My reading time has been cut

Over Thanksgiving my sister n law took it upon herself to teach me a craft. Who would have thought that I would have actually picked this craft up with gusto and actually enjoy doing it? Not me or my husband I tell you. My husband would like nothing more than to go back to Iowa and ring his sister's neck for giving me yet something else to distract me from the many housekeeping things that always fall to the wayside as I sit here and read and now Crochet.

(The above picture is not mine, I borrowed the picture)

My mother made the attempt several years ago to teach me, but me being me said I am way too cool for that and never let it stick.  OK, I did have a lot on my plate at the time and certainly didn't have time to sit down and crochet a blanket. I had to work, attempt to complete a degree, and spend every spare moment with my precious daughter.

When I fell and broke my ankle, I thought hey I get plenty of time to read. I did have the time, but I couldn't make myself read. I am sure that it had a lot to do with those dreaded pain killers, but I can't put all the blame there. I just didn't want to read. So I picked up the ball of yarn my SNL gave me to practice with and gave it a go. Before I knew it I had finished a scarf. Now this scarf in my opinion is extremely ugly and needs lots of help, but my step mother loved it. So she was the lucky recipient of the finished product. Having another ball of yarn of the same color I thought I would make her a hat to go with the scarf. The hat didn't turn out quite like it was suppose to but it was still extremely cute...for a baby! I gave up on the hat.

Then I got this idea in my head. My best friend is about to be a grandmother. Well now I have a baby that I can practice with... you know make the cute little blankets and anything else that I can figure out. So I made my hubby take me to Hobby Lobby. I was still in a cast to my knee and had to be rolled in, he left me on the yarn isle while he and my son went to look at airplanes. I found the perfect yarn for a little girl, and for a set of teenage parents, "Pink Baby Camo" by Baby Bee (I think that is the company name). So I grabbed my five rolls... thats all they had and perfect for me that is what my pattern said I needed. Only I changed my mind and found another pattern that I liked so much better. Unfortunately for me that in my learning all of these stitches and how to read a pattern all by myself, I didn't realize that not all balls of yarn are the same length. I expected to be able to use the same 5 rolls for this new pattern and be good. I was so wrong. I went through my five rolls and found that I still needed more. And the store was out!! easy fix, I had the store order me 5 more and prayed that that would be enough.  In the end I shortened the length of the blanket and changed the border to something more girlly. I ended up with 3 balls left. I made the same baby hat that I accidentally made for my stepmother. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. At the end of this project I was so fed up with crochet I didn't think I would ever do it again.

Boy was I wrong. My son's teacher is pregnant and his Kindergarten teacher is pregnant. So now I have consigned myself to make two more blankets. This time I am using the only pattern my mother knows... a granny square that keeps on going.  She says that it moves really fast... I am starting to think she is lying!! So I am bored with the blanket that I have started for the current teacher, she is due first, and decide to look through the internet for some simple and quick patterns that I can make cutesy headbands or something. Yesterday I made two!! They took absolutely no time at all.

I find myself reading less and less as I devote myself to these little projects. And unfortunately my blog has completely fallen to the wayside. I do have one review that I will definitely be getting up in the coming weeks for the book Semi Sweet. 

I hope that all of my friends in blogland are doing well and I hope to hop over to see you soon!!

DIK Reading Challenge~~Bound by Your Touch by Meredith Duran

BEAUTY IS AS BEAUTY DOES...

Silver tongued Viscount Sanburne is London's favorite scapegrace. Alas, Lydia Boyce has no interest in being charmed. When his latest escapade exposes a plot to ruin her family, she vows to handle it herself, as she always has done. Certainly she requires no help from a too-handsome dilettante whose main achievement is being scandalous. But Sanburne's golden charisma masks a sharper mind and darker history than she realizes. He shocks Lydia by breaking past her prim facade to the woman beneath... and the hidden fire no man has ever recognized. But as she follows him into a world of intrigue, she will learn that the greatest danger lies within-- in the shadowy , secret motives of his heart.


My Thoughts:
I have planned on reading Meredith Duran for quite some time. Several of my internet reading buddies have raved on and on first about The Duke of Shadows and then about Bound by Your Touch. I finally found the opportunity to read one of Meredith Duran's books with the DIK reading challenge. Unfortunately for me the day after I picked up the book and actually started reading North GA was hit with an awful ice storm that left a lot of people stranded. Cars were literally left in the middle of interstates unable to move because of multiple accidents and empty gas tanks. I was not stranded on an interstate, thank goodness, but I did encounter much of the same problems a lot of people did in Atlanta, which aired nationally on the news...My mom was watching in West Virginia and was quite worried. I made the decision to park my car safely and walk the two miles home. Long story short, it was the wrong decision for me. I fell and broke my ankle in 7 places.
In the last two and a half weeks I have been trying to read Bound by Your Touch. I have been taking some pretty decent pain killers and suffering the side effects associated with them. I am hoping that being doped up is the reason the book did not hold my attention for more than a few minutes resulting in me almost not finishing the book in time to get this post completed. Unfortunately the rating may suffer all the same. I will definitely have to take Tracy's advice and reread it later on when I am not doped up. I am definitely not going to count Ms. Duran out, I still have two other books by her to read. If I find that those books satisfy my needs I will definitely revisit BBYT and its rating.

Lydia, the not so pretty older sister who finds solace in books and studies has been placed as the head of the family because the father is too busy with his own agenda to really give a darn about his three daughters. in an attempt to get some of her pride back after being rudely interrupted by Sanburne declares his piece of art a fraud in front of everyone, but the real slap in the face was his father was there as well.

Sanburne is so messed up in his head that he blames his father for his sister's situation. He has vowed to destroy his own life in attempts at making his father miserable for doing nothing about the predicament his sister is in. He acts like a spoiled and selfish little boy when all he has to do is face his father and ask the right questions. Now he is out to ruin Lydia and her family, only he finds he is intrigued by the bookish miss. Instead of publicly ruining her father and the rest of her family, he decides to work with her in the attempt to find out what really happened to the piece that he bought.

I felt like the story dragged on and on. Like I said I am hoping that the percocet, which seems to act like a downer in my system, is to blame for my ill feelings about the heroine and hero. I did enjoy the last quarter of the book which helped me keep the rating for Bound by Your Touch at a respectable 3 stars.   I really hope to revisit this review in the future and change my rating and give a more positive review.

rating:3 stars

I really did a number this time!!!

 And I really shouldn't have any excuses for not getting any reading done over the next few weeks, or more. Wednesday night north GA got hit with some more of that wonderful winter weather that is not suppose to come near us. Our streets were covered in ice. I have to give myself props though... for someone who has never drove in the mess I didn't wreck my car. I was extremely proud of myself but was too scared to turn around when I saw the traffic at a stand still on my way home. So I spent over 2 hours on the road that leads to the road that leads to my subdivision, Only to get the road that leads to my subdivision and find it to be a parking lot as well. I decided I was going to park my car before I ran completely out of gas and walk the last two miles to the house. Everyone else was doing it!  Well I am not everyone else, and I should have just sat in my car and prayed really hard that I would get home with out wrecking going down the big hill or running out of gas.  NO NO NO I should have just stayed put.  Instead I do this...

yes that is my foot at odd angle. I broke my ankle in three places and dislocated my foot. My mother tells me that there were a total of 7 brakes that have now been stabilized with plates and screws. My surgeon told her that he had to perform  plastic surgery on my dolphin's nose but "Miki" is now "Niki".   This is why the south does not like that winter weather that insists on blowing down here.

So up this week is Bound by Your Touch by Meredith Duran to complete the DIK challenge. My guilty indulgence, Explosive by Beth Kery, and then I will have to send my mother into my closet to find me something else to read.

Beyond the Highland Mist by Karen Marie Moning~~DIK READING CHALLENGE

AN ALLURING LAIRD

He was known throughout the kingdom as Hawk, legendary predator of the battlefield and the boudoir. No woman could refuse his touch, but no woman ever stirred his heart—until a vengeful fairy tumbled Adrienne de Simone out of modern-day Seattle and into medieval Scotland. Captive in a century not her own, entirely too bold, too outspoken, she was an irresistibly challenge to the sixteenth-century rogue. Coerced into a marriage with Hawk, Adrienne vowed to keep him at arm's length—but his sweet seduction played havoc with her resolve.

A PRISONER IN TIME

She had a perfect "no" on her perfect lips for the notorious laird, but Hawk swore she would whisper his name with desire, begging for the passion he longed to ignite in her. Not even the barriers or time and space could keep him from winning her love. Despite her uncertainty about flowing the promptings of her own passionate heart, Adrienne's reservations were no match for Hawk's determination to keep her by his side...

MY Thoughts:
I have heard many good things about KMM, but I have always said I will read her later. This was the chance and the push that I needed to finally pick up on of her books. My TBR mountain continues to grow and the time I have for reading continues to decrease, so I have become a lot more selective on the books that I choose to take what little time I have to devote to reading. KMM will definitely be one of the authors that are on that very selective list.

Have you ever wished on a falling star? That is what Gillam does right before Adrienne is brought to medieval Scotland.  Hawk has ignited the jealousy and anger of the Fae King and his Fool. The Fae Queen has taken notice of the legendary Hawk and used him against her two companions.  Out of their jealousy they seek a way to destroy Hawk without bloodshed, which would break the pact, and what better way to destroy a man than to have him love so deeply but to have his love thrown in his face.

Adrienne is from the 21st century and she Hates beautiful men. She is hiding from a past, and hoping it doesn't catch up to her, when she is wisked back in time to medieval Scotland and ordered to pretend that she is the Comyn daughter and forced to marry Hawk by the Kings order. Hawk is everything that she could want in a man, but he is a beautiful man and therefore he can not be trusted.

With this plot you know doubt can expect a battle of wits. But the story is so much more. It was an absolute pleasure to watch Hawk and Adrienne fall in love, lose each other, and find their way back again.

When Harry Met Molly

A four-book series in which debut author Kieran Kramer transports you to London in a time where a wager can be placed by royal decree—and romance is always in season. Handsome, dashing, delightfully wicked—the Impossible Bachelors are the most eligible men in London. But in romance, only one thing is impossible: refusing to follow where the heart leads…



Get ready for When Harry Met Molly coming in November, 2010 and Dukes to the Left of Me, Princes to the Right, following in December.

When Harry Met Molly

• In Stores November, 2010
• Read An Excerpt
• Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders | IndieBound

He’s always been a player.

Dashing Lord Harry Traemore is perfectly content to live out his days in the pursuit of pleasure. But when he’s named by the Prince Regent as one of society’s “Impossible Bachelors,” Harry is drafted into a ribald romantic wager. The rules of engagement are scandalously simple: The bachelor whose mistress wins the title of “Most Delectable Companion” gets to remain unmarried. Harry is utterly unconcerned about his status…until his latest lightskirt abandons him.

Who will win this game of love?

Enter Lady Molly Fairbanks. Harry’s childhood friend—actually, “foe” is more like it—is the most unlikely companion of all. She’s attractive but hot-headed, and in no mood for games. Besides, what could the self-indulgent Harry possibly know about what makes a woman delectable? It’s time for Molly to teach him a lesson once and for all…but will it lead to “happily ever after?”

My Thoughts:
I was approached by Tracee to read and review When Harry Met Molly   for Ms. Kramer's blog tour. Unfortunately through circumstances that neither the author or myself could control, my review is a tad bit late for her blog tour.  I am most pleased, however, to finally have received this book. While waiting on the arrival I read only one interview and stayed away from any reviews...I did not want to cloud my judgment, which unfortunately happened just a little bit. I was pretty young when the movie When Harry Met Sally came out, I don't remember much about the famed movie, though I have seen it. Of course the title automatically makes you think about the movie, but when I read the interview and saw the reference to the two sets of characters I was kind of put off. I don't know why, other than Billy Crystal just doesn't strike my fancy. I don't see him as a romantic character, he is hilarious and a great comedian... I loved him in Monsters Inc. Again I say I was excited when the UPS guy dropped the envelope off on my front steps. So excited, that I put my current read to the side... a hard thing to do since it was Wild Riders by Jaci Burton!!

In a return comment on the "spotlight" post  I stated:

            "These two are the bane of each others existence yet they are going to have to work together to get out of a dilemma."

 

I honestly believe that that one statement can sum up the entire book in one little nutshell. However there is so much to the story, that I would hate for that one statement to detract anything from it. 

We meet a young Molly at Christmas. She has prepared a poem that she intends to read in front of her family and the Dukes family. She is utterly in love with Roderick, her sister's fiance and Harry's older brother. In her not so mature mind she believes that changing the only the names will hide the identity of all involved. Not so, it causes a brawl right away. This unfortunate event sends Harry to the military and Molly to a stricter school.  These two suffer far greater consequences than could be imagined.

Years later Molly has had it with being stuck in the country, a companion to an elderly cousin. She devises a plan to elope. Only her plan goes array the moment Harry walks into the inn with his latest lightskirt, who is described to be Aphrodite. Molly's intended runs off with Aphrodite, leaving both Harry and Molly in a large pickle. He must make it to the Hunting Box or forfeit the wager and end up married, but he can't in good conscience leave Molly standing on the side of the road to be completely ruined and possibly hurt. After some bickering back and forth Molly flatly says No to Harry's proposal and starts walking in the other direction, only Harry won't have it and carries her back to his carriage over his shoulder. They made a huge scene in front of the inn, neither caring or aware of it.

I am not going into any more of the story than that. These two have been at each others throats for most of their lives and now they must depend on the other to get them safely through one week with a house full of bachelors and their mistresses.  The games that are implemented, the bickering, banter, and wit within this book kept me turning the pages. 

i wanted to hate Harry at times but he always seemed to do the right thing at just the right moment. Molly's strong demeanor and cunning personality kept her secret and her in the running for the "MOst Delectable Companion".  I have to say that When Harry Met Molly is the best historical romance that I have read all year. I am definitely going to be on the look out for the second in this series, Dukes to left of me, Princes to the right, which comes out next month!! If you have not yet had the pleasure of reading When Harry Met Molly I highly recommend that you put it on your Christmas list!!!

Rating: 5 stars

PICK ME

Ok, you all know that I have a 15 year old daughter. I tell you there are some days I wish I had a bottle that would capture her statements and actions and save them forever. While I was over at Lea's blog, I apparently had a flash of something that happened today that has just stuck in my head.

Have you been to a Taco Bell lately? I was there this evening, and staring at me through the drive through window are several Hot Sauce packets that have the words "PICK ME" in big bold letters. I thought it was cute. And obviously "Pick Me" has stuck in my head tonight, as I used it in my commentary over at Lea's on the Stephanie Tyler giveaway post.  Any way my daughter tells me I would love for my future husband to ask me to marry him that way. Here is the conversation that ensued afterward...

Me: OK I will save one of these little packets of hot sauce just to give to the guy that is going to ask you to marry him. And then I will tell him he has to ask you to marry him by handing you this packet and saying "PICK ME".

Michaela: (laughing) NO, they actually have a packet that says "Marry Me". I want my future man to hand me that packet of Hot sauce. I think it would be really sweet.

Me: You're kidding me right, (giggle), they do not have a packet that says Marry me.

Michaela: Yes they do, I find it for you.

she starts searching the plastic bag for our sauces and starts reading them off.

MIchaela: Watch we will get the only packets that don't say it. I swear mom they really do have ones that say Marry Me.

so as I am telling Lea to PICK ME on her contest, I decide I will Google the hot sauces. And guess what I found...yep you got it

So she isn't delusional as I first thought, but she is a little goofy! If I didn't think she was serious I wouldn't have posted about it. Taco Bell is her favorite place to eat and she loves their Hot sauce. So now I think I am going to hunt down this "Will YOu Marry Me" packet so that I can save it for her future husband!!

Spotlight~~~When Harry Met Molly

A four-book series in which debut author Kieran Kramer transports you to London in a time where a wager can be placed by royal decree—and romance is always in season. Handsome, dashing, delightfully wicked—the Impossible Bachelors are the most eligible men in London. But in romance, only one thing is impossible: refusing to follow where the heart leads…



Get ready for When Harry Met Molly coming in November, 2010 and Dukes to the Left of Me, Princes to the Right, following in December.

When Harry Met Molly

• In Stores November, 2010
• Read An Excerpt
• Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders | IndieBound

He’s always been a player.

Dashing Lord Harry Traemore is perfectly content to live out his days in the pursuit of pleasure. But when he’s named by the Prince Regent as one of society’s “Impossible Bachelors,” Harry is drafted into a ribald romantic wager. The rules of engagement are scandalously simple: The bachelor whose mistress wins the title of “Most Delectable Companion” gets to remain unmarried. Harry is utterly unconcerned about his status…until his latest lightskirt abandons him.

Who will win this game of love?

Enter Lady Molly Fairbanks. Harry’s childhood friend—actually, “foe” is more like it—is the most unlikely companion of all. She’s attractive but hot-headed, and in no mood for games. Besides, what could the self-indulgent Harry possibly know about what makes a woman delectable? It’s time for Molly to teach him a lesson once and for all…but will it lead to “happily ever after?”

I am seriously looking forward to reading this book!  The blurb definitely has my romantic heart going pitter-patter in the anticipation of what will happen in this historical romance.  A romance that not only contains a "friend to lover" plot but also has an intriguing wager, where can one go wrong?!!  I have high expectations and will definitely be bringing "My Thoughts" to the table!!

Tempt Me At Twilight by Lisa Kleypas~~DIK READING CHALLENGE

Poppy Hathaway loves her unconventional family, though she longs for normalcy. Then fate leads to a meeting with Harry Rutledge, an enigmatic hotel owner and inventor with wealth, power, and a dangerous hidden life. When their flirtation compromises her own reputation, Poppy shocks everyone by accepting his proposal only to find that her new husband offers his passion, but not his trust. Harry was willing to do anything to win Poppy except to open his heart. All his life, he has held the world at arm's length'¦but the sharp, beguiling Poppy demands to be his wife in every way that matters. Still, as desire grows between them, an enemy lurks in the shadows. Now if Harry wants to keep Poppy by his side, he must forge a true union of body and soul, once and for all...

My Thoughts:

Poppy is a very down to earth person. She is extremely pretty, witty, and intelligent. So why has she experienced three London seasons without one proposal, her family doesn't have the bluest blood and they are rather odd for London standards. Each person has his or her quirks which endears them to the reader. I for one fell in love with the entire family. They are very protective of each other and very loving and accepting. So when Poppy is satisfied with a "secret courtship" from her gentleman they are only partially fighting it. They want Poppy to be happy and are willing to stand behind her in her decisions.

Harry's first meeting with Poppy leaves him breathless and with a desire so strong for this woman he would do anything to have her. He knows there is competition but he is willing to stoop to any level to have her. Harry's plan to seduce the breath taking Poppy has only gone slightly askew, seeing his one and only chance in securing her hand in marriage he jumps on the opportunity to completely ruin her, kissing her passionately on the patio in front of several people.


 I normally hate reading out of order, but I am finding more and more with historical romances that it is quite easy to do and still feel like you are reading a stand alone book. Yes, I could tell that there had to be a previous book or two because there are two sisters already married, and their husbands play such pertinent roles in the family dynamics... but I really felt as if I was reading an unrelated book. This is a big plus for me!!!

I found that Tempt Me At Twilight was a delightful book, one that I could not put down. With every story you have to have some sort of incident to cause problems, but I really think we could have gone without the abduction. I think that Poppy and Harry's relationship was riddled with enough strife to suffice, and with the strife there was plenty of banter and antics between the couple and the Hathaway family to keep the book moving at a really good clip. The abduction didn't take away but it didn't add anything either. Other than that one small complaint I loved the book.  Lisa Kleypas hits another one out of the park! I can't wait to read more of the Hathaways.

5 stars

One Night Stands and other Corny stuff

For the life of me I cannot remember where I heard this one but I just can't get it out of my head. So I thought I would share it with you and maybe you can be tortured right along with me!! LOL

I am getting too old to have one nightstands in a hotel room. So now I only stay at hotels that have two nightstands .

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A police recruit was asked during the exam, "What would you do if you had to arrest your own mother?"
He said: "Call for backup."

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Little Johnny was sitting in class doing math problems when his teacher picked him to answer a question

Little Johnny was sitting in class doing math problems when his teacher picked him to answer a question, "Johnny, if there were five birds sitting on a fence and you shot one with your gun, how many would be left?"

"None," replied Johnny, "cause the rest would fly away."

"Well, the answer is four," said the teacher, "but I like the way you're thinking."

Little Johnny says, "I have a question for you. If there were three women eating ice cream cones in a shop, one was licking her cone, the second was biting her cone and the third was sucking her cone, which one is married?"

"Well," said the teacher nervously, "I guess the one sucking the cone."

"No," said Little Johnny, "the one with the wedding ring on her finger, but I like the way you're thinking."

Regression by Kathy Bell

Regression Blurb:
Fourteen-year-old Adya Jordan swears that before her head injury she was a forty-year-old mother of six. Is she going crazy, or did she really live through an entirely different life? 1985 is nothing like she remembers, although her first day of high school certainly is! A typical girl with atypical genes, Adya tries to recapture her old life, hiding her growing conviction that she has done this before. Memories of the man she loved and a family she adored haunt her, even though her future husband doesn't even know she exists. Accidentally discovering the secretive Three Eleven Corporation might know more about her situation than she does, she is convinced the twenty-eight men heading up the company are responsible for the changes in her world. Adya finds her way into their ranks, journeying to the tropical island headquarters to begin an orientation into their prestigious internship program. The Three Eleven Company controls the development and distribution of Twenty-first Century technology brought with them from the future. Charged with the task of preparing the world for an impending disaster, each member of the team uses his scientific background to create a solution for a problem the planet does not know it is facing. They don't have time to deal with a feisty young girl poking around. Banished to the frozen Canadian Shield for asking too many questions of CEO Abraham Fairfield, Adya finds the men in the underground city of Sanctum are interested in more than just her genes as they search for the answer to her presence in the timeline. In the end, Adya encounters a choice no mother should ever face: save her children...or everyone else.

Regression Buy Link

My Thoughts:

I don't typically read or watch Sci-Fi. It just isn't my passion. I was approached by Tracey with the offer to review Regression and thought Hey Why not. I was intrigued by the blurb that was sent to me and thought that if nothing else I would have an interesting time reading.  I was not instantly drawn in to the book. It kind of started off slow, but I knew something exciting was going to happen, maybe I shouldn't say exciting so much as unusual in my reading life.

Adya is a forty year mother of six. Regression opens up on a normal day. The family has just left a memorial and are headed to Grandma's. Adya realizes that she has forgotten presents and must go back, leaving all but one of her children with her mother. There are not many details as to what happens but you know that she has been in a car accident. Upon waking up she finds that she is fourteen years old and in the year 1985. She has very strong memories of a full life filled with love and happiness and a family that she could not have dreamed up. The doctor informs her that she has been in a coma for a week and that the brain can do funny things when traumatized.

With no other option but to accept that she is a fourteen year girl again Adya tries to blend in and behave like a normal teenager would without letting it slip that she has already lived this life, or one very similar to it, once. She is faced with confusion about her "new" world, seeing things in this 1985 that didn't appear until the 21 century.  I was actually thrown for a loop and thinking that this is just ridiculous when Adya walks into school and finds that everyone has a computer at their desk, and not the Commodore 64 that was first introduced to me when I was a child. These were top of the line laptops. Of course the author did a wonderful job explaining all of this later on, and Adya did make reference to the changes she was seeing. It is in this classroom that Adya finds out about the company Three Eleven. After answering a question posed to the new users of the program Adya is invited to tour the company as an intern.

At Three Eleven Adya learns that she is not the only Regresse, the term used to identify those that have come back in time to their younger selves with full knowledge of their previous life. The only thing that these regresses do not know is what catastrophe takes place in 2011. Adya spends several weeks learning about the 28 men that run Three Eleven and their projects being worked on in the different departments to try and divert the unknown catastrophe.

I was a little confused to the time line at times and there is a lot of scientific information included that did throw me for a loop. But I really enjoyed what I was reading. The plot is well developed and very interesting. At times I felt like there was way too much information given, but that could be a normal thing for a Sci-Fi novel dealing with so many different concepts. Overall I enjoyed Regression and look forward to reading Evolussion, the second installment in this trilogy.