Hello there!

How the heck are ya?  Did you all have wonderful weekends?  I hope so.  Mine was definitely fun filled. 

On Friday night my youngest had, once again, another belt test.  I know it seems like she just had one but the last one was in March.  She did a great job on everything up until she had to break a board.  Her back kick is probably her weakest kick and of course that’s the kick she had to use to break the board.  He called her up and gave her about 8 chances and she couldn’t do it!  OMG the poor thing was in tears.  But then he looked at her and told her that he’d give her another try after he had tested some of the higher belts.  When he called her up again it was still touch and go but she managed to do it.  Here’s the vid of the second set of attempts.

And she passed!  Yay chickie!  Here’s a picture when she got her green belt.  I tried to video tape it but apparently I hadn’t cleaned up my camera in a while and the memory was too full – yikes! 🙂

Then Saturday the whole family went to Lori’s son Steve’s Bar Mitzvah.  He did a great job at the service and the party was a ton of fun.  They did a great job decorating the party room and the dj’s were great – they had everyone out there dancing.  I practically had to drag my girls off the dance floor when it was time to go.  Just a really fun party.

Well, on to what I read this past week:

I started with Lord of the White Hell by Ginn Hale.  This was an ARC of the book that releases on August 15th. It was an excellent read that I highly recommend.  You can read my review here. 5 out of 5

Next was Hue, Tint and Shade by Jordan Castillo Price.  This is the first story in the Petit Mort books and it was very good.  I really enjoyed reading about Tommy the total introvert and Nathan the outgoing window washer get together.  4 out of 5

Then another of my FTSP books Pack Territory by Crissy Smith.  This was Adam and Tasha’s story.  Adam is helping Tasha find her sister who has run away and they start to fall in love.  Along with that Adam has to deal with the fact that his father is in a m/m relationship.  I liked this one but not as much as the other 2 in the series.  3.5 out of 5

My next read was The Forbidden Rose by Joanna Bourne.  OMG I loved this book.  As much as I liked her other 2 books in this series I thought this one was just that much better.  Marguerite and William were just fabulous together.  This is a prequel to the other 2 books so if you haven’t read the series yet you could start with this one and still be ok. 🙂  I read this one for The Book Binge so will let you know when the review posts.  5 out of 5

Pool Hall Green by Sara Bell was my next read.  This is the story of Drew and his struggle with his family.  His parents kicked him out of the house when they found out he was gay but yet call him to get his reckless brother out of trouble whenever they can’t handle it.  It was a very good story about Drew coming to terms with his family and falling in love along the way.  I will definitely be reading more from Bell in the future. 4 out of 5

Skin Tight by Ava Gray was a really good book.  This is book 2 in the Skin series and it follows 2 characters we met in book 1 – Kyra’s friend Mia and casino thug Foster.  Only Foster is now Thomas Strong and he and Mia are working at the same facility.  It seems that Kyra and Strong weren’t born with the powers that they have  – they were basically science experiments.  Mia and Strong work together – against Strong’s better judgment and become close while in the process.  I really liked this story.  Strong (you’ll find out his real name in the book but I don’t want to give it away) is so closed off it was nice to see him loosening up and starting to trust someone – which he hadn’t done in a very long time.  4 out of 5

Yesterday was manga day.  I had a few piled up and knew I had to get to them so I could send them on to their next temporary home so I had a yaoi manga binge.

*The Devil’s Secret by Hinako Takanaga was the story of an incubus demon and a priest. There were some other shorts in there as well.  Interesting stories – pretty good graphics. 3.5 out of 5

*Sugar Milk by Dokuro Jaryu was a bunch of stories.  I didn’t particularly care for the graphics in this one – nor the stories – they were just kind of odd. 2 out of 5

*Shy Intentions by Shoko Takaku was the story of the teacher and the artist.  The teacher was pretty much relating the story of how they got together to another acquaintance.  I liked this one but I think I would have liked it better had it gone in chronological order.  The story was told – then they went back even further…then further again.  It was strange, but still good. 3.5 out of 5

*Restart by Shouko Hidaka was the story of 2 models.  One was going strong and then kind of fizzled out while the other started slow but is rising swiftly.  They get together when one is drunk and that starts the feelings a flowing.  I liked the story and the graphics in this one. 4 out of 5

Last of the week was Black Wade by Franz and Andaerle.  I’ve been wanting to read/view this graphic novel since Sarah put it on her DIK reading list.  It has wonderful color graphics and a short but good story.  Definitely worth the read/view. 4 out of 5

My Book Binge review that posted this past week: