top 5

The top 5 topic this week is favorite shows on Netflix/Hulu. I don't really watch a bunch of shows, so this was pretty easy.

My first picks are the Shonda Thursday shows. Grey's Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away with murder.

How to Get Away with Murder is a newish show, I think only 4 seasons? My mom suggested it to me and its insane! I love it!! 

Next would be Scandal. I can't remember who suggested this to me, but I really enjoy it. Honestly, it has also helped me understand politics a lot more too. I was bored with the show at the beginign of this season, but took a break and now I can't remember why I stopped watching it! I love Olivia.

I legit hate myself for still watching this show, but i can't stop. This picture is from a few seasons ago, but I picked it b/c these were my favorite people and they are almost all dead or gone now. 

Empire!!! This show is awesome! This family is full of crazy, gangster, entitled, and hard core people and I just love watching them. 

And then of course, when those shows are on break, its SVU!

Book Review

I read this book last year, but I have wanted to review it since I read it in December. I WILL post spoilers, so first I'll post what the book is about from Goodreads in case it's something you want to read and don't want spoilers.

When Catherine wakes up alone one morning, she thinks her husband has gone for a run before work. But Simon never makes it to the office. His running shoes are by the front door. Nothing is missing—except him.

Catherine knows Simon must be in trouble. He wouldn’t just leave her. He wouldn’t leave the children.

But Simon knows the truth—about why he left and what he’s done. He knows things about his marriage that it would kill Catherine to find out. The memories she holds onto are lies.

While Catherine faces a dark new reality at home, Simon’s halfway around the world, alive and thriving. He’s doing whatever it takes to stay one step ahead of the truth.

But he can’t hide forever, and when he reappears twenty-five years later, Catherine will finally learn who he is.

And wish she’d stayed in the dark.

This book made me angry through the whole book and then it made me REALLY angry at the end.  Simon decides he is angry at his wife, for a reason you discover at the end, and after thinking about killing himself for awhile and can't go through with it, he runs away leaving behind not only his wife, but 2 kids. Catherine, not believing her husband would just leave her, is convinced his is kidnapped. For years, even when everyone else gave up hope, she did not. She still held on to the hope that he was out there. Meanwhile, her husband is gallivanting around being this person or that person, staying under the radar but living a pretty good life.  He helps restore a hostel and then decides to burn it to the ground (b/c he is a psychopath) steals a dead mans passport and runs away to America, specifically the Florida Keys. There he runs into his wife's best friend. She spots him, tries to talk him into coming home. What does he do? HE KILLS HER!!!! Pushes her into traffic and fucking kills her. He then has to run away, eventually ending up in Mexico. He ends up working security for a whore house, falling in love with a whore after helping her kill a client who tried to kill her (okay fine, this was was validated). The whore, ran away to Mexico after her and her mom ran away from Europe to escape her abusive dad. After learning he is dead, her and Simon go back to Europe and move back into her mansion and take care of the vineyard.  He ends up marrying her, having 2 more kids and they live a pretty great life until she dies of breast cancer after about 20 years together. He then travels back to his first family to try and talk to Catherine and explain to him what happened when he left. 

So Catherine....she struggles for a long time. She almost loses her house, and tries to figure out how to enter the work world again after years home with her kids.  To make ends meet, she starts making clothes for some people in the neighborhood. She was a very talented seamstress for a long time, and then something happened a few years earlier that changed her and she no longer had a desire to sew. But having to start making her own way, she picked it back up. Fast forward a bit, and she ends up meeting a girl, whose mom owns a boutique, at the grocery store she works at.  The boutique owner ask Catherine to sew some items for her to sell. This becomes her new job, and it was a success and it takes Catherine down a very different path in her life.  Catherine ends up being the owner of the shop, and being so successful she opens a few more shops throughout London. She does end up finding love and remarrying. Also, she does have a feeling that Simon is still alive, but she can't prove it. 

Simon ends up telling his new wife about his previous life and she makes him promise her, on her death bed, that he will go make up with Catherine, or at the very least tell her the truth. So about a year or so after his wife's death he goes to find Catherine. Which isn't hard b/c she never left the house they had when they were married. Here is where the book really started to piss me off. Simon starts to tell her of his life for the last 25 years, telling her about killing her best friend, and the women he remarried. Then the truth comes out. Simon was a workaholic, trying to get a business off the ground. Catherine becomes close with his best friend and Simon doesn't think much of it until one night, the night of his birthday party, both Catherine and the friend disappear. Simon wants to go chase them upstairs when he sees their shadows in the bedroom curtains. He gets to the bedroom  door and hears Catherine moaning and decides not to go in the room, and instead runs downstairs as if nothing happened. He doesn't tell Catherine what he almost witnessed that night, and instead festers on it and starts to hate her. She ends up pregnant and b/c they've only had sex a couple times and he wasn't even able to "finish" he doesn't believe the baby is his. The baby is born and he hates him. He tries so hard to love him and can't seem to do it. One night Catherine goes downstairs after drawing a bath for the baby and asks Simon to watch him. Simon takes this as an opportunity to do the unthinkable....he allows the baby to drown in the tub....thinking too late that he fucked up, he tries to preform CPR and calls 9-1-1 but it's too late. The baby dies. Simon was already broken b/c of the affair (which Catherine didn't know he knew about), and now Catherine was as well b/c her baby was dead. 

Once the whole truth is out, Catherine is livid. She starts to yell at Simon about how wrong he was. First off, the friend (name I can't think of right now) and her weren't having an affair, he RAPED her!! As a punishment for stealing Simon from him when they were teenagers.  The friend was gay, and had a crush on Simon, but Catherine won b/c Simon isn't gay. Well Catherine was being punished for that....Second, the baby was 100% Simon's b/c during the RAPE the friend sodomized her, so it was physically impossible for the baby to be his.  So Simon threw away what seemed like a perfectly good marriage, someone who loved him, killed an innocent baby, killed an innocent women, walked out on his kids, all b/c he didn't know how to fucking open his mouth and say something!!!! If he had either opened the door that night, or later said something there would be so many lives spared.  

The only confession in the last part of the story that I agreed with is he also killed the friend a few days after the birthday party. Now, the friend thought he was doing it b/c he raped Catherine, and Simon was just doing it b/c he was a pig who slept with his wife. Either way, he was dead and no one batted an eye b/c they thought he went home to his country. 

This was a random KU pick, and it was definitley one of the better thrillers I read all year. 

Pin it Tuesday

I got a gift certificate for Christmas for a tattoo shop so I can get my Ariel tattoo!! I've been looking for what I want for I want for a couple years, so here are a couple of the ideas I am looking at. I really don't know which direction I want to go for sure yet, but I want it to be perfect!

I really like this idea b/c I feel like it already goes with my beauty and the beast tattoo, since they are objects in the movie.

This was my number one pick for awhile, and honestly still might go with this one. 

Still trying to decide also, if I want color or black and white. I want to make sure I pick a good one, and don't just pick anything just to get it.

Top 5

First series that came to mind when I saw this prompt was the 'Never, Never' series by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher.  I'm sad to say this b/c I do adore both these authors. They did a novella together, and it came out in a 3 book series. The first book was really good! I think the 2nd came out that same year maybe? But it took forever for the 3rd book to come out. By the time it came out, we had been waiting so long for the last book. Book 1 and 2 ended with such a cliff hanger, we needed closure!! The book finally came out, and I was so disappointed and mad at this book.  I usually like their books, and I can't remember any other series where I didn't enjoy the end of the series. It felt rushed, and they amped up such a suspenseful story and then it just ended. The 3rd book was barley even believable.

I loved this series!The only complaint is this book book went on way too long. I listened to it on audio, so I couldn't tell how long it was, and every time I thought it was going to end, it didn't. It was just long and drawn out. 

I read this a couple years ago, so I can't remember what about this book I didn't like, but like the 'Never, Never' series, the books were really spaced apart. I know books take awhile, but they were novellas so I had to re-read the previous one(s) each time a new one came out. I also remembering being annoyed when I finished the 3rd book. 

This series went on, in my opinion, too long. The series is about 5 brothers and each book is about how they found true love. I loved the books, and this is a series I will probably read again. But this book was the last of the series and it took me forever to get through it.

Prompt

The writing prompt in my blog group today is share your reading list for the month! I've already read 2 books, 1 that I didn't enjoy, and 1 that I loved! Also, I think I'm going to try and pick books off my own book shelf to read this year. Like many book lovers, I buy books and never read them.

Those 2 are the ones I've read already, and here are the 2 I hope to read this month!

Spotlight Saturday

2017 was a really cool year for me and while I was at work the other night, I thought it would be cool to write a blog post about the highlights for me.

I got 3 new tattoos!! Well, 4 if you count my Friday the 13th tattoos as individuals, which technically they are until I tie in the sleeve all together. The first tattoo was an event special at a shop in a town about an hour from me. I don't remember the specific event, but I think it had to do with feminism and Trump....the tattoo ended up being one of 3 of the sister tattoos we now have. The 2nd tattoo is my actual sister tattoo I got. My sisters got it as their sister tattoo a couple years ago, so I got it this year too. It read I'm fine one way and Save me the other way. I also love that its right below my suicide/ eating disorder recovery tattoo. And the last tattoo(s) was a Friday the 13th tattoo event special also at a tattoo shop in a town over. My littlest sister seems to be my new tattoo buddy b/c she was there with me all 3 times. I love tattoos and I plan on 2018 being another year with multiple tattoo adventures!

                          




Next, I WENT PLACES!!  I took 2 amazing vacations this year, and was able to knock things off my bucket list.

Vegas was a surprise sister trip, planned for and paid for by my middle sister. My parents helped out with the hotel and stuff but she did an amazing job planning Her and her roommate live in a different state, so they left their home,and we left ours and met in Vegas for a birthday/ sister bonding celebration. It was amazing and not something I'll forget. It was my first time away from my son and it was weird to be so far away from him, but I enjoyed myself. We did so much, and it was hard to pick just a few pics to share for this, but these wrap up some of the trip. I'm sad we didn't get better pics of us dancing on the bar at coyote ugly since that's once of my bucket list things, but at least there are some!

Then, right after Vegas was Disney. Disney was a weird trip for me....and I plan on writing about it soon, but for now I'll just post some pics!

 

This was a trip I was also able to knock some things off my bucket list!

And lastly, I went to a Hanson Concert with my best friend. Hanson was my first concert, and I remember having a ticket for her and last minute she couldn't come. So when I got the tickets for my birthday I knew she was the one I wanted to come with me. Seeing them as my first concert where we had lawn seats and couldn't see them, versus this concert was like night and day. We were so close to the stage this time, I could not only see them, I could see them sweating! It was amazing. 

I didnt even zoom in for these pics!

2017 was a year I decided to take for myself. I let go of dating and dumb boys and mind games, and focused on me and it was truly amazing. I really needed to step back and look at things and I did. I have amazing friends in my life, and they have amazing supportive partners, that show me what real love and happiness look like. They show me I don't have to settle b/c what I deserve is out there, and maybe I'll find it and maybe I won't. But the point is, it's there, it's real and I can sit it.  I really don't think they know or understand how much they mean to me, and how much they have helped me. I haven't felt this good mentally or emotionally in such a long time and I have them to thank for it the most. 

I'm not really sure how 2018 can be better than last year, but I have high hopes!

Book Bingo

I want to do one more wrap up thingy for the year, my book bingo! I did pretty good, and I will admit I cheated on ONE square b/c I had originally used the book for one square and then realized if I had used it for the other one I wanted, I would have gotten bingo. So yes, I cheated, but it's not like I could uncolor the box....anyways, here is my book bingo wrap-up



Recommended by a librarian: I Can't Keep My Own Secrets

First in a series: Reason to Breath By: Rebecca Donovan
This was a 3 book series, and I absolutely loved the first book.I downloaded the 2nd book the second I finished the first. I was sad the 2nd book wasn't as good, and it left out a lot I would have wanted to read about. It talked about it briefly, but personally I would have actually written about it.

Recommended by an author I love: Flat out Love By: Jessica Park
This was recommended by Colleen Hoover. Originally I wanted to use a Tarryn Fisher book b/c they are bffs, but Colleen posted a review on Amazon of this book and it was free on KU so I gave it a shot. One of the characters reminded me of my brother was he was little and I loved it.

A book on my TBR list for too long: Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls By: Lynn Weingarten
Thinking this book had to do with mental health and suicide, I added this to the TBR list for when I was able to handle a book about that subject. It wasn't really about that, and this was a book I totally picked based on the cover. But either way, I did enjoy it and it was my first book book of the year!

By an author who uses a pseudonym: Thousand Piece of You By: Claudia Grey
Honestly, I thought this one would be hard to find. But I added the book when I read it to goodreads, and I glanced over to the "About the author" and the first line said that she doesn't use her own name. For no other reason than she likes the name Claudia, which I thought was cute.

Book that took place over a characters life: Before the Rain Falls By: Camille Di Maio
I was told this book couldn't count b/c it just skims over the past years, but I decided it does. The main character goes to jail on her 18th birthday for killing her sister. She gets out when she is in her 80s. The story goes back and fourth between her childhood, and her time in jail, and then once she gets out. A random KU find, that was a very heartfelt story.

