Happy Monday!
I hope that you all had a great weekend and a wonderful Easter – if you celebrate it. We do and we went to a lovely service followed by an egg hunt. Unfortunately it was lightly raining off and on so they had to have the egg hunt indoors but it was still fun. 🙂
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| You can hear her thoughts by the look on her face…really, mom? You HAVE to take a picture? |
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| Such a ham! |
Today I will start an exercise program. Yes, I’ve said this a couple of times in the past few years and have fallen down on the job each time. So what made me make the decision to start and stick to it this time? A mirror. lol The story: my sister was so nice and bought my girls dresses for Easter and had them sent. On Friday I got the package and when I opened it I realized that she had also sent a dress for me. She’s so sweet! I went to try it on and….it was too small. So I went to the store to exchange it and was trying on several different dresses. Besides the fact that one size was too small and the next looked like a big sack on me, there were strategically placed mirrors in the fitting rooms so that you could easily see the back and the front of yourself at the same time. Confession: I don’t look at the back of myself – ever. There’s just nothin’ back there I care to look at, thank you very much. I couldn’t help but look though and while I was changing I caught a glimpse of myself and let’s just say I didn’t like what I saw. So – today I start back to eating healthy and I’m also going to begin an exercise program that I have called Slim in 6. I’ve tried this program before and it’s not worked. Ok, it’s never worked. Not that the program itself doesn’t work (I wouldn’t know since I’ve never gotten through the entire thing…or even close to it) but it goes something like this. The program contains 3 dvd’s which you’re supposed to do every day, 6 days a week. The program consists of doing the beginning dvd for a week or 2…dvd 2 for about a week or so and then dvd 3 for the remainder of the 6 weeks. In the past I have done 1 day of the 1st dvd and not gotten any further because I’ve not been able to walk or move for about a week afterwards! lol I shit you not. Even though it’s the beginners dvd it’s a lot of work and I’m really out of shape! So…I’m attempting to do the Slim in 6 but it will probably be more like Slim in Six…teen hundred. I’m going to power through and see what I can do because I really need to get fit. I’m not in a hurry but I need to do something. I’ll keep you updated.
So let’s get back to books…what did I read this past week?
I started the week with a Tracy’s TBR Challenge read called Fantasies: New Year’s Eve by Cassandra Gold. This was the story of Eric who is the manager of a resort in Hawaii. He’s trying to recover from the pain of finding out that his lover was married and has decided that he will never again date one of the customers of the resort. That’s until Dexter shows up. Dex wants Eric almost immediately but Eric is determined to stay away. This was a pretty short book and things happened pretty darned quickly – which I expect in such a short format but it still didn’t set well with me. Eric seemed so extremely immature and I almost felt like I was reading about a high schooler rather than someone in his 20’s. Then there was the Big Mis that didn’t work for me and overall it was just ok. 2 out of 5
Another Tracy’s TBR Challenge read for the week was Kissing Orion by Amber Kell. This was another short that had a cop, Aaron, who is trying to investigate a drug issue in the area and goes to a club to see its vampire owner, Orion. Orion knows immediately that Aaron is his mate. He’s extremely possessive – to the extreme imho – and very demanding of Aaron’s time. The investigation continues but it comes to a highly unsatisfying conclusion that really sets us up for the next book. IDK, it just wasn’t working for me on the whole. 2 out of 5
Speaking of Amber Kell – Kris has an interesting post up about guilty pleasures. Check it out.
My next read was for my monthly TBR Challenge and that book was A Texan’s Lucky by Jodi Thomas. This was a great western historical. I really love Thomas’s writing and this was no different – she really knows how to pull the whole cast together in her books. You can read my review here. 4 out of 5
Next up was Darkfire Kiss by Deborah Cooke. This was one I read for The Book Binge. Rafferty’s story was a little different from the others as his firestorm (mating) consisted of darkfire and it really was wreaking havoc on the Pyr in general. A really great book that takes us in a whole new direction for the dragon shifters. 4.25 out of 5 I’ll let you know when my review posts.
