Meme of the Day

This next is from Carolyn Jean and it is clearly going to grow to be the longest meme ever because you add a question!!

1. What is your occupation?

Office Administrator

2. What color are your socks right now?

I don’t have any on. Go flip flops

3. What are you listening to right now?

The fan in my office and the preschool kids arriving for Meet the Teacher day.

4. What was the last thing that you ate?

A South Beach Diet peanut butter bar (What? It’s all they had at the drug store this morning!)

5. Can you drive a stick shift?

Yep

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?

Cornflower blue

7. Last person you spoke to on the phone?

My mom

8. Do you like the person who sent this to you?

Most definitely!

9. Favorite drink?

Non-alcoholic: Coffee & Water….alcoholic: Cadillac Margarita’s

10. What is your favorite sport to watch?

Hockey

11. Have you ever dyed your hair?

Once and it was a total disaster!

12. Pets?

None – well, except when my kids act like animals.

13. Favorite food?

My grandma’s spaghetti

14. Last movie you watched?

Mamma Mia

15. Favorite Day of the year?

Thanksgiving

16. What do you do to vent anger?

Unfortunately I yell

17. What was your favorite toy as a child?

A wooden pig on wheels that I used to pull around after me. I was so easily amused!

18. What is your favorite, fall or spring?

Fall

19. Hugs or kisses?

I love both equally I think

20. What kind of pie?

Rhubarb heated with vanilla ice cream

21. Living arrangements?

House with hubby and 2 daughters

22. When was the last time you cried?

I can’t remember it's been so long

23. What is on the floor of your closet?

Shoes

24. Favorite smell?

Sweet pea scent from Bath and Body Works

25. What inspires you?

My family

26. What are you afraid of?

Driving off of an overpass to then crash and burn. I know it sounds weird and when I’m driving I don’t really think of it, but I’ve had a gajillion nightmares where I do just that and it’s freakin scary!

27. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers?

Plain

28. Favorite car?

I don’t think I have one but I used to love Jaguars.

29. Favorite cat breed?

Don’t have one.

30. Number of keys on your key ring?

Personal: 2 – one for the car, one for the house. Work: 13

31. How many years at your current job?

7

32. Favorite day of the week?

Saturday

33. How many states/provinces have you lived in?

I’ve lived in 6 different states but I’ve lived in 7 different cities in California.

34. How many countries have you been to?

4

35. How much do you love "Knowing Me, Knowing You" by ABBA?

A bucket load

36. The name of the first person you kissed (romantically)?

Kip Thompson - what was I thinking?

37. Are you the oldest child, youngest child, middle or only?

I’m the youngest of 4 kids – 3 girls and a boy.

Tagging...Stacy and Amy (and if you don't want to do it, you are excused, because I ignore meme tags all the time.)

Review: Cry Wolf

TITLE: Cry Wolf
AUTHOR: Patricia Briggs
SERIES: Yes – The Alpha and Omega Series
Novella in the On The Prowl Anthology: Alpha and Omega
1st Novel: Cry Wolf

REASON FOR READING:
I’ve been wanting to read Briggs’ work and this seemed like a good time to start. :0) I’d also heard great things about both the novella and the novel.

SUMMARY:
Anna never knew werewolves existed until the night she survived a violent attack and became one herself. After three years at the bottom of the pack, she’d learned to keep her head down and never, ever trust dominant males. But Anna is that rarest kind of werewolf: an Omega. And one of the most powerful werewolves in the country will recognize her value as a pack member and as his mate.

THOUGHTS/OPINION:
Let me start by saying that I was pretty much impressed with Briggs’ writing from the word go. It really didn’t matter if there was a lot of action going on or not, she had me hooked. I haven’t said that about an author in a while and it feels good to discover a new one.

Anna was turned into a werewolf 3 years prior to this book and she was badly abused by her previous pack. She has some real issues with being a werewolf and a “monster” as she puts it. She just wants to be human again and getting over those feelings isn’t something that’s coming easily.

