Carole´s Monday: Cupcakes, Trinkets and Other Deadly Magic

 

Author: Meghan Ciana Doidge

Title: Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic

Series: The Dowser #1

Genre: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Mystery, Romance

Format: ebook

Pages: 266

Published: June 18, 2013

Where I got It: My shelf (Amazon)

Summary: 

If you’d asked me a week ago, I would have told you that the best cupcakes were dark chocolate with chocolate cream cheese icing, that dancing in a crowd of magic wielders — the Adept — was better than sex, and that my life was peaceful and uneventful. Just the way I liked it. That’s what twenty-three years in the magical backwater of Vancouver will get you — a completely skewed sense of reality. Because when the dead werewolves started showing up, it all unraveled … except for the cupcake part. That’s a universal truth.

Review:

Picked this up because I loved the cover and the title....and it just sounded like pure fun. Oh and free is always nice ;) 

Here we follow Jade who owns her very own bakery. She loves baking and that is all she wants to do in life. However, she is dragged into the magical world....a world she has tried to avoid....and into a murder mystery.

Jade was a nice girl. I liked her a lot. She is sassy, but she has a deep avoidance issue so it was nice to see her dragged into things. 

Sadly, I only liked Jade. Everyone else was kinda crappy. Sienna is selfish and manipulative. Her Gran is overly protective. Her mom is not even there. Rusty was eh. The wolves....eh. The vampires? Super eh. Maybe in book 2 I'll grow to like someone other than Jade. 

This was campy, but fun. I did struggle because I didn't like anyone except Jade so it made it hard to appreciate more of the story lines. 

Oh! I loved the Canadian setting! That was super different. With this genre, we are so often stuck in a big US city so it was nice to get a different local. 

All-in-all, I did have some fun with this one. Jade was a delight and I loved the setting. Plus...cupcakes? Nommy. Not sure if I'll read forward though. Maybe...one day....we'll see.

I'll give this 3 stars. Bonus star for a fun local and an awesome cover.

Favorite Character(s): Jade

Least Favorite Character(s): Everyone else.

  

Challenge(s):

- Cloak & Dagger #7

Audio: Laird of Misrule by Mary Wine

By: Mary Wine

Narrated by: Antony Ferguson

Series: The Enchanted Well, Book 1

Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins

Release date: 03-25-25

Publisher: Tantor Media

Categories: Historical romance

Recieved from tantor for a review

Wine sure does writing about bitchy women who tries to bully our heroine. It is not the first time.

I so disliked the lady of the manor. I wanted to slap her, sooo much. Ok backtrack.

Prudence is a puritan who ventures out to a Samhain fire. Her puritan dad would not like that. She meets a hot Scot and he helps her home. Because the party is getting wild and he is a gentleman.

In comes bitchy Lady of the Hay. Dugan is a bastard, and his father´s wife does not like that he is so respected. She fears for her own son. While Dugan does not really give an F about lairdship. So this horrid woman kidnaps Prudence and says it is for her own good because evil Dugan spoiled her and her family would have cast her out. Why you wonder, well the Scots hates the English and Prue is English so they will loose respect for Dugan when he has to marry her. Arghhh, it made me so mad! Prudence was so nice, Dugan was so nice. And many others were not.

But these two trust together will fall in love, and Prudence will show she is more than just a sweet girl.

I enjoyed it, and Anthony Ferguson is always a brilliant narrator. I like his Scottish accent and this is not my first Wine book by him. They are always fun to listen too.

Tonight, Dugan planned to make sure the little lass venturing out to peek at her future got what she was looking for.

One moonlit encounter. That was all it might ever be, and yet, Dugan discovered he craved more. Much more. At the end of the harvest, Samhain bonfires had been held under the moon for as long as anyone remembered. Were they sinful? Perhaps. But they were fun, and Dugan intended to give himself another chance to see the lass he’d encountered at the well.

Tonight though, he’d go so far as becoming the Laird of Misrule. The position came with a very pretty queen consort while the bonfire blazed.

Her mother warned her against indulging in impulses. But that didn’t stop Braylin from sneaking out to dance around the bonfire on the first night of Samhain. It was a chance to be free, if only for one stolen moment.

But fate has other ideas. Dugan is illegitimate, and his stepmother is determined to make sure he will never inherit the Hay lairdship. When the lady hears that Dugan has danced the night away with an English, a Puritan girl, it’s the perfect chance to ensure her own son inherits instead of Dugan. For if Lady Hay brings the English girl to Hay land, Dugan will have to wed her or see his honor tarnished.

Carole´s Wednesday: 2 for 1

Author: Hannah Grace

Title: Icebreaker

Series: Maple Hills #1

Genre: Contemporary Romance, NA, Sports romance

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 464

Published: August 23, 2022

Where I got It: My shelf (Target)

Summary: 

Anastasia Allen has worked her entire life for a shot at Team USA. It looks like everything is going according to plan when she gets a full scholarship to the University of California, Maple Hills, and lands a place on their competitive figure skating team.

Nothing will stand in her way, not even the captain of the hockey team, Nate Hawkins.

Nate’s focus as team captain is on keeping his team on the ice. Which is tricky when a facilities mishap means they are forced to share a rink with the figure skating team—including Anastasia, who clearly can’t stand him.

But when Anastasia’s skating partner faces an uncertain future, she may have to look to Nate to take her shot.

Sparks fly, but Anastasia isn’t worried . . . because she could never like a hockey player, right?

Review:

This was on sale at Target and I had to have it. One, I've been meaning to read this and two, that cover? Ugh. Beautiful. 

Sadly, I just could not get through this. I wish I could since I spent money on it. The characters are meh. The story just didn't grab me. The dialogue? Well....it was.....interesting. 

All the parties!? I get it you're in college and you are young and hot and play sports. OKAY. 

I want to try this again someday because I loooooooooooooooooove the cover so much. Sadly....at this point.....DNF. 

Author: Elva Birch

Title: The Dragon Prince of Alaska

Series: Royal Dragons of Alaska #1

Genre: Paranormal Romance, Fantasy

Format: ebook

Pages: 262

Published: February 13, 2020

Where I got It: My shelf (Amazon)

Summary: 

An unplanned promotion to princess!

Carina was just trying to advance to manager at her accounting firm. Instead, she uncovered the dirty secrets of a giant bank, got framed for murder, and fled the country. Now she’s hiding out in a van with a stray dog in the kingdom of Alaska…

...And a gorgeous park ranger is telling her that she’s his destiny (and also, camping illegally on royal land).

Before she knows it, she’s whisked off to a palace on the arm of a dragon shifter (!) prince and fitted for a crown...because she’s been chosen by an ancient magic spell to be the mate of the next king of Alaska.

As the youngest (and arguably most unsuitable) prince, Toren never thought that he would be tapped to rule, but he knows that Carina is worth the weight of his new duties. Now he’s just got to figure out how to be a king, and even more importantly, how to protect his queen-to-be from old enemies...and new foes who will stop at nothing to see Alaska fall.

Review:

A nice freebie on Amazon that sounded good. Plus...another pretty cover! Cute guy and I love what they did with the aurora borealis! Soooo coooooool!

Another one bites the dust. The story seemed fun enough, but I couldn't get past the writing style. It was so quick. So choppy. So......forced. Maybe if it was a short story I could be more forgiving. 

Maybe I'll put this up for the DNF 2nd chance one day. I do have book 2!

Sadly....I am shutting this one down for now. 

TMST

 

 

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