Review: Dragon VIP: Pyrochlore by Starla Night

Book Description

Smokin’ hot dragon shifters have no idea what to do with these sassy Earth females — but claiming them as mates will change the universe!

Bad boy dragon shifter Pyrochlore “Pyro” Onyx is the acting CEO of the Onyx Corporation — and for the smokin’ hot billionaire playboy, it definitely feels like an act. He has two weeks to save his family’s company from destruction and himself from an unwanted marriage to the Empress of his home planet, Draconis.

When he catches sweet, curvy Amy stalking his every move, a new feeling wars with his old cynicism. No matter the species, females want Pyro for only one thing. And it isn’t true love or faithfulness.

Super responsible elementary school teacher Amy should never have given in to her secret fantasies to stalk the gorgeous dragon, but in his presence, her self-control just snaps. And although he calls her naive, she’s not so innocent that she doesn’t know what she wants. Playing with the fiery male risks getting burned, but as dark forces gather, she could be his only salvation.

This is a complete novel with a happy ending! It features steamy dragon shifter love scenes and a passionate teacher who can teach the bad boy a thing or two. Must love dragons!

My Review

Amy's life is full of rules and structure but when she meets Pyrochlore, the dragon shifter she's been stalking  watching for her friend, all her rules fly out the window. 

Pyrochlore is a dragon shifter from another planet. He and other dragon shifters came to Earth and have made it their home. A few dragon shifters have found human mates and Pyro hopes to find one of his own so he doesn't have to marry the female dragon shifter that his mother wants him to marry but he doesn't trust many of the woman because he thinks they see him as either an oddity or a way to get to his money. 

I really liked Amy. Her personality came though loud and clear right from the very beginning. She's used to doing the right thing, following the rules she and her parents have instilled in her and following her well structured life plans. But when Pyro decides to let her know that she's been watching him and asks her to go on a date with him, she let's her guard down a little and goes with him. But he lies to her and gets her in trouble. 

Pyro's personality comes across as cold, aloof and not trustworthy. He lied to her, got her in a bit of trouble and just left her there to fend for herself. I disliked him quite a bit for almost half of this book. I wouldn't have given this guy another chance but I can see how someone as naive as Amy would do just that. He doesn't want to marry the female dragon his mother wants him to marry so he proposes to Amy, who he doesn't love or even know all that well. I just didn't like that at all. It seemed like it was going to be a marriage of convenience. Convenient for him is more like it. 

It was towards the end of the book that my views about Pyro changed and I liked him a little more. He is of course a dragon shifter from another planet, not human so he and his kind are not always going to act the same as a human would but it was nice to see him come around and get a little more personality. 

There are a couple of twists or at least a couple of things come to light that were kept secret and that was interesting to see. I enjoyed this book and even though it's the 3rd book in this series, I didn't feel like I was necessarily missing much by starting with this book. I will probably go back and start with the first book though. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Review: Smashbox Always On Gel Eye Liner- Fishnet

Product Description

Pros in our L.A. photo studio were speechless when they saw how effortlessly this super-saturated, long-lasting gel pencil glides on. It stays blendable for a few seconds so you have playtime to create limitless looks.

My Review

I've been wearing makeup since I was about 13 years old. That's 35 years to be exact. I've tried so many eye liners and while some are great, others aren't all that great and are hard to actually get on. I remember back when I was a teenager we would hold our eye liners over a lit match or lighter for a few seconds, blow on it to cool it down and then apply it while it was still warm and gooey. I burned myself on more than one occasional. Kids, don't try that at home. 

I've tried eye liner pencils, liquid eye liner with different tips and while I prefer the eye liner pencils, some are definitely better than others. I've tried the liquid eye liner and I just don't care for it. I like how easily it glides on but it's not as easy to get a straight line for me as a pencil is. So when I ordered this I wasn't sure what to think until I tried it. I was surprised just how easily this glides on, how easy it was to control how much I'm putting on and how easy it was to control the lines. It was effortless to put on and it dries within a few seconds so this stuff didn't come off until I took it off.

Another thing I liked is that it's one of those twist up ones where you just twist the bottom and more comes out the top. So I don't have to sharpen it with a pencil sharpener. I didn't even know that a gel liner existed until I saw this one and was curious enough to order it. 

