5/22/2023 0 Comments A little house in the big woods![]() ![]() Grab a glass of wine at Holmes Harbor Cellars and be sure to check their website for seasonal hours and events. ![]() For hiking with beautiful scenery and waterfront head to South Whidbey State Park. The avid golfer will love playing Holmes Harbor Golf Club and Useless Bay Golf & Country Club, just a short drive away. And in the evenings, the private firepit (be sure to bring some firewood) is the perfect place to sit and watch the stars come out overhead. Outside, the surrounding trees help you make you feel as if you're definitely far away from it all. This home's kitchenette is stocked with all the amenities you'll need for light cooking during your stay. This secluded and very cozy cottage is the perfect romantic getaway for two! Start your day by taking in views of the forest through the French doors in your master. ![]()
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5/21/2023 0 Comments I omega by kari gregg![]() ![]() ![]() He’ll risk everything to realize the ideals of the rebellion…and end his fate as the tribes’ last emperor.ĬONTENT WARNING: palace intrigues, mpreg themes, shifter knotting, and two stubborn alphas who must learn to work together to save an empireĪfter a gentle nudge from Averlee, Nika blinked awake to the steady plink plink plink of rain pelting the window next to his pallet. And if he seduces Arit to win Benjic’s support, Nick won’t give up his throne, either. But that’s all he’ll do.Įxcept Nick isn’t an omega. Arit will guide them on an adventure tour exploring their wolf instincts that’s his job. He craves strength on strength, the challenge of an alpha mating another alpha. When Elder Benjic, his estranged sire, shows up with the celebrity prince to fulfill a pre-war mating pact, Arit refuses. Who better to drag the tribes from corruption into freedoms the rebellion had promised if not the prince who became one of the peasantry in exile?Īrit hates politics. Some, however, seek to capitalize on Nick’s survival. ![]() He’ll do whatever he must to persuade elders who now rule the tribes…even offer to abdicate. History was wrong.ĭecades later, yarn shop owner Nick Goode reclaimed his identity to see his long-dead family decently buried. History taught that rebels executed the imperial family, including young Prince Nika Marisek, and hid the bodies in an unmarked grave. The tribes were his to lose…and theirs to regain. ![]() 5/21/2023 0 Comments The Gender Games by Juno Dawson![]() ![]() ![]() Of note also was discussion on Doctor Who (Dawson has been commissioned to write the first novelisation of the Dr) and of the transformative power of the Spice Girls, for those who were of the right age in the 90s. Dawson’s background is in education, though she deliberately doesn’t use her fiction as a means to try and educate young people, there is a wonderful sense here of the ability to create worlds where the hard discussions and intensely personal feelings of youth around identity and substance (ab)use and sex can be raised and thought about and considered in a safer way by locating them in fiction. This has allowed her writing to shift between styles in a way that Adult Fiction’s more rigid genre divisions wouldn’t allow. ![]() Conversation for a time moved around the way that Young Adult, as a category, is often very liberating for writers in terms of genre, with romance, horror, fantasy or drama all ultimately ending up in the same place in the bookstore. Given the subject matter at hand, a 10am Saturday session with Juno Dawson could easily have been a dark and morose affair – addictions, mental illness, gender and sexuality are all key themes in Dawson’s body of work, though it was ultimately a light and enlightened session, which has encouraged me to look deeper into her work.ĭawson has published work in both Young Adult and Non-Fiction. WORD Christchurch Juno Dawson: Gender Games ![]() 5/21/2023 0 Comments Hair by scott lowe![]() The profundity of Hair is intertwined with its sheer simplicity. Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc ISBN: 9781628922868 Number of pages: 152 Weight: 144 g Dimensions: 165 x 121 x 15 mm MEDIA REVIEWS Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic. From Hittites to hippies and Pentecostals to porn stars, Hair combs through a ubiquitous personal yet public object, a charged and carefully managed dead thing. In untangling its myriad meanings, Scott Lowe reveals just how little we control our hair, no matter the style: each and every passer-by decides on its significance anew. The meanings of hair are deep, powerful, and so strongly embedded in cultural conditioning that they are usually understood unconsciously (and all the more strongly for that). Hair, a primary marker of our mammalian nature, is an extraordinary indicator of economic and social standing, political orientation, religious affiliation, marital status, and cultural leanings, among other things. Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. ![]() 5/21/2023 0 Comments Dancer's Flame by Jasmine Silvera![]() ![]() Jan Ashton & Julie Cooper & Amy D’Orazio & Jessie Lewis: A Match Made at Matlock: A Sequel to Pride & Prejudice: Superb Jane Austen fan fiction P&P sequel. Riveting, stunning, cried buckets of tears. Wang – The Sword of Kaigen: A Theonite War Story. Deftly handled.Īnne Renwick – The Iron Fin (The Elemental Web Chronicles #3): Worldbuilding and mythological elements were unique. Madeline Martin – The Librarian Spy: Pleasantly surprised by how well the story was interwoven between the two female MCs. It seems inevitable,’ he said, somewhat sadly, ‘that there will be children.’ Read series out of order…which was fine. ‘For now I am afraid she cannot be my companion wife. This quote in the context of the story is hilarious and after finishing the book I found myself giggling a number of times remembering this line. If you love any Regency, Georgette Heyer, Jane Austen, etc. A completely wonderful story that I don’t want to spoil by explaining too much. ![]() An important work which IMO should be included in various undergrad social sciences course syllabi.