This is another one hosted over at Should be Reading
Short list this week with the holiday and all but I did find a couple.
Friday Finds 12/27/13
Author: Ambrosia
Booking through Thursday
This one is Hosted at the Booking through Thursday Blog.
This week my friend asked: What is your favorite memory in your library.
For me it depends on which library that might be but in the interest of answering without going down to many paths I will say with my home library. My favorite memory right now with it is simply getting it, being able to put up the shelves and know that I am going to have this library all mine to enjoy. Great memory.
WWW Wednesday 12/25/13
This is another one hosted over at Should be Reading
To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What are you reading next?
Happy Christmas to everyone who is celebrating that today. Here is the WWW..
What I am currently reading:
In Obsidian Butterfly, Anita Blake travels to New Mexico to repay the favor that she promised Edward at the end of The Killing Dance. Edward wants Anita to assist in a set of apparently supernatural attacks that have left numerous victims dead, and has skinned alive many survivors.
In the course of the investigation, Anita learns more about Edward’s personal life than she ever has before. She meets Donna, Edward’s fiancee (in his civilian identity of legal bounty hunter “Ted Forrester”) and Donna’s children, Peter and Becca. She and Edward also come into conflict with a number of mercenaries who work for Edward’s former boss, “Van Cleef,” allowing Anita to learn a few clues about Edward’s former life.
What I just finished:
Schuyler Van Alen is running out of time. The Dark Prince of Hell is storming the Gates of Paradise, intent on winning the heavenly throne for good. This time he has his greatest angels by his side, Abbadon and Azrael—Jack and Mimi Force, as they are known in the Coven.
Or so he thinks. Even as Lucifer assigns Jack and Mimi the tasks of killing their true loves, the Force twins secretly vow to defeat the Dark Prince once and for all. But how far will Mimi and Jack go to conceal their real loyalties?
Meanwhile, former vampire Bliss Llewellyn has joined forces with Lawson, the greatest wolf of the underworld, to free his people from their imprisonment in Hell. As they struggle against impossible odds, an ancient message, woven into the very fabric of time, reveals just how much depends on the success of their mission.
What’s next:
Honestly I have no idea at all..but possibly…
The irresistible heroine of Confessions of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Takes Manhattan is back!-in a hilarious tale of mothers and daughters, mothers and sons, and one blushing bride who just can’t say no to saying “I do.”
Life has been good for Becky Bloomwood: She’s become the best personal shopper at Barneys, she and her successful entrepreneurial boyfriend, Luke, are living happily in Manhattan’s West Village, and her new next door neighbor is a fashion designer! But with her best friend, Suze, engaged, how can Becky fail to notice that her own ring finger is bare? Not that she’s been thinking of marriage (or diamonds) or anything…
Then Luke proposes! Bridal registries dance in Becky’s head. Problem is, two other people are planning her wedding: Becky’s overjoyed mother has been waiting forever to host a backyard wedding, with the bride resplendent in Mum’s frilly old gown. While Luke’s high-society mother is insisting on a glamorous, all-expenses-paid affair at the Plaza. Both weddings for the same day. And Becky can’t seem to turn down either one. Can everyone’s favorite shopaholic tie the knot before everything unravels?
Teaser Tuesday 12/24/13
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
The High Priest has been powerful in life, a charismatic leader. Now centuries of practice had turned charisma into a kind of magic. pg. 173 Obsidian Butterfly by Laurell K. Hamilton
Product Review: Naturally flavored Eggnog Matcha by Red Leaf Tea + Giveaway
Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.
Product Description:
Despite its name, eggnog is a delicious and sweet drink which can be combined with other beverages to make it truly delicious and unforgettable. Combined with exotic Matcha, Eggnog Matcha can easily become a favorite especially at many social occasions where people want to appear trendy and adventurous at the same time. This interesting and sweetish vanilla-like drink is perfectly blended to suit many audiences both young and old and because of its lingering taste, can be very sumptuous on the palate. It can be taken both night or day depending on the audience and occasion.
Eggnog Matcha, despite its name, does not taste at all like eggs but borders more on the taste of vanilla or even custard. This taste is refined by the balancing effect of Matcha to make a mellow treat that is very pleasurable for the palate. Its thick creamy feel in the mouth makes it an easy favorite for those wanting to treat their palates to pure leisure and unforgettable pleasure. It can be an excellent companion to many snack alternatives because of its sweet base and sumptuous feel on the palate. Eggnog Matcha is a heavenly snack for those occasions where guests deserve to relax and enjoy a full bodied sensation on their palates.
