Deadlocked By Charlaine Harris Review and Giveaway

Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I imagine since this is book 12 in the series, that if you are reading my review you have an interest in the series. Furthermore, assuming you are up to speed on Sookie Stackhouse and the people of Bon Temps, let me share some non-spoilery review notes.

1. The synopsis of the book listed above is really not reflective of the actual book. Once again, I wonder if the people who are responsible for the book jacket/summary actually read the books they summarize.

2. I was extremely happy that Sookie's Can-Do spirit returned. I didn't enjoy Dead Recokoning because Sookie was so depressed.

3. I officially don't like the who will be Sookie's HEA mystery. Too much angst for me. I'd rather have the mystery minus the romance drama.

4. Lastly, I missed Eric and Pam. There is a large empty void in the book .  Not enough word count devoted to my favorite vampires and in my opinion, in the book and too many scenes with recently introduced humans.

Perhaps the reason for number 4. is foreshadowing that Sookie will work to be an 'average' bar owner and eschew the supernatural world in Charlaine's  final installment Dead Ever After?

Note: It's important to mention that I am a hardcore fan of the series. I read the fan fiction, I watch that awful HBO True Blood, I hang out at The Sookierverse Blog.

Now that I am done with the book, I want to give it away!  Comment below on your favorite Sookie Stackhouse Novel AKA Southern Vampire Mysteries Books and one winner will be chosen from the comments to get my hardback copy! 

Three quick things:
1. Be sure to put your email with your comment.
2. I'm mailing it Parcel Post.
3. Be a pal and follow my blog!

This is the copy I am giving away, see it has a prettier cover than the version pictured above!






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Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead

Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead is the title of a documentary my husband stumbled across over the winter on Netflix.  He greatly identified with Joe Cross the director and main actor of the film, and set off to start juicing.  Isn't that a funny word.  I wonder if it is really a word? Previous to this film I thought juice was strictly a noun.  Now it has become not only a verb, but a health movement.

Presently, The Man has fallen  back off of his small, shaky Healthy Living Band Wagon (HLBW).  I'm telling you, three of the wheels have done fell off.  So it is some amazing timing that I just received a BzzAgent Campaign invite to the Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead BzzCampaign. 

What is Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead?  It's a movie Joe Cross did as he spent several months on a juice fast while road tripping across the USA.  Joe had some chronic health problems and was about 80 pounds overweight.  He took a pile of pills daily and his health was still sinking fast. So he decides to go on an all fruits and veggie fast.  He uses a juicer and fresh fruit and veggies to make his juice.

I find the whole movie a real cautionary tale, for me it is like The Biggest Loser.  I don't want to ever have to go on The Biggest Loser because I don't want to work out for 28 hours a day.  With Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, I don't want to go on a months long juice fast.  I like to eat my food not sip it. I imagine most people are like me and don't want to go on a complete long-term juice fast.

That is what is great about Joe's movie.  You can reboot your life with full on juicing or you can take a more moderate approach but still greatly benefit. At his website there are resources covering the whys and hows of juicing and most importantly you can see how 'everyday' people have used juicing to improve their health.  By adding juicing to your lifestyle you will greatly increasing your intake of quality nutrients leaving you feeling better. 

The best part is that after you watch his movie at the link above you can check out the tools and info that are part of the whole Join The Reboot lifestyle.  There are tons of great resources.  I'm going to be checking out this article on  A Kitchen Garden. 

Good Reads for Me! Up Jumps The Devil!

Last week I had nothing to read, and I am way to far from my old public library and don't have a new North Carolina driver's license yet.

This is what I looked like last week

Me - Books = Sad Panda

This week :

Me + Books = Happy Girl

I'm super excited because today my copy super, super hot off the presses came my copy of "Up Jumps The Devil"  by Micheal Poore.  I was so excited to 'meet' Mr. Poore via Twitter and am even more excite to review this book!  Here is a little blurb by one of my top 5 favorite authors in this Century:

"Even the devils of Milton and Shaw fall short in charisma and charm to Michael Poore's John Scratch. Up Jumps the Devil is a fine, funny novel by a talented writer. Buy it. Read it. Enjoy!"

-- Christopher Moore, Author of Sacré Bleu and Lamb.

****

If Christopher Moore says it's good reading, then it has to be great.

Up Jumps the Devil  is available for preorder at Amazon ! Get it for yourself? Get it for your dad--Father's Day is coming up! I'm going to be sinking my teeth into it this weekend and will be sharing a review as soon as I am done reading.

Now from a beverage-pairing perspective, I'm thinking that one could indulge in a Smore  Martini while enjoying Up Jumps the Devil seeing as Old Scratch is toasting some on the front cover of the book.

My thoughts on a Smore Martini:

Take a martini glass, drizzle some hot fudge sauce in it.  Then use the sauce to coat the rim of the glass so you can dip the rim in crumbled graham crackers.

Next  take a shot each of Marshmallow Creme Vodka and Godiva Chocolate Liquer shake em up and pour em in your glass and voila: fancy drink!