Charles is the enforcer of his pack. His father is The Marrok (the head werewolf in North America) so his position in the pack I felt was intimidating for Anna. Charles discovers that Anna is his mate, and he’s willing to accept her, but he has reservations about his line of work scaring her away.

This was such a great story. I truly enjoyed getting to know Charles better as well as Asil, who was another character in the book who played a major role in the story. I thought the character development was wonderful, although I did feel like I wanted to know more about Anna’s life before she had become a werewolf. That didn’t particularly relate to this story so I see how it wasn’t added, but I still wanted to read it! :)

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys shapeshifter books, and possibly those who don’t like them. This might be a nice introduction for you. Very will written.

Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again?
Briggs was a new author for me. I will definitely be reading more of her work.

Are you keeping it or passing it on?
Keeping it!

Did you enjoy the book? Very much

Would you recommend this book to others? Definitely

Score: 4.5 out of 5

The Book Binge

Hey Everyone

Check out my guest review of Countdown (Shomi) by Michelle Maddox over at The Book Binge today after 2:00pm (pacific).

What I've Been Reading This Week

Happy Sunday!

It's been a hellova reading week. I read A LOT this week - I'm not quite sure how that happened actually, but it did. I left work early on Thursday and only worked 2 hours Friday because of a killer headache (that I still have)...and the drugs the doc injected me with kept me up most of the night on Friday so I've had mucho reading time.

One of my good friends, Andrew, got married today. Andrew and Beth have been together for 10 years. That's right, 10 years! He finally popped the question and it was about damn time! lol Talk about an age difference...he just turned 50 in July and she's 29! Of course he looks and acts like he's about 35 so it all works out. Such a cute couple.

So my goal this past week was to read a ton of RAW authors as it's only 4 weeks away. Ask me how that went. Not good! I read 1 book. 1! Geesh! I really need to work on that this week.

Oh and due to sheer, unadulterated laziness and severe pain in my head..no links will be available this week! But I still lubs ya!

The Pregnancy Test by Erin McCarthy was first. My only RAW author book. Cute book...see review a couple of posts back.

Countdown (Shomi) by Michelle Maddox. Good book. I won't go into detail..you'll just have to check out my review this week (sometime) on Book Binge.

Kill Me Twice by Roxanne St. Claire. I wanted to read one of her books since she'll be guest blogging on DIK this week (Mon, Tues, Wed) and I hadn't read her work. I liked it. I'll probably read more of her stuff in the future...when the TBR goes down some. Stop laughing!! It'll happen.

Alpha and Omega by Patricia Briggs a novella in the On The Prowl Anthology was next. I've been seeing this around and hearing how good it was so I wanted to check it out. Very good story. It was a great introduction to Cry Wolf which is the 1st novel in Briggs' Alpha and Omega series.

Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs was really good. I plan on doing a review this week of this book so check back. :)

I then read the remainder of the stories in the On The Prowl anthology. (see book cover above) Besides Alpha and Omega I really didn't care all that much for the other 3 stories - they weren't bad, just not my thing.

InHuman by Eileen Wilks was ok. There was a lot of info being given but I really didn't feel like I knew the characters by the time the story was done. This was an intro into a series (I think) but it didn't make me want to read more.

Buying Trouble by Karen Chance was a cute little novella about a 1/2 human, 1/2 Fae that doesn't know that's what she is. She gets jiggy with another 1/2er and turns into something she would have never imagined. I think I'll check out Karen Chance's work to see what else she's got going on since this was my first read of hers.

Mona Lisa Betwining by Sunny. Not a fan of this story. The heroine's got too many freakin lovers...she's got serious issues in so many other things and doesn't know what the hell's going on. The series is not something I'd want to be reading more of.

I won the novella Oh, George by Christiane France this week. This is an m/m romance about a man who's inherited his dad's business and a man from the secretarial pool. I didn't feel like I could get into the characters enough during the novella and they fell in love really fast.

Last was Just One Bite by Kimberly Raye. The Dead End Dating series is weird and quirky and I like it for a fun little read. For any of you who read the series I just love Ty Bonner and there just wasn't enough of him in this book! lol I needed more Ty! It was a nice edition to the series and I liked it.

