Fighting! (Big Dreams Blog Update #23)

IT'S UPDATE DAY AGAIN!

Poster made by fellow blogger, Shah Wharton.

I have yet to get sick and tired of writing that.

Mostly because it means we reached the end of the month and I have time to evaluate my accomplishments in the last 4 weeks or so since the last Update post.

Now a bit about Update Day itself...

This post is part of the DO YOU HAVE GOALS? blog hop hosted by authors Misha Gericke and Beth Fred. There are currently 15 of us bloggers in total, and we all were brave enough to post one of our bigger (crazier) goals to the public. And all in the effort to hold ourselves accountable to each other in making sure we make those dreams into realities, one way or another.

My big dream is to have one million words worth of completed (mostly fictional) works. The idea started because I wanted to finish my first novel. I accomplished that mini-goal -- check this post for that -- and went on to finish a few more other MSS. Problem is I realized it's not enough to finish a first draft, but if I want to get anywhere near publication I need to actually edit, take the time to revise...um, start out by facing my own work and reading through what I've written after taking a break.

Earlier this month I finished writing my CampNaNo project. I really loved the story and characters and conflict, so I'm hoping to return to that sometime soon. Right now I'm in the middle of another WIP I started back in January of this year. It's been bothering me, and I want to see the first draft through.

So that's what I'm working on at the moment.

My reading goal was 52-53 books for 2015. I completed that two months ago, but I've decided to continue fitting in whatever I can. I have a lot of down time this summer and, surprise, I don't spend all of it watching K-dramas.

Although they do have a lot of nuggets of wisdom...

:)
And that's it for August.

Hopefully the late summer heat hasn't fried your brains and spirits. Autumn's making an early appearance here -- gosh! I'll never get tired of watching the leaves turn... *sigh*
How's everyone else faring?

BOOK REVIEW (75): Shifting Hearts AND A Man Worth Fighting For (Wiccan Haus #1 and #2)

BOOK REVIEW:

Shifting Hearts

If you couldn't tell already, this is a two-in-one book review. I figured since I read the first two books of this paranormal romance series, I might as well combine the reviews together as I generally felt the same about both novellas.

Shifting Hearts is the first in the Wiccan Haus series. These books are written by both new and returning authors. What they all share in common is the setting on a fictional Maine island where the Wiccan Haus resort & spa is located. This spa/resort is a place of healing for both paras -- short for paranormal creatures -- and humans alike. Run by the four Rowan siblings and their head of security-slash-black tiger shifter, Rekkus Duteigr, the Wiccan Haus also happens to be a great place for romance and sexy times.

Joking aside, this first tale is about Rekkus and his lady love/mate, Dana Stone.

Now Rekkus is a 700-pound weretiger and Dana is a human -- and like most of the human guests at the Wiccan Haus she has no clue that paras exist. Sucks for her because she's super attracted to Rekkus, and he's all over her too sensing that she's his mate. The thing is Dana's been hurt before. She comes from a fancy-shmancy background: we're talking private schooling, money up the wazoo and all that stuff. Her parents are well off, but they're really awful to her. When she (mutually) skips out on her wedding day, they threaten to cut her off. So you can imagine the poor girl has confidence and trust issues...

Rekkus, like Dana, has problems trusting easily and opening up to anyone. It doesn't help that he's the last of his black tiger streak*. Lonely in more than one sense of the word, Rekkus is parts-ecstatic, parts-perturbed to having found Dana. Especially when it seems that Fate is finding any chance She can get to bring them together. He doesn't want to hurt Dana by introducing her to the para world, considering she's fragile in her own world, he isn't prepared to force her into his life as his mate. No, he's going to wait for her to come around...and if she doesn't, well then he'll have to watch her leave at the end of her stay at the Haus and walk out of his life for good because he can't just leave the island and leave his duties as the head of the island's security.

Having set that all up, how could I not be rooting for these two to find a way to be together?

I loved the character arc and, though it was quick, the romance was sexy as all get out. Seriously. These two had chemistry through the roof. Props to the author! There wasn't too strong an external threat.

