Just In Time To Go Back To School

 

Just in time to go back to school, I have to have dental surgery. Because of a medication I take due to post-cancer treatment effects, I can only have the dental procedure timed a certain way. So it's now or wait six months and hope that the teeth at issue don't cause more problems. 

All this to say I'm going to need to use all my energy to make it through the work day and the other people in this house are going to have to pick up the slack.This means I need to stop myself from making sure the dishes are in the dishwasher properly. 

A tall order!

I hope I have an easy recovery. I do have plenty of books to read and lots of book work to do, so I should try to concentrate on that and not think about someone putting the wrong stuff on the top rack or mixing towels with pants in the washer.

How about you?  Are you laid back around household chores?

*****
I forgot that I had pre-ordered Sanctuary by Ilona Andrews until the other day. I then proceeded to read this novella. If you haven't read Ilona Andrews before, please drop everything and read them! This book features Roman who is like an intermediary between a Slavic god and humans. There is a lot of folklore in this story and I found it really interesting. It doesn't end with a cliffhanger, but it ends with the immediate danger being dealt with and more action and adventure to come. You can read this as a stand-alone, but it's more pleasing if you've read the Kate Daniels series. 

If you are a mood reader, this book takes place Dec 23-25.

Five stars of pure awesome!

What's A Reader Magnet?

 This month I'm working on writing and editing my reader magnet. What's a reader magnet? I'm glad you asked. It's a short story I can give away virtually to people as a thank you for signing up for my newsletter! So Victoria, how's this reader magnet thing going?  Well, I wrote about three-quarters of the story back in January and then I put it away for six months. Now I'm reviewing what I've written and making sure I don't have any continuity errors.

My reader magnet is a little prequel to my first book and the main characters in it are Zaina's mom and stepdad. This story allowed me to write an age gap where she's the older of the pair! When it is done, I'll make a post linking to the story so you can visit Marley Creek for a fun weekend. 

I got a secondhand copy of this book as a gift. If you are looking to get me a gift, you can't go wrong with a secondhand book, especially if it's a cozy!  Murder of the Cat's Meow is the fifteenth book in Denise Swason's Scumble River Series. I haven't read any other books in this series and I didn't have any trouble following the storyline.  I love when a cozy mystery series is written well enough that I don't have to read in order!  This was an enjoyable cozy, there were several possible suspects and I wasn't sure who did it. 

In this book, you get to know the murder victim before the murder which I know many people prefer. I enjoyed that our amateur sleuth doesn't put herself in unnecessarily dangerous situations and that she is a consultant to the police department. There is also a fun ghost situation as a small side plot. Lastly, this book is practically spicy for a cozy! I wonder, since this was written twelve years ago, if cozy mysteries have gotten more puritanical in the last five or so years.  Something for someone to blog about.

Have you read anything good lately?  How is your week going? 

I'm embracing the upcoming change of season. Looking forward to those lovely September days!

The Sunday Post Celebrating Birthdays!

 

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. you can write 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

My birthday has just passed and what happens as soon as my birthday is over? You guessed it, I'm ready for autumn! When you think about it, isn't August autumn eve? I couldn't help but purchase a few items for fall.  I've picked up a couple of fun Halloween themed T-shirts and I also got a big package of stickers.

Email me if you'd like me to send you some spooky season stickers! victoriahamel14@gmail.com

Recent books I've read and will be talking about include: 

Quick Trip Before Summer is Over! And A Classic Cozy Mystery!

 

Today we are heading to the mountains of North Georgia to celebrate my dad's birthday! We are driving and staying at a VRBO by a creek. I'll be sure to take and share some pictures because Appalachia is beautiful.  It's also an extremely old area, so I assume there are ghosts around every turn. 

While we are there I'm hoping to go to the bookstore on the square and also pick up some preserves and local honey. Speaking of food, when we drove down in the spring we stopped at a Bojangles and I had the most delicious fried ham and pimento cheese biscuit. I still haven't recovered. 

One of our kiddos has to work and is missing the party. I hope that they don't put my iron skillet in the dishwasher like they did the last time I wasn't home...

Now on to a cozy mystery. Recently I listened to the audio version of Death in Castle Dark by Veronica Bond. It was the book of the month for the Cozy Mystery Book Club. If you want to hear Angela and her guest discuss this book you can watch the live stream on YouTube. I thought the book was pretty good. If someone asked me to recommend a cozy mystery book to someone who doesn't read the genre, this would be a good pick. It has all the classic cozy mystery elements. You've got a murder, of course, a potential love interest, a quirky new friend and cats. Plus there's a castle! 

