Book Tour and Review: The Hungry Family Slow Cooker Cookbook byChristina Dymock

The Hungry Family Slow Cooker Cookbook by Christina Dymock

Release Date: March 11, 2014

My Review:
I really like this cookbook. I have been paging through it for days and love the ease of the recipes.  Most sound absolutely delicious with very little fuss and use ingredients that are found in most kitchens.  And that is what I love. No lengthy grocery list full of things I might use one time, then find out the recipe is something I don't like.  No, Ms. Dymock has written this for the busy and hungry family.  Some of my favorites that will be tried in the near future are Dilly Potatoes, Whatever Veggie Pasta, Spicy Shrimp, Fried Rice (in the crock pot!!), Sweet Chicken Rice Bowls, French Onion Soup, and Dark Chocolate Mini Cakes.  And there are so many more.  I cannot wait to start cooking from this cookbook. And I would have before the tour, but I have been having health problems that have limited anything extra during the day (it's been a lot of leftovers).  But now I think that is past and I can't wait to get busy trying out recipes.

If you like easy and delicious recipes then be sure to check this wonderful cookbook out.  Filled with beautiful pictures and easy-to-read and easy-to-prepare recipes I am sure this will become a family staple.

My Rating: 5/5

About the Book:

 

It's every busy mother's dream-come-true: dinner that makes itself! With the help of your trusty slow cooker and these healthy, easy recipes, like Peppery Cilantro Salmon, Sausage Stew, and Dark Chocolate Mini Cakes, you can put dinner on the table even on the craziest of days. Don't let the whirlwind of life stop you from feeding your family the food they deserve -- delicious, home-cooked meals straight from your slow cooker.

Christina is the author of The Hungry Family, Young Chefs, 101 Things to Do with Popcorn, and the Widow's Mite.  You can also visit her blog.

***I received this book from the author for an honest review.  I was not compensated in any other way except receiving the book for free.  ***

Spring Cleaning Review-A-Thon Goals

So my last review-a-thon was a bust, but this one lasts just a little bit longer and I should be able to participate fully, plus it will give me some time to play with posting reviews from my birthday iPad.  So win-win!  The Spring Cleaning Review-A-Thon is hosted by Nocturne and Romancing the Dark Side so make sure and check them out!

Of course I am hopelessly behind on reviews so this is a great opportunity.  If you want to join in, go to Romancing the Dark Side and sign up.  All the rules are there (and they are pretty simple).  The review-a-thon starts on Thursday March 20th and ends on Monday March 24th.  There is a prize giveaway if you sign up by March 20th and a grand prize giveaway you can be entered in if you complete at least 3 reviews.

So what is my goal?

I'm going with 5 reviews, hoping for more, but knowing me, this is a good goal.  I'll update here as I post reviews next week!

Here are the reviews I managed to write:

1. The Wanderers by Jessica Miller

Book Review:Her Summer With the Marine by Susan Meier

Her Summer with the Marine by Susan Meier

Entangled Red-Hot Bliss

Release Date: March 10, 2014

My Review:
Former brief (meaning one-time) lovers, competitors all through school and they've been apart 10-years when they meet up during difficult circumstances.  All of this make Ellie and Finn's story very, very interesting and Her Summer with the Marine an excellent book to read as spring approaches and it feels like love is in the air.

If I went with what I didn't love about this book, there would be very little to write.  I thought the writing/story was a little choppy at times, but that did not diminish my enjoyment of the story. It may be more a testament to my life while reading the story than the book itself, so don't let that deter you. Honestly I really enjoyed every second of this book.  The characters are fun.  Finn is sexy, one of those men that make women from 12-90 just melt between his looks and his undeniable charm.  Ellie is trying to move through life, make something of a career and deal with the guilt that surrounds her and her Dad's situation.  Plus she's still trying to get over that night 10 years ago with Finn. Their love/hate/amazing attraction relationship is fun and when they finally give into it, it's enjoyable to watch.  Of course there will be that time of difficulty as there is with any romance (have to have conflict) but as with any romance you know they will get their happily ever after, just now how it will happen. 

I have to say there were surprises with this book and I look forward to more books by Ms. Meier.  I can't wait to read more about Finn's brothers who are just introduced in the book but should make things interesting in the future.  I believe this is the first of the Red-Hot Bliss line where the passion is a little hotter than the typical Bliss line and it is.  The heat was just right for me and fit the couple in the book.  It's sexy and fun and romantic all in one.  I like how Ms. Meier went at this romance just a bit different with the lust vs. hate type of relationship and how the couple realizes they really play off each other well.  It was fun to watch every second of their relationship and to see each character grow and surprise me.

If you love your romance then this is definitely a book to try.  The characters will engage you, the small town enthrall you and the storyline will make you turn pages at a fast clip.  Her Summer with the Marine is a book that you shouldn't miss and I am so happy I had the chance to review it!

Oh and this one is $0.99 until March 16th so run out and get it now!

My Rating: 5.0/5.0

Buy Now Links:


About the Book:

Their competition has never been so irresistible

The last person Ellie McDermott wanted to run into after returning to her hometown is Finn Donovan, her high school nemesis and the guy she crossed the line from enemies to lovers with one night years ago. Now ex-military, tattooed, and still sexy as hell, Finn is a complication Ellie doesn’t need—she needs to concentrate on saving her family business.

Finn’s entire life, Ellie was there, going head-to-head with him in every class, bee, and test. So it’s no surprise she’d show up just as he was about to take over her father's struggling business. It is a surprise, though, that his attraction to her is even more explosive than it had been. Acting on their attraction is one thing, but Finn has to turn a profit to save his own family, and nothing—not even love—will get in his way. 

Cover Reveal: Don't Fall by Rachel Schieffelbein

Don't Fall

by Rachel Schieffelbein

Release Date: 2014

Swoon Romance

Summary from Goodreads::

In which a teenage girl endures the over-protective love of her adoptive mother until she falls for a boy who has her wanting to spread her wings, pitched as a contemporary retelling of RAPUNZEL.

Seventeen-year-old Anya leads a very secluded life in a house on the edge of town with her adopted mother. She doesn't go to school, but instead has a private tutor. Her over-protective mom keeps her so sheltered that she doesn't even have a best friend. 

But Anya doesn't seem to mind. She has her books, her photography, and her daydreams, and would do anything to please her mom. Until one day at the library, the only place she's allowed to go, she takes a picture of a beautiful boy.

Before long she's lying to her mom, and sneaking out late at night to meet Zander. But Zander wants more than a secret romance. If Anya wants to be with the boy of her dreams, she will have to risk her relationship with the only other person she's ever cared about.

Swoon Romance wants you to help them decide the cover for Don’t Fall!  They have three lovely cover options for you to choose from.  Please vote below on your favorite cover!

Which cover do you like better?

Option #1

Option #2

Option #3

Poll Maker

Option #1: Designed by Taylor.ink, photograph by Beth Mitchell

Option #2: Photographed and designed by Laura Lanning
Option #3: Designed by Anna Zaffke, photo from Shutterstock.by  Aleshyn_Andrei

About the Author

Rachel grew up in a tiny town in Minnesota. She still lives there, with her husband and their four kids. She coaches high school speech and theater, rides Arabian horses, reads as much as she can, and writes stories.

Author Links:

   

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Cover Reveal: Perfect for You by Ashelyn Drake

Perfect for You

by Ashelyn Drake

Release Date: September 2014

Swoon Romance

Summary from Goodreads:

Sophomore year in high school comes with its own set of problems. You're no longer a freshmen, but you're still two years away from ruling the school. So, you sit and languish in a kind of purgatory until junior year, when things start to get interesting.

That is, unless during your sophomore year, you find your boyfriend making out with another girl in front of your locker. Then, interesting takes on a whole new meaning, and that's what happened to seventeen-year-old Meg Flannigan. It's no wonder her self-esteem suffered a major hit.

Now a senior, Meg catches the eye of not one, but two guys at school (I know, right?). They happen to both be gorgeous, and each vies for her attention in the most flattering of ways. Sounds good, right? Not if one of the guys is her boyfriend, and the other one wants to be.

Meg doesn’t want to lose Ash. They’ve been together for almost five months, and she’s falling in love with him. But Noah. Ah, Noah. He’s the irresistible guy Meg has been crushing on for two years, and she isn’t ready to send him away either. But stringing both along could have disastrous results, leaving Meg in the cold once again.

One thing's certain. Meg needs to decide between Ash and Noah soon, or she'll lose her perfect match forever.

PERFECT FOR YOU was released previously as two novellas. Ashleyn wanted to give her readers more, and has decided to write an entire novel based around Meg's story.

About the Author

Ashelyn Drake is a New Adult and Young Adult romance author. While it’s rare for her not to have either a book in hand or her fingers flying across a laptop, she also enjoys spending time with her family. She believes you are never too old to enjoy a good swing set and there’s never a bad time for some dark chocolate. She is represented by Sarah Negovetich of Corvisiero Literary Agency.

Author Links:

   

Cover Reveal Organized by:

What's Next 3/13

So last week it was split between Spirit Bound and Searching for Beautiful.  And now I must confess that it was an extra busy weekend and week so I haven't touched either book and I even had to take Spirit Bound back to the library unread.  Why is everything so busy.  We are working hard to de-clutter and though I plan on spending 15 minutes each day doing it, I usually manage to do a lot more. But I'm liking the results!

So let's play this week.  Help me figure out what to read next.  I'm not including review books, these are either from my shelf, on my iPad (Kindle app) or from the library.  Want to participate? Head over to Icey Books and join in!

Why I want to read:
I loved The False Prince and this has been on my Kindle about a year now.  My husband read it and loved it, so I need to get to it!

About the book:
A kingdom teetering on the brink of destruction. A king gone missing. Who will survive? Find out in the highly anticipated sequel to Jennifer A. Nielsen's blockbuster THE FALSE PRINCE!

Just weeks after Jaron has taken the throne, an assassination attempt forces him into a deadly situation. Rumors of a coming war are winding their way between the castle walls, and Jaron feels the pressure quietly mounting within Carthya. Soon, it becomes clear that deserting the kingdom may be his only hope of saving it. But the further Jaron is forced to run from his identity, the more he wonders if it is possible to go too far. Will he ever be able to return home again? Or will he have to sacrifice his own life in order to save his kingdom?

The stunning second installment of The Ascendance Trilogy takes readers on a roller-coaster ride of treason and murder, thrills and peril, as they journey with the Runaway King!

Why I want to read:
A Time to Kill hooked me on legal thrillers back when I was in college so I can't wait to read the sequel.  I bought this shortly after it came out, but still have not read it, so it's calling to me.

About the Book:
Seth Hubbard is a wealthy man dying of lung cancer. He trusts no one. Before he hangs himself from a sycamore tree, Hubbard leaves a new, handwritten, will. It is an act that drags his adult children, his black maid, and Jake into a conflict as riveting and dramatic as the murder trial that made Brigance one of Ford County's most notorious citizens, just three years earlier.
The second will raises far more questions than it answers. Why would Hubbard leave nearly all of his fortune to his maid? Had chemotherapy and painkillers affected his ability to think clearly? And what does it all have to do with a piece of land once known as Sycamore Row?

Why I want to read:
I have thoroughly enjoyed the Chemical Garden trilogy and can and can't wait to finish it.  Part of me doesn't want it to be over and the other part really wants to find out how this last book goes down.  This is a library book, so it's only been languishing about a week, but I've been dying to read it since it came out last year.

About the Book:
Time is running out for Rhine in this conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Chemical Garden Trilogy.

With the clock ticking until the virus takes its toll, Rhine is desperate for answers. After enduring Vaughn’s worst, Rhine finds an unlikely ally in his brother, an eccentric inventor named Reed. She takes refuge in his dilapidated house, though the people she left behind refuse to stay in the past. While Gabriel haunts Rhine’s memories, Cecily is determined to be at Rhine’s side, even if Linden’s feelings are still caught between them.

Meanwhile, Rowan’s growing involvement in an underground resistance compels Rhine to reach him before he does something that cannot be undone. But what she discovers along the way has alarming implications for her future—and about the past her parents never had the chance to explain.

In this breathtaking conclusion to Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden trilogy, everything Rhine knows to be true will be irrevocably shattered.
 
I'm going to stop with three this week.   So what should I read?  You can use the survey for ease but I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments as well.

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Book Review: Unraveled by Jen Frederick

Unraveled by Jen Frederick

Genre: New Adult Romance

Review:
Unraveled is a very interesting book. The third in the Woodlands series, but the first I have read, it works great as a stand-alone, but you can bet on it that I am going back to read more about Noah and Bo who were in the Marines with Gray the main character of this book.

