Tag Archive | review

Scale of 1 – 5: ♥ ♥ ♥

Has ever been something that you wanted and you thought if you had it all your troubles would be over? What would you do if someone offered it to you? How deep is your desire?

Eve thought that if she lost weight, she would be pretty. And if she was pretty, all her troubles would be over. She would have friends that she wanted, the boy that she wanted, the life that she deserves.

Through a twist of fate, she has the body she always wanted. She is skinny.

But nothing ever comes without a price.

What is her price? As long as she stays the person she is, keeps her personality the same, she is able to stay skinny. It would seem to be a simple thing: stay a good person and stay slim.

And then we find out what low she is willing to go just to grasp the life of person she thinks that she wants to be. And as her problems snowball, her body begins to gain weight. As Eve spirals out of control, she has to make definite decisions about what should be important in her life.

What leads to true happiness?
What good is a friend if he or she is fake?
What good is a friend if they do not have your best interests in mind?

Beauty (The Beauty Series) was the worst case scenario for someone who has a chance at something they desired their whole life. It seems that every possible bad decision, Eve made it. All the while she was trying to justify why it was okay. She believed that she could beat the system as if her actions had no consequences.

Beauty (The Beauty Series) was interesting in a very dark way. It could almost be seen as a cautionary tale. In Eve’s case, her desire was weight-loss, but I think that “weight loss” could be a metaphor for any item that you desire with your whole being and you’re willing to sacrifice your life for that.

Some things we feel are worth the sacrifice, but we end up losing more of ourselves in the pursuit of that goal. So, was it worth it?

***warning: this book contains drug abuse, rape, and other disturbing acts

Nomad dosa – food truck Austin TX

Jan7

If you are like me, you probably never had a dosa before. It is best described as an Indian crepe.
I was in Austin for dinner and I did not know what I wanted to eat. After driving around, I knew that I wanted something light because I did not feel like eating too much. I decided on the food truck Nomad Dosa.

I ordered crispy dosa Kerala Kokonut (butternut squash, zucchini, carrots, eggplant, cauliflower, avocado). I chose basmati rice and sambar lentil soup as my side items. The lentil soup was good. Usually I don’t like eating beans, but if they are pureed into a smooth milkshake-like consistency, it is palatable.

By accident, I ended up eating a purely vegetarian meal. It was so tasty that it was not until afterwards that I realized, "Hey I did not eat any meat." From the picture of the food, you can see that once I began to eat , the filling is not the most appealing looking food. Trust me when I say it tasted better than it looked. It was just what I needed too- something light, but filling. The feeling of fullness made me start to wonder if I should try to go vegetarian for the health benefits, but then I thought about bacon and nixed that. Mmmmm bacon. But I digress.

Overall, this is a dish that will appeal to meat eaters and vegetarians alike. It has enough depth that you won’t miss the meat. Like most Indian food, it was full of spicy (not heat) flavors that stayed with me after I finished my meal. I had to brush my teeth and rinse with mouthwash to regain feeling in my taste buds.

Hired by the cowboy by Donna Alward

Dec30

Hired By The Cowboy (Harlequin Romance)

The main characters are Alex and Connor. Connor has a cash flow problem and a trust find that he can only access if he gets married. Alex is unwed, pregnant and almost homeless without many viable options. They meet when she faints on the street. There is so much attraction that they are drawn to each other. Considering the attraction between them Connor devises a plan to get to his trust fund money with Alex as his wife. This option was not on the table as it were until his grandmother suggested it.

Alex is understandably wary. Her baby’s father did a disappearing act and she does not have any family. But when she thinks about the fact that she does not have any options, this actually seems like a decent alternative.

As one would imagine, living together puts both of them on an emotional roller coaster of enjoying what they have with each other and realizing that their time together is probably temporary.

Hired By The Cowboy (Harlequin Romance) is a cute story. The characters are very likable. Alex has her insecurities and Connor does too. You can understand why they react the way that they do. Despite their problems they have a happy sweet ending. The author did a good job in explaining their background so you as the reader will be rooting for their success in life and love.

