Quick and confusing love story

May5

Love in the Maldives ♥♥

 Sandy and her friend Anne are off to Maldives for a much needed vacation. Sandy has had a rough time since she caught her ex-boyfriend cheating.

Once in Maldives, Sandy meets Paulo who is on vacation as well.

The subtitle on the book “Holiday romance where no one is quite who they say they are” did not prepare me for all the twists and turns the plot makes. Everything works out for Sandy and Paulo, but it is a fantastical story explaining how they get to that point. I could not even begin to explain without giving away the entire story.

Sandy and Paulo were likable enough characters for the story. There was not much depth, but I expected that since the book was a short novella. I finished the book in about an hour.

You have to suspend reality to imagine they would fall in love in such a short period of time. In my opinion, they did not do enough soul searching with one another to warrant a lifelong commitment. However, the whole story was fanciful.

Overall, this was a lighthearted, casual, and very contrived romance that could be finished while waiting at the doctor’s office or while travelling.

 

 

I even like the perfume Romance

May2

Disclaimer: This is not much of a review, but I wanted to share.

I thought it was funny that I like romance novels so much and one of my favorite perfumes is called Romance.

L-O-V-E this perfume. For me, the scent is light but long lasting. Because of that, I think it is mostly for daytime wear, especially in the spring and summer time. I spritz myself in the morning, and the scent lingers on me for most of the day.

I am a firm believer in aromatherapy and the effect that different scents can have on your moods. When I smell this fragrance, I feel energetic, happy, pretty. It is not as if I do not feel those same emotions at other times, but smelling this perfume seems to spark something within me that makes me stand a little taller, walk with more purpose, and stride across the room in my 4-inch heels.

I have never had a problem with scents like some of my friends with fragrance allergies, so I do not know if Romance is light enough for people who cannot take strong smells. But in comparison to other perfumes, it does not seem heavy to me. It is definitely not an “old lady” smelling perfume.

If you are looking for a new fragrance for the springtime, check out Ralph Lauren Romance women fragrance by Ralph Lauren Eau De Parfum Spray 1 oz . There are so many different fragrances on the market, but a lot of them smell the same or they do not have lasting scents. With Romance, you get a pleasant, lasting, unique scent in my opinion.

Mission Mini – San Francisco

Apr29

One of the benefits of visiting a large city is that they probably have plenty of specials using Groupon Now feature. It is where you look for deals at participating stores/restaurants that are happening for a limited time period (usually only for the day).

When Hubby and I were in San Francisco, I checked Groupon Now and found a Mission Mini cupcake deal. I love deals and I love cupcakes. And when they are mini cupcakes, I think I love them even more because I can get more flavors to satisfy my sweet tooth. I quickly bought the deal and told Hubby that we were on our way to Mission part of town for cupcakes. After he finished rolling his eyes (he has no sweet tooth), he put the address in the GPS so that we could drive there.

This bakery of minis offers different flavors depending on the seasons.

Flavors of the cupcakes I ordered (shown in the picture from top left going clockwise)

Ruby Red Velvet – Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting {This was all right, but not as sweet as I would have liked.}

Banana Maple – Banana cake topped with a pure maple syrup glaze {the texture seemed more like a breakfast bread and less like a cake, but I think that is because it is a vegan cake. It was still really yummy.}
Swiss Almond Coconut – Fresh coconut cake with buttercream topped with toasted almond and shredded coconut. {I always love coconut cupcakes.}

Cinnamon Horchata – Mexican rice milk cake with cream cheese frosting topped with freshly ground cinnamon. {This had a mix of flavors that I was not familiar with -sweet cinnamon with a hint of spice-, but tasty nonetheless. }

Pumpkin Spice – Pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting {Quite possibly, my favorite pick of all the cupcakes. The texture and flavor were perfect.}
Lemon – Lemon cake topped with cream cheese frosting {This was good lemony flavor, but a little drier than I would have liked for lemon cake.}

If are in San Francisco, especially the Mission area, do yourself a favor and go to Mission Minis.
Mission Minis 3168 22nd Street San Francisco, CA 94110
http://missionminis.com/index.html
(415) 817-1540

Mission Minis, your deal on Groupon worked! I might live on the other side of the country, but you have a customer anytime I am in the San Fran area!

Passion not really to die for

Apr22


Scale of 1 – 5: ♥ ♥

This book was a listed as a romantic suspense and the main characters are Tommy and Ellie.

Ellie owns a restaurant in a small town in east central Georgia. Her ex-boyfriend Tommy broke up with her when she would not commit to the relationship. While they are doing this awkward dance around each other, Ellie has a bigger problem. Her mother visits her and proceeds to blackmail her.

While Ellie is trying to figure out how she is going to run away before her mother tells her secret, her mother is killed. Ellie is a prime suspect. Ellie thinks that she can tell the police only partial facts that she thinks is relevant.  Withholding information makes her look even more guilty. At this point, I realize what an idiot this girl is. And I keep reading. >>don’t ask me why<<

This book was annoying to me because Ellie kept holding secrets. There was no communication with Tommy because she was afraid of his reaction. I can understand not wanting to reveal a dirty, deep secret. But at some point, if you love someone enough, you have to be able to trust them enough to share the things that might tear you to apart. Let him decide.

Ellie did not have a passion to die for since she was willing to run instead of facing her demons with the man she suppose to have loved.
In my opinion, once she can confessed it all the love story/murder mystery got on track. Considering Ellie’s character annoyed me so much, I finally realized why I kept reading… so I would know what her secret was and who killed her mother. I cannot leave a mystery story without all ends neatly tied up.

Passion to Die For (Silhouette Romantic Suspense) is one of those books that I would suggest that you could read to fill the time, but if you had something else better to read then choose the other option.

Let’s go to SNOBs

Apr16

When I was in Charleston, my friend said “We are going to SNOBs for lunch”. I was like, “Where?”

SNOB – Slightly North of Broad (as in Broad Street). Lovely acronym.

She made reservations for 12:30 in the afternoon. I thought she was being overly cautious to ensure we had a table. How crowded could a restaurant be in the middle of week in February? When we arrived, I realized that was so necessary. The place was packed on a Wednesday afternoon in such a way that most restaurants would dream for a Friday night.

Since we had a reservation, we were seated in about 10 minutes of our arrival. Once at our table, I began to review the menu. I did not know what I wanted to eat. The lunch menu had so many different choices, that I was hard pressed to choose just one. I decided I wanted something light but more heartier than a salad. In the end, I ordered the ahi tuna. It was accompanied with rice and cabbage and drizzled with some Asian style-flavored soy sauce reduction. I thought the portion size was small, but I was surprised that after eating all of it, I was so full afterwards. I think my eyes are bigger than my stomach, especially when I see so much good food.

For dessert, I had the special of the day: key lime pie with a shortbread crust topped with a passion fruit sauce. I really liked the pie because it was tart enough in the way that I like it, but still sweet. The shortbread crust was buttery and went well with the creaminess of the pie. If I ordered this again, I would opt to leave off the passion fruit sauce. It was too sweet and I could not fully enjoy the tartness of the pie for the sweet sauce. It seems harder and harder to find restaurants that make key lime pie. So if I come to SNOBs again, I hope they have the key lime pie that day so that I can order it.

 

SNOBs has won awards for their food and their efforts to buy local ingredients. This restaurant is worth all the hype that has been created around it. Everything was delicious. I could tell that the ingredients were high quality. The food was fresh tasting and the flavors were bold. Price wise, this restaurant is not too hard on a budget for lunch. You could probably spend $10-15 per entree. I think that is about the same as some chain restaurants, but the food at the chain restaurants does not have the same complexity of flavors. And dessert prices were comparable to chain restaurants but 1000 times better.

Next time you are in Charleston, go to SNOBs…but make sure you make a reservation if you do not want an extremely long wait. When you ask for directions, ask “How do I get to SNOBs?” I doubt many people know the restaurant by its full name.