The Sunday Post Closing Out January

 

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly, or for a monthly wrap-up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme  

This week our weather took a turn for the warmer and that caused me to have a terrible sinus headache that has turned into sinusitis. The turn for the worse happened Friday night so I guess the upside is I have the weekend to relax. However, my plan for the weekend was to work on writing my second book! Yesterday I was smart enough to recognize there was no point in trying to write and I laid in bed most of the day. 

Today, as you can see, I am feeling good enough to sit in bed and write. My goal for today is two thousand words. Wish me luck!

How are you doing? Any fun plans for the upcoming week?  

I'm currently finishing reading Cat Sloan Is Swirling. I'm planning to blog about that on Friday. Tomorrow I'll be blogging about Last Night by Luanne Rice. 

In The Depths of Winter, What You Need is a Cozy Fantasy Read!

 

Life got you down? Are you in a reading slump? Do you need cozy comfort in your life?  Buy or borrow this cozy sapphic fantasy book by Marissa Serrao. This book's vibe reminded me of Legends and Lattes. It may not be officially a category, but this book is a cozy fantasy. There is a unique and lovely world populated with a diverse group of Fae. The story is the hero's journey taken by a half-demon/half-satyr who finds her better half along the way. 

In my experience, most often a fantasy book means a cliffhanger and a second book. Between Mischief & Magic is a stand-alone. The baddies are vanquished and our couple gets their happily-ever-after. 

5 stars for all the cozy goodness!

*****

This week I officially became a published author. I really don't feel like one yet. My brain says, write book two then I'll consider you a real author. Aren't brains weird?  I hope you are having a nice week!  I just finished a domestic thriller and I started reading Cat Sloan is Swirling. I'm also listening to Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone.  

Small Town Romance from Donna R. Madden You Are Enough

He's a modern-day rake. Wealthy, owner of motorcycles, cars, and horses. He has his own place on the family's palatial estate. Women love him and he enjoys all they have to offer. 

Then he meets Leila, a young single mom who is living in her father's basement. She's trying to start a new life with her baby Skylar, the last thing she needs is a man like Adler.

Or does she???? 

Donna R. Madden's fourth book in this small-town romance series is out today! If you like small-town vibes and some of the feels of regency romance, check this book out. If you love reading single-parent romances, you have to check this out! As you read, you may want to know more about some of the couples mentioned and the good news is that there are 3 other books in the series ready for you to enjoy!

This is a stand-alone, guaranteed HEA story of two people who need to decide if they are enough for each other.  

5 stars for You Are Enough

 

Book Release Day! No Gouda Without You by Me!

No Gouda Without You is officially available! It's a Kindle unlimited book so you can download it and check it out via your subscription!  It's also available as a Kindle for under $4 and you can also get it as a paperback! I'm nervous and excited! 

My goal was a book that was filled with Hallmark Vibes and showed life after cancer for someone who had cancer young  (ish). It's the first book in my small town romance series and I am having fun working on book two right now! 

Here is the Amazon link and the book's description below! 

https://a.co/d/hjCZL2W

She survived cancer. Can she survive risking her heart?

Having survived cancer, Nicole Garrett is determined to take care of herself by eating well, exercising, and avoiding stress. She’s got a stable job, good friends, and her own house, and that’s enough for her. Most importantly, Nicole isn’t going to take any risks that could leave her heartbroken again. But when she meets a handsome chef with the cutest dimples she’s ever seen, she begins to question if playing it safe is still working for her.

Sean Harper is the optimistic chef and owner of Jesse’s Pub. After two years of constant devotion, his restaurant is hitting its stride. He’s put every dollar and every hour he’s had into making it a success. Beyond the now positive balance sheet, it’s a way for him to distance himself from his own broken family, who’ve never seen his worth. Then one Sunday, he meets the attractive woman who dismisses his omelet culinary masterpiece, and he can't get her out of his mind, so much so that he starts questioning if he can make room for her in his kitchen.