Just a chance used by the author to show Dana how not the "dangers" a shifter not in control of his powers could cause. But you'll have to read Shifting Hearts to see what I mean about that...

Pick it up here or any other ebook retailer.

My verdict:
✮✮✮✮✮
(5 stars)

*a streak in Wiccan Haus terminology is to tiger shifters as pack is to wolves (and werewolves).

I forget to add that these book have been re-published by Decadent Publishing. There are currently 13 planned and 3 Wiccan Haus titles re-published as of 08/28/15...

AND

BOOK REVIEW:
A Man Worth Fighting For

We're on the second book now. A Man Worth Fighting For by Sara Daniel.

This novella follows human heroine Holly Walters and military human hero Justin Lawson. You see the two are dating at the start of the novel, but Justin quickly changes that when he breaks up with Holly in a short -- precisely eight-word -- text.

Just like that the man of her dreams has picked up and walked out of her life with a vague message...but Holly isn't about to let Justin just leave, not when she deserves a better reason to their sudden break-up. But the man is hard to hunt down: finally tracking him to the Wiccan Haus she reluctantly takes a break from her PR business and books a week-long stay at the island resort & spa.

Justin's having it pretty rough as of late. Recently the leader of a special military team dealing with the control of para threat to the human world, and the proud boyfriend of a beautiful, kind-hearted woman, Justin has lost some motor control of his leg and aside from his limp, he's also seen as unfit for the military. Which sucks because he was an orphan and since a young age -- honestly I think it was like 18 -- he's called his military career home.

Now adrift professionally and personally, his reason for cutting ties with Holly is simple: he doesn't want to weigh her down with his problems.

If I didn't agree with Holly that this reasoning is stupid I would be all "awwww, what a sweetheart!" -hugs-

But I do agree with Holly. And it takes time for Justin to see the error of his way, too. A lot of time in the hot springs area of the island. -wink, wink-

There was an external threat in this one unlike Book 1. Justin has been followed to the island by the same rat-bastard who tried to kill him and shattered his knee bone instead. And now Holly's in the line of fire, too. It'll take a team effort and a heck load of trust to make sure they both come out of this alive...and their love, well, if that's to remain in tact it would require pretty much the same attention.

But you'll have to pick up A Man Worth Fighting For to find out if they manage to find their HEA, and you can do that here or here at the publisher's official website.

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮✮
(5 stars)

BOOK REVIEW (74): Snowed in at the Ranch

BOOK REVIEW:

Snowed in at the Ranch

For some odd reason I'm reading a lot of Christmas-themed stories this summer. I mean, a lot being like 2-3 books, but it's way more than I typically read. Especially since I try to avoid any remainders of winter if I can -- though I still love holiday baking and lighting. ^^

So, unlike my previous read here, Cara Colter's Snowed in at the Ranch is set in snowy countryside of Alberta, Canada. (Yay! Canada!) And there's, of course, tons of snow described as being pretty and sparkly, but I'm not fooled: snow sucks and there's no ifs or buts for me about it.

Worse the heroine, Amy Mitchell is stranded in the country with her infant son and a grumpy rancher of a host. Said grumpy rancher, Ty Halliday is reluctant to let Amy and her son, Jamey, stay, but he isn't that frigid socially to leave them out to be ravaged by the snow storm raging outside his ranch house.

No.

Besides, Amy is a great cook and she loves housework -- and the good Lord knows he needs to eat something other than canned food...and though he doesn't readily admit it, Amy and Jamey are growing on him. Ty has had it pretty rough where family is concerned. It comes as a surprise then that he cares for Amy and Jamey as much as he begins to.

Amy, on the other hand, wants to try to be independent. Sorta like Ty whose been a lone wolf most of his life. Sick and tired of having to rely on somebody else -- be that her late husband or his mother and father, or even her own parents -- Amy is determined to not put that sense of trust in Ty as well. But it's hard because she likes him. And it's because she likes him that she wants to stick around, holds out for creating a happy home with the Grinch rancher who makes it clear what he thinks of Christmas and family gatherings in general.

It's a great push-and-pull with these two. Very cute scenes.

