Must Read Books II (Well some I found, not all my style)

I downloaded a bunch of books, sadly a bunch of them didn’t grab me.  I have a rule of thumb I go by a book must grab me by 50 pages or I’m done.  I can’t read threw a whole book so the book may get better but I don’t have the patience to keep going so I’m sorry to say some of these books didn’t capture me.

I was so excited to find another knitting murder mystery series but sadly the first part of the book kind of dragged on didn’t get me right in.  I didn’t try any of the other books in the series, so it may have just been this one.

Death by Cashmere by Sally Goldenbaum

This brand-new mystery series spins a yarn about knitters and murder in a quaint seaside village.
Not long after Isabel "Izzy" Chambers opens up a knitting shop in the sleepy fishing town of Sea Harbor, Massachusetts, a diverse group of women begins congregating each week to form the Seaside Knitters.
Izzy raises some eyebrows when she rents the apartment above her shop to Angie Archer, whose reputation for loose behavior and a quick temper has made her unpopular with many locals. But could any of them have wanted her dead? Angie's body is discovered drowned in the harbor, her long red hair tangled like seaweed in a lobster trap.

This book was set in a tea shop, I felt to be a little bit of an older generation then for me.  I couldn’t identify and get into the characters.

Death by Darjeeling by Laura Childs

Theodosia Browning is the owner of Indigo Tea Shop in Charleston, South Carolina. Her business is growing in the historic tourist town and she is building a strong, knowledgeable staff: Drayton Conneley, tea sommelier, Haley Parker, Theo's clerk and baker, and Bethany Shepherd, Haley's roommate, who fills in on occasion. Theo also caters local events, most recently the Lamplighters Tour, tours of the historic homes of Charleston. During one of the stops, local developer Hughes Barron drops dead after a cup of Theo's special blended tea.

Since Vampires are the thing now to read I thought what the heck I’ll try this one!  The character was cute and cheecky but I just couldn’t get into it.  It just lacked something to draw me in.

Night of the Living Dandelion by Kate Collins

Flower shop owner Abby Knight does not believe rumors that Vlad Serban, friend and employee of Abby's fiancé Marco, is a vampire. But how to explain that Vlad is from Romania, has prominent canines, likes bizarre plants such as bloodwort and Dracula orchid, and dresses entirely in black?

When a local woman is found dead, her body drained of blood, the stakes become life and death. With Vlad the #1 suspect, Abby and Marco race to find the real killer, before Vlad's life really starts to suck.

This was another one I just couldn’t get into.  It had great characters I wanted to fall in love but I found my mind wandering the whole time I was reading it.  I bet it got better and I would love to find out what happened but I just couldn’t make it threw it.

The Backup Plan by Sherryl Woods

Every woman needs a backup plan...
And no one knows that better than foreign correspondent Dinah Davis, who's spent years wriggling out of international hot spots. Now she's come home to South Carolina's Low Country to hook up with the dependable man who long ago promised his devotion. But instead of finding the safety she's seeking, she winds up in the arms of his black sheep brother.

One of my favorite types of books of course is murder with food.  This book had some slow moments but the sister duo is a great team and it did keep you guessing until the end on who done it.

Pepperoni Pizza Can Be Murder by Chris Cavender

For once, it seems, no one is trying to pin a murder on Eleanor Swift, owner of the scrumptious pizzeria A Slice of Delight in the quiet little town of Timber Ridge, North Carolina. But someone has to answer for that body in her kitchen. . .and it looks like the final stop for Gregg Hatcher, her deliveryman, may be the state penitentiary

‘This book is one I truly enjoyed and kept wanting more and more of it.  The only thing that bugged me is that The story talked about 3 sisters and the gift left to them but only one sister was followed in this novel.  I bet there are more books to come but the way it was set up in the beginning of the book set it up as all three.  Great book, it has a Christian feel to it.

