Favorite Song of the Week

 

SKYND - 'Violets are Blue'

I only saw a small clip of this song on TikTok and had to find the rest so I did. I loved the video but when she's singing, she has such a lovely voice. I was surprised I liked the song as much as I did. I hope you enjoy. 

Freebie Friday!

 

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

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

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

This week I received: 

A coupon for a free Yogi tea. 

Several packets of Sunday Riley Good Genes Lactic Acid Treatment for the face. 

3 Initio Unisex perfumes. 

3 small perfume samples. 

Kind Kids chocolate chip bar. 

I'll get the tea next time I'm in the store. 

The lactic acid treatments really haven't done anything to my face. 

The perfume smelled good. The chocolate chip bar was good. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Demon Mine by Marina Simcoe

 

Book Description

They are big, strong and silent. Their faces are hidden behind masks and their bodies are enclosed in armor suits. They took me from my home in the middle of the night and have been holding me in isolation for months.

I don't fully understand the purpose of my captivity. No one explains anything to me. No one even talks to me. Nearly driven to madness with no more hope for freedom, I no longer care if I live or die.

And then, he speaks to me. Just a few words . . . He throws me a lifeline and helps me find my way back to sanity. He becomes my only companion. My light in the darkness.

I suspect they may not be entirely human. What's worse is that he may be one of them.

________________

Demon Mine is a Paranormal Romance with dark elements. It contains sexual situations, graphic descriptions of intimacy, and potential triggers.

Intended for mature readers

My Review

Let me start off by saying this is a dark romance and has some major triggers such as kidnapping, sexual assault, and mental breakdowns. But if you like dark romance then this was a really good one. 

Alyssa was kidnapped because unbeknownst to her, the human government has a peace treaty with the Incubus demons that they are given several women at a time so the Incubus can feed off their sexual energy and not a have war between the two races. 

Alyssa is kept in a small cell, fed and given clean clothes but each night she is taken to a room where she is bound and forced into sexual situations so the demons in the room can feed off her sexual energy. Each of the women captives are treated the same way. The demons don't talk with any of the human females, they wear face masks and body armor so the females can't even see their faces or touch them without gloves on. Most of the Incubus demons are in a deep sleep because there aren't enough human females to go around to keep them fed with their positive emotions. So it's really just the top tier Incubus demons who get fed well. 

Sytrius is Alyssa's handler, he's an incubus demon and he is the one who interacts with her. He's not allowed to talk to her but he listens to her when she talks to him and asks for things during the day and at the end of the night when he brings her back to her cell. He starts to feel sorry for her and have feelings for her and knows he can't leave her there to die when his boss is about to kill her. So without really thinking about it, he helps her escape the facility and they are on the run. 

With the help of one of Sytrius's demon friends they are going to try and change the laws surrounding how the human women are treated because they know this isn't right. Sytrius and the other Incubus are led to believe that they aren't capable of love but Alyssa and Sytrius change some of their minds. 

This book starts out so sad and I didn't like Sytrius much but I came to see that he was lied to his entire life and made to believe things that weren't true. The lower level Incubus are not treated well and are left pretty much starving so that they have to put themselves into a deep, painful sleep so that they don't go insane from the hunger. 

It's obvious that the way they're living isn't working for anyone but the people in charge of things need to change. I ended up feeling sorry for the demons as well as the human females that were given away like they meant nothing by their own people. But the romance was everything you'd want in a romance even though it starts off very dark. I very much enjoyed this book. I look forward to reading more and seeing what changes are made to the Incubus laws in the future. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

Las Vegas Sunrise on a cloudy day.

Las Vegas sunrise on a cloudy day.

Book Review and Blog Tour: Betrayal Road by Christine Feehan

 

Welcome to my stop on this blog tour celebrating Betrayal Road by Christine Feehan. This blog tour is sponsored by Penguin Random House.

Book Description

The stranger frequenting Azelie Vargas’s local coffee shop is a sight to behold. He’s tall, dark, muscular, and a complete distraction. She’s worried one look from his striking silver eyes will have her acting a fool. But it’s not a look that sets Azelie aflame—it’s the way he boldly tells her every dark, dirty thing he’d like to do to her. She should be scandalized. Instead, all she wants to do is say yes.

Andrii “Maestro” Federoff is in San Francisco on club business. Torpedo Ink needs information to bust up a human trafficking ring, and Maestro has found his mark. After weeks of stealthy observation, he’s not sure if Azelie is involved directly, or if she’s just working for some bad people. What he does know is that he needs to get close to her fast, and soon he can’t get enough.  