What I didn't entirely like, however, was Ty's reasoning to push Amy away during the Black Moment. I could see why he didn't read his mother's letters, but it seemed a bit of a cop-out at the end. Like he could have read the letters again at some point... I can't explain it. I could see why it had to develop that way. His issues with his mother's abandonment shaped his thinking, especially where fostering faith in relationships are concerned. But it still bugged me. Like it came across a bit forced. Particularly since Ty admits that he always knew the letters revealed his mother's uncaring nature, but at aged 17 he couldn't get past the fact that she really had left him on her own volition.

Seriously. You know that and it takes you, what, 20 years to digest that information -- twenty years to take it out on your old man, his new wife and Amy herself... Get your head on straight, Ty!

Other than that I really loved this story.
Check out Ty and Amy here if I interested you in their romance.

My verdict:

☆☆☆☆.5

(4.5 stars)

BAKING REVIEW (8): Carrot Cupcakes w/ Chocolate Cream Cheese icing

BAKING REVIEW:

Carrot Cupcakes

w/ Chocolate Cream Cheese icing

Considering I'm a HUGE fan for all things cream cheese, I wanted to spice up the usual cream cheese frosting for my cupcakes. I hunted down a simple recipe for chocolate cream cheese icing.

Now I needed the cake for the frosting. It didn't take long for me to choose carrot. By popular demand my family, the carrot cupcakes won out.

For the carrot cupcakes I used a variant of this recipe, substituting the pineapple* for shredded carrots. I was afraid of what the result might be but I didn't need to worry -- it was delicious!

And here's the end product of the original recipe:

And my version:

Unfortunately I forgot to take any inside shots -- I was too busy eating to remember. For once my frosting technique is prettier than the original recipe! Haha.
Seriously though, in the end I think the chocolate cream cheese frosting was the clincher for me.

The only thing I would have enjoyed was if the carrot cake wasn't as bland in comparison to the flavor of the frosting. It feel a little flat for me, and it was definitely overwhelmed by the frosting which is too bad... I like my symmetry, and a great cake-to-frosting ratio.

*Side Note: I went back and decided to make the pineapple cupcake with a chocolate cream cheese frosting. OH lordy. Although my family enjoyed the pineapple variant as much as the carrot one, the pineapple bits were NOT to my taste. Unfortunately I took no pictures of the pineapple.

Just for that I'm tempted to bump up the rating from 4 to a 4.5.

My verdict:

❤❤❤❤

(4 hearts)

BOOK REVIEW (73): Beauty and the Billionaire

BOOK REVIEW:

Beauty and the Billionaire

THIS book was amaze-balls! It was all the balls.
Like all levels of crazy because I read it in a day.

That's big for me. I don't do books-a-day. Unless they're short reads.
As a Harlequin Romance title, I would put Beauty and the Billionaire at ~50,000 words.
So that's a lot, for me at least, and it's all because heroine Sinclair Mahoney and hero Hunter Osland were on-fire with the banter and the sex.

Hunter is a rare breed of male hero in the romance world. (Or maybe I need to get out and read more books.) He makes his desire for his cousin-in-law Sinclair clear every opportunity he's presented. And I mean EVERY opportunity.

He's definitely not a one-night stand, or he knows he doesn't want to be her one-night stand. But he isn't leaping to a proposal either, so maybe I jumped the gun on his being a rare breed.

Sinclair is pretty expressive of her desire: she doesn't shy from Hunter's advances. Which leads to a lot of sexy times... To make things steamier, Hunter is Sinclair's new boss. But they manage to rein in their flirting and keep it from becoming water cooler gossip.

Aside from the office romance bonus -- squee! -- this novel's a Valentine special. And what does every good Valentine story deserve: a shopping fest! Jewelry, chocolate, flowers, etc. Yay, consumerism.

But author Barbara Dunlop weaves it together really well; Sinclair needs to start to look like the power business woman she is -- in her chosen PR beauty industry, the outside impression is just as important as what goes on upstairs. So with Hunter's happily-given assistance, she allows him to whisk her off for a shopping spree in Paris, plus a makeover for her eventual splash return to New York, in time for her company's annual Valentine Day's ball.

