Review: Jaxson by Alisa Woods

Book Description

Three brothers. Three Secrets. One hope to save the shifters of Seattle. Former SEAL Jaxson River would give his life for his brothers and his pack, but if he doesn’t claim a mate soon, he’ll be forced to step down as their alpha. There’s only one problem: Jaxson’s dark secret would kill any mate he claimed. With someone kidnapping shifters off the street—and only Jaxson and his brothers, Jace and Jared, to stop them—now is not the time for his secret to come out. 

Curvy Olivia Lilyfield is a half-witch orphan with a dark secret of her own. She wants to atone for it by doing good in the world, so when she finds a wolf being tortured in an alley, she doesn’t hesitate to help… even though wolves and witches mix like matches and TNT.

Olivia’s dangerous magic means she can’t let anyone get too close—but Jaxson can’t keep his hands off her, and his kisses are more than she can resist. As they race to save the disappearing shifters of Seattle, the true danger lies in loving each other. They’re playing with magical fire… and their secrets could end up destroying them both.

Jaxson is a complete novel with HEA, the first in the River Pack Wolves trilogy.

Contains scorching hot shifters, alpha military heroes, and sexy witches. Only readers over 18 should dive into the deliciously hot world of the River brothers.

My Review

Liv doesn't love her job as a reporter for a sleazy celebrity stalking paper but it's paying the bills for the most part and with her so far behind on the bills after a set of bad occurrences happened including getting hacked, she can't afford to drop this job. But that's exactly what she does and on her way home she spots a couple of guys torturing an animal and before she can think about what she's doing, she saving the animal from more abuse. 

Except the wolf wasn't just a wolf, it was a shifter. Once the bad men ran off the animal shifted and thanked her for trying to save him. 

Jaxson had sent Liv off after she tried to save him. He hasn't had much luck getting her out of his mind since then but since he was the alpha of the River Pack, he had a lot on his plate to keep himself busy. 

Jaxson needs an an office assistant and Liv needs a job so they come to an agreement and since they both seem to have the hots for one another it works out well for both of them. 

Shifters are going missing and Jaxson and his wolves are trying to figure out who is behind it. So when another shifter goes missing he and the other wolves go out to find her and that's when a lot of things start happening fast. This story is filled with secrets, twists and so many hot male wolf shifters that seem to be keeping secrets of their own. The three brother's all seem to have some deep dark secret of their own and I'm looking forward to finding out what they are. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"All this, for me. I don't think I can. "

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of Me*

"Happy Halloween."

Review: DegustaBox- October

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?
Goetze's Candy Co. Cow Tales
Kernel Seasonings popcorn seasoning
Boboli pizza dough
Hippeas Organic chickpea puffs
Loacker raspberry yogurt wafer cookies
Welch's Fruit 'n Yogurt Snacks
Bush's White Northern Beans
SunButter Sunflower butter
Bush's kidney beans
Dave's Gourmet Overnight Oats
Artisan Tropic Plantain Strips with Cayenne seasoning

I liked everything in this box except for the popcorn seasoning. I don't eat a lot of popcorn but my grandson loves it so I gave the seasoning to my daughter. The last time there were Cow Tales candy in my box I found out that it's one of Ken's favorite candies. So he was very excited to see them again. lol 

The sunbutter tastes pretty much just like peanut butter and I liked it so that was good. The fruit 'n yogurt snacks are so darn good and again Ken was very happy to see them in the box. I like oatmeal but this is the first time I'd tried overnight oats but it was good. The plantain chips were hot! Tasty but spicy. I'm still on the fence about the chickpea puffs but they are edible. 

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: Crowdtap Crowdkit

I know I've talked to you guys about Crowdtap before but I wanted to show you one of the reasons besides the great Amazon gift cards that I love the site and keep going back...Full Size Free Products!

I received a full size product of each of the following...

Dove Cool Moisture Conditioner

Dove Dry Shampoo, Fresh Floral Scent

Suave Essentials Amethyst Sunset Body Wash

Degree MotionSense Deodorant, Fresh Energy Scent

Degree Clinical Protection Deodorant, Shower Clean Scent

My daughter loves dry shampoo, in fact I just gave her two samples bottles I had of it yesterday.

I already use Degree deodorants and I usually get the Cucumber Melon scents but the Shower Clean scent on this one smells really good. I like the Fresh Energy scent as well and will definitely be using both of them now that I have them. The Amethyst Sunset body wash smells so nice. It's nice to get one free so I'll know if I like it before I buy a bottle of it.

I haven't applied for many samples or products from Crowdtap recently because I hadn't seen things that I wanted to try until these boxes of products started to become available and I'm happy I was approved for one. This actually makes my second box of full size products that I've received from them and I am loving these boxes. If you still haven't signed up for an account with Crowdtap, what are you waiting for? 

