Freebie Friday!

 

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

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

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

This week I received: 

A $5 Amazon gift card from Crowdtap

A sample of My Way perfume. 

I love the perfume, it smells so good.

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

We had a gorgeous sunset one day this week. Las Vegas Summer sunsets can be very colorful when the clouds roll in. 

Book Review: Clone Sweet Clone by Harlyn Moxie

 

Book Description

Cloning myself is crucial to my survival…

Because who else can I trust to distract the human commander while I’m mating his daughter?

Her work is hard, the days are long, and her father — the only family she has in this entire universe — spends his days avoiding her.

She says it’s fine.

He’s busy. His job is important. He has a responsibility to his men, and to the Alliance. His rank means he has to uphold a certain image — one her attention-seeking behaviors could easily tarnish if he’d even look her way to notice, but he never does — and his constant rejection makes the brightness in her eyes fade a little more each time.

I can’t take it.

All she wants is to feel loved.

And once I’ve made her mine...

That’s all she’ll ever feel. 

My Review

Eden is a doctor working in a medical ward during the war with alien species. Not all aliens are bad though even though humans aren't allowed to mate with aliens. If they do they get sent away to a camp with other aliens and humans who are mated. Eden meets Vin when he brings in wounded soldiers after a mission but something strange is going on because some of the soldiers look just like him. Twin brothers, triplets? 

Vin works with Eden's father, his commander so even though he starts falling for her right away and tells her his secret, they know they can't be together because of the rules and who her father is. Her father is aloof and though she loves him, he seems to keep his distance as well as keeping an emotional distance from her. I definitely didn't care for her father at times. 

Once Vin's secret is revealed, I wasn't sure how she or her father were going to take it especially once the two get together and become mates. The world building, and the prejudice against the aliens who are fighting with the humans to beat back the bad aliens was unjust at the very least. Our government seemed to think the aliens were good enough to fight along side us but not good enough to mate with our human people. It really gave the reader something to think about. 

I loved this book and will definitely be reading more. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Book Review: Shadow Dance by Christine Feehan

 

Book Description

Tensions and passions rise in the city that never sleeps in this propulsive novel in #1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan’s Shadow Riders series.

As the head of the New York City Shadow Riders and his branch of the Ferraro family, Geno bears the weight of dual responsibilities on his broad shoulders. There’s nothing more important to Geno than protecting his territory and his famiglia. So when his own parents become the latest victims in a string of vicious murders, Geno is ready to go scorched earth. He thinks he has the assassin in his sights, but he’s unprepared for the firestorm their connection ignites....

 

Amaranthe Aubert’s lithe dancer’s body conceals a spine of steel. Even held captive and faced with the threat of lethal interrogation, she’s not about to cave under pressure. She had nothing to do with the murders, no matter what the ruthless man in front of her believes. But before Amara knows what’s happening, Geno connects to her in the shadows, stripping her bare of all artifice. Now, she has no way to hide her true reason for being in New York—and nowhere to run from the man who’s very presence steals the very breath from her lungs....

My Review

Geno is the cousin to the notorious Ferraro family whom we have seen in the other books in this series. He as well as his Ferraro cousins are shadow riders, meaning they are able to move very quickly through the tubes of the shadows. Essentially they are able to turn into shadows and quickly move anywhere shadows are. The Ferraro family as well as their cousins gets justice for people who have been hurt by child predators and human traffickers. They are a crime family but they find and kill child predators and human traffickers which makes them the good guys in my book. 

When Amaranthe is picked up by Geno and his crew, he thinks she's there to assassinate him but she's hiding a huge secret and isn't sure who she can trust. Her cover is she's a ballet dancer and she can play the sweet, innocent small woman when she has to, but underneath all that facade is a strong women ready to pounce on her target. But is Geno her target? Geno feels something for her right away and because a Shadow Rider can feel their mate because their shadows are attracted to each other, he knows he isn't going to be able to hurt her in this interrogation which puts him in danger. So when he brings in some of his crew to interrogate her, she panics and does what she's been trained to do which almost kills her and Geno. 

