Finished Reading “An Enchanted Knight”

Again, I finish a book and go to blog about it and something else, but that something else never materializes. So… book it is, then.

Here’s what I read since my last update:

Book 7

Dates read: March 25 – April 3, 2025
Title: An Enchanted Knight
Year of publication: 2025
Author: Hildie McQueen
Genre: Paranormal romance
Series:  The Cursed Kingdom #1
# of Pages: 246
Paper or plastic: Trade paperback
How obtained: Purchased from B&N
Blurb from Book: Gwyneth “Gwen” Lockhart has a rare and powerful gift—she helps lost spirits find peace and cross over. When she takes on a job a beautiful Scottish Castle, she expects it to be like any other. But when she encounters the ghostly presence of Lord Tristan McRainey, a knight who died centuries ago, something feels different. Drawn to him in ways she can’t explain, Gwen begins to wonder if Tristan is not a ghost at all, but a man cursed and trapped in time by dark magic.
    Lord Tristan McRainey has been imprisoned for three hundred years, bound by an evil wizard’s spell along with four of his fellow knights. When Gwen enters his world, he’s certain that she holds the key to breaking the enchantment. Confident that he can make her fall in love with him and sacrifice whatever it takes to free him, Tristan has no doubt the plan will work. But what he doesn’t expect is to find himself falling for her first.
    And as their bond deepens, the cost of breaking the curse may be higher than either of them imagined.
Recommend: Yes
My thoughts: Interesting story. I enjoyed it. This is the first book I’ve read from this author because I believe it was the first paranormal-type book I’ve noticed she’s written (she has a LOT of historical & contemporary romances, if that’s your thing). Since this is a new series for the author, hopefully I remember to get book 2 once it’s written. But we all know how well my memory works… It doesn’t! :D

I got Alien Desires back from the editor (this was the second go round), so now I’m reading it out loud, fixing the minor things she found, and then after all that, will send it to my copy editor (aka my daughter—and yes, I pay her!). Publication day is almost here!

Happy Reading!

Stacy

Finished Reading “You Can Hide” and Back at Writing

Since Alien Desires is with my editor, I have been able to get back to The Alien’s Change of Heart. I made a lot of changes to Book 1 which made a lot of what I had previously started in Book 2 obsolete. But I’m having fun coming up with new stuff. It’s been so long since I actually wrote something new. I forgot how much fun it could be. Well, until I hit a dead end. At least that hasn’t happened too much this go round. But the book is young…

Here’s what I read since my last update:

Book 6

Dates read: March 8 – 24, 2025
Title: You Can Hide
Year of publication: 2022
Author: Rebecca Zanetti
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series:  Laurel Snow #2
# of Pages: 341
Paper or plastic: Mass market paperback
How obtained: Purchased from B&N
Blurb from Book: Calling Laurel Snow’s relationship with her newly discovered half sister challenging is an understatement. Not only does Laurel suspect Abigail is behind the mysterious disappearance of their father, but her erratic behavior also makes life in Laurel’s small hometown interesting, to say the least. Still, when Abigail claims someone is now out to kill her, Laurel’s instinct to protect her sister goes into overdrive. Then things get even more dicey as dead bodies start turning up in the icy waters of the Sauk River and there’s only one connection among them: Abigail…
    Having Fish and Wildlife Captain Huck Rivers bringing in those bodies with his dive team only complicates matters. Huck is as impulsive and fiery as Laurel is coolly analytical, which makes their alliance risky at best. But standing up to such a demonically brilliant killer is going to take all the help Laurel can get. Because Laurel’s attempt to save her troubled sister’s life might cost her own…
Recommend: Yes
My thoughts: Parts of this dragged on a little, which made it easy for me to put down at times. I still enjoyed it, though. I like the characters very much. And while the romance is barely there, it is there, which is fine by me!

Some days interesting ideas run through my head and I think, “I should write a blog about that. Maybe after I finish the book I’m reading.” Thing is, I don’t write ANYTHING down, thus forgetting the interesting idea. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever learn!

I must remember to WRITE IT DOWN! Do you have this same problem? It’s frustrating, isn’t it?

Happy Reading!

Stacy

Finished Reading “Starter Villain” and … My Normal

For having metastatic kidney cancer, I’m one of the lucky ones. My disease seems to be in remission and the treatments to keep it that way haven’t given me horrible side effects (like losing hair). But the disease DOES kind of tie me to the oncology clinic. Every four weeks, at least.

It also comes with quarterly CT scans and the occasional MRI. And those can be a nuisance. It’s not just having the scans; it’s having the contrast with the scans. I have to drink something prior and then have some dye injected via an IV during.

I was supposed to have my last CT scan on Tuesday. I drank the contrast two hours before and checked in at radiology 15 minutes before my scheduled scan. Except the system was down. They could conduct the scan, but they didn’t have access to my lab work to see if they should DO the scan. It got so late, that the stuff I drank was no longer viable and they had to reschedule.

So now I gotta repeat the process on the 11^th. I can’t imagine drinking that stuff is all that healthy. Or even getting injected with the dye. But there’s not much I can do about that.

Like I said, it’s a nuisance. It hasn’t gotten me sick…yet. Same with the hormone-therapy pills I have to take for my breast cancer. I have some side effects, but they aren’t debilitating. Thank goodness!

I guess this is what normal is for me now. Just like getting old!

Here’s what I read since my last update:

Book 5

Dates read: February 26 – March 7, 2025
Title: Starter Villain
Year of publication: 2023
Author: John Scalzi
Genre: Humorous
Series:  N/A
# of Pages: 262
Paper or plastic: Trade paperback
How obtained: Purchased from B&N
Blurb from Book: Inheriting your uncle’s supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who’s running the place.
    Charlie’s life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.
    Then his long-lost uncle, Jake, dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.
    But becoming a supervillain isn’t all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they’re coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.
    It’s up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyper-intelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.
    In a dog-eat-dog world…be a cat.
Recommend: Yes
My thoughts: This was an interesting story and I enjoyed it. Certainly different than what I normally read. But I follow John Scalzi on social media and he lives in Ohio, so I just had to try him out and that cover is kind of what hooked me. If you like humorous stories with a bunch of weird stuff, give it a try.

I finally finished watching Star Trek: Voyager. I’m still surprised at how I knew all the characters, but it was like watching the series for the first time. Bizarre, huh? Now I’m starting Quantum Leap (w/Scott Bakula). I loved that show when it aired, but I’m guessing my re-watching will be like Voyager: seeing it for the first time. I just don’t know if I can blame my lack of memory on old age or the cancer drugs. Heck, it might be both!

Happy Reading!

Stacy

Finished Reading “A Bloom in Winter” and Editing is Moving Along

Editing Alien Desires is moving along pretty well. I had a bit of a hiccup on one of the comments my editor made, but thankfully after talking to some writer friends, the fix was super easy (and I had the perfect spot for it, too). I really do enjoy this part of the writing process: finding out where my problems lie. I know I have them, but I’m just too close to the darn thing to see them.

Here’s what I read since my last update:

Book 4

Dates read: February 17-25, 2025
Title: A Bloom in Winter
Year of publication: 2024
Author: J.R. Ward
Genre: Paranormal romance
Series:  Black Dagger Brotherhood #22.5
# of Pages: 447
Paper or plastic: Hard cover
How obtained: Purchased from B&N
Blurb from Book: For his entire life, and especially during his century in the prison camp, Apex never believed the bonded-male vampire myths. But when he crossed paths with a sexy wolven, the assassin was done being a lone wolf himself. Tragically, fate had other plans for them, and in the decades since, the world has held little interest—and even less warmth—for him.
    He has never forgotten the male, however…
    Even after all this time, Callum remains haunted by the horrible abduction that destroyed him down to his marrow those many years ago. Living as a loner, drifting from place to place, the wolven has finally returned to upstate New York—and he is not expecting to see the vampire who has always been on his mind.
    As a plot to overthrow the King threatens the Brothers down in Caldwell, Apex and Callum find themselves face-to-face—and caught up in a deadly, treasonous plot. Can two lonely, lost souls find a way back to each other…or will destiny once again condemn their hearts to isolation?
Recommend: Yes
My thoughts: Two romances in this book. For a half book (#22.5), it packs a lot. And while it has 447 pages, it is a small hard cover and the print is larger than normal. This is no novella, though. It’s probably the length of what your average author writes. And like I said it packs a lot. I had a lot of fun reading it.

Not much else is going on right now. Our next trip isn’t until May. Shocker, huh? But that should give me all the time I need to finish Alien Desires and get that thing published. As long as I don’t come across another hiccup. And yes, I skimmed over the comments, but that doesn’t mean they hit me as a problem. The first hiccup (and hopefully only) didn’t hit me when I first read it. It’s not until I’m actually back in the story that I get the comment. And I appreciate every comment I get. I’m all for making the book better. That’s my goal.

Happy Reading!

Stacy

Finished Reading “Crescent City” and We Got Snow (ugh)

It snowed today, which was a good excuse to read. I had plans to see my grandson in the play he was starring in, but because of the stupid snow, they cancelled the last performance. I’m sad I didn’t get to see him perform. I was really looking forward to it. So I just sat and read instead. Seemed like the best thing to do.

I was kind of hoping to be done with the snow, but that’s not what Mother Nature wanted it seems.

Here’s what I read since my last update:

Book 3

Dates read: January 12 – February 16, 2025
Title: Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood
Year of publication: 2020
Author: Sarah J. Moss
Genre: Fantasy romance
Series:  Crescent City #1
# of Pages: 799
Paper or plastic: Trade paperback
How obtained: Purchased from B&N
Blurb from Book: Half-Fae, half-human Bryce Quinlan loves her life. Every night is a party, and Bryce is going to savor all the pleasures Lunathion—also known as Crescent City—has to offer. But then a brutal murder shakes the very foundations of the city, and Bryce’s world comes crashing down.
    Two years later, Bryce still haunts the city’s most notorious nightclubs—seeking only oblivion now, trying to put the past behind her. When the murderer attacks again and an infamous Fallen angel, Hunt Athalar, is assigned to watch her every footstep, Bryce knows she can’t forget any longer.
    As Bryce and Hunt fight to unravel the mystery, the threads they tug ripple through the underbelly of the city, across warring continents and down to the deepest levels of Hel, where things that have been sleeping for millennia are beginning to stir…
Recommend: Yes
My thoughts: Took me a little over a month to finish this behemoth. Granted, even with the cruise and stays in various Florida cities, I wasn’t always able to read it like I thought I would (for some reason I didn’t read any of it in the car). Once I returned home, I spent more time on it (read the second half much quicker than the first). It’s a good book and I will probably get the next two in the series. Although, they’re even longer than this one. A mystery I didn’t figure out and lots of suspense. And I did wonder if there was going to be any kind of romance. That didn’t come to light until about half-way, which made me happy. A lot happens in this book, that’s for sure. But if you like big books, you’ll probably love this one. Plus, NO CLIFFHANGER! Yay!

Because I thought we were going to go out today, I had cleared the driveway. Then I got the news about the cancellation. If only they had contacted me earlier. I could have saved myself all that work.

Well… maybe. I guess it DOES need to be cleared. Haven’t bothered with the cars, yet. Hoping it’ll get warmer. But with that howling wind, I don’t think that’s gonna happen any time soon.

Happy Reading!

Stacy