Saturday, January 30, 2021
#TheSundayPost Ready for February?
Friday, January 29, 2021
#ReadAlong Visions of Heat #ParanormalRomance
It's the last Friday of January already! How are you doing? Hanging in there? We had some snow this week and I got to try out my YakTrax which work great for walking or running in the snow. I'm still looking forward to the snow melting so I can run without the snow. In my perfect world, among many amazing advancements; we would have sidewalks and streets that warmed up when it snowed and we'd not have to shovel or trudge through unshoveled sidewalks and we'd have dry streets that didn't turn into sheets of ice.
Visions of Heat by Nalini Singh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Because Nalina Singh had laid a foundation of the Psy-Changeling world in "Slave to Sensation", I was able to appreciate the expanding universe of this book and deepen my understanding of the Psy-Net.
In direct contrast to Sascha and Lucas's relationship, Faith and Vaughn have a slow, slow burn. There is much to be learned about Faith's family and I look forward to knowing more about the F-Psy Clan in the future. This book is almost all Faith and Vaughn with as much DarkRiver interaction as Sascha had in book one. I noticed that Nalini Singh purposefully uses images of heat, fire, gold to describe Vaughn throughout the book, Singh wants us to notice and understand Vaughn is the sun and Faith is the night sky. Vaughn is a passionate being, an artist more at home in the wild and Faith is a logic-driven woman who lives in her mind-- and sees the beauty of the Psy-net. Their approaches to the world are polar opposites and Nalini Singh shows us how perfectly they fit together.
At the end of the book, we get some information on a character and I was pleased to see that character isn't who we thought they were earlier in the book, I look forward to them coming back into the picture and home someone they are related to plays a role in these books as well.
At the end of this book, we have some idea of how the Dark River/Snow Dancer Clans with their adopted Psy members may someday be able to usher in an end to the Silence and I am here for it!
View all my reviews
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Time To Announce The Winner! And Roast Pork Recipe!
First of All, Congrats to Sophia Rose of the blog Delighted Reader you are the winner of the MLK Day Giveaway!!! Thanks to everyone who entered, I hope all of you added The Sound of Stars to your TBR pile!
Recently the local grocery store had pork roast on sale for only 88 cents per pound so I ordered one and they gave me a 9.5-pound roast. It's huge! I decided the best way to cook it would be in the oven since I had some doubts about it fitting in our slow cooker or Instant Pot. I found a recipe to cook with high heat and then lower the temp for the remainder of the roasting.
How it started!
How it's going! As far as the recipe above goes there is a part where you add apple just and I didn't do that. The vegetables I added to the roast were potatoes, carrots and onion. When the roast was finished the meat was very tender and so some of it will be used for pulled pork or seasoned and used to make tacos. To be determined! Bowie the dog was extremely interested in the cooking process and was hoping he could make this roast his dinner!
Sunday, January 24, 2021
#KillerChardonnay #CozyMysteryBookClub January Book!
Below is my review of this new cozy mystery series and my first experience with a wine-themed cozy!
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
If I have to describe this book in one word, the word I would choose is clever. The sleuth, the mystery, it's clever. Parker Valentine through one part inheritance and one part hard work opens her own winery--quite a feat for someone under 30. Alas, this being a murder mystery and all, someone is killed at the Grand Opening!
I have a very strong suspicion early on about who the killer was, and that was confirmed. It was enjoyable to watch how things played out. Great use of social media in keeping the tension high as Parker tries to save her new business from falling going under before it's even begun.
This is the first book in a new series and I will be back to see what happens next. "Killer Chardonnay" had a relatively high amount of character growth for a Cozy, there weren't too many subplots hanging opened at the end which was quite alright with me. The setting of Boulder, Colorado was larger than the typical Cozy small town, which I think works well for future murders. Author Kate Lansing does a nice job of keeping the number of characters easy for the reader to keep track of and gives side characters nice depth. One of my favorite book details was that Parker doesn't drive a car and relies on public transportation. The book talks about the craft of winemaking in an accessible way that I found engaging.
There seems to be potential for a love triangle and to be honest; I hope it doesn't happen. To keep it vague for anyone reading this, one potential love interest is a character I have already read many times in many books and I'm not a fan of this character trope. As it stands in this book I really liked the love interest portion of the book and I hope that things work out with Parker and BLANK.
All in all, this is a fresh new cozy mystery series--I'm a fan!
View all my reviews
Saturday, January 23, 2021
#TheSundayPost #Giveaways #Book, #BlueApron
Coming up this last week of January I will be -
*Reviewing Visions of Heat for the Read-Along I'm doing via the COYER Challenge
*Reviewing Killer Chardonnay our January Book for the Cozy Mystery Book Club
*Talking about Valentine's Day and other days of note in February!