Jumping Juniper, Yep I can't think of a catchy title today

I just realized it is Monday not Tuesday. Yesterday I was hoping it was Saturday, but it was actually Sunday.  We've only been on Summer Break for a week and already I've lost all track of time.

We've only been moved into our new home for a week and already the kids have gone Native.  The Bman has decided that shoes are for sissies.  Anna, I mean Trail Mix,  noticed that people around her pronounce her cousin's name Will more like Weeeellll (long E) and is copying that pronounciation. 

And Mr. P or should I say "Lightning Rod" thinks trees are stupid and why do we have to have so many.  Okay well Lightning Rod is not going Native.

The man is researching opening a discount golf store, and can we all cross our fingers that he can make that happen as:

1. It's his lifelong dream.

2. He could write off going golfing as a business expense?

3. He'd be out of my hair.

*****

Are you looking for Summer Reads?  I just posted a review on goodreads.com You can click below and see my review!

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8667848-a-discovery-of-witches"

Updates from the Moving Truck.

I have survived the Great Southern Move of 2012.  In case you were worried, The Man survived as well. Now we are on to new challenges such as:
1. Where to put all The Man's stuff. I vote in the garage. He disagrees.
2. What bit the B Man?  His hand is swollen and itchy.
3. What is a better nickname for Anna?  T-Bone or Trailmix?

The great news is that not only did we all make it down here in one piece, my china set also made it in one piece!

Wait--It gets even better, I'm already up and running with my job.  On the Tastefully Simple front I attended my first meeting as an official member of the Tri State Business Women!  It's a great group, active and involved in the community as well.

On the Virtual Call Center Front our internet and phone were installed on Friday and I've been taking calls and have already racked up over 200 minutes.  (I get paid by the minute). 

Yesterday I also found the box containing my favorite cooking pot, I was beginning to think I accidently sold it. Here are some pictures of our adventures over the past week:

Boxes Blech.

The boy embrace their new bedroom.

The Man getting our chairs put together. And a deck that needs painting!

Picture of view on the walk down to our mailbox.

And you think you've got it bad

I received this heartbreaking email today.  What this poor poor woman has been through and yet thru it all her faith in God has remained strong.  So strong,  I think she has picked me to facility the donation of over $8 million dollars to churches around the world. 

I'm a bit unclear about her actual intent as she has not spelled it out here?  Perhaps she is afraid that some nefarious character will try and swindle her?  It is so clear she is not a Scam Artist.

I'm going to respond, she needs my help!

AM MRS. SONIA WILSON, A DEAF WIDOW TO LATE ROBERT WILSON FROM SEATTLE WASHINGTON,USA. PRESENTLY IN ISRAEL RECEIVING TREATMENTS, I AM 61 YEARS OLD, I AM NOW A NEW CHRISTIAN CONVERT, SUFFERING FROM LONG TIME CANCER OF THE BREAST,FROM ALL INDICATION MY CONDITIONS IS REALLY DETERIORATING AND IT IS QUITE OBVIOUS THAT I WON'T LIVE MORE THAN SIX MONTHS, ACCORDING TO MY DOCTORS,THIS IS BECAUSE THE CANCER STAGE HAS GOTTEN TO A VERY BAD STAGE. MY LATE HUSBAND WAS KILLED DURING THE U.S. RAID AGAINST TERRORISM IN AFGHANISTAN, AND DURING THE PERIOD OF OUR MARRIAGE WE WERE UNABLE TO PRODUCE A CHILD.

AFTER HIS DEATH, I INHERITED ALL HIS BUSINESS AND WEALTH. THE DOCTORS HAS ADVISED ME THAT I MAY NOT LIVE FOR MORE THAN SIX MONTHS, SO I NOW DECIDED TO DIVIDE THE PART OF THIS WEALTH, TO DONATE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH IN AFRICA, AMERICA ASIA, AND EUROPE. I PRAYED OVER IT, I AM WILLING TO GIVE THE $8.6MILLION DOLLARS, TO THE LESS PRIVILEGED. RIGHT THE THE FUND IS DEPOSITED WITH A SECURITY COMPANY IN USA. I AM OF AWARE THAT THERE ARE LOTS OF SCAM IN INTERNET, I SWEAR TO YOU WITH THE NAME OF OUR LORD THAT THIS IS NEVER A SCAM.YOUR HELP WILL SAFE MANY LIFE IN THE WORLD, LET GOD TOUCH YOUR HEART TO HEAR MY CRY.

LASTLY, I ALSO WANT YOU TO ASSURE ME THAT WHEN YOU RECEIVE THE FUND IT WILL BE USED FOR THE SAID PURPOSE. MAY THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS THE LOVE OF GOD AND THE FELLOWSHIP OF GOD BE WITH YOU AND YOUR FAMILY I AWAIT URGENT REPLY.

YOUR'S IN CHRIST.

