My Reading (or rather Baking) Week

Phew!  Golly, I’m so glad it’s done and over with!  Over the weekend, my son had his 4th birthday party and as always, every year for the past 4 years, I’ve started baking at least 2 weeks before.  There is a theme and therefore, themed cookies and cake.  Hence, the intense pressure of it all.  I have to confess that the pressure comes from myself -The Perfectionist Queen :p

The theme this year was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and theme-related food includes:

1. Shuriken Cookies (thanks to Lizzie’s Cake Log for the tips though I used my own sugar cookies recipe)

2. Raphael (Ninja Turtle) Cake (thanks to homespooled for the instruction though I tried to make it look as if he was peeking out of a manhole but… well, it was an interesting result!)

3. Turtle Cupcakes (it was green tea cupcakes with chocolate icing which was meant to look like the shells but I didn’t have time to draw the lines)

4.  Swamp Jelly with sour worms (hubby says no one will get this reference so I’ll spell it out… Michaelangelo loves to cook and he comes up with weird & wonderful recipes with disastrous results)

The main meal itself were bought: Sushi and Pizzas (of course!).  I got some garlic bread too though as my son told me, “turtles never eat garlic bread.”  Hhhmmm, why didn’t I think of that?!

 

Now that it’s over, it’s time to knuckle down and write tons more of reviews (I’m so behind that my NG stats have fallen, boo!) so you can look forward to more chatter from me the next couple of weeks while it’s quiet before the Christmas festivities come blowing in.  PLUS, I’ve committed to read Game of Thrones with a couple of GR friends starting 1 December.  We’re aiming to read about 30% per week and then finish it off as we can fit it in between Christmas parties 😉  If you’d like to join in, you can find the GR discussion thread, here.

And now for the newly arrived:

Thank you, Harlequin Australia, for these beauties:

• Right as Rain by Tricia Singer (I’m late getting into these Aussie farm lits)
• Pawn by Aimee Carter
• Captivate by Vanessa Garden

Thanks The Reading Room for these review copies:

• Canton Elegy: A Father’s Letter of Sacrifice, Survival, and Enduring Love by Stephen Lee & Howard Webster
• The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co. #1) by Jonathan Stroud (courtesy of Random House Australia via Netgalley)

Plus a number of Unexpected Approvals (!!!) on Netgalley:

• The Lost Sisterhood: A Novel by Anne Fortier (courtesy of Random House)
• Shadowplay (Pantomime #2) by Laura Lam (courtesy of Strange Chemistry)
• The Descent (The Taker #3) by Alma Katsu (courtesy of Gallery)
• The Power of a Praying Woman by Stormie Omartian (courtesy of Harvest House Publishers)

Let’s not forget the WINS that arrived too:

• Dark Heart by Tony Park (thanks, Get Reading!)
• Empower (The Violet Eden Chapters #5) by Jessica Shirvington (thanks, Date a Book)
• Almost Mine by Lea Darragh (thanks, ARRA & Harlequin Australia) 

This week, I’d be reading some looked-forward-to Romances (*sighs* be still, my heart!):

• Awakening (The Twins of Saranthium #1) by Lara Morgan (I’ve started it this morning and this, I think, will turn out to be a comfort read -that mix between fantasy & romance, love it!)
• Nobody but Him (Boys of Summer #1) by Victoria Purman

And to fit in between:

• The Deliverance of Evil by Roberto Constantini
• Infamy by Lenny Bartulin

My Moving Month, Today’s Hunt +Giveaway (AU)

Sooo… I’ve pretty much have been offline for the last month due to lack of internet connection at our New Home.  Yay, we have moved!  Unfortunately, it’s a new-ish sort of area that we almost couldn’t get broadband! We were told that none of our neighbours could get any -wondered how they put up with that since they’ve been living here for over a year?!#firstworldproblem

In any case, we’re back online yesterday evening (Woot!) and here I am with plenty of update which I’ll keep short and stacks of overdue reviews!

Job move: I’m settling in well. Made some silly mistakes (as you would) but am otherwise enjoying the different environment and a more relaxed pace.

House move: All we’ve left is the dishwasher (delivered but not yet installed), a big stack of boxes to unpack in the garage (I’d bet that if I don’t unpack them, I probably won’t miss those stuff!), a bigger stack of boxes ready for disposal, oh, and the BLINDS… where are MY blinds?  Hoping to see them in the next fortnight.  Ah, I’m also needing an extra bookshelf.  I’ve been wondering why I haven’t seen any bookshelf giveaway?  C’mon, peeps, millions of Books giveaway but we also need bookshelf. lol

Today’s Hunt: Bloomsbury Australia organised a Book Hunt for The Signature of All Things and I just had to go.  I was mainly curious as to how they’d put this together and really to take some nice photos since there’ll be such lovely views at the Sydney Royal Botanic Garden.  When I registered and was given a set of clues (see below), I thought, “um, right, I’ll never find one!  I’m hopeless at treasure hunt clues / trivia / nature”.  Have not had Coffee at that stage either, ugh!  So, the strategy was to walk around and just read each board which described the things around the park and lucky me, I found one (yippee!!)…  Thanks, Bloomsbury Australia, for such a fun bookish event!  Please note, the token wasn’t as visible as shown below though it was on the same spot, it was hidden underneath the board.