Happy Reading!

Historia de un letrero

This is the short film winner of the Cannes Film Festival 2008. I think it's just wonderful.

Historia de un letrero (Story of a Sign)



Oh, and completely unrelated: My review is up today for Nancy Drew Week at CJ's Blog!

TBR Challenge: The Pregnancy Test

TITLE: The Pregnancy Test
AUTHOR: Erin McCarthy
SERIES: The New York Girlfriends
Book 1: The Pregnancy Test
Book 2: You Don’t Know Jack
Published: 2005

REASON FOR READING:
Wanted to read more books by RAW authors.

SUMMARY:
This story is the story of Mandy Keeling, a Brit living in New York. Although she owns a business she’s pretty much living off of her rich parents. Mandy finds out she’s pregnant and figures out that she needs to grown up and take responsibility for her life, and now the life of her baby.

THOUGHTS/OPINION:
So Mandy Keeling finds out she’s pregnant by a guy that she’s been seeing for the past 6 months. When she tells Ben that she’s preggo he wants her to terminate the pregnancy. When she refuses he offers her $5,000 if she’ll pretty much just go away. She, being the bright girl that she is and knowing a complete ass when she sees one, refuses the money and, thank heavens, gets out of his life! Ok, she didn’t know he was an ass for 6 months but she figured it out!

Mandy also figures out that she can’t live on her parents’ money any longer, she needs to buck up and find a “real” job, one that has health insurance and normal hours which will make child care easier after the baby comes. She sells her business that she’d bought with mommy and daddy’s money (and has never turned a profit) and goes for a job interview that one of her friends got her at her work. The problem is that the guy she’s interviewing with, Damien Sharpton, is considered an ogre. They call him Demon Sharpton because he’s such a hard ass to work for. Despite a horrible first meeting and interview that ends badly, Mandy gets the job.

Employee and employer see very little of each other for 2 months…even though Mandy is Damien’s assistant she knows how to hide from him so that he won’t notice her slightly increased belly and know that she’s pregnant (she does a lot of IMing, texting and emailing). Damien can’t seem to get Mandy out of his mind and Mandy is having some pretty erotic dreams about her boss. Damien finally insists that Mandy take a trip with him so that he can get to know her and get her out of his mind (yeah, like that ever works) and things start coming together for them. They actually become friends while on the trip and find that they like each other very much.

Damien has some serious issues with his past and doesn’t want to get into a relationship but he wants to have hot monkey sex with Mandy…if only for the time they’re on vaca. This is saying something since the man hadn’t had sex in 3 years and has had no urge to do so until now. Yes, that’s right 3 years. Damn. Mandy and Damien end up falling in love and in spite of all the issues that surround them…Mandy’s pregnancy, Ben the jerk who has come back in to her life, Damien’s completely messed up past…they find that with each other they can overcome just about anything.

I really enjoyed this story from cover to cover. There were more than several parts when I was laughing out loud at things the characters would say or do. Mandy was an amusing, complex character that I thoroughly enjoyed reading about. Damien didn’t feel that he deserved to be happy and tried really hard to be mean but he was such a nice person, I really liked him. He acted the hard ass because it kept people away from him. I can’t even imagine going through what he had and coming out anywhere near normal. But Mandy helps him through and it’s all good in the end. Of course – I have to have my HEA! lol

Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again?
No she wasn’t new to me. I read My Immortal which was pretty good and then started Fallen but it was a DNF for me. Just couldn’t get into it. I think I’ll stick with reading her “lighter” stuff cuz I liked it much better.

Are you keeping it or passing it on?
Keep

Did you enjoy the book? Yes

Would you recommend this book to others? Yes

Score: 3.75 out of 5

Nancy Drew Week

It's Nancy Drew week over at The Thrillionth Page!

Join CJ and a lot of other fun people (yes, moi will be there Thursday) for interviews, thoughts, reviews, contests and lots of other wonderful things.