Word to the wise

Friday night we hosted 7 girls  for Anna's early 8th birthday party.  Since we are moving, I was a bit of a softy (or is it softie) and let her invite a total of 10 girls. This was a crazy move on my part.  I am quite lucky they didn't all come as I would have definitely lost my ever-loving mind.

Now Patrick just had a birthday sleepover a couple of weeks ago, he had three boys over and aside from the fight the boys had  the morning after the sleepover, it was all good.  When I say fight, I don't mean that they were name-calling or angry, I mean they were playing some fighting game they made up.

The girls on the other hand, oy.  Drama.  Much of it due to some being interested in running around playing and others wanted to do more sedate playing (think board game).  This led to tears about once per hour from someone who felt left out, and about every 90 minutes one of the girls wanted to go home. *Sigh* Now I know why my mom would only let me have 3 girls sleepover for my birthday as a child.

Around 12:30AM all the girls wanted to go home because they couldn't sleep.  Why couldn't they sleep?  Because they wouldn't stop talking!  So I told them all no, no they couldn't go home because I wasn't going to wake their parents up. They finally fell asleep around 1:30AM.

  All the girls were up jumping around by 7AM.  I am not a morning person, and when I don't get any sleep I am not-a-morning person to the 10th power.  Saturday morning it finally proved fortuitous that I married an annoying morning person because I had to have Tom oversee the girls til I had my coffee.  I didn't want to snap their little heads off first thing.

Once everyone had gone home and Anna had napped.  I asked her if she enjoyed the sleepover. She said it was even better than she had hoped.

Crazyness

I was going to write about a conversation I had with the B-man, I had some other things I thought were blogable, but, here we are.

My mind is empty as we rush toward moving and I don't know what to do with all the stuff we currently have in our house.  Tomorrow and Friday we have our garage sale, I'm hoping for much stuff to leave our possession.

Yesterday I trashed a couple of bins full of old junior high and high school notes.  Notes are what we used to write back in the Stone Age to converse with friends at school. They are like brick and mortar texts. LOL  As an aside, not only did we write notes to our friends on paper, and pass them in class, we also folded the notes into decorative  patterns!

I had forgotten until going through my bins of paper, that I used to write Smut for my friends.  For example, one friend of mine, was a huge Sting fan (as was I) , so I wrote a story of how a freshman in HS met Sting and they had a torrid love affair. T'was Fan Fiction and I didn't know it, t'was 50 Shades of Grey in the 80s.

I missed my calling!

But back to things of a wholesome nature. My Blog Spark sent me an email with a link to print up coupons for Ocean Spray Fruit Snacks!

Watershed Moment

For the first time ever, I made a recipe I saw on the TV.  Last week I was watching The Chew on ABC while doing the dishes and they had on some moms with great recipes for their Mom Week.  One lady made pasta with a red lentil sauce.

Since I decided two and 1/2 weeks ago to try being vegan (except for a couple of times that I've had fish lately), I was drawn to this recipe that sounded different, was vegan and was fairly easy. 

So I gave it a go!  And mmm mmm it is so good, I am sending Felicia who create the recipe a major Thank You!  The recipe is linked here.  It called for some fresh ground pepper and I didn't have any of that, so I used some of our Tastefully Simple Green Tea & Peppercorn Seasoning.

 I'm so glad we've got the Green Tea & Peppercorn Seasoning back as a returning favorite for June and July.  I've missed it so! I'm also glad that as a consultant, I got to order the returning favorites a few weeks before June 1st!

Mother's Day Facebook Envy

I should preface this by saying, I realize this is silly and petty and I am almost over it. But, I've got to get this whine out of the way so I can move on, build a bridge, get over it and all that.

As you may know, this is Mother's Day and many a mom is enjoying a wonderful, wonderful day, as they should.  Children and significant others have made special plans and showered gifts upon the awesome moms in their lives.  They are also posting their thank yous and whatnot to Facebook. Which is great. I'd so rather see the love than see people arguing politics.

Nevertheless, I'm a little bummed for myself because no one at this house takes me seriously when I say that the best gift I could get for Mother's Day would be:
1. a clean house.
2. to not have to cook.
3. brunch.

I would also love some flowers, but they just die--or chocolate, but I gave up eating dairy so that won't work. So I'd really have liked my 2 other dreams to come true. 

Alas, it's not meant to be. I did get two wonderful handmade presents from Anna and Bryce.  HUGE thanks to their teachers for doing those projects. And The Man did go to the store and get some coffee. 

Then he asked me twice if I had made coffee yet. Bummer right?

That is my whine in a nutshell.  I completely get that it is lame.  I am very lucky, far too many of my Facebook friends are missing a loved one who they'll never see again on this day and I am crabby about making Mac & Cheese. 

I'm shaking off my acting like a baby and restarting the day.  Happy Mother's Day to All!  I hope it is gloriously sunny and lovely by you today--and I hope you get spoiled, spoiled, spoiled OR that you do some major spoiling for a mom in your life today!

My mom with all her grandkids cept the baby, Byron, from last summer at Anna Ruby Falls in Georgia.