Two Challenges To Talk About!

 My local grocery store had a very good deal on Eye of Round Beef Roast, So I said challenge accepted, let me see if I can cook that.  I didn't know that eye of round roast is tricky to cook since it doesn't have that handy fat marbling that allows you to throw it in a slow cooker and forget it.  In other words, Eye of Round Roast isn't like Chuck Roast.

I did some Google searches and found this recipe from the A Family Feast blog which I followed. I did marinate the roast overnight before cooking it today.  I will say that my oven runs hot and I should have turned the heat down from the 500 the recipe used to 475. The fat cap on my roast was overdone. Otherwise, the roast turned out. For sides, I made roasted potatoes as well as cabbage, carrots, and cipollini onions. 

Here is how it looked going into the oven. I put it on a little rack in a roasting pan, but there wasn't much in the way of grease and I don't think the rack was essential. 

This is the plate of food I prepared and brought up to my husband to eat since he was on a work call. Isn't he lucky to have such a nice wife? 

The second challenge I want to talk about is a book series challenge that I'm going to participate in this March.  The challenge is called Can You Read A Series In A Month? My plan is to use this challenge as an opportunity to read the Reluctant Royals series by Alyssa Cole.  The series is a contemporary romance series of three books and two novellas. 

Join me! Let's read a series in March, and then when March is over it will be time for springtime! 

Can Netflix Make This Book into A Movie? #RomanceReview #HowToCatchaQueen 4.5 Stars

 

I decided to read this book because I enjoyed Alyssa Cole's mystery thriller When No One is Watching. As you can probably tell from the cover this book is a romance.  This is the first book in a new series by Alyssa Cole called Runaway Royals. 

While this book is contemporary, the book takes place in a country where there is an absolute monarchy, so you have some elements that are usually found in a Historical Romance.  The couple in the book Shanti and Sanyu are in an arranged marriage that includes a four-month trial.  King Sanyu is contending with grief over the loss of his father as well as crippling anxiety.  Shanti has focused her whole life on becoming a Queen in order to live a life of service and King Sanyu has spent his whole life trying to avoid the crown. 

This book is a slow burn, but also has the added tension of the marriage trial period.  In addition to reading to find out how and when they will fall in love and make a commitment, we also read to see how this couple will be able to pull the Kingdom out of its downward spiral and bring it into the global community.  I enjoyed the political discussions in the book as well as learning about the mythology of the Kingdom.  Alyssa Cole does an excellent job of discussing mental health as we see Shanti teach Sanyu coping mechanisms, and also as King Sanyu realizes there is no shame in therapy.   

Throughout the book Alyssa Cole puts in some laugh-out-loud lines which are so fun to read, and also there are some quiet lines that really resonate with the reader, such as the one below:

This is a smart romance and interwoven with romance and great sex, we see characters learning their worth and respecting the worth of others.   4.5 stars! 

If you read this book, let me know what you think!

Today is National Carrot Cake Day- I like to eat Carrot Cake, but I can't say I've ever made it!  If you'd like to give it a go today here is a recipe: Carrot Cake Recipe With Video

Happy Wednesday! 

The Lastest From Charlaine Harris! #TheRussianCage #NetGalley

 The Russian Cage is the third book in the Gunnie Rose series by Ms. Harris. The series takes place in an alternative America where America is no longer the United States but has been broken up into new countries with California now being part of the Holy Roman Empire.  The time frame of this alternative history is around the 1930s I think, but it's not really important to know. 

It has been some time since I read the second book in the series so I was coming to this story as someone whose memory of what happened needed refreshing.  I recommend reading this series in order ( Book One: An Easy Death &   Book Two: A Longer Fall  ) so that you can really dig in and enjoy the world it is set in as well as the characters otherwise I think you do a disservice to yourself and the books.

I have read most of Charlaine Harris's many books and the Gunnie Rose series is a favorite. I appreciate that in this series, Lizbeth is a strong independent woman who knows herself very well and is able to say no. One of the best character traits Lizbeth has is that as a hired gun, she is very good at reading people and situations and then acting.  She doesn't get paralyzed by indecision.  

Lizbeth and her sister Felicia are fun characters to read, they know what they want and they don't let others or the conventions of the day put limitations on them.  In this book, we spend more time with Felicia and Felix and really get to know them as the story moves along.  On Charlaine Harris's website, the Gunnie Rose books are described as a trilogy so this may be the final book in the series.  I enjoyed the action in the book and how the story finished.  The ending to this book is very satisfying and it makes sense to leave things there. Now, should Ms. Harris chose to continue the series, especially if it were to branch off to new adventures with Felix or Felecia as our protagonist; well, then I will be the first in line to preorder. 