She’s got plenty of reasons to be grumpy, and, frankly, relationships with men never end well for her, especially given the wounds she’s still healing from. Even though sparks fly between Nicole and Sean, he only has time for his farm-to-table restaurant. If he’s willing to change his view of marriage, can he convince her to open her heart and trust him in return?

No Gouda Without You is a small-town, life after cancer, grumpy-sunshine, steamy romance, featuring a chef who loves a good food pun and a school secretary who’s just trying to survive. Part of the Marley Creek Romance Series, this standalone story includes adventures at a local brewery, Hallmark movie vibes, and a guaranteed HEA. 

The Sunday Post- Not Sure How That Happened

 

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly, or for a monthly wrap-up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme  

I wrote and published a whole Sunday post yesterday and then today I made a post for Tuesday and then I somehow managed to overwrite that post and accidentally post my Tuesday post this afternoon. Whoopsy. 

How was your week?  It was cold here and we had some more snow but not a bunch. This coming week it's supposed to be above freezing and I'm happy about that because on Tuesday I'm medically cleared to run again. Obviously, I'll need there to be snow and ice-free sidewalks. 

I've got two of my posts for this week done, one is for my own book release, No Gouda Without You, and another new release You Are Enough that will be out on Thursday. I also finished reading Between Mischief and Magic and I'll review that either Friday or Saturday. 

Have a great week! 

What A Week! Happy Friday!

 

School was closed on Tuesday due to below zero temperatures and wind chills. This was very handy as I got to spend more time correcting typos and other errors in my book. I went through my manuscript four times this week! It was mentally exhausting, I much prefer drafting the story to looking for mistakes.

My stress level was also eleven on a scale of ten because I had a potential cancer recurrence scare and the appointment I had for Monday was rescheduled to Wednesday. I'm so happy to say I was able to have an ultrasound and nothing is wrong! I could have used a Xanax to get through Tuesday and Wednesday morning. I had some terrible sleep!  

I am almost done reading an ARC of  Donna R. Madden's upcoming release You Are Enough.  The book comes out next week and I'll be doing a blog post on its release day (January 25th). I am also over halfway through reading Between Mischief and Magic.  I'm really enjoying the mysterious world of the book and can't wait to see how it ends.  

Amazon First Read - Thriller with Magical Realism

 Today at my house we all have the day off.  My husband works from home and he is terrible about actually taking time off, so we will see if he goes ahead and logs a few hours of work. It's below zero here so I'm not going to be doing my but staying home today. My big excitement for today is to sign up for my local library's Winter Reading Challenge!  I want to win a fun prize!  A few years ago I won a Fitbit, which was an excellent reward for doing something I love to do. 

Do you have a local library? Do they do reading challenges?  

For January you can get two Amazon First books if you are a Prime member. I chose Almost Surely Dead as one of my choices.  In the book, we follow our unreliable narrator and try to figure out who is trying to kill her and why. There are supernatural elements that reveal themselves as it goes along. Dunia is the main character and her family is from Pakistan and they are Muslim. She isn't a practicing Muslim and is very disconnected from her heritage--but in the book, her heritage is key to the plot.

It's a fast-paced book and I enjoyed it.  I did have a few wait what? moments toward the end regarding a couple of developments in the story. Overall it was a decent read from a new author and I would consider reading another book from her.  Four Stars!

The Sunday Post, Week One Back to School In the Books

 

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly, or for a monthly wrap-up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme  

Thankfully I have tomorrow off work. I love a nice three-day weekend. 2024 has brought the winter weather to Chicagoland. For the most part, we got off easy in December. We didn't have measurable snow and we had more than a handful of days in the 40s and even 50s. Now those days are gone and we have about five inches of snow blowing around and it's crazy cold! We are below zero Fahrenheit (-17 Celcius) until Wednesday.

I have said before on this blog that I have made a conscious effort to embrace the winter season. I've learned to appreciate the quiet of a cold winter day, to look forward to hot tea and lots of layers. But when it's  below zero, ooof. That's too cold! 

This weekend I worked on the proofreading edits and formatting of my book. Let me just say, I am learning so much about grammar and fun stuff like not using numerals in fiction. 

How are things by you? Did you have a nice week? Read anything good? See any good TV or Movies? 

This week on the blog I'll be talking about: 

If you enjoy wondering if your narrator is unreliable..this is a book for you! 

Whisking It All Brings The Heat!

 Do you love a good romance? Are you a fan of the Food Channel?  Do you dig an age gap?  If you said "Yes, Chef" to any of the above, you have to read Whisking it All by Cara Dion. Cara promises sexy times, small-town vibes, and lots of delicious cooking and baking and she delivers. In this book, Tesse returns to her hometown after years of being gone and has a memorable night with Jamie the handsome chef who runs a high-end restaurant on Aster Bay. He also happens to be Tesse's dad's best friend! 

This is the first book in Cara Dion's New Aster Bay series and if you like age-gap, high heat, forbidden love,  small-town romances, this series is for you. Plus, the epilogue of Whisking It All gives you a hint about who is the male lead for book two. 

5 Stars for Whisking It All  Here's a link to find it on Amazon.

This book is available on Kindle Unlimited. 

******************************************************************

If you are reading this in the US on the day I published it, Happy Friday! This weekend youngest Child is going back to college so we will be back down to a three-person household again. I am looking forward to the great reduction in laundry to be washed. But seriously, it gets almost too quiet around here when the kids go back to college. 

I'm Feeling Pretty On Top of Things for Now. Book Club Book is Read- The Second Chance Year

 

I hope you don't mind if I complain for just a moment. I have to wait until January 18th to wear glasses again. Boy, do I miss being able to see up close. You really don't know what you've got til it's gone. I really should just go to the Dollar Store and pick myself up a magnifying glass! If I had one I could use it to see the fine print on food packaging and my phone! 

I adjusted my kindle app to the biggest size it offers and read this book over the weekend: 

This book is categorized as romance on Amazon, but I don't think that is the best category for it. It's more, in my opinion, Sadie's hero's journey with a little romance. The romance is definitely more secondary. So if you'd like a time travel story, a book about getting to make different choices this will be a book you'll likely enjoy. 

I liked it, and I'm glad I read it for a book club next week because I have a few questions and I'd love to hear what other people think.  I read this one, but as long as the narrator is your cup of tea, this would be a perfect book to listen to while you work, go for walks, clean the house, etc.

One big positive in this book is that the cast of characters is very manageable, another reason this would be a great listen. If you are doing any reading challenges and need a romance book, but you don't really like romance that much., this could fit the bill because there is a lot of story outside the romance.

 

4 Stars! 

*********

Speaking of romance, my book is coming out in less than two weeks EEEK! Here is the link if you'd like to check it out and perhaps even preorder my debut book:

No Gouda Without You

Not Just Gal Pals - My First Book for the I Heart SapphFic Book Challenge.

 

I was scrolling Facebook at the end of the year and an author that I follow (and that you should read) posted about a book reading challenge for 2024.  I looked into the challenge and it seems really fun, so I decided I'm going to participate in it this year. I love that you can win gift cards so you can buy more books. Is anything more perfect than that?

Here is the link to the challenge if you'd like to join in!

For this bookish challenge, there are 100 different categories! This book is my entry for small-town romance. I'm happy to report I started right out of the gate with a fun 5-star book! Not Just Gal Pals is the story of Jenny and Blake. Jenny is an influencer who has returned home to Sapphire Springs for a few months to get away from a social media scandal, and Blakc is the local doctor. There are some really cute scenes in the book, like a Pride and Prejudice-themed wedding shower and a delightful wedding in a barn. There is also a very nice amount of heat. If you are looking for a fun read that brings some nice passion into the mix and gives you low-angst. By the end of the story I definitely had a crush on Blake, she is swoony! Add this book to your TBR pile. It's available as a Kindle Unlimited. 

