BOOK REVIEW (78): Siren's Serenade (Wiccan Haus #4)

BOOK REVIEW:

Siren's Serenade

Already Book Four.

The wait time between these books aren't too bad now that I'm focused on school. It's almost like a treat at the end of a 2-week period (she says, currently in the middle of Wiccan Haus Book Five).

Now if you couldn't tell by the title of this (sorta) recent addition to the Wiccan Haus world, Siren's Serenade stars...sirens. Or mermaids.

The term is interchangeable in the series.

Essentially sirens-slash-mermaids are kinda like shifter-keepers of the sea and land. So the siren/mermaid heroine, Serena, has the ability to transform her lower half for both environments. Super cool. But rather than embrace that part of herself, she's pretty reluctant to reveal herself to anyone.

Especially to Kaleb, her other half, her soul's mate.

Cue the sob speech where the hero tells the heroine he'll love her no matter what...

Yeah, no.

You see our hero, Coast Guard Kaleb Theldon has a big, understandable bone to pick with mermaids: his friend succumbed to a mermaid and he's the only witness to the bizarre death (this is all in the first few pages of the story, so no huge spoilers really). Now everyone -- including his boss(es) -- think he's jumped the deep end and they put him on suspension, his career to be reviewed once his mental health bill has been approved by the good staff at Wiccan Haus.

Kaleb is moody and suspicious at first. How are the Rowan siblings and Rekkus, their head of security, supposed to know anything about healing?

It all seems like witchcraft to him.

But then he meets Serena, and though he can't put his finger on it, something about her just makes him light up from the inside. Give him a new purpose now that his beloved job is looking like it's through.

Serena tries to push him away, Kaleb keeps pushing back...yadda yadda yadda, you get it. There's a lot of steamy tension here, and you want to read it.

Here's the deets:

PICK UP THIS BOOK if you like 1) delicious sexual chemistry, 2) well-paced plot and strong internal AND EXTERNAL conflicts, 3) strong character arcs, and 4) HEAs!

And if that hasn't convinced you, take a look at this (double!) sneak peek of the Cyrus-variety joys you're missing:

Rekkus started to strip naked, leaving Kaleb gaping. "What's he going to do, fuck them off the island?"

Cyrus looked confused, pointing to his ear and shaking his head. "What did you say? What did he say?"

*

"And Rekkus won't truly enter the healing sleep if he's worried about you," Cemil added, nudging Cyrus forward.

Once [Cyrus] entered the circle, Sarka placed the last rock and began chanting.

"What if I have to pee, damn it?"

Still chanting, Sarka tossed him a cup.

"Are you kidding me?" Cyrus, who had never lost his cool in the time Kaleb had been on the island, took two steps forward, hit the ring barrier, and fell on his ass. "So help me, Sarka, when you let me out of here...."

*

Bwahahaha!
Oh, Cyrus. I love you.

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮✮

(5 stars)

BAKING REVIEW (9): Double Chocolate Fudge Cookies

BAKING REVIEW:

Double Chocolate Fudge Cookies

Okay, I've been craving chocolate chip something for a while!

Chocolate chip muffins, chocolate chip cupcakes whatever.

But for the sake of ease, I decided to stick with a batch of good ole chocolate chip cookies...with a slight twist. Because these reviews ARE supposed to get me to bake new recipes, I decided to double the chocolate and double the taste-bud fun.

So here's my original recipe source for the Double Chocolate Fudge Cookies (or as I call them, chocolate chip fudge cookies) -- click the image below to check out the website:

And here's my attempt:

And because one angle isn't enough.

So the recipe I used required coffee.

I started baking before I realized I had no coffee to add to the mixture. So I went rogue and skipped the coffee.

SO my version is sans-caffeine of that variety, cool?

It tasted good, but I can't compare the two recipes.

IF you do choose to leave out the coffee, I can vouch that it's delicious, so no worries there.

I'm a glutton for chocolate so I had NO complaints with this tweaked-version of the recipe.

And that's why I'm going to keep this short...

My verdict:

❤❤❤❤❤

(5 hearts)

BOOK REVIEW (77): The Merry Widow's Diary

BOOK REVIEW:

The Merry Widow's Diary

This book was different.
I think, and I could be wrong AND I'm way too lazy to verify this, but The Merry Widow's Diary might be my first women's fiction title this year...

Like I said, I could be totally wrong about that. By the end of the year I tend to forget most of the books I read in the first quarter. Just sayin'.

ANYWAYS back to the book review.
So this book...was fantastic.
Really different, like I said, to anything I've read this year (unless that isn't true, memory = shoddy, folks). It was definitely different than most of the romance I've been devouring.
Understandably because the main plot wasn't romantic.

Susan Crosby's The Merry Widow's Diary follows Jill Townsend, a mid-40s suburban housewife who's been recently widowed. The story unfolds Jill's journey to heal and re-brand herself from "suburban housewife-slash-merry widow*" to something new...something more appetizing to her well being.

Along the way she makes new friends, explores old relationships and somewhere in-between she reconciles who she is with who she should be and who she wants to be.

Super vague, I know. But it's meant to get you to BUY or BORROW the book from your friendly next-door book shop or library. Cool?
Moving on.