Disclaimer: I received free products for review purposes.

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:

From Crowdtap I received *full size products*...

Dove Conditioner

Dove Dry Shampoo

Suave Body Wash

Degree MotionSense Deodorant

Degree Clinical Strength Deodorant

From Seventh Generation I received...

3 samples of Seventh Generation Baby Wipes and a pen. 

Other freebies

14 days worth of Loreal Revitalift facial moisturizer

Rachel Ray Nutrish Cat Food

3 coupons for free Enlightened Ice Cream and Bean Crisps

I already use the Dove, Degree and Suave products so I was ery happy to get those. The baby wipes are always nice to have around when my grandson comes over and gets sticky hands and I already use Revitalift products because I have other samples so I know I'll like this moisturizer. I'm quite happy this week. 

Did you receive any freebies or free samples this week?

Recipe: Softened Vegetable and Avocado Bean Salad

You'll need: 

1 onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

1 tomato, chopped

1 avocado, chopped

1/2 cup of canned kidney beans, rinsed

1/2 cup of canned white northern beans, rinsed

1 TBSP cilantro, diced

2 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed

1/2 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. smoked paprika

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. olive oil

What To Do:

Add olive oil to a saute pan and saute chopped onion, bell pepper and spices over medium heat for 5-7 minutes just until tender but still crisp. Set aside in refrigerator to cool off while you mix the other ingredients. 

In a large bowl add the rest of the ingredients and toss well. Once the softened vegetables are cooled add them to the bowl and mix well. Refrigerate for an hour before serving. 

I thought of this when I got 2 cans of beans in this month's Degusta Box. I wasn't sure what to do with them so I made something up and it came out really good. You can also skip sauteing the onion and pepper if you like them raw but I really don't like raw onion and cooking it for just a couple of minutes takes that bite out of it and makes then taste sweeter. This ended up being a great side dish. 

UPDATE: I also heated some up with a fried egg, a little grated cheese and some avocado tomato salsa. It was really good for lunch. 

Review: That Burke Man by Diana Palmer

Book Description

Todd Burke has no intention of getting hitched to anyone—even if his rodeo-riding daughter is crazy about Jane Parker. He tells himself there’s only room for one girl in his life, but secretly the single dad is nursing a Wyoming-sized crush on the beautiful rancher. There’s no way he’d ever give in to the hot-tempered, hot-blooded cowgirl from Jacobsville, Texas. Until one night changes everything...and Todd finds that he and Jane might just be a match made in cowboy heaven!

Originally published in 1995.

My Review

I've been reading Diana Palmer's books for years but even though this one had been released many years ago, I hadn't read this one so when I saw it on sale for .99 I went ahead and bought it. 

Todd knows his daughter isn't any good at barrel racing but she loves doing it and she is in awe of Jane Parker who is a legend in the sport. Todd meet Jane Parker after she makes what he thinks is a critical remark about his daughter and finds out that she's hurt, recovering but in pain. 

Jane's ranch is in need of a good accountant/bookkeeper and Todd let's her know he's really good with that sort of thing and he gets hired on to straighten out her books and she'll give his daughter some pointers to be a better barrel racer. 

I don't like lies or liars, it doesn't matter if it's a personal relationship or business relationship, it shouldn't start off with a lie and that's what happened in this story. It's the only thing that bothered me about this book. 

But even though they had a bumpy ride at first I really liked these two and Todd's daughter, Cherry is smart and just the right amount of sarcastic to make her really funny. I also felt bad for Cherry because her mother is a world class bitch. I want to say more but that would give too much of the story away so I'll just leave it at that. 

Overall I really liked this book and am glad that I read it. I usually enjoy this author's books and this was no exception even if it did have a few things about it that bothered me. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars.

Review: Target Beauty Box - 2nd September box

This was the 2nd September box, sometimes they release 2 boxes in a month and this was one of those times and was only $5,  but I can tell you from experience that if bought separately, this would have been quite a bit more. Not a bad value.  Each month Target releases a new Target Beauty Box but supplies are limited and it's first come first serve until they run out. These boxes go fast so I try to grab one as soon as I see it being talked about on Twitter or fb.

In this box was...

Curls Unleashed Curl Defining Crème

Curls – Blueberry Leave In Conditioner 

SheaMoisture Argan Oil & Almond Milk Smooth & Tame Shampoo 

Cocoa Butter Formula Lotion Deluxe Trial Size

Animalz Sheet Mask

St. Ives Invigorating Apricot Scrub

SheaMoisture Argan Oil & Almond Milk Smooth & Tame Blow Out Crème 

Chapstick Total Hydration- Blood Orange

I don't have curly hair, my hair is long and straight so I'll be donating that defining creme, leave in conditioner, shampoo and blow out creme to someone else. I'm sure my daughter probably works with someone with curly hair.

I really only bought this box because I wanted that Blood Orange Chapstick as soon as I saw it and it's a full size one to that was nice. I was hoping it would be that dark blood orange color but it's clear although it does have a nice scent but not much taste. 

I have a few of those face masks and I like them so I'll be using that too. I've always liked apricot scrub and even have some in my shower caddy right now so now I don't have to stock up on more. The Cocoa Butter lotion smells so good and it's great for dry hands. 

I really like this box of goodies and it was well worth the $5 in my opinion. 

Have you been able to grab one of these boxes yet?

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"I finally have whirled peas...a whole bowl of them."

*Picture courtesy of Paula Rosa Lea Siviter*

" I really need to start drinking decaf, I can hear colors."

*Picture courtesy of Poppy's Mischief*

"Tan and White rats: I love garlic pizza crust.

Brown rat: The garlic is burning my lips. Does that mean I'm Dracula?"

Review: Taulan by Celia Kyle as Erin Tate

Book Description

He wants to return to Preor and she wants a job, but you don’t always get what you want.

Lana Cooper is down to her last hundred dollars, has no job, and her clunker of a car has finally clunked out. How has her life become such a cluster of horribleness? Oh, right. A guy. Only she doesn’t get a chance to beg for a job. Nope, one walk along the beach changes everything. Oh, she has a job now… as the mate to a hot, hunky Preor dragon male.

Taulan sen Pavon is anxious to return to his home on Preor. Yes, he’d journeyed to Earth in hopes of finding a human mate, but now… Now he would like to heal in the privacy of his aerie. Wings destroyed and body damaged by an explosion, he has no desire to watch others find joy with their mates while he remains unworthy and alone on a ship filled with thousands. But then he finds Lana. Lana with her alluring smile, sparkling eyes, luscious body, and whose mere presence initiates the Knowing.

Can he live long enough to claim her? Can she see past her father’s prejudice to love him? Both questions are pointless because there are still Preor who despise the joining of humans and dragons. They will stop at nothing to drive a wedge between the races. Including murder.

My Review

This is book 2 in the Dragons of Preor series. In the first book the Preor come to Earth to find their mates. They are alien dragon shifters, Earth's government made an agreement with them and now they are allowed to come here to find mates with the willing human females. 

Not everyone was for this arrangement because they wanted to keep their Preor blood pure without human DNA introduced to their species line but without the human females there was a good chance that their race would die out since they didn't have enough Preor females for each male. Some males went hundreds of years without finding his mate which was not a good thing. 

Fighting breaks out and Taulan is hurt. He doesn't think he's worthy of a mate now because of his injuries and wants to go back to Preor. 

Lana who is down on her luck and living out of her car applies for a job at the alien compound and goes for a job interview. She's changed her name and is hiding from someone she hopes to never see again. But before the interview happens she runs to save a child she thinks is in harms way and at the same time Taulan see's her and the knowing rushes over both of them. 

They find out that she isn't who she says she is and she ends up having to go away with Taulan when he claims her as his. 

These two don't start off great because they both have a lot of baggage but as they get to know each other things do start to pick up and I ended up really liking both of them. The fact that there are still Preors that don't want to see their people and Earthlings mated and having offspring made me sad. I know that it would happen if aliens ever do visit, there would be humans that wanted nothing to do with them too. 

I really like the world and characters that this series is bringing about. I've only read 2 of the books so far but I like how the books are showing the Preors culture and how they adapt to human culture through the knowing when they find a mate. I'm looking forward to reading more of this series. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Favorite Video of the Week

Here's my favorite song of the week.

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:

Dunkin Donuts Coffee- Flavors were...coconut caramel, blueberry pancake and dulce de leche.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Recipe: Broccoli Stem Slaw

I'm always trying to figure out ways to eat lower carb sides with dinner because I have diabetes and it seems to be working since my Blood Sugar is lower and my A1C went from 11.1 to 9.1 which is much better. So yay me!

So I was messing around with some broccoli stems since I like eating them raw, I figured I could make a raw salad or slaw and this is what I came up with. 

You'll need: 

4 trimmed broccoli stems

1 celery stalk

1 green onion

1 TBSP lemon juice

1 tsp. mayonnaise

1 tsp. Ranch dressing

What To do:

Cut the broccoli stems close to the florets and trim off the hard outside. Slice thinly and add to a small bowl. 

Slice the celery and green onion thinly and add to the bowl. 

To made the dressing, add the lemon juice, mayo and ranch dressing, mix well and pour over slaw. Mix well and chill for an hour before serving. 

I thought it made for a nice, low carb side dish. 