Now for what didn't work. The product itself is great. The tube that it's in is pure crap. I twisted the bottom once and the tiniest bit came up and then the twisty part stopped working no matter how much I twisted it, nothing more came out. I used a small stiff makeup brush to dip into the top so I could use some more of the product but that only worked for a couple of days and then it was too far down to get at. So I tried prying the tube apart to see if there was any more product in there and indeed there was quite a bit but with the way the tube is made, there's no way to get at it. So while the product itself is great, the tube it's in stops working and won't twist so you can use all of the product inside. That is a major problem. I was only able to use this for a week before I had to throw it away. Just not worth the price, the effort or the problems. 

I will be trying a different brand of gel liner and hope that I don't have the same problem. 

Review: Scorpius Rising by Rebecca Zanetti

Book Description

For Nora Medina it started when she was yanked off a gorgeous Hawaiian beach, still in her bikini top, and onto her ex-husband’s government jet. A microbiologist doesn’t see a lot of emergency extractions, but marriage to Deacan Devlin McDougall taught her plenty about adrenaline. Nora knows it’s more than their unfinished business that has brought the sexy, maddening Scot back into her life. But she’d never have guessed this.

As a soldier of fortune, Deke has seen too much by any standards. But the terrifying bacterium sneaking through the highest halls of power isn’t his kind of battle. All he can do is keep close to his brilliant, fiery Nora and fight like hell to keep her safe. Because if he lets her get sucked down by the horror that’s coming, he’ll never get another chance at her heart . . .

My Review

This is the prequel novella to the Scorpius series. I haven't read this series yet so I'm glad I started with this novella since it gives a bit of background on the world that this series is set in. 

Microbiologist Nora Medina was made to get on a plane and finally meets up with her ex husband, Deke who works for the government. There's a bad outbreak about to happen and so he enlists the help of his ex to try and stop it. A meteorite was found and the kids who found it, cut it into pieces releasing bacteria spores into the kids systems when they stupidly tasted the meteorite. I mean seriously, who does that? Now the kids are sick and they have no idea how to treat them. This is the reason that no one has seen this particular bacteria before and has no idea how to combat it. In other words, it's a real clusterfuck and things are about to get real bad. 

While Deke and Nora are trying to re-kindle their romance because they never stopped loving each other, people are being infected faster and faster and most of them are dying or worst, becoming crazy. There's a madman on the loose and things have gone from bad to worst in a short amount of time.

I really liked the world building, as we see what's happening, how it started and just know what's coming. I really think this was a great start to a new series. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #25

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.

A while back I took a video recording of my neighbors arguing and I said it went on for 3 hours, well these are those neighbors. Last week I heard from other neighbors that they started arguing at midnight and then about an hour into their loud arguing, one of them busted the living room window out from the inside. I was already asleep by that time so I didn't hear a thing. The next morning when I took the dog in the courtyard this is what I saw. They had taped cardboard to the big hole in the window. 

The manager still doesn't know about it but when she does find out about it she'll tell them the same thing she's told others. It's $75 up front to replace the window. If they don't pay for it, it will not get fixed. It's gonna be hot as hell pretty soon and you don't want that big hole in your window letting the cold air out and the hot air in. They have 3 small kids in that apartment. I feel sorry for them. 

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

Favorite Video of the Week

I don't know if you've ever watched Elders React but it's pretty funny and this time they reacted to Slipknot. I actually like some of Slipknot's music and there's at least one Elder that also liked it. lol

Freebie Friday!

*click on picture to enlarge.*

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:

A $100 Amazon gift card from MyPoints.

MyPoints is a website anyone can sign up to use. You earn points by doing things like using their link to shop online, surveys, daily poll and playing games. You can then cash in your points for great gift cards. It took 18,800 points for me to get this gift card but they have lower priced gift cards for just 480 points. I could have cashed in a while back for a smaller gift card but I wanted to save for a bigger one.

This is the notice I got on the site right after I cashed in my points and it only took 5 days for them to email me the gift card.

Have you used MyPoints?

Review: 1001 Nights Bundle Ten by Tessa Bailey, Lexi Blake, Larissa Ione, Laurelin Paige, Jenna Jacob and Sierra Simone

Book Description

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors Tessa Bailey, Lexi Blake, Larissa Ione, Laurelin Paige, and introducing Jenna Jacob and Sierra Simone.

Six Dark Tales. Six Sensual Stories. Six Page Turners.

ROUGH RHYTHM: A Made In Jersey Novella by Tessa Bailey

Band manager James Brandon never expected to find the satisfaction he’d been chasing, let alone stumble upon it in some sleezy Hollywood meat market. Yet the girl’s quiet pride spoke to him from across the bar. But after losing the grip on his dark desires that one fateful night, James has spent the last four years atoning for letting her down. Rock band drummer Lita Regina has had enough of James’s guilt. She wants the explosive man she met that night in Hollywood. And she’ll stop at nothing to revive him. 

DEVOTED: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella by Lexi Blake

Amy Slaten has devoted her life to Slaten Industries. After ousting her corrupt father and taking over the CEO role, she thought she could relax and enjoy taking her company to the next level. But an old business rivalry rears its ugly head. When Flynn Adler realizes the woman he’s falling for is none other than the CEO of the firm he needs to take down, he has to make a choice. Does he take care of the woman he’s falling in love with or the business he’s worked a lifetime to build? 

Z: A Demonica Novella by Larissa Ione

Zhubaal has spent decades searching for the angel he loved and lost nearly a century ago. Not even her death can keep him from trying to find her. But as time passes, he’s losing hope… As an emim, Vex has always felt like a second-class citizen. But if she manages to secure a deal with the Grim Reaper she will have earned her place in the world. The only obstacle in the way of her plan is a sexy hardass called Z. Soon it becomes clear that they have a powerful connection rooted in the past…

FALLING UNDER YOU: A Fixed Trilogy Novella by Laurelin Paige

Norma Anders has always prided herself on her intelligence and determination. She climbed out of poverty, put herself through school and is now a chief financial advisor at Pierce Industries. She’s certainly a woman who won’t be topped. Not in business anyway. But she’s pretty sure she’d like to be topped in the bedroom. Unfortunately most men see independence and ambition in a woman and they run. Then the most unlikely candidate steps up. Boyd, her much-too-young and oh-so-hot assistant surprises her one night with bold suggestions and an authoritative demeanor he’s never shown her in the office.

CRAVING HIS COMMAND: A Doms of Genesis Novella by Jenna Jacob

Mercy O’Connor—known as Symoné at Club Genesis—craves the chance to experience true surrender. The only problem is, she’s set her sights on sexy, commanding Sir Justice, who studies her with his dissecting, arousing stare…but never offers to show her his ropes. If Kellan Graham let himself believe in love at first sight, Symoné would own his heart. After having his life ripped apart, he’s spent years inventing ways to resist simple lust, but each time this beautiful submissive turns her pleading eyes to him, she ignites a complicated conflagration of desire Kellan can’t fight. 

AMERICAN QUEEN by Sierra Simone

It starts with a stolen kiss under an English sky, and it ends with a walk down the aisle. It starts with the President sending his best friend to woo me on his behalf, and it ends with my heart split in two. It starts with buried secrets and dangerous desires…and ends with the three of us bound together with a hateful love sharper than any barbed wire.

My name is Greer Galloway, and I serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States. This is the story of an American Queen.

Every Dark Nights tale is breathtakingly sexy and magically romantic.

My Review

I've read most of these authors so when I saw that this was a freebie I grabbed it up really fast. I'm so glad I did because it was so good. I read fast but this took me a couple of days to finish because there was a lot of read here. So I'm gonna do a mini review of each story. 

Rough Rhythm by Tessa Bailey

James was cruising the bar for another one night stand when he spots Lita and knows that she's the woman he wants to take home. Lita just wants a safe place to stay the night. She's been homeless for a few days and wants to feel safe for one night. He took her home and lost control of his dark desires for that night. For the next 4 years he managed the band that she was a drummer for and all she's wanted is for him to lose control of his dark desires once again. He feels bad about the desires he has but Lita enjoyed herself. Now if she can just break his tight control and make him give into her dark desires. 

Devoted by Lexi Blake

Amy and Flynn meet at the local BDSM club but Flynn knew who she was. Her company and his company are at odds and so are their families. His people are telling him that she is sending spies to his company to find out information but the more he gets to know her the more he has doubts that she is behind any of it. As their D/s bond grows so do the questions and suspicion. Sooner or later he'll have to come clean and tell her who he really is and all hell will break when she finds out she's been lied to. But there are a couple of great twists towards the end of this one so I really like how it ended. 

Z: A Demonica Novella by Larissa Ione

Zhubaal has been the Grim Reapers second in command for many years. He's been searching for Laura, his lost love. Her soul has been reborn into another and he wants to find her and he figures working for the Grim Reaper will help him find her. In walks Vex who wants to get rid of the souls that have attached themselves to her, but as soon as Z touches her he can sense Laura's soul inside Vex. It's usually easy to give the souls that attach themselves to her but this time a very strong demon is inside her and this one doesn't want to leave. It was fun watching Vex and Z get to know one another and realize where Laura's soul really was. 

FALLING UNDER YOU: A Fixed Trilogy Novella by Laurelin Paige

Norma has the hots for her boss but he doesn't feel the same way. When she makes a pass at her boss and he sends her away, it's her assistant Boyd that finds her and asks her what's wrong. After talking with him, she suddenly see's him in a new light. This was a fun novella with light bondage and a D/s relationship. 

CRAVING HIS COMMAND: A Doms of Genesis Novella by Jenna Jacob

Mercy brings charges against the Master that beat her even after she screamed her safe word. After court, she finds herself face to face with her very angry ex Dom who is out for revenge. She runs from him and ends up running right into the Dom at her new BDSM club that she's been watching. He helps her when the ex keeps threatening her and keeps her safe while they try to get enough evidence against him to arrest him. I really liked how these two took their time getting to know one another but he kept something important from her and I didn't like that. 

AMERICAN QUEEN by Sierra Simone

I wanted to like this one but it just wasn't as good as the others in this collection. Ash was an ass. He was pushy, a little self absorbed and he was the President of the United States. Some of the things he did were just hurtful and he expected others to just accept it. He was an ass. Embry just made me sad. He just took what other dished out to him like he didn't deserve more. And then there was Greer, who by the way is our heroine. Not that you can tell by that name though. Greer for a female? That was irritating but she was irritating, naive and much too agreeable. The only character in this story that I liked was Merlin. But he was a bit creepy in a "I can see the future" sort of way. I read the whole story and jut when I thought it was going to end with a happy ending...I get a cliffhanger! A cliffhanger. My biggest pet peeve when it comes to books. My biggest irritation when it comes to books. The dreaded cliffhanger. 

I liked most of these stories and think that this was definitely a fun read for the most part. I will say that if you get this bundle, just skip that last story. It's the only one of the bundle that I can't recommend. 

Have you read this book? did you like all of the stories? I would love to hear what others thought. 

Review: DegustaBox- April

DegustaBox is a monthly subscription box filled with food and drink products. The price for the box is $19.99 a month.  

You do not get to pick any of the products you get, it's a surprise each month. But they say each box contains 10-15 items and each box is worth at least $30. I like trying boxes like this because they usually contain products that I've never tried or haven't seen before. 

What was in the box?

ALO Spring Aloe Vera Juice.
La Tortilla Factory Corn Tortillas.
Country Archer Jerky Co, beef jerky.
Popchips Nutter Puffs - 2 bags.
Angies Boomchickapop popcorn - 2 bags.
Torie & Howard candy.
Amazin' Raisin fruit flavor raisin snack -2 bags.
Fini Sweets candy - 3 bags.
Zeigler's Apple Cherry Carrot juice.
Goya Plantian Chips.
La Tortilla Factory Barbacoa slow cooker sauce.

I was so excited to try all of these snacks. The only thing in this box that I'd had before was the popcorn and plantain chips and they're both really good.

I'm not really into sour candy or fruit candy but Ken and my daughter both liked it. The raisins were so good though. I already like raisins and these fruit flavored ones are so good.

I haven't used the slow cooker sauce yet but that's the only thing out of this box that hasn't been tried. There really wasn't anything in this box that we really didn't like. My favorite thing were the plantain chips and I even had my daughter try them and she loves them now. To me they taste like kettle potato chips. My least favorite thing was the aloe vera juice, it's just weird but again my daughter loved it. I think this was a pretty good box though.

If you don't live in the US, they now have a Great Britain Website. 

  

Now here's a treat for you. If this box looks like something you'd like, you can use code MARYK-ACB and get your first box half off. That's a big box of food for only $10! and you can cancel anytime. So if you're interested, go to the DegustaBox site and sign up and don't forget to use my code to get your first box for just $10.

Have you tried any of these products?

Review: Quinn by D.B. Reynolds

Book Description

Ireland—a land of magic and fantasy, of fierce warrior kings and fairy mounds . . . and, of course, vampires who’ve been around for nearly as long as those beguiling fey.

