BOOK REVIEW (57): A Fatal Slip (A SN Lingerie Mystery #3)

BOOK REVIEW:

A Fatal Slip

Since I started up another cozy mystery binge this spring, I’ve gone back to another series I had forgotten about, Meg London’s A Sweet Nothings Lingerie Mystery series (or trilogy).

I forgot to pick Book Three: A Fatal Slip up since its release last year. I was afraid I might have fallen out of love with the cast (i.e. MC Emma, her aunt Arabella, boyfriend Brian, and co.); thankfully I didn’t, it felt like coming home to Paris, Tennessee. :)

So in this third (hopefully not final) book, Emma is caught up in a murder again – and once more she’s appointed herself an amateur sleuth because a loved one is under the flames of suspicion.

The plotting in this book through me for a loop as to who the killer might be until near the end when it became obvious, and oddly there was a lot of suspects who still weren’t in the clear – it sorta put a bad flavour to my mouth as the author delved a bit more into the subconscious of humans and it wasn’t as black-and-white as the first two books in this series.

I liked the romance between Arabella and her beau, and Emma and Brian! I’m a sucker for love…

Though TBH I didn’t shine to Brian in the first book. He slowly grew on me in the second, and now I was rooting for him and Emma, especially when Emma’s posh mother comes to town and she doesn’t exactly approve of Brian’s down-to-earth homely self.

Overall a great layered mystery – it’s never any fun when you can guess who’s the killer in the first few chapters; a wonderful ensemble of cast, pacing and conflict resolution.

I do have to warn readers though that this third book ends off with a bit of a teaser cliffhanger where Emma and Brian are concerned. (*ahem*ZOMGishegoingtopropose?!*cough, cough*)

If you’re not into cliffies so much, particularly where love is concerned, AND it doesn’t look like there’s a sign of a Book 4 in the Sweet Nothings  series, then keep this in mind.

Otherwise read the book for its main conflict, the mystery, because you’re sure to be pleased by it!

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮✮

(5 stars)

BOOK REVIEW (56): Simon & Schuster Children's Guide to Sea Creatures

BOOK REVIEW:

Simon & Schuster Children's Guide to Sea Creatures

Another vlog review. Also another water-themed nonfiction.
Enjoy.

BAKING REVIEW (6): Snickerdoodles

BAKING REVIEW:

Snickerdoodles

Okay, I was truly at a loss as to what to bake this month. I was heading the way of the French Macaron, but as most beginners seem to shy away from that trickier dessert I finally found inspiration in a novel I'm currently reading.

Yes, you read that right. I hate when books describe desserts and my mouth starts to water as I begin to crave them (why do you think there should be a warning where Jenn McKinlay's Cupcake Bakery Mystery series is concerned).

There was no recipe for snickerdoodles in the novel, so I had to go find one online. As usual I was on a budget when it came to gathering the ingredients for the recipe. SO I was particularly searching for a recipe without cream of tartar (COT). My search, thankfully, wasn't long. I used this one by blogger Carol Henders.

If you click that link and read Carol's blog you'll understand her sensible reason for not using COT. My reasons were far from the same (and truthfully far less sensible). I was A) too lazy to go out and get COT, the only item on my ingredient list I didn't have in my kitchen, and B) I don't bake a lot. Needless to say I didn't want to buy COT and have it sit around forcing me to bake in order to make proper use of it and my money's worth.

But if you've got COT (haha that rhymed) lying around OR you want to use it and stick to the original snickerdoodle recipe, then by all means do that. I didn't. So keep that in mind when you're reading my review of Carol Henders' version of this funny-named cookie.

So first thing first, the comparison of Carol's snickerdoodles:

Yummy.

And my version of her version of snickerdoodles:

I should make a note here: I didn't add cinnamon to my cookies. Notice mine are lighter -- no peppering of sweet-smelling cinnamon. Mine also don't look as pretty without the indent of the fork tines you see in Ms. Henders' cookies, but... BUT they tasted a-mah-zing!