Where to Purchase: Red Leaf Tea
My Review:
Tis the season to be jolly, at least that is what I think of when I think of eggnog. However the eggnog that you make yourself or find in the stores is so laden with sugars and fats I tend to avoid it. So when I was given the chance to try out the Eggnog Matcha I jumped at the chance for something that would nip my holiday spirit in the bud and be healthier for me and my family.
The package comes with a nice easy to read set of instructions which guide you step by step in how to perfectly make the Red Leaf Tea eggnog Matcha. I am good at following directions so mine came out perfect, but they are simple enough to follow I think anyone could have the same result. The results were a nice frothy drink that was not too thick but not thin either. The taste was just as the product description said it aimed for, vanilla custard like taste and I personally loved it. Some eggnogs have over powering sweetness that cloy at you if you do not like overly sweet but this nice all natural matcha version hits the right notes without being too sweet.
I have not tried mixing this blend yet but I think tomorrow I will be trying it out in a vanilla smoothie that I have in the morning and see how that goes, I bet it will be delicious with just the right punch to the taste buds. If you like trying flavored teas and are interested in matcha you will like this one it gets two thumbs up from me.
And here is your chance to win some for yourself to try:
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
Book Review: Gates of Paradise (Blue Bloods #7) by Melissa de la Cruz
Schuyler Van Alen is running out of time. The Dark Prince of Hell is storming the Gates of Paradise, intent on winning the heavenly throne for good. This time he has his greatest angels by his side, Abbadon and Azrael—Jack and Mimi Force, as they are known in the Coven.
Or so he thinks. Even as Lucifer assigns Jack and Mimi the tasks of killing their true loves, the Force twins secretly vow to defeat the Dark Prince once and for all. But how far will Mimi and Jack go to conceal their real loyalties?
Meanwhile, former vampire Bliss Llewellyn has joined forces with Lawson, the greatest wolf of the underworld, to free his people from their imprisonment in Hell. As they struggle against impossible odds, an ancient message, woven into the very fabric of time, reveals just how much depends on the success of their mission.
Lucifer seeks the key to the Gate of Promise, and when Schuyler is taken captive and delivered straight to Hell, she must make an unthinkable choice—the same one the archangel Michael was forced to make during the Crisis in Rome. Will Schuyler find the strength to do what he could not?
The epic, heartbreaking Blue Bloods series comes to a close with this final novel about staggering courage, unbearable sacrifice, and the immortality of true love.
I have been up and down with this series, from moments of pure love to moments of “why the heck am I reading this?” and I have to say while this last installment of it did not help me fully find the love again it was a solid ending, mostly anyways. Those who want Mimi with Kingsley and Schuyler with Jack will be happy campers, won’t say how they get there but enjoy.
So what about the rest of the book, well while we get some answers and a big last battle, there is so much that is not well thought out or plotted out that you are left kind of going, what? I won’t go into the full details to stay away from spoilers to much but seriously there are plot holes bigger then a bus that you could drive a lot of stuff through and it just kinda leaves you feeling, Meh.
I am glad that I stuck with it long enough to finish the series. However if there is any spin offs I do not see myself investing much in them either. Bit of a mixed bag for me in the end.
My Gemstone Rating:
Musing Monday 12/23/13
Musing Monday is hosted over at Should Be Reading.
Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!
While our lovely hostess is taking the week off for the holidays (and well deserved I might add) I am going to keep posting. Handy thing scheduling posts for me :0). My muse this week is about a reading habit and of being sick. When you are sick and laid up in bed do you read? I do and in fact I often tend to read even more then I usually do because my brain and body just are not up to doing any of my other usual work. It also craves the get away of enjoying a good book. I have since I came down with the icky sick blown through several books and I am enjoying doing so.
Book Review: Shadowborn (Darkborn #3) by Alison Sinclair
From the author of Lightborn, the third book in a Regency- flavored fantasy series of magic and manners.
Magic dies with the mage, or so the Darkborn believe. That’s why Lady Telmaine Hearne has been condemned to death for sorcery. She’s escaped but is now bound with her mageborn allies for the Borders and war. Meanwhile, her husband, Balthasar, has learned of his family connection to the Shadowborn-and is fighting for survival and sanity as magic turns him against everything he holds dear.