And she has a date...or so she thinks. Now Hunter and Sinclair have to decide whether they can be more than a V-day fling.

You'll have to pick up Beauty and the Billionaire to see how that ends for these two fanta-bulous characters. Pick up the Kindle version here or any other preferred retailer!

Now I only wish I could give this 6 out of 5.
Yes.
It's that perfect.

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮✮

(5 stars)

Two Years Later...

Happy blogiversary to me!


I can't believe it's the two-year mark.
Two years ago I took the plunge and dipped my toe into blogging. I say, dipped, because I didn't post as much, and my goals for the blog were still scattered a bit.


And it all started with finding this blog hop.

The 'Do You Have Goals?' blog hop, also known as the Big Dreams blog hop hosted by authors Misha Gericke and Beth Fred is a five-year journey that started in July 2013.

I found the hoppity-hop a month later, but I quickly took to the idea that other people were challenging themselves -- and publically! -- to strive to reach their big, crazy goals. And though we only update once a month on our progress, we cheer each other on whenever we can. :)

It's a fun and encouraging atmosphere, and I'd definitely recommend you join if there's any one goal you've been itching to accomplish. Clickety-click here (or that big image of the arrow to go to the sign-up page.)

My goal has been to reach one million words of completed novels, novellas, screenplays, etc. Initially, back in August 15th 2013, I wanted to reach that one million by Mother's Day 2016. I have no clue why that date is so significant, other than my mom (and dad!) have been HUGE support of my dream to be an author (full-time or otherwise) someday.

Really in their eyes, I'm already an author. ^^

Anyways, one million by May 8th, 2016 became one million...well, by the end of the five-year journey for the blog hop hopefully. So by July 2018. We're still a while away. And I'm almost at the 25% count.

However I've also learned in these past few months that simply adding to the ultimate word count of one million wasn't getting me closer to having a polish manuscript I was willing to pitch to agents and/or editors. Or even self-publish.

I've now set the task of focusing on learning the craft of editing. Of being a better writer (i.e. grasping deep POV in my romances, and so fort) and of making my writing more of a career than a hobby. Especially since I want it to be a career.

As for my reading and reviewing, I've enjoyed it immensely, and I'm glad I tried it just to say I did it. BUT I'll be discontinuing it in 2016. Or I won't be doing reviewing as regularly -- I WILL be reading still and continuing to set reading goals. More on that later in the year.

So, for the coming year of blogging I want to hopefully report on making progress with my editing and with being that much closer to author-dom. *cue heavenly pipes and chanting*

Now, I'm going to go enjoy some cupcakes.

Nothing says celebration like cupcakes.

Or any kind of cake actually...

BOOK REVIEW (72): The Wealthy Greek's Contract Wife

BOOK REVIEW:

The Wealthy Greek's Contract Wife

 The Wealthy Greek's Contract Wife is pretty self-explanatory, in a very broad sense.

We got our wealthy Greek, construction magnate Ilios Manos who finds himself in a pickle when he stands to lose his grandfather's inheritance of a beautiful Greek villa imitation of the famed Villa Emo in northern Italy to his EVIL (cue spooky noises) cousin. And the only way to ensure this doesn't happen is for Ilios to start on making a family...as per the rules of his late grandfather's will.

Sent by the Gods -- or a scam gone horribly wrong -- Elizabeth "Lizzie" Wareham answers the letter from Ilios to appear before him at a property for a new apartment buildings she owns twenty percent of; problem is, as she quickly learns, the apartments have been demolished by Ilios, and he explains how she's been drawn into a conspiracy headed by his deceitful, malicious cousin.

Picture this when you think on the EVIL cousin.

Instead of dragging her through the legal parade, and draining her of all her resources for her family, Ilios demands she compensate him by entering into a contract marriage. In return he'll PAY her to be his wife, and then sign off divorce papers once his family villa is secured.

Lizzie accepts reluctantly. Her younger sisters are relying on her, as are her twin nephews. She needs to buck up, let Ilios dress her and make her into a wife worthy of his Greek social circles and occasionally dole out the lovey-dovey displays of affection for the charade's validity.