Brilliant and ambitious, Quinn Kavanagh was aiming for the top, even before he was turned. But now, as a powerful vampire lord, he’s driven by the demands of his blood, compelled to conquer and destroy, to defeat Ireland’s criminal ruler, and make the territory a better place for all its vampires and humans alike. 

Smart and beautiful, Eve Connelly was a graduate student with life’s endless possibilities stretched out before her. She knew nothing of vampires and didn’t care . . . until she watched two of them murder her beloved brother. Now she’s driven, too. But she doesn’t want to help Ireland’s vampires—she just wants to kill them.

Bound together by love and hate, Quinn and Eve will risk everything to bring down the bloody regime of Ireland’s current vampire ruler. But in order to find revenge for Eve and the ultimate power for Quinn, they first have to learn to trust each other. And that might be the most dangerous thing of all . . . . 

My Review

Eve had seen her brother brutally murdered by vampires and she vowed that day she would get justice or revenge for her brother's murder. She finds herself going out at night and killing vampires. She's hunting down bad vampires and getting rid of them.

Quinn had plans of becoming Lord of Ireland and he was willing to do whatever it takes in order to get what he wanted. So when he notices Eve going into an alley with two bad looking vampires, his first instinct is to leave her be but he changes his mind and goes to make sure she's alright only to find that she can take care of herself.

I found the first half of the book pretty slow but things do pick up a bit after that and we find Quinn trying to take over another vampire's territory and criminal business. The battle that happens between these two vampires is crazy and I would say blood filled but when vampires die they turn to dust so it's dust filled. But I did struggle to finish this book because most of the story just didn't move along at a fast pace and I found myself a bit bored with the story and the romance that I had hoped would bloom between these two. 

While there was quite a bit of sex happening between Eve and Quinn, it was just sex. I didn't really feel a connection between these two, no real romance or deep feelings until the end of the book and even then it was meh at best. 

I've only read a few of the books in this series and while I liked one alright, the others just haven't been to my liking. I find this book to be too dark, too gruesome for my tastes. This series is categorizes as paranormal romance and to me the romance should be at the forefront of the story but I really didn't find that to be the case with this book. To me the romance takes a backseat to the danger, gore and criminal elements of this world. If this had been a horror novel I wouldn't have had a problem with these elements but it's not and that was a problem for me. I mean the book starts right off with a dead guy and a woman in shock from the horror-fest she just witnessed. 

I absolutely hated Eve's mother and was actually hoping some bad vampire might eat her for dinner, but then I'd hate to see the evil thing she would turn out to be if she were turned into a vampire. 

If you like your vampires to be likable, romantic and have a conscious then this is not the book you're looking for. Most of these vampires are intimidating, blood thirsty monsters right out of your worst nightmare. Although a few of them are likable, they are few throughout this story. 

This book was slow to start and only picked up a little towards the middle and end. If you're already a fan of the series you might like this book but I can't recommend it. 

I give this book 2 out of 5 stars. 

Disclosure: I was given this book free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"I'm just not understanding how this straw thing works."

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"This is only my second banana chip. I am not becoming obsessed."

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"Dis needs more sugar, and yogis and chocolate chips."

Apartment Life #24

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.

Last month I heard a series of loud popping noises behind me in the kitchen and then right afterwards I smelled a burnt odor. You better believe that freaked me out. Ken was outside but came back home soon after and I told him what I heard. He checked the electrical outlet we had problems with and it was fine and then he checked the hot water heater and sure enough he found a burnt wire, a leaking pipe going to our hot water heater and a burnt label on the hot water heater where the wire had been touching the tank and burned the label and the tank. He flipped off the breakers to the kitchen and pulled the wire away from the tank and told maintenance what he needed to fix the wires. But the manager wanted an electrician the company hired to come take a look at it and fix the leak and wires even though Ken is a maintenance man and even worked at this apartment complex for a few years after we first moved in here. But it got fixed and that's what I wanted. 

*click on picture to enlarge*

I circled in red where the wire got burned. Ken moved this wire away from the side of the tank where it had burned into the yellow label. 

*click on picture to enlarge*

It got burned pretty bad and had to be replaced.

*click on picture to enlarge*

I circled in red where the wire burned the yellow label. You can't really see it because it's far inside the cabinet and on the side where I couldn't get a good shot but you get the idea.

After being in this apartment for 20 years there are going to be things that stop working and need replacing. Thankfully Ken is knowledgeable enough about this kind of stuff that he knew what to do to stop it from starting a fire. But it sure scared me.

