Apartment Life #84

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.

2 years ago Ken caught the maintenance man outside and told him he'd help him put a new light bulb in the security light but that it needed to be done today. We had been without one for 2 weeks and the crackheads had been milling around our courtyard late at night because at night it's really dark in our courtyard. This was back before Cal Ranch put up those really bright security lights pointing our way too. We had been the only ones to keep the outside light on at night. At least we now have a bright security light at night even if it took Ken going out there demanding he put one in and helping the maintenance man install it.

A little while after this picture was taken this maintenance man was fired. The manager was out of town for 2 weeks but the office is attached to the manager's apartment by an inside door. Well the manager left that door unlocked and this idiot maintenance man helped himself to some of her food. But he didn't know that her son was staying in the apartment so when the son saw the food was missing, he called his mom and her boss and turned the guy in. 2 days later he was fired for stealing. #DoNotStealFromYourEmployer

It's been pretty quiet this week but we did see an ambulance show up for someone in my courtyard. My daughter was outside and snapped a picture for me. I don't know what they were here for though.

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

Review: Bitten Creamy Lemon Poppy Seed Dressing

I recently received a coupon for a free bottle of Bitten Salad Dressing. I found it at Smith's grocery store and we decided on the Lemon Poppy Seed Dressing. 

I was expecting this to have a lemon zing to it but I can't detect any lemon flavor at all. It mostly tastes like an Italian dressing to me. This dressing is thick, so thick I couldn't get it to pour out of the bottle. I had to take a knife and coax it out. I will say it has a pleasant taste but I'm bummed that I can't detect any lemon flavor at all. 

This would be perfect if they thinned it out a bit with some lemon juice. That would make it more pour-able and give it a lemon kick. There are a lot of poppy seeds in this dressing which might be adding to the thickness of it. So while this does have a good taste to it, it's lacking lemon flavor, is very thick and tastes more like a zesty Italian dressing to me. 

We did enjoy it with our salad that night with dinner and the next day for lunch but I'm not sure that I would get it again. 

Disclosure: I was sent a free coupon and this post is not sponsored at all. This post was just about me reviewing a new product that I tried, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Freebie Friday!

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

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

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

I received a box from Pinchme. Inside was a sample of Lumify eye drops, a coupon for a free Bitten salad dressing and mini greeting cards with envelopes.

I also won an Amazon giveaway of a stuffed animal net which is going in my Christmas box for my grandson.

I've used Lumify before during allergy season and it does work well. The mini greeting cards are really cute. I found out that Walmart as well as Smith's grocery store carries that brand of salad dressing so I asked my daughter to go and get it for me.

Did you receive any freebies this week? 

Old Postcards

A while back my dad gave me a couple of postcards that he'd had for a long time. I looked at the postmark on them and two were from 1955 and one was from 1949. They were from my grandparents (dad's parents) and my aunt Zona (grandma's sister). 

The postmark on this one was 1949 and it was from my great aunt Zona to her sister and brother in law (my grandparents). I thought it was kinda cool to have something not only this old but from my great aunt and grandparents.

This one was postmarked 1955 and was from my grandparents to my dad.

This one was also postmarked 1955 and was from my grandparents to my uncle Roy and cousin. 

The front of the postcards has a plane from TWA (Trans World Airlines), a picture of the S.S. W.H. Gordon and a picture of the Arc De Triomphe in Paris. 

I just thought that is was so cool that my dad had kept these three postcards for such a long time and was giving them to me to keep and pass down to my daughter at some point. 

Favorite Picture of the Week

This week I took Falcor for a longer walk because I'm still working on my Agoraphobia and we walked all the way to the end of this path until we got to the street. I was laughing because of what I found at the end...

...another metal tree and bench! Now I've talked about these metal tree's and benches before and you can find that post here. But essentially they are part of the beautification project here in Las Vegas. Along my street there are several of them and I just found another one. 

As you can see from that first picture and from of my other posts, we have desert landscaping and instead of grass and a bunch of tree's that means we have dirt, rocks and plants/tree's that don't require a lot of watering. In my courtyard there's rocks on the ground a large Pine tree's. I've made fun of all the large rocks in my neighborhood and here are a couple more next to the bench. 

And for you Christine Feehan fans out there, I am a guest reviewer over at I Smell Sheep, where I reviewed Shadow Warrior along with another reviewer. It's a double review! I hope to see you over there. 

