The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy

I started reading this trilogy by Nora Roberts a while ago. Finished the absolutely wonderful first two books and now nearly through with the third. I came looking for a nice piece of historical fiction, action and romance are my favorite combination, lots of knights and sword fights and so on and so forth. I got the books on a friends recommendation but I didn't know that they were actually set in modern day. I started reading anyways and discovered that there was a hint of fantasy in them as well, with faeries and curses and charms, another favorite of mine! Here's my joined review of the series.

Blurbs:

Book 1: Jewels of the Sun:

GoodReads.com:

With her life in turmoil after a failed marriage and growing disappointment over her career, Jude Murray sets off on a journey to Ireland. To her grandmother's cottage on a faerie hill in Ardmore. There she hopes she will be able to find herself again.

But the mystic charm of Ardmore grows on Jude - as does the handsome and kind pub owner, Aidan Gallagher. She soon finds herself caught up in the charm and fantasy of the land and people around her, challenging her beliefs and all that she thought she wanted out of life

Book 2: Tears of the Moon:

Shelfari.com

A talented songwriter, Shawn Gallagher spends his days lost in reverie and wonder, oblivious to the wiles of women and the ways of the world. He claims that he's content with his life, but his music tells a different story--one of loneliness and desperate longing...

No one understands why Shawn doesn't put his musical gift to profitable use--least of all Brenna O'Toole, a fiercely independent tomboy who has been secretly in love with him for years. But it is only when Shawn gives in to the mysteries of magic that he gets the chance to fulfill his destiny as a man and a musician--as the song in his head keeps time with the beating of a woman's heart...

Book 3: Heart of the Sea:

Shelfari:com

Darcy Gallagher has always believed in the pull of fate, the magic of legend ... and the importance of money. She longs to find a rich man who will sweep her away--into a world filled with glamour and adventure, and the exotic life that is her destiny...

A wealthy businessman with Irish blood, Trevor Magee has come to Ardmore to build a theater--and uncover the secrets hidden in his family's past. He thought he had given up on love long ago, but Darcy Gallagher tempts him like no woman ever has. She's gorgeous, intelligent, and she knows what she wants--and he's more than willing to give i1 to her. But as their mutual attraction flares into passion, they look into their hearts-and find out what happens when you truly believe...

My Review of the Series:

The books are set in modern day Ireland, in a charming village by the sea called Ardmore. The books follow the three Gallagher siblings' stories, as they gain wisdom and fall in love... fulfilling the requirements to break a curse the prince of faeries cast upon himself and his love. Wonderfully sprinkled with little tid-bits of gaelic and historical monuments in Ireland. Very cute series :) I loved how we got to hear from both sides of the story and how the entire family changed in the end, they all became better people together and it was oh so sweet reading about how they got together..I liked it :D better than I thought I would, since I don't like modern much..but it had faeries and magic in it as well so that made it all better! I do wish that for once, the ending wasn't so predictable! I once read a historical romance called "Whitney, my love" which is one of my absolute favorites, the main character has about five suitors who she all seems to like equally, you dont find out who she'll be with at the end until the end! These books, as with most romance books, have a dusty predictability about them which I don't like :( Oh, well, onto some other, more interesting novel!

Ever yours ~

The Know-it-all

Operation Get my Retainer to fit again!

I took off my braces a couple of years ago and got a retainer..which I wore for about a week and promptly discarded because it made me talk weird and drooly and gross. its been about two years since I dumped it in a drawer somewhere and forgot about it..now my friend is getting braces and was asking for advice, when she should get them, whether they hurt, etc. and was surprised when I spoke up, because she couldn't tell that I'd had braces. :( as in my teeth had obvious spaces and my front teeth were obviously trying to fly away.

My teeth have moved a bit, not that much, and they're no where near as bad as they looked before..but it got me thinking, I've got a whole summer ahead, and lots of alone time stuck at home, so why not try to make my retainer a habit again? It hasn't fit for most of the time it's been lost, so I googled "how to make my retainer fit again" and discovered that it is, in fact, possible, if you don't mind the pain, which I don't really mind, teeth-wise. As long as I can force the thing in, it'll start to do it's job. But my front teeth have moved forward a bit, it fits in the back but the two front teeth are too far forward, I can sort of fit the wire over them and move it back, so there's pressure. I'm planning a step-by-step moulding of my teeth, first, I'll keep trying to push the front teeth back, then see if it actually fits when they're close enough, even tightly, and then continue wearing it in 30 minute intervals until my teeth move back...I just hope this works!

Fluffernutter!!

