GIF Review of One Week Girlfriend by Monica Murphy AND Giveaway!!!

AT THE END OF THE REVIEW IS A RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY IN HONOR OF SECOND CHANCE BOYFRIEND'S RELEASE ON TUESDAY, APRIL 9! ENTER NOW!

Temporary. That one single word best describes my life these last few years. I’m working at a temporary job until I can finally break free. I’m my little brother’s temporary mother since our mom doesn’t give a crap about either of us. And I’m that temporary girl all the guys want to get with because I give it up so easily. According to the rumors, at least.

But now I’m the temporary girlfriend of Drew Callahan, college football legend and all around golden guy. He’s beautiful, sweet—and he’s hiding way more secrets than I am. He’s brought me into this fake life where everyone seems to hate me. And everyone seems to want something from him. The only thing he seems to want though is…

Me.

I don’t know what to believe anymore. All I know is, I think Drew needs me. And I want to be there for him.

Forever.

One Week Girlfriend by Monica Murphy

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'll do a full text review later, but for now you get my gif crazed self.

My Drew:

My Fable:

PRONTO. STAT. NOW.

Oh Hey Adele

Drew & Fable:

In the beginning, Drew & Fable both find themselves feeling this way... It kills me.

Eventually Fable gets to this point:

But Drew's has too much pain from his past...

And Fable understands...thinking he, like everyone else, doesn't want her.

But it's not Fable. It's the past. The pain. The heartache that's keeping them apart. Yet Fable believes they were brought together for a reason. To save themselves from the past.

And there are some fabulous intimate moments

And then it all goes to HELLLLLLLLLL.

This is what I'm telling myself. I can do this. I can make it. This will happen. I can make it to the sequel.

Please, please, please. I implore you to read this book! Monica Murphy's writing is so effortless. Her words flow and I could not put this book down. I am dying for the sequel. Go forth and READ READ READ! And someone send me some freaking marshmallows. Now!

AGAIN!!! PRONTO. STAT. NOW.

View all my reviews a Rafflecopter giveaway

Choices by Annie Brewer

Choices on Goodreads
Choices on Amazon

Blurb:

Gracie had everything planned when it came to her future. She was set to go to California with her scholarship-jock boyfriend, attend college, get a degree, and maybe sometime later when they were older and successful, they would get married and start a family. But all of that was taken away by the passion of one careless night. A night that changed everything.

After days of sickness it becomes apparent that she’s pregnant, and the choices she must make now will change her life forever. Her senior year will not be filled with making stupid mistakes such as, getting drunk at parties, or worrying about school events. But whether her doctor’s appointment is next week or how to eat and sleep for her baby’s well-being. 

This story tells of the experiences an expectant teenage mother goes through as a part of her is shaped by the news of her pregnancy and how true love is not just words but actually being there for that person when they’re most in need, despite the circumstances.

My Review:

"The real world is not that easy. We get hurt, we make mistakes, and we move on. We live and die, but we only have one life to live, Gracie. One. So screw what I just said, I want you, and I'm not going anywhere."  Choices tells the story of Gracie, a seventeen year old girl with the world at her fingertips and the high school quarterback, Nick, on her arm. Her future is already mapped out- she'll follow Nick to California where he'll be playing college ball, they'll live together, finish school, and someday in the distant future they'll start a family. Unfortunately for Gracie, someday came a little bit sooner that she expected.  When Gracie breaks the news to Nick, he says he loves her but he leaves her anyway. Some love, right? So now she's alone, heartbroken, and pregnant. Until one day, left crying at her locker due to asshole Nick, older, smokin' hot Carter enters the picture, thus beginning down the path of friendship and then into love. I won't go into detail here so you can all enjoy it for yourselves. :) Then, one day Nick decides he wants Gracie back. He comes by and finds Carter at the house. As it turns out, Carter has a past and Nick is part of it. Now Gracie has to decide what to do. Will she stay with the supportive man she now loves or will she go back to Nick in order to give her unborn child a complete family?  Choices was a fantastic story. I connected with the characters very easily. I felt Gracie's anger and pain towards Nick. I smiled with every interaction with Meg. She was such a kickass best friend! I loved the small side story with her and Mason. Carter warmed my heart with every interaction. He was so much more mature than his 20 years. Gracie's parents, brother, and Grammy were so supportive and caring. The family interactions felt so genuine, and it made me glad for Gracie that she and her unborn baby would have such a wonderful family to help care for them. Carter's family was the same way. They'd love Gracie's baby just as much as they would if it was Carter's, which is more than we can say for Nick's awful mother. Nick made me so angry throughout the whole book, but in the end I felt more pity for him than anything. I think he left before seeing the baby because he truly couldn't handle it. I'm so excited to read his story and see how he's been coping with Carter raising the child Nick, initially, didn't want.  Some stories about young love are pretty unbelievable and unrealistic. Or the couple has impossible feats to overcome and the world is against them. This story could have gone that route, but it didn't come even close. Annie Brewer did an amazing job making Gracie and Carter's journey to love a down-to-earth, relatable one. The whole relationship and it's progression was very genuine to me. They didn't dwell on issues when they came up, they dealt with them. While Gracie could sometimes be immature (she is only 17 afterall), for the most part she handled herself and her relationship with Carter very maturely. Overall, I really liked the book and would recommend it. I was so thrilled to find out that Annie's writing Nick's story and then finishing the series with Carter's.