The Best Gift by Irene Hannon

After her beloved aunt Jo passed away, sassy redhead A. J. Williams inherited her aunt's bookstore...and the store's handsome manager, Blake Williams. Like oil and water, A.J. and Blake didn't mix. A.J.'s motto had always been Go with the Flow, and God Will Lead the Way, while Blake lived a practical, conservative life. But they had to find a middle ground when they were forced to work together to solve a problem that could affect both their lives. Could their budding friendship--and a bit of divine guidance--lead to the love of a lifetime? Because with Aunt Jo's legacy, anything was possible

So there you have it a few misses but two good ones that I enjoyed reading!  Have a great week!

Cozy Thursday Reads (Some Must Read, Some NOT So Much)

Going to the gym allows me to read books I have not had the time before to read.  EBooks are my friend, now I do miss my hard bound books but sadly I don’t have time, money or space for them anymore.  So the easy downloads threw the library have been my life line to the literary world I love so much.  Here are a few I’ve checked out some good some not so good.

On the kick of food + mysteries I bring to you Chili con Corpses.  Now as I’ve said before one bad thing about Ebooks is NOT all books have been downloaded so like others I don’t get to start with book 1 in a series.  This is book 3, thankfully J.B. Stanley does a great job not making you feel like you missed something.  This book is great about a group that are trying to loose weight and meet once a week and along the way they solve mysteries .

Things are chugging merrily along for librarian James Henry. He has a closet filled with new clothes, a trimmer waistline, and a closer bond with his father. His only real problem is that his girlfriend Lucy's interest in him seems to have inexplicably cooled. When schoolteacher Lindy suggests the club members join a Mexican cooking class, James jumps at the idea. Over cervezas and black bean dip, the supper club members warm to their new adventure. The class heats up even more when a reporter and her friends, twin sisters with supermodel physiques, enroll. But when people start turning up dead, and the evidence points toward Lindy, things become hotter than a jalapeño. James, who was looking to add a little more spice to his life, gets much more than he bargained for.

The next Ebook in the series skips to book 6, which kind of sucked because you missed some key moments of break ups, get together’s and even a unknown child came into play.  This again is a great series that you will enjoy.

"The Flab Five's creative new strategy to slim down? Hypnotherapy! And James has new motivation for laying off the donuts: his adorable son Eliot and a re-kindled romance with his ex-wife, Jane. But a radical animal rights group is stirring things up in Quincy's Gap. When two suspicious deaths occur, the Supper Club friends team up to solve another delectable, food-filled mystery. Can the Supper Club members find the killer and save the town's (certified organic soy) bacon?"

Next on my list was Across Moonlit Sea, I admit I’m a cover person.  If the cover looks great I’m drawn to it.  Well sadly this one let me down, not one that I could get into.  Sorry gang not one I enjoyed, but if you like pirates and sea you may enjoy.

Rescuing a man whose ship had been floundering at sea, Isabel Spense takes aboard ruthless privateer Simon Dante, who promptly seizes command of Isabel's ship and sets out to win the lovely maiden's heart and mind.

I usually love witch novels and with a young character is usually up my alley but this book just didn’t hit it for me.  The talking to the cat and the men that were so expected in the roles was a little to predictable to me.  Maybe for a younger audience.

In this confusing sequel to Would-Be Witch, Tammy Jo Trask, a beautiful but ditzy young woman living in Duvall, Tex., tries to cope with recently acquired magical powers that she has no idea how to use or control. Summoned by a Conclave to explain her illegal use of magic, Tammy Jo does not know who to turn to for help: sexy Bryn Lyons, whose charm and looks make her forget common sense; her loyal ex-husband Zach; or the two instructors sent by the Conclave, who seems as likely to kill her as assist in clearing her name. With her pet companion Mercutio by her side, Tammy Jo sets out to defend herself, hoping to return to her career as a pastry chef. In the second book of the Southern Witch series, author Frost attempts the ever-so-popular paranormal romance but tosses in too much magic: warlocks, vampires, faeries, hobgoblins, ghosts, were-wolves; ultimately, they prove exhausting, taking away from the story.
Copyright © Reed Business Information

With the rage of vampire books I thought this would be a funny take on the theme.  Sadly it just wasn’t my cup of tea or should I say blood?  I think it really was geared to more of a younger generation then me.  I just couldn’t get into it, but maybe if you like the younger feel book this could be for you.

