• Home
  • About Me
  • Blog
  • My Books
    • In Progress
  • Request a Review
  • Reading Challenges

Meri's Corner

~ A Writer's Thoughts and Reviews

Tag Archives: Urban Fantasy

Book Review: Caffeinated Calamity by Amanda M. Lee

08 Wednesday Dec 2021

Posted by MBenson in Reviews

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

A Two Broomsticks Gas & Grill Witch Cozy Mystery, Amanda M. Lee, amblogging, amreading, amreviewing, books, Caffeinated Calamity, cozy mystery, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, online presence, Paranormal Fantasy, paranormal romance, ramblings, review, reviews, Sinfully Delicious, thoughts, Urban Fantasy

Author: Amanda M. Lee
Publisher: Amanda M. Lee
Series: A Two Broomsticks Gas & Grill Witch Cozy Mystery
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Cozy Mystery
Rating: 4 Stars

Can you tell that I’m enjoying the series already since we’re now on book two?

Yes, we’re back with Stormy Morgan, new witch in the small town of Shadow Hills, Michigan. Well, technically, make that only witch in Shadow Hills since her great-grandmother moved away to Florida years back. Which means that she’s navigating this new power all on her own, while she tries to keep it fairly quiet from her family, the town and her not-quite boyfriend, Hunter.

Overall, the writing is cute and I’m enjoying the characters and continuation of the story and what’s going on with Stormy. Book two actually opens up with a Prologue set in Hemlock Cove, a town over from Shadow Hills with Bay and Thistle Winchester. From reading other reviews, of the first book and this book I had already picked up that this was a series set in a much bigger universe from her other series. This prologue, for those who haven’t read any of her other series, pretty much confirms it. I did a little digging to link that the Winchesters are from her ‘Wicked Witches of the Midwest’ books, of which there are currently nineteen out. Something I might tackle later because I can’t say I’m not interested in reading Bay’s story from the beginning.

Spoilers weaved in and out of my review ahead, so read at your discretion.

I did like this book a little more than the first, though I think part of it is because while it’s frustrating Stormy, Hunter is trying to actually do the right thing by not just jumping into a relationship with Stormy so soon after his breakup with Monica. Stormy as a whole is worried that it’s because she’s not sure if it’s due to Hunter having second thoughts, but he does confirm it’s because he knows he was in the wrong with how he treated Monica and wanted to give it some time before the relationship was more or less rubbed into Monica’s face.

While the town might still be gossiping about them, I actually appreciate him trying to do the right thing and not give the town MORE to gossip about or throw in her face.

As well, Stormy is starting to come to terms with her being a witch, with her friend Sebastian dragging her off to Hemlock Cove to the Winchester’s store in an effort to get her to kind of feel out the family because it’s a well-known not-secret that they are in fact witches.

The speed at which the murders are happening in town since Stormy came back is a little concerning though. We’re only a few weeks after the conclusion of the first book, where someone was murdered behind the family restaurant when one drops dead as she’s leaving from breakfast – the ultimate conclusion for death being poisoned. So again, another murder. (And I’m already partway into book three, which takes place only a few weeks after this one, and again, a new murder) So we’re talking like, three murders in the span of like a month and a half – two months? That’s a LOT, especially for a small town. It asks for a lot of suspension of disbelief – it’s easier to believe the speed of murders were it in a larger town, because more people, but in a town where everyone knows everyone and the largest gossip outside of the murders is that Hunter’s truck was parked behind the restaurant so everyone knows he spent the night at Stormy’s apartment – it takes a decent amount of disbelief for ‘reading reasons’ to wonder why people haven’t fleed this town ages ago if this is how fast people are dropping.

The book had a similar feel of book one, where we’re focusing on Stormy and her magic, or Stormy and Hunter a lot and sometimes it does feel like the murder and the mystery of it get pushed back a little for the other things. I like that magic is starting to take a bigger roll in the books as Stormy is learning about it and of it, though I also feel like if there was a little more time between each book (and murder) there’s some hand waving, Stormy has been learning and so we can speed up the rate at which she’s learning to use it a little more. However, I do feel like we had a little more sleuthing about the murder and into why it happened than the first book, so the conclusion of the who, how, and why came a little more in flow with the rest of the book.