Next up was Semi-Sweet: A Novel of Love and Cupcakes by Roisin Meaney. This was the story of several different couples and people who live and/or visit the small town of Clongarvin, Ireland. Hannah and her friend Adam are really the main characters but we get into the lives of everyone and how everybody’s story intersects. You can read my review here. I’m also giving away 2 copies so be sure and leave a comment on that post if you’re interested (you have until Friday the 26th at 7pm pacific). 3.25 out of 5
Out of the Pocket by Bill Konigsberg was the YA coming out story of star quarterback Bobby Framingham. His team is ready for the playoffs and he’s getting scouted by colleges but his life is in turmoil. He finally comes out to his best friend about the fact that he’s gay and instead of keeping his word and keeping quiet the friend tells two other friends. Not only that but someone Bobby trusts to keep his secret ends up writing a newspaper article about Bobby being gay and the cat is out of the bag. Bobby has some hard times but he has the support of his family and most of his friends. It was a good book that I very much enjoyed. 4 out of 5
Last for the week was The Vampire Dimitri by Colleen Gleason. This is book 2 in the Regency Draculia story and as you can guess, it was Dimitri’s story. He, though he will deny it for what seems forever, has got a thing for his ward, Maia. They are both stubborn and argumentative but they have a very strong attraction to the other. I’ll be reviewing this one this week so I’ll write more about the book then. 🙂
My Book Binge reviews that posted this past week:
Happy Reading!
Glad you had a good Easter. I'm still on vacation. Wheeee. 🙂
Good luck with the fitness regime. I really need to get my shit together as well. Sigh. Motivation = -325.
I have read some Cassandra Gold I've REALLY liked and a couple I didn't care for. I've not read that one so I may skip it. I hate when they try to jam a HEA into a few pages. I've not read that AK either. I might skip it for now. Not like I don't have enough books to read. 🙂
Have a good week.
*sigh* I really need to get back to exercising…
I had a really mixed reading week, too! Glad yours turned around for you.
Tam – I know, my motivation is there – it's just hanging on by a thread. lol I NEED to do it though – so I will keep with it.
According to Goodreads others liked the Gold but Eric was too insecure/immature for my liking.
And the Kell, meh. It's a bout on par with the others but Orion was just TOO possessive for me.
Chris – The reading week was very mixed but it keeps me on my toes. lol
Awww, too cute 🙂 I love it when you post pics of your daughters!! Jeez, your oldest looks so mature. For a minute, I thought it was you! LOL. You know, just the silhouette – once I clicked on the picture…
I hear you on the weight ^_^; I just signed up to the gym… again. Hopefully, this time, I'll see some results!
Nice reading week as always 🙂 I'm interested in Out of the Pocket… I know Ames read it and really liked it… sigh, if only I could find it at the library!
I'm glad you all had a lovely Easter and all the best with the healthy eating/exercise. After all my hard work I've kind of dropped the ball in the last year. I'm going to try hard over the next few months (even though it is winter) to get back on track. Christine has an iPhone app she said was really useful, which I'm thinking of looking at. You've got an iGadget, yes?
I do like the sound of Out of the Pocket and my library has it – YAH! It's on the list 🙂
I can relate to you on the exercise stuff! I've been working on for about a month now, but it is a struggle.
If you wanna motivational partner, I'm on Spark People as sveltedreams.
Darkfire Kiss looks like something I would enjoy reading, dragons and fire are both pluses for me.
I woke up on easter morning to the sound of kids chattering outside, excited for the egghunt organized by the owners of the playground. There was plenty of sun and I had a wonderful day, all by myself. No chocolate eggs for me though, like you I had some clothes that got tighter each month. So when my sister told me about a low carb diet she started I hopped on to it. In the ten days I've been doing the diet I lost 3.4 kg. I still need to find a work out that will work for me so I'm going to google yours, it sounds good! I wish you all the diet powerrrrrrrrrr for you to reach your goal 😉
OMG I just wrote a frickin novel out to you all and blogger ate it and told me it couldn't do that at this time. Waaaaah!
Ok – summarizing..sorry!
Nath – She does look mature, doesn't she? Of course LOOKing an BEing are two different things. I hope some day…lol
Out of the Pocket was good. Emotional and well written.
Congrats to you on joining the gym! Go Nath!
Orannia – Yay for libraries having the books we want! lol
I have no igadget or iphone or ianything. I do have an android phone and the food diary that I use, myfooddiary.com, has a great app so that's nice.
SVZ – Have you not read the Dragonfire novels? I think you'd like them if you like dragon shifters.
Spark People? I've not heard of that before – I'll have to check it out, thanks!
Leontine – I'm glad you had a good day. Ours was unusually quiet and that was A-ok with me – sometimes you just need that.
I had to look up the kg/lb conversion on your weight loss but now that I have – YAY for you! Keep up the good work! Slim in 6 kicks my ass but it's a great program. Hard to stick to at times since it's 6 days a week but I feel so much better…below all the aches and pains. Hopefully you'll find a program that works for you. 🙂