After being bitten by a vampire, not only is fifteen-year-old Doug doomed eternally to be fat, but now he must also save himself from the desperate host of a public-access-cable vampire-hunting television show that is on the verge of cancellation.

I was starting to think it was me with not liking any of the books I downloaded but thankfully this was the last in my bad batch last week.  I really did try to get into these books but this one didn’t peak my interest either .

Old fans and newcomers alike should delight in Hiaasen's 11th novel (after 2004's Skinny Dip), another hilarious Florida romp. The engaging and diverse screwball cast includes Boyd Shreave, a semicompetent telemarketer; Shreave's mistress and co-worker, Eugenie Fonda; Honey Santana, a mercurial gadfly who ends up on the other end of one of Shreave's pitches for Florida real estate; and Sammy Tigertail, half Seminole, who at novel's start must figure out what to do with the body of a tourist who dies of a heart attack on Sammy's airboat after being struck by a harmless water snake. When Santana cooks up an elaborate scheme to punish Shreave for nasty comments he made during his solicitation call, she ends up involving her 12-year-old son, Fry, and her ex-husband in a frantic chase that enmeshes Tigertail and the young co-ed Sammy accidentally has taken hostage. While the absurd plot may be less than compelling, Hiaasen's humorous touches and his all-too-human characters carry the book to its satisfying close. 600,000 first printing; author tour. (Nov.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.

I was really worried after so many books I couldn’t get into then I ended the week with this book.  I LOVED it, it reminded me a little of Ghost Whisper I loved that show too!  This book is great you fall in love with this poor girl that passes before her time and find how it all unravels and things are set right!  You’ll breeze threw this book.

Death is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.
Coming home from a Hawaiian vacation with her best girlfriends, Lucy Fisher is stunned to find everything she owns tossed out on her front lawn, the locks changed, and her fiancé’s phone disconnected—plus she’s just lost her job. With her world spinning wildly out of her control, Lucy decides to make a new start and moves upstate to live with her sister and nephew.
But then things take an even more dramatic turn: A fatal encounter with public transportation lands Lucy not in the hereafter but in the nearly hereafter. She’s back in school, learning the parameters of spooking and how to become a successful spirit in order to complete a ghostly assignment. If Lucy succeeds, she’s guaranteed a spot in the next level of the afterlife—but until then, she’s stuck as a ghost in the last place she would ever want to be.
Trying to avoid being trapped on earth for all eternity, Lucy crosses the line between life and death and back again when she returns home. Navigating the perilous channels of the paranormal, she’s determined to find out why her life crumbled and why, despite her ghastly death, no one seems to have noticed she’s gone. But urgency on the spectral plane—in the departed person of her feisty grandmother, who is risking both their eternal lives—requires attention, and Lucy realizes that you get only one chance to be spectacular in death.

Have a wonderful day, I hope you find something you would l0

What can I do to make them sleep?

Last night I ended my 2nd job around 1:45ish got into bed and had sugar plum dreams of sleeping in. Yeah right how am I kidding I was just hoping for maybe a few winks before the mutiny started. So following suit Caden woke up at 3am, 4am, 5am then he gave me a little break and slept until 6:30am!!! Since Rick was so sweet (NOT) yesterday about getting up with him I knew it was my morning. I made a bottle took him to the couch and hoped I could get him to fall back to sleep no such luck Roy woke up and sat down with us and of course started to play with him. My mom's death look was off or maybe he really does just ignore me, who knows! After a few minutes Cole gets up! At this time I'm about to loose my biscuits and ask everyone even though no one is listening to me, what the heck are you all doing up at 7am? Yup My tone fell on def ears, everyone just went about playing and oh yeah whining that they were hungry. Hungry really that is the least of your problems, you have a mom on your hands who had 6 hours the night before and now 4 1/2 hours today of sleep. Again I just got looks like so what where is our breakfast! I think I need to go back to mom 101 to get my death look fixed, it's really off!