Unreliable Narrator: Without Merit By: Colleen Hoover
This one I struggled with too b/c honestly a lot of the narrators in the books I read were unreliable. But I picked this one, b/c she is also someone I can relate to. Merit has depression and although that doesn't necessarily make someone unreliable, I don't think it helped her case at all.

Book of letters :When I'm Gone By: Emily Bleeker
This book got a lot of grief on Goodreads for being too much like "P.s. I Love You" which it really was, with a bit more of a plot twist. I still enjoyed it, and I like the author. Plus, P.s. I Love You is one of my favorite movies, even though  I claim to hate romance. 

Best seller from a genre I don't normally read: Milk and Honey By: Rupi kaur
This was a poetry book, and I love poetry, it's just not from a genre I usually pick from. It was also one of my favorites of the year. Very emotional and heartfelt, its a book I very much related to, and definitely needed to read when I did.

A book with a character's name in the title: Unfinished Life of Addison Stone By: Adele Griffen
This book fucked with my head b/c the story seemed so real and the pictures were actual photos. I looked into it, and never really got a real answer on it being fiction or not. It was a book I picked from the library based on the cover, it was in the YA fiction section so I'm gonna go with it wasn't real but I felt like it could have been at least based on a true story.

Audiobook: Everything We Keep By: Kerry Lonsdale
This was the very first book I read in 2017 and honestly don't remember  a thing about it.

Book involving travel: Ten Thousand Skies Above You By: Claudia Grey
I read a lot of books that had to do with travel in it, but I used this one. This was a series we read for book club, and this is one of those times I was glad I don't pick my books based on whats on the back. This series sounded way too Sci-Fi for me, but my best friend suggested it, so I went for it. And it was amazing! Not like any story line I have read before.

A book with pictures: Mermaid By: Jodi Picoult
This was a Kindle in motion book, so the pages on the kindle were all pretty, and that was the only thing I enjoyed about this book. As I said in my other wrap-up, this was the biggest disappointment book for the year b/c I absolutely adore Jodi Picoult and this book was awful.

Book by a person of color: Everything, Everything By: Nicola Yoon

Eccentric Character: Life and Other Near Death Experiences By: Camille Pagan
This was another book that I didn't really enjoy, so I honestly don't remember much about it, except that the main character fucking annoyed me. She finds out she has cancer and instead of dealing with it like a grown up, she acts like a child and runs away. I'm not 100% sure that is what eccentric means, but when I asked a friend of mine, this character came to mind.

Book by multiple authors: The Good Widow By: Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke
This is the book I cheated on, b/c the main character has Endo and knowing someone that has that, I know it very much is a disability so I also used it for that one.

A book involving a mythical creature: The Mermaid's Sister By: Carrie Ann Nobel
This book was (Obviously) about a mermaid and it was a very strange book....One of the sisters turns into a mermaid for some reason I can't remember, and when she does, she shrinks? So the sister and a boy from another family put her in a bath tub and have to take her to another town that accpets mermaids? I swear, it was better than it sounds, I suck at reviews esp for books that I read months ago.

Book about an immigrant or reugee: From Sand and Ash By: Amy Harmon
I so loved this book!! It was about a Jewish family during WW2, who  ironically had a non Jewish family working for them. The grandson of the family that worked for the Jewish family was training to become a priest and later on, when the war hits their town, he actually works to hide Jews running from the roundups. Later on he meets up with the daughter of the Jewish family and they work together to save as many Jews as possible.

Book with a subtitle: Two Kisses for Maddy: A memoir of loss and love By: Matt Logelin
I already wrote a pretty long review of this book when I read it, so I won't repeat myself, but it was an amazing story on how a dad gets on with life having a newborn after he lost the love of his life due to complications from child birth.

Year Wrap-up Book Survey Thing

How many books did you read? What was your goal?

My goal was 40 and I read 61! For a total number of 19,883 pages. Thanks goodreads!

Most read genre

I couldn't find this on goodreads, so I'm going to take a guess and say YA fiction. I went through a thriller/ suspense phase for awhile, but I think most of the books I read were YA.

Longest book

Underneath the Scarlet Sky By: Mark Sullivan. Amazing book!!!! As well as a suspense/thriller phase, I also enjoyed a few books about WW2 that took place in Europe/ Germany. I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know much about the war from that side besides of course the Holocaust. So these books were very interesting for me to read. 

