To a Year of Self Healing

I’m linking this post to Sunday Post, Mailbox Monday, and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

 

A new month, a new year, and a lot to digest. Let’s dig in.

This past year was probably one of my most challenging yet. I thought the crazy anxiety I had in 2020 was bad, but I’d almost rather have that then the health issues I went through this last year. I won’t get into specifics, but let’s just say that I’ve been struggling a lot both mentally and physically. However, the last stint at the ER resulted in them drawing 20 vials of blood to test. So, I’m hoping that I can get some answers, and relief soon.

With everything considered, I haven’t been reading as much as I would like. I just don’t have the drive or the concentration for it. There are a lot of good sounding books out there, but I just can’t seem to sit down to read them. I suppose if we are making resolutions, to read more would be one of them.

We found out that we will be staying in Japan longer than we originally thought we would be. So, the last couple of weeks have been this weird nesting period for me. I’m not used to living in the same house for so long that I have decided to start my own garden, and put actual work into the house to make it my own.

To go along with that, I’ve decided to go into school to become a clinical pet nutritionist and to open up my own fresh pet food business while we are in Japan. There are very limited fresh options for pet food. It’s either kibble or canned food. I’ve been making my own pets food since arriving on island, and never once thought that other people might be interested in it until recently. So, this year will bring some new challenges for me while I navigate running my own business.

I’m not one to make resolutions. I feel like they are a something that you feel obligated to make, and that you very rarely keep. However, this year I am striving to get my health on track, be kinder to myself, and focus on my own self-care.

 

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Review: Falling for the Royal Guard by Megan Clawson

Falling Hard for the Royal Guard
Megan Clawson
Publisher: Avon
Publication date: April 27, 2023
Genre: Romance
Rating:

Despite living in an actual castle, happily ever after is evading Margaret ‘Maggie’ Moore.

From her bedroom in the Tower of London, twenty-six-year-old Maggie has always dreamed of her own fairy-tale ending.

Yet this is twenty-first century London, so instead of knights on white horses, she has catfish on Tinder. And with her last relationship ending in spectacular fashion, she swears off men for good.

And then a chance encounter with Royal Guard Freddie forces Maggie to admit that she isn’t ready to give up on love just yet… But how do you catch the attention of someone who is trained to ignore all distractions?

Can she snare that true love’s first kiss… or is she royally screwed?

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Let’s Get This Holiday Started!


I’m linking this post to Sunday Post, Mailbox Monday, and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

 

November flew by so fast. I was able to get some good reading in, which was nice. I just finished the Britney Spears book and I honestly had some trouble with it… and if I didn’t purchase the book, I would have put it down and stopped reading. I’m glad she was finally able to speak her mind and get your word heard, but I think it just was not very well executed and seemed to be a bit all over the place to me.

Aside from reading… I’ve been trying to lay low. Which was hard to do with Thanksgiving, a cat emergency, and the latest news that a cat I rescued was dumped this week by their foster. So the last couple of days I’ve gone out to the location he was last known to be at and have been searching for him. So yeah, not as relaxing as I would have liked it to be… but here’s hoping for a chill December.

 

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Review: Court of Ravens and Ruin by Eliza Raine


Court of Ravens and Ruin
(The Shadow Bound Queen #1)
By: Eliza Raine
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication date: Oct. 4, 2023
Genre: Fantasy New Adult
Rating:

A defiant human woman. A dark fae Prince. Two enemies bound to a marriage that could destroy their world.

Reyna was born a valuable slave to the Gold Court, imprisoned her whole life in a glittering palace by sadistic, greedy fae.
When the palace is raided, she takes her opportunity to escape. But the raid is led by her worst nightmare. The Prince of the most feared fae of all; the Shadow Court. And he wants one thing.
Her. The copper-haired, rune-marked human.

Reyna doesn’t know why the Prince has kidnapped her. But when he announces her as his betrothed, she knows that she must escape before she is eternally bound to the monster behind the mask.
Only, when he takes the mask off, he isn’t what she expects. He’s lethal, beautiful and exudes sin. And he needs her.

Drawn into a deadly world shrouded in secrets, and desperate to keep her own hidden, Reyna must find a way out. If she doesn’t, she risks more than just death. She risks giving everything to her intoxicating captor.

 

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Review: The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent


The Serpent and the Wings of Night
(Crowns of Nyaxia #1)
By: Carissa Broadbent
Publisher: Self-published
Publication date: Aug. 30, 2022
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Rating:

The adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king, Oraya carved her place in a world designed to kill her. Her only chance to become something more than prey is entering the Kejari: a legendary tournament held by the goddess of death herself.

But winning won’t be easy amongst the most vicious warriors from all three vampire houses. To survive, Oraya is forced to make an alliance with a mysterious rival.

Everything about Raihn is dangerous. He is a ruthless vampire, an efficient killer, an enemy to her father’s crown… and her greatest competition. Yet, what terrifies Oraya most of all is that she finds herself oddly drawn to him.

But there’s no room for compassion in the Kejari. War for the House of Night brews, shattering everything that Oraya thought she knew about her home. And Raihn may understand her more than anyone – but their blossoming attraction could be her downfall, in a kingdom where nothing is more deadly than love.

 

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Sneak Peek Wednesday: A Very Merry Mistake by Lyra Parish

A Very Merry Mistake
By: Lyra Parish
Publisher: Self-published
Publication date: Nov. 16, 2023
Genre: Christmas Romance

After several flirty glances and heated mistletoe kisses, we create rules—no strings attached and no falling in love. Agreeing to the impossible might be my biggest mistake yet.

I visited the small town for one reason only—to prove a point to my father.
Now I’ve got a fake boyfriend.
A secret to keep hidden.
And a choice to make that will determine more than just my future.

 

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Review: My Happy Marriage by Akumi Agitogi

My Happy Marriage
Vol #1
Author: Akumi Agitogi
Illustrator: Rito Kohsaka
Character Designer: Tsukiho Tsukioka
Publisher: Square Enix Manga
Publication date: Sept. 13, 2022
Genre: Fantasy Romance Manga
Rating:

A “Cinderella”-inspired slow-burn historical romance with a paranormal twist set in Meiji-era Japan!

A browbeaten and mistreated daughter is cast out of her family home and sent to audition as a bridal candidate for the heir to one of the most powerful families in the land…

Considered nigh worthless for having failed to inherit the superhuman powers of the bloodlines into which she was born, Miyo Saimori lives her days unwanted and unloved.

She is treated as a servant by her half-sister who, unlike Miyo, is blessed with unusual powers, while her step-mother and very own father have little time or love for their eldest daughter.

Ultimately seen as nothing more than a nuisance and a drain on the family wealth, Miyo is packed off to the Kudo house as a bridal candidate for its heir, Kyoka Kudo.
But whispers abound about the Kudo clan, the most powerful in all the land. Still, will the allegedly cold and cruel house into which Miyo aims to marry prove much warmer than the family she left behind?

 

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Sneak Peek Wednesday: The Queen’s Crown by Jennifer Anne Davis


The Queen’s Crown
(League of Rulers #1)
Jennifer Anne Davis
Publisher: Reign Publishing
Publication date: Oct. 19, 2023
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Eighteen-year-old Princess Sabine Ludwig of Bakley thought her biggest problem was finding a man remotely interesting to dabble with while trying to fill her days with something other than knitting or drinking tea. But when her dear sister is brutally murdered in a foreign kingdom a week before she’s to be married, Sabine suddenly wishes for boring, ordinary days again.

Seeking retribution, Sabine decides to take her sister’s place and marry the mysterious king of Lynk. It’s the only way she can hunt down and find the killer. It’s the only way she can get revenge. When she finds the king far more appealing than she’d intended, it becomes difficult to keep her wits about her and remember why she’s there.

Thrown into a world of lies, power struggles, and seduction, Sabine must learn to navigate through the foreign kingdom’s dangerous court as she seeks her sister’s killer. The closer she gets to discovering who it is, the more she questions who she can trust—including herself.

 

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I was in a dark place, but I think I’m better now…


I’m linking this post to Sunday Post, Mailbox Monday, and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

 

Uh… whoops! *Looks around in guilt* I had planned to take a small break, but nothing this long. I’ve been going through a lot of stuff mentally, emotionally, and physically. The major one was severe depression. I just started to lose interest in everything; friendships, my plants, animal care, my youtube channel, self care, reading. I just felt down a hole into a really dark place and it has taken me a long time to slowly dig my way back out. I’m still inching my way back up to the top, but I’m starting to feel like myself again.

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Review: Jock Rule by Sara Ney


Jock Rule
(Jock Hard #2)
By: Sara Ney
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication date: Dec. 4, 2018
Genre: New Adult Romance
Rating:

Kip Carmichael is no pretty boy.

He’s a rough. Dirty. Giant. Hair so unruly, and a beard so thick, his friends on the team call him Sasquatch.

The first time Sasquatch lays eyes on Theodora “Teddy” Johnson across the keg at a party one night on Jock Row, she’d been relegated to the sidelines by her jock hungry “friends.”

Week-after-week, he watches beautiful but bashful Teddy getting overshadowed, and overlooked. Sasquatch finally broad shoulders his way through the crowd, offering to to be her hairy godmother. But the minute their eyes meet? He’s a goner.

Teaching her the RULES for winning a jock will be the easy part. Not falling in love with her is going to be a losing game.

 

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