The Sunday Post Oh, No! Back To Work Tuesday

  

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly, or for a monthly wrap-up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme  

All good things must come to an end, right? My break was nice, but I spent all of it recuperating from surgery, so it might have been more enjoyable if not for that. This weekend we finally got a little snow, just about all of December it was too warm for snow.  Now that I'll be returning to school, it will probably get really cold and we will have snow! 

This week I began drafting the second book in my Marley Creek series!  Next weekend I am planning to go to a new brewery in my area for research purposes.  The main male lead in this book owns a craft brewery and I'd like to be able to write good descriptive scenes. 

Speaking of reading, I find myself in the midst of reading two books that have main female characters who are pastry chefs. I"ll be sharing my thoughts on those two books this week as well as Not Just Gal Pals my first finished read of the year. 

How was your first week of 2024? 

This Year My Goal is To Do Better

 For the third year in a row, I'm participating in the COYER challenge.  My goal this year is to be a more active member throughout the year because the COYER community is an exceptional group. Not only do you get to connect via online posts and enter to win prizes, but there are also monthly video chats.  This year I'm working on building friendships in the reading and writing community.  In general, I need more friendships in my life. Covid really did a number on my relationships. 

Would you like to talk to people about books this year?  Click here to find out more and join us! 

Yesterday I think I overtaxed my eyes.  I don't remember if I shared here that I had nose surgery right before Christmas? Yep. It was about midnight on the night before surgery when I realized that I probably wouldn't be able to wear glasses for a while. I miss being able to wear glasses so I can see my computer and my phone. I've been zooming my computer screen and using the maximum text size to read via Kindle, but it still stinks! Last night I did a grocery order and I think that was a big strain on my eyes. Today I have a crummy headache. I need to be good and pace myself because I am going to be going through my book and fixing errors as well as doing the formatting.  Plus I really want to get going on book two. I have most of the outline done and today I realized I can have my main characters get snowed in, or iced it. I'm thinking of a late winter ice storm. 

I used one of my credits for this audiobook and when I'm done I'll tell you about it! 

Lastly, in case you missed it!  You can preorder my book No Gouda Without You via Amazon! It's the first book in my Steamy Marley Creek Romance series!  It will also be available as a KU book if you use KU and after 1/23/2024 you can also order it in paperback! 

Link to order!

What I'll be Taking into 2024

 Have you heard of choosing a word of the year?  Some people do that as a resolution or goal to focus on the attributes of the word they choose. This isn't a tradition I follow, but now that 2023 is in the rearview window, I can see that last year was a year of experimentation for me. I can't even say it was a conscious effort on my part! 

Here are things I tried in 2023 that I'll be taking with me into the new year. These aren't in any particular order.

1. I started watching K-dramas. Turns out I love Kdramas. They are like watching a book come to life. Part of the enjoyment is not only the storytelling but learning about a different culture. It's interesting to see the difference in social norms. I enjoy the dramas so much that I joined the Afternoona Delight Podcast Patreon. I even managed to attend a group Zoom in December. So fun! 

2. We took advantage of living close to a world-class city and made a bunch of excursions into Chicago. We even got to go to a Cubs Rooftop. I think that experience is overrated. I'm not a Cubs fan, take my opinion with a grain of salt. 

3. I was able to sign up for a two-year nutritional and wellness coaching program through my hubs work. I started the program a few months ago and am looking forward to working on trying new ways to exercise this year. 

4. I plan to take writing romance books into the new year. It feels surreal that I finished a book this fall and I am going to work hard to keep writing. As part of that, I plan to make the effort to post here more often. I've been blogging here on and off since 2007. I have not aged a day, but that was 17 years ago!  Can you believe it's 2024?  I hope we all have a good year. We deserve it!

How about you? What are you taking into the new year? 

I'm quickly making my way through the book below, I found it on Kindle Unlimited. It's really cute and has some nice little Pride and Prejudice nods it in. I'll be sharing my thoughts on it soon!