3.5 stars for Death in Castle Dark!

The August book club book is Death and Gondola. I'm waiting til I have an audible credit to listen to it this month!  How about you?Any August vacations or books you are looking forward to reading before the month is over? 

Rich People Stuff-- What Do You Think? The Paradise Problem

 A couple of weeks ago, I went with my husband to the ER (he is fine.) I brought The Paradise Problem with to read. I should have brought another book along, but silly me didn't think we'd be in the ER for eight hours, I thought we'd be out in two hours. Lesson learned always take two physical books to medical facilities. 

I enjoyed Christina Lauren's writing. The dialogue is snappy and they really turn a nice phrase. This book is about obscenely wealthy people on a private island, so if you like an escapist setting this should be a hit for you. The cast of side characters is large and I didn't feel a strong connection to them, which is fine as this book is very focused on our main characters. This is a fake relationship story and it's interesting to see how the situation is resolved.  

If you like rom-com dialogue and lush settings, give this romance a read!

Four Stars for The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren!

Next week our school district goes back to school! Boy did this summer fly by! My garden continues to do very well. And I have a ton of tomatoes slowly ripening. I have these tiny little cherry tomatoes that are as big as a blueberry and I cannot wait to pick a bunch of those. I am hoping that they ripen before Anna heads back to college, she loves tomatoes on her avocado toast! 

Need Some Witchy Goodness in Your Life? Tik Tok Should Be Talking About This Book!

 

This new release is the first book in the Bewitched Billionaires series. I don't care too much for the billionaire subgenre, but in this series, the women and the ones with the billions and this series takes place in a magic small town, so it's more aligned with the small-town genre than billionaires, which is great!

The romance at the center of the story is nice and pretty cozy. It one where you the reader are enjoying watching the couple be a little hard-headed and foolish on their way to their HEA. If you are looking for cozy witch vibes the town of Owl Cove delivers!  The magical world is very practical and magic is a help it's not a cure-all.  

Owl Cove has cute shops and delicious restaurants. Brigid Hunt provides some mouthwatering descriptions of dinners.  She also makes sure to have a town festival during the story.  The town side characters are developed well for our first introduction to them and I can't wait for the next book in this series--which I think will be set near Halloween (Samhain) 

This book is on Kindle and paperback and it was a five-star read for me! 

To kick off my birthday month I went to Lollapalooza with my youngest kiddo. It was very hot and I should have worn shorts and a different pair of shoes, but at least it didn't rain except a little at the very end. The music was excellent.  We saw Chappell Roan and she put on a great show.It was packed to see her! My favorite was the headliner Hoizer. I saw him at his first Lollapalooza back in 2014 and now I've seen him on the big stage! 

This is the crowd for Chappell Roan. I'm in there somewhere towards the back!

I love Chicago! Storm clouds rolled in as Hoizer took the stage but the rain held off except for a few minutes at the end. 

The Sunday Post: Birthday Month, The Bridge to Fall, and Back to School All Rolled Into One!

 

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. you can write 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

How do you feel about August?  It's my birthday month, so I'm a fan.  August has also always been bittersweet for me. As a kid, I loved summer and once my birthday rolled around, I couldn't ignore the fact that school was right around the corner. When I had kids, same feelings!  And now that I work at a school, I'm happy to go back and also I like sleeping in! 

Fall was a very busy month, the hubs and I went to Colorado. He had altitude sickness and that put quite the damper on the trip. On the way home, I googled the elevation of my dream vacations, Coastal Maine, Scotland, and South Korea. Thank goodness all of those locations are close to sea level!

Below is a picture from our trip. If you find yourself in Colorado make sure you drink loads of water that helps with the elevation and the fact that Colorado is more desert than you think! 

This is from the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. A free city park!

I also went to a concert at The Salt Shed with my middle kiddo and another concert with a friend. I'm having a real music-filled summer!

I love how our Chicago concert venues have views of the City!  This one is right on the Chicago River so people sit in their boats and see the show as well! I went to this concert with middle kiddo, we saw AWOLNATION and 311.

How was your July?  I also read some books worth talking about and released my own book! 

I'm currently reading this book. It's my first time reading a Regency male/male romance. I'm very curious how they will have a HEA!

