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: 

This pack of two Christmas snack bowls from Walmart Spark Reviewer. 

I really like them and they will be great for Christmas. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Broken Mate by Jen L. Grey

Book Description

I'm the last surviving member of my pack, and I'm running for my life. As the future pack leader of the Silver Wolves, my life was carefully planned: stay hidden, and learn to fight. In an instant, everything changes. My pack was slaughtered by an unknown enemy. Alone and unsure who to trust, I search for safety.

Now, there's a pack leader who offers me something that no one else can--protection. He’s sexy, an absolute jerk, and my fated mate. The more I try to fight our bond, the more fate pushes us together. But the price may be too much for both of us.

I’m being hunted, and the choices I'm forced to make could destroy me.

*Please Note*

Welcome to Shadow City, where each trilogy focuses on a different pair of fated mates. By the end of every trilogy, each couple will have their happy ever after.

However, not every mystery will be solved. Some secrets will span additional trilogies, but will in no way take away from the individual stories.

My Review

Sterlyn gets told to run to Shadow City as her father, the alpha of her pack is dying. The rest of her pack had been slaughtered by others who wanted to kidnap her and make her a slave to them so she would have babies because of the kind of wolf shifter she was. So she ran and as she gets to Shadow City she runs into Killian who helps her stay safe. But things aren't as safe there as she thought because those others are still after her. 

While hiding and trying to stay safe, she meets Killian's best friend, Griffin and feels a pull towards him. But Killian lets her know that Griffin is a player and will never be serious about any relationship he has. But Griffin knows this is different since he knows that Sterlyn is his fated mate, if he can only get her to trust him. 

Just when things seem to be calming down the bad guys show up and are ready to kill anyone who gets in their way so they can kidnap her. But things don't exactly go their way. 

Because of that last paragraph under the description of the book, I knew that there would be a kind of cliffhanger for the ending of this book and some things would be left open. I don't like cliffhangers but since I knew about it going in, I was fine with reading this. As long as I knew beforehand and can make up my own mind if I want to take the time to read a book that might end like this, it's on me if I read it. But I liked the way this ended so that was good.

I liked the storyline, the characters and how it all played out. I'm looking forward to reading the next book now. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Book Review: Blood Inferno by H B Jacks

 

Book Description

He's a ruthless vampire lawyer and my hot-as-hellfire new boss...

Hey, a witch without magic has to make a living somehow. Becoming a lawyer wasn't top of my list, but it'll do.

Enter Vincent Tepesh. Senior partner in Shades Law. Six foot four of dominant smoldering vampire. He's claimed me as his blood mate, but I'm not falling for his dubious charms.

Because there's something going on here at Shades which isn't right. Offices don't just explode, dangerous shadow wraiths who want to kill me don't appear out of nowhere and I know I have to find out the truth, to prove I'm a better lawyer than I am a witch.

And the one person who can help me work all of this out in order to save my soul? You guessed it, my big bad vampire boss, the best lawyer in London. If we work together, we might survive this whole mess.

The final problem? How not to fall for this delicious, dark vampire who I'm pretty certain just sees me as a snack…

Blood Inferno is the first in the Shade and Shadow vampire romance series from HB Jacks, set in contemporary London where bloodsuckers are pitted against the bloodthirsty, love against all the forces of hell and things get very steamy between a stuck up vampire billionaire lawyer and a magic-less witch with something to prove.

No cheating, no cliffhanger and as always a HEA.

My Review

Vincent knows that Mia is his blood mate but he wants nothing to do with her because of a curse and prophecy and had his father leave once he found his own blood mate. Vincent doesn't want anything bad to happen to Mia so he tries to stay away from her but his brother hires her to work for them and he has no choice but to work with her. Even though Mia thinks he's smoking hot, he's also grumpy and doesn't seem to like being around her at first so this sets her on edge around him because she doesn't know why he's so grumpy. 