What I've Been Reading This Week

Well it was a good week this week if very tiring. The girls going back to school threw me for a freakin loop. Getting up 45 min. to an hour earlier than summer just kicked my butt for some reason and I kept falling asleep early at night. God I felt old! lol Of course falling asleep early just puts a huge kabosh on the whole reading at night after the kids go to bed plan. This week only I read 2 full length novels and then a bunch of novellas and stories that weren't more than 150 pages each!

Right now the girls are driving me batty. I've escaped to the computer and had hubby take over. If one of them comes up to me just one more time and says, "She looked at me funny!" I'm going to blow my fuckin lid! lol I love mykids, I love my kids, I love my kids...

Ok - so on to what I read this week...



It Had To Be You by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. See review below.


Next was Twin Temptations by Elizabeth Lapthorne. This is a cute little novella that is #6 in the Rutledge Werewolf series. I haven't read the first 5 but whatever. :) Oh, it's "Twin" because the girl is a twin. You thought boobs or even menage, huh? Yeah, I did too! lol




Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Lapthorne was next. This is #2 in the Rutledge Werewolf series and strangely enough it's about the parents of the twins I read about in book 6 - kinda weird, but ok. I liked the story but there was a huge build up to the major conflict in the book and then it was just settled without a whole lot of fanfare. It was kind of anti-climactic.




It's been 2 weeks or so since I'd read a book in the Troubleshooters series by Suzanne Brockmann and that's just not right! I read Force of Nature which is book 11 in the series (I'll soon be all caught up, dammit!). This was another fantastic read. I just love Brockmann's characters and this one didn't disappoint. Annie, Ric, Jules, Robin, Martell and all of the others in this book were just great - even the bad guys are written so you really hate them. Let me just also say that Brockmann's dedications almost always bring me to tears. (I'm such a sap)




Ok so last week I read Samantha Kane's At Love's Command which was fab. I really liked it and I decided to read the rest of the Brothers in Arms books that she has out. I wasn't planning on reading them one right after another, but that's just what happened. I went from The Courage to Love to Love's Strategy to Love Under Seige. I liked all of these books. There was a time in one of the books - I think it was The Courage to Love that I started skipping a love scene and thought wow this has a lot of sex! lol Yeah, I don't say that very often! haha. But like I said they were all good. I think At Love's Command is my favorite but they'rea ll worth reading.





I ended my reading week with Educating Rose by Lissa Matthews. Educating Rose is Lissa's first book, a short about a girl (virgin librarian) who has the desire to be a submissive, but only for 1 man. Although this story was only 36 pages I very much enjoyed it. Obviously you can't delve too far into the characters with such a short story but after I was done reading I felt like I knew them. I'm not a huge bdsm book fan but this one was very enjoyable. Great job Lissa.
You can also find Samantha Kane and Lissa Matthews at Kiss and Tell which is where I found out about Lissa's release.



Happy Reading!

Review: It Had To Be You

TITLE: It Had To Be You
AUTHOR: Susan Elizabeth Phillips
SERIES: First in the Chicago Stars series

REASON FOR READING: I read Natural Born Charmer and really enjoyed it. When I found out it was part of a series (even thought it’s a great stand alone) I wanted to read the rest of the series.

SUMMARY: (From Goodreads)
The Windy City isn't quite ready for Phoebe Somerville -- the outrageous, curvaceous New York knockout who has just inherited the Chicago Stars football team. And Phoebe is definitely not prepared for the Stars' head coach Dan Calebow, a sexist jock taskmaster with a one-track mind. Calebow is everything Phoebe abhors. And the sexy new boss is everything Dan despises -- a meddling bimbo who doesn't know a pigskin from a pitcher's mound.

So why is he drawn to the shameless sexpot like a heat-seeking missile? And why does the coach's good ol' boy charm leave cosmopolitan Phoebe feeling awkward, tongue-tied....and ready to fight?

The sexy, heartwarming, and hilarious "prequel" to Susan Elizabeth Phillip's This Heart of Mine -- her sensational bestsellng blockbuster -- It Had To Be You is an enchanting story of two stubborn people who believe in playing for keeps.