I’d definitely still recommend it if you’re looking for a cute, cozy mystery to read with a hint of paranormal/witchy flare. And I will say with the cameos from the Winchester family, I am curious to read their story from their perspective – or well, Bay’s perspective mostly. Their appearance makes me wish I knew of them before picking up this book, and you can tell there’s a large family dynamic going on among them, but at the same time, I think they were handled well in that I don’t feel that I was missing anything from not reading their books that affected how they interacted with Stormy and her story as a whole.

Book Review: Sinfully Delicious by Amanda M. Lee

03 Friday Dec 2021

Posted by MBenson in Reviews

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

A Two Broomsticks Gas & Grill Witch Cozy Mystery, Amanda M. Lee, amblogging, amreading, amreviewing, books, cozy mystery, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, online presence, Paranormal Fantasy, paranormal romance, ramblings, review, reviews, Sinfully Delicious, thoughts, Urban Fantasy

Author: Amanda M. Lee
Publisher: Amanda M. Lee
Series: A Two Broomsticks Gas & Grill Witch Cozy Mystery
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Cozy Mystery
Rating: 4 Stars

Sinfully Delicious is a Cozy Mystery that follows our main character, Stormy Morgan, as she tries to settle back into her hometown of Shadow Hills, Michigan after having left it for several years. We learn quickly that she left Shadow Hills for college and to become a writer, which she was successful with for the first book.

With the failure of her second book, her publisher canceled her contract and with no prospects at the moment, and little to her name or cash in her bank account, she finds herself back in her hometown.

Overall, Sinfully Delicious was a cute start to a new series. I haven’t read any of Amanda Lee’s books before now, so this is my entrance into her as an author as well and overall I do like what I see. I can confirm I’m already eight chapters into the second book for this series, because I liked it enough to want to continue and see where this story goes with the main character Stormy, as well as her grandfather and her ex.

Spoilers weaved in and out of my review ahead, so read at your discretion.

Stormy is an interesting character, and while she does come off a little whiny at life and her lot in it with having to find herself back in her hometown, living above her family’s restaurant by the grace of her grandfather’s working with her on the rent to lease the place, if you really think about it wouldn’t you be a little whiny if you were in her shoes too? No one expects to make it, break it, and find themselves back at home after college. I will say, I would have liked to see her pull her bootstraps up a little bit more than she did as a whole with being an adult that’s almost thirty, but to be fair and realistic, I’ve seen this attitude first hand so I can’t say it’s not wrong or inaccurate with how people are sometimes either.

Her grandfather is possibly one of my favorite characters in the book. Especially with his disappearing acts whenever Hunter, local cop and Stormy’s ex-boyfriend, comes around to try and talk to him. Especially when he pops back up after Hunter leaves like he’d been at the counter cooking the entire time she’d been looking for him and Hunter was there.

I do have to say I wasn’t thrilled with Hunter as a whole, more with how he was using his current girlfriend throughout the book. It’s both said about him from a friend, as well as he does more or less outright say he knew that it was never going to work with Monica, but he kept her around because he wanted to have a wall or shield against having Stormy come back so he could have a super easy way of keeping Stormy at arm’s length. Which is 100% not fair to Monica to be strung along for almost a month just because he was scared of how it might go between him and his ex-girlfriend. While I didn’t like Monica, I do sympathize with her a little because she was, in effect, a pawn to Hunter when she thought he actually cared about her.

Sinfully Delicious is sold as a Witch Cozy Mystery, and while like I did say I’m into book 2 already, the first book doesn’t do a lot for bringing in the paranormal to the book to tag the first book a witch book. We slowly learn, with Stormy, that she has powers that she accidentally unlocked one night while playing with a Ouija board. By the end of the book it’s clear she has powers and comes from a witch line on her grandfather’s side – and honestly with the way her grandfather seems to be able to pop in and out of sight at the drop of a hat I wouldn’t be surprised if later on in the series we find out that he does have at least a small bit of magic he keeps to himself. But as a whole I wish for a WITCH cozy mystery there’d been a little more WITCH to it.

As well, while there is a death and a mystery, I did find myself feeling like the mystery aspect of it took a large backseat to the romance aspect with the push and pull of Stormy and Hunter as they tried to navigate their feelings for each other.