When her home is blown up, she has no choice but to accept Vincent's help and Mia is reluctant to let him buy her some new things since all of her belongings went up in the fire. She's not sure why he's trying to be nice to her but since he's a vampire, she doesn't trust him right away. But as these two spend more time together, she finds out a lot more about him, even a few secrets. 

A Fae Prince is up to something no good and when they check out a house he wants, they realize there's a lot more going on than they thought. The Prince seems to know a lot more about Mia and her powers than she does and that makes for a very tense meeting between them when he finally reveals what he wants from her and Vincent. There are so many supernatural creatures in this book including Lucifer himself which was quite a twist. 

This book starts off kinda slow for me but the second half of the book was much better so I'm glad I stuck with it and kept reading. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

2 weeks ago I took this picture when a thunderstorm rolled through. We got quite a bit of rain from these dark clouds. I saw those dark clouds over the mountains and told Falcor we needed to go for a walk before those clouds got closer. He was happy to go. 

Happy Raturday!

 

"I thought if I went into a phone booth, I would turn into Superman. It hasn't happened yet though."

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

Apartment Life #279

 

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. 

This week was quiet in my neighborhood so I didn't think I would have anything to talk about. 

And then...

My daughter called me from work (she works a few blocks away in another bad neighborhood) and said a man had just been stabbed right outside the doors of her job.

She said a few homeless people were outside her job and two of them started arguing and one stepped in between them and got stabbed by one of the other two. The police officer right here is putting a tourniquet to the mans arm and applying a bandage to the wound.

My daughter called 911 and the police helicopter was flying around and the police got there really fast.

This is the man who got stabbed in the arm. This police officer helped to wrap his arm up because he had a really deep 4 inch stab wound to his arm. Then the police officer helped him over to the ambulance when it got there.

The guy was telling the officer what happened as they walked to the ambulance. 

The man was able to step up into the ambulance by himself. Which I would think is a good sign.

Then the ambulance took him to the hospital where he underwent surgery to close the deep stab wound he had. 

Some of the people my daughter work with were able to snap a picture of the man who did the stabbing before he ran off and the police told them that they were able to catch him a little while later. The police stayed at my daughter's job for a few hours getting written statements from witnesses and the police were telling them any updates they were getting about the guy who got away while they were there getting the statements and taking pictures of the crime scene.. 

 

The high this week was 105F/40C

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 Song of the Week

 

Photograph - By Late Night Savior

I just found this song while I was scrolling through Youtube and I liked it. I hope you enjoy it too. 

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: 

2 boxes with wet dog food pouches.

I also downloaded an app called JustPlay that my daughter told me of where you get paid for playing games. And this week I cashed out $15 in Amazon gift cards for just playing games.

Falcor was very happy since this is the brand of dog food he usually eats. 

This Tree Holds A Secret...Cicadas!

 

This large tree is right across the street from where I live. I like the shade from it if I walk Falcor over there. And unless you look closely you might miss a secret the tree holds. 

Cicadas! Or rather a lot of cicada skins left from after they have molted.

Each year my daughter looks for them so she can take some pictures of them. I wouldn't have even seen the skins on the tree trunk of my daughter hadn't told me they were there.

My daughter thinks they are neat. lol They are a bit neat but a little creepy as well. 

My daughter lets me know they are back each year by picking a few off the tree and wearing them on her shirt. LOL 

Here's one emerging from the skin they leave behind.

This is what they look like. 

So is this creepy or cool to you?

Book Review: Auctioned Virginity by Raven Woodward

 

Book Description

Romero came into my life when I was thirteen and taught me how to fight. To stand up for myself. He helped me survive. But his promise to protect me and my mother washed down the drain the night she died. I was sixteen. He let me leave, and then he didn’t call. Didn’t even try to make sure I hadn’t died in some seedy hotel. That was just how I wanted it. Until two years later, when my meager earnings at a failing shoe store couldn’t cover all my expenses and sleeping in a broken down car wouldn’t last. It only took one phone call—hearing his voice again—for all my walls to come crumbling down. The first night back under his roof, I stumble into his private den to ask for money, inadvertently interrupting him and his ridiculously gorgeous, wealthy friends playing poker. That's when his friends start to bid on me. On my virginity. They're all dangerous—I can feel it—but not even I know just how dangerous until it's too late. Even though Romero tries to stop me, I can’t help but consider giving my body up for money. Except the way he looks at me makes me think he's the one that wants to take what I'm offering.

My Review

Romera is Julietta's stepfather but they only know each other a couple of short years before her mother is found dead of a drug overdose. Soon after Julietta runs away from her stepfather and tries to make it on her own, only to finally give up and call to ask if she can come back home while she goes to college.

 He agrees and we get our first real interaction between them. Let me tell you, I didn't like him. Something felt off. But there was nothing overtly weird about him other than the fact that he was a little bossy. But then he tells Julietta to stay in her room and not come down to the basement while his friends are over playing cards. Again, something felt weird, so when she just has to talk to him about something that could have waited until morning, she is met with a mad Romero and several lethal looking guys who after finding out she needs money for a car, offer to give her the money if she does something a little bit sexual and a little bit taboo. Romero is livid and tells her several times to go back upstairs but doesn't actually get up and make her go upstairs. He could have easily just gone upstairs with her and talked to her for a minute to stop what happened next but instead, he does nothing. That was red flag number 1. 

Julietta is just barely 18 years old and Romero is 20 years older than her. I found him just about as sleezy as the guys he was with at the table playing cards. But Julietta is dumb, in my opinion she is one of those characters I would call TSTL (Too Stupid To Live) and I hated her character for her overt stupidity that she shows over and over again. Red flag number 2 is that Romero turns out to be a Mafia Don and he should have known that getting close to Julietta would put her in danger because it did. But Julietta shows her stupidity once again by running away right after they all find themselves in danger. At least stay with the people who can protect you, ya know?

Red flag number 3 was when we find out later how Romero knew Julietta's mother, how they first met. Good grief, can this guy get any worst? He did not illicit any type of romantic feelings for me because I just wanted her to get away from him and have a real, safe life. 

Now while this isn't my usual type of read, I've read other mafia romances and liked them but this one just made me feel dirty for even reading it. The only saving grace for this book is the writing was done well, the storyline and action scenes were great. I would read a different book by this author but not another book in this series. 

I give this book 2 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

Here are some sunrise pictures from last week. I was up with Falcor at 5:30am and the smoke in the air from the wildfires near us made the sunrise really pretty. 

I stood out there for a few minutes as the sun was rising. 

And as it got higher it was hidden by the smoke in the air.

But it did peek through a little at times. It was a pretty sunrise though. 

This week we had a clearer sky a few days probably because of the winds blowing the smoke out of the valley. And the sunrise was still pretty. 

Falcor got up early a few days but at least it gave me an opportunity to get some nice pictures. 

Happy Raturday!

 

"We were trying to make cookies but someone accidentally sat in the batter." 

"We seriously have no idea what we are doing. The chocolate chips are fabulous though."

"We were going to mail you some cookies, but we eated them all. Sorry."

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

Apartment Life #278

 

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.  

On Monday the ambulance showed up for someone in the pool courtyard of my complex. No one was taken away in the ambulance though so I guess that's good. 

On Tuesday a lady two doors down from me was taken to the ER in the ambulance. Most of the ambulance was hidden by this palm tree. She was back the next day though. 

Last week my neighbors car was broken into. His back window was smashed. Just a couple of months ago his other car had been stolen so he was really mad that his new car was vandalized as well. His isn't the only car that has been vandalized in recent months though. The neighbor right next door to me had his car broken into and they messed the wires under the dash all up. It seems it's not safe to have your car on the street around here anymore. 

The high this week was 109F/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.

Favorite Song of the Week

 

ARCHERS - Say This Sober

I've now heard several songs from this band and thought this was a good one to share. 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: 

Redken liquid conditioner for hair. 

Seen shampoo and conditioner samples. 

I liked the Seen shampoo and conditioner. It had a mild scent to it which was kind of neutral. I like a more powerful, flowery scent to my shampoo and conditioner. But it did work well. 

The Redken conditioner sample was great. It worked well and smelled good. 

Did  you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Your One And Only by Emilie LaForet

 

Book Description

The Bunny

Stacy Waters lived a life of opulence and prestige but it was all a lie. It was a façade hiding generations of secrets and carnage.

No one truly knew her, including herself, and it drove her to the brink of insanity.

Her only comfort was the illicit love of her brother, John.

When he abandoned her, she realized that love was just another distortion. In his absence, she drowned in darkness, searching for someone like John to reciprocate her love, only to fall into the arms of monsters lurking in the shadows.

The Wolf

John Waters couldn’t reveal his true self. He was a psychopath who enjoyed killing and dreamed of making Stacy his victim every day since they met.

Through the years, a new craving that defied his nature grew stronger. Monsters like him weren’t supposed to love.

He tried to protect her by breaking her heart — again and again — but that only fueled the fire between them. It only made Stacy more determined and tempting. So he did the one thing she always begged him not to. He left.

What would you do to protect the one you cherish from your darkness?

My Review

I don't mind a dark romance at times but the story has to be good and the characters have to be a little likable. This story was all kinds of messed up. This went way beyond a dark romance and landed squarely in the realm of completely messed up. Plus these characters are just broken and I saw no real redeeming qualities in them at all. I wanted to like this one but I just didn't and then that cliffhanger ending just made me mad. There are some things that come up that just aren't explained and it left me a little confused, which is never good for a reader.

First off let me say that John and Stacy are not blood related so not truly brother and sister. She was adopted by his family after her family was killed. She and John were both really young and as they grew up together they got close. 

Even though I read the entire book, it never pulled me in and was so slow in the first half of the book. It was only towards the middle that it picked up a little but then it ended in a cliffhanger so I really felt like I had been let down with taking the time to read this. 

I don't plan on reading the next book because I don't like these characters and really don't want to see what comes next. 

I give this book 1 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Book Review: The Binding by Victoria Clapton

 

Book Description

Drawn to the city of New Orleans, Sybella Rose seeks answers hidden in mausoleums of lore, and she soon discovers that history and mystery walk together in this world filled with more dead than the living. As this recipe for love and power is revealed, Sybella Rose tastes a bit of rebellion, befriends a lonely ghost, and drowns in the essence of a certain vampire before finally succumbing to her inevitable end.

My Review

Sybella packs up her things and moves to New Orleans. Her father is not happy about it and her brothers are all successful and it didn't seem like they cared about her at all. Once in New Orleans Sybella feels like she is right where she belongs. Meeting Josephine who owns a Voodoo shop and her husband Al who is the chef at Gumbo Gris Gris. She immediately makes friends with these two people and even rents an apartment that's above the voodoo shop and Josephine is her landlord which works out well for all of them. Josephine offers Sybella a job in the voodoo shop and she gets to know her better. 

Right away she meets Demien and she knows there's something off about him, especially when Josephine and Al are warning her to stay away from him. But Sybella feels drawn to him and since he keeps seeking out her company, he must be drawn to her also because he doesn't usually chat people up. 

You know how they say that New Orleans is full or supernatural? Well according to this book, they're right. Expect ghosts, vampires, witches and magic. The Binding ends up being the pull a vampire and human feel for each other. It's so rare it's thought to be a myth even among vampires. 

I do love a romantic vampire story and this one having a very grumpy vampire just made it all the better. This was such a fun read. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Amazon

Everyone Has A Story, Here's One Of Mine

 

I've been thinking of writing an autobiography or memoir but it just never comes together for me but I figured if I write one story at a time and post it on my blog maybe once a month, I can do that. Maybe one day I'll pull all the stories together and put them in a book but for now I'll just share some stories with you about my childhood. Some of the stories will be happy, some sad and some horrific because that was my childhood. But they will all be real, things that actually happened. If it seems like something that people enjoy reading maybe I'll keep it going. These stories will not be in any kind of order, I'll just write them as they come to me.

