Sunday, January 30, 2022
Buy Yourself The F*cking Lilies: And Other Rituals to Fix Your Life, from Someone Who's Been There
Saturday, January 29, 2022
Another January is Almost Over #TheSundayPost!!!!
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
Happy end of January! We had some lake effect snow on Friday, so now our backyard is good and covered with about six inches of snow. A mere pittance of snow compared to what has been hitting the East Coast this weekend!
Today is the final day of my 14-day reset, this is the first time I have gone grain and dairy-free. And potato-free, and processed food-free. I don't think I can keep it up though. I really miss cheese and potatoes. My thought is I'll do my level best to continue to avoid processed food and grains, but I will have a moderate amount of cheese and potatoes. I did make mashed cauliflower that tasted amazing as well as a pork stir fry w/riced cauliflower where the stir fry was tasty enough that I didn't miss actual rice. Also if I could share one more virtuous moment, not that this really should count since I didn't put any effort into it. I'll have had a Dry January come Tuesday when the month is officially over.
Last Food Comment! I posted about a Gluten-Free Pie Crust the other day, I got it from imperfect produce. I worked out really well and I hope I'll be able to find it again. Mmm pie. I could go for a pie.
How was your week?
Coming up this week on my blog:
Thursday, January 27, 2022
#MagicLiesandDeadlyPies #NetGalley Cozy or Not a Cozy?
Here is a description of this book from the publisher:
"Daisy Ellery’s pies have a secret ingredient: The magical ability to avenge women done wrong by men. But Daisy finds herself on the receiving end in Misha Popp’s cozy series debut, a sweet-as-buttercream treat for fans of Ellery Adams and Mary Maxwell.
The first time Daisy Ellery killed a man with a pie, it was an accident. Now, it’s her calling. Daisy bakes sweet vengeance into her pastries, which she and her dog Zoe deliver to the men who’ve done dirty deeds to the town’s women. But if she can’t solve the one crime that’s not of her own baking, she’ll be out of the pie pan and into the oven."
So you see from the description that our prortagonist bakes murder pies. This is not how a typical cozy works even paranormal cozies. So if you are someone who prefers the classic formula of a cozy, this is not likely to work for you. This book also include swearing and dark themes (most specifically domestic abuse).
I enjoy reading all sorts of genres and I've always loved books with magical elements. So this book worked well for me. It felt like more of a thriller than anything else, a magical realism thriller? Well in any case, I don't think it really needs a label. The concept was interesting, the first few pages drew me in and the story had a nice resolution and room for growth.
4 out of 5 Stars. I hope the series continues, I look forward to book 2!
Oh the pie baking scenes made my mouth water--and there are recipes in the back.
Thanks very much to #NetGalley for the ARC of this book! All the opinions are my own!
Here is a Gluten Free pot pie I made recently! Premade dough is key for my pie making skills (ie I don't have any pie making skills!)
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Finally Able to Borrow This Book! Under The Whispering Door!
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I wish I had known that this book has a HEA. I read without hope all the way to like 93%. I'm still having a sadness hangover.
Sunday, January 23, 2022
And Then There Were Crumbs #TheCozyMysteryBookClub January Book!
I am glad that The Cozy Mystery Club is kicking off 2022 with this book, the last couple of books we read were more miss than hit for me, so it was nice to start the year with this solid cozy. You can join us on YouTube tomorrow for the live stream. Ben and Angela are always fun when they talk about cozies!
Saturday, January 22, 2022
It's That Time Of Year! Winter Reading Challenge #TheSundayPost
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
Each year my wonderful local library has two reading contests. Adults read books and get raffle tickets to use to win various prizes donated by local businesses. I know, it is a really nice thing for the library and businesses to do! The contest started this past week and I'll be making a concerted effort to try and win a prize! I need to read as many books as I can! One prize is an Aero Garden! How nice would that be to win!
Do you participate in any annual reading challenges?
This week is the monthly Cozy Mystery Book Club Live Stream, so I have a post about that tomorrow! I really enjoyed this month's book!
Thursday, January 20, 2022
A Letter To Three Witches by Elizabeth Bass Out This Tuesday!
I got an ARC of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. A Letter to Three Witches is out on Tuesday, Jan 25, 2022. I requested this book because I liked the cover and the description promised romance and witchcraft a combination I enjoy in books and film.
This book has a very clever inciting incident that compels you to read more. Tannish, a witch that enjoys stirring the pot sends a letter to her three cousins and that letter sends them into a tizzy. Add into this drama the fact that all four of the witches are banned from practicing magic by the Powers-that-Be due to a screw-up of an ancestor! How will things turn out? A Letter to Three Witches is a real page-turner, one of those can't put down, gotta stay up way past bedtime to see what happens type of book.
This book is billed as a Rom-Com and to that I found it to be heavy on the comedy and light on the romance. So if you are looking for a fun, truly laugh-out-loud book with a nice sprinkling of romance, get this book!
Most of the book is told through Gwen's POV. I enjoyed her growth over the course of the book and I wonder, based on how the book ends if this will be a series of books and maybe we will get books from the perspectives of her other cousins.
4 stars to #ALetterToThreeWitches a clever funny gem of a book!
Thanks #NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book!
Tuesday, January 18, 2022
American Girl by Wendy Walker - A Thriller!
Sunday, January 16, 2022
The Inconvenient Corpse A Cozy Mystery Review!
Now on to the book review, here is the blurb for this book:
Saturday, January 15, 2022
Are Your Holiday Decorations Down? #TheSundayPost January 2022 Week 3-
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 like to wait until after New Years Day to take down our decorations. I don't try to take everything down at once, just like I don't put up all the decorations at once. Putting up and taking them down I do here and there over a few days.
I have decorations that are not specific to Christmas, so I am leaving those decorations up until it's time for Spring. To my winter decorations, I added Valentine's Day decorations. Last week I made a trip to the Dollar Store and found some cute stuff, I even found one gnome decoration for my porch. I bought some dollies and string with the idea that I could make a craft of some sort.
Sometimes when I go to the dollar store (which is now actually the $1.25 store), I buy items planning to get crafty, and well, it doesn't happen. This time, I did follow through--gold star for me!
I took red and white doilies glued them together then I found old pictures of which I had extra copies and I cut the pictures up, glues those to the doilies, and then used red & white string to hang them up, I was thinking about making a garland, but this was a little easier for me to get done.