  

It was a terrifically beautiful Sydney day 😀

Giveaway: Thanks to Harlequin Australia, I have an uncorrected proof of Nobody But Him by Victoria Purman to giveaway to one of you!  Aussies only, sorry, really can’t afford shipping to any other location.

At the age of eighteen, Julia Jones left her hometown — the small beachside town of Middle Point — with a head full of grand plans. Plans for an exciting life in a town that didn’t involve a main street with one pub or a particular boy named Ryan Blackburn.

But after fifteen years and a lifetime later, Julia’s forced to put her career and big-city life on hold when she returns home to finalise her mother’s estate. Which is exactly where she runs smack-bang into the town’s hero, Ry. As in Ryan Blackburn.

The sensible thing to do? Stay the hell away from him and head back to Melbourne as fast as her stilettos can carry her! But instead, Julia finds his offer of a helping hand and a hot body too delicious to refuse.

Soon, Julia’s ignoring her better judgement and diving into an ‘I’ll think about it tomorrow’ fling with Ry. But what she doesn’t realise is that tomorrow has a way of sneaking up on you…and that saying goodbye to her home town — and to Ry — is so much harder the second time around.

Just leave a comment below to enter above giveaway.  Please do not include your email address in body of your comment, just in the form, as requested.  Open until 9pm Sydney time (Tuesday, 24th September 2013) and if you respond to my email quickly enough, you may just receive the book the day before it’s released to the public 😉

Review: King Hall

King Hall by Scarlett Dawn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Source: eARC courtesy of Harlequin Australia via NetGalley

My first reaction after I finished the book was:

Was. So. Very. Extremely. Frustratingly. UPSET.

Why?!??! I really needed that disclaimer that this book ends with the Mother of a Cliffhanger. Bah! How in the world am I supposed to survive waiting for the next book?! I don’t even know when that will be!

Before I began reading, I was actually in a bit of a rut and wasn’t in the mood to read (Sorry, what?!? I know, the weirdest feeling ever). However, the humorous beginning lured me right in and though I was worried that this world might be a little bit complicated at that time of the morning, I was totally sucked in by first the humour, Lily as MC, the idea of lifemates (I’m a sucker for that type of romance), and then broken hearted. Within a few chapters, King Hall has had me chuckling, snorting [eye-roll moments], and crying (well, quite teary at any rate). I was raving about it a couple of hours later at lunch to my colleague who probably thought I was a little bit nuts since we haven’t seen each other in a while but all I could talk about was this book I’m reading. Errm, I love you too  xx

King Hall is the name of a college for Mysticals (ie. non-humans / “Commoners”). There are 4 types of Mysticals: Shifters, Vampires, Elementals, and Mages. Whilst showing a united front to Commoners, Mysticals do not like to mix and each group has their own ruler. Lily is not supposed to be one. In fact, she’s not supposed to even exist. However, she and 3 other Mysticals are the next in line to ruling each groups. Whilst relationships between rulers are usually quite reserved and sometimes, strained, due to the segregation, a tragedy brought these 4 together and forged a beautiful friendship. Of course, due to their Mystical natures, they are all beautiful physically and ‘friendly’ –so there’s that very interesting aspect of their friendship.

The friendship between Lily, Ezra, Jack, and Pearl was amazing to behold. It was an unfortunate tragedy which truly brought them together but they stayed strong together, trusted each other and truly accepted each other as different as they are. This was one of the best bits of the book. Of course, the quirky, snappy, sarcastic comments were most entertaining. And any sparks between characters helps the total enjoyment of the story. There was always something happening and it keeps me swiping through to the end [Note: only available in ebooks so there is no turning to be done, only swiping ;)].

I’m a little confused with the world building though as I feel there are some things that weren’t explained properly (or if it was, I completely missed it). For example, each Mystical have different powers but what exactly are their nature? I don’t understand how vampires are walking around in daytime and have body heat though I love the significance of hair colour – just imagine what a colourful the world it is.

King Hall was un-put-down-able for me. I had to keep on reading just one more chapter till I suddenly reached the end. I hope book 2 will come soon with lots of answers to questions I had from this book though I wouldn’t mind (in fact, I would totally love it) if there is a prequel of some sort about Lily & Dominic. psst, Dawn, I may just forgive you for this cliffhanger ending, if I can have this prequel to tide me over whilst waiting for book 2 This book will be one of those I’d recommend waiting for the next book, unfortunately. Can’t you just tell how very upset I am…. 

Thank you, Harlequin Australia for providing copy of ebook in exchange of honest review

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