Happy Monday! Hope you’re all rested from your weekend. I’m not, but I hope you all are. lol
Let’s see we put up the tree and trimmed part of the inside of the house on Saturday. We usually put up a 4’ tree in the kitchen/dining area and that’s where the kids have the “fun” tree. They put up all their silly, crazy, homemade ornaments with a big Santa hat on the top of it. It’s great, really, and they love putting it up. Except I can’t find the friggin ornaments! I’ve had them in the same box as the ornaments for the tree in the living room for a thousand years but I obviously deviated from the norm last year and now can’t find a thing! Ug! lol
Then yesterday I spent a few hours on the computer getting things ready for the DIK Winter Break giveaway that we’re having starting the 19th. That was a lot of work but let me tell you, it’s gonna be great! It’ll run from the 19th of December until the 2nd of January and LOTS of stuff is being given away so be sure and check every single day during that time. There will be multiple posts per day so keep checking!
My oldest is still having eating issues but we’ve talked some more about underlying issues and they may be winding down. She was much better this weekend so we’ll see how this week goes. On a funny note with her…we were talking about sex stuff and you know, how she should avoid it at all costs, condoms, etc. We’ve had the talk before but something she said brought it up again. She was, of course, completely embarrassed about talking about it and said, “Mom, we don’t have to have the sex talk again, I’m not gonna have sex until I’ve been married for 2 years!” LOLOL Omg I tried so hard not to laugh that I excused myself and had to go into the bedroom and giggle to myself for a few moments. I went back, hugged her and told her that it was the best plan I’d ever heard. *sigh* Funny, funny girl.
Anyway, on to what I read this week – as I said last week, I wasn’t focused enough to review last week but I still read!
First up was The Princess in His Bed by Lila Dipasqua that I read for The Book Binge. This was another set of fairy tale adaptations that included The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Ugly Duckling and The Princess and the Pea type stories. They were quite good and I enjoyed reading it. My review has posted over at TBB so you can go here to read it if you’d like. 4.25 out of 5
My Tracy’s TBR challenge read for the week was Bound by Deception by Christa Paige. This is book one in the Blood Vine series and though it was short it was pretty good. It was about a race of people who were long lived and the men turn into vampires. The women have to find their true mate or end up aging as humans do and dying. Anna kind of gets duped into being with Dimitri but he knows that he’s her true mate. There’s a man in the story who feels that Anna should have been his and takes matters into his own hands. It was a cute story with a different take on the whole vamp thing. I liked it. I just need to put book two on my ereader now. lol 4 out of 5
Christmas at Friday Harbor by Lisa Kleypas was my next read and I loved it. It got such mixed reviews when it released that I wasn’t certain what I should expect. Well I loved it. Really loved it. The story follows bachelor Mark as he “inherits” his niece after his sister dies. The little girl hasn’t spoken a word since her mom died. He’s not sure what to do with her so ends up moving in with his brother to share the responsibility. He’s dating a woman but he’s not feeling the love. Six months after the little girl starts to live with him they meet Maggie who runs the local toy store. She has her own baggage because of being widowed at such a young age and not being sure how to deal with it. Mark and Maggie and Holly end up making an unlikely family. I have to say that I liked both the hero and the heroine, Mark’s brothers, Maggie’s family, the emotion, the humor and everything else about the book. It touched all of the different places in my heart – I just wanted it to be longer! lol Now, I do have to say that I got this from the library – if I had paid the HC price for it I might have felt differently because of the length of the book. But since I didn’t – it was great! 5 out of 5
Next was A to Z by Marie Sexton. This was the story of video store owner Zach and Angelo who eventually becomes his employee and so much more. But Angelo has issues that he has to work through and it’s not always smooth sailing between the two men. I really liked both the characters in this book. It had alternating first person pov from chapter to chapter but it flowed really well. Sometimes when that happens I tend to like one person’s pov better than the other but not so with this one. I also very much liked Angelo’s inner thoughts and views on some things. For all of his hard shell on the outside he was quite a tender person on the inside. Good story. 4.5 out of 5
Next up was How to Wed a Baron by Kasey Michaels. This was more or less an arranged marriage story but they don’t actually get married. It was about a hard man who is softened by a woman and I really liked it. I’ll review this on Wednesday so stay tuned.
Last but not least was Prince Charming Doesn’t Live Here by Christine Warren. This is an expansion of her original ebook release Faer Fetched. It has very little resemblance to the original story, however, except a sex scene or two – even the hero’s description changed quite drastically. I read this one for The Book Binge as well but I’m sad to say that I didn’t love it…or even like it that much. 2 out of 5
My Book Binge Reviews that posted this past week
Happy Reading!
Ooops, ended with a dud huh? I too liked A to Z a lot.
Your daughter is funny. I know when mine was younger she and her husband were going to move in with me and have bunk beds. I thought he might have issues with that. LOL The kidlet would rather slit her wrists than talk about sex. Sigh. Guess she's learning everything she needs to know on the internet. *eye roll* I'll know somethings going on if she starts shaving her legs in the winter. LOL The sign someone's seeing her without pants on besides me.
LOL at your daughter's comment! 🙂
A to Z was a good one. Do you have the next ones by Marie, too?
Tam – I hate ending on a dud! Oh well, you can't plan those things. lol
*snort* bunk beds! OMG that's funny. Yep shaving in winter will give it away. Although mine does it all the time because she hates the feel of her leg hair rubbing on her jeans. 🙂
Chris – I don't have the rest of the Coda series yet but I plan on getting it soon!
Lol kids can be so adorable!
LOL about your daughter and sex, Tracy. That's all you can wish, that she doesn't have sex even after she's married! LOL. I'm glad to hear that the eating issues might be resolved 🙂
I think that most ppl's problem with the Kleypas is as you say, the length of it.
I'm so glad I didn't buy the Warren. I've been tempted, but not by the story, but just because I wanted to buy books ^_^;