Review: Justice by Laurann Dohner

Justice by Laurann Dohner
Purchase link: Amazon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Heat rating:

Justice North is the face of New Species. Seeing him up close makes Jessie's heart race. He's the ultimate alpha male-big, muscular, exotically beautiful...and dangerous. Of course he's off limits. But then the sexy man purrs and all bets are off.

Jessie Dupree is a mouthy, fiery human female who brings out the animal in Justice. She wants to show him how to relax, and he's all for anything she wants to do, but Justice has sworn to protect his people and to take a Species mate. He's torn between the woman he wants and the oath he's taken.

Jessie knows a relationship between them probably won't end well; heartbreak is inevitable. But that won't stop her from freeing the wildness inside Justice and spending every moment she can steal wrapped around his hot body, making him roar with passion.

Reader Advisory: Each New Species book may be read as a standalone, but we suggest reading them in order to get the most enjoyment from the series.

I guess I will start by saying that I love the New Species series by Laurann Dohner, and I love her Species males and females.

This particular story is about Justice, the leader of the New Species and Jessie, a human. Right from the start Justice is strongly attracted to Jessie and her to him (of course!) but Justice resists the attraction and the relationship because of the potential repercussions of what him being such a public figure will do to her and her life, from the politics to the hate groups, etc. Jessie is stubborn and says it doesn't matter, that she's okay with a secret relationship as long as they can be together, but then changes her mind after only a few days of them being together. This is where the story goes off the rails for me.

I can't stand female lead characters that are stupid and fickle, and Jessie's behavior no matter her justification in her own mind was both of that for me. I think she could have approached it a lot better instead of being stupid and stubborn about it, and refusing Justice's numerous attempts to talk to her about the situation. I get that all of that is meant to create conflict in order to progress the story and head to the happy ending for Justice and Jessie, but from about 68% of the book to about 89% of the book, all I really wanted to do was hit Jessie across the head with a very large stick and tell her to get over herself. I found Jessie to be immature and self absorbed, which made her very unlikable to me, even though she did redeem herself and was kick ass tough when she took down the bad guys and protecting Justice.

Justice, on the other hand, I love. He has such a burden placed on him by the role he plays for his people and he's trying to do the right thing. He's strong and dominant but at the same time sweet and tender towards Jessie. That's what I love about all of Laurann Dohner's New Species males, they are uber alpha males and very, very dominant but they love and treat their women with such tenderness. I want to say that Justice deserved better and more understanding from Jessie and it took an attack on them and something happening to Justice to understand the meaning of what he was trying to tell her about their relationship, but he wanted her, so I just have to roll with that.

I was going to give the book 2 stars when I was seriously pissed off at Jessie, but since she redeemed herself towards the end (it still didn't make me like her though, just that I disliked her less) and I love Justice, it's getting 3 stars from me.

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Review: Grand Slam by Lily Harlem and Lucy Felthouse

Grand Slam by Lucy Felthouse
Purchase link: Amazon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Heat rating:

California had seduced me with promises of a new life working at Los Carlos Tennis Academy. What I didn’t expect was the dark, brooding number one seed, Travis Connolly, resisting my help. He wasn’t interested in my psychology skills. Instead his attention was drawn to the edgy, sharper corners of my desires, proving that they existed, setting me challenges and driving me crazy to the point of combustion.

I’m the best tennis player in the world—officially—so why would I need a damn woman full of psychobabble to get me on form? Despite my irritation, however, I can't resist pushing Marie Sherratt’s buttons even though doing that shows her the darkest shades of my lust, the parts of me I buried deep. So I set her a challenge, one she rises to, one that has me rising too, and before long my game relies on her calling the shots, hitting the target and bending to my will. One thing was certain, being not just master of the court, but also of Marie is seriously good for my soul.

In honor of the Australian Open being on right now, I thought that it is time for me to write a review of Grand Slam. I've, of course, already done a video review of the book which you can watch here:

It is not often that I give a book a 5 star rating. Perhaps 2 or 3 a year, 4 or 5 at most. I'm a tough scorer!

The thing I liked about Grand Slam was that it explored the BDSM world without being overwhelming and Lily managed to make it sexy and tasteful, and perhaps even something I might want to explore with the right partner - that right there is powerful writing. Of course, that's just a fancy of mine and not something that I will actually do, but reading this did make me entertain the thought.

I enjoyed the dynamics between Travis and Marie. His attraction to her, his dominance, and her submission. The whole sexual aspect of their relationship was so well done, and there were just lots of sexy times in the book.

I won't repeat the other things I've said about this book that I've mentioned in the video, but I want to focus on the tennis. I love tennis and it is one of my favorite games to watch either live or on TV. I don't actually watch any other sport. This book brought to life a very private side of a world class tennis player for me and it certainly changed the way I looked at the game when I watch Federer or Nadal play. :-) There's just all sorts of sexiness that I imagine now when I watch tennis.

On top of that, I enjoyed Lily's descriptions of the game, the psychology of a top tennis player and what goes into prepping for a game. I'm sure that real top tennis players perhaps don't prep quite the way Travis does, but then you never know ...

I highly recommend this book.

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Review: Bite Mark by Lily Harlem

Bite Mark by Lily Harlem
Purchase link: Amazon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Heat rating:

Life in London as a butcher girl is hard enough, but when my best friend Denny goes missing without a trace it becomes miserable. So finding clues to his whereabouts and then stumbling one foggy morning into the Worshipful Company of the Ancient Order is like a breath of fresh air. Not least because sexy sophisticated Aimery has promised to help me when no one else will.

But Aimery has a best friend and it seems Ryle wants in on the action. My head begins to spin, my body reacting to theirs whenever I'm around them. But there are questions I need answering. What is their obsession with my rare blood type? How do they always appear just when I need them? And exactly how old are they?

Learning the truth about my lovers brings new fears and delights. They take me higher than I’ve ever gone before, show me delights I never imagined existed and are prepared to kill to keep me safe. Being mortal has never been so much fun, or so deliciously dangerous.

Please note, Bite Mark ends on a cliff hanger and has a sequel, Claw Mark.

Lily Harlem surprises me with her versatility in a very good way, from soccer to tennis, and fairy tales to vampires. This book was full of surprises for me, from her choice of heroine - a butcher girl! to the two sexy vampires that she attracts with her very peculiar blood type.

Of course, the sexy scenes are super sexy, so be warned! but the story itself is delightful too with a little bit of suspense and a (very) slight cliffhanger at the end. Don't worry, the cliffhanger won't leave you cranky and frustrated, besides the second book it out already so you don't have to wait at all! I can't wait to get stuck into it!

In general, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Lily is a go to author for me when it comes to sexy, erotic romances and she never disappoints.

You can find my review of Claw Mark here.

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I've started doing book reviews

Hi there, long time no blog. Sorry about that but there have been several reasons for that. If you follow me on my YouTube channel you will know that life has undergone some changes recently for me and so my focus has changed somewhat. It has meant that the content for my channel has changed and hence, content for the blog has lagged.

You can find out more about the changes here:

And because of those changes, I've started doing book reviews.

I have decided to post the book reviews that I do on Goodreads here on this blog as well. I'm not sure if I will also post the video book reviews as well, but we shall see. Right now, there are several that I've done and I will link them.

Here's the video talking about book reviews that I will be doing:

And from that video, here are the first few of my book reviews, starting with:

Scored by Lily Harlem

Grand Slam by Lily Harlem & Lucy Felthouse

Perilous Risk by Natasha Blackthorne

I hope you enjoy them and continue along this new journey as I talk books and provide reviews of the books I've read. 

The video book reviews will be less frequent and there probably will be more book reviews via Goodreads. I am hoping that I will be able to consistently post at least one a month.

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Moving and stress is bad for the diet

I hate to admit it, but I have put back on all the weight I've lost and then some.

I have no excuse aside from the fact that I have not been diligent, I have been stressed and I stress eat, and life has been super hectic as we have been moving.

We've been in the middle of moving for the last couple of months, moving stuff from the city apartment to the country home as we relocate.

I can't even begin to tell you how stressful moving is for me. We counted and in the 13 years that Steve and I have been living together we have moved 14 times. That's more moves that years we've been living together. Argh!!

So, I haven't been eating healthily, my daily routine has been interrupted and even the little exercise that I used to do on a daily basis has dwindled down to zero since I am not following my usual routine anymore.

Basically, it all boils down to the fact that I have not been eating healthily and not exercising.

So, in all of that, I have started calorie counting again and I hope that will keep me on the right track. It's not exactly 100% accurate but it is a good guide and it keeps me from overeating.

Every time I get serious about calorie counting and losing weight, I discover once again how many calories food has. I also find that calorie counting seems to be the most effective way for me to lose weight.

Just watch what I put into my mouth.

So far today, I've had my usual morning juice for breakfast, a snack and lunch. That's already used up 1,043 of the 1,500 calories that I am allowed to eat for the day. That does not leave much for dinner, so I guess dinner is going to be a 100 calorie veggie juice! :-p

I admit, this is going to be hard, we are still right in the middle of moving. There's nothing in the fridge and we are not living a stable life right now, but I'm going to do my best.