I really hoped that the third book would remind me why I fell in love with the Darkborn series sadly it did not. Once again while it was not a terrible book it just was not that great and it could have been. In the end this series ended up being to convoluted and not able to sustain itself without coming off as just muddled. The characters that seemed so key in the first two books were nearly missing in this one as well, which left me confused and slightly upset as well.
So while this is not the worst series I have ever read it is certainly not the best. Some of the questions I wanted answered did get answered others did not. A lot of this one dragged as well, which it shouldn’t have felt like it did because there was action. In the end this one jut leaves me feeling luke warm.
My Gemstone Rating:
Sunday Salon 12/22/13
I am sorry in advance if this weeks Sunday Salon is a bit rantish and worse not very book related, alas my Darling Husband brought home the plague and I am feeling pretty sick. Not only that the man which I love very much has turned into the dreaded man baby. I can not for the life of me understand how many turn into such babies when they are sick. He is presently acting like the most helpless thing on the planet, who at some moments of the day can not even summon the strength to open his mouth and talk to me. He also has not been able to summon the strength to get up and walk the 2 feet to the door to let the dogs out to go to the bathroom thus they can only hold it so long before making a mess on the floor. I get up and walk the much longer distance from bedroom to door and let them out, but if I am (god forbid) napping they don’t wake me. Then guess who has to clean the messes? Yup yours truly. I have also had to do all the feeding, watering, ect. I understand that DH is sick but I am no less sick, I have a wicked fever a cough that has me doing nothing but hacking up a lung regularly but I am still doing what needs to be done. The one and only time he attempted to clean up a mess he allowed the dogs to mess he sat on the floor and was moving the rag so pathetic and not effectual at all I told him to put his kiester back in bed. I mean seriously. I repeat I love the man beyond measure but hes being such an infant right now I want to hand him a bottle and a diaper.
On the bright (and bookish) side I have read three books since the plague set in. I am about to start on the fourth. Sadly I did not much enjoy the last two they weren’t terrible but not fantastic and I can’t decide if its because I am sick or if they just weren’t that good. Ah well it is kind of nice to have my challenges for the year done but be making the final push to get as many books as I can in for the year.
Quotable Sunday 12/22/13
Because guess what I saw this week. We will continue on some more geek quotes.
Thorin Oakenshield: If this is to end in fire, then we will all burn together!
Smaug: I am fire… I am death.
Kili: Aren’t you going to search me? I could have anything down my trousers.
Tauriel: Or nothing.
Smaug: Well, thief! Where are you?… Come now, don’t be shy. Step into the light…
[breathes fire]Gandalf: What did you FIND?
[pause]Bilbo Baggins: My courage.
[pause]Gandalf: Good! You’ll need it.
Bard the Bowman: You have no right to enter that mountain!
Thorin Oakenshield: I have the ONLY right!
Dori: Was that an earthquake?
Balin: That, my lad, was a dragon.
Balin: It never ceases to amaze me, the courage of Hobbits…
Bilbo Baggins: [observes the carving that held the Arkenstone] What’s that?
Thorin Oakenshield: That, Master Burglar, is why you are here.
Radagast the Brown: What if it’s a trap?
Gandalf: It’s undoubtedly a trap.
[draws his sword]Bard the Bowman: [at Thorin] Dragonfire and ruin, that is what you’ll bring upon us! He cannot not see beyond his own desire!
Bilbo Baggins: Truly songs and tales fall utterly short of your enormity, O Smaug the Stupendous…
Legolas: [Looking at two pictures in a locket that he has confiscated from Gloin. The picture on the left has a long thick beard] Who’s this? Your brother?
Gloin: That’s my wife!
Legolas: [Looking at the infant in the other picture] And who’s the other one?
Gloin: That’s my wee lad, Gimli!
Thorin Oakenshield: I will not risk this quest for the life of one burglar.
Balin: His name is Bilbo!
Bilbo Baggins: What have we done?
Bard the Bowman: If you awaken that beast, you’ll destroy us all!
Smaug: [roars] I am King Under the Mountain!
Tauriel: When did we allow evil to become stronger than us?
Legolas: It is not our fight…
Tauriel: It IS our fight!
Legolas: Do not think I won’t kill you dwarf!
Thranduil: Such is the nature of evil, in time all foul things come forth!
Thranduil: [to Thorin] Where does your journey end? You seek that which would bestow upon you the right to rule. A quest to reclaim a homeland, and slay a dragon!
Legolas: There is no King Under the Mountain, nor will there ever be!
Gandalf: They are in danger!
Radagast the Brown: The world is in grave danger!