Maybe I’m just used to the cozy mysteries where the main character has her nose in EVERYTHING when it comes to trying to sniff out the who dun it, with the story focusing on the mystery and the romance being the secondary plot so having it almost flipped left me a little disappointed with the mystery as a whole. But it felt like the wrap-up of the mystery was a little rushed in this book. As a whole, the mystery was wrapped up decently well and it all made sense to the story and plot, it just felt a little like we realized we had gotten to the end of the book and needed to wrap it up so let’s get on that, kind of ending.

But at the end of the day, it’s also a cozy mystery, and it was a cute and cozy read.

Week 1 – NaNoWriMo and the quest for the Words

08 Monday Nov 2021

Posted by MBenson in NaNoWriMo, Personal Thoughts

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

amblogging, amwriting, balancing, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, NaNo, nanowrimo, online presence, original fiction, original work, ramblings, real life, thoughts, time, time management, update, Urban Fantasy, WIP, word count, writing

So, we’re a week into November (it’s a week and one day, but I am not counting today just yet because I still have 12 hours to get some words in between and after my work day today.

Are you participating in NaNo this year? (Let me know down in the comments!)

My first week has been fairly good as a whole. I had one day where work got to be too much so I just rolled crashed after a couple hundred words – but I was able to keep my check-ins every day going at least.

Currently, I’m pretty sure my word count would make a really good rollercoaster ride. I’m also trying to figure out a way to help me keep this fairly consistent momentum through and after NaNo – because if I can keep this up as a whole I could get a little more done with things.

More done would be great because I have:

  • a book that just needs editing
  • a book that technically just needs a final two chapters, though reflecting back on some of it I’m considering a semi-full rewrite. Maybe.
  • A novella that’s half done and the other half is semi-outlined I just need to flush it out and finish it
  • and more story ideas than I can count.

Plot bunnies abound, really. Which is also why I’m working on creating a Story Idea Journal because I’m tired of losing some of my ideas when I jot them down in a notebook that’s for something else, or in my planner than I then don’t look at for two years.

Do you have a good way of keeping your story ideas centralized and easily accessed when you get one? Or are yours like me, kind of all over the house?

Hardback Abound

30 Saturday Oct 2021

Posted by MBenson in Personal Thoughts, Writing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

fantasy, goals, Hotel Fen, musings, online presence, original fiction, original work, published work, real life, update, Urban Fantasy, what do, writing

There is just something incredibly adorable about being able to have my cat in any of the photos that I take either on purpose or on accident. I set the books down to grab a shot of them and he just flopped right down next to them. He also tried to chew on one and catch one of the keychains as well.

I almost had the perfect shot lined up, but my mom opened the door and it ended up getting him distracted and this was the only shot I was able to capture of him. But that’s also the joy of trying to photograph pets, they never completely do what you want them to do.

The books were supposed to look a little more whole in the shot. Like the below.

This shot came out well too. All to show off the beautiful new Hardbacks of Hotel Fen. It came out lovely in the hardback matte finish. So yes, it’s now available in hardback on Amazon as well! While the photo is of the proofs, because the proofs came out lovely, they’ve been pushed through to publication.

Do you have any pets? Any cute photos with them? I always love seeing other people’s pets.

Manic Monday

04 Monday Oct 2021

Posted by MBenson in Personal Thoughts, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

amblogging, amreading, amwriting, balancing, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, Hotel Fen, inspiration, life, Monster Ridge, musings, NaNo, nanowrimo, Nine, Nine Universe, online presence, original fiction, original work, ramblings, real life, self publishing, thoughts, time, update, Urban Fantasy, what do, WIP, writing

I know that Monday tends to be a very large sigh of not again when we all start a new week (Somehow Sunday never feels like the start of a week despite though that’s likely just me because I work a Monday through Friday job).

Despite the very Monday feel to today, I hope that everyone reading this has or had a wonderful Monday. That it brought you something good, something that was able to make you smile, or at least something that wasn’t adding to your stress.

My Monday has been going a little everywhere – and by that, I mostly mean my brain. I have several things on my awareness that I want to do and I’m having a hard time trying to focus on one because all of them want my attention. So here I sit working on this blog post instead.

The Monday’est of Mondays.

 

Since my last blog post what have I been doing?
That’s a very good question honestly.

The boring answer is work. Work. And, more work. (My 9-5 has been eating a decent amount of my brain). However, that’s not ALL I’ve been doing either.