We'll see what tomorrow brings. Wish me luck!!

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Continuing to use the Clarisonic and its results

It's been a while since I've had my Clarisonic, three or four months at least ... probably more!! I talked about my first experience with it here.

When I first got my Clarisonic, I thought that I would use it several times a week, but I found that was too much for my skin, especially since I liked to use an exfoliating scrub in the shower in the morning. You can see more about my morning skincare routine here.

Now that I've had the Clarisonic for several months, I've gotten into a routine with it, and here is how I use it:

When I get home from work, I use a cleanser or coconut oil to remove my makeup. If I'm wearing just regular makeup, I use a cleanser and right now I'm using the Michael Todd True Organics Cleanse and Tone. If I'm wearing something particularly stubborn, like waterproof eyeliner and mascara (especially waterproof mascara!) I use an organic extra virgin cold pressed coconut oil, particularly around my eyes.

I then follow up the cleanse with my Clarisonic. I'm currently using my Garnier Pure (salicylic acid + purifying zinc) daily deep clean foaming gel cleanser. I like to use a foaming cleanser with my Clarisonic. It's not necessary for a good clean but it's just what I like.

In terms of using my Clarisonic, I run it twice. So I run it once all over my face (for whatever the st time is, I can't exactly remember if it's one or two minutes!) and then after the first time, I run it a second time on my face, concentrating on my nose and the outer parts of my face where I have a few bumps of something or other under my skin, which are not pimples and also not milia. I don't know what they are, but they are there and I give them a good going over. This leaves my skin feeling extremely squeaky clean.

I use my Clarisonic once a week, possibly twice, if I want an extra clean just before I put on a mask on the weekend.

The thing I notice which makes a huge difference is that when I use my serums after my Clarisonic, my skin tingles. At the moment, I'm using the Skinstitute Even Blend Serum with the 100% Vitamin C powder mixed into it. How do I know that my skin is cleaner and more receptive to the serum? Because when I just use ordinary cleanser to wash my face and apply the serum, there is no tingling. After the Clarisonic, there's tingling. It's a light tingling and it's a nice feeling. I do feel like my skin is more able to absorb the product after the use of the Clarisonic and it's penetrating better.

Why then, you ask, do I not use the Clarisonic every day to clean my skin and make sure that my serums penetrate even more into my skin to be more effective? I actually think that too much exfoliating would be bad for my skin. As effective as the Clarisonic is, I am also concerned that with too much use, it's taking off too much of the top layer of my skin.

Right now, I'm very happy with the routine that I've got with my Clarisonic. I know my skin is getting a very deep clean at least once a week, plus occasionally a second time on the weekend to maximise the effectiveness of a mask that I am using. Plus since I've been using the Clarisonic regularly, I have not been having any breakouts.

I hope this little update helps with what you are thinking with regards to the Clarisonic. Let me know if you use the Clarisonic and how you are going with it. I would love to hear of your experience.

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Staying shine free ... a new foundation and primer combo

Staying shine free throughout the day is always a challenge for me, especially during the hot, humid summer months and sometimes even in the cooler months. 

I have a shiny t-zone which I consider the bane of my face makeup existence. I also have to admit, that I like when I don't have to blot at all during the day and I *feel* matte and dry all day, but usually, blotting is a common occurrence and happens at least once a day, if not twice, which really, is not too bad.

I've also done a couple of videos about dealing with a foundation routine for hot humid weather, and you can watch it here and here.

Right now though, I'm currently loving this combination for my face and to my delight - matte all day, with no need to blot at all, plus it lasted a good 10 hours on my face, which is about as long as I need my foundation to last on a work day.

I'm using:

• Laura Mercier Silk Creme Foundation in cream ivory
• MUA Matte Primer
• NYX Shine Killer
• Elf Translucent Powder

And the routine is quite simple too:

• I mix the MUA Matte Primer and the NYX Shine Killer, using a small amount of both - probably about the size of a 1/4 of a pea of each product, and apply to my freshly moisturized face. I let this set on my face for a few minutes, while I dress.
• Then, I apply the Laura Mercier Silk Creme foundation using my fingers (my fingers are my preferred way of applying foundation and I do this whenever I can or whenever the foundation itself permits). I also only use a very small amount of foundation as a little goes a long way with this foundation, and I get great coverage with it.
• After applying the foundation, I go about putting on the rest of the makeup on my face. I like to give my foundation time to set. Once that is done, I powder my whole face lightly with the Elf Translucent Powder.

So that's it really. It's very simple and I'm just really happy with the results that I'm getting.

What's your go-to stay matte foundation routine?

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