The thing is...she's SUPER attracted to Ilios.

Seriously, the funniest and cutest part is when she tells him that she can't share a bed because she'd afraid to sleep-molest him during the night.

Not so brave to confide in his similar desire for her, Ilios keeps her at arm's length for the most part. Until he slips up and they have some hot sex.

Fast forward a couple weeks into wedded bliss, and Lizzie learns she's preggos.

When Ilios finds out, he's all "WHAT THE HECK WOMAN?! You did this on purpose to drain me of money and bind us together forever!" Like it didn't take two to tango...and two to forget Lizzie wasn't on the pill and Ilios decided to forgo the condom.

Safe sex, book people, unless you plan to take responsibility.

Overall, I enjoyed it. I got my melodrama, I got my steamy sex, and I got a HEA...even if it was a bit of a letdown.

I should be more specific: Ilio's black moment was a letdown.

After running the pregnant Lizzie out of his home and life, Ilios takes one look around his beautiful house and realizes it won't be the same -- in a bad way -- with Lizzie now gone.

*snaps fingers*

Just like that. Like they didn't have this huge blowout, and he didn't break her heart, forget about tossing her out. It was messed up of him, and that cheesy turnaround didn't endear him to me again.

But pre-black moment, Ilios is pretty cool.

Who doesn't love an Alpha who started from the ground up to attain his monies, prestige and glamorous lifestyle?

I also LOVED author Penny Jordan's writing. She has a way with words, with research...everything came together so wonderfully! It definitely helped put deep POV into perspective for me, writing-wise.

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮.5

(4.5 stars)

BOOK REVIEW (71): The Nanny Who Saved Christmas

BOOK REVIEW

 The Nanny Who Saved Christmas

First, let me say, this cover nailed the nanny heroine, Nicola McGillroy and her 2 young charges, but that the model for the hero, Cade Hindmarsh, looks different than how I imagined.

That aside, I loved Michelle Douglas' The Nanny Who Saved Christmas. Odd that I'm reading this book in August, but it worked out because the story is set in the Australian Outback...so no snow and lots of heat. :)

So here's how the story goes: Nicola accepts a temp job as a nanny to Cade's two young girls. Her reasoning is to escape her city life in Melbourne, but more specifically as Cade learns in time, Nicola is running from a year's-worth of humiliation and heartbreak.

You see, Nicola's best friend and her (now) ex-fiance run away together, derailing Nicola's Christmas wedding forever. In order to forget how she might have been spending this coming festive season, Nicola decides to head out to the Outback for a three-week long stint as the Hindmarsh's nanny.

Enter Cade.

He's got his own reasons to be EXTRA festive this Christmas. He wants to make up last year's holiday fail for his young daughters, and he's roping Nicola into helping. But sniffing out her reluctance, Cade strikes a deal with her. She helps him make this the best Christmas to date, and he'll help her va-va-voom her appearance to return to home to Melbourne and give her cheating best friend and former fiance a reason to feel sorry.

Of course they don't plan to fall in love along the way.
Don't you love how that works? ;)

What I liked was the interaction with Nicola and Cade's children and his family.
The sensuality is hot, hot for a novel that doesn't actually have a sex scene.
Cade and Nicola are one helluva feisty couple. Seriously. The sexual tension was wafting off of the pages of the book... (or maybe someone spilled sauce on the library loan).

Cade was awesome! I love a guy who likes his curves; and I love a guy who chases after what he wants...and no, I'm not being sexist. I would have loved Nicola only that much more if she were more willing to throw herself at Cade and explore their explosive chemistry, but she wasn't. And that's cool, too.

Either way, I'd definitely pick this one up.
It's a winner for me!

My verdict:
✮✮✮✮✮

(5 stars)

BOOK REVIEW (70): Homosexuality (Opposing Viewpoints series)

BOOK REVIEW

Homosexuality

I've been sitting on this review for a bit as I focused on finishing up the first draft of my current writing project.

So here it is, another vlog review: