not just opinionated

An off the wall one (for me -  cause why not) I picked up reading Lone Survivor.

As I said, I'm not the biggest fan of military stories. The leads are just so stringent -  it's hard to see the depth outside of what's trained into them.

This one carries across pretty well though. It further solidifies my thought process that politicians (instead of assuming or pontificating) should ask those that are in the forefront in war what's actually going on.

Same goes for immigration and women's issues. If you want to know the reality ask someone who is , surrounded by it and/or living it instead of speaking/having an opinion of something you know nothing about.

Or as my favorite saying goes:

 Aside from that, I read Ilona Andrew's story in the Night Shift anthology. She's not my style. Next!

....I get bored by those kinds of girls.

Found a new pretty good author in Melanie Harlow - Frenched (free no less! SCORE), Yanked and Forked were all good fun reads.

Frenched almost lost me at the beginning, she was a little too whiny, but I told myself to hang on - she was jilted after all.

Also bought Night Shift, specifically for the Nalini Singh Psy/Changeling story.

Bastien's story was just ok - not a fan of his gal choice.

Whiny/needy....I get bored by those kinds of girls and they're unfortunately in so many romance novels.

Still -  I loved the cameos (yay Mercy!) and since there's been a lot of Psy stories lately I liked the return to the changeling.

Couldn't finish the next two stories in this anthology. They lost me quickly. 

Was able to finish the last story - forget what it was called - the author was Milla Vane. 

It's fantasy. Which doesn't usually hold my interest, the female lead was totally kick ass though so kudo's to the author. 

'bout sums it up

seriously one of the most drama-filled family holidays ever.

One side of the family in a "good, chaotic, people everywhere!" way.

The other side of the family in a "this is miserable, lets pretend everything is ok" way.

This is BB on our way up from Houston.
It about sums it up.....

I did squeeze in reading The Bees; interesting concept telling a story from the point of view of a bee. It went on a little long but I liked the different.

Taking BB to the vet (she got speared by a miniature palm tree?! - ugh Houston!).

Then i'm cuddling in all day with a new book for a little therapy.

i'm a (slightly morbid) delicate flower

Just saw that The Handmaid's Tale is on sale for $1.99 on Amazon. I hope that gets people to read it.

It's a disturbing, thought-provoking story. You've gotta be in the "deep thoughts" mood though, otherwise it's just depressing and oddly written.

While I admit I have slight morbid obsession with cemeteries/graveyards (look how beautiful this one was in Kenmare, Ireland! I could've been here all day.)

I, for the most part, don't scout out darkly themed genres like horror, mystery or anything else that's meant to bring me down.

 Well... anymore anyway.... I was consumed with Stephen King and Dean Koontz when I was a teenager. "IT" was so traumatizing I think I read it several times and  I still have a lingering fear of clowns.

This especially sucks when you sit at a bar on Halloween and your bartender is a clown (the stupidly scary one from the new umm... what is that tv show called?... American Asylum Story...or somesuch) 

So give me trying for HEA or humor or adventure any day over scaring/depressing myself. Thank you very much!

"your selfish disdain for the feelings of others..."

Wasn't expecting much from reading Duchess By Night,  the girl getting away with dressing/acting like a man trope (I just learned what that word means!) is just kinda "eh".

Not my favorite of the series but it was entertaining enough for me to want to read through. That's good enough I guess.

I also watched The Dutchess movie, a true story of the Dutchess of Devonshire, oy... what women had to suffer through.

On a side note, I got Jamie to watch a little of Pride and Prejudice with me. Me narrating of course since he said he didn't "understand what the fuck they are saying".  ha!

 He only hung on for a while before passing out, but he did inform me that he liked Darcy better than Wickham (me too Jamie, me too).

I call that progress!!!

walk out now

Heading to see this awesome band tonight!

This is one of my favorite Reckless Kelly songs.

It's like Tohr and No'One's story in Lover Reborn! oh the conflict. oh the misery. LOVED that book....

It's too aggressive. It's like....

Is it terrible that when I saw this picture this morning 

All I see is this?

Yep I'm in a mood today.

I've started re-reading Endless Knight as a refresher for the next-in-the-series release of Dead of Winter here in a couple weeks. Can't freakin wait!! This series is DEFINITELY on my favorites books list!

Oh and for the Olympics I say #Boston2024!

out of control

My Christmas shopping is getting out of control.

Really though...I think I'm all finished and then I find I forgot something/someone ugh. This is exhausting.

Finished the awaited L. Ione's Revenant though - while not my least favorite of the Demonica series, Blaspheme didn't do much for me. She was, then she wasn't. She is, then she isn't. It's kinda "eh".

