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Ivana A. | Diary of Difference (1171 KP) rated Rachel's Pudding Pantry in Books
Oct 2, 2020
A fast read that talks about family, love, grief and finding reasons to be happy!
Rachel’s Pudding Pantry is a story about Rachel, who is a farmer in the modern world, living with her mum Jill and her little daughter Maisy. Rachel and her family has been dealing with a lot of grief in the last couple of years, and are struggling financially to keep the farm running.
The one thing that glues this family together, and keeps them happy is the baking and the making of lovely sweet puddings. They bake all day, especially grandma Jill, and they are the perfect example of what a family should look like – full with joy, love and laughter.
I loved the personality Rachel has;
She always puts her family in the first place, cares about her daughter and mum so much. Everything she is doing, she is doing for them, and she is always positive minded. It was such a refreshing moment for me to find such character.
Rachel and her mum are dealing with grief, losing a person in their family that meant a lot to them. This moment of sadness can be felt throughout the book, and I loved it. It shows that grief is a constant battle – it is not easy to lose someone you love, and you don’t get over it very easily. Years could pass, and you will still have the emptiness in your heart. I felt this on my skin, when I lost my grandfather in January. Even after three months, I still think of him every single day, and hope that he is looking over me and is proud of who I have become.
I was also very positively pleased with the other supportive characters surrounding Rachel’s story. Tom was the perfect neighbor – the one you always call for help and will always help you when you need him. He is always caring and trustworthy, and sometimes, I felt awkward when Rachel always came to him for help. Knowing myself, I would be so embarrassed to keep asking for help.
Then we have her best-friend Eve. She was my superhero, and a friend anyone would wish for. She was always supportive, always there for Rachel with her never-ending love. It is a priceless relationship these two ladies have, and I couldn’t help but be a massive fan of them.
The only thing that kept bothering me throughout the book, and is not that big of a deal anyways, was the fact that despite their financial struggles, Jill kept baking for like thirty people every single day (this is before they started the new business). If that was me, I wouldn’t bake that often. I guess it was a fact that just stuck with me for a while.
Even though it is not my usual read, I honestly really enjoyed this book. I am seriously considering giving this genre more time, and reading more books similar to this.
It was a quick, pleasurable read. It always made me feel happy and content, and eager to go in the kitchen and bake some sweets. Because I am a lazy one, I just bought sweets and ate them instead. Tell you what – that also works quite fine!
Rachel’s Pudding Pantry is a story about Rachel, who is a farmer in the modern world, living with her mum Jill and her little daughter Maisy. Rachel and her family has been dealing with a lot of grief in the last couple of years, and are struggling financially to keep the farm running.
The one thing that glues this family together, and keeps them happy is the baking and the making of lovely sweet puddings. They bake all day, especially grandma Jill, and they are the perfect example of what a family should look like – full with joy, love and laughter.
I loved the personality Rachel has;
She always puts her family in the first place, cares about her daughter and mum so much. Everything she is doing, she is doing for them, and she is always positive minded. It was such a refreshing moment for me to find such character.
Rachel and her mum are dealing with grief, losing a person in their family that meant a lot to them. This moment of sadness can be felt throughout the book, and I loved it. It shows that grief is a constant battle – it is not easy to lose someone you love, and you don’t get over it very easily. Years could pass, and you will still have the emptiness in your heart. I felt this on my skin, when I lost my grandfather in January. Even after three months, I still think of him every single day, and hope that he is looking over me and is proud of who I have become.
I was also very positively pleased with the other supportive characters surrounding Rachel’s story. Tom was the perfect neighbor – the one you always call for help and will always help you when you need him. He is always caring and trustworthy, and sometimes, I felt awkward when Rachel always came to him for help. Knowing myself, I would be so embarrassed to keep asking for help.
Then we have her best-friend Eve. She was my superhero, and a friend anyone would wish for. She was always supportive, always there for Rachel with her never-ending love. It is a priceless relationship these two ladies have, and I couldn’t help but be a massive fan of them.
The only thing that kept bothering me throughout the book, and is not that big of a deal anyways, was the fact that despite their financial struggles, Jill kept baking for like thirty people every single day (this is before they started the new business). If that was me, I wouldn’t bake that often. I guess it was a fact that just stuck with me for a while.
