the guy. I mean, he thought he killed the guy he loved. That's bound to have an effect on your personality. 

Nathan on the other hand was a sweet individual. Why can't I find a sweet vampire that wants to suck on my neck? Ya know what I mean? Oh and look at that cover, I think I'm in love. So when these two do see each other for the first time in seventy years, it was shocking and Cian didn't act at all the way I thought he would. That surprised me...a lot. 

It was fun to watch two vampires throw barbs at each other the way these two did. They were both pissed off and they were both hurt. It was interesting to see where that led and see what happened between them. I liked the ending and hope there's a 3rd book. I hope a reformed Cian will make an appearance in the next book as well.

This author writes the kind of vampires that I tend to like when I'm searching for a vampire romance to read. I loved this book and found it hard to put down. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"Our family portrait came out really good."

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"Can't talk now, I has a mouth full."