Since no one was going back to sleep and my coffee was helping keep my eyelids at half mass I made french toast with that amazing white bread I made last week. Can I tell you how much I love my bread maker and all these awesome recipes. You bakers rock by posting them with all your little tweaks. Ok back to breakfast ... I put back on my Cinderella apron made every ones breakfast put one aside for me for sometime this morning. Then cleaned up what somehow missed their mouths, did the dishes yet again. And yet again rinsed the plates that were just shoved into the sink even though I've asked around 20 times to rinse them!! Since Cinderella's apron is on I'll do laundry and why not do the sheets while I'm at it. Then Grumpy butt wakes up I give him his breakfast, in the mean time walking by mine once more hey it's cold but I'll take a bite I might finish it before noon. I got grumpy out the door and even had time to take a quick shower with only 3 times Cole coming in to tattletale on Roy.

After that great adventure I clean the floors put in my 5th load of laundry no joke! The lady from craigslist stops by and picks up the Chili Pepper costume, yeah only 3 more to go! While I'm cleaning Roy and Cole go in the room to play. While I go back to put #5 in the dryer and #6 in the washer I walk into my bedroom. To find a white dusting on all the clean clothes I haven't folded yet. I think I'm going to loose it, then I go into Cole's room and see it all over his bed, the baby's bed. I run out to the living room, count to 10, and ask nicely what the HECK happened here. Of course Roy has no idea and says it must have been Cole, oh come on guys you both were playing together. I ask them both do you think I don't clean enough, plus of course you had to pick the baby powder that is not the generic version that also was the medicated so it was super expensive. Oh yeah did I mention it was a NEW bottle and it was completely EMPTY!! I look closer at my bedroom and see it everywhere. I think I might just cry, so instead I go online and sign us up for members at the Children's Museum even though it's $75 for a year it's so great to just take them there to run. Also had to hear it from Rick that spending that money, he just doesn't understand my sanity is worth every penny!

We get dressed and head over to the library to pick up new books for all. Only had to hear Cole yell across the library 3 times, hey were doing better. Then we head to down town Tacoma to take the Light Rail to the Museum. Heck the ride is free, parking is free and the kids are excited to ride it .... really a win win! We get there they have their new exhibit set up ... The Raven after the book. It was pretty cool the kids had fun, well I thought they did until Roy came up to me to tell me he's bored. Oh geez dude we're out of the house and they have painting, drawing, magnet's and a blocks use your imagination and deal with it. Instead I just smile and turn around and bite my tongue, I think I might not have a tongue left soon! 2 hours and everyone is feeling better so we head back out and of course as we're walking down to the tram we see it pass, did I mention it's Sunday so it comes every 20 MINUTES. So I go buy some drinks and a bag of Frito's to share, Roy must have really liked him he almost to the bag out of my hand and ate it. We get back to the car all in one peace, no one is crying including me so it had to be a success right?

Here we are all happy waiting for the tram

Tacoma's Light Rail, it Rocks because it's FREE (My fav word)Cole in the "Build it" part of the new "ART" room at the Museum

Roy creating on the Design Wall (Caden helping)

Roy dressing up in the new Indian Theme CostumesThe boys hanging the Salmon in the new exhibit

The scene in the car when we got home
To bad that didn't last until we got home, I put Caden to sleep and Cole went to sleep on the couch. Well Roy wasn't tired so he woke Cole up, my head was feeling so heavy I just had to take my chances and go take a nap. When I awoke it was to a screaming Caden, you know what I found. Roy and Cole with the light on standing over the crib, really boys was that necessary? Then I go into the living room were I find raisins on the floor, fruit snack wrappers everywhere and the room I just cleaned this morning trashed once again. I think you need to lock me up and put me in a padded room, it may be the only peace and quiet and down time I'll ever get. Guess what I did, yes another load of laundry just to make my day better! Thankfully mom called and send home a casserole with Rick. He was her yard slave all day, good pay back for what my weekends are like.

Now I'm going to lay down watch TV and maybe if I can go to bed early. Oh those sugar plum dreams, who really am I kidding?