I give this book a 4.5 star rating, there is magic, there is love, there are bad guys, and the bad guys get what's coming to them. I hope that Charlaine Harris has an inclination to go back and play in this world again, I'd like to see how things go for the people around Lizbeth.  

*I received an ARC via NetGalley all the opinions are mine!  This book comes out on February 23rd, so you have time to go read the first two books in the series! 

#TheRussianCage #NetGalley

#TheSundayPost Ready for February?

 

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

Grab your planner and make a note to celebrate some of these special February Days:

Groundhog Day is Feb 2 --and it's also Ukulele Day!

Feb 4th is Thank a Mail Carrier Day! 

Feb 12th is the Lunar New Year and also Galentine's Day

Feb 14th - of course- Is Valentine's Day

The 16th is Mardi Gras AKA Fat Tuesday or Paczki Day

That means Feb 17th is Ash Wednesday but take heart-

Feb 18th is Drink Wine Day! 

Be sure to come back to my blog tomorrow because I'll have a review up of "The Russian Cage" by Charlaine Harris! 

The whole month is Black History Month so if you need a push make a plan to spend time each week learning some Black History. As someone who likes podcasts let me recommend Uncivil by Gimlet Media. It's a short series and each episode included book recommendations.  

Question of the Day- Do you use a planner? Or do you like to wing it? 

#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. 

Along with the snow has come gloomy grey skies, but since Groundhog Day is around the corner that's when we usually have sunshine to ensure six more weeks of winter!  That sun scares the poor little dude!

 

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!

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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!

#KillerChardonnay #CozyMysteryBookClub January Book!

Our first read of the new year is Killer Chardonnay by Kate Lansing and it is a book Santa brought me for Christmas.  Tomorrow is the online meeting of the Cozy Mystery Book Club you can join us on youtube at 7PM EST for the live stream! One lucky person will be getting a copy of the next book in this series A Pairing To Die For which will be released tomorrow as well! 

Quick reminder you can still enter my MLK Giveaway Book Hop just look for the button on the sidebar here!  The winner will be announced on Wednesday! 

Below is my review of this new cozy mystery series and my first experience with a wine-themed cozy!

 

Killer Chardonnay by Kate Lansing
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!

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#TheSundayPost #Giveaways #Book, #BlueApron

 

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

How was your week?  I'm happy to report here in my neck of the woods, after days and days of cloudy skies, on Wednesday (Coincidence ?) we woke up to sunshine that lasted for a few days. Nothing like sunshine in the winter!  Wednesday was also the day that my bimonthly indulgence of Blue Apron arrived. I should have taken pictures of my meals to share here, but I didn't. The Hubs said they were delicious which was wonderful because he has been known to say things like "I think this food is too flavorful for me." What???? 

If you have ever wanted to try Blue Apron, I have some free meals. If you would like one, just use the contact me form on the right to email me, and then I can send you a link. I don't get any sort of referral money or anything, I just like to get Blue Apron once in a while, and when I do they give me links to give free meals to others. 

I'm happy to report that I finished the last of 5 medical appointments for the month of January and all my fingers and toes are crossed that I need no medical-related contact until the end of March when I have to schedule a follow-up CT Scan for routine surveillance.  It was nice to find out that at each of my appointments the medical staff had already had both doses of the COVID-19 vaccination.  Now I have to make a change to my hope of avoiding all medical stuff until the end of March--if I could get the vaccine--then I'm happy to go to the doctor. :-)  Other than the vaccine, I want to stay away from the land of white coats! 

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! 

Late January A Great Time to Escape to Palm Beach! #ThePerfect10 #NetGalley

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! 

I don't know about you, but I often choose a book to read based on its cover. That is the case with this book by Eric O'Keefe.  I liked the 1960's retro look and the promise of a book set in Palm Beach, Florida. Flurries may be swirling outside my window, but when I open this book I'm transported to palm trees and polo ponies. A perfect escape for late January. 

Going into this book I didn't know anything about polo outside vintage Ralph Lauren commercials.  Now I have a better understanding of the game and now realize that it has a global fandom.  This book is a fast-paced mystery in the style of James Patterson. This book has multiple POV characters and it takes a little while before you, the reader, understand how the different characters fit into the central mystery of who killed Juan Harrington and why. It's like an out of focus picture that slowly becomes sharp.  

As the field of suspects narrows, I had a pretty good idea of motive but I wasn't sure who was the killer before it was revealed. If you like reading thrillers and you enjoy sports, add this book to your TBR pile, and get ready for the high stakes world of the Sport of Kings.

I got this book through Net Galley, all the opinions are mine #ThePerfect10 #Netgalley

Helping me get into the Palm Beach spirit, we finally had a few sunny days here in the land of Lincoln.  I moved our houseplants so they could enjoy the sun as well. 

Cloudy days bum Bowie out

Sunshine Day! 

 

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. 

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
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.

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