What began as a setup quickly turns real. But no matter how hot they burn, Maestro’s betrayal could leave their hearts smoldering in the ashes.…

My Review

Azelie works for a bad guy who she's been doing the books for since she was 16 years old. She's really good with numbers and is able to cook the books for her boss. He's a really bad guy though and because of that Maestro (Andrii) and the rest of Torpedo Ink are investigating him for human trafficking. Azelie doesn't know about that though, she's been kept in the dark about just how bad her boss is. 

At first Andrii gets close to her so he can find out if she knows more about what her boss is into but when he realizes that she doesn't, he realizes that he really likes her and spends more time with her getting to know her. Because of his abusive upbringing he doesn't get close to women so this is new for him. 

It was nice seeing some of the other members of the team in this book and seeing how they are doing. I've been reading this series since the beginning and always like seeing other couples from previous books make an appearance.

As he and the rest of Torpedo Ink investigate the bad guy and get a line on where some kidnapped women are being held so they can rescue them, Azelie and Andrii are trying to get to know one another enough to start a relationship. But there are many obstacles in their way including her boss and his secrets. And he has one heck of a secret that gets revealed. It was nice to see Maestro find someone that made him happy and I loved how sweet he was with her. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Disclosure: I was given an e-ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Photo Credit Michael Greene

About the Author

Christine Feehan is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Carpathian series, the GhostWalker series, the Leopard series, the Shadow Riders series, and the Sea Haven novels, including the Drake Sisters series and the Sisters of the Heart series. She also writes stand-alone contemporary romantic suspense set in the California backcountry. Learn more online at www.christinefeehan.com.

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

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

Apartment Life #331

 

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.

One of the vacant apartments in my apartment complex had the bedroom window busted out and the homeless people were coming and going from the bedroom of the apartment all weekend. 

---

Last week I was talking to one of my neighbors (Preacher) that has a little dog and walks her early in the morning like I do Falcor. I usually get up between 4AM and 6AM to take him for a longer walk before it gets really hot in the Summer time. Preacher told me that he was out walking his dog at 2:30AM and when he got back to his apartment, 7 teenagers between 16-19 years old, bum rushed him, pushed him inside his apartment, knocked him down and started kicking him in the head, and the ribs. Then they ransacked his apartment looking for anything valuable and ran out. 

 He's an ordained minister which is why people call him Preacher. He's one of the nicest guys around here. 

He also has a store in his apartment where he sells things that a convenience store would have like soda, snacks, cigars, candy ect. He also designs clothes and sells them.  He showed me his ribs and he was all bruised up.

I carry a tazer but I doubt that would do me any good against half a dozen guys beating on me. They thought he was an easy mark and thought they would get something but he said they didn't get anything of value. He called a neighbor to take him to the hospital when they left.

The very next day one of the homeless guys that always says hi to us told us that he got jumped by some teenagers and they took all his stuff. He's homeless, he has no stuff to take! That's sad.  

This neighborhood is getting bad.

---

On Tuesday my daughter's ex-boyfriend showed up in our courtyard after he found out that she was talking to another guy in our courtyard. 

He was on Tiktok live as he yelled for the guy to come out of his apartment and face him. When he wouldn't the ex started banging on this guys security screen and broke it. He took off soon after. Thankfully the guy who lives here had the sense to stay inside his apartment and not come out and confront the ex.

The police showed up but they said they couldn't do anything because the ex didn't hit the other guy. I would have thought they could at least get him for destruction of private property but I guess not.

But they said the neighbor should go down to the local police station and make a report in case anything else happens. Then they left. My daughter is thinking of getting a restraining order. 

  

The high this week was 106F/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 Video of the Week

 

Ateez- Halazia

Just like last week I'm sharing a KPOP song that I really like. Ateez is another of those KPOP groups that I really like. I don't even care that I don't know what they're saying because their voices are so nice. These guys can really sing. I hope you enjoy. 

Sky Pictures

 

These were all taken last Saturday when we had a bunch of clouds and a chance of rain. 

With all the big clouds that got dark, I thought for sure we would have a little rain but we didn't. 

But the clouds made for pretty pictures.

It didn't cool anything down either because it was still 108F/42C

Book Review: Big Girls Bite Back by Lissa Lynn Thomas

 

Book Description

A vampire, a werewolf, and a demon all walk into a bar...

Sounds like the start of a bad joke. Want another? Alright, how’s this?

They bring with them a greater demon and the most powerful vampire in all of NYC. One wants my help, the other wants me dead.

Hysterical. Too bad it’s not a joke—just a typical Saturday night for me.

I guess the upside is having sex with me hasn’t sent any of these smexy troublemakers to the hospital... yet...

Frackin’ fudge fluffers...

Contains mm interactions, bi & pansexual characters, lots of humor and sexy scenes.