Seeing A Wolf In Big Bear, Ca

When I was about 10 years old and my parents were still married, we along with my uncle Jack and aunt Cecilia took a trip to Big Bear, Ca and they rented a big, four bedroom cabin. I actually had a good time there because it was during the Winter and there weren't a lot of bugs out. One morning after breakfast my mom was putting a plate of scraps outside for whatever wildlife wanted it and after a few minutes when she didn't come back inside, I opened the back door and found my mom on the back steps with a wolf. She was just sitting there petting it and feeding it the scraps from the plate. 

My mom told me that she had seen it limping and pulled something out of its paw and now he was just sitting there letting her pet it. (I don't know if she actually pulled anything out of his paw or not) My mom told me I could come out and sit on the steps and pet him so I did. Now remember my parents were alcoholics and she had probably already started drinking that morning. Had she been sober I don't know that she would have told me to come out and pet a wild animal. 

But I did and he just sat there let us pet him. A few minutes later my uncle Jack opened the door and tried to stay calm as he told us to get away from the damn wolf and get back inside. We just sat there. lol My mom kept saying he was friendly. My dad came over and lost his mind. He was trying not to yell because he didn't want to startle the animal but he kept saying, "Peggy, that's a damn wolf! Get away from the damn wolf!" My dad made me go inside and then my mom went inside and my uncle and dad were so mad that not only had my mom been out there with a wild animal but she had let me come out too. 

My mom kept leaving plates of food outside for the wolf and other animals while we were there but I never saw the wolf again. 

 Now as an adult I'm not sure if it was a wolf or coyote. They look similar in the face, so it could have been a coyote that we sat there and were petting. It was still pretty exciting.

Links to past stories. 

January 2023

February 2023

March 2023

April 2023

May 2023

June 2023

July 2023

Happy Raturday!

 

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

Apartment Life #277

 

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.  

Last Sunday morning my daughter took this video of the one of the dumpsters in our alley being set on fire. The fire department came and put it out. We all think that one of the homeless drug addicts that is still around here is the one who keeps setting fire to the dumpsters. 

The fire department was able to put the fire out really fast thankfully. 

Thankfully nothing else caught fire.

Here's the reason some people around here believe that Mike (The homeless drug addict) is the one setting the fires. This is him sitting in front of one of the water spigot's in front of my building. He had taken all his clothes off except for his underwear and was sitting here. He was extremely high and ended up passing out on the steps to the walkway into my building that are right behind him. I ended up having to walk around him to walk Falcor out front. One of my other neighbors saw him there and called the police to check him out. She was worried because of the heat/plus irritated he was laying there in his underwear when there are so many kids around here. 

The police showed up, asked him if he needed help and then let him go. My neighbor told him she was the one who called because she was worried about him and that really pissed him off. The next morning she was arguing with him in front of my door and it woke my daughter up because they were both being so loud. Mike started making this really loud whooping noise in my courtyard and doing cartwheels while my neighbor yelled at him. Mike is the same guy that I got a video of a few weeks ago breaking into the apartment door in my courtyard. 

The next day we spotted Mike passed out in front of the apartment across from us that had the fire. You can't see it well but he's the black spot laying under the boarded up window. So my daughter called the non-emergency number and had paramedics come to check him out. 

I enlarged the picture.

When they got here though, he woke up really slowly but once he saw who was waking him up, he jumped up, stumbled a bit and ran off. Oh and he was mad anyone called then for him. The next night was the fire in the dumpster. 

---

And there's an update on what is going on with my daughter's creepy ex boyfriend. If he finally leaves her alone, I won't post anymore updates. But if he continues to harass her and make more fake accounts to contact her on social media after she's blocked the others, then I will continue to post about him because I don't like him...and I can. 

The high this week was 112F/44C

The low this week was 82F/27C

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