Even though it is not my usual read, I honestly really enjoyed this book. I am seriously considering giving this genre more time, and reading more books similar to this.
It was a quick, pleasurable read. It always made me feel happy and content, and eager to go in the kitchen and bake some sweets. Because I am a lazy one, I just bought sweets and ate them instead. Tell you what – that also works quite fine!
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graveyardgremlin (7194 KP) rated Fury of Fire (Dragonfury, #1) in Books
Feb 15, 2019
<b>NOTE:</b> I did not finish Fury of Fire. I reached page 207, out of 412, before I called it quits. My review reflects on what I read and no more, which is more than enough to be indicative to how the author creates her book.
During the course of reading, everyone comes across a book that just doesn't connect with them. That doesn't mean the book is bad or that others shouldn't read it, it just means the it isn't a good fit that particular person. This is that book for me. I had a very difficult time getting through what I read, mostly due to a bunch of little things that stood out and were what I consider oddities, especially in context to situations in the book. If I had to describe this book in one word, it'd be abrasive. The characters, the dialogue, and most importantly, the writing felt like rubbing sandpaper over a wound. Over and over again.
<b>THE BAD</b>
The constant bombardment of internalizing that both Myst and Bastian provide in this book was like a splinter under my fingernail. The more I dug, the more painful it became, and I started to dislike the book and main characters more and more as I read on. Admittedly, it was pretty easy to loathe Bastian and Myst when it became apparent that they are both boring and stupid, and I didn't find Bastian all that likeable in the first place. Call me crazy, but I just feel uneasy when a character wants to immediately jump the bones of a person he just met in horrific situation while she is frightened beyond belief. But apparently that's okay because he acknowledges his creepiness in a fit of mental self-flagellation. Sorry, but that doesn't fly with me. Maybe if that had been mentioned only once, I would have let it slide, but it keeps on like that for way too long. Apparently he's all alpha on the outside and emo on the inside. What a winning combination! Not. Myst herself starts off, uh, decent enough but then quickly becomes the nitwit I was hoping to avoid. She gets the fastest case of Stockholm Syndrome I've ever come across. For all intents and purposes, Bastian kidnapped her. Sure, we the readers know it's for Myst and the baby's safety from the evil Razorbacks, but she certainly doesn't know that, therefore I found her reactions extremely unrealistic and bizarre to the situations she was in. One minute she's fighting, and by fighting I mean being stubbornly spunky, or somewhat thinking of escape, the next she's imagining wild, hot monkey sex with Bastian. I'm sorry but if some big, six-foot-six (apparently every male is 6'6 in this book, even the human cop. Obviously, if a guy is under that height, he's not really a man.), scary dude who can turn into a dragon kidnaps me, I am so not going to be thinking about how hot they are or what they're like in the sack. Yeah, uh-huh, that makes perfect sense. Oy! Anyway, they end up making out that night due to Bastian's alpha going crazy and some supernatural roofie that dragons put out to females. God, this is not romantic at all. And it's only been a few hours since they "met"! The morning after Myst is kidnapped, she wakes up naked and finds out Bastian bathed her, can you say mondo creepy? So after she dresses, she goes meandering through the Nightfury's lair, admiring his artwork and crap, then ends up in the kitchen with the rest of the freaky-tall Nightfuries. I'd be high-tailing it out of there, in fact, I would have been plotting escape long before this point. It appears she only thinks of escape once a day. While she's in the kitchen, Bastian has her sit at the table so she can eat her breakfast. He sets down a plate in front of her and as she goes to have a bite, she notices he cut her waffles into little, perfect, bite-size pieces and she's apparently overcome by this act. How weird is that?! All feminist angles aside, who cuts up someone else's food unless: A, it's for a small child, two, their arms and hands are broken, or D, they're handicapped in some way that prevents them from feeding themselves? W.T.F.? Frankly, I think it's just odd. And then she gets misty-eyed (Myst is all misty, how cute. *gag*) when he asks her to help name the baby he kidnapped. I've already doubted her sanity before but now it's gone to even more ridiculous heights by this point.
The magical Rohypnol I mentioned before creeped me the heck out. So when a dragon guy needs his energy fix, he picks out a woman, roofies her, feeds off her energy, sleeps with her, and then wipes her memory! Say what? That's too close to rape for my liking. This wasn't just the bad guys doing this, but the next book's "hero" did that to a woman in a hospital (note: she wasn't a patient, I think she was a researcher or something, I don't remember). How sweet.
The excessive swearing needed edited down. Normally I don't mind a little cursing here and there, but so much of it didn't need to be added to the dialogue or characters and showed a lack of creativity.
The "dragons" are really shape-shifting vampires. They have to feed off women, only it's energy instead of blood, they can't be out in the sun, they heal quickly, live a long time, are super-strong, amongst other attributes. If you're going to have shape-shifting dragons, don't make them so similar to other paranormal species. Differentiate them so they're unique, not a near-clone.
I didn't like the whole reading of minds thing. If it was something that happened when mated, fine, but I don't like the thought of someone just arbitrarily getting into someone else's brain whenever they want. It's a violation. Bastian did this to Myst way too often.
The characters sound a lot like each other. They don't all have individual voices so there isn't much beyond a name separating one from the other.
<b>THE GOOD</b>
The first fight scene was actually quite well-done, although it was very early on in the book so it might not hold up on a second reading. The next fight scene wasn't too bad, maybe a little confusing at times.
The other characters in the Dragonfury series have the potential to be more interesting if they can be given some individuality, but since I didn't connect with the author's writing style and don't like most of the ideas, I won't be looking for any sequels to this oh-so-romantic series. I wouldn't recommend this book, but hey, if it sounds right up your alley or you have masochistic tendencies, by all means try it out for yourself.
As a final note, I just wanted to thank <a href="http://homealone.wikia.com/wiki/Buzz_McCallister"; target="_blank">Buzz McCallister</a> for his mad counting/alphabetizing skillz in writing this review. I couldn't have done it without you, buddy.
<img src="http://kindbooksandcoronets.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/buzzmccallister1.jpg">;
During the course of reading, everyone comes across a book that just doesn't connect with them. That doesn't mean the book is bad or that others shouldn't read it, it just means the it isn't a good fit that particular person. This is that book for me. I had a very difficult time getting through what I read, mostly due to a bunch of little things that stood out and were what I consider oddities, especially in context to situations in the book. If I had to describe this book in one word, it'd be abrasive. The characters, the dialogue, and most importantly, the writing felt like rubbing sandpaper over a wound. Over and over again.
<b>THE BAD</b>
The constant bombardment of internalizing that both Myst and Bastian provide in this book was like a splinter under my fingernail. The more I dug, the more painful it became, and I started to dislike the book and main characters more and more as I read on. Admittedly, it was pretty easy to loathe Bastian and Myst when it became apparent that they are both boring and stupid, and I didn't find Bastian all that likeable in the first place. Call me crazy, but I just feel uneasy when a character wants to immediately jump the bones of a person he just met in horrific situation while she is frightened beyond belief. But apparently that's okay because he acknowledges his creepiness in a fit of mental self-flagellation. Sorry, but that doesn't fly with me. Maybe if that had been mentioned only once, I would have let it slide, but it keeps on like that for way too long. Apparently he's all alpha on the outside and emo on the inside. What a winning combination! Not. Myst herself starts off, uh, decent enough but then quickly becomes the nitwit I was hoping to avoid. She gets the fastest case of Stockholm Syndrome I've ever come across. For all intents and purposes, Bastian kidnapped her. Sure, we the readers know it's for Myst and the baby's safety from the evil Razorbacks, but she certainly doesn't know that, therefore I found her reactions extremely unrealistic and bizarre to the situations she was in. One minute she's fighting, and by fighting I mean being stubbornly spunky, or somewhat thinking of escape, the next she's imagining wild, hot monkey sex with Bastian. I'm sorry but if some big, six-foot-six (apparently every male is 6'6 in this book, even the human cop. Obviously, if a guy is under that height, he's not really a man.), scary dude who can turn into a dragon kidnaps me, I am so not going to be thinking about how hot they are or what they're like in the sack. Yeah, uh-huh, that makes perfect sense. Oy! Anyway, they end up making out that night due to Bastian's alpha going crazy and some supernatural roofie that dragons put out to females. God, this is not romantic at all. And it's only been a few hours since they "met"! The morning after Myst is kidnapped, she wakes up naked and finds out Bastian bathed her, can you say mondo creepy? So after she dresses, she goes meandering through the Nightfury's lair, admiring his artwork and crap, then ends up in the kitchen with the rest of the freaky-tall Nightfuries. I'd be high-tailing it out of there, in fact, I would have been plotting escape long before this point. It appears she only thinks of escape once a day. While she's in the kitchen, Bastian has her sit at the table so she can eat her breakfast. He sets down a plate in front of her and as she goes to have a bite, she notices he cut her waffles into little, perfect, bite-size pieces and she's apparently overcome by this act. How weird is that?! All feminist angles aside, who cuts up someone else's food unless: A, it's for a small child, two, their arms and hands are broken, or D, they're handicapped in some way that prevents them from feeding themselves? W.T.F.? Frankly, I think it's just odd. And then she gets misty-eyed (Myst is all misty, how cute. *gag*) when he asks her to help name the baby he kidnapped. I've already doubted her sanity before but now it's gone to even more ridiculous heights by this point.