Review: Rocked By Her Alpha by Mina Carter

Book Description

Her ideal men are long dead, but apparently it’s time to get back to the land of the living. 

Archeologist Melody Simmons spends her days sifting through shit…fossilized werewolf shit. Since her last romance ended badly, she’s been off men… the ones that haven’t been dead for a couple of hundred years anyway. Close to proving that her current site is significant, she is blindsided when her cousin books her a blind date through an exclusive agency. 

Knowing some battles are better left alone, she doesn’t expect much… a nice meal and an overnight stay at a fancy hotel… instead, she finds her date is hotter than hades and better yet? He’s a werewolf. A lean, muscled, longhaired alpha werewolf she suddenly wants to test all those theories about werewolf stamina with…

He wants a woman who doesn’t know who he is, he doesn’t expect to find his mate. 

Werewolf rockstar and lead singer of the Lyric Hounds, Aaron Rixx has it all. Talent, fame, riches… but he’d give it all up for a woman who sees the man and not the rockstar. In a fit of… something, he books a date with an exclusive and very discrete agency. At the very least, he might get a night of sex and some alone time to write and compose new material for the band. 

The instant he meets his date though, all bets are off. She’s small, curvy, beautiful… and the one thing he never thought he could have: his mate. Now all he has to do is convince her of that. 

But missing siblings and car accidents conspire to keep them apart, and he loses her. Can he find his mate again before a crazy fan decides that the best way to remove the competition for his affection is permanently?

**Previously released with a different publisher under the title 'Melody's Wolf'**

My Review

Melody is on an archaeology dig where she thinks she finds proof of werewolves even before they were have thought to be around. While she's testing the samples she found, her friend sets her up with a kind of dating agency. It's been a couple of years since she dated anyone and her friend thinks she needs to get back out there. Melody agrees and goes off to meet her date, Aaron. Where she's taken is a lavish estate which makes her think her date is wealthy. But Aaron just wants to spend some time with a woman who has no idea he's a rock star. For their date he just wants to be a man...even though he's a werewolf. 

These two hit it off right from the very beginning. Aaron senses that she's his mate right away and Melody is attracted to him, so much so that they start making out a few minutes after meeting. They spend the night in bed and get really close. It isn't until the next morning when she hears him singing that she realizes who he really is and when they are about to spend more time together he gets an emergency phone call and has to leave. 

While Melody is on her way home, something bad happens and she loses his phone number that he scribbled on the back of her hand. That was the only way she had to get a hold of him since she never gave him her phone number. But they do find their way back to one another and it was as good as I hoped it would be. These two were meant to be together, if only they could get rid of the stalker who is making both of their lives a living hell. 

This was so much fun and Holy Hotness, Batman! These two were sexy as hell together. Aaron is one alpha werewolf who knows exactly what he wants and he wants Melody. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Happy Raturday!

*picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"I has a cherry."

*picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"Dis cherry iz a little tart."

*picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"Human, can you hurry up and take the picture already?"

Apartment Life #83

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.

I know this is a really bad picture but I didn't have time to go outside before the police took off, so I took it out the bedroom window. But you can see the two cops cars with their lights on in the picture. Apparently there was a fight 3 doors down from me and the guy took off after the woman called the police. The police left and I haven't seen the guy back here since they had the fight.

Ken came in last Sunday morning and I found out he burnt his thumb *not bad* because he stopped a car from catching on fire. The battery in the car had shifted and the red terminal was touching the body of the car which I guess made everything around it really hot. It was smoking and Ken told the guy to move the battery upright but it was so hot that it was partially welding itself to the car. Ken pulled a wire off and burned his finger because it was so hot and then grabbed the battery by the handle and yanked it off the car but the metal got so hot it left a hole in the metal of the car. Ken is fine and the car didn't catch fire but Ken said it was close.  

