At the beginning of May youngest daughter started Taekwondo and has been loving it. Seriously loving it. Like she wants to go every day and when she's there she wants to stay for more than one class loving it. She caught on very quickly and the Sensei has said that it just seems natural for her.

So last night she had her first belt test and she did great. She only messed up one time and still got above an 85% on her test. Right on. So here she is getting her yellow belt from Master Jordan. She's so happy she can hardly stand it and I am very, very proud of her!

My oldest, who started dance at the same time as my youngest started her classes, now wants to stop dance and start Taekwondo. I think after seeing all the kids and the power they have she wants to learn how to kick butt too. lol Here she is messing around after the ceremony.

Also last night there was a student who was testing to try to get from a yellow belt to an orange belt. I was impressed with her test and felt for sure she was going to pass. She was the last one called up during the ceremony and the Master said there was bad news and good news. The bad news was that she wasn't going to get her orange belt. The poor girl was trying so hard to keep her cool. Then he said that the good news was that she did so well on her test that she was going to go straight to her purple belt which is one step up from the orange belt! I'm such a sap. I totally started tearing up and she wasn't even my daughter! :)

Like a little murder and mayhem with your man-on-man romance? Award-winning novelist Josh Lanyon’s first ever collectionof short stories and novellas, in two volumes, will keep you turning pages long into the night.

Volume I includes these witty, sexy, and action-packed reader favorites:
"Cards on the Table"
"Dangerous Ground"
"In Sunshine and In Shadow"
"Snowball in Hell"

I recently purchased both Volume 1 and Volume 2 of Josh Lanyon's Collected Novella's. Sure, I've read some of Josh's novellas but of the 9 stories I'd only read 3 of them so this was a great way to get them all at once.

I read Volume 1 this past week and I just loved it. I truly am a huge Fanyon. That man knows how to write! Not only great mystery's but great relationships. He just has this wonderful way of mixing the two that gets me every time.

Cards on the Table was a fabulous story of an author, Tim, who is writing a book about a 50 year old unsolved murder. Unfortunately he's starting to get warning against finishing the book...like getting pushed down stairs and being held at gunpoint. He asks for assistance from his neighbor Jack, who's a cop. Jack and Tim had gone a few dates about 6 months ago and even had had sex, but when Tim, who is epileptic, had a seizure in bed things cooled off. Jack isn't too excited about what's going with Tim but is grudginly helping. Things start heating up with the details on the unsolved case, between Jack and Tim and the brut that's trying to put a stop to the book.
A great story from start to finish. Tim is so cocky, but yet with his epilepsy he has no control which drives him nuts. Tim, for all of his cockiness is pretty insecure about Jack. He really fell for Jack 6 months ago but thinks that Jack is repulsed by his epilepsy, which he really isn't. There were such twists and turns in the story and though I should have figured out who the murderer was I didn't. I thought it was the most unlikely person and Josh just proved me wrong.

Dangerous Ground was the only one of the 4 stories that I'd read before. This was a great story about Will and Taylor who are special agents, partners and best friends. Things were great until Taylor admitted that he had feelings for Will. In order to try to save their partnership they are camping in the High Sierras but things start going wonky when they find a plane crash and some stolen money. Things heat up with both the criminals and their relationship.

In Sunshine and In Shadow is a short story about 2 gay cops who are also partners. They had started a relationship together but one of them called it quits when he realized that he could lose him so quickly on the job. He just didn't want the emotional tether to be that much tighter if anything happened to his partner. Yep, delusional. lol As if losing you partner and best friend wouldn't be horrible enough. Anyway, one of the men, Kieran lets Rick know that he's going on vacation by himself, he's quit the force and he's moving out of the state. It's a fantastic story about the 2 coming to terms with their feelings.

The last story, Snowball in Hell, is an incredible mystery set back in 1943. Here's the blurb from Josh's site:

It's 1943 and the world is at war. Reporter Nathan Doyle is just back from the European Theater when he's asked to cover the murder of a society blackmailer--a man who, Homicide Detective Matthew Spain believes, Nathan had every reason to want dead.

It's a fabulous whodunit filled with suspicion and a huge cast of characters - and of course hot man-lovin. I didn't have a clue as to who murdered the blackmailer until pretty near the end. There's not necessarily an HEA at the end of the story, but it makes you think that there will be in the end. Just totally worth the read.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mysteries and m/m.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Head over to The Book Binge and you can catch my guest review for Charming the Highlander by Janet Chapman. This was a book a borrowed from Holly on my visit.

Sexy ex-fighter Simon Evans has the perfect life-until he catches his girlfriend cheating. To work off his rage, he goes back into the ring full-force. But a gutsy and gorgeous P.I. is about to send him reeling with a secret about his family-and one about her heart.

