Book Review: The Cracked Slipper

The Cracked Slipper

by Stephanie Alexander
My rating: 4 of 5 hearts

Synopsis:

When Eleanor Brice unexpectedly wins the heart of Gregory Desmarais, Crown Prince of Cartheigh, she's sure she's found her happily-ever-after. Unfortunately, Prince Charming has a loose grip on his temper, a looser grip on his marriage vows, and a tight grip on the bottle...

Review:

What happens when "Happily Ever After is just "Ever After"? All fairy tales promise that idyllic, all-elusive "Happy Ending." As girls growing up we all listened, completely enraptured, to these narratives. We grow up seeking that happily ever after and don't stop until we believe we have it in our grasp. But what happens when the silver tarnishes, when our Prince Chaming falls short of his gallant steed? Or, even worse, what happens then when we find our true prince in someone else? We've all imagined how the saved princesses live wonderful lives later on the happily ever after. This book completely shatters that notion.

Spring Beauties

This Spring produced some really beautiful flowers. Even with my hay fever I wasn’t able to pass by a patch without snapping a shot or two. I was able to capture them from many different places. These are some of my favorites from my two biggest haunts.

Bryant Park Beauties

Tulips

American Phlox

Begonias

Purple Flowers

Book Review: Freedom, Spiced and Drunk

Freedom, Spiced and Drunk

by M.C.A. Hogarth
My rating: 4 of 5 hearts

Synopsis

Kediil wants only to remain neuter and learn the secrets of herbs from its beloved Mardin... but at its second puberty, it turns female, and is forced to decide between accepting its new roles among the family... or something unspeakable.

Review

Set on an alien world, this poignant coming of age tale doesn’t fail to impress. We follow Kediil, a Jokka, as it has to endure puberty not once but twice. While this story is very short and reads more like epic poetry; the two main characters and their dilemmas are thoroughly developed. There are no moments of wasted words or scenes. You can feel the anguish born of Kediil's impending decision from the start of the story straight to its bittersweet ending. There were moments when I was cheering for Kediil and others when I felt that it should be chastised for its selfishness.

Book Review: Rampant Damsels

Rampant Damsels

by Michael H. Kelly
My rating: 3 out of 5 hearts

What do you do when your home is in danger of invasion by a nearby rival and his demon buddies, and your leader the target of a grand assassination plot? You call on a rag-tag bunch of the bawdiest females in your town. Where do you find them? At the local pub of course! Armed with beauty, strength and a great pair of tatas; they fearlessly (or naively depending on how you interpret it) head out to right the wrongs they believe will be visited by their compatriots…through mind blasting, psychotically violent feats.

The best word to summarize this book is – what!? Being the first of its genre (coined ‘gutter fantasy’) that I’ve read, this book threw me for a loop. I wasn’t sure what to expect at first and admittedly the utter ridiculousness that danced across the pages had me constantly scratching my head. Lusty gnomes and killer squirrels are the first of a string of off the wall characters you encounter. I knew that was going to be taken for a ride, I just wasn’t sure of the destination or if I wanted to go.

Book Review: An Evil Shadow (Val Bosanquet Mystery #1)

An Evil Shadow

by A.J. Davidson
My rating: 3 of 5 hearts

Synopsis:

The first in a series of books, each one taking a different crime as its theme.

Val Bosanquet, a former New Orleans detective, is offered a job as Chief of a campus PD. A Haitian child killer he helped convict for the murder of her mother has just been enrolled at the university. Val stumbles across new evidence linking the ten-year old murder to a disgraced cop and one of America’s most popular sportswear companies. Corporate corruption and Voodoo make for a volatile mix in the deep south….

Review:

This was another from my stash of free kindle books. I'm happy to say that it was a great book. An Evil Shadow is an easy read and kept me completely immersed. I would definitely recommend it as vacation crime reading.

I only gave it a 3/5 stars because at only 228 pages, I feel like it could have been a bit longer and the editing was shady.

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First picture sold!

I'm incredibly excited! Late last year, I decided to start sharing some photos I took. I have to say that I can see the awesome progress that I make and I find myself growing prouder and more confident with each photo. So, to feed this new obsession I started and Eyeem page and a few others. Well it turns out that I was able to submit some of my photos to the Getty stock images site and after months of no activity I received an email message saying that I had sold a picture! Although it wasn't for a large sum I was extremely happy that someone (other than myself) thought the picture was awesome. Here it is! It's part of a series that I call "The Human Condition". Here are some of my favorites from the collection. Oh! and in case you're wondering picture #3 is the one I've sold.

Sandman 2

Sadness

Sandman 1

Reading

Check out my album on Eyeem