Last Saturday one of my neighbors let another neighbor borrow her van to run an errand at 9am. The woman came back a little while later and dropped her husband off and took off with the car again and didn't tell the woman that she was taking her car for another errand, she found out from the husband who then shut his door and wouldn't answer it anymore on Saturday. I found out about it at 9pm and the woman still wasn't back with the van and the husband wouldn't answer the door. The woman who took the van wouldn't answer her phone. Come Sunday morning she still wasn't back and the owner called the non emergency number who told her she had to wait 48 hours before she could report it stolen. Meanwhile the husband didn't come out of his apartment all day Sunday. Then Sunday night the owner's daughter called her and told her that she spotted the van at a 7-11 and there were 4 guys in it but the woman who took it wasn't there. The owner told her daughter to call police and let them know but since it hadn't been 48 hours yet and it hadn't been reported stolen they wouldn't even come out.

So the daughter went over to the van and told them the van had been reported stolen and they needed to get the hell out and give her the keys since it was her mom's car. She then asked where the woman who took it was and they told her that "red" had let them borrow the van for a little while. It turned out that "red" had let them borrow the car for a few days in exchange for some drugs and she was passed out at someone's house now. So the guys got out, gave her the keys and she brought the van back to her mom. They checked the van out and there wasn't a scratch on it. She's damn lucky. The woman who took it came back home but she and her husband are keeping a low profile in their apartment. I've seen them a few times but they aren't sitting outside like they used to do every morning. This is the same woman who I saw standing in her doorway naked a few weeks ago. 

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

Review: Ipsy Glam Bag

Ipsy is a monthly subscription box that sends you 5 sample size makeup or beauty products. You can customize what they send you by filling out the personal surveys. I've been more into makeup products lately and decided to try another subscription box. I love the bright pink package they send it in. There's no mistaking who that's from when you see it in your mailbox. These bags are $10 each.

I have two extra products the eyeliner and the HD Finishing Powder, I took advantage of the add-ons you can add to your bag each month. These add-on were $3 a piece but worth it.

What was in my bag?

The two add on items I got were...

Bella Pierre HD Finishing Powder

Eyeko Black Magic liquid eyeliner.

The other items in my bag were...

MAC Pre+Prime gel primer

R+CO Waterfall Moisture + Shine Lotion for hair

SLMissGlam SS57 Blending Brush

Pixi By Petra H2O Skindrink face gel

Naked Cosmetics Loose Pigment in Naturally Nude

A glittery makeup bag

I love trying new primers because they really do help the makeup especially foundation go on more evenly. Loving the blending brush because I didn't have one like that. The shine lotion and the face gel smell so good! The eyeshadow is a cute pinkish color and I do love a nice pink color. 

I just started using finishing powder about a year ago after watching a youtube review and tutorial of it. You're supposed to use a beauty blender and dab it on right after you use concealer under your eyes. It's supposed to keep the concealer from creasing and set the concealer. It also gives you a bit of brightness under your eyes. I've been using it ever since. 

The only bad thing about this bag was the glittery makeup bag. Holy glitter bombs, Batman! I didn't realize that this glittery makeup bag was drooling glitter all over every damn thing it touched or even came within 100 feet of until I had already staged it on the table for a picture, and put it in my cabinet in the bathroom. Then I started seeing glitter all over the table, my mousepad, my shirt, my arms, pants and my camera. I ended up getting it out of the cabinet and throwing it away because it was actively dropping glitter babies all over everything. You know what they say about glitter? Glitter is the Herpes of the craft world. Because once you get it, you can never get rid of it. They're right. I've cleaned, vacuumed and dusted and I'm still finding glitter in crazy places like my stove. How? Just how?

14 Years Blogging!

It's hard to believe that I've been blogging now for 14 years. Most days I post whatever I want and you guys seem to like my posts so thank you for sticking with me and visiting. My blog has changed over the years. I started out writing about what it was like having a teenager and what was happening in my day to day life. I've been in the same apartment for 21 years and things are always crazy around here so I started my weekly post about my apartment life. I think that might be the most fun to do because I never know what might happen from week to week. I started reading more books because of the great book recommendations from my fellow bloggers and I started sharing more book reviews because of you. I started taking and sharing more of my own pictures, reviews and thoughts because of all the encouragement I've received over the years from the other bloggers I've visited. 

A lot of you have been with me back when I had hamsters, gerbils, rats and now my dog. You were here to lend me emotional support when my mom died and shared my joy when my grandson was born. Ken and I will be celebrating our 29th year together in September which is hard to believe. 

I've vented here, shared my advice, my thoughts, and met a lot of wonderful people. Some of you have been friends since I started and some of you are new friends which I love meeting. So for all of you that have been around a long time and for my newer friends I want to say thank you for visiting, commenting and enjoying what I've been posting over the years. I hope we're all around blogging for many years to come.

Review: Target Beauty Box - May

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. I haven't bought one in a couple of months because I didn't care for the products in them but this month I did. They are $7 a piece and usually well worth the price.

What was in this box?

Dove Cool Essentials Dry Spray Antiperspirant. 

Bliss Jelly Glow Peel. 

Sincerely Jules Assorted Hair Jewelry. 

Masque Bar Holographic Sheet Mask. 

Hawaiian Tropic Sunscreen Mist. 

SGX NYC The do it all 3 in 1 Dry Texture Spray for hair. 

Sinful Colors Nail Polish- Fool For Azul. 

For $7 I'm really happy with this box. I really like the sunscreen mist. It's been hot here, in the 90's and so I always wear sunscreen when I'm out. I can always use more so I was happy to try this one. It smells good, didn't break me out and I'm not red from the sun so it seems to work. 

Dove Cool Essentials is the one that I normally use so I love getting something that I already like. Bliss products are great. This stuff if like a gel consistency and when you rub it on your face it collects the dirt, oil ect and you just rub it away as you rub it around your face. I like it. 

The nail polish is a nice color but I doubt I would wear it. I'm sure my daughter will be getting this. I also gave her the hair jewelry. They look much better on her than they would have someone who is almost 50 years old. lol 

And of course I got another sheet mask. I was wearing a chin mask this week and Ken said that I looked like I broke my jaw. LOL I keep getting the sheet masks and I keep using them but I have yet to see it do anything more than leave my face soft. At least they don't break my skin out.

So for the most part I really like this box. 

Did you sign up for this box?

Review: Walmart Beauty Box - May

The Walmart Beauty box is a subscription box that comes out 4 times a year. You sign up for it and it comes automatically every 3 months. These boxes are just $5 each and shipping is free.

What was in this box?

A cute makeup bag. 

V Line chin up face mask. 

Purely Inspired Collagen Peptides drink mix. 

Hello Nauurally Whitening toothpaste. 

WoodWick Candle- Lavender Spa scent. 

Burt's Bees Daily Face Moisturizer. 

I mixed the collagen powder according to the directions but I didn't like it and didn't drink it. Nope. The lavender candle is nice if you don't mind the lavender scent. It's not my favorite scent but to a lot of people this smells like medicine and it doesn't to me. I've been using Hello toothpaste since I was sent another sample of it a while ago because it really whitens my teeth and it's not nearly as expensive as a whitening toothpaste of most other brands.

Another face mask, oh joy. Yeah, it left my skin soft but most moisturizers will do that. This one however is just for the chin area and hangs from your ears. Now there's a good look. It's supposed to fight the appearance of sagging around the chin area. But once again I saw nothing, it just moisturized my chin. ken said I looked like I was bandaged from a broken jaw. My skin didn't feel any firmer in that area and my double chin is still there. lol 

The Burt's Bees moisturizer is a pretty good one. It works about as well as any other moisturizer will. I do like the little makeup bag too. I think this is the second one I've received in the Walmart Beauty Box so far. For $5 I think its's pretty good. 

Have you signed up for the subscription box?

Learning To Live With An Avocado Allergy

When I was a kid we had a huge avocado tree in our back yard. We had grape vines on the fence and strawberries in the front yard. My grandma had a plum tree in her yard and a cherry tree. Living in California when I was a kid meant that I could pick a lemon off a tree in the neighbor's yard when I walked to school or eat a few Kumquats on the way home after school because the fruit tree's were everywhere and most people didn't care if you took a few as long as you asked first. Yeah, I like eating lemons the same way most people eat oranges, I always have. 

I'd always loved avocado's and we had them all the time but after eating them I always noticed that I had a scratchy throat and my mouth burned. I never said anything to my mom because it was just something that happened and I really didn't give it much thought. But as I got older, I started finding I was having a more serious reaction to avocado's as well as other fruits and even some other foods. A few years ago I wrote a blog post about my allergy to raw shrimp. If you click on the link to it you'll see that I wasn't the only one with this allergy. I have dozens of comments from people who have the same reaction and believe me, I was surprised. 

I saw a doctor years ago and he told me that I have a mild allergy to avocado and he asked me if I had the same reaction to any other foods and I do...kiwi, banana, cantaloupe and honey dew melon. With most of these fruits I just get a scratchy throat, burning lips, tongue and mouth but the symptoms usually goes away within an hour. But I had a vastly more severe reaction when I tried honey dew melon last year. My tongue slightly swelled up and my throat felt like it was on fire. I felt like I had strep throat and the symptoms lasted for over 3 hours. My entire mouth was burning and stinging. That was the first and last time I'll be eating honey dew melon. 

Unfortunately my daughter has inherited my fruit allergy so when she came over the next day I asked her if she'd ever tried honey dew melon and she hadn't but she wanted to see if she had a reaction too. So she took a tiny piece of it and sure enough she had a bad reaction too. But at least now she knows not to eat that again. 

My doctor said since I've had the same reaction to these fruits for so many years it's not likely to get any worst but it's my decision if I stop eating them. I like avocado too much to stop eating it and my daughter is the same way. I still eat the fruits that cause a mild reaction and I just deal with the scratching and burning for a while until it goes away. I won't be eating honey dew melon anytime soon though...ouch!

Have you ever had an allergic reaction to food?

Happy Raturday!

*picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

"You ready to play dis game?"

*picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #82

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.

The last apartment manager we had took off all the metal numbers for the apartments that were on the walls next to the doors outside and instead put these bright stickers with numbers on the doors. Our doors are a very dark brown so this made the apartment numbers stick out so that delivery people could find our apartments easier. I was fine with the stickers on the doors. 

This week the newest manager handed out these black metal numbers and told everyone to use the nails and nail them to the doors and remove the stickers. LOL

These are the same exact metal numbers that had been up on the wall near the doors before the stickers! I have a security door on my door so if I were to put this on my door, no one would even be able to see it because it's dark on dark. Ken said he's going to paint it bright silver and then put it on the door.

As of today, no one has put these numbers on their doors. If she really wanted them up she would have done it herself or had the maintenance man do it. Most of the residents here won't even bother to take their trash bags farther than outside beside their doors and she really expects people to take the time to put up new numbers? It's never gonna happen. Maybe the next manager will just spray paint big numbers on the doors. Who knows what will happen. 

And last Friday one of the women in my courtyard decided that she didn't like the new $50 fee each month for not having Renter's Insurance and she went down to the office and threatened the apartment manager's life. Real smart. So the manager called the police *I didn't see them come* and they took a statement. Then On Monday the manager gave the woman a 3 day nuisance eviction notice. So she had until Thursday at 5pm to move out. She started moving out on Tuesday and now she's gone. She didn't have all of her stuff out on Thursday evening when the manager came to change the locks on the door so she brought out the rest of her stuff and sat it outside her apartment. That's what I took a picture of. 

Then yesterday *Saturday* my neighbor knocked on my screen door and asked me to call the police for him. The woman he has staying with him had been yelling at him for over an hour and wouldn't leave because she said he must have taken her wallet since she couldn't find it. The police came, her brother showed up and the police made her leave. The police told her she could come back tomorrow and get the rest of her stuff and they could call them back if they had any problems. She was one of the trouble makers that got evicted last month and when she had no other place to go, she went to him and he let her stay there. After everyone left he came back to my door to thank me for calling them. She hasn't shown up yet today. 

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

Review: Unchained Desire by R.C. Alvarez

Book Description

Chained to a demon queen for hundreds of years, fallen angel Ramiel has given up on his brothers and sisters––and humanity. He has seven days away from hell to replenish his power and that’s all he cares about––right up until his meeting with the much too innocent Kyria. He fell for that act before and it landed him in hell, he won’t be making that mistake again.

To save her sick father, Kyria knows she must find Ramiel. He’s dark, brooding and everything Kyria should be scared of, but the haunted look in his eyes makes her think there’s more to him. The tattoos and chains don’t frighten her either, but the connection she has with him does. When strange creatures attack her, Ramiel steps in to protect her.

Ramiel believes he’s reluctantly helping Kyria, but what neither of them knows is that she may be the one to save them all... 

My Review

Kyria and her father had been on the run from the cartel even since she was a child and the cartel had killed her mother. But now her father is sick and she had to be the one to find this mysterious Ramiel that her father was always talking about. 

Ramiel was only given 7 days a month out of hell in order to restore his holy essence, after that he is dragged back to hell by the demon who held him captive. The demon used his blood for experiments and there is no end in sight to the torment.

Kyria sets out to find Ramiel when her father gets sick, but when she finds him he wants nothing to do with her until she finds herself in danger. For whatever reason when Ramiel senses Kyria is in danger, he comes to her rescue and lets her in on a few secrets. There's a whole other world of beasts out there that she never knew about and now that they know she exists, they'll be coming for her and her father even more than ever. By the time they get back to the motel room where her father was, he's gone and they set out to find out what happened to him. 

 Kyria and Ramiel go back to the ranch she and her father had been living at for a few years where she finds out that the people she thought she knew, were keeping a lot of secrets from her. A huge twist is revealed and Kyria finds out what she really is. On their journey to find Kyria's father they come in contact with some of Ramiel's family when he needs help. While searching for her father Kyria and Ramiel become a lot closer than either of them had plans to. Their romance was sweet, and sad in part to Ramiel having been tortured for so many years in hell. But he's such a great guy even if he didn't realize it after having been beat down for so long. There was a lot more to this story than I first thought which made it a real page turner. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for a review but all of my opinions are my own. 

Freebie Friday!

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

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

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

What did I receive this week?

A pouch of Albacore Tuna from Mom's Meet. 
Coupons for free dog food and a free Mountain Dew.
$15 Amazon giftcard for cashing my points in on MyPoints.

If you sign up for an account at Mom's Meet you can answer surveys and earn points that you can cash out for things like pouches of tuna and other products.

If you don't have a MyPoints account yet, click on the link above, sign up for an account and use their link when you shop online to earn points. There are a lot of other ways to earn points too but that is the fastest one I've found. They have a wide range of gift cards you can earn.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Review: Rise of the Fallen by Donya Lynne

Book Description

He's an ancient vampire who's ready to die . . . until a spunky exotic dancer risks her life to save him and becomes his reason to live.

As an ancient vampire, Micah has seen more tragedy than he can stomach. Restless and on a path to self-destruction, he's ready for his suffering to end, so he seeks out a ruthless enemy who's only too happy to kill him.

Samantha is on the run from her abusive ex, working as a dancer in a swanky gentleman's club. One night after work she stumbles upon a group of thugs beating Micah to death and bravely charges into the fray, guns blazing, determined to save the handsome stranger.

In Sam, Micah finds a reason to live--and love--again. But now that she's put a target on her back, he'll have to take extreme measures to protect her. With her obsessive ex closing in and an enemy who will stop at nothing to exact revenge, are the odds stacked too heavily against Micah? Or will finding something worth fighting for be enough to give him the advantage?

My Review

Samantha is an ex Army medic on the run from her abusive ex, Steve. She's taken a job as an exotic dancer and lives in a small studio apartment. Samantha knows that she's only a few steps ahead of Steve tracking her down so she's saving as much of her money as she can. 

Micah just got dumped by his mate and its caused him to drop into a bad depression. He just wants to end his life so he sets his sights on a Dreck who would be oh too happy to kill him. But he doesn't expect Sam to come to his rescue when she spots Micah getting his ass kicked. 

Micah and his team work for AKM- All The Kings Men, they are vampire enforcers. They policed the Drecks who were like vampires but lower class and not as strong. Micah's team have several members but Trace was the one who intrigued me the most. Micah keeps most of them at arms length and he's known for being the grumpy one you stay away from and just let him do his own thing but they are there for him when it matters.

The Drecks that had been beating Micah up are pissed and are out to get Sam for stopping them and saving Micah. Sam is in danger so she really has no choice but to go back to Micah's place until he can deal with the situation for her but that doesn't stop the Drecks from coming after her. 

I really liked the Guardian aspect of this story. He was a bit mysterious in the beginning. I'm still not sure exactly what his deal is or what exactly he is but it'll be interesting to read his story.

When Sam's ex finally catches up with her, I thought it was pretty funny how she decides to get her revenge on him. She has Micah there to help her so I knew it would be something good. Never mess with a vampire. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Review: CoverGirl Outlast All Day Lip Color- Dusty Rose

You all already know how much I like to try new makeup products. So a while ago I was watching some Youtube reviews of this lip color that claimed it would last up to 24 hours. I don't usually wear lipstick because for 1. I have thin lips and 2. you have to re-apply it all day long. I like to do my makeup in the morning and forget it. Seriously, I hardly ever touch up during the day. So I figured I would give this a try and see if it lived up to the hype.

