Saturday, September 22, 2012

Bitter is the New Black

I loved this book! Working in the corporate world for as long as I have, I have seen and maybe even been( shh) this woman. There is a little bit of her in all of us. We all have our moments of frivolity. But it's when we realize we have gotten to that level of crazy and tone it down that we finally feel normal again. Keeping up with the Janes really can get tiring. You can only have so much before you realize that all you have is stuff!
Now that I am not working I look at my shoes, my purses, my jewelry, and clothes that I HAD TO HAVE and think "where am i going to wear this stuff now?" Most of my days are spent in yoga pants and T-shirts. Thankfully we are not at a point in our lives where we would need to start selling all that stuff because we don't know where we will get money to pay for the mortgage.
Things I did learn along the way:
1. If you can afford a hight rent payment it's better to buy a place (you can change the wallpaper).
2. ALWAYS put aside 10% of your income for a rainy day. working at the same place for 10 years I      was able to set aside enough to not have panic attacks.
3. Splurge every once in a while! We work our buts off and there is no point in doing all that to get to a point in our lives where we think "why didn't we..."
4. Cleaning your own home keeps you humble. It does not matter that you are wearing $30 Chanel nail polish when you are on your hands and knees cleaning toilet bowls.

Read this book, i'm glad I did!


Summay:

Jen Lancaster was living the sweet life-until real life kicked her to the curb.

She had the perfect man, the perfect job-hell, she had the perfect life-and there was no reason to think it wouldn't last. Or maybe there was, but Jen Lancaster was too busy being manicured, pedicured, highlighted, and generally adored to notice.

This is the smart-mouthed, soul-searching story of a woman trying to figure out what happens next when she's gone from six figures to unemployment checks and she stops to reconsider some of the less-than-rosy attitudes and values she thought she'd never have to answer for when times were good.

Filled with caustic wit and unusual insight, it's a rollicking read as speedy and unpredictable as the trajectory of a burst balloon.



Wrong Bed, Right Guy


This is another book I picked up from a set of ebooks. The story is ok. There are many side stories which never get answered. I am not too familiar with the author to know if she has other books to support the side stories. She alludes to a mysterious woman who Nathan once had feelings for but we never know who it is. Then the best friend has a crush which we are never told about. The powers of deduction make me think the best friend and the crush once had something but because of friendship it ended. I will never know because I will not read another book from this author. 
It was again just a afternoon read. 



Prim and proper art gallery coordinator Elle Walser is no good at seducing men. Heck, she’s been throwing hints at her boss for months, but he’s completely clueless. Desperate to escape her mother’s matchmaking efforts, she comes up with a plan—buy some lingerie and climb into her boss’s bed. The plan goes brilliantly…until she accidentally seduces a sexy stranger instead. 

Bad boy nightclub mogul Gabe Schultz just had the best almost-sex of his life. Too bad the smoking hot blonde thought he was his brother and bolted before he could finish what they started. Though her holier-than-thou attitude puts a serious damper his mood, Gabe’s never been one to give up on something he wants. And he wants Elle. But does a man who lives on the dark side really have a chance with a proper lady?

Seducing Cinderella

I started reading this book, thinking it would a cute love story. Little did I know it would be so graphic. The story is really cute. It was a a great way to get a break from the crime murder mystery books I have been reading recently. I have not read a book like this since I was in my teens. It's a good afternoon read. I did not see the cover of the book before I read it I would have been able to judge this book by it's cover for sure. I probably would not have selected it. It was part of some ebooks someone gave me. I enjoyed it nonetheless.





Seducing Cinderella by Gina L. Maxwell
Mixed martial arts fighter Reid Andrews’s chance to reclaim his title as light heavyweight champ is shattered when he’s injured only months before the rematch. To make sure he’s healed in time, his trainer sends him to recuperate under a professional’s care—Reid’s best friend’s little sister, all grown up.
Disorganized and bookish Lucie Miller needs some professional help of her own. She’d do anything to catch the eye of a doctor she’s crushed on for years, so when Reid offers seduction lessons in exchange for 24/7 conditioning for the biggest fight of his career, Lucie jumps at the chance.