After they both recover, she finally tells him the truth and they start working together to find out who is killing people close to his family. This was a great murder mystery, I had no idea who was doing the killing or why until the reason was revealed. I have been loving this series since the very first book and this was no exception. I liked that we got to see all the Ferraro siblings and their spouses from the past books and had a chance to watch Geno and Amaranthe slowly get more comfortable with each other. Both Amaranthe and Geno have had hard lives. Amaranthe was adopted by the council when her parents died when she was young, she wasn't shown love or affection but she was trained to be a very lethal shadow rider. Geno had to take over his family's business at a very young age when something bad happened to his parents. So these two really needed each other. 

There was so much action in this book and I love watching these lethal shadow riders do their thing. If they have you in their sights, there's no getting away from them. You can't hide from them, because as long as there's a shadow, they can get to you. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

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

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

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

Apartment Life #280

 

This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that have gone on in and around my apartment complex and in my neighborhood in the past 25 years that I've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 25 years here in a weekly blog post.  

Last Sunday during the day I heard the police helicopter over my apartment complex and he was circling low so I was able to get a couple of shots from my bedroom window. But I didn't see any police cars on my street. 

On a side note, can I just say again how happy I am that I found a way to use my camera again. I would never have been able to get this shot with my tablet or phone. 

Since I didn't see any police cars from my bedroom window, I decided to take Falcor for a walk out front and see if something was happening down at the end of the street. And that's when I noticed a police car at the end of the street. The Amazon delivery van was in the way to get a good picture so I had to wait until it left.

Then I noticed the guy in white being arrested. He's a known methhead in the area and a real piece of work since he's known to beat the crap out of his girlfriend. So I was happy to see him being arrested and taken away. The Amazon delivery van was there the whole time. I think he was sitting there watching it all unfold since he was so close. lol  Antwon ( the man arrested) was out and back around here 2 days later. 

Hurricane Hilary Update: 

We are in the path of the Tropical Storm once it travels by California. We started getting a little rain on Friday, had a little more on Saturday. The winds picked up to 50pmh for a while and them things died down. It seems to come in waves, a little rain, winds, overcast skies and then nothing for a few hours. I updated this Saturday night and just wanted you all to know that so far I'm fine where I'm at in Las Vegas. Other parts of Vegas are getting a lot more rain and the mountains are getting heavy rain but it's been pretty calm where I'm at for now. I don't know what today and tomorrow will bring but I will update you with pictures next Sunday. I hope all my readers in California are safe. 

The high this week was 107F/41C

The low this week was 80F/26C

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

Favorite Song of the Week

 

ShallowSky - Delete Me

I found this song as I was scrolling through Youtube like I do a lot of times for songs and really liked this one. The video is a bit weird but I'm not watching the video while reading blog posts so it was fine. I hope you enjoy it too. 

Freebie Friday!

 

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

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

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

This week I received: 

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

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

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Broken Mate by Jen L. Grey

Book Description

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

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

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

*Please Note*

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

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

My Review

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

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

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

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

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

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Book Review: Blood Inferno by H B Jacks

 

Book Description

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No cheating, no cliffhanger and as always a HEA.

My Review

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

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

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

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

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

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

Happy Raturday!

 

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

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

Apartment Life #279

 

This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that have gone on in and around my apartment complex and in my neighborhood in the past 25 years that I've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 25 years here in a weekly blog post. 

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

And then...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

The high this week was 105F/40C

The low this week was 80F/26C

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

Favorite Song of the Week

 

Photograph - By Late Night Savior

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

Freebie Friday!

 

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

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

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

This week I received: 

2 boxes with wet dog food pouches.

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

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

This Tree Holds A Secret...Cicadas!

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is what they look like. 

So is this creepy or cool to you?

Book Review: Auctioned Virginity by Raven Woodward

 

Book Description

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

My Review

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

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

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

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

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

I give this book 2 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Raturday!

 

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

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

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

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