The magical Rohypnol I mentioned before creeped me the heck out. So when a dragon guy needs his energy fix, he picks out a woman, roofies her, feeds off her energy, sleeps with her, and then wipes her memory! Say what? That's too close to rape for my liking. This wasn't just the bad guys doing this, but the next book's "hero" did that to a woman in a hospital (note: she wasn't a patient, I think she was a researcher or something, I don't remember). How sweet.
The excessive swearing needed edited down. Normally I don't mind a little cursing here and there, but so much of it didn't need to be added to the dialogue or characters and showed a lack of creativity.
The "dragons" are really shape-shifting vampires. They have to feed off women, only it's energy instead of blood, they can't be out in the sun, they heal quickly, live a long time, are super-strong, amongst other attributes. If you're going to have shape-shifting dragons, don't make them so similar to other paranormal species. Differentiate them so they're unique, not a near-clone.
I didn't like the whole reading of minds thing. If it was something that happened when mated, fine, but I don't like the thought of someone just arbitrarily getting into someone else's brain whenever they want. It's a violation. Bastian did this to Myst way too often.
The characters sound a lot like each other. They don't all have individual voices so there isn't much beyond a name separating one from the other.
<b>THE GOOD</b>
The first fight scene was actually quite well-done, although it was very early on in the book so it might not hold up on a second reading. The next fight scene wasn't too bad, maybe a little confusing at times.
The other characters in the Dragonfury series have the potential to be more interesting if they can be given some individuality, but since I didn't connect with the author's writing style and don't like most of the ideas, I won't be looking for any sequels to this oh-so-romantic series. I wouldn't recommend this book, but hey, if it sounds right up your alley or you have masochistic tendencies, by all means try it out for yourself.
As a final note, I just wanted to thank <a href="http://homealone.wikia.com/wiki/Buzz_McCallister"; target="_blank">Buzz McCallister</a> for his mad counting/alphabetizing skillz in writing this review. I couldn't have done it without you, buddy.
<img src="http://kindbooksandcoronets.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/buzzmccallister1.jpg">;
Debbiereadsbook (1741 KP) rated Laws of Attraction (The Manx Cat Guardians #6) in Books
Apr 29, 2019
i had another hissy fit!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.
This is book 6 in the Manx Cat Guardians series, and you really SHOULD read the other books first. There is MUCH referenced to, but not fully explained, from those books, and you will need to know what’s happened before now. And, you know, I TOLD you to!
Nick has had an attraction to his brother’s best friend, Brody, since he was a child. Now, on the Isle of Man, working on Aaden and Greg’s new kitchen, with Brody in close proximity, Nick can no longer hide his feelings. Brody’s reaction to Nick at Christmas has him questioning everything he ever thought about the squirt. When a certain witchy-poo's involvement in both men’s feelings come to light, and that spell is lifted, Brody is confused about some things, but he knows this: Nick is HIS. They just need to get to the bottom of Brody’s true feelings, what Nick thinks happened all that time ago, and just how deep that witch went with her spell.
So, yes, book 6, but I’ve been awaiting this one since we met Nick and Brody in book 4, Searching For A Soul to Love. Nick is Aaden’s younger brother and Brody his best friend. There were some hints to this book in that one, and a development in 12 Disasters of Christmas and this one does not disappoint!