Soon Reid finds him himself in the fight of his life...winning Lucie's heart before she gives it to someone else.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

11th Hour


This is the 11th book in James Patterson's Women's Murder Club series. This book was a little bit different, it seemed like all the strong women in this book all seemed to have some type of emotional breakdown. What I did not understand was when Lindsay and Joe got into their fight and it lasted as long as it did, why did he give up and just make the make-up so weak? So much rage was expressed and then with a blink of an eye it was resolved. 
I love reading his books, the only thing I don't like is that it takes me a day and a half to read the book. Not only because I am a fast reader but really because his chapters are so short it seems like you really are getting a novella and not really a full book. So much of the 416 pages just seem like wasted space. His writing style of attempting to get to a climax at the end of each chapter tapers off with the continuation of this series. The content of this book is good but having read so many of his books it seems like the style is the same. I would think with him collaborating with so many writers his styles for each series would have some type of variance. I expect more. When authors write so many books per year, I think they loose some of their writing integrity. I have been saying this of Peterson for quite some time. 
This book is still worth the read if you like Patterson's work. 


YOUR BEST FRIEND

Lindsay Boxer is pregnant at last! But her work doesn't slow for a second. When millionaire Chaz Smith is mercilessly gunned down, she discovers that the murder weapon is linked to the deaths of four of San Francisco's most untouchable criminals. And it was taken from her own department's evidence locker. Anyone could be the killer—even her closest friends.

OR A VICIOUS KILLER?

Lindsay is called next to the most bizarre crime scene she's ever seen: two bodiless heads elaborately displayed in the garden of a world-famous actor. Another head is unearthed in the garden, and Lindsay realizes that the ground could hide hundreds of victims.

YOU WON'T KNOW UNTIL THE 11TH HOUR

A reporter launches a series of vicious articles about the cases and Lindsay's personal life is laid bare. But this time she has no one to turn to—especially not Joe. 11TH HOUR is the most shocking, most emotional, and most thrilling Women's Murder Club novel ever.
http://www.jamespatterson.com/books_11thHour.php#.UFDAGkJRI20


Stolen Prey


I like John Sanford's Prey series. I came across them about 10 years ago and I have been addicted ever since. This book does not disappoint with it's suspense. Two parallel stories keeping you on the edge of your seat. 



Summary:

Lucas Davenport has seen many terrible murder scenes. This is one of the worst. In the small Minnesota town of Wayzata, an entire family has been killed—husband, wife, two daughters, dogs.

There’s something about the scene that pokes at Lucas’s cop instincts—it looks an awful lot like the kind of scorched-earth retribution he’s seen in drug killings sometimes. But this is a seriously upscale town, and the husband was an executive vice president at a big bank. It just doesn’t seem to fit.

Until it does. And where it leads Lucas will take him into the darkest nightmare of his life.

www.amazon.com

Fantasy in Death

Book 37




Summary:


In the latest novel from #1 New York Times-bestselling author J.D. Robb, it is game over for the criminals pursued by NYPSD Lieutenant Eve Dallas.
Bart Minnock, founder of the computer-gaming giant U-Play, enters his private playroom, and eagerly can't wait to lose himself in an imaginary world, to play the role of a sword-wielding warrior king, in his company's latest top-secret project, Fantastical.
The next morning, he is found in the same locked room, in a pool of blood, his head separated from his body. It is the most puzzling case Eve Dallas has ever faced, and it is not a game. . . .
NYPSD Lieutenant Eve Dallas is having as much trouble figuring out how Bart Minnock was murdered as who did the murdering. The victim's girlfriend seems sincerely grief-stricken, and his quirky-but-brilliant partners at U-Play appear equally shocked. No one seemed to have a prob­lem with the enthusiastic, high-spirited millionaire. Of course, success can attract jealousy, and gaming, like any business, has its fierce rivalries and dirty tricks-as Eve's husband, Roarke, one of U- Play's competitors, knows well. But Minnock was not naive, and quite capable of fighting back in the real world as well as the virtual one.
Eve and her team are about to enter the next level of police work, in a world where fantasy is the ultimate seduction-and the price of defeat is death.

http://www.indeath.net/wikiindeath/index.php/Fantasy_in_Death