Too die for. I hope that says enough because I'm munching on one of these as I write this.

Next time though I might reduce the sugar. 1 1/2 cups was a bit too much, even with a cup of black tea...

If you're in the mood for snickerdoodles, for the first time or the fiftieth, try this!
This cream of tartar-free recipe won't make you snicker (unless you're laughing at those saps who think the tangy-taste of tartar makes the cookie) but will make you sigh in pure dessert bliss.

My verdict:

❤❤❤❤.5

(4.5 stars)

BOOK REVIEW (55): Weird Sea Creatures

BOOK REVIEW:

Weird Sea Creatures

I swear this took longer than it should have. I've falling behind on reviews -- still reading though, but I'm not sure if that's a plus or not as I read faster than I'm reviewing for some odd reason.

Why is it easier to read 300-odd pages and not get around to a recording a short review. *sigh*

Also on another note I make really weird faces in my vlogs... I mean weird faces. I should consider custom thumbnails.

BOOK REVIEW (54): The Twelve Dancing Princesses

BOOK REVIEW:
The Twelve Dancing Princesses

I love reading fairy tales. I think it’s one of those things I’ll never fully outgrow. They’re not always meant for children, and there’s nothing like analyzing a fairy tale, its theme and archetypes that can get me motivated to write.

One of my favourite fairy tales is ‘The Twelve Dancing Princesses’.

It also happens to be one of those stories that seem to lack a definite theme* like some other well-known tales (i.e. ‘Cinderella’, ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, etc.)

This picture book is not a retelling, and rather a different illustrative take. I know very little about art, but I enjoyed looking at illustrator Dorothee Duntze’s perspective of this fairy tale.

I loved the colours, and the recurrent motif of the shoes (especially the final scene of the big shoe podium in the wedding). The fairy tale is borrowed from the Grimm version, and I know at least that the execution of the unsuccessful princes by the King remains the same.

So same story, different art – and the effect is a short-paged, yet beautifully illustrated book. If you’re as interested in ‘The Twelve Dancing Princesses” as I am, pick up Duntze’s artistic take on the folktale.

*My guess at a theme would be the importance of having equal opportunity no matter your background (the solider). OR not necessarily that everyone gets equal opportunity. I probably couldn’t outrun a bear, but someone with parkour skills might be able to. So, the princes who kept trying and dying in their attempt to solve the mystery of the dancing princesses were not cut out for it – but a poor, wounded solider had the right skills (e.g. stopping to chat with the old lady who gave him the invisible cloak) to solve the mystery and win himself a royal wife and a title.

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮✮

(5 stars)

May-hem in my mind. (Big Dreams Blog Update #20)

Update Day is today, and that means re-capping my very uneventful May.

First things first. For those of you out of the loop, and there’s about 16 of us currently in this blog hop, Update Day is part of the ‘DO YOU HAVE A GOAL?’ blog hop.

Hosted by authors Misha Gericke and Beth Fred, it’s also informally known as the Big Dreams blog hop because all of its bloggers share one big crazy dream they have and they blog their adventure towards achieving that goal. Then on every last Friday of the month we gather and dictate said adventures in a monthly re-cap post. So everyone knows what’s been going on with each other. Like playing catch up. ^^

If you’re interested, sign up is right over here or click the banner above. (<-- clicky, clicky!)

And it’s entirely my fault. I had set one goal in particular, and I failed spectacularly. To put it short, I wanted to continue writing steadily on-wards from my early finish in April’s Camp NaNo, instead I burned out really quickly.

The first half of the month I spent writing off and on, and then I fell in love with this one project and started writing daily until the high wore off and I realized that I’d have to start from scratch – the story just wasn’t picking up where I wanted it to pick up. I already am aware that I have a problem plotting and organizing and figuring out where to begin, and this usually results in a lot of petering around, a.k.a. false start pages.

After 1.5 weeks of back-and-forth writing then scrapping, I decided to take a break again and focus on reading and pursuing other hobbies (*ahem*playingLoZ*ahem*).