Dakota Dream's step father, Barnaby, wants her to find someone, his son. He hasn't seen nor talked to his son in 30 years but he is now desperate to find him. Dakota wants nothing to do with Barnaby, or his search for his son, but she truly feels that she owes him for something that he did for her while her mother was dying. So she agrees to find his son, none other than SBC fighter turned trainer turned fighter, Simon Evans.

Dakota loves the SBC and despite that fact that she doesn't really want to deal with the whole Barnaby/Simon thing she's pretty excited to be in a gym where a bunch of the SBC fighters are training.

From the first moment that Simon Evans sees Dakota he's bowled over. He can't get his mind off of her and wants nothing more than to get her in his bed. But when Dakota finally comes clean about why she's in town Simon's pissed. He has a step father and that's the man he calls Dad. He wants nothing to do with Barnaby.

Dakota tells Barnaby that Simon said no but Barnaby is persistant - even going as far as blackmailing her with letters that her mother wrote before her death. Since Dakota and her mother weren't on good terms when she died, Dakota is hoping that the letters will calm the turmoil she's felt since that time. So Dakota goes back to the gym to try and get Simon to change his mind about seeing his biological father. Simon still says no, but Dakota is determined to get those letters.

Someone else is determined though and that's Dakota's ex-husband. He wants Dakota back but he's a big slime bucket and Dakota wants nothing to do with him. Strange things start happening and Simon ends up taking care of Dakota. Keeping her at his house, teaching her fighting techniques and in the end, loving her.

I read this book when it first came out a couple of years ago - it was an impulse buy at the bookstore. I didn't know at the time that it was book 2 in the SBC Fighter series but it really didn't matter. I think this book is a good stand alone and it's not really necessary to read book 1 in order to know what's going on although if you like this one I'm sure you'll want to go back and read it. :)

So I have to say that I enjoyed this book every bit as much this time around as I did the first time - in fact I liked it a little bit more this time around. The first time I read the book I really liked Simon and Dakota, separate and apart and that held true for this reading as well. Dakota is independent and could be stubborn, but she wasn't stupid. Even though she has been blackmailed with the letters I don't think she normally was someone who based her decisions on emotions. She really was one tough cookie. And Simon, for as deadly as he could be in and out of the ring, he really had a kind heart. He wasn't a sucker but he knew when to be firm and when to be gentle. He's just the kind of contemp hero I love to read about...but that goes for most of the men in this series.

Rating 2 years ago: 4 out of 5

Rating now: 4.25 out of 5

Hey all!

Not much happening this week. I was sick in bed for 4 days. I managed to get up during short intervals but otherwise it was bed, sweet bed. Yeah, I watched a couple of movies here and there but mostly, I just read. Trying to put a dent in that amazingly huge TBR pile dontchaknow. :)

I have to say that I took my TBR challenge to new limits this week. I think I was feeling guilty for not reading any last week so I read 4 this week! Yay me!

So what I read:

I started off with Bad Boys Online by Erin McCarthy (one of my TBR Challenge books), a book I've had in my pile for a while. I think I got this one from the very first So Cal Blogger get together which was last November. While the 3 short stories that revolved around computers were cute I found myself skimming ahead and then having to go back. I so rarely do this that it was freaking me out a little. lol This was an erotic read and when you start skimming the sex scenes, there's a problem. Not that it was hot, but there was so much of it! lol The last story in the book, User Friendly, was by far my favorite. 3 out of 5







My Re-Read Challenge book for the month of June is Simon Says by Lori Foster. I'll post my review on Tuesday.








Next was In Bed With A Stranger by Mary Wine. I started reading some of Mary Wine's books when I was getting ready to go to Lora Leigh's RAW and I enjoyed her books (and her, she's a really nice lady!) so when I saw this was coming out I scooped it up. I have to say that the first approx. 100 pages I had to fight not to put the book down because I was bored. However, it got much better after that. It's a Scottish Historical about the bastard born daughter of an Earl getting sent to marry a Scottish Laird because her legitimate bratty half sister doesn't want to bear children. The evil Countess thinks that she can send Anne in place of Mary, have the Laird get her pregnant, and then after the baby is born send Mary back to the Laird and he'll be none the wiser. Pretty funny when you think of it. I very much enjoyed the not-as-dumb-as they-thought-he-was Laird, Brodick, he was pretty cool. 3.5 out of 5



Next up was another TBR challenge book, No Words Alone by Autumn Dawn. Katiebabs sent this to me a million years ago and I've just now gotten around to reading it. I wanted something different and this sci-fi novel definitely provided it. Two starships collide and both land on a planet where you pretty much can't be outside after dark. It's uninhabited except for nasty creatures. The only female in the group is treated horribly by her crew but very nicely by the alien race (who strangely enough happen to look just like humans!) and she ends up becoming a war prize for the captain of the alien starship. They end up marrying and the story goes on to show them falling in love, etc. I'm not really a sci-fi romance lover but this was pretty good. 3.5 out of 5






Next was Josh Lanyon's Collected Novellas Volume 1. I'll be posting my thoughts on this one on Thursday.







