Bares Repeating Monday: Furbaby Edition

Guys and animals are all the rage lately.  A few weeks ago Dr. Mike went viral. Sure Dr. Mike is hot, but let's be honest hot doctors are a dime a dozen.  Hot doctors who love their dogs, that's the next level hot.  I was also recently introduced to this website(NSFW) and let's just say it's a game -changer.

A real game-changer is this little peanut: Lillian Olive aka Lily.

Don't let those sweet grey eyes fool you, she's a beast.  A rescue kitty we got from the farm, her mom abandoned her but she did everything she could to survive. She's a fighter.  She gave us a scare on Saturday but now after two hour feedings and specialized kitty formula she is ruling the house.
As it should be.
The best moment by far is when my hubby picked up Lily and she fell asleep in his arms.  It made me fall in love with my husband all over again!
Animals show a softer side of people. Even the most macho of man turns to putty over a cute little kitty.  The strongest fall the hardest, as did Brady in Animal Magnetism by Jill Shalvis.
Brady is a pilot-for hire who's home is wherever he lands.  Lilah's home is Sunshine Idaho with an ark of animals.  When Brady meets Lilah he just doesn't fall for her, he falls for the animal Lilah cares for.
Animal Magnetism is the first book in the 'Animal Magnetism' series.   I came a little late in the game and devoured the series in about a week, and I wait with bated breath for the next book in the series to come out.
If you are an animal-lover you will love LOVE the whole Animal Magnetism series!

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Short Story Sunday

I don't want to see Christmas decorations up before November, but I'll take a good Christmas romance any day of the year.  Plus a personal favorite story-line: Two people who loved from afar find their way to each other. 

Grant MacKenzie is ready to join his cousins in wedded bliss, and Annabeth just wants to find love in a family.  How Grant and Annabeth come together is exciting and cute. 

Check out A MacKenzie Christmas HERE.

Estimated page length: 38 pages.

Love Song Friday; Growing Woman

This is sort of a morbidly beautiful love song.  

How to Grow A Woman From the Ground

by Punch Brothers

Funny....

Like HAWT men?  Love cute little cats?  Here's another internet wormhole just for you....FYI NSFW

You.  Are.  Welcome.

Books to Read

A running tab of books I want to read:

Tough Love Lori Foster (reading now)
If You Only Knew Kristan Higgins
Tempt Me Like This Bella Andre
Rule CD Reiss

Feel free to leave suggestions below.

Falling for Her; Book Review

Book: Falling for HerAuthor: Sandra Owens

Release Date: September 29, 2015 but available to pre-order here

NetGalley Reader 

I'll get this out of the way; when I read the main character's name was Sugar Darling I was a bit weary about starting this book.  It's a sweet name.  A name the conjures up thoughts of unicorns and rainbows and all the things you find on a Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper.  Not hot and heavy romance. Once I got my head out of the sugary sweet cotton candy clouds, I saw Sugar Darling for what she was: a fierce, determined SURVIVOR!  

As the great Shakespeare asks 'What's in a name?" 

Sugar Darling and Jamie 'Saint' Turner's characters find themselves in a sort of self-imposed purgatory life.  One hiding behind a name and the other an image of a name.  Both characters work together to shatter their walls and protect each other from a horrible enemy.

Sandra tackles some very real life issues with an  understanding and tenderness.  Those tense real moments make you feel for the characters, and most importantly root for them.  You want Jamie and Sugar to find love just as much as they do!  

 Sugar and 'Saint' are a real testament to Shakespeare's quote.  Whether it's a name we give to ourselves or other's give to us; we are more than our name.

Sandra's understanding of a sensitive social issue combined with the edge of your seat suspense story is why I give 'Falling For Her'....

Four Reading Glasses

Falling For Her is the third book in the K2 Team series by Sandra Owens.  

Bares Repeating Monday: LOL Edition

I have a love-hate relationship with the 'LOL' acronym.  The ease of expressing how funny something is is a plus.  This ease of expression I feel has caused a conundrum; are you really laughing-out-loud when you write 'LOL'??

I will be the first to admit that I have used the 'LOL' and not actually LOL'd.   GUILTY!

I might have wrote 'LOL' but all I really did was a shake-my-head-give-a-little-grunt laugh.  Or a nod-my-head-whilst-giving-a-quiet-chuckle laugh.  Or the this-is-not-really-funny-but-I-feel-bad-for-the-person-who-thinks-this-is-funny-so-I-will-just-comment-LOL-but-I-am-really-not-LOLing laugh.

So what does it REALLY mean to LOL or LMAO or LMFAO or if you are a woman of a certain age like myself LOLSHIPMP*??

To me it means to have a deep guttural laugh that seems to come out of nowhere.  One minute you're doing your thing and the next a sound comes out that is neither foreseen nor controlled.

A spit take.  A deep rumble.   A giddy twittering of angel wings fluttering in your diagram.

Real LOL moments are few and far between.  I have had lots good chuckling moments and some great grunt laugh times and everything in between.  But to truly LOL you must be able to forget anything and everything that is happening except that one thing that is making you feel so good.

The Perfect Match by Kristan Higgins is the perfect LOL book.  Honor's character makes you feel all the emotions and when those moments of pure and total humor come out in the story you have no other choice but to really and truly LOL.  Kristan humor is real and smart, it is never forced upon you.  It's the simple day-to-day moments in the story that make you truly feel like laughing out loud.

Check out all the books in The Blue Heron series.
Also Kristan Higgin's new book If You Only Knew is out now.

To learn more about Bares Repeating Monday go here.