The website says this, "The #1 original long-wear lipcolor! Our advanced formula with resilient, brilliant coverage, color and shine gives you up to 16 hours of color that stays true in just 2 easy, breezy steps. Outlast has a moisturizing topcoat that helps lock in shine-no feathering, no bleeding. Food, Kiss and Workout-Proof, virtually life-proof. Moisturizing topcoat that keeps lips feeling moist, soft and smooth."

So the box says last 24 hours but the description says up to 16 hours. Hmmm. 

There's a ton of different colors to choose from. I like a pinky color so I choose Dusty Rose and it is a pretty pink color. The color goes on like a liquid lip and dries down matte really fast. After it dries down you can then add the clear top coat which goes on like a smooth lip balm and you can re-apply that as needed. 

It felt fine on my lips and did live up to the claims that it didn't come off on my cup and even lasted through eating breakfast and lunch. But right around the 7 hour mark I noticed that a lot of the color was gone, it had started feathering and just didn't look good anymore. So I reapplied it and it lasted until I took my makeup off that night. What remained easily came off with a makeup remover wipe. 

I used it again the next day and for several days after that. For me, it lasted about 7 hours before I had to reapply but that's pretty darn good for a lip color. My only complaint is that if you rub your lips together a little too hard, it will flake right off. So you do have to be careful about that. But for the most part I think this was a win for me. I am thinking of getting a couple of other colors now. 

This is what it looked like on me. It's a pretty color. I think most of my lipsticks are just about the same color as this so I liked it. 

Review: Brightest Shadow by Candice Gilmer

Book Description

The Mythical Knight Book 1

This werewolf alpha wants her. She's not interested.

Losing a father is always hard, losing a father who’s a pillar of the community is harder. When he’s the alpha of your werewolf pack it is even harder. 

Still, that’s exactly where David Drigan finds himself--lost and rudderless after the death of his father. 

Nonetheless, the final transformation to turn David into the leader has yet to happen, leaving his family wondering if he will ever be strong enough to lead his pack.

Trying to step into his place in society, David meets Kelsey.

Blonde. Curvy. Attitude. 

There’s just something about her that makes David’s beastly desires surface unlike ever before. The need to take her and protect her, if only from herself, overwhelms him.

Not that Kelsey would let him. She doesn’t need anyone to take care of her. Never has. 

But this David guy? He's not her usual bad boy. 

He’s, like, a suit.

Crazy. 

Then things get crazier. 

One night at her favorite decrepit amusement park, she learns there’s a lot more to David—and the world—than she ever expected.

Is Kelsey ready for this darker world where she would have to step up and truly stand by her alpha?

My Review

David just lost his father, the alpha of their pack and now they were all looking to him to be the alpha but the change that was supposed to happen to him to make him alpha...just wan't happening and he had no idea why. David and Kelsey met at a party on his behalf even though she didn't know who he was when they met. The attraction they felt for one another was almost instantaneous but they both had roles to play at the party so they didn't get a chance to really talk much. 

They meet again when he comes to her work to sign some papers and they make a date to go running later on. They get along really well and like being around each other which was fun to watch. Kelsey has no idea that he's a werewolf even though he's let a few things slip but she never picked up on it. 

Then when they're at one of her favorite places to spend time, some bad mythicals as they call themselves, show up and put David and Kelsey in danger. David has no choice but to shift into his wolf in order to keep them both safe from the bad guys, but it's a shock. She takes the whole thing pretty well at first and then just wants some space. I don't think she really knew how to deal with all of it but I can't really blame her.

There's a couple of interesting characters in this book and even though they seem like they are almost bad guys, I think there might be more to them than that. It'll be interesting to get to see more of them in future books. But I really think an opportunity was lost when we didn't get to see more of David's mother's grief over having just lost her mate. I realize this isn't her story but the expected grief just wan't there which made her character a little less believable. 

I really enjoyed this author's writing style. I felt drawn into the story from the very first pages. I never got bored and always felt like the story was progressing nicely. We don't get a whole lot of world building so I hope to get more of the mythicals and how they came about in the next books. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.