Well, it DOES, just a tad, and I’m being petty, I know but these books tend to bring out my darkest thoughts, and also the most extreme! I wanted Nick and Brody to get together FAR sooner in this book! They do get together, I just had to wait til nearly the end for the main event! Oh don’t get me wrong, its sexy, and steamy and hawt as hell in places, but for the final joining of their souls and bodies? FAR too long I had to wait! And this is why I can’t stretch to 5 stars!
Everyone has a say, EVERYONE! Brody and Nick, mostly, but some of the other guys get a few minutes too. We also get a lot of that witchy-poo, Christina, and how she spelled Brody and Nick all that time ago, and WHY she did it. And now she’s paying the price for that: but she was warned! She is working off her penance, helping to find out who is trying to sabotage Greg at work and she wants her magic back. She does NOT like feeling human! Some amusing moments, though, for Christina and her body without magic.
King Manannan has a say, and we get how he feels about said witch. Which was totally unexpected! I did not see that coming! There are a lot of HINTS about what Christina is to the King, and about something that her father did to her as a child, but these are not fully explained and I wanted to know! Again, the extremes these books drag out of me! I was like, JUST BLOODY TELL ME!! And Ms Sayle, in true fashion, does not tell me, and so again, I spat me dummy out and threw my toys out the pram and everything, A-BLOODY-GAIN!
And we meet Ellie, and Cam, who are the stars of the next book. And even though THEY didn’t meet each other, I have a feeling their book will be quite explosive. So, write quicker, please!
Because I had to wait so bloody long for the main event, and because my questions about the King and Christina are NOT answered (but I think HERE, everyone will be asking questions about those two!) I can only stretch to..
..a hot and steamy 4 stars
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
This is book 6 in the Manx Cat Guardians series, and you really SHOULD read the other books first. There is MUCH referenced to, but not fully explained, from those books, and you will need to know what’s happened before now. And, you know, I TOLD you to!
Nick has had an attraction to his brother’s best friend, Brody, since he was a child. Now, on the Isle of Man, working on Aaden and Greg’s new kitchen, with Brody in close proximity, Nick can no longer hide his feelings. Brody’s reaction to Nick at Christmas has him questioning everything he ever thought about the squirt. When a certain witchy-poo's involvement in both men’s feelings come to light, and that spell is lifted, Brody is confused about some things, but he knows this: Nick is HIS. They just need to get to the bottom of Brody’s true feelings, what Nick thinks happened all that time ago, and just how deep that witch went with her spell.
So, yes, book 6, but I’ve been awaiting this one since we met Nick and Brody in book 4, Searching For A Soul to Love. Nick is Aaden’s younger brother and Brody his best friend. There were some hints to this book in that one, and a development in 12 Disasters of Christmas and this one does not disappoint!
Well, it DOES, just a tad, and I’m being petty, I know but these books tend to bring out my darkest thoughts, and also the most extreme! I wanted Nick and Brody to get together FAR sooner in this book! They do get together, I just had to wait til nearly the end for the main event! Oh don’t get me wrong, its sexy, and steamy and hawt as hell in places, but for the final joining of their souls and bodies? FAR too long I had to wait! And this is why I can’t stretch to 5 stars!
Everyone has a say, EVERYONE! Brody and Nick, mostly, but some of the other guys get a few minutes too. We also get a lot of that witchy-poo, Christina, and how she spelled Brody and Nick all that time ago, and WHY she did it. And now she’s paying the price for that: but she was warned! She is working off her penance, helping to find out who is trying to sabotage Greg at work and she wants her magic back. She does NOT like feeling human! Some amusing moments, though, for Christina and her body without magic.
King Manannan has a say, and we get how he feels about said witch. Which was totally unexpected! I did not see that coming! There are a lot of HINTS about what Christina is to the King, and about something that her father did to her as a child, but these are not fully explained and I wanted to know! Again, the extremes these books drag out of me! I was like, JUST BLOODY TELL ME!! And Ms Sayle, in true fashion, does not tell me, and so again, I spat me dummy out and threw my toys out the pram and everything, A-BLOODY-GAIN!
And we meet Ellie, and Cam, who are the stars of the next book. And even though THEY didn’t meet each other, I have a feeling their book will be quite explosive. So, write quicker, please!
Because I had to wait so bloody long for the main event, and because my questions about the King and Christina are NOT answered (but I think HERE, everyone will be asking questions about those two!) I can only stretch to..
..a hot and steamy 4 stars
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**