My Review

Elora goes to her friend with a slight problem. Anytime she sleeps with a guy, he ends up needing the ER because she has drained him of energy and she doesn't know how or why. Her father just wants her to find a nice witch/warlock in their coven and settle down and she just wants to live her life. So when she asks her friend to make her a spell to only attract men who can handle the energy she pulls from them, the men come out of the shadows looking for her. 4 men, shifter, demon, vampire and human come looking for her when they feel a pull towards their mate. 

They all have their own problems and the guys have to get used to Elora having more than one mate which some of them don't like but they make it work for the most part eventually. 

They have to deal with a crazy bad guy coming after them so they have to run. All of them have to come to terms with the arrangement they have if they all want to have a relationship with her. They get to know each other better while on the run from a bad guy which was fun as well. It was a good story and the action was great, their relationship is complicated at times but incredibly spicy. This was a fun read. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

Summer Sunrise in Vegas.

Summer Sunset in Vegas. 

My camera stopped working so I'm back to taking pictures with my phone or tablet for now. So pictures going forward might be a little blurry. Sigh.

Book Review: Alpha's Choice by Julie Ranseth

 

Book Description

Some choices are worth the risk

When Emma Chambers finds herself falling for Alpha Tobias Parker, she can't help but feel a little unsure. Werewolves take mates seriously and, as a human, she doesn’t know if she's ready for the challenge.

As their bond strengthens and love blooms between them, danger lurks nearby. An unknown creature is hunting human females, and now Emma and Tobias must protect their love and the pack.

Can their newfound bond withstand the test of time, or will they succumb to the dangers of the unknown?

My Review

When Emma's mother finds her wolf shifter mate, Emma finds out about shifters and moves with her mother and stepfather to his pack. Emma is young and Tobias the pack alpha is young so of course they act like 20-something young adults would and make mistakes along the way. But because they are so young I had a hard time relating to them at all. Emma acted childish a few times and I had a hard time liking her. When Tobias realizes that she is his mate, for a wolf shifter it's instantaneous and expects her to act like a shifter would and just accept that they are mates, but she's human. 

There are some misunderstandings and a creature hunting females that put them all in danger. I liked the drama, danger and action but could have done without all the angst in their relationship because she's so young and in her first ever relationship. I might keep reading this series just to see if it gets any better. I did like the ending of this book though. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

"I got a new backpack for back to school."

"I found a Cheerio."

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

Apartment Life #330

 

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 is the security for my apartment complex that I told you about a few weeks ago. Signs were put up with their phone number if we wanted to call them. They are not here all the time or even at regular times. You never know when you might see them. But the thing is, they never seem to get out of their car. They pull up on the street, sit there for 15 minutes and leave and then I don't see them again for a few days. lol Good going guys. Way to make us feel protected. 

I told you guys a while back that the painters never replaced the address numbers on the buildings after they painted my complex. So twice over the last 2 months I've sent them emails telling management that ambulances were having a hard time finding the right building and addresses and that could be a health hazard. They never responded but the building numbers are on the buildings again. At least the buildings closest to the street...

You can see the two buildings in this picture I took when the buildings in my courtyard were being painted. There are no building numbers for the back buildings now. 

There are two buildings in each courtyard and each one has a different building number. Well they didn't put up the building numbers for the back buildings closest to the alley, just the ones closest to the street. They messed up again. Good going guys, job well done, yet again. *Good grief*

---

On Friday I saw a bunch of police on my street. 

Whew boy, there was a lot of police on the street. I heard one guy say that someone got stabbed.

So I stood outside to see if I could hear anything else. Apparently 2 homeless people got into a fight and one stabbed the other in the arm.

I did see a guy be put in this police car. I never saw an ambulance but they could have come before I saw anything happening because the police weren't out here for very long. 

When I went out with the dog later after all the police had left, I found some blood on the sidewalk.

It wasn't an enormous amount but enough that you could tell someone got hurt.

Hopefully the guy is alright.

The high this week was 113F/45C

The low this week was 88F/31C

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

 

Stray Kids- CHK CHK Boom

I've told you before that I like some KPOP and this group is one of those KPOP groups that I really like. I saw that they had some new songs out and I really liked this one and wanted to share it. I hope you enjoy. 

How An Allergy To Raw Shrimp Got Worse Over Time

 

Back in 2012 I wrote a blog post about my allergy to raw shrimp but not cooked shrimp. Click the link to read it if you want. That post has over 44K views and over 100 comments from people who have the same allergic reaction to raw shrimp. That's a lot of people especially since I thought it would be a weird reaction that would be rare, obviously it's not. If I touched raw shrimp with my bare hands, I would get redness, itching and blisters.