Guess it's the theme this week...

Victoria Dahl's lead in Good Girls Don't is similar. It's looking like I'm not a fan of her style.I'm skimming through this one - I don't skim through Larissa Ione books.

I think I'll just go back and re-read Runa and Shade's story. I wonder what she'll do with Tracker? He seems like a stretch.

ask an Aussie

Saw about the siege in Australia. Such a shame...

I do love this #IllRideWithYou message. Good on y'all. With all the things about racism lately it's nice to see.

In the traveling we've done, the Aussie's are the most well-traveled (and some of the nicest, most laid back people) we've met.

Apparently it's normal for them to travel for months at a time - I guess you kind of have to when it takes up to 24+ hours by plane to get places - still it blows my "two weeks vacation is a long time" American mentality.

I was talking to an Aussie gal on an Amsterdam bike tour about how chaotic I thought Amsterdam and Madrid were and she told me that they are cake compared to Paris in her opinion.

Oy...less and less I'm interested in going to Paris.

I would go back to the southern Basque region of France though!  I brought it up to Jamie that maybe we should move to San Sebastian when we retire. We loved that place....

I think the thought appealed - watch out Donostia we've got our eye on you.

Finished  Sarah MacLean's - No Good Duke Goes Unpunished and Maya Rodale's - The Wicked Wallflower. In the middle of reading paranormal Frozen (it was free on Amazon why not). Also read a YA one...Never Forget.

Of these four, Sarah MacLean is still the favorite. The search continues to find something amazing.

why must these authors tease me so

Jacquelyn Frank's Adam - I'd forgotten how much I liked this book and this series.

She shocked me on where she went at the beginning of this book, especially cause you're already so character involved from the previous books of the series.  I got emotional.... or in other words:

I need to look into her again - I thought this was the last of the series but she introduced a character at the end that leads you to believe otherwise. *why must these authors tease me so*

TGIF! Dinner with the Wylies, Reckless Kelly or Old 97's?, charity cocktail event...it'll be Monday again before I know it. Ugh.

i'm found out

Jamie caught on to my book diary blog - ugh he finds out about everything! I swear he was a Mexican mother in his past life. Can't a girl keep anything to herself? *as I write/post on the internet*

....I wonder how many wives have husbands like mine?

 Oh well whatever...read away Jamie, it's not like it's a secret. You are a jerk face every once in a while and I tell you to your face. Welcome to my book diary - as with every other time I start talking about my books your eyes will glaze over and you'll lose interest soon enough.

So to that end!....

On my favorites - Just One of the Guys, sucks you right in (pun intended as it starts with Chastity - the lead- choking on a mushroom as she's being broken up with) hilarity and heart ache ensues for this more than childhood friends story with life/doubts getting in the way.

HUGE, huge fan.

i lucked out in the in-law lottery

Jamie's parents asked us to mark our calendar to celebrate their birthdays in Hawaii next year. I'm not all that excited about Hawaii (it just looks so touristy!) but I do love his parents.

Apparently I've lucked out in the in-law lottery. I've heard/read/seen some terrible stories - (like recently in Lisa Kleypas' Dreaming of You.)

I'm really just thankful that they raised their son to be who he is. Call me archaic but I appreciate that he's a gentleman, a provider and a handy man. Helps too that I've got him locked down...he's totally in love with me (and why wouldn't he be right? ;0) )

 In that sense I can see an advantage to having a child - raising a son to be like him.
Time is running out to make that kind of decision though.....it's just.... neither he nor I have a burning need to join those ranks. That's a good enough reason not to, right?

Then on another side I'm seeing some of the single women I know say generally disparaging things about men -  in my experience it's women (myself included) that play the major role in complicating relationships...

Kristan Higgins is really great at showing complicated. Like in My One and Only  -  "I'll tell you something, Harpy," he said, his voice almost a whisper now. "It never even occurred to me that we wouldn't make it. And it never occurred to you that we would. You were just waiting for us to go down in flames..."

She has great, so relateable (and other times freaking hilariously funny) lines  in all her books! Love them. 

talked myself into it

So the RT convention (apparently a mega convention for romance authors/readers) is here in Dallas in May.

I'm debating going...I did drive 45 minutes to see Kresley Cole when she came into town a while back. She was promoting Lothaire and the cover model was there. They were both really nice.

I love that she's decided (not anytime soon I hope) to end the IAD series with Nix's story. She said that's going to be really hard since Nix is so messed up.

What I liked most though was being able to talk to the people in line about her books and them actually know what I'm talking about! It boggles my mind how hard it is to find people that like to read!

Ugh ok I guess I talked myself into it. I'd regret it if I didn't go to the convention where a lot of my favorite authors will be. 

