Welcome to February! The Sunday Post

 

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'm looking forward to participating in a group chat today to discuss the Night Rebel series organized by Anne from Books Are My Heart! 

Books I'll be talking about this week- 

Happy Valentine's Day! #TheSundayPost Feb 14th!

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly 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 our blog for the week ahead.  See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

Happy Valentine's Day to You! 

I recycled a Cheryl's Cookies box to package up the Hubs Valentine's Day present.  I got him Four Sigmatic Mushroom Coffee we will see if it lives up to their ad which says it doesn't taste like mushrooms...

The halfway point of February is here and this is the point of winter where my attempts to find the beauty in Winter fades away.  Ugh. snow, slush, sliding, cold air, cold wind, cold face, cold feet, and dry inside air. If I could go somewhere warm and sunny for a week to recharge I would go but that is definitely not going to happen this year--maybe in 2022?  That would be so refreshing. 

Well back to Valentine's Day, I hope you feel the love today!  I plan to give some chocolate to the kids and eat some myself! 

Upcoming this week-

Tomorrow I'll be talking about Paczki Day and reviewing Blood Heir by Ilona Andrews

Wednesday I'll be sharing a recipe from Real Simple for Spicy Chicken and Polenta along with a review of a fun upcoming book called Yoga Pant Nation.

Friday I'll be sharing a Cozy Mystery Book Club review of Crime & Punctuation

Are you celebrating Valentine's Day today?  What about Mardi Gras on Tuesday?  

Valentines Day Week! Let's Start with Chocolate Covered Murder! #BookReview

This book is the 18th book in the series and was published nine years ago. I have found that with this series, you don't have to read the series in order.  Lucy Stone is a favorite cozy sleuth of mine. She's a mom of four kids and who grow up during the series and lives in an old house in the small town of Tinker's Cove located in Coastal Maine.  In earlier books, Lucy used to say things like "how could this happen in our quiet town, this is the sort of thing that happens in cities.  (cue eye roll from me).  Fortunately, by this point in the series, Lucy has realized that bad stuff happens everywhere. Her husband is around but mostly know for watching sports, working, and sometimes saying the wrong thing to his wife. This book is no exception as he tells Lucy "a few extra pounds is sexy" when Lucy is feeling bad about a weight gain.  

Lucy is often crabby and frequently nosy, the nosy part comes in handy since she is a reporter at the local Penny Saver and also because there are many a murder in Tinker's Cove. I imagine it is second only to Stephen King's Derry, Maine in murders per capita.

This series is known as a cozy series, but I have found it really doesn't match up with the typical cozy conventions. As is typical for this series Leslie Meier is going to talk about heavy topics, this one deals with opioid addiction and sexual consent.  There is some really outdated thinking highlighted in this book about women's behavior and fortunately, as the book goes on, Lucy does change some of her earlier judgemental inner monologues. 

If you are looking for a Valentine's Day-themed book with a potential serial killer,  look no further! 

Much to my dismay, the book didn't include chocolate recipes--or at least the e-version from my library didn't so here is a Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Recipe from Food Network. 

 

#CozyMysteryDebut! The Guest is a Goner and Valentine's Day Talk

 

Look at this old cute picture of how cute is that kid and how colorful are the clothes.  The shirt has a great reminder for all of us Love Yourself!  Anytime is a good time to celebrate love, but it's almost Valentine's Day so let's talk about that, do you have any tradition you observe, a special dinner or night with your loved one? Is it all about the romance or the friendships?  Oprah Magazine has put together a list of 35 different ideas to celebrate Valentine's Day in 2021.  I like to use seasonal decor to celebrate the holidays so as I posted about a couple weeks ago, I have my DIY Valentine's day decor and as you know I like to cook, so a chocolate dessert is in order. 

And lastly, if you like flowers, get yourself some flowers! Don't wait for someone to do it for you, give yourself the gift of beauty in your home! 

Now on to my book review!

The Guest is a Goner by Carly Winter My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I Need to Know The Answer To The Cliffhanger at the End!

I have to say right up front that the cliffhanger I am talking about is outside the central mystery of the book. Don't worry you'll know why the guest is a goner and who did it! The Cliffhanger is the answer to something I was curious about as a reader and for that reason, I'll be sure to pick up the next book in the series.

This book is the first book in the Sedona Spirits series and is a spin-off of the author's "Tri-town Murders" series, but you don't have to be familiar with that series to start this book. I was drawn to read this book because I thought the title was a hoot and I enjoy paranormal cozies. Bernie and Ruby are a likable duo, grandma Ruby is a free spirit and Bernie is very straight-laced. Their lives have both been affected by Ruby's hardnosed parents and it's interesting to see how Bernie's great-grandparents have had a hand in Ruby's, Bernie's Mom's, and Bernie's personalities and decisions. In the book, Bernie does some important self-reflection and that's a real plus, it's so good to see characters focusing on their mental health.

One of the main components of a cozy mystery is the town and the townsfolk. In this book, it turns out that Bernie is surrounded by terrible townsfolk. At the end of the book Bernie really only has her grandma and a potential love interest and that was rather sad. I hope in the next book Bernie makes new friends with people who aren't murder suspects.