My co-author and I have been working on Book 2 for our Nine Universe, sequel to Hotel Fen and middle book of the Ragnarok Trilogy.
– We created a Wiki for the series. Super fun as a whole, not going to lie.
– Officially settled on the title for Book 2 – Monster Ridge – with the book slated for release July 23, 2022.
– And of course, we can’t write a book without an Outline, so we have spent the last month or so outlining the book. We finished it a little while back, the outline. The plan is to NaNo the book like we did for Hotel Fen. It worked really well as a whole for book one, so here’s hoping it works well for book two!

As well, my co-author has been sliding me short story competitions for magazines and things and when my brain can get around their theme, it’s been fun trying to write a few shorts for those.

We currently have a joint submission we wrote over a weekend pending decision.

As well, I submitted to FloraFiction.com’s Fall Haunting theme. You can find their website here: florafiction.com and you can find my submission “Lingering Ice” within its pages (page 16 to be specific) but you should definitely check out the magazine as a whole because there were a lot of good shorts, poems, and art/photography in the issue.

I have plans to overhaul my website a little more, make it a little more clean as a whole. So watch out for that in the coming months too!

Before I go though, how did your September go? Any hopes or plans for October to make spooky season fun? Let me know in the comments!

Pre-Order is Live!

23 Monday Aug 2021

Posted by MBenson in Cover Reveal, New Release, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

ampublishing, amwriting, creativity, discoveries, fantasy, Marie Sinadjan, Meri Benson, musings, new books, New Release, Nine, Norse, original work, Paranormal Fantasy, Project Norse, thoughts, time management, update, Urban Fantasy, writing

So back last October my friend and I were talking and we decided to write a book for NaNo. I am pretty sure I’ve both talked about it here and referred to it lovingly as Project Norse. We were able to finish the draft by the first of March – leaving it for a month or so while we dealt with work things and live things.

And then the editing happened. And while we were slow some months, we worked hard in others. Coupled with our amazing support team to help us, we have made it to the finish line!

I’m proud to present Hotel Fen!

It’s now live to pre-order from the following eBook stores:
Kindle
Apple Book
Barnes & Noble Nook
Kobo

Releasing Aug 24!

The paperback edition will be coming soon via Amazon as well, but unfortunately they don’t allow print copies up for pre-order. But I do have it set up in the KDP area to submit soon with the hopes that it will be reviewed relatively quick and won’t be too far behind the eBook release.

Also to go along with the beautiful cover and the fact that we’re releasing so very soon! Another incredible item to share is that my talented co-author actually wrote a song for our book too. (we’re actually working on a few more since we love how this one turned out)

It’s Live on Spotify now!
Listen here!

For those wondering, but what is the book about?
Don’t worry! I wouldnt’ leave you without a synopsis to read and hopefully tickle your interest!

Synopsis

Are you ready for the vacation of a lifetime?

Victor has always had a passion for Norse history and mythology, but after hitting a dead end with his book on valkyries, not even that passion is enough to move him forward. Just when he’s ready to abandon the project, he receives an email: he’s won a free trip to Hotel Fen, a remote vintage resort in the Scandinavian Mountains.

Silje has always felt that her life was fairly unremarkable. She cares deeply about people and that has led her to find her purpose at a nursing home in Oslo. When a resident dies and leaves her an all-expense paid vacation package to Hotel Fen, however, she takes the opportunity to experience something different.

It all starts innocently enough, with a little meet-cute in the hotel elevator that takes forever to arrive on their floor. But the longer Victor and Silje remain together, the more dangerous the hotel becomes, and the more they question where reality ends and the impossible begins.

And, just a reminder that Hotel Fen now live to pre-order from the following eBook stores:
Kindle
Apple Book
Barnes & Noble Nook
Kobo

Print Copy Coming Soon!

And time vanishes

12 Tuesday Jan 2021

Posted by MBenson in Personal Thoughts, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

10kWritingChallenge, amblogging, amediting, amwriting, balancing, books, co-author, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, Nine, online presence, original fiction, original work, possible wip, Project Norse, published work, ramblings, real life, thoughts, time, time management, update, Urban Fantasy, what do, WIP, word count, writing

So I lost my weekend to the best reason possible. All the words. All the words is definitely a good thing to lose time to though. My co-author on Project Norse and I decided to try and do a 10K words in a day challenge for our respective Saturdays.

As a whole, the challenge went well. We realized fairly early on that our time zone difference made for an interesting addition to the challenge, because with her in the Philippines and me in the United States, being fourteen hours apart means we can’t just boomerang the novel back and forth between us all day. For a good chunk of the writing time, one of us was sleeping while the other was writing.

We made it work though by working on different scenes in the novel at once. Like, I think we were working on four or five different areas to go back and forth with each other, but then also we had a couple areas where one of us took the lead on a certain scene and ran with it.

Neither of us hit 10,000 words on Saturday, but both of us got a little more than halfway through. She finished her 10,000 words on her Sunday. I didn’t, because I ran into a secondary challenge for a long da like that. So back in May 2019 I had my dominant hand’s wrist in a cast. And ever since that accident I’ve had serious problems with my wrist when I over work it.

Well apparently it feels that 6,372 words it decided was over working it. My morning went super well and I was able to get a little over 2,000 words before breakfast, but it had started to ache after that and just get progressively worse through the day as I tried to alternate between resting it and working on more words as I could.

Sunday was pretty much a get nothing done, only rest it day. Also, all the grocery shopping and things I had meant to do that I pushed off from Saturday, so no real other words happened over the weekend. But still, we were able to get about 16,000 words collectively on our novel over the weekend, which is awesome! Since we have that July deadline for publishing, it’s great that we’re able to make so much progress on it as a whole for draft one. As well, when we were awake at the same time and not writing, we were able to flush out our outline to really hone into the timeline of what we what to happen when and how we kind of want it to go so we have guiding things to get us there. Overall, it’s a super productive weekend.

And then yesterday I also realized part of the problem with my wrist is that when I have to work on campus and cover the front desk, that the angle the desk is at compared to the chair is part of my problem. We’ll see if anyone complains about the chair, because I lowered it by like a TON, but I’m hoping since it’s just a little lever, that they’ll just shift it for them when they’re on campus and no one will complain. But the angle was not okay for me anymore. within the first hour of working at the desk my wrist felt like it did after writing 6K words from Saturday, only worse. So yeah, something had to change. I also shifted how the monitors were set on the desk, but those were put back after my shift so no one had to worry about them.

I’m hoping my work week goes fairly quiet as a whole, and I can continue to get words in on the novel. I really want to continue this momentum that we’ve found on getting things done on the different chapters. I’d personally love it if we could have draft one finished by either the end of January or the really early beginning of February so we can get those edits in hard and fast.

Hope your week goes well, readers! And if you did anything you’re proud of, drop a comment and let me know!

Also, if you’re wondering what the image has to do with this post, well, it’s partially just because it’s my kitty and I love him. And partially because that’s legitimately how tired I feel right now.

Book Review: Rogue Huntress by Thea Atkinson

30 Wednesday Dec 2020

Posted by MBenson in Reviews

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

amblogging, amreading, books, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, inspiration, pack struggle, review, reviews, Rogue Huntress, Rogue Huntress Chronicles, Thea Atkinson, thoughts, update, Urban Fantasy, werewolves

Author: Thea Atkinson
Publisher: Thea Atkinson
Series: Rogue Huntress Chronicles
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Release Date: July 6, 2016
Rating: 4 Stars

Find Rogue Huntress on Goodreads

Brief Synopsis

Shana, an assassin for the Beo pack, has been taken hostage by her foster brother, Caleb, after he kills her father, the alpha. By pack law, Caleb is now the alpha of the pack, but Shana and her brothers are a threat to his leadership and he’ll do what he can to force Shana into submission with the lives of her brothers.

Can Shana fake submission long enough to turn the tables on Caleb and take her pack back? Or will the human mercenary Caleb’s brought in be too much of a distraction that she’ll lose it all?

Review

The book starts off right in the thick of everything. We don’t start before Shana’s capture to get to know any of the characters, but with Shana already captured, trapped in the manor she called home. Caleb, her foster-brother turned captor wants her to submit to him and be his mate, but naturally Shana doesn’t want to mate to the man who had killed her father and put her essentially in a cage, even if her wolf thinks the idea of mating to such a powerful wolf isn’t a terrible idea.

A lot of the backstory about Shana and Caleb comes to us through Shana reflecting back on the past and both who she thought people were coupled with what Shana has gone through to make her the woman she is today. She thinks several times that she’s not sure who this Caleb is, because he wasn’t the man she’d grown up with, trained with, and knew as a brother. Though short of those comments we aren’t ever shown that juxtaposition against the Caleb we see keeping her captor and wanting her to be his. It’s a lot of telling in that respect.

Throughout the book, we’re teased back and forth with Jeb, the human mercenary that helped Caleb take over the pack and had been helping keep Shana captive. He seems cold and calculating, but then there are glimpses where we think we can maybe trust him, that he’ll be there and come through to help Shana take Caleb down and free her pack from his influence.

The worldbuilding that exists is good, because we’re mostly kept at Shana’s manor and the surrounding woods and ravine around it there isn’t too much to have Shana describe or see to us. But the descriptions of the old trees, the roots that in some scenes are large enough for Shana to duck under or around, the bramble bushes with their pricklers are described nicely to be able to visually see what Shana is going through. Even the description of the halls of the large manor as we’re taken through it in the different scenes left me fairly confident I knew about where things were from walking the halls with Shana.

The characters are mostly well thought out. Shana, being the main character feels the most alive, and her inner thoughts, motivations, and drive are well written. She’s very much a well flushed out character. As were the others over all. I don’t know if I’m over thinking it too much, but the only piece of the puzzle I feel like I’m missing is Caleb’s motivation for killing Shana’s father and taking over the pack.

Throughout the book Shana’s telling us that this isn’t the man she grew up with, and yet Jeb mentions at one point that this had been years in the planning. And Caleb didn’t take the pack over by way of the normal trial by combat normally associated with an alpha battle but crept in the shadows and took the wolves he knew he couldn’t beat fairly by deception and blind surprise. It leads well to why some of the pack wouldn’t follow him because it reeks of cowardliness despite the strength Shana’s wolf tells us Caleb has.

While I liked the book over all, it’s the lack of understanding Caleb’s motivation for turning on the people that had welcomed him in as a family for centuries if Shana’s offer of growing up with him is caught correctly is what leaves this more at a four star read. The story does hook you, and I followed it happily. I am also considering picking up the next book to see where Shana goes. However, even after I read it, I still have the serious, but why did he do it, nagging at the back of my head. There were also quite a few noticeable errors in spelling and punctuation being funky that while it didn’t completely pull me out of the story, were distracting.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout in exchange for my honest, unbiased opinion. All thoughts are my own, and were not colored for receiving a free copy.

Hello September

04 Friday Sep 2020

Posted by MBenson in Personal Thoughts, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

amblogging, amediting, amreading, amwriting, author life, balancing, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, milwordy, musings, online presence, original fiction, original work, possible wip, ramblings, real life, thoughts, time, time management, update, Urban Fantasy, what do, WIP, word count, writers life, writerslife, writing, writing goals

Yes, I know that it’s not Monday, and yes I know I missed last week for posting. But September started slightly mid-week and since we’re welcoming September, well, it’s only fair that we start it in September instead of saying hello to September during the last day of August, right? That’s not exactly fair to our dear August as it left us.

Last week was a mix of not posting because it was my birthday and I took a little time off, but also coupled with a small downswing in my mood that threw everything off for most of the week. I’ve since recovered from said downward swing of mood – partially by taking walks around the part to get some fresh are because I think a lot has to do with just being cooped up inside for so long.

My introverted self doesn’t mind being able to work from home and not having to deal with the random issues and questions that slide past my desk back when there was the old normal – a normal I do hope that we get back to soon though I think I heard that the best case if the vaccine works for widespread distribution is like next summer? Because once we find a vaccine, it takes time to make and then get to everyone so we’re able to go back to what we used to know as normal. My go-to when I’m feeling too closed in is outside. Be it the park or Mom and I have really gotten a lot of use out of our Arboretum passes this year. I used to enjoy going to like the outdoor mall to get away but shopping has become very stressful over all so it’s not exactly an escape from the house anymore. But the Arboretum with all the plants, sunshine – and sunscreen I remembered last time and will remember this weekend when we go – and sure there are occasionally people but it’s a large enough area with timed entrances so there’s never too many people in the place wandering around at a time, it’s actually relaxing and helps.

Plus, I get to take some really nice pictures, like the one at the top of this post. Crafting is normally my go-to for relaxing too but writing has been hard, I think partly from the stress of everything going on, and crocheting while it has been fun and I made some cute bees has aggravated my wrist so it’s been hard to work on that as much as I want. And with the heat, my garage where I do my painting hasn’t been friendly either. So all the things are letting me down for stress relief, at least in their own ways.

But September is here, and with it, hopefully, some cooler weather. I say hopefully because the last week or so here in Illinois it’s been record-breaking highs in the 90’s. Which has left me melting and not wanting to do much because ugg too hot.

This weekend Mom and I are headed to the Arboretum again because I wanted to get out. Plus they’re having their annual plant sale, so I’m curious to see what they’ll have that we can buy and bring home. All the pretty fall plants hopefully. I’m also, as of September, started last Tuesday, going to try to do a million words in a year. Not solely novel type words, though that is a large part of why I want to strive for this. But all words, even the words from this blog will count. There’s an authortuber I watch that’s decided to do it and I thought it would be an interesting challenge to try and do along with her. It’s a good motivational goal to try and do. The authortuber in question is Kate Cavanaugh, and you can find her channel here.

For those trying to count it, it’s roughly 83,333 words a month which, thankfully she did the math for in one of her videos. It’s roughly 2,741 words per day if you write every day or, if you’d like to be able to take holidays and weekends off, it’s 3,831 words per workday. Which, as a whole, is a lot more than a NaNoWriMo month, but at the same time counting editing words, blog words, and other words writing past your writing project, it does help to add up a little better, or well, should.

So September word count, all words, goal is 83,333 words. Will I hit that goal? I certainly hope so or this new million words in a year challenge will be off to a really poor start.

I’m also trying to aim to edit and finish my one novel that’s been in editing for a while maybe by the end of this year. So gotta get cracking on that. I did around six chapters of it originally but I think I’m going to do another quick run-through of them because it’s been a while since I even did those. So to finish editing the novel, starting from technically scratch, we’re looking at twelve chapters a month for September, October, and November, and then ten chapters and the epilogue for December.

Overall, I think it’s a do-able goal. Then track down some beta readers to give it a once over, and I think I’ll feed it through my Writer’s Group to get their feedback on it too.

Naturally, I’d also like to get some new original words. I have a few short stories I started that I’d like to finish, edit, and get released as well. Plus new shorts and novellas that are sliding around in my head that want to get out and written. So I think for this year I’m going to try and finish a few that are halfway or more toward completion and then start new things with the new year in January.

So kind of a quarter goal for me right now instead of just a September goals list. But I think over all if I can keep myself moving, it’s an achievable goal.

Book Review: Twisted Devotion by Jessi Elliot

22 Wednesday Apr 2020

Posted by MBenson in Reviews

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

amblogging, amreading, amreviewing, books, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, Jessi Elliott, musings, New Adult, paranormal romance, published work, review, reviews, Romance, thoughts, Twisted Desire, Twisted Devotion, Twisted Fate, Twisted Gift, Twisted Series, update, Urban Fantasy

Author: Jessi Elliot
Publisher: Jessi Elliot
Series: Twisted #4
Genre: New Adult Paranormal Urban Fantasy Romance
Release Date: April 21, 2020
Rating: 5 Stars

Find Twisted Devotion on GoodReads

Warning – There will be Spoilers for Twisted Fate (#1), Twisted Gift (#2), and Twisted Desire (#3). It’s recommended to pick up copies and read those before you continue with this review!

It was really nice to return to Rockdale and the cast of the Twisted series while getting a whole new level of understanding for a few of the side characters from other books.

While the war between the human and the Fae is over and The Experiment has been ended, there is still a lot of healing and settling to be done in the Fae world. And with the science that the humans have created that allow a Fae to be turned human, there’s a world of possibility left open to Fae who may not want to live for eternity.

Lucky for them Jackson Hawthorne is ensuring that those who might want to become human again have that choice should they want to take it – after being told the full extent of the risks that come with the procedure. But even knowing full well how things might fall, that a Fae might not survive turning human, surviving family members don’t stop from threatening him and his life in the face of their loss.

