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Killer Chardonnay
Killer Chardonnay
Kate Lansing | 2020 | Mystery
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Poisoned Opening
Parker Valentine’s dream is coming true today with the opening of Vino Valentine in her hometown of Boulder, Colorado. However, her joy turns to worry when renowned local food and wine blogger Gaskel Brown shows up. He is notoriously hard to please, and his blog can make or break local restaurants. After sampling her chardonnay, Gaskel dies, and the police are quick to label it poison. Everyone is blaming Parker for the crime, and no one is coming to her store for fear they will be next. In order to save her dream, she has to find the killer. Can she do it?

Since I don’t drink wine, I almost passed on this debut, but I’m glad I picked it up. The book starts quickly, introducing us to characters while also setting the murder in motion. The pace continues to be strong with plenty of secrets and motives before we reach the climax, where everything fell into place. All the characters were also fantastic, with some good growth thanks to the subplots. The book is written in first person present tense, which is a bit unusual, but I quickly got used to it as I read. There are a handful of four-letter words, but they are worth noting mostly in passing. If the food descriptions make your mouth water, you’ll welcome the three recipes and wine pairings at the end. This book was aged to perfection, and I’m already looking forward to Parker’s next case.
  
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Book
Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Book 1)
By Laini Taylor
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Reread

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

When you start a book and realise you have already read it but continue because it was so good! Well this was better the second time round. All the emotions came flooding back and I love that a book can have that effect on you. Rereading Karou and Akivas story was just as enjoyable as the first time the world building and story is just beautiful. I really like this authors style.
  
Totally Toned Arms by Rylan Duggan, CSCS
Genre: Exercise, Nutrition
Rating: 5

(from the back) Since she burst into public consciousness, Michelle Obama has proudly displayed her lean, toned, sexy arms, which have become the envy of women everywhere…. Now certified personal trainer and body-sculpting authority Ryan Duggan presents his groundbreaking program designed to help you develop amazingly toned arms. This three-week program will boost your metabolism, burn fat, and build muscle.

Totally Toned Arms is a Totally Terrific program. It centers around burning fat the right way, building muscle the safe way, and boosting the metabolism the healthy way. It explains the different kinds of fat, the different problems you may have with fat-burning and muscle building, and explains things that you may worry about or question.

The concepts behind the processes in the book are very well explained, so even those who have no knowledge whatsoever can understand what is going on in their body when they follow this program.

The program itself is not that scary. It’s designed around simple exercises that anyone can do (yes, anyone). What makes them hard and what makes them work if anyone can do them? How fast, how many, and how hard you try. So who does this book cater to? Everyone—old, young, athlete, couch potato. Now it won’t leave you looking like a body builder, but it sure will make a difference. (of course, if you are a couch potato you’re going to have to work a little slower to build up. In a worst case scenario, you may have to do the program twice… and that’s not such a bad idea for anyone now is it?) There are black and white photographs and very clear instructions for the exercises.

In fact, you don’t even need a gym to do this program—all you really need is something to lean against, a stair or bench, a theraband (very inexpensive, and I recommend the medium or heavy. Not the super-heavy unless you’re an athlete of some kind), and a few hand held weights. In fact, you don’t have to buy hand held weights, you can do what I did as a kid—use cans of soup.

Speaking of soup… Totally Toned Arms doesn't just focus on exercises, it also has a nutrition program that targets what you eat, how much of it you eat, and how often you eat it. And water… Everyone knows you’re supposed to drink 8 cups a day, right? Well here’s something I learned from Totally Toned Arms—8 is the minimum for a properly functioning body. 10-12 is the recommended amount. How many of you drink that much water? I know I don’t… *winces guiltily* But I’m gonna try to start…

There’s also a 21-day plan for the exercises, and even meal plans (so you don’t have to get too creative).

With all this great stuff… the only thing it doesn’t have is after-work out stretches… which, as I learned from biking, ballet, gymnastics, even horse-back riding and just about every other PE activity I’ve done, is that stretching after exercising is crucial to healthy muscles. So if you go out and buy this book… stretch a little after your workout. And take a hot shower that night… You’ll need it if you want to be able to function two days later (no it’s not that bad. I’m being sarcastic. But you do understand, right? Stretch!!).