Also, read The Duke and I, it read a little disjointed veering toward the manipulative at the end.

There was one scene where I was like "what?! that's just wrong" but overall I liked the instant/easy chemistry between Daphne and Simon.

I'll likely finish this series eventually.

Lastly, saw Mockingjay #1. I think it could've been made into one movie.  My sister thinks that they're not setting Gale up to follow through in his major role for how it ends in the book.

I hope they don't change it. That was an epic ending.

Zoom Zoom Zoom!

I'm on a Sunday morning coffee high!

and I've got 18 things i want to say which means I've sat here for the last 2 minutes just staring at the computer doing nothing.

I've just recently started liking coffee.
Weird how your (my? maybe just me) palate changes as you get older.

Had a great weekend so far, went Christmas shopping, ate at our most favorite restaurant - Neighborhood Services, had friends over for an impromptu game night.

Finished reading When Beauty Tamed the Beast - very "House"ish, historical romance which I liked.

 I've read several of her books, I like her style, I think I've almost read them all.

Not going to finish them today though...I'm finally going to see Mockingjay #1.

 Later!

don't think I'm just his little wife

So he got home at midnight, loud and obnoxious, and then cautiously tries to judge how mad I am at him this morning *roll my eyes* heaven help me.

Husband, forget love, it's a good thing you're my best friend cause I don't like you very much when I have to put up with this shenanigans.

It's a little strange, I mean we 've been together a long while now and there's still some instances that I think he forgets who he's dealing with.

His past girlfriends allowed him to steamroll over them and even now it seems he's surprised when I call him out on things.


Oh well - on a side note I've got an Eloisa James book in queue but I've gotten into the science fiction/futuristic/fantasy mood and I don't feel like testing another (yet another) book out right now.
 
I'm re-reading Johanna Lindsay's Warrior's Woman.

I think it's one of my favorites? It's certainly not "deep thoughts" reading but for a little exaggerated adventure supported with the clash of two totally different characters - this one will do.

the truth about forever

I almost didn't read The Truth About Forever - this YA book description turned me off a little.

Regardless, I gave the first few pages a go and it drew me in. I liked that it showed different ways and stages of grief.

The mother/daughter relationship was interesting too, I found myself relating.

That's a good thing about reading YA for me...it reminds me a little on how I felt when I was that age.

I think a lot of us "adults" forget what it was like to be a teenager, and although I'm not very fond of my teenage "roller coaster chaos of colors" years, I remember feeling that I could do anything/be anyone etc.

I like to hope that I've carried some of that over even now into my 30's. Being the conventional adult all the time is so dreary.

I also read Lisa Kleypas Dreaming of You. Another historical romance. Not bad but she used the word "factotum" too many times.

It's like she told herself  "Look I found a word, I must use this word at least 20 times in the book!" before writing it.

It's stupid but it bothered me and so it sullied the book overall for me....First world problems I know.

Speaking of - looks like we're going to a Fantasy Bar Draft in Dallas?  I'm not quite sure what it is but Jamie told me we drink cocktails (Ok!-in!) for a kids charity. ...only thing is it's on a Sunday...ugh.

just Give (because)

IT'S UNSELFIE / GIVING TUESDAY!

I’m supporting:
Death with Dignity – for those with a terminal illness to have the freedom to make end-of-life decisions on their own terms.

AND

End the Backlog – for greater transparency and accountability around rape kit testing practices nationwide.

‪#‎deathwithdignity‬ ‪#‎endthebacklog‬ ‪#‎unselfie‬ ‪#‎givingtuesday‬

For every ‪#‎GiveAMemory‬ social media post made today, $1 goes to BabyBuggy (child protective services) : My memory today is of my grandma (Alicia Marin) teaching me how to peel a cucumber with a knife. To this day cucumbers taste better if peeled with a knife…

Les bons temps rouler! - and then we try to recover

Thanks again New Orleans -   I'm in recovery mode -  *shaking my head*

We've added to the ever growing list of wonderful places in NOLA - Fair Grounds racecourse, Booty's street food, Apolline, Kingfish and Domilise's.

 This post I made on Friday about sums it up.

It just has such character!

Kresley Cole has a good way of capturing the New Orleans feel in a few of her IAD series.

Of course Anne Rice did also.

Aside from that - finished the last book of Rules of Scoundrels.

A historical romance that read well, I was sad to finish it.

In my opinion, reading women of that era can often get annoying with their simpering and gossiping but Sarah MacLean has a great way of portraying that time with interesting leads.

 In other words, I don't get bored!

 I'll keep tabs on Sarah MacLean to see what she's doing next.