Book

My Fair Lazy: One Reality Television Addict’s Attempt to Discover If Not Being a Dumb Ass Is the New Black, or a Culture-Up Manifesto By: Jen Lancaster

My-Fair-Lazy-Jen-Lancaster

My Fair Lazy: One Reality Television Addict’s Attempt to Discover If Not Being a Dumb Ass Is the New Black, or a Culture-Up Manifesto By: Jen Lancaster

Synopsis:

Readers have followed Jen Lancaster through job loss, sucky city living, weight loss attempts, and 1980s nostalgia. Now Jen chronicles her efforts to achieve cultural enlightenment, with some hilarious missteps and genuine moments of inspiration along the way. And she does so by any means necessary: reading canonical literature, viewing classic films, attending the opera, researching artisan cheeses, and even enrolling in etiquette classes to improve her social graces. In Jen’s corner is a crack team of experts, including Page Six socialites, gourmet chefs, an opera aficionado, and a master sommelier. She may discover that well-regarded, high-priced stinky cheese tastes exactly as bad as it smells, and that her love for Kraft American Singles is forever. But one thing’s for certain: Eliza Doolittle’s got nothing on Jen Lancaster-and failure is an option.

Review:

It took me a while to get into My Fair Lazy, I read The Tao of Marth fairly recently so it was difficult to get back into reading another memoir by the same person, but once I did I really enjoyed it. I got to see how much Lancaster has changed since she first started writing. This book was published in 2010 but feels like it’s older, possibly because she hadn’t yet moved to the big house in the suburbs.

Lancaster makes me want to be a better person. Not like give to charity or volunteer, but make myself better by expanding my knowledge and trying new things. While reading this I made a mental note to really tackle my non-fiction backlog and learn something new, maybe even become an expert in something.

Recently I found an old document with goals written four years ago. I felt smug when I opened it because surely I’d get to cross something off and—I didn’t. I felt deflated and couldn’t help asking what was I doing with my life? The things on the list weren’t all difficult and were things I still want to do, so why am I not doing them?

Anyway, I really enjoyed My Fair Lazy and I could relate more to his Jen than the one from Tao of Martha. The only other memoir by Lancaster I have yet to read is Jeneration X and for obvious reasons I’m not in a rush to read it.

4/5

When a Beta Roars (A Lion’s Pride #2) By: Eve Langlais

When a Beta Roars

When a Beta Roars (A Lion’s Pride #2) By: Eve Langlais

Plot:

How degrading. Stuck babysitting a woman because his alpha said so. As Pride Beta, he has better things to do with his time, like washing his impressive mane, hunting down thugs for fun, and chasing tail—sometimes his own if his lion is feeling playful. But his babysitting job takes an unexpected turn when the woman he’s assigned guard duty over turns out to be his mate. A female threatened by an outside wolf pack.
A woman he wants to call his own. A mate who doesn’t fall for his charm. Usually Beta’s leave the roaring to the Pride’s alpha, but in this case given his level of frustration, he might have to make an exception. And if anyone doesn’t like it, they can kiss his furry tail. Rawr!

Review:

So much action! From the first sneeze all the way to the end so much was going on, I really loved it.

Arabella and Hayder made a good couple. She’d been beat into submission and he showed her that not all men are horrible.

This book did not paint werewolves in a nice light. The last book it was more calling them dogs, but this book made them out to be just horrible. Felt really bad for Arabella for having to deal with them.

I liked this one a lot more than the last and can’t wait to continue the series.

5/5

Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble (Jolie Wilkins #1) By: H.P. Mallory

Fire burn and cauldron bubble

Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble (Jolie Wilkins #1) By: H.P. Mallory

Plot:

A self-deprecating witch with the unique ability to reanimate the dead. A dangerously handsome warlock torn between being her boss and her would-be lover. A six hundred year old English vampire with his own agenda; one that includes an appetite for witches. The Underworld in a state of chaos. Let the games begin. Life isn’t bad for psychic Jolie Wilkins. True, she doesn’t have a love life to speak of, but she has a cute house in the suburbs of Los Angeles, a cat and a quirky best friend. Enter Rand Balfour, a sinfully attractive warlock who insists she’s a witch and who just might turn her life upside down. Rand hires her to help him solve a mystery regarding the death of his client who also happens to be a ghost. Jolie not only uncovers the cause of the ghost’s demise but, in the process, she brings him back to life! Word of Jolie’s incredible ability to bring back the dead spreads like wildfire, putting her at the top of the Underworld’s most wanted list. Consequently, she finds herself at the center of a custody battle between a villainous witch, a dangerous but oh-so-sexy vampire, and her warlock boss, Rand.