So I did that, and here I am a week and a day later still sorta clueless as to how to start writing again. And I always get this feeling at the end of a hiatus from writing. I would almost equate it to forgetting how to ride a bike, or the fear of potentially having forgotten to ride a bike.

Not to say my writing-free break was useless. I did do some blogging, and more reading than typical and a lot more thinking. I realized I’m not very good at reading through what I’ve written, as in I write, write, write and never read.

Yeah, you read that correctly. So far I’ve never read anything I’ve “finished” before. And then it hit me: I don’t even know if I’ve ever finished a novel before, at least not if I’ve never read it.

Which makes sense…

I was pretty convinced that I hated editing. I don’t hate editing as much as I’m scared to read what I wrote and hate, well, my writing and myself.

 -- basically there was a lot of mayhem going on in my mind when it had no business there.

Since this personal blog is to document my journey on the road to becoming a published author, and my million-word goal for this 5-year blog hop is to help move me along, I decided to scrap the words I currently have totaled towards that one million and to start from scratch with the works that I have READ after finishing writing them. It’s not enough to whip something up, believe it’s done and count it towards what becomes an arbitrary goal. Especially if I’m not taking the time to submit myself to the mess my writing can be and grow from the mistakes I’ve made.

The rest of the rules of my one million goal – found here! – remain the same though.

And as far as my reading goes, I’m all right with that. I DO want to do a vlog in the future discussing the balance between writing and reading simultaneously. I think I finally found a balance between the two, or at least a balance that works for me.

Until then, enjoy the last few weeks of spring. See you in June!

BOOK REVIEW (53) Colonial Madness

BOOK REVIEW:

Colonial Madness

We're time-travelling -- err, wait! No, we're not!

I hate to admit this, because it makes me sound like an awful person, but I do judge books by their cover. I mean, I'll judge them by the cover and then pass them by, but sometimes I do stop long enough to read the blurb and an excerpt if that's available and it might change my mind. But what can I say? I'm a sucker for cover quality.

Not that this takes away from this book. No, the cover of Jo Whittemore's Colonial Madness is stunning! Seriously, I love most of the covers coming from publisher Aladdin Mix. They're so colourfully attractive!

Colonial Madness follows Victoria "Tori" Porter as she joins a family competition with her mother. You see, Tori and her mom have only each other and they're floundering money-wise as her mom isn't very good balancing the finances with her seamstress business. When the opportunity to inherit family wealth comes to play, Tori jumps at the chance to convince her reluctant mother to join.

Of course they have to play and win the game to get the money and property prize, and that means Tori and her mom have to follow the rules: for 2 weeks, all contestants have to live a colonial life. For Tori and her cousins, Angel and Dylan, that means no cells, no social media, no fast food, no toilet paper, no makeup and pretty much everything associated with the 21st century. And naturally hilarity ensues...

Seriously I laughed almost every other page. Don't believe me?
Check out some of these quotes I riffed:

&

Tori is sooo funny, and sometimes it was quite intentional. Her relationship with her mom warmed my heart -- still warms my heart. At one point she thinks that the reason she never missed the father who died before she really knew him is because her mother happened to be really good at playing both purported roles of parenting. ^^ Awww.

There's also a romance! Who doesn't love love?

Tori meets and instantly falls -- and literally as she crashes into him the first time -- for Caleb, one of the staff members and judges of the colonial competition. Caleb seemed adorable. He really liked Tori and there was none of the wish-washy stuff I can't stand sometimes. On the one hand I read to find out who won the competition, but I also interested to see how Caleb and Tori would work out their new-found young love. They're both in their early teens presumably and they lived miles and states apart, AND both of their families are struggling money-wise, so I didn't see them hopping a plane to try to continue the physical aspect I guess social media would come in handy.

Caleb also dislikes hummus!

Ah! A book bf after my own heart...

All in all, enjoyable book. It had all the things I wanted, humor, romance and a HFN, so if you're interested in the same elements at the moment, check out Colonial Madness!

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮✮

(5 stars)