Cutting Fresh Pineapple & Cantaloupe

Apparently I've led a sheltered life, as I have never cut a fresh pineapple or a fresh cantaloupe. While in the produce section at my local grocery story, I was feeling adventurous. I picked up a fresh pineapple and a fresh cantaloupe to serve when we had friends and family over on Easter. I can home and searched for blogs with these steps. Either my Google skills need work, or there aren't that many people out there who don't know how to cut these delicious fruits. I could only find videos for the cantaloupe.

For the pineapple, I used some of the tips from this Good Housekeeping article with a guide on cutting a pineapple. Let me tell you right now, my pineapple chunks didn't turn out the prettiest, but they sure tasted good.

First,

It knows this is my first time...

 

First, I cut off the crown. Sorry, buddy.

Next, I sliced down the skin, going all around the pineapple.

 

It wasn't exactly beautiful, but I finally got all the eyes off.

I used a paring knife to get any little, lasting pieces of the eye (the brown spots).

Then I quartered the pineapple. Ummm, yeah not the best quarter job.

Next, you need to cut the core. The core is the white, hardened spot. I had issues finding all of the core, so I definitely plan on investing in a pineapple corer. 

Then I just cut it into chunks. It was actually quite simple. Tasted and smelled delicious!

 

And now for the cantaloupe.

First, I cut it in half. Again, not the best cutting job. As you can see, the left portion is bigger. Oops.

  

Then, scoop out the seeds. You can use a spoon, but your finger (clean, of course!!) actually works really well to get the lasting seeds.

Next, I cut the two halves two different ways. You can see the ones on the right are the whole crescent shape, and the ones on the left are crescent halves. I actually did this on accident, but it worked out so I could see which way works easiest.

 

I used the paring knife to cut the cantaloupe away from skin/peel/rind, whatever you call it. I actually found that it was easier to do this with the crescent halves because I could stand the piece up and slice it.

Once I had all the fruit sliced off of the rind, I simply cut it into chunks. Again, very simple, and I'm not sure why it me almost 26 years to ever cut either of these fruits. I'll never go back to canned again!

 

 

 

Adventures in Winemaking: Part 2!

I previously posted the first step in our journey to making a Coastal Red. You can find the process for primary fermentation here: Adventures in Winemaking: Part 1.

Now it's time to move the wine to the secondary fermentation stage.

**Prior to starting the secondary fermentation, we cleaned and sanitized the siphon, hydrometer, test jar, wine thief, and the carboy, along with the bung and airlock.

Step 1: Five to seven days after you do the primary fermentation, you have to check the specific gravity to ensure that it is below 1.010. The lower the environment where the wine is being fermented, the longer it will take to reach this level. As the wine was still bubbling in the airlock, we waited about 8 days before testing it.

We drew a sample and placed the hydrometer in the wine thief. The specific gravity was .0992. Using the first specific gravity reading from Part 1, we were able to determine that the alcohol percentage of this wine will be around 12.4%. Our hydrometer came with percentages based on specific gravity readings, which is how I know this.

Step 2: Now we siphon the wine into the glass carboy. We do this carefully so that we do not pick up the thick sediment that has settled on the bottle of the primary fermentation bucket. There will be space at the top of the carboy, but that's fine. We add water and other chemicals in Part 3, so this space is necessary.

Step 3: Attach the airlock and bung to the carboy, filling the airlock halfway. Now we wait for ten more days before proceeding to the stabilizing and clearing stage.

We use a heat wrap to keep light out and to keep it from getting too cold. Our house is set at 62degrees, so this helps with it staying in the 72degree range.

Some of our finished products. Cabernet, Chilean Malbec, and a Chianti. Still aging!





Cover Reveal: Searching For Moore by Julie A. Richman

Cover Reveal

Title: Searching for Moore

By: Julie A. Richman

Series: Needing Moore Series #1

Genre: Adult Romance, Chick Lit

Length: 318 Pages

Expected Publication: April 15, 2013

Book Blurb:

Attended by reality TV star wannabes and Southern California social climbers, Schooner Moore knows the party his wife is throwing for his forty-third birthday has little to do with him and everything to do with her social standing in Orange County. The evening turns out to hold more surprises than just his wife's Botoxed friends groping at his privates, when a conversation with his old college roommate, Beau, reveals the biggest surprise of the night.

Beau has had contact on Facebook with Mia Silver. Just hearing her name sends Schooner into a tailspin, as he is now just a Friend Request away from the one who got away when she disappeared without a goodbye, leaving him wondering why she left.

A serial failure at romance, Manhattan boutique ad agency owner, Mia, gets a blindside of her own when a Facebook Friend Request from first love, Schooner, appears in her email. Going with her gut reaction, Mia hits accept, propelling her past to catch up with her in a New York minute, as a forceful Schooner is determined to understand what tore them apart and to explore the possibility of a second chance at love.

From a 1980's Southern California college campus and a devastating first love to present day New York City, Searching for Moore explores how technology has eradicated the divide between our past and our present, and asks whether you would give up everything to reconnect with The One in a single keystroke?

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