THOUGHTS/OPINION:
When I first started reading this book I has some reservations about it. The main characters lives were just soooo messed up it was almost hard to read. But I quickly got over that!

Phoebe is playing the sexpot bimbo when she’s actually quite smart which is something I don’t like, but I got why she was doing it. She had such a horrid upbringing with her ass of a father it was heartbreaking. And then there’s her cousin who is such a slimy pile of poo I just wanted to crawl in the book and bludgeon him. How’s a girl to get through life with surrounded by crappy men. She does find friends eventually, mostly gay who want nothing from her and that makes her very happy. Being attracted to Dan is truly the last thing she wants, along with the football team. Along with everything else she’s got her 15 year old half-sister who she is now guardian to…and her sister hates her guts.

Dan Calebow is looking for a nice little woman who he can settle down and have a nice family with. His ex-wife is supposedly this conservative congresswoman on the outside but wants nothing but kink in the bedroom, which Dan is extremely tired of since he’s still servicing her a year after their divorce. They are both afraid of being with new partners. Dan had a horrible upbringing as well, but bad in a different way than Phoebe’s. He is the head coach for the team that Phoebe has inherited but also a retired quarterback and famous in his own right from that. When he’s attracted to Phoebe he gets very conflicted and isn’t sure what he wants.

This book was really good. Despite my reservations when I first started…because it seemed that everyone was incredibly fucked up…I couldn’t seem to put it down. The characters were very compelling in their own way and I kept wanting more. Ms. Phillips did a great job of setting up the background for all of the characters and then playing them out through book.

There were several conflicts in the book that needed to be worked through but the largest at the end of the book was taken care of a little too easily. The heroine was involved and it just seemed she got over her trauma too dang fast. Maybe it was the support from the hero that did that, IDK.

Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again?
I had only read 1 other of her books but will be reading more in the future.

Are you keeping it or passing it on?
Well I got it from the library so I’ll pass it on…but if I owned it I would keep it.

Did you enjoy the book? yes

Would you recommend this book to others? Yes

SCORE: 4 out of 5

Anything else? Can’t think of anything! :)

First Day of School Pictures

Today was the first day of school for my girls. They were so very excited about starting...I hope it lasts. It was nice to see my oldest excited about it since she hates school. Maybe things are changing - that would be wonderful.

So I go to grab the camera this morning and my hubby informs me that it's at his work because he was showing pictures of Sturgis to people at work. ARG! 2 things about that really bugged me.

A. He hasn't shown me shit in the picture department - ass.
Update: So I asked my hubby about this and he said he didn't think I'd want to see them. So he got the camera out last night and let me just say...my husband is such a guy!! OMG I've not seen that many pictures of boobs in my life! lol What a perv! :) I think though it's more the "Holy Shit" factor in that he truly can't believe that people walk around like this. Whatever. He hit delete all right after he showed me though so I know he's not going back to take a peek...and frankly why would he want to?? :)
B. Download the pictures to a CD and then take it to work! Don't take the friggin camera! lol

So we ended up taking pictures with hubby's blackberry and they're kinda dark and they're kinda blurry but as you know I love showing off pictures of my kids so here they are.

Update: So the girls had a fabulous day for their first day. They both LOVE their teachers (we'll see if that continues) and can hardly wait for homework to start. They said that and I got out the thermometer to see if they were sick. Really. Crazy kids.

Whatdya think?

I'm thinking since school is starting tomorrow that I might want to implement TFHOD with my kids tonight. You don't think it would traumatize them too much do you? And how exactly would this work since I live in a one story house? Hmmmm

What I've Been Reading This Week

Hey Kids! How's it hangin??? Did you have a good week? I hope so!

My week was very quiet as the kids were at my parents all week and John didn't get home until Friday...but they're all home now which is wonderful!

School starts for my kids next week...WTF?!!! lol Seriously how did that happen? I just can't get used to this only 2 months off in the summer thing. They're looking forward to it, I'm the one who's not. haha

I also realized that RAW is only about 6 weeks away! My goal was to read at least 1 book by each author - totally easier said than done. Truly. I read a lot, this should be no problem. I just haven't been motivated for some reason so I'm trying to jump further into that bandwagon.