In the past year I have noticed that my allergy has slowly gotten worse. Whenever I ate cooked shrimp, my mouth would itch and sometimes burn or sting. My throat started hurting but the reaction only lasted about 30 minutes so like with the other foods that cause this reaction (banana, avocado, cantaloupe, honey dew melon) I just dealt with it and ate it anyway. 

That is until about a month ago when I ate some shrimp that I cooked and within a few minutes the palms of my hands started burning and itching like crazy. The first time it happened the itching lasted for about 40 minutes and my back started itching too. 

I wanted to make sure that it was because of the shrimp so I ate some more a few weeks later and sure enough within a few minutes the palms of my hands started itching really bad and then so did my back. There were no hives, no visible marks, just incredible crazy itching. But this time the reaction lasted for an hour. So as of now, I don't eat shrimp anymore. I hope the other allergies for foods that I have don't get any worst. 

How weird is that, right? Do you have any food allergies?

Book Review: Claimed By The Cthulhu by Wendi Gogh

 

Book Description

MONSTER SPEED DATING—sounds fun, right?

Except my life as a marine biologist takes a slippery turn when I mistake a cthulhu for an octopus, only to find him seated across from me on date night.

Now, every time I turn around, he’s there.

Watching.

Winking.

Waiting until I succumb to his charm.

But I’m not ready for love. I have my studies, a mission to save the ocean, and a secret darker than the deepest depths of the sea.

Will Chaos claim me as his, or will I run from him like everyone else in my life?

My Review

Do you like a fun monster romance? If you answered yes, then I have the perfect book for you because this was so much fun!

Chaos is a Cthulhu and a scientist who is looking for a cure for his people so they don't have to keep suffering through the spawning instinct that they can't fight each year. Monsters are known, they are out and humans know about them. 

Marea and Chaos run into each other in the water and she thinks he might be an octopus but things get spicy between them right away. Marea thinks she won't run into Chaos again but when she goes to a monster speed dating outing with her friend, Chaos is there and he's not letting Marea get away this time. 

Along with the fun romance there's also some very deep, heavy topics going on with some of the secondary characters including child loss, spousal loss, and some scientific findings to help his people. 

But the romance between Chaos and Marea was so funny and spicy at times that I found myself laughing at them. He's such a great character and he's so sweet, I just loved him so much. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Falcor Funnies

It's been really hot here 117F/47C so I bought Falcor some booties to protect his paws. He hates them. lol 

But the videos of him getting used to them are funny. 

Book Review: Protection of A Bear by Jennifer Snyder

 

Book Description

His bear wants her, but she’s running scared from her past. Will he be able to save the woman who’s managed to capture his heart?

Hunter Shaw and his bear lead a tranquil life managing Shaw Cabins with his three siblings on their family mountain. That is until he meets a woman who stirs something in them both, causing Hunter to feel restless in his own skin. His previously content existence now feels lifeless and hollow. Hunter needs more—he needs her.

Naomi Hart recently broke things off with someone and left town. The problem is, her ex didn’t accept. Now she’s in a cabin on a mountain terrified he’ll find her. When the attractive owner of the cabins, whom she can’t seem to stay away from, offers to protect her, Naomi knows she shouldn’t take him up on it. After all, her ex isn’t exactly human.

As the attraction between Hunter and Naomi grows stronger, her pursuer catches up with her. Hunter understands in order to protect her, he may need to release his bear. But will Naomi accept what he is, or will fear of his family secret push her away?

My Review

Naomi is on the run from her ex-boyfriend who happens to be a panther shifter. He's not taking no for an answer and he's been sending her texts letting her know she's his and he's on his way to find her. She just wants to be left alone after seeing that the ex is not a nice guy. 

A lady Naomi has never met before gives her something at a gas station and tells her about a bakery for a better snack than what she could find at the gas station. So she goes there and runs into Hunter. Hunter is having a bad day and the fact that Naomi just bought the last sprinkle donut does nothing to alleviate his grumpiness. So when they run into each other again and he helps her during a bad thunderstorm, they stop fighting the attraction they feel for one another and get together. But her ex is still sending her texts and has no intention of letting her go. She wants to leave but Hunter tells her he can help her but she has no idea that Hunter is also a shifter. So when they showdown happens, the ex is in for a shock. 

Hunter is a big, burly, kinda grumpy dude. But he turns into a love sick fool once he and Naomi get together. Who knew that finding your mate could make that much of a difference in your personality. 

His brothers are great secondary characters and I am looking forward to seeing them find their mates as well. This was such a fun read. I liked that we got to see how things are working out in the epilogue at the end of the book too.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

"Just having a chocolate covered strawberry."

"I like grapes."

"We all like licking chocolate residoo off mom's fingers."

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