Today I had my very first fluffernutter sandwich. I'd never heard of this thing until sometime last year, when I read about it in a Taylor Swift tweet and googled it ( :P yeah, I know how random that is, but seriously I'd never heard of it before that) I discovered the existence of marshmallow fluff on the same day..no I am not living in a cave somewhere, I'm just surrounded by people who have no culinary curiosity. I have a bit too much, I think, not many other people would attempt the combination of vanilla ice-cream and ketchup after reading that it was a characters favorite food (what can I say, I was a handful as a 7 year old, also the taste wasn't really that bad, it was pretty nice, but I preferred the ice-cream solo in the end )

This culinary curiosity, as I like to call it has developed a bit since then..now I try to make everything (and I do mean everything) from scratch just for the heck of it. I like being able to say that I've made marshmallows from scratch, and white bread, and mayonnaise, and indian naan, and those tasty cheese crisps, and pasta (as in the dough, rolled out and sliced into strips)...and hard candy lollipops (which turned out surprisingly good, strawberry flavor) It's sort of an extension of my baking hobby, a random-rarely-home-made-food-product-making hobby :D

Here's a pic of my fluffernutter sandwich :) and yes it was delicious

Freeze Tag by Caroline B. Cooney

This is a bit of a short novel, one I wouldn't normally give a second glance, the only reason I picked this book up is the author. I have a trilogy by Caroline B. Cooney called "Losing Christina" which is a really awesome creepy trilogy with psycho sadist arsonist and a very cool heroine who manages to defeat them without any help or support. I loved this series enough that I've re-read it a couple of times so when I saw her name on the cover I bought it without a second thought.

Blurb from Goodreads.com:

When Meghan and West first played Freeze Tag with Lannie, it was no ordinary game. Because when Lannie tagged someone, they really froze. Icy blue and cold. Like death.Now Meghan, West, and Lannie are in high school, and Meghan and West are in love. They're the perfect couple. But Lannie is determined to have West for her very own... and if she doesn't get her way, she'll freeze Meghan... to death.

The Summary:

I'm not usually into creepy books, I can never sleep at night when I finish an especially creepy book, but I really like Caroline B. Cooney's books for some reason, even though all four that I've read so far have been creepy and about victimized children (which should make it worse but for some reason it doesn't). In this book Lannie is (or seems to me to be) a sort of cursed witchy immortal with freezing powers. The main character Meghan is a bit too wussy but I think that might be because she's been scared of Lannie since she was a kid, she doesn't do anything to defend herself and depends on others to deal with Lannie. Lannie forces West to leave Meghan and date her, threatening to freeze his younger sister Tuesday, West agrees just to placate her and continues seeing Meghan without telling her...but she knows and catches them together. So the story continues with them trying to resist her and her always knowing when they don't follow her commands...see creepy. Anyways, I discovered that this book is different than the ones I like in a different way...since this book is aimed at a slightly younger age group (I'm guessing from the way it's written, pre-teen maybe) and still has the moral-at-the-end-of-the-story thing going on...which was weird and made for a ending that was, well, not happy exactly..It wasn't a sad ending, It just wasn't the HEA I was expecting from a pre-teen book..it was more of a coming-of-age maturity book in the end, although it was harder to notice during the book.

The Verdict:

I don't like creepy books, but as a creepy book (and I mean creepy, because this isn't nearly enough to be considered horror) it drew me in enough that I wanted to finish. I did not like the ending, I generally don't like books where the entire book was just for the hero/heroine to learn a lesson and nothing good happens at the end. In conclusion, if you want a slightly creepy book to try out, this is fine, but its just too childish for anything else. Losing Christina trilogy was way better.

Ever yours ~

The Know-it-all

Blog with an Identity Crisis

So I've been looking through my posts and I realized that my blog doesn't really have a single theme that I stick to, I basically just blurt out whatever has been going on in my head recently. The main things I blog about are my interests and random things that might happen to me that I think are blog-worthy (These might be totally worthless and boring to some but its whats going on in my head)

I'm not going to stick to one thing because I'm not overly obsessed with only one thing of my life all of my hobbies are a part of my life and I don't know that if I chose one to blog about, I'd be able to keep the rest from flowing into my writing (AKA I don't know if i could help it if I wanted to write about something else)

So just to clarify: I'll be posting stuff about my hobbies mostly either books I've read that I want to review, or something I've written that I really like, or (and these will probably be much rarer than the others) recipes for random dishes I try to make, and lastly crochet or arts and crafts related posts.

In conclusion, I hope my random-ness isn't that annoying :P I know I can go in a dozen directions at once.

Ever yours ~

The Know-it-all

Corn Dogs!

Mmm...Hotdogs, covered in a yummy, sweet cornflour batter and fried to perfection. I was introduced to my first corn dog pretty recently and both my sister and I love them. So today I decided to look for a recipe and try making them at home...It was a total mess! The batter was too low in the bowl so we had to use a spoon to cover the corn dogs properly. Then when I tried to fry them the batter would pool to the bottom of the hot dog and leave the top nearly empty! The taste was perfect though!

Here's a picture of one of the more held-together ones:

It took less than half an hour to make and used so few ingredients that I think, with a bit more practice, It'll be a favorite at home :)

Here's the recipe for anyone who's interested:

Ingredients

• 1 cup yellow cornmeal

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper

• 1/4 cup white sugar

• 4 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 egg

• 1 cup milk

• 1 quart vegetable oil for frying

• 2 (16 ounce) packages beef frankfurters

• 16 wooden skewers

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, salt, pepper, sugar and baking powder. Stir in eggs and milk.

