This past Friday my little Taekwondo master had yet another belt test.  She passed!  She is now a purple belt and I’m pretty sure she can now officially kick my ass.  They never reveal the score of the tests but I think she got a relatively high score.  She knows it all like the back of her hand but was really nervous this time because it was the first time she’s had to break a board during a test (with a side kick).  Because she was so nervous she choked, slightly, when demonstrating her Hapkido (prior to breaking) but she got through it!  Yay!  Here’s the vid of her breaking the board and her accepting her belt.

The Game of Tag answers – and no one guessed the correct 2:

1. I was born in Germany. Incorrect: I was born in Illinois but 2 of my siblings were born in Germany.
2. I’ve never ridden on a motorcycle. Incorrect: I’ve never ridden my hubby’s motorcycles but I used to ride on my brother’s cycle when I was younger.
3. I lived with my parents until I was 26. Correct: Yep, except for college I lived with my mom and dad until I was 26.  
4. I went to college in Oklahoma. Incorrect: I went to college in Kansas
5. I’ve been pregnant 5 times. Correct: 3 miscarriages and 2 kids.  
6. I was on the All Star Softball team in high school. Incorrect: I played softball in high school but never made any All Star team.  If any of you had seen my right hand throw at the time you’d know why. lol
7. One of the many places I’ve lived was Palm Springs, CA. Incorrect: I’ve lived many places in CA but never Palm Springs.
8. I’m the only natural born child in my family – my siblings were adopted. Incorrect: All of my siblings are natural offspring of my mom and dad.
9. I’m allergic to milk. Incorrect: I’m allergic to wheat, eggs and tomatoes, but not milk.
10. I almost chopped my index finger off in the garage door closer when I was 10. Incorrect: Although very close to the truth!  I did almost chop off my finger this way but I was 5 or 6 at the time so anyone who picked 10 wasn’t far off!  Brothers suck and they get you into all sorts of trouble!

I looked over my Goodreads lists this weekend to try and figure out exactly how many series I had to finish in order to complete my Finish the Series project that I gave myself for the month of March.  Holy Shit is all I have to say.  I have way more series to finish than I thought – the list was more than a little daunting.  I may have to make this a project for March and April…maybe May as well!

So…what I read this week:

First on the list was Shalador’s Lady by Anne Bishop.  Such a great book!  I just loved this story as I do all of Ms. Bishop’s books.  The continuing story from The Shadow Queen involving Cassidy and her reign as Queen in Dena Nehele – only one of the members of her court is trying to push her out and replace her with a nasty ass Queen.  We get a lot of Saetan, Lucivar, Daemon and Jaenelle as well as Kindred in this book and it was amazing.  I read this one for The Book Binge and will let you know when my review posts.  5 out of 5

Next I read Catch Me If You Can by LB Gregg.  I adore this book, I gotta tell ya.  Just a wonderfully funny, sarcasm filled story with a great whodunit and a lively romance.  I can’t wait to see what’s up next for Caesar and Dan.  You can read my review here. 5 out of 5

Next up was Wicked All Day by Liz Carlyle.  I really enjoyed this book…to a point.  There were parts of it I loved and then other parts when I just wanted to crawl into the book, sit down with the heroine and have a little talk with her.  If that didn’t work I’d slap her. lol  The heroine is caught en deshabille with her closest friend and is forced into an engagement with him.  He wants to do the right thing but is hopelessly in love with another woman and is miserable.  Heroine is starting to have feelings (or more like acknowledging the feelings she’s had for years) for the friend’s older brother but is trying to do the “right” thing where everyone is concerned.  It’s a good book, yet, a little heavy on the saintly acts for my liking.  3.5 out of 5

Bareback Cowboy by Carol Lynne was my next read.  This is a story about a man who takes a vacation from life by going to a working ranch in Montana.  He falls for one of the hands but he’s only there for a week.  His father is an extremely rich man and is insistent on his son’s goal in life – the problem is that father and son have very different goals.  I read this one for The Book Binge as well and will let you know when my review posts. 3.75 out of 5

My Tracy’s TBR Challenge read – as well as one of the books that I read as part of my Finish the Series project – was Dark Lover by Brenda Joyce.  This is book 5 in the Masters of Time series and the 3rd book in the Rose Trilogy.  We joined Sam Rose as she was put on assignment to cover Ian McLean.  He is the son of a Master of Time and has plenty of white power.  The problem is he’s out of his time – as he should be in 1527 – and he’s using his power to be an art thief.  He’s now come into possession – by thieving – of a page from a very powerful book. He’s going to sell it to the highest bidder unless Sam can stop him.  Besides this Ian and Sam are incredibly attracted to each other and trying to stay away from someone they know is not good for them doesn’t seem to stop them.  This was a good trilogy ender and I enjoyed it.  I think that the good guy who’s had a horrible past who’s can be redeemed is one of my favorite tropes and I think Ms. Joyce did a great job with this book.  4 out of 5

I finally got to the manga that’s been sitting on my shelf for too long.  I’m in the swap and apologize to whoever’s been waiting for it.  I finally pulled it out and I really liked it.  They were Crimson Spell volumes 1 & 2 by Ayano Yamane.  She does a fantastic job with the graphics and the fantasy story.  Wizards, dragons, cursed swords – it’s all part of the story.  I’m looking forward to reading volume 3 when it finally comes out.  4 out of 5

Then it was the yaoi novel Body Language by Aki Morimoto.  The first few pages of this book were almost enough for me to put it down.  One of the men was known for treating women really badly and it was a huge turn off for me – but since I knew the books was about 2 men I persevered.  The one guy is complaining that he hasn’t had a date in 2 months so his best friend offers himself up – since he’s been in love with him for a couple of years.  But the best friend hasn’t ever had sex before.  The 2 start a relationship but the best friend keeps thinking that it will end soon and when he misinterprets something he sees it almost does end.  This was good – not great, but good.  I had some issues with some things but overall, not bad. 3 out of 5

Last on the list was Something About You by Julie James.  I loved this book.  I love her writing and I hate that we have to wait so long between releases! lol  This story was just fantastic.  Cameron – an assistant U.S. Attorney and Jack – the FBI agent who believes that 3 years earlier Cameron had almost ruined his career.  Now Jack’s on a case that involves Cameron who ear/eye-witnessed a murder.  But Jack and Cameron don’t really hate each other as much as they say.  I think what I like about Ms. James’ writing is that yes, the h/h started off with some angst between them but the story is mostly external turmoil.  She didn’t write a story that had the suspense part of it as well as h/h’s who had internal issues with say…past relationships, hating women/men, never going to get married, etc.  It was just a great romance along with a great suspense plot.  I also very much enjoyed the fact that we know whodunit right off the bat – we just don’t know what’s going to happen because of that. 5 out of 5


Happy Reading!