Hey Cupcake – Austin TX

Dec27

Hey Cupcake – in a food truck park on Congress in Austin Texas
If you have not figured out by now, I love desserts especially cupcakes. When I was in Austin Texas I saw this on the converted it into a food truck selling cupcakes. I had to have one of course.

Of all the flavors, carrot cake cupcakes stood out the most for me. I used a couple of factors in determining my choice.

The difficulty or time involved for me to make myself. I like to bake so I know what goes in to baking a cake. So if I am going to buy a cupcake I like to choose flavors that are very complex and would require more time and effort for me to make myself.

The availability in my home town. There are several bakeries in my hometown that also serve cupcakes. If I’m going to buy a flavor of cupcake, I wanted to be something that I cannot readily purchase in my hometown.

So that being said, any time I can get a carrot cake cupcake I’m going to try that one (I don’t like spending all that time shredding carrots).

This carrot cake cupcake was so delicious. It had large pieces of walnuts in its which made me so happy. The cake was moist and full of carrot pieces which provided a rich flavor. The cream cheese frosting was also very tasty. It was super creamy with a consistency of room temperature butter. This was quite possibly one of the best carrot cake cupcakes that I have ever had. I did not ask the food truck vendor for the recipe for the cupcake (I think that would have been rude to ask for the recipe at a restaurant since they might think you want to make at home instead of buying from them) but the cake tasted very similar to a recipe that I downloaded from food network’s website. It was an Emeril’s carrot cake recipe.

Final verdict: When I am in Austin Texas again, I definitely have to stop by Hey Cupcake for more delicious treats.

Its cold outside and she is conflicted inside

Dec20

The Book Of Love (Baby Its Cold Out)

Lila is the manager of a book store that is located in a building that was bought by developer Grayson. All the legal notifications regarding the necessity to relocate the store were sent to her parents since their names are the listed as the owners. Throughout the book, there was a lot of misdirected anger at Grayson from Lila who she decided was foreclosing on her parents’ (mostly her father) legacy. If anything, it was her mother’s fault. But I won’t even get into that.

First of all, my impression of this books has a lot to do with my stance on Christian or religious contemporary fiction. It is my personal opinion that when romance novel authors try to make them “Christian” they should at least say somewhere in the blurb about the book. Reading a romance novel and having “God” references liberally throughout makes it a Christian contemporary. Not knowing that from the beginning because makes me feel as if I’m being preached to. I am not saying that I have anything against books with a religious slant, but at least I can set my expectations based on that.

Lila is trying to be a “good” Christian and has made a vow that she would not indulge in premarital coitus. But that was before there were lighting sparks between her and Grayson. So now she’s relapsing but she’s so conflicted the whole time. It got kind of annoying to me because the story had a Debbie-downer feel every time Lila focused on her guilt. And that took some of the fun out the reading the back and forth banter between them. I knew that they would end up in bed and the next day she was going to be regretting her lack of self-control.

To top it off, Lila has the thought that maybe she shouldn’t get with Grayson because he’s not a Christian. Then he agrees to go to church with her just because if that is what she likes, he will go along with it. I really don’t like that. I don’t think anyone should convert or change religion or become more religious because of girl or boyfriend. The person is just going through the motions and it may or may not last. I don’t know if in the long run Grayson would become a Christian, but there needs to be more of a basis than “I’m doing it for my girlfriend”.

Another point with which I take issue is Lila’s hot and cold attitude with Grayson. She seemed almost to the point of bi-polar to me. One minute she is flirting, ready to jump his bones, and the next minute she is telling him to get out of her house and she is not speaking to him. He had a lot of patience to deal with her. I would have told her “Crazy girl, get your store off my premises before I have forcibly vacated and get out of my life. Period.”

In closing, in The Book Of Love (Baby Its Cold Out) I liked the male character Grayson but the female Lila was super annoying. Some readers might find it humorous.
And to the author, let me know what to expect. If you are going to use the character’s religious relationship as part of the storyline, give readers a heads up and note Christian contemporary genre.