Review:

Super frustrated by this book. I’m not sure why, but I was excited to read this, I should have tempered my expectations after I read the first book in the Dulcie O’Neil series, also by Mallory.

All the character flaws I disliked in Dulcie were amplified in Jolie. She was stupid, emotional, and seemingly incapable of a logical thought. She only ever reacted to what was going on and almost never did anything to further the story herself.

I think the reason I hated her so much is because she reminds me of girls who rely completely on others to take care of them, and do nothing to prepare themselves for the future when someone will not be there and they’ll be on their own. I don’t understand people like that, they’re so helpless and in books they always seem to fail up.

She has almost no curiosity. She’s just been told she’s part of this strange new world and while she is being tutored, she evidently isn’t taking any initiative and asking questions that apply to herself. For someone who comes off as self-absorbed she doesn’t try to figure out anything about herself or her place in the world.

When she joins in on conversations I felt like slapping her because she was so stupid. It’s as though she wasn’t paying attention to anything that was going on and just said something relevant to the current conversation, but not taking into consideration everything that she should have already learned.

I’m not sure how I finished this book, it took forever. The ending brought yet another man infatuated with Jolie and all of a sudden she has a huge magical gift and is able to defeat a fairy turned dragon securing the fairies aid in the coming war. Once again a stupid, vapid girl somehow saves the day.

1/5

The Burning Man (Fringe #2) By: Christa Faust

The Burning Man

The Burning Man (Fringe #2) By: Christa Faust

Plot:

The critically acclaimed Fringe television series explores the dramatic and grotesque as impossible crimes are investigated by the government’s shadowy Fringe Division, established when Special Agent Olivia Dunham enlisted institutionalized “fringe” scientist Walter Bishop and his globe-trotting son, Peter, to help in investigations that defy all human logic – and the laws of nature. Author Christa Faust (Choke Hold, Supernatural) is working hand-in-hand with the television writers to create new adventures uncovering the secrets of the series. The first novel revealed how Walter Bishop and William Bell discovered the drug Cortexiphan–and the alternate universe! Book two will explore how Olivia Dunham first was subjected to Cortexiphan experiments, with catastrophic results.

Review:

There were some really horrific moments in this book. Lots of unnecessary death, though, I guess it wasn’t technically unnecessary because it did a great job of making the bad guy seem unhinged.

The last part of the book was lots of gore and disgusting Sci-Fi stuff. Not what I normally like to read to be honest, though it’s normal for the Fringe universe.

I didn’t find this book as interesting as the first one. It was well written and seemed in character, but it was somehow more graphic. I felt helpless a lot of the time while reading, there was so much bad going on and none of it was being resolved.

The epilogue brought closure and picked up shortly before the TV show started. I’m curious to see what happens in Peter’s book, but I’m not in a hurry to read it.

3.5/5

 

Sugar and Iced (Cupcake Bakery Mysteries #6) By: Jenn McKinlay

Sugar and Iced

Sugar and Iced (Cupcake Bakery Mysteries #6) By: Jenn McKinlay

Plot:

Normally Melanie Cooper and Angie DeLaura wouldn’t be caught dead at a beauty pageant, but when Mel’s mom asks them to provide cupcakes for the seventy-fifth annual Sweet Tiara contest as a favor for her best friend, they can’t say no. Plus, between cooking up a daily display for the three-day event and sponsoring a cupcake creation challenge for the participants, Fairy Tale Cupcakes will get great publicity.

But the world of pageants is even hotter than Mel’s kitchen. A high-strung judge and a pushy stage mom target Lupe, a young friend of Mel and Angie’s, at the competition and aim to take her out—by any means necessary. When the same judge shows up dead underneath Mel and Angie’s cupcake display, Lupe is crowned the lead suspect. Now Mel and Angie will have to find the real killer quickly or Lupe may be strutting the catwalk in prison pinstripes…

Review:

I started reading this almost immediately after the last one and ended up not being in the right frame of mind. I was mad that in the three months since the last book ended the characters hadn’t learned to straighten up and fly right and I was feeling slightly depressed about life in general. By the end of the book I felt so much better.

Things are not perfect with Mel, Angie, and Tate, but they’ve made significant progress. The ending was another relationship cliffhanger and I don’t know how long I’m going to hold out on reading the next book in the series.

McKinlay certainly let you know what she felt about pageant shows and the picture was not pretty. In the last book pretty much all the characters introduced were nice, not so in this one. Honestly I didn’t care who was the killer because they all deserved to get a dose of bad karma.

Happy with the series and I’m really looking forward to the next one.

5/5