Ok then started my week off with Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer which I liked...thoughts below. As I said in that post, I think I'm in the minority but, whatever. :)



Trying to read my RAW authors I read a short novel (novella) by Sylvia Day, Misled. It's about vampires in outer space. Whodathunk? Really. It was ok - lots of sex.



Next was another RAW author, Dawn Ryder. She also writes under Mary Wine who I like. Strangely enough, both of them will be at RAW! lol Anyway, this one was Hawk's Prey. Another sci-fi book about a girl who moves with her brother and father to a penal colony even though she's an innocent because she doesn't want to be alone and shunned. Wow - big move. She meets up with a Hunter, Hawk, who is more a less a guard. They hit it off, sex ensues. However, Hawk is "linked" with his partner so then you've got the old menage goin', even though her feelings are for Hawk. This sounds strangely weird, but it was actually strangely intriguing. I think I might be reading more in the series...not sure yet.

Next up, on the advice of Lisabea, I read Samantha Kane's At Love's Command. Samantha just won a Passionate Plume award for best historical erotic romance, 2007. Congrats Samantha! At Love's Command is a m/m/f romance and it was wonderful. I loved this book and now want to go back and read all of Samantha's Brothers In Arms series. Wonderful story, wonderful. Very, very sexy book.


Ended my week with Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon. I have to thank Kat for turning me on to the Dark-Hunter series. So dang good. I was very much looking forward to Acheron to learn all about his past, what makes him tick, how the hell he was gonna get away from Artemis and who was gonna be the love of his life. All of my questions were answered and it was a fabulous, fabulous book. Wonderful. Grade A+

Happy Reading!

What have you been reading this week?

He's Home!!!

My long lost love has finally returned to me! My hubby got back from the Sturgis Bike Rally and walked in the door of my work...'bout gave me a heart attack! He wasn't due home until tomorrow! Woohoo! Doin the happy dance!




There was a huge storm in Sturgis on Tuesday and they had like 80 mile an hour winds and some guy at one of the camp sites got hit by lightning and died! Unfuckinbelievable! Just goes to show you that when it's your turn to go you don't have a lot of say in the matter!



But he's here and he's safe and I'm a happy, happy woman!

Thoughts on Breaking Dawn

***Warning: Spoilers***

Let me start off by saying I really liked this book. I think I’m in the minority but there it is. I pretty much thought that it went along well with the others in the series. All of them were filled with emotions and a little bit of action...this one followed suit IMO.

There were a few things I had issues with…

**The whole Jacob/Renesmee thing put a whole new meaning to the word ick at first until I really got used the idea. But it also put an abrupt end to the whole Team Edward/Team Jacob thing which I was extremely glad about. I have always been Team Edward and always looked at Jacob and Bella as just good friends.

**Bella…post transformation…where she couldn’t hardly drive a car with power at the beginning of the book – she was now speeding with her lights off. Where she freaked about the black credit card – now she was ok with the money thing. Where she had an issue with clothes before – now she was wearing cashmere dresses, etc. I just felt like we lost a little bit of Bella there. Now granted, she did turn into a vampire here so I cut her a little slack. Also her control over her newborn status. I wish it was a little more like the other vamps had been...I felt she had too much control. But that's me.

I was wonderfully happy when the choice whether to turn vamp or not was pretty much taken out of Bella's hands. She was being a little wishy-washy with the whole I want/I don't want so was glad when Edward just did it. Turn Vamp or die is a good enough reason for me!

I’ve read a few reviews (on Amazon I think) who think it was all wrapped up too tightly at the end – but come on – it’s YA fiction! No harsh realities of life here! lol And haven’t Edward and Bella been through enough crap? They deserve their HEA and I for one am glad they got it! Lol

It was a very long book and yes as you see there were a few things I didn't like but overall I thought it was a most enjoyable read.

So...give me your thoughts.

What's Going On?

Hi all!