Shortest book

The Mermaid By: Jodi Picoult. Horrible book, which is disappointing, b/c I love her  

Favorite book published in 2017

The Memory of Butterflies By: Grace Greene. This was a random KU find, that took place in my hometown!! That surprised me, and I loved it

Debut Novel of 2017

Without Merit By: Colleen Hoover I'm sad to say I struggled with this book, but I love Colleen and trusted she wouldn't let us down so I stuck with it and ended up loving it. I passed it along to my little sister knowing she would enjoy it more since she is the middle child in our family. 

Favorite book not published in 2017

From Sand and Ash By: Amy Harmon. Another book about Jews and told through the eyes of a Jewish family in WW2 in Europe. Very interesting and heartbreaking read. 

Book that lived up to the hype

Everything, Everything By: Nicola Yoon 

Book that did not live up to the hype

Handmaids Tale By: Margret Artwood. This was probably my most disliked book of the year. 

Book that felt like a big accomplisment

Misery By: Stephen King. This was a good book, and I picked it as my accomplishment only b/c it's a Stephen king book. I've also stereotyped his books as too graphic, scary and long for me to be interested it. I did cheat and listened to this on audio, but I did get through it and enjoyed it!

Favorite Character

Della Lee from Before the Rain Falls By: Camille Di Maio. I can't really say why she is my favorite without ruining the book, so I'll leave it at that.

Least favorite character

Allie from Allie and Bea by Cathrine Ryan Hyde. Allie was a teenager who ran away from foster homes until she ran into Bea, who was an elderly women who was living out of her van. Allie came from a rich, priveleged family and was put into foster homes when both her parents were arrested for tax fraud. I sympathized with Allie until she decided that she was going to turn her nose up at free food b/c it wasn't vegan, or b/c it had sugar in it. She was homeless, living out of an old lady's van, taking the old lady's money and yet decided she was too good to eat cheap food at a diner, which was what they could afford. The amount of times she said "I can't eat that" made me want to scream. As someone who didn't eat red meat or pork for over 15 years, I get it. However, if I was homeless with no money, I would suck it up and eat what is given to me. She wasn't allergic to the food, just thought she was too good to eat it. Fucking irritated me. 

Most shocking plot twist

I had a hard time picking this, and I decided on 2 books. One is Flat-out Love By: Jessica Park and When You Disappeared By: John Marrs. Both different books, but these were 2 that I was genuinely shocked by the endings 

Favorite couple

Helena and Conway from F*ck Love By: Tarryn Fisher 

Best written

Beneath A Scarlet Sky By: Mark Sullivan 

A book I pushed on people

The butterfly Garden By: Dot Hutchinson 

Favorite book cover

A Thousand Pieces of You By: Claudia Grey 

Favorite book to movie

Everything, Everything By: Nicola Yoon 

Made me cry

Milk and Honey By: Rupi Kaur 

Laughed the most

I Can't Keep My Own Secrets. I'm not sure this is technically a book, it's a short story with random 6 word memoirs sent in by random authors, people and celebrities. But either way, some of the confessions were funny, and since I don't really pick funny books to read, this was the closest I could get to.

Favorite author discovered this year

I'd have to go with Tarryn Fisher. A friend in my bookclub suggest a Tarry book awhile ago and I read it, and wasn't really impressed. But I gave her another shot this year and fell in love! Ironically, I re read the same book, and I guess this was just a better time in my life and I enjoyed it much better this time. 

Are you happy with your reading in 2017?

I am pretty happy with my reading. I exceeded my reading goal by 21 books, did really well on my book bingo, and I read pretty much all year with only a tiny slump with starting the new job. I do wish more had been actual books and less audio, but with my work schedule, it's hard for me to find time to read, and to be awake enough to concentrate. It bothers me when other readers try to discredit audio books as not really reading, but I think it is, and I've "read" some really great books this way. 

Here's to another great year for 2018!!!!

November Wrap-up

I was disappointed in this book. I kept seeing it on KU and finally decided to download it, and it was a tough one to get through. 

★★

★★★★★

I really like this author, and this was her new book. I was very excited that it was on KU with audio! 

★★★★

This was our book club pick for the month. It was a cute, fast read. 

★★★★

This book was a random KU find and it was great! I was just trying to get a couple more books in before the new year, and I'm glad I picked this one. It was a tough story, I might do a separate review on this one, b/c the story was pretty interesting. The first thriller/ suspense that I didn't figure out on my own, half way through.

★★★★