*LOLSHIPMP: Laughing Out Loud So Hard I Peed My Pants

Love Song Friday: Bright Eyed Edition

 This song is just IT!
First Day of My Life
Bright Eyes

Back to Life

Today is my first day back to work.  Going back is bittersweet; I love my job but leaving summer is still so hard.  Gone will be the days of uninterrupted reading, well semi uninterrupted I still have kids and they need to eat.  
It was fun while it lasted, but someone has to pay for this book addiction.
To all the teachers and all the students; "Welcome back!  Work hard and be kind!

Bares Repeating Monday

I am in serious love with the Sullivan series by Bella Ande, I have been devouring each book as they were released. It's the kind of bookyou pre-order and on the day of release you wake up early and do a little happy dance when you see it on your Kindle screen.

 Sophie and Jake's love story is probably my all-time favorite romances EVER.  There is just something about two people who have loved from afar finally finding their way to each other.  I probably have read the book about twenty times and could read it twenty more.
If you are an avid Romance fan you probably are well aware of Bella's writing talent.  If you are new to the Romance genre I strongly suggest starting The Sullivan series today!

To find out more about Bares Repeating Monday go here.

Love Song Friday

This song says it all!
Although I prefer a non-bearded Jason Mraz.

Who Would Play Your Favorite Character In A Movie

I entered a “Who Would Play Them in a Movie” contest for one my favorite authors, Bella Andre. Always on My Mind was coming out and she asked her readers who would play Lori Sullivan (aka Naughty)in the movie. After a quick ‘actresses that are dancers’ Google search I found my match….

Summer Glau

Bella agreed with my choice and I won the contest! I have to say I was pretty darn proud of myself. I might or might not have gone a little fangirl. I mean who won’t??

I have seen many an argument over this topic on fan sites. People are very passionate about their favorite characters. Picking a real life image to go with the one in your head is not something everyone can agree on.

Prime example is the Fifty Shades series. Everyone who loves those books has an opinion. Actors names are always being thrown around, debates are had, video montages are made and posted on Youtube. When the movie finally came out a lot of people were disappointed.

I read Fifty Shades and although I didn’t LOVE the books I did have an my own personal opinion.

Till the day I die I stand by the fact that Christian is a Ginger and EVERYONE knows the hottest Ginger in the whole wide world is….

Michael Fassbender

Anything less was not good enough.

Each author creates their characters in their own image. It could be a celebrity look-a-like or some just some random person they see on the street. Some authors are vague in description and leave it to the reader to create their own image.

To me that is the best part of reading, using my imagination! And although I imagine all the characters as movie star gorgeous,  they are so much more than their looks. I fall in love with the characters character. It is their story that keeps me reading.

They say looks only get you so far in life, and I think that holds true in books as well. At the end of the story I don’t remember what the characters looks like; I remember the happy ending they created!

Straddling the Line: Review

Book: ‘Straddling the Line’

Author: Jaci Burton

Borrowed from Digital Library

Amazon Link

I will admit that I wasn’t much of a sports nut until I had kids. I’d channel surf past baseball games. Super Bowl Sunday meant ‘Chick Flicks and Wine’ for a number of years. I’d tried to get out of every child’s sports game or I sat in the stands to mock the parents who screamed/yelled and worked themselves into a tizzy. I thought I would never be “THAT’ parent.

Oh the universe can be a funny gal!

The first baseball game my son played you would have thought it was the second coming of Nolan Ryan. He hit the ball and slides into second I was pretty much near heart attack city. I will admit that I have lost my voice a time or two working myself into a tizzy.

Daily T.V. baseball games are my new norm. Super Bowl Sundays now means all day football,cheese curds, beer and brats…. TWO POINTS IF YOU CAN NAME MY HOME TOWN TEAM.

Aside from cheering for touchdowns and home runs, I’d be dead not to notice a few of those handsome Alpha males who play the game.

Personal Favorites:

Eddie Lacy

This guys got it all. Great stride, mad ball skills, built to run over any defense, quick and sturdy, and he is probably the most decent human being on the planet.

Aaron

No last name needed. He’s basically a god around here. Great personality to boot, he’s the full package. HUBBA HUBBA!!!

The perfect marriage between my new-found love of sports and my tried and true passion for reading….SPORTS ROMANCES!

This week I read Straddling the Line by Jaci Burton; part of the Play By Play series. The Play by Play series is probably one of my favorite sports series. Jaci marries the love of sports with complex emotions and storytelling. Jaci offers up real world issues that draws the reader into the story.

In Straddling the Line, baseball and football star Trevor Shay meets up with an old friend, Haven Briscoe. Haven suffers from a deep loss and Trevor is there to guide her out of the dark. In turn Haven helps Trevor with his own demons.

I love two strong characters who are equally dependent on each other’s strength. Jaci brings to light an important social issue, interweaving it into the story in a authentic way.

I myself had a few personal connections with the story, which I would love to share but SPOILERS!

Check out all of the Play by Play series here.

If you haven’t figured out my hometown team go here.

Final review: For magnificent story-telling and a fun romance I give Straddling the Line…. 4 Reading Glasses~

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Welcome to My World

…‘won’t you come on in! Miracles I guess still happen now and then.’

A bad habit. I can incorporate a song into any conversation in 25 words or less. Most of the time I sing that song in my head, but sometimes that song can be hard to contain.

On a semi-related note I embarrass my children on a semi-regular basis.

On this space I will review romance novels, some old, some yet to be released.

I will never use the terms ‘bodice rippers’ or ‘mommy-porn’ They demean this medium I so passionately love. A good romance novel is comfort food for my soul.

There are so many great established romance authors and many more yet to be discovered ones. Here I will document the many books I have read. I will share my passion, in the hopes it becomes yours!

“Passion is oxygen of the soul.” ~Bill Butler