What I didn't like:

Honestly, I want to leave this blank. Only one thing bothered me, and Jill actually recognizes it in the book, so whatever. But she seemed so uppity. Because it was told in 1st-person, a lot of the times it felt like Jill judged EVERYONE. Even her daughters. Which all right, fine. But it annoyed the crap out of me.

Her realization happened pretty late, too. So maybe I'm suffering from belated damage control.


What I liked:

1. Jill and her friend, Ilene had a great relationship. Ilene isn't married, and she's a bit younger than Jill, and as a successful career woman I was expecting this she-has-this-I-don't-have-this-but-I-might-want-it vibe from Jill's narration. But after their introduction, the story moved on and their friendship was the better for it.

2. I'm totally shipping Jill and Alan. But if you want to know how that ends up in canon material, then GO PICK UP THE BOOK.

3. Jill and her daughters. Not exactly the most harmonious family, but then again who doesn't have ups-and-downs with their family? What's important to note here is that it was depicted realistically from beginning to end.

4. Jill and her career... the what's next, and how it was dealt with sans the crappy, sappy plot direction where the character triumphs over all adversity in this "AH-HA!" moment. Please.
Jill worked hard to find herself and heal herself and we got a glimpse of it on the page.
Simple as that.

If you enjoyed my summation of The Merry Widow's Diary by Susan Crosby please pick it up somewhere.

*NOTE: I didn't know what a "merry widow" was until I read this book.

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮.5

(4.5 stars)

Sluggish September. (Big Dreams Blog Update #24)

Update Day!

I haven't done all too much on here this month.

I've actually got a lot of book reviews I'll be putting up in this last week-ish of September.

So, for those of you who don't know what Update Day is -- every last Friday of the month, 14 of us over at the Do You Have a Goal? blog hop give progress updates on our goals.

Hosted by authors Misha Gericke and Beth Fred, the Do You Have a Goal? blog hop is always accepting new members and new goals. So please join in the fun!

My goal is to reach a 1-million word count in completed novels/short stories.

But more importantly, I'd like to get myself into a regular writing habit and learn to edit better.

As for where I'm at on my goal... Well, it's slow moving.

And by which I mean I haven't had a steady project since mid-August. I'm just getting used to starting school again. My problem is time management.

I have to learn how to balance leisure reading, writing, and school. There's a lot of sacrifices I'm making (*ahem*Netflix*ahem*), and I'm doing things like waking up early to squeeze in writing and/or homework before heading off to school, work, etc.

It's weird because on the one hand everything is moving fast -- assignments and essays are creeping around the corner -- but then there's also this sort of slow, dreadful anticipation in my day-to-day. I've been catching myself trying to fill time.

The weather has gotten colder though, so I'm staying out later and spending my free time indoors. Hopefully I'll get more writing done now.

How has your autumn/Fall been so far?

BOOK REVIEW (76): An Apple Away (Wiccan Haus #3)

BOOK REVIEW:

An Apple Away

I've never read an M/F/F (or F/F/M or F/M/F), but it was certainly a pleasant experience: in the end it turns out it doesn't matter who's in the relationship, as long as the romance and characters are believable and I don't want to throw my phone across the room.

So author Kate Richards' An Apple Away tells the story. I believe the author was inspired by the Snow White fairy tale -- minus the seven dwarves -- but I could be wrong. The heroine, Aislinn, at one point is described as Snow White, and the main antagonist as the evil Stepmother in that tale.

I won't say anymore of that.

Now Aislinn is ill. For the past year she's been battling a sickness doctors have failed to diagnosis and therefore to cure. And at this rate it looks like she's going to die. Yet she makes a last effort to save herself and books a trip to Wiccan Haus: it's there she hopes she can find some cure...or die in peace on the beautiful island resort.

Dr. Hugo Perarlta is a workaholic. He spends all his free time at the hospital, and when he's not working long hours as a brain surgeon, he's studying medical journals and writing papers to expand the field. It's about time then that his boss steps in and sends him packing on a much-needed vacation. And whether he likes it or not -- and he doesn't! -- Hugo finds himself stuck on a Maine island far from his home and hospital work in Argentina.

Neither expect to find romance, but an island fling seems to be what the Fates have in store for them...

And island fling and lion-shifter Punda who finds herself drawn to both Aislinn and Hugo; Punda works as a masseuse for the island guests, so she knows it would be in professional interest for her to fight her attraction for Aislinn and Hugo, especially since they have a palpable chemistry between them.

But with Aislinn getting sicker, and Hugo feeling lost with his medical experience to help, Punda realizes she'll need to be a pillar of support for introducing the two humans to a world of paranormal workings.

All in all, I really enjoyed this one.
Punda and Aislinn were a sexy twosome, and Hugo -- poor, well-meaning Hugo -- finally finds another pleasure in the world aside from his passion for his career choice. The actual "showdown" with the antagonist wasn't very long... Since all three got a POV, the build-up of the novel focused on the should-I?, shouldn't I? pull-and-push with the threesome.
And the ending felt a tad bit rushed, but it did tie everything up nicely.

There's two sex scenes, and they're pretty steamy.
If you're into that kinda thing, consider picking up An Apple Away, the third in the Wiccan Haus series (<-- a series that CAN be read out-of-order).

My verdict:

☆☆☆☆

(4 stars)