My friend Amanda Cummings is being interviewed over at Texty Ladies today (Tuesday, August 5). She's giving away a copy of her recently released novella Bound By Magic to one lucky commenter. Texty Ladies

Over at the DIK Blog this week we have guest authors!!

Colleen Gleason will be there Monday the 4th through Wednesday the 6th

Jacquelyn Frank will be there Thursday the 7th through Saturday the 9th.

Come on over and play!

What I've Been Reading This Week

What a fantastic week!!! Started it off really well by going to San Francisco (adventures & pictures posted below) continued it by going to a dear friends’ daughters wedding which was a blast! Ended it with spending the day with my wonderful children. We headed to Borders and B & N where we went a little crazy…so glad I can pass the book addiction on to my kids!

I bought
Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleason
Kiss of Fury by Deborah Cooke
Just One Bite by Kimberly Raye
First Blood Anthology
Dangerous Secrets by Lisa Marie Rice
(between my 2 girls...5 other books - yikes)

I actually forgot to buy Cry Wolf that I’ve been looking forward to reading – tragic! Oh darn, now I'll have to go back.

We then had lunch at Johnny Rockets where were served by a very cute man whom my kids insisted looked like Elvis. When my oldest told him that he said, “I actually get that a lot!” Too funny!

Then we went to Ben and Jerry’s, got ice cream and saw an afternoon show of Mamma Mia which was great. I saw the stage show a long time ago and have the soundtrack which my kids listen to all the time so it was fun for them to see the movie.

So I didn’t think I had read that much since there was so much going on…but I was wrong. I mean, I did have Wednesday off work while trying to recover from SF, with no kids, so I read!

First I read Nightkeepers by Jessica Andersen. I had some mixed feelings (I felt that about a lot of books this week!) about this book. It was good, but I never had a problem putting it down. The “love” was one of those that was pre-destined so there wasn’t really a romance at all. I am glad that the author actually put that in the book herself so it wasn’t like she was trying to pass it off as something it wasn’t, which I appreciated. I am curious to see what happens next so I’ll be reading the next one when it comes out.

Next I read Into the Flame by Christina Dodd. This was the fourth and final book in the Darkness Chosen series. It was ok but let’s just say that I’m glad the series is over. I like her contemporaries much better than her paranormals.

Truth or Dare by Lori Foster was an impulse buy last week. This was 3 related shorts about a dare between 3 female friends relating to a porn shop. Interesting concept…don’t think it really worked out. I liked the men a lot and I have to say that when they got involved with the women they were already mostly in love with them…but the women fell really fast and that just was soooo no believable to me. Cute, but, eh.

Secrets of Surrender by Madeline Hunter has been on my shelf for a while so I finally decided to read it. I liked this book, but there were soooo many secrets it was ridiculous. I know that’s the title of the book but I expected a couple…maybe a trio…there were many more and it was a little much. Good though.

Colleen Gleason will be a guest author on the DIK blog this week and I’ve never read her work before so I wanted to read at least one book before she got there. So I got The Rest Falls Away and read it. I have extremely mixed feelings about this book. I liked it, yet, I didn’t. I liked the whole idea of it but I found Max incredibly annoying (but a DIK girl actually picked him for one of her heroes so I'm thinking he gets better in the series?), the trio of Victoria’s mom and her friends...annoying, Sebastian…I wanted to punch. Phillip, oh Phillip. I loved Phillip and Victoria both. They were great. The end? That had me throwing the book after I finished it and growling for about an hour afterward! Lol My oldest daughter finally said, “Mom? Stop. Go start another book and it will get that one out of your head!” Kids, very smart. I can't decide if I'll read the rest of the series! Mixed. Feelings.

I only read Meljean Brook’s novella out of the First Blood Anthology, Thicker Than Blood. Meljean? I love you! lol I truly love every story this woman puts out! She got so much said and done in 107 pages it was amazing. Loved the story. Great! Loved it.

Happy Reading!

So what have you been reading this week?

My Trip to San Francisco

Click the music button so you can rock out while you watch and don't forget to read about the trip below!! You can also click on the HD thingy and see it up close and personal! :)