A Mystery in the Agatha Christie Tradition - Patchwork Quilt Murder

 I pre-ordered this book at some point earlier this year and forgot all about the pre-ordering. I recently got around to reading it and it is a five-star book for me. The Lucy Stone series is marketed as a cozy mystery series and to be sure there are craft and cooking themes in many of the books, but the series is more in the vein of a classic Agatha Christie-style mystery. 

In this book we say goodbye to an old friend, not Ms Tilley, I'm almost certain she is immortal. There are some heavy themes in this book including frank discussions of mental illness. Leslie Meier excels in writing books that address the current moments in society and how that affects the imaginary town of Tinker's Cove. Lucy Stone and the other residents feel like real people and it's very easy to immerse myself in her books. It's like visiting family. 

I read the books out of order, there isn't any romantic subplot, Lucy has her same group of friends, and the children grow up. If you prefer romance-free cozies, this could be a good series for you. 

This cover is quite cute! 

I sent my third book off to my editor and am using my writing time to try and make social media posts. This is my latest attempt using Canva. How many hours will it take to gain some mastery of Canva? I've got a long way to go! 

Is There Anything Better Than a Cozy Mystery and Charcuterie?

 

Something about summertime always has me reading cozy mysteries, it might be because my library has an adult summer reading challenge with prizes? The Diva Goes Overboard is the seventeenth book in The Domestic Diva Series. I've read many of the books in this series, but not all of them. Once again, Krista Davis puts together a mystery where I almost have it figured out, but the total solution alludes me. The title of this is funny because there is a scene where someone goes overboard, and in the book there are all these scenes involving charcuterie boards. Well done, Ms.Davis!  

I borrowed this book from my library and since we are having a summer reading challenge, maybe I'll win a fun prize for this read! I would say it is a 4-star book. Enjoyable and not super easy to solve the mystery!

Even though some tiny bugs are still eating the heck of the leaves on my flowers. Look at this beautiful zinnia! 

The Sunday Post- Have you finished watching Bridgerton yet?

 

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 a

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. you can write 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

Having finished my rough draft of Is This Love Fur Real, I watched the second half of Bridgerton yesterday.  It was very well done, I thoroughly enjoyed Penelope and Portia coming to a better understanding and healing their relationship.  Portia Featherington is one of my favorite characters. I read many a social media post about the season while scrolling and geez Louise people really go overboard on critiques. 

Readingwise, I finished The Diva Goes Overboard and am a third of the way through the latest Lucy Stone cozy mystery.  I'm also listening to a Kim Harrison audible exclusive. I'll be making a concerted effort to make my posts about these books and more this week. 

I've completed the first week of summer school and we only have two weeks left!  Summer school is only three and a half hours per day four days a week and we only go through June twenty-seventh, so it's nice. I'm working in a classroom of junior high kids. I was worried they would be a lot to handle, but I have found they are just wonderful and delightful!

In garden news, my zinnias have bloomed and we have cucumbers!  How was your week? 

Oh I almost forgot yesterday I ran a 5K for Imerman Angels!  Bonus was my middle kiddo ran it too! It was his first race!

The race is held at Montrose Beach (Lake Michigan) 

And here are my garden pics!

The Sunday Post! Am I Ready For Summer School?

 

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

Before I get started here is a progress picture of my gardens. After this picture was taken my BIL pruned my zucchini plants. He is confident that within a day or two I should have a bunch of flowers and flowers mean vegetables!

I have just a few days left of drafting and then I'm on to revising so I can send my third book to my editor. I am also working as a pararprofessional (teacher's aide) for summer school! It is only three and a half hours a day, four days a week for the rest of June. 

I just finished listening to the Cozy Mystery Book Clue June book  Murder at the Lakeside Library. I am halfway through The Diva Goves Overboard  (which is about charcuterie boards, not boats), and The Scent of Dreams. 

 I need to get a post for the excerpt of T.J. Klune's upcoming book Beyond The Sea this week. I really cannot wait to read the whole book later this year!

Oh on the TV and Movie front, I watched the new Netflix movie Hit Man starting Glen Powell, it was very enjoyable! If you want a fun and funny movie, check it out!

How was your week? 

When You Read A Five Star Book and Can Only Hope It's The Start of a Series!