When the killer is revealed it is done Scooby-Doo style, which I *loved* So fun! I also learned that in the Sedona area there are wild boars and they are called javelinas. Lastly, I highlighted one line from the book to share: "The bowling alley smelled like oil and feet."--What a great line!

Overall this is a short cozy, has a quirky duo to root for, and paranormal elements and I will read the next book to see where we go!

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

View all my reviews

You Know What is Super Annoying?

Not being able to talk! That's the new phase of my almost-over cold. I have laryngitis.  If I speak, I sound terrible. I don't feel terrible, but obviously my vocal cords disagree!


I sound more like Bowie when I attempt to speak. It's been rough answering the phone at work, but I'm healthy and I can do all the other aspects of my job so there is no reason to take off work, especially since I have to take off for surgery next week.

Do you realize how difficult it is for me not to be able to yell at The Man?  He can't hear me talking half the time when I am able to speak! How is he to know when we need to leave for work if I am not yelling, "five minutes! we have to leave in five minutes to catch the train!"

And the kids, I can't do my usual questioning of how school is going and make my jokes. Parenting teenagers means bugging them and making them laugh. I can't do either right now.

Poor P keeps asking me if I am ok.  What a good kid. Then I have to croak out, "I'm fine, I just can't talk." Then he says, "What?" as he takes out an earbud. Then I give him a look and shake my head. Then he says "Are you OK? You look upset?"  Then I have to re-croak, "I'm fine. I just can't talk."

I can't even communicate properly with the dog.  Over the last year, I have mastered a special no that I use to get Bowie off the bed when he jumps on it. My no has been very effective up until now.  However, the last few days my no sounds like a Peter Brady voice-changing impersonation, and Bowie isn't falling for it.

Sigh.  The only silver lining I can find is that the laryngitis is great distraction keeping me from getting worried about surgery next week. It's always nice to have a more mundane temporary annoyance to focus one's energy upon.

Yesterday Nothing Bundt Cakes was in our lobby peddling their delicious bundt cakes.  I purchased a Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cake. I ate the whole thing and it was scrumptious.  I regret nothing!  

Then for dinner, I made steak which is a real rarity in our house; we have red meat about once a quarter. Since I couldn't have a conversation with anyone while cooking, I tried my hand at plating food instead. 

You can't see it here, but that steak has a nice crust and is deliciously rare inside. 

Happy Valentine's Day !!💕💕

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Colds and Flu Woe Woe Woe

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OMG I'm so tired of having a cold.  I suppose I should be grateful I have not gotten whatever Dear Daughter and Oldest Child had since they spent a fun 24 hours vomiting. I hate puking. Hate it!

For the record, guess how many times I threw up during chemo? Zero. Anti-nausea drugs are amazing.  This morning Middle Son texted me from upstairs to let me know his stomach hurt and he thought he was going to throw up. I googled symptoms of appendicitis and I think he is in clear. Which is great, last place he or I want to be on a Sunday afternoon is an ER. Ugh.

Blech, cold medicine. These look innocent but they are hard to swallow. The package said they are smaller than they used to be and I shudder to think how bad they were before.

 Also, my cold laughed at these pills. 

Valentine's Day is coming up on Friday and I set a little goal for myself. This week I'm going to make sure to wear something shades of red every day of the week. Friday I think I might get a dozen Krispy Kremes for the kids or maybe I'll go to Nothing Bundt Cake for me! 

Keep your fingers crossed that this cold decides to leave me ASAP and I'll keep my fingers crossed that it doesn't head over to your house!

Xoxo -Victoria

The End Is Near!

I enjoy that the phrase 'the end is near' can be positive or negative. For the purposes of today,
 it's a good thing.

The end of me driving through the gauntlet to go to radiation will be over a week from tomorrow. What is the gauntlet?  Its afternoon traffic on 95th Street where people don't use turn signals, think switching lanes in the middle of an intersection is cool, and too many people aren't paying attention when the light has changed and I am behind them.

Every day I see a few almost-accidents.  I thought I was done with my mini-rant, but before I leave the subject. Every single trip I have to stop for emergency vehicles, this isn't the rant yet, every day there are emergency vehicles going up and down 95th street--because there are two hospitals in a 2-mile stretch. And every day there are foolish drivers that turn in front of ambulances/police or fire trucks. I mean come on people! 

Okay, I'm done now, back to the good stuff. The end is near for January! It's been a long, long month. Yesterday I got my Valentine's Day leggings from Aldi and as you can see, I'm ready for February! Personally, I'm not a fan of February either, but I'm making an effort this year to appreciate the shortest month of the year. If you love February, please let me know your secret. Maybe it is copious amounts of chocolate?  I could give that a try... 

A couple of things about this picture. 1. #nofilter 2. #nomakeup and 3. my hair was still wet from a shower so you can't see the wavy curl of it. I supposed I could take another picture but #idontfeellikeit.

The end of our streak of cloudy days is near, hopefully, Sunday will be as advertised on my app: Sunny and 51 degrees. That is a Super Sunday! If it is that nice, I'm visualizing myself going on a nice long 7-mile run. #Goals!