For my 3rd TBR Challenge book I read Heaven Sent 2: Purgatory by Jet Mykles. I really liked this story. Reese has been in love with Luc for forever. He kissed him one day 6 years prior but Luc pushed him away saying he wasn't gay. Now Luc and the band are back in town and since Luc has explored his sexuality and found he does like men he wants to hook up with Reese. But Reese now has a teaching job at a straight-laced school and says he's not gay any longer. Luc sets out to prove him wrong. I thought that Luc and Reese were great together. Did Luc annoy me at some points? Sure. Reese did too. But despite those time the story was a quick, fun, sexy read. Hopefully it won't be months before I read the next book in the series. 4.25 out of 5



Continuing my reading in the Drakon series I read Queen of Dragons by Shana Abe. As you can guess I'm really enjoying the series. This book was no different. This book centered around Maricara who we met in book 2 and Christoff and Rue's oldest son, Kimber. Talk about a volatile pairing. Wow. The writing in this book is just as good as the previous two books. Worth the read if you started the series. 4.5 out of 5







Charming the Highlander by Janet Chapman was a book that borrowed from Holly when I went to see her. I did a review of it which will post over at The Book Binge. I'll let you know when that goes up.










And my last TBR Challenge read, and my last book of the week, was The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever by Julia Quinn. I was looking on my shelves for a historical that I knew was going to be a great story and I picke a good one. This book, as much as it broke my heart for most of it, was wonderful. I think I'm giving it such a high score not only for the story but for the writing as well. I know Julia Quinn is a fabulous author but when I was reading this book today I was blown over by the sheer emotion I was experiencing. I was feeling for Miranda so many times in so many different ways I was literally holding my chest because it hurt. 4.5 out of 5

Happy Reading!

For those who are interested....my guest review for Immortal Outlaw by Lisa Hendrix is now up at The Book Binge.

And can I say how much I love this cover? If I remember correctly I really liked the one from the first book in the series as well. But this one, ha-cha-cha. I love a man's back and with the blonde hair and the lion? Oh yeah baby.

For centuries he’s hidden in the woods. Now a maid has come to lead him out...

It’s been four centuries since Steinarr the Proud was cursed by a wicked sorceress—along with the rest of his Viking crew—to live for eternity as half man, half beast. By day Steinarr is like any other man—by night he is a lion. He has taken refuge in the woods of Nottingham, England, and there he encounters two young travelers, Robin and Marian.

Painfully aware of the danger he presents when the moon rises, Steinarr refuses to help guide them on their search for a special amulet. But a kiss from Marian awakens his desire. How can he protect the maid he so desperately wants to ravish? With motives of his own, Steinarr finally joins their quest, while the sorceress Cwen gathers her dark magic to destroy them. As a legend spreads of an outlaw in the woods, their band is joined by others. But it is Steinarr who has the most to gain and the most to lose—if he is ever to be free of the curse and free to love as a man…

Hi, my name is Tracy and I'm a Book Slut. It's been 3 minutes since I put my last book down.

Can I be honest? I really don't want to go cold turkey. I love my books. I want them around me so I can smell them and touch them and, well, read them. Which brings me to how many books I really have around me. I've been in the closet when it comes to being truthful about how many books I have in my TBR. You see, I can be honest and let you know that I have 205 print books on my shelves (possibly a couple more that might have been lost in the count) waiting to be read. But the other day my friend Kris made me face up to exactly how many books are in my TBR.

You might have read in my Monday post that I recently cataloged/converted/organized all of my ebooks onto one device - a new 32 GB flash drive. It's heaven. I plug that puppy in and look up the author I want, open the folder and voila...books. No more trying to figure out which cd it's on, it's just all there for the taking, or in this case, the reading. But when I was putting books into the folders by author I noticed that there were books that I hadn't read. I, shoving my head in the sand, mentioned that I had "shitloads" and "boatloads" that were TBR. My friend Kris, fellow Book Slut and nosey biotch that she is, asked me specifically how many ebooks I did indeed have that were waiting patiently TBR. So I counted...and counted....and counted. It turns out that I have not only the 205 print books waiting TBR but 367 ebooks that I have not read. That's right 367!


Now I know that there are others around bloglandia that have TBR's way bigger than mine *coughWendycough* but I needed to get that load off of my chest and get my head out of the sand.


I am a Book Slut and I have 572 books in my TBR!



Confession Time: How many books are in your TBR? Be truthful now.