 

I listened to the audio version of this book and it is excellent. The reader is fantastic, she does an excellent job with all the characters. The main character of this book is Clara, and she is a hero you want to root for. What makes this book stand out from the crowd are these factors:

1.The Setting is Washington DC in the 1920s.

2. The side characters have their own story arcs and those don't take away from the main story.

3. A unique magic system in a mundane world.

4. Leslye Penelope includes actual historical people in the book in a very creative way.

That's about all I can tell you without going into spoiler land. When I started this book, I was hooked right away it has excellent pacing. 

If you read this book I'd love to hear your thoughts!

On the gardening front, I've harvested my first vegetable! 

The first 'fruits' of my garden labor! 

June Already! The Sunday Post! Coming To You From Cicada Central

 

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 June! Yesterday I went to book club at my local bookstore, Love's Sweet Arrow. We discussed the book The Monsters We Defy.  I really enjoyed the book and I will write up a post about it tomorrow to share. 

For my personal writing, I'm finishing the draft of my third book. We have two more days of school, so I will have more time to work on it this week! On the bummer side, I have to have oral surgery on Thursday so that stinks. 

Gardening update, something is feasting on my tender little plants. My brother-in-law recommended neem oil, so I am going to give that a go.  Below is a gardening update picture. 

Have you read any 5-star books lately?  I read an excerpt of T.J. Klune's upcoming book Somewhere Beyond the Sea, and it's amazing. I can't wait to finish it!  I'm currently listening to First Contact on Audible by Kim Harrison and I'm really enjoying it. I also have the new Charlie Donlea book that I need to read ASAP because it's a new release from my library, so no renewals of the loan. 

So many great books out there! 

Have a wonderful week!

Me and Christina Lauren. I didn't realize there was a photo op and so here I am with no makeup and a sweatshirt on! 

All the 2011 Feels!

  This spring I was listening to an episode of the podcast Fated Mates and they mentioned that JR Ward had a new book coming out in the Black Dagger Brotherhood Series.  I read a bunch of books in the series back in 2011 and 2012, until I was caught up and then I assume I got distracted. 

However, when I heard about The Beloved by JR Ward I got a craving to check it out. I put the book on hold and last week my hold came up. I started reading it Sunday and right now I'm at the fifty percent mark. I'm enjoying my return to the book's universe.  It's like I found an old favorite jacket that I haven't worn in years and it fits perfectly and feels nice and soft, just like I remembered.

Are there any series you started, didn't finish, and then years later revisited?

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

In this weeks writing, I'm getting to know one of my side characters from Too Kölsch For Comfort better and now she has a best friend. I enjoy writing female friendships so much!   We got a ton of rain today and I am hoping that my plants will flourish this week and that I'll have a nice garden update to post on The Sunday Post!

How To Help A Hungry Werewolf, Put this book on your Spooky Season TBR

 

This book has a fabulous cover! Don't you love it? Is this a Paranormal Romance? Is this a RomCom? Does it matter? Let me tell you, I have thoughts about certain parts of the book that I need to discuss in a book club setting! 

Since the tagline of the book is (to paraphrase) What We Do in the Shadows meets Gilmore Girls, I'm categorizing this book as a Paranormal RomCom. Heavier on the Rom than the Com, but a good amount of Com.

Now then important things you should know about the book. The prologue features an incident of our male lead being a jerk and humiliating Cassandra, our female lead,  very publically in high school by making fun of her size. For me, and this is just me, I don't have a problem with a high schooler saying something mean about another high schooler, this is something that happens every day all day. I don't like it in my fiction when the female lead says terrible things about her looks to herself. Cassandra doesn't do this so the book works for me. 

I found the ending satisfying. I thought it was going to go one way when I started reading the book but it went another way that was actually better. I love the magic and the world it takes place in and I would have enjoyed more of the world, the magical rules are really fun and different. 

This book is like when you have your phone in portrait mode to take a picture. We spend this book with Cassandra and Seth in focus and getting more in focus as the story goes on while the side characters and the setting are a bit blurry. I hope that there is a second book in this series so I can see more of this world. 

Throughout the book, I felt like our main characters acted much younger than their age of twenty-seven. Especially, Seth, I decided maybe what I was supposed to understand was because he became a werewolf, and that slowed his maturity. And maybe since Cassandra doesn't know an important fact about herself, her growth is also stunted. 

My rating for this book is 4 stars, if you read it let me know, I'd love to talk about a couple of spoilery things! 

I rec'd an ARC from the publisher, all my opinions are my own! 

The Sunday Post First Week Of May! Time to Draft Book Three!

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

May has arrived and it's past the last time for a frost in my garden zone so I picked up some plants yesterday. A local greenhouse had a pop-up plant sale at one of our local breweries, so I got some seedlings. I got thyme, oregano, a bell pepper, marigolds, cucumbers, kale and zinnias. 

I've got room for a few more plants. At the end of this month, I'm picking up four heirloom tomato plants from the Chicago Tomato Guy. Exciting! 

Reading-wise, I just finished reading an ARC of How to Help A Hungry Werewolf by Charlotte Stein. I'll talk about that this week.

Writing-wise, I have my outline for Is This Love Fur Real? Today I need to buckle down and write two thousand words. My short-term goal is to get to fifteen thousand words in my rough draft by next Sunday. Wish me luck!

How was your week? 

 

Off To A Strong Start- Three Kinds of Lucky by Kim Harrison

I listened to the audio version of this book. I enjoyed this narrator and thought she did an excellent job. This book is an urban fantasy and it's the first in a new series by Kim Harrison. Some of the plot reminded me of one of the books in her Hollows series. I don't want to elaborate as it could be considered on the spoiler side.

In my opinion, this book has only a hint of romance, great for people who don't want a big romantic side plot. If you want an action-oriented story featuring a heroine who thinks she has little agency at the beginning and then begins a story arc where she grows into her own, grab this book. 

Kim Harrison is a lovely writer and some of her sentences are poetry. When I read her books, I always get a sense of light melancholy and this book is no exception. Maybe it's because Petra has lost her parents before we met her.

My rating for this book is 4.5. The book is slow building so if you pick it up be patient. It's worth it and I am looking forward to Petra Grady's future adventures! 

Saturday was Independent Book Store Day. Did you go out and shop? Or order online?  I picked up these books! 

 

Hit It and Quit It by Kelly Reynolds! Do I like Sports Romance Now?

 

I pre-ordered this book not because I'm a fan of sports romance, but because I enjoyed Kelly's steamy Christmas Novellas. This is the first book in her new steamy small-town baseball series and I'm looking forward to the next installment. This book features the curvy Clarke and the nearly over-the-hill third baseman, Soren. He's got a bad reputation and Clarke has left her ex-fiance and a stagnant life in South Carolina. Of course, Soren falls first, how could he not! Clarke is really the heart and soul of the story and it is fun to see her growth during the book She comes into her own and she finds not only her people but also her person. 

There are lots of side characters in this book and I look forward to reading more about many of them as the books in this series continue!

Five Stars to this home run of a first in series! 

How about you, do you enjoy sports romance? 

And here is a picture of my raspberry bush, I'm hoping it is going to flower? I'm not sure if those will be flowers or leaves? 

Happy Release Day for Too Kölsch For Comfort! The Second Book in the Steamy Marley Creek Romance Series!

 My second book is out today! If you like fake dating, couples that get snowed in, or when she can't stand him but he thinks she's the one who got away, check it out! 

As you can see I'm still slowly learning how to use Canva! Trying to make posts about my book is harder than writing, revising, and proofreading! 

I am thinking of hosting a little book release at my local craft brewery next month. What do you think? Have you gone to many book release or book signing events? 

Here is the scoop on Jasper and Zaina's story!

When Jasper makes Zaina a deal she can’t refuse, will she find herself with something more than money?

Zaina Evans told herself this was going to be her year. She’s done looking for a soulmate to share her life. She lives in a great small-town, has a successful business, she’s surrounded by wonderful friends and her mom is just a train ride away. Zaina has everything she needs and wants in life except for a baby. Now all she needs is funding to help pay for artificial insemination.
Jasper Kane is the handsome owner and head brewer of Hop’s Heaven Brewery. He’s only had time to promote his business and date a of string of beautiful women for the last five years. His goal to take his craft brewery nationwide consumes him. Maybe if his brewery had locations across America, his mother would finally take him seriously.
Then a video of Jasper and Zaina goes viral for its feel-good content, and a local TV show wants to do a live remote, but only if Zaina’s there too. This gives Jasper a fantastically devious idea. He can get loads of free publicity and tons of followers if Zaina agrees to fake date him to make social media content. But when they get stuck at the brewery during an ice storm, things stop being fake fast. Will they be able to get past their preconceived notions of the perfect life to find the love right in front of them?