2. Preheat oil in a deep saucepan over medium heat. Insert wooden skewers into frankfurters. Roll frankfurters in batter until well coated.

3. Fry 2 or 3 corn dogs at a time until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

I'd advise using mini hotdogs, they'll be easier to coat as well as fry, My frying pan could only hold two dogs at a time and even then it was pretty hard to flip them. Also, and I'm not sure if this would work, but you could fry the coated dogs before adding the skewer, because my skewers were being fried along with the corn dogs and turned black and oily :( Oh well, experience for next time i suppose.

Ever yours ~

The Know-it-all

Fang: A Maximum Ride Novel

My cousin recently came back from vacationing in malaysia and brought back the latest Maximum Ride novel with her. She introduced me to the series about flying mutant kids a few years back and we're both hooked. I'm usually not into the sci-fi, aliens, mad-scientist books but this one was way more than that, the author combined a lot of different themes into one series. The main focus is action, which is okay with me, but it also has humor, drama, and a bit of romance thrown in towards the end.

Quick Summary of the Series:

The main character is Maximum, or Max, who is a winged teenager who is always on the run from evil scientists trying to trap and experiment on her and her flock. There's Fang, who's her "right-hand man", Iggy who is the cook (also blind which is good since that makes his reflexes better than the rest of the flock), Nudge the 11 year old fashion crazed pre-teen, Gazzy "The Gasman" who is the demolitions expert, and last but not least Angel, the baby of the flock at 6 years old, she reads minds, sends telepathic messages, can use mind control, breathe underwater and talk to fish. It seems that with every book that comes out Angel acquires a new super-talent.

Blurb from Goodreads.com:

Being a kid with wings--constantly on the run--has never been easy, and Max and her flock are getting tenser than ever. First, on a trip to Africa, they meet a mysterious billionaire whose intense scrutiny of the Flock makes her fear the worst. And as if an impending apocalypse weren't bad enough, canny birdkid Angel makes a dire prophecy about Max's soul mate: Fang will be the first to die. Max's desperate desire to protect Fang brings the two closer than ever. But can the team weather the storm, or will the turmoil rip them apart for the last time?

This Book:

This book was mostly about, you guessed it! Fang! The taciturn teenager who has a love-connection with Max starts off the book as his usual self. But when Angel predicts that he will be the first to die out of the flock and that his death will be soon he starts to spend more and more time with Max, making the rest of the flock resent the new situation. Tempers heat up and quite a few changes take place for the flock to adjust to. If you leave out the ending, I think this one is the best maximum ride books out yet. The writing style, which I have never been fond of, has slightly improved in Fang...no glaringly obvious weird sentences that can take the fun out of reading the book like *some* of his other books have. I wont spoil anything for anyone, but I will say that if you're willing to wait for "Angel" to come out, it'd be less of a cliff-hanger for you to read both at once. Of course I don't know if the ending to Angel will be an even bigger cliff-hanger...

The Verdict:

It wasn't my favorite of the series but I liked it all the same. Easy to read, flows nicely, quite a few scenes for all you Fax supporters, the book is kind of focused on how their relationship makes Max a worse leader. Pretty loud hints that a love triangle is coming soon, not really looking forward to sludging through that in the next book.

Ever yours ~

The Know-it-all

Shelfari!

Okay, so for all you book fanatics out there, this website is one of my absolute favorite websites ever. Its called shelfari and it helps you organize your books and keep track of things.You can add tags to books you want to read, have read, and tag which ones you actually own. You can also add comments to each book and rate it on a scale of 1-5 stars. I don't know about you guys but usually when I shop for books i buy 'em in BULK, like 10-15 books at a time.

Then I make a huge mess of my nightstand, like so:

Needless to say it takes ages to find a particular book after I've set it down, let alone find my place (my bookmarks, of which there are few, usually fall out, or i forget to put them in to begin with) which brings us to the usefulness of shelfari!

The comments are for you and your shelfari friends to peruse so I just add the page i got to as a note, just in case i lose track of where i am. The website also helps me pick out books to read, since I can't seem to find a place that suggests good books anywhere. I just look at the most popular young adult books or the top rated ones and pick out the ones I think sound nice (They have the summary of each book on a separate page, as well as a page for the author with a list of all the books he/she has written) Everything is in one place!

You can check out my profile here and the list of top teen books here.

Ever yours ~

The Know-it-all

No, I am not Dead.

Hey, everyone! I've decided to revive my blog, I know its been ages, over a year in fact, but I'm back. It's been a busy year, I graduated from high school last may, and was so busy applying to universities and spending as much time as i could with friends who were moving away. The good news is that I'm quite behind on my reading so loads of books to read and blog about :P I'll also be posting loads of random stuff I think are worth spreading around :)

Ever yours ~

The Know-it-all