Until Next Time...

The Woman Who Loved Jesse James by Cindi Myers My rating: 4 of 5 stars 3.5 stars When I was a young girl, I had strange goals and dreams.  At one point in time, I wanted to be a truck driver (this was after watching Smokey and the Bandit).  As I got older, I dreamed of being a mafia wife.  All through those times, though, I had a strange obsession with Jesse James and the James Gang.  I don't know where I first heard of him, but I was smitten.  I guess it was kind of like the dream of being a mafia wife...mysterious and dangerous and on the wrong side of the law. Well, if I hadn't been in love with Jesse James before, this book would have done it for me.  This was the story of Jesse and his wife, Zee.  It was a fictionalized telling of their life, with a dash of truth thrown in.  The author portrayed Jesse as a loving, caring man who valued his wife and family, even though he had an adventurous soul and couldn't be happy living a normal life. There were places we

Reflected in You by Sylvia Day My rating: 5 of 5 stars ***BE WARNED!!  THERE MAY BE SPOILERS AHEAD!!**** Yeah.  Well.  I just don't know what to say.  With the way this ended, I don't know that I can accept it.  Does Gideon's actions finally make sense? Yes.  But the better question is, does it make up for the hell Eva has felt and lived through because of his actions?  I say no.  At least for me it doesn't.  I want to be like Eva and just be ok with him ignoring her for the most part, for running hot and cold with her, for being seen in public with his ex-fiancee and having everyone believe they'd gotten back together, including Eva herself.  I'm not.  And I'm mad.  Not just at Gideon for doing these things (for Eva's protection), but I'm mad at Eva for knowing, knowing , that she's falling back into her old self-destructive depressive patterns, and continuing to allow the little contact they had to continue to eat her up.   I'm mad

Play of Passion by Nalini Singh My rating: 5 of 5 stars IT'S WAR!!!  At least that is what is going on in the overall story line with this series.  The Psy Council has split in two factions - those wanting to continue on with Silence, even knowing it's failing and those who are ready to change cause they see how it isn't working.  So, the Changelings are brought into the internal fight among the Psy because of Psy defectors and business dealings.  And I CAN NOT WAIT TO SEE WHERE THIS GOES!!!! Oh yeah!  This was a romance book.  Did I forget to mention that?  Sorry. I got a little excited there cause I love the world that Nalini Singh created and I read these for the overall story as much as for the romance. This was Drew Kincaid and Indigo Rivere's book.  Both are members of the SnowDancer wolf pack.  Indigo, or Indy as Drew calls her, is a Lieutenant and Drew is the Tracker for the pack.  I fell head over heals in love with Drew.  He's fun and playful and could

Lover Reborn by J.R. Ward My rating: 4 of 5 stars I had 4 long hours of car time to think about what I wanted to say about this.  I both loved and hated this book.  It was wonderful and amazing to get back into this world, but I hated the way Tohr was a total jerk to Autumn/No'One - denying that he was falling in love with her and the way he treated her sometimes nearly killed me.  I get that he lost his mate and felt that he'd never love anyone else ever again, but the things he said to Autumn were rude and uncalled for; and they were said in anger cause he was experiencing what he thought he'd never feel again. The whole John Matthew and Xhex thing was another love/hate part of the book for me.  I loved that JR Ward showed us that not all the couples have fairy tale perfect lives once they mate.  I hated that Xhex was so stubborn and wouldn't go be with him and wouldn't attempt to compromise before he approached her.  When she decided to work in the club, wh

Changing the Game by Jaci Burton My rating: 4 of 5 stars Another 4 solid star book by Jaci Burton. I read the first one at the beginning of this year and wondered how JB was going to make me like Liz.  Well, guess what? She did.  Liz apologized for what she did to Tara and Nathan in the first book and got fired by Mick.  Then Liz proceeds to hide from Gavin (Mick's hot little brother that Liz also represents and she's in love with).  When I found out that Liz has been in love with Gavin for several years, my heart went out to her.  Here she is, representing this guy that she loves and he has NO CLUE and is a playboy and she has to watch him with all these different women on his arm all the time.  She's a stronger person than I am, cause I would have been gone. I adored Gavin from the very beginning.  He was fun and sexy and playful and just a tad bit dominating in the bedroom.  When he realized he had feelings for her, he didn't back away, just kind of pushed it to

Well, I've learned a couple of things reading this book...      1) I need to actually skim the reviews my friends write rather than just looking at their rating.  This is one of those Nicholas Sparks type of books that leaves you snot-sobbing at the end.  Not exactly my favorite reading.  Sure, I love angsty books, but this was just totally heartbreaking.    2) I don't focus well on the words that are written on the page if I have tears pouring down my face.  I just can't see through the tears. That being said, this is a book I'm glad I didn't chunk at the wall half way through when I learned it wasn't a true HEA.  Dexter grew so much through this book.  It was amazing how he changed.  I really hated him at one point during the book.  By the end, I felt so sad for him.  He wasted most of his life not being with the woman he loved (he was too stupid and blind to know he truly loved her), and then she was taken from him when they finally got it togethe

Isn't the cover yummy looking?  I'll admit that it was the cover that drew me to this book.  Yep, I'm a foodie and I pick the books I read by the cover, especially if there is food on the cover HAHAHA Anywaaaaay, I picked this up before Christmas when I signed up for Book Chick City's mystery challenge.  Yes, it's a mystery not a romance.  And it was pretty good.  Tally Jones is accused of killing her ex-husband's new girlfriend. So we follow Tally as she uncovers who murdered preppy Brittanie.  We meet lots of people and find out little secrets about all of them.  I think the secret that hurt the most is when she found out her high school sweetheart, who just moved back to town, had slept with Brittanie as well.  It's probably irrational of me to think that hurt the most, but here's my reasoning....Tally already lost her husband to Brittanie and now she finds out Finn slept with her too?  In fact, when Tally finds out this tidbit of info, she r

In case you didn't know, I'm a Cajun girl who now lives in Alabama.  Me being Cajun means I cook things like gumbo and jambalaya and when people I meet find out I'm from there, they always ask me to cook something for them LOL  Sooo, going back to that original thought (I'm a Cajun girl), when I planned our Saturday night family meal, I really wanted some of my mom's chicken stew.  I'll be honest and say that rice is NOT one of my favorite things to cook or eat.  My girls on the other hand, would eat rice and gravy every stinking day (thanks, Mom).  I had an idea of how to make it, but I called Mom just to make sure I was going in the right direction,  cause you know there's nothing worse than really craving something, knowing how it's supposed to taste and then it not living up to your expectations.  Here's the directions I got.... Make a roux.  Not too dark, but dark enough.  You know,  a little darker than coffee milk.  Then add your onions, b

Yes, I realize it's already the 3rd, and I'm a little late in my Happy New Year wishes to you.  Hubs has been home and let's just say things in our house have been less than pleasant.  You know the old saying that "whatever you're doing on New Years Day is what you'll be doing all year long" ? Well, if that is the case I'm screwed for 2012. Anywho....did you make any resolutions for the year?  I did.  Wanna hear them?  Of course you do :) Loose 50 pounds (yes, that sounds like a lot, but I figure that's 1 pound a week and THAT is totally doable!) Do better at menu planning for our family.  I love to plan menus.  It even helps me to spend less at the grocery store.  I don't always follow what I plan though. Do better at keeping my house clean.  My house isn't dirty, it's just cluttered.  Really cluttered.  With everyone that lives here, it gets messy quickly. That doesn't seem like a lot of resolutions, does it?  But really,