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

Favorite Video of the Week

This one has been around for a while but it's still fun to hear what he has to say.

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:
A $25 Macy's gift card from e-Rewards.
A sample of Whole Blends shampoo and conditioner.
RX Bar- Berry Blast.
A sample of L'Oreal Paris Age Perfect Cell Renewal Rosy Tone Mask.
A full size bottle of Best Foods Extra Creamy Mayonnaise and Best Foods Ketchup sweetened with honey from Crowdtap.
A full size bottle of Simply Saline via Smiley360.

I bought some more makeup and a set of 3 rollerball perfumes with my Macy's gift card. They also sent me 2 free samples of perfume with my order.

I love that in the past few months I've received so many of the Whole Blends shampoo and conditioner samples because it really is a good brand and they smell good.

The Simply Saline works a little on my mild allergies. I usually use a nasal decongestant when the wind picks up but this works well for the times I have mild congestion.

The Best Food Mayonnaise and Ketchup were really nice to get since I use both mayo and ketchup. The Mayo has the same great taste that I'm used to but it is a more creamier version that mixes well into dips and sauces. The Ketchup is made with honey instead of sugar which is nice for those looking to watch their sugar intake. To me it tasted the same as most ketchups.

Disclosure: I received free products but all opinions are my own. #Gotitfree

Review: Midnight Wolf by Jennifer Ashley

Book description

The eleventh novel in the New York Times bestselling paranormal romance series, Shifters Unbound.

Angus Murray, bouncer for a New Orleans Shifter bar, is sent to round up an elusive, Collar-less Shifter woman, Tamsin Calloway, who is causing trouble for Shifter Bureau, and possesses information they want. If Angus refuses, he risks losing his cub. He finds Tamsin but she's slippery and not about to be rounded up quietly. 

In fact, quiet is nothing Tamsin will ever be. She leads Angus on a wild chase, but he's determined to bring her in to save his son.

Can Tamsin convince Angus she's worth helping before she's locked away by Shifter Bureau, Collared, or perhaps killed?

My Review

I've been reading this series for years, ever since that first book came out and I found myself hooked on these shifters. The shifters in this series are known to the humans but shifters are kept in shifter towns and they are all collared. Well, they're supposed to be collared so they can't fight. These collars are magically made and they give the shifters a serious shock if they fight. The collars are to keep them controlled since shifters have not been given the same rights as humans have. They are seen as lesser beings but some shifters are fighting back with fake collars so it looks like they are wearing them and they won't get in trouble. 

Angus is sent to find the collarless female shifter and make her take a collar but she's not going along with this easily. Tamsin has been collarless her entire life and isn't about to just give herself over to the Shifter Bureau to be collared or maybe executed for what they thought she had done. 

Angus didn't really want to be there chasing her but the Shifter Bureau didn't give him a choice. When he finally does catch up to her and has a chance to talk with her, she isn't at all what he expected. 

They end up on the run and end up getting help from several other shifters. While Angus and Tamsin are hiding out from the Shifter Bureau and trying to figure out what to do next, they also get closer and he let's his guard down just enough to let her get close to him. I really liked how these two start out as enemies and slowly get closer after getting to know one another. It's a slow burn romance for sure but when they do finally come together, it's so hot and they slowly figure out how much they care for one another. She has a couple of secrets and waits until she knows she can trust Angus before letting him know what they are. 

They enlist the help of their friends to deal with her secret all the while trying to hide from the crazy guy from the Shifter Bureau who wants nothing more than to cut her open and find out what makes her tick. 

I had a lot of fun with this book. It's filled with shifters, a sentient house, a goblin and a being from another realm. it was hard to put down once I started reading but I've loved this entire series so far so I'm really not surprised that I ended up loving this book as well. 

This book releases on April 24th. If you haven't started this series, I would highly recommend it. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Disclosure: I received this book free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Favorite Picture of the Week

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I have Agoraphobia so some days it's damn near impossible to even step outside my apartment door but I do try because I don't want there to be another 5 or 10 year stretch between times when I go outside. Yes, that has actually happened. I walk Falcor on the hiking path that is right next to my apartment complex. This day I walked a little farther down the path to this area. Yes, those are metal tree's and I know I've talked about the metal tree's before but this is a different area that has them. My neighborhood is weird. 