How about you? Tell me one good thing that has happened to you this week!
Friday, January 22, 2021
Late January A Great Time to Escape to Palm Beach! #ThePerfect10 #NetGalley
Thursday, January 21, 2021
The Midnight Library Book Review and a Chicken Noodle Soup Game Changer! #BookClubBook
Recently the grocery store had a big sale on Chicken Fryers, and that means one day we had Roasted Chicken, and the next day I made my signature Mama's Soup. Usually, I use frozen Reames Noodles, but they were $3.99 a bag and that was $1.49 more than I wanted to pay.
I decided instead to make my own noodles. I found a recipe that I like at The Spruce Eats and tried it out. Nestled in this recipe is the best tip for making homemade noodles. The recipe says you can use a knife to cut the dough into noodles or you can use--a PIZZA CUTTER! Gamechanger! Genius! I'm so glad that someone thought of doing this! A pizza cutter works approximately 40x better for me than using a knife.
Just a few days left to enter my Giveaway, just click on the MLK Day Giveaway Button on the right side of my blog to read and comment!
Today's book review is for The Midnight Library this book is the January selection for a book club I belong to where we will be Zooming to discuss what we thought of the book on the last day of January.
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
When I started reading this book, at first, I thought I would hate it. I even put it down for a few hours. Then I picked it back up for two reasons: 1. I'm reading it for a book club and 2. The title promised me a Midnight Library and I wanted to see what that library was all about.
Once I got inside The Midnight Library, I found out there is a Book of Regrets. A Book of Regrets! That was the hook the reached inside and grabbed me. Now I was all in! I needed to know where this was going to end for Nora.
I have a soft spot in my heart for multiverses, libraries, and Henry David Thoreau. I love what if's and the idea that there are different versions of me out there living different lives having taken different paths and having made different choices. The tale of Nora Seed unfolded in expected and unexpected ways, much like any of our lives would under similar circumstances.
I devoured this book over a weekend, stopping at times to share quotes from the book. Now that the story is over, I think I might read it again someday very soon--and for that reason, it's a 5-star book for me.
I'd like to think there really is a Midnight Library for each of us.
View all my reviews
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
Breakfast For Dinner Vegetarian Edition and A #Romance Review
Sunday, January 17, 2021
MLK Day Giveaway Blog Hop - Enter to Win The Sound of Stars!
The MLK Giveaway hop hosted by The Caffeinated Reviewer and Mocha Girls Read is from January 18 through the 25th. The purpose is to celebrate Black Authors and shine a light on Black Authors you may not already know.
Description
"Can a girl who risks her life for books and an alien who loves pop music work together to save humanity? A beautiful and thrilling debut novel for fans of Marie Lu and Veronica Roth.Two years ago, a misunderstanding between the leaders of Earth and the invading Ilori resulted in the deaths of one-third of the world's population.Today, seventeen-year-old Ellie Baker survives in an Ilori-controlled center in New York City. With humans deemed dangerously volatile because of their initial reaction to the invasion, emotional expression can be grounds for execution. Music, art, and books are illegal, but Ellie still keeps a secret library.When young Ilori commander M0Rr1S finds Ellie's library, he's duty-bound to deliver her for execution. The trouble is, he finds himself drawn to human music and in desperate need of more.Humanity's fate rests in the hands of an alien Ellie should fear, but M0Rr1S has a potential solution--thousands of miles away. The two embark on a wild and dangerous journey with a bag of books and their favorite albums, all the while creating a story and a song of their own that just might save them both."You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Click here to enterWill You Be Having a Three Day Weekend This Week? The Sunday Post is here -
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
Over the last week, no only did I finish up taking down the Christmas decorations, it was also warm enough one day that I managed to repot my plants. I am hoping that the plants I repotted enjoy their new spacious digs. I am a newbie to keeping house plants alive, if you have any recommendations on plant foods and such please comment below!
Tomorrow is Martin Lurther King, Jr. Day! This year I am not working for the first time in many years. Because I love to share great books, I am participating in Mocha Girls Read and The Caffeinated Reader's MLK Giveaway Hop. Tomorrow you can enter to win The Sound of Stars here as well as hop over to other participating blogs to find out about books from Black Authors and enter giveaways. There are so many fantastic mysteries, romance, fantasy, YA, etc, etc that have been published over the last few years and more coming out this year from Black authors!
How are things in your neck of the woods? Read any good books or seen any good movies lately? Have any special plans for the Inauguration on Wednesday? I will be trying a new meal from Blue Apron!
Hoping you have a great week-