Favorite Picture of the Week

My brother and sister in law are looking to sell their house and move out of the city. So they were looking in Northern Nevada, Lamoille to be exact and took this picture while they were in Lamoille Canyon. They found a little stream and a couple of waterfalls. 

They saw a small stream and waterfall as they were driving down the road and took this picture from their car. It's interesting to see a small waterfall right on the side of the road like that.

Just Checking In

I'm sure by now most of you have heard about the shooting that took place here in Las Vegas last night. If not here's the story. 

Since most of you know that I live in Las Vegas, I just wanted to check in and let everyone know that my family and I are all alright. My daughter's ex (my grandsons dad) was on The Strip last night but not at the concert and he's fine, he saw people running and the police all over the place. I'm sure it was pure chaos down there at that time. 

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"I don't mind a bath because I get snuggles afterwards."

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"Even though it might taste bad, I don't think the medicine goes there."

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"Well at least it doesn't taste bad and I can do my medicine pose" 

Review: Jarek by Celia Kyle as Erin Tate

Book Description

What's hotter than an alien with scales? An alien with wings and scales, not to mention a hot body.

At 457 Preor years old, Jarek sen Claron is a dragon ready for his final flight into the skies. This voyage to Earth as the War Master of the third fleet will be his final assignment. Once he has helped his fellow Preors secure human mates, he will return to Preor before the madness of loneliness overtakes his mind.

That all changes when he meets Melissa. Human Melissa with her sparkling eyes, bright smile, and body that would make any hot-blooded male drool. Unfortunately, she never registered as a Preor mate hopeful. No matter, the Knowing stretches between them and there is no way she can resist him. Until she does.

Jarek wishes to give her the choice to mate him, while everything inside him screams to take Melissa beneath his wing, now. No choosing necessary.

But should he draw her to his side when his enemies are circling? Many males do not believe the son of a Preor mass murderer deserves to have a mate. Can he survive the coming battles? Or will he die without tasting sweet Melissa's lips?

My Review

Jarek was over 400 years old, soon he would be too old to be of any good to anyone because he hadn't found his mate yet. But things might be looking up since his people had made an agreement with the people of Earth. Some human females had volunteered to be possible mates for the alien race who were looking for females. 

Melissa was just playing with the youngling when a new arrival caught her eye. Jarek knew right from the moment he heard her laughing that she was his, the knowing had hit him. The knowing is what happens to the Preor when they find their mates and he had just found his. 

Melissa hadn't signed up to be one of the possible mates though so that was something that Jarek had to work through. Melissa felt the knowing just as Jarek did and felt the pull to be with Jarek but she resists the pull and him even though it's hard. 

Then Jarek gets injured, while he's recuperating they start to get to know each other and find themselves getting closer. There's a problem because there are those who don't want Jarek to find his mate and that causes all kinds of problems. 

I love Melissa and not just because that happens to be my middle name. She is scared at times but she doesn't let that stop her from doing what she thinks is right or what scares her. I really enjoyed this book and plan on reading more in this series. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Favorite Video of the Week

This is my favorite video of the week. The song is 3 years old but I heard it for the first time this week.

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:

Enfagrow Toddler milk drink canister
Equate feminine pads-4
The English Oak perfume samples-2
$5 Amazon gift card from Crowdtap
Flowers

I reviewed the flowers I received yesterday on my blog, so if you want to see what I thought of them take a look.

I gave the toddler milk drink mix to my daughter because she works with people who have small kids.

I haven't tried the other things yet.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Review: Silk Plants Direct- Flowers

I have a little shelf sitting on my table that I put knick knacks and my wax warmer and I've been wanting some sort of small flower arrangement or terrarium type thing for the middle of the shelf. So when I was asked to pick a product from Silk Plants Direct to review and keep, I was very happy to do so. I ended up picking an arrangement called a Dancing Orchid which is really pretty. 

These beautiful Silk Flowers are being provided by the good folks at CSI Wall Panels.

I have an arrangement of white roses in my bathroom that I made a few years ago so I already like light colored flowers because they really do go with almost any decor. I really like that this arrangement came with the glass vase as well as the rocks and all I had to do was move the flowers around a little bit in order to get it to look just like the picture I saw on their website. I got exactly what I thought I would and like it as much as I expected to.

This flower arrangement came with the glass pot and the rocks. It may look like there's water in around the rocks but it's actually some sort of soft silicone material which I thought was rather ingenious. 

Living in an apartment with no balcony and no where to have a small garden outside makes it easier to have artificial plants inside. Even if I had a house and a yard I doubt I would be out there among the bee's and insects, just not my thing. So I'll happily display my easy to care for Silk Flowers here inside and let others battle the dirt, insects and bee's outside for the living plants and flowers.

I have the flowers sitting on the shelf by my computer table and I think it fits nicely there. 

Disclaimer: I was given a free product in exchange for an honest review.