Full of alpha males who joke around, fight sometimes and just generally enjoy each other's company Unraveled wins on that alone.  I live in the middle of two Marine bases, one of them I believe is the largest on the East Coast so I grew up thinking men with short hair and buff bods were hot (of course not all of them are buff in reality, but the majority look pretty good).  However as most parents around here do, they warn you off the Marines, lol!  Of course we were 16-18 at the time, I think if I would have been older they would have been perfectly fine, in fact I have a brother-in-law who is a Marine and I adore him.  Okay my thoughts aside, I also like the way the guys act.  Typically guys in my age group don't act like this (or maybe they do in the service) but I do know the younger guys do.  There is a different camaraderie with guys now, than there was 15-20 years ago.  And I love the camaraderie that is shown between Bo, Noah and Gray.  These guys have been through it all together and have a strong friendship.  But when Gray starts wondering about what Bo and Noah have now in their relationships and Sam enters the picture things get interesting.

Sam is a great main character too.  She is a widowed young woman and I mean young.  Her husband died in service with the Army and when he died she was robbed of her life and plans too.  So she has just been coasting along for two years with her husband's things still scattered around her condo, a job bartending and half the time she sleeps in her childhood room at her parents'.  And even though she is coasting I can feel her silent strength and I like that.  As a crocheter, I like that she knits as well showing that there is a younger generation working in the needlearts.  But the story picks us as Gray enters the picture. At first she feels lust and she doesn't even want to feel that for another man in the service.  But she does, but slowly there is something more and it scares her.  But  not as much as it scares him since he's been hurt in the past and truly believes there are no good relationships when you are in the service.  But of course they learn to trust and that's what makes the story awesome.  And at the center too is the fact that Gray is up for re-enlistment and has 45 days of leave (which is why he's in Sam, Bo and Noah's town) to decide what to do.  And what will he do? Well that you have to read the book for.

But know this, Unraveled is full of great characters, attraction that will scorch your ereader (have your significant other handy, just a warning), romance, a lot of humor, friendship and good fun.  While New Adult at it's core, this is ultimately a feel-good book and not as gritty as some New Adult.  But it's wonderful and has me clamoring for more of Jen Frederick's characters and storylines.  So read it and come back and let me know what you thought (or what you thought if you have already read it).  It's an A+ in my book.

My Rating: 5.0/5.0

Summary

Twenty-five-year-old Sgt. Gray Phillips is at a crossroads in his life: stay in the Marine Corps or get out and learn to be a civilian? He’s got forty-five days of leave to make up his mind but the people in his life aren’t making the decision any easier. His dad wants him to get out; his grandfather wants him to stay in. And his growing feelings for Sam Anderson are wreaking havoc with his heart…and his mind. He believes relationships get ruined when a Marine goes on deployment. So now he’s got an even harder decision to make: take a chance on Sam or leave love behind and give his all to the Marines.

Twenty-two year old Samantha Anderson lost her husband to an IED in Afghanistan just two months after their vows. Two years later, Sam is full of regrets—that she didn’t move with her husband to Alaska; that she allowed her friends to drift away; that she hasn’t taken many chances in life. Now, she’s met Gray and taking a risk on this Marine could be her one opportunity to feel alive and in love again. But how can she risk her heart on another military man who could share the same tragic fate as her husband?

Excerpt

THIS WAS ONLY TEMPORARY, I reminded myself, as Samantha so sweetly kissed me back. I'm only here for a short time I reminded myself but as I felt her tongue stroke the side of my tongue, as she nipped her teeth against my lip, I wanted to just drown in the sensation. Her scent filled my head and the air around us shrank until all I knew was her small body sitting so close to mine. I moved my hand from her shoulder to cup her neck and angled her face for deeper penetration. I licked every inch inside of her mouth until the taste of her was all that I knew on my tongue.

And all that time I stared in to her green eyes and not once did she look like she was anywhere but right here with me. I saw my reflection there. Her heartbeat was made wild by my kisses.

And temporary was the farthest thing from my mind.

Buy Links

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1lp6zJD

Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1kl4Gd9

iBooks: http://bit.ly/1edREhE

Smashwords: http://bit.ly/1bdZ0yN

Author Biography

Bestselling author Jen Frederick lives with her husband, child, and one rambunctious dog. She's been reading stories all her life but never imagined writing one of her own. Jen loves to hear from readers so drop her a line at jensfrederick@gmail.com.

Social Networking Links

Website: http://jenfrederick.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6995972.Jen_Frederick

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJenFrederick

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JensFred

Giveaway:


a Rafflecopter giveaway

***I received this book from the publisher for an honest review.  I was not compensated in any other way except receiving the book for free.  ***