Which is why Kelsey Young is tasked with keeping him safe. Offered substantial compensation to keep Jackson alive as his personal bodyguard, Kelsey puts her plans to leave Rockdale in the rearview on hold to protect the arrogantly charismatic entrepreneur.

The ups and downs as Kelsey and Jackson spend several months together throughout the book keep the book moving. We learn a lot more about Kelsey’s past, how that has affected her now and why she really just can’t stay in Rockdale. And the budding romance between Jackson and Kelsey is a sweet contrast to the heat that they have between each other fro the moment he greets her at the door of his rather large home.

While this book focused on Kelsey and Jackson, it was great to be able to see the cast from the first three books weaved throughout to not just bring more life to this wonderful world that Jessi’s created, but also give us sneak peeks as to how they’re doing without taking over the story to do so. The world lives, breaths, and is this magically vibrant place that I would love to visit whenever Jessi wants to invite us back to it. The characters are just as strong developmentally as they were in the last three books, and my heart is all the warmer for reading Kelsey and Jackson’s journey.

Disclaimer: I did receive an arc of the book in exchange for my honest, unbiased opinion. All thoughts are my own and were not colored by receiving the arc.

Remember to find Twisted Devotion on GoodReads

Official Synopsis

Being responsible for the survival of someone you loathe really dwindles all hope for a fresh start.

Kelsey Young is ready to leave Rockdale—and the darkest parts of her life—in the past. After barely escaping the massacre of her foster family and taking down the evil behind The Experiment, she wants nothing more than to relocate and start over.

That is, until the fae leaders offer a reward too good to refuse, derailing her plans in the process. Kelsey agrees to put her future on hold to protect an arrogant creature with far too much charisma for his—or her—own good.

While she’s no stranger to the rumors of Jackson Hawthorne, she is new to his charm. And soon, she finds it nearly impossible to resist—especially when he makes no effort to hide his blatant desire for her.

Tensions run high as Jackson’s well-being is threatened by angry fae and humans alike with a mission to destroy his business—and him.

But temptations run even higher after Kelsey swears to safeguard his life—even on the days she wants to kill him herself. And what about his heart—or hers? When they find common ground in new territory, lines blur, defenses crumble, and devotion begins to outweigh duty.

Available Now!

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iTunes | Signed Paperback | Google Play

Get the rest of the Series

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iTunes | Signed Paperbacks | Google Play

About the Author


Jessi Elliott is a law clerk and author of both young adult and new adult romantic fiction. Her love of writing was born after many years of reading and reviewing books on her blog.

She lives in Southwestern Ontario with her adorable cat, Phoebe. Yes, named after the Friends character.

When she’s not plotting her next writing project, she likes to spend her time hanging with friends and family, getting lost in a steamy romance novel, watching Friends, and drinking coffee.

You can find Jessi at www.jessielliott.com, on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can join her newsletter to stay up to date on book news and upcoming releases.

Facebook | Twitter | Website | Amazon
GoodReads | Instagram | Youtube | Patreon

Hosted by:

← Older posts

Make sure to subscribe to my monthly newsletter HERE!

Check Out What I’m Currently Reading

Forever Silenced by Richard S. Cohen

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

@MerisCorner on Instagram

I have new books for my TBR for 2023! My cousin asked what I wanted so I gave her some of the books I have wanted since sept that I haven’t picked up yet, Ans she was so kind to give me some off my list!
Local Author event at my local library. With my mom as my table helper in the photo! We are ready for all the sales and people! 🐈‍⬛
One year ago today on my birthday, my co-author and I released this lovely book into the wild. It’s full of action, magic, adventure, Norse mythology, and a sprinkle of romance.
As I head into a very busy week, I wanted to ensure capturing the Sunday vibes Becauze over all Sunday was a good day.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s out there, kiddos and fur babies alike. And for everyone, I hope you have a wonderful Sunday. 🌷❤️🌸
Thank you to everyone that came to our launch party!

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Recent Posts

  • Book Review: Hidden Witch by Tess Lake
  • Book Review: Treasure Witch by Tess Lake
  • Book Review: Butter Witch by Tess Lake
  • Book Review: Grits, Gamblers, and Grudges by Paula Lester and Lisa B. Thomas
  • Book Review: Apples, Actors and Axes by Paula Lester and Lisa B. Thomas

Categories

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Meri's Corner
    • Join 179 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Meri's Corner
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...