Fiction Friday

 Thanks to the crazy weather, my adventures keep getting postponed! It looks this weekend will be a total wash as well! I haven’t posted a fiction Friday in two weeks! Here is what I’ve read since my last one!

I was on the ARC team for this one, I love Bella Greene’s books! 

What a sweet Valentine romance! Caroline is once bitten twice shy after her divorce and Tom is trying so hard to break down the wall she built around her heart. Who doesn’t love a curvy FMC and a firefighter who falls first? Throw in a cute little dog, a wedding to plan, and just a little bit of drama and you have the perfect Valentine’s Day novella! 

💕💕💕💕💕

Another ARC! This is a fun series and whenever one is offered to me, I grab it! There are quite a few authors who wrote this series together.

I can never read the books in this series fast enough! Theo is a heartbroken human with trust issues, and Calliope is a muse looking for love. When they meet it’s instant attraction, which of course they are others fighting. Theo is just so sweet and hopeful, wanting to be everything that Calliope needs. A little drama, some cameos from characters in previous books, and a Pegacorn with issues of his own make this one hard to put down! It lived up to every one of my expectations! 🦄🦄🦄🦄🦄

I have been buddy reading this author with some friends, and I always end up reading ahead! So many badass FMCs, so if that’s your thing, you’ll want to read any book by this author. 

This was a fun novella. A retelling of Sleeping Beauty, with a twist I won’t tell you about! You’ll have to read it for yourself!

Another buddy read! This was a very action packed romance with a dangerous twist. Big fan!!

Another retelling, this time Pride and Prejudice with a little time traveling thrown in. 

Quick novella from the Highlander series. It was a great story that ended too abruptly. I wonder if I had read it in order if I would have felt differently. 

Another ARC from a favorite author! 

Another beautiful book by Jenna Brandt! Second in the Christian Cowboy Search and Rescue series, this can standalone, but it does have characters from book one. Connor and Sandra are so perfect together, both pushing to solve a mystery that nobody else believes in… until they do. Just the right amount of drama, beautifully written characters, and a sweet HEA. What more can you ask for? Cannot wait for the next one!

Saturday Sourdough Bread Adventure

My daughter makes amazing bread. She makes Easter bread every year, and she bakes bread at home as well. I have never made bread without a bread machine!

I decided to take a sourdough bread class at the Sweet Spot, where I usually take my cookie decorating classes. Chef Joy is awesome, so I knew I would have fun and learn so much!

She started us off with the dough already prepped. (We were given starter to take home with us)

We learned about kneading , and stretch and folds (below)

After we did all of our stretch and folds, we were given dough that was read to bake, we scored it, and put it in the oven. Then we pre shaped our dough, and put it in a container to bring home, so we can make a second loaf. Mine is rising right now, so I can bake it in the morning. 

I can’t wait to bake my own. This is the dough she premade for us, getting prepped for the oven.

Look how cute it turned out! I cannot wait to eat this!

Chef Joy also made a loaf for us to try, with rainbow sprinkles folded in. I wonder what I should fold into my next loaf?!

What do think I should fold into my next loaf?

 

Fiction Friday

I’ve finished 6 books since last Friday! A bunch of them were almost done anyway, I read a handful at once, according to my mood…. 

And whatever buddy reads I’m doing.

I love Nancy Drew books but this one was not a favorite. I felt like too much was going on, and it was a little disjointed. 

This one was loosely based on Persuasion by Jane Austen. The cooking competition was lots of fun, and the characters are all so well done. If you’ve read other books in the series, other characters make cameos, which I always love. 

I liked this one! This was for my neighborhood book club and everyone hated it! I was shocked! It was twisty and turny, an I really enjoyed it! 

Third in a series, this one broke me. 

what a stunning story. I’m still a little hung over, so bear with me! Alice is so devastatingly sweet, and so many people have taken advantage of that. Marco is the perfect alpha male who wants to take care of her. They are both broken in their own way, which makes them perfect for each other. Throw in a LOT of drama, a seriously scary bad guy, and a devastated Marco, and you end up with the perfect HEA… after a little self care. I could not put this down. It was so hauntingly perfect from start to finish. 

This was also a buddy read, we read two chapters a day and I never wanted to stop. It was so beautiful and scary and perfect. TJ Klune always makes me happy, and I can’t wait to hear him speak in Charlotte next month!

I listened to this one in the car, the mystery was fun, the characters were amazing, and I didn’t really see it coming. I’m looking forward to more from this author.

What are you reading right now?

 

Vision Board Night

This week I have two adventures planned. The first one was making a vision board at my favorite romance book shop.

I went to this one alone, but the ladies at my table were so friendly, I had the best time!

Everyone got one drink free! I tried a strawberry puree drink and it was delicious!

Time to start planning out our boards! Our host left lots of pictures, scrapbook paper, and magazines for us to choose from.

There were also a couple of vendors there. These flowers were made from ACOTAR pages. So pretty, and the perfect finishing touch. 

Of course there were snacks, but my nutritionist would be so proud of me. I took one of the fruit cups and that was it!

 I picked up whatever spoke to me, and it all fell together perfectly. 

Love love love it! 

Of course I had to visit the other vendor, she makes these amazing bookish candles. Book boyfriends,coffee scents, and Gods and Godesses. It was hard to choose! 

It was definitely what I needed this week! I can’t wait until Saturday’s adventure….. a sourdough bread class! Stay tuned!!

Did you make a vision board this year?

 

Fiction Friday

This year, I’ll be making a granny square book blanket! Every time I finish a book I will make a square using colors from the book cover. Or at least as close as I can get! I’m trying not to buy too much yarn for this project, because I have a ton of yarn already! I will be connecting them with black yarn, and I’ll be going in order of when I finish the book. 

My first finished book was a YA romance, about a girl trying to save her family’s Santa School. It was lots of fun, even though I don’t read much YA.

Cycle of the Werewolf is a reread for me. It’s a novella that Stephen King released on its own, and my copy has a ton of very graphic illustrations. Super creepy and gross. 

I loved it.

I got the Storm via NetGalley, and it was a super delicious twisty turny mystery. It bounced back and forth between then and now, which made it even better. I saw pretty much none of it coming!

I was on the arc team for this one, a sweet hockey romance that combined characters from an older series into this new series. It was so much fun, just the right amount of drama, and the best happily ever after. I always know I’m going to enjoy books by JP Sterling!

What are you reading right now? 

 

Arora at the SC State Museum Planetarium

 

This week’s adventure brought me to the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia for a planetarium show about the Aurora borealis. 

Of course, the pics aren’t loading in order, so we will start with my souvenir from the trip. I love getting ornaments on my adventures. Every time I put up the tree, I can remember my adventures!

I only took one pic, nobody was sitting anywhere near me, but I wanted to experience the whole show without distraction. It was so informative, and the views were stunning.

Before the show, I toured the top floor of the museum. I will have to go back because I hadn’t seen everything! There were four floors, but the dude at the observatory pulled me in to look at the sun up close, and he knew so much, that I ended up hanging there for about 30 minutes!

It was a very cool excursion, and i am glad I went. I detoured to Camden on the way there to tour the townhouse I want to buy after we sell our old life. It will be a great place for me to start my solo adventure, fresh scenery and easier to maintain on my own. 

Have you been to a planetarium show lately?