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That sidewalk path on the right hand side is the hiking path that I walk Falcor on and this little metal tree bench is in a little area to the side of that path. 

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This is a wider shot of what this area looks like with the metal tree's and metal bench. It's a strange place to put it because behind it and to the left of it are neighborhoods. So there are houses just a few feet from this area. But Falcor liked walking down here. 

Recipe: Baked Chicken and Vegetables

I've been looking for lower carb recipes I can use for dinner and I came up with this one night. It was really really easy to make too. 

You will need: 

4 chicken tenders or 1 large chicken breast cut into cubes 

10 mushrooms

4 carrots, cut into 2 inch pieces

2 green onions, chopped

1/4 cheddar cheese, grated

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. smoked paprika

salt and pepper to taste

Add all of the spices to a small bowl and mix together

What to do

Add chicken to a baking dish. Add half of the spices to the chicken and mix well. Add 1 TBSP. olive oil and mix again. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes and then add all of the vegetables to the pan along with the rest of the spices and another TBSP of olive oil. Mix until everything is coated with the spices and oil. Bake for another 20-30 minutes or until carrots are tender and chicken is cooked through. 

Top with cheese and green onion and bake for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. 

Now I served this with 2 different kinds of homemade salsa. Here's the recipes for both of them. 

Recipe for homemade Salsa

1 large tomato- diced

1/4 cup diced white onion

2 Tbsp finely diced Cilantro

1 Tbsp Lemon juice

salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together and set aside in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Recipe for Avocado Tomato Salsa

1 chopped tomato 

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 avocado, peeled and chopped

Add all ingredients to a bowl, mix well and set aside in refrigerator until ready to serve.

I served the baked chicken dish with the two salsa's and salad. This was definitely a keeper. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of Rat Logic*

*Picture courtesy of Poppy's Mischief*

"Unless you have food, you come back later."

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"Shhh, I'm concentrating."

Apartment Life #23

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.

UPDATE: The neighbor has been telling everyone that it was a meth lab that got busted. 

This past Tuesday, Ken and I heard a really loud bang and Ken went outside to see what it was. It was so loud and we thought something exploded, scared the bleep out of us. He comes back in and tells me that SWAT is down the street and the bang we heard was most likely a flash bang (it was loud as hell!). So I went outside with my camera and took a few pictures. I have no idea what was going on but 2 guys were later taken out of that apartment in handcuffs. 

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This is the original picture I took before changing it to a more close up picture so you can see how far away it was. I'm standing right outside my apartment complex and the SWAT van was about half a block away. Everyone came out when they heard the explosion. There were people in front of me, in back of me and on the other side of the street looking down the street.

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I enlarged this picture so you could get a better look at the SWAT van and the police cars. 

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Again this is the original picture when I started seeing people moving around down there.

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And this is the same picture enlarged so you can make out the officer in SWAT gear and the other police down there.

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They were down there quite a while and as word spread, more and more people started coming out but no one was walking down that way.

*Click on picture to enlarge.*

There were quite a few police cars driving up and down my street, parked in our alley and parked around the corner.

*Click on picture to enlarge.*

I stayed out there taking pictures for about 15 minutes. it wasn't until a little later that a neighbor said that police arrested 2 guys from that apartment. It was 90F that day so I didn't feel like standing around out there for too long.

*Click on picture to enlarge.*

Lots of people from my apartment complex came out to take a look. This is just a handful of the people that were out there. 

*Click on picture to enlarge.*

As I was walking back to my apartment I saw this police car parked around the corner. They were all over the place that day. It wasn't even 'my' apartment complex this week but I'm sure the people who live in that apartment complex got scared when they heard that loud bang. 

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

Favorite Video of the Week

If you've never seen The Talking Kitty Cat then here's a treat for you and you might find this funny. He has a whole series of videos that are funny.

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:

A sample bag of Purina Cat Chow.
A sample of Emergen C.
A box of O.B. tampons- 18 count.
An envelope of Spinach seeds from Tasty Bite The Good Seed.
And I won a book from a blog contest.
A $5 Amazon gift card from Crowdtap.

I gave the cat food to the lady across the street that feeds the homeless cats in our neighborhood. And I gave the spinach seeds to my daughter since she has a balcony where she can grow plants if she wants to. I used the other two things myself. I haven't read the book yet but it sounds good. I was also approved for 2 of the books I requested on NetGalley...woohoo books!

Did you receive any freebies this week?