Īlicia Cameron – Katerina and the Reclusive Earl (Sisters of Castle Fortune #3): Although not explicit, Katerina could be considered on the autism spectrum. This story made me think and feel deeply. ![]() Kuang – Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution: Dark academia. Memorable and outstanding reads I could not put down: I’ve had more free time than usual in the past 6 months. ![]() 5/21/2023 0 Comments Blackberry winter novel![]() ![]() Jio’s newest (after The Bungalow) is a fascinating exploration of love, loss, scandal, and redemption. As Claire digs deeper, she discovers that she and Vera share ties to the wealthy Kensington family, who may be pulling strings and obfuscating Claire’s research in an effort to stop her from uncovering the dark secrets that bind her to Vera. Claire soon unearths the story of Vera Ray, a woman whose three-year-old son went missing in a similar snowstorm on the same day nearly 80 years before, in 1933. When she awakes one May morning to find Seattle blanketed in snow, she begins to write a piece about the weather phenomenon known as a blackberry winter. Claire Aldridge is a reporter for the Seattle Herald coping with an emotionally detached husband and the grief of a recent miscarriage. ![]() 5/21/2023 0 Comments Review of the christie affair![]() When talking about Agatha, Nan paints her in such a light that it seems as though the two could have been friends had the circumstances been different. Finding out about her on purposely inserting herself into Archie Christies life as well as the motivation behind it made the novel seem that much more heart-breaking. Her life had so many fascinating parts to it that I wanted more. ![]() The most interesting part of this novel to me was about Nans past. So, what happened? After Nan O’Dea was discovered having an affair with Christie’s husband this novel follows an imaginative journey filled with heartbreak and first love. Her car was found abandoned by the side of the road and all her possessions were left inside. In London in 1925 Agatha Christie infamously went missing for eleven days. It was an interesting take on Agatha Christies disappearance with a delightful storyline and so many twists wrapped in I could not put it down. ![]() ![]() Nan O’Dea who I could have read a whole book on without the Agatha Christie part it was so interesting. This is a historical fiction novel following Ms. After recently discovering my love of Agatha Christie I knew I had to pick this one up because it sounded so interesting to me. ![]() 5/21/2023 0 Comments After the kiss by lauren layne![]() ![]() ![]() And, at the same time, he’s exactly what she wants. In other words, Mitchell is the polar opposite of what Julie needs right now. And the leggy journalist notorious for avoiding love is exactly the type of no-strings fling he’s looking for. A devastatingly hot workaholic who tends to stay in relationships for far too long, he should be the perfect subject for Julie’s “research.” But what Julie doesn’t know is that Mitchell is looking to cut loose for once in his life. Normally, Mitchell Forbes would be exactly that man. ![]() But when Julie gets assigned the hardest story of her career-a first-person account of that magical shift between dating and “I do”-she’ll need a man brave enough to give a total commitment-phobe a chance at more. Comfy pants, sleepy Sundays, movie nights on the couch? Shudder. Loves steamy first dates, sizzling first kisses, and every now and then, that first sexy romp between the sheets. Lauren Layne kicks off her Sex, Love & Stiletto series with a delightful short novel! In After the Kiss, the star columnist of Stiletto magazine will do anything for a story. ![]() 5/20/2023 0 Comments Book we have always been here![]() ![]() ![]() Habib’s memoir is part of a growing literary collection (fiction and non-fiction) from queer Muslim perspectives. You might have also read her journalism in places like The Advocate and The Guardian. Samra Habib was a new name to me when the publisher sent me a copy of this book, but you might have heard of her photography project Just me and Allah, which features photos and short interviews with queer Muslims from around the world. Subtitled “A Queer Muslim Memoir,” this book was one of those ones I devoured in a few short days and then felt sad when it was done, cursing myself for reading it so quickly. ![]() I am back from an unintended sabbatical from my blog to tell you about an amazing book that I read recently: We Have Always Been Hereby Samra Habib. ![]() 5/20/2023 0 Comments The hurricane season book![]() ![]() Forceful, frenzied, violent, and uncompromising, Melchor’s depiction of a town ogling its own destruction is a powder keg that ignites on the first page and sustains its intense, explosive heat until its final sentence. The murder mystery (complete with a mythical locked room in the Witch’s house) is simply a springboard for Melchor to burrow into her characters’ heads: their resentments, secrets, and hidden and not-so-hidden desires. Next is Munra, Luismi’s stepfather, who was also present at the Witch’s house then Norma, a girl who flees her abusive stepfather and ends up briefly settling with Luismi and lastly Brando, who finally reveals the details of the Witch’s death. First is Yesenia, a young woman who despises her addict cousin, Luismi, and one day sees him carrying the Witch from her home with another boy, Brando. Each chapter is a single, cascading paragraph and follows a different townsperson. And the discovery of her corpse has the whole village investigating the murder. ![]() The Witch is a local legend: she provides the women of the town with cures and spells, while for the men she hosts wild, orgiastic parties at her house. The story opens with a group of boys discovering the body of the Witch in a canal. ![]() Melchor’s English-language debut